Fantasy Winter Olympics - Final Results!

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics have come and gone, bringing our Fantasy Winter Olympics League to an end.  As with all great Olympics events, it's time to award the medals!

In third place and taking home the bronze medal is Jon Trementozzi and Team Hosehead, with 796 of a possible 964 points.  In second place, taking home the silver medal is my team, Norwegian Curling Pants with 864 total points (good job team!).  And last, but certainly not least, the gold medal and the $100 cash prize goes to Dennis Roesch and Team Dennis with an astonishing 949 points!  Dennis successfully chose the top performing teams in four of our five tiers and could only have improved his team's performance with the addition of Kazakhstan.  He even had the foresight to draft the surprising Slovenia in Tier 5, adding an additional 3 medals and 35 points to his team's final totals.  Please join me in extending our heartfelt congratulations to Dennis on his commanding victory!  To see the full standings, please visit our League Results webpage.

Melissa and I also want to take the time to thank everyone for participating in our Fantasy Olympics Fundraiser.  We were able to raise $100 for our team and had a great time in the process.  We also had a lot of help promoting our league from a whole host of friends and family to whom we are incredibly grateful.  Finally, I wanted to give an extra special shout out to JT Shoemaker for his tireless work and insightful commentary over on the League Results webpage.  I can't thank him enough for all his help these past few weeks.  This fundraiser was a great success and it's all thanks to you guys!

Now that all the crazy luge runs and cross country ski races are complete, let's all get warmed up by the fireplace and maybe catch a movie or two...

Fantasy Winter Olympics Results - Day 15

There are only two days of competition and nine medal events remaining in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics!  At the completion of today's competition, the current standings in our Fantasy Winter Olympics League are as follows:

Maximum Possible Score			865
Rank	Team Name	Player Name(s)	Total Points
1	Dennis	Dennis Roesch	850
2	Norwegian Curling Pants	Kristen Cincotta	753
3	Team Hosehead	Jon Trementozzi	720
4	Homer Bound	Karen Sager	693
5	Team Kristin :)	Kristin Moreland	671
6	Team Hot Mama	Hally Trementozzi	665
7	Boobies in the Snow	Meag & Andy Jenkins	650
8	Brown and Orange	Miguel Campos	634
9	Cool Runnings	J.T. Shoemaker	633
10	Rebecca	Rebecca Roffman	601
11	Roger	Roger Sager	595
12	Double Lutzes	Tim & Janet Shoemaker	594
13	Mom Moreland's Magic	Diana Moreland	568
14	Team Rex	Rexford L. Sager	566
15	Nana's Children	Jeanine Collier	557
16	Leah	Leah Roesch	526
17	Mickey's Snow	Melissa Campos	524
18	Papa's Dagers	Donald Collier	473
19	MamaYaw	Laurie Yaw	453
20	I Curl For Beers	Mike Cincotta	420

The United States is guaranteed to bring home more medals this year than at any previous Winter Olympics and currently leads the medal standings.  Germany is second overall in medals, followed by the home country of Canada, current leaders in the gold medal race.  With all three of these top countries on Team Dennis, Dennis Roesch has led through much of the Olympics.  Will his lead hold through the weekend to bring in our big prize?  Stay tuned to our Fantasy League Results webpage to find out!

Fantasy Winter Olympics Results - Day 13

The Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada are continuing and with right along with it is our Fantasy Winter Olympics League.  We are now on Day 13, with only five days of competition left.

