Most people are poor predictors of their own performance and habits, typically underestimating how much they eat or over estimating how quickly and how well they can complete a project. This notion is often used by job applicants as an interview tactic to turn a weakness into a strength. Sorry, that’s a well-known ploy, and more likely to work against you.
Rafters is no exception to this axiom especially when it comes to daily word counts (fellow sufferers know what this is), and Rafters is especially prone to over estimating it’s score prediction in games pitting whales against minnows. Lotto tickets are right out.
This point is especially illustrated by Rafters’ dismal score to date in the World Cup Predictor Game. We’re far behind rwc_Guru’s leaderboard topping score of three-hundred and fifty-seven points.
But picking winners, scores, and first try scorers is not for the fait of heart. Week one’s leader has disappeared from the radar having slipped into the mire of over ten thousand pages listing 195,000 rankings.
But the real question is, does predicting winners change your allegiances when watching matches. For Rafters, if the outcome doesn’t negatively influence our favorite team’s standing, then absolutely it does.
Predicting gives fans a stake in neutral games such as last weeks match up between Portugal and Georgia, two countries that the average public high school graduate couldn’t likely find on a map let alone realize that one is a country located somewhere other than the American South.
There are of course exceptions. Round two’s match between France and Uruguay was a no-brainer for the Predictor-Game set, but when Uruguay showed the slightest sign that an upset might be in the offing, predictions be damned, Rafters was all in for defenestrating the predictor score in favor of a Uruguayan victory. Alas there was no repeat of the 2015 magic, heavy sigh.
Though our prediction score has improved a little with each week, it has not stopped us from tumbling from the twenty-five thousand range into the mid twenty nine thousands with a paltry one-hundred and fifty point score. But we will continue to make our picks and cheer for our favorites despite over estimating our guessing prowess.
That’s one fan’s view of the World Cup Predictor Game from Beyond the Rafters.
Rafters’ Round Four World Cup Predictor Game Picks
Pool A Round Four match predictions.
Uruguay by twenty over Namibia.
New Zealand by twenty-seven over Italy.
France - Bye.
Pool B Round Four match predictions.
Scotland over Romania by fifty-nine.
South Africa over Tonga by fifty.
Ireland - Bye.
Pool C Round Four match predictions.
Australia over Portugal by forty-one.
Fiji over Georgia by fifteen.
Wales - Bye.
Pool D Round Four match predictions.
Japan by five over Samoa.
Argentina over Chile by forty.
England - Bye.