Lisa Velte wins Oscar Pool

Notre Dame Law School Class of 2007 graduate Lisa Velte won the 4th annual Irish Trojan Oscar Pool tonight, becoming the third consecutive NDLS student or alum to win the pool.

She follows on the heels of 2006 winner Chris McLemore, a fellow member of the Class of '07, and 2007 winner Kristin West, a current 3L. (The 2005 pool went to New Hampshire resident Jackie Domaingue.)

Velte got every major category right, and 16 of the 24 awards overall. Although she erred on eight of the 14 categories worth only one point apiece, her correct picks in the acting, directing, screenplay and musical categories, along with Best Picture, allowed her to rack up 72 out of a possible 80 points, tying McLemore for the highest score in Oscar Pool history.

In addition, Velte is the first contestant ever to clinch victory before the Best Picture winner was even announced. She was guaranteed first place as soon as Joel Coen and Ethan Coen won Best Director, largely because almost all of her competitors also correctly predicted No Country for Old Men's Best Picture win, and thus none of them had any shot to catch her in the standings, no matter who own that award.

Roger Snyder, a.k.a. USC Roger, finished second with 68 points. West, the defending champion, came in third with 62 points. Victoria Wagner was fourth with 60 points, and I, Brendan Loy, tied with Kevin Curran, a.k.a. kcatnd, for fifth place with 58.

Brandin Hay, Joe Swiderski and Victoria Lopez -- who, perhaps mercifully, didn't almost win this year -- tied for seventh place with 57. Rounding out the Top 10, in a three-way tie for tenth with 56 points apiece, were Barbara Cross, Nate Djordjevic and Steve Copenhaver.

Complete final standings are here.

Comments

[Brendan Loy]

Oops, Kristin isn't in the Class of '07, is she... heh heh... I knew that. Correction imminently...

[texasyank]

Ah, just out of the non-money.

[Kristin]

Congrats Lisa! Personally, I'm happy with 3rd place considering how much lower I thought I would be. I missed a lot more than I thought I would, but Tilda Swinton helped out a lot, I think. :)

[uscroger]

Brendan:
How did you come up with the weights? In other words, why does one category deserve 15 versus 1 point. It was a good point brought up by my party--since I'm using your same point scale. I'm thinking that the majority of the voters get the best foreign film right (an example) versus the best film which is probably more difficult to guess or ascertain??????????

[Lisa]

Thanks Kristin! I actually couldn't remember most of my picks, and I thought I wasn't doing well at all. I finally decided to get out my computer when there were about 5-6 awards left, just to see how I was doing, and I was shocked to see my name at the top of the standings. I guess I just got lucky this year.

[Brendan Loy]

Roger, I came up with them back in 2005, and have been using the same weights ever since, for consistency's sake. I don't recall whether they were originally my own invention or somebody else's. Anyway, I am sort of inclined to agree with you that the 15-to-1 ratio between the most and least weighted category is a bit much. I'm loath to change it in future years because I like to be able to compare scores across the years, but I might consider doing so anyway because it seems like it'd be more fair & competitive to have a somewhat less extreme weighting system.

[Alec]

I was royally screwed by the 15-to-1 ratio (damn you, There Will Be Blood!), but I'm not bitter.

:)

[dcl]

So it's too late to submit my Oscar picks then?

[kcatnd]

Thanks for the fun! Why, oh why couldn't I have guessed correctly on a random 1-pointer to edge you?!

I'm already excited about the pool party that is Brendan Loy come March Madness.

[V]

I told you! You jinxed me! :)