Bench Euro 2012

[Kameumi 1]

The English squad visited an orphanage during their stay in the Ukraine. "It was very moving to see their sad faces, absent of any hope." said Igor (6).

Hahahaha - Brilliant!

[Achiyama 1,272]

There we have it!

Round 1 is over.

Final standing Round 1 - Group B

XaioTan - Chabonowaka 0 - 1

Chabonowaka scores his only goal with his © team Spain that had an direct meeting with XaioTan's Italy in the same slot.

Pitinosato - Pandaazuma 2 - 0

Not to interfere, but I think the scores are Chabonowaka - Xiaotan 3:0, and Pitinosato - Pandaazuma 3:0 (if I am not mistaken again).

The Exec gyojis will have the last word.

You are right about Chabonowaka having 3 goals scored, my mind asumed Denmark lost, it still cant comprehend that match.

About the other game I think I'm correct there.

"The line-ups are in the form of a 'chain', starting with the first slot, and going down to the last slot. However, the chain may be broken at any stage, in which case, any results that occur after the breakage cannot score goals."

"When one team has its chain broken, then situations 7-9 are used, until the other team's chain is broken. When both chains are broken (or the 7th slot has been reached), the match is over, and no further slots are considered."

You are right for the second match. Sorry.

[Kameumi 1]

gyoji comment: slot 1 is out! after that, things could get really interesting really quick, as the only shared team between slots 2 and 4 is Germany, who Kintamayama has on the 3, and Asashosakari has on the 4 slot. also, both players have Croatia on the 5 and Poland on the 6, but officially, those aren't wiped out yet, as Croatia is Asashosakari's ® and Poland is Kintamayama's ©. it seems that both of these guys have a lot of confidence in/fear of russia. any chance they will relax, having won their first match so handily? We could have a fair handle on things after today's late matchup. Kintmayama takes a gamble with his R on the 2nd slot. Russia's outcome will sit for two days before we know how that shakes out.

I have Italy as the champions. against all possible odds. They are playing under no pressure at all after being written off by everyone, especially at home. England were in the same position, but after their tie yesterday, all the clever commentators on ITV and everyone else British were suddenly convinced they will go all the way, deriding Sweden and Ukraine on the way, calling them "weak teams".. Now, they will lose their next two and go home.

The first round results confirm my basic thesis: In this type of league, it's a crap-shoot. Anyone can win, with a lot of good things usually happening to the home teams who would have been hard-pressed to qualify at all had they had to go through the usual preliminary channels.

And Germany.

I would be honestly suprised if England manages to beat either Ukraine (Who looked very sharp and sits on one of the best striker-pairs in the tournament in Voronin - Shevchenko) OR Sweden (Who England have a very bad history against).

My bet is that France finishes clear #1 with Ukraine scraping together 4p to take place #2.

[Kameumi 1]

You are right for the second match. Sorry.

Dont be, you spotted the misstake in the first one. :-D

[Achiyama 1,272]

Here are the Round #2 line-ups for group "D":

Mischashimaru (Sweden) - Jejima (England)

Rannohana (Ukraine) - Andonishiki (France)

MISCHASHIMARU

1. Italy

2. Germany

3. England ©

4. Sweden ®

5. Ukraine

6. Netherlands

7. Ireland

Comment: In first Round I also had my "homecountry" only on Pos. 2 as I did now too....hope it works again. GOOOO GERMANY!

vs.

JEJIMA

1. Spain

2. Russia

3. England ®

4. Denmark

5. Croatia

6. Sweden ©

7. Poland

Comment: I need to build on my opening draw, and grab a win. After much procrastination, I have decided to put England in the third slot. This will be interesting, as mischashimaru also needs to decide how to arrange his England © and Sweden ®. I think I would prefer to have England as a © team for this match... I have two inter-team 'bouts' - so I hope my squad follow team orders.

Gyoji's comment: Jejima's comment was written before the clarification that he, in fact, has lost his first match. Sorry for my mistake. The second match-up between Mischashimaru and him seem to be very interesting. Good luck to both of you!

