KEY:
dRank change in rank (+ means promotion)
dRate change in rating points
Outcome 1st digit is week #; 2nd digit a=1st night and b=2nd night; 3rd digit is division #. So 1b3 = week 1 night 2 division 3. Cumulative wins-losses for the week are shown after the semicolon.
This color denotes people who played this week, this color denotes those who were absent.
Those absent more than 3 times can still be seen on the full list (see link at top of page) but are hidden from this list.

Game outcomes

Recap of Week 3, Spring 02

[Game-by-game matchups and point changes are listed at the end.]

On Sunday night, 2 full divisions played. Div 1 saw the third round of
the Underdog vs. Mac battle for #1. In the end, Mac prevailed with a
convincing 3-0 victory, moving ahead finally in the rankings and
claiming the new #1 berth - congrats!

While that's great for Mac, if you're not as good as he is, the real
story lies in what Sticks managed to accomplish. He went into the 2x2's
with somewhat lower points than the other 3, so he was very concerned
about losing 0-3. This brings up an important element of strategy when
you're the 4th seed and happen to be much worse than the other 3 guys.
You don't have that much to lose, so keep a good mental attitude and try
to win just one game. That doesn't sound like much, but if you manage to
win a game, you avoid the dreaded 0-3 fate and instead 3 of you will go
1-2, leaving 1 guy 3-0.

Generally you figure in game 1 pitting 1+2 vs. 3+4, it's a lost cause,
the latter team will get crushed, just suck it up and move on. So the
trick then is to make sure you win one of the other two games: game 2
with 1+3 vs. 2+4, or game 3 with 1+4 vs. 2+3. If you plug in all 4
players' ratings into the reporting form, you can see what the point
spreads are. Since you're the weakest player by far, your team will be
the underdog for both games 2 and 3, so winning one of them will give
you big points. If one of the games has a smaller point spread between
the two teams, that is the one you need to focus on as your best bet to
pull off the upset. 

Regardless of point spreads, game 3 pits the best and worst guys agains
the middle two. That sounds fair, but in reality, it's usually hard for
the best and worst guys to ally effectively. That's a whole separate
rant - as the best player it's up to you to somehow overcome the
mismatch and take advantage of what little the worst player can offer,
or at least manage to win more than he loses while he stalls on his
front. Game 2 tends to be result in more evenly matched allies, so
there's not much strategy to it, just go and beat the other team
already.

Now let's look at Sunday's Div 1. Game 1, the 1+2 team was a huge
favorite and crushes 3+4 quickly, only 5 points change hands, no big
deal. Games 2 and 3 turned out to have about the same point spread,
Sticks went into each as the 85 and 86 point underdog, so he really
didn't have a choice as to which one he should focus on more. In the
end, while allied with Mac, he pulled out his one win and gaining 46
points in the upset. In game 3, he lost while allied to Underdog, but
the way IBL works is, you don't lose as many points when you're the
underdog (literally in this case), so they lost only 28 points. So the
net effect is that he moves up 13 points, mission accomplished.

Sunday's Div 2 was an even more improbable story. Once again ihauflad
went into it with a disadvantage, being the weakest player by a good
margin no thanks to his recent losses. In this case, however, he managed
to get his win in game 3, where he and shotty were the underdogs by 368
points. That's a smaller spread than game 2's 428 points, but both are
whopping huge margins. It is almost unheard of to see such big upsets.
Think of it this way, take your rating in the list and add 428 points to
it, see who you would have to beat. Now you see how big a win it was for
shotty and ihauflad in game 3. As I said before, if you're shotty and
you're the 1st seed allied with the 4th, it's up to you to set the
strategy. Nevertheless, give ihauflad credit for holding his own and not
getting blown out, allowing their team to pull off the big upset win.

Wednesday was an attendance nightmare. Only 2 people were on time, then
2 more showed up a little late. Those 4 guys played a 2x2 as Div 1. Then
2 more stragglers wandered in, so they played a 1x1. At least the games
were reportedly good.

In Div 1, Underdog and Mac went at it again (you'd think the #1 ranking
was at stake or something, heh). Once again, the 4th seed ace was the
weakest by a wide margin - the initial ratings were Underdog (2061), Mac
(2060), Suicidjky (1869), ace (1488). Remember, we only update ratings
once a week, so even though Mac won on Sunday, for the purposes of this
division they still went in essentially tied, and they basically tied
again, each beating the other once. Suicidjky went 0-3, unfortunately
losing both times he was allied with the 2 top seeds. On the other hand,
ace the 4th seed managed to win both times while allied with the 2 top
seeds. So as a result, Underdog and Mac each gained a measly 1 point,
while ace essentially took 134 points away from Suicidjky (ouch).
Remember what I just said about the 4th seed trying to win just 1 of
game 2 or 3? Well, if you manage to win both, you're going to end up the
big winner in points, and that's what ace did. Impressive work. In Div
2, Sticks was the slight favorite over DarkOmeN, and by winning took
about 31 points away from him.

