How high can you climb without slipping?
Welcome to Lucky Ladders, a free game of prediction and strategy where overconfidence is your greatest foe.
Gameplay
Each week of the season, you pick the winner of each NFL contest. Sounds simple? Well, there’s one slight twist that makes things quite a bit more complicated: when submitting your predictions, you also have to rank them based on how confident you are in their accuracy. Note that all picks are final and can’t be changed once submitted, so you’d better be sure of yourself.
Assign the rank “1” to the prediction you have the most confidence in, “2” for the next most certain prediction, and so on, down to “16” for the game whose outcome you’re least sure of (or “14” for weeks with fewer scheduled games).
Example: In Week 1, you’re certain New England will win at home, so you give this matchup a rank of 1. You’re also fairly sure that Pittsburgh will beat Oakland, so you give this game the rank of 2. You choose a win by Detroit as the third most certain result and so on, until you’ve filled in all 16 spots.
The list of games you have ranked is your ladder; the game ranked “1” is its first rung, the game ranked “16” is the highest rung.
To reach the first rung, your first prediction has to be accurate. If it is, you can keep climbing if your second prediction is correct, and so on, until you miss a prediction. Once you reach an incorrect prediction, you’ve slipped off the ladder.
Reaching the first rung earns you 1 point, the second rung 2 points, the third 3, etc., with the top rung earning 16 points. A perfect week would therefore give you 136 points. But careful – once you slip, you no longer earn points, even if predictions made for higher rungs are correct.
Example: Of the predictions listed above, New England does in fact pick up the win. Congratulations: you’ve reached the first rung and have earned your first point. Pittsburgh also wins: that’s two more points, and you’re still alive and can keep climbing. Unfortunately, Detroit loses its game, so you’ve slipped on the third rung, and only gain the three points you earned on rungs 1 and 2. Better luck next week!
Note: Games that are cancelled or postponed beyond Monday will not be counted for Lucky Ladders – if a game is cancelled, it will be deleted from your ladder, and all higher picks will move down a rung. The same rule applies to games that end in a draw.
Example: The game in which you predicted a Patriots win is wiped out by a snow storm. The Steelers win, and the Lions lose. In this case, with the Patriots game removed from your ladder, your prediction of a Pittsburgh win slides down to rung 1, earning you one point.
At the end of the season, the player with the most total points is the season champion.
Deadlines
There is no fixed deadline for submitting your Lucky Ladders. While games that have already started by the time you submit your tips will be considered invalid and automatically moved to the end of your ladder, all other tips will count. Please note however that, no matter how late you submit your tips, you will need to predict the outcome of ALL games. That way, even if there was a mistake in our schedule or a game was officially postponed, you will not be blocked from picking any valid games, and we can automatically include your tips in the tally once any errors have been corrected. After submitting your pick, it’s your own responsibility to make sure it actually shows up on your screen. In case of technical problems, please contact the administrator.
Tiebreakers
If at the end of the season, two or more players are tied for the lead, the player with the highest single-week score will be declared the winner. If there is still a tie, the second-highest week will be used, and so on until a winner is determined.
Prizes
Instead of common gold and jewels, all games at the Fantasy Joint are fought for actual bragging rights. Let the games begin...
© 2004-2024 Stefan Micke.