UPDATE: THE POINT SYSTEM ORIGINALLY POSTED BELOW HAS CHANGED SLIGHTLY. Players will now have a week longer to flesh out their full card… however, there will still be game play this Tuesday, and a submission by 3pm will be required by all players for game entry.

Okay, so after much deliberation (not really), and comments from a few of you, I’ve decided to keep most of the rules for the Fantasy Dance Lark intact.

I’ll start with the most significant change. This season, we’re gonna be keeping all of the game play here at johncabrera.com. Bonus picks will be submitted as comments to special posts I’ll be putting up right after the performance show. I won’t moderate them immediately though (not that I’m particularly timely in moderating comments as it is). I’m going to wait until the submissions have closed at 8pm EST on the day of the results show. So unless your name is John Cabrera, you won’t be able to see what others have submitted until after the results show is over.

Yes, I realize this gives me a bit of an edge, but since I’m the one dolling out the prize (and since there isn’t really a prize for me other than the sheer Joy o’the Lark) this will be my most effective weapon of war against you.

PRIZE
As for that prize, it’s also being kept pretty much intact.

1.) I’ll showcase you here at the blog for a month by allowing to you to pimp several aspects to the design. Links to social media, header photos, etc. If you’re like Marivic Tagala (@sorano916)you will probably use this power for good… to educate, inform. If you’re say, Michael Muhney, you will probably replace the photos with something you think might embarrass me. It will not work… but the choice is yours, none the less.

2.) Similarly you’ll be given administrative access to post your own content here on the blog for one month. Whatever you’d like. I’m not a sore loser, so if you want to toilet paper this sucker with clips from High School Musical 3, you can go at it. Last season, Marivic did have some problems posting YouTube videos though, so I’ll have to do a bunch of testing to make sure you have all the content creation privileges I do. (Again, sorry about that Marivic. That wasn’t intended. You just caught me while I was traveling.)

3.) And last but not least, the victory lunch. This time at The Coffee Table in Silver Lake. As I said last season, this is not so much a prize as an opportunity for me to congratulate you on a job well done. It’s also totally contingent on whether I’m actually here in LA at the time. I have been doing a lot of traveling these days. But there’s no expiration on the lunch, so if you don’t live in LA, just give me a holler next time you’re here.

RULES
Now, let’s go over @seangunn‘s mathmagical point system, shall we? In his own words:

[UPDATE: These have changed slightly. Click here for the new system]

There are 12 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 – 19th Place (2)

Week 2 – 17th Place (2)

Week 3 – 15th Place (2)

Week 4 – 13th Place (2)

Week 5 – 11th Place (2)

Week 6 – 9th Place (2)

Week 7 – 7th Place (2)

Week 8 – 5th Place (2)

Week 9 – 4rd Place (1)

Week 10 – 3nd Place (1)

Week 11 – 2st Place (1)

Week 12 – 1st Place (1)

Obviously, Weeks 9 -12 will actually only be one week/episode of television viewing.

· Each player receives 12 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 8pm EST just before the results show. The player may predict any dancer remaining regardless of who is listed on their official entry, and must post that prediction as a comment here to the weekly “Bonus Pick Blog Post”.

For example, say in week 2, Noelle and Legacy are eliminated:

If I had Noelle exiting in week 2 but Legacy exiting in week 6, I would receive 18 points: 12 + [10 – (6 -2)].

If I had Noelle exiting in week 5 and Legacy 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 Noelle’s and Russel’s performance, so just before the results show I post a Bonus Pick comment at johncabrera.com saying that I changed my mind and thought Noelle and Russel would be the next to go… then I would recoup half a point for Noelle even though she will remain placing in week 5 on my entry… and I’d receive nothing for Russel since Legacy was the one to go home instead.

Enjoy!

It may seem complicated, but it’s really not. And the good news is, all the math will be done on my end by that handy little flash app I built last season. You’ll be able to see everyone’s picks, as well as their current standing week to week. The design version I had at the end of last season was pretty close to what I want. The only thing that could force major a redesign would be a much larger pool of FDLer, so we’ll see.

