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Week 12 MVP Award Winner –
Rad Dad (30 Points)

Rad Dad has rebounded nicely and returned to the Top Five by making some rad picks last week to win the Week 12 MVP Award with 30 Points.  Rad Dad thus became the third player this season to score 30 Points during a week.  Rad Dad now moves back up to his previous peak position of #3 and stands a mere 13 Points out of 1st Place.  Rad Dad started off his week strong by being 1 of only 7 players to score 5 Points on Thursday with picks of Chi TJ, Dal, and NO.  He kept the momentum up by getting one Game of the Week with Buf, the Sunday night game with Min, and the Triple Crown of TB-Balt-Phil.  Last week was the best week of the season for club members when it came to the Triple Crown, as 11 out of 18 picked it correctly.  The Week 12 MVP Award Runner-Up was Rad Dad’s teammate Captain Jack Sparrow.  The friendly Captain Jack, who is very active on Club Chat, finally righted the ship by scoring 28 Points this week.  Upon realizing he had a good week, Captain Jack posted on Club Chat: “I feel a change in the winds. Full speed ahead Maty.”  In looking at the Top Five, Stinkerbell finally came through and posted a very strong week with 26 Points.  This allowed her to retake sole possession of 1st Place with a 6 Point cushion.  Double-Double now sits in 2nd Place with a 7 Point cushion himself, but he will need to step up his game if he wants to remain there or get back to the top of the club.  After posting a very strong November (with scores of 26, 21, 21, and 20 Points), as well as logging 2 Weeks at #1 and 1 MVP Award, Double-Double has been named our November Player of the Month.  Co-#4 player Captain Insano slipped down a bit down in the standings after struggling with only 18 Points last week.  He continues to pick boldly and hopefully his courage in taking a risk here and there will pay off better next week.  Co-#4 player The Cat posted a very strong week with 25 Points to move back into the Top Five.  After The Cat had gone out in the ministry for an 18 hour day on Friday in Ecuador, he then injured his leg while going out Saturday, so he had a little bit extra time to think about his picks and it paid off.  But don’t worry about him making his time, as he is already 155 hours ahead this service year.  Also, this week Slick Chick deserves special mention as she was finally able to climb out of the cellar and into 16th Place with a strong showing of 26 Points.  Slick Chick is peaking at the right time, as you will see in the paragraph below.

The Super Bowl Tournament started strongly last week with two matches which took place in the dreaded First Round.  Absolutely nobody ever wants to play in the First Round because you end up facing elimination so quickly.  In the first match, (9) Captain Jack Sparrow def. (8) Badwater Nessie 28-14.  With that, Captain Jack finally got his first win of the season and he avenged his two earlier 1 Point losses to Nessie.  Captain Jack now advances to play the #1 seed from Conference One which is Hoosier Daddy.  The other three matches in Conference One will be (7) MJD Hogg at (2) Stinkerbell, (6) Fearless Tuna at (3) Bob Swerski, and (5) Rad Dad at (4) Double-Double.  The last match mentioned should be really good with the club’s #3 and #2 players battling it out with the loser being eliminated from tournament play.  In the second match which took place last week in the First Round, (9) Slick Chick def. (8) Rex Kwan Do 26-16.  Slick Chick’s reward for winning this match and escaping the First Round is a match-up against the #1 seed from Conference Two which is The Rickster.  The other three matches in Conference Two include (7) Drummer Boy at (2) Captain Insano, (6) Kip Possible at (3) Nighthawk, and (5) The Cat at (4) freespirit.  We will soon find out which eight players from the Wild Card Round will win and advance to the Divisional Round next week.  Over in Pro Bowl Team Weekly, we have now reached the final week of regular season competition.  Wild Animals have already clinched a bye week and the #1 seed in the Pro Bowl Tournament after defeating Transformers last week for the third time this season.  However, one more bye week is still up for grabs.  That bye week will be decided during a showdown between Transformers and Daddy & His Boys.  That will be the match of the week to watch closely.

