Lucky Shots @ High-Timez, Tuesday @ 6pm EST, in Aneurysm

A couple of very contrasting leagues here – with Lucky Shots you have a team that has been playing in inter-leagues for quite a while now, have a few tried and tested players and should fairly know how to handle themselves in these kind of match-ups. Despite this, I see them as a changing team – looking at the shout-box earlier it showed that their on-form player of the recent MLP season, bmx.justin, has transferred to Pure Skillz; and when you compare the roster they have signed up on the WPC ladder to the team they had in MLP, they are missing a couple of shooters by the looks of things. According to the ladder they don’t have Simon or Jeremy signed up to play with them this season either, so it will be interesting to see who Bev is going to use to fill these three notable voids. You’d think LS will be looking to players such as Jason, Raymie and Tonz to be putting them on-course versus sides like HT, in a match they should be pin-pointing as the type they really could do with winning (if they have any aspirations of being in a play-off berth towards the end of the season). I don’t see them coming up against too much trouble here, they’ll want to make sure they don’t slip up on their first outing of the season, yet you can’t write off this unfamiliar HT side.

As for High-Timez, despite the league being a spin-off of my old home team Lava Pool Lounge, I haven’t had any contact with them for a while and don’t know very much about their current setup, like who plays there and which players they’re going to bring. I am pretty sure that this is one of, if not the first inter-league these guys have been part of - I’m sure they had a brief stint in MLP under the league name Booze-n-Spliffs, but I couldn’t tell you whether or not any of the players that played back then are still about. Also, to add to the lack of inter-league experience you can assume they have, I hear they are a no safety league nowadays so you have to probably say that this puts a question mark next to their name already. Given that, to me at least, their players are unknown and so I can’t just write them off at the start of the season before anyone’s even seen what they’re about – with almost enough players for two teams signed up on the ladder before they’ve been involved in a WPC event, you’d imagine at the very least they’ll come prepared and put 6 shooters in front of LS. As for their chances for the season, I really have no clue what they’re gonna do, but it will be interesting for me to see if any of the old guys are still kicking around, and if they can hack it in WPC.

Match Odds: LS (4/6) Fav. Draw (3/1) HT (3/1)

Match Prediction: LS 4 - 2 HT, with LS winning in 5

*Note my match odds will not always reflect my prediction – how strong I feel a team is, their season’s record, recent form and whether a side is at home or not will be taken into consideration for the odds. Whereas the prediction is just my gut-feeling for the game and I could well mix it up and go for the upset if I think it’s on the cards.

As for the rest of the match-ups, I think I’d be best off waiting until we’re a little further down the line this season and I’ve got a slightly clearer picture of all the leagues before I start doing predictions for the whole week. Two interesting looking matches to me though would be Monday’s Devine Cuez @ Poolcuez (who have some quality players and are seemingly performing well in other inter-leagues) and Tuesday’s affair between WPC Season 2 Champions, Latino Pool Legends, and the team that’s supposedly gonna be basically the spine of United Pool’s old side recycled, SexyPoolerz. Anyways, as the new WPC season gets underway it's looking like an exciting week in general. I’ll hopefully have my match report on LS @ HT by Wednesday morning. VGL to everyone in week one and have some fun. In a bit. Ogges.

Week 1 Predictions

So we are almost there and ready for week 1! I would urge captains to get there players signed up ASAP. Week 1 is throwing up so nice looking, competative matches. I will do them as i always have by putting the match, date and time and ref. There are refs and one admin on duty per day. Enjoy Week 1 and i think it will be a voice blog for week 2.

HERE GOES!

