c4countdown

From your knowledge, which do you feel was -overall- the strongest series so far?

Not even a contest. 69 had (at the time) 3 of the 5 highest octototals, plus Zarte who would have been in the 900+ club then if he hadn't played Dylan and went on to be one of the top players of all time, and then Callum comes along and trains enough that he beats all 3 of the top seeds to win the series.

What matters when talking about a strongest series is how good the players were during the series... And when I say players, I'm talking all 100-ish (or 50-ish in the early days) players over the entire series. How exciting / tense the matches were is irrelevant (that would count if you were trying to establish the most exciting series of all time.) How good someone went on to be on Apterous or in a future series is also irrelevant. It is about how good that series was in and of itself. If a certain series is seen as one that raised the bar, and set records... that is a strong argument in its favour, but if that bar has been raised since, and those records have been eclipsed, there is a fair chance that it has lost the crown it may once have had as 'best series of all time.'

I haven't voted in this yet, as I need to analyse more of the earlier series before nailing my colours to the mast.
This decision is not to be taken lightly!

And here's another question...

If you were to look at two aspects of a series in isolation from one another, i.e:
1. The strength and depth of the field over the 100 or so heat games.
2. The strength of the finals (QF, SF, GF) alone.

...would the same series top both lists?

fwiw this is a decent topic but would work much better as a ranking imho-e.g top 5/10 hardest series ranked. The #1 choice is too obvious in my opinion really...

69 was the strongest series. 63 was pretty strong too. Jack Hurst, Eoin Monaghan, Daniel Pati, Marcus Hares, Tom Rowell, Scott Gillies etc.

I think the 30th birthday seies inspired a lot of interest and flushed out a lot of Apterites and enthusiasts who applied and ended up in series 69 together. There were probably 20 players who could realistically have won another weaker series in that series.

cheers @whoever said 73

but yeah 69 all the way. the fact that you get games like this one between two players who didn't even make the finals, that there was a heat game between the last two CoC winners, the fact that Glen Webb's octotal went from being 3rd highest ever to 3rd highest in the series, to the point where nobody really cared about him anymore (and of course, all three of those lost to the same dude).

Counterpoint, it also has what I consider the worst televised game ever. Most games between two bad players at least have the redeeming factor that they are reasonably close and a good contest, and a lot of 4-wins type contestants usually get at least a century when they have no opposition whatsoever. C2's performance against pretty much any televised performance (including C1's, look at her followup game) would and should have put Christine Buffrey into obscurity. This was someone getting completely destroyed by someone who anywhere else in the series would have been in that position herself with that performance, and it was utter, utter shite in every way.

Ok... I have been looking through some of the stats, (I'm not finished with this yet... a lot done, more to do) and I have a feeling the top 5 strongest series may stack up in this sort of an order* (this will probably end up being wrong, but hopefully close enough to correct)

#5. - 2015's ...S72 (feat. Tracey Mills, Tom Cappleman etc.)
#4. - 2014's ...S71 (feat. Dan McColm, Antoinette Ryan etc.)
#3. - 2015's ...S73 (feat. Thomas Carey, Jonathan Wynn etc.)
#2. - 2010's ...S63 (feat. Jack Hurst, Eoin Monaghan etc.)
#1. - 2013's ...S69 (feat. Callum Todd, Dylan Taylor etc.)

Yes, it will be very hard for any series to rival good ol' 69 for all of the reasons Thomas gave above, and more. There was a golden generation of Apterites, most of whom went on d'telly between S65 and S73. That, combined with a possible boost (as Sean suggests) from the 30th birthday event, may account for the immensity of the 2013-2015 period.

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There are several series' from the 15R era that wouldn't look out of place in a "Top 5 best ever" list... but I feel they would fall short. They are:-

2002's ...S48 (feat. Julian Fell, Grace Page etc.)
2009's ...S61 (feat. Chris Davies, Innis Carson etc.)
2011's ...S65 (feat. Graeme Cole, Mark Deeks etc.)
2013's ...S68 (feat. Giles Hutchings, Andy Platt etc.)
2017's ...S77 (feat. Bradley Horrocks, Tom Chafer-Cook etc.)
2018's ...S78 (feat. Philip Aston, Zarte Siempre etc.)

and ESPECIALLY:-

2002's ...S47 (feat. Chris Wills, Tom Hargreaves etc.)
05-06's ...S54 (feat. Conor Travers, Jon Corby etc.)
2019's ...S80 (feat. Elliott Mellor, Dinos Sfyris etc.)

