Wormfarmer

Joey, just went to your profile and sent you a message which included my round 1 team. Seems last time I did that in another pool I messed it up somehow and posted to somewhere I didn't even know existed. I still don't know what the hell I did there. I am mentioning it in the case that you don't get it I want to have time to try it again before the deadline. Thanks for checking.

Here are the rules for a new survivor style pool I would like to try out: I will post at the start, a list of roughly 60 of the usual suspects in the deadpooling game (names like Leah Bracknell, George HW Bush, etc) It will include some surviving names from the drop 40 from the Derby DP, plus a selection of others that I see circulated about in deadpools. It will not necessarily include everyone on your favorite list - - so don't fuss if there is a big name not there that you expect will not last until tomorrow (you wouldn't want to pick that name anyway). At the start of the pool, each player must select 10 names from this master list. Your first name is worth 10 pts if they die and your last name is worth 1 pt. Of course with the word "Inverse" in the title of the pool, your goal is to select 10 people who will survive the month. You do NOT want to score, you want to get out of the month with a zero. The player with the highest score after the first month is ELIMINATED and the rest of us move on to month two, again selecting 10 NEW names off the master list, which I may (or may not) update to replace any names that died (or any that miraculously have recovered from whatever malady they had the month before). You cannot select any name in consecutive months. Again we will eliminate the highest scoring player at the end of month 2. In month 3, you may use up to 5 names from month 1 (and no names from month 2) to make your new list. In month 4, all names from month 1 are fair game, but only 5 from your month 2 list, and so on. We proceed like this until we get down to the championship match, mano a mano for the title, which I intend to make happen in Dec of 2019. That's it in a nutshell. If you are still interested, here are a few finer details: For an inverse pool, there needs to be a penalty of sorts for players that delay getting their teams in. Otherwise, this is of obvious advantage while the rest of us are risking a big score. So once the month starts, if there is a death any player without a list will be subject to 3 point penalty PLUS the value of the highest hit scored by an active list. This applies even if no active list contains the dying name (late submitter gets 3 pts) A second death on the master list earns the same penalty, and so on, until a team is submitted. So late is not good, it could eliminate you fast. You may submit your team at any time prior to the end of the month to avoid these potential penalties. To further separate late entries from each other, beginning on the 5th of the month, a point is scored for each day a list is not submitted. This penalty is in addition to the +3 pts penalty. This allows someone who submits a team a week late to still beat someone who submits 2 weeks late (or not at all), and eliminates someone even if there are no deaths for the month. This rule was proposed on page 6 of the thread and received no negative comments so I am implementing it starting in Feb. If a pick dies before the start of a round, a replacement may be added - AT THAT SAME SPOT. Lists can not be reordered to accommodate the new name. Ties may be common. There are several ways in which we will break them: If we have a month where NO TEAM scores a hit (hopefully unlikely, but sometimes it gets slow . . . ), all lists will carry on into the next month, no changes allowed. The following round will add an extra elimination - the two highest scores will be gone. NEW RULE ADDITION: I may specify, for a given month, that previously earned points that did not lead to elimination from the game, may be used as tiebreakers OR in scoreless months to create eliminations. In the early rounds, if two or more players end the month with the highest score, we will back up to the previous month and look at their scores. If that doesn't break all ties, we will carry forward one month, and those two (or more) teams will go head to head to see who stays and who goes home. We will carry those head to head matches into a third month if needed, at which point it will become sudden death = the first one of those teams to score any hit will be eliminated. In the later rounds, say when we are down to 6 players or less, we will back up to the previous month and look at the head to head scores, then if still tied, we will go straight to sudden death. If I get a lot of entries, I will need a way to cut the field down faster to keep my goal of ending in Dec 2019. So there may be months where all tied players may be eliminated. I also may select certain months (say this Dec, and Jun 2019) and indicate those as multiple elimination months, even if there are no ties. Later rounds I may require teams to bulk up to 20 names per month, to help insure that we keep getting hits and eliminations each month. Be advised this pool will require a monthly effort to submit a team and last up to 16 months, depending on the number of entries (and how good you are). So please do not sign up if you know you are going to bail out after a month or two. 11 players indicated interest, 10 of those submitted teams, plus another 7 late comers = 17 players for the inaugural edition of this DP. Welcome to theoldlady, Mad Hatter, The Unknown Man, Skinny Kiltrunner, Quim Reaper, Bibliogryphon, msc, Grim Up North, Sir Creep, En Passant, John Key, Captain Chorizo, Clorox Bleachman, Joey Russ, paddyfool, QTips and Wormfarmer. One of us will be the grand champion at the end of next year. And one of us will bear the shame of being the first team eliminated at the end of Sept. (goodbye John Key) Here is the list of names in play which will be edited and updated for each subsequent round: Leah Bracknell (died sep/oct), Kirk Douglas, G H W Bush (died nov), Prince Philip, Clive James, Olivia deHavilland, Vera Lynn, Beverly Cleary, Herman Wouk (may), Norman Lloyd, Robert Mugabe, Doris Day (May), Nobby Stiles, Jimmy Carter, Fernando Ricksen, Greg Gilbert, Linda Nolan, Jill Gascoine, Marieke Vervoort, Devin Lima (died nov), Prunella Scales, Simon Ricketts (died dec), Leslie Phillips, Jimmy Greaves, Denis Norden (died Sept), Henry Kissinger, Queen E II, Le Duc Anh (apr), Genesis P-Orridge, Jose Jose, Pete Frates, I M Pei (may), Katherine Johnson, Sheila Mercier, Lucia Hiriart, Sumner Redstone, Bob Dole, Carol Channing (Jan), Bob Barker, John Paul Stevens (jul), Dilip Kumar, Kenny Rogers, Norman Lear, Pierre Cardin, Yasuhiro Nakasone, Al Jaffee, Javier Perez de Cuellar, Luis Escheverria, John Cruickshank, Hugh Downs, George Shultz, Carl Reiner, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Ric Flair, Don Lusk (dec), Richard A. Overton (dec). Added for Round 2 (Oct) Kane Tanaka, Pope Benedict XVI, Roberta McCain, Sachen Littlefeather, Valerie Harper (aug) Added for RD 3: John Mccririck (jul) No new names added for RD 4. Added for RD 5 : Jean Louis Trintignant, George Alagiah, Andrew McGahan (feb), Jerry Stiller, Tim Conway (may), Kathleen Blanco (aug), Olivia Newton-John, Johnny Clegg (jul) No new names added for RD 6. No new names added for RD 7 (apr). May is a carryover month and no new names added. Added for June: Micah Bowie, Sam Lloyd, Lee Kerslake, Clarissa Eden. No new names added until the final round, see post on page 13. Elimination history: Our first to (embarrassingly) hit the road is John Key, who had 4 pts for Denis Norden. Rd 2 eliminations are The Unknown Man and Mad Hatter, neither of which ever submitted a valid rd 2 team. Skinny Kiltrunner eliminated in Rd 3 with 3 pts scored for Richard A Overton. Simon Ricketts also passed with no one having him in Dec. Quim Reaper is our Rd 4 elimination with only 1 hit for 2 pts: Carol Channing. Joey Russ had earned one pt for his late entry, but barely survives thanks to Miss Channing. Andrew McGahan dies on Feb 1, but does not appear on any roster. However, late rosters have now incurred the 3 pt penalty. The lateness penalty (and a severe case of apathy), claims Sir Creep in RD 5. He exits the game with 6 pts. Clorox (5) and Capn Cho (3) breathe a sigh of relief that someone was later than they were. 11 clever, talented, smart little children remain! No scores in March, so no eliminations! April will be a double elimination round (Top 2 scorers will both go home). Le Duc Anh passes in April but doesn't appear on any current lists. Another scoreless month as the drought continues. Will Kirk Douglas become the oldest living man in the history of the earth?? Cripes I can't believe no one in this group of black bananas has dropped off the tree in over 2 months. Plan on seeing some new names for June, whether we have much scoring or not. Also see the new rule above regarding using previously earned pts as tiebreakers and in non scoring months (above in red). Finally! Doris Day gets fed up with all the stagnation and decides to spice things up around here! 5 teams score pts, with Joey Russ, Clorox, and Qtips now on the bubble. Still time for thinks to change again, which I feel they shall . . . . Herman Wouk and I M Pei both die to close out the month, but our contestants are all too smart and wily to have either of them on their list, so the standings do not change . . . . John Paul Stevens goes in July, but everyone is (very surprisingly) too smart to put him on a list. Johnny Clegg and John McCririck however cause some damage . . . . Aug gives us two late month hits: Kathleen Blanco who no one touches, and Valerie Harper who sends en passant packing, due to his 3 point late penalty which breaks an otherwise tie with paddyfool. Things progress to only five alive . . . . . .

