The Armbar MMA Predictions League 2011 -- Who's in?

Thought I had better get out of holiday mode and get my arse into gear and set this years competition up. Sorry to last years prize winners, but I haven't had a chance to get the prizes in the mail but hope to in the next week, which I will confirm when it happens.

Just an update from last year. We called 438 fights - 200 decisions, 129 stoppages and 109 submissions. I can give you all sorts of breakdowns of the stats. For example, I can tell you that 13.5% of UFC WW matches ended in the 3rd round, compared to 8.3% in the LW division and 16.7% in the HW division and other riveting trainspotting facts like that. If anyone wants to know anything, let me know.

We called 4 openweight class fights, which is now known here as Minowaclass, as he featured in all 4 of them.


Now on to this year. This years competition will start with Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg and I will post Round 1 at least a week before the event. I want to get some feedback from you guys regarding some rules and other shit

First, penalties for missing fights. Any ideas? The easiest option for me is if you snooze you lose and you get nothing. We had 12 regulars last year, and between us missed only about 6 or 7 rounds, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem for us but I would like to have a definite system in place as it was a bit random last year.

Second is the format. Instead of rounds, I was thinking of having separate threads for each event. The problem with this may be that there will a lot more predictions threads to keep up with, and some of them will be small, like those smaller events that we only call 2 or 3 fights. I am also quite forgetful so might miss an event or 3.

Is everyone happy with the scoring system?

I am thinking of introducing a new aspect to the League. Would you be interested in a belt competition where there are 4 belts - UFC, Strikeforce, Japan, Minor.

Determining the champion is easy, the highest scorer in the first event held by each belt title becomes the holder or I can work it out from last years results.

I got 2 ways to run it from there. One is easy, the highest scorer in each subsequent event becomes champion.
The second not so easy. After the first event, the next top 2 scorers become the contenders and will face off in a 3 way battle with the champ in the next event. The winner of that 3 way tussle will face the top 2 scorers of that event in the next event for the belt.

I would put up a reasonable prize for the person who could unify the titles.

If you don't give shit about any of the above and just want to play the game then make sure you keep an eye on the forum for the first round coming up in few days. The more the merrier. I hope we can get some new regular players and maybe some specialists for the belt comps.

Sorry for the long boring post - please let me know any ideas otherwise it is the same as normal and will be up and running in a couple of days.

Definately up for this Ging! I would say if it ain't broke don't fix it, but I'll happily play along with whatever is decided.
The idea of zero points is a good one, saves hassle and potential arguments (now wait for me to forget my picks!).

yeah sign me up ging.

I'll give it a go, I did start it last year but only lasted half way through the year.I'll make every effort to do the full year this time.
I'll even put up a couple of books as prizes, got quite a few Autobiographies.
Matt Hughes, Tito and Ken Shamrock.

I'm in again Ging, was great last year. As far as your suggestions go:

I think it's better to keep it as rounds - fewer threads.

As far as missing rounds, i agree, let's keep it simple and say no score. It's the fairest way. Unless there were extenuating circumstances like a few times last year (Moose's picks disappearing etc).

I think the belt idea could be fun, but is probably best kept simple. There could also be a aspect where the belt holder gets a bonus in the next round - ie. 20 points or something - as a reward?

Other than that, i think it worked well last year, hopefully we can get a few more to keep at it all year, and get the Armbar cup up and running again!

I'm in.

Ging I haven't forgotten about the HD, just need to find the time to move everything on to it. I'm going to Italy soon for like a month so when I get back from that I'll be taking a week off to heal my battered hips and knees, i'll get it all sorted then mate.

Up for this again mate.

Looking forward to proping up the table, and losing large sums of money to the Bookies.

Cheers again for a sterling job.

Count me in this time mate

I am defo up for this.

I'm in.

Im in this is my year

The_Axe_Emperor wrote:

I'm in.

Old men and women aswell as fat chicks......................A most deserved oddball award ha ha ha

I can't even enjoy Dragon's Den without being proclaimed as odd anymore! I'm keeping all my thoughts to myself from now on.

without a doubt I'm in,I want my title back.

I'll give it a crack this year, did pretty well somehow in the few events that I predicted last year.

I'm your huckleberry.

I have to say though that I did consider retiring to give some of the rest of you a chance... maybe next year.

Ginginho wrote:First, penalties for missing fights. Any ideas? The easiest option for me is if you snooze you lose and you get nothing. We had 12 regulars last year, and between us missed only about 6 or 7 rounds, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem for us but I would like to have a definite system in place as it was a bit random last year.

The first time that someone misses a round I'd suggest that they be awarded a score equal to the lowest score from the people who did enter their picks for that round. Maybe deduct 10 points from the lowest score on each subsequent occasion? That might stop folk dropping out after missing a round or two.

I think the rounds worked ok, whatever is easier for you though Ginginho.

We could maybe trial the belts system in the first few rounds and see how it works out?

I'll be in, hopefully for the long run this year as well. Missed too many rounds to contend the last one.

count me in, well for getting involved with the predictions league this year

I think if someone has a legitimate reason for missing rounds, like when some's family member passes, we give them their own average weekly scores, so just divide their total by however many rounds there has been and that can be their score for that rounds.

Count me in (although my prediction skills are crap)