Now, this is the fun part again. With everything starting from scratch, we had a ton of new / return players stoking the fire of competition, the fire which burns like an ant under a magnifying glass, by which I mean the magnifying glass of life, which all doesn't mean very much if 1) you're an existentialist and life is meaningless, therefore rendering everything that came before also meaningless, or 2) you were actually reading the words and understood that they were nonsense.

Rule number... ummm... 6 of writing: don't mix your metaphors. Or similes. Whatever it was I was mixing. Nobody likes your miserable semantics, or you for that matter. So, there!

So the moral of the story is: don't mince your words, because you'll just end up insulting imaginary people if you do. So let's not mince any more words, unless you want to get another tongue lashing. Jerk.

Here are the results for the first round of the Free-for-All Competition. Below those, you'll find the official results for the Head-to-Head Playoff Tournament.

Atlanta @ Arizona:

1. albertoleecho (6)
2. Ninerfromacrossthepond, howtheyscored (8)
3. FluLikeSymptoms (12)

Indianapolis @ San Diego:

1. ro128487, albertoleecho (6)
2. JerseyNinerFan (8)
3. Florida Danny (10)

Baltimore @ Miami:

1. bayboy, Florida Danny, Niner Fan Lost in WI (8)
2. mikev (10)
3. marcello, spenczar, francaise, albertoleecho, jtoj (14)

Philadelphia @ Minnesota:

1. JerseyNinerFan, 49ersfan29405, francaise, jtoj, elmojad0, howtheyscored (4)
2. groug, LoneStranger (6)
3. bayboy, DiegoAsFan, FluLikeSymptoms, ProfessorBigelow, StrictlyFootball (8)

Which makes our brand new playoff leaderboard look like:

1. albertoleecho – 7
2. howtheyscored – 5
2. JerseyNinerFan – 5
4. bayboy – 4
4. Florida Danny – 4
4. francaise – 4
4. jtoj – 4
8. 49ersfan29405 – 3
8. elmojad0 – 3
8. Niner Fan Lost in WI – 3
8. ro128487 – 3
12. groug – 2
12. FluLikeSymptoms – 2
12. LoneStranger – 2
12. mikev – 2
12. Ninerfromacrossthepond – 2
17. DiegoAsFan – 1
17. marcello – 1
17. ProfessorBigelow – 1
17. spenczar – 1
17. StrictlyFootball - 1

There are a couple of familiar faces up there, specifically albertoleecho and... ahem... me, but there are also some new and interesting faces. Florida Danny isn't exactly a new name, but he's never been so close to the to before. francaise is a brand new player, and to jump into the mix tied for fourth is no small matter. Congratulations are deserved to everybody who played, but I really want to focus on the brave new souls.

On top of the very fine performance by francaise, new players 49ersfan29405 and elmojad0 both also did better than groug. Welcome to the game guys! I'm glad to make your first appearance in the games count as a double-whammy congratulations/groug joke.

I'd also like to welcome fellow new player/scorer LoneStranger. I hope you're all enjoying the game as much as I've enjoyed running it and participating in it myself.

In an interesting twist from the regular season, wjackalope failed to score. My, my, how things have changed. And with regard to things changing, I won't mention Fooch in this thing for the first time all year.

Now, how about the Head-to-Head tourney!?

(8) 49erLou  @  (1) Ninerfromacrossthepond

Atlanta @ Arizona
     49erLou (x) - Ninerfromacrossthepond (8)
Indianapolis @ San Diego
     49erLou (x) - Ninerfromacrossthepond (12)
Baltimore @ Miami
     49erLou (x) - Ninerfromacrossthepond (16)
Philadelphia @ Minnesota
     49erLou (x) - Ninerfromacrossthepond (12)

Score: Ninerfromacrossthepond: 4 - 49erLou: 0
Winner: Ninerfromacrossthepond

(7) sfgfan @ (2) wjackalope

Atlanta @ Arizona
     sfgfan (x) - wjackalope (x)
Indianapolis @ San Diego
     sfgfan (x) - wjackalope (x)
Baltimore @ Miami
     sfgfan (16) - wjackalope (16)
Philadelphia @ Minnesota
     sfgfan (14) - wjackalope (12)

Score: sfgfan: 1 - wjackalope: 2
Winner: wjackalope

(6) jtoj @ (3) albertoleecho

Atlanta @ Arizona
     jtoj (x) - albertoleecho (6)
Indianapolis @ San Diego
     jtoj (x) - albertoleecho (6)
Baltimore @ Baltimore
     jtoj (14) - albertoleecho (14)
Philadelphia @ Minnesota
     jtoj (4) - albertoleecho (12)

Score: jtoj: 2 - albertoleecho: 3
Winner: albertoleecho

(5) Niner Fan Lost in WI @ (4) StrictlyFootball

Atlanta @ Arizona
     Niner Fan Lost in WI (x) - StrictlyFootball (x)
Indianapolis @ San Diego
     Niner Fan Lost in WI (x) - StrictlyFootball (14)
Baltimore @ Miami
     Niner Fan Lost in WI (8) - StrictlyFootball (x)
Philadelphia @ Minnesota
     Niner Fan Lost in WI (18) - StrictlyFootball (8)

Score: Niner Fan Lost in WI: 1 - StrictlyFootball: 2
Winner: StrictlyFootball

So no tiebreakers this week, but some very close games. Outside of Ninerfromacrossthepond's blowout (dude cleaned up this week), every matchup came down to a single game. In Niner Fan Lost in WI's case, even, it actually came down to the prediction in the Arizona game that he had to forfeit for making after the kickoff. If that prediction had counted, he would have scored another point and his matchup would have gone to tiebreakers. He would have then won the first tiebreaker by having picked 3 correct winners over StrictlyFootball's 2. But missing that game forced the issue and StrictlyFootball squeaked through unharmed.

Amazingly (in my opinion), all 4 of our top seeds continue through to round 2! The championship round includes the final playoff week and the Super Bowl (3 games), and we will have a consolation matchup to determine 3rd place. Good luck to all!

For next week's matchups:

Enjoy!