ADDIT'S PROFILE

The Lowdown:
Uh, oh. It looks like Corona-Chan here has taken over the globe and has destroyed almost everything that we used to hold, cherish and take for granted: Movies, video games, restaurants, public outings, grocery shopping…heck, even sports, like the National Hockey League, has fallen victim to this merciless succubus. (Damn her!)

But luckily, thanks to social distancing measures, face masks - and a lot more time spent staying indoors - the world that we once knew is slowly making a comeback, much to Corona-Chan’s dissatisfaction. Heck, even the wildlife is happy to see us again, roaming around outside, dumping our sweet delicious garbage for them to eat once more. And what was once thought impossible several months ago has now become a near-sighted reality today: The return of the National Hockey League and the Stanley Cup Playoffs…

…in the summertime…

…yeaaahhh…

But an unusual situation happens to call for an unusual playoffs! As this year, instead of the usual 16 teams battling it out for Lord Stanley’s giant mug, there will be 24 teams instead with 16 teams facing off against one another in a best-of-5 play-in round to see who happens to qualify for the actual Stanley Cup tournament, where it will then be the usual best-of-7 all throughout. In the meantime, the top four teams in each conference (St. Louis, Colorado, Vegas, Dallas, Boston, Tampa Bay, Washington and Philadelphia) will play against one another in a round robin type of setting to determine the seedings.

Annnddd…unfortunately, if you’re Ottawa, Detroit, New Jersey, Buffalo (poor Buffalo…), Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Jose (what the hell happened to you guys this year???), you get the luxury of watching the whole crazy thing unfold in front of hardly anybody in the stands on T.V.! Isn’t that great!?!?!?

This year - who knows what will happen...!? Everybody’s fully rested, rusty as hell, and hasn’t played a meaningful game in months. This year’s Stanley Cup Champion could be almost anybody!

But before that can possibly happen, Corona-Chan could ruin all of the fun and use her deadly Coronas Wave on as many players, coaches, and team personal as humanly possible to put a stop to this. Will she happen to succeed? Or will we have to put an asterisk besides somebody’s name and crown ourselves a champion this October.

Once again, like in other years past, we’ll be running ourselves a little playoff pool where you - yes, you - can potentially win yourselves some sweet, sweet achievos if you can happen to successfully predict who’s moving on and what not. Heck, you can even get an achievement just for showing up and picking nothing but duds! So it’s an event for everybody to have fun and participate in, even if you don't know much about the NHL.

- It’s the ultimate battle of millionaires verses virus. Who shall prevail…???

The Hub Cities:

The Bracket:

The Rules:
Beginning with the best-of-5 qualifying round first, and then the remaining best-of-7 rounds after that, you must pick the winner of each playoff series (listed above) and how many games that each series will ultimately go to. You will also have to pick who you think is going to win the Stanley Cup at the end of the playoffs as well.

You only need (for now) to pick the qualifying round series' first to start things off. After all of the qualifying round series' has been fully completed, you will then provide your picks for the 1st Round, and then the 2nd Round, Conference Finals, and then, finally, the Stanley Cup Finals at a much later date. This way, it provides participants a chance to make a comeback if they happen to bust their brackets out early.

Oh, and there's no need to make any picks for the Round Robin teams. Those teams are already guaranteed a spot into the 1st round by default, so who cares about them (...for now).

- Whomever has the most points at the end of this year’s playoffs will be announced the winner!

• You are only allowed to enter one bracket per user. You cannot submit multiple brackets under the same username.

• Once you’ve made your picks for each round and the allotted time limit has passed, you cannot change or alter your picks unless you either contact me in advance via PM or it’s been less than 24 hours from the last post that you made your picks in. If it’s past the deadline, then I'm afraid you’re simply out of luck. (Sorry.)

