Pick 'Em Gauntlet
Smoking Musket Bracket Challenge Final Standings
by WVUIE97 on Apr 4, 2012 1:44 PM EDT
in Pick 'Em Gauntlet
So now that the evil one and his "one and done" minions have won the 2012 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament title, the annual Bracket Challenge has come to an end and we crown our champion bracketeer. Congratulations to "GetOffMyCourt" for the winning bracket, especially with having a team with first round exit as the bracket champion. (I've sent an email to the one listed on the contest, but if it isn't one you use, please email me directly at WVUIE97@gmail.com.)
Once again, amongst the staff, Caleb and his magic dartboard led the staff entries in 15th place. Full standings are LINKED HERE and the top 15 are listed after the jump. Thanks to everyone for playing!! Hopefully next year, it'll be a better year for the Mountaineers and be more worth following the progress through the tournament. I know I basically tuned out basketball once WVU was ousted from this year's tournament.
1 commentSmoking Musket Bracket Challenge Update
by WVUIE97 on Mar 29, 2012 2:08 PM EDT
in Pick 'Em Gauntlet
Forgive me please, as I've been remiss to post an update to our Yahoo! bracket challenge. Our current leader has Missouri winning it all, so they have that going for them (and that bracket can still actually win). I can't make too much fun, as I have the same champion selected on my bracket. At least they weren't like 5th Year Senior, who filled his bracket out on CBS and wondered why he was alone. Anywho...here are the top 20 (after the jump). If you haven't noticed, there's a scenario generator on the page to see what would happen in the various game match-ups. Basically for our group, it will come down to "Shot In the Dark," "GetOffMyCourt" or "JM's Bracket" to be our group champion, from what I can discern.
I will post a full standings sheet after Monday's game. Good luck to the three and thanks to everyone who played!
Smoking Musket Bracket Challenge
by WVUIE97 on Mar 12, 2012 1:35 PM EDT
in Pick 'Em Gauntlet
Here we go folks. It's the Annual Smoking Musket Bracket Challenge where we compete against each other for bragging rights and prizes. The winner (staff not eligible, but still competing) will get a WVU Nike T-shirt. Enter your credentials on the Yahoo! Tourney Pick 'Em, make your picks and then submit your bracket to our Smoking Musket group.
Group Name: The Smoking Musket
Group ID#: 125341
Password: by-godders
We'll be using a progressive scoring system with upset bonus points. Basically, each round is worth more than the previous and you'll get bonus points equal to the seed differential. For example, if you correctly pick a 12-5 upset, you'll get 1 point for the pick plus 7 points for the upset. Good luck everyone!!
Should be simple, but if you are having any problems joining the group, let me know by email or in the comments.
Test Your NCAA Bracket Pick Em Mettle With SBNation And The Smoking Musket On Yahoo!
by Country Roads on Mar 11, 2012 9:00 AM EDT
in Pick 'Em Gauntlet
So, you guys may have heard that the NCAA brackets are coming out today. Or you may not have, seeing as how WVU last played approximately 47 days ago and has been idly awaiting its bid and seeding fate. And if you're an employer, you're probably dreading the appreciable drop in your employees' productivity this week as everyone is doing research, making picks, and joining in office pools to follow the madness. Well, we here at the Smoking Musket would never encourage that type of wasteful behavior. No, we encourage you to join our yearly Bracket Challenge---hosted this year on Yahoo!---in your free time at home, far, far away from the office. More to come on that later, so keep your eyes peeled.
In the meantime, you're probably going to need some practice filling out brackets where less is at stake. That's why you probably want to check out the SB Nation "Wisdom of the Crowds" bracket pick page hosted by Yahoo!. That way you can make practice picks competing for only $10,000 before you make your all-important picks later this week for bragging rights here at the Smoking Musket.
I've said this on record before: WVU is in. No need to sweat at all when the field is announced later on tonight---the only thing we're waiting on is our seeding. Based on most of the projected brackets I've seen, WVU is safely in as a 10 or 11 seed, which doesn't seem too far off given WVU's RPI, which was last seen hovering around 50. And honestly, that's not a bad place to be as a first round win against a 6 or 7 seed would present a winnable matchup followed by a second-round game against a 2 seed, likely someone from the pool of Duke/UNC/Ohio State/Michigan State/Kansas/Missouri/Baylor. Given how well we played against Baylor (or even Syracuse for that matter), a game against that caliber of team isn't an automatic loss.
2011 Pick 'Em Gauntlet: Final Standings
by WVUIE97 on Jan 10, 2012 12:58 PM EST
in Pick 'Em Gauntlet
Congratulations to kml2157, the 2011 Smoking Musket Pick 'Em Gauntlet Champion!