(Edit: 25 entries were received prior to Jan 15th, the start of the game. The game is now closed to new entries. The monthly table is onerous enough as it is. ) Before entering this pool consider that it will take a bit more work throughout the year than most pools, kind of like managing a fantasy sports team. This is a tournament of 12 rounds, each lasting a month (except the first round which will be shorter), with a cumulative score at the end determining the winner. The first year tournament went to a playoff and was won by GCreptile (over Captain Chorizo), after scoring 27 points during the regular game. If you played last year please read through the rules anyway as there are changes to hopefully improve and simplify it. The game: Submit your monthly TEAM - a list of 5 names. (The following is a rules update that takes effect starting with the Feb teams.) If your list is fresh, meaning your names are the first to be posted for the month, each name is worth 5 points if they die during that month/round (and gets a QO). If you are the second player to post a name for the month (say, Groucho Marx), you will score 4 pts for a hit/QO on Groucho. The third team to post Groucho will score only 3 pts and so on, until the fifth team has posted Groucho, after which point he is worthless for the month. This results in a similar distribution as last year in which a name could only be included on five lists each month (once at each point position). Once posted, a team is set, and names cannot be changed for that month for any reason. At the close of January, all lists become void and new lists can be submitted for the month of February, etc. IMPORTANT: You can not use a name in consecutive months. Example: If you use Billy Graham in Jan, you cannot use him again until March. If you get new intel about some very brown bananas, you do not need to wait until the new month to post your new list. If you choose, you can post your next month's list early, which will be an inactive list until the next month starts. However, once you post your next months list, your active list becomes void and you forfeit the ability to score for the rest of that month. Which also means you forfeit your chance at the month end bonus. . . . . .(see below). So check your current team for any recent hits before you post a new team. Once posted, you can't score with your old team. If you choose to post a list early, and a name dies PRIOR to the start of the next round, you will be playing with a short hand for the month. Once your team is posted to the thread, it is locked in, name changes for any rule violation or change of heart are not allowed. BONUS: If you get a hit on the last day (of any month), you will triple your points for that hit. So in this case a fresh name would score 15, or a stale one as little as 3. A hit on the second to last day of the month will score double pts. Double points will also be awarded during the entire last week of December (Xmas through the 31st). This is the only bonus of the game. In 2018 we had several double point bonuses awarded in that last week. I will post monthly teams and standings, and police for rule violations only on hits. If you hit and it turns out you violated a rule (consecutive months or 6th player to post a name that month) with that pick, you will earn no score, and again, you will not be allowed to fill the slot with a new name. I will use Wikipedia for the dates of all deaths, and lists will be "postmarked" by the date/time they are posted to the thread. QO's: Any name scored by the Derby or AO Deadpools will be scored, or if they get a QO in the Associated Press. Also accepted this year are NY Times, LA Times, USA Today or CNN. Finally, to address end of tournament ties: I hate ties. Simply the team who achieved the high score of the tournament first will break a tie. In other words, to overtake a leader in the game, you must surpass him/her in points, not just match. Good luck and I hope to see some January teams soon! I will post my team after the first 5 or 6 teams come in. WF Sample post: WF's January team: Zsa Zsa Gabor Katherine Hepburn Fidel Castro George Burns Groucho Marx

