h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ditto.

Blimey - have I had a good idea for once?

B

strange though this may sound, I think y' just might've.

I like the idea, but I don't understand how the 'away goals' bit could come in. Surely h2g2 is a neutral ground for us all?

if you played it over two legs you could assign "home" and "away" teams using a randomised draw. Just makes it slightly more baffling, is all. probably rather pointless really. Never mind, it made sense to me, but I have been drinking since half eleven this morning, so it's probably not worth trusting that!

Personally, I think one-off 'ties' would be better (and less work for GreyDesk). It'd increase the chance of giant-killings, which has to be good for a cup competition.

I agree with Ormondroyd, 1 off ties. Although while I fade to mid table /West Ham-like obscurity (good on paper, sh*t on grass) and bounce out of the cup in round 1 I will need to follow a second team, and Newcastle aren't here!!!

My own personal instinct would be to have a 1-leg first round, a 2-leg semi-final, and a bumper set of matches for a 1-leg final. Kind of like the Worthington Cup.

B

There are some reasonable ideas being bounced around here.

The only drawbacks I can see so far are:
1) Making sure folk actually turn up to make their selections. It is one thing to set a thread going and see who turns up to post. It's quite another relying on two specific individuals to do so.
2) There will be an awfully large number of replays. Looking at the stats, most of us are absolutely crap at predicting the results of football matches. On the occasions when we are good, we all tend to pick up on the same result ie Arsenal winning and Beattie scoring.

Keep on chatting and coming up with ideas, and I'll see what I can do

To get round that, you could enforce the rule that each prediction has to differ from your opponent's in some way. ie. different score or different scorer (enforcing a different result might be a bit harsh in some cases). That would also encourage rapid posting, in order for people to get their first choice.

B

Good idea, B.

And the answer to the possible problem of people not turning up is surely simple: he who doesn't post in time is eliminated by default.

Aye, like when the Blades couldn't be arsed keeping seven men on the pitch- lose by default due to lack of effort