As usual, I have not officially created a thread. I have merely moved this post, so I still haven't legitimately made a traditional standard thread

WARNING: You will have difficulty reading this with tapatalk since you won't be able to see the formatted text. It's best to read through desktop




COLOR SCHEME

FOR NEW PARTICIPANTS. Choose your color scheme:

I can do the following options: (Can pick one or multiple, can be team logos, can be ANY COLOR)
Font type
Font color
Up to two different background colors (or background color with Excel's already made pattern, which isn't very good looking)
Border color

All prior year participants can post here to change or verify color schemes. You can post in BTE, but it's best to tag me in case you don't want me to potentially miss it.



Feel free to suggest team templates if desired.

RULES IF YOU ARE NEW

-You can pick one or both out of the two gameplay options (feel free to choose both)
Bold aka All-in aka you predict every single outcome of the ENTIRE playoffs
Safe aka Round by round aka you pick matchups as soon as they are determined

-There will be three grading systems that will be tied to EACH gameplay option. Your scores will be combined. You don't choose which system to play in. You choose the gameplay option. Here are the 3 in its simplistic form (will post the in-depth later)

System 1 will be based on sequential precision. In other words, you get points for guessing the team right FIRST and then you get extra points if you guess the right games. Seems logical eough
System 2 will be based entirely on accuracy. Dartboard if you will, but the difference is there are NEGATIVE values. You will get points if you are very close to the outcome
System 3 will be based on independent precision on what the system claims as "mutually exclusive". In other words, you get points for getting the right team. You get points for getting the right game regardless of the winner.

INSERT PLAYOFF IMAGE (Who are we kidding here, I haven't done this last year so don't expect anything)


-Format for giving me the pick:
eam in <number of games>. It doesn't matter how you cite the team (city or whatever). Preferably it would help me more if your format is same as watching TNT Scoreboard where it says GSW/SAS/POR/etc. So example would be "TOR in 4"

How is this going to be ranked?
Participants of each gameplay option will be ranked SEPARATELY. Your points in each system of the gameplay option will then be aggregated or averaged (I haven't though which one yet, but prior year it was aggregated). Therefore there is no unfairness. For fun, I'll post a combined rank just for the lulz, but it won't be the official rankings. Unlike last year, I will be posting your points in each system. Rankings will generally be updated at the end of the day once a playoff series is over

Are you really going to go through with this?
Yes. I have been doing this since 2013, so you'll know that there will be finalized results


GAMEPLAY AND THE SYSTEMS (almost final draft; will be done before playoffs start) Any games missed = lowest points possible

BOLD GAME SYSTEMS grading criteria (all in / predict entire outcome )

All Systems: If you predict both teams wrong in terms of them advancing, you get the LOWEST possible points

BOLD System 1: Strain to Gain (max 56 points)

This system provides 0.5 points (0.75 points if match ends in 7 and you pick 7 games) for right game but wrong team for ALL rounds of bold instead of 0, so there's still a possibility of you getting points. There is no increase in value the further the round goes.

Note: Semi-Finals to Finals, must guess at least 1 team correctly to get max possible points provided that they are the winner of the next round. You do not need to guess both teams to advance correctly to get max points. You guess both teams incorrectly and it's the worst possible points available.

Quarter Finals:
Correct winner of series: 1 point
Correct end result of a series: 1 point
Subtotal: 2 points
Total: 8 matches X 2 pts per series = 16 points

Semi Finals:
Correct winner of series: 1.5 point
Correct end result of a series: 2.5 point
Subtotal: 4 points
Total: 4 matches X 4 pts per series = 16 points

Conference Finals:
Correct winner of series: 2.5 points
Correct end result of a series: 3.5 points
Subtotal: 6 points
Total: 2 matches X 6 pts per series = 12 points

Finals:
Correct winner: 5 points
Correct End Result: 7 points
Total: 12 points

Grand TOTAL System 1: 16 + 16 + 12 + 12 = 56 points max


BOLD System 2: Minesweeper (max 60 points)

Max points: 4
Wrong team: can't have positive points
-1 point for game difference between actual and your pick
Minimum points: -3
Total possible points for this system: 60 ((8 + 4 + 2 + 1)*4)

Rewards the same maximum of points, but the penalties lessen as the rounds advance

SPECIAL NOTE: Get +0.5 for predicting wrong team, but right game if it extends to 7 games for Rounds 2-4. This doesn't apply to Round 1 and this doesn't apply to any other games BUT 7.

