We rolled into this week expecting to see two titles launch… one of which was also a counter pick… so there was some anticipation that the scoreboard would change.

However, to get there we must, as always, set the baseline by showing last week’s scoreboard.

Week 30 Scores

Mind that ranking well, as seven out of ten of us will have changed places at least once over the course of the week.

First up was some more bad news from Middle-earth.

• Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game
  • [Picked by Frabjous Day Enterprises (Archey)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 62.6 to 61.1

There was the best counter pick title of the league so far, the only one you could have picked that would have improved your score.  Tough on Archey though, whose score fell a bit.

Likewise, we had another drop as more reviews came in.

• EA Sports College Football 26
  • [Picked by Neutical Publishing (Cyanbane)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 83.8 to 80.5

Both of those were enough to get score change broadcasts, but were not enough to change the rankings.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • Frabjous Day Enterprises (Archey)
    • Score has gone DOWN from 36.3 to 34.8
  • Neutical Publishing (Cyanbane)
    • Score has gone DOWN from 82.7 to 79.3

For Cyanbane that was pulling first place a bit farther from his reach.

Then, as the week went on we started getting scores for the two expected releases.

• Chained Echoes: Ashes of Elrant
  • [Picked by Crash and Burn Games (Shawn)]
  • Now has a score of 66.7

Oooh, another below 70 score, which means negative value… or a good counter pick.

• Mafia: The Old Country
  • [Picked by Slightly Scuffed Studios (Kluwes)]
  • [Counter Picked by Hare Brained Schemes (p0tsh0t)]
  • Now has a score of 78.5

And an okay score… but not so good as a counter pick.  But that got revised down pretty quickly.

• Mafia: The Old Country
  • [Picked by Slightly Scuffed Studios (Kluwes)]
  • [Counter Picked by Hare Brained Schemes (p0tsh0t)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 78.5 to 76.8

Less pain for Potshot, but less glory for Kluwes.

Chained Echoes: Ashes of Elrant officially released, so its score now counted, which pushed down Shawn’s score.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • Crash and Burn Games (Shawn)
  • Score has gone DOWN from 50.0 to 46.6

Meanwhile, Mafia kept heading downhill.  Would it too turn into at least a safe counter pick?

• Mafia: The Old Country
  • [Picked by Slightly Scuffed Studios (Kluwes)]
  • [Counter Picked by Hare Brained Schemes (p0tsh0t)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 77.5 to 74.2

You can see, however, that Mafia was being pulled up and down by reviews as it was “down” from a point higher that the last broadcast.  Again, the league only broadcasts for changes of a full point or greater… or the spam for some games would be unbearable.

As that was going on we had another score change for a title.

• EA Sports College Football 26
  • [Picked by Neutical Publishing (Cyanbane)]
  • Score has gone UP from 80.5 to 83.7

That almost put Cyanbane back where he started at the beginning of the week.

Then we got one more pre-release score update for Mafia.

• Mafia: The Old Country
  • [Picked by Slightly Scuffed Studios (Kluwes)]
  • [Counter Picked by Hare Brained Schemes (p0tsh0t)]
  • Score has gone UP from 74.2 to 77.1

Bad news for Potshot there… also I have now typed “Mafia” so many times that it is starting to look wrong in that strange way words do once in a while.  My brain in action.

Then Mafia release and the scoreboard was updated.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • Rusty Shackleford (Shilgrod)
    • Moved from 4th place to 3rd place
  • Hare Brained Schemes (p0tsh0t)
    • Score has gone DOWN from 64.2 to 57.2
    • Moved from 3rd place to 4th place
  • Slightly Scuffed Studios (Kluwes)
    • Score has gone UP from 31.3 to 38.3
    • Moved from 9th place to 7th place
  • Frabjous Day Enterprises (Archey)
    • Moved from 7th place to 8th place
  • Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)
    • Moved from 8th place to 9th place

There five players, half the league, found a new spot in the lineup.  And while we were into Friday by that point, the changes were not yet done.  Further reviews swept in to help out Shawn.

• Chained Echoes: Ashes of Elrant
  • [Picked by Crash and Burn Games (Shawn)]
  • Score has gone UP from 67.5 to 71

Not a huge scoring title, but at least it was above zero.

The Shintar got some more news about Wildgate, which had been off to a slow start on the review front.

• Wildgate
  • [Picked by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 77.0 to 74.2

Maybe Mike Morhaime shouldn’t have called people up to get his product reviewed after all.  Not a good turn.  But that pair of updates put further changes in motion.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • Crash and Burn Games (Shawn)
    • Score has gone UP from 47.5 to 51.0
    • Moved from 6th place to 5th place
  • Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)
    • Score has gone DOWN from 50.8 to 48.0
    • Moved from 5th place to 6th place

Shawn a Shintar swapped spots, but did so in the middle of the league lineup so as to not disturb anybody else.

So, when 17:00 PDT rolled around on Saturday, my cut off time for the scoreboard, the lineup looked like this.

Week 31 Scores

Cyanbane remains within striking distance of first place.  The league projects a win for Bhagpuss, but we have seen reality roll right over predictions this year.

Then everybody below second place but above tenth ended up in a new position.  A real scoreboard shakeup.

There were no bids this week, so the next ten upcoming releases remain as follows.

Coming Up for Week 32

Basically, we have nothing releasing next week.  Drama will be limited to updated scoring and news updates I guess.  The third week of the month will give Bhagpuss a new title released, and then the last week of the month will see four releases.  That should shake things up again.

I am still more than a month away from my next release, though I did get some good news from the league bot.

• Ultimate Sheep Raccoon
  • [Picked by TAGN HQ (Wilhelm)]
  • [Counter Picked by Frabjous Day Enterprises (Archey)]
  • Estimated release date changed from ‘2025’ to ‘Winter 2025’

It doesn’t have a solid date… but “Winter 2025” is still more specific than “2025.”  However, that does mean it might slip.  We shall see.

And then later this month, the 20th through the 24th, we will have Gamescon running in Europe, which will no doubt see some release announcements.  It already seems likely that we will get a launch date for the WoW Midnight expansion, and that it will be for a date in 2026.

That will give me a safe, neutral counter pick AND it might force me to remove it from Shilgrod’s lineup because the site will send me warnings until I do.  I don’t know if slipping into 2026 will throw the same warnings as a cancelled title.  We shall see.

Anyway, on to another week with no launches.

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