Hartlepool Deadlypool 2020

[maryportfuncity 10,660]

1 minute ago, Death Impends said:

Oooh lawdy that is a game changer - maryport will take the lead off this hit. Just need to tabluate how much a lead it will be. Will give full update in an hour or so.

 

 

 - Bum's stopped squeaking, for the moment at least - game on, or summat!

[Death Impends 8,008]

Okay update time. OoO flagged hereabouts late last year that Tom Belso, the first Dane to race in Formula One, was not long for this world with the caveat of dodgy obitability. Fortune favoring the brave, maryportfuncity selected him for the Hartlepool. Belso made a speedy exit as promised, but his demise failed to reverberate beyond racing specialist media. Though throughout the year maryport's team managed to occasionally take the lead despite the handicap, as of yesterday he had been in fourth place - cruelly behind by just enough that if nothing else happened, Belso's failure to obit would cost him a win. Tom Belso seemed destined to go down in history as the Carrie Hamilton of the Hartlepool Deadlypool.

 

maryport did cling onto hope with the BBC's annual "which sportsfolk did we lose this year?" roundup. As the fates would have it, that roundup has arrived, and the article's collators have deemed Tom Belso as worthy of mention. With that QO, Belso now delivers 40 base points and 16 uniqueness bonus points to maryport, a total of 56.

 

Additionally, because Belso did not QO for a long time, he had no impact on subsequent point values of maryport's other hits. This means all of maryport's hits (except Qaboos, who died before Belso, and Terry Jones, who was a sub) are impacted by this new development.

 

Paul Farnes GAINS 5 base points - new total now 28

Daniel arap Moi LOSES 5 base points - new total now 64

Genesis P-Orridge GAINS 5 base points - new total now 56

Judy Dyble GAINS 5 base points - new total now 56

Lee Kerslake GAINS 5 base points - new total now 49

 

And thus we have a new scoreboard. This second major December surprise sees maryport takes the lead with 11 days to go. Will it hold? No matter what happens in the waning days, it's certain this will go down as a classic season of the Hartlepool Deadlypool.

 

1.	maryportfuncity	384
2.	Toast	354
3.	YorkshireBanker	330
4.	Book	314
5.	Clorox Bleachman	271
6.	msc	268
7.	RadGuy	262
8.	Sir Creep	255
9.	gcreptile	250
10.	drol	248
11.	DeathByArsenic	242.19
12.	The Unknown Man	212
13.	Banana	210
14.	CaptainChorizo	208
15.	Prophet	201
16.	the_engineer	192
17.	theoldlady	185
18.	The Old Crem	180
19.	Skinny kiltrunner	178
20.	markb4	164
=21.	Etushispushingupdaisies	156
=21.	John Key	156
23.	time	155
24.	Pedro67	140.19
25.	Sean	139
26.	Great Uncle Bulgaria	135
=27.	Exu	110
=27.	Joey Russ	110
29.	The Quim Reaper	89
30.	The Mad Hatter	86
31.	Torva Messor	75
32.	YoungWillz	73
33.	Death Impends	70
=34.	Bibliogryphon	63
=34.	JoeMoneypenny	63
36.	Kinnock	21
37.	DevonDeathTrip	0

 

[Death Impends 8,008]

2021 HPDP open for business...

 

[Death Impends 8,008]

A fashionably late hit with Pierre Cardin bubbling under. DeathByArsenic, who did not have Cardin on his 2021 team, ends the year in style by getting 50 points off his second sub hit.

[Death Impends 8,008]

Penultimate scoreboard for 2020. As always, you have till 23:59 GMT on January 7, 2021 to raise any queries regarding potential missed hits, bonuses, etc. After that, the final scoreboard will arrive with the 13th place and interesting team bonuses.

