Parts Unknown (DP--Disassociated Press): Leave it the league's most decorated handicapper, the Biased Nihilist, to add another feather to his handicapping hat. Already known for owning some of the league's uniquely astonishing all-time records, such as landing the only PERFECTA outing in a Challenge postseason or being the only participant to have won three-consecutive first-place prizes from Latinum jackpots, just to name a couple, this time around, meaning this past weekend, the Nihilist became the first handicapper in the history of the competition to win a challenge week with a total of only three points. Maybe some of the Challenge veterans, and certainly this year's two rookies, don't know the importance of being credited with a "week won", but it's a critical tiebreaker, that is, should an important tiebreaker situation arise. More specifically, when it comes to the league's tiebreakers, the most "weeks won" is the third tiebreaker behind the first one, most best-bet wins, and the second one, most parlay wins within one's combined parlay combinations on the season. Right now, even though the Nihilist is in second place and just two points behind the present leader in the point standings, all the Nihilist has to do is force a first place tie with Vikings17 within the next week or so, and he'll displace Vikings17 from first place due to his best-bet record over the Purple People Eater (Nihilist 3-1-0 vs Vikings17 1-3-0). Tiebreakers usually come into play at the biggest junctures of the regular season, meaning to determine the top four overall seeds at a divisional seeding, to determine divisional champions, and to determine the regular-season champion. The importance of the league's tiebreakers can't be underestimated, just took at what a role tiebreakers are presently playing in the competition's point standings.

What follows are examples of how tiebreakers can determine a participants official slot in the point standing, especially in this year's competition, in which a PERFECTA outing separates the first-place front-runner in the standings, Vikings17, from the last-place cellar dweller, Kennypie86. To say the least, because nobody in the competition has nailed any 6-point parlay winners, the point standings after two weeks of this year's competition has been closely knit. To begin with, the Nihilist was able to overtake Kr@tos for second place in the standings by a tiebreaker, of which was more best-bet wins (3 wins vs 2 wins). Drop down the standings and one will find a three-way tie in total points for fourth place among DawgPound, Blitzkrieg, and dbucc, all of whom have tallied three points apiece on the season. Once again, at this early stage of the season, it's the league's number-one tiebreaker that breaks the aforementioned three-way tie: Dawgpound (3 best bet wins), Blitzkrieg (2 best bet wins), and dbucc (only 1 best bet win). Amazingly, if one can believe it, just underneath the three handicappers in the standing who are gridlocked with three points each are FIVE participants tied with two total points apiece. Incredibly, however, it's the second tiebreaker, most wins within one's combined parlay combinations, that are implemented to determine the official pecking order in the standing with those who are tied with two points each. Basically, because the first three participants tied with two points each have all won two best bets each, the parlay wins are he next tiebreakers utilized to break the ties: Jets69 (3 parlay wins), Matty_Ice (2 parlay wins), and TCU (zero parlay wins). The last two participants that are tied with two points only have one best-bet winner each and thus once again the league's second tiebreaker (most parlay wins within one's parlay combos) must be implemented: jcvike28 (3 parlay wins), 7mick7 (2 parlay wins).

At this stage of the competition, with nearly every handicapper just getting by, everybody in the Challenge field will be on pins and needles to see if anyone knocks down any 6-point parlay winners in week #3 of this year's contest and makes a meaningful break from the pack. After all, a good break from the pack will be critical seeing as there are only six weeks left to handicap before this year's divisional seeding takes place. And yet, as mentioned earlier, this year's initial start to the season is already showing the tell-tale signs of having some handicapping suspense. At the present, the key players vying for the top of the point standings are Vikings17 (7pts--1st place), the Biased Nihilist (5pts--officially in 2nd place), Kr@tos (5pts--officially in 3rd place), and Driveline (4pts--4th place). The aforementioned participants have the luxury of slims leads, but no matter how slim those leads are--they are still the front-runners in the point standings. But it can all change at a drop of a dime, meaning the point standings are so close that it can quickly morph into something totally different. And why? Because there's a saying in the Challenge competition that goes as follows: "anything can happen in one week of a Bookie Challenge competition, so just imagine how a couple of weeks can change the point standings".

