S13: The Presentation

"Football, Bloody Hell" was the refrain from a certain Glaswegian after some late drama in a big game with silverware on the line.

Well. 

We all thought that might be the case yesterday. Arsenal upsetting the odds to win the league. Last day drama to rival Agueeeeerrrrooooooo in 2012 or Mickey Thomas in 1989. Right idea - wrong place.

Ultimately, there was no real drama to be had. Foden scored in the second minute, then again about 15 minutes after that and frankly, it was all done. Pretty much everything of note was already decided so it was just day for lots of goals in the sun.

Until today. Yes, that's right - 24 hours after the matches did the real drama happen. 

I sat down to do my end of season stats. If you cast your mind back to, er, last week, you'll know that 0.04 separated Massey Rating from Eli Daniels at the top. One of these two TITANS would win the prestigious trophy that's been sitting by my desk for years because no bloody human can win it....

A quick spoiler: MR got 7. A perfectly adequate score. Eli would need to beat him to win the league.

So I sat down to do me stats....

You will notice the absence of an Eli Daniels. WHO FLUFFS THEIR LINES AT THE LAST? The title on the line and he's decided this is one (of his many) week(s) he's not going to play. I complete my stuff, MR of course wins the league and I message Eli to effectively berate him.

"I did play" he replies.

Proof is provided of his absence. 

I ask what proof he can share - anything timestamped in advance of kick off is permissible as you know (and some of you have benefitted from before....). A betting slip. Another set of predos. Anything will do - I'm not having Google take the blame....

He dolefully replies that he doesn't bet and only plays this game. (Thanks mate....)

Then the lightbulb moment. The ripple in the crowd. 

"I've got a screenshot!" he says. A completed prediction form, timestamped at 11.23pm on Saturday night is provided.

Absolute pandemonium erupts. Well, for me. I've got to redo my sodding tables and graphs.

There's a lesson here. Stop blaming one of the world's largest technology companies for your inability to press the button that says submit. Or I'll be forced to turn on email receipts or something.

Anyway, for the last time this season: Let's get statty:

This week, eventually, 19 people played

Most popular predicted results: Arsenal, Liverpool & Chelsea WINS (19/19)
Most disputed predicted result: Crystal Palace vs Aston Villa (8-4-7 split respectively)

Highest odds: Josh Daniels (21,137/1)
Lowest odds: Steven Daniels (148/1)
Average odds: 5007/1

Best predictors: Steven Daniels & Nathan Daniels (9/10)
Worst predictors: Loads of you (5/10)
Average score: 6.74/10

Best predicted results: Arsenal, Liverpool & Chelsea WINS (19/19)
Worst predicted result: Notts Forest WIN (6/19)

Everyone's results:

And for the final time: the leaderboard (>2/3; 26/37)

And he's only gone and done it....by 0.01, 24h later, beating debutant model Massey Rating to the trophy! A PB 3rd place for me, ahead of every other model. Opta complete the CL places - I need to remember to get them in advance every week because they don't stick around like the others for the retrospective stats bit.

Down the bottom, David Graniewitz has been cast adrift for some time, and finishes with a characteristic lowest score. At some point I'll do a little bit of extra stats work over the early part of thr summer, including a look at form, variance etc, but suffice it to say David has been rubbish all year...

Props to Hannah Skolnick(Daniels) and Steven Daniels for being the only other ever present humans. The rest of you need to sort out your priorities.

Here's the table of non-qualifiers too:

The big take home from this is that the Kleiman kids have decided they're too cool to play with their dad now....

You may remember from the first post of the season that there was a cash prize, stipulated for the following criteria:

* Humans
*>80% matches (31 matches)

1st prize was £70, 2nd prize £20 and 3rd prize was £10.

This is the awkward bit.....

Finally, after years of mediocrity, I've pulled it out the bag when there's been something on the line. Nick Taylor-Collins comes in second, Joe Abbott bags himself a tenner. Lovely stuff. I'll be in touch for bank details etc.

As I said, I'll do a post soon with the pre-season predos and some other bits, but for now, let me congratulate Eli and thank you all for playing yet another season of this nonsense. Means a lot.

Have a lovely summer. 

RD out x