 

1.	maryportfuncity	384
2.	Toast	354
3.	YorkshireBanker	330
4.	Book	314
5.	DeathByArsenic	292.19
6.	Clorox Bleachman	271
7.	msc	268
8.	RadGuy	262
9.	Sir Creep	255
10.	gcreptile	250
11.	drol	248
12.	The Unknown Man	212
13.	Banana	210
14.	CaptainChorizo	208
15.	Prophet	201
16.	the_engineer	192
17.	theoldlady	185
18.	The Old Crem	180
19.	Skinny kiltrunner	178
20.	markb4	164
=21.	Etushispushingupdaisies	156
=21.	John Key	156
23.	time	155
24.	Pedro67	140.19
25.	Sean	139
26.	Great Uncle Bulgaria	135
=27.	Exu	110
=27.	Joey Russ	110
29.	The Quim Reaper	89
30.	The Mad Hatter	86
31.	Torva Messor	75
32.	YoungWillz	73
33.	Death Impends	70
=34.	Bibliogryphon	63
=34.	JoeMoneypenny	63
36.	Kinnock	21
37.	DevonDeathTrip	0

[Death Impends 8,008]

The Hartlepool doors have shut. I did a final round of checking to make sure all the scoring was properly accounted for and spotted the_engineer's base scores were not adjusted after Lee Kerslake's death, meaning he nets an extra 8 points from Trebek.

 

And that's that. This hectic year of covid and numerous celeb deaths led to a number of classic deadpooling seasons, and the eclectic Hartlepool tradition was not exempt. Many of the popular hits carried bonuses: Terry Jones did panto and Morris danced. Alex Trebek appeared on Hollywood Squares. Frankie Banali, Genesis P-Orridge, and Lee Kerslake all drummed. Daniel arap Moi committed crimes against humanity, that lovable ol' rascal. After a year with a number of twists and turns, it was @maryportfuncity who came out on top for a record fourth time. He had previously been tied with football_fan for the most HPDP wins. However it was no easy win for him, with several quality teams trading the lead and mpfc needing a dramatic laaaaaate QO to seal the deal.

 

Sultan Qaboos of Oman was the first hit of the year, and marked a lucrative start for a number of teams, mpfc among them. Shortly afterwards was the death of mpfc's unique Danish F1 racer Tom Belso, whose incoming death was forewarned hereabouts by motorsport guru OoO but long failed to garner any attention from the HPDP QOs. YorkshireBanker took the lead by late January, buoyed by the deaths of Terry Jones and his mascot, Rangers great Bobby Brown. Though RadGuy touched the summit after the death of Daniel arap Moi, YB reclaimed it within a month through two classy uniques - NASA maths wiz Katherine Johnson and physicist Freeman Dyson (albeit it took me months to twig Dyson was a hit, meaning there was a mirage lead for mpfc during this time...). Though Genesis P-Orridge allowed Rad to stay in the conversation a bit longer, his well had mostly dried up and the stage seemed to be set for a mpfc vs YB narrative.

 

The deaths of Vera Lynn and unique panto-er Johnny Beattie further padded YB's lead. However mpfc had his own steady trickle of hits after Belso that allowed him to keep competitive even with the seeming non QO. His post-Belso comeback route was charted through Terry Jones, Paul Farnes, Genesis P-Orridge, Judy Dyble, and finally Lee Kerslake, whose death meant mpfc led by a mere three points. The great Alex Trebek, the most popular pick of the 2020 HPDP, was not selected by mpfc however, so his death returned YB to the lead.

 

There were two dramatic twists in December that cemented the game as a classic. First was Toast's remarkable hit with Barbara Windsor. Toast was behind the lead by over 100 points, and seemed unlikely to close the gap. But due to Windsor's high base points, uniqueness, and Squares/panto bonuses, the total value of 136 was enough to sneak Toast into the lead. Unfortunately for her, it was not enough to fend off a QO for Tom Belso, which dramatically cropped up in late December via the annual BBC sports deaths round up, and propelled mpfc back to the top for keeps. Strangely, if this year's DDP QOs were applied to 2020, we would have had a very different narrative as Tom Belso got a Yahoo UK obit very quickly.

 

The top 5 was rounded out by Book, whose sturdy team was buoyed by wisely placing Trebek last, and DeathByArsenic, whose 9/12 hit rate was extra impressive for all but two of his picks were based in France and were all picked on age.

 

Banana placed 13th and so peels the 50 point bonus. As for the most interesting team bonus. Well, it baffled me greatly that theoldlady convincingly won 2019 and erm... included Celine Dion in her title defense. Stunningly, a team with Celine Dion on it did not win, but the amusement value is enough for me to throw 20 points her way.

 

The final scoreboard is below. Congratulations to maryportfuncity!