RANNOHANA

1) Italy

2) Russia ©

3) Germany

4) Netherlands

5) Ukraine ®

6) Poland

7) Ireland

VS.

ANDONISHIKI

1. Spain

2. Italy

3. Czech Rep ©

4. France ®

5. Poland

6. Ukraine

7. Ireland

Comment: a lucky win is still a win, feeeling very berri lucky all day. so beeri, that we went to the fields for picking straw berries this morning. round 2, different animal, hi rannohana, my sakura soulmate. you also had a lucky win... where you gonna put the Dutch and the Krauts this time ? I'm glad not to face this decicion.

Gyoji's comment: Another interesting match-up between the winners of round 1. Hopefully, Italy doesn't do what Netherlands did the first round (made many players angry, including me). Good luck to both of you!

Edited June 12, 2012 by Achiyama

[Doitsuyama 1,263]

Hopefully, Italy doesn't do what Netherlands did the first round (made many players angry, including me).

Well, Netherlands did hurt my first round, sure. But I can't exactly say that I'm angry about that. :-D

[Andonishiki 171]

Yippieh - all line-ups for Round 2 in Group A made the deadline

and HERE WE GO

in the blue corner, representing Greece Aaachiyaamaa vs the red corner, representing the Check Republic: Haaarinezuuumiiiii

ACHIYAMA

1. Spain

2. Russia

3. England

4. Croatia

5. Netherlands ©

6. Greece ®

7. Sweden

Comments: Hope to do better this round.

HARINEZUMI

1. Spain

2. Italy

3. France ©

4. England

5. Check Rep ®

6. Ukraine

7. Ireland

Comment: yikes, almost missed my entry. Go england, go Ukraine, go Ireland! The teams I want to win will probably lose so I have placed them low so they will probably win now to make me lose... Such is my luck!

Gyoji comment - both players lost the first match, so this is already a final for both.... win or go home ! That should increase the aggressivity...

Looking at the line-ups, Spain is neutralized and on spot 2 also both N teams, that are clear favorites....

The Oranjes only on spot 5 for Achiyama shows, how much he fears the German Mannschaft, that faces their archrival on Wednesday

I can easily imagine this bout decided not earlier, but on spot 6 or even 7.

The second match pairs the first round winners including the leader of the Outstanding Performance Price with phenomenal 13 goals:

the Frankonian Stalion JAAAAKUSOTSUUUUU vs the Swedish Crackerjack KAAAAMEEEEEUMIIIIIII

JAKUSOTSU

1. Spain

2. Italy ©

3. Portugal

4. Greece

5. Poland ®

6. Netherlands

7. Croatia

Comment: Too bad I have to put my match-winners Croatia down to the last slot, but the Moor has done his duty.

KAMEUMI

1. Germany

2. Russia ®

3. France

4. Croatia

5. Ukraine ©

6. Poland

7. Ireland

Comment: If round one had favorable matchups for me, round two is the complete opposite, with 2 intersquad matchups and the other three teams up vs Italia, Spain and the Netherlands respectibly.

I predict 0-0.

Also I want to give thanks for the Outstanding preformance acknowledgement.

(Altho I'm not quite sure what it acknowledges) ^.^

Gyoji Comment: Germany on top spot ? vs the Dutch ?? phewww... someone puts lots of trust in Jogi`s Mannschaft, hope that won`t backfire.

R vs C in spot 2 and 5, looks like a very interesting match-up here. Italy vs Croatia could be the deciding one on Thursday.

GOOD LUCK ALL

[Kameumi 1]

Round one is now in the books, and our valiant players hardly get to breathe before we toss them right back into the flames.

First out we have Chabonowaka vs Pandaazuma:

Chabonowaka

1. © Spain

2. Italy

3. Germany

4. Netherlands

5. Poland

6. ® Denmark

7. Croatia

Chabonowaka managed to share a quick analysis before scamping back to the still ongoing celebration after the first rounds victories (for both Chabonowaka and his ® Denmark):

"This looks a lot more treacherous than did the first round. but in this round my Spain should get me off to a good start, and after that it should be just as much trouble for my opponent as it is for me. so my hopes are high. go me!"

