Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[opusthepenguin]

After the discussion that Kenny started in yesterday's thread I found it hilarious when the DJ! round categories were revealed.

I had the same reaction!

[Bamaman]

What a great FJ clue! I got it easy enough once I cheated so I could do the math without distractions. I had not heard the story about the 3 marines at the embassy and that is such a cool story. I didn't know the exact year, I just know that our idiot politicians have denied my generation the privilege of visiting Cuba for no good reason. There's no way these kids have that sense of awareness of geopolitics. It sure became obvious from the guesses, but we shouldn't be too harsh on them.

The reopening of formal relationships with Cuba was very much in the news and has been a controversial topic for many years. Not getting to go there should not excuse one for not knowing this.

I did the math quickly and got to 1961. My first thought was that was when the Berlin Wall went up. But that didn't make much sense since Germany has been back together since the early 1990s. I guess the guys could have raised a flag there, but it really didn't seem to fit.

Then I thought of Cuba. I wasn't sure when we closed the embassy there as Castro took over in 1959 and the Bay of Pigs was in 1961. Then the whole reopening of relations came back to me and I went with it.

The players' guesses were odd. I can see Iwo Jima and the Marines but the year is way off. To be fair, I don't think she really believed that was right and put it just to have something. Saigon makes a little bit of sense, but isn't very close. Seoul is just a bad guess.

[dhkendall]

My question for an insider : does the music play in the studio? As I said, I had to mute the TV to do the simple subtraction math. Well, I didn't have to, I just wanted to. I'd prefer stone silence to do it for real.

From what I heard, yes, the music does play (and I've noticed some contestants from time to time (I'm sure Jennifer Morrow was one) bobbing their heads in time to the music, so there's that for proof)

And yes, I'd like to do it in silence as well (I'd be nervous enough up there!), but seeing as how I've been practicing with the TV's think music playing, it should replicate the results.

[opusthepenguin]

[dhkendall]

Seoul is just a bad guess.

Or the result of bad math.

[opusthepenguin]

For those criticizing the guesses, what in your opinion would have been a GOOD guess? If Havana didn't occur to the contestants, should they have just left this FJ blank? If you agree they had to put something down, and you can't come up with a good guess other than Havana, then...

https://youtu.be/yV21TcbeAfY

[Volante]

I was expecting a few reversals on Mohan, I'm sure I heard "Titanian" and "The Legend of Zoda", but either the judges didn't hear it or they didn't catch it. Regardless, he deserves the extra points for "This title Geat, so I guess they're looking for 'what is Beowulf'?"

There was a...something going on with his pronunciation of Zelda, replayed it a couple times and he seemed to substitute the 'l' sound for a 'w' but it didn't actually sound wrong. The judges clearly okayed it too.

Final was three seconds of engine noises and then DING! so not quite an instaget but close.

[IronNeck]

In the "states by cities" category, when I read "Mineral", I jubilantly shouted "What is Virginia?", since I had an ex who was from there. Anyone know if the other city ("what is Montana" was accepted) would have qualified?

LT: laughs, Alan Moore, Overwatch

FJ: Missed it!

Clarissa almost cost herself a semifinal spot with her poor quarterfinal FJ wager, and this time she cost herself the finals with her FJ wager.

Mohan's wager is completely fine (with three players so close 1st doesn't even crush 3rd, leader should always go for the cover unless there is no confidence with the category), and Viraj's is very reasonable, too.

Viraj bet enough win if he gets it correct and the two ahead get it wrong, beats out certain small bets by 2nd in a mutual get situation, and also leaves himself room to win in a Triple Stumper situation, which happened.

Clarissa, on the other hand, made a very poor bet.

[MattKnowles]

VERBS $1000: "Curses, like chickens, come home to ___". The player gave "roost". Would "nest" work? Is that an actual variant of the saying that is used?

I don't think nest would have worked it needed to be roost.

Video games. Ugh. Why do we care?

This is how I feel about cheese, musicals, flowers, birds, trees, seafood, obscure colors, and several other categories.

GTA:V was the best-selling media in any format of all time. Lara Croft was the basis of a major motion picture, albeit one with a Golden Raspberry nomination. Games in the Legend of Zelda series have sold more than 75 million copies and the series has been an entertainment staple for more than 3 decades.



I did not get Havana, I knew that Kennedy was President in 1961 and that he was involved in the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis but I didn't know the US flag was lowered in Havana in 1961.

I got 43 right. I got 18 not right.

I missed Prussia,dilute, laughs, lox, Titania, Overwatch, the pyramids, Jennifer Lawrence, and bailing out. I knew those but missed them.

I'll try to remember that Julliard is in the Lincoln center, Missoula is a county in Montana, Washington and Lee is a university, and that Alan Moore is known for Watchmen.

[Volante]

In the "states by cities" category, when I read "Mineral", I jubilantly shouted "What is Virginia?", since I had an ex who was from there. Anyone know if the other city ("what is Montana" was accepted) would have qualified?

Nope. There's no Missoula County, VA. (There's also no Mineral County, VA, but there is one in West Virginia.)