S47 was the first one ever to feature quarterfinals full of Octochamps. it has traditionally been considered one of the strongest series there has been... but perhaps it's not in the top five anymore? I imagine it is certainly still in the top 10.

S80 featured the first kilo-champ in Elliott Mellor, but in spite of that, I expect it would not feature among even the ten best.

S54 featured some very strong players, including the 30th birthday champ! It also has an advantage over all other series as it went on for 153 episodes, almost 1.5 times the length of a regular series. I expect this one also to miss out on the top ten...

--------------------------------------

*Ignoring the 9R era for now, as I don't know enough about it...

I finally submitted my vote for this today... because I believe the strongest series is indeed the one that the majority here have voted for, i.e. Series 69.

The other series that got votes in the poll (so far) are:-
Series 19 (aka one of the weakest series known to mankind)
Series 41 (aka the 3rd strongest)
Series 54 (aka the 10th strongest)
Series 63 (aka the 2nd strongest)
Series 73 (aka the 4th strongest)
Series 80 (aka not even in the Top 20)

Here is a full rundown of the strongest series by my estimation, using the max percentage of the strongest 8 players over the course of their heat games. The stat for strongest set of finals is also included!

Enjoy!

---------------------------------

#80. S01 (Winter 1982; feat. Joyce Cansfield, Michael Wylie etc.) = ??%
[S01: Strength of actual finals:- 100 / ??? = ??%] (#80?)




#79. S07 (Winter 1985; feat. Clive Freedman, Ian Bebbington etc.) = ??%
[S07: Strength of actual finals:- 758 / 1144 = 66.259%] (#32)




#78. S11 (Spring 1987; feat. David Reid, John Clarke etc.) = 61.613%
[S11: Strength of actual finals:- 693 / 1222 = 56.71%] (#74)




#77. S19 (Spring 1990; feat. Lindsay Denyer, Michael Wareham etc.) = 63.074%
[S19: Strength of actual finals:- 622 / 1136 = 54.754%] (#78)




#76. S04 (Summer 1984; feat. Brian Hudson, Robert Richland etc.) = 63.92%
[S04: Strength of actual finals:- 676 / 1080 = 62.593%] (#60)




#75. S45 (Autumn 2001; feat. John Rawnsley, Geraldine Hylands etc.) = 64.799%
[S45: Strength of actual finals:- 336 / 588 = 57.143%] (#73)




#74. S09 (Summer 1986; feat. David Trace, Laurie Puddefoot etc.) = 64.947%
[S09: Strength of actual finals:- 692 / 1132 = 61.131%] (#63)




#73. S05 (Winter 1984; feat. Leslie Olson, Peter Evans etc.) = 65.484%
[S05: Strength of actual finals:- 697 / 1100 = 63.364%] (#55)




#72. S20 (Autumn 1990; feat. Liz Barber, Derek Coombs etc.) = 65.848%
[S20: Strength of actual finals:- 632 / 1120 = 56.429%] (#75)




#71. S02 (Summer 1983; feat. Philip Nelkon, Norma Nicholson etc.) = 67.288%
[S02: Strength of actual finals:- 693 / 1100 = 63%] (#56)




#70. S40 (Early 1999; feat. Terence English, Pamela Roud etc.) = 67.896%
[S40: Strength of actual finals:- 782 / 1218 = 64.204%] (#48)




#69. S08 (Spring 1986; feat. Clive Spate, Andy Keeble, YT etc.) = 68.178%
[S08: Strength of actual finals:- 662 / 1224 = 54.085%] (#79)




#68. S22 (Autumn 1991; feat. Robert Teuton, Chris Waddington etc.) = 68.374%
[S22: Strength of actual finals:- 810 / 1196 = 67.726%] (#22)




#67. S24 (Autumn 1992; feat. Wayne Summers, Fiona Davies etc.) = 68.677%
[S24: Strength of actual finals:- 609 / 1100 = 55.364%] (#76)




#66. S21 (Spring 1991; feat. Gillian Tickle, Barry Grossman etc.) = 69.008%
[S21: Strength of actual finals:- 701 / 1106 = 63.382%] (#54)




#65. S26 (Autumn 1993; feat. Andy Bodle, Andrew Perry etc.) = 69.045%
[S26: Strength of actual finals:- 647 / 1176 = 55.017%] (#77)




#64. S35 (Summer 1997; feat. Peter Cashmore, Dag Griffiths etc.) = 69.055%
[S35: Strength of actual finals:- 685 / 1092 = 62.729%] (#57)




