HWCI World Cup Pool FAQ

Quadrennial HWCI FIFA World Cup Soccer Tournament Pool
[ HWCI World Cup Pool ]

Why a World Cup pool?
- Soccer is a favorite sport of mine so I wanted to run some type of pool, a la the NCAA Tournament pool. However, nothing really existed out there. So I started devising a pool where everyone would have to enter their picks before the World Cup started. One obvious problem was how to handle the Round of 16 bracket. There are no rest days between the last Round Robin match and the first Round of 16 match. So I allowed the people to choose all the Round Robin games and their own bracket, which adds difficulty to the picking but creates more fun (or frustration). Since that first pool in 1998, the fundamentals of the rules and point system has not changed.
What freebies do you get for running the pool?
- Like our HWCI NCAA pool, we get no special privileges. No free entries. No administrative fees. Just the fun of losing. All monies go toward prizes (likely 1st through 4th place prizes).
In picking my Round of 16 bracket, I have 1A-Qatar meeting 2B-USA and 1B-England facing 2A-Netherlands. And I have Qatar and England winning those matches. But what if England finishes 2nd instead of 1st? Then they'll face Qatar in the Round of 16!
- Exactly. The good news is you are guaranteed to get one team into the Quarterfinals (Qatar or England). The bad news is can't get both teams in. I never said this was going to be easy. That's why I finished 21st of 23 people in 2002.
The USA is ranked #16 (in FIFA's Team Ranking)! What does this mean?
- Nothing if you can't beat #53-Saudi Arabia in your last friendly before the World Cup. Take the FIFA rankings for what it is - a strength of schedule measure (like the RPI in college basketball). This ranking system is much improved than in 2006 and is a decent indicator (unlike the old method in 2006 when the USA was #5). Win against weak teams, your ranking falls; lose against strong teams, your raking rises. Don't play for two months (for whatever reason) and see your ranking fall. Play a lot of games and see your ranking rise. This should be one of several sources of data for determining how good teams are.
Are there other World Cup pools?
- Well, in 1998, when we first started, we couldn't find any that incorporated both the Round Robin and Round of 16 matches as one entry, which is why we started ours. Even today, most pools require you to enter your Round of 16 bracket after the Round Robin is completed or require you to predict the scores. But yes, there are a lot more sites now that offer an office pool-style, which is great.
Why is the pool structured as it is and why can't I edit my picks after the World Cup has started?
- We've tried to make the pool friendly to both soccer fanatics and novices (like the NCAA pool). Like the NCAA pool, it's "pick & pray". There are no second chances! Also, you don't have to predict scores or ties. Just pick the winners. And you don't have to know any tiebreaker procedures to pick the two teams that will advance out of the group. Just pick the two teams from each group. You can pick the USA to win all 3 matches (worth one point each) but not pick them to advance to the Round of 16 (worth 3 pts). How you pick the Round Robin matches is completely independent on how you pick your Round of 16 bracket.