As Selection Sunday for the NCAA basketball tournament approaches, millions of fans are waiting eagerly to begin filling out the brackets, tossing their ballcaps into the ring in thousands of office pools across the nation.
But many more are opting out this year. With the tough economy, some feel the entry fee for the office pool is just wasted money.
“I won’t be entering this year,” said one random office worker on the street in New York. “I’d just be throwing away the money. I’ve entered in the past, and that guy Chalk always kicks everybody’s ass. I think he works in accounting or something. Obviously he’s got some complicated mathematical formula he uses.”
Strangely, workers at other, unrelated companies and in whole other industries in far away cities also mentioned “Chalk” as the guy to beat in the pool, although that happens only once every few years, at most.
“I don’t know how he does it every year,” said a human resources specialist in Seattle. “I try to pick all the upsets in the early rounds, and I get a few of them, but I always seem to come up short of teams in the Final Four. It’s like Chalk has some special information on who is likely to make it that far.”
A software designer in Los Angeles said, “he’s got to be using some seriously advanced algorithms, and probably a super high-speed, special purpose computer. He’s getting some very meaningful numbers from somewhere.”
Chalk, whose last name is evidently Pix or Pickz, could not be reached for comment, although he is expected to have his bracket completed by Monday morning, as always.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
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