Okay… now… here’s the situation. And it’s not that my parents went away on a week’s vacation… nor that they left the keys to the brand new Porsche… uh………

Moving on.

I am now officially ready to introduce the inaugural So You Think You Can Dance Fantasy League Point System (copyright @seangunn)

Sean worked long and hard on this sucker. He even did some mock tests with it, pretending he was fake players, making various lists to compete against one another… even dressing up in different costumes. Sort of mathematical method acting. It was really strange, but effective. So please send him a thank you for his time.

Here’s what he has to say:

There are 11 placings, which I call weeks. I call them placings and not eliminations because the winner is not eliminated, but his or her “placing” needs to be accounted for. Here’s the placing for each week, with the number of contestants eliminated in parentheses:

Week 1 – 17th Place (2)

Week 2 – 15th Place (2)

Week 3 – 13th Place (2)

Week 4 – 11th Place (2)

Week 5 – 9th Place (2)

Week 6 – 7th Place (2)

Week 7 – 5th Place (2)

Week 8 – 4th Place (1)

Week 9 – 3rd Place (1)

Week 10 – 2nd Place (1)

Week 11 – 1st Place (1)

Obviously, Weeks 8 -11 will actually only be one week of television viewing.

· Each player receives 11 points for each correct placing.

· For incorrect placing, each player receives 10 points minus the difference between the place predicted and the actual placing.

· Each player receives 3 bonus points for each member of the final four correctly predicted (12 total points possible)

· Each player receives one-half (0.5) bonus point for each additional correct prediction made on a weekly basis independent of their official entry. These predictions can only be made between the episode and the next day by 5pm PST just before the results show. The player may predict any dancer remaining regardless of who is listed on their official entry, and must send that prediction as a tweet to @johncabrera with the hashtag #SYTYCD-FDL

For example, say in week 2, Karla and Brandon are eliminated:

If I had Karla exiting in week 2 but Brandon exiting in week 6, I would receive 17 points: 11 + [10 – (6 -2)].

If I had Karla exiting in week 5 and Brandon exiting in week 1, I would receive 16 points: [10 – (5 -2)] + [10 – (2 -1)]. But this time let’s say that after watching this week’s episode, I had a bad feeling about Karla’s and Phillip’s performance, so just before the results show I sent a tweet to @johncabrera saying that I changed my mind and thought Karla and Phillip would be the next to go… then I would recoup half a point for Karla even though she will remain placing in week 5 on my entry… and I’d receive nothing for Phillip since Brandon was the one to go home instead.

Enjoy!

So there it is, I know there are a lot of numbers there, but it’s really not as complicated as it seems.

Just send your entry to dance@johncabrera.com. It has to be in by no later than this Wednesday (6/17/09) at 5pm PST. And format it like such:

Subject: SYTYCD Fantasy League

Body:
Your name
Your Twitter address/username if you have one
And the order in which you think the remaining 18 will be going home. It should be listed like this.

1. 1st place winner of SYTYCD 2009
2. 2nd place
3. 3rd place
4. 4th place
5. 6th place guy, 6th place girl
6. 8th place guy, 8th place girl
7. 10th place guy, 10th place girl
8. 12th place guy, 12th place girl
9. 14th place guy, 14th place girl
10. 16th place guy, 16th place girl
11. 18th place guy, 18th place girl

Then each week, watch the episode. Before the results show airs the next day, send me a tweet with your best prediction for that week. Tag it #SYTYCD-FDL. I’ll add half a point to your total score for each one you get right.

I’m also gonna be building an application here on my site that tracks everyone in the game, so you’ll be able to see everyone’s picks as well as their current standing.

THE PRIZE

So I’ve been going back and forth on what I should offer as incentive for playing. At the end of the day, if you’re playing it’s because you’re interested in the show… so mostly we’re doing this for fun.

But I have to spice it up a bit, so here’s what I’m thinking…

Aside from general bragging rights, the winner (and there will only be one) will pwn my blog for a month. What does that mean?

Well, the first thing I’ll do is change the name of the site. It’ll be renamed “who’s [the name of the winner]?”. I’ll replace my about me section with a section about them and all links to social media will be replaced with theirs. I’ll also give the winner administrative rights to post their own articles here at my site (within reason). Basically they get to move into my blog for a month.

In addition, the next time the winner is in LA (or if they live here), I’ll treat them to lunch at one of my favorite spots in the hood, Alcove on Hilhurst. I know it’s a little unfair to those who don’t live in LA… but it’s just lunch… and just me… and the offer will stand for years to come. So while I certainly wouldn’t plan a trip around it, if you do ever find yourself here, you’ve got a congratulatory lunch on me.

And that’s that. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments. And if I think of anything else, I’ll list them in the comments as well.

(UPDATE: To watch all the dance numbers from last week, CLICK HERE)