Match 1

Straight Shots @ Dead Strokes

Date and Time - Monday 10th November @ 6pm

Room - Baby Come Home

Admin/ref - Mark/Jane

This is such a good game to get us up and running in the race for the WPC World Cup in Season 3. SS and DS are both new to WPC but are no strangers to Interleague competitions. SS was ED champions in UIC season 7 so have pedegree here and they play Rick's DS who are in the ED playoffs in UIC this season and going extremely well in PRO so this is going to be close and tense which is everything and more you ask for in a first match of any interleague competition. SS need to bring and will bring the likes of Scotty the captain, Steven and Shee, These three are who i see as DS's biggest threats in this match. DS however have scotty_who, Rick and Roy. I see DS really coming at SS and trying to take a early advantage in the Weaker Division but just coming short, I see no one realy commanding this match so therefore it being a shut out.

Score - The first Draw of WPC season 3 in the First match for both.

Match 2

Devine Cuez @ Pool Cuez

Date and Time - Monday 10th November @ 7pm

Room - Snookered

Admin/Ref - Jason/Jane

With Match 1 probably still going to be going, DC @ PCZ is going to be more tense! PCZ will have a stacked team. I hear Pommy will be there for PCZ along with Danielle and perry and crozzy. DC have Eric, Brock and Neale this season and i feel PCZ will out battle DC this time. PCZ are going to be stacked we can say that now. DC are on a rebuilding mission and i still see them having a great season but i feel this game will be used to assess players by neale and therefore i can only see one winner.

Score 4-2 PCZ

Match 3

Lucky Shots @ High Timez

Date and Time - Tuesday 11th November @ 6pm

Room - Aneurysm

Ref/Admin - Ogges/Rick

So I will keep this short as it's ogges first match and im sure he will post his own prediction on it. High Timez are a solid team with a lot of members signed up, however they will NOT be able to compete with Lucky Shots who got to the semi-finals last season and will be around about there again this season.

Score 5-1 to Lucky Shots

Match 4

Latino Pool Legends @ Sexy Poolerz

Date and Time - Tuesday 11th November @ 7pm

Room - Bicycle Race

Ref/Admin - Jane/Rick

MATCH OF THE WEEK!

Sexy Poolerz are undefeated in WPC! how you might ask? Well back in Season 1 they left witha 4-0 record, I have no idea why but they are back and they are strong, Very Strong. They have most the old UP interleague team and add to that most the players from Season 1 and wow this is a team that will challenge and will most probably conquer. Latino Pool Legends have every chance int his though as Champions they will wanna make sure they defend the title they so bravely won last season. There looks to have been no additions and Tino and Player Dude look happy they can defend this title. Can They? Absolutely! They are strong and very tight knit with each other. Saying that though i feel SP can get something here and pull off a remarkable Win to stay undefeated.

Score 4-2 SP

Match 5

Magic Pool @ Cue Masters

Date and Time - Wednesday 12th November @ 7pm

Room - Cushion

Ref/Admin - Brock/Danielle

So Cue Masters play Magic Pool. Jordy is back and its about time he went back to wher ehe belongs, as Captain and will no doubt bring along Ian and Mike oneill for the ride! Jordy is also the man to watch int his match hes in HOT form and will no doubt expect MP to pick up that all important win here. CM have several players signed up and will no doubt be agressive in the way lisa will call players to play who jordy picks, however can they surprise MP here? No they cant, watch for Annie to pick up a few wins this season but they wont here. I see MP walking this one and taking the 3 points.

Score 5-1 to MP

Match 6 and last

Greatest Pool Competitors @ Pure Skillz

Date and Time - Wednesday 12th November @ 7pm

Room - Achilles Last Stand

Ref/Admin - Ashley/Danielle

The finally! This wont really be a match if what i am hearing is true. PS are getting Matt (superstaaar) and more that Dan aint telling me who is going to PS. Either way who ever is there should beat GPC who are having a OK PRO season but other than that nothing spectacular. GPC will need 6 very strong player to even stand a chance and i dont think they will bring 6 strong players.

Score 5-1 PS

Theres the Predictions i hope you enjoy reading them and watch out for ogges's blog for his match. GL in this weeks games! DONTFORGET KICKOFF TOURNEY 5PM ON FRIDAY 7TH NOVEMBER

WPC WORLD CUP ODDS

Wpc Team Odds
Leagues	Pre-Season	Week #
		W1	W2
Pool Fiction	3-1F	-	-
Freedom	15-2	-	-
Luckyshots	8-1	-	-
LPL	9-1	-	-
Straightshots	10-1	-	-
Deadstrokes	10-1	-	-
Sexy Poolerz	11-1	-	-
Pool Skillz	11-1	-	-
Magic Pool	12-1	-	-
Devine Cuez	12-1	-	-
Pool Cuez	18-1	-	-
Cue Masters	18-1	-	-
High Times	22-1	-	-
GPC	25-1	-	-

Who To Watch This Season

Well with my preseason predictions out of the way i thought i would state who to watch and also post up the odds for MVP and for the outright champion of the WPC World Cup.

Wpc Mvp Season Odds
Players	Pre-Season	Week #
		W1	W2
PFN_XLX_BPK_XLX	4-1JF	-	-
DS_LAGER_DRINKING_FREAK	4-1JF	-	-
PFN_XLX_PROPOOLER_XLX	6-1	-	-
PCZ_CROZZZY	6-1	-	-
LPL_TINO_NICA	6-1	-	-
MP_XLX_SKILL_XLX	8-1	-	-
FR_ADAMBUDDY	9-1	-	-
FR_PRO.ASHLEY	9-1	-	-
LPL_LL_K0RB3N_LL	10-1	-	-
MP_LVLANCUNION	11-1	-	-
SP_HORNYSCOTS	11-1	-	-
FR_LL_ESKIMO.OWNAGE_LL	11-1	-	-
LS_SIMON.KITTO	12-1	-	-
PS_BMX.JUSTIN	12-1	-	-
PCZ_NICKM55	12-1	-	-
DC_REAL_FKIN_DEAL	12-1	-	-
DS_JUDGE.0000	12-1	-	-
PS_SLEEPYMAN619	14-1	-	-
LS_TONZMANIAC	14-1	-	-
LPL_PLAYER_DUDE	14-1	-	-
PFN_TACOBY_BELLSBURY	14-1	-	-
DC_XDIS.ENCHANTEDX	14-1	-	-
SS_STEVEN.RULES	16-1	-	-
MP_MIKE_ONEILL	16-1	-	-
LS_JASONLIPPI01	16-1	-	-
DC_NEALEJESS	16-1	-	-
CM_FIREY.TOUCH	18-1	-	-
SS_DJ.SHOCKWAVE	18-1	-	-
PCZ_IHATEJUSTIN	18-1	-	-

So thats the MVP EARLY ODDS remember this is for fun only and i hope you enjoy reading and either prove me wrong or force your way onto the list. The favourites are jamie from PFN he is just a wonderful player who will give 100% each time although by his own admission he hasnt really cracked WPC yet this must surely be his season. The other favourite is Rick last seasons MVP and has a great chance if he plays as well again this season. If you want a outsider i would go for mike from MP hes a genourously priced 16-1 the WPC odds for the Winners of WPC world cup will be up tomorrow for now have fun reading

Some sort of intro

Hi all just wanna take a few words to introduce myself. Most of you’s will probably know me or have seen me around, since I’ve probably played in more inter-league tournaments by now than I’ve had hot dinners; but if ya dunno me, I’m Ogges, I play with Pool Fiction and I’m one of the worst players they’ve ever had appear on their team-sheet (after Jason :p). I wasn’t gonna help him out on his blog this season because frankly there are plenty of people around pool these days more qualified than me to tell you about inter-leagues – they are a lot more informed about all the different leagues and which players they use and more importantly how good they are – but since it looks like I’m gonna be reffing a game every week now I suppose I might learn a bit and it won’t do any damage posting some insight on WPC.

And looking forward to Season 3, it promises to be a very original and interesting one with a lot of exciting new leagues joining up, a new format for the tournaments, and as Jason has already pointed out, this new rule allowing captains to coach their players. I think people have respect for WPC because it truly is a unique inter-league. For example, in the play-offs with the situation that can arise where the two captains (who may or may not have already won or lost) are forced to play when tied at 3-3 in a game 7 match decider, WPC has brought a new dimension to the usual best of 7 format that we all are surely well used to by now – so you have to commend these admins for being imaginative and trying to make the inter-league as new and as refreshing as possible. However, to me there is perhaps an issue surrounding this introduction of captains being allowed to coach and I think the rule is perhaps overly complicated by restricting it to only the captains.

At the end of the day, what is going to stop people from abusing this rule? The temptation will surely get the better of some players who will use YM to help their captain, by messaging them and advising them on what shot he/she should suggest to their team-mate at the table, perhaps when they are in a tricky situation that the captain has no solution to. My concern would be that if players are going to choose to do this, there will be no way of combating it, or even proving it, without having each captain record the whole match-up, to show they are not being aided by other team-mates while coaching their player at the table. We surely can’t be expected to trust that other leagues will be honest and not exploit this chance – for instance, if Dream Pool were in WPC some of them would be getting all excited just at the mere thought of finding a new way of cheating at Y!Pool :)

Seriously though, even in play-off games, only the two players involved in the game are required to record their screens, so if a captain was to illegally confer with his team-mates on YM before coaching their player it would not be captured on Camtasia (only what the captain ends up saying to the player will be recorded). I have to say it is a very surprising rule – one that I have never heard of before anywhere else anyway - and I’m curious to see how the admins plan to enforce it this season and especially in the play-offs. I wonder if it would not surely be easier to simply enable everyone and anyone to coach rather than just captains (or to just leave coaching as an outlawed part of the game).

Now that I’ve shared my ideas on the new rule, I may as well give you’s some idea of what else will be happening on ‘Sports Scene’ this season. As usual Jason will be bringing predictions for all the matches and I guess he’ll be reviewing some of them after they have panned out towards the end of the week. But new to this season, with the help of Kevin, WPC’s Head Admin, the two of them are going to be compiling a set of odds (which I in no way endorse :p) for how likely each league is to win the WPC World Cup, and also how likely each of a certain group of players is to be selected as WPC’s most valuable player come the end of the season. These odds will hopefully updated every week - just like a bookmakers except no one on the WPC admin team can afford to pay out if anyone puts on a winning bet. As for my role, each week I’ll hopefully be able to write up a report from the match I referee, so once the fixture list is announced for week one I will probably do a prediction for the match I get and maybe, if I have the time, I’ll post some predictions for the other match-ups.

So there you have it; everything seems ready for lift-off in the new season, and all that’s left to do is find out who and when you’re playing in week one, and hope that there’s gonna be a good turn-out for the Kick-Off Tournament on Friday (at 5pm EST). I suppose having lost in the finals of the World Cup, 2 seasons in a row, I’m not really too sure I particularly like playing in this inter-league much to begin with, but nonetheless it will be intriguing to see whether or not captains are popping up at tables trying to coach their players during tournament games :) Best of luck to everyone involved with WPC Season 3, have fun and most importantly, don’t be cheating by coaching your captains when they are coaching your team-mates! Thanks for reading, but if you got this far, unfortunately, like me, you clearly have no life at all :p

In a bit. Ogges.

PRE SEASON SEASON 3 WEEEEEE!

Welcome to another WPC season! Also welcome to Sports Scene! This season has been more popular than ever and it will consist of 14 strong teams. Some making there debut in WPC, and others making there comeback to inter leagues after a long absence. What is different this season to the other two seasons? The tourneys are different for a start, there will be a mixture of 1v1 which will be rank tourneys, 2v2 random partners, 2v2 non mixed and 3v3 events once a week it will be one of them four tourneys where again like last season there will be a scoring system for the tour. Tourneys are played in patience every Friday at 5 o’clock.

Now onto a few rule changes, A new rule as far as coaching is concerned this season where the captain may coach the player sitting at the table, no one else just the captain, if anyone else does it they will be disqualified. You have been warned!

This is still 6v6 and if tied the points will be shared. The top 4 from each division of 7 will progress to the playoffs and as it’s a 12 week season you will need 3 games to be eligible for the playoffs which will be on camtasia.

There will be a ref and an admin on duty this year, the admins will take a back seat and will only get involved if asked by the ref. What the ref says will usually stand unless in extreme circumstances.

Ok I got that lot sorted now onto the main bit, let’s look at the teams!

There are two conferences this season of 7 teams, Eastern Conference and Western Conference. Let’s look at the Eastern Conference first.

Teams that are in the Eastern Conference are as follows:
Devine Cues (DC)
Greatest Pool Competitors (GPC)
Latino Pool Legends (LPL)
PoolCuez (PCZ)
PoolFiction (PFN)
Pure Skillz (PS)
Sexy Poolerz (SP)

This is a very tough Eastern conference where I would say all but one team could have a shot at the playoff top 4 here. In LPL and PFN you have the winner and runners up in the same conference and they must go well lets look individually at each team in the Eastern Conference.

Devine Cuez
Captain – Nealjess
Last Season – Semi Finals lost to PFN
Prediction – 5th Place

Well DC got to the semi finals last season after some great early showings in WPC season 2; however they lost there way at the end as the league went through a rocky time where they lost players and ended up not having enough eligible players to give PFN a challenge. What will they do this season? Well with Jeanna in there team and with Eric(real_fkin_deal) and Kelly (sexxxy_fatality) back DC will have a good season under there captain Neal I however see them just missing out on the playoffs here.

Greatest Pool Competitors
Captain – GPC_ownz_you
Last Season – N/A
Prediction – May surprise one or two teams but essentially will finish last with such a tough draw 7th Place

GPC, some people will say GPWHO? Well this is a very solid well organized team with sexy.banker I would say is there best player. I am only going on what I have seen in PRO but she looks good and GPC have looked good and will definitely pick up a win or two.

Latino Pool Legends
Captian – Tino/Player_dude
Last Season – Champions
Prediction – 3rd Place

LPL are the reigning champions and will no doubt be right there in the mix at the end of the season. I can see them just doing enough to scrape into the playoffs where they will no doubt play there A game again. Last season’s Playoff MVP Player_dude will no doubt lead from the front and Korban will also add that firepower in the middle of the order again. I see LPL really going for it in WPC season 3 and although they will finish third in the group I expect them to be near the WPC World Cup finals again.

PoolCuez
Captain – Danielle
Last season – N/A
Prediction – 4th Place

Well when I heard that PCZ was getting pommy I was shocked, it is a massive coup for them and no doubt will add to the already strong line up Danielle has for WPC season 3. PCZ also have the shock of Pro at the moment in Perry and Steven will also beat most players put in front of him. In all I see PCZ flying this season and grabbing that last playoff spot just ahead of DC.

PoolFiction (PFN)
Captain – Kev
Last Season – Runners up
Prediction – 1st Place

I really don’t know how in the two seasons of WPC PFN have not won this yet. In season 1 MP beat them and in season 2 LPL beat them. PFN have added lewis (ll_ewis) from DC which I feel will push them onto possibly winning this seasons WPC. They will be there for sure with the likes of cubby, Jamie, Ogges and JJ this will surely be a season of joy for PFN.

Pure Skillz
Captain – Dan
Last Season – N/A
Prediction – 6th Place

Welcome to WPC pure skillz! Led by Dan, he will need to draw on all his captaining experience to get these into the playoffs, BUT it is not out of the question. Paul (sleepyman) is extremely talented and although they don’t have anyone signed up yet on the ladder I see a very successful season for PS although they wont reach the playoffs this will be a stepping stone for WPC season 4 where I feel they will make a great challenge.