We picked 119 games over the course of the season with bowls and kml2157 came through the Gauntlet with a 57% winning percentage. Caleb takes home the staff trophy with his 71 picks correct (60%). Chuck is the only one to go perfect this last round, ending up with a respectable 53 and making up a lot of ground in the bowl rounds. Thanks to everyone for participating!!
Updated with full standings and a link to the spreadsheet data (I had to move the table to after the jump b/c it f'ed up the formatting)
Pick 'Em Gauntlet: Bowls, Final Round
by WVUIE97 on Jan 6, 2012 6:28 PM EST
in Pick 'Em Gauntlet
This week's slate completes the tournament. POINT SPREADS MATTER:
- AT&T Cotton Bowl – Kansas State v. Arkansas (-9.5)
- BBVA Compass Bowl – Southern Methodist v. Pittsburgh (-3.5)
- GoDaddy.com Bowl – Arkansas State v. Northern Illinois (+1.5)
- AllState BCS National Championship – Alabama v. Louisiana State (+1)
Picks are due TONIGHT at 8 pm EST (or before the start of the next game if you're late)
We had 4 pickers achieve double digits this past week, led by kml2157's 11. It all comes down to kml2157, dawg'eer8488, and macker605 for the commenter title (I need you three to email me please, WVUIE97@gmail.com, so I can contact the winner regarding your prize) and I need a total combined score for the BCS Championship from you three as a possible tie-breaker. The rest of you need to get your picks in and improve your overall standings for bragging rights. Caleb has already sewn up the staff trophy with that damn dartboard of his. Staff picks and leaderboard are after the jump.
I'll post full final standings a day or so after the BCS Championship game.
Pick 'Em Gauntlet: Bowls, Part 3
by WVUIE97 on Dec 31, 2011 1:23 AM EST
in Pick 'Em Gauntlet
This week's slate runs through the Orange Bowl (we're picking all 35). POINT SPREADS MATTER:
- Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas – Texas A&M v. Northwestern (+10)
- Hyundai Sun Bowl – Georgia Tech v. Utah (+2.5)
- Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl – Illinois v. UCLA (+2.5)
- AutoZone Liberty Bowl – Cincinnati v. Vanderbilt (-1.5)
- Chick-fil-A Bowl – Virginia v. Auburn (-3)
- Ticketcity Bowl – Houston v. Penn State (+7)
- Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl – Ohio State v. Florida (-2)
- Outback Bowl – Michigan State v. Georgia (-3.5)
- Capital One Bowl – Nebraska v. South Carolina (+2.5)
- Rose Bowl – Wisconsin v. Oregon (-5.5)
- Tostitos Fiesta Bowl – Stanford v. Oklahoma State (-3.5)
- Allstate Sugar Bowl – Michigan v. Virginia Tech (+2.5)
- Discover Orange Bowl – West Virginia v. Clemson (-2.5)
Picks are due Saturday, December 31st at NOON (or before the start of the next game if you're late)
Again, with the overlap, the leaderboard will be posted the day after the completion of last week's slate, which will be this Saturday. Staff picks are after the jump...
UPDATED with commenter leaderboard through last week's picks.
2011 Pick 'Em Gauntlet: Bowls Part 2
by WVUIE97 on Dec 24, 2011 10:06 AM EST
in Pick 'Em Gauntlet
This week's slate runs through next Friday's bowls (we're picking all 35). POINT SPREADS MATTER:
- Sheraton Hawaii Bowl - Nevada v. Southern Mississippi (-7)
- AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl - Missouri v. North Carolina (+5)
- Little Caesars Bowl - Western Michigan v. Purdue (-2.5)
- Belk Bowl - Louisville v. North Carolina State (-1.5)
- Northrup Grumman Military Bowl - Toledo v. Air Force (+3)
- Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl - California v. Texas (-3)
- Champs Sports Bowl - Florida State v. Notre Dame (+3)
- Valero Alamo Bowl - Washington v. Baylor (-9.5)
- Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl - BYU v. Tulsa (+2)
- New Era Pinstripe Bowl - Rutgers v. Iowa State (+1)
- Fanklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl - Mississippi State v. Wake Forest (+7)
- Insight Bowl - Iowa v. Oklahoma (-14)
Picks are due by 8 pm EST, Saturday.
We have all 35 of the bowls up for grabs, so there's still plenty of moves to make. Get back in if you haven't been picking for a while. Staff picks are after the jump and leaderboard...
UPDATED with commenter leaderboard through last week's picks.
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