• CHALLENGE'S ROSTER IS OFFICIALLY SET AT 15 MEMBERS FOR ITS 15TH ANNUAL COMPETITION, BUT MOEMONIE'S PARTICIPATION WILL BE SORELY MISSED: It was rumored that 12-year veteran member moemonie would be possibly coming back in week #2 to participate in this year's 15th annual Bookie Challenge competition. However, moemonie was a no-show this past weekend, and as a consequence he missed a rare opportunity to rejoin the competition after missing week #1 of this year's handicapping contest. Unfortunately for moemonie, the small window that was afforded him in week #2 to still participate in this year's competition has now been officially closed. As a result, no more entrants to this year's handicapping campaign will be allowed. Officially, this year's membership tally was finalized at 15 overall participants, and by extension, the final Gold-Pressed Latinum jackpot ended up with an overall tally of $700. What's more, for a second-straight season the awards from the Latinum jackpot will include a $50 prize to be awarded to the winner of this year's overall number-one top seed at this year's divisional seeding, of which the divisional seeding will take place immediately after the conclusion of week #8. As it concerns moemonie, it is unknown if he'll try to participate in next year's competition (Challenge year #16). With that being said, it's hard to believe that moemonie will have a change of heart and decide to participate in next year's competition, seeing as he could have entered this year's competition tied with Driveline for the second-longest tenured participant with 13 overall years of handicapping the Bookie Challenge's contests. Only the Biased Nihilist has more year's handicapping the Bookie Challenge than both moemonie and Driveline, for the Nihilist has handicapped every season of the Bookie Challenge's 15 seasons, to include this season. Thanks to the fact that the Nihilist is the competition's creator and main administrator of the Bookie Challenge, it's the reason why he has handicapped every year of the Challenge's 15 seasons.

  In any event, for the time being, moemonie departs the Bookie Challenge after having handicapped 12 years of the competition. For the record, the :Moola Hawker" (aka moemonie) leaves the competition without owning any all-time records, but he does own a couple of unique accomplishments that only he has manufactured throughout those aforementioned 12 seasons he has handicapped the competition. Specifically, moemonie is the only participant in the history of the Bookie Challenge who has been credited with nailing down what's come to be known as a "SUPER PERFECTA", of which the tremendous feat was set back in Challenge year #6 in week #11. It was the weekend when moemonie connected on both of his best bets, a 6-point parlay winner, and also won a 5-point exact-score selection to tally 13 overall points, of which the scoring feat is still an all-time record to this day for a single regular-season outing that does not include a Turkey Shoot (or the two outings of a Thanksgiving weekend). And speaking of exact-score predictions, moemonie is the only handicapper to have so far hit a 5-point exact score in a postseason of a competition. He accomplished the stupendous feat back in Challenge year #11, or the NFL's 2021-22 season in which the Los Angeles Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals by a 23-20 final in that season's Super Bowl matchup, of which the final score was correctly predicted by the "Moola Hawker". In retrospect, despite that moemonie leaves the Bookie Challenge without any all-time records, he was nevertheless widely known by many veterans of the competition for hitting a bevy of 6-point parlays. Overall, moemonie racked up 30 6-point parlay winners, of which two of them were produced while handicapping the Challenge's postseasons. To put moemonie's propensity for landing 6-point parlay winners in its proper perspective, his 30 overall 6-point parlay hits ranks third all-time behind the Biased Nihilist (41) and Tony Soprano (35). In addition, moemonie is only one of three participants, with the other two being rexkramer (Challenge yr#4) and xjoeyx (yr #3), to have won both a number-one top overall seed at a divisional seeding and also a regular-season championship in the same year. Another impressive accomplishment by moemonie includes him winning five divisional championships, of which the total has him tied all-time with Tony Soprano, with the pair both ranking second behind the Nihilist's six divisional titles won. But much to the chagrin of moemonie, he only accrued a total of $50 for his career earnings after 12 years of having handicapped the Bookie Challenge. Sadly, if the truth be told, moemonie only came close to winning an overall Bookie Challenge championship one time, in Challenge year #10. In that year's regular season, moemonie was finally piecing together his banner and break through year in the Challenge competition. He not only captured the overall number-one top seed but also seized that year's regular season championship after amassing 43 overall points. After the first-two playoff rounds of the ensuing playoffs, moemonie found himself in second place in that year's postseason standings, and he only trailed Tony Soprano by two points (14 pts vs 12 pts) heading into the third round of the playoffs. But moemonie's good fortune went south after he tried to hide his selections for the third round by posting his picks between the one-minute warning and the final posting deadline. It didn't work because moemonie botched posting his picks, as in he missed the final posting deadline by 30 seconds or so and had all his selections disqualified. Ultimately, he finished that season's playoffs in 5th place.



• WEEKLY TICKER..................TCU, aka Too Tall Tommy, has opened up this season without winning a single parlay pick within his two parlay combinations. However, this upcoming weekend he can avoid tying the all-time record for opening up a season for most weeks without winning a single parlay pick within one's parlay combos, of which the all-time record is three weeks to start off a season without nailing down one parlay pick within one's parlay combinations. The aforementioned feat was set in last year's competition (Challenge yr #14) by--7mick7! .................The odd "week won" by the Biased Nihilist this past weekend was his 14th all-time week won (regular season and postseason combined). Among active handicappers the 14 weeks won rank first all-time, but when including all participants who qualify for all-time records, the 14 weeks won by the Nihilist ranks second to Tony Soprano's all-time tally of 20 weeks won...........the lackluster parlay combinations that were formulated by the Challenge field this past weekend produced only 12 parlay wins out of 30 parlay selections. However, no matter how pathetic the tally, it did not represent the lowest all-time record for the least parlay wins within a Challenge field's combined parlay combinations. Just two years ago, in Challenge year #12, in week #12, that year's Challenge field recorded only 10 parlay wins within its combined parlay combinations................