Euro 2012 sweepstake anyone?

[kiwiMark]

Just gauging interest at this stage I guess. I'd propose the same deal as what we did for the world cup, so $10 a pop.

Edit:

Transfers will be done via PokerStars, possibly with some exceptions via paypal if we can avoid horrendous fees.

At this stage the majority seems to want Winner Takes All ($160), so if you'd prefer a $110/$50 split for first and second then let your voice be heard.


Edit two: Due to not enough interest this is now a $10 buy-in 8-way winner-take-all sweepstake, with everybody who's in getting dealt two teams. All transfers will be done with PokerStars.

In thus far:

kiwiMark
Alexos
rpm
danarong
OngBonga
WillburForce
kickass
kevster

red people wanted to be in for the original $10 16-way sweepstake but have't yet confirmed they're in for the new $10 8-way sweepstake.

[givememyleg]

huh

[d0zer]

euro feeeeeegits

[BooG690]

In.

[rpm]

in

edit: and stars transfer would be by far the easiest method for me, if possible

[rong]

Only in if I get England cos ldo they're gonna win.

[WillburForce]

In like sloe gin.

[rong]

In like sloe gin.

Speaking if which, I forgot about one of my bottles and it still has the sloes in it, must be 6 months now, tastes great.

[OngBonga]

Only in if I get England cos ldo they're gonna win.

Deluded Britfag.

I can be in this I can transfer ten buckaroos from my ps account, and so long as it's a mod or a trustworthy (haha) reg such as kiwi who's collecting. Can't be bothered to fuck about with paypal though, my account is frozen.

I'll donate 50% to charity if I win in an attempt to get the GODS on my side.

And if I don't win, whoever wins should give my ten bucks to a random homeless person. Or not go to heaven.

[kiwiMark]

Six so far! Yeah I also think PokerStars transfer makes more sense than anything else, unless there's suddenly a huge spike of interest in euro football from the USAians I guess.

Winner takes all or do we want a second place prize again? $160 total prizepool at $10 a team. I'm more for winner takes all but since I hit second in the world cup sweepstake maybe I should rethink that.

[OngBonga]

I prefer winner takes all, but a second prize is fine by me also.

[eugmac]

so how does this work again, you get dealt a team at random?

[OngBonga]

so how does this work again, you get dealt a team at random?

I would hope so. If not, I'll have Spain haha.

[BooG690]

Random team. I can't do PokerStars. I can do PartyPoker or Paypal or Moneybookers though.

[Alexos]

In

[rong]

In and stars transfer for me.

[kiwiMark]

Random team. I can't do PokerStars. I can do PartyPoker or Paypal or Moneybookers though.

Is there a way to paypal it to me without us getting feesraped? if so I can ship your $10 to whoever on stars (or if whoever turns out to be me then put $20 of my stars account aside ldo)

[rong]

Prefer 1-2 pay out, say 110 & fiddy.

[BooG690]

I'll read up on Paypal fees and see if there's a way we can not get fee'd. Also, I prefer WTA. When does this Euro thing start?

[WillburForce]

Speaking if which, I forgot about one of my bottles and it still has the sloes in it, must be 6 months now, tastes great.

I was off FTR for a while - didn't realise you're DanArong (is that right?)

Glad to hear the sloe gin is good - mines all gone!!!

Euros start v soon. I can Stars or Paypal.

[rong]

Yeah that's me. The Sloe gin just gets better and better. But now I've found it I won't have it for long. Goes well with tonic.

[rong]

Deluded Britfag.

Well, Spain have no strikers, the dutch are dodgy at the back, the German's main striker can't perform in big games and they have Mertesacker and the French and Italians don't look strong.

While we have less pressure and expectation than normal, fat frank lampard is out which resolves the fat frank / stevie G problem and we have amazing talent that won't opposition won't be familiar with like the ox and Henderson(lol).

Easy game.

[kiwiMark]

So far we're only at 7 so it's not looking super hopeful.

And I thought I was finally gonna be popular.

[kiwiMark]

Starts on June 8th, so we've still got a week.

[WillburForce]

Yeah that's me. The Sloe gin just gets better and better. But now I've found it I won't have it for long. Goes well with tonic.

awesome isn't it?

Try with a tonic and a squeeze of lime. mmmmmmmmmm

[OngBonga]

England have a chance of winning the Euros, just like Birmingham had a chance of winning the League Cup last year.

We're heavily reliant on Gerrard not getting injured, and he's played less than half of Liverpool's games over the season. The kids in the squad are decent players but they're not as good as Rooney was at that age, they're not world class yet. I guess this is the perfect stage for them to make that advance. The only thing that might work for us is the fact that for the first time I can remember, we enter a tournament without everyone at home expecting us to do well. There's as little pressure on the team as they can hope for.

I'll be happy if we make the semis. There's six nations who all have a serious chance of winning it, I think 4 of them have a better chance than us.

[OngBonga]

Who are you supporting in the Euros Kiwi? England or Holland?

