Best/Worst Lineups of Season 49

[Guint]

Those of you who know me from around know that I like to analyze lineups quite a bit. Even though we only got 150 episodes this season, the shortest in Price's history, it was still a pretty full season, and while I was annoyed with some of the rotations we were getting in Season 48 (just take a look at all those longer non-car/fee games...they were largely forgotten), on the whole I'd say we got a much better rotation and much better lineups overall this season.

What I'd like to do with this thread is really highlight the standouts...the good and the bad. I encourage everybody else to come up with some of their favorite/least favorite as well!

So I'd like to show my Top Ten and Bottom Ten lineups from this season, along with a few honorable mentions:

MY TOP TEN LINEUPS OF 49

Just for the record, most of these lineups are going to be "1-quickie" lineups. Typically if we get longer non-car/fees (e.g. 4 prizers), we often get them in lineups that have a fee/car game in them, as it's essentially "replacing" a fee game out of the typical 2 car/2 fee/2 quickie lineup. I mostly enjoy the 1-quickie lineups because it requires a bit of creativity to fit in said game. A quick look at wayo.py shows we had 19 lineups this season where we had less than 2 games that time 4 minutes or shorter, so clearly not all of them made the cut. They really had to have some element of surprise.

#10: 9203K - Freeze/Any/Vend/Danger/Seat/TTM - This was certainly shocking to see a quickie lite lineup with Hot Seat of all games in it. That's Too Much! is going to appear in a lot of these lineups, for the record...it's one of the shortest car games so it allows a lot of breathing room for the rest of the lineup.
#9: 9435K - TP/Push/Clock/Plinko/ME/Buck - Our only lineup here that isn't a quickie lite lineup, but we had very few lineups this season where both fee games were in the same half. This was the best of the bunch. Similar to the Thanksgiving lineup we had, but this one is better.
#8: 9444K - Dice/Side/Grocery/Race/TTM/Half - Not every day you get Race Game in a 2 far/2 fee lineup. By Roger's old timings, Race is the longest non car/fee game on the show at a whopping 5 minutes, so you really have to reach for time. The short car games help, Grocery Game and 1/2 Off though?
#7: 9412K - Danger/Flip/Bee/C-O/Clock/TTM - I really like this one for the fact we get Spelling Bee 3rd, which is quite rare, and somehow we have all this time despite Check-Out (the longest regular GP game) being in the lineup. Also did I mention That's Too Much! shows up a lot? We've already seen it in all but one lineup.
#6: 9361K - Safe/Money/Grand/Push/Path/Magic - Hey, a really good Pathfinder/GP cash lineup! I'll make some fake lineups sometimes and one of my favorite lineup trends to sneak a long game is to play Grand Game and Money Game in the same half, so had to shout this one out.
#5: 9275K - Clock/Half/TTM/Squeeze/T2/C-O (car) - This lineup is all over the place and I love it for that. I believe this is only lineup in the Top 10 with a NCFC (non-car game for a car).
#4: 9192K - NoT/Dice/241/Race/CoG/Rat - We got this one really early on in the season, 7th show I think? I love that first half, because we don't get Now....or Then that often, but it can often run short, and since 2 for the Price of 1 doesn't feel like it takes that much time, we really had some time there.
#3: 9343K - Roll/DP/T2/241/Check/Key - I had to get a Master Key lineup in here somewhere...it's the shortest fee/car game, so it usually leads to pretty good lineups. This is the best one...look at that run of Games 3-5!
#2: 9401K - Vend/Gas/241/Flip/Rat/Check - How did we have time for this one? This was the lineup on the show they celebrated George's 10th anniversary with the show, so we're talking a first segment that easily could have gone 12-13 minutes...yet we had time for 2 for the Price of 1! Also rarer than Spelling Bee 3rd? Gas Money 2nd...that was a huge surprise, one we haven't had since...Season 44. Yet it wasn't the most shocking lineup this season...
#1: 9384K - Plinko/Move/Money/Magic/Gas/Vend - I'm still not sure where the hell this lineup came from, but the zero-quickie lineup, as soon as I saw it, was always going to take the cake. Talking with Kev347, it looks like they seem to time Gas Money and That's Too Much! depending on how early they want to put the price/have the game end, so it's nice to see they adjust for that.

That was fun, now for the bad stuff.

MY BOTTOM TEN LINEUPS OF 49

I'm sure you noticed a lot of similar games show up in the Top 10. The bottom 10 also has a similar vibe at times.