The current standings in our Fantasy League are:

Standings (click on a team name to see individual statistics)
Rank	Team Name	Player Name(s)	Total Points
1	Dennis	Dennis Roesch	587
2	Team Hot Mama	Hally Trementozzi	532
3	Norwegian Curling Pants	Kristen Cincotta	519
4	Boobies in the Snow	Meag and Andy Jenkins	501
5	Team Hosehead	Jon Trementozzi	488
6	Cool Runnings	J.T. Shoemaker	487
7	Homer Bound	Karen Sager	467
8	Brown and Orange	Miguel Campos	462
9	Mom Moreland's Magic	Diana Moreland	450
10	Double Lutzes	Tim and Janet Shoemaker	450
11	Nana's Children	Jeanine Collier	444
12	Roger	Roger Sager	443
13	Team Kristin :)	Kristin Moreland	443
14	Rebecca	Rebecca Roffman	421
15	Team Rex	Rexford L. Sager	420
16	Leah	Leah Roesch	405
17	Mickey's Snow	Melissa Campos	370
18	MamaYaw	Laurie Yaw	369
19	I Curl For Beers	Mike Cincotta	336
20	Papa's Dagers	Donald Collier	326

Dennis Roesch has been sitting on the top of the standings for a long time.  But as we know from watching the Olympics, wipe outs can happen at any time, to anyone.  No lead is truly safe, especially with some big medals left to be awarded! 

Remember, you can check the current standings at anytime on our Fantasy League Results webpage.  JT generally updates at the conclusion of each day's events.  He's also adding his very funny commentary on the major events of the Olympics (in his opinion), so check back often!

Fantasy Winter Olympics Results - Halfway done!

We're now halfway through the Vancouver Winter Olympics and things are heating up in our Fantasy Winter Olympics League!  Our teams have been competing vigorously over the weeks, racking up the points for each medal that they win.  We've even had a few Tier 5 "long shot" medals!

The current standings for our league are:

Rank	Team Name	Player Name(s)	Total Points
1	Dennis	Dennis Roesch	477
2	Norwegian Curling Pants	Kristen Cincotta	435
3	Team Hot Mama	Hally Trementozzi	396
4	Boobies in the Snow	Meag and Andy Jenkins	391
5	Homer Bound	Karen Sager	387
6	Brown and Orange	Miguel Campos	383
7	Team Kristin :)	Kristin Moreland	381
8	Nana's Children	Jeanine Collier	360
9	Cool Runnings	J.T. Shoemaker	359
10	Team Hosehead	Jon Trementozzi	357
11	Rebecca	Rebecca Roffman	353
12	Roger	Roger Sager	348
13	Mom Moreland's Magic	Diana Moreland	332
14	Team Rex	Rexford L. Sager	328
15	Double Lutzes	Tim and Janet Shoemaker	322
16	Leah	Leah Roesch	296
17	Mickey's Snow	Melissa Campos	295
18	MamaYaw	Laurie Yaw	285
19	I Curl For Beers	Mike Cincotta	270
20	Papa's Dagers	Donald Collier	249

As always, we are tracking our league standings at our league results website that is being rigorously maintained by JT Shoemaker.  There, you can see the most recent league standings, view the countries on each team and see the overall medal table for the Vancouver Olympics.  You can also see the medalists for each day's competitions.  In addition, JT has started adding his very funny take on the highlights of each day of competition at the top of the site.  (He tends to favor Curling, in case you were wondering.)  I highly recommend that everyone visit regularly to check out his take on the Vancouver Olympics and to see how their team is doing against the rest of the league.

Finally, we encourage everyone to take advantage of the comments section of this post to add their feedback on the current happenings in both the Vancouver Olympics and in our Fantasy Olympics.

Have fun this week watching the Olympics and good luck!  I'll be cheering my heart out for Norway and Japan!

Fantasy Winter Olympics Results - Day 5

I hope everyone that entered our Fantasy Winter Olympics League is having as much fun as I am!  Five days of competition are now complete and our Fantasy teams are busy racking up lots of points.  Our current top five players are:

Rank	Team Name	Player Name(s)	Total Points
1	Dennis	Dennis Roesch	241
2	Team Hot Mama	Hally Trementozzi	210
3	Cool Runnings	J.T. Shoemaker	210
4	Brown and Orange	Miguel Campos	207
5	Double Lutzes	Tim & Janet Shoemaker	206

Dennis Roesch is strongly in the lead on the strength of Germany and South Korea.  However, there is still a long ways to go before things are over in Vancouver and hundreds of points left to be awarded so no one is out of it yet!