Sexy Poolerz
Captain – Ross
Last Season – N/A
Prediction – 2nd Place

Welcome back to WPC SP, This team was smokin’ hot back in season 1 where they were lying top at 4-0 when they just pulled out! Will they do that this time? HELL NO as they have a stacked team with the old members from season one and the players from the UP team that now play at SP. Soothing affect if played can be great on the day. Arron, Ste, Pool chicky and danny all can show there worth here and command a high seeded playoff spot alongside PFN. How will Ross do this season only time will tell.

So you have the Western Conference now for the Eastern Conference where it is WIDE open and probably not as strong as the Western Conference.

Teams in the Western Conference are as follows:
Cuemasters (CM)
Dead Strokes (DS)
Freedom (FR)
High-Timez (HT)
Lucky Shots (LS)
Magic Pool (MP)
Straight Shots (SS)

Out of all these Teams only two teams was in this competition last season so this is a prediction into the unknown!

Cuemasters
Captain – Lisa
Last Season N/A
Prediction – 7th Place

Welcome to another new team in WPC and CM have a tough job here. Lisa still needs to get them signed up but annie is already signed up and is a very good player so watch for annie this season getting a few wins on the board!

Dead Strokes
Captain – Rick
Last Season – N/A
Prediction – 4th Place

Dead Strokes are going to be a factor this season in WPC, Welcome to WPC and I hope you enjoy it, Rick will get quite a team here with Roy and JD probably playing a big role this season. WPC looks good for DS as they are in the ‘weaker’ of the Conferences and for that reason and the fact DS are a pretty solid side I will go for the playoffs for these guys. Watch out for scotty_who he is class!

Freedom
Captain – Ashley
Last Season – N/A
Prediction – 3rd Place

Welcome to WPC petey and Ashley. FR must have a chance with the likes of petey and adambuddy going and I see a very successful season for them here as long as they can show with 6 every week they have a chance of making it far in the playoffs. If so then you would have to fancy them possibly going all the way.

High-Timez
Captain – l3ad_boy
Last Season – N/A
Prediction – 6th Place

Welcome to WPC High-Timez and we hope you have a fun time. This team will shock people this season and have a lot of players signed up for WPC. I don’t know much about this league but I know they are not here to give in, in every game but they are here to try to win games and try to get to the playoffs. I don’t think they will but we will see this is yahoo pool and as everyone knows it is very unpredictable.

Lucky Shots
Captain – Bev
Last Season – Semi finals
Prediction – 1st Place

Luckyshots was so close to the finals last season and so close to the regular season championship but ultimately they lost in the final couple of matches and was left rueing what could have been. They lose petey this season he is replaced by me(Jason). Chris is a important member of LS team and he will need to be the one to help and encourage LS to victory.

Magic Pool
Captain – Jordy
Last Season – 8th of 8
Prediction – 5th Place

Well last season couldn’t have been any worse! MP was no where and need a complete change this season. But jordy is back and in form, he has got them really focussed and I feel MP having a good season but just missing out on the playoffs. Watch for Ian and Mick to play again this season and recapture the form that sees them back to there usual best.

Straight Shots
Captain – Scotty
Last Season – N/A
Prediction – 2nd Place

Welcome to WPC SS and what a season that’s in prospect for you. Scotty has got a lot of players signed up including steven.rules who is I think there best player, Scotty is good but maybe has a bit to prove and it will be interesting with me predicting 2nd in this conference how scotty will handle the captaincy I see him being a success and SS storming into the playoffs!

There you have it the pre-season predictions and what to look out for. PLZ REMEMBER THIS IS COMPETATIVE BUT WE INCLUDING THE REFS ARE ALL HERE FOR FUN AND TO HAVE A GOOD TIME. REMEMBER ON FRIDAY THE KICK OFF TOURNEY AND PLZ LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS IN THE BOX BELOW AND GL ALL TEAMS