SPIKE BOBBERMAN CUP 2022-23: THE PREVIEW
Oct 21, 2022 10:53:46 GMT
Post by hatterinSW19 on Oct 21, 2022 10:53:46 GMT
With the FA Cup 1st Round only a couple of weeks away, it’s also time to launch the 2022-23 Spike Bobberman Cup. Although these days the Hatters don’t enter the FA Cup until round 3, for League 1 and 2 clubs and, more importantly, for Bobberman predictors, cup action begins now. If you take part in the Bobberman League, you’re automatically in the Cup, too, so read on for all the information you could possibly want...
Schedule
The Bobberman Cup rounds normally follow as far as possible the FA Cup dates, starting with the 1st Round proper. So, with 2 games needed for the qualifying round, the first Cup predictions will be for Blackpool away on 5th November and Stoke away on Tuesday 8th (anyone who has consulted the Bobberman calendar for this season will see we were originally going to start with the Reading game on 1st Nov, but once Stoke popped up that was a better option!). As a one-off this season, the FA Cup 2nd round is played whilst the Hatters are on the World Cup break, so we’ll need to catch-up once the Championship restarts, but we’ll be back on track after that.
All Bobberman predictors are in the competition to begin with, the Blackpool and Stoke predictions taking the form of a mini-league from which the top 64 will progress to the first round proper. From then on, players will be drawn against each other in a normal knockout cup format. As far as possible, round dates will mirror the FA Cup, so that when the Hatters are in FA Cup action, that will be the game used for predictions. Before they enter, and if/when they are knocked out, we’ll use the scheduled league game on the same or nearest date. If, once we’re out, we lose a Saturday fixture through being due to play an opponent still in, we’ll use a suitable alternative on a nearby date.
So the provisional Spike Bobberman Cup round dates will be:
Qualifying Round (2 legs) – all players - 5th Nov (Blackpool) and 8th Nov (Stoke)
Round 1 - 64 players – 10th Dec (Middlesbrough A)
Round 2 - 32 players – 7th Jan (FAC3)
Round 3 - 16 players – 28th Jan (FAC4 or Cardiff)
Round 4 - 8 players – either 1st March (FAC5) or 25th Feb (Birmingham)
Round 5 - 4 players – 18th March (FAC QF or Sunderland)
Final - 2 players – 22nd April (Middlesbrough H)
How to predict
I’ll post an announcement no later than one week before a cup round and invite players to predict on that cup thread. Predictions should consist of:
- Your score prediction for the game
- Your score prediction for half-time
- Your scorers (3 in number, chosen from either team, with 1 reserve scorer in brackets to be used only in the event that one of your first 3 is neither in the starting XI nor named as a substitute)
- Your prediction for the attendance for that game.
As with the Bobberman League, the cut-off for posting your predictions will be one hour before the kick-off time.
If you should somehow miss the chance to post your score for the Cup on the Cup thread, then for the initial rounds I will attempt to use your routine Bobberman League prediction instead, but of course you then won’t benefit from the potential extra points available for the HT score and attendance if a penalty shoot-out is required. For the knockout rounds, I will almost certainly be much stricter, but will make this clear when the predictions thread goes up.
Scoring
The scoring system is as follows:
Correct score: 5 points
Correct result: 3 points (note: if you get the correct score then you get the five points and NOT 5+3 points).
Correct score at HT: 2 points
Correct result at HT: 1 point
A correct scorer: 1 point for each goal scored by a player i.e. if you name for example Elijah Adebayo as a scorer and he scores twice, you get 2 points.
There are no replays: in the event of each player scoring equal points, the tie goes directly to a penalty shootout, with the winner being the player whose attendance prediction is closest to the published attendance for that game.
Feel free to post any questions below, but please note: this is the introduction and rules thread and NOT for predictions. I’ll post a predictions thread for the qualifying round in about a week's time.
Cheers, everyone!
Schedule
The Bobberman Cup rounds normally follow as far as possible the FA Cup dates, starting with the 1st Round proper. So, with 2 games needed for the qualifying round, the first Cup predictions will be for Blackpool away on 5th November and Stoke away on Tuesday 8th (anyone who has consulted the Bobberman calendar for this season will see we were originally going to start with the Reading game on 1st Nov, but once Stoke popped up that was a better option!). As a one-off this season, the FA Cup 2nd round is played whilst the Hatters are on the World Cup break, so we’ll need to catch-up once the Championship restarts, but we’ll be back on track after that.
All Bobberman predictors are in the competition to begin with, the Blackpool and Stoke predictions taking the form of a mini-league from which the top 64 will progress to the first round proper. From then on, players will be drawn against each other in a normal knockout cup format. As far as possible, round dates will mirror the FA Cup, so that when the Hatters are in FA Cup action, that will be the game used for predictions. Before they enter, and if/when they are knocked out, we’ll use the scheduled league game on the same or nearest date. If, once we’re out, we lose a Saturday fixture through being due to play an opponent still in, we’ll use a suitable alternative on a nearby date.
So the provisional Spike Bobberman Cup round dates will be:
Qualifying Round (2 legs) – all players - 5th Nov (Blackpool) and 8th Nov (Stoke)
Round 1 - 64 players – 10th Dec (Middlesbrough A)
Round 2 - 32 players – 7th Jan (FAC3)
Round 3 - 16 players – 28th Jan (FAC4 or Cardiff)
Round 4 - 8 players – either 1st March (FAC5) or 25th Feb (Birmingham)
Round 5 - 4 players – 18th March (FAC QF or Sunderland)
Final - 2 players – 22nd April (Middlesbrough H)
How to predict
I’ll post an announcement no later than one week before a cup round and invite players to predict on that cup thread. Predictions should consist of:
- Your score prediction for the game
- Your score prediction for half-time
- Your scorers (3 in number, chosen from either team, with 1 reserve scorer in brackets to be used only in the event that one of your first 3 is neither in the starting XI nor named as a substitute)
- Your prediction for the attendance for that game.
As with the Bobberman League, the cut-off for posting your predictions will be one hour before the kick-off time.
If you should somehow miss the chance to post your score for the Cup on the Cup thread, then for the initial rounds I will attempt to use your routine Bobberman League prediction instead, but of course you then won’t benefit from the potential extra points available for the HT score and attendance if a penalty shoot-out is required. For the knockout rounds, I will almost certainly be much stricter, but will make this clear when the predictions thread goes up.
Scoring
The scoring system is as follows:
Correct score: 5 points
Correct result: 3 points (note: if you get the correct score then you get the five points and NOT 5+3 points).
Correct score at HT: 2 points
Correct result at HT: 1 point
A correct scorer: 1 point for each goal scored by a player i.e. if you name for example Elijah Adebayo as a scorer and he scores twice, you get 2 points.
There are no replays: in the event of each player scoring equal points, the tie goes directly to a penalty shootout, with the winner being the player whose attendance prediction is closest to the published attendance for that game.
Feel free to post any questions below, but please note: this is the introduction and rules thread and NOT for predictions. I’ll post a predictions thread for the qualifying round in about a week's time.
Cheers, everyone!
