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