#10: 9381K - OA/1RP/Seat/Balance (car)/Push/PaP - I know that One Away is long with the way Drew builds it up, but that's no excuse for that poor 2nd half. Get an actual car game or something longer than Pick-a-Pair and I'd maybe look the other way. I know some people thought that this lineup was super bad, but it wasn't even the worst Hot Seat lineup.
#9: 9232K - Rent/Push/OA/OWP/PaN/Tags - I don't know if this lineup is honestly that bad, it just annoys me that we had to rely on 3 quickies to push it through. At least this isn't the norm with Pay the Rent anymore - its lineups, in comparison to Hot Seat, are usually superior.
#8: 9191K - Bag/Math/Grid/DP/Key/Range - Listen, I know we have to compensate for It's in the Bag and Gridlock!, but that 2nd half...why are we flanking Master Key with two very basic games?
#7: 9433K - DP/Money/Seat/241/Stack/OWP - After Game 3 it's not that bad, but that 1-2 is so atrocious it alone throws it on the list. I hate Double Prices 1st with a passion (which is weird because I don't mind almost any other 1-prizer 1st), so you really have to sell it to me. I'm not sold on this.
#6: 9321K - TP/Squeeze/Cross/Time/TTM/Side - The trend of having lineups where one of the fee games seems to be disappearing...we only had 6 fee-less lineups this season. I never cared for that trend too much, but if you can give me a good lineup I'll look the other way. But now they do it so little, the lineups where they do skip a fee game tend to stick out like sore thumbs, so all six make the bottom of this list. This is the one I found to be the "best" of the bunch. Fun to see Triple Play's two lineups appear on both lists, though!
#5: 9374K - Punch/Squeeze/Cover/Bargain/L7/Push - I gave this one somewhat of a pass because they spent a lot of time with the April Fool's joke. But after Punch the rest of this lineup goes into super rush mode, so I feel like playing it 1st that day was not the best idea.
#4: 9231K - Squeeze/Card/Eazy/Grand/Flip/MoL - I think in fairness I probably hate this lineup more than I should. I just don't care that much for More or Less, it's probably my least favorite car game on the show right now (nothing more exciting for build-up than watching higher/lower for times as your car game...yay). This one is beefier than the previous two with Card Game and Eazy az 1 2 3...but I don't know. Grand Game as your 1 fee game loses points with me as well.
#3: 9441K - Rent/Freeze/Card/Cross/Any/Squeeze - Come on, we were doing so much better with Pay the Rent lineups and you give us this? After the first half I knew this lineup wasn't going to be great, after Game 4 I knew it was going to be awful.
#2: 9414K - Any/OWP/Balance/Grid/Squeeze/Seat - All that saving time for the first five games for...the worst game on the show. Yay.
#1: 9205K - OA/CoG/Cross/Grid/OWP/Grand - One Away and Gridlock! The two car games that are the most overcompensated on the show (I really sound like I hate One Away. I don't, trust me). There is just nothing going for this lineup, and like #4, Grand is once again our only fee game. But this one is worse.

---HONORABLE MENTIONS---
9204K - DP/Move/Stack/Balance/L7/Shell - ...this could be a candidate for the top 10 candidate were it not for the slotting. I get you're shy playing Make Your Move 1st, but did you really have to play Double Prices 1st instead? Ick.
9241K - Plinko/Bargain/3X/C-O/CoG/Money - Hey look, a 3 Strikes lineup that's super aggressive! This is from Christmas Week.
9242K - OWP (cars)/PaN/Cross/Rat/Check/PaP - On paper it looks bad (I would never excuse this if it was OWP/PaN (car)/Cross) but 3 car One Wrøng Price is such a novelty it's forgiven. Has similar vibes to the S40 premiere lineup, lots of fun things there, but on paper Race/DP/ME is an awful half.
9281K - Bargain/Bonkers/Path/OWP/L7/Bag - Best It's in the Bag lineup of the season?
9293K - Plinko/Safe/L7/Freeze/Stack/OWP - Another good lineup that's again really disjointed
9312K - Rat ($)/CoG/Pocket/1RP/Bonkers/Vend (car) - Rat Race 1st
9313K - Buck ($)/Money/DP/Card/Bonus/Eazy - Pass the Buck 1st
9453K - Plinko/DP/Line/Range/Gas/Vend - A textbook example of how to copy the best lineup of the season and make it worse. Plus Line em Up is your "multiprizer"? Lame.

Let me know what you all think what were the best (and worst) lineups of the season. I'm curious to hear others' opinions. 

[tpir04]

I'm not great at determining what makes a lineup suck, so here for now is a Top 5.

#5: 9431K: Roll/Move/Balance/Pocket/1RP/Cliff
Most shows with Roll and Pocket are decent. Throw Move and Cliff in and you have a winner. Not too crazy on slotting, 1RP and the commonplace Cliff is a lackluster ending; switch Move and 1RP to balance it out...pun intended?

#4: 9325K: Bee/ME/Clock/Balance/NoT/Card
I've always liked all six of these games, especially Bee and Clock. There's a borderline quickie 1p, a 2p, a 3p, and a good GP, sandwiched between two solid car games.

#3: 9412K: Danger/Flip/Bee/CO/Clock/TTM
Yeah yeah, it has TTM. Buuuuut there's the Bee/Clock duo again, with Check Out as an added bonus. Positives definitely outweigh the negatives.

