The Lone Ranger 2023/24 - Round 1
Jul 13, 2023 11:01:18 GMT
Post by northwesthoop on Jul 13, 2023 11:01:18 GMT
Welcome to the start of The Lone Ranger for 2023/24! It is our fifth season of The Lone Ranger already and we've had 4 different winners so far; woodork , SydneyR , MCM Hoop and CutePR . Who will take the crown this season?
Entry is FREE and couldn't be simpler. All the rules are below – for those who played last season there are no changes but a revised team log should make it a lot easier to see which teams you have used and who you have remaining.
You start The Lone Ranger with 10 lives and the aim of the game is to ensure you don't lose all your lives, thus avoiding elimination. If you are the last player standing when all others have fallen by the wayside you will be crowned “The Lone Ranger”. The game has been played over 33 rounds in the past and the intention will be to have the same amount this season.
All you have to do it pick a team from The Premier League or Championship you think will win from the fixtures each week... but your selection pool shrinks each week as you can only use each team once in the whole season (available teams also depends on the days the teams – more on this below). The team you select can be playing at home or away, you simply pick a team from those you have available that you think will win.
So entry literally consists of just typing 1 team name each week.
Each player who enters starts the season with 10 lives.
> If the team you picked wins you gain half a life
> If they draw you lose 1 life
> If the team you picked lets you down and gets defeated you lose 2 of your lives
Lose all of your lives at any stage and you are out of the game. So players will drop out at various stages but it will be a month or two before anybody is eliminated.
As mentioned the catch is you can only select each team once for the duration of the game. So if you choose QPR in Round 1 you can never select them again. You effectively have a choice of 44 teams at the start of the season, then 43, then 42 and so on from the Premier League/Championship selection pool. You can only select Man City and Liverpool once! There will be a separate Team Log in 'The Lone Ranger' section of the site that will be updated each week.
In a revised format the team log will now give you a full list of all teams and they will be marked black once you have used them to remind you which teams you have already selected, but now makes it easier to see which teams you still have available to use. Please try to avoid selecting the same team twice.
If you forget to enter a round or enter a team you have already chosen in the past you will lose 2.5 lives as a penalty.
The game could end at any point later in the season if only 1 player is left, but in the event that a number of players have avoided elimination by the last round of the season the winner will be the player with the highest remaining total of lives - so you need to keep totting up the wins regardless of whether you are close to elimination or not.
CutePR was our champion last season with a new record of just 4 defeats in 33 games. We have had 5 players who avoid elimination in each of the last 2 seasons but some players were out by Christmas! It’s tough!
In the event that players are tied on lives, the player with the longest consecutive winning streak at any stage of the season will win. If that is still tied it will be the player with the longest unbeaten run followed by the highest number of wins predicted.
ENTERING THE GAME:
If you are not already a member you simply need to become a site member to play The Lone Ranger; it is FREE and takes literally a minute to get logged in by clicking HERE. Once registered you stay logged in whenever you visit the site in future and can also post your QPR views across the site. You will also be able to take part in our other free prediction games... the QPR Prediction League and Home & Away
Below are the fixtures available fixtures for Round 1. You simply need to choose any team you think will win, hit 'reply' above and post the team name to complete your entry. You'll need to repeat this each week throughout the season; each week of the competition will have its own thread with available fixtures.
This competition will mainly just run each weekend with a midday Saturday deadline, but sometimes there may be midweek rounds to make sure we get the full quota of 33 rounds. I will always make it clear in advance when midweek rounds are coming up - this usually happens over Christmas and later in the season when the FA Cup impacts fixtures.
Some rounds may have less teams available to choose from depending on the dates of fixtures and which leagues are active - for example Friday night matches will never be available to make sure everybody has the same selection pool and it allows for a Saturday deadline.
Round 1 is usually one of the trickiest rounds as again this season it only has Championship fixtures available as the Premier League starts a week later, but this is the only round of the season when this will occur. There will be a week off each time it is the international round of fixtures .
I will usually put up a few weeks ready for entry in advance.
Here we go then...
Round 1 fixtures: - simply select one team you think will win and post their name below to enter
Blackburn Rovers v West Bromwich Albion
Bristol City v Preston North End
Middlesbrough v Millwall
Norwich City v Hull City
Plymouth Argyle v Huddersfield Town
Stoke City v Rotherham United
Swansea City v Birmingham City
Watford v Queens Park Rangers
Leicester City v Coventry City
Leeds United v Cardiff City
Sunderland v Ipswich Town
Points of note this week > No Premier League matches this week. Southampton Vs Sheffield Wednesday unavailable as they are playing on Friday night
Entries to be received by midday on Saturday 05 August 2023
Rule breakdown:
Entry is FREE and couldn't be simpler. All the rules are below – for those who played last season there are no changes but a revised team log should make it a lot easier to see which teams you have used and who you have remaining.
