c4countdown

James Robinson wrote:

Johnny Canuck wrote:Have any of the fixtures been decided yet?

Based on what I've been reading, it looks like it has been put on hold, as a few specials are being recorded in December instead........

Gavin Chipper wrote:In coming up with my own list, I'm not too bothered about having the same number of people from each series, although it might be nice to have at least two per series. Basically all champions automatically qualify, and then the rest do based on some combination of how far they got and how good I thought they were when they were on. Some series had a higher level of quality than others.

OK, so here's a list of some people I might pick:

Series 62: Oliver Garner
Series 63: Eoin Monaghan
Series 67: Paul James, Heather Styles, David Barnard
Series 68: Giles Hutchings, Andy Platt, Eileen Taylor
Series 69: Callum Todd, Dylan Taylor, Jen Steadman, Bradley Cates, Glen Webb
Series 70: Mark Murray, Andy Naylor, Samir Pilica
Series 71: ???

There's already 16 in that list, so potentially two or three might have to be dropped based on what happens in series 71. As beaten semi-finalists without a massively strong scoring record, I think David Barnard, Eileen Taylor and Samir Pilica could be in the firing line. My bias based on current skill on Apterous would mean wanting to keep David Barnard, but can that be objectively justified? I'd say that since it's not an exact science anyway, it would be good for the game to have him in. Realistically, quota-based thinking probably increases Eileen Taylor's chances, so that puts Samir Pilicia on the edge.

Also it's very series 69 heavy. Jen Steadman is the only beaten quarter-finalist on my list, but the high scoring does it for me, and also from their point of view they might want more female contestants. I'd pick her anyway though. Then you have beaten semi-finalists Glen Webb and Bradley Cates. Both high scorers, but is it enough?

Heather Styles and Andy Naylor weren't the strongest scorers, but both made the final so I'd say they are in a safer position than some of the others I've mentioned.

If it was entirely down to me, I'd probably take out Eileen, Samir and Bradley in that order to make way for series 71 contestants, but probably a more realistic prediction is Samir, Bradley, Glen, or with maybe Samir shifted along if they think there's too many from series 69. David Barnard too is probably at risk, but it's likely one of him or Samir could be saved to stop it being series 69 heavy.

The eight I didn't mention as potential casualties were Oliver Garner, Eoin Monaghan, Paul James, Giles Hutchings, Andy Platt, Callum Todd, Dylan Taylor and Mark Murray. Oliver and Eoin are there because they weren't allowed in the 30th Birthday thing for age reasons or something but have done enough to warrant a place.

Heather Styles wrote:I am not as good a player as many people in recent series who did not happen to reach a grand final, and I might be washing my hair/doing my ironing on the day of recording anyway. However, I would like to question whether "actual form" is relevant in terms of being invited to take part in a Championship of Champions. (And if it is relevant, how might it be measured? Maxes scored? Apterous Pro Rank? Willy size? Yawn.)

Zarte Siempre wrote:Or maybe they'll just pick good players who aren't nobs

Jon O'Neill wrote:

Zarte Siempre wrote:Or maybe they'll just pick good players who aren't nobs

That's a very gracious way to rule yourself out of the running

Jennifer Steadman wrote:FAO Gevin, RE your new list of invitees: assuming you are definitely going on TV form alone, why would you pick Barnard over George? There's no doubting that Barnard has the ability to win COC based on his Apterous performance these days, but in TV-related terms (which, as we agree, should be the only factor at play here), George lost only to a max game from the series' eventual winner, had a memorable niche with his impressive 4 large solves, is probably one of the most popular contestants of the last few years going by social media (something mentioned on-screen numerous times), and was showered with praise not only during his performances but after them too (he/his online fanbase were mentioned multiple times in the S71 final). Not to mention he scored more octorun points despite unfavourable selections (he only had 1 nine to Barney's 4) against arguably harder opposition and has better stats (these v these).
Of course I have nothing against David's inclusion and he could certainly make the cut based on TV merit, but I reckon George is one of the most likely non-winner/runner-up prospects to receive an invite.

Dave Preece wrote:I'd pick all the winners coupled with the remarkable contestants too!

Johnny Canuck wrote:GREAT NEWS!!! Almost, but not quite, makes me want to change the location of my IP address and start pirating the show.

