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Wow. What a brilliant performance by Roger. I had sky-high expectations for him, and he exceeded them. Definitely a performance for the ages -- stepping up his game on tougher material and against two very good opponents. That he stumbled on a truly brutal FJ in no way diminishes his achievement. And props to Roger as well for continuing the aggressive (but justified) DD wagering that characterized his regular-play run. I liked these boards (my Coryat was $37,000), but I sure wouldn't have wanted to be at one of the podiums next to Roger tonight. I felt bad for Kara and Brian, who, given other matchups (or a less wicked FJ, in Brian's case -- and I applaud his wager), would have been much more likely to advance. I look forward to seeing Roger's SF match.

Incidentally, my first thought on the FJ was also Australia and Poland. Then I realized, as Roger undoubtedly did as well, that Australia is not conventionally described as an "island" nation (as well as the unlikelihood of there being a Mt. Kosciusko in Poland. FWIW, I just looked it up and the highest Polish peak is called Rysy). So anyway, I paused my DVR, but I was never going to get to the correct answer. The best I could come up with was Cuba and Spain. Interesting to see two geography-based FJ's in a row, by the way.

For the "good cop, bad cop" clue, I assume that "Mutt & Jeff" would also have been acceptable?

I precalled "Battle of Bosworth" for the "last battle of the war" category.

opusthepenguin wrote:So Roger gets a measly $5,000 for today's game?

Roger is now a semifinalist, so he gets at least a measly $10,000 for today's game. Or $5,000 for each of his two games, depending on how you look at it

Eliminated in first round = $5,000
Eliminated in second round = $10,000
Third place = $50,000
Second place = $100,000
Winner = $250,000

opusthepenguin wrote:

seaborgium wrote:

opusthepenguin wrote:Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but ... the winners in the quarter-finals get to keep their winnings, right?

Yes, but their final totals aren't part of those winnings!

So Roger gets a measly $5,000 for today's game?

He will get $10K if he doesn't make it past the semi-finals, and $50K for third place in the finals, $100K for second place, or $250K for first place. THe dollar scores are only awarded to the players in the finals, and only if their two day totals are above the minimum guarantees, which doesn't happen in TofCs since they raised the stakes to $250K.

For Fj, I thought Cyprus and Turkey (didn't even think of Greece, don't know why), but dismissed it because I always thought Cyprus was two nations.

Went with Iceland/Norway ;-/

dirck_hals wrote:Re: the high wager -- I think even good players are too conservative with their DD wagers (in general). If you know that you're >90% in a category (as Roger must be in this spot), and there's that much Coryat left on the board (for catching up in the unlikely event you're wrong, you're making a major error by not wagering big. Put the game away as quickly as possible.

I like your logic in a normal game, but not in a tournament QF. He's already put the "real game" (advancing to the next round) away with a score of $23K. Of course, it's easier to see that from the comfort of one's sofa than from behind a podium.

econgator wrote:

Mark B wrote:I thought the same, slam. If I were RC, I'd be feeling pretty martial under most circumstances, but this seemed one time to back off a bit.

So did I ... and I said so back on page 1.

.

My apologies. I didn't notice that you had already made that point.

Pretty much a performance as expected by Roger. The only thing that levels the playing field against him is keeping the DD's out of his hands (tough to do 3 times).

Put me in the column of those doubling-down in Kara's position. Gotta reward yourself if you get FJ right.

On FJ, I took "European" as a TOM for the countries, not their common culture. Then it was just a matter of cycling through the European islands. I could see where others might have been led astray by the TOM.

It took me a while to realize where Roger's answer came from, but in my defense, I did have a couple of Piraat's in me at the time.

It is possible Roger was blugened to death at the hotel the night after the quarterfinals by some woman looking to break into Alex's room. If that happened, he'd get $5,000 and we'd have a fifth wild card.

The problem for me with Cyprus is that it's usually not a country that people associate very close with Europe. Didn't even pop up in my mind...

alietr wrote:The best I could do for FJ was Australia and ... New Zealand.

All I had, too. I knew Australia's highest point was Kosciusko,* but thought I knew New Zealand's too... or at least, I knew I knew it once and would've remembered if they were the same name. But maybe I forgot what I knew? So, it's all I had, then that's what I offered.