[eugmac]

If I can paypal I'm in. No moneys on stars...

[rong]

Why would kiwi support England? He's a kiwi, no?

[d0zer]

he's a kiwi with a german gf but he lives in holland. He's probably supporting italy.

[OngBonga]

Why would kiwi support England? He's a kiwi, no?

If I were a Kiwi interested in football, I'd likely support England in Euros and WC. The Kiwis don't hate us, do they? I know the Aussies like us to lose, especially at cricket, but I thought the Kiwis like us.

[kiwiMark]

I don't hate the UK at all but I did an exchange year after highschool in Germany and that was pretty much the first time I paid attention to football outside of the world cup, so I guess I support Germany.

I do feel some vague allegiance to the netherlands for winning me $90 in the world cup sweepstake, but fuck the dutch, so...

[kiwiMark]

If I can paypal I'm in. No moneys on stars...

Same deal as boog, if we can make it work without getting hammered by fees then I can ship between the two.

With eug we're at 8. Halfway there!

[rong]

I don't hate the UK at all but I did an exchange year after highschool in Germany and that was pretty much the first time I paid attention to football outside of the world cup, so I guess I support Germany.

I do feel some vague allegiance to the netherlands for winning me $90 in the world cup sweepstake, but fuck the dutch, so...

Huh? Off topic, but explain something to me. You hit 18 and decide that it would be cool to spend a year abroad. You have the whole world at your disposal with the opportunity to go and explore (and study I imagine) and for some reason you choose Germany?

I could understand many European countries being quite tempting, such as Italy, France, Spain, maybe even heading to Scandinavia. They all have different cultures and lifestyles, sexy women to whom you'd seem exotic, different landscapes, food etc. America and Canada would also be understandable but I guess culturally a little similar to home.

But how did Germany even make it on the list? I appreciate it has some if the same qualities mentioned above, but not in the same abundance. I just don't get it.

[kiwiMark]

he's a kiwi with a german gf

and thurrr you have it

[OngBonga]

I hated Germany until I actually went there.

Been to France, hate it. It's full of French people, and they all speak French.

[kiwiMark]

Yeah, I would say the whole germany hate confuses me, but I guess it's all engrained because of the war

[eugmac]

ya i <3 how when it's germany vs england, every english tabloid is like "omg it's the war all over again!!! most significant game evar!" and in germany people are like meh? MUST BEAT THE DUTCH!

[OngBonga]

It's because they're better at football than us, so we like to remind them we kicked their arses twice at war.

[rong]

I don't understand the British hate for the french, I like them. They have far better balance in their lives and refuse to take shit in the way we do over here, they strike over anything, I love it.

[kickass]

If this goes ahead I'm in, stars dollaz are good

[OngBonga]

French loving blabber

I think my dislike for the French is just pure unjustified racism. I don't like their language, and I hate their cheeses. Fuck France.

[BooG690]

I think my dislike for the French is just pure unjustified racism. I don't like their language, and I hate their cheeses. Fuck France.

And just like that, Ong is off my shit list.

[kevster]

Hey FTR - been busy.

I'm in. Stars xfer is good for me.

Germany will win by the way.

[BooG690]

Kiwi should edit the first post with a list of people that are 'in.'

[kiwiMark]

I was just thinking the same and then I read your post suggesting I do it and now I don't want to. Yes I'm a 14 year old girl.

[kiwiMark]

Updated OP. We're at 10/16 thus far (assuming paypal turns out to be acceptable, 8/16 otherwise), hopefully we get a few more and if we're only a couple short then I guess we sell two teams/tickets to whoever's willing and asks first.

Other things that need to be sorted at some point:

Who we ship the cash to (I don't mind being this person, but since I started the thread and this could be the world's most genius money grab since UB/AP, it's also a fair call if getting somebody else is better)

Who does the drawing of the teams. This should be done by somebody who's not taking part, should be a very quick process with random.org though so I'm sure we can find someone willing.

[kiwiMark]

boog doesn't think there's any to avoid paypal taking a chunk since the transfers would be between accounts from different conutries.

So I guess we're back down to 8 people in and that this is probably dead in the water.

[OngBonga]

We could take two teams each and play winner takes all...

[OngBonga]

And just like that, Ong is off my shit list.

I'm sure you'll be facepalming at me again in due course.

[kevster]

We could take two teams each and play winner takes all...

this

[kiwiMark]

Do you guys mean put in an extra $10 each, or that the winner now gets $80?

[kevster]

I'm happy either way. $20 is cool.

[kiwiMark]

Can everybody who's in give their opinions/let us know for which of the following they're still in:

$10 each, $80 WTA prize pool, two teams each.
$20 each, $160 WTA prize pool, two teams each.

or say if you're no longer interested (kinda gonna have to assume this one if you don't respond).

I'm assuming you two paypal guys are out since otherwise you'd have to cover the extra fees yourselves and that kinda takes the fun out of a giant flip.

