Final WC 2018 Update - In a last-gasp effort, Leandro and Jamel were rewarded for being the only ones to pick France as the WC 2018 Winners and manage to snag the top 2 places accordingly; Modric being selected as the tournament's MVP instead of Griezmann ensured Leandro is the now two-time WC prediction champion after his 2014 victory, earning eternal glory, cash, and bragging rights for the next 2 years at least, so congratulations must go to him first and foremost.

A word of praise must also go to Michael who led the pack for a good while until the death and now ends up in 3rd, while David narrowly misses out on the podium. Alex deserved a mention for having been the early leader of the competition for a very long time before falling behind, and naturally the bottom 3 need to be highlighted, with Ricardo emphatically surpassing the competition and Jose and Kevin closely fighting it out for 2nd to last place.

Finally, I hope you have all enjoyed this year's prediction game and will be back for EURO 2020, where mighty Portugal defend their crown! Leandro, Jamel, and Michael, expect your cash on PayPal by tomorrow.

Please don't hesitate to send me feedback on what you would like to see improved - at this stage a special thank you to Roberto for double-checking my calculations and catching a few notable mistakes along the way.

Cheers

Marco

Semi-final update corrected - We have drama until the final second of the World Cup as everything is still up for grabs. Most participants have now settled on their final scores, with only 6 contestants with possibilities to get points, albeit that Frank and Malte need Griezmann to score thrice and Roberto needs Hazard to go on a 4-goal rampage against England.

Kevin has realistic chances to get further up the table but already leaves Ricardo and Jose in his wake with a heroic effort as Ricardo is now confirmed as the undesirable bottom place in the competition. At the top, Jamel and Leandro will be avid Les Bleus supporters on Sunday, as they can both still finish in the top 2 places, whereas Leandro now has the advantage and is in prime position. Barring a cataclysm, Michael has at least 3rd place locked up, and both he and David will be desperately cheering on Croatia.

See you on Sunday after the bombastic final conclusion in this fight to the death!

PS - note that I had to correct Jamel's score as it was incorrect from further back as he had submitted an incomplete file and sent, in time, a completed 2nd version which I did not see initially, but in which he tipped Nigeria to pass the Group Stages instead of the original Croatia bet, resulting in a -20 pts deduction. He also had 2 group stage games with changed scores but they cancelled each other out. 

Quarter-final update - After Brazil's shock exit, most participants only correctly predicted France to reach the semi-finals, with the exception of Roberto who has his chips on Belgium. Sadly four others have no more teams in the competition and fall down as a result, with Kevin making a late threatening recovery to renew interest for the race at the bottom. At the top, no relevant changes and still several contestants in the game for a win.

Next update after the conclusion of the semi-finals!

Round of last 16 final update - Michael consolidates his position at the top by being the top scorer in this round and overall with 5 teams in the quarters, while David and Roberto round out the top 3. The majority of participants have 4 teams in the quarterfinals, with Kevin, Ricardo and Thea losing out and dropping downwards as a result.

I leave you to ponder the emptiness that is the next 2 days of your life without football and will be back on Saturday with more action after the next update!

Last 16  - A first interim update of the round of last 16, with a series of upset causing mayhem in most participant's predictions due to both Spain and Portugal crashing out. Michael and Frank both benefit from having bet on Uruguay to beat Portugal and now occupy the top 2 respectively, with the rest of the table remaining the same so far, though Kevin also correctly predicted Uruguay to advance and now moves a bit closer to Jose and Johannes.
Next update will follow after the conclusion of the round last 16 on Wednesday!

Final Group Stage Update – Bear with me with this huge table and the long text due to a massive update with cataclysmic consequences to the overall table. Please note that participants earn 20 points per team that they predicted to reach the Last 16, plus 10 points for each 1^st placed team and 5 points for each 2^nd placed team – do check your scores to make sure they are accurate.

As can be seen, while some groups were relatively straightforward with the maximum score of 55 for most participants (B, G), others had wild deviations – only David and Malte got Group D right and the former was also the only one to impressively hedge on Japan in Group H, while Germany, Peru, Egypt, Serbia and Poland were some of the main culprits for point losses.

The top performer in this set of updates was Roberto, followed closely by David and Malte – at the other end, the worst performers were Johannes, Jose and Kevin, leading them to form the new bottom 3. David thus is the new Leader and Michael retains his 2^nd place but is now tied with Roberto. Malte, who coming into the round was 4^th from bottom, has a meteoric rise to 4^th place.

Stay tuned for an update after the two mouth-watering games tomorrow!

Day 15 - the final day of the group stage provided a lot of correct predictions and therefore shifts in the table leading into the elimination rounds. Another snoozefest in G45 meant Malte, David and Daniel predicted Belgium's win correctly (though England fans are the ones celebrating), only Gilberto and Malte again foresaw the Tunisian result (G46), a host of 5 participants got the Polish win correct in G47 and 4 more benefited from the Japanese calculated loss.

Individually speaking, Daniel becomes only the 2nd player to hit 3 games right on a fantastic day, boosting him up to 2nd place, while Malte hangs on to his lead and David and Gilberto both round out the top 4 with good results with Alex having another bad day at the office. Johannes and Malte closed the gap to mid-table with excellent outings, particular the latter who leaves the bottom 4 for the first time since the competition began. Despite a correct prediction Leandro remains Kevin's closest challenger.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a major update with the scores gained from the final positions in the Group stages which no doubt will provide big shake ups!