Final standings updated earlier on this page of the thread!

That was a very poor showing by everyone to finish the game. Not much change at all in the leaderboard since November. Only Quim Reaper gets a hit and climbs a couple of notches. So we can crown a victor and worthy champion of the second year Five4three2one deadpool in gcreptile in a close one over Clorox Bleachman and Joey Russ. All three had great seasons. I am going to take a break for a week or two and think it over if this pool is worth running a third year, and if so, what is the best way to score it. I find it odd that some folks prefer the original format in which you had to poor over all the previous entries to determine which point values were still available, and take care to rank your team in order to not violate previously taken point values. I know it was certainly a pain for me to try to police it. And then there was the limitation in scoring, whereas even a great team could only earn you 15 pts a month (5+4+3+2+1) vs the 25pts that could be earned by a good all original team in the year two rules. But maybe it is not unlike the tendency for most folk to prefer the version of a song they hear and become familiar with first, rather than the cover version, regardless of which version has the better production values or musicianship. Alas, I will monitor here for the near future if anyone else wants to chime in on whether or not they would play a third year and which type of scoring system they prefer. Thanksagain to all for playing, and may your shadowlists in 2020 all go down in big numbers.

Funny, but you are the same dude who bailed out halfway through because you were upset over the rule changes from the first year. I hate being bipolar, it's fabulous!

