2015-2016 National Champs Predictions Game

Since there are no TV schedule posts or Predictions to make out this week, I thought now would be a good time to start the ball rolling for the National Championships Predictions Game.


Rounds

The first thing we have to decide is which championships to include in the Game.

Here are the dates of the upcoming National Championships that are under consideration:

1[SUP]st[/SUP] – 6[SUP]th[/SUP] December 2015: Great Britain
12[SUP]th[/SUP] – 15[SUP]th[/SUP] December 2015: Germany
16[SUP]th[/SUP] – 19[SUP]th[/SUP] December 2015: Italy
17[SUP]th[/SUP] – 19[SUP]th[/SUP] December 2015: France
18[SUP]th[/SUP] – 20[SUP]th[/SUP] December 2015: Four Nationals (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary)
23[SUP]rd[/SUP] – 27[SUP]th[/SUP] December 2015: Russia
24[SUP]th[/SUP] – 27[SUP]th[/SUP] December 2015: Japan
15[SUP]th[/SUP] – 24[SUP]th[/SUP] January 2016: America
18[SUP]th[/SUP] – 24[SUP]th[/SUP] January 2016: Canada

Ideally, I would like to do them all. But, I do realise that that would be verging on overkill. Plus, the dates mean that there are a lot of overlaps.

Although the British Championships start tomorrow, the Senior competitions don’t actually start until Saturday. But, I still think it would be unfair to start a Predictions Game at such short notice.

That said, if anybody fancies making predictions on the British Championships, I could whip up a predictions thread and have it as a non-scoring round. Just let me know below if you fancy a crack at it.

The German, Italian, French and Four Nationals Championships are all in the space of 10 days. Last year, we had Germany, France and Italy as scoring rounds, with Four Nationals as a non-scoring round.

The French Championships were definitely the poor relation last season. Although there was streaming, it was not good. Poor quality pictures; forgetting to switch back to live pictures after resurfacings; forgetting to switch off the in-between music when the skaters start. Plus, there were not many entries in most of the competitions.

Four Nationals, on the other hand, was such a well run competition last season. And I feel that it deserves to have more recognition.

Consequently, I would like to propose elevating Four Nationals to a scoring round, and instead have French Nationals as the non-scoring round.

In previous years, we also had the Chinese Championships. But, as usual, I can’t find any information about them yet. So, at the moment, I am leaning towards putting it as a non-scoring round if we can find out dates and entries.

So, here is my proposal for the make-up of the Game:

N/S Round: British Championships (1[SUP]st[/SUP] – 6[SUP]th[/SUP] December 2015)
Round 1: German Championships (12[SUP]th[/SUP] – 15[SUP]th[/SUP] December 2015)
Round 2: Italian Championships (16[SUP]th[/SUP] – 19[SUP]th[/SUP] December 2015)
N/S Round: French Championships (17[SUP]th[/SUP] – 19[SUP]th[/SUP] December 2015)
Round 3: Four Nationals Championships (18[SUP]th[/SUP] – 20[SUP]th[/SUP] December 2015)
Round 4: Russian Championships (23[SUP]rd[/SUP] – 27[SUP]th[/SUP] December 2015)
Round 5: Japanese Championships (24[SUP]th[/SUP] – 27[SUP]th[/SUP] December 2015)
Round 6: American Championships (15[SUP]th[/SUP] – 24[SUP]th[/SUP] January 2016)
Round 7: Canadian Championships (18[SUP]th[/SUP] – 24[SUP]th[/SUP] January 2016)

Provisional N/S Round: Chinese Championships (????)


Rules

Since they have worked so well in the past, I would prefer to keep the rules exactly the same. Here they are in last season’s rules thread:

http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?53137


Scorers

Now for the most important matter to be sorted. You literally cannot have a Predictions Game without scorers.

Having 2 sets of scorers alternating rounds worked well for the ISU Game last season, and for the GP Game this season. So, I think we should use that model again.

So, if anybody would like to volunteer to score, please make yourself known in this thread.


Well, that is all I can think of at the moment.

Let me know what you think.

CaroLiza_fan

PS: Preparations for the ISU Championships Predictions Game will begin after the GP Final is over.

I take it it's too short notice to run an Australian Nationals round, given that the Senior events start on Thursday and it is now Monday night...

karne said:

I take it it's too short notice to run an Australian Nationals round, given that the Senior events start on Thursday and it is now Monday night...

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It probably is. I'm already pushing it a bit with suggesting the British Championships could be a N/S Round.

But, seeing as there does seem to be an interest in Australian skating on here (and not just with the natives), there is nothing to stop us making it a "Just for fun" non-scoring round.

Do you want me to make a separate predictions thread? (Or, alternatively, we could just make predictions in your Event thread)

CaroLiza_fan

A separate thread might be a good idea, if you like, CaroLiza_fan. I'm not sure how many people have actually been into the Event thread. I'll volunteer to score, if you like!

karne said:

A separate thread might be a good idea, if you like, CaroLiza_fan. I'm not sure how many people have actually been into the Event thread. I'll volunteer to score, if you like!