So in the end, Mac pulls ahead of Underdog (for now at least) with a
commanding 5-1 record for the week in Div 1 play, but it is ace who
manages the biggest gains in points (134) and ranks (7). Suicidjky
returns to play after last week's disappointing outcome, only to lose
some more. My advice to anybody who seems to be on a losing streak like
him is to not let yourself get psyched out, and remember that at least
you are getting reshuffled to play against weaker players who should be
closer to your skill level. If you're really a better player inside, you
will have time to climb your way back up, without the stress of taking
on the top players right away. Better luck next week man.

There was a lot of discussion about lag. The 2nd division reported
serious lag which was not caused by any 1 person, just the inevitable
result of a lot of modemers together I guess. It was not clear just how
bad things got, i.e. if it was the usual whining or if it was really
hard to play. In any event we couldn't think of any brilliant solutions.
If we split up the broadband vs. modem players into 2 separate leagues,
there would not be enough people left in each, resulting in a lot of
busted divisions. Even right now, we only get 1 to 2 full divisions per
night. Oh well, stay tuned I guess.

Note that IBL times were changed twice this week. The final times are
now 9 PM EDT on Sundays, and 10 PM EDT on Wednesdays, effective
immediately. Again, don't cut it too close, I would suggest showing up
at least 5-10 minutes early, having already taken care of bathroom
breaks, rebooting, etc. If everybody is punctual and pays attention to
the organizer, making divisions is a snap and can be done in a few
minutes. It's only when people show up late or goof around that the
process drags out into 15-20 minutes.

Jolo

------------------------------------------------------------

Div 4a1:  Underdog Mac Silverado Sticks.  (Mac went 3-0.)

Game 1: Underdog & Mac > Silverado & Sticks.
      Team A was favored by 455 points. By winning, each gained 5 points.
Game 2: Underdog & Silverado < Mac & Sticks.
	Team A was favored by 85 points. By losing, each lost 46 points.
Game 3: Underdog & Sticks < Mac & Silverado.
	Team A was an underdog by 83 points. By losing, each lost 28 points.

Overall point changes: Underdog -69  Mac +80  Silverado -22  Sticks +13  

------------------------------------------------------------

Div 4a2:  shotty DarkOmeN stimpy ihauflad.  (shotty went 3-0.)

Game 1: shotty & DarkOmeN > stimpy & ihauflad.
      Team A was favored by 760 points. By winning, each gained 0 points.
Game 2: shotty & stimpy > DarkOmeN & ihauflad.
	Team A was favored by 428 points. By winning, each gained 5 points.
Game 3: shotty & ihauflad > DarkOmeN & stimpy.
	Team A was an underdog by 368 points. By winning, each gained 66 points.

Overall point changes: shotty +74  DarkOmeN -71  stimpy -61  ihauflad +60  

------------------------------------------------------------

Div 4b1:  Underdog Mac Suicidjky ace.  (Suicidjky went 0-3.)

Game 1: Underdog & Mac > Suicidjky & ace.
      Team A was favored by 764 points. By winning, each gained 0 points.
Game 2: Underdog & Suicidjky < Mac & ace.
	Team A was favored by 382 points. By losing, each lost 67 points.
Game 3: Underdog & ace > Mac & Suicidjky.
	Team A was an underdog by 380 points. By winning, each gained 67 points.

Overall point changes: Underdog +1  Mac +1  Suicidjky -135  ace +134  

------------------------------------------------------------

Div 4b2:  Sticks DarkOmeN.  (Sticks won 1x1.)

Game 2: Sticks > DarkOmeN.
	Team A was favored by 47 points. By winning, each gained 32 points.

Overall point changes: Sticks +32  DarkOmeN -31

------------------------------------------------------------

Absent ->
AJR UnknownSoldier Smeagol zach FireIce KuJo Min Sickboy lethal Bvalki 
Wolverine kruz dapound Bumps Cardinal Target XxAWBxX _socks ADD-boy bear 
Nova Scangus Qlzqqlzup Bonfire Deathwalker Smokey New2IBL 

Total 39 players = 12 present + 27 absent.

[ Intro | News | Ratings | Report | Home ]