Pandaazuma

1. ® Portugal

2. Germany

3. Netherlands

4 Ukraine

5. Czech Republic

6. © Croatia

7. Ireland

The mentality in the Pandaazuma camp is quite the opposite as can be convened from the comment Pandaazuma delivered at the press conference earlier:

"Oh dear, is all I can say here. I can see only one possible winner, and the rest all draws or losses, so I'm going to bank it all on Portugal and hope for a bit of luck!"

Gyoji comment about the match:

This one could very easily be decided right out the gate. An extremly aggressive ® placement by Pandaazuma is an impressively sharp "all or nothing move".

Second match out is XaioTan vs Pitinosato:

XiaoTan

1. Italy

2. Czech

3. Germany

4. ® Netherlands

5. © Greece

6. Ukraine

7. Ireland

XaioTan spent the week training the mental hardness of his players so he could give the hungering journalists this comment without them going all soft in the legs:

"After the first round Netherland flop - everyone is facing himself this round, so plenty of draws please :-)"

Pitinosato

1. Greece

2. Russia

3. ® Germany

4. France

5. Croatia

6. Poland

7. © Ireland

Reporters was pleased to see that Pitinosato had recovered from his nasty cold in time to give the following interview before game #2:

"My bad cold is over, so I'm ready talk again.

A little...

A good start is always very important in such a Tournament.

So I did !

And now look from Match to Match, but I'm confident to reach the quarter finals !"

Gyoji comment about the match:

Intricate match up, with the ® game Netherlands vs Germany as the most likely to be the deciding factor altho both chains could easily break earlier if things dont go there way. Special credit to Pitinosato's slot 1 pick Greece, a gutsy play but could very well be showed to be a genius-move.

Our dedicated representativs from the cheat-checking institution would like to make clear that all the players have gone through rigid tests and have come out clean, white and shining yet again.

The sportsmanship in group B is impeccable.

The Gyoji would also like to hand out a thanks to those players in group B's that managed to send in early entries, it is always extra appriciated! The Gyoji is also thankfull for the media-friendly attitude displayed by the players in group B as all four were reachable for pregame comments!

Edited June 12, 2012 by Kameumi

[Andonishiki 171]

Czech Republik, not Check.....

terrible geography, please accept my aplologies, dearest Petar Čech & crew !

Check mate !

Edited June 12, 2012 by Andonishiki

[Andonishiki 171]

not even six minutes played, already 2:0 for the Ceska Republica....

Pitinosato needs a miracle

[Kameumi 1]

Pitinosato almost got his miracle!

Greece seams extremly slowstarted this tournament - is it becase of there age?

[Asashosakari 20,297]

Here's the view from the simulation front:

