Parts Unknown (DP--Disassociated Press): After the second week of this year's Bookie Challenge competition ran its course, it was a two-year veteran who has so far stolen the show of the 16th annual Bookie Challenge competition and who has seen his handicapping street cred become the envy of the league in just his third year of participation in the Bookie Challenge competition. That specific handicapper goes by his username in the competition as Kr@tos. He is also known by his two Bookie Challenge monikers as the "Handicapping God of War" and the "Comic-Book Hero recently turned Bookie Challenge Hero". Those two monikers are now aptly in play after Kr@tos landed a second consecutive 6-point parlay winner this past weekend to record his second 6-point parlay hit in as many weeks of this year's competition. In doing so, Kr@tos tied an all-time Bookie Challenge record and became only the second handicapper in the history of the Bookie Challenge to hit two 6-point parlay winners to open up the first-two weeks of a Bookie Challenge season. Believe it or not, the only other handicapper in the history of the Bookie Challenge to have achieved the extraordinary feat is catman23, who established the accomplishment just recently in Challenge year #13. Speaking of catman23, he came awfully close in the first-two weeks of this season to have also knocked down two consecutive 6-point parlay hits, but unfortunately he misfired on just one losing parlay pick within each of his first-two 6-point parlay combinations he has submitted this season. Surprisingly, catman23 has returned to compete in this year's Bookie Challenge competition after having recently left the Bookie Challenge three years ago in Challenge year #13, so if he would have connected on both of those aforementioned near misses of 6-point parlay winners--it would have made for the season's first feel-good story of the year. Instead, it's Kr@tos who far and away owns this year's first feel-good story of this season. But apart from Kr@tos crushing his second 6-point parlay hit in week #2, the league's other big winner this past weekend was rookie JamesGang, who actually got credited with the week-won for week #2 after he complemented his 6-point parlay hit with one best-bet winner to end his outing with seven points tallied, whereas Kr@tos lost both of his best bets and ended his weekend with six points. However, what's more significant for the "Handicapping God of War" (Kr@tos) is that he concluded week #2 with 13 total points on the year and finished the weekend with a first-place lead in the competition's point standings of four points over two-time Bookie Challenge champion Driveline (9 total pts won on yr) and a five-point lead over the third-place and three-time Bookie Challenge champion the Biased Nihilist (8 pts won).

Also tied for third place in the point standings with the Biased Nihilist (8pts) are rookie upstart JamesGang (8pts) and second-year veteran Matty_Ice (8pts). But at this early stage of the competition, many tiebreakers are needed to officially separate handicappers in the competition's point standings. With that being pointed out, the Biased Nihilist is technically in 3rd-place in the standings over 4th-place JamesGang and 5th-place Matty_Ice by virtue of more wins within his combined parlay combinations on the season (Nihilist 5 parlay wins, JamesGang 4 parlay wins, and Matty_Ice 3 parlay wins). In sixth place overall is three-year veteran Vikings17 with four points tallied on the season, while jcvike28 is holding down the 7th overall slot in the standings after having accrued three points on the young season. Beneath jcvike28 in the point standings are a logjam of seven handicappers tied with two points apiece, three handicappers with one point apiece, and two handicappers who have egregiously goose egged both of their two respective outings and have yet to get on this year's scoreboard. But as already mentioned, it is Kr@tos who has his name up on the competition's marquee lights after his sensational start to this year's Bookie Challenge competition, which is his 3rd overall competition. Overall, the two 6-point parlay hits that the Handicapping God of War has so far tallied this season marked his 5th all-time career 6-point parlay winner for regular season handicapping. Furthermore, the two back-to-back parlay hits by Kr@tos this season marked the first time he has ever registered consecutive parlay winners in a Bookie Challenge competition. What's even more fortunate for Kr@tos is that the 4-point lead he presently owns over Driveline is the first-ever lead he has held during the first-eight weeks of a Bookie Challenge contest. Another thing that has to be kept in mind as it concerns Kr@tos is that he has never won a prize from a Latinum jackpot, and so there's no doubt that he has to be champing at the bit to make a beneficial breakthrough and win the overall top seed of this year's competition, of which if he does pull it off, he'll pocket a cool $100 in the process.