Remember, you can always check out the league standings and your team's performance at our league results webpage.  Check back often, we're updating all the time to keep things as current as possible.  I also want to extend a special thanks to JT Shoemaker for all of the time that he's putting in maintaining the results website - we couldn't do it without you!

Fantasy Winter Olympics Results - Day 1

The results from the first day of competition for our Fantasy Olympics League are in!

Dennis Roesch is currently in first place with 58 points and his wife Leah is in third with 51 points.  My team, Alpine Sniper, is sandwiched in between the Roeschs with 52 points.  There are still two weeks of competition to go and lots of points to be awarded, so keep checking back daily!

All of the results and current standings can be seen on our league website.

Thanks and good luck!

Our Fantasy Winter Olympics League is now live!

Welcome to our Fantasy Winter Olympics League!  With the start of the Vancouver Winter Olympics tonight, our league is officially live!

Over the next two weeks, athletes from all around the world will compete in all kinds of winter events, from alpine skiing to to speed skating and everything in between.  As they do, they will rack up medals for their countries and for your Fantasy Olympics teams.  As you know, each team in our league is made up of 12 countries selected from five tiers based on their previous Olympics performances.  Points will be awarded to your team based on what color medal is won by your athletes and will be weighted based on the tier of the country of the athlete that won it. The point scheme will be as follows:
 

Gold Medals = 5 points x Tier Level
Silver Medals = 3 points x Tier Level
Bronze Medals = 1 point x Tier Level

In the end, the person whose Fantasy Olympics Team has accumulated the most points will win our cash prize.  Melissa and I are excited to announce that we have 20 teams entered in our league, meaning that we have raised $100 for our team for the Breast Cancer 3 Day.  That also means that our winner will be taking home $100 at the conclusion of the Vancouver Olympics!

To help everyone track the performance of their teams, my friend JT has set up this league website that will be updated every day with the most recent results from the Vancouver Olympics.  Clicking on the team names will allow you to view the countries making up each team and each country's medal total.  Please bookmark the league website and check back regularly to keep up with our league.  I'll also be regularly posting the standings here on this blog.

Thank you all so much for continuing to support our team in the Breast Cancer 3 Day and best of luck!  May the Olympics spirit carry your team to victory!

 

Image is courtesy of http://www.vancouver2010.com/ and (c) VANOC/COVAN

Fantasy Winter Olympics League Reminder!

I just wanted to remind everyone that entries for our Fantasy Winter Olympics League are due by 8pm tonight to be eligible to win our cash prize!

For our Fantasy Winter Olympics League, each participant will be asked to select 12 countries to comprise their team.  Over the course of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, we'll be tracking how many medals each country wins.  In the end, the team whose countries have won the most medals will be crowned champion of our league and will win a cash prize equal to half the money raised for this contest. As always, we are only asking for a $10 donation to our team per entry and you can enter as many times as you like.  The more times you enter, the better your chance to win!

All of the details about our Fantasy Olympics League, including instructions about how to enter, can be found in the official contest blog post. 

Reminder!

We are currently accepting entries for two fundraising contests designed to support the members of Relentless Optimism in their fundraising efforts for the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure.

First and foremost, we are only accepting entries for our Super Bowl fundraiser until 8pm tomorrow night.  We've had a good number of entries thus far with more sure to come in tomorrow, meaning our cash prize just keeps growing.  If you strongly believe in the Power of Peyton or the Brilliance of Brees, put your money where your mouth is and enter our contest.  If you have no idea what that means, you should still enter the contest.  In the end, it's really all about who makes the best guesses anyways.  Besides, even if you lose, the money we raise is going to a great cause!  Just don't hesitate -  get your entries in before it's too late!