Here are my picks for Week 12.  The week is off to a terrible start, so hopefully it will get better.  Fearless Tuna’s Week 12 picks – Det TJ, Dal, NO, NYJ, Arz, Mia, Hou over, Cin, Pit, Jax, Sea, Min, TB, Balt, Phil.

Week 11 MVP Award Winner –
Badwater Nessie (27 Points)

After swimming beneath the surface for the first 10 weeks, Badwater Nessie has emerged from the depths and been sighted with the Week 11 MVP Award.  Badwater Nessie did this by scoring 27 Points, helped in part by being the only club member to successfully pick the difficult Triple Crown combination of Pit-Hou-Det last week.  The Week 11 MVP Award Runner-Up was a tie between Captain Jack Sparrow and The Cat, who both scored 26 Points.  Within the Top Five, Stinkerbell scored 1 more Point than Double-Double last week, which allowed her to move back into a tie for 1st Place with him.  However, Stinkerbell warned Double-Double on Club Chat that: “It’s time for Double Double to move his buns over I’m coming back“.  Captain Insano continued to hold steady in 3rd Place with another solid week.  Meanwhile, The Rickster and Hoosier Daddy traded places but both stayed in the Top Five.

Head to Head Weekly wrapped up last week with some fantastic finishes.  Starting with Conference One, Hoosier Daddy knocked off Fearless Tuna 18-15 to claim the Division One title and the #1 seed in the Super Bowl Tournament.  In Division Two, Stinkerbell beat Double-Double 22-21 to claim the title and become the #2 seed.  Moving on to Conference Two, The Rickster squeaked by freespirit 20-18 to win the Division Three title and #1 seed.  And Captain Insano punished Nighthawk 21-2, only allowing a safety in route to the Division Four title and #2 seed.  In a cruel twist of fate, Captain Jack Sparrow ended up winless at 0-9-1 even though he was the MVP Award Runner-Up last week.  He lost his match because he was playing again the player who was MVP (and also the only player who could possibly beat him).  The legendary Super Bowl Tournament starts up this week with two First Round matches.  The Super Bowl Tournament page can be found under the menu for H2H & Team Play.  The winners of this week’s First Round matches get the prize of playing against the two #1 seeds next week in the Wild Card Round.  The first match is (9) Captain Jack Sparrow (0-9-1) at (8) Badwater Nessie (2-8). This is the third time these two players will be meeting this season.  In Week 5, Badwater Nessie def. Captain Jack Sparrow 19-18.  And in Week 11, Badwater Nessie def. Captain Jack Sparrow 27-26.  As you can see, both matches were decided by a single Point.  This First Round match, with the loser going home from Head to Head play, should be just as close.  The second match is (9) Slick Chick (2-6-2) at (8) Rex Kwan Do (2-6-2).  These two players did not meet this season, but Rex Kwan Do had a slightly more challenging strength of schedule and that’s why he was the higher seed.  Don’t forget that the higher seed advances in case of a tie.  Over in Pro Bowl Team Weekly last week, we had a major upset.  The upset was The Black Pearl def. Wild Animals 73-67.  It was definitely surprising to see the worst team beat the best team, but being that The Black Pearl is stacked with talented shipmates, perhaps they have righted the ship.  And that’s good timing with only two weeks left before the Pro Bowl Tournament starts.

Here are the Week 11 picks for Fearless Tuna – Sea (good pick to stay with the Autopicker), Balt TJ, Den, NO, Min over, Atl, Arz, TB, Ten, LAR, Pit, Hou, Car.  (Note: I originally picked Cin TJ but switched over Saturday night at 8:45pm Nashville time to Balt TJ.  Hope that switch doesn’t backfire.)

