“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.

“Stinkerbell’s Fairytale Season Continues!” (Wk 5)

Week 4 MVP Award Winner –
Stinkerbell (28 Points)

Rookie player Stinkerbell continued her fairytale season by scoring 28 Points last week to win the Week 4 MVP Award.  That means she has won 2 of the first 4 MVP Awards, now logged 3 Weeks at #1, and increased her First Place lead to a staggering 18 Points.  One of the most impressive stats that Stinkerbell has achieved this season is getting all 7 possible Games of the Week correct (not counting the 1 tied Game of the Week which was impossible to get correct).  Last week, Stinkerbell picked both Houston and Oakland to add to her tally.  The only other club members last week to get both Games of the Week correct were resurgent players Hoosier Daddy and Drummer Boy.  Stinkerbell (along with freespirit and Fearless Tuna) also correctly picked the high-risk pick of Baltimore over Pittsburgh for the Sunday night game, which landed her another 6 Points.  One thing notable about Stinkerbell’s picks is that she does not pick conservatively.  She is not just sitting on her lead but she is trying to add to it, and that approach continues to get her further ahead of the rest of the pack.  Stinkerbell’s early season success has a lot of other club members stressed, wondering what they can possibly do to catch up.  The good news is that there are still 13 weeks left, which is plenty of time for people now at the bottom to end up at the top.  One player in particular who is probably now a bit nervous is 2010 Club Champion Slick Chick, who owns the Hall of Fame record for Most MVP Awards In A Season with 5 of them.  When Slick Chick set that record, she scored her first MVP Award for that season in Week 5.  Going into Week 5, Stinkerbell already has two in the bag.  In view of her success through the first four weeks, Stinkerbell has been named the September Player of the Month.  Looking at the rest of the results for Week 4, Fearless Tuna captured the Runner-Up MVP Award with 26 Points.  Right behind him was Hoosier Daddy with 25 Points on the week.  And Drummer Boy was not far behind with 23 Points.  These three players had all been bottom feeders, but they are now on the rise, starting to close in on getting into the Top Five.  The Top Five currently features #2 player Captain Insano (continuing to make very strong picks every week), #3 player Rad Dad (having one of his career best starts so far), #4 player Kip Possible (keeping up his momentum from last week), and a three-way tie for 5th Place between club legends The Cat, Double-Double, and Nighthawk.

Looking at Head to Head Weekly, we are down to having only 5 undefeated players.  Keep in mind that no player in club history has ever gone undefeated in the 10-week regular season of Head to Head play.  The best record ever posted was 9-1.  So these five players: Hoosier Daddy & Rad Dad (both 2-0-1), Stinkerbell (2-0-1), freespirit (3-0), and Captain Insano (3-0) are truly off to a great start.  There were a few interesting results last week.  In a battle between shipmates, Rad Dad def. Captain Jack Sparrow 22-19.  In a match that pitted long-time friends against each other, Double-Double tied MJD Hogg 18-18.  And in a rivalry battle, The Cat def. Slick Chick 16-15 in a match that was decided by a single point.  Over in Pro Bowl Team Weekly, we had three of the closest matches of the season.  In the battle of undefeated teams, McTriple Play def. Wild Animals 52-45.  McTriple Play (which is a father-mother-son team) is now 3-0 and off to a fantastic start.  The other two matches were even more closely contested with Transformers def. The Black Pearl 53-52, and Daddy & His Boys def. the winless and struggling Mega Powers 66-64.