Death Impends

And that's a wrap on the 2021 Hartlepool Deadlypool and a win for @Funeralopolis. It was a dodgy year for the canon, with Toms Smith/Parker and James Whale extremely popular names that failed to score points, along with frail, deliberate bonus HPDP picks Jimmy Carter and Leslie Phillips. But there were heavy hitters such as Floyd Little, Leon Spinks, Dai Davies, Carlos Menem, Rush Limbaugh, Prince Philip, and David Gulpilil that still made for good competition, if not quite at 2020's level of excitement. The year was off to a sporting start with three US sport giants hits for teams. NFLer Floyd Little meant a strong start for many teams, while basketballer Paul Westphal and baseballer Tommy Lasorda screwed over the unlucky sods who didn't closely read the bonuses! Perhaps was off to a sterling start with 6 hits by the time of Rush Limbaugh's death, though CaptainChorizo hitting three 50-pointers in a row also made him a team to watch (I thought he was the favorite early on, but the potential in his three super ancient picks never bore fruit). Eventual champion Funeralopolis was in third by that point. Prince Philip shook up the chasing pack somewhat before Squares participant Norman Lloyd saw Funeralopolis sneak into the lead for the first time. Perhaps hit his first sub with corrupto Louisiana guvna Edwin Edwards, which restored the lead to him, but another sub hit in Sarah Harding saw it fly back to Funeralopolis, this time for keeps. Bernard Tapie extended his lead, and while subsequent deaths Frank Williams, David Gulpilil, and Bob Dole closed the gap again between the chasing pack and Funeralopolis, none of the other teams found their silver bullet and Funeralopolis glided anticlimactically to HPDP glory. Unlike 2020, which had no LotLers (although Tom Belso came close before a dramatic rescue by the BBC sports roundup!), 2021 had six. Kathy Shaidle did get mentioned in an Australian news source, but unluckily not a HPDP QO one. Rodion GA made little splash outside of Romania, and astonishingly being the oldest woman in the UK wasn't enough for Lilian Priest. Ezra Nawi failing to obit was actually quite lucky for An Fear Beag, as the early January death was dead last on his team and allowed his subsequent hits to be worth a little more! Less lucky? maryportfuncity could have finished in a podium place had US elector Jack Arends QOd. Ditto for gcreptile and medieval musician Belinda Sykes. Both were uniques, and Sykes would've carried the drummer bonus too. It is at least some consolation that neither team would've won outright if said names QOd. Another spot of bad luck? Joan Copeland, picked by markb4 in 2021, and dropped for 2022, died mere days after the year ended! She also would have put markb4 on the podium, though not enough to win. One last weird bit of misfortune was Bibliogryphon thinking he sent a team with Shirley Williams on it, but she was not on it in the end and died in April. He didn't score a single hit from his actual team throughout the year. However, a few consolation points for the Williams mix up meant he did finish with points, in a year in which no team was nul points. But enough of that, time for the two end-game rewards. The 13th place bonus goes to drol, which meant that he would've gotten 50 points irregardless of Kathy Shaidle QOing! She was one of his subs, and his other sub, Pat Martino, died with a QO. Most interesting team? It was a bit of a tough decision. YoungWillz's Toms and BabyBlue's eclectic selection certainly piqued me, but ultimately it goes to GuyFromFuture. An interesting team with some quirky gambles such as Sinead O'Connor, what sets him apart is that one of his more intriguing picks, Biz Markie, paid off! The rapper in fact led me to discover a rap edition of Hollywood Squares existed, which may well open up interesting strategy in the future! Perhaps the pick of the year, despite his picker not being anywhere near winning. So with his midtable placing in mind, it's instead good enough for me to bequeath an additional 20 points upon GuyFromFuture. And with that, the final scoreboard. Congratulations to Funeralopolis! 1. Funeralopolis 319 2. Perhaps 289 3. Eesti 260 4. CaptainChorizo 255.32 5. Annami 254 6. drol 252 7. maryportfuncity 244 8. markb4 231 9. msc 230.32 10. Dying Probably 218.19 11. Book 215 12. Pedro67 210.19 13. Sean 208 14. GuyFromFuture 202 15. chilean way 193 16. gcreptile 191.32 17. An Fear Beag 185 18. DeathByArsenic 177 =19. En Passant 175 =19. Torva Messor 175 21. LizLemon 165 22. Death Impends 161 23. Lynchian 155 24. the_engineer 153 25. Charles De Gaulle 152 26. Exu 150 27. The Quim Reaper 145 28. Great Uncle Bulgaria 135.19 29. theoldlady 135 30. The Daredevil 129 31. CalebH 113 =32. JoeMoneypenny 105 =32. The Old Crem 105 34. YoungWillz 101.19 =35. DevonDeathTrip 70 =35. YorkshireBanker 70 37. The Unknown Man 65 38. sheldondinkleberg 55 =39. Joey Russ 45 =39. time 45 41. Toast 25 42. BabyBlue 10 43. Bibliogryphon 3.9

