Rules of the Game 2008

It’s that time again...the eleventh year of King of the Hill.

Picks will be entered on ESPN’s Eliminator, just like last year.

Eliminator works the same way as King of the Hill, except you can play all year, even if you lose every game.

To enter you will need an ESPN ID and Password. Once you register you can go to this link…. http://games.espn.go.com/eliminator/frontpage.

You will then “Join a Group”.

Group: GV King of the Hill
Password: kingpicks

To determine our prizes, each week of the regular season you pick one team to win (no point spread). If your team wins, you advance to the next week. If your team loses, you drop into the loser’s bracket. If you lose again, in the loser’s bracket, you are out. I will keep track of this because on ESPN you can lose more than once.

Each week you advance, you again pick one team to win. Here's the catch -- you cannot pick a team more than once during the season, even if the team loses. ESPN enforces this selection.
The last person standing with no losses wins and is "King of the Hill", the last person standing in the loser’s bracket (one loss) gets second place.

Your picks can be entered right up to game time. And they can be entered weeks in advance. Because of this, there is no default pick. If you do not enter a pick it will be counted as a loss. Last year some voiced concern about not having the default pick, so here’s a suggestion. Pick every week of the year right at the start. Then each week simply modify your picks according to current performance. If you miss a week for vacation, as an example, you will already have a pick entered.

The entry fee is $35. The winner’s bracket champion will receive $25 from each entry. The loser’s bracket champion will receive $10 from each entry. I hope to have 50 paid entries - $1,250 and $500 to the champions. You can enter more than once, but not more than twice. To enter twice on ESPN you will need two User IDs.

King of the Hill is limited to people I know. If you don't see someone on this list and you think they would be interested, please tell me (most of you know many of the same people I do).
And my favorite rule. I play one pick for free (for all this work).

Please let me know if you would like to participate.

I am collecting money now. The season starts September 4th with a Thursday night game. Then on Sunday, September 7th a full schedule is played. I am running behind this year, but please send your money right away. Please mail a check to me at 999 Bay Ridge Dr. Benton, LA 71006.

I can honestly say the worst part about organizing this is running down people who don’t send a check immediately. Please pay $35 right away.

During the season I will update this blog (http://www.gv-king-of-the-hill.blogspot.com) at least once a week. You might want to bookmark it.

Week 17 Summary

All six vying for second place won on the last week of the season. The contest ended in a six-way tie for second. The second place "winners" are:

Andy Bardach, Gunter TX
Lincoln Barrett, Coppell TX
Kim Parker, Round Rock TX
Kevin Kelley, Grapevine TX
George Valcho, Benton LA (yes it's me, I finally won a little $ after ten years of running this thing!)
Josie Valcho, Port Charlotte FL (my Mom...my parents are harvesting money out of this contest, maybe being retired helps the selection process?)

I'll be in touch next August!

George

Week 16 Summary

Of the seven alive for second one lost. Mike Boggs, previous champion, went down with Minnesota.

Week 15 Summary

All 7 won and advanced to Week 16.

Week 14 Summary

All seven alive for second place picked a winner.

Week 13 Summary

My summaries are getting short, but there is still some excitement left. Seven remain alive for second.

Three were knocked out last week when WAS and DEN lost. Only four weeks remain.

Week 12 Summary

A little more attrition for those vying for second. 16 dropped to 10 as AZ got beat by SF.

Week 13 is tough.

Week 11 Summary

All 16 alive for second place advanced to Week 12.

Week 10 Summary

Only 16 players remain in contention for second place. New Orleans knocked many out by losing to previously 0-8 STL. This was the knock out week and it resulted in only one survivor, winner George Valcho (my dad).

George Valcho - 2007 Champion

The winner is George Valcho (no not me...again).

The winning George Valcho is my dad, who is retired and lives in Port Charlotte, FL. My mom says, "I can't believe this, he's going to be unbearable."

George Valcho is the first two time winner of King of the Hill. He first won in 2004 in 8 weeks. This year it took 10 weeks, which is about average for King of the Hill victories.

Winning this week was totally unexpected, but when the Saints lost and knocked out 9 of 13 that was big blow. And then WAS lost and took out 1, then KC lost and took out 1. After the early games only The Female Parker and Steely McBeam were alive for first. Kim Parker had DET in a late game and DET lost at AZ. The dominoes fell perfectly into place for the winner. George Valcho had GB against MIN and that's how he survived all the Week 10 upsets.

Congratulations George Valcho the 2007 King of the Hill Champion.

Week 9 Summary

A few continue to drop out each week. We lost five in the Championship bracket. Boggs Entry - Mike Boggs, and Boggs Entry - Matt Boggs both selected OAK and OAK got beat by HOU. The Mighty Tim - Tim Krisher, DParker - Dave Parker, and Hortsman - Doug Hortman all had SD. SD was on a roll until they got to MIN and gave up 296 yards rushing to A. Peterson.

In the Second Place Bracket we lost 4. Say goodbye to Berry Entry - Ralph Berry, George and Jo - Josie Valcho, Williams - Judy Williams, and PCK2 - Paul Kourkoulosthis group had DEN, OAK, SD and no pick respectively.

Here are the counts.

Alive 13 including 5 previous champions and last year's champ Mike Gilbert.
Second 15
Out 20

Week 8 Summary

All of the contestants in the winners bracket advanced to Week 9. Another easy week? Or just good picking?

