Suggestions for a better bracket contest next year...

[imgv94]

tacomax suggesting tailing Razz actually is pretty good advice. Razz is a top notch handicapper. Unfortunately, I took this as being sarcasm when I first read it. I'm still not entirely convinced that it isn't sarcasm.

Razz,pags,buddy and myself had a conference call soon after the Selection Sunday..

Don't know why Taco is doggin my bracket when every team I have in the elite 8 is still alive. WTF?

[slacker00]

Jeez - you still don't get it, do you?

Great start to any post. Maybe I'll make this my new signature line. BTW, it's a pretty derogatory thing to say to anyone, and shows a pretty high level of contempt. It doesn't contribute anything, except to warn people of similar upcoming snotty remarks.

And you wonder why you're not still in the contest.

imgv94 knows & understands the rules and parameters of the contest. You are simily making trolling implications.

You moan about the system not rewarding you for picking winning games when it's apparent you couldn't even understand the frickin' rules.

imgv94 knows & understands the rules and parameters of the contest. You are simily making trolling implications.

And who am I ripping?

Um?

I'm certainly not ripping the organisers of the contest.

You are SBR's whore.

And I'm certainly not ripping the people who took a chance to win and had the class and common decency not to start a sour grapes thread dismissing the whole competition when they fell at the first hurdle.

So, you basically hate pags11. It is the only reason you are posting in this thread.

So yes, as you might be able to work out (or quite probably not) I'm only addressing a couple of people here.

Now, it's pags11 & imgv94.

Anyway since the entire Square Bear Bunch is joining in the circle jerk,

Now, it's pags11 & imgv94 & Buddy Bear.

I'll leave it at this and save the thread getting bumped and spoiling what is otherwise a good contest.

I doubt you'll leave it at this.

[BuddyBear]

Is anyone seriously dumb enough not to believe Wade Wright is a ghost of someone who entered multiple brackets.

Pags makes a great post about having some sort of minimum post count to avoid such things....

[Bill Dozer]

Can it be different and possibly better? Sure. Bring the suggestions back next year before the contest and you can help design it. You guys shape this place and the forum staff tries to give what it can the way you want it.

The scoring system is set up for a handicapper mentality. If you took your brackets from a traditional contest and imported it here, yes, you are going to lose.

No one should be surprised by the effect of the point system. Actually, it is pretty tame due to all the chalk hangin on. You guys are cappers looking for advantageous plays. Looking at the standings and giving a "" now says that you didn't grasp the capping aspect of the contest and how to play to the way it was weighted. Maybe it is is lesson that will help you with your betting in the future.

[jjgold]

I think Wade Wright is a staffer, no way anyone signing up with that name. That is a ghost name.

[bigboydan]

Show me where I ripped on Sean?

you just called Sean contest a joke.

Face facts! You lost and then became a sore loser about it.

BTW, I think that thread over at the OGD said it best about you, and the real funny part is you don't see it

[pags11]

wade right, now that's funny...most of the rest of these names are such obvious ghosts it's unbelievable...IP addresses are extremely hard to track down, especially if people log on using dial-up...

Bill, I respect your comments and would be happy to give further input on next years contest...this year's contest swung too much in the area of "marketing" and not enough in the area of handicapping...I'm not sure I or any of the other handicappers in this thread need much handicapping advice, but I appreciate your insight...

are you suggesting we should have picked all of the lower seeds?...well, you'd get some nice points at the beginning and then practically zero moving forward...

ganchrow says it best in another thread:

"I hate to be the voice of dissent but I'm actually not so big a fan of this scoring style. either. While I certainly like the idea of rewarding those players that correctly pick lower seeded teams very much, I think that the way it's implemented here is too drastic and will serve to increase volatility considerably more than it will reward picking prowess. And where skill does factor in I'd even go so far as to say that this contest is more a test of linear programming prowess than it is of handicapping ability.

Nevertheless, kudos to the big guys at SBR for offering up free money along with a novel tournament approach that's still able to (legally) include US-based players. It would have been extremely easy for SBR to limit the contest to only non-US citizens, but instead they decided to foot the bill themselves.

But maybe next year they let a game theorist design the contest rather than some "legendary" marketing genius ...
__________________
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" --Aristotle"

[imgv94]

Can it be different and possibly better? Sure. Bring the suggestions back next year before the contest and you can help design it. You guys shape this place and the forum staff tries to give what it can the way you want it.

The scoring system is set up for a handicapper mentality. If you took your brackets from a traditional contest and imported it here, yes, you are going to lose.

No one should be surprised by the effect of the point system. Actually, it is pretty tame due to all the chalk hangin on. You guys are cappers looking for advantageous plays. Looking at the standings and giving a "" now says that you didn't grasp the capping aspect of the contest and how to play to the way it was weighted. Maybe it is is lesson that will help you with your betting in the future.

