New Scaratings

Before going to the standings, I’d like to start with a brief caveat. The term “upset” has a pretty clear definition, but I’m not sure it carries the same connotation when it comes to this stage of a tournament like this. Of the Sweet 16 teams, three are former champions, six more have won at least one game this year, and virtually all of the rest have made it at least as far as the quarterfinals in either the McCarthy Cup or the Sandbag Tournament. In a field as strong as this one is there are no “gimme”s, and it should not be too surprising when any given lower seed wins its matchup.

That being said, boy were there a lot of upsets this week. Five of eight games resulted in the higher seed (3,5,6,7 and 8) losing; and the 1 vs. 16 matchup of two former Sandbag Champions (The Fellowship and Fletcher’s) came within just a few hundred points of being the sixth. Here is the carnage(winners in bold):

1 BWW-Kent, OH 54541
16 Fletcher's, Kalamazoo, MI 54106

8 Scooter's, Las Vegas, NV 43196
9 Stadium Cafe, Addison, TX 48253

5 Tilted Kilt, Scottsdale, AZ 46750
12 New Edinburgh Pub, Ottawa, ON 48315

4 Brewstirs, Roselle, IL 47341
13 Henry Hudson's, Oklahoma City, OK 44979

3 BWW-Arlington, VA 47783
14 Dagwood's, Tampa, FL 51188

6 Blue Goose, Cincinnati, OH 49438
11 Mad River, New York, NY 52955

7 BWW-Columbia, MD 38604
10 BWW-Tallahassee, FL 53133

2 Houlihan's-Westbury, NY 58075
15 Meriden AOH, CT 32283

For those who will not be moving on, I would like to express my sincerest thanks and congratulations for helping to make this perhaps the strongest Sweet 16 round in Sandbag Tournament history. To have made it this far proves that you are truly among the best all-wetware teams playing today; and I hope you will participate in the McCarthy Cup this spring.

Sincerest congratulations, too, to the Elite 8 who will be playing in this week's quarterfinal matches:

1 BWW-Kent, OH
9 Stadium Cafe, Addison, TX

12 New Edinburgh Pub, Ottawa, ON
4 Brewstirs, Roselle, IL

14 Dagwood's, Tampa, FL
11 Mad River, New York, NY

10 BWW-Tallahassee, FL
2 Houlihan's-Westbury, NY

At the risk of being redundant, this is an extremely strong field, with every single team being a multiple veteran of the quarterfinals in previous Sandbag and/or McCarthy Tournaments. In fact, counting this year, this group has 48 combined quarterfinal appearances since the first Sandbag tournament in 2007. Any one of these teams is more than capable of knocking off its opponent, so don't be surprised if you see more "upsets" this week.

Good skill to all this week!

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

The Fellowship would like to wish good skill to the venerable Stadium Cafe team in tonight's match. In all of its iterations, no team has ever participated in more Showdown tournaments.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Stadium Cafe would like to wish good skill to Stadium Cafe as well, and no one else.

May the game feature fresh and fair questions.

Congrats from Tampa to Mad River. Great game tonight!

S O B
Dagwoods

We begrudgingly congratulate BWW Kent on winning our matchup tonight. They had a somewhat off night, we could have slipped by them, but we just didn't know enough questions. We struggled with the game from start to finish.

Thanks! Yes, we felt we left the door open after the pyramid round (we lemminged on "Austronesian"), and were pretty nervous until the final rankings came up, knowing Stadium was more than capable of walking in right in.

I won't be posting official results until the HOF is up tomorrow, but if the posted scores tonight hold up, it looks like there were a couple of big upsets: BWW-Tallahassee edging Houlihan's-Westbury and New Edinburgh Pub squeaking past Brewstir's. However, if there is an unregistered box at either winning location, that would probably tip the game the other way.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Our linguist (not cunning ) strongly suggested that as well. We got 1 box on it and therefore the only 5 of 5.

The CD round crushed us, top box barely 9k.

Thanks to SOB and Dagwood's for a good game and their congratulations. Our condolences to our local rivals, Houlihan's of Westbury, who lost tonight. We had counted on having to defeat them to move on to the finals. Now we'll see if BWW Tallahassee is really as good as they showed tonight.
XT

I'm usually not one to say "I told you so," but you may remember that last week I said,



This week's results demonstrate not only that this is one of the most competitive tournaments in recent years, but also, well, "I told you so."

