Acclaimed Music Forums

Welcome to our Albums World Cup!
On this game, inspired by AM World Cup, created by Listyguy, we are going to compare some of our favorite albums on a song-by-song basis, using the same format as UEFA European Championship (I've used the table from 2020 UEFA Euro for our playoffs).

Here are the rules:
1- Artists will be randomly put in “pools”, based on a list created at random.org (pools are listed below)
2- In case two albums by some owner appear in the same bracket, the last one to have been randomized will, instead, be put on the next bracket
3- Each artist has an “owner” from the forum
4- Each match up lasts seven days, always begining at a tuesday, and ending on a Monday 23:59 AMF time.
5- For weeks 1-3, artists face every other artist within their pool (12 matchups each week), with the top two artists advancing from each pool. Also, the four best 3rd positions advance too.
6- Artists advance based on points. 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss. If artists are tied with points, then “goal differential” is used. One vote = one goal. If artists are tied with “goal differential”, then "goals scored" are used. After this, their head-to-head result is used.
7- After the pool round, each week is single elimination.
8- Tiebreakers: each owner chooses a song there is out of the seven-tracks list already made; if the album contains only seven songs, or if the remaining ones have already been performed in another tiebreak, then every song of the album can be chosen.

Here are the brackets:

Group A:
The Queen Is Dead (Toni)
Parallel Lines (Mulholland)
Elephant (Jirin)
Automatic for the People (TheLastEnemy)

Group B
Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (StevieFan13)
Body Talk (Mulholland)
Another Green World (Sweepstakes Ron)
The Idler Wheel... (FrankLotion)

Group C
Funeral (andyd1010)
Purple Rain (StevieFan13)
Dookie (prosecutorgodot)
Remain in Light (FrankLotion)

Group D
Abbey Road (andyd1010)
Illinois (Mulholland)
Sound of Silver (Toni)
Bridge Over Troubled Water (Sweepstakes Ron)

Group E
Songs in the Key of Life (prosecutorgodot)
Dig Me Out (StevieFan13)
Born to Run (andyd1010)
OK Computer (TheLastEnemy)

Group F
Stankonia (FrankLotion)
Dummy (Sweepstakes Ron)
69 Love Songs (TheLastEnemy)
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (Jirin)

Round of 16
Match 37: 1A x 2C
Match 38: 2A x 2B
Match 39: 1B x 3A/D/E/F
Match 40: 1C x 3D/E/F
Match 41: 2D x 2E
Match 42: 1F x 3A/B/C
Match 43: 1E x 3A/B/C/D
Match 44: 1D x 2F

Quarter finals
Match 45: W42 x W41
Match 46: W39 x W37
Match 47: W43 x W43
Match 48: W40 x W38

Semi-finals
W45 x W46
W47 x W48

Final

If there's any question, please let me know. I plan to begin round 1 tomorrow morning.

Group C is INSANE. Four perennial favorites, head to head.

I'm interested in seeing where Dig Me Out goes. Just judging by the other three albums, I may be toast.

Also, before anyone has voted: do you prefer to vote on 24 songs each week, or would you like to change to a 12 songs (6 matches) per week schedule?

STANDINGS:

Group A:
1) Automatic for the People (TheLastEnemy): 9 pt (gol differential (GD): +23)
2) Parallel Lines (Mulholland): 6 pt (GD: -3)
3) The Queen Is Dead (Toni): 3 pt (GD: -4)
4) Elephant (Jirin): 0 pt (GD: -17)

Group B
1) The Idler Wheel... (FrankLotion): 9 pt (GD: +12)
2) Another Green World (Sweepstakes Ron): 6 pt (GD: +2)
3) Body Talk (Mulholland): 3 pt (GD: -1)
4) Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (StevieFan13): 0 pt (GD: -13)

Group C
1) Purple Rain (StevieFan13): 7 pt (GD: +12)
2) Funeral (andyd1010): 7 pt (GD: +6)
3) Remain in Light (FrankLotion): 3 pt (GD: -5)
4) Dookie (prosecutorgodot): 0 pt (GD: -13)

Group D
1) Illinois (Mulholland): 9 pt (GD: +12)
2) Bridge Over Troubled Water (Sweepstakes Ron): 6 pt (GD: +3)
3) Abbey Road (andyd1010): 3 pt (GD: -1)
4) Sound of Silver (Toni): 0 pt (GD: - 14)

Group E
1) OK Computer (TheLastEnemy): 9 pt (GD: +19)
2) Songs in the Key of Life (prosecutorgodot): 3 pt (GD: -2)
3) Dig Me Out (StevieFan13): 3 pt (GD: -7)
4) Born to Run (andyd1010): 3 pt (GD: -10)

Group F
1) Dummy (Sweepstakes Ron): 6 pt (GD: +13)
2) 69 Love Songs (TheLastEnemy): 4 pt (GD: -5 /Goals scored (GS): 17)
3) Stankonia (FrankLotion): 4 pt (GD: -5/GS: 16)
4) Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (Jirin): 3 pt (GD: -3)

Round of 16
Match 37: 1A (Automatic for the People) x 2C (Funeral)
Match 38: 2A (Parallel Lines) x 2B (Another Green World)
Match 39: 1B (The Idler Wheel...) x 3D/E/F/A (Stankonia)
Match 40: 1C (Purple Rain) x 3D/E/F (Abbey Road)
Match 41: 2D (Bridge Over Troubled Water) x 2E (Songs in the Key of Life)
Match 42: 1F (Dummy) x 3A/B/C (The Queen Is Dead)
Match 43: 1E (OK Computer) x 3A/B/C/D (Body Talk)
Match 44: 1D (Illinois) x 2F (69 Love Songs)

Quarter finals
Match 45: W42 (Dummy) x W41 (Bridge Over Troubled Water)
Match 46: W39 (The Idler Wheel...) x W37 (Funeral)
Match 47: W43 (Ok Computer) x W44 (Illinois)
Match 48: W40 (Abbey Road) x W38 (Parallel Lines)

Semi-finals
W45 (Dummy) x W46 (Funeral)
W47 (Illinois) x W48 (Abbey Road)

Final

edited current standings after round 2

Edited table with standings after group stage and next matches as previously defined.

Ugh both of my albums going up against each other in Match 39 :/

complete table until quarter-finals

Sorry if this is a stupid question. I joined this game very late and I’m surprised that the albums that the semifinalists all still had the most famous songs left to play with. I would have thought that some managers would use the most famous songs in the beginning of the game, to get past the group stage and the early rounds. Did no one do that? Was there a rule not to do that? Or were the four semifinalist just so great that their lesser famous songs beat some of the most famous songs from other albums on their way?

Henrik wrote:Sorry if this is a stupid question. I joined this game very late and I’m surprised that the albums that the semifinalists all still had the most famous songs left to play with. I would have thought that some managers would use the most famous songs in the beginning of the game, to get past the group stage and the early rounds. Did no one do that? Was there a rule not to do that? Or were the four semifinalist just so great that their lesser famous songs beat some of the most famous songs from other albums on their way?

It seems like pretty much everyone used the same strategy, holding the better songs for the final rounds. Except OK Computer burned Paranoid Android early and then lost. The strategy paid off for me with Funeral and Abbey Road, but it caused Born to Run to lose in the group stage.

The thing with Purple Rain for me is that I had excised the two tracks I thought stood less of a chance (Baby, I'm a Star and Computer Blue) knowing the remaining seven were all stone-cold classics and wouldn't have too hard a time taking on all comers even with a "less good" song. I didn't know that one of them would be up against the Abbey Road medley.

Yes, almost everyone used the same strategy. That's what led my "Sound of Silver" team to three defeats on the early stage.
I think Dummy was lucky to get an easier bracket on group stage, and the other albums really got here with some surprising victories all the way through. For example, "Neighboorhood #3" won against "Nightswimming"; and many of Illinois' matches were very tough: "Night Zombies" defeated "You Never Give Me Your Money", "Predatory Wasp" defeated "North American Scum", and "Casimir Pulasky Day" had a thrilling victory over "Let Down".
I think that says a lot about the forum tastes!