Welcome to the Oracle Challenge, the contest that tests your prediction abilities down to the hundredth of a percent! There are some changes to the process this time, so please read this even if you have participated in the Oracle Challenge before.

The Challenge

For each match in the GameFAQs Summer Contest you need to pick a winner and predict the percentage of the vote they will receive. New participants are still being accepted until at least the end of round 3 (please indicate that you are new and make a minimum of three picks).

Post your predictions in this topic, one prediction per line. Your predictions must be in one of these formats:

Link with 85%
Link 55.13%
Link over CATS with 67.55%
Link - 77.5%

Please use one of these formats, and always remember to include the % sign. Do not use other formats such as "Link w/" or "Link: ".

The Scoring

For each match you will earn points based on how close your guess was to the actual outcome. Scoring is cumulative and the winner of the Oracle Challenge will be the person with the most points at the end of the final match. For each match you can earn anywhere between 0 and 50 points. This depends on whether you correctly picked the winner and how close your guess was to the actual percentage. The scoring system works as follows:

Correctly choosing the winner earns you 50-x points.
Incorrectly choosing the winner earns you 45-2x points.
(Where x is the difference between your guess and the character's actual percentage.)

Example:

Your guess: Link with 65%
My guess: CATS with 55%
Actual result: Link 60%, CATS 40%
Your points: 50 - (65-60) = 45 points
My points: 45 - 2*(55-40) = 15 points

Bonus points are awarded for the closest five guesses each match but do not factor into the overall scoring. They are used only as a side ranking. Participants will also be ranked by average score from time to time.

The Rules

It is necessary to have a few rules to keep the challenge running smoothly. They are:

1) A valid entry consists of a clear pick and prediction (i.e. Link with 85.03%). The prediction must be greater than or equal to 50.00%. No alts, please. All predictions should be made with your main account to make things easier on me. If you need to change accounts please let me know.
2) Your prediction does not need to be different from everybody else’s guess. However, intentional and continuous prediction mimicry will not be allowed.
3) All predictions must be made one full hour before the usual start time of that match’s poll (approx. 2:00am EST, 1:00am CST, 11:00pm PST). Predictions submitted after this time will not be counted or may be subject to penalty. No predictions will be accepted after a poll has started, regardless of the start time.
4) You may change your prediction for any match at any time, subject to the rules above. Please indicate clearly that this is a change to a previous entry.
5) You may not delete any post in a prediction topic (if you do, please post immediately after to explain the deletion). This is to prevent abuse of the above rule (and to reduce confusion).
6) You may predict matches in advance if you need to. Please tell me beforehand so we can arrange this.
7) I reserve the right to disqualify a pick for any justifiable reason.
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SpC2K5 First Vote Champion
Nominate Jay Solano for SC2k6