Of the four quarterfinal games, two resulted in major so-called "upsets," by the slimmest of margins:

1 BWW-Kent, OH 52,086
9 Stadium Cafe, Addison, TX 43,000

12 New Edinburgh Pub, Ottawa, ON 44,781
4 Brewstirs, Roselle, IL 44,587

14 Dagwood's, Tampa, FL 44,903
11 Mad River, New York, NY 53,584

10 BWW-Tallahassee, FL 56,608
2 Houlihan's-Westbury, NY 56346

Houlihan's, which was consistently among the best teams throughout the tourney and finished second in the network last night, was edged out by BWW-Tallahassee by a mere 262 points, and Brewtir's fell to the #12 seed New Edinburgh Pub by an even more slender 194-point margin. We are thus left with the #1, #10, #11, and #12 seeds in the semifinals, but don't let those seedings fool you. As stated earlier, this is an exceptionally strong field, and every one of the remaining teams is a legitimate threat to win the whole shebang.

Before posting the semifinal matches, I would like to congratulate Stadium, Brewstir's, Dagwood's, and Houlihan's-Westbury for their impressive runs in this competitive field. I hope to see you again in the McCarthy Cup this spring (but preferably not in The Fellowship's bracket).

So congrats to the semifinalists, which will be facing off in the following pairs:

1 BWW-Kent, OH
12 New Edinburgh Pub, Ottawa, ON

11 Mad River, New York, NY
10 BWW-Tallahassee, FL

Good skill to all this week in what is sure to be a couple of exciting matches.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Successive waves of seafarers departed the ancient island of Formosa, and their diaspora spread, not only into SE Asia, but across the south Pacific: Polynesia, Micronesia, Amnesia. The most adventuresome populated the Malay peninsula before heading west, where they settled Madagascar. It wasn't really population pressure that caused these migrations. They were just looking for a place where their jokes would be appreciated.

The Chinese had not yet invented humor, eliminating the first option.

Eventually a handful of Malagasy sailed their launches around Cape Horn. Up the coast of Africa, past Iberia and Gaul, they made landfall on the south coast of Wales, where they were welcomed with open arms, and asked whether they'd like to join the natives for a pint. Once the invitation was understood (through elaborate signs and symbols), it was, of course, irresistible.

"What's that language you're speaking?" asked the Malagasy of their hosts.
"Cymric: it's a Celtic language."

"Insular or continental?"
"Neither: it's P-Celtic. If you keep sailing north, eventually you'll find people who speak Q-Celtic. But we've always thought the insular-continental distinction just wasn't cricket. Too much back and forth between here and Gaul and Brittany, what have you. The Doggerlanders used to send their eleven down here for a Saturday scrum, but we haven't seen them in a very long time. And what are you blokes speaking?"

"Malagasy: it's a western sort of Austronesian."
"And what are your plans? Where do you go from here?"

"We'll probably just sail back home."
"If you happen past Australia, we have relations in Brisbane. You might want to knock them up, what?"

The Austronesians peered at their hosts without comprehension. "Australia? What's that?"

It could have been an embarrassing moment, but the Welshmen swiftly realized their legs were being pulled, and burst into uproarious laughter.

The voyage home was long and somber: Wales may have been discovered, but it wasn't understood. As for Australia, it could only be a cruel fiction.

The Fellowship would like to take this opportunity to commend New Edinburgh Pub for being one of the few Canadian teams ever to make the semifinals of a player-run Showdown tournament; and to wish good skill to the group for tonight's matchup.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Well, it appears that the sacrificial lamb has been chosen for The Fellowship to feast on next Tuesday--and it's us! (Mad River, in case you weren't following.) We have voted, narrowly, to accept this honor and show up, although there is a slight chance that a tornado will strike the Akron area next week, with all residents urged to stay inside. Barring such acts of God, or G-d, (to whom we're praying in three religions), everyone will once again see a demonstration of how 30 good players (and there were 30 yesterday) can defeat nine (we recruited two from BWW Forest Hills). BYOB.
XT

The official semifinal results are as follows:

1) BWW-Kent, 59,920
12) New Edinburgh Pub, 42,602

10) BWW-Tallahassee, 46,608
11) Mad River, 50,965

Although New Edinburgh Pub and BWW-Tallahasse will not be advancing, they should take great pride in their tournament performances. Not only did they knock off the #7, #5, #4, and #2 seeds between them, they are also part of a pretty select group. In the eight years since the Sandbag Tournament was first contested in 2007, there have been a total 32 semifinal slots. Only 14 teams have made it into those positions (and BWW-Tallahassee has made it multiple times). Congrats to them for their great respective runs in the tournament and for their part in tournament history.

Many congrats, as well, to Mad River for winning its match. This, then, sets up the tournament final:

1) BWW-Kent vs. 11) Mad River

In some ways, this is only appropriate for a couple of reasons:

First, both teams are among the very top-ranked teams out there (a fact obscured by Mad River's deceptively low seeding). For teams making 26 or more appearances in the top-100 over the past 52 weeks, The Fellowship ranks first and Mad River ranks third in terms of average score. In purely statistical terms, it is a great matchup for a championship game.