Based solely on what we've seen so far, I would choose:
S62 - Oliver Garner
S63 - either Marcus Hares (had to decline 30BC entry) or Eoin Monaghan... or both, if S71 turns out to be a clunker.
S67 - Paul James, Heather Styles, David Barnard
S68 - Giles Hutchings, Andy Platt
S69 - Callum Todd, Dylan Taylor, Jen Steadman
S70 - Mark Murray, Andy Naylor, Samir Pilica

This leaves room for two or three S71ers. For whatever reason, the Champion of Champions has (in the past) tended not to be a series champion; along these lines, my bets for overall winner are on Dylan.

Matt Morrison wrote:I'd choose Mark Deeks

samir pilica wrote:My 16 ( PRESUMING IT'S FILMED IN MAY/JUNE 2015) :

DAN MCCOLM
ANTOINETTE RYAN
GEORGE FORD
JEN STEADMAN
MARK MURRAY
ANDY NAYLOR
CALLUM TODD
DYLAN TAYLOR
ANDY PLATT
GILES HUTCHINGS
HEATHER STYLES
PAUL JAMES
GLENN WEBB
TRACEY MILLS
ANDREW KEITH
GERRY TYNAN

Countdown Team wrote:Definitely won't be May June 2015. Hoping to get it sorted for the start of Jan 2016 (transmission), which would mean filming in from Oct 2015. Will post any definite news once everything is cleared up.

Johnny Canuck wrote:

Countdown Team wrote:Definitely won't be May June 2015. Hoping to get it sorted for the start of Jan 2016 (transmission), which would mean filming in from Oct 2015. Will post any definite news once everything is cleared up.

Any reasons why not?

Tracey Anne Mills wrote:

samir pilica wrote:My 16 ( PRESUMING IT'S FILMED IN MAY/JUNE 2015) :

DAN MCCOLM
ANTOINETTE RYAN
GEORGE FORD
JEN STEADMAN
MARK MURRAY
ANDY NAYLOR
CALLUM TODD
DYLAN TAYLOR
ANDY PLATT
GILES HUTCHINGS
HEATHER STYLES
PAUL JAMES
GLENN WEBB
TRACEY MILLS
ANDREW KEITH
GERRY TYNAN

Adding Thomas Cappleman to the list as well

JackHurst wrote:

Tracey Anne Mills wrote:

samir pilica wrote:My 16 ( PRESUMING IT'S FILMED IN MAY/JUNE 2015) :

DAN MCCOLM
ANTOINETTE RYAN
GEORGE FORD
JEN STEADMAN
MARK MURRAY
ANDY NAYLOR
CALLUM TODD
DYLAN TAYLOR
ANDY PLATT
GILES HUTCHINGS
HEATHER STYLES
PAUL JAMES
GLENN WEBB
TRACEY MILLS
ANDREW KEITH
GERRY TYNAN

Adding Thomas Cappleman to the list as well

Huh?

Countdown Team wrote:Definitely won't be May June 2015. Hoping to get it sorted for the start of Jan 2016 (transmission), which would mean filming in from Oct 2015. Will post any definite news once everything is cleared up.

Johnny Canuck wrote:

Countdown Team wrote:Definitely won't be May June 2015. Hoping to get it sorted for the start of Jan 2016 (transmission), which would mean filming in from Oct 2015. Will post any definite news once everything is cleared up.

Any reasons why not?

Thomas Cappleman wrote:

Johnny Canuck wrote:

Countdown Team wrote:Definitely won't be May June 2015. Hoping to get it sorted for the start of Jan 2016 (transmission), which would mean filming in from Oct 2015. Will post any definite news once everything is cleared up.

Any reasons why not?

I asked when I was up for filming, and they said that the summer schedule gets too disrupted by racing to make it worth putting the CoC there

Tracey Anne Mills wrote:

samir pilica wrote:My 16 ( PRESUMING IT'S FILMED IN MAY/JUNE 2015) :

DAN MCCOLM
ANTOINETTE RYAN
GEORGE FORD
JEN STEADMAN
MARK MURRAY
ANDY NAYLOR
CALLUM TODD
DYLAN TAYLOR
ANDY PLATT
GILES HUTCHINGS
HEATHER STYLES
PAUL JAMES
GLENN WEBB
TRACEY MILLS
ANDREW KEITH
GERRY TYNAN

Adding Thomas Cappleman to the list as well

Fred Mumford wrote:I hope just being a Grand Finalist doesn't guarantee a CoC place this time around, otherwise the places are all filled - the finalists from series 67 to 73, plus Eoin and Oliver.