Second, we opened up "registration" for our Fantasy Winter Olympics League on Monday morning.  Each participant in our league will be asked to select 12 countries to comprise their team.  Over the course of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, we'll be tracking how many medals each country wins.  In the end, the team whose countries have won the most medals will be crowned champion of our league and will win a cash prize equal to half the money raised for this contest.  Opening Ceremonies are in a little over a week, so register your team today!

As always, we are only asking for a $10 donation per entry per contest to be entered to win the cash prize.  Enter as many times as you want, there's no limit.  Finally, the more people that enter, the larger the cash prize and the more money we can raise for our Breast Cancer 3 Day team so please help us get the word out to anyone that you know that might be interested!

To learn more about the Super Bowl Contest and enter, please click here.  To learn more about the Fantasy Winter Olympics League and enter, please click here. 

Announcing the Relentless Optimism Fantasy Winter Olympics Contest!

Entries for this contest are now closed.  Thanks!

On February 12th, the entire world will turn their eyes to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics! The Olympics will run for two weeks and will conclude on February 28th at the Closing Ceremonies. We here at Relentless Optimism think that this is the perfect opportunity for another fundraising contest!

For this contest, we are going to be running a Fantasy Winter Olympics league of our very own! Every person who enters our contest will be asked to select 12 countries to be their "Fantasy Team" for the entire Olympiad. However, you can't just choose any 12 countries. We have ranked all of the countries that have qualified athletes based on their previous performances and grouped them into five "tiers", with the top tiers being known Winter Olympics powerhouses and the lower tiers being long shots to medal at all. When you select your team, you will be asked to choose a select number of countries from each tier to compose your team. Then, throughout the Olympics, we'll keep track of how many medals each of your countries wins for your team. Points will be awarded based on what color medal is won and will be weighted based on the tier of the country that won it. The point scheme will be as follows:

Gold Medals = 5 points x Tier Level
Silver Medals = 3 points x Tier Level
Bronze Medals = 1 point x Tier Level

In the end, we'll figure out whose Fantasy Olympics Team has accumulated the most points to determine an overall winner for our contest!

If you would like to enter a team in our Fantasy Olympics League, simply click on this link and follow the instructions:

Enter the Relentless Optimism Fantasy Olympics League!

The Survey Monkey link will lead you through the selection of your Fantasy Olympics team. At the conclusion of the selection process, you will be redirected back here. Then, using the handy Paypal "Donate" button on the top right hand side of the page, you can make a small donation to our team for the Breast Cancer 3 Day. As always, we are asking for a minimum donation of $10 to be considered eligible for our cash prize. The prize amount will be equal to half the amount of money collected for this contest.

Entries will be accepted until Thursday, February 11th at 8pm. Don't hesitate - enter now! Periodic results updates will posted on this blog every 2-3 days during the Olympics and the final winner will be notified on March 1st. The final results will be posted here shortly thereafter. In the event of a tie, a name will be drawn out of a hat to determine the winner of the cash prize. If anyone on Relentless Optimism should win, the full value of the money collected for the contest will be donated to the participating members of our team. 

For more information about the Breast Cancer 3 Day, please visit the official website at www.the3day.org. The links to our individual fundraising pages can be found on the right hand side bar if you'd prefer to make a donation to us individually. And finally, all of the latest news and information about the Vancouver Winter Olympics, including the previous medal totals for each country, please visit either http://www.vancouver2010.com/ or http://www.nbcolympics.com/.

Thanks for playing Fantasy Olympics with us!  This should be a really fun fundraiser so please pass along the information to anyone that you think might be interested in joining our league.  The more entries we get, the larger the cash prize and more importantly, the more money we can raise for a wonderful cause!

Images are courtesy of http://www.vancouver2010.com/ and (c) VANOC/COVAN

Please don't sue me!