*looked em up-- yup, now I remember, Mt Cook for NZ.
And, Oz's highest point is actually a mountain on an
affiliated island. Kosciusko is highest point on the
mainland.

On Roger's Facebook page this morning I commented that the over/under line for his score entering FJ was 28,000. All of you who had the over can collect.

If Roger had wanted to put his buzzer down he could have done so with many clues left to play. It's not fair to others in the field, so he played all out since he was never risking his spot in the semifinals. I thought Brian and Kara could do a little better, but Roger was too dominating.

I found tonight's material harder as I went 20 & 11 compared to 22 & 17 last night.

Another Geography FJ clue? I felt fortunate to get one last night. Tonight I couldn't even process the clue properly as I guessed Mt. Pelee in trying something to work with France. Oh, the clue wanted two countries? I was so wrong in multiple ways. Never would I have pulled out the Greece/Cyprus solve. Well done by Kara. Silver/Bronze for her? At this point the jury is still out. We'll see.

I had Brian in Bronze and with his zero and done that would seem all right. But, let's say players with lower scores also zero out. He makes the semis and then wins to make the finals. That would get him out of Bronze. It's Roger in Gold that seems just fine. Simply solid.

slam wrote:I like your logic in a normal game, but not in a tournament QF. He's already put the "real game" (advancing to the next round) away with a score of $23K. Of course, it's easier to see that from the comfort of one's sofa than from behind a podium.

I agree with you in principle, but there are other metagame considerations:
-It appears as though Roger had aspirations for putting up a TOC-record-breaking performance; he might have felt it possible and safe to try for the highest single-game tournament score.
-If you're in that position, you'd be doing yourself well to think about the wildcards; do you want your opponents in the next round? You could pull back and essentially offer WC spot(s), but you wouldn't be the one facing them in the next round; if your current opponents are more likely to upset your stiffest competition, this is a great idea. If you perceive them to be weaker (relatively speaking), make sure that they don't lock up a WC spot and give your strongest competition an easier ride to the finals.
-Putting on a thoroughly dominating performance may have some advantageous psychological effects on future opponents (who aren't sequestered), causing them to take greater chances that exceed their comfort level.
-Alternatively, you could pull back in this spot, potentially allowing other opponents to underestimate you in a future round...

Anyway, I think there's more to consider than just making it to the next round.

I'm feeling really dense now. What is the link between Australia and Poland?

HugoZ wrote:Pretty much a performance as expected by Roger. The only thing that levels the playing field against him is keeping the DD's out of his hands (tough to do 3 times).

What was Roger's Coryat tonight, roughly $28,000? His opponents could have landed on all three DD's and he still was probably going to have a lock game. And of course when he's answering so many clues it's very, very difficult to deprive him of the DD's because he is getting so many chances to find them.

A year out of the game? No big deal for Roger... he's picking up right where he left off. Well done, sir!

Ellesmere Island, and now... threesome. Hope you were watching, Mike... this one goes right up there with your classic TOC moment.

If only the love triangle clue had been in the translation category... "ménage à trois" has such a nice ring to it.

Wow, truly a dominant performance by Roger. My sympathies for both Kara and Brian, who must have been quite frustrated at their inability to ring in in DJ. I expect to see this FJ in the poll for most difficult as I was another with no chance at getting. I was furiously trying to remember if there was a Mt. Cook in the UK all the while doubting that the British would name a mountain after Captain Cook. I was so clueless that I viewed Roger's answer as a joke, shamefully. Overall, these boards -- like last night's -- didn't really feel all that much like TOC material, except perhaps for the Translation category, but even that wasn't too difficult.

karoliner wrote:I'm feeling really dense now. What is the link between Australia and Poland?

Other than they both contain an 'a' and an 'l', I haven't a clue. Like Woof, I thought it was a joke answer.

I can see her reasoning in questioning "threeome". The category was called "Counting Down" (or something like that), which indicated to me the responses would all have numbers in them.

The wording confused me. All I could come up with was transitive property, but her response guided me in the right direction.

opusthepenguin wrote:

seaborgium wrote:

opusthepenguin wrote:Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but ... the winners in the quarter-finals get to keep their winnings, right?

Yes, but their final totals aren't part of those winnings!

So Roger gets a measly $5,000 for today's game?

You could say he gets $10,000, since that's the least he'll get as a semifinalist.