A year ago at this time, our megathread in OOT finally burst at the seams and convinced the powers that be to give us our own humble forum. Now granted, if you think it feels like more than a year ago that half of our front page was populated with threads such as, "Who has the better nipples, John Cena or Anderson Silva?"...well, I agree with you. But that's how long it was.
As such, our mods have offered us the opportunity to engage in a contest for prizes. I proposed this idea, and was therefore given the task of running it:
The Inaugural WBM Raw/PPV Pick 'Em Challenge
The contest will run as follows: before each Raw, and before each PPV, you are to PM to me your picks for the upcoming show.
Again, PM me your picks; do not post them in the thread. I will post everyone's as a batch when the time comes.
For PPVs, starting with tomorrow's Tables, Ladders and Chairs PPV:
*You will make a pick on every advertised match on the card, and you will assign confidence points to each one. I will cover that card specifically in the next post. Correctly picking the winner will get you points; no points will be awarded in the case of a draw if you picked either side. But you CAN send in a pick of "draw" if you're expecting the match to end without a winner.
*For the Royal Rumble match itself, you send in the name of one participant. If he finishes in the final three, you get points. Double points if he finishes second, triple if he's the outright winner.
For Raws, you are making picks for two different things.
*You will pick (1) participant who you think will open the show, which is to say that they are the ones who make the first entrance. If it's a tag team or faction entering first, anyone who is a part of the same entrance counts no matter whose music is playing...so there can be more than one correct answer in some cases.
*You will also pick (2) participants who you think will appear in the main event that night. "Main event" is defined for purposes of this contest as the final segment of the show, whether it's a match or not. Both of your picks have a chance to score. If you send in Brutus Beefcake and Marty Jannetty as your two picks, and the main event segment is a re-enactment of the Barber Shop from the early 90's, you'll score double.
Scoring:
Score will be tallied as follows...
Raws:
(5) points for successfully getting the first entrance of a Raw
(4) points for each successful main event entrant
PPVs:
Your confidence points will be automatically doubled from their base number so as to make sure that PPVs carry as much or more weight than the Raw picks do. There will be six Raws in this contest and two PPVs. This opens it up so that there are 78 total possible points amongst the Raws. Doubling the points available from the six-match card at TLC makes 42 points; presumably the Rumble has fewer matches on the card, but again there's the chance to score triple if you pick the Rumble winner. This seems like the best balance to make everything meaningful and make the eventual winner probably have to stay on the ball and pick each show to come out on top.
Deadlines
Please have your picks in to me by an hour before the start of the show. I will reveal in this thread so that everyone can follow along and sweat the contest as the show goes on. If I have yet to reveal everyone else's picks, you can still send in and I will count it if your entry's PM timestamp predates the timestamp of my reveal post...but once that hour before the show hits, just be aware that you're officially in danger of losing your chance to put in an entry.
Miscellaneous Rule
Your entry is not locked upon sending in to me until the deadline hits and everyone's choices have been revealed. Once they are revealed, you're obviously locked in. But before then you can change your selection. So as to not confuse me, it would be lovely if you didn't do this TOO often, but I'm leaving it available as something you can do.
Prizes
It hasn't been expounded upon whether there's more than one prize. So, at this point, play for the win. EMc mentioned that there would be some 2p2 compensation in it for me to run this, so I think I'll just run it and not participate, and claim my prize that way. That will keep me away from any sticky situations where I have to rule on things that could affect my own interests, since I officially don't care who wins this and will just try to run it well.
The next post will contain the card for TLC, at which point entries will open.