#63. S30 (Autumn 1995; feat. Verity Joubert, Andrew Bull etc.) = 69.212%
[S30: Strength of actual finals:- 717 / 1100 = 65.182%] (#41)




#62. S06 (Spring 1985; feat. Helen Grayson, Darryl Francis etc.) = 69.458%
[S06: Strength of actual finals:- 662 / 1122 = 59.002%] (#69)




#61. S62 (Early 2010; feat. Nicki Sellars, Oliver Garner etc.) = 69.495%
[S62: Strength of actual finals:- 1161 / 1762 = 65.891%] (#35)




#60. S15 (Summer 1988; feat. Allan Saldanha, Dick Green etc.) = 69.519%
[S15: Strength of actual finals:- 746 / 1172 = 63.652%] (#51)




#59. S56 (Early 2007; feat. Aaron Webber, Nick Wainwright etc.) = 69.799%
[S56: Strength of actual finals:- 1181 / 1796 = 65.757%] (#36)




#58. S34 (Spring 1997; feat. James Martin, Huw Morgan etc.) = 69.894%
[S34; Strength of actual finals:- 693 / 1090 = 63.578%] (#52)




#57. S49 (Early 2003; feat. Martin Gardner, John Davies etc.) = 70.015%
[S49: Strength of actual finals:- 1174 / 1728 = 67.94%] (#20)




#56. S55 (Late 2006; feat. Steven Briers, Richard Brittain etc.) = 70.167%
[S55: Strength of actual finals:- 1047 / 1768 = 59.22%] (#68)




#55. S14 (Winter 1987; feat. Nic Brown, Alan Steel etc.) = 70.229%
[S14: Strength of actual finals:- 755 / 1206 = 62.604%] (#59)




#54. S10 (Winter 1986; feat. Mike Percik, Harvey Freeman etc.) = 70.457%
[S10: Strength of actual finals:- 513+206 / 860+? = 59.651%] (missing 2 game stats from HF) (#67)




#53. S42 (Early 2000; feat. Terence O’Farrell, Michael Calder etc.) = 70.47%
[S42: Strength of actual finals:- 783 / 1194 = 65.578%] (#39)




#52. S25 (Spring 1993; feat. Pat Hynes, Don Reid etc.) = 70.616%
[S25: Strength of actual finals:- 735 / 1124 = 65.392%] (#40)




#51. S03 (Winter 1983; feat. Mark Nyman, Andrew Guy etc.) = 70.675%
[S03: Strength of actual finals:- 761 / 1098 = 69.308%] (#13)




--------------------------------------------------------



#50. S75 (Late 2016; feat. Martin Hurst, Stephen Fuller etc.) = 70.712%
[S75: Strength of actual finals:- 1159 / 1860 = 62.312%] (#61)




#49. S18 (Autumn 1989; feat. Rajaretnam Yogasagarar, Jonathan Anstey etc.) = 70.765%
[S18: Strength of actual finals:- 671 / 1160 = 57.845%] (#72)




#48. S23 (Spring 1992; feat. Glen Webb, Gareth Williams etc.) = 70.822%
[S23: Strength of actual finals:- 738 / 1154 = 63.952%] (#49)




#47. S46 (Winter 2001; feat. Ben Wilson, Steve Sandalls etc.) = 70.888%
[S46: Strength of actual finals:- 1160 / 1780 = 65.169%] (#42)




#46. S12 (Summer 1987; feat. Cathy Morgan, Stephen Balment etc.) = 70.926%
[S12: Strength of actual finals:- 685+114 / 1094+? = 62.614+?%] (missing one game stat) (#58)




#45. S79 (Late 2018; feat. Mike Daysley, Martin May etc.) = 70.93%
[S79: Strength of actual finals:- 1182 / 1828 = 64.661%] (#46)




#44. S32 (Autumn 1996; feat. Alan Sinclair, Satbir Gupta etc.) = 71.018%
[S32: Strength of actual finals:- 714 / 1118 = 63.864%] (#50)




#43. S65 (Late 2011; feat. Carl Williams, Graeme Cole etc.) = 71.059%
[S65: Strength of actual finals:- 1180 / 1764 = 66.893%] (#25)




#42. S44 (Early 2001; feat. Kevin McMahon, Stuart Wood etc.) = 71.151%
[S44: Strength of actual finals:- 677 / 1164 = 58.162%] (#71)




