Wumo

Well, I can reveal that other users do use the same strategy as you. I may understand why so few took part. First, it's an unofficial contest, so many maybe didn't want to take part for that reason. Second, it was announced at bit late, as you write. I also think more people would have participated if they could have contributed with questions for the contest. I will definitely do more to involve users next time. I may also introduce a new system next time I decide to host a contest.

Final Standing available here OlympicsFan Dunadan Federer91 Congratulation, @OlympicsFan, with a strong last day, where a lot of points where on board, you secured a relative "safe" victory and a gold medal in the Bet Contest. @Dunadan with a very well-deserved silver medal. You and @OlympicsFan were only one point apart before the last bets were going to be decided today. @Federer91 secures a bronze medal to Bulgaria with a strong last day, where the winner time on the Men's 50 km decided if you, @chrischi08 or @hckosice, would take the bronze medal. So close for @chrischi08 and @hckosice, you were only 1 and 2 points away from winning the bronze medal, so close, but unfortunately, no medal this time. Though, still a very good performance in the Bet Contest overall. Lastly, thanks to all the participants, @OlympicsFan, @Dunadan, @Federer91, @chrischi08, @hckosice, @heywoodu, @EselTheDonkey, @ady48, @Speedy, @Vojthas, @africaboy, @Olympian1010 and @tuniscof .

Final Standing Rank User Nat. Points Correct Bets 1 OlympicsFan 162 33 2 Dunadan 143 34 3 Federer91 133 37 4 chrischi08 132 33 5 hckosice 131 36 6 heywoodu 123 33 7 EselTheDonkey 115 30 8 ady48 106 27 9 Speedy 100 29 10 Vojthas 97 28 11 africaboy 96 28 12 Olympian1010 92 29 13 tuniscof 92 27