Quarterfinals (100% negative impact * -1 point for each +/- 1 game differential)
Wrong team wrong game: (off by 3 games) -3 points
Wrong team wrong game: (off by 2 games) -2 points
Wrong team wrong game: (off by 1 game) -1 point
Wrong team, right game: 0 points
Right team wrong game: (off by 3 games) 1 point
Right team wrong game: (off by 2 games) 2 points
Right team wrong game: (off by 1 game) 3 point
Right team right game: 4 points

Semi-Finals (75% negative impact * -1 point for each +/- 1 game differential))

Wrong team wrong game: (off by 3 games) -2.25 points
Wrong team wrong game: (off by 2 games) -1.5 points
Wrong team wrong game: (off by 1 game) -0.75 point
Wrong team, right game: 0 points
Right team wrong game: (off by 3 games) 1 point
Right team wrong game: (off by 2 games) 2 points
Right team wrong game: (off by 1 game) 3 point
Right team right game: 4 points

Conference Finals (50% negative impact * -1 point for each +/- 1 game differential))

Wrong team wrong game: (off by 3 games) -1.5 points
Wrong team wrong game: (off by 2 games) -1 point
Wrong team wrong game: (off by 1 game) -0.5 point
Wrong team, right game: 0 points
Right team wrong game: (off by 3 games) 1 point
Right team wrong game: (off by 2 games) 2 points
Right team wrong game: (off by 1 game) 3 point
Right team right game: 4 points

Finals (25% negative impact * -1 point for each +/- 1 game differential))

Wrong team wrong game: (off by 3 games) -0.75 point
Wrong team wrong game: (off by 2 games) -0.5 point
Wrong team wrong game: (off by 1 game) -0.25 point
Wrong team, right game: 0 points
Right team wrong game: (off by 3 games) 1 point
Right team wrong game: (off by 2 games) 2 points
Right team wrong game: (off by 1 game) 3 point
Right team right game: 4 points


BOLD System 3: Probable cause for concern (max 36 points)

Quarter-Finals
+2 for correct team and game
+1 for either team or game (separate from +2)
0 for incorrect team and series
NO BONUSES are rewarded
Total : 8 matches x 2 pts per round = 16 points

Semi-Finals:
Same as Quarter-finals, BUT with additional points
0.25 bonus points added for each right team you guessed right to advance.
Each match: +2.5 ( 2 for series + 0.5 for correctly predicted teams )
Total: 4 matches x 2.5 pts per round = 10 points

Conference Finals
Same as Quarter-finals, BUT with additional points
0.5 bonus points added for each right team you guessed right to advance.
Each Match +3 ( 2 for series + 1 for correctly predicted teams )
Total: 2 matches x 3 pts per round = 6 points

Finals:
Same as Quarter-finals, BUT with additional points
1 bonus points added for each right team you guessed right to advance.
Match: +4 points ( 2 for series + 2 for correctly predicted teams )

Grand total: 36 points ( 16 + 10 + 6 + 4 )

SAFE GAME SYSTEMS grading criteria (Round by Round / Predict matches once the matchups are determined)
SAFE System 1: Strain to Gain (46 points max)

This system provides 0.5 points (0.75 points if match ends in 7 and you pick 7 games) for right game but wrong team for ALL rounds of bold instead of 0, so there's still a possibility of you getting points. There is no increase in value the further the round goes.

Quarter Finals:
Correct winner of series: 1 point
Correct end result of a series: 1 point
Subtotal: 2 points
Total: 8 matches X 2 pts per series = 16 points

Semi-Finals:
Correct winner of series: 1 point
Correct end result of a series: 2 points
Subtotal: 3 points
Total: 4 matches X 3 pts per series = 12 points

Conference Finals:
Correct winner of series: 2 points
Correct end result of a series: 3 points
Subtotal: 5 points
Total: 2 matches X 5 pts per series = 10 points

Finals:
Correct winner: 3 points
Correct end result: 5 points
Total: 8 points

Grand TOTAL: 16 + 12 + 10 + 8 = 46 points max


SAFE System 2: Minesweeper (60 points max)

Max points: 4
Wrong team: can't have positive points
-1 point for game difference between actual and your pick
Minimum points: -3
Total possible points for this system: 60 ((8 + 4 + 2 + 1)*4)


Penalties do not lessen as we advance to the next round

Same grading scale for ALL ROUNDS of this system:

Wrong team wrong game: (off by 3 games) -3 points
Wrong team wrong game: (off by 2 games) -2 points
Wrong team wrong game: (off by 1 game) -1 point
Wrong team, right game: 0 points
Right team wrong game: (off by 3 games) 1 point
Right team wrong game: (off by 2 games) 2 points
Right team wrong game: (off by 1 game) 3 point
Right team right game: 4 points


SAFE System 3: Probable cause for concern (30 points max)

SAFE MODE ALL ROUNDS
+2 for correct team and game
+1 for either team or game (separate from +2)
0 for incorrect team and series
NO BONUSES are rewarded

Total for safe: 30 (15 matches * 2 points max per series) [/spoiler]System 1: Bold (56) vs Safe (46)
System 2: Bold (60) vs Safe (60)
System 3: Bold (36) vs Safe (30)