Here's the contest scoreboard after Game 2
Saregister BYE
HarryManBack 84
Shenanigans 80
CmClean 78
Ssa400 77
HomerSolo 74
Fromagnon 74
Jorga 73
DevynLindquist 73
DrawingJeremy 71
RockingHarder 68
Bairdy 68
DuckBlazer 67
GimmeIme 62
Bretski 55
Unfortunately we have to say goodbye to yet another former jersey winner, Bretski. Much like the World Series of Poker the amateurs are taking out the pros left and right.
This game also highlighted why the bonuses for early entry are important. (They were factored into these scores.) If you look back through the predictions you'll see that Bretski was the first person to enter. He was also the ONLY person who picked Josh Smith to score more than Brandon Roy, and that 20 points on the bonus question cost him the game. Jorga, on the other hand, upon seeing that she was the only person to pick Atlanta to win changed her prediction to be more in line with everyone else's (including the Roy pick). It's an advantage being later and a disadvantage being first. Now Bretski's 10-point bonus wasn't enough to save him, but at least the idea of a bonus makes people more willing to take a shot, enter early, and stick with their predictions. Otherwise you'd probably see a whole mess of changes left and right to match up with the majority and/or people entering at the very last second (at least those who could--those who couldn't would be stuck hanging in the wind). Besides this makes for more interesting choices in predicting. Is changing your prediction worth losing the bonus or not? (For those not in the know, if you change your prediction at all you lose any early-entry bonus that may have applied even if your change comes in time to still get you one.)
Good show and good scores all around, though it might have been interesting had the Blazers lost and everyone was wrong...
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)