Firstly, I have some good news.
For the first time ever, there will be a prize for the overall winner come the end of the Predictions Game!!!
gsk8 has very kindly donated four GS Supporters packages, which will be presented to the overall winner of each of the four Predictions Games that are being held this season:
- Senior Grand Prix Predictions Game
- National Championships Predictions Game
- Junior ISU Championships Predictions Game
- Senior ISU Championships Predictions Game
Thank you to
gsk8 for this kind gesture. It will certainly add an extra dimension to the Predictions Games.
There are clear rules about deadlines posted in the GP game rules thread. The mods have the data on the time of the last edit: before it was visible to everyone. I think that it makes sense to reintroduce it just for the predictions threads. The caught cheaters' scores (even if involuntary) are dismissed. Those who made a border like violation such as changing the prediction 30 minutes before the competition starts (the deadline is 1 hour) are discussed among scorers. But usually their predictions are dismissed as well.
Can I just add, in the past, the "1 hour before the start of the first SP" was just a recommended time to get your predictions in by, so that players weren't running around at the last minute trying to make predictions. Back then, we would have allowed predictions for each category right up to the start of their SP.
But now that the last edit time is not visible, that "1 hour before the start of the first SP" has become a set deadline so that the scorers have time to get the predictions saved before the start of the competition, to prevent cheating.
And hard as it may be to believe, but cheating has happened in the Predictions Game. One time we had somebody completely change their Men's predictions after the SP was over. But because we could see the time of the last edit, we were able to check with a Mod what changes were made, and the player was duly disqualified.
One more time. After I wrote about mistakes in the last names immediately 2 more predictions appeared with "Tennel", "Miahara", and "Tsurtskaya". I won't score SA and I don't know if the ladies scorer will be lenient. But when I score I will give 0 points to every prediction with a wrong last name spelling. It is not because I am evil or because I want to feel "I've got the power!" The algorithm used by me and some other scorers relies on changing the last names to codes. Like I type in excel: replace *Miyahara* by Miy. Then the algorithm calculates the scores. It won't understand that Miahara is the same as Miyahara, won't replace it with the code and the score won't be calculated. I cannot use abbreviations like replace *Hon* with Hon because other skaters (Hongo and Honda) and even users might be affected.
samkrut put in a lot of work devising the algorithm that we use to do the scoring. So, it is no wonder that he is frustrated when he sees so many spelling mistakes that would mess it up.
Copying and pasting names from the entry list is far and away the easiest way of making out your list of predictions. So, I don't understand why players would even think of doing it any other way, especially if that other way incurs the risk of being disqualified.
Make life easy for yourself, and for the scorers. Copy and Paste is your friend!
CaroLiza_fan
IF Sakamoto goes clean, she can easily get her gold. Loena Hendrickx has also made quite an impression from Worlds to Nebelhorn, and I would hope for her to get a GP medal.
) 
:thumbsup:
