Yearlong County Contest

I am changing the contest. Tony and I have discussed it...the idea has been posted, and no objections have been made...and everyone has had ample chance to see it.

I'm removing the Hit Rate bonus/penalty from the weightings.
I have also found it necessary to add another category onto the Bills Entered, and the Track Points for 25000+ because Tony is entering like a fiend, and this is exactly part of the problem keeping this contest from being a runaway.

I've also implemented another Tony suggestion...splitting 2010 into 2 halves for weighting purposes. Now, 1st half 2010 is 1.0 and 2nd half 2010 is 1.1.

Also, I am changing the weight for year entered of earlier than 2010 from .9 to .95 to help Dave, Tim, and Markus. I wish I could do a bit more to help them, particularly Markus, who, for some reason, seems a bit hamstrung here. I'm hoping that adding the handicaps mid-year will address this. But the figures do seem a bit closer than they were - with these changes implemented.

Tony's still in the lead, and that's okay, it isn't yet runaway territory, he is ahead by 10 counties...and by 2.6 points.

Also, we WILL handicap at six months out at 95% of the difference of the base number (not yet set) but, since we will use handicap in conjunction with weighting for the rest of the year, we will NOT round the handicaps to nearest integer.

Next year, we will use solid handicap and nothing else...except for the weightings which will be used for newcomers - they will get an average handicap of the established handicaps, plus their weightings.

This way, we can try our very very best...to keep this a competitive contest, and avoid runaways.

Tony is already in favor of this plan, as am I. I can't see any objection from Dave, Tim, or Jackson, as they all will BENEFIT from the new system. Markus has not (and isn't likely to) voice any objection...and he's had ample time to do so.

So I assume we are all in agreement here...and I hope this tinkering will again bring this contest back to what I had hoped it would be...a fair, competitive contest without any one person running away with it.

On that note, if we get Darrel or Dr. stamper in next year, we will HAVE to do something different with any handicap they might get, otherwise they'd blow it out of the water...we'd have to give them a Tony-level handicap or lower.

I am trying my level best to keep this fair, so that everyone has a real chance of winning.

For now, I am removing the hit-rate bonus/penalty from the weightings. the handicapping will occur later, at mid-year, when we have some real numbers to crunch.

The spreadsheet and map updates are happening now!

I claim San Luis Obispo County, CA.

Map and Spreadsheet updated thru this post!

Current States not yet hit - AK, HI, MS, MT, RI, VT.

Yes, Dave I did include Dallas in the update, so it's there now, and sorry about missing it.

There may not be another update for a while, as I am going on vacation in a couple weeks. I'll still be online and stuff, but I suspect I'll have other things to do while I'm in Florida.

Like bombing FL/GA/AL with bills so I can catch the freaking Tony Express.

Tony wrote:I claim San Luis Obispo County, CA.

replying only to move this claim to AFTER my cutoff statement, so that it does not get missed.

PLEASE, folks...when I am actually doing an update...do you think you could hold off posting claims? that is how they get lost in the shuffle!

I think I will sneak over to the east and take care of Allegheny, PA for ya!

Diamondback Dave wrote:I think I will sneak over to the east and take care of Allegheny, PA for ya!

Ya know...it's bugged the SNOT outta me that, in over a year on WG? and nearly a year here at TD...I STILL can't manage a Pittsburgh hit.

Nice one.

a few more claims:

Harford, MD
Will, IL
Medina, TX
Habersham, GA
Barrow, GA
Schuylkill, PA
Franklin, OH

Markus

I'll Claim:


Tuscola County, Michigan
Kalamazoo County, Michigan

Schuylkill, PA kinda hurts my pride, Markus!! You're invading my turf!!

Nice hits, Jackson!!

I claim Maui County, HI.

and so, HI enters the game!

I shall have Kent, DE!!

I'll take The Bronx
Bronx, NY is mine.
Also got one in staten Island twenty minutes before this one, but I already got Richmond County.
Surprised it took me this long to get The Bronx.

I gonna horn in on Jackson's territory, and claim

Midland County, MI for my very own.

I shall claim

Laramie Freaking County WYOMING!!!

Finally, I get to make another claim!!! I'll take Monroe County, Michigan

I claim Douglas County, NE.

I claim Mason County, Michigan

I claim St. Mary's county, MD

I bleeve I shall sneak down into Markus and Tim's turf to claim
Prince George County, VA

I claim Charleston County, SC

Going upstate to Saratoga county, NY

I claim Rankin County, MS. My 1st hit in MS!

Tony wrote:I claim Rankin County, MS. My 1st hit in MS!

So, now MS also joins the game!

The Four Holdouts: AK, MT, RI, VT.

I claim:
Baker County, OR
Yakima County, WA