Tom wrote:Also, have there been any Octochamps/series finalists of note who in the last few years haven't been an Apterous player and caused any kind of shake up? Whenever I've heard or seen anything it seems all finalists have either been known beforehand and/or played Apterous.
Depends what you mean by 'haven't been an Apterous player'. I'd be loathe to consider someone who's signed up but played fewer than 50 games to be 'an Apterous player' really. Under those considerations, full series since the dawn of Apterous...:
Series 60: 3/8 non-Apterites (Cate Henderson [2], Shane Roberts [4],
Hamish Williamson [7])
61: 4/8 (Brian Selway [5], Jeffrey Burgin* [6], Steve Wood* [7], Jacqueline Baker [8])
62: 4/8 (Dave Wilkinson [3],
Lee Graham [6],
Nicki Sellars [7], Claudia Tyson [8])
63: 2/8 (Niall Young* [7], Peter Godwin [8])
64: 1/8 (
Mary Adie [6])
65: 4/8 (
Paul Keane [3],
Carl Williams [4], Dave Taylor [6], David Butcher [8])
66: 4/8 (Suzi Purcell [4],
Nick Hall [5], Victoria James [6], Mark Murphy* [7])
67: 1/8 (Liam Shaw [4])
68: 5/8 (
Eileen Taylor [3],
Joe McGonigle* [4], Sam McElhinney [5], Jill Hayward [6], Chris Ball* [7])
69: 2/8 (
Bradley Cates [4], Jonathan Liew* [6])
70: 5/8 (
Andy Naylor [3], Neil Green* [4], Bobby Banerjee [6], Priscilla Munday [7], Andy Gardner [8])
71: 2/8 (
Tricia Pay* [3], David Stanford [7])
72: 1/8 (Gavin Woolnough [8])
73: 2/8 (
Stephen Briggs [3], Judy Bursford [6])
*Signed up but played fewer than 50 games
Italics: scored over 800 points
Bold: made it past the quarter finals
Underlined: made the final
So since Apterous began, only 3 non-Apterites have made the final (and none of them have won, although Carl Williams took Graeme to a tie-break conundrum), and only 3 have scored over 800 points (none have reached 900). Of the 800 club, Stephen Briggs's total of 889 puts him 21st in the all-time octototal scores, Bradley is 26th with 862, and Tricia is 30th with 857.
For reference, there are 66 octochamps in the 800 club, of which 15 are also in the 900 club. However, Julian Fell is still easily the highest-scoring non-Apterite, scoring 924 in the pre-Apterous era. (Graeme can take back over now.)
"There's leaders, and there's followers, but I'd rather be a dick than a swallower" - Aristotle