Improved Season VI Rules
Usually we do a Rules Review to start the season, but The Clearinghouse wanted to share some thoughts (as its alter ego) and to start an open channel for Rules Revisions for Season VII since it came up in Snapchat last week. We had three revisions adopted to start Season VI:
1) Every three years (3rd season, 6th season, etc., forward), all Analysts must release their Home Teams and The Clearinghouse will conduct a lottery to determine the order of Claims for Home Teams for the upcoming season.
2) In a single Leg of a Quaternary Crown Race, three Correct Picks will be a “base Trifecta” worth 6 points, while two Correct Picks (out of three) will be a “lame Trifecta” worth 3 points. “Bonus Trifecta” points for base and lame Trifectas will be awarded per Track Rules of the Crown Races.
3) Analysts are required to have a Snapchat account name on record with The Bookie.
Rules Review| WFTL 2019-20 |Season VI in Hindsight (by Wise Orangutan)
WFTL adopted a new system of Claims to start the season (#1), a new system of scoring (#2), and a new system of communicating on game days (#3). In reverse order, Wise Orangutan thinks…
#3 | Thanks to the new WFTL Director of Communications, Woody, revision #3 went like a charm.
We think every Analyst chatted a snap during the season (Note: B-Reezy may have avoided his duties, but Atwork took time off to join the fray at least once!). We communicated on holidays, kicked up our feet, photo’ed game day food porn, etc., etc. We also discovered that it is possible to have a video meeting with all Analysts present for future Rules Reviews!
#2 | Any season in which Wise Orangutan wins is a good season for the Rules!
All kidding aside (except to the Crimson Tide that has taken my money during the first five seasons!)…After Super Trifecta Bowl VI we will have had 5 different Analysts win one of the 6 Races and 8 or 9 different Analysts take home Purse from 12 opportunities. That is at least 60% of the 13 Analysts (and at least one of us had to lose Purse).
There is skill in the contest: Big Tuna finished in the top half of the Analyst of the Year in the first five seasons. He did not in Season VI (missing by only 2 Correct Picks!), so that now sets a record that can be broken. Only B-Reezy (four years in a row) can tie him next year and Craft Brew follows (three years in a row — in the Winner’s Circle no less, a record he can extend next season!). On the other hand, several Analysts have up-or-down years. Four Analysts now have gone from worst to first in the Analyst of the Year (Little Tuna, B-Reezy, The Strategist, and Atwork). When these Analysts are in the zone, they are unstoppable: Little Tuna holds the record for most Wins (7) and The Strategist has the most entries (15) in The Winner’s Circle. Lastly, The Bookie has a 50/50 chance to become a three-time winner of the Super Trifecta Bowl on Sunday — or, if not, Sponge Mom becomes the fifth Analyst in six seasons to etch her name into the most illustrious trophy in sports analysis!
We also had new records set, including three straight Trifectas to start the season by several Analysts. Jimmy V had a tremendous run mid-season to tie Kal Krome‘s record of 4 straight Trifectas. And his string of 7 Trifectas in 8 Weeks will not be broken until an Analyst gets 8 Trifectas in 9 Weeks in a single season! Atwork‘s Analyst of the Year records for 10 Trifectas and 41 Correct Picks (solo record holder) seems to me impossible to break . Then again, Jimmy V set the record for 10 Trifectas first and was only 3 seconds from hitting his 11th in Week 15 before Atlanta defeated San Francisco. In addition, Craft Brew tied the former record of 9 Trifectas held by The Strategist and had the second-most Correct Picks (40) ever — but that was only good enough to Show!
Plus, after B-Reezy created the strategy that focuses on Pick Threes for the Analyst of the Year (a strategy that The Strategist and Jimmy V have adopted with success), Analysts have the choice to focus on the individual Crowns or the Marathon of the Ass. I (Wise O.) am satisfied that there is a good mix of streakiness (not luck because that would be gambling…) and consistency to make each race competitive based on the strategies and prescience of the Analysts. For all these reasons, I am not inclined to alter the Crowns’ point system again or revert to the all-or-nothing Trifecta system from the first five seasons.
#3 | How to start the season in order to maintain parity is still the open question.
The random drawing helped Roxy Trot start strong (3 Trifectas in a row) and take home some Purse, but the Patriots late-season swoon was unfortunate for her. With the first Claim, KateTDid was distracted by the shiny bauble: Duh Bears! (to be fair, they were a good pick to make the playoffs at the start of the season, but only B-Reezy has ever figured out how to ride that steed). Atwork, from the twelfth starting position (Claim), rode the Packers to become Analyst of the Year in Season VI. Nobody had the Ravens or the 49ers to start the season. The Home Team Release and Claims rule still had a purpose mid-season, helping Wise O., The Strategist, and Sponge Mom remain competitive in an otherwise challenging season. On the other hand, when KateTDid tired of her shiny bauble, Woody could not resist the opportunity to claim it as her own mid-season…
Woody will be happy to know she gets to keep the Chicago Fetish to start Season VII! Because…The Rules we adopted specify that the random drawing to start the season happens only once every three years. We now revert back to the original rules in which Analysts have a Claim to the Home Team they held in Week 17 of previous regular season. Each Analyst gets to decide whether to release his or her Claim, and then the new Claims order goes in reverse order of Analyst of the Year standings (worst to first like the professional football league’s draft). New Analysts have the first Claims determined by random drawing.
The Claims rule (#3) will again be up for Rules Review next year, so this is not the final word. If any Analyst wants to suggest new tweaks, revisions, or an entirely new system of Claims to start the season — or any Rule — go ahead and give us ideas in email (Snapchats go poof) so that we have a record of the revisions requested to start Season VII. The Bookie accepts suggestions for “anonymous” group shares if you prefer.
