SpC2k6 Oracle Challenge - Biggest Surprises

I really need to go to bed, but I'll throw these out there quickly - the people who were the biggest surprises of the SpC2k6 Oracle Challenge!

Honorable Mention - Team Rocket Elite
TRE, sometimes known as the supercomputer, has been part of the Oracle Challenge since the beginning, but he's never been known for his success in these contests - until now. I guess that just goes to show you how hard it is for a computer to predict these matches! This time around, TRE managed to pull off an 8th place finish. That, along with his 10th place team finish as part of the surprisingly effective Team Jay Solano, make Team Rocket Elite one of the biggest surprises of the contest!

#5 - steve illumina
No offense to the sage of board 8, but up until this contest it was hard to take his comments very seriously. For one thing, he was known mostly for his humorous and satirical commentary, and for another, he never did especially well in this contest. However, for a while during SpC2k6, steve was on top of the world - first in the Oracle, first in the Guru, with dreams of a perfect bracket in his head. Things eventually came crashing down, but his impressive mid-contest run was enough to land him a spot on the biggest surprises list.

#4 - Lightbearer75
Lightbearer certainly made his mark on the contest - a brand new competitor spending 7 days in first and 7 days in second during the first round. But the big surprise came on day 17, when he didn't register any predictions for the second round. It was then that we realized that Lightbearer had been schooling us all with predictions he made three weeks before the beginning of the contest - he never showed up to tweak his predictions, and in fact, never returned at all after the third page of the first topic.

#3 - Xuxon
When you win the Oracle Challenge, people expect big things from you. But... maybe not that big. Maybe the best thing about Xuxon's repeat is that he announced that he planned to do it a year ago. If we'd listened to him, maybe we wouldn't have been so surprised about him winning the contest again.

#2 - Ness26 and TheKnightOfNee (tie)
Okay, this is kind of a cop-out, but I don't think I can mention one without the other. Both Ness26 and TheKnightOfNee came into this contest for the first time, and put up some amazing numbers, finishing 2nd and 3rd out of a field of 180. Getting successful new people is what keeps this contest going, so I hope they both come back next time around!

#1 - Goldslime35
Goldslime predicted the first three Oracle Challenges, and did respectably. But he'd missed the last two Oracles, so I don't think anyone was expecting him to come back and put on the kind of show that he did. After round 1 Goldslime was in 49th place, but he proceeded to put together one of the most impressive runs ever, outscoring everyone else by over 13 points in the second half. To make things even more painful for him, he lost over 20 points on an obvious mistake, picking Mega Man with 80% against Mario Kart. Although that mistake cost him the title, it definitely didn't cost him the respect he earned with his achievements. Congratulations to him!
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Z1mZum is the latest guru to destroy me in the Guru Contest. Congrats!
Nominate Aeris for SC2k6