Rk Player Nat W D L GF GA GF* GA* GD* Pts

1 Kameumi RUS 15 0 0 55 4 3.67 0.27 +3.40 3.00 (3)

2 Pitinosato GER 14 0 1 46 5 3.07 0.33 +2.73 2.80 (3)

3 Kintamayama ITA 12 1 2 30 10 2.00 0.67 +1.33 2.47 (3)

4 Asashosakari CRO 11 2 2 26 10 1.73 0.67 +1.07 2.33 (3)

5 Harinezumi CZE 10 1 4 16 14 1.07 0.93 +0.13 2.07 (0)

6 Doitsuyama IRL 10 0 5 12 12 0.80 0.80 0.00 2.00 (0)

7 Jakusotsu POL 8 1 6 12 17 0.80 1.13 -0.33 1.67 (3)

8 Andonishiki FRA 7 2 6 9 18 0.60 1.20 -0.60 1.53 (3)

9 Rannohana UKR 6 3 6 16 13 1.07 0.87 +0.20 1.40 (3)

10 Chabonowaka DEN 6 1 8 19 18 1.27 1.20 +0.07 1.27 (3)

11 Rubensan ESP 5 0 10 10 19 0.67 1.27 -0.60 1.00 (0)

12 Jejima ENG 2 2 11 4 25 0.27 1.67 -1.40 0.53 (0)

13 Mischashimaru SWE 1 3 11 2 23 0.13 1.53 -1.40 0.40 (0)

14 Pandaazuma POR 0 4 11 0 21 0.00 1.40 -1.40 0.27 (0)

15 XiaoTan NED 0 3 12 1 25 0.07 1.67 -1.60 0.20 (0)

16 Achiyama GRE 0 3 12 0 24 0.00 1.60 -1.60 0.20 (0)

Kameumi not only had the heaviest-scoring squad in Round 1, he augmented his choice picks with a lineup that sees him beat all 15 other competitors' lineups. Pitinosato's teams performed similarly well, leading him to run the table against all opponents not named Kameumi, as well. (Their matchup saw a 2-1 victory for Kameumi.) These two also scored liberally, averaging over 3 goals per game.

Kintamayama and Asashosakari bashed their actual opponents in Group C, and did pretty well in the simulated results, too, losing only against the two leaders and drawing 1-1 against each other. (The other player to dig out a draw against Asashosakari was Rannohana, 0-0.)

On the other end of the table three players were unable to win any hypothetical matchup, with two of them even goalless. Oddly enough XiaoTan's only goal didn't even come in one of his handful of draws, but in a 1-2 loss to Jejima.

The 8 actual matchups were pretty high-scoring themselves with two 4-1's and two 3-0's among them, but the biggest possible clobbering of the round was a 5-0 victory by Kameumi over Jejima. 12 more potential matchups ended up 4-0, with Kameumi involved in 6 of them and Pitinosato in 5. The only other player to break into that phalanx was Asashosakari in a game against Andonishiki. All in all the round was ruled by 1-0 scores, however, which accounted for 40 of the 120 results. 2-0's and 3-0's (each 19 times) combined to make up another third. Perhaps the most interesting 1-0 score was Doitsuyama's over Andonishiki, in which Doitsuyama scored right on the first bracket, got knocked out on the second, and then survived another 4 brackets to maintain his lead for the victory.

But arguably the most exciting result was the round's sole 2-2 draw, scored in the game between Chabonowaka and Rannohana; the latter was already up 2-0 before Chabonowaka's R team equalized the score on the 6th bracket. In fact, Chabonowaka's results are a real feast-or-famine affair, as might have been evident already in the table above as he scored more goals than any player bar the top 4 but finished only in 10th place. In what was nearly a reverse GBL he had the losing Netherlands on top, followed by 6 teams that all won or drew (including a winning R and a drawing C team). In matchups that actually survived past the losing first slot, Chabonowaka ran out easy victories up to 3-0. Somewhat surprisingly, all matches that did end on slot #1 for him ended up as losses (no 0-0's), as somehow all opponents managed to sneak through at least one goal against Chabo's barrage of good #2-#7 picks.

Edited June 12, 2012 by Asashosakari

[chabonowaka 2]

i'm not sure if i should be happy or sad about that last paragraph. i would have done much better had the netherlands won. still, i'll take the win i got, and hope for better guesses this round.

[Asashosakari 20,297]

Can't say I have much hope of winning my match with Kintamayama...after today's results (especially Russia only drawing), I feel like the underdog in every single bracket.

[Kintamayama 47,371]

Can't say I have much hope of winning my match with Kintamayama...after today's results (especially Russia only drawing), I feel like the underdog in every single bracket.

Which is exactly why you have the advantage...

[chabonowaka 2]

howdy folks!

just a quick update on group c. the first action in both matches happened on slot 2, where both Asashosakari and Rubensan saw their 2nd seeded teams do worse than hoped. Greece outright lost for Rubensan, putting him in some pretty serious jeopardy against Doitsuyama, and Asashosakari's Russia tied against Kintama's ® Italy. A win for Italy tomorrow breaks Kintamayama's chain, and, well, i said this would be quick, so we'll just leave it at that could be bad, but there are circumstances that could still elad to a tie. meanwhile, Rubensan needs a lot of very specific outcomes to matches to still have a chance at his match. we'll know a lot more about this group today.