Losing the grand final doesn't make a player the 2nd best of the series - in many cases, great players fell short before that eg Jen, who fell victim to the mockery that Callum's improvement made of the series 69 seedings. Others like George Ford, Glen Webb and Andy Noden are far better than some who reached the grand final.

Tom wrote:It would be good to see a C of C again but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't going to happen. Surely now it must be at the point where if they were going to have a 16 player tournament some players who would have made any other C of C would have to miss out. Maybe do something like have 12 players have a bye then get 8 extra players to play and the 4 winners make it to 16 perhaps?

I would feel sorry for any players who would be guaranteed/in the running to play in a C of C if one wasn't to happen but at the same time I'd understand if the producers would be reluctant to hold one and viewers wouldn't want to see one for the reason the standard would just be ridiculously high and I think at times could be like an Apterous exhibition!

With things like Apterous, whilst I think its a great practice tool and piece of software, it has in my mind increased the standard ridiculously and I think has probably alienated a lot of viewers and maybe even stopped any prospective contestants from applying. I can't help but think that if Apterous wasn't around then there would have been a C of C a long time ago!

Heather Styles wrote:I think some of your observations/remarks in this thread are needlessly crass/bitchy

Countdown Team wrote:Hoping to get finality on the C of C within the next week or so.

Filming would be Nov 4, 23 and 24 - with the shows being aired from the start of Jan 2016.

Have drawn up the list of 16 invitees, plus one reserve to cover for any illness / unforeseen absence, and once everything is ratified, we will post all on here, as well as making every attempt to contact those concerned individually (some of our data may be obsolete).

Thanks !

Gavin Chipper wrote:How far through filming for this series are we? If we already have the 16 invitees, is it not dependent on the result of the series?

Graeme Cole wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:How far through filming for this series are we? If we already have the 16 invitees, is it not dependent on the result of the series?

Presumably the CoC will only include contestants from series 67-72, and people from S73 will have to wait for the next one. This would be the same as what happened with the 30th Birthday Championship - it followed S67 but didn't feature any contestants from that series.

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Graeme Cole wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:How far through filming for this series are we? If we already have the 16 invitees, is it not dependent on the result of the series?

Presumably the CoC will only include contestants from series 67-72, and people from S73 will have to wait for the next one. This would be the same as what happened with the 30th Birthday Championship - it followed S67 but didn't feature any contestants from that series.

Maybe but it's not been the case with standard CoCs in the past.

Graeme Cole wrote: Presumably the CoC will only include contestants from series 67-72, and people from S73 will have to wait for the next one. This would be the same as what happened with the 30th Birthday Championship - it followed S67 but didn't feature any contestants from that series.

James Robinson wrote:My choices would be the 12 champions/runners-up, but my 4 wild cards would be David, Jen, Glen and Samir.

Basically, I was tempted to include Bradley as well, but having 5 from one series just seemed too much (although admittedly 4 is at a stretch, but that's purely based on Jen and Glen's super high octototals), and David only just edged Rose due to overall dominance in the majority of his matches.

I only picked Samir over George for adding a bit more variety to the mix, but I wouldn't be surprised if George was picked if current Apterous form is taken into account too....

But, whoever the 16 are, good luck to you all, as this will be a ridiculously top drawer CoC!!!

Johnny Canuck wrote:Will the design of the set be changed at the start of CoC XIV? In the past, CoCs (specifically, X, XI and XIII) have often been the times when the set's appearance gets revamped.

Of course this might just be a coincidence that only losers with no lives will catch.

James Robinson wrote:

Johnny Canuck wrote:Will the design of the set be changed at the start of CoC XIV? In the past, CoCs (specifically, X, XI and XIII) have often been the times when the set's appearance gets revamped.

Of course this might just be a coincidence that only losers with no lives will catch.

That would be quite a quick change, considering that based on what CT has said, they'll be recording the Series 73 final on November 3, with the first CoC XIV prelims the next day.

I think probably not in this case, Johnny......