LAST EDITED ON 02-02-08 AT 01:51 PM (EST)

Come one, come all! The Office Pool is officially open for business for Season 16, that is!!

Here's your chance to jump in! The water's perfect. PLEASE NOTE, I HAVE MADE CHANGES IN THE SCORING WITH STRIKE THROUGHS OR IN RED INK!!

This season, we'll be playing The Office Pool: Half-A$$: Fans v. Favorites. For as long as there are two tribes on the show, there will be two tribes in the Office Pool: Fans v. Favorites. Fans will consist of newbies and Office Pool losers. Favorites, on the other hand, will consist of past winners, top-four finishers of seasons past and/or perennial players.

The way the tribe play will work is that when the Entry Thread is posted, the first player to pick will get the most points while the last player to pick will get the least amount of points. If there are 20 people in the game, the first player will get 20 points while the last player to pick will get 1 point.

Next, all the points will be added up and whichever team has the most accumulated points will win those points as a tribe bonus!

After the tribes merge in the real game, the tribes will merge in The Office Pool. The same scoring will apply. First pick gets the most points, second points next ... last pick gets the least points. So, if there are ten in the game, first pick would get 10 points and last pick would get 1 point.

Other than that, the game will be played as usual. This game will continue to remain quite simple. Like most Office Pools, all you have to do to get by each week is pick a survivor. Each week, I may or may not provide you with several opportunites for you to earn bonus points. These will be very easy and will depend on actions that your survivor might perform or take part in during the week’s episode. For the “over-achievers” among us, there may be other opportunities to gain those highly sought-after bonus points that just might put you a step ahead of the rest of the pack!! So pay attention!

So come on in friends and DAWs, gather round the Office water cooler, and let me explain how the The Office Pool: Half-A$$ is played.

The Rules:
1. Each week, the Hostess will post the week’s Entry Thread at Random times. Your job will be to post in this thread each week. You must put a survivor's name in your subject line. If you do not get an entry in before 7 pm the day of the show, you WILL be booted out of the game. Sorry Charlie! Your task is to pick the Survivor who you think will earn the most points for the week WITHOUT quitting the show or getting voted out at Tribal Council.

2. Scoring: You will get points if your survivor wins a team or individual Immunity; wins a team or individual Reward; is selected by the Reward winner to share in the reward; finds a hidden Immunity Idol; delivers an elimination vote; and for every confessional your survivor has.

You will receive an additional bonus if you correctly guess the number of confessionals your Survivor has each week. This bonus is called the “Hit the Nail on the Head Bonus.” When counting confessionals, the Hostess counts each time the survivor is shown talking directly to the camera (with or without their name shown).

As mentioned above, you will also have the opportunity to win or lose Bonus points throughout the season through random actions that your survivor may do during the episode. You will lose points if your survivor gets votes without being eliminated, has no confessionals or does something random that the Hostess has said will earn negative points for the week. Please note, the Hostess is prone to use hidden clues for random additional bonuses, so it is imperative that players be extra alert and watchful for hidden bonus points at all times.

3. If your survivor gets voted out or quits, you are eliminated from the game. Always. There will be no Immunity.

4. I will post the entry threads at random times some time before the Wednesday before the show. The picking will be in a musical chairs-type fashion – first come, first pick and so on. ALL PICKS MUST BE MADE BY 7 PM EST ON THE DAY THE SHOW AIRS. If you must be out of town for some reason and cannot make your pick, please pm me in advance with your top three pick choices and I will make your pick for you. You may do this ONCE a season. If you have to ask me to do it a second time, it will cost you 50 pts. A third time will cost you 100 pts., and so on.

5. Points and Leaderboards will be posted each week by yours truly in a prompt manner.

7. This game is open to as many players that want to play. If there are more players than survivors playing, than each Survivor may be picked twice. Please put a “1” or a “2” behind your Survivor’s name in your subject line. Once the last survivor has been picked a second time, the game is closed to new players.

8. Once you pick a survivor, you may not change your pick.. So be alert! If you do this, than you shall receive a 25-point penalty.

9. Occasional discrepancies or oversights in scoring are few and far between, but sometimes can and do occur. If you have a concern or question about your score, kindly PM the Hostess. You will find me very open and usually agreeable.
These are the rules.

And in The Office Pool Creator OhmyHeck's words ... "Why is it official? Because I said so."

In the spirit of the game, I will do my best as Hostess to make this fun and fair!

Welcome to the Pool – it’s time to start swimming with the sharks! Please sign up below if you want to have a gas in the pool this season!