Parts Unknown (DP--Disassociated Press): The Bookie Challenge's 14th annual postseason got underway this past weekend with a flurry of highly entertaining fanfare, of which was bristling with an abundance of handicapping intrigue that couldn't help but spawn a couple of unforeseeable surprises. In general, the first round of a Bookie Challenge postseason is all about disparate scoring advantages that are snagged by the league's better handicappers, of whom are the fortunate participants who successfully emerge from the competition's long and arduous divisional races of the regular-season. The best scoring advantage to start off a postseason is had by the handicapper who corrals the regular-season championship, for he'll be awarded three points for every one of his five best-bet winners in the opening round of the playoffs. The remaining three divisional champions from the divisional races are next in line, of which they receive two points for each of their five best-bet winners. The last two playoff qualifications, divisional wild cards and at-large participants are only awarded a single point for each one of their five best-bet winners. Additionally, the regular-season champion, the divisional champions, and the wild card qualifiers all get to submit 3-team parlay combinations in the opening round, but the at-large participants are not eligible to post parlay combinations until the second round of the playoffs. In that second round, the overall format is essentially the same as the first round, in which every handicapper gets to select five best bets. But, as just mentioned, all participants in the second round of a Challenge playoffs, regardless of his playoff qualification, gets to submit parlay combinations. However, there still remains a disparity of points that are awarded for winning best bets for each playoff qualification during a second round of a Challenge postseason, with all the divisional champions (to include the regular season champion) being awarded three points for each best-bet winner, the wild card qualifiers will get two points for each best bet in a second round of a Challenge postseason, and the lowly "at-large" participants are still at the bottom of the barrel--as they are only awarded one point for each best-bet winner. The crux of it all? If a participant is lucky enough to have the better scoring advantages in the first-two rounds, then he'll want to unleash a lot of pointspread winners and pull away. But if a handicapper has one of the lower playoff qualifications in the first-two rounds of a postseason, then it's all about surviving the first-two rounds, or staying close to the front-runners so that a move can be made in the final two rounds, or the two rounds where every participant is on a level playing field and the scoring formats are the same for every handicapper in the league.

The best handicappers to make it through this year's divisional races were all of this year's divisional champions, of whom were Vikings17 (Hail Mary division), Driveline (Corozal division), jcvike28 (Run-&-Shoot division), and Kr@tos (Red Zone division). The divisional wild card qualifiers (2nd place finishers in each division and the at-large handicapper with the most points) were Blitzkrieg (Hail Mary), the Biased Nihilist (Corozal), 7mick7 (Run-&-Shoot), DawgPound (Red Zone), and Jets69 (special wild card). The unfortunate ones, meaning the at-large participants who face an uphill battle in this year's postseason, for no at-large participant has ever won an overall Bookie Challenge championship or finished as the runner-up to an overall champion, are moemonie, dbucc, TCU and Hall-of-Fame City Kid. Of course, the best of the best turned out to be Vikings17, who won a second-straight regular-season championship, and did as much by becoming the first handicapper in the history of the competition to register back-to-back 50-point seasons to win his two regular-season championships. The Purple People Eater got to open this year's postseason for a second straight time with the league's best scoring advantages in the first round of the playoffs. Surely, if anything, after squandering his opening-round scoring advantages in the first round of last year's Bookie Challenge postseason, Vikings17 had to be smarting this time around and was hell bent on taking full advantage of his top scoring edges the second time around. But there is an old saying about what can can happen to the "best laid plans", of which it goes as follows: "The best laid plans often go awry."

Vikings17 did it again. To begin with, he won his second regular-season championship in a row on this past DOOMSDAY SUNDAY, but he did it by backing into this year's top prize of the regular season and divisional races. He goose egged his final regular-season outing of the season, and then nervously had to hold on as jcvike28 almost tallied a second exact-score point on the DOOMSDAY SUNDAY WEEKEND to nearly steal the regular-season championship away from Vikings17. As it turned out, however, the Purple People Eater prevailed by one skimpy point, 50 points versus 49 points, over jcvike to not only win the regular-season title but also pocket the $100 that comes along with the yearly regular-season crown. But it was jcvike28 who took full advantage of his scoring opportunities as a divisional champion by going 4-1-0 with his five best-bets and taking the early playoff lead in this year's postseason. "El Duque", as jcvike is kniown by his Challenge moniker, then complimented his 8-point scoring outburst with a one-point exact-score winner to ultimately amass nine overall points in this year's playoff opener. Comparatively, Vikings17 was only able to connect on two best-bet winners, but thankfully came away with six total points after getting awarded three points for each best-bet hit. Unfortunately for Vikings17, he finished the first rounbd trailing jcvike28 by three points, nine points vs six points, and will not have any further scoring advantages of the jcvike in the second round of this year's playoffs, as both handicappers will be awarded three points for each best-bet winner in the upcomiong second round. As disappointing as it was for Vikings17 to blow another opening round of a Challenge postseason, at the very least he didn't go completely belly up as did two divisional champion qualifiers over the past weekend.

