Author: admin

“The Cat Claws Another MVP Award!” (Wk 7)

Week 6 MVP Award Winner –
The Cat (28 Points)

Last week, The Cat had a very impressive week as he scored 28 Points to win the Week 6 MVP Award.  That was 8 Points better than the next best score.  When The Cat turned in his picks last Saturday night, he had just finished up a 9-hour day in the ministry and he had studied his magazine for the meeting with the Hansens (from San Rafael), who are currently visiting The Cat out in Ecuador.  The Cat was frustrated with his struggles in the club during the past couple of weeks, so he employed a special picking strategy that he uses on rare occasions.  I’m not allowed to reveal his secret strategy, but it paid off big time and he ended up scoring a lot more Points than the rest of us did.  The Cat’s best picks came in the Triple Crown, where he picked Atl-Mia-Dal to win the 7 Points (which nobody else got).  Did you know that only 7 Triple Crowns have been captured in total over the course of the first 6 weeks?  If you can correctly pick a Triple Crown, you are an immediate front-runner to win an MVP Award.  The Week 6 MVP Award Runner-Up was Hoosier Daddy, who scored 20 Points and jumped all the way up to 9th Place, now sitting a mere 9 Points out of the prestigious Top Five.  Drummer Boy has also been picking very solidly lately and now finds himself tied with Hoosier Daddy in 9th Place.  I also wanted to give a shout out to Slick Chick, who does a great job in keeping Club Chat active and interesting every week.  Slick Chick has been struggling, but she finally picked up a big Triple Jeopardy win thanks to trusting the NY Jets to win it for her.  In looking at the current Top Five, Stinkerbell had another subpar week as she only scored 14 Points, yet it was good enough to increase her 1st Place lead to 17 Points.  That might sound like a lot, but it could actually be erased in one single week if she struggles greatly and someone has a huge high-scoring week.  For the moment, though, she is sitting pretty at the top.  We now have a two-way tie for 2nd Place between Captain Insano and Kip Possible.  Captain Insano had a rough week, while Kip Possible did slightly better and that moved him up a notch.  At #4 we have Rad Dad and at #5 we have the return of The Cat to the Top Five.

Over in Head to Head Weekly, it’s hard to believe but we have now played half of the 10-game regular season of Head to Head competition.  Keep in mind that you do not want to be one of the two players who have the worst records in each conference, as those players will end up having to play in the First Round of the Super Bowl Tournament later this season.  Division One currently has a 3-way tie for 1st Place between Fearless Tuna, Hoosier Daddy, and Rad Dad (3-1-1 records).  Division Two is being dominated by Stinkerbell (3-1-1) but Double-Double (2-1-2) is not far behind.  Division Three is being fiercely contested between Drummer Boy, freespirit, and The Rickster (3-2 records).  The leaders of Division Four are Captain Insano and Nighthawk (4-1 records), who are tied with the best records in the league.  Pro Bowl Weekly now has five games in the books, and that means that all teams have played each other once.  Where do we stand after the early season dust has settled?  The same place we stood at the end of the 2012 season, with Transformers and Wild Animals being the top two teams.  Both teams are now 4-1 and due to an automatic scheduling quirk, will play each other next week in a battle for sole possession of 1st Place.  It should be a great match.  Meanwhile, The Black Pearl has essentially been shipwrecked at 1-4 and  The Mega Powers have proven to be mega weaklings as they also fell to 1-4.  Let’s hope both teams can pick it up next week and begin to play better.

“The Rickster Returns to the Spotlight!” (Wk 6)

Week 5 MVP Award Winner –
The Rickster (20 Points)

Veteran club player The Rickster, who makes a strong case for being the best player in club history, returned to the spotlight last week by scoring 20 Points and winning the Week 5 MVP Award.  The Rickster has been a slow starter this season, but he is slowly working his way up the charts as he is now in 8th Place, a mere 4 points away from entering the Top Five.  20 Points is not usually enough to win an MVP Award.  However, last week a lot of club members struggled.  One of the exceptions to this was The Rickster, who correctly picked Detroit over GB and Houston over Dallas.  The Rickster currently sits exactly 30 Points out of 1st Place.  With 12 weeks left, that is plenty of time for him to challenge for what would be his fourth lifetime Club Championship.  The Week 5 MVP Award Runner-Ups were Badwater Nessie and Fearless Tuna with 19 Points each.  Badwater Nessie lost the MVP when Washington failed to win on Monday night.  And Fearless Tuna lost the MVP when he had to subtract 2 Points from his final score due to Triple Jeopardy.  Speaking of Triple Jeopardy, selecting TJ has been a devastating thing to do this season for most club members.  This is quite shocking to state, but 13 players have selected TJ at some point this season and only 1 of those 13 players has a winning record when picking it.  That one player is Badwater Nessie, who is 3-1.  All other players have losing records, including Rex Kwan Do and Slick Chick, who are both 0-4.  If Rex Kwan Do had never selected TJ, he would have 8 additional Points and currently be in 5th Place instead of 8th Place.  If Slick Chick had never selected TJ, she would have 8 more Points and be in 12th Place instead of 18th Place.  This week’s Triple Jeopardy game is a really challenging pick, so it will be interesting to see who is willing to risk 2 Points from their final score.  A brief look at the Top Five reveals that Stinkerbell remains in 1st Place and currently holds a 15 Point lead.  She finally had her first bad week as she missed both Games of the Week.  On Club Chat, Stinkerbell confessed that “This week left me exhausted.”  #2 player Captain Insano continues to make consistent picks.  However, he also missed both Games of the Week last week.  #3 player Kip Possible continues to impress and so far is having his career best season.  It would be nice to see him remain in the Top Five and challenge for the Club Championship.  Rad Dad stays in 4th Place despite also missing both Games of the Week.  And he is now feeling the heat from new #5 player Fearless Tuna, who enters the Top Five for the first time this season with back-to-back MVP Award Runner-Ups.

Head to Head Weekly saw the downfall of all of the remaining undefeated players.  All five players who had no losses ended up losing their matches.  Four of the Head to Head matches last week were decided by a single Point, which goes to show that every single pick is important, even the Over/Under.  The four matches were Badwater Nessie def. Captain Jack Sparrow 19-18, Slick Chick def. Rad Dad 16-15, Drummer Boy def. Stinkerbell 15-14, and Kip Possible def. Captain Insano 18-17.  Over in Pro Bowl Team Weekly, the super team McTriple Play lost their first match.  And thus, there are no longer any teams which are undefeated.  One team that is reeling right now is The Black Pearl.  And I don’t mean reeling as in reeling in fish from their deck while they rack up victories.  I mean reeling in that they have taken two very painful losses in the last two weeks.  Two weeks ago, Transformers def. The Black Pearl 53-52.  And last week, The Mega Powers def. The Black Pearl 54-52.  That’s two losses by a combined 3 Points.  It doesn’t get much tougher than that.  Add to that the fact that in both weeks, they scored the second highest total of Points.  The Black Pearl just happened to be matched up against the wrong team each week, as they were playing against the teams who ended up scoring the most total Points.  Let’s see if The Black Pearl can recover this week as they battle 3-1 Wild Animals.