DeathList Cup 2025

[gcreptile 11,305]

 

 

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

I am up for a repeat of hosting this nerve-wrecking and ultimately frustrating competition as we are watching people go into hospice and then not die!

 

Last year's winner was wannamaker in a competition which, like the rest of the year, was a bit of a rough affair. But one does have to adapt to the environment, your host, winner of the Covid Games of 2021, can attest to that.

 

 

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, 19th. 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 2025? 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.

 

Player List:

Dying Probably

wannamaker

livingbygrace

Cpt. Hemlock

Joe Moneypenny

justonecornetto

Octopus of Odstock

Liz Lemon

MortalCaso

arghton

Bibliogryphon

Bentrovato

Cpt. Chorizo

theoldlady

DevonDeathTrip

Bendee87

Sir Creep

Thatcher

theoldcrem

Diego

Spade_Cooley

CalebH

Wormfarmer

msc

Gooseberry Crumble

An Fear Beag

Steve

Death by Arsenic

max_bossetti

Therewillbedeaths7

Sleepiestpeep

Heef

Funeralopolis

YoungWillz

AltObitsGuy

Banana

[Dying Probably 647]

I would care to partake. (wow, that sounded far posher than intended) 

[wannamaker 1,490]

I'll play again

[livingbygrace 532]

count me in for my 2nd year and can give someone an easy 1st round victory 

[Captain Hemlock 770]

Count me in!

[JoeMoneypenny 60]

count me in

[justonecornetto 1,000]

Put my name into the hat, thanks

[Octopus of Odstock 2,241]

Yeah, I'll give this a go for the first time please

[LizLemon 72]

I'm quite excited to see how badly I can screw up this year, too.

[MortalCaso 1,660]

Count me in!

[arghton 7,044]

Count me in. Can't wait to get brutally squonked once again

[Bibliogryphon 9,700]

I'm in

[Bentrovato 1,131]

I will give it a go. 

[CaptainChorizo 2,013]

signing up

[theoldlady 2,382]

I would like to play please.

[DevonDeathTrip 2,385]

Sign me up please.

[Bendee87 17]

I'm in

[Sir Creep 7,089]

In it to win it this year.  I’ll nae be fekkin off like the past couple years. 

[Thatcher 2,699]

I’ll have a go again please

[The Old Crem 3,704]

I will take part again, 

[diego 2,040]

I want to play too

[Spade_Cooley 9,690]

Entering this tournament in the style of Crvena zvezda, previous winners who are so irrelevant nowadays they have to start in the qualifying rounds.

[Steve 709]

I would love to play but I would be an embarrassment as I would field a team of pure A-listers and you would all put me to shame as I wouldn't know where to research those in hospice etc

[livingbygrace 532]

Just try @Steve  It was my first time as well last year and I went out first round at 0 hits while my competitor I believe had 5 or 6 hits at least I believe.. All you can do is your best, and try and pay attention to who people are talking about on the site and write them down.  I do not know if I can do any better then last year.  Sometimes it is pure luck when you are putting names that will go in a month. Just put a team together and try and have fun with the group.. That is why I participate, whether I win or loose does not matter to me.

[CalebH 45]

I want to play