Studio 41 - Play Along > GRECO!

MODERN GRECO! RULES

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Wayoshi:
The text in this post is subject to amending at any time.  All amended text will be announced and noted within this thread.

Wayoshi is using the board he have control over to post this, when (if) another board is made this post should be moved.

Introduction

In a nutshell, GRECO is a Price is Right-related twist on the classic game BINGO that involves predicting the Pricing Games that will appear on the unaired episodes of the show. The name comes from prior Bob-era producer Kathy Greco.

Created by apeminkie, this weekly game ran from 2006-2009. Season 36, his first, infamously had Roger Dobkowitz working in all the pricing games slowly for Drew to acclimate. That made the game much more trivial than before. Then when DOB was fired in S37, site interest fell precipitously for quite awhile, and unfortunately GRECO died after its 4th season in early 2009. Now Wayoshi ("Host") is hoping to revive the game in the modern era for its 5th season after expressed interest on Discord and a successful trial run on a June 2022 week.

Creating a CARD

A GRECO Playing consists of a set of five unaired episodes ("Matchup Set"), most often corresponding to a Monday-Friday week.

Before a Matchup Set is broadcast, all eligible players must create a GRECO "CARD" with which to play the game. Virtually all of the time, a Matchup Set will be a "regular" Monday-Friday week of first-runs, where 30 unique pricing games are expected to be played amongst the five episodes.

All GRECO CARDS will be composed by forming a list of 25 Pricing Games that players believe will be played during the upcoming Matchup Set.  The order a player puts these Pricing Games on this list reflects the overall appearance of the "GRECO CARD"; the first Pricing Game on the list will be placed in the top-leftmost square ("SPACE") of the grid, the second Pricing Game to the immediate right of that, and so on, until the twenty-fifth Pricing Game is placed in the bottom-rightmost SPACE.  The numbers of the SPACES on a player's CARD ("SPACE NUMBERS") are also associated with this general pattern of reading a CARD.

Please note that the center SPACE is NOT to be designated as a FREE SPACE.

Submitting CARDS

Cards may be submitted when the opening thread for the Matchup Set is made (generally soon after the prior episode to the Matchup Set has finished airing). The "Deadline" for all players to submit a CARD is 9:00am Eastern US time (daylight-savings adjusted) of the day of the first episode in the Matchup Set.

To properly submit a CARD, send a Private Message ("PM") to the Host matching the format of the prior section.

Players are strongly encouraged to submit a CARD for each Matchup only once.  If a player finds the need to make corrections to a CARD that has already been submitted, and the Deadline has not yet passed, that player can PM again specifying the correction.

The Host of this contest are reserved the choice of whether or not to accept a GRECO CARD submitted by any player at any point in time during the competition.

If a player's CARD contains more than one SPACE with the same Pricing Game, and the Pricing Game is played only once during the Matchup Set, ONLY the instance that appears "first" in lexical order (top-to-bottom, left-to-right) of the CARD will be marked. Only if the duplicated Pricing Game is played ANOTHER time during the same Matchup Set will a player be able to mark the next duplicate SPACE on his/her CARD.

The previous rulings do not restrict any player from placing the same Pricing Game on his/her CARD more than once, if you feel so bold (and if an (unannounced) production episode swap occurs, it is much more likely to happen).

Opt-Outs

If you were at at least taping that airs in a week, you have a truly significant advantage and should not play. Let me know and I will grant you 30 points in an opt-out for the week's playing.

Scoring POINTS

For each SPACE a player correctly marks on his/her CARD during a Matchup Set, one (1) "POINT" will be awarded to that Player.  Should any five (5) of these SPACES form a horizontal row from left-to-right, vertical column from top-to-bottom, or diagonal line from corner-to-corner, that player will be awarded an additional five (5) POINTS for each line; in competition, this line is commonly referred to as a "GRECO".

There are a variety of BONUSES in addition to the basic scoring:

FIRST GRECO

5 (five) BONUS POINTS will be available each week to the first player to GRECO. "First" takes into account the order the Pricing Games were played in the Matchup Set BY AIRDATE ORDER. The 1st PG of an episode is marked off before the 2nd PG is, etc. If two or more players tie for first by hitting bingo with the same pricing game, they each will get the 5 (five) POINTS.

