position                 LW    TW  
----- -----               ---------       
TW LW hi-lo                 picks         bp
----- -----               --------- hf ws  
 1  -  1-1  gillyharold sss - 5  8   1 -  3
 2  -  2-2  LeoDaVinci      - 5  5   1 -  -
 2  -  2-2  KrivoyRog    s  - 4  5   - -  1
 2  -  2-2  szabs        s  - 4  5   - -  1
 5  -  5-5  George95        - 4  4   - -  -
 5  -  5-5  N-Bomb          - 4  4   - -  -
 5  -  5-5  srini701        - 4  4   - -  -
 8  -  8-8  BxBarracuda     - 3  3   - -  -
 8  -  8-8  gtho4           - 3  3   - -  -
 8  -  8-8  Howie72         - 3  3   - -  -
 8  -  8-8  illiniman14     - 3  3   - -  -
 8  -  8-8  paper_aero      - 3  3   - -  -
 8  -  8-8  Sypher          - 3  3   - -  -
 8  -  8-8  wwe84           - 3  3   - -  -
15  - 15-15 jonnowales      - 2  2   - -  -
15  - 15-15 ozzz2002        - 2  2   - -  -
17  - 17-17 triviapaul      - 0  0   - 1  -
                             55 
                                     2 1  5
            wooden spoon    - 0  0
            best picks      - 5  5
            perfect picks   - 8  8
            bonus points    - 5  5  
default is Wooden Spoon Score 
b = bonus point for perfect picks.  
s = bonus pt for solo pick, or one of two.
w = bonus point for picking draw, no one picked win.
o = no one picked draw. Bonus pt for picking upset win.
bp= total bonus points.   

                |   | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  
       bp   %   |wk |                                                       
                |   |                             
55/136  5 40.4  | 1 | 5/8 LeoDaVinci, gillyharold        0/8  triviapaul
                | 2 |
                | 3 |
                | 4 |
                | 5 |
                | 6 |
                | 7 |
                                                             
        5                 2                                   1

• A hearty welcome to all 16 of you who joined me on this African Safari We are off to a decent start (compared to the South American Cup a few months back!) picking 40% of the matches right.
  
• gillyharold got off the blocks in a flash, picking the first 4 matches right before slowing down in the latter half of the round. He got 3 bonus points for solo picks and is off to a healthy start.
  
• Keeping pace with gillyharold are LeoDaVinci, who shares the round's HoF with 5 right picks, KrivoyRog and szabs, are the other sole pick bonus winners of this round
  
• At the other end, triviapaul took a risk and picked all draws, a ploy that backfired spectacularly and leaving him with plenty of catching up to do...

 
  position                 LW    TW  
----- -----               ---------       
TW LW hi-lo                 picks         bp
----- -----               --------- hf ws  
 1  1  1-1  gillyharold  s  8 4 13   1 -  4
 2  2  2-2  LeoDaVinci      5 4  9   1 -  -
 2  2  2-2  szabs           5 4  9   - -  1
 2  5  2-5  George95     s  4 4  9   - -  1
 5 15  5-15 ozzz2002        2 6  8   1 -  -
 5  8  5-8  BxBarracuda     3 5  8   - -  -
 5  8  5-8  Sypher          3 5  8   - -  -
 8  5  5-8  N-Bomb          4 3  7   - -  -
 8  5  5-8  srini701        4 3  7   - -  -
 8  8  8-8  gtho4           3 4  7   - -  -
 8  8  8-8  Howie72         3 4  7   - -  -
 8  8  8-8  illiniman14     3 4  7   - -  -
 8  8  8-8  paper_aero      3 4  7   - -  -
 8  8  8-8  wwe84           3 4  7   - -  -
 8  2  2-8  KrivoyRog       5 2  7   - 1  1
16 15 15-16 jonnowales      2 4  6   - -  -
17 17 17-17 triviapaul      0 3  3   - 1  -
                             67 
                                     3 2  7
            wooden spoon    0 2  2
            best picks      5 6  11
            perfect picks   8 8  16
            bonus points    5 2  7  
default is Wooden Spoon Score 
b = bonus point for perfect picks.  
s = bonus pt for solo pick, or one of two.
w = bonus point for picking draw, no one picked win.
o = no one picked draw. Bonus pt for picking upset win.
bp= total bonus points.   

                |   | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  
       bp   %   |wk |                                                       
                |   |                             
55/136  5 40.4  | 1 | 5/8 LeoDaVinci, gillyharold        0/8  triviapaul
67/136  2 49.2  | 2 | 6/8 Ozzz2002                       2/8  KrivoyRog
                | 3 |
                | 4 |
                | 5 |
                | 6 |
                | 7 |
                                                             
        7                 3                                   2

• Ozzz2002 made most of the noise this round, picking a humongous 6/8 (and missing a perfect pick bonus by one) and jumped all the way from the basement to joint 5th, 1 point off the podium position.
  