[OngBonga]

Well I was thinking just $10 and smaller WTA prize, but if we have $20 each we can still have 1st and 2nd if that's what peeps wanna do. I'm easy. Still in, however we decide to go about it.

[rong]

I only really wanna throw 10 bucks away tbh

[rpm]

happy to do either if this goes ahead.

[Icanhastreebet]

Should do a one million buy-in sweepstake imo, much more awesome sweat where everyone has a shot and know they aren't dead from the get go.

[kickass]

Either way is fine 10bucks a team prolly

[kiwiMark]

Okay sounds like $10 gets you two teams and it's winner takes all.

Following people are in for this:

kevster
ongabonga
rpm
kiwiMark
kickass
danarong

would be great to hear from willbur and alexos, then we can get this drawn before kickoff tomorrow.

[rong]

Shall we have two tiers of teams?

Maybe Spain, Germany, Holland, France, Portugal, Italy, England, Russia in tier 1? I guess the who could be debatable, but I'd prefer the concept to getting Greece & Ireland as my 2 teams.

[kiwiMark]

If we can get some consensus/majority opinion quickly then I'm game for that, but otherwise I'd say it's probably just totally random assignment since this thing starts tomorrow and we need everyone to weigh in before then.

[OngBonga]

I like the idea of seeding, so we all get one strong team and one outsider (sort of)
For the sake of debate, here's how I'd propose the seeding of the teams in the Euros, based on current FIFA rankings...

Top seeds -
Spain (1)
Germany (3)
Netherlands (4)
England (6)
Croatia (8)
Denmark (9)
Portugal (10)
Italy (12)

Bottom seeds -
Russia (13)
France (14)
Greece (15)
Sweden (17)
Ireland (18)
Czech Republic (27)
Ukraine (52)
Poland (62)

I'm totally down with two random teams, but if we take one team from each pool, we all have a fair crack at winning.

USA are ranked 28. Just saying...

Also didn't notice that Dan proposed a pool. Whatever we can agree on, I picked FIFA rankings because it's independent, but I realise that it's not perfect, since France have a better chance than Denmark and Croatia. If people like dan's pool more, we can go for that instead.

[rong]

I was influenced by the groups. Denmark have very little chance of qualifying. But I'm easy w/e.

An alternative which I'm doing at work is to all predict the score for every game and earn 1 point for a correct result and 3 points for a correct score.

[OngBonga]

I didn't think about the groups.

If we're gonna do seeds, I think we should use dan's pool because he posted it first. It's as reasonable as it gets.

[kiwiMark]

My point is we can't even get everyone to say they're in for this $80 two-teams dealio, I think it's way too late to get people to agree on further complicated details.

Right now I dunno if we assume Alexos and WillburForce are in for an 8-way flip just as they were for a 16-way flip, or if we bail on everything?

[rong]

PM them?

[kevster]

Just to confirm I'm in. Hopefully the other two will wake up and think "shit, I'd better login to FTR" like I did. 9 hours to the first kick-off.

If we go the top seeds idea (which I like), it should be the following with little debate.

Top seeds -
Spain
Germany
Netherlands
England
Portugal
Italy
France
Russia

The FIFA rankings are meaningless at the best of times but never more so than in this scenario. Denmark, for example, are 100/1 because they're in the same group as Germany, Netherlands and Portugal and are basically fucked. Similar story for Croatia (64/1) and in the same group as Spain and Italy.

[rong]

I'm pretty sure that's what I said.

[kiwiMark]

pm sent to rpm, alexos, willbur and kickass

[OngBonga]

I'm happy with kev + dan's seeding, or two randoms.

Denmark are indeed fucked, but don't write off Croatia, I think they'll qualify ahead of Italy.

[OngBonga]

Poland vs Greece starts in 15 mins

Here's the team line ups, purely for amusement...

Poland (4-2-3-1): Szczesny; Piszczek, Wasilewski, Perquis, Boenisch; Murawski, Polanski; Blaszczykowski, Obraniak, Rybus; Lewandowski.
Subs: Sandomierski, Wojtkowiak, Kaminski, Dudka, Matuszczyk, Wawrzyniak, Sobiech, Mierzejewski, Wolski, Grosicki, Brozek, Tyton.

Greece (4-3-3): Chalkias; Torosidis, Papastathopoulos, A Papadopoulos, Holebas; Maniatis, Katsouranis, Karagounis; Ninis, Gekas, Samaras.
Subs: Tzorvas, Tzavelas, Malezas, K Papadopoulos, Makos, Liberopoulos, Mitroglou, Salpingidis, Fotakis, Fortounis, Fetfatzidis, Sifakis.

[OngBonga]

GOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL

Poland 1 Greece 0

Greece looking awful, how the fuck are these guys ranked 15 in the world?

[bigred]

Wow Szczesny, y u so dumb? Start preparing for game 3.

[bigred]

WHAT A FUCKING SAVE GOALIE #2

FUCK YEAH POLAND