Deathlist Cup 2024

[gcreptile 10,967]

 

Welcome to the next itineration of everybody's favourite obsessive-compulsive disorder, the DeathList Cup is back.

We say goodbye to our previous host Spade_Cooley who hosted the game for two years and impressed us with his incredibly broad knowledge and ability to find a quip for every claim to fame, from pop culture to lesbian authors. Thanks a lot!

 

The new management is me, gcreptile, who has decided to not defend the title and focus instead on being the most impartial, perfectly objective host possible.

 

This means that the title is up for grabs, and, provided JoeyRuss also maintains his retirement, the winners of the past three years will not be competing.

So if you want to add your name to the Hall of Fame, consisting of deadsox, DevonDeathTrip, An Fear Beag, Spade_Cooley, JoeyRuss and myself (x2), or if you want to add a second title to your name, this is the grand opportunity.

 

These are the rules:

 

The Deathlist Cup
  
 1.    This is a knockout tournament featuring one-on-one matchups between Deathlist forum posters. These matches will be determined by use of a random draw, using Random.org.


 2.   Unless we happen to end up with 2/4/8/16/32/64 entrants, then certain competitors will get byes to the Second Round. This will be based on results from the 2023 Cup: ie, winners first.

 

 3. Please specify your wish to participate until the end of January 20th by posting in this thread, so that we can determine what the first draw looks like and if there are byes.

 4. Players have a 10 day period of submitting their teams. For the first round, if you have not received a "bye", please send me your team by PM between January, 22nd and January 31st. the end of the month. For February, submissions open on February, 20th. The time zone is Greenwich mean time (GMT) in every case.

 

5. Your team has to consist of 11 main picks and three subs, so a perfect team would look like this

1. Adam Ant (joker)

2. Bob Backlund

3. Chelsea Clinton

4. Didier Drogba

5. Erika Eleniak

6. Frank Field

7. Green Gartside

 8. Harry Hill

 9. Ilias Iliadis (gold medal winner in the men's 81kg judo at the 2004 Olympics)

10. Joe Jackson

11. Kevin Keegan

subs

12. Lennox Lewis

13. Meghan McCain

14. Nick Nolte

 

Please explain who some of your more obscure selections are, should googling them not lead to an easy result.

4.    Banned picks – we will have slightly higher fame requirements than before, matching my own perception of a slightly higher fame barrier in the DDP. Examples:

- "Influencers": A minimum follower count of 100.000 in any one medium

- "fame by association": Fringe and family of famous people will only be accepted if society has already been thoroughly aware of their existence, for better or worse (like Amy Price).

- local fame: If the fame is "too local", they will not be allowed. High school coaches will not be allowed, "popular bar owners/traffic guides/etc..." will not be allowed, "town originals" will not be allowed. The notability has to extend somewhat beyond their own backyard. We will still allow college football coaches/players, elected politicians at every level, and no-name artists if their work can claim some recognition beyond their hometown.

- "Awareness raisers"/"Cancer mums": Only those with nationwide impact will be allowed

=> I'll try to aim for something slightly higher than before, but still lower than the DDP

 5.    If in doubt, submit a pick, but the decision of the ref (me) is final and is not open to any court of appeal. If you think it’s a dodgy pick, it probably is. 

6.    Each match will take place over the course of a single month. For example, a February match would take place from February 1st to February 28th, a March match from March 1st to March 31st and so on...

7.    Games will be scored in the following manner:

 

A person in your team dies = 3 points
A unique person in your team dies = 1 more point (ie 1 bonus point)
Fatality – Your joker. Double points

 9.    Here is what happens in the case of a team member dying prematurely (ie on 29th Feb for the March game). If you discover this before the 3rd of the month, your top sub will automatically go into place. If it is discovered on the 3rd or after, sorry about your luck. If it turns out the person was dead and known to be (this is determined via a reference in a newspaper or magazine, not social media) then subs don’t come into play. This will upset at least one player a year. Will it lead to a huffy forum stormout in 2024? Let's see.

10.    At the end of the month, the player in the match with the highest score wins that game, and will advance to the next round. The player who doesn’t have the highest score will lose, and be eliminated.

11.    In the event of a draw, the following tiebreaks will be used:

  1st tiebreak = number of hits
2nd tiebreak = average age of hits
3rd tiebreak = a coin toss 


 12.    A player is only held to one team for a single match. If they win their match and advance to the next round, they may pick eleven entirely different people for the next round. In this way, folk who announce their terminal illness in, say, May, can be put to good dead pooling use.

13.    Qualifying obits? Every single English-language newspaper, magazine or significant website, provided that they are not automatically generated by AI. Also Le Monde, Le Figaro, Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, El Pais, El Mundo and Corriere Della Sera. If they still can't get a QO from that, then they really weren't famous.

