the real deal on scoring

Steak should know by now not to listen to anything anyone says about a sense of stability and continuity when it comes to FSX. Here's how the final scoring will go:

After the standings are calculated for the final race, everyone's score will be adjusted by a Season Multiplier. The SM will be tallied by adding up all of your noteworthy performances:

Each Top 20 = 1.5 points
Each Top 10 = 2 points
Each Top 5 = 2.5 points
Each Top 3 = 3 points
Each Win = 4 points
Overall PBR winner gets an additional 1 point

Example: Someone with one top 20 (1.5) plus one top 10 (2) plus one top 5 (2.5) would have a Season Multiplier of 6.

Also, PBR totals are added to the final number. There is, as always, a mystery multiplier element -- and this year it involves what many people might consider one of the cornerstones of FSX. Finally, the women's championship calculation includes an extra category: 4 points for each women's win.

No juniors. No lanterne rouge race. Prizes for the top 20 overall.

Get to work FSX statisticians.

This, people, captures the heavy yoke that Bowman must drag around. Just when you get a hopeful piece of news that promises glory: Strickland goes and changes the rules. Our impish race director would sooner wear a Primal Wear kit or ride a Tri bike than seem predictable, and so Bowman must cope with the muddy ground beneath him shifting once more.

But Mark Bowman--the man who proudly called himself "the best all-around performer in the modern history of Fifth Street cross" last thursday--can take a deep breath and then exhale. That's because the season title of Fifth Street Cross is still his to lose.

Bill's new scoring scheme actually plays into Bowman's favor, more heavily weighting top 3 and top 5 performances than the old system.

So here are the multiplier standings of the top 4 at present:
-Bowman: 54.5
-Yozell: 46.5
-Ryan: 46
-Jamie: 44

And if we guess that there are four races remaining (I say guess because Bill might read this and decide to schedule six one-lap time trials for the last night in an effort to crush Bowman's dreams), that makes it possible but tough for other riders to catch Bowman.

For instance if Bowman merely finishes top 10 in his last four races, his multiplier would be 62.5. And if Yozell won four races, his multiplier would be, would you guess, 62.5. (And in that scenario, the final points victor would be too hard to predict at this juncture.)