• Your Stanley Cup Champion Pick will be locked into place and cannot be changed or altered throughout the playoffs once the initial qualifying round deadline has passed, which is on August. 3rd @ 6 A.M. PST, 9 A.M., EST). Once your Stanley Cup Champion Pick has been officially eliminated, then it’s officially eliminated for good, there's no turning back.

• In order to compete for the Draft Lottery Winner Award, which goes to the participant(s) that finished the pool in dead last, you basically have to fully participate and make your picks, regardless of what you do, from the qualifying round all the way until the end of the playoffs in order to qualify for this award. You cannot join in later on in the playoffs and score a zero and hope to covet this award; you must participate from start until the end of the playoffs in order to receive this achievement. There are some exceptions, though, like if it’s the final round and you have a massive lead (or, in this case, a massive hole) over the next participant(s) above you and you don’t bother with your final picks, or if there’s an emergency, or you just don’t have the time to do it, then it’s okay.

The Scoring System:
4 Points : If you happen to predict both the winning team and the correct number of the games that the series ultimately went to.

2 Points : If you happen to predict the winning team in a series.

1 Point : If the team that you predict happens to lose the series but you successfully managed to predict how many games that the series ultimately went.

0 Points : You failed to predict either the winner of a series or the correct number of games. (Bupkis!)


2x Multiplier : If your Stanley Cup Champion Pick is involved in a series, you can potentially receive double the points if they happen to get you anything out of it. You can earn up to a maximum of 8 Points if you can successfully predict your Stanley Cup Champion Pick winning the series and the correct number of games that they won by. That’s why is so vitally important to pick a team that you believe is going to go far in the playoffs.

• However, if you happen to go against your Stanley Cup Champion Pick and pick the other team in a series, you’ll just receive the regular amount of points normally and receive no bonus multiplier based on the result. It might be a good idea to sometimes go against your Stanley Cup Champion Pick for strategic purposes if you think that they're not going to make it out of a series.

The Past Champions:

The Prizes:

For this year’s winner, the participant(s) who manages to score the most amount of points in this year’s pool will be rewarded with the David Ayres Award that’s worth 10

and the title of champion. You even get a little championship banner hanging above the virtual rafters of RMN Place, alongside previous champions, for all of eternity! (...Or at least until Kentona and Liberty stop paying for the lease.)


But for all of those unfortunate enough to be at rock bottom towards the end of this year’s playoffs, don’t you worry - there’s always next year - with the Draft Lottery Winner Award. You not only get a chance at the number one overall pick, but you also get a single point of

too! That will help restock the cupboards in 10 years time!


For those who have the power to see into the far future and predict this year’s Stanley Cup Champion from the start, you sir (or madam or etc.) will earn the Crystal Clairvoyant, an award that’s worth 5

and would even make Shulk from Xenoblade jealous. (And you managed to even pull it off without using the Monado - so screw him.)


It may seem rather impossible (but then again - who thought we’d ever be having this thing in the first place?), but for the incredibly divine who happen to predict a winner in EVERY single series without a single fault on their record, they will be bestowed the Brackcellent award that’s worth 25 and Mr. Trump’s personal seal of approval of you doing good.


And for the final award, if our dear heroes on skates, wielding sticks cannot lift up the holy grail in time before the final battle finishes because they couldn’t stop Corona-Chan and her third, most powerful form and they are defeated and the playoffs are cancelled, then every single participant here will earn a Corona-Chan Strikes Back award worth a single

point, as she delivers all of us the sweet, breath of death before laughing maniacally from afar.

The Leaderboard:

1st	Addit	47 Pts
2nd	UPRC	37 Pts
3rd	Kory_Toombs	34 Pts
4th	Kentona	25 Pts
5th	JDogg1717	8 Pts

The Players:
Addit's Picks:


JDogg1717's Picks:


Kentona's Picks:


Kory_Toombs' Picks:


UPRC's Picks:

Edmonton’s actually got a good chance this year (and I can’t believe I’m saying that...) They should AT LEAST get past the Blackhawks with somewhat ease before having a real test against one of the big boys in the west. I’m actually thinking about picking them as my Stanley Cup team in the pool, but, I dunno, I’m not really sold on their goaltenders as much, though.