Week 10 MVP Award Winner –
Fearless Tuna (27 Points)

One of the reasons I ended up bringing the club back after a five-year hiatus was being inspired during a family trip to American Samoa last year.  During that trip, we would drive by the StarKist Tuna factory nearly every day and I would see a statue out front of Charlie the Tuna.  Seeing the statue kept reminding me of the club and fun times that we all had, being that Charlie the Tuna has always been my club logo.  Fast forward 11 months later and the club was restarted, but I (like many other club members) struggled a lot to shake off the rust after not making picks for a half decade.  After getting MVP Award Runner-Ups in Weeks 4 and 5, I started to make better picks.  But my breakthrough finally came this past week when I was able to claim the Week 10 MVP Award with 27 Points.  In addition to getting all 3 Point Spread Games and both Games of the Week, I was 1 of only 4 players to correctly pick NYG over SF on Monday night (with the others being Hoosier Daddy, freespirit, and Badwater Nessie).  On Club Chat, I had proclaimed before the games started that: “The tuna is swimming upstream this week, planning to pass a few other fish on the way.”  And surprisingly, it turned to to be true.  The Week 10 MVP Award Runner-Up was freespirit with 26 Points.  She would have won the MVP Award had she not decided to bail on the 10-0 Autopicker and switch over to Carolina on Thursday night.  But she is to be commended for making such outstanding picks last week.  On the flip side in thinking about bad picks, a really bad pick was made last week by 10 club members when they picked NYJ with Triple Jeopardy.  All these players took a -2 Points from their final score.  In contrast, only 1 brilliant club member picked Buffalo with TJ and that was Bob Swerski.  Along with all of this, the big story this week is the changing of the guard at the top.  After enjoying 8 consecutive weeks at #1, Stinkerbell has finally been passed up by Double-Double.  Double-Double continues to post strong weeks every single week, and last week was no exception.  He now has a 1 Point lead in 1st Place, thanks to the Over/Under pick (Double-Double had Over and Stinkerbell had Under).  Only 12 Points separate the #1 and #5 players, so suddenly the Club Championship is starting to look wide open.  This week, Double-Double will look to solidify and extend his lead in 1st Place, while Stinkerbell will try to reclaim the top spot by returning to form and making some better picks.  Stinkerbell proclaimed on Club Chat: “Congrats to Double. Great picks!! But don’t get use to my spot. I’m coming back!”  3rd Place player Captain Insano continues to pick very steadily.  In fact, he was 1 of only 2 players in the club to correctly pick Tennessee over NE last week.  Granted, the pick didn’t help him, but it just shows the kind of brilliant picks he is coming up with.  Captain Insano realizes that you can’t just pick conservatively every single time.  You have to take a risk every once in a while and hope that it pays off.  This week we have a new member of the Top Five for this season, and that is #4 player Hoosier Daddy.  Hoosier Daddy has been quiet but steady when it comes to making picks.  And now he finds himself just 11 Points away from taking over 1st Place.  That’s amazing after remembering that he debuted the season in 18th Place back in Week 1.  In 5th Place we have The Rickster, who also is picking very consistently and is a real threat to become Club Champion once again.

Over in Head to Head Weekly, we have reached the final week of the regular season.  All four division championships are on the line this week because nobody was able to clinch early.  In Division One, we have a fierce showdown coming up between Hoosier Daddy and Fearless Tuna for the division title.  Should these two players end up with a tie score and Rad Dad wins his match over Slick Chick, Rad Dad would claim the title.  Also, Captain Jack Sparrow has one last opportunity to avoid a history-making winless season, but he needs to win his match (which is likely a preview match for the following week).  In Division Two, it’s only appropriate that we have Double-Double and Stinkerbell squaring off for the division title.  What a great match-up between the club’s top two players.  You never know, these two players may end up battling it out somewhere in the Super Bowl Tournament as well, which will be getting started next week.  In Division Three, The Rickster and freespirit will square off for the division title.  freespirit is 1 of only 3 players in the club who hasn’t lost a match in their own division (with the others being Rad Dad and Stinkerbell).  In Division Four, Captain Insano and Nighthawk will meet to decide the division title.  Captain Insano and The Rickster both currently have 7-2 records, which is leading the league in Head to Head standings.  After all the dust settles this week, the two players in each conference with the lowest records will meet in the First Round of the Super Bowl Tournament in Week 12.  Over in Pro Bowl Team Weekly, the most interesting match was Daddy & His Boys def. Wild Animals 55-50.  So, Wild Animals finally lost their second game.  And Daddy & His Boys improved to 5-4 and are starting to play better together as a team.  Let’s hope they can keep this up.