S7/8: Teams

Ah, here we go! Ten teams for our S7/8 Death Pool, and with The Ringer trying to steal our death pool thunder we must fight even harder than ever to stay alive! Take a look at the spreadsheet that details out each team, but I’ll also be doing pick analysis and then some recaps when big things happen. Below, let’s take a look at our teams, organized by most potential points.

[Death Pool spreadsheet]

J.A. (28)
Employing our most aggressive strategy, J.A. chose eight of the major characters to die: Arya, Cersei, Daenerys, Jamie, Jon Snow, Petyr, and Varys. You’ll note that was only seven names, because J.A. was initially so excited for Arya to die that she put her on the list twice. Twice! So the potential score here could be even more, a full 28/30 points. We were thinking of giving that Arya selection big fat zero but after it was pointed out that there were no rules against picking a player twice, the rules committee compromised and will go with user error and allow J.A. to replace one Arya with Sansa instead. That gives J.A. with only Bran and Little Finger unselected of the major ten -- with Daario Naharis and Grey Worm as her two minor characters. Let's see if this all out strategy works!

Jordy, Kavi, Marcus (24)
The next three teams all employed the “four major / six minor” characters makeup, leaving them with a potential 24/30 points. Jordy is rolling with Arya, Cersei, Petyr, and Varys for his big four, while Kavi has the Lannister twins, Little Finger, and Sansa. And in an interesting twist, Marcus has the exact same four major characters he’s rooting for to die.

Do great minds think alike? The fact is that Kavi and Marcus are two of the three owners who picekd Sansa, plus they are alone in the league as the only duo rooting for Ellaria Sand’s death. They also both have Daario Naharis going down. So altogether Kavi and Marcus will be rooting for six of the same deaths! (The rest of Kavi’s roster: Drogon, Jorah, Melisandre, Night King. The rest of Marcus’ picks: Bronn, Grey Worm, Theon, Tormund.) Should they declare their bannermen status now?

Jordy rounds out his team with Brienne, Davos, Melisandre, The Hound, Night King, and Tormund — and as the only owner selecting Brienne, he’s thinking the Brienne/Tormund OTP is likely going to end in tragic style.

Vu (23)
A longtime fantasy player and a respected opponent, I studied Vu’s ballot very carefully to assess what strategy he was up to. He’s also on the Lannister twins plus Petyr Baelish wagon, and then went for a bevy of minor characters: Grey Worm, Jorah Mormont, Meera Reed, The Hound, Night King, Thoros of Myr, and Tormund Giantsbane. That’s five of the most popular minor character picks, so if things work out as everyone expects, Vu is probably in a good position to win. His off-brand picks were Meera and Thoros, who he only shares as “hope they die” selections with Jon. It’s no coincidence both of us have won fantasy sports leagues in the past...

Susie / Michael (23)
Now we don’t award extra points for creativity but Susie and Michael’s ballot had emojis attached to each character and they were amaaaaaazing! See for yourself. I only want to use 🤙 to denote Jamie from now on. (Why no onion emoji Unicode Consortium? A chestnut emoji just won’t do...) Susie and Michael are hoping for a female-led victory in Westeros as they are predicting that 🤙, ☃️, and 🕊 (or 🕷) will all go down. They also had some real rare picks, as they were the only team to predict Samwell Tarly’s name for the chopping block, and only one of two teams for both Bronn and Yara Greyjoy. The rest of their death list includes Daario, Melisandre, Davos Seaworth, and Theon.

Malou (22)
The very popular Cersei, Jamie, Little Finger trio rears their head again as Malou is the fourth team to have this exact triumvirate slated for death. Where she differs from the crowd is in calling for the heads of seven minor characters, all males: Daario, Davos, Grey Worm, Jorah, The Hound, Theon Greyjoy, and Euron Greyjoy. Valar morghulis indeed! So yes, the GoT future is female, according to Malou, as Cersei is the lone woman slated for death if Malou has her way.

Jon (21)
If Jon had one shot to call, he would go with Little Finger as dying, 110%. He also thinks Jamie will bite it, and that Maisie Williams should have been replaced by a better actress long ago...so he says Arya must go too. As for the rest of of his picks, both Dolorous Edd and Viserion stand out as non-major/minor picks and that could potentially limit Jon’s team’s upside. Hopefully, all of Daario, Grey Worm, Meera, Night King, and Thoros of Myr will end the show resting in peace.

Frank (20)
Our returning champ is using Cersei and Petyr as his big two, and then going similar to Jon’s team with two off-brand characters — Dickon Tarly and Nymeria Sand — plus the familiar handful of Grey Worm, Jorah, The Hound, and the Night King. Frank is one of only two teams to have Yara Greyjoy, and is the lone owner to have slated Missandei for death. What do you have against translators Frank? Why kill Missandei!

Ankur (19)
Last season, Ankur finished tied for last place, and while 19/30 possible points could win this thing, an interesting twist here is that Ankur boldly predicts Meryn Trant’s death. “Wait, isn’t Meryn already dead?” Um, yes, yes he is. But if he gets resurrected and then Arya stabs him through the eyes again, +1 to Ankur for the greatest call of all time. Until then, his real maximum points scored is likely 18/30. But Ankur also wisely has the favored death trio -- our fifth team to do so -- of Cersei, Jamie, and Little Finger, and follows that up with Jorah, Night King, and Tormund.

Then we get really interesting, as Ankur is hoping Ghost dies, as well as two more names on Arya’s death list: Ilyn Payne and Dunsen. “Wait, who is Dunsen?!” Yeah, I had to Google it too, and turns out he’s one of The Mountain’s men-at-arms and second on Arya’s death list. So I have to say that this is a great call on Ankur’s part. Let’s see if he can take this low upside, high intrigue team to the top of our death pool!