 

14. For the removal of any doubt, any players who do not send in their team before the deadline will be DQ'd and replaced by the highest scoring loser. No matter how many sad PMs you send afterwards.   
This draw takes place in Month 1 (ie January) and is for matches taking place in Month 2 (February). After the draw, each player sends me (via PM) a team of eleven celebrities (and some subs hopefully) they think will snuff it in Month 2.

  

 Good luck and sign up to take part in this thread. Entries close by January 21 with the draw to take place immediately after.

 

[gcreptile 10,967]

Please read the slightly changed rules in red, and sign up in this thread if you want to play.

 

Player list:

1. msc (11)

2. MortalCaso (33)

3. diego (21)

4. wannamaker (6)

5. arghton (22)

6. Spade_Cooley (9)

7. Banana (3)

8. livingbygrace (new - 43)

9. Bibliogryphon (34)

10. Captain Hemlock (12)

11. Therewillbedeaths7 (35)

12. MariNisia (13)

13. justonecornetto (36)

14. deadsox (8)

15. theoldlady (32)

16. Captain Chorizo (14)

17. Hell (10)

18. An Fear Beag (7)

19. Dying Probably (37)

20. Perhaps (17)

21. Liz Lemon (25)

22. Gooseberry Crumble (26)

23. Joe Moneypenny (23)

24. The Immortal (38)

25.The Killing Time (19)

26. The Old Crem (24)

27. Yorkshire Banker (27)

28. DevonDeathTrip (4)

29. DeathByArsenic (39)

30. GreatUncleBulgaria (40)

31. GuyFromFuture (28)

32. AltObitsGuy (2)

33. max bossetti (new - 44)

34. Sir Creep (15)

35. CalebH (29)

36. Thatcher (new - 45)

37. Annami (16)

38. Sideik (20)

39. BabyBlue (30)

40. Grim Up North (5)

41. Wormfarmer (41)

42. Famous6eva (42)

 

Not playing (so far):

- gcreptile (1)

- TQR (18)

- Pop_Zeus (31)

- Maryportfuncity

[msc 18,439]

You can count on me to join in and do badly.

 

Though even you retiring from playing does not dissuade me of the fear I'll be gubbed by Reptile for what the 5th year in a row in the cup!

[TQR 14,387]

I like the look of the rule changes, but I can't guarantee I'll be able to research and ready up any sort of team in time so I'll have to sit it out this year. Best of luck to the awesome new host and this year's participants. I'll be cheering on all the underdogs from the sidelines!

[MortalCaso 1,625]

I would like to join. 3rd times the charm?

 

Thank you for hosting!

[diego 1,984]

I want to participate too

[wannamaker 1,407]

I'll join again

[arghton 6,715]

I would like to join again.

[Spade_Cooley 9,519]

I'm in, probably my only chance of winning a pool this year.

[Banana 859]

Down for another semis exit.

[livingbygrace 330]

I would like to join, But because I never have yet I want to make sure I am understanding the rules.. I don't give you my list till Jan22?  Do we give you a new list every month?

[Bibliogryphon 9,573]

I will submit myself for another humiliation 

[Captain Hemlock 742]

Count me in!

[ThereWillBeDeaths7 722]

I'll be playing again this year

[MariNisia 4,194]

I would like to play again.

It's one of my favourite pools, but I'll miss you, @TQR.

@gcreptile... count me in please.

[gcreptile 10,967]

35 minutes ago, livingbygrace said:

I would like to join, But because I never have yet I want to make sure I am understanding the rules.. I don't give you my list till Jan22?  Do we give you a new list every month?

Yes, it's a new round, a new competition each month.

It's a bracketed competition, like a knock-out tournament.

The first round might have some free advances into round 2.

[livingbygrace 330]

2 minutes ago, gcreptile said:

Yes, it's a new round, a new competition each month.

It's a bracketed competition, like a knock-out tournament.

The first round might have some free advances into round 2.

Thank you.. Wanted to make sure I understood and did things right

[justonecornetto 949]

Add me to the game, just hope I don't get @arghton again in 1st round

[TQR 14,387]

34 minutes ago, MariNisia said:

It's one of my favourite pools, but I'll miss you, @TQR.

Your awesome effort last year put an end to my run, so naturally my loyalties lie with you; go smash it this year!! 

[deadsox 894]

I'll try again.

[theoldlady 2,300]

I would like to try this again please.

[CaptainChorizo 1,977]

I would like to play 

[Hell 1,334]

I want to join

[An Fear Beag 1,535]

I'm in

[Dying Probably 578]

I'm in!