Guess the Starting XI: First Quarter Roundup

Welcome back everyone, I hope you’re enjoying the bye week as the Vancouver Whitecaps and MLS as a whole ready themselves for the international break.

The Whitecaps have lost three matches in a row, but that certainly hasn’t made the Guess the Starting XI contest any less interesting. On the contrary, the last two weeks of this contest have been far and away the most difficult, which has left an opportunity for a few contestants to distinguish themselves.

With Javain Brown making a surprising start at left back, this threw pretty much everyone for a loop in predicting the lineup. While Fudmur was the sole contestant who selected Brown as a starter, he missed in a few other areas, and this meant that not a single contestant got the starting XI correct.

When looking at the result of the match, Isabelt picked up a big haul of points by correctly picking a Houston Win by a score of 2-1. These extra points proved to be crucial in the first quarter title race, as Isabelt narrowly edged out Tecate by a margin of four points overall to take the Guess the Starting XI Contest 1st Quarter Title.

1st: Isabelt

2nd: Tecate

3rd: AmandaC

A reminder that as it is the end of the 1st quarter, I have deducted everyone’s lowest score of the period. On the standings, these deducted scores will be marked in green. The totals listed below (with lowest score of the quarter deducted) will be what we carry over for the cumulative standings in the year long contest.

Looking back through the numbers, a special shoutout to Norwegian Would in week two, who had the only perfect lineup and score prediction of the 1st quarter.

Before we get into the standings, I’d also like to encourage anyone who hasn’t joined in the contest, or stopped submitting predictions part way through, to join us for the rest of the season if you’re so inclined. With standings kept for each segment of the season, there’s always an opportunity to get involved even if you’ve missed out on the start of the year!

If you’re looking to get involved, here are the rules of the contest:

• Predictions will be ‘valid’ if posted HERE (or more accurately, the correct match thread) prior to the lineup being officially announced, usually about an hour before kickoff.
• You receive 1 point for every player you correctly guess to be in the Starting XI. You receive 4 bonus points for correctly predicting all 11 starters.
• You get 5 points for correctly guessing Win/Lose/Draw, this doubles to 10 if you also predict the right score-line along with the result.
• That means, if you correctly predict the Starting XI, Final Score, and Winner, you can earn 25 points!
• At the end of each quarter, the contestants lowest score of that period will be deducted from the cumulative standings.

Now, without any further delay, here are the final standings from the 1st Quarter:

If you have any questions, or have spotted any errors, be sure to let me know. Congrats to Isabelt, and we’ll see you in a few weeks to get back at it!