Click to expand...

OK then. I'll do it now! (Well, once I hoke out my templates from last season!)

CaroLiza_fan

Wonderful that you'll be taking this on again!

karne said:

A separate thread might be a good idea, if you like, CaroLiza_fan. I'm not sure how many people have actually been into the Event thread. I'll volunteer to score, if you like!

Click to expand...

Here you go!

http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?57520

(I've already posted a link to it in your Event thread)

Let the fun begin!

CaroLiza_fan

tulosai said:

Wonderful that you'll be taking this on again!

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Thank you. That really means a lot, because none of this would have been possible without you.


By the way, seeing as we have started predictions on the Australian Championships, I have decided to go ahead and make a Predictions Thread for the British Championships.

Here it is:

http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?57523

(I've already posted a link to it in sequinsgalore's Event thread)

Let the fun begin!

CaroLiza_fan

Yay! I'll volunteer for scoring this again... (ladies or dance, as I've done the other 2 before.)

i volunteer as well! and discipline doesnt matter, i will take whichever remains

As I will have google account soon, I'm volunteering, too.

CaroLiza, I was so excited to see this thread! I became a more regular GS visitor during the middle of the game last season and was really hoping you'd do it again because I am looking forward to playing. Thank you for doing it again! :cool2:

Most of my GP predictions have been a splatfest so what do I have to lose?

Thank you to invisiblespiral, matmuh and text_skate for volunteering to score.

I have just finished making out the spreadsheet. Here is the link:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rI3z-_wGSVQNXd75LLlqO6axgSZ_XBhwIUHBQV0I_qc/edit?usp=sharing

karne has volunteered score the Australian Championships herself.

If anybody wants to have a test run by scoring British Championships, let me know. There aren't too many players yet, so it won't be a big job.

As they have been scorers before, invisiblespiral and matmuh already know the drill. But, for anybody else that wants to score, you will have to send me a PM with your e-mail address, as that is how I can grant you permission to edit the spreadsheet.

For those that are worried about giving out their e-mail address, there is no need to be. I won't be passing anything onto anybody else! But if you are still worried, you can always create a new e-mail account. There are plenty of free e-mail providers out there. That is what one previous scorer did, and it worked very well for them.

Anyway, we still need more scorers. So, if you are interested, please make yourself known.

Within the next few days, I will post the Rules thread. But, as I said before, it will probably be the same as last year's. So, please don't let that stop you predicting on this weekend's British Championships (Predictions Thread).

CaroLiza_fan

If it would be helpful, I can help score the American and Canadian championships. This year, during the others (other than British which I could also help with if necessary) my internet access will be limited to me phone, so I can't really do much then :noshake:

You may have to tell me how to score.

karne said:

You may have to tell me how to score.

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Well, if you are only intending to dip your toe into scoring by your own Championships, then it might be easier to just do it manually and send me a PM with the totals for me to put into the spreadsheet. After all, there are only a few players that entered.

But, if you are by any chance thinking of scoring on a more regular basis in the future, then it would be recommended to try out the full process of using the formula to work out the score, and then inputting the scores into the spreadsheet.

And you would not be the only one learning how to use the formula... I have never used it either! All I have ever done before is score manually, and then input the scores into the spreadsheet!

CaroLiza_fan

But how do I award points? So confused hahahahah

karne said:

But how do I award points? So confused hahahahah

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I have just posted the rules thread:

http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?57597

So, if you go down to the "Scoring" section, it will explain everything. But, it is just the same as the GP Preditions Game, so it shouldn't be too complicated.

And apologies that I am only replying now. Posting the rules took about an hour longer than I expected. Due to it being archived, I couldn't just copy and paste the writing with all the coding from last year's post using the "edit" or "reply with quote" buttons. Instead, I had to work out myself what all the formatting I had used was. And it was VERY complicated!

Moral of the story: don't use complicated formatting. And if you do have to, for goodness sake save a copy of the post with all the code as a Word file, so that you can come back to it in the future!

If you need any more help, let me know

CaroLiza_fan

RESULTS ARE NOW POSTED FOR AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS! :yes:

Have fun!

karne said:

RESULTS ARE NOW POSTED FOR AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS! :yes:

Have fun!

Click to expand...

Thank you so much karne!!! I really appreciate you doing this.

The scores have now been put into the spreadsheet.

Also, now that we have some scores, I have created the HALL OF FAME thread for this season's Nationals Game. It can be found at:

http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?57620

I don't know about anybody else, but I find that having the Hall Of Fame is a very handy way of keeping track of who is getting into the podium positions at each round. And, I have to admit, I did miss it during the GP Game.

Anyway, thank you again, karne. I hope you enjoyed your first foray into scoring.

CaroLiza_fan