First, thanks for running the contest.
I just want to make sure that I understand the tie breaker, beacuse I am not sure if my guess is higher than the actual total that disqualifies me, or just makes it harder.
Final score winds up East 124, West 126, for a total of 250.
If I put in East +6 with a tiebreaker of 251,
I lose to someone with East and 249 (even though we are both 1 away from the total).
I win against someone with East and 248.5 (since I'm 1 away and they are 1.5 away, even though I am over and they are under).
Please confirm that what I said is correct, or that going over means that you lose to anyone on the same side and going under the total (so for example, if only me and 1 other person picked East, and they picked a total of 10 and I picked a total of 251 and the final total was 250, they would still win even though I was off by 1 and they were off by 240).
Thanks,
Bart
I just want to make sure that I understand the tie breaker, beacuse I am not sure if my guess is higher than the actual total that disqualifies me, or just makes it harder.
Final score winds up East 124, West 126, for a total of 250.
If I put in East +6 with a tiebreaker of 251,
I lose to someone with East and 249 (even though we are both 1 away from the total).
I win against someone with East and 248.5 (since I'm 1 away and they are 1.5 away, even though I am over and they are under).
Please confirm that what I said is correct, or that going over means that you lose to anyone on the same side and going under the total (so for example, if only me and 1 other person picked East, and they picked a total of 10 and I picked a total of 251 and the final total was 250, they would still win even though I was off by 1 and they were off by 240).
Thanks,
Bart
Bart - in case of a situation like the one you mention occurs, the total that is closest without going over wins. A total that goes over but is still closer than anyone else will also win. 249 will beat 248.5 also in your scenario. We made this rule along with adding the half points to try to eliminate several contestants tieing, and making the prize insignificant. I wish now we had used 6.5 for the line. Hindsight.
wil.
wil.
wil,
It's no big deal IMO that the line is at 6 because it won't (or at least it shouldn't) create any more of an imbalance in the contest than what the line move creates in the game.
A 1-point deviation from the true line means that choosing west-6 will give you a 53.5% chance of winning the side, but if more than 53.5% of the posters thus far have chosen west, you will have a better chance of winning the contest by choosing east+6.
If everyone follows their optimal strategy, then the picks will come out roughly 53.5-46.5 in favor of west, which is not such an unfortunate thing IMO. In fact it's a good exercise in contest strategy.
I wish I had waited before making my pick
It's no big deal IMO that the line is at 6 because it won't (or at least it shouldn't) create any more of an imbalance in the contest than what the line move creates in the game.
A 1-point deviation from the true line means that choosing west-6 will give you a 53.5% chance of winning the side, but if more than 53.5% of the posters thus far have chosen west, you will have a better chance of winning the contest by choosing east+6.
If everyone follows their optimal strategy, then the picks will come out roughly 53.5-46.5 in favor of west, which is not such an unfortunate thing IMO. In fact it's a good exercise in contest strategy.
I wish I had waited before making my pick
Darryl, thanks for the informative response. Hosnestly, my real fear is that the game falls 6, then everyone is a winner, and it comes down to all the tiebreakers. At 6.5 somewhere around 50% of the tiebreaker totals are eliminated. I would like to to see one person win and enjoy the $150.
Best of Luck with your pick. wil.
Best of Luck with your pick. wil.