Two-time former Bookie Challenge champion Driveline, who won this year's Corozal divisional title over the Biased Nihilist, and rookie phenom Gr@tos, who upset DawgPound, TCU, and the Hall-of-Fame City Kid to win this year's Red Zone divisional crown, both stunk up the joint by missing every respective best-bet selection, 10 in all between the two, after each handicapper went 0-5-0 with their respective best bets and also missed connecting on their respective parlay combinations. Both handicappers would have finished dead-least in the playoff point standings after each goose egged the opening round, but Gr@tos was spared the humiliation of finishing the opening round in last place, but Driveline wasn't so lucky. A third handicapper, DawgPound, also botched the playoff opener, but did so in the most ignominious manner. The Dawg-Day-Afternoon Handicapper must have lost his freaking mind, or forgot how to count because he only posted one best bet instead the overall five best bets he was supposed to post. As it turned out, DawgPound also lost his 3-team combination. Consequently, the three scoreless handicappers had to be separated in the lowest tier of the point standings by the postseason's first tiebreaker, the most total points tallied in the regular-season: Kr@tos (46 pts--finished 1st round 3rd to last place), DawgPound (40 pts--2nd to last), and Driveline (39 pts--last place).

Overall, the first round ended with two divisional champion qualifiers (A) leading the point standings, and then they were succeeded by three divisional wild card qualifiers (B) and one at-large participant (C). To get a better picture of the top tier of the standings after the first round, one would need to a closer look at the following: jcvike (9pts-A), Vikings17 (6pts-A), Jets69 (5pts-B*), Biased Nihilist (4pts-B), HOF City Kid (4pts-C), and Blitzkrieg (3pts-B). As can readily be seen, rookie Jets69, who barely qualified for this year's playoffs with the "special wild card" qualifier, and Hall-of-Fame City Kid, who finished in fourth place in the Red Zone division to qualify as an "at-large participant", were both significant winners in this year's playoff opener, as both handicappers respectively tallied more points than two divisional champions (Driveline & Kr@tos). In the case of HOF City Kid, who hasn't had much to cheer about in this year's regular season, he'll be eligible to submit a 3-team parlay combination--and who knows--if he hits it, he'll be in serious contention for an overall Bookie Challenge championship, especially when considering he still has his full compliment of preseason Super Bowl picks at his disposal.

When taking everything into account, one opening round is not the end all of a Challenge postseason, but rather a start to some exciting handicapping that could turn this year's playoffs into something spectacular for one or two lucky handicappers.

• THE NORSE WARS: It's never happened before in the Bookie Challenge competition, but only because the league's handicappers in previous competitions didn't share favorite NFL teams as do three handicappers in this year's handicapping contest. Specifically, jcvike28, Vikings17, and his son Gr@tos (a rookie) are all die-hard fans of the Minnesota Vikings. Of keen interest is that all three participants each won divisional championships this season, with jcvike28 winning the Run-&-Shoot division, Vikings17 capturing the Hail Mary division, and Gr@tos seizing the Red Zone division. But that's where the common thread ends when it came to selecting pointspreads in the opening round of this year's postseason, or in the NFL wild card round. Both the father-and-son tandem of Vikings17 and Gr@tos decided to back the Vikings in this year's opening round, of which Gr@tos went heavier on the Vikings than did his father Vikings17. But jcvike28 had the presence of mind to lay off his favorite team, and as a result, he came out the better for not backing his beloved Vikings to start this year's postseason. In all, jcvike won four of his five best-bet selections and also hit a one-point exact-score winner to end the opening round of the postseason with nine total points and in first place of the playoff point standings. Vikings17, who had edged out jcvike28 by one point to win this year's regular-season championship and entered this year's first round of the postseason with the best overall scoring advantages, originally posted his 3-team parlay combination on the Saturday that opened this past weekend's opening playoff round, and in his parlay he took the Vikings/Rams game to go over the total as one his parlay selections. However, after Vikings17 lost his parlay combination on Saturday, he doubled down and took the over in the Vikings/Rams game as one of his best bets on Sunday, but the pick was to no avail as the game in question stayed under the total of 47½ points. As it concerned Gr@tos' picks of his favorite Vikings, like his father, he took the Vikings' game against the Rams to go over the total as a best bet, of which he failed miserably to win after all of his five bests bit the dust. He also put the Vikings (-3) on his 3-team parlay combination, and it turned out to be an excruciating mistake, as the Vikings turned out to be his only loser on his parlay combination and it cost a big-time 6-point parlay hit. But now that the Vikings have been eliminated from the playoffs by the Rams, the Norse Wars have come to a merciful end, at least for Vikings17 and Gr@tos it has.