Fantabiathlon 24 – Regulation

Biathlon Azzurro’s Fantasy Game returns for its fourth edition and gets even better.

Thanks to Google Form, it has been possible in recent years to automate the counting of votes, thus making the rankings almost immediately available in the appropriate section of our website, after careful review of validity. Substantial changes in the nature of the project are already planned as we get closer to 2026 Olympics, but for this season we will continue on the classic path.

Therefore, it remains necessary for the participant, in order to play, to be logged in via their Google account, so as to prevent multiple voting.

It should be made clear that no email or personal data will ever be collected by us through our surveys for private, professional or commercial purposes.

GAME MODE

The big news of FANTABIATHLON 24 is that, unlike in the past, each race format will correspond to a slight variation of the proposed poll.

• Sprint: the main race of the biathlon will see four H2H (as you are used to), while the fifth poll will have three alternatives instead of two. In this case you will have to determine the exact order of the three athletes to earn the point.

(EXAMPLE. User response: Wierer-Roeiseland-H.Öberg. Point awarded only if Wierer finishes ahead of Røiseland, who finishes ahead of H.Öberg)

• Pursuit: this format, being already “different” in its nature given the starting gaps, will remain identical to the past, with 5 classic head-to-heads.
• Individual: again, four classic head-to-head will be presented. The fifth “target” to be hit will be a question about the misses by two italians in the competition, with a margin of one stroke, and the point awarded only in the case of both correct answers.

(EXAMPLE. User answer: Wierer 20/20 or 19/20, Vittozzi 18/20 or 17/20. Point awarded only if both predictions are correct)

• Mass start: as is the case in the World Cup, a “cutoff” will occur based on overall ranking position. The top 50 will see their scores counted normally, while all others will have their scores calculated in half,, in addition to the fact that they cannot “win the race”

(EXAMPLE: player 42nd scores 3 points and he/she will be awarded 3 points, player 79th guesses all 5 right and will be awarded 2.5 points (and he/she does not win the race)

• Relays: as in the nature of the format, teamwork will be needed to win. Right after the closing of the polls, before the beginning of the race, the voting field will be automatically and randomly divided into teams of four, and at the end of the round, the foursome that has collectively achieved the most exact votes will earn an additional point. Of course, in this case the race victory will go to the four winners, regardless of their score. If the total number of voters is not divisible by four, the remaining (1,2 or 3) will be randomly assigned to an existing team, whose total score, however, will be determined by the four best results only.

(EXAMPLE: “Team 6” scores 5,5,4,4 and results as the best. The four members of “Team 6” will be given 6,6,5 and 5 points and the race win, respectively. “Team 16” has assigned an additional player and the correct answers are 2,2,5,1,3. The total score will be 12, not 13).

At the very top of the Google form you will find the space provided to enter a valid email address (which we will use to directly send you the voting reminder and poll results at the end of the races, as experimented occasionally last year) and a nickname of your choice.

It is essential to use the same email address throughout the season (it may be different from last year’s), as this will be the only reference we have for figuring out who is voting and linking a new vote to previous ones.

From this year, the long-awaited individual statistics will also be introduced, which will allow players to know how many correct votes they have accumulated during the season, in relation to the total number of attempts. Thus there will also be a chance to know who is the most accurate of all, even by individual competition format.

As in previous editions, for the 2023 Oberhof World Championships, there will be one more poll per single race, so the maximum score achievable will be 6 points.

SCORING AND RANKINGS

Scoring will be as standard as always, which has turned out to be a good compromise between benefiting consistency and not penalizing too much for skipping a day or two. One point will be awarded for each correct answer and zero for the wrong one, which is therefore considered on a par with not voting.

The poll will be published the night before the start of the competition itself, (roughly from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.), and the opportunity to vote will be closed close to the start of the competition, usually 5 minutes. Until that time, votes will be editable, even multiple times.

PLEASE NOTE: It may happen that due to system (or human) error, the opportunity to voteremains open even while the competition is in progress. It is essential in this case to know that the system records the time of the last edit. So, even in these cases, there is no possibility of cheating, since any change after the start time is accepted by the system but results in a disqualification of the vote.

In case of non-start of one of the challengers in an “individual” race, even if the defection arrives early, the specific matchup will be cancelled. As for relays, on the other hand, the official IBU start list will be included in the evening poll, and the vote will remain valid even if its composition changes, so it will be up to the participant to make sure that there are no last-minute forfeits that distort the chances of victory for one team or the opposing team.

As you may know, the World Cup has decided to eliminate drops. We decided, in this case, to stay true to the past and keep the 3 total drops, valid only for the overall standings, as we think it is fair to keep a small margin of guarantee for those who would fail to participate in some votes.

Therefore, the following rankings will be stipulated and updated:

• General (combined male+female)
• Sprint (combined male+female)
• Pursuit (combined male+female)
• Individual (combined male+female)
• Mass Start (combined male+female)
• Relays (combined male+female+single mixed+mixed relay)
• Statistics (general and specialty, percentage of correct votes)

A winner tag will go to whoever scores the most points during the weekend, and another winner tag will be awarded to whoever has the most “race wins” at the end of the season.

For any ex-aequo of total score, the one who has obtained better individual scores will always be considered the winner. Only in case of a perfect match will victory be splitted between the two participants/teams.

EXAMPLE 1: Player 1 (3,4,4,5,0) wins over Player 2 (4,4,3,3,2)

EXAMPLE 2: Player 1 (0,4,4,1,3) wins over Player 2 (4,1,4,1,2)

FINAL PRIZE

The overall winner of the competition will be gifted a competition bib signed by (possibly all) members of the Italian national team, in addition to the Biathlon Azzurro’s T-shirt, which will also be awarded to the second and third.