Pleased I placed 4th on little research! Being a bad year to be a "back in our minds" type pick helped, ie Bayh, Zoll, Gilbert... Congrats to the Captain!

Classic tune, Indiana Wants Me. Though first time I heard it was while driving, so the police closing in on him scared me shitless at first!

Yes, my little research for the Olympics category basically consisted of going to the CP page and sorting the names by age

It just hit me this must be the earliest in the year where TCM has their "yep, there's our finishing name for December" moment! Admittedly not every year has a name that has you instantly go "yeah, they're the one short of an even bigger name dying" but Poitier would be tough to outdo.

Done.

We might have to have an emergency committee meeting to permit DDPers to pick famous cockroaches if you have your way. Won't be enough human celebs left!

Yes, well done to Gooseberry and Jeremy Corbyn for their Poitier guess. Thread closed.

Pele, Field, Burgess, T Bennett, and Charlton are pretty much the "bet money they make the D40" tier. Perez on the cusp of that. Zeman or Hardy, feel they'd need a REALLY strong casualpetitive showing to make it, so I currently err against. And yes, the amount of openings will allow for some more famous old guy picks, Attenborough, Poitier, etc, you know, like how 2020's carnage allowed Jerry Lee Lewis to sneak into the D40 for 2021 (though this year he will be one of the biggest jumps of a name already on it).

Turns out Tom T Hall's cause of death was suicide by gunshot. Not known to us until after DDP closing time, costing his picker the unnatural bonus!

All 174 newcomers to the HPDP system now have their profiles filled out. Masterlists up to date. Ready to roll. As mentioned before, following the awarding of Harry Reid consolation points to theoldlady, Betty White and Billy Turner also jumped the gun. Those who got the bonus points were 0.99 for Hell, John Key, markb4, and The Old Crem and 0.81 for An Fear Beag, Banana, Book, and gcreptile. Four pickers for each name from two very different spheres of deadpooler! Two proper hits thus far. Firstly ITV journo Gary Burgess on Jan 1. Unsurprisingly given the 500 or so "please make 2022 please make 2022" posts in recent weeks, most of the 16 who chose him placed him very high indeed. drol, gcreptile, Pedro67, and theoldlady 50 points. Annami, An Fear Beag, Banana, Book, CaptainChorizo, Great Uncle Bulgaria, Salmon Mousse 45. maryportfuncity, msc, and Perhaps 40. Kenny 35. And John Key 25 sub points. And Book is proving to be on fire in these opening days as two days later, alien-looking French TV host and fraudster Igor Bogdanoff died of COVID. 45 base points coupled with the 18 bonus points for uniqueness ends with a total of 63. Plus, as his death was COVID, the 0.19 bonus coupled with the 0.81 for Billy Turner's death means Book has precisely 1 bonus point now! Now then, all of my deadpooling eyes are on helping get the DDP up and running until further notice, so this scoreboard will have to satisfy your Hartlepool needs until mid Jan or so... 1. Book 109 2. theoldlady 50.82 3. gcreptile 50.81 =4. drol 50 =4. Pedro67 50 =6. An Fear Beag 45.81 =6. Banana 45.81 =8. Annami 45 =8. CaptainChorizo 45 =8. Great Uncle Bulgaria 45 =8. Salmon Mousse 45 =12. maryportfuncity 40 =12. msc 40 =12. Perhaps 40 15. Kenny 35 16. John Key 25.99 =17. Hell 0.99 =17. markb4 0.99 =17. The Old Crem 0.99 =20. Everyone else 0

