Welcome to another season of our Vancouver Whitecaps contest “Guess the Starting XI and Final Score”. As is tradition, thanks to former regular Spencer for starting this several years ago. It has grown into a great contest and I am appreciative of him for the original idea. Like last season, we will break the contest up into the three ‘seasons’: first half, second half, and non-MLS. We will continue to have fun monthly ‘bonus’ prediction categories, with some being based on whatever it topical at the time. Last season we had things like “Robbo post-match quotes”, “yellow cards”, “first goal scorer”, and several others. However, to start the season, we will keep March simple. With that out of the way, let’s remind you all how the scoring is done.
Contest Details
Contest article will be posted 2-3 days prior to game day.
- We will keep track of first half, second half, and monthly winners so that late joiners will have something to play for.
- I will have a separate ‘contest’ for Voyageurs and Champions League.
- As the MLS season is 34 matches, each half of the season will be based on 17 matches, with your worst two match predictions being dropped. This will allow everyone a few misses or bad guesses throughout the season.
- Predictions will be ‘valid’ if posted HERE half-an-hour prior to the lineup being officially announced (1 hour before kickoff).
How Scoring is Determined
- You receive 1 point for every player you correctly guess to be in the Starting XI. Receive 1 bonus point for correctly predicting 10 starters. Receive 3 bonus points for correctly predicting 11 starters.
- You get 5 points for correctly guessing Win/Lose/Draw.
- You receive 1 point for correctly guessing each team’s final score. Receive 1 bonus point for correctly guessing both teams final score (for a total of 3).
- That means, if you correctly predict the Starting XI, Final Score, and Winner, you can earn 22 points!
After each match, I will tally the scores and update the standings, which will be posted with the following match’s prediction article. I will post three sets of standings. First, the results from the previous match. Second, the monthly standings. Third, the first/second half standings (with your worst two match predictions removed).
Canadian Championship Preview
Hello everyone. We have a bit of a different scenario here, as the Vancouver Whitecaps participation in the 2019 Canadian Championship begins on Wednesday. This means that we will have a prediction contest but that it will be slightly different. Specifically, the Canadian Championship will be its own contest. These matches will not count towards the Second Half Standings. HOWEVER, they will count towards our July contest, which also means that we keep the same ‘bonus’ category of scoring interval. Remember, three points if you correctly predict the 15-minute interval that the Caps score their first goal of the match. If you believe they won’t score, you need to put that. Simply having a score of 3-0 Calgary, for example, will not suffice. Why? Well, I was a perfect example of that last match. I hedged by predicting the Caps would lose 3-1 but thinking they might get shut out, so I said no goal scored. Your options are, of course, 0-15, 16-30, 31-45, 46-60, 61-75, 76-90. Goals in stoppage time go towards the 31-45 or 76-90 intervals.
Back to the Canadian Championship, the Caps will, hopefully, play six matches in this contest, so we are going to go with your five best match predictions. That means you get one throwaway match.
Hopefully I explained everything well. I will be checking the comments up to game time to make sure that I answer any questions people might have.
Good luck!