The 250 SX East Series wasn't the only new series in town as we kicked off the first ever SUPER SUPERcross Survivor Game on AirWheeliesOnly.com. When all was said and done and I tracked down the entry info for the same 5 or so of you (very much appreciated, and very loyal) team owners that can never seem to follow the sign up instructions for these games properly EVER... It was race time in Houston. SUPER SX Survivor was designed to be a bit less violent than it's OG counterpart SX Survivor, but honestly, after seeing the amount of punches this game delivered I'm not so sure about that anymore.
Before we get into the race and game in general, I want to tell you a little story about a game creator and team owner named "Checkerz" we will call him. One day after being tired of hearing his friend "Dbo" as we will call him, complain about not having mulligans in the OG SX Survivor game that said friend helped come up with; "Checkerz" started conceptualizing what would become SUPER SUPERcross Survivor. After a Round 1 elimination from SX Survivor, "Checkerz" figured it was time to launch the game for the 250 East Opener in Houston. Side Note: Said friend "Dbo" who whined forever was too chicken to even sign up for the new game.
While creating the game "Checkerz" realized there was an interesting new twist in strategy for this game. Since you get a strike whether 1 or both of your riders fail, he figured you wouldn't want to waste a "sure thing" pick like Eli Tomac with a risky pick like a rookie. So if you are going to gamble, you should gamble in both classes. At least, that was his theory. With that super smart theory in his pocket, "Checkerz" decided to pick borderline top 10 rider (10th in the last 3 races infact) in the 450 class Joey Savatgy and pair him with Jeremy Martin who has been known to struggle with consistency and early rounds of the SX season. No more than 2 minutes later does "Checkerz" get cold-feet about taking a strike at round 1 and swaps out for the Star Yamaha duo of Dylan Ferrandis who has been averaging a 5th place finish over the first 3 rounds and Nate Thrasher who has multiple wins coming into the season. Plus both riders qualified 2nd. A safe approach to round 1 was the audible...
Finishing Results:
Original Team - Jeremy Martin 5th, Joey Savatgy 9th
Actual Team - Nate Trasher 15th, Dylan Ferrandis 22nd
Moral of the story here... Go with your gut, especially if your gut is the size of the one this "Checkerz" fella has, as it clearly is correct. Now that we have that story out of the way and we hope that fictional "Checkerz" character is doing okay, let's dive into the game as a whole!
The final tally is 26 teams entering SUPER SUPERcross Survivor (SSXS) for the 2023 SX season. That puts $780 in the pot with just over $450 headed to the winning team. At Houston, team managers heavily favored title favorite and last year's 250 West runner up Hunter Lawrence as he had double the picks of any other 250 East Rider. The second most picked rider? Former SX race winner, 2nd fastest qualifier, and perhaps the leader of the most powerful team in the paddock for the 250 E series Nate Thrasher. Seven total riders were chosen including the aforementioned as well as Jeremy Martin, Michael Mosiman, Jordan Smith, fastest qualifier Max Anstie, and rookie Chance Hymas. After the dust settled, five teams tasted the ground with Nate Thrasher while Chance Hymas just barely missed out on making team DAbby look brilliant.
Switching over to the 450 class, the series has started to stabilize the top 10 a bit. Of course, the stability all came unraveled as Dylan Ferrandis tried hitching a ride on the back of Ken Roczen's 10,000 lbs steam engine. Instead he was de-railed and everyone in the stadium was just happy to see him stand up, caring nothing about his race anymore. Get Well Soon Dylan! Once again, the highest picked rider was double any other rider; this one was Eli Tomac. Teams had no fear about lingering effects from the defending champ's Anaheim 2 gymnastics tumble to the mat and they were proven absolutely correct. After Sexton laid down a spanking in the heat and then reeled in the #1 it appeared inevitable Sexton was going to make it back-to-back wins and he'd inch even closer to the points championship. Then as the track went away, so did Chase's advantage in the whoops and his hot lines started to get slick and blown out. Tomac also had the outside of the sand dialed and it kept getting faster as the main went on. Chase would do the mature thing and keep it together for a second and Eli would reward team owners with a solid 26 points towards the SSXS championship.
Four of the top 5 in the race received picks with no one trusting the cowboy in his wanna-be home state of Texas, Aaron Plessinger. AP was looking feisty again this weekend, and he definitely looks ready to earn a fresh contract to stay on factory equipment in 450 SX.
A couple of team threw out some huge gambles selecting Christian Craig and Dean Wilson. I'm not sure if they broke into grandpa's liquor cabinet a bit early or they have been only watching retro races on YouTube, but for the 4th race in a row neither of those riders found the top 10.
When all was said and done, 10 picks failed to reach their goals; however, only 9 strikes were given out. Remember, only 1 strike per round is delivered even if both picks miss their goal. The unlucky loser who didn't get either of his riders to meet their goal; therefore sitting on ZERO points for the game? Some guy we'll just call... "Checkerz".
I hope you guys all are enjoying the game and another awesome season of Supercross. Below you will find the Round and Series overviews as well as links to the entry form.
You will also find a link to a new feature, a PICK LOG that will show all the picks from each round. It's another way to reference who you have picked without looking at the spreadsheet image. I'm trying to continue to evolve and help make these games better for everyone!
SUPER SX Survivor Resources:
FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON, this will be the link to your SUPER SX Survivor Entries! Bookmark it, screenshot it, save it, etc. HOWEVER, ENSURE YOU ARE SELECTING THE CORRECT ROUND FROM THE DROP DOWN!
Also, Tampa is on Eastern Time, so lockout will be 7pm EST on Saturday.
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