PATTERN

A player is eligible to receive a bonus five (5) POINTS for a special PATTERN, a set of four SPACES not in a row. A PATTERN will be chosen for each playing (usually a rotation throughout the season) and specified in the opening thread. It will be one of these:

1. POSTAGE STAMP (The "STAMP" is made by marking SPACE NUMBERS 4, 5, 9 and 10).
2. CHECKMARK (The "CHECK" is made by marking SPACE NUMBERS 15, 17, 19, and 23).
3. DIAMOND (The "DIAMOND" is made by marking SPACE NUMBERS 8, 12, 14, and 18).

PERFECT DAY

If a player goes 6 for 6 on a given day (with no spoilers), they'll get an extra six (6) POINTS.

SUPER SPACE

One SPACE will receive a multiplier on all GRECOs it is involved in (assuming it is marked, of course), the SUPER SPACE. The multiplier is determined per player by the Pricing Game for that SPACE. It is weighted based on the rarity of the game: how many playings it has in the past 5 prior seasons (for GRECO5, Season 51, data from Seasons 46-50, and so on). (The newest game, To The Penny, has its data based only on Season 50 on for now.)

5x: 3 Strikes, Golden Road, Triple Play
3x: 10 Chances, 2 for the Price of 1, Bonkers, Bonus Game, Check Game, Clock Game, Danger Price, Eazy az 1 2 3, Grocery Game, Hole in One, Make Your Move, Master Key, More or Less, Now....or Then, Pay the Rent, Pocket ¢hange, Race Game, Safe Crackers, Shell Game, Shopping Spree, Spelling Bee, Swap Meet, Switcheroo, Take Two, Temptation
2x: 5 Price Tags, Back to '73, Bullseye, Check-Out, Cliff Hangers, Double Cross, Gas Money, Gridlock!, Hi Lo, Hot Seat, It's in the Bag, Let 'em Roll, Line em Up, One Away, Pass the Buck, Pathfinder, Pick-a-Pair, Punch a Bunch, Rat Race, Secret "X", Stack the Deck, Time I$ Møney, To The Penny
1.5x: 1/2 Off, Balance Game, Card Game, Cover Up, Dice Game, Freeze Frame, Grand Game, Pick-a-Number, Range Game, Vend-O-Price
1x: 1 Right Price, Any Number, Coming or Going, Do the Math, Money Game, Most Expen$ive, One Wrøng Price, Plinko, Push Over, Side By Side, Switch?, That's Too Much!
0.5x: Bargain Game, Double Prices, Flip Flop, Lucky $even, Squeeze Play

Where the SUPER SPACE lands is determined by the combined winning amount of the two Showcase Showdowns for the last (fifth) episode of the Matchup Set. A winning amount is whatever sets the number of surviving contestants to one, so after all regular spins in the nominal case and after all spinoffs otherwise. In that way any Showdown with a single dollar (1.00) will have that as its winning amount regardless of the bonus spin, whereas in the case of a bonus spinoff the dollar will be negated, unless another dollar occurs in the bonus spinoff (but not 2+, and so on).

The order is given below. It weighs more and more unlikely totals with how many other SPACES can be affected by the position:


--- Code: ---$1.60 $0.90 $1.35 $1.15 $1.65
$1.00 $1.80 $1.55 $1.85 $0.85
$1.20 $1.40 $2.00 $1.45 $1.25
$0.80 $1.90 $1.50 $1.95 $1.05
$1.70 $1.10 $1.30 $0.95 $1.75
--- End code ---

Note that in the case of less than 80 cents, the middle-middle (2.00) SPACE will also be used.

In this way overall, the SUPER SPACE incentivizes players not just list a bunch of more common games in the same SPACES every time, lest they give up a lot of scoring potential. At the same time, a giant scoring burst from this is rare, as the right "order" of random luck and GRECO scoring must align.

FULL CARD

If an entire card is marked, an additional twenty-five (25) POINTS will be awarded.

Final Score

After the sixth Pricing Game in the final day of the Matchup Set has been shown, all eligible players calculate the total number of POINTS that his/her CARD has received during the current Matchup Set ("Final Score").

Season Long Scoring & Playoffs

A total score across all GRECO playings will be tallied in a leaderboard throughout the "regular" season. The GRECO season starts a few weeks into the airdate season (at the discretion of the Host), like FPG, when the rotation of Pricing Games being played can be better ascertained.

At a designated point, there will be three GRECO playings left for the season, which will make up the Greco Invitational Championship for the season. The "regular" season scores are finalized at this point.

Only players with over 300 cumulative points are eligible to play in the Greco Invitational Championship. In these GRECO playings, the Super Spot bonus will not apply.

For every 25 points over 300, the playoff player will start with a bonus point banked.

The cumulative score over the three playings will be the playoff champion.

