Hi Everynumismatist!
I'm a huge soccer fan, and my favorite tournament is the US Open Cup. This year is the
100th edition of the tournament.
What is the Us open cup? Well... it is essentially the soccer version of march madness. Its a tournament open to any american soccer team, from amateurs to pros, and anywhere in between. There are often huge upsets, including a MASSIVE upset by Cal Fc over the Portland Timbers last year. (read about it here
http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles...tuns-timbers )
I love seeing major league soccer teams get beat by amateurs with real jobs, it happens with surprising regularity actually.
In 1999 The Rochester Ragin' Rhinos, (a lower league team), Won the tournament by beating 4 major league soccer teams. Here is the link to the bracket
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_L....S._Open_CupWhat do the teams win? Well the prize for the winners is 250K, the runners up get 60k, but the real prize is the berth in the concacaf champions league (a separate tournament that decides the champions of the entirety of North America, read more here
http://www.concacafchampions.com/pa...2856,00.html )
Anywho, what is the prize for the coincommunity folks?
The prize is a 1995 cleaned
ASE, and an impaired 2012 silver maple leaf
So even if you know nothing about soccer! Join! There's free silver to be won!Anywho,
the rules:In each round, I will post all of the matches, websites of the respective teams, channels or internet sites where you can watch the games etc... I'll try to post as many resources as humanly possible.
Before each round of matches, each contestant will post who will advance in each fixture. The contestant will receive 3 points for every team they pick to advance who advances WITHOUT overtime. The contestant will receive 2 points for every team that goes advances in overtime. Additionally the contestant will receive 1 point for any team that losses in overtime. An outright loss (without overtime) will yield 0 points.
Every contestant must submit their predictions before the first kickoff of the round, otherwise they shall receive 0 points for the round.
Additionally, each person will pick who they think will be the biggest winner. e.g. team a beats team b by 8 goals, (a pretty ridiculous scoreline eh?
) If a/many contestant(s) predicted that this team would be the biggest winner of the round, he/they'll receive 5 bonus points. NOTE: This will not apply to the March Bonus Round, or the Final.
After every round, I'll compile the total scores, (adding the scores of the previous round to that of that round and so on) and we'll start again with the next round. The person with the highest cumulative number of points at the end of the tournament wins 2oz of silver!
In the chance of a tie, the person who had the highest number of teams with outright would win, if they are still tied, then the person with the highest number of teams who advanced would win.
If there are any questions PLEASE ask!
Again, theres free silver to be won!
Okay, so here are some links
Us open cup website
http://thecup.us/Wikipedia article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamar_....S._Open_CupIf you don't know how to play soccer, here is the official rules (its a little technical but still)
http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/footb...e/index.htmlHere is the official Tournament schedule, (from this link
http://thecup.us/format-of-100th-ed...eam-numbers/ )
March 30 Bonus Round Qualifying, 1 game total
May 7th Play in matches, 2 games total
May 14th 1st Round, 18 games total
May 21st 2nd Round, 16 games total
May 28th 3rd Round, 16 games total
June 12th 4th Round, 8 games total
June 26th Quarterfinals, 4 games total
August 7th or 21st semifinals, 2 games total
October 1st or 2nd FINAL, 1 game total
As you can see... there is a big gap between the qualifier on Saturday, and they play in round. Thus I'm going to treat it as a bonus round. Even if you do not sign up in time for the game tomorrow, you may still register for the contest until May 6th, you will just be at a very slight disadvantage.
So sign up now so you can predict the extra game
Jeeze that was a lot of typing, so if you see lots of typos well... unless they are completely ridiculous please live with them
Posted 03/29/2013 8:42 pm