Correct Bets Cross-country Skiing (20) 1- Norway will win gold in both Men's and Women's Individual Sprint [ YES ] 2- Sweden will win 2 medals in Women's Individual Sprint [ NO ] 3- Norway will have at least 5 athletes in the final in the Men's and Women's Individual Sprint (Example: 3 Men and 2 Women qualify for the final. Bet won/yes) [ NO ] 4- Sophie Caldwell will qualify for the final in the Women's Individual Sprint [ NO ] 5- Andrew Young will be in Top 25 in the qualification for the Men's Individual Sprint [ YES ] 6- Therese Johaug will win 4 gold medals [ NO ] 7- Therese Johaug will win Women's 10km C with 35 or fewer seconds to second place [ YES ] 8- Norway will win more or the same amount of medals in total as Canada, Finland, Italy, Russia and USA [ YES ] 9- Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo will run the 4th leg for Norway's Relay [ YES ] 10- Finland will win at least two or more Individual medals [ NO ] 11- Sindre Bjoernestad Skar will represent Norway in the Teamsprint [ NO ] 12- At least 2 or more athletes from the Women's 5km C will be slower than the winner of the Men's 10km C [ NO ] 13- No male athlete from Sweden will win a medal (Including Relay) [ YES ] 14- The winner of the Men's Skiathlon will be in Top 10 after the first 15km [ YES ] 15- The same nation will lead after every leg exchange (including finish line) in the Men's or Women's Relay [ NO ] 16- A nation will sweep a podium in any event [ NO ] 17- At least one athlete will be 10 or more seconds after a heat winner in the Men's or Women's Individual Sprint [ YES ] 18- The winner of the Men's 50km will win with 3 or fewer seconds to second place [ NO ] 19- The winner time of the Men's 50km will be 1:50:00 or under [ YES ] 20- Ebba Andersson will win more or the same amount of medals as Charlotte Kalla [ YES ] Nordic Combined (15) 1- An Athlete will win 2 or more gold medals. [ YES ] 2- Jarl Magnus Riiber will be Top 3 after the ski jumping in both Individual events [ NO ] 3- Franz-Josef Rehrl will lead after the ski jumping in at least one of the Individual events [ NO ] 4- Austria will have at least 3 or more athletes in Top 10 after the ski jumping in one of the two Individual events [ NO ] 5- Alessandro Pittin will be in Top 35 after the ski jumping in at least one of the Individual events [ NO ] 6- Szczepan Kupczak will fall at least 25 places back in the Cross-Country Skiing (Example: 5th after ski jumping, ends 30th. Bet won/yes) [ NO ] 7- Ilka Herola will overtake at least 15 athletes in the Cross-Country Skiing [ YES ] 8- Johannes Rydzek and Fabian Riessle will represent Germany in the Team Sprint [ NO ] 9- Germany will have at least 2 or more athletes on the podium in the same event [ NO ] 10- Japan will win at least one medal [ YES ] 11- Finland will win a medal in the Team Sprint [ NO ] 12- At least 2/4 events will be decided in a sprint (3 or fewer seconds) between first and second place [ YES ] 13- The podium for the Team Event will be; 1. Germany, 2. Norway, 3. Austria [ NO ] 14- Vinzenz Geiger will be the highest-placed German athlete in at least one Individual event [ NO ] 15- Austria will win at least one gold medal in the Individual events [ NO ] Ski Jumping (15) 1- Ryoyu Kobayashi will not win a gold medal in any of the Individual events [ YES ] 2- Poland will have 3 or more athletes in Top 10 in at least one the Individual events [ NO ] 3- Maren Lundby will win with 7 or more points to second place in Women's Individual event. [ NO ] 4- Stefan Kraft will win at least 3 medals [ YES ] 5- At least one defending champion (from 2017) will win a gold medal (including gold winners from team events) [ YES ] 6- Vladimir Zografski will qualify for the second round in both Individual events [ NO ] 7- Killian Peier will be in Top 12 in at least one of the Individual events [ YES ] 8- Marcus Eisenbichler will be the highest-ranked German athlete in both Individual events [ NO ] 9- The podium in the Mixed Team event will be; 1.Germany 2. Norway, 3. Japan [ NO ] 10- Halvor Egner Granerud will be the highest-placed Norwegian athlete in at least one of the Individual events [ NO ] 11- Nika Kriznar will be the only athlete born in 2000 or later to be in Top 10 in the Women's Individual event [ YES ] 12- Norway will win a medal in all team events, Men, Women and Mixed [ NO ] 13- Finland will qualify for the final round (last 4 jumps) in the Men's Team event [ NO ] 14- Austria will win at least one gold medal in any event [ NO ] 15- The leading athlete/nation in at least 4/6 events after the first round, will end up winning the gold medal (First round in a team event will be after the first jump from every athlete on the team) [ YES ] General/Overall (6) 1- Top 3 of the Overall medal table will be; 1. Norway, 2. Germany, 3. Austria [ NO ] 2- At least one event will be postponed with 1 hour or more during the WCH [ NO ] 3- Austria will win at least one gold medal [ NO ] 4- Norway will win a medal in at least 18/22 events [ YES ] 5- Sweden and Finland will win more or the same amount medals as Germany overall [ NO ] 6- Athletes with three names will win at least 12 or more medals in all events (Only the official name on fis.com will count. Examples: Franz-Josef Rehrl, Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, Daniela Iraschko-Stolz) [ YES ]

I will come with a reminder a month before the season starts. If you have any suggestions to the rules or points systems, feel free to come with them. Also, If you, or anyone else, know some biathlon fans outside the forum, it would be great if they would participate in the manager game when we are getting closer to the season start.

Well, that was a close one in the bet contest 19- The winner time of the Men's 50km will be 1:50:00 or under [YES/NO - X] Winner time 1:49:59

An update before the last day of the Bet Contest. We have a close duel between two users for first place. They are secured either Silver or Gold, so tomorrow's 50km will decide who will win. At the moment, only 1 point separates them. For 3rd place, we have a three-way duel. It could end up being down to one or two points that will separate 3rd and 4th place.

This competition was a complete joke! (Though, I like that Poland won gold and silver .)

I really want suggestions to a point system for shooting in the relays? We could also discuss if relays should count in the game?

It is noted.

Your suggestion is noted. I will consider it for my next draft. Thanks for the input.