SUBMITTING
Just send your entry to dance@johncabrera.com. It has to be in by no later than this Monday (10/26/09) at 3pm EST TUESDAY (10/27/09) AT 3PM EST. [UPDATE:Click here to read about new submission dates] I’ll be lenient to those who accidentally miss the deadline by an hour or so. But if the show airs on the east coast, submissions are closed until the next FDL.

Format your submission like this:

Subject: SYTYCD Fantasy League

Body:
1.) Your name
2.) (Optional) One web address you would like me to associate with your web presence if you have one (can be a blog, FB, twitter, tumblr, etc).
3.) The order in which you think the 20 will be going home. It should be listed like this.

1. 1st place winner of SYTYCD
2. 2nd place
3. 3rd place
4. 4th place
5. 5th place guy, 5th place girl
6. 7th place guy, 7th place girl
7. 9th place guy, 9th place girl
8. 11th place guy, 11th place girl
9. 13th place guy, 13th place girl
10. 15th place guy, 15th place girl
11. 17th place guy, 17th place girl
(Here’s a nice list of the names of the top 20.)

Then each week, watch the episode. Before the results show airs the next day (8pm EST), come here to the blog, leave your Bonus Pick for the girl and the guy you think are going home. I’ll add a 0.5 point to your total score for each one you get right, giving you the chance to up your score by 1 and offset any real doozie picks.

[UPDATE: Based on what it states at the Fox website, it seems the first performance week doesn't have an elimination show. Fox states that on Tuesday, the first night of official competition, two contestants will be voted off without audience input. If that is true, then your bonus picks for Week 1 will be the same as your Week 1 picks on your full draft. If Fox throws in a twist, and there is an elimination show after all, then we will go back to the original plan. The show does like twists, so we'll have to be flexible with the FDL. I'm already hearing that Week 2 may also have some wonkitude (thx for the heads up @caffrin).]

Now, my big fear during the final stretch last season was a possible tie. There were actually several matching scores in the final tally, not to mention the medals race being VERY close. So in the event of a tie, the winner will be decided by the number of bonus points they received over the course the tourney. This favors week to week skill over luck of the draw, and is a good reason for participating in those bonuses as much as you can.

WATCHING
I’ve come up with another new element for the FDL… and this will be helpful to those who think they may miss episodes of the show, who don’t have a Tivo/DVR, and who rely on clips online to catch up. If you think you may be one of those people, I’d like you to register as a member here at my blog. In fact, I’d really like everyone playing the game to register as a member here if you aren’t one already. That way, I can write private posts specifically dealing with the Fantasy Dance Lark, and give only members of the FDL access to reading them. These will be separate from the public posts I normally write about the show (and will continue to write). These won’t include the posts for Bonus Pick comments either, so this is totally optional. In fact, the main role of these private posts will be as a way for you to catch up on episodes you’ve missed; specific video embeds and links, which should be especially helpful to non US residents or those who have other commitments when the show airs.

When you register, just be sure to use the same email address as the one you’ll be sending your picks from. Hopefully by tomorrow morning I’ll have a private post up, and you’ll understand their purpose a little better. But again, this is not at all required to play the FDL.

STRATEGY
Oh, one last thing! Earlier I was on the phone with my buddy Michael Muhney. We were discussing how to come up with a solid top 20 line up. I mean, it’s hard! And I’m probably not the best person to give advice on this, since last FDL I fared pretty poorly. But one thing he and I both agreed on, was that this is not just a competition between the dancers… but also between the show producers and the fans.

What do I mean by this?

Well, every season we see their battle played out pretty much the same way… an active struggle between what the fans want (in some cases a win or placement by a lovable, albeit less skilled, dancer) and what the producers want (in some cases a win by an insanely gifted, albeit awkward or unlikable, dancer). Both sides use their own strategies in order to secure their win. The producers’ main tools are dancer pairings, dance style “draws”, and in some cases, the music and/or choreography… the viewers have their fan sites and their mobilized masses. The producers get the ball for the first half of the season, having the power to remove contestants… for the second half that power goes to the viewers.

There’s a really interesting game at play underneath the branded dance competition. If you can get into the minds of both the producers and the fans, then weigh them against the actual dancing… you could do really well in the FDL.

Of course, there will always be unexpected wild cards on this show, so if your picks don’t fare the way you thought they would… there’s always the next Lark.

And there we have it. Monday is the first performance show.

Hot diggity…. you know what I mean?