Board 8 > NFL Ladder Contest - Week 1

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to another season of the NFL Ladder Contest! cyan1001 won last year. Who will it be this year?

For the uninitiated, the objective of the Ladder Contest is to complete challenges. Every week, you have the opportunity to complete the challenge. If you succeed, you move up the ladder to the next, more difficult level; if you fail, you have to try again next week. Whoever progresses the furthest wins.

**Once again, the system is not perfect, and I welcome any suggestions for ways to improve things or new level ideas. I left myself a note after last season about the idea of skipping levels, and of course I haven't thought about it since. Is this something that we want to try to add? There would have to be some kind of stiff penalty for skipping a level, such as a tiebreaker and/or cost of several or all of your bonus points, and possibly needing a certain amount of failed attempts at the level before being allowed to skip (although that would make me have to keep track of that, and more work for me = bad). Or we can just go on our merry way of hating certain levels. What was it that was really bad again?

Anyway, I guess we can get on with it. Level 1 remains unchanged, of course. No spreads or anything, so we can just dive right in. Have fun!

A few ground rules:
-Please say which level you are on when you post your pick. In most cases it will probably be obvious, but this makes it easier for me to record the picks.
-The deadline to make a pick is at the start of the second set of games on Sunday afternoon (4:25 PM ET). That means no SNF/MNF picks after most all the games have started or finished. You cannot pick a game that has already started.
-The deadline to answer the bonus question is at the start of games on Sunday (1 PM ET).

Explanation of Levels:

Level 1: Pick a winner. Simply pick one team to win their game. If they win, you go on to level 2.

Schedule (shamelessly ripped from the Pick 'Em topic)
Thursday, September 6th
Atlanta Falcons @ Philadelphia Eagles

Sunday, September 9th
Pittsburgh Steelers @ Cleveland Browns
Cincinnati Bengals @ Indianapolis Colts
Tennessee Titans @ Miami Dolphins
San Francisco 49ers @ Minnesota Vikings
Houston Texans @ New England Patriots
Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ New Orleans Saints
Jacksonville Jaguars @ New York Giants
Buffalo Bills @ Baltimore Ravens
Kansas City Chiefs @ Los Angeles Chargers
Seattle Seahawks @ Denver Broncos
Washington Redskins @ Arizona Cardinals
Dallas Cowboys @ Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears @ Green Bay Packers

Monday, September 10th
New York Jets @ Detroit Lions
Los Angeles Rams @ Oakland Raiders

Bonus Question: Will any games go to overtime this week?
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Steelers
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Level 1: New Orleans Saints
Bonus: Yes
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Packers

Bonus: No
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Steelers

Bonus: Yes
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Fanboy mode: engage.

Buffalo
Bonus: Yes.
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Level 1: Vikings
Bonus: Yes
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New Orleans Saints
bonus: yes
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Level 1: Green Bay Packers
Bonus: No

Packers

No
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ITS BACK!

Football is back!

Steelers
Yes

I think you should make a post on the NFL board inviting people to come play.
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Level 1: Packers
Bonus: No
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bump.
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Level 1: New England Patriots
Bonus: Yes
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Lions
Yes
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Level 1: Packers

Bonus: No
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Level 1: Packers
Bonus: No
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Saints
No

L1: Steelers
Bonus: Yes
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Level 1: Ravens
Bonus: Yes
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Green Bay
No
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Level 1: Green Bay
Bonus: Yes
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Level 1: Lions
Bonus: No
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Saints

Bonus no
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Level 1: Packers
Bonus: Yes
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L1: Saints
Bonus: No
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L1 Minnesota
Yes
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bump
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Denver Broncos
YES
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Packers.

No

Level 1: Chiefs
Bonus Yes
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Level 1: New Orleans Saints
Bonus: Yes
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Level 1: Ravens
Bonus: Yes
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Level 1: New Orleans Saints
Bonus: Yes
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Lions

Yes

Steelers
Bonus: No
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Level 1: New Orleans Saints
Bonus: Yes

Thanks for running this again Dp!

Level 1: New Orleans Saints
Bonus: No
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Level 1: New Orleans Saints

Bonus: No

I'm not sure skipping levels is something that can be fairly done, or is even necessary. For one thing, the penalty would have to be freakin huge because in a vacuum, one person skipping a level is a huge advantage. It also seems kinda worthless because skipping a level is such a valuable thing that everyone will do it...meaning that any sort of penalty incurred would be worthless because everyone has it. Even if you were in 1st all by yourself going into the final week of the season, why wouldn't you use it to jump ahead ANOTHER level and ensure that no one can catch you? It's just an extension of the inevitable fact that whoever makes the most right picks wins, it's not really a comeback mechanic like I think you're intending it to be.

An easier and fairer solution would just be taking opinions on how to tweak levels that are met with great ire, the one I believe you're thinking of is the one where you have to rank QBs based on yards thrown. You could make it easier to do, or move it up rungs in the ladder.

How would you feel about posting the entirety of the ladder prior to the season starting, that way people can give their opinions without having to wait till next year?
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Let's go with the Packers against the lolBears

Bonus: I always say yes and it's always no so I will say yes again and doom everyone with me.
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Level 1: Patriots
Bonus: Yes
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level 1: Saints
bonus: yes
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Patriots
No
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Level 1: Saints
Bonus: No
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What if maybe someone is stuck on level 4 and they want to skip level 5. In order to skip 5, maybe they have to make a pick for level 4, get it right to skip, get it wrong drop a level. And each person can only do it once during the season. Or something.
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Level 1: Packers
Bonus: Yes
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bump
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Level 1: Saints
Bonus: Yes

Level 1: Steelers
Bonus: Yes
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Level 1: Packers
Bonus: Yes
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