Welcome to a brand spanking new season of F1 Pools!
I'm kismet, your trusty - even if somewhat tardy (sorry! sorry! sorry!) - old game host, and this is either the fifth or sixth season of the game (will need to check that one). If you've been here before, you already know what to do - the rules haven't changed. If you're new, scroll down to the end of this post to find the game rules. I know they can look scary, but that's mostly just me and my frightening ability to use 100 words where only 10 would've been needed. Be brave and dive right in, the more gamers the merrier!
So, so without further ado, here are the duels for the season opener:
Qualifying: Race:
1. McLaren - Ferrari 7. McLaren - Ferrari
2. BMW Sauber - Renault 8. BMW Sauber - Renault
3. Toyota - Toro Rosso 9. Toyota - Toro Rosso
4. Red Bull - Williams 10. Red Bull - Williams
5. Brawn GP - Force India 11. Brawn GP - Force India
6. McLaren - Brawn GP 12. McLaren - Brawn GP
Post your guesses before the start of qualifying.
I'm not really picky about the format you choose to use but something along the lines of 'XXX 12X 22X 12X' would be great. But as long as it's clear what you mean, it's OK.
So, guess away! Good luck, may the force be strong with you and all that!
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Game rules
F1 Pools is a game that deals with team effort rather than individual drivers. The game is loosely based on soccer betting. Basically, as a game host, I pick team-vs-team duels, you predict the outcomes and post your guesses in the appropriate game thread using the familiar (?) 1X2 system where 1 = home win, X = draw and 2 = away win. The home team is the one mentioned first.
Both reliability and pace need to be considered when rating a team’s performance in relation to its duel opponent (more on that below). Every car/driver combo that either sets a time in qualifying or finishes the race counts towards a duel outcome. Note that they must actually reach the chequered flag, simply being classified isn't enough. Possible grid and/or time penalties are ignored but disqualifications stand. Failures to set a qualifying time and/or finish the race can and will be used against a team.
The basic idea is that by picking "1" you're predicting a home team sweep. Logically "2" is then an away team sweep which leaves "X" for everything else. So far so simple. It gets a bit more complicated if and when people start falling off the track, blowing up their engines and what not, so here's a summary of how various race/qualifying results translate into duel outcomes (team A vs team B) :
corresponds to finishing orders AABB, AAB, AB and just A
see item * below
X a "draw": a mixed grid/split result/any deviation from the above (or below)
i.e. finishing orders ABAB, BABA, ABBA, BAAB, ABA, BAB, ABB, BAA
see item ** below
2 as in 1, but now it's the away team that does the winning
* If you can’t beat them on track, you can still earn points for reliability. A finishing order ABB (team A wins on pace, B on reliability) translates into an X because this is supposed to be a team sport and there are 2 cars in a team. However, an AB finish does not warrant a punishment for unreliability because team A hasn’t done any worse than team B in that respect (A wins on pace, no one on reliability, hence the outcome is a 1).
** No unreliabilty punishments for draws. An ABA result is an X and a mission accomplished for team B in that they’ve managed to beat one of their opponents on track.
Confused? Don't be, this really isn't as complicated as it looks. The definition of a draw (X) may seem a bit artificial/strange but I needed/wanted it to be a realistic duel outcome and this was the only way I could think of to achieve that.
As for scoring, points will be awarded for every correct answer and since this is a betting-inspired game, guessing an unlikely outcome right is worth more than being right about something expected. Instead of any fancy odds-calculating, your guesses are used as an indicator of probability so that for each correct guess, your score will be 1 + the fraction of players that guessed wrong. An example: let's say 50 % of you have picked 1, 40 % X and the remaining 10 % 2. If 1 is the correct guess, the clever 50 % will score 1 + 0.5 = 1.5 points. Similarly, if X is the way to go, the score will be 1 + 0.6 =1.6 points etcetera.
Also, just so we have some black on white on this, as the self-appointed omnipotent overlord of F1 Pools, I reserve the right to make minor tweaks here and there if the need arises (it usually doesn't). I also reserve the right to make stuff up if something totally unexpected happens but it hardly ever does.
Edited by kismet, 11 April 2011 - 14:09.