Sometimes the Best Offense is your Defender's Head

61/64 through the World Cup. It was supposed to be an exciting matchup of the Franco-Flemish War of 1297. Instead, it was a low scoring game bogged down by yellow cards towards the end. The deciding goal came off of Antoine Griezmann's foot, and was deflected into the goal by Samuel Umtiti. That was all she wrote for Belgium who will play in the 3rd place playoff on Saturday. France moves on to face the winner of England and Croatia in the final on Sunday.

France 1:0 Belgium

Samuel Umtiti 51' 1-0

			France		vs	Belgium
	Result	Points	W57	Score	Points	W58	Score	Points	Total
Artifex	Brazil	0	France	2	0	Brazil	4	0	0
Fortuitous	Costa Rica	0	Croatia	0	0	Costa Rica	5	0	0
Historicus	Belgium	0	Peru	2(4)	0	Belgium	2(5)	0	0
IoannesNix	Brazil	0	Nigeria	2	0	Brazil	3	0	0
Musicus	Brazil	0	France	1	2	Brazil	2	0	2
Praeceptor	Portugal	0	Portugal	4	0	Belgium	3	0	0
Scriptor	Brazil	0	France	0	0	Brazil	1	0	0

No one has correctly picked any of the finalists, so no points will be awarded through that means.

Here's how Historicus fared with France in this game.

France
Goal	Umtiti	5
Assist	Griezmann	3
Yellow Card	Kante	-6
Yellow Card	Mbappe	-5
Saves	Lloris	6
	Total	3

And here's how Artifex fared with Belgium.

Belgium
Yellow Card	Hazard	-5
Yellow Card	Alderweireld	-1
Yellow Card	Vertonghem	-2
Saves	Courtois	10
		2

Here are the standings for 5th-7th

5	Musicus	262	81
6	IoannesNix	192	51
7	Fortuitous	145	29

And here's how the playoffs are faring at halftime of the semifinals.

Praeceptor 0-0				2-0 Artifex
		Champion
Historicus 3-0				0-0 Scriptor

Today's Disciplinary Official's are these Belgian fans. They are silenced by the Red Devils loss to France at the World Cup. Though they wear red, and their team saw 3 yellow cards, they cannot fathom a thought beyond disappointment. If any of you were France, you'd be banned from competing for life. None of you are France, and so, the game continues tomorrow!

The Grand Salmon Alpaca 

Champion on Champion Crime

The Fortunate Four remain in their bid for World Cup Glory. The reigning and defending World Cup Champion Praeceptor faces off against the European Champion Historicus. On the other side of the bracket, the African Champion Artifex battles the Asian Champion Scriptor. Only one will remain standing and claim the Puchar Zladupki as their own.

For the remaining three who have been eliminated, they will remain in a group format with the rest of their points being added to determine who finishes 5th, 6th, and 7th. We would like to wish these players the best of luck in their future endeavors, and give them a round of applause for their valiant efforts. Hopefully, they will return to future tournaments well rested and ready to claim victory.

As for the championship contenders, they now leave behind their group stage points and start off on equal footing at 0-0. The Semifinals of this tournament will consist of the next two matches of the World Cup. The players will continue to earn points based on their picks. Having a correct matchup with a correct result will earn you 5 points. Correctly picking one score, regardless of if you have the correct matchup, is worth 2 points. Correctly picking both scores will earn you 5 points.

For every finalist that you correctly pick, you now will earn 15 points. On top of that you will also have the opportunity to earn bonus points based on what team you are choosing for the next round. The rules for how those points will be calculated are the same as we have used twice before. Please look back for an explanation of those rules.

The score for this round will be determined by adding up all the points you earn. The player with more points for the round wins. If there is a tie, the player with more Oracle points for the round advances. If the players are still tied, the tiebreaker will be points earned in the group stage, followed by oracle points scored in the group stage. If there is still a tie, we will worry about that later.

Preaceptor will get the first pick, followed by Artifex, and Scriptor. Unfortunately, Historicus will have to root for whatever team falls into his lap. The next two days will determine who will fight for the championship. The two losers will battle for third place honors.

Good Luck to All,
May the goals fall in your opponent's nets!

The Grand Salmon Alpaca

Rakitic-ing Up The Win!

15/16 of the way through the World Cup and we await news that Russia has annexed parts of Croatia. In the early matchup, England continue their dream run and keep on believing that the "Cup is Coming Home". They ousted Sweden to reach the semifinals. In the other match, Russia saw more drama as they went ahead, drew, fell behind, and came back to draw. However, Croatia's penalty kicking abilities have guided them into the Quarterfinals. Now they have used those abilities to oust the Hosting Country. This is where the tournament really begins.