Alright gang Have to leave for work in a bit but only 5 new picks still need their DOBs/bonuses entered in my Excel file. When I'm back home I will take care of those five, make whatever remaining updates to the masterlist posts I need to, and award the points for Burgess and Bogdanoff.

Great to see you back! Hope life has been treating you better. I think this means of the champions from 2010 on, only Bert isn't participating?

I tend to watch an episode a week so... early 2023, probably? Funnily I have seen a 70s episode where Coleman was one of the supporting cops!

That's the second time in 15 minutes I post "Francoise Gilot"

Francoise Gilot

Francoise Gilot

I have updated the teams masterlists to reflect DNS changes for Reid/Turner/White. The picks masterlist is not fully updated just yet. But that, and filling in the remaining data for brand new picks, and awarding Burgess points, can wait until tomorrow. BTW - Billy Turner's death has gotten Washington Post coverage, so those who had him will be getting those 0.81 consolation points.

Posting the penultimate 2021 scoreboard now, with interesting team and 13th place bonuses to come after the deadline: 1. Funeralopolis 319 2. Perhaps 289 3. Eesti 260 4. CaptainChorizo 255.32 5. Annami 254 6. maryportfuncity 237 7. markb4 231 8. msc 230.32 9. Dying Probably 218.19 10. Book 215 11. Pedro67 210.19 12. Sean 208 13. drol 202 14. chilean way 193 15. gcreptile 191.32 16. An Fear Beag 185 17. GuyFromFuture 182 18. DeathByArsenic 177 =19. En Passant 175 =19. Torva Messor 175 21. LizLemon 165 22. Death Impends 161 23. Lynchian 155 24. the_engineer 153 25. Charles De Gaulle 152 26. Exu 150 27. The Quim Reaper 145 28. Great Uncle Bulgaria 135.19 29. theoldlady 135 30. The Daredevil 129 31. CalebH 113 =32. JoeMoneypenny 105 =32. The Old Crem 105 34. YoungWillz 101.19 =35. DevonDeathTrip 70 =35. YorkshireBanker 70 37. The Unknown Man 65 38. sheldondinkleberg 55 =39. Joey Russ 45 =39. time 45 41. Toast 25 42. BabyBlue 10 43. Bibliogryphon 3.9 I will make sure to check the masterlist again at some point, to see if I missed any hits. And yes, I know the teams on the masterlist are not fully up to date, but they are all up to date in my Excel file. I might have to do something where I only update the masterlists to mark who is dead, rather than how it moves other names scores up and down, to work it with my busier life.

If someone has a pick as a sub, I include SUB next to their name on the master list. It's next to John Key's name as he did have Burgess as a sub. There's no SUB next to your name on Burgess so you're good.

Can't reiterate you've been brill co-hosting and making the change-of-hands process for me as seamless as possible! Enjoy the rest and figuring out how to play this old game again!

Alright so I take it you want to put Mangeskhar on main team? If so, at what spot?

I hadn't noticed your response till now, very sorry as it was so hectic yesterday! Unfortunately @John Key given Burgess died since this post it's a bit tricky... I think the fairest thing to do, since you didn't specify which spot to put him on, is to give you sub points for him and then have you put someone else on the main team? Note that as you can get points for subs if you want to promote Mangeskhar you can institute a new second sub.

You show up on both the picks and teams masterlist. Not sure what the issue is? I'll wait until all the data on new celebs is entered, and I fully update for White and Turner's deaths, before updating for Burgess.

I had considered Steve Lawrence for my US charttoppers theme team, but noticed that he was already picked by a crooner theme team in 2021 and I limited myself to those who were entirely unpicked last year. But that could be a lucky break for you if that theme team doesn't participate this year.