S13: We Go Again

Hello! Welcome back old friends & hopefully hello new friends!

Astonishingly, Impossibilitee is entering its 13th season. 13. Mental. I have no idea where all the time has gone - and for the few of you who've been playing since day 1 - what on earth is the matter with you? 

This all started off as a stupid idea, that then grew into a tech enabled stupid idea, that then fuelled an interest in data and levelled up my spreadsheet skills and somehow, has kept going throughout jobs, pandemics, good life stuff & bad life stuff. It's outlived loads of other hobbies and I think has worked it's way through at least 3, if not 4, or even 5 laptops. 

I've just had a flick back through the Internet to see what else happened in August 2010. The Iraq war ended. Tiger Woods got divorced. Love the way you Lie was at number 1. All probably foreshadowing something or another.

Anyway - I'm massively grateful that you've come back again and am very excited to get another season of mediocre predicting under my belt.

For the first time, the new season has sort of crept up on me and I'm not sure why. I always try and divert away from football in the summer and follow other sports, so maybe it's that. Maybe it's other life events. All I know is I've blinked and it's August and I need to crank out a preview blog, predos, announce some changes and so on before the first game in 9 days.

The Technical Stuff

So - let's start with the formalities. If you've played before, skip this paragraph. If you haven't let me direct you to the Rules tab above. It's pretty simple. Each week, you choose which team you think will win the match, or whether you think it'll be a draw. Think Football Pools style for those of you over 60. Each corrrect prediction = 1 point. Scores are averaged out over the season in a leaderboard - best predictor at the end wins the coveted Impossibilitee trophy. Bylaw - if a matchweek has fewer than 7 games, we ignore it, if it has 7-9 games, it get's pro-rated. 

That's it. That's the game. For those who like a flutter and want to share their 10 match accumulator odds, there's an *optional* field to fill in.

We also have included a bunch of celebrity/tech-led predictors and models - just for fun and to benchmark yourself against. 

The New Stuff

This year - there's an added incentive.  Being the Global Brandbassador that I am, Impossibilitee has attracted blue chip sponsorship, so there is a CASH PRIZE for the best human players. The total pot is £100 - to be split as follows

Best Human Player:  £70
2nd Best: £20
3rd Best: £10

The caveat - you have to play 31 weeks to qualify. That's >80% - so it'll be a real test of the best predictors over the course of the season. I'll still be doing the leaderboard as always at a 67% threshold, but those ineligible for the cash prize will be given the asterisk of shame next to them.

There is no cost to enter, but donations to pay for my lunch are gratefully received. Cost of living and all.

The Predictions
Let's start with some Preseason Predos - just for fun. These will be referred back to in May and no doubt mocked relentlessly....

Matchday 1

I'm also putting Matchday 2 up because I want a stress-free return to work after my holiday

Finally - the more the merrier. So please - everyone, ask a friend to play. Last season we had 18 people in the leaderboard at the end of the season. So, let's aim for 35 this season. I send reminders out via the WhatsApp group - so let me know if you want anyone else added - and set alarms and reminders yourself because, let's face it, there'll be at least one week where I forget. I'm happy to send Twitter reminders and considering starting up a MailChimp too, so if there's enough demand for people to play who don't want to be in the WhatsApp group - there'll be an email offering later this season. 

Good luck all!