• gillyharold increased his lead at the top by a further point despite an average round. he's now 4 clear of the chasing pack of LeoDaVinci, szabs and george95 with another 3 players a further point behind.
  
• 5 teams (Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Gabon, Tunisia and Cote D'Ivoire) have booked their places in the quarterfinals after winning both their matches so far. 2 of the pre-tournament favorites, Morocco and Senegal are already out after crashing to embarrassing defeats in both their matches! Burkina Faso and Niger are the other teams already eliminated.
  
• In case you have any of the eliminated teams in your advance picks to reach the final, you still have time to go in and modify your tips before the 3rd round starts later today.....Don't blame me later for not warning you

 
  position                 LW    TW  
----- -----               ---------       
TW LW hi-lo                 picks         bp
----- -----               --------- hf ws  
 1  1  1-1  gillyharold    13 4 17   1 -  4
 2  2  2-5  George95     ss 9 5 16   1 -  3
 3  2  2-3  szabs           9 5 14   1 -  1
 4  5  4-8  BxBarracuda   s 8 4 13   - -  1
 5  2  2-5  LeoDaVinci      9 3 12   1 -  -
 5  5  5-8  Sypher          8 4 12   - -  -
 5  8  5-8  N-Bomb        s 7 4 12   - -  1
 8  8  5-8  srini701        7 4 11   - -  -
 8  8  8-8  paper_aero      7 4 11   - -  -
10  5  5-15 ozzz2002        8 2 10   1 -  -
10  8  8-10 gtho4           7 3 10   - -  -
10  8  8-10 Howie72         7 3 10   - -  -
10  8  8-10 wwe84           7 3 10   - -  -
10  8  2-10 KrivoyRog       7 3 10   - 1  1
15  8  8-15 illiniman14     7 2  9   - -  -
16 16 15-16 jonnowales      6 1  7   - 1  -
17 17 17-17 triviapaul      3 d  4   - 1  -
                             54 
                                     5 3  11
            wooden spoon    2  1  3
            best picks     11 5  16
            perfect picks  16 8  24
            bonus points    7  4 11  
default is Wooden Spoon Score 
b = bonus point for perfect picks.  
s = bonus pt for solo pick, or one of two.
w = bonus point for picking draw, no one picked win.
o = no one picked draw. Bonus pt for picking upset win.
bp= total bonus points.   

                |   | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  
       bp   %   |wk |                                                       
                |   |                             
55/136  5 40.4  | 1 | 5/8 LeoDaVinci, gillyharold        0/8  triviapaul
67/136  2 49.2  | 2 | 6/8 ozzz2002                       2/8  KrivoyRog
54/128  4 42.1  | 3 | 5/8 szabs, George95                1/8  jonnowales
                | 4 |
                | 5 |
                | 6 |
                | 7 |
                                                             
        11                 5                                   3

• Ozzz2002 got on to his tipping comp roller coaster yet again and lost position. But George95 and szabs made the most of this round and have positioned themselves solidly behind leader gillyharold on the table. We finally have something separating the top 5 here!
• George95 picked up 2 bonus points this round, and BxBarracuda and N-Bomb took home one each. triviapaul became the first to default (not a good time, since jonnowales only had the Zambia win to show for his efforts this round for the spoon)
  
• Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) and Gabon remained the only 2 teams to win all 3 of their league matches. Both co-hosts, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon have made it to the quarterfinals comfortbaly, but both also landed in the same half as Côte d'Ivoire!
  
• A couple of us picked Ghana and Tunisia to play the finals...they are meeting in the quarters! Zambia and Sudan play one quarters, while Gabon takes on Mali and Côte d'Ivoire plays Equatorial Guinea in the other quarterfinal matches.
  
