Nobody Copied. But One of You Is Literally the Crowd.

Statto11 June 2026

A question landed at the Freemo Prediction Game HQ today: has anyone submitted the exact same set of predictions? With the final field locked at 53 completed entries, all staring at the same 12 groups, surely two brains somewhere converged on identical sheets.

So, with the deadline passed and every sheet final, we ran the whole league through the machine. All 53 entries, all 12 groups, every 1st, 2nd and 3rd-place call — 36 prediction slots per person. The verdict:

No two entries match

Not one identical pair. The closest brush with telepathy is now a tie: Harry Brinicombe and Neil, and Jack Baker and Masc, both agreeing on 31 of 36 slots. For context, the average pair of entries in this league agrees on about 20. So no, nobody copied — but a few of you are drinking from the same tactical water supply.

One of you IS the hive mind

Here's the spooky one. For every prediction slot there's a "crowd pick" — the choice made by more entrants than any other. Build a sheet out of those 36 crowd picks and you get… Masc's entry. Exactly. 36 out of 36.

Masc has, presumably without trying, submitted the league's collective consciousness as a competition entry. If Masc wins, we all sort of win. If Masc loses, the wisdom of crowds is officially dead.

The inner circle of the hive: Jack Baker (31/36), then a chasing pack matching the crowd on 30.

And some of you are from another planet

At the other end of the ladder:

Alex — just 13 of 36 picks match the crowd. The league's most contrarian entry, including being the only person on Earth backing Iran to win Group G.
Ewan Chapman — a late arrival who immediately claimed second-most-contrarian (14/36), with sole custody of Norway winning Group I and, magnificently, Brazil finishing third in Group C.
Tracy Snell — owner of five picks that nobody else dared touch: South Africa to win Group A, Egypt to win Group G, Curaçao second in Group E, Iraq second in Group I… and the genuinely unhinged France to finish third in Group I. If that one lands, drinks are on all of us.
The league's least compatible pair is now Ewan Chapman and LBBH, who agree on a barely-believable 3 of 36 slots. Three. Never let them share a car.

The same 32 teams, in a different order

Here's the twist the hand-recounters found: flatten each sheet to just "which 32 teams qualify" and four pairs of players picked the identical 32 teams — they only disagree on the order they finish:

MG and Sunny Singh — same 32 qualifiers, different order in just 3 groups. The closest thing to a clone in the league.
Aleix and Aunty Katy — same 32, different order in 5 groups.
Jack percy and Jas'n'aTas — same 32, different order in 5 groups.
Mike R and alexmr — same 32, different order in 7 groups.

Same destination, different routes — and since exact finishing position is half the scoring (and third-placers only count if they make the best eight), those "small" disagreements are worth real points.

What the league actually believes

Spain are the only unanimous pick in the entire game — all 53 entries have them winning Group H. No pressure, Spain.
Near-unanimous: Argentina (51) and Belgium (50) to win their groups, with Germany, France and England (49 each) right behind.
The great divide is Group D: Türkiye 28 entries, USA 19, with Paraguay and Australia mopping up the rest. Half this league is about to be very smug and the other half very loud.
Group A is quietly split too: 38 back Mexico, but 10 of you fancy South Korea to top it.

The sequel

Knockout predictions open after the group stage and close at kick-off of the first Round of 32 game on 28 June. Same questions will be asked. New chances for telepathy, treachery and Tracy.

Statto has been fed only the numbers. Statto does not have a favourite. (Statto slightly has a favourite and it's Tracy.)