Small games check-in 2024

Please kindly post below for confirming unchanged scope of participation and/or checking in and out.
In the first draft, I'll assume the same participants as in 2023.
I'll also propose a preliminary schedule.

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Nations Cup

One rider from each geographical region.

Confirmed participants:
Unclear:

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Country Roads

One rider for each type of terrain.

Confirmed participants:
Unclear:

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Rainbow Cup

Pick riders who'll outscore their recent seasons.

Confirmed participants:
Unclear:

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Fine Young Cannibals

Pick & keep breakout youngsters.

Confirmed participants:
Unclear:

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Quick Fix

Basically Rainbow Cup for people with a short attention span

Flexible amount of participants - whoever signs up shortly before each mini-game, starting with Quick Cobbles in March.

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stage picker

Speaks for itself

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Proposed schedule:
Nov 24 - NC
Dec 1 - CR
Dec 8 - RC
Dec 15 - FYC
Dec 22 - a break, as your beloved commish is tying the knot!
January - see below
1 week before E3 - QC
1 day before the grand depart-

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Last but not least: games I have already designed and tested, but never found enough participants. Let me know if you'd like to try these. They would take place in the first half of January. Please check out our entire portfolio and feel free to react on those that might potentially rock your boat. They all have their own forum board and sheet. As a rule of thumb, I'd guess at least will gladly participate in anything that gets additional engagement from others. If you're interested, some could kick off on Jan 1 (there's lots of time left before TDU) while others are designed to keep us active throughout the year. Without further ado:


Man in the Mirror

Synopsis: you are your worst enemy! Unlimited roster space and money, but scoring negative if salary exceeds score.
Difficulty: 5
Originality: 7
Tactics: 4 (just try not to overcook it)
In-season activity: 8 (you may fire or buy additional riders till August and only pay partial salary)

The exact wording of the rules:

• Calendar - identical to the main game.
• Scoring - identical to the main game, minus the monthly salary paid up to 7 times on Mar 1 - Sep 1.
• One auction per rider.
• You may:
  - start an auction till the end of August (you'll pay the number of salaries depending on when you start the auction),
  - fire a rider at any moment and only owe him the next salary,
  - or keep a rider till the end of the season.
• Timeout: 24 hours.
• You only score in any race if the auction expired on or before the day preceding the opening stage, i.e. before midnight CET.
• Opening bid: 100CQ, overbid: +20CQ. This is the salary you'll pay monthly, up 7 times in total on Mar 1 - Sep 1.

Example: in January I buy Florian Vermeersch for 120CQ. He scores 353 points across all the spring races, then I drop him in April.
That means I owe him 3 monthly salaries (Mar 1, Apr 1, May 1) of 120 each, so in the end I'll lose 7 points on this horrible gamble: 353 - 3*120 = -7.
Effectively, you're mostly just competing against the youthful enthusiasm of the man in the mirror.




Life behind Bars

Synopsis: at last you can bet on anything you want, regardless if it's Tour de l'Avenir stage 3, Guam NC ITT, or points classification.
Difficulty: 1
Originality: 5 (different calendar)
Tactics: 3 (gotta assess your level of certainty)
In-season activity: 7 (your call)

• Just start a thread and post your pick in the opening post. Others reply with theirs.
• Limitation TBD: contest only valid if at least one other person picks OR at least two different riders picked.
• Deadline: 11am CET for European races. Or before the race begins for races outside Europe.

Scoring table for 1st place, then 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th+
Grand Tour GC 15 10 6 3 1 0 -1 -2 -3 -4
Monument / WT tour 10 6 3 1 0 -1 -2 -3 -3 -3
GT st / WT classic 6 3 1 0 -1 -2 -2 -2 -2 -2
Anything else 3 1 0 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1




Classics Series

Synopsis: initial auction followed by single rider nomination for each classic.
Difficulty: 4
Originality: 5 (different calendar)
Tactics: 9 (mostly in the team composition phase)
In-season activity: 3 (22 simple decisions to take)

The exact wording of the rules:

• Calendar: 20 WT classics + WCRR + ECRR.
• One auction per rider, timeout - 24 hours.
• Opening bid: €1, overbid: +€1, total budget €50, max 7 roster spots.
• Before each classic, you post the name of 1 rider who'll ride for you. If you don't, your most expensive participant will ride by default.
• Relative scoring among those selected.

