The Slam Point: a scoring system tweak for the new football season
For this season's Premier League Predictor game, the Grand Slam Point is going to be replaced by a new concept - the Slam Point.
In rugby, this has always been reasonably doable. But recently, we have noticed that GSPs in a tournament like the English Premier League are almost non-existent. Why is that?
What it boils down to is the number of outcomes within the realm of possibility. In every football match, there are 3 very realistic options: win, lose and draw. Draws are so common in football that it makes picking the correct outcome in all 10 games in a round of a tournament like the EPL very, very tricky.
So, for all football tournaments in future (and possibly other sports should it be a success), the Grand Slam Point is going to be replaced by the Slam Point.
The idea is that winning one or more Slam Points is more achievable than just the old GSP, which should make each round of the big tournaments more exciting and engaging.
In the first round of matches, 33,249 people made picks for the 10 matches - nobody managed a GSP for getting them all correct. By contrast, under the new Slam system, 28,837 people would have managed a Slam Point of 1, while 43 would have managed two Slam Points.
We introduced this for the Euro 2016 Predictor game, and it was met with approval, so hopefully it will make this year's Premier League even more exciting.
As always, let us know your thoughts and any feedback you have.
Why have we changed things?
The Grand Slam Point has always been a key part of SuperBru. When you pick every single game in a round correctly, you deserve points to reflect what is - in the ever unpredictable world of sport - a pretty epic achievement.In rugby, this has always been reasonably doable. But recently, we have noticed that GSPs in a tournament like the English Premier League are almost non-existent. Why is that?
What it boils down to is the number of outcomes within the realm of possibility. In every football match, there are 3 very realistic options: win, lose and draw. Draws are so common in football that it makes picking the correct outcome in all 10 games in a round of a tournament like the EPL very, very tricky.
So, for all football tournaments in future (and possibly other sports should it be a success), the Grand Slam Point is going to be replaced by the Slam Point.
What is the Slam Point?
The Slam Point is, essentially, a tiered version of the Grand Slam Point. The tiers may vary slightly from tournament to tournament, but in general they will follow a trend like this:- Correctly predict 5-7 games in a round: 1 Slam Point
- Correctly predict 8-9 games in a round: 2 Slam Points
- Correctly predict 10+ games in a round (in tournaments that have 10-fixture rounds): 3 Slam Points
The idea is that winning one or more Slam Points is more achievable than just the old GSP, which should make each round of the big tournaments more exciting and engaging.
"I'm still not convinced..."
56,251 brus signed up to play our Premier League Predictor game last season. During the entirety of the 38-week campaign, we handed out just 211 Grand Slam Points, 159 of which came in a reduced round in February. The GSP was always there in our scoring system, but in reality it was almost a non-entity.In the first round of matches, 33,249 people made picks for the 10 matches - nobody managed a GSP for getting them all correct. By contrast, under the new Slam system, 28,837 people would have managed a Slam Point of 1, while 43 would have managed two Slam Points.
We introduced this for the Euro 2016 Predictor game, and it was met with approval, so hopefully it will make this year's Premier League even more exciting.
As always, let us know your thoughts and any feedback you have.
Superbru on X
Bring on the new season!
I would also suggest that being only one goal out in a Soccer game deserves a small reward such as 0,25 of a point