Werloc

Well, Colombia, Turkey and Venezuela are all pretty much on the same boat of activity on the forum, but might show up just for the voting, Chile is a 50/50 and there wasn't a single time where Janakis wouldn't vote on the final day, so not really worried for Greece in that department

I didn't have a very clear runaway number 1, although the same song remained in the 1st spot after every round. There are a lot of good songs this year, but wouldn't say there's an amazing one that would have blown me away.

Finally I am a free elf as my votes are now sent. The process of my voting took a lot lot longer than I expected, so congratulations to everyone that came away with points from me, your songs were in a long haul

I'm finally closing in on my voting Another crazy year where twelve songs are fighting over that one point.

I don't know if our number 1 is more reliable than Poliakova

Well, that's an interesting character Yeah,coming back to the Czech team would probably be tough. Lithuania says hello we would like to have a women's relay again.

I missed this drama.

I came here for this, please enlighten me

Wait, 2016 was ten years ago??? Wow, time does fly

Or he didn't see his daughter fit enough and he wasn't about to waste away 5 more of his years

Question to @mrv86 . How are you planning to check the ones that have already voted on the table? With the deadline getting closer, it would be great to know who voted and who didn't.

And it happened. Daniel Mesotitsch is finally hanging up his rifle. Seven podiums in all during his career and three victories. First time he won was back in 2001 and last time that he was on the podium was the season of 2013/14. Three times relay world championships medalist as well as twice relay Olympic medalist. He turns 43 in May, that is definitely a long and decorated career.

Quickstat: Surprisingly enough, with Johannes being off of the podium only 6 times this year, there were 22 different men to get on the podium (4 for Norway, Germany, France, 2 for Italy, Austria, Russia, Sweden, 1 for Ukraine and Bulgaria). Meanwhile, in a women's competitive season, there were only 21 different women on the podium (5 for Germany, 3 for Norway, 2 for Italy, Slovakia, France, 1 for Sweden, Poland, Ukraine, United States, Russia, Finland and Czech Republic).

I think this was the smallest amount of points for an overall crystal globe winner ever, of course, not counting Olympic years with three races less (1 got cancelled this season). I did quick research and it adds up, since 2007/08 had a different point system with 50 points for win. Dorothea herself had collected 973 points in a season, where she took 3rd place. I think it's the case of a lot of people being good, but nobody was great, because going over a 1000 is pretty usual in the field. Also, props to Tandrevold who was the only woman alongside Wierer to score points in every race this season.

I don't understand why Egan is on this list. Finished one time on the podium, definitely not enough consistency shown for an overall win. I'd still say that Laura is an easy favourite if she manages to avoid health issues along the way. This year was extremely weak, to be honest, with Laura's health, Makarainen's second half of the season and Kuzmina's lackluster start, I'd say Dorothea got really lucky this year. Even Oeberg could have taken it, though she missed 5 races. Although, putting your money on Sweden might be risky, not knowing how the team will be affected with Wolfgang's retirement. Eckhoff is a bag of nerves and I think a bit too unreliable of an athlete to go for an overall title. If Herrmann keeps up with her training and starts the next season as she finished this one, she is definitely a danger. And if Braisaz manages to fix herself up, perhaps an outside contender?

That's just good old Finland. Not the first time, not the last time they do that

And I'm back for changes of the men's nation cup rankings. Interestingly enough, the TOP 7 is completely identical except for Italy being bumped down to 6th, by Austria coming up to 5th this year. Norway win again by a solid margin. Let's start with the ones that fell down: Slovenia fell down from 8th to 13th this year, mostly due to Fak's illnesses and Bauer having a mediocre season. Finland lost their four starters, dropping to 19th Latvia barely survived with their three starter positions, falling to 22nd place. Romania lost their three starters, falling to 24th. The gains: Belarus went up three spots from 15th up to 12. Estonia will be allowed four starters next season, from 18th to 16. A good season from Japan, lands them up to 21st and they gained three starter positions. I guess non-Olympic season is kind to the smaller nations, since it's easier to qualify to the World Championships and near impossible to qualify for Olympics. Nonetheless, last season there were 30 nations in the World Cup and this year we had 34 (3 of whom started only in the championships, yes I'm looking at you @heywoodu ). China, Moldova, Hungary, Spain, Macedonia in, Great Britain out.

Seems that shooting is becoming less fun now

What a beautiful race. Everybody is giving their all.

Be happy there's more countries

Anyways, with the women's nation cup already done and dusted, let's have a look at the major changes, comparing to last year. Norwegian women made a huge surge from 5th to 1st this year, nearly a thousand points seperated them last year from Germany (and that's with 6 races less) Interesting fact is that Italy has nr. 1 and nr. 2 women in their team, but that didn't help them as they dropped to 5th, compared to the 3rd place last year. Finland took a nosedive from 12th to 17th. They scored more points last year with 6 races less. Belarus and Poland fell back three spots both. Kazakhstan from nr.14 down to 23 due to their problems. Lithuania lost three starter women to China. And, when someone goes down, someone must climb. Austria with a nice effort going from 16th up to 10th United States from 19th spot up to 13. Estonia leaped from 20th place to number 16. Lastly, in this post-Olympic year, 32 countries had the chance to start in the World Cup and that's two more than last year! (Greece, Australia, Belgium, Croatia entered, whilst Great Britain and Hungary were not present)

Well, if anybody dared to say that Gabrielė Leščinskaitė was going to beat Lisa Vittozzi today, they'd probably be locked up in a mental facility by now, but that actually happened

"Can we have a surprise top 10?" "No, we have a surprise big miss" Lovely

I hate the Swedish team that they didn't give chances for Hoegberg. She deserved to start in the World Championships

I have the weirdest feeling about this song. I think it was some type of cover contest over in China. This is definitely the same song, but I remember it differently Feels like the instrumental in this one is different or I'm just going crazy.