2010/2011 Predictor Rules

[Geddon]

Football League Prediction League, 2010-2011 Season

Welcome to the Football Programme Forum's Football League Prediction League for the 2010-2011 season.

Thanks for the interest shown in the previous thread. If you have not already signed up, that's not a problem, feel free to play at any point during the season, for however many or few matchdays that you like.

Matchday Scoring
- Each matchday will consist of twelve games from the Football League for the given weekend (Saturday & Sunday). On FA Cup First, Second, Third and Fourth round weekends, the matches will be split between League games and Cup games.

- Dates are as follows:
August (4): 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th
September (4): 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th
October (5): 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th
November (4): 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th
December (5): 4th, 11th, 18th, 26th, 28th
January (6): 1st, 3rd, 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th
February (4): 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th
March (4): 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th
April (6): 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 25th, 30th
May (1): 7th

- There will be additional prediction games over the Christmas and Easter periods, however scheduled midweek matchdays will not be included. This gives a total of forty-three matchdays throughout the season.

- The playoff semi-finals will be used to make up the forty-fourth and final week.

- Points will be awarded as follows: three points for the correct score, one point for the correct result.

- Each week you will get to choose one game as your "Joker" - all points accumulated in this game will be doubled (i.e. 6 for the correct score, 2 for correct result). If you do not select a "Joker" all matches will be scored normally.

- You will also nominate a goal scorer from any of the weekends League (or Cup) matches. If this person scores, you will gain two extra points, plus one more point for any addition goals scored (so a hat-trick is worth 4 points). When submitting your goal scorer please enter their full name and club (i.e. Stephen Dobbie (Swansea)), or I may mistake your chosen scorer for someone else.
Remember that a weekends matches include only games played on Saturdays and Sundays, so take care not to use a goalscorer from a club who are playing on the Friday or Monday.

- The bonus questions from last season are no longer being used.

- Theoretically there is no maximum score for any individual weekend, because your nominated scorer could score an unlimited amount of goals, but obviously it'll be very rare that they'll score more than three. Thus the maximum number of points available for the weekend will be (11*3) + (1*6) + 4 = 39.

Total Scoring
- Your overall score will be decided by the average amount of points accumulated each week. Using this method instead of total points accumulated means that you will not be punished too much for missing a week or two for whatever reason. However due to it's nature it means that a person entering just one week of the competition may win it, or come near the top. To prevent this, the following stipulations will be applied:

- To qualify for a position in the leaderboard, entrants must have played at least half the matchdays available up until that point. So over the course of the season you will need to have played at least 22 times to be eligible in the final table.

- For an additional advantage for the more regular contributors, only the average of your best 30 matchdays will be considered in your final score. Thus anything lower than your 30th best matchday score will not be added. This means that if you have played the first 30 matchdays, your score cannot get any lower, as your future scores will only be added to your total if they are highest than any previous ones, while the lower ones will be removed.

- The leaderboard will display entrants who could still win at the top, regardless of whether they have currently played enough weeks or not. Once it becomes impossible for a certain entrant to reach 22 entered matches, they are moved into the bottom area. Entrants who have currently entered at least half the matchdays will be in white, while those who have not but could still reach 22 are coloured in grey.

Postponements
- Inevitably over the course of the season some matches will be postponed. If, on any given matchday, half the matches or more are called off, then that week shall be declared void, and may later be replaced by a midweek game later in the season. If four or fewer matches are postponed from the weekends fixtures, then the scoring will go ahead as normal, but weighted so that your score is not effected by the postponements.

For example, if you scored 8 points in a week, and two games were called off, you will receive 10 points.

Prediction Submission
- All submissions must be made within one hour of the kick-off of the first game of the matchday. Submissions after this time will still be accepted, however any games that have already been played will be automatically scored as zero (this includes the goal scorer). Submissions should be made via the message board, however you may also email them to me at predictions AT fish1987 DOT com if you are unable to use the message board for any reason.

- I will endeavour to publish the weekends fixtures on the previous weekend or Monday, however this may not always be possible.

- Results will usually be published on the Sunday/Monday after the games are completed but may sometimes be late. Results will consist of a list of all scores for the weekend, as well as the current leaderboard.

- If you believe that I have calculated your score incorrectly, please do not hesitate to contact me, at predictions AT fish1987 DOT com, and I will investigate for you. The scores are, however, calculated by a spreadsheet (except for the goal scorer) and therefore should be 100% accurate. In general if your score is wrong, it will be because of an erroneous input or an oversight regarding the goal scorer on my part.

- As the Prediction League is free to enter, there will obviously be no major prize at the end of the season for the winner.

- Finally, thanks for reading, and thank you for entering, and good luck! Any questions feel free to ask them in this thread.