Sweden 0:2 England

Harry Maguire 30' 0-1

Dele Alli 58' 0-2

			Sweden		vs	England
	Result	Points	W55	Score	Points	W56	Score	Points	Total
Artifex	Germany	0	Germany	2	0	England	1	0	0
Fortuitous	Poland	0	Serbia	1	0	Poland	4	0	0
Historicus	Brazil	0	Brazil	1	0	Colombia	0	2	2
IoannesNix	Germany	0	Germany	3	0	Poland	2	0	0
Musicus	Germany	0	Germany	3	0	England	1	0	0
Praeceptor	Switzerland	0	Switzerland	2	0	England	1	0	0
Scriptor	Germany	0	Germany	1	0	Colombia	0	2	2

Russia 2(3):2(4) Croatia

Denis Cheryshev 31' 1-0

Andrej Kramaric 39' 1-1

Domagoj Vida 100' 1-2

Mario Figueira Fernandes 2-2

Marcel Brozovic (pk) 0-1

   Alan Dzagoev (pk) 1-1

Luka Mordic (pk) 1-2

Sergei Ignashevich (pk) 2-2

Domagoj Vida (pk) 2-3

Daler Kuzyayev (pk) 3-3

Ivan Rakitic (pk) 3-4

			Russia		vs	Croatia
	Result	Points	W51	Score	Points	W52	Score	Points	Total
Artifex	Argentina	0	Spain	2	2	Argentina	3	0	2
Fortuitous	Iceland	0	Portugal	2	2	Iceland	3	0	2
Historicus	Spain	0	Spain	2	2	France	1	0	2
IoannesNix	Portugal	0	Portugal	2	2	Australia	1	0	2
Musicus	Argentina	0	Spain	1	0	Argentina	3	0	0
Praeceptor	Spain	0	Spain	2	2	Nigeria	0	0	2
Scriptor	Spain	0	Spain	2	2	Argentina	1	0	2

Here's how everyone fared with their Semifinalist picks:

	Artifex	Fortuitous	Historicus	IoannesNix	Musicus	Praeceptor	Scriptor
	France	Croatia	Peru	Nigeria	France	Portugal	France
	Brazil	Costa Rica	Belgium	Brazil	Brazil	Belgium	Brazil
	Argentina	Iceland	Spain	Portugal	Argentina	Spain	Spain
	Germany	Poland	Brazil	Germany	Germany	Switzerland	Germany
Total	10	10	10	0	0	10	10

IoannexNix rode the Viking Train in this round. Here's how Sweden helped her.

Sweden
Yellow Card	Guidetti	-5
Yellow Card	Larsson	-3
	Total	0

Scriptor opted for the Three Lions and earned this many points:

England
Goal	Maguire	6
Assist	Young	9
Goal	Alli	20
Assist	Lingard	3
Yellow Card	Maguire	-3
Saves	Pickford	6
	Total	41

Praeceptor went with Russia, under some curious circumstances:

Russia
Goal	Cheryshev	6
Assist	Dzyuba	11
Yellow Card	Gazinskiy	-4
Goal	Fernandes	2
Assist	Dzagoev	4
Penalty Kick	Dzagoev	4
Penalty Kick	Ignashevich	2
Penalty Kick	Kuzyaev	3
Saves	Akinfeev	3
	Total	31

Here are the final standings of the first round of our competition. The top 4 players now advance to the playoffs. The 3 eliminated players will remain in a group format to determine 5th, 6th, and 7th places.

	Standings	Points	Oracle
1	Praeceptor	295	67
2	Artifex	294	57
3	Scriptor	283	70
4	Historicus	279	69
5	Musicus	260	79
6	IoannesNix	192	51
7	Fortuitous	145	29

Today's Disciplinary Officials are the National Football Team of Sweden.

 The Yellow and Blue Vikings surprised everyone just by qualifying. They had to beat Italy over 2 legs, a matchup that Italy was heavily favored in. They then saw Germany defeat them in the last minute, before destroying Mexico to win the Group. They outlasted Switzerland, but finally met their match in England and are leaving as one of the top 8 teams in this World Cup. Their Yellow Jerseys are gone, and with them any and all yellow cards that have been accumulated. That's right, from here on out everyone is without caution. Play well my Crias. The future is filled with bright hope, but it rests on the ash of defeat.

The Grand Salmon Alpaca