The 2014 World Cup Challenge
In honor of the resurgence of soccer in the US, I launched a World Cup challenge (which Salil Bali won by picking Germany to win) and made it really simple. No need to guess who will make it out of pool play or fill out a complete 64 match bracket. Just predict the winner. Of course, since the picks had to be made before the tournament began, some people’s picks never got out of group play (I’m looking at you Spain and Italy).
For tie breakers, I used the runner up, then the 3rd place team and then the 4th place team. And if more than one person happened to predict all 4 of those, the next tie breaker would have been the winner of the golden boot (top goal scorer at the World Cup).
And if 2 people were still tied, I’d flip a coin.
The Prize: The winner had a donation of $250 made in his name to his choice of one of three charities:
The teams:
- Picks must be submitted by kick-off on June 12th. That date and tournament are over, so don’t apply now. Google timestamps the entry, so you can’t fake it.
- One entry per person.
- Forward it to all your friends (real and Facebook). It’s closed, so don’t forward it.
- Open to legal US residents only (Why? Why not.)
- Void where prohibited (Not sure why this would be prohibited anywhere, but I’m a lawyer so this is classic CYA)
- FIFA: I’m not making money off this so please don’t sue me for using the World Cup trademark and logo. Same goes for adidas, Getty and anyone else whose marks and images I’ve used.
- These T&Cs may be changed at any time without notice.
Shirish Gupta is an award-winning mediator and arbitrator with JAMS. He coaches youth soccer, referees, serves as an AYSO board member, coordinates a division and plays adult soccer. He won the AYSO Area Sportsmanship Award and Coach of the Year in 2014. Most Saturdays, he can be found on a soccer pitch.
Book a mediation with Shirish.