#2: 9343K: Roll/DP/T2/241/Check/Key
Oh look, another Roll start, don't be surprised. But this one...with 241, Check (another favorite), Key, and even a 4p? Yes please!

#1: 9192K: NoT/Dice/241/Race/CoG/Rat
First half set the stage for the second half and did not disappoint. 241 is underrated, guaranteed. Thus any lineup with it already earns bonus points with me. Race is rare (though as expected as a 4p), and Rat is always fun. Lineup's slotted well too.

[22FJB]

In production order, Here are my picks for the best and worst lineups this season
Best:
9203K (12/2/20) – Freeze/Any/Vend/Danger/Seat/TTM
This one has very interesting slotting, with Hot Seat, one of the longest games on the show currently, and a 4 Prizer in the same half (for the first time ever). Yes the game selection seems kinda generic on paper but there’s something about this one that sets it apart from the other seat lineups we had this season (and in the past).
9313K (2/17/21) – Buck/Money/DP/Card/Bonus/Eazy
Every game besides Money is in an uncommon slot, besides buck being first for the first time due to the big money game slotting. When the conflict sheet was generated for this lineup, I remember saying in chat that this one had many single digit slotting percentages, making it unique.
9343K (3/10/21) - Roll/DP/T2/241/Check/Key
A lot of rarer games played together will also make a lineup stand out. It’s nice that we got T2, 241, Check, and 2 Fee cars in the same show.
9375K (4/2/21) – Danger/Roll/Cross/10C/Flip/X
 An aggressive 10C lineup (which can sometimes run long) with a 4 prizer, a moderate 2 prizer, and both types of fee games. This one feels long on paper but they made it work. 4 Prizers being played 1st  is rare as well.            
9401K (4/20/21) – Vend/Gas/241/Flip/Rat/Check
Gas 2nd for the first time In nearly 5 years! Also, was not expecting such a loaded first half given how George’s anniversary was announced at the beginning of this show.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
9384K (4/8/21) – Plinko/Move/Money/Magic/Gas/Vend
Look everyone, ZERO quickies or 1 Prizers needed. Just imagine had this been the lineup for one of the FPG’s this season. I’m just not a huge fan of Plinko first though, but there’s no easier way of slotting this one. 
9454K (5/27/21) – Flip/241/Rat/Grand/Eazy/L7
More uncommon games played in the same episode, leading to some interesting slotting of both the first and second halves as was also seen on 9343K.


WORST:
9205K (12/4/20) – OA/CoG/DX/Grid/OWP/Grand
Unnecessarily short for no good reason. They’ve played OA and Grid together with both an SP and a GP in the past, and even If the staff overtimes both, they could’ve squeezed in X or Cliff instead of DX maybe.
9335K (3/5/21) – Money/Bargain/Bag/ME/Roo/Squeeze
THREE 3.5 minute timed games making this one add up to 27.5, showing how they went overkill on the quickies. Now if they played a longer regular car, replaced a quickie with a moderate game or even rent instead of bag, it would be more understandable. On the positive side this one gave me my first FPG win. 
9414K (4/29/21) – A#/OWP/Balance/Grid/Squeeze/Seat
Another example of how Gridlock is overtimed. They have only done Gridlock, Hot seat, and a GP game once out of 3 times. On paper this lineup is extremely rushed between games 2 and 5, and could have been better if seat were 4th maybe. Vend or PaP could’ve fit into this somehow, maybe instead of balance?
9441K (5/17/21) – Rent/Freeze/Card/DX/A#/Squeeze
I think we’re now used to having SP’s and GP’s in almost every show, so we sometimes wonder what made them skip one of the fees. Definitely the worst rent lineup of the season, and we had some really long ones on paper (looking at you, 9322K).
9485K (6/18/21) – CoG/OA/Plinko/PaN/Money/CO
Lazy slotting with OA, Plinko, PaN, and CO played in the same slots as their very last playing. ME also skipped 2 weeks when this aired as well, leaving us with 5 1 prizers (counting the car games) on a special themed show.

DISHONORABLE MENTIONS:
9255K - (1/8/21) A#/DP/Seat/Bargain/Stack/Check
An almost literal copy of a season 45 lineup (which can be forgiven since it is 4 years old), with the same first half as and 5/6 games from 7633K. It does not look that bad on paper, but it’s just too similar to something they did a couple seasons before
9293K – (2/3/21) Plinko/Safe/L7/Freeze/Stack/OWP
Just like the above, another near copy of an older but still recent lineup (between the last 5 seasons). This one is very similar to 7864K with 4 out of 6 games in the same slot as that one, and almost a 5th had OWP been ME instead. As I stated before I’m not a huge Plinko first fan (it’s most common slot in recent years -_-) and Stack is not my favorite Fee/Car due to it being overused when the budget is low.
SIDE NOTE: 9272K and 9483K are almost literally the same. Now that is something that shouldn’t happen in the same season