[Kameumi 1]

Here's the view from the simulation front:

Rk Player Nat W D L GF GA GF* GA* GD* Pts

1 Kameumi RUS 15 0 0 55 4 3.67 0.27 +3.40 3.00 (3)

2 Pitinosato GER 14 0 1 46 5 3.07 0.33 +2.73 2.80 (3)

3 Kintamayama ITA 12 1 2 30 10 2.00 0.67 +1.33 2.47 (3)

4 Asashosakari CRO 11 2 2 26 10 1.73 0.67 +1.07 2.33 (3)

5 Harinezumi CZE 10 1 4 16 14 1.07 0.93 +0.13 2.07 (0)

6 Doitsuyama IRL 10 0 5 12 12 0.80 0.80 0.00 2.00 (0)

7 Jakusotsu POL 8 1 6 12 17 0.80 1.13 -0.33 1.67 (3)

8 Andonishiki FRA 7 2 6 9 18 0.60 1.20 -0.60 1.53 (3)

9 Rannohana UKR 6 3 6 16 13 1.07 0.87 +0.20 1.40 (3)

10 Chabonowaka DEN 6 1 8 19 18 1.27 1.20 +0.07 1.27 (3)

11 Rubensan ESP 5 0 10 10 19 0.67 1.27 -0.60 1.00 (0)

12 Jejima ENG 2 2 11 4 25 0.27 1.67 -1.40 0.53 (0)

13 Mischashimaru SWE 1 3 11 2 23 0.13 1.53 -1.40 0.40 (0)

14 Pandaazuma POR 0 4 11 0 21 0.00 1.40 -1.40 0.27 (0)

15 XiaoTan NED 0 3 12 1 25 0.07 1.67 -1.60 0.20 (0)

16 Achiyama GRE 0 3 12 0 24 0.00 1.60 -1.60 0.20 (0)

the biggest possible clobbering of the round was a 5-0 victory by Kameumi over Jejima.

Very intresting stuff Asashosakari.

Did you do it manually or do u have some sort of program or tool to ease the workload?

Obviously, I'm very pleased with my team in round 1.

I fear that this round may have been the highlight of the tournament for my part. Every single matchup was great for my team.

Also I really wish that my acual match in round one was against Jejima - I could have helt that 5 - 0 over him for a long time! :-P

[Asashosakari 20,297]

Did you do it manually or do u have some sort of program or tool to ease the workload?

No way am I scoring 120 matchups by hand! :-) It's automated in an Excel spreadsheet.

[Kameumi 1]

Haha, yeah figured.

Nice, all you have to put down is the "value" of each individual team's preformance for every player?

[chabonowaka 2]

say, i got up from my desk about 30 minutes ago, and i thought Portugal had just scored to make it 3-1. now, getting back to my desk, i see it's 2-2. did i miss something? perhaps something big?

[Kameumi 1]

Depends, do you have a big pair of glasses?

(The match was never 3-1)

[chabonowaka 2]

hmm. i'm not actually watching, but have the UEFA site up, on the match centre. maybe did Portugal come close to scoring around the 50th minute? looking back through match centre, there is something about Ronaldo having a try on goal.

[Kintamayama 47,371]

hmm. i'm not actually watching, but have the UEFA site up, on the match centre. maybe did Portugal come close to scoring around the 50th minute? looking back through match centre, there is something about Ronaldo having a try on goal.

Yeah, he missed from 10 feet in front of an empty goal.

[Kameumi 1]

Gyoji Comment: Germany on top spot ? vs the Dutch ?? phewww... someone puts lots of trust in Jogi`s Mannschaft, hope that won`t backfire.

In halftime - I feel like a genius.

[Doitsuyama 1,263]

hmm. i'm not actually watching, but have the UEFA site up, on the match centre. maybe did Portugal come close to scoring around the 50th minute? looking back through match centre, there is something about Ronaldo having a try on goal.

Yeah, someone with the UEFA was a bit overeager, on twitter too: