Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Be My Broheim!

What's that you say? The models-for-hire at the local auto show weren't interested in drinks after their shift? The football team didn't let you lunch in their area even though you placed 2nd in the state chess tournament two years in a row? Angelina Jolie stole away your Sexiest-Man-Alive husband?

Alas, while life and love can sometimes seem cruel, is it really that unfair? Maybe you're not the victim of some vindictive curse, but rather just a normal guy/gal unable to break the unwritten sociological laws imposed on mankind - the laws that say that the 9's and 10's hang out with other 9's and 10's, the 7-ishes bond with other 7-ishes, and so forth. While we all strive to be among the lucky few who find the loopholes (see: Who's Least Worthy?), for most of us our net is cast within a 1 point range on either side of our ourselves.

With that, I welcome you to 'Be My Broheim', SoSG's social experiment/off-season-competition, where participants try to break the above norms and hitch their wagon to a star as far above their league as possible.

Broheim - [broh-hym], noun - A kinsman, a fellow man or colleague; brethren; referring to a friend or a brother as such.

See also: Bro, Bromigo, Brosef, Bra

The object of the game is to get the most desirable Broheim you can while avoiding the riff-raff beneath you - all without being left out in the cold altogether. Here's how it works:

  • The game consists of 5 rounds. Two or three rounds will be played per week (I'm giving myself a day of admin between rounds), with the first round tomorrow. Each round begins at 9am PT and ends at 2pm PT.
  • Each participant will be randomly assigned a 'desirability rating' from 1-10. '10' is most desirable, '1' is least desirable. There are no restrictions or rating allocation requirements regarding the assignments. For example, if the luck of the draw assigns everybody a '6' (nearly impossible mathematically, but theoretically possible), then everybody's a '6'. There doesn't need to be a certain number of 1's or 2's, etc. Since there are more than 10 participants, there will certainly be some participants with the same number assiged.
  • Before each round (either the previous day or the early morning of), each participant will receive an email revealing everybody's rating except his/her own. Please do not communicate through comments, email, or any other medium anyone's rating, or even hint that Participant X has a high or low number. The integrity of the game relies on everyone being unaware of their own number!
  • At 9am, when the round begins, a post will appear titled "Be My Broheim: Round X".
  • The object is to get the highest rated person possible to "be your Broheim," by simply making Broheim requests of your fellow participants, as follows:
    1. Between the hours of 9am and 2pm, in the comments you may ask another participant to be your Broheim. For example, if Mr C wants to ask Neeebs to be his Broheim, he would make the request as follows: "BROHEIM REQUEST: Neeebs, will you be my Broheim?" (please try to follow this syntax as it makes administration easier, plus I find it mildly amusing).
    2. Neeebs can reply either "BROHEIM REPLY: Mr C, I accept" or "BROHEIM REPLY: Mr C, I decline", or he may choose to not reply at all.
    3. When making requests or replying, please be sure to be clear about to whom you are speaking, as it can otherwise get really confusing.
    4. You can make no more than four* Broheim requests per round. You can make them anytime you want (i.e., you can have all four of your offers out there concurrently if you so desire), but the first to accept is your Broheim for that round. You only get one Broheim per round, and you can't change your mind.
    5. If you use up all four of your Broheim requests without receiving an acceptance, you're relegated to sitting on the sidelines and hoping someone asks you.
    6. On the flipside, there's no limit to the number of Broheim requests you can receive. If you receive multiple, you can decide amongst them before replying to any. But remember - if one of your requestors locks in a Broheim agreement with someone else before you reply, then his/her offer to you is off the table. And you don't want to let 2pm pass without having a Broheim, as you will see below...
    7. Again, DO NOT COMMENT OR HINT AT ANYONE'S RATING, OR ASK ABOUT YOUR OWN! And please no communicating off-line (at least regrading this game). Other than this restriction, feel free to make any other comments you want.
    8. If by 2pm you don't either accept a Broheim offer made of you, or have one of your own offers accepted, you are Broheimless that round (*sighs and shakes head disapprovingly*).
  • After the round is over, scores will be tallied. There are two components to each round's score, as follows:
    • Component 1 is simply the rating of the person who is your Broheim, from 1-10. If you are left Broheimless, you get a zero.
    • Component 2 is the difference between your score and your Broheim's score, either positive (if you hitched upward), or negative (if you hitched downward). For example, if you're a '6' yet you snagged an '8' as your Broheim, you get +2, and your Broheim is penalized with a -2 for settling. If you are left Broheimless, your Component 2 score will be as if your Broheim were a zero (if you are a '4', you will be penalized -4).
    • Your final score for the round is the sum of Component 1 and Component 2.
    • At the end of each round, everyone will be re-assigned a new desirability rating, again in a random fashion, and all previous Broheim pairings are nullified. The process begins anew for the next round. At the end of all 5 rounds, the person with the highest total score wins.