Three second place contestants lost. Swigor-nator #2 - Tim Swigor, and Melissinos Entry - L. Melissinos both had CHI. CHI was beaten by division rival DET. Watch out for those divisional games, unless it's New England. Bobby E. - B. Edmiston did not make a selection.

Week 9 looks tough. All the good teams are taken and most of the decent teams are on the road.

Alive: 18
Second: 14
Out: 16

Week 7 Summary

The slow attrition continued in Week 7. Two entries dropped into the second place bracket. Williams - Judy Williams lost with PHI when they got beat by CHI in the last minute. And Bobby E - Bobby Edmiston lost with PIT when they lost to DEN in the last minute.

One entry in for second place failed to make a pick.

I have not cashed the checks yet. I'll do that in the next couple of weeks.

Counts:
Alive: 18
Second: 17
Out: 13

Week 6 Summary

This is the year of slow attrition. A few drop out each week, but no big blow outs.

In Week 6 four entries dropped out of the contest. Say goodbye to Where's Tiki? - Gaile Valcho (Gaile is my sister-in-law and she is having a baby on October 29. Maybe she wanted to get this off her plate!), MacAskill Entry - Nancy MacAskill, leonidas - Leo Kourkoulos, and williams, Chris Williams. This group lost with SEA, CIN or CHI.

There were three entries that dropped out of the winners bracket and are still in contention for second place. OU Janna, Nasty Nate, and TaylorFirstPlace. This group lost with SEA and AZ.

Interesting note...of the 20 remaining entries vying for first place, 7 are previous champions.

Counts:
Alive: 20
Second: 16
Out: 12

Week 5 Summary

This must have been an easy week, there were 41 going in and there are 40 alive coming out. Only one entry lost, and he did not make a selection. Say goodbye to Sam Heermans - Sammyredskins.

There were five entries waiting on the Cowboys to pull it out with .02 seconds left last night. Going against a home underdog on Monday Night is always tough. A couple other entries almost lost with the Texans, but they won on a last second field goal.

I don't have access to my historical records right now, but I can tell you it is rare that 40 entries all pick a winner in the same week. Good Job!

23 alive for first.
17 alive for second.
8 out.

Week 4 Summary

Wow! Big losses this week. Of the 39 alive going into the weekend 16 lost. This group had PIT, BAL, and SD. PIT lost to AZ in AZ, and BAL lost to CLE in CLE. Can anyone believe the Chargers? Super Bowl favorites going into the season they are now 1-3. I guess they should have kept their coach.

You can now easily see this carnage on ESPN. They made a great change to Eliminator and now you can see the results without going into an entry.

Of the 5 with one loss, 3 are gone. Say goodbye to PCK1 - Paul Kourkoulos, Skins Fan - Jeff Fowler, and Cincy Steelers Fan -Lou Fetch. All had SD.

Counts:

23 alive for first.
18 alive for second.
7 out.

Until next week, George

Week 3 Summary

All of the entries in the winner's bracket advanced. Most picked NE, PIT or BAL. BAL had a scare with AZ, but they pulled it out at the end.

Two entries dropped out with 2 losses. Gill Entry, C. Gill did not make a selection. Fast Eddy, Dewey Edgar forgot to pick until Monday night and, unfortunately, he selected the terrible Saints.

39 in contention for 1st
5 more in contention for 2nd
4 are out

A common question has been, "Can I see the all of the picks?" The answer is yes, one at a time. The picks display after the game starts and you can open each entry to see who was selected. Another way to get an idea of who was picked is to hover over "Who-Picked-Whom By Week" which appears at the top of the selection window. I noticed that this functionality does not always appear if you are using IE6 as your browser.

Week 2 Summary

Two entries are out. Yes, that's right they each picked a loser in Week 1 and Week 2. This has happened in the past as well. There always seems to a be couple. Lincoln Barrett, The Real Utu picked JAX in Week 1 and CAR in Week 2. Chris Parker, Parker Entry picked PHI and CIN.

There were four entries that dropped into the second place bracket. Jeff Fowler, Skins Fan had CAR, Dewey Edgar, Fast Eddy picked PHI, and Paul Kourkoulos, PCK1 had NO. C Gill, Gill Entry did not make a selection (you must enter a pick each week).

39 remain in contention for first.
7 remain in contention for second.
2 are out.

Week 1 Summary

There were 48 valid entries (one playing for free). The others were entered in error.

The champion will get $1,175 and second place will get $470.

There were 5 entries that picked a losing team in Week 1. I mentioned this in my previous post.

Hopefully, this will be the last of the adjustments.

Week 1 Partial Summary

I was wrong earlier in my email. As of the first Monday Night game there are only 5 losers. The other entries that I thought had not made a selection may have a team playing tonight and therefore I cannot tell if they picked or didn't pick. So I'll have to update this further tomorrow.

The losers as of tonight are:

George and Jo (my Mom and Dad), Mile High Madness (Renee Setta), and The Real Utu (Lincoln Barret) all with Jacksonville. David Garrard who?

Cinci Steeler Fan (Lou Fecth) with Kansas City. The Steeler fan who did not pick the Steelers.

Parker Entry (Chris Parker) with Philadelphia. Against Favre.

Each of these losers are eligible for second place.

Think about this...each of the losing teams are middle of the pack in most NFL predications. Pick the good teams early!