Three different riders crush their SX Survivor teams owner's dreams during a chaotic Triple Crown stop at Jerry's World in Texas.
Now that we have hit the halfway point in the series, picks have started to tighten up, and team managers across the board have been evaluating their strategies. While there have been some nearly "sure thing" picks like Malcolm Stewart and Jason Anderson; timing a pick like a Justin Brayton, Shane McElrath, or more recently Ken Roczen is an important step to staying alive deep into this game.
The Honda mounted duo of Justin Brayton and Ken Roczen were the hot picks coming into Arlington's 3 final races. Brayton has had top 10's at the last two stops and qualified the best he has all season raising his stock. He's made it no secret that he really likes the Triple Crown format, and with the availability of picks looking slim; it was enough to grab the attention of 9 team managers. Those team managers were awarded with an 8th place finish and a sigh of relief after checking the #10 Iowan off their list of riders used.
As for Ken Roczen, after last week 18 teams had yet to select the Anaheim 1 winner. His results had been dismal by typical KRoc standards, and it looked like picking him would be sketchy as there really weren't any signs of life. And then Roczen jumped to the top of the board in his qualifying session and nearly held the fastest time... Holding a fast time in practice isn't something Kenny has been known for the past few seasons, and that was the sign of life that 9 of those (50%!) who could still pick Roczen needed to pull the trigger.
It was absolute utter disaster for Ken Roczen. Everything that could go wrong did. It was so bad, at the end of the night he was circulating the track, rolling the whoops, almost as if he was debating if he wanted to ever race again.
One thing is for sure, those 9 teams who picked him won't play SX Survivor any further in the 2022 450SX season as a 13th overall eliminates them from the game.
I have to hand it to last year's Silver Medalist in 450SX Survivor, Double D, and vet ripper SLorr93 for grabbing their balls and shooting for the moon like JS7 off a wall jump. Both saw an opportunity to take advantage of the best starter in Supercross right now, a triple crown format, and a top 10 qualifying result to hire Vince Friese. Unfortunately, Vince made an uncharacteristic mistake and hit the ground. While he was able to still get very solid 12-8-10 scores, even passing teammate JB10 in the last main event; Dean Wilson earned the tie-breaker with a better 3rd main event score. Two more victims of Vince Friese in the 2022 season... (that was too easy of a shot to not take!)
Finally, the story of Marvin Musquin's 2022 season continues to be an absolute rollercoaster. He's shown so many signs of speed and aggression, but at the end of the day, the results have been lackluster. Coming into the final main event with 11-11 scores, team managers had hope that Marvin could end up in the top 10, but instead he ended up in Roczen's back wheel leaving the first turn ensuring both of them were crushing survivor dreams. Of the 19 teams remaining in the game after Round 8, 36% still have Marvin Musquin available. May the odds be in your favor!
NEXT UP!
Round 9 - Daytona
Coming up next weekend the noose on available picks gets even tighter with the Daytona Supercross. We've had opening rounds, the first football stadium track, the first soft dirt round, and Triple Crown formats; but the ultra-rough NASCAR infield course is sure to throw more curveballs. Championship pressure is mounting in the series, but even more-so in SX Survivor. Players will have to choose when to gamble and when to hold their chips or risk losing it all!
Just an early heads up, Daytona updates will be very limited if you get them at all before middle of the following week. I am traveling to Daytona and likely won't have time do them on the road. I will post my pick to Facebook as always to lock it in, but don't expect to see pre-race spreadsheets or write ups. Thank you for the patience and understanding.
Finally, I'm going to start posting these updates on AirWheeliesOnly.com exclusively to give you guys an excuse to check it out. It's a new hobby and potentially a way I can justify paying for a programmer to automate this Survivor game so we can continue to grow, expand, and play more versions of it. For the time being, continue sending picks in the way we've been; though I am working on a better format for doing that on the website as well.
Thank you for playing and good luck in Daytona!
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