And, to review, here are the 20 participants:

  1. Mr C
  2. w.d.d.i.m.
  3. Spank
  4. Josh S
  5. QuadSevens
  6. Jason
  7. Neeebs
  8. Mr F
  9. rbnlaw
  10. Greg
  11. Steve K
  12. MLASC
  13. DB
  14. Mr Dr
  15. Loney Fan
  16. Paul
  17. MB
  18. Pistol PR
  19. FB
  20. Karina

So that's it. Any questions ask here...otherwise, expect the email revealing everyone's rating (except your own) sometime before Round 1 begins tomorrow 9am. Now get some sleep and prepare to channel your inner Macauley Culkin.

*I may tweak rules such as this one depending on how the game plays out

20 comments:

Eric Karros said...

Note I just changed the rules to allow four Broheim requests per round rather than three as was originally posted.

But I'm really just blindly guessing as to what's appropriate...I may adjust after the 1st round.

MeanieBreanie said...

Gee EK, this game could really give a lot of SoSG fans a bad case of rejection. I will go with it although I much prefer to killKillKILL!

Jason said...

rejectRejectREJECT!

QuadSevens said...

Jason's message will show up after someone else says "requestrequestREQUEST!"

Eric Karros said...

Ok folks, you should all have received an email with everyone else's Ratings for Round 1. Let me know if you haven't.

MB - hopefully nobody takes anything personally...ratings were assigned completely arbitrarily using random number generator in excel. I swear!

rbnlaw said...

Dude, guy, bro.

Or is it Guy, dude, bro?

rbnlaw said...

BROHEIM REQUEST: Dude, grab me a beer, will ya?

MR.F said...

Wait what?

MR.F said...

SOOOO CONFUSED. (not that I've bothered to read the rules in their entirety)

Fred's Brim said...

I got the email and panicked after seeing the ? next to my name. I thought the game had started today and I was the only one who hadn't responded yet

MR.F said...

OHHH okay good. I have a question mark next to my name on my email as well. I should read the rules.

Eric Karros said...

Yes - you all SHOULD have a questions mark next to your name in the email. If you don't, please let me know - it means I screwed up.

After playing through Round 1, the game should become a bit clearer. Either that or it will become a lot way more confusinger. We'll see.

Orel said...

I'm looking forward to the comment sections for this game.

Loney Fan said...

I'm focusing all my brain power on how to manipulate in order to rank higher than Q7 rather than win.

Neeebs (The Original) said...

I think that Q7 and LF already have a secret bromance. All this competitive play is merely a charade.

spank said...

Can I have a refund?

Mr. Doctor said...

Sounds interesting. Email freaked me out, I was nervous the game had started already!

MeanieBreanie said...

@EK - Based on your comment I am now convinced I am rated a 1. If I suffer a lot of rejection I will know it for sure ;~))xx

Eric Karros said...

Yeah, we got more than one panicked email thinking the game had begun.

And sorry Spank...no refunds. You are LOCKED IN.

Eric Karros said...

MB - I don't remember what your (or anyone's) rating is, but remember: there are 5 rounds, so you'll have 5 different ratings.