IBU and Johannes Thingnes Boe have mutually agreed that the Norwegian will not be awarded the 43 points allocated for his 4th place finish at the World Cup Pursuit at Soldier Hollow (USA), 16 February 2019. The World Cup leader further agreed to distribute the prize money of € 7.000 earned at this competition to the athletes ranked behind him in accordance with the official price money table. The mutual decision was taken in the spirit of fair play after Boe informed the IBU that he had fired only four of his five bullets at the last standing shooting, which the IBU later confirmed using television footage, and that he arrived at the finish with a remaining bullet in his magazine. The bullet was found in the magazine after the race, but due to miscommunication inside the referee group, this instance was not reported to the competition jury in time before the official result was made public. The IBU acknowledges that this miscommunication led to the inactivity of the competition jury, when it should actually have deliberated the case. In addition, the IBU will review the sport technical control procedure to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.

So what you are suggestion is that after this season is over, the top-10 will be used for next season in some sort of limited choice of biathletes from this category?

Also: NC: 2N Correction: OV: 6Y, not 6N I will come with an update before the last day, Sunday, where the last questions are going to be decided.

First draft for a Biathlon Manager Game for the 2019/20 season Hey everyone! I have long thought about creating a manager game, and why not start with probably my favorite sport, Biathlon. The Biathlon Manager Game or BMG will be a season long manager game that will test every user/manager’s ability to create the most point-giving biathlon team throughout the IBU Biathlon World Cup season. Rules and systems of the BMG will be explained in the following part: 1) Creating your biathlon team Your biathlon team will consist of 5 female and 5 male biathletes. You are only allowed to select 2 biathletes from the same nation. Only 1 male and 1 female biathlete from the same nation are allowed. 2 male or 2 female biathletes is not allowed. 2) Point Systems a) Points for Individual races (Individual, Sprint, Pursuit and Mass Start) Place Points 1 40 2 35 3 30 4 26 5 23 6 20 7 18 8 16 9 14 10 12 11 10 12 9 13 8 14 7 15 6 16 5 17 4 18 3 19 2 20 1 b) Points for Shooting (Individual, Sprint, Pursuit and Mass Start) Description Points For every target hit 2 Bonus: 10/10 targets hit (Sprint) 10 Bonus: 20/20 targets hit (Individual, Pursuit and Mass Start) 20 Sprint Example: Biathlete 1’s shooting: 0+2 = 16 points Biathlete 2’s shooting: 0+0 = 30 points Individual/Pursuit/Mass Start Example: Biathlete 1’s shooting: 0+2+1+1 = 32 points Biathlete 2’s shooting: 0+0+0+0 = 60 points c) Course time Points (Sprint, Individual and Mass Start) The 10 fastest course times will be awarded as follow: Place Points 1 25 2 20 3 16 4 13 5 10 6 8 7 6 8 4 9 2 10 1 d) Points for Position in Pursuit Description Points For at least keeping his/her place/position in the pursuit 5 For taking 5 places (Start in Top 21) 5 For taking 10 places (Start in Top 21) 10 For taking 20 places (Start in Top 21) 20 For taking 5 places (Start outside Top 21) 2.5 For taking 10 places (Start outside Top 21) 5 For taking 20 places (Start outside Top 21) 10 Example with d): Biathlete 1’s pursuit: Start: 14, Finish: 6 = 5+8 = 13 points Biathlete 2’s pursuit: Start 11, Finish 13 = 0 points Biathlete 3’s pursuit: Start 30, Finish 17 = 5+6.5 = 11.5 points Biathlete 4’s pursuit: Start 27, Finish 27 = 5 points e) Points for Relay (Men’s, Women’s, Mixed and Single Mixed) Place for Relay team Points for individual biathlete 1 10 2 7 3 4 4 2 5 1 f) Points for Shooting, Relay I would appreciate suggestions to a point system 3) Transfer system a) The transfer window is open from last race in a WC round has been completed to 1 hour before the start of the next race in the following WC round. Example: WC round 1 ends Sunday, January 15th, the next race starts Thursday, January 19th 11:00. Transfer window closes 10:00. b) Every user/manager can maximum switch 2 biathletes on their team in one transfer window. c) Every user/manager can switch a biathlete with another 6 times during the whole season. d) All transfers must be reported to the BMG Host via personal message with the headline “Transfer”. A transfer is valid when the host of the BMG responds back with an “accepted”. The respond time will be within 1 hour, exception is between 23:00 (CET) and 08:00 (CET) or other situations. If the host of the BMG is hindered, it will be announced in good time in the BMG Discussion Thread. e) The rules in 1) must not be violated. f) Users/Managers can earn or lose points when they switch a biathlete on their team out with an another. Example: User 1: Biathlete 1 has scored 180 points. User 1 chooses to switch out biathlete 1 with biathlete 2, who has scored 100 points. User 1 earns 80 points to his total score. User 2: Biathlete 3 has scored 50 points. User 2 chooses to switch out biathlete 3 with biathlete 4, who has scored 120 points. User 1 loses 70 points to his total score. g) If a user/manager violates b), he/she will be forfeited 50 points for every extra transfer. If a user/manager violates c), he/she will be forfeited 100 points for every extra transfer. 4) Ranking/Standing a) Points for every biathlete will be updated after every competition/race in this document: (Here will be a link to a excel document when the season starts) b) Points for every biathlete will be updated after every competition/race within five hours after the end of the competition/race. Exception! If the host of the BMG is hindered due to studies, job or other activities, the Ranking/Standing of the points of the biathletes will be updated at an announced time in a post in the BMG Discussion Thread. So remember to check it! c) The standing for users/managers will updated after every competition/race within five hours after the end of the competition/race. (Here will be a link to a excel document when the season starts) Exception! see 3b d) The standing for the points of the biathletes will not be ranked according to their total points. Biathletes will be added to the standing as they score points in the BMG. So always check the whole document! 5) Mistakes and Problems a) Mistakes with points for biathletes or users/mangers can be reported to the host of the BMG in a personal message with the headline “Mistake” b) The deadline for reporting any mistakes with points to the host of the BMG is 24 hours before the start of the upcoming WC round. Example: Men’s Sprint, Thursday January 25th12:30, deadline is Wednesday January 24th 12:30. c) Any mistakes not reported before the end of the deadline will count and cannot be changed. c) Problems with the site not working must be reported to the host of the BMG when the problem is solved, though only if the problem affects your team in the BMG. d) If the site is down for a longer period for all users, the BMG will be stopped immediately, and not continue until all participants can log on/in the site again. Feedback to this concept is appreciated. Also, any questions or suggestions will be very welcome.