Good post..

[imgv94]

you just called Sean contest a joke.

Face facts! You lost and then became a sore loser about it.

God you are an idiot. Excuse me for the name calling SBR but Mr.Spammer is being a real bird brain here.. I dogged the contest not Sean,other people see that..


Oh btw was it me who started this thread? What a lame

[bigboydan]

I figured you would throw a world famous IMG spins on to this one.

[pags11]

dan,

I thought it was you that were know for spinning things around?...

will Wade Right (or whoever the hell this guy really is) please stand up?!...this is absolute bullshit that this wasn't policed better!...

[Sean]

will Wade Right (or whoever the hell this guy really is) please stand up?!...this is absolute bullshit that this wasn't policed better!...

Maybe there will be a minimum post count next year. Maybe future contests will be by invitation only ... who knows. In the meantime, we maintain several levels of "protection" on contests such as these, both automated and manual checks. Several contestants and new forum registrants have been deleted and/or banned in the course of this year's contest for violating the rules as they were laid out.

As there was no posting requirement this year, a contestant "in the money" will not be required to come in and answer to you or anyone else who has convinced themselves (based on such hard facts as the registrant's chosen forum handle) that they must be a ghost.

Thus far, this particular thread has done nothing but illustrate, in living color, the "sour grapes" mentality of a few posters that apparently have an overinflated sense of their importance to the sports contest community. When you lose at checkers, do you whine after the fact because you weren't allowed to move your piece sideways? If you lose at horseshoes, do you bitch after the fact because you weren't allowed to stand closer to the stake? If you lose at golf, do you complain after the fact that the holes should have been bigger, the fairways wider, the course shorter? I hope the answer is no ... but I'm not so sure any more.

The fact is, we at SBR wrote this contest as we saw fit at the time, based on input from last year's contestants. It is also a fact that a number of posters (more than 2) were in favor of this year's scoring system and expressed those opinions prior to the start of the brackets ... some have also expressed that they liked this scoring system even after they were eliminated from this year's competition.

In reality, if this year's March Madness tournament had seen more upsets like we have in past years, there's a possibility that some here would be singing a different tune. But, the real bottom line here, as illustrated by this thread, is that it is impossible to please everyone all the time. As always, posters are invited to skip any contest in which they disagree with the rules. However, I would hope that some of our members would have the sack to be as gracious in losing as they are in victory.

Rest assured that we will take this year's "input" into account for all future contests.

[imgv94]

Thus far, this particular thread has done nothing but illustrate, in living color, the "sour grapes" mentality of a few posters that apparently have an overinflated sense of their importance to the sports contest community.

Sean,
I thought you were all class.. Guess I thought wrong. Second time you dogged someone in this thread.

[Sean]

Guess I thought wrong.

Don't let that bother you too much pal ... it happens all the time.

[MBENZ]

I was hoping there might be a baseball contest here at SBR for the season,but it does'nt look good from these comments.Maybe Sbr could investigate a book that would hold all players money until contest was over.another words have a contest where all participants have to put up cash in order to enter.This would eliminate the ghost theory,since if you want to post more than once under an alious,it would cost for each ghost.Pags theory rings true because if you have nothing vested,why not take as many shots as possible by creating ghost posted plays.
On the other hand,I don't think anybody at SBR caused the problem,if there was a problem it was due to people taking advantage of this situation that if you think about it,nobody could control.
I would be willing to bet that if each player in a contest had to put up a dime to enter and the rules were perfectly clear up front,there could be a great little side gig for the baseball season

[imgv94]

Don't let that bother you too much pal ... it happens all the time.

Seems like your the one thats bothered not me..

[pags11]

sean,

I must admit my last post was after a couple of beers, and being that I hadn't had one in about 8 months I probably shouldn't have been posting at that point...for that, I apologize...I can appreciate that SBR has "several layers of 'protection", but a minimum post count would have taken care of it...plain and simple...but for as smart of a guy as you appear to be, to actually think that there are no duplicate entries into this contest is ridiculous...

why would I even care individually about there being a post count if I'm out of the money at this point? maybe because I'd like to see regular posters who put together brackets that have achieved success under the current scoring system win instead of having guys with zero posts be in the lead?...hmm, no it's gotta just be that I'm a selfish dick with "sour grapes"...yeah right...

as I've stated before, it doesn't matter to me what place I'm currently in...once I got done capping college basketball for the season and signed up for all of my other bracket contests AND then had a chance to look at SBR's game plan for the contest, I voiced my concerns...the timing of my criticism should only come into play if you question my credibility...I mean ganchrow says the same exact thing (which I hadn't read until yesterday) and no one questions it?...that dude is as smart as they come and in this case he just had time earlier than I did to really evaluate things... c'mon dude, I'm one of the most honest, helpful posters on SBR and you resort to measures like that just because I criticized your format?...who's the one that's not displaying class at this point?...

why are you taking things so personally?...why are you attacking me personally, when all I have done is criticize your contest format?...I've been on this forum for two years and other than insulting tacomax now and then I always behave myself...

if you don't want to invite me into future contests because of this I'd be extremely dissapointed, but that is your right...SBR has always been about exchanging information and interacting with other posters and mods...when I first met bill dozier I believed (and still do) for what he stood for...but again, he doesn't let his ego get the best of him...is that possibly what's happening with you?...