I think late on the first day of the new year we are safe to declare a winner in this tournament that lasted a full year and a half. I would like to offer my firm congratulations to theoldlady for taking the trophy, and it couldn't go to a nicer deadpooler. Ironically, she wins it even though she had BOTH of the two names that died in Dec on her list (Sheila Mercier and Pete Frates). It goes to show you that the ranking is what's important here. Her total was still the lowest of the three for the month, which makes her the champion. Also well done to runners up Captain Chorizo and Bibliogryphon, but as Jeff says on Survivor - - I've got nothing for ya. I will consider another tournament style pool after a break, as I have been doing a lot of work on prepping for other pools and am about tuckered out on pooling for now. Thank you all for playing and making it an interesting match.

I am 0 and 2 for this game, but I feel I must participate. The titans need their fodder to become titans, after all. But I aim to do better.

See how I am learning all the time?? I don't even know what the hell a status update is and I found a way to creatively use it. Hope it didn't cause too much death and destruction. Well, death ok, destruction, no. Do you want me to repost here - no problem?

So, I rank my list based on who I think is most DL worthy, and put most worthy at the top? I can do it, but I will need another day. I can PM you with the new list to save space here.

I've been around awhile, but it just goes to show me how much I have to learn . . . I don't know what crowdsourced is Joey, but if it isn't too painful, you can do that with my list which I just now posted to this thread. I have had my own shadowlist for the last couple of years (went 17/50 this year), but since this is the first official posting of it, I feel I can start from scratch.

2020 - Wormy's shadow list 1 alex trebek 2 alfredo varelli 3 bill freehan 4 bill turnbull 5 bob barker 6 bob dole 7 boris pahor 8 carl j shapiro 9 charlie trippi 10 chris doleman 11 daniel arap moi 12 david gulpilil 13 david prowse 14 david stern 15 dilip kumar 16 eileen ash 17 fauja singh 18 frankie banali 19 genesis p-orridge 20 george alagiah 21 harriet frank, jr 22 henry gray (blues HOF) 23 hugh mcelhenny 24 james randi 25 jean louis trintignant 26 jill gascoine 27 jim otto 28 jimmy carter 29 Kane tanaka 30 karen lewis 31 kenny rogers 32 kirk douglas 33 larry king 34 lee kerslake 35 leslie phillips 36 loongkoonan 37 majek fashek 38 norman lloyd 39 olivia newton john 40 prince philip 41 renee simonot 42 robert marchand 43 roberta mccain 44 ruthie tompson 45 sam lloyd 46 steve gleason 47 susan bayh 48 viola smith 49 william frankland 50 yoko ono alt john madden (NFL broadcaster)

We are now into the double point period through the 30th. Triple points on the 31st. What a slow final month it has been, but there is still time to pick up some major leaderboard changes over the holidays.

So there will be a winner by the end of Dec - right on schedule! 2 hits already, and even though theoldlady has included both of them, she is the shrewdest ranker so far and still has the lowest point total. So with 2 weeks to go, she has the inside track to the championship. A few stats about the final lists: 36 of the 57 names possible were chosen. 12 names were taken by all 3 players. 9 of the names are solos. Enjoy!

Dec teams theoldlady 7 cap'n chorizo 9 bibliogryphon 17 pts eden escheverria ferlinghetti 1 cardin cardin shultz 2 frates ferlinghetti k johnson 3 mercier ono gascoine 4 trintignant alagiah phillips 5 barker de Havilland de Havilland 6 gilbert littlefeather kissinger 7 alagiah scales lear 8 scales frates pope ben 9 phillips gilbert norman lloyd 10 k johnson pope ben p philip 11 ferlinghetti last p-orridge 12 newton-john trintignant cardin 13 trebek reiner kerslake 14 ono trebek white 15 pope ben white eden 16 lear gascoine mercier 17 rogers kerslake rogers 18 de Cuellar nolan scales 19 shultz lear flair 20 reiner QE2 gilbert 21 de Havilland newton-john reiner 22 white rogers ono 23 kissinger flair QE2 24 QE 2 sam lloyd nolan 25

Give me a minute to sort this out. My intention was for your final ranking to = your points earned with a hit at that spot. Since the oldlady submitted first and got it right (confirming she meant QE2 was worth 25 pts), I assumed the other players interpreted it similarly. If in good faith your lists are intended in reverse order, I will resort them. No worries.

Yes, and Capn Cho put him on his team for 17 pts! Which means with 20 days to go Bibliogryphon has taken the lead. Still time for anything to happen . . . . .