You start The Lone Ranger with 10 lives and the aim of the game is to ensure you don't lose all your lives, thus avoiding elimination. If you are the last player standing when all others have fallen by the wayside you will be crowned “The Lone Ranger”. The game has been played over 33 rounds in the past and the intention will be to have the same amount this season.
All you have to do it pick a team from The Premier League or Championship you think will win from the fixtures each week... but your selection pool shrinks each week as you can only use each team once in the whole season (available teams also depends on the days the teams – more on this below). The team you select can be playing at home or away, you simply pick a team from those you have available that you think will win.
So entry literally consists of just typing 1 team name each week.
Each player who enters starts the season with 10 lives.
> If the team you picked wins you gain half a life
> If they draw you lose 1 life
> If the team you picked lets you down and gets defeated you lose 2 of your lives
Lose all of your lives at any stage and you are out of the game. So players will drop out at various stages but it will be a month or two before anybody is eliminated.
As mentioned the catch is you can only select each team once for the duration of the game. So if you choose QPR in Round 1 you can never select them again. You effectively have a choice of 44 teams at the start of the season, then 43, then 42 and so on from the Premier League/Championship selection pool. You can only select Man City and Liverpool once! There will be a separate Team Log in 'The Lone Ranger' section of the site that will be updated each week.
In a revised format the team log will now give you a full list of all teams and they will be marked black once you have used them to remind you which teams you have already selected, but now makes it easier to see which teams you still have available to use. Please try to avoid selecting the same team twice.
If you forget to enter a round or enter a team you have already chosen in the past you will lose 2.5 lives as a penalty.
The game could end at any point later in the season if only 1 player is left, but in the event that a number of players have avoided elimination by the last round of the season the winner will be the player with the highest remaining total of lives - so you need to keep totting up the wins regardless of whether you are close to elimination or not.
CutePR was our champion last season with a new record of just 4 defeats in 33 games. We have had 5 players who avoid elimination in each of the last 2 seasons but some players were out by Christmas! It’s tough!
In the event that players are tied on lives, the player with the longest consecutive winning streak at any stage of the season will win. If that is still tied it will be the player with the longest unbeaten run followed by the highest number of wins predicted.
ENTERING THE GAME:
If you are not already a member you simply need to become a site member to play The Lone Ranger; it is FREE and takes literally a minute to get logged in by clicking HERE. Once registered you stay logged in whenever you visit the site in future and can also post your QPR views across the site. You will also be able to take part in our other free prediction games... the QPR Prediction League and Home & Away
Below are the fixtures available fixtures for Round 1. You simply need to choose any team you think will win, hit 'reply' above and post the team name to complete your entry. You'll need to repeat this each week throughout the season; each week of the competition will have its own thread with available fixtures.
This competition will mainly just run each weekend with a midday Saturday deadline, but sometimes there may be midweek rounds to make sure we get the full quota of 33 rounds. I will always make it clear in advance when midweek rounds are coming up - this usually happens over Christmas and later in the season when the FA Cup impacts fixtures.
Some rounds may have less teams available to choose from depending on the dates of fixtures and which leagues are active - for example Friday night matches will never be available to make sure everybody has the same selection pool and it allows for a Saturday deadline.
Round 1 is usually one of the trickiest rounds as again this season it only has Championship fixtures available as the Premier League starts a week later, but this is the only round of the season when this will occur. There will be a week off each time it is the international round of fixtures .
I will usually put up a few weeks ready for entry in advance.
Here we go then...
Round 1 fixtures: - simply select one team you think will win and post their name below to enter
Blackburn Rovers v West Bromwich Albion
Bristol City v Preston North End
Middlesbrough v Millwall
Norwich City v Hull City
Plymouth Argyle v Huddersfield Town
Stoke City v Rotherham United
Swansea City v Birmingham City
Watford v Queens Park Rangers
Leicester City v Coventry City
Leeds United v Cardiff City
Sunderland v Ipswich Town
Points of note this week > No Premier League matches this week. Southampton Vs Sheffield Wednesday unavailable as they are playing on Friday night
Entries to be received by midday on Saturday 05 August 2023
Rule breakdown:
Everybody starts with 10 lives | Score |
Win | +0.5 |
Draw | -1 |
Lose | -2 |
Fail To Enter | -2.5 |
Enter a previously used team | -2.5 |