The 2012/13 NMA Blog Cup

It's that time again; The 2012/13 NMA Blog Cup is here and it's bigger than ever.

1600 teams, 9 rounds, 1 winner!

This all started three years ago on AM Blog with 300 teams, growing to 800 teams in 2010 and 1400 last season, but we're pushing it up a level this year.

So what is it? Well, at set points throughout the season we will have weekends where the Top Weekly Scores from our SIXTEEN NMA Blog leagues (in the Yahoo Fantasy Football format) go through to the "next round". It's a knock-out, so once you're out, you're out.

All 1600 teams in the NMA Blog Leagues have a place in the Blog Cup. If you didn't get a space then you're going to miss out on this one - sorry to anyone affected. Please let me know in the comments section below if you did miss out and if there's big interest we may look to add leagues and run an additional competition later in the season.

I've outlined the The 2012/13 NMA Blog Cup schedule below:

1st Round - Week 5 (this week) - From the 1600 entrants the top 1400 teams based on weekly scores in the Blog Leagues go through to 2nd round. 200 teams go out.

2nd Round - Week 8 - Top 1200 teams based on weekly scores from the remaining 1400 teams go through to 3rd round. 200 teams go out.

3rd Round - Week 12 - Top 900 teams based on weekly scores from the remaining 1200 teams go through to 4th round. 300 teams go out

4th Round - Week 16 - Top 600 teams based on weekly scores from the remaining 900 teams go through to 5th round. 300 teams go out.

5th Round - Week 20 - Top 400 teams based on weekly scores from the remaining 600 teams go through to 6th round. 200 teams go out.

6th Round - Week 24 - Top 200 teams based on weekly scores from the remaining 400 teams go through to quarter final. 200 teams go out.

Quarter Final - Week 28 - Top 100 teams based on weekly scores from the remaining 200 teams go through to the semi final. 100 teams go out.

Semi Final - Week 32 - Top 50 teams based on weekly scores from the remaining 100 teams go through to the final. 50 teams go out.

Final - Week 36 - The manager with the top weekly score from the 50 finalists wins the cup. If we have a tie on the top weekly score then we will have a play-off in Week 37.

Prize - The winner of the 2012/13 NMA Blog Cup will obviously win the respect of his fellow managers, but also an NMA T-Shirt and the possibility of additional prizes depending on how organised and generous we are feeling come May 2013.

As people often change their team name throughout the season we'll be tracking teams by their Yahoo IDs.

Only teams who are in a Blog League when the Round 1 results are compiled can take part - if a team drops out of a blog league after Round 1 then the team replacing them in the league does NOT take their place in The Blog Cup.

In the event of any of the above weeks / rounds being an international break week (ZERO Premiership games) then the round will be moved to the following weekend.

It is always the Top 1400 / 1200 / 900 / 600 / 400 / 200 / 100 / 50 teams who go through, with one exception. In the event of teams being tied on weekly points at the cut off (e.g. Round 1 - if the 1400th, 1401st and 1402nd teams are all tied on the same weekly total) then all 3 teams would go through to the next round.

Those who have followed NMA and my old AM blog will know the cup competitions always work really well so I hope people are looking forward to taking part. We think it makes things interesting as it's nothing to do with Overall Position, it's purely based on your weekly score in the selected week, so it gives players not doing too well the chance to have one-off weekends where they score big whilst a top player has a bad week ... fantasy giant killing!

I'll make it clear on the lead up to each round whether it's a Cup Weekend to remind you.

Round 1 is Week 5, THIS WEEKEND. The teams with the top 1400 weekly scores in the NMA Blog Leagues will go through to Round 2. Everyone else will be knocked out.

Good luck to all!

p.s. As always, please ensure you have not joined more than one Blog League. If you know you have joined multiple leagues then now is the time to remove yourself from the additional leagues to free up spaces for fantasy managers who weren't able to get a space. Once the Round 1 results are compiled next week it will be too late to enter so please do so ASAP if you know you are guilty.

If any spaces become available I will make it known in the comments section below this post.