#41. S67 (Late 2012; feat. Rose Boyle, Paul James etc.) = 71.444%
[S67: Strength of actual finals:- 1202 / 1690 = 71.124%] (#9)




#40. S39 (Late 1998; feat. Kate Ogilvie, Terry Knowles etc.) = 71.69%
[S39: Strength of actual finals:- 742 / 1122 = 66.132%] (#33)




#39. S36 (Autumn 1997; feat. Malcolm Fairy, Simon Pryde etc.) = 71.804%
[S36: Strength of actual finals:- 653 / 1108 = 58.935%] (#70)




#38. S17 (Spring 1989; feat. Tim Morrissey, Jean Tweddell etc.) = 71.837%
[S17: Strength of actual finals:- 696 / 1146 = 60.733%] (#64)




#37. S70 (Early 2014; feat. Sean Fletcher, Mark Murray etc.) = 72.023%
[S70: Strength of actual finals:- 1119 / 1828 = 61.214%] (#62)




#36. S16 (Summer 1988; feat. Tony Vick, Nigel Gardner etc.) = 72.124%
[S16: Strength of actual finals:- 730 / 1122 = 65.062%] (#43)




#35. S13 (Summer 1987; feat. Nita Marr, Hilary Hopper etc.) = 72.284%
[S13: Strength of actual finals:- 772 / 1170 = 65.982%] (#34)




#34. S37 (Winter 1997; feat. Brett Smitheram, Ray McPhie etc.) = 72.351%
[S37: Strength of actual finals:- 748 / 1156 = 64.706%] (#45)




#33. S27 (Spring 1994; feat. Richard Campbell, David Elias etc.) = 73.064%
[S27: Strength of actual finals:- 670 / 1104 = 60.688%] (#65)




#32. S81 (Late 2019; feat. James Haughton, Jamie Wing etc.) = 73.146%
[S81: Strength of actual finals:- 1345 / 1948 = 69.045%] (#15)




#31. S28 (Autumn 1994; feat. Wayne Kelly, Damian Eadie etc.) = 73.299%
[S28: Strength of actual finals:- 753 / 1148 = 65.592%] (#38)




#30. S38 (Early 1998; feat. Jill Bright, John Ashmore etc.) = 73.359%
[S38: Strength of actual finals:- 758 / 1136 = 66.725%] (#28)




#29. S66 (Early 2012; feat. Jack Worsley, Jonathan Rawlinson etc.) = 73.375%
[S66: Strength of actual finals:- 1115 / 1714 = 65.053%] (#44)




#28. S31 (Spring 1996; feat. Anthony Jenkin, David Acton etc.) = 73.79%
[S31: Strength of actual finals:- 698 / 1162 = 60.069%] (#66)




#27. S77 (Late 2017; feat. Tom Chafer-Cook, Bradley Horrocks etc.) = 73.926%
[S77: Strength of actual finals:- 1291 / 1796 = 71.882%] (#7)




#26. S59 (Late 2008; feat. Charlie Reams, Junaid Mubeen etc.) = 74.081%
[S59: Strength of actual finals:- 1156 / 1732 = 66.744%] (#27)




#25. S80 (Early 2019; feat. Elliott Mellor, Dinos Sfyris etc.) = 74.331%
[S80: Strength of actual finals:- 1229 / 1852 = 66.361%] (#30)




#24. S51 (Early 2004; feat. Sweyn Kirkness, Stewart Holden etc.) = 74.52%
[S51: Strength of actual finals:- 1193 / 1706 = 69.93%] (#11)




#23. S74 (Early 2016; feat. Ann Dibben, Paul Edrunast etc.) = 74.558%
[S74: Strength of actual finals:- 1355 / 1888 = 71.769%] (#8)




#22. S58 (Early 2008; feat. David O’Donnell, Richard Priest etc.) = 74.779%
[S58: Strength of actual finals:- 1116 / 1694 = 65.88%] (#37)




#21. S53 (Early 2005; feat. Jon O’Neill, John Mayhew etc.) = 75.056%
[Strength of actual finals:- 1150 / 1728 = 66.509%] (#29)




#20. S64 (Early 2011; feat. Adam Gillard, Ed McCullagh etc.) = 75.272%
[S64: Strength of actual finals:- 1192 / 1770 = 67.345%] (#23)




#19. S50 (Late 2003; feat. Chris Cummins, Jim Bentley etc.) = 75.286%
[S50: Strength of actual finals:- 1207 / 1678 = 71.931%] (#6)