Vino Casino

Synopsis: gamble 200 chips to convert them into the maximum number of points.
Difficulty: 6
Originality: 9
Tactics: 10 (which races to target & which riders to save for later)
In-season activity: 7 (you may skip half a season without any consequences)

The exact wording of the rules:

• 200 chips to bet with. Bet between 0 and 10 combined chips per race on 1 or 2 riders.
• The score is CQ points in the race gained by each rider multiplied by number of chips you bet on him.
• Calendar: WT++EC.
• Max 15 chips per rider per year, max 5 chips per rider in a GT.

Wall Street

Synopsis: bet before each race.
Difficulty: 4
Originality: 8
Tactics: 2
In-season activity: 99 (you may skip half a season without any consequences, but being online in the evenings helps)

The exact wording of the rules:

• Riders score the difference between their actual CQ result & the winning bid. Could be negative!
• Rosters get emptied after each race.
• Calendar: WT++EC.
• Any new team can enter the game at any point.

More details: fantasycycling.freeforums.net/thread/6/wall-street-rules
This one used to thrive in the late 2010s already, but then Davy got a second kid
I have now simplified the rules while adding one important titbit to prevent game-breaking stuff when only one person has enough time on the day before the race.




Once and for all

Synopsis: pick a different rider for each classic/stage, as proposed by Martin.
Difficulty: 2
Originality: 7
Tactics: 10
In-season activity: 8 (you may pick way in advance and update later if needed)

The exact wording of the rules:

• Calendar - 27 classics/stages 6-14 days apart like this*, including 3 best GdI stages, 4 best stages, and 2 best VaE stages. (Btw if you so desire, could easily become even more tactical with midweek races added for a total of 40-50 races, meaning you'd have to go really deep.)
• Pick 1 rider for each race.
• You may only use each rider once per year.
• Multiple ownership allowed.
• 4 points for winning the race, then 2 and 1.

Helmet-to-Helmet

Synopsis: H2H on classics and the most important stages.
Difficulty: 2
Originality: 10 (our first H2H)
Tactics: 2
In-season activity: 10 (27 quick snake drafts)

The exact wording of the rules:

• Calendar - 27 matchups 6-14 days apart like this*, including 3 best GdI stages, 4 best stages, and 2 best VaE stages.
• You and your opponent snake-draft a squad of 2 riders each by directly inserting names into the sheet, home team getting the 1st and 4th pick.
• 10 points for winning the race/stage, 9 for 2nd etc.
• Compare total scores like in football. Only +/-1 point difference means a draw. Points (3-1-0) and goal difference automatically going into the league table.

The Octagon

Synopsis: choose 3 different riders for each chapter of the year.
Difficulty: 7 (but willing to consider absolute scores to simplify)
Originality: 8 (thematic calendar)
Tactics: 9 (you may invest vastly different amounts per period)
In-season activity: 10 (monthly rider acquisition periods)

The exact wording of the rules:

• Calendar - 8 non-overlapping chapters: Sun (SB PN TA MSR), Cobbles (3D E3 GW DdV RvV PR), Hills (BP AGR FW LBL), Giro, Alps (CdD TdS Slovenia), Tour, Vuelta, Pasta (CB GdE MT GP GdL).
• Yearly budget, but new auctions during one week before each season.
• $1000 for the entire year, $10 minimum opening bid, 10% minimum overbids.
• Relative scoring of each chapter.

Alright, that's all I've got. Anything you fancy? Please post interest/questions/ideas below!