  The tipping threads for the next round has been updated, so do remember to lodge your tips before the quarterfinals start on Saturday.

 
  position                 LW    TW  
----- -----               ---------       
TW LW hi-lo                 picks         bp
----- -----               --------- hf ws  
 1  1  1-1  gillyharold    17 4 21   1 -  4
 2  2  2-5  George95       16 4 20   1 -  3
 3  8  3-8  paper_aero  sb 11 7 19   1 -  2
 3  3  2-3  szabs          14 5 19   1 -  1
 5  8  5-8  srini701       11 6 17   - -  -
 6  4  4-8  BxBarracuda    13 3 16   - -  1
 6  5  5-8  Sypher         12 4 16   - -  -
 6 10  6-10 Howie72        10 6 16   - -  -
 9 10  5-15 ozzz2002       10 5 15   1 -  -
 9  5  5-9  N-Bomb         12 3 15   - -  1
 9 10  8-10 gtho4          10 5 15   - -  -
12  5  2-12 LeoDaVinci     12 2 14   1 -  -
13 10  2-13 KrivoyRog      10 3 13   - 1  1
14 15  8-15 illiniman14     9 2 11   - -  -
15 10  8-15 wwe84          10 d 10   - -  -
16 16 15-16 jonnowales      7 d  7   - 1  -
17 17 17-17 triviapaul      4 0  4   - 2  -
                             59 
                                     6 4  13
            wooden spoon    3 0   3
            best picks     16 7  23
            perfect picks  24 8  32
            bonus points   11 2  13  
default is Wooden Spoon Score 
b = bonus point for perfect picks.  
s = bonus pt for solo pick, or one of two.
w = bonus point for picking draw, no one picked win.
o = no one picked draw. Bonus pt for picking upset win.
bp= total bonus points.   

                |   | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  
       bp   %   |wk |                                                       
                |   |                             
55/136  5 40.4  | 1 | 5/8 LeoDaVinci, gillyharold        0/8  triviapaul
67/136  2 49.2  | 2 | 6/8 ozzz2002                       2/8  KrivoyRog
54/128  4 42.1  | 3 | 5/8 szabs, George95                1/8  jonnowales
59/120  2 49.1  | 4 | 7/8 paper_aero                     0/8  triviapaul
                | 5 |
                | 6 |
                | 7 |
                                                             
        13                 6                                   4

• Zambia, Ivory Coast, Mali and Ghana have made it to the last 4 of the Africa Cup of Nations 2012. It was smooth sailing for the favorites in the first 2 quarterfinals, with both Zambia and Ivory Coast leading 1-0 at half-time before going on to win 3-0. The next 2 matches had all the drama.
• It was 0-0 at half-time in the Gabon-Mali match and the match finished 1-1 at full-time and extra time too. It went down to the penalties where Mali finally prevailed 5-4. 3 of us here (gillyharold, LeoDaVinci and Sypher) had predicted a Mali win, but for our comp, we are looking for the result at the end of 90 minutes ...a draw that none of us managed to get right!
  
• The Ghana-Tunisia match was 1-1 at half-time and the score remained the same at the end of 90 minutes too, a result ONLY paper_aero managed to get right. Ghana finally prevailed in extra time to win 2-1 and move into the semi-finals.
  
• That last tip got paper_aero a whopping 7/8 tips right an and extra bonus point for near-perfect picks, vaulting him all the way to the 3rd spot! srini701 and Howie72 both had 6 right this round and are left scratching their heads for missing the near-perfect bonus point.
• At the other end, triviapaul managed to do the incredible and failed to get even 1 right tip out of 8! He not only scored his second duck of the comp, he managed to get the same score for the two defaulters this round, wwe84 and jonnowales
  
  The advance tips for the 2 finalists we lodged back in round 3 will be counted as 2 regular points in the next round to make it an even round of 8 points. The semi-finals are on Wednesday Feb 8, so do remember to lodge your tips before then!
  