[IronNeck]

In the "states by cities" category, when I read "Mineral", I jubilantly shouted "What is Virginia?", since I had an ex who was from there. Anyone know if the other city ("what is Montana" was accepted) would have qualified?

Nope. There's no Missoula County, VA. (There's also no Mineral County, VA, but there is one in West Virginia.)

Ah, it was counties, not cities. That was another mistake on my part, although I actually went 4/5 in that category.

[Maven]

Video games. Ugh. Why do we care?

One's 'Ugh. Why should I care?' is another's wheelhouse...and one I would have ran if it weren't for Overwatch (fell for the graphics reminding me of Splatoon, despite the lack of paintballs and splotches).

FJ's World Politics category briefly scared me, but I then reminded myself that given this College Tourney's FJ difficulty track record has not been arduous, the FJ more than most likely won't be bad, barring any overthinking. And I was most pleased to be correct, in both my prediction and going with Havana within five seconds of the clue reveal.

[Bamaman]

In the "states by cities" category, when I read "Mineral", I jubilantly shouted "What is Virginia?", since I had an ex who was from there. Anyone know if the other city ("what is Montana" was accepted) would have qualified?

Nope. There's no Missoula County, VA. (There's also no Mineral County, VA, but there is one in West Virginia.)

Ah, it was counties, not cities. That was another mistake on my part, although I actually went 4/5 in that category.

To be fair, many of the counties are also city names so I can see where you could get confused.

[BigDaddyMatty]

Coryat: $46,800
52 R/0 W
DD: 3/3
FJ:
LT: Julliard (DD), laughs, Montana, glaucoma

In stark contrast with Alex's wager last night, Viraj's wager tonight from third place was fantastic.

I was expecting a few reversals on Mohan, I'm sure I heard "Titanian" and "The Legend of Zoda", but either the judges didn't hear it or they didn't catch it.

I think that the latter was the result of a minor form of speech impediment such as rhotacism.

[This Is Kirk!]

I was expecting a few reversals on Mohan, I'm sure I heard "Titanian" and "The Legend of Zoda", but either the judges didn't hear it or they didn't catch it. Regardless, he deserves the extra points for "This title Geat, so I guess they're looking for 'what is Beowulf'?"

There was a...something going on with his pronunciation of Zelda, replayed it a couple times and he seemed to substitute the 'l' sound for a 'w' but it didn't actually sound wrong. The judges clearly okayed it too.

He's just one of those people that can't or don't pronounce "l" sounds correctly. It's fairly common. Usually it comes out sounding like a "w." People from England tend to pronounce it this way, too, I've noticed.

That FJ seems pretty obvious in hindsight, but I was off thinking about Asia for the entire 30 seconds rather than closer to home. I wrote down "Saigon" but was pretty sure it was wrong.

[dinghammer]

That FJ seems pretty obvious in hindsight, but I was off thinking about Asia for the entire 30 seconds rather than closer to home. I wrote down "Saigon" but was pretty sure it was wrong.

Me too, except I had Manila. And I found this while looking on Wikipedia:

On January 12, 2016, the Philippine Supreme Court upheld the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement paving the way for the return of United States Armed Forces bases into the country.

So maybe it's not the worst wild guess possible?

I blame Alex. I've definitely heard a lot more about Duterte than Cuba in the last several months.

[OSXpert]

I knew the dates didn't match up with the fall of Saigon, but I couldn't come up with anything better so that was also my guess.

Video games are certainly worth knowing about.

[dhkendall]

I was expecting a few reversals on Mohan, I'm sure I heard "Titanian" and "The Legend of Zoda", but either the judges didn't hear it or they didn't catch it.

I think that the latter was the result of a minor form of speech impediment such as rhotacism.

As someone with a minor form of speech impediment trying to get on the show, I"m curious how they determine the difference. If it was someone without an impediment, I'm sure it would have been negged (as evidenced by Alex's double-take), but how do they know that Mohan has one? I didn't really detect anything in anything else he said (other than of course Titianian, which I think was more of a case of "saying the wrong name for a thing and getting away with it.")

[Peachbox]

My question for an insider : does the music play in the studio? As I said, I had to mute the TV to do the simple subtraction math. Well, I didn't have to, I just wanted to. I'd prefer stone silence to do it for real.

Yes, the "think" music does play in the studio as you are considering your answer for FJ.

[rpg]

For those criticizing the guesses, what in your opinion would have been a GOOD guess? If Havana didn't occur to the contestants, should they have just left this FJ blank? If you agree they had to put something down, and you can't come up with a good guess other than Havana, then...

+1. I thought all those guesses were reasonable (disclosure: I didn't get this one today either). I'll bet that this polls somewhere closer to 60% than the 80%+ some people are predicting. The "marine" mention in the clue leads you down the incorrect trail of some kind of major military engagement.

Chuffed that differential geometry, of all things, came up in the contestant interviews. The theorem he was talking about is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theorema_Egregium I rolled my eyes a little bit when Alex started asking about a "formula" since it made clear he doesn't really know what math is about, which I normally wouldn't mind from most people but do a little bit when you're hosting an academic competition.