Game of the Year 5th Place Prediction...or not

Well I've without a doubt reached the point which has to be considered the epitome of low. This might lead one to think I should have no qualms about continuing since I have no place to go but up, but after some serious thought I'm really not sure. I mean I even tried to utilize a cheap trick a couple of weeks ago to give myself a much better chance to break the drought, but judge FM Dennis Monokroussos pointed out how unethical that really was (though I can't lie, I did seriously think about pulling the trick he alluded to in the aforementioned comment this week). However, on the whole, a person can take only so much being wrong and mocked etc., and I've reached that point. So to avoid any further instances of it, my cheap trick to try to avoid it this week will be to simply not make a prediction! (plus all of you who are clamoring about how whatever game I predict is assured of not being eliminated -- this should put an end to that. After all I can't be accused of actually influencing the results even if it is after the fact)! So for those of you who came here expecting to see some percentages or anything of that nature, gotcha or something.


...


Well I was really prepared to end this post on that line, but unfortunately when my lovable employer read it (our esteemed commissioner), he didn't take a fancy to it after which the following was said to me

Greg: Dude, you have to do a prediction
Greg: PEOPLE WANT MORE WRONG PICKS
Greg: Plus I thought when we got to 5 was going to be one last big feature to congratulate the final 5 etc.


Now, one of the first rules of having a job (pay attention kids!) is you must listen to your employer even when you know he's wrong.


...


Well once again that might have been where I would have ended this article (after giving the obligatory percentages) had this all transpired a couple of weeks ago. But this is now and my inability to endure any more being wrong, as mentioned above, is overpowering the just mentioned truth so I guess I have to defy his order about making a prediction. On the other hand, the idea to congratulate the Top Five did seem like a reasonable one; however, given that I felt four of these five games didn't especially deserve to be in the Top Five, how could I really go about doing that properly? Determined for this to be one of the few things I wouldn't foul up (at least through fault of my own), I sought out the advice of former GOTY contender, IM Josh Friedel, who told me the following:


Arun: So what should I say to congratulate them?
Josh: I think you should just compliment them on playing a game of low enough quality that it managed to impress the judges; after all if they'd played a better game they would have been eliminated already like my game, Julio's game, and Pascal's game.


So it's quite apparent that the judges have managed to pull off a very impressive feat in impressing Josh Friedel with their picks. As such, congratulations to the Top Five, you've really managed to achieve something special today!