And, lol, yeah you watch. It will be Edmonton V.S. Pittsburgh, Game 7, and then everybody gets sick with Covid just before puck drop and they all have to cancel the whole thing. That would be both hilarious and sad.

I can’t believe I get to say this considering that the whole COVID19 pandemic is still hitting a lot of places really, really hard and the last thing on anybody’s mind right now is about sports and entertainment and such, but *takes a deep breath* …starting August 1st (which is on a Saturday!) - the National Hockey League is FINALLY coming back! And this time, with a really weird format to boot! As 24 teams, not 16 (like usual) are all going to do battle for Lord’s Coronas Stanley Cup. And, once again, that only means one thing around here: That’s right. kory_toombs is going to pull it out of his ass - yet again - and reclaim that title with some miraculous BS!

…Oh, and, uhhh - we’re having another pool / prediction thread again just like with years before…where you can actually win achievos (you like achievos, don’t you boy - don’t you???) for simply picking which team goes on and in how many games. Heck, you can even win an achievement for just showing up and picking nothing but duds all the way through, like I and GreatRedSpirit did last year, and STILL earn something! Isn’t that great!? I mean, what event on RMN has you participating in it, totally blowing it, and still get something for your troubles!? Nothing, that’s what.

Anyway, the point of this status is just to see who’s interested in participating this year and what not before I go ahead and waste one of my evenings making the topic for it, considering that you never know what could happen, everybody could all suffer GRAVE misfortunes and are totally not fit to pick anybody because Corona-Chan has sunk her deadly claws into you all...! (Hopefully not.)

This year’s format (which will be the fifth year that I’ve done this on Real Mayonnaise Network since 2015) will cover BOTH the best of five play-in round and the actual, regular Stanley Cup Playoff Rounds, which are still a best of seven. We won’t do the Round Robin ones with the top four teams of each conference (St. Louis, Colorado, Vegas, Dallas, Boston, Washington, Tampa Bay and Philadelphia) because those teams are just playing for seeding and are all automatically going to advance to the next round after the play-in round finishes anyway, so there’s no reason to pick that. It’s just the play-in round and the actual Stanley Cup Playoff matches, that’s it.

I’m also going to do the exact same format from last year when it comes to picks and points, where you get two points for successfully predicting which team wins what series, one point if the team that you picked ended up losing but you successfully predicted how many games that series will go to, and a perfect four points if you can manage to get both the team and the correct number of games right. We will also pick in stages instead of just picking every single series until the end at once, so we will all do the play-in series' first, and then, when that’s over, the first round, and then the second round, and then yada, yada, yada until the end.

Oh, and of course, you still get to pick who you think is going to win the Stanley Cup at the beginning and get a bonus multiplier for whatever they’re involved in. It’s basically the same thing as last year barring an extra round and two minor changes to the rules.

So lemme know in this status if any of you are all interested or not before I go ahead and make the thread. If there’s enough participants, I hope to have the thread up all ready to go with at least more than a week to go before the play-in round actually starts so it will give people lots of time to make their picks and selections, because – hoo boy – this is gonna be a total crapshoot! (Maybe kory_toombs DOES have the answer…)

(Also, for the record, if the Stanley Cup Playoffs / Pool Prediction Thread commences and COVID19 strikes the players and the league hard and ends up getting cancelled midway through, or something, before a champion is fully declared, then, for all of those participating, I have an extra special badge for everyone to hand out just in case that ends up happening...which I hope not.)

Thank god that Star Wars is nothing but fiction, right? (Or did all of that stuff ACTUALLY happen a long time ago and George Lucas was secretly Jar Jar Binks but in disguise? Oh boy.)

