World Cup - Round 2

I've posted this before here, but the WC is my favorite RMFN competition. The unpredictability of the matchups and results makes for a fascinating game.

I've set the parameters for the group placement and advancement prior to the season, so the oddities that follow are a result of how we - as a group - have played the 2011 season so far.

Only one of the 10 groups didn't need a tie-breaker to determine final standings from the first round. The details of how those ties were broken can be found in the black bars beneath each group's final standings on the 'World Cup Rd 1' page of the spreadsheet.

We started the season short two teams and lost two more late in the first round. As a result the top two fourth-place finishers were determined only by average points scored in the WC. Dirty Drivers left in Week 10 of the season, but had already completed - and was eliminated from - the WC. No harm, no foul, no RMFN invite for 2012.

A quick note on the average points column - those are averages for points scored during races scored in the WC. Each team had two 'bye weeks' during the first round. So...while a team may be higher in the Yahoo standings (and therefore have a higher overall average points scored per race), that team's average could be significantly adjusted if its best scores were in WC bye weeks.

The seeds and groups for the next round are broken down on the 'World Cup Seeds' page.

A statistical preview of the next round, dubbed the Champions Qualifying, is on the 'WC Group Ratings' page. Here you'll find columns breaking down the teams' seeds entering the 2011 season, their Overall standing entering Darlington, their Yahoo standing entering Darlington and a composite total of those figures.

Why is this cool? Our overall leader, RMO Lug Nuts, and the team trailing it in the Yahoo standings, napolean, are in the two most difficult groups (on paper). napolean suffered an early RMFN Overall setback by losing a head-to-head matchup against RMO in the RMFN Single Elimination Bracket.

If RMO is eliminated here and napolean advances in this round of the WC, the Overall title is back up for grabs. If both bow out, we have the virtual version of the Big One in the RMFN standings.

napolean has another RMFN Overall top 10 team in its group; RMO has two.

Finally, the cherry on top - the two paperweight-heavy groups were slugged the Waltrip and Earnhardt groups.

How fitting.