Ranger Picks

With the conclusion of week 18, so comes the end of the regular season of Ranger Picks presented by TJRS.

In our first year growing from the original 6, we regularly had over 30 pickers, and a lot fewer “hiccups” than I expected with the hand crafted system I put in place with Google Forms, Sheets and some unofficial API usage.

For the overall picks, it seemed like a season long battle between Beaver Paw, Bozo6, Dingo, and MLR Stats, with Ranger Horkan silently sitting ready.

For the first 8 weeks, Beaver Paw had a lock on the number 1 spot even through week 8 which was our first pick-pocolypse until week 9 when Dingo, MLR Stats and Ranger Horkan shot past him, and Bozo6 drew level on points. Dingo then held the lead until week 11 when Bozo6 finally grabbed the top spot. That only lasted 1 week before Dingo reclaimed the top spot and Bozo6 dropped to 4th. Dingo held on to the lead with a lot of movement below him until week 15 when Bozo6 got his league leading 5th bonus point on the season and grabbed #1 again, which of course only lasted 1 week before Dingo shot back along with Ranger Horkan to pass Bozo6 one more time. Week 17 was another disaster for our pickers (though not quite as bad as week 8) but that allowed Beaver Paw to rise once more to grab the lead. Week 18 lead to what some might call a desperate final attempt to zig for Bozo6 and … it didn’t pay off.

Putting a pin in that for the moment. Week 18 had some exciting moments… for a moment Ranger X was the sole remaining ranger in contention for a bonus point. Right up until that heart breaking kick giving Houston the win. Congrats to Ranger John and UnforgivenPotato for managing 5 correct picks (the LA win in Utah robbing both of them of the bonus point).

As I mentioned a couple of times, my kids have been playing Ranger Picks this year. I’m relieved to say I won that pool but I’m proud of how well they picked each week. It was a lot closer than I thought it would be, especially with the littlest playing based purely on logo aesthetics!

I’ve had several “thank you"s this past week for Ranger Picks, but I’d like to thank all of those participating for making this a fun ride - and letting me promote it in odd places (for example the Fantasy Ruckers discord). Thank you to those who offered suggestions and offers for help to improve the pick analysis in the previews (especially Ranger X) - lets see what we can do for next year! I’d also like to thank Phil and The Jacks Rangers Show for letting me run with this, and I’d especially like to thank the “OG” 2023 squad for their support.

Talking of the OG squad, I kept track of their picks and results too. “Make sure to call me the bonus point king” Bozo6 dominated that table despite “Definitely Not a Ranger” Rugby Morning making an early run at it.

Now for the final standings. Most importantly I managed to squeak into the top 10 making sure that half of the OG squad represented along with Ranger John and Bozo6! MLR Stats hung with the table leaders the entire season. Uncle Phil and David Lawrence (from Scrum of the Earth podcast) cemented their positions in the top 10 despite Phil not watching any MLR matches that the FreeJacks weren’t playing. Despite holding the lead multiple weeks, Dingo finishes in 4th place thanks to the extra bonus point held by “remember I’m the bonus point king” Bozo6. Ranger Horkan, who was one of the most enthusiastic advocates for opening up ranger picks to the wider audience finishes in 2nd place based on the dumbest tie breaker (alphabetical) - which gives Beaver Paw, our original table leader the win! Congrats and welcome to the winners circle.

The full tables for week 18 and overall standings are, as always posted at https://rangerpicks.rugby/