Roam With the Chocolate Gnome

I was kind of dubious when they described the Roadblock, but I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting it was. When they took apart that chocolate mold, it was pretty cool seeing that Travelocity gnome completely made of chocolate.

I kinda wish they would've made them drag around the chocolate one, because seeing them melt all over the racers would've been fun. But considering they were in Switzerland, they still probably wouldn't have melted.

Week 10 Results
1st place - Flight Time/Big Easy (2x)
2nd place - Kisha/Jen (1.7x)
3rd place - Gary/Mallory (.8x)
4th place - Zev/Justin (.5x)
5th place - Kent/Vyxsin (0x)

Trying to Break Even

It's weird how even with Kent/Vyxsin going 0x this week, scores would be great. But the Globetrotters pretty much wrecked all those plans. The previews were all about the Globetrotters fighting with Kent/Vyxsin, who presumably screwed them over. They have to be in trouble, right?

Blech.

To make things worse, Kisha/Jen beat Gary/Mallory and Zev/Justin, who were much much more popular picks. Usually, as a group, we usually do pretty well, but you kinda have to hand it to the TAR editors on this one. They fooled us pretty well.

Fortunately, for some players, a couple popular bonus wagers paid off (Gary/Mallory 3rd, Kent/Vyxsin 5th) helped many minimize their losses for the week.

Unfortunately, we did a lose one more player before the finale, Weez. Weez went for the bonus wagers and whiffed on both of them. But you went out swinging, and that's definitely the way to go. Thanks for playing!

This week's Greatest Gainer Award goes to kidflash212, who climbed 9 ranks this week. In a tough week, it made a good opportunity to jump up a few spots. Nice job!

The Perfect Bet Award also goes to kidflash212 (3.26x) fueled by a spot-on Kent/Vyxsin bonus wager. At least them goths were good for something, eh?

Leaderboard
1. ARNutz - 877
2. Jims02 - 844
3. CTgirl - 826
4. michel - 637
5. Corvis - 602
6. KwietOne - 580
7. beau_30 - 509
8. Yogi - 456
9. vennui - 450
10. Ontheroadagain - 446
11. Belle Book - 404
12. esquire - 353
13. flipxycd - 309
14. FFantasyFX - 288
15. louislam - 196
16. bbenzenberg - 132
17. kidflash212 - 124
18. Scuba Steve - 118
19. cahaya - 108
20. samboohoo - 107
21. chiubakka - 84
22. Travelor - 78
23. Georjanna - 64
24. jbenz - 60
25. Snidget - 53
26. kduck - 48
27. dragonflies - 36
28. Starshine - 32
29. alemattos - 24
30. Element King - 20
31. VisionQuest - 9
32. popeave - 5
33. Weez - 0

The Top 10 got shuffled around pretty majorly going into the final week. Nobody in the current Top 15 did better than 1.03x last week, so it was more of a hold-on-for-dear-life situation. The Top 3 are separated by only 51 points (a mere 5% of their points), so you're bound to see some huge wagers this final week.

So, knowing the big wagers are coming, it's still anyone's game. Anyone who watches Jeopardy can attest to that.

Finale Rules

It's been awhile since we've had a Final 4 Finale, so we should probably make those silly legal distinctions here.

The following Payout Table is based on the Final Ranking at the Finish Line of the race. If a team is eliminated in 4th place before the finish line, then they'll score 4th place (0x) for the week. The Top 3 will continue racing for the 1st/2nd/3rd rankings.

In short, if there's a pitstop in the middle of the 2-hour finale, we don't really care who finished 1st or 2nd. We're all about the final result.

Also, much like previous games, players are free to send me a private message with their picks this week. With the whole game riding on these picks, a little bit of privacy might be a good idea.

If you're concerned about me being in 2nd place reading your picks, you should be. I'm a curious person, and I can't help myself.

Therefore, I will be making my picks publicly in this thread on Saturday night (or in the wee hours of Sunday morning). So if you wait until Sunday like most of you do, you won't have to worry about it.

Finale Payout Table
1st place - 2x
2nd place - 1.3x
3rd place - .7x
4th place - 0x

Max Individual Bet - NO LIMIT

Since we got a 4-team finale, this is pretty much the only payout table I could do. Every ranking is separated by .6 or .7x, so every pick carries a lot of weight. So make those picks count.

Here's the Bonus Payout Table for the week.

Bonus Payout Table
2nd place - 3x
3rd place - 3x
4th place - 3x

Max Individual Bet - 70 points
Max Number of Bets - 3

Doubles are still on for Unique Wagers this final week. I'm passing on the "million" bonus this year, just to be different.

TAR17 Teams Remaining
Gary/Mallory
Flight Time/Big Easy
LaKisha/Jennifer
Zev/Justin

Good luck! It should be a really interesting final!

Normally, I would be worried about the competitive disadvantage of posting my picks publicly... But the way the scores are, you pretty much just have to be right this week to win. I also kind of like the idea of just throwing out a big Globetrotters wager (or another team), and making the other players pick around my picks.