2018 Finals Vote for CAP/DH/Draft Order

That's the good stuff, thanks! By simply using "aficionado" I clearly underestimated you - not only a real player but a very good chess writer, to boot.

The "tiebreak" scenario you describe irritates me greatly. It's like deciding the World Cup on a penalty shootout. I get the same visceral response to the accommodations cricket has made to the modern world. I won't get into them here, but suffice it to say they hit all the same "this doesn't make sense, this isn't even the same goddamn sport" notes.

Baseball, of course, is next on the chopping block. I'm always on the wrong side of history here (anti-DH, anti-wild card, anti-interleague play), so I won't waste my breathe on the ridiculous "shot clock" for pitches. But if they start putting runners on 2nd base in extra innings the world truly has gone mad.

My dream come true. I hate 80m and No DH, but I definitely hate No DH more. Hoping the 3 play ins fix my problem...

I voted for 80 mill DH. Seemed natural since we didn't play it in the preceding 6 leagues.

The World Chess Championship played out exactly as The Last Druid predicted!

Are you spitting bile at Carlsen's antics in the 12th match?? Certainly seems to have left many in the chess world agog...

Not at all. It was Carlsen's choice. He couldn't show any advantage over Fabiano at classical time controls, so he made up his mind before game 12 to just draw and conserve his energy for the rapid playoffs. Kasparov and Kramnik were both severely critical of Magnus's decision, but as he put eloquently, if not diplomatically, "they are entitled to their stupid opinions." Like Magnus, I am Norwegian, and could easily see myself saying the EXACT same thing. Come to think of it, I I have said just that on more than one occasion, although I generally substitute moronic for stupid.

I am hoping that this outcome creates a groundswell of support for the return to a more traditional World Chess Championship format. One that is decided by classical time controls since those are what the world championship is supposed to be testing. Rapid and Blitz have altogether separate ratings lists and very different games than classical chess. Carlsen who is more of an intuitive player dominated Caruana at the rapid controls,as the latter is a deep and exact calculator of variations which takes considerable time to execute. Not a fair contest in my most humble opinion.

Moose: Are trading picks allowed? For example, if I wanted to trade picks 3 and 22 to Petro for picks 12 and 13 and he and I just announce it on this message board, are there any issues with that? Just using this scenario as an example...

Moose: Are trading picks allowed? For example, if I wanted to trade picks 3 and 22 to Petro for picks 12 and 13 and he and I just announce it on this message board, are there any issues with that? Just using this scenario as an example...

I would rather see it be for the entire draft, not just specific picks. With Diamond Dope being in the mix, I don't have capabilities of editing the dope site to have it show specific picks out of order. So if you want to swap draft positions completely, I'm okay with that.

Moose

Congratulations to MonkeyMaker for winning Semi-Final #2. His league total of 85 wins will be matched up against the other two Semi-Final winners for determining 10th, 11th, or 12th position. I will post those winners here when we have them.

Everybody in in the playoffs in the other two leagues had a better regular season record than me, so I will be left with the scraps, and perhaps a tie breaking vote?!?

Congrats MonkeyMaker.