 

1.	maryportfuncity	384
2.	Toast	354
3.	YorkshireBanker	330
4.	Book	314
5.	DeathByArsenic	292.19
6.	Clorox Bleachman	271
7.	msc	268
8.	RadGuy	262
9.	Banana	260
10.	Sir Creep	255
11.	gcreptile	250
12.	drol	248
13.	The Unknown Man	212
14.	CaptainChorizo	208
15.	theoldlady	205
16.	Prophet	201
17.	the_engineer	200
18.	The Old Crem	180
19.	Skinny kiltrunner	178
20.	markb4	164
=21.	Etushispushingupdaisies	156
=21.	John Key	156
23.	time	155
24.	Pedro67	140.19
25.	Sean	139
26.	Great Uncle Bulgaria	135
=27.	Exu	110
=27.	Joey Russ	110
29.	The Quim Reaper	89
30.	The Mad Hatter	86
31.	Torva Messor	75
32.	YoungWillz	73
33.	Death Impends	70
=34.	Bibliogryphon	63
=34.	JoeMoneypenny	63
36.	Kinnock	21
37.	DevonDeathTrip	0

[En Passant 3,743]

Gz Mary. 

I'm in it in 2021, so you have no chance of retaining your title. None. None at all. No sir.

[theoldlady 2,314]

Congratulations Maryportfuncity! 

[maryportfuncity 10,660]

9 hours ago, En Passant said:

Gz Mary. 

I'm in it in 2021, so you have no chance of retaining your title. None. None at all. No sir.

 

 

Well, thanks - and looking at the quality and diversity of picks this'll be an interesting year. Looking at yesterday's positive Tom Parker news I found myself a bit relieved I left him out. That choice was down to thinking he was random enough that it was hard to decide where in the order of destruction he'd be best placed. 

 

 

Tom Parker - Annami, Book, Charles De Gaulle, Eesti, En Passant, Exu, Great Uncle Bulgaria, LizLemon, Lynchian, markb4, msc, Sean, The Old Crem, The Quim Reaper, The Unknown Man, theoldlady, the_engineer, Toast SUB, Torva Messor, YorkshireBanker, YoungWillz

[gcreptile 10,979]

Congratulations Maryport!

I'm impressed by your continuous winning of this pool.

[drol 11,995]

Congrats, MPFC! Impressive performance!

[TQR 14,408]

Grats MPFC!

You only outscored me by 4-and-a-half fold so fucking prepare for defeat this year

[maryportfuncity 10,660]

57 minutes ago, The Quim Reaper said:

Grats MPFC!

You only outscored me by 4-and-a-half fold so fucking prepare for defeat this year

 

En Passant said the same re defeat. Clearly some time and effort gone into the teams, then

 

Game on!

 

[maryportfuncity 10,660]

1 hour ago, gcreptile said:

Congratulations Maryport!

I'm impressed by your continuous winning of this pool.

 

 

I'm amazed, frankly - the skill clearly doesn't carry over into the DL Cup where I'm consistently shite. 

[TQR 14,408]

2 minutes ago, maryportfuncity said:

Clearly some time and effort gone into the teams, then

Oh god yes. Into the minutes this year.

[Toast 16,156]

Well done to Mary, and I'm delighted to have led the table at some point as I'm usually nowhere in contention.  I tend to select diverse candidates with some who aren't on my other DP teams to spread the interest, rather than going for certainties.  It's not a recipe for success

 

[maryportfuncity 10,660]

1 minute ago, The Quim Reaper said:

Oh god yes. Into the minutes this year.

 

 

Yeah, but it's random to some extent. I posted elsewhere that I took ages over picking a DDP team for 2020 (having finally wrestled my working life under control) and they finished =46th, the year before a team picked in minutes finished fourth. 

 

I'll cop for two tactical decisions this year in the HPDP team. Dropping Tom Parker because I couldn't figure where he'd sit in the ten (not being smug given yesterday's positive health announcement on him because he's my DDP joker so I'm fucked if he doesn't fall sometime this year). 

 

The other decision was to pick the world's oldest person as a sub - summat I might continue to do in this pool.

 

[En Passant 3,743]

1 hour ago, The Quim Reaper said:

Oh god yes. Into the minutes this year.

 

Exactly, I think Mary mistook my rampant unwarranted optimism for any actual effort. Should all the favourites fall in order I might be thereabouts, but any of this uniquey stuff and I'm sunk.