Golden Boot Game Web Log

THE QUANTUM ACCELERATOR GAME

We need to start this Week by congratulating the Coach of Magic Eight Balls on their victory in the season’s second Hot Spot Game, the Quantum Accelerator Game. With the chasing pack needing to score at least two 6-point goals more than Magic Eight Balls in Week #12, they were always the likely winners. A likelihood made certain when they scored six goals this Week. Only three teams managed more than six goals and all just one more. The best placed seven goal team, Weakenders, swapped places with last Week’s closest challengers, BF Giants but were still eight points behind the winners. J1J1 moved up to fourth after their seven goal haul but needed ten to take the title.

Ten happens to be the number of goals Magic Eight Balls scored in Week #10. Significantly, this was two goals more than the next best that Week. A Week when the quantum value was four. It’s not a coincidence that the eventual margin of victory was eight points. They had scored well in Week #9 and would again in Week #12 but it was Week #10 that made the difference between a good attempt and a comfortable victory. It is amazing to think that it is about twenty years since Magic Eight Balls first won a Hot Spot Game (Then called a Spot Prize). After all these years they still have what it takes.

REVIEW OF WEEK #12

Sixteen strikers scored points in Week #12 of the Golden Boot Game but almost eighty percent were scored by just two. Haaland’s double brought points for 23 teams and Salah’s brace helped 22 teams (Solanke’s double had just one taker). Just one of the single goal scorers appeared in more than a third of teams, Watkins making eighteen contributions. Despite the large number of scorers, there were two teams who failed to get points this Week.

With thirteen of the 21 teams who had both Haaland and Salah getting the maximum thirty points from the pair, teams needed to add some extras to get a top score in Week #12. Only two teams could add three more scorers with Weakenders getting eleven points from their trio for a total of 41. Magic Eight Balls needed two more goals for 39 points while J1J1 also needed just four scorers (three with doubles) to score 38 points. Three teams posted 36 points with Upforthecup getting a minimum return from their three other scorers while both Eight Wizards and Pain in the Arsenal simply added six Watkins points.

In contrast to last Week, three of the top four teams changed position this time and we now have new leaders in the overall standings. Magic Eight Balls take over top spot ahead of Merrall’s Marauders who stay in second, though level on points with the leaders. All New Goal Monkeys Deluxe slip to third some four points behind the leading pair but level on points with fdringo in fourth place. As if this wasn’t congested enough, three teams sit six points off the lead, Bury Wanderer in fifth ahead of Weakenders and Team Of The Weak. This means the top seven teams are covered by just six points which should make things interesting when we return from the current international break.

THE MEDALS TABLE GAME

Our third Hot Spot Game of the season begins in Week #13 following the Premier League’s international break. It will last for six game Weeks, ending after the final Premier League match in Week #18 currently scheduled for Tuesday 2nd January 2024. As there are (almost) eight sets of Premier League fixtures being played over these six game Weeks we will be playing the Medals Table Game. In this game only goals scored by your team’s top three strikers are counted. Each goal scored by your 8-point striker wins your team a gold medal. Your team wins a silver medal for each goal scored by your 7-point striker and a bronze medal for each goal scored by your 6-point striker. The Medals Table Game standings are ordered by the number of gold medals your team has won. Only if gold medals are equal are silver medals taken into consideration. Bronze medals are only looked at if both gold and silver medals are equal. So, come the end of the competition, the team with the most gold medals will take the prize. If there is a tie on gold medals the number of silvers will determine the winners and if the teams are tied on silvers as well as golds, the tied team with most bronze medals will take the prize. One team will be starting 2024 with a significant boost to their prize tokens. Good luck to everyone for this game.

COMING UP IN WEEK #13

We will not be writing a weblog next week as the next Premier League matches are not scheduled until Saturday 25th November. That is when we will return from the international break with Week #13 of the Golden Boot Game. Week #13 has ten Premier League matches with each club playing once. There is a Saturday lunchtime top of the table clash as Man City host Liverpool. Therefore, the Week #13 selection deadline for the Golden Boot Game will be at 11:00 am on Saturday 25th November.

There are seven matches being played on Saturday, followed by two more on Sunday afternoon. The final match of Week #13 will be played on Monday night when Fulham take on Wolves. We will update our website shortly after the final whistle at Craven Cottage. Our next weblog will be published on Wednesday 29th November. It will have first news from the third Hot Spot Game of the season, the Medals Table Game as well as the usual round up of events in Week #13 of the Golden Boot Game.