 
  position                  LW     TW  
----- -----               ---------       
TW LW hi-lo                 picks         bp
----- -----               ---------  hf ws  
 1  2  1-5  George95      20 4+1 25   1 -  3
 2  6  2-8  BxBarracuda sb16 5+1 24   1 -  3
 2  1  1-2  gillyharold   21 3+0 24   1 -  4
 2  5  2-8  srini701   sw 17 4+1 24   - -  2
 5  3  2-5  szabs         19 3+1 23   1 -  1
 5  3  3-8  paper_aero    20 2+1 23   1 1  2
 7  6  6-10 Howie72       16 4+1 21   - -  -
 8  6  5-8  Sypher        16 3+1 20   - -  -
 8  9  8-10 gtho4         15 4+1 20   - -  -
10  9  5-10 N-Bomb        15 3+1 19   - -  1
11  9  5-15 ozzz2002      15 3+0 18   1 -  -
12 12  2-12 LeoDaVinci    14 2+0 16   1 1  -
13 13  2-13 KrivoyRog     13 d+0 15   - 1  1
13 14  8-15 illiniman14   11 4+0 15   - -  -
15 15  8-15 wwe84         10 d+1 13   - -  -
16 16 15-16 jonnowales     7 d+0  9   - 1  -
17 17 17-17 triviapaul     4 3+0  7   - 2  -
                             47 
                                     7 6  17
            wooden spoon    3 2   5
            best picks     23 5  28
            perfect picks  32 6  38
            bonus points   13 4  17  
default is Wooden Spoon Score 
b = bonus point for perfect picks.  
s = bonus pt for solo pick, or one of two.
w = bonus point for picking draw, no one picked win.
o = no one picked draw. Bonus pt for picking upset win.
bp= total bonus points.   

                |   | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  
       bp   %   |wk |                                                       
                |   |                             
55/136  5 40.4  | 1 | 5/8 LeoDaVinci, gillyharold        0/8  triviapaul
67/136  2 49.2  | 2 | 6/8 ozzz2002                       2/8  KrivoyRog
54/128  4 42.1  | 3 | 5/8 szabs, George95                1/8  jonnowales
59/120  2 49.1  | 4 | 7/8 paper_aero                     0/8  triviapaul
47/84   4 57.9  | 5 | 5/6 BxBarracuda                    2/6  paper_aero, LeoDaVinci
                | 6 |
   
                                                             
        17                 7                                   6

• And then there were 2.....Most of us thought it would be a Ghana-Côte d'Ivoire final, but hot favorites Ghana were too tired to get past an emotionally-charged Zambia in the semis (for those who might not know, 25 Zambia players and officials were killed in a plane crash 18 years ago at the very site where the finals of this year's Africa Cup of Nations would be played...Libreville, Gabon).
• Zambia withstood the Ghana pressure for almost 80 minutes (that's 0-0 at half-time, a result 6 of us here got right) before scoring the only goal of the match in the 78th minute. Nobody here foresaw a Zambia result and only srini701 forecast a draw at 90 minutes, a tip that brought him a bonus point!
• Zambia will play the other red-hot favorites for the title, Côte d'Ivoire in the final. Côte d'Ivoire scored a goal in the 45th minte, just before half-time (11 of us got this one) and hung on from there to reach the final where they will have to play out of their skins to beat Zambia.....will they? let's wait and see....
  
• BxBarracuda picked 5 of 6 this round and scored a near perfect bonus point to boot, pushing him into 2nd spot on the table. Our leader for the whole tourney, gillyharold failed to score with his advance tips and this allowed George95 to take over at the top.
  
• 7 of us (gtho4, szabs, paper_aero, Howie72, triviapaul, N-Bomb, Sypher) still have a live tip for the 3 point bonus for the final round...notice none of the top 4 on the ladder have a live tip anymore!
  
  I had paper_aero's scrore wrong in the last round (not deliberate...and corrected this round), but no one corrected me....guess nobody sees these results or reads these write ups *sigh* oh well.....the final round is on Saturday and will have 5 points + the 3 possible advance prediction points. Make sure you lodge your tips before Saturday (the number of defaulters is growing each round )
  
