New NLL Contest from NLL Insider!

[JSap]

WingsZone and NLL Insider are proud to announce our "NLL Offensive Challenge" weekly contest! Every week we will award a prize package including a Reebok shaft, a one year subscription to Inside Lacrosse magazine, and the Lacrosse: North America‚s Game coffee table book!

The object of the contest is to predict which team will score the most goals for that week, and how many goals they will score. If multiple teams score the same number of goals, the team with the higher goal differential will be considered the highest scoring team. The second tie-breaker will be the number of total assists by the tied teams. For example:

Buffalo 17 (24 assists) Toronto 12 (19 assists)
Colorado 17 (22 assists) Philadelphia 12 (21 assists)
Rochester 17 (25 assists) Calgary 13 (22 assists)

In this case, Buffalo and Colorado have the first tie-breaker over Rochester because their goal differential is 5 while Rochester's is 4. Buffalo and Colorado are still even after the first tie-breaker, but Buffalo wins the second tie-breaker because Buffalo has a total of more assists than Colorado. The winner in this case would be whoever is closest to Buffalo and 17 goals.

The winner will be randomly selected from all of the correct entries or tied closest entries if no one picks the exact score.

To enter, just send an e-mail to contest@nllinsider.com - Along with your contest answer, please provide the following:

NLL Forums Username
Name
Address
Email address
Favorite NLL team

* There will be only one winner per week
* Only one contest entry per person

The deadline for this week's entries is Friday, 8:00 PM - here are this weeks games:

Friday, February 29:
New York at Philadelphia

Saturday, March 1:
Calgary at Toronto
Philadelphia at Buffalo
Rochester at Chicago
Edmonton at Portland

Here's a little info on the shaft from Reebok:

Reebok Lacrosse 7K carbon-fuse handles are designed and engineered to address the needs of all types of players. Available in a snake grip, blister grip and smooth grip, each one is lightweight, durable and provides the perfect grip to match your style of play.

[Vin]

So, John, correct me if I am wrong, but the winning entry would look like:

Buffalo 17

... and so, the winner would have to pick Buffalo AND pick 17 goals.

However, if some people had chosen Buffalo, but no one chose 17 goals, then:
1. The person closest to 17 goals becomes the winner.
2. However, if there's a tie, so, for instance, Person 1 submits "Buffalo 16" and Person 2 submits "Buffalo 18", then those two would be in the Winners' Pool and, of all those persons in the Winners' Pool, one person is randomly selected as the winner.

I just want to be sure...

[itsallgoodchuck]

Sounds fun! THanks JSap

[Haftalax]

I'm picking anyway, go ahead and use mine anyone.

22 ROC 14 CHI

Knabber da somebody gets my shaft I guess.

[JSap]

Vin - you are absolutely correct - thanks for the clarification!

[Swede]

JSap also clearify that is it ONE game right? Cause if not then Philadelphia would be an obvious choice since they play 2 times this weekend.

You said the object of the contest is to guess who will score the most goals for that week. But you mean in one game, not the WHOLE weekend, right?

[JSap]

Originally Posted by Swede

JSap also clearify that is it ONE game right? Cause if not then Philadelphia would be an obvious choice since they play 2 times this weekend.

You said the object of the contest is to guess who will score the most goals for that week. But you mean in one game, not the WHOLE weekend, right?

Yes, the highest score for one game - sorry I didn't mention that in the original post. Thanks!

[itsallgoodchuck]

Oh dammit I thought it meant total for the week.

[Meathead]

Originally Posted by Haftalax

Knabber da somebody gets my shaft I guess.

Ouch! Does KHC know you're spreading the love?

[Vin]

Meathead, what is with the Bandits avatar??

[ND14]

Originally Posted by JSap

Yes, the highest score for one game - sorry I didn't mention that in the original post. Thanks!

If a team plays twice, do we have to pick which game it's going to be?

[gmbjr]

obviously, yes

[ND14]

Originally Posted by gmbjr

obviously, yes

Well, it wasn't mentioned specifically, so I was just seeking clarification.

They're most likely going to get a bunch of people who say "Philadelphia - 16" without specifying which game. So far, this isn't against the rules. Will those people be disqualified?

[JSap]

Since this is our first week, and that wasn't stated, I'll have to get a ruling from NLLInsider on that one - I'm assuming we won't disqualify for a misunderstanding the first week...

[Vin]

Originally Posted by ND14

Well, it wasn't mentioned specifically, so I was just seeking clarification.

They're most likely going to get a bunch of people who say "Philadelphia - 16" without specifying which game. So far, this isn't against the rules. Will those people be disqualified?

It shouldn't matter which game. It is irrelevant. Just the team and how many goals in any single game during the weekend.

[Swede]

Originally Posted by Vin

It shouldn't matter which game. It is irrelevant. Just the team and how many goals in any single game during the weekend.

I agree

[Vin]

John, if you don't mind....

Folks, I originally designed this contest although I cannot vouch for what IL's official rules are; they may have modified the intended rules.

