Randy Styles, who became a father Saturday morning, earned a perhaps slightly less momentous (heh) but still notable achievement Sunday night, as he won his second consecutive Living Room Times contest — following up his win in the LRT Bowl Pick ’em Contest with a victory in the LRT Oscar Pool.
Better watch out for Randy in the upcoming NCAA and NIT pools. 🙂
Styles, a resident of South Bend, Indiana, submitted his Oscar picks Friday night at 11:26 PM Eastern Time, apparently just hours before heading to the hospital for his daughter’s birth. He and his wife Elizabeth welcomed an 8 pound, 8 ounce baby girl at 9:43 AM Saturday.
On Sunday night, the proud papa finished with 67 out of a possible 80 points in the Oscar Pool, to edge David Kreutz and pool administrator Brendan Loy, who had 66 points each. Amid the sleep deprivation of his first full day of fatherhood, Styles stopped by the LRT liveblog about two-thirds through the show and wrote, “Hope I win like Bowl Pickem. Wife and I just had a baby girl.8 lbs.8 oz. … We are both really happy!”
Styles got just 4 awards out of 24 wrong. His mistakes were: Best Director, worth 9 points (he had David Fincher for The Social Network; Tom Hooper for The King’s Speech won); Best Cinematography, worth 2 points (he had True Grit; Inception won); Best Art Direction, worth 1 point (he had The King’s Speech; Alice in Wonderland won); and Best Animated Short, worth 1 point (he had The Gruffalo; The Long Thing won).
If not for Styles’s misjudgment in the Best Director category, it would have been the most dominant performance in Living Room Times Oscar Pool history, as he got almost all of the “minor” categories right.
Meanwhile, Vicki Lopez and Jeff Vaca, who would have been pool co-champions if “The Social Network” had won Best Picture, dropped all the way to 14th place when “The King’s Speech” won instead. It’s the third time in seven years that Lopez has been denied victory by a plausible but incorrect Best Picture pick, and at least the fourth time she has been a single award away from winning. (She finished second last year, thanks to mistaken picks in the screenplay categories.)
Lopez and Vaca ended up with 52 points, along with Karen Torgersen and Paul Freeland. Above them on the leaderboard, but below Styles’s 67 and Loy’s and Kreutz’s 66, were Andy G., in fourth place with 63 points; Nathan Wurtzel with 62; 2007 champ Kristin (West) Farleigh with 61; Michael Rosenkrantz with 59; Becky Loy with 58; Suzanne (Ogden) Vannatter with 57; Lisa Velte, a.k.a. CFB Pick ’em winner The Major’s Girl, with 56 to round out the Top Ten; Rosalie Town with 55; Amanda Rykoff with 54; and Kevin Curran with 53.
Kreutz and Loy both got almost double the number of awards wrong that Styles did — 7 each, to be exact — but in terms of “major” awards, each erred only in the 6-point Best Supporting Actress category (Kreutz picked Helena Bonham Carter; Loy picked Hailee Steinfeld; Melissa Leo won). They also both got Cinematography (2) and Foreign Film (2) wrong, in addition to four 1-point categories apiece (Kreutz: Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Animated Short, Live Action Short; Loy: Art Direction, Makeup, Animated Short, Live Action Short).
If this year’s pool had used last year’s scoring system, the top three — Styles, Kreutz and Loy — would all have finished tied with 68 points. But upgrading Cinematography and Best Foreign Film to a 2-point categories hurt Loy and Kreutz.
Below are the complete final standings. More detail, including mouseovers of everyone’s picks, are at the liveblog page.
1. Randy Styles 67
2. Brendan Loy 66
2. David Kreutz 66
4. @amgodd 63
5. Nathan Wurtzel 62
6. Kristin (West) Farleigh 61
7. Michael Rosenkrantz 59
8. Becky Loy 58
9. Suzanne Vannatter 57
10. The Majors Girl 56
11. Rosalie Town 55
12. Amanda Rykoff 54
13. Kevin Curran 53
14. Jeff Vaca 52
14. Karen Torgersen 52
14. Paul Freeland 52
14. Vicki Lopez 52
18. Brandon Minich 51
18. Kate Feldman 51
20. Devyanks90 50
21. Josh Rubin 49
21. Juan Molina 49
23. Jeff Freeze 48
24. @mdrache 47
24. Andrew 47
24. Keith D. 47
24. Marissa 47
28. Doug Mataconis 46
29. @damienbsu 44
30. Steph Johansen 43
31. gahrie 42
31. Sandy Underpants 42
33. Silja 41
34. Amy B. 40
35. Victoria W. 39
36. Barbara Cross 37
37. Diane Krause 36
38. Joe Mama 35
38. Leanna Loomer 35
40. Amy Mackett 31
40. Antonia Namnath 31
40. Julia Flyer 31
40. Mike Wiser 31
40. Uncle Larry 31
45. USC2000 29
46. Kelly Strutz 28
46. Rachel Dulitz 28
48. Andrew Fielding 27
49. Dan Dinunzio 23
50. Kevin Mackett 15
51. The White Tiger That Ate Siegfried & Roy 7
There was obviously an anti-feline bias in this contest.