  
  

 
  position                  LW     TW  
----- -----               ---------       
TW LW hi-lo                 picks         bp
----- -----               ---------  hf ws  
 1  8  1-10 gtho4      ss 20 3+1 26   1 -  2
 2  1  1-5  George95      25 1+0 26   1 -  3
 3  2  2-8  BxBarracuda   24 1+0 25   1 -  3
 4  2  2-8  srini701      24 1+0 25   - -  2
 5  3  2-5  szabs         23 0+1 24   1 1  1
 6  2  1-6  gillyharold   24 0+0 24   1 1  4
 7  10 5-10 N-Bomb     ss 19 2+1 24   - -  3
 8  5  3-8  paper_aero    23 0+1 24   1 2  2
 9  7  6-10 Howie72       21 1+1 23   - -  -
10  8  5-10 Sypher        20 0+1 21   - 1  -
11 11  5-15 ozzz2002      18 1+0 19   1 -  -
12 12  2-12 LeoDaVinci  s 16 1+0 18   1 1  1
13 13  8-15 illiniman14   15 1+0 16   - -  -
14 13  2-14 KrivoyRog     15 d+0 15   - 1  1
15 15  8-15 wwe84         13 d+0 13   - -  -
16 16 15-16 jonnowales     9 d+0  9   - 1  -
17 17 17-17 triviapaul     7 0+1  8   - 3  -
                             12 
                                     8  11 22
            wooden spoon    5 0   5
            best picks     28 3  31
            perfect picks  38 5  43
            bonus points   17 5  22  
default is Wooden Spoon Score 
b = bonus point for perfect picks.  
s = bonus pt for solo pick, or one of two.
w = bonus point for picking draw, no one picked win.
o = no one picked draw. Bonus pt for picking upset win.
bp= total bonus points.   

                |   | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  
       bp   %   |wk |                                                       
                |   |                             
55/136  5 40.4  | 1 | 5/8 LeoDaVinci, gillyharold        0/8  triviapaul
67/136  2 49.2  | 2 | 6/8 ozzz2002                       2/8  KrivoyRog
54/128  4 42.1  | 3 | 5/8 szabs, George95                1/8  jonnowales
59/120  2 49.1  | 4 | 7/8 paper_aero                     0/8  triviapaul
47/84   4 57.9  | 5 | 5/6 BxBarracuda                    2/6  paper_aero, LeoDaVinci
12/70   5 17.1  | 6 | 3/5 gtho4                          0/5  paper_aero, gillyharold, szabs, Sypher, triviapaul
   
                                                             
        22                 8                                   11

• Talk of leaving it late! BOTH on the field and here in our comp, the winner came from the LEAST EXPECTED quarter!!
• Zambia and red-hot favorite Côte d'Ivoire fought out a pitched battle in the final of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. The score was 0-0 at half-time (picked by 7 of us here), it remained 0-0 at full-time (only gtho4 got that, though triviapaul deserves a special mention for going on a limb and picking Zambia to win it all). The score was still 0-0 after extra time, 5-5 after penalty kicks and it needed sudden-death to separate the two teams. In the end, rank outsiders at the start of the tournament, Zambia put together the most improbable of runs to win their first ever Africa Cup! Nobody expected this!
• Earlier on Saturday, Mali outplayed a listless 10-man Ghana 2-0 to take 3rd place. N-Bomb foresaw both the half-time and full-time score, while LeoDaVinci ensured N-Bomb was not the only one laughing at this result.
  
  These turn of events on the field had their impact on our standings too, as gtho4, lying mid-table all along, came flying up the ranks to take 1st place for the umpteenth time in a tipping comp! He picked 3 points in the final round for his sole HoF and the 1 point he got for picking Côte d'Ivoire to win the tournament saw him tie for points at the top with George 95. The tie-break rules for the tournament finally decided the winner and gtho4 won first place (more number of right tips in the tournament).
  
  The tie-break rule also decided the other place on the podium after both BxBarracuda and srini701 finished equal on points. The damned tie-break also came into play in deciding the first 8 places! (maybe I should change the tie-break rules for future tournaments to reward people taking risks and totally leave out HoFs and spoons from the equation )
  
  Of the rest of us, gillyharold fell away after leading through the league stages, szabs was always almost there, without ever reaching there while wwe84, KrivoyRog and defending champions jonnowales seemed to lose interest after falling away early. triviapaul tipped bravely and they might have got him something had not gtho4 put a spanner in his works that last round!
  
  Final placings in the tournament:
  
  1. gtho4
  2. George95
  3. BxBarracuda
  
  A BIG thanks to all of you who stayed the course and played the whole comp....hope to see you around for the next Africa Cup of Nations next year and to your participation in my next comp here that starts pretty soon...the super XV rugby