This is what I originally PMed John when he was soliciting contest ideas:

Originally Posted by Vin PM to JSap

1. Offensive Challenge:

Team with most goals in a game for that week and goal amount. 1st Tiebreaker = largest goal differential in that game. 2nd Tiebreaker = most points in that game.

example:

So, first posters would have to predict which team had the most goals for the week (VJR 01 Mar 2008: This should have been for any one game in that week.). In this example, assume that the most goals scored by any team for this week was 17 which was scored by 3 teams.

Buffalo 17 (24 assists) Toronto 12 (19 assists)
Colorado 17 (22 assists) Philadelphia 12 (21 assists)
Rochester 17 (25 assists) Calgary 13 (22 assists)

In this case, Buffalo and Colorado have the Tie-breaker1 over Rochester because their goal differential is 5 while ROchester's is 4. Buffalo has Tiebreaker 2 over Colorado because Buffalo has a total of 41 points (= 17 goals + 24 assists), while Colorado has a total of 39 points.

So, the winner would have to be the poster who predicted Buffalo and 17 goals.

I added the underlining just now. I knew that multiple games can be played in a weekend, so my intent was a single game. However, which game was totally irrelevant.

In John's defense, I must admit that the way I wrote the example, I did use "week" instead of "any one game during that week". My bad.

On a tangent, I just want to mention that I did not receive anything for having designed the contest nor did I expect anything. I am a player though and, in any week, I have no better chance of winning the contest than you.

[ND14]

Originally Posted by Vin

It shouldn't matter which game. It is irrelevant. Just the team and how many goals in any single game during the weekend.

So if Philadelphia plays two games, doesn't that mean somebody who picks them has twice the chance of winning than does someone who picks another team? It seems like a no brainer to pick them. I imagine this will result in 90% of the entries being concentrated among one or two teams in a given weekend. It also takes some of the guesswork out of the picking, since if there's a decent team playing two games, people are generally just going to play the averages and pick that team (or at least I would).

In my opinion, you should have to specify the team and game. It keeps things fair and the contest a little more interesting. But that's just my vote.

In any case, I like this contest and would love to see more like it (as NLL Insider financial resources permit, of course). I really want that RBK handle...

[laxjunkie1]

I agree I was only picking 1 team one game!!! as mentioned keeping it an even playing field..

[mtbf]

anyone who picked Buffalo 21 was cheating

[Vin]

Originally Posted by ND14

So if Philadelphia plays two games, doesn't that mean somebody who picks them has twice the chance of winning than does someone who picks another team? It seems like a no brainer to pick them. I imagine this will result in 90% of the entries being concentrated among one or two teams in a given weekend. It also takes some of the guesswork out of the picking, since if there's a decent team playing two games, people are generally just going to play the averages and pick that team (or at least I would).

In my opinion, you should have to specify the team and game. It keeps things fair and the contest a little more interesting. But that's just my vote.

In any case, I like this contest and would love to see more like it (as NLL Insider financial resources permit, of course). I really want that RBK handle...

The fact that Philly had two games this weekend does mean that there were two opportunities for Philly to have the best offensive performance. Given that Philly is a decent team, that's no surprise that they might have been the winners. However, this is a single weekend and 2-game weekends are not the norm. Besides, if, say, Chicago had a 2-game weekend, no one would still pick Chicago because they suck offensively.

The contest is hard enough though because, not only does someone have to pick the team that had the best offensive production; they must also pick what that production is. I wonder how many people picked this week's winner: Buffalo 21. I doubt few people predicted that. But, even if they did and there were a few people who guessed correctly, the winner is then decided at random. It's no big issue.

So, overall, the fact that a team might have 2-game weekends does not greatly alter the chances of a person winning the contest.

For the record, I had Rochester 17 for this week. If Buffalo did not have those 21 goals, I would have had a decent shot at winning because Rochester 18 would have been the winning answer.

[ND14]

Originally Posted by Vin

For the record, I had Rochester 17 for this week.

So did I.

[laxjunkie1]

pretty sure I had roch 18!!!

[The New Kid]

can we enter for next week yet?

[JSap]

First of all, sorry that I haven't responded to this thread yet to clarify - I was in bed with the flu for the past few days and I am just now getting caught up on everything...

Thanks to Vin for clarifying a few things in my absence - however, I did run the multiple game question by the Inside Lacrosse folks, and they decided that if you are selecting a team that plays multiple games, you must choose which game you think they will score highest in. Remember, this is a new contest and we are still getting a feel for it at this point.

For the record, no one selected Buffalo at all the first week, so we had to go with the team with the second highest total, so I believe the person who submitted Rochester and 18 won - I don't have all of the entries in front of me, so that is not official!

Go ahead and submit your entries for this week - there are only 4 games, and no one plays twice, so it should be simpler this week! The deadline is Saturday at 1 - good luck!

Toronto at Philadelphia, Sat, Mar 8, 1:00 pm
Minnesota at Buffalo, Sat, Mar 08, 7:30 pm
San Jose at Colorado, Sat, Mar 08, 9:00 pm
Portland at Calgary, Sat, Mar 08, 9:30 pm