FINAL Standings gcreptile 58 2nd yr champ! Clorox Bleachman 55 Joey Russ 51 Captain Chorizo 47 msc 36 OldCrem 33 Quim Reaper 30 Wormfarmer 27 Banana 25 theoldlady 24 Fixed Business 24 Death by Arsenic 16 Joe Moneypenny 15 Bentrovato 14 Philip 13 MadHatter 10 Newjack 8 Bou1 6 Yorkshire Banker 5 Bibliogryphon 4 ebless 30

Final teams for the year are posted above. Still waiting for a few teams to come in - - it is not too late to post (Fixed Business?) . . . Confusing is that Philip has submitted twice for December. So I took his first posting per rule - no changes to a team once posted. His second team looked pretty good though. I would say this is really down to a 4 man race, although a couple of other teams are within reach with a fantastic month and maybe taking advantage of the double pts earned in the week after xmas. I know there was a lot of grumbling early when I made changes to the format from last year, but other than Sir Creep, I didn't hear much protesting once the format got underway and folks got used to it. I, personally, like it much better this way, and if I keep the game going would prefer to use the new format. I like the added dilemma you must choose between posting early to get max points for a team vs. riding out the month to see if you can cash in on the double and triple point days. Not too many cashed in on the extra points, so maybe a little tweaking is needed to sweeten this option. Comments are welcome in the last part of this month, and let me know if you are interested in playing another year. Once again, I am humbled by the skill and dedication a lot of you put into these games. You guys are good.

DEC Teams Joe Moneypenny 15 lata mangeshkar miiko taka susan bayh zhao shuzhen robert kuok Captain Chorizo 47 chris doleman david gulpilil 4 everton weekes willie wood raymond allen Bibliogryphon 4 loongkoonan mahathir mohammed beverly cleary hal holbrook tinto brass Quim Reaper 25 +5 chris rea daniel arap moi tony britton sam lloyd lee kerslake theoldlady 24 larry king prince philip catherine deneuve henry gray samantha last OldCrem 33 prince philip 4 jimmy carter barbara windsor liza minelli ruthie tompson Death by Arsenic 16 jean charles tacchella michel piccoli suzy delair diana serra cary daniella westbrook Clorox Bleachman 55 susan bayh 4 ron boswell henry gray 4 daniel arap moi 4 stirling moss Joey Russ 51 henry gray 3 tom smith daniel arap moi 3 ron boswell 4 catherine deneuve 4 Philip 13 prince philip 3 jimmy carter 4 ruth bader ginsberg john warner barbara windsor 4 Wormfarmer 27 bob dole jean louis trintignant leslie phillips frankie banali norman lloyd Bentrovato 14 richard wilson annette crosbie doreen mantle john shrapnel angela thorne gcreptile 58 ajoy roy QO? michael mckevitt samantha last 4 danielle rosher jill emberson Yorkshire Banker 5 freeman dyson stanley baxter bobby brown (rangers) kane tanaka glynis johns Banana 25 ajoy roy 4 QO? michael mckevitt 4 lata mangeshkar 4 suzanne mubarak syed ali geelani msc 36 no team yet Fixed Business 24 no team yet MadHatter 10 no team yet Newjack 8 no team yet Bou1 6 no team yet ebless no team yet

All 3 finalists have survived the round, so we move to our final round with a modified format to help insure that we get a victor by the end of 2019. All three teams have PM'd a list of 25 names and ranked them 1 to 25. The rank will determine the number of points that player scores with a hit. If by some miracle, nobody gets a hit by the end of Dec 31, we will go into SUDDEN DEATH (how appropriate). First player to score after that will be eliminated. Also if only one player is eliminated in Dec, the game will move into January sudden death for the final two players. If two or more players both hit with the same name, we look at the rankings and highest rank (most points) is OUT! All three of you have been outstanding since we started this game in Aug of 2018, and are all worthy of the title. But from here on, may the best man/woman win! Reposted (w corrected scoring values) lists found a few posts later in the thread!

Remember: double points earned from Xmas day through the 30th, and triple points on the 31st. If there is going to be a big come from behind win, that's when it's going to happen. Wormfarmer's December 5: Bob Dole Jean Louis Trintignant Leslie Phillips Frankie Banali Norman Lloyd All 5 pointers, and I need it.

Notice !!! to the three remaining survivors of this 17 month pool (bibliogryphon, theoldlady, captain chorizo): My original plan of ending this pool by the end of 2019 looks like it could be a pipe dream. We need to finish this round and then have a round of 20 or less names (depending on overlap in the lists) hit in the month of December to do it. So the final round between our two survivors of Nov will consist of something different. You will each pick 25 names from the list (I will probably add 5 to 10 names to it so that it isn't too restrictive) and rank them for the final. There will be no restrictions on whether you picked them in Nov or not. All names on the list will be eligible for your final list. That will give us 25++ names to depend on for the final round and help us reach our goal of producing a winner in 2019. Thanks so much for sticking it out, and congratulations to the one of the three of you who comes out on TOP!