Of course, it is not going to be a cake walk for Kr@tos to capture his first-ever top seed at a divisional seeding and bank his first-ever prize from a Latinum jackpot, and that's because he has to fend off two top contenders in former champions Driveline and the Biased Nihilist, both of whom are highly dangerous competitors of the Bookie Challenge competition and are known to be some of the League's top parlay-hitting handicappers but are also known to be two of the league's better clutch performers. Now granted, divisional races are slightly longer than the 8-week battles for an overall top-seed, but let's not forget that both Driveline and the Nihilist pulled off the largest divisional comebacks in the history of the competition's divisional races, when in Challenge year #13 the last-place Nihilist at the time faced a 16-point deficit to Theopholis to start off that year's Corozal divisional race and when last-place Driveline at the time faced a 14-point deficit to catman23 to start off that year's Hail Mary divisional race. Miraculously, however, both former champions erased their seemingly insurmountable deficits and each won their respective divisional championships. In other words, it's not out of the realm of possibility that either the Nihilist or Driveline can overcome Kr@tos' early lead in the point standings, and not to forget that the remaining six weeks left to handicap until this year's divisional seeding takes place is an eternity in the Bookie Challenge competition. Then again, as already mentioned, if there is one handicapper proving to the rest of the league that he has to be dealt with, it's Kr@tos. After all, he is definitely on a roll and in the process he is exuding a handicapping resiliency in just his third season of handicapping the Bookie Challenge competition, of which the handicapping attitude he possesses could maybe enable him to run the table and win both the overall top seed and the $100 that go with it.

As it concerns the performance this past weekend by rookie JamesGang, he was able to connect on his first-ever 6-point parlay winner, and when utilizing the competition's vernacular one can say that "he made his Bookie Challenge bones", so to speak. JamesGang was recruited to the competition this past off-season by Driveline, who also recruited his own son (username KingDarsh). On a side note, JamesGang's real name is Jim Marino, which is a name that helped the Biased Nihilist create one of his Bookie Challenge monikers, a la "JamesGang goes BANG!. His other Bookie Challenge Moniker is more comical and goes as follows--"James Marino: "I want my first name changed to Dan". What's more is that JamesGang hails from Elmhurst, Illinois and his favorite NFL team is the Chicago Bears. Naturally, JamesGang has to be thrilled to have gotten that first 6-point parlay winner out of the way, because if anything, that parlay hit from this past weekend had to be a big boost to his confidence, meaning he knows he has what it takes to compete in the storied Bookie Challenge competition. To his credit, after JamesGang nailed down his first-ever 6-point parlay winner, and as a result, he shot up the point standings and presently finds himself in serious contention to possibly conclude his first-ever divisional seeding as one of the five top seeds who'll start off leading a divisional race. And that's because with the increase to 19 overall members for this year's competition, there will be five divisions for the first time since Challenge year #9, when the competition last had 19 members to start off a Bookie Challenge season. The division that will be returning to the competition, and which will be the 5th ranked division will be the "Coffin Corner Division". But getting back to rookie JamesGang's parlay hit from this past weekend, as impressive as it was for him to connect on a 6-point parlay winner in just his second weekend of his rookie debut, he was not the first rookie to hit the quickest 6-point parlay, not by a long shot. In fact, there have been three overall rookies in the history of the Bookie Challenge competition who have opened up their rookie seasons with 6-point parlay hits. They were DawgPound (Challenge yr #8), H.E. Pennypacker (also yr#8), and Chaussettesrouges (Yr #2). Still, though, for JamesGang to connect on his first-ever 6-point parlay winner in just his second weekend of handicapping the competition is quite the breakthrough achievement for a greenhorn to start off his Challenge career.

• PRESEASON RANKINGS FOR 16TH ANNUAL COMPETITION ARE ALREADY PROVING TO BE SUSPECT: Generally speaking, the Biased Nihilist's annual preseason rankings are usually pretty accurate, but the starts by Kr@tos, Driveline, and rookie JamesGang to this year's Bookie Challenge competition has thrown monkey wrenches into the annual projections. What follows are this year's preseason rankings that the Nihilist predicted before the start of this season: #1) the Biased Nihilist...#2) 7mick7...#3) dbucc...#4) Blitzkrieg...#5) Vikings17...#6) Driveline...#7) Jets69...#8) Kr@tos...#9) jcvike28...#10) TCU...#11) kennypie86...#12) Matty_Ice...#13) DawgPound...#14) catman23...#15) HOF City Kid...Please note: the following rookies are ranked solely on the order they joined the competition...#16) Jonnybucs...#17) KingDarsh...#18) JamesGang...#19) Brooklyn211




• WEEKLY TICKER .................After scoring one point this past weekend, the Biased Nihilist kept both of his all-time consecutive streaks alive. His all-time consecutive scoring streak is now at 32 straight weeks in a row, and he has also simultaneously ran his consecutive streak without going scoreless to 32-straight weeks as well (no Goose eggs nor Golden Goose Eggs).................Both rookie Brooklyn211 and 9-year veteran TCU have each goose egged their respective two-weeks to open up this year's competition, and as a consequence, both handicappers are flirting with setting all-time egregious records. Both handicappers have opened up their seasons with 0-4-0 best-bet tallies on the season, and so both handicappers now have an outside shot at breaking the all-time record for going scoreless in a single season of a regular season, of which the record of four consecutive weeks in a row are shared by DawgPound (Challenge yr #11), Driveline (also yr #11), jcvike28 (yr #10), and H.E.Pennypacker (yr #9)..................Vikings17 ended week #2 with the league's top best-bet record of 4-0-0 (win% 1.000).............