GRECO latest rules (apeminkie)

Introduction
In a nutshell, GRECO is a Price is Right-related twist on the classic game BINGO that involves predicting the Pricing Games that will appear on the unaired episodes of the show.

Creating a CARD
Before a set of five unaired episodes ("Matchup Set") is broadcast, all eligible players must create a GRECO "CARD" with which to play the game.

All GRECO CARDS will be composed by forming a list of 25 Pricing Games that players believe will be played during the upcoming Matchup Set.  The order a player puts these Pricing Games on this list reflects the overall appearance of the "GRECO CARD"; the first Pricing Game on the list will be placed in the top-leftmost square ("SPACE") of the grid, the second Pricing Game to the immediate right of that, and so on, until the twenty-fifth Pricing Game is placed in the bottom-rightmost SPACE.  The numbers of the SPACES on a player's CARD ("SPACE NUMBERS") are also associated with this general pattern of reading a CARD.

Please note that the center SPACE is NOT to be designated as a FREE SPACE, unless otherwise specified.

Submitting CARDS
The "Deadline" for all players to submit a CARD is the initial cut-in of the East Coast feed (11:00am, EDT) of the first episode in the Matchup Set.

To properly submit a CARD, send a Private Message ("PM") that fulfills all the following requirements:
1. The PM should be sent to Golden-Road.net username who initiated the new week in play.
2. The PM's Subject Line should contain the Golden-Road.net username associated with the eligible player, following the framework of "GRECO 4 - username".
3. The Body of the PM should contain a complete GRECO CARD, constructed based on the rulings and guidelines of this Rulesheet as well as, in some cases, any extra information requested in the specialized game thread for the Matchup Set in play.

Should any player fail to submit a CARD, or follow all the provided requirements listed above, by the Deadline, that player will be automatically assigned the CARD that he/she submitted from the Matchup Set immediately preceding the one in play.

Players are strongly encouraged to submit a CARD for each Matchup only once.  If a player finds the need to make corrections to a CARD that has already been submitted, and the Deadline has not yet passed, that player is asked to obey the following requirements to properly make the correction:
1. The Subject line of the follow-up PM should contain the Golden-Road.net username of the player wishing to make corrections.
2. The Body of the follow-up PM should contain a complete and revised GRECO CARD, still following the rulings and guidelines of this Rulesheet.

The Official Host(s) of this contest are reserved the choice of whether or not to accept a GRECO CARD submitted by any player at any point in time during the competition.

Marking SPACES
Any player may "mark" a SPACE on his/her CARD if the SPACE with the predicted Pricing Game is aired during the Matchup Set.

If a player's CARD contains more than one SPACE with the same Pricing Game, and the Pricing Game is played only once during the Matchup Set, ONLY the instance that appears closest to the top of the list-form of the CARD will be marked. Only if the duplicated Pricing Game is played ANOTHER time during the same Matchup Set will a player be able to mark the next duplicate SPACE on his/her CARD.

The previous rulings do not restrict any player from placing the same Pricing Game on his/her CARD more than once.

Scoring POINTS
For each SPACE a player correctly marks on his/her CARD during a Matchup Set, one (1) "POINT" will be awarded to that Player.  Should any five (5) of these SPACES form a horizontal row from left-to-right, vertical column from top-to-bottom, or diagonal line from corner-to-corner, that player will be awarded an additional five (5) POINTS for each line; in competition, this line is commonly referred to as a "GRECO".

A player is eligible to receive an extra ("BONUS") five (5) POINTS for each of the following arrangements of SPACES ("PATTERNS") marked on his/her CARD:
1. POSTAGE STAMP (The "STAMP" is made by marking SPACE NUMBERS 4, 5, 9 and 10).
2. CHECKMARK (The "CHECK" is made by marking SPACE NUMBERS 15, 17, 19, and 23).
3. DIAMOND (The "DIAMOND" is made by marking SPACE NUMBERS 8, 12, 14, and 18).

After the sixth Pricing Game in the final day of the Matchup Set has been shown, all eligible players calculate the total number of POINTS that his/her CARD has received during the current Matchup Set ("Final Score").

The maximum Final Score for any given CARD by any given player is 100 POINTS.

Eliminations
At the end of a Matchup Set (typically the end of the calendar week, as well), a predetermined number of players will be eliminated from the competition; unless otherwise specified beforehand, eliminated players will be those who had the lowest Final Scores amongst all eligible players.

Should any players in a Matchup Set have the same Final Score, the following Tiebreakers, in order, will be used:
1. The victor will be the player who had the highest Final Score, less the POINTS received for PATTERNS.
2. The victor will be the player who had the highest Final Score, less the POINTS received for PATTERNS and SPACES MARKED.
3. The victor will be the player who guessed closest, high-low, to the answer of a predetermined "Tiebreak Question".  Should any tied player not correctly submit an answer to the Tiebreak Question, they shall automatically place lower than the competitors with whom they are tied.

Should a tie among at least two players still be present after Tiebreaker 3 has taken effect, all said players shall remain in the competition to compete in the next Matchup.

Episode Preemptions and Episode Cancellations
Should any of the Pricing Games in the Matchup Set be preempted, for any reason, the essential missing information from the preempted East Coast airing will be filled in from the West Coast airing, and vice versa. If the crucial, missing information is unavailable in both airings, the entire episode will be considered "Void".

Should any of the episodes in a given Matchup Set be cancelled for both the East Coast and West Coast airings of that episode, the episode will be considered Void.

The Matchup will still be allowed to continue only if the number of episodes in the Matchup Set that are not Voided totals at least four (4).

Spoilers
All spoiler information, in terms of Pricing Games played on any unaired episode, will be considered fair game in GRECO.

Should any player possess such information, and that player is still remaining in the competition, it would be suggested for that player to randomly assort the “known” games to the SPACES of his/her CARD. Realize that this is not a true requirement, but performing in this manner can keep a better balance of fairness and integrity between those players who attend tapings of the show, or read spoilers, and those who do not.

Retired Pricing Games
No reimbursement of SPACES will be given if, during any Matchup Set, a Pricing Game is announced as “retired” or “retiring”.

A Final Word
Should you have any questions or comments about any of the rules or topics based on the game, the Rulesheet, or the Game Hosts, please post them in this thread.

Best of luck to you, and enjoy the game!