So, our mod dragonfly came to me a while ago, and asked if I had anything planned for February. Not being a sports person, at first I thought they were referring to Valentine’s Day, but then I figured out they meant the Super Bowl! 🤦

I spent a bit of time thinking about how best to do this, as I wanted it to be something both NFL people or not could both enjoy. I still haven’t ironed out all the details, but I think I’ll try something similar to Owl of the Year, but also to try to get you all a little more involved.

Here’s where I’m at so far, all subject to change of course…

Name so far: superbowl², short for the Superb Owl Super Bowl. If you got a better name, feel free to share.

What is it?: Create 2 fictional teams of owls, such as Philadelphia Eag-owls vs Kansas City Screech or something based on whoever we find out is in the actual game today. Each team will have maybe 6-12 “players,” which I want to be made up of owls picked by you.

What you do: Reply to this post something like this

• Verreaux Eagle Owl (what species you want to see play)
• NFC (which team you request your owl to play for, completely optional if you don’t know or care about football)
• You don’t know anything about football, what the heck is this?! (any additional comment you have for me)

I’m going to try not to double up on species too much, but if both teams really want a whatever, I’ll try and accommodate, though I’m going to promote diversity to spread awareness of the most owls. With over 200 owls to pick from, I trust you guys to find at least 20 different ones! 😁

Gameplay: Like Owl of the Year, you vote for your faves. I’ll put one owl from team A vs one from team B, and you upvote one, both, or none. I’ll do it at random somehow.

I want to have it run for 24 hours, so everyone everywhere has an opportunity to play a good portion of the game. I’m thinking every 2 hours, I’ll start another match. How long I’ll let them run is undetermined yet. Whoever gets the most votes in a match “scores” points.

Scoring: This was a really tough thing, since there’s no skill or anything involved, so I need to contract potential vote rigging or any kind of intangible imbalance. I’m thinking if it’s a tough battle, with the votes coming down to the last moment, that’s worth more points, so close matches will be a “touchdown” good for 7 points.

If it’s a blowout, the winner still won, but it was easier. That sounds like a “field goal” for 3 points. I’m thinking a margin somewhere in the 10-15 percent range, but I’ll have to see what that looks like.

I think I’ll leave team nominations open until Feb 7 so I have a few days to get everything together, or wherever we get a decent amount of “players.”

In the meanwhile, upvote anyone’s player you support here, so if I have to cut some “players” I know who you want to see most.

If you got any other suggestions, I’m open to hearing them, but since I’m putting in the work, whatever I feel like doing wins! 😉

I’ll post any rules updates as edits to this post.

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Kansas City Screech

1. Blakiston’s Fish Owl
2. Buff Fronted Owl
3. Boreal / Tengmalm’s Owl
4. Whiskered Screech Owl
5. Northern Hawk Owl
6. Pending
7. Pending
8. Pending
9. Pending
10. Pending
11. Pending
12. Pending

San Franciscowl Bay Owls (not sure I like this name yet)

1. Buffy Fish Owl
2. Flammulated Owl
3. Snowy Owl
4. Ural Owl
5. Pending
6. Pending
7. Pending
8. Pending
9. Pending
10. Pending
11. Pending
12. Pending