#18. S76 (Early 2017; feat. Moose Rosser, Stephen Read etc.) = 75.601%
[S76: Strength of actual finals:- 1160 / 1806 = 64.23%] (#47)




#17. S52 (Late 2004; feat. Mark Tournoff, Paul Gallen etc.) = 75.963%
[S52: Strength of actual finals:- 1164 / 1756 = 66.287%] (#31)




#16. S68 (Early 2013; feat. Eileen Taylor, Giles Hutchings etc.) = 76.11%
[S68: Strength of actual finals:- 1207 / 1760 = 68.58%] (#16)




#15. S78 (Early 2018; feat. Toby McDonald, Philip Aston etc.) = 76.184%
[S78: Strength of actual finals:- 1279 / 1836 = 69.662%] (#12)




#14. S60 (Early 2009; feat. Kirk Bevins, Neill Zussman etc.) = 76.236%
[S60: Strength of actual finals:- 1146 / 1806 = 63.455%] (#53)




#13. S43 (Late 2000; feat. Graham Nash, David Wlliams etc.) = 76.484%
[S43: Strength of actual finals:- 792 / 1162 = 68.158%] (#18)




#12. S57 (Late 2007; feat. Jeffrey Hansford, Craig Beevers etc.) = 76.5%
[S57: Strength of actual finals:- 1174 / 1758 = 66.78%] (#26)




#11. S29 (Spring 1995; feat. Darren Shacklady, Chris Rogers etc.) = 76.722%
[S29: Strength of actual finals:- 762 / 1116 = 68.28%] (#17)




--------------------------------------------------------



#10. S54 (2005-2006; feat. Conor Travers, Jon Corby etc.) = 76.789%
[S54: Strength of actual finals:- 1189 / 1748 = 68.021%] (#19)




#9. S61 (Late 2009; feat. Chris Davies, Innis Carson etc.) = 77.082%
[S61: Strength of actual finals:- 1185 / 1714 = 69.137%] (#14)




#8. S48 (Late 2002; feat. Mike Brown, Julian Fell etc.) = 77.275%
[S48: Strength of actual finals:- 1325 / 1884 = 70.329%] (#10)




#7. S47 (Early 2002; feat. Tom Hargreaves, Chris Wills etc.) = 77.488%
[S47: Strength of actual finals:- 1344 / 1788 = 75.168%] (#2)




#6. S72 (Early 2015; feat. Tracey Mills, Tom Cappleman etc.) = 78.002%
[S72: Strength of actual finals:- 1231 / 1832 = 67.194%] (#24)




#5. S71 (Late 2014; feat. Dan McColm, Antoinette Ryan etc.) = 78.912%
[S71: Strength of actual finals:- 1273 / 1748 = 72.826%] (#4)




#4. S73 (Late 2015; feat. Thomas Carey, Jonathan Wynn etc.) = 79.043%
[S73: Strength of actual finals:- 1396 / 1932 = 72.257%] (#5)




#3. S41 (Late 1999; feat. Scott Mearns, Lucy Roberts etc.) = 79.046%
[S41: Strength of actual finals:- 808 / 1192 = 67.785%] (#21)




#2. S63 (Late 2010; feat. Jack Hurst, Eoin Monaghan etc.) = 80.172%
[S63: Strength of actual finals:- 1233 / 1670 = 73.832%] (#3)




#1. S69 (Late 2013; feat. Callum Todd, Dylan Taylor etc.) = 80.784%
[S69: Strength of actual finals:- 1405 / 1820 = 77.198%] (#1.)

S69 is clearly the strongest by some distance. S61 is, imo, the second strongest, having 3 exceptional players. And I'd make the claim that my own (S54)
is the strongest pre-Apterous, but would now barely make the top 10.

Yeah, go team 69. Happy to have made my contribution to such a high max %.

Series 81 all the way due to 9 octavians

series 82 got a chance of being considered the toughest now tbh - but would still go with series 69.

69 was nice

Series 69 is the strongest without a doubt

Callum Todd wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 7:22 am Yeah, go team 69. Happy to have made my contribution to such a high max %.

Think you made up for it in the next game though

Go 69ers!

Johnny Canuck wrote: ↑Mon Feb 14, 2022 4:26 pm 69 was nice

Said the actress

I wouldnt neccessarily say that the strongest series in terms of quality is the best series by default.
I would say the series with the most crucial conundrums should have a shout at being declared the best.
Not that I know which series that was.
Paging Graeme