The tournament is almost upon us, so it's time for some good old PEEHS with some good old side betting to go along with it - PEEHS, if you've never played JM3's Premier League game, KrazyKris's NFL game or any of the other games that go on round here (or in lolpog), has a simple premise - get correct answers to questions, but score better if you get answers other people don't think of.

Scoring = for correct answers, you score 1 point for every person that goes with your answer. For incorrect answers, you score however many points the most popular answer gets (regardless of whether it is correct or incorrect) plus the number of distinct correct answers given.

Your questions:

1) Name a team which will win their opening game
2) Name a player who will score in their team's first game
3) Name a goalkeeper who will keep a clean sheet in either of their team's first two games (must play full 90 minutes to qualify)
4) Name a team which will not have a win in their first two games
5) Name a team which will be undefeated in the group stage
6) Name a team which will finish bottom in their group
7) Name a team which will be a favourite (per current oddschecker lines, favourites listed below) to qualify for the last 16 which doesn't
8) Name a team which will be an underdog (again, per oddschecker) to qualify for the last 16 which does
9) Name a player who will have at least three scorepoints (goals + assists for those not down with the kids) in the group stage
10) Name an outfield player who doesn't feature in any group stage game (players not in a WC squad = incorrect)
11) Name a team which will be eliminated in the last 16
12) Name a team which will reach the quarter finals
13) Name a referee who will officiate a game in the quarter finals or later stages
14) Name a team which will be eliminated in a penalty shootout
15) Name a player who will score at least three goals in the tournament
16) Name a player who will accumulate at least five scorepoints in the tournament
17) Name a player who will either be sent off or collect two yellow cards during the tournament
18) Name a team which will cause an upset win during the tournament according to current Elo ratings (must be in normal time or after extra time, games going to penalties = draw, current rating list is below)
19) Name a team that qualified for both 2014 and 2018 who will last longer in Russia than in Brazil
20) Name a team that qualified for both 2014 and 2018 who will be eliminated quicker in Russia than in Brazil

Bunch of boring nitpicking clarifications and/or information which I think may be necessary, so read it:

- For questions 1-4, matches will be scored as scheduled - if a game is delayed due to Russian hooliganism, vodka shortages, crazy weather, Trump accidentally nuking Moscow etc then we will wait for the game to be played and score as initially scheduled.
- Any player stat question will go off of what fifa.com says when I score the question. I don't care if Harry Kane claims that an unlikely Danny Welbeck 40 yard screamer deflected off his shoelace a week later if he thinks he can win the golden boot.
- For question 6 normal group tiebreakers apply.
- For questions 7/8 the favourites are Russia/Uruguay, Spain/Portugal, France/Denmark, Argentina/Croatia, Brazil/Switzerland, Germany/Sweden, Belgium/England and Colombia/Poland (the underdogs are obv everyone else).
- For question 10 the player you select must still be part of the squad for the first game, he cannot be removed prior to the first game and replaced due to injury, but if someone's suspended for one or more initial group games he's fair game.
- For question 13 he needs to be the actual referee in the match.
- For question 18, current rankings are Brazil > Germany > Spain > Argentina > France > Portugal > England > Colombia > Belgium > Peru > Uruguay > Switzerland > Mexico > Croatia > Denmark > Poland > Sweden > Iran > Iceland > Serbia > Senegal > South Korea > Costa Rica > Australia > Morocco > Nigeria > Japan > Russia > Panama > Tunisia > Egypt > Saudi Arabia.
- For questions 19/20 I'm only interested in the stage of elimination, a team being mathematically eliminated after two group games as opposed to three group games is the same thing. I'll reiterate that only teams that made both tournaments can be correct, USA#1 for question 20, while funny, cannot be correct.
- If you accidentally pick a player for a question where I need a team for the answer, I'll proxy that to the team he plays for. This won't work the other way around.
- Please take care with answers that need a player to ensure they're not ambiguous - if it's not clear you risk being incorrect. Welbeck = OK but not idea, Danny Welbeck = better, Rodriguez = you're in trouble.

Entry

Send me an unnumbered PM with your answers before 6pm UK time on June 13 (1pm eastern, 7pm Eurotime, looks like noon server time), this'll give me enough time to sanity check anything and make sure nobody's ****ed up hugely before the tournament starts. I'll accept amendments to entries up until that time. Research is permitted.

GAMBOOOOOOOL

I'll hold for an option side pool. Entry is ten (10) worthless English pounds, I'm taking Paypal only (will also accept €12/$14 if you're paying any conversion vig), PM for transfer details. If you only have Stars/random american transfer options I'm sure someone will step up and act as proxy. Usual 2+2 disclaimers apply about how they're liable for nothing should I happen to be super busy at the end of the tournament, there's multiple people here that I've bet/transferred/played fantasy football/drunk with. If your cash isn't in by the entry deadline you're not coming in.

Note - I intend on inviting a small number of people from my work and my local to play to increase the entry count, the more the merrier, I wouldn't expect many to enter the side pool, but if should they choose to do so I will forward their entries to a third party here that isn't in the pool before kickoff to prevent any suggestion of shenanigans.

Any queries welcome either here or via PM, otherwise let's gogogo and gl hf!

Will be in for a tenner

Teejay and rt lmk if you want bought in for this and I’ll send for you

Yeah ok, thanks.

Yes please

Confirmed sending 20 for the 2 above

will in

will in

Definitely in

in

will in for this too at some point

I will be in of course

In and a plus one

Bump as we get closer to the tournament, I think the deadline for squad announcements is June 4 so keep that in mind for thinking about the player questions

Am getting a few PMs asking for PP details, I'll send it out in batches so as to not send a trillion PMs so if I don't reply immediately I've not forgotten you (although give me a nudge if it's more than a few days)

Entries received from:

JMurder3

Cash received from:

mic_check12
teejayC
rtspurs
mic_check12 (+1)
NicReynolds
vruuuuk
edit - one more that I assume is YKY?

Interest received from:

Jabonator
lukethefluke
Fatal Checkraise
Cinarocket
Giroudgeous
mw828
ashley12 (+1)
Yippie-ki-yay

One thing I don't think I mentioned was the payouts, LO's structure looks good to me, although I'll likely round to the nearest 5/10 quid, whatever looks best, will confirm exact figures once entries are closed

I’ll play.

PM me your details please.

Sent the money, will send the entry some time before the deadline

I asked for your paypal this weekend but you never got back to me

Sorry mate, rectified

My entry has been sent.
Thanks for running

I enjoy the fact that I submitted my entry like 12 days before anyone else. Not even sure if I want to check & see if my answers still make sense once final rosters are set, or just role with it.

in

spent about 10 minutes googling stuff so I'm going to choose not to light a tenner on fire with this one

joining my first ever PEEHS

In