As we near the home stretch here, there are some great storylines right around the border of making Round 2. This is probably the most exciting time in the tournament, to me.
You have upstart, relative newcomers like NebHusker, bothways, mdc2276 and redcped all currently on track to make The Cage. Can they hold on amid tough competition?
Not far off their heels are formidable veterans like newarkwilder, bighooze and former second place finisher shaybee. You know they won't cave to the pressure.
You have toddcommiish, who fell apart in the playoffs last year to just barely miss out on his first trip to Round 2. Can this be the year?
And then there's markeking who, despite a pre-rank of 19, was in 70th(!) after the first 162 games. He has charged back to 38th, but does he have enough time left to make up for that horrid start?
And, at the top, there's still some drama. Without any poor teams (as expected), brianjw has ascended from the teens up into third place, but has had trouble gaining any ground on me.
At the same time, true upstart wink0094 has shocked just about everyone by holding firm in second place most of the way. Will the other shoe fall like it has for others (think asufan04 a few years ago), or will he prove his success so far is not a fluke?
Lastly, can I continue to push my lead, or will the lead by up for grabs come playoff time?