Prognostikeggers 2014 - Week 1

This is not a dream. Your eyes are not playing a trick on you right now. This is real. I just wanted to get that all out of the way to start, since I'm sure that answers the most common questions that will come up today.

For those of you who don't know what this is, Prognostikeggers is a prediction-based game that was played on Brew Crew Ball in 2011 and 2012. It took the 2013 season off (mainly because I didn't have time to run it), but we are going to take a shot at bringing it back for 2014. For now, this is just going to be a test run, but I'm going to guarantee it will be here through the first four weeks of the season. After that, I will reevaluate and decide where to go from there. Depending on popularity & my time commitment, it will either stick around, see some changes, or potentially disappear again.

To reduce the time commitment on my end (because it was too high before), I've simplified the game quite a bit. Instead of all of the predictions from before, the game is now going to be based on one thing, but it was the one aspect of it that most people enjoyed: the bonus prediction. This will be very simple: All you have to do is make a prediction about the game. That's it. The prediction can be about whatever you want, as long as I can verify if it happened.

If your prediction is correct, you will receive between 0 and 5 points for it. Points will mainly be assigned based on rarity of the event, though I may also give out an extra point for creative predictions. It won't be as structured as before, and while I will use percentages to help decide points, it won't necessarily be the only factor I consider. At the end of the day, I will be the sole judge on points (though you can argue if you think a prediction you got right should be worth more). If you want some percentages to go off of, here is probably what I am going to use to start the season: 50% (1), 30% (2), 20% (3), 10% (4), 5% (5).

There is another big change to the format as well. Instead of one prediction per game (as it was before), you will now get a number of predictions each week equal to the number of games that week. For example, this week you will be able to make a total of six predictions since there are six games. You can stick to making one prediction per game, or mix it up a bit. You could choose a couple of games to double-up predictions, or could even make all six predictions in one game. This gives some flexibility, so if you forget to predict a game, you can just use that prediction in another game that week. Note that predictions do not carry over to the next week, so any leftover predictions you have after the last game of the week are lost.

Here is a quick rundown of the rules:

- All registered users of Brew Crew Ball are eligible to play.

- Predictions for a game must be made by the first pitch time of the game. Once a game has started, no more predictions are allowed for that game.

- You can make as many predictions as you want for each game, but predictions will only be counted until you hit your weekly maximum number of predictions (equal to the number of games that week). In the event extra predictions are made, only the first predictions made will be counted.

- Each correct prediction will earn between 0 and 5 points. Points will be assigned based mainly on rarity but also a little on creativity. I will be the sole judge on prediction points.

- Points will be tracked from week to week, though I won't keep cumulative points this year between the weeks. (This may change later on.)

- There are no prizes for this other than bragging rights.

That's it for now. Like I said before, I'm guaranteeing four weeks for now, and after that I will reevaluate and decide where to go from there. It could stay in exactly the same format, see some changes (additions or modifications), or potentially go back into hiding. For now, have fun and good luck.

(Click here to view all predictions made so far. Note: I will probably edit this later to make it easier to view, since six different games can appear here at one time. I'm looking into ways to allow you to re-sort the spreadsheet without editing it.)

(If the form below does not load, you can also enter your predictions here.)