LAST EDITED ON 02-21-13 AT 07:15 PM (EST)

Sand Castle Luckfest

Whenever they have a task like the sand castle challenge where multiple teams end up quitting, it's hard to reason whether this was extremely good production decisions or extremely bad ones. Because while I suppose the drama of repeated failures is interesting... It's also pretty indefensible to have a challenge that 1/4 quit on.

The only other one I can think of like that was the meat-eating in TAR7.

The firemen, Matthew/Daniel, ended up going home in somewhat of a surprise. They seemed like a good team on paper, so it really proves that anything can happen in a given leg.

Week 1 Results
1st place - Jessica/John (2x)
2nd place - Bates/Anthony (1.7x)
3rd place - David/Connor (1.4x)
4th place - Pam/Winnie (1.2x)
5th place - Mona/Beth (1.1x)
6th place - Joey/Meghan (even)
7th place - Chuck/Wynona (.9x)
8th place - Idries/Jamil (.8x)
9th place - Max/Katie (.6x)
10th place - Caroline/Jennifer (.3x)
11th place - Matthew/Daniel (0x)

Solid.

Overall, we had 25 players join in Week 1 this year, which is a bit down from the usual turn-out... But given some of the login issues with the site as well as the perceived unenthusiasm of CBS in promoting this season, I'd say it's a really solid start. Was actually wondering if there would be even less this year. So a big welcome to all of you!

We also had 4 players, who narrowly missed the 8 PM deadline in Week 1 (gotta post before 8 PM, guys ), IanQuentin, alemattos, and chiubakka, and bystander... But it's not to late to join this week. Luckily, most of the late folks would've lost points in their Week 1 entry, so they might've dodged a bullet, there.

Here's where I'd normally give out the Greatest Gainer Award and a Perfect Bet Award, but we'll wait for next week.

Leaderboard
1. mikey - 40
2. KwietOne - 34
3. pepperz - 34
4. beau_30 - 34
5. kduck - 34
6. Estee - 34
7. ARNutz - 34
8. bbenzenberg - 29
9. jbenz - 25
10. Yogi - 24
11. Belle Book - 24
12. sarah1234 - 24
13. Ontheroadagain - 23
14. Java - 23
15. Starshine - 23
16. CTgirl - 23
17. vennui - 23
18. FFantasyFX - 23
19. Jims02 - 19
20. Floyd1 - 18
21. taffnic - 17
22. louislam - 16
23. flipxcyd - 12
24. esquire - 12
25. Molaholic - 10

Overall, fairly solid scores, with mikey taking the Week 1 crown with a clever Jessica/John wager. Bates/Anthony helped a lot of players as well, so we should be in for a very competitive round.

New Players Still Welcome!

Throughout the next three weeks, the TAR Casino Game will be open to new entrants. Players who join this week will receive 15 points to start.

And don't worry about starting out a little behind, because I have a feeling that everyone will have a chance to make a huge comeback later this season...

For an entire list of rules, check out last week's thread.

Week 2 Payout Table
1st place - 2x
2nd place - 1.5x
3rd place - 1.3x
4th place - 1.2x
5th place - 1.1x
6th place - .9x
7th place - .8x
8th place - .7x
9th place - .5x
10th place - 0x

Max Individual Bet - 25 points

Max Individual Bets!

Like in previous seasons, this game is going to be a Limit Game. That means that all bets this year will have a limit cap called the max individual bet. The Max Individual Bet is the maximum amount that a player may wager on a specific team. This week, it's a 25 point limit.

Now, if you have more than 25 points, you can still use them all. You just can't bet them all on one team. You could theoretically bet the max on one team and then bet whatever's leftover on someone else. It's just one individual bet can't exceed 25 points.

TAR22 Teams Remaining
Bates/Anthony
Caroline/Jennifer
Chuck/Wynona
David/Connor
Idries/Jamil
Jessica/John
Joey/Meghan
Max/Katie
Mona/Beth
Pam/Winnie

As always, a big "good luck" to everyone!

A 2003 IceCat original