heywoodu, the time traveler

Andrew Young

Klaebo has chosen not to start in tomorrow's 15km classic. Sjur Roethe will take his place instead. The Norwegian team for tomorrow will be, Sundby, Roethe, Iversen and Toenseth

Well, the most political music contest in the world will never let us down when it comes to controversies. Maruv just won Vidbir 2019 in Ukraine two days ago with Siren Song, but questions were raised about her activities in Russia. It was demanded by the Ukrainian broadcaster UA:PBC that she should end her activities in Russia, and submit to other clauses, in order to represent Ukraine at Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The broadcaster UA:PBC and Maruv didn't come to an agreement about Eurovision 2019 participation, and now UA:PBC has announced that Maruv will not represent Ukraine at Eurovision 2019. This happens after a more than 5 hour long negotiation between UA:PBC and Maruv's team, ending up with the two parts not signing the contract for Eurovision participation. Following Maruv's win in Vidbir 2019, the broadcaster sent Maruv's management a contract, requiring her to cancel all appearances and performances in Russia in order to become the Ukrainian representative. Maruv was given 48 hours to sign the contract, or be replaced by another participant. Maruv revealed that the contract included a clause, that banned her from improvising on stage and communicating with any journalist without the permission of the broadcaster, and required her to fully comply with any requests from the broadcaster. If she broke the contract, she would be fined 2 million UAH (65,000 EUR), and the contract also stated that the Ukrainian broadcaster would not pay Maruv's trip to Tel Aviv, according to Maruv. UA:PBC

She had an issue with her throat, but she has now been declared healthy again and will start tomorrow.

10 teams qualify for the final. The 2 best from each heat, and the 6 fastest lucky loser times.

I like this podium. I'm so happy for every one of them.

This contest is not only about knowledge about music in general, but more importantly, about sharing music from one's country's music history, in this case from 2018 and onward. Of course one's personal taste will influence the choice of song. You say you have an "unusual" taste in music. TISC is where music is celebrated in it's diversity, and where "unusual" music can be familiar to some and new to others, but most importantly, every genre and taste in music is welcome because every song of this contest brings something unique and special to this specific contest.

@Quasit I know you often post in the music thread. Will you join this year?