I think the best thing to do is for everyone to take a step back, let the contest unfold and go from there...this will be the last message I post in this thread....

[imgv94]

why are you taking things so personally?...why are you attacking me personally.

Cause Sean is a classless self righteous egotistical dick who is showing his true colors. Ganch and others mention the same thing but Sean continues to badger us..

Sean=Tacomax

[Sean]

Sean is a classless self righteous egotistical dick who is showing his true colors. Ganch and others mention the same thing but Sean continues to badger us. Sean=Tacomax

POST OF THE YEAR ... my wife says the same thing.

[Bill Dozer]

Sean has worked hard at finding ways to show appreciation to the guys that call SBRforum home as well as growing and maintaining the community, which is the biggest challenge with all forums. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes to get a contest like this and The Prick together. Lots of I's to dot and T's to cross. It's not easy.

This season was even more challenging. There wasn't a lot of time to adjust but we wanted to have a contest for, if nothing else, fun. To us, a fun contest means having lots of participants, doing something different, maybe ragging on other poster's brackets and a wide range of scores. There was also this silly idea that tossing up a no-cost, no-deposit, no-action, cash prize was a win for anyone who took the 4.3 minutes to submit a bracket.

Yes, feedback is appreciated but complaining about the contest benefits after reading the rules and taking your free roll is worthless. Unfortunately we have a no refund policy on free.

There are some good suggestions for next year and new contest types on page 1. I'd also like to say thanks to everyone for all the feedback and thank-you email and PMs. It's great to see posters genuinely care about the direction of the board.

We can assure everyone that we are committed to providing the best medium to discuss sports, betting and the industry. Hopefully that's why you are here and you plan to enjoy some great contests along the way.

[Dark Horse]

Jesus, guys, show a little class.

First prize is a dime, and there are about 300 participants. So your ticket was worth about $3. Congratulate the winner, thank SBR for the free contest, and move on.

If you can't resist the urge to quarrel about nothing, please do it somewhere else. Thank you.

[kdmfox]

Jesus, guys, show a little class.

First prize is a dime, and there are about 300 participants. So your ticket was worth about $3. Congratulate the winner, thank SBR for the free contest, and move on.

If you can't resist the urge to quarrel about nothing, please do it somewhere else. Thank you.

Amen.

[slacker00]

Don't let that bother you too much pal ... it happens all the time.

It's often that people start out thinking that you are cool, until realizing that isn't the case?

[moses millsap]

Free contest. Who cares. The rules for BTP advocated non-stop spam. I prefer these rules and random "ghosts" registering over that.

[raiders72002]

Bring the suggestions back next year before the contest and you can help design it.

I said min of 50 posts and it was ignored.

[tacomax]

I said min of 50 posts and it was ignored.

You also suggested that BoS would re-open and start paying last August. So, don't be surprised if any other of your suggestions fall on deaf ears.

Sean

[raiders72002]

taco- You haven't said anything of interest in a year. BoS is ancient history. How many times do I have to tell you that I was the ONLY one to get all players paid.

[The Prick]

"I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to."

[slacker00]

Prick: I like your contest. I like having post count as a tiebreaker, because the ones who will talk & discuss WHY they make their picks will be rewarded. It beats listening to touts. Plus, I enjoy your own insights into the games, Prick, even though you're a friggin' PRICK!!! haha

raiders: I think a "50 post" requirement for contests is a good suggestion. I'd even go for 25 posts, but at least make SOME kind of reasonable requirement, so we can banter a little bit and try to learn something from the guys that are picking the winners. That's what we all want to do in the end, right?

Taco: You've got zero credibility, except as a troll. I thought you said you were done with this thread. I guess I was right, that you couldn't stay away.

[tacomax]

Work like this got me the Problem Poster award for 2007.

[pavyracer]

Wow. The Prick used to talk like a regural person back then. Now he talks like a black hillbilly.

[Bread]

So you're Sean too??? Jeezus you're omnipresent.

Looks like there has rarely been a contest sans a bunch of bitching. I'm glad I've never been a part of the problem

[RogueScholar]

"I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to."

I was Googling scoring systems for bracket pools and this thread was on the first page. Normally I don't like bumping threads just for nostalgia's sake, but there's a great lesson about humility and class in this thread and the underlying topic is quite apropos to the season.