And at least one positive that you can take out of this LockeZ is that if you’re right about the whole thing and this is, indeed, the end of days, you can be that crazy guy on top of the mountain of trash and just laugh at everybody below with your giant stick and say, “I TOLD YOU ALL THAT THIS WAS THE END OF DAYS! But did you all heed my warning!? No!!! You all had to be ‘optimistic’ and ‘cheery’ about the whole thing... But now who’s laughing!?!?!?”

“Um…anybody here got any loose batteries, by the way? I wanna play Final Fantasy VI: Advance on my Game Boy Advance one more time before the world ultimately ends. It's a fitting end for a such a pointless life.”

So...even with new social distancing rules in Canada that can be punishable by fines - or even jail time - for businesses and large groups of people who don’t happen to comply with the new rules, it’s maddening to go out for a walk (by myself, of course) and still see large groups of people play full blown soccer games, basketball, or even cricket in the park without a care in the world... Heck, there’s even some people bringing their kids to the playgrounds still, touching, and riding the various equipment there and playing with other kids, and it’s like, “Do you guys even know what’s going on with all of the news and all that around here lately?” It’s insane!

Luckily, though, the playgrounds have recently just been taped off (not completely dismantled), and they’ve either locked up access to some of the sports fields, or just removed things entirely, such as the hockey and the lacrosse nets and the basketball hoops. And although I’ll personally miss playing basketball in the park for…at least a little while, if it happens to prevent someone from getting CoVid19 and possibly save lives (including my own), then I’m down for that. Besides, I can still work out here at home if push comes to shove, as we have a spin bike, rowing machine, weights…and many other do-dads.

And I’ve also noticed (and maybe it’s just me and the area that I live in) that people seem more… nicer and more pleasant than before, I dunno. Really, the only rude person that I’ve encountered thus far since the CoVid19 thing was this one impatient guy at the grocery store who didn’t wanna go in the long lineup that they had (because they had to check every single customer to see if they’re following the rules about how much of one particular item that you’re allowed to buy, along with making sure there’s not too many individuals crowded together at one single checkout for social distancing purposes) and he tried to cut in front of me and when I reminded him that the line was over there, he just told me to “Shut the bleep up and mind your own f’in business,” or whatever. After a bit of a shouting match, one of the security guards noticed the whole thing and told the individual to behave himself and be patient and wait in line like the rest of us but he just stormed off and said that this was “BS”, or something, and just left, lol.

Toilet Paper is still a b**ch to find, though. Even if you decide to go to the grocery store early in the morning, you ain’t finding it out in the wild (for at least a little while). But at least I can find and get some bread, pasta, ground chicken and turkey meat now that I couldn’t find before. It seems like some of the panic buying has died down a little bit here, so you can find still plenty of things in the grocery store now no problems, regardless of what time you go.

author=LockeZ
I didn't think this would be how society ended, but here we are, one week after all unnecessary human contact was permanently banned, and governments worldwide made public assembly illegal forever.

Oh, come on now, LockeZ – it’s not gonna be like that forever! Sooner or later we’ll be able to congregate again. (Although I can’t blame some people who think that there’s some secretive motive going on behind the scenes that they ain’t telling us.)

author=AkarithePeanut
If this prolongs, many people just can´t hold on that much without concrete and steady goverment help. Society crumbling or internal strife is a possibility I believe

Yeah, that’s the only thing that I’m worried about is how long can various governments (if any) are going to be able to provide relief for people that can’t work or find a job because of CoVid19 and how are they going to be able to pay it back? Canada’s trying to approve an 82 Billion Dollar relief plan right now (which is INSANE for this country) and just how are they planning to pay off that when CoVid19 either gets cured or slows down immensely in the future, raising taxes??? I mean, I can’t blame the government for doing for they have to do right now at this current time, but the fall-out from this is going to hurt a lot of pocket books when it comes time to paying that huge debt off in the future (if we even can).