Like CSS, regular season champions and playoff champions will be recorded in a Hall of Fame thread.

Episode Preemptions and Episode Cancellations

Should any of the episodes in the Matchup Set not air at all during the GRECO playing (e.g. delayed due to a full show preemption, and it does not show up on CBS.com that day until it is rescheduled):
- In the playoffs, the GRECO playing is put "on hold" until that episode airs. It will eventually count by the end of the season when it inevitably airs - CBS contractually must air every episode at least once.
- in the regular season, the entire GRECO playing will be VOID and not counted.

If somehow an episode is cancelled for unforeseen reasons, the GRECO playing it is in will be VOID and not counted towards the season long score, regardless of Options.

As far as the first GRECO bonus and super spot goes, the true airdate of the episodes will be used when determining those bonuses in the case of preemptions, even if the airdate order becomes "out of order" with production order.

Spoilers

Any Pricing Games spoiled in upcoming episodes before the first game of the Matchup Set airs will have the following restrictions placed on them:

1. No spoiled game may go in the center square.
2. No more than one spoiled game may go on the same row, column, or full diagonal (contribute towards the same GRECO).
3. No more than one spoiled game may contribute towards the PATTERN.

Players are encouraged to keep up on spoilers and send card corrections if there are spoilers during the card submission period. In that sense, waiting until the night before to submit can be prudent. The thread on the GRECO playing will be updated by the Host with all spoilers in as timely a manner as possible, but it is ultimately up to the player to ensure cards are valid. If a spoiled game violates the above provisions, that SPACE will be forfeited for the card.

Due to provision #2 above, if there are more than five spoiled games before the end of the card submission period, the playing may be cancelled, depending on how many more than five games there end up being.  The GRECO thread for the week will explain more.

If any showcase showdown amount info is spoiled for the last episode in the Matchup Set, the prior episode will be used for determining the Super Spot, and so on in the case of multiple spoilers here. In the unprecedented event of the entire week's showdowns being spoiled in some capacity, the Super Spot bonus will be cancelled for that playing.

Retired/New Pricing Games

No reimbursement of SPACES will be given if, during any Matchup Set, a Pricing Game is announced or otherwise confirmed as “retired” or “retiring”.

If a Pricing Game debuts during a GRECO playing unannounced, it is considered VOID for that playing, but will be legal in every playing thereafter. For that season, it will receive a Super Spot multiplier of 2, then use the formula described above for next season.

A Final Word

Should you have any questions or comments about any of the rules or topics based on the game, the Rulesheet, or the Game Hosts, please post them in this thread or in the #greco channel on the Discord server.

Best of luck to you, and enjoy the game!

Wayoshi:
Here is an example playing from the 9880s in June 2022, where I gathered some test users on Discord.

-A SPACE is marked with a Plinko chip in the background.
-Increasingly lighter shades of pink correspond to GRECO(s) the SPACE is part of
-Red instead of pink for above if SUPER SPACE
-Green shade corresponds to a completed PATTERN

gamesurf:
Exciting to see this come back! Can’t wait to see how it turns out!

I’m in favor of having *some* form of playoffs, to give people besides the top 2-3 on the leaderboard something to play for at the end of the season. But the question of how to balance that is a tricky one; too much RNG and bonuses and the main season doesn’t matter; too little RNG and you end up with everybody picking common games and that becomes boring.

Interested to see other players thoughts, but it may not be a bad idea to pick a simple format for playoffs the first time around to get people familiar with the idea, and then developing from there once it’s clear what works/doesn’t work. The original rules had a bracket/elimination style format, but I think it would be better to reward people who do well consistently week after week rather than whittling it down to a single champion by eliminating people.

If it’s not too much work, I also would be in favor of a junior tournament at the end of the season with main season rules, to give people outside of the top 10 something to aim for.

As for spoilers: I’m in favor of known spoiled games being fair game. Publish them somewhere so that people are on even footing. Having an entire week voided just because CBS Press got too excited about making a promo wouldn’t be very fun.

For the practice week we tried a new a card generator tool to play around with, might be helpful to help visualize a card: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-6DUQ183jl2MrFClq4-cLpfjYAiSdCii0xr87o_rHqU/edit?usp=sharing

Wayoshi:
I've updated the thread. We can push off exact playoff details until later, but we'll have them.

There are also some spoiler provisions different from what I had before. Thank you to Kev347 and pricefan1991 for great suggestions on a middle ground here.

Wayoshi:
I'm going to try to play with 6 spoilers next week, so added some ambiguity to the spoiler clause. This is very much turning into a testing season!

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