Second, it is also a great matchup in historical terms. The Fellowship and Mad River have a long tradition of finding themselves arrayed against each other in these tournaments. Not only have they been placed in the same round-robin-phase leagues more than once, they have also faced off against each other frequently in the elimination brackets, including the quarterfinals of the very first Sandbag tournament in 2007. In addition to clashing in the quarterfinals of the Sandbag in 2007, 2011, and 2012; they also met in the semifinals of the 2008 and 2014 McCarthy Cups. Given this long history, it is quite appropriate that these two teams are finally meeting in a championship game.

I know I speak for my Fellowship teammates in saying that we have the utmost respect and admiration for the Mad River team, and we with them good skill in the finals this week.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Yes, we actually did have 30 people there this week for the first time in a long time. But for some perspective, I would like to draw the "sacrificial lambs'" attention to what their 7 players did against our 25-ish players JUST LAST WEEK (per Don Denton):

5 Mad River Bar and Grille New York NY 53,584
6 Buffalo Wild Wings Chesapeake VA 53,490
7 Buffalo Wild Wings Kent OH 52,086

The Fellowship knows all too well that Mad River is more than capable of feasting upon us no matter how many we can bring to Kent on a given Tuesday. Those New York lambs can have a really nasty bite.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Was thinking Chesapeake's scores aren't legit across several games.

And by the way, lambs don't bite. If you treat them properly.....

First of all, I want to congratulate Mad River for a great game on Tuesday. I want to wish both Mad River and the Fellowship the best of luck this Tuesday night.

Second, on behalf of the BWW-Tallahassee team, I wish to thank ANON for his kind words. I have passed them along to the rest of the team. Sorry we couldn't make a better showing this past Tuesday. I guess we shot our wad on the previous Tuesday to get into the Final Four.

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KENDO

8th Annual Sandbag Invitational Tournament Final Results:

The Fellowship, BWW-Kent: 58,353
Mad River, New York: 53,962

Thus, the Sandbag Trophy will stay in Northeast Ohio for another year after an extremely competitive tournament. I would like to give sincerest thanks to all participating teams, and encourage them to play in the McCarthy Cup that BWW-Arlington will be running in the spring.

I would also like to give a special doff of the commissioner's hat to The Fellowship's worthy championship opponent, Mad River. That team somehow manages, week after week, to surmount extraordinary challenges at its home location to maintain its status as one of the best teams in the continent with a relatively small cast of players. It was long overdue to appear in the finals of a major tournament, and I suspect this appearance will not be its last. Congratulations to the entire Mad River team on its great tournament run, and its members should know that they have The Fellowship's profoundest respect and admiration.

So the curtain officially closes on another Sandbag Tournament. I hope to see you all again in the McCarthy Cup a few months from now; and please mark your calendars for next September, when The Fellowship will be honored to host the 9th Annual Sandbag Tournament.

As I have now officially removed my Commissioner's Hat until next year, I would like to add a couple of personal notes in closing.

First, I would like to extend special thanks to NOLES for favoring us with his presence last night. It was wonderful to finally meet a person I have long known from these and the old Buzztime boards; and it was serendipitous that this happened to be the week he trekked through Ohio. The entire Fellowship appreciated his making the long drive to Kent, which is not exactly along the way from Kansas City to Miami. Thanks again for coming, and you are welcome back any time.

Last, but absolutely not least:

Although few of my teammates frequent these boards, I would still like to go on record as saying that I am simply in awe of them and consider myself unbelievably fortunate to be associated with such an incredible group of people on a weekly basis. It is not only an honor and a privilege to play with them, it is also--and most importantly of all--just plain FUN. How lucky it is for me, then, that a team that is so fun to hang out with also just happens to be a championship-caliber team as well. Win or lose, though, there is no other group with whom I would rather play. Thanks to all of them for. . .well. . .their fellowship.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Nice finish, BWW, with the top non-borg score in the network...

Congrats to the winners! And thanks Anon for running a great tourney!

Let me continue to accolade BWW-Kent. Some grumble that's it's unfair to compete against a bar that has 30 players and enough playmakers to go around. Well, just go do it yourself.

It won't happen overnight but it will over time if you recruit and retain players and show your bar owner that they will support the place to the extent necessary to justify the cost. It's happened before in many places. It even happened here in Tampa around '99-'01 when we had fifty boxes at the old Bilmar Station. We easily had 25 players every week and ran about 35 boxes.

Sadly, our owners eventually sold out and left the state and we haven't been able to find as good a location centrally located to all the players that came from every corner to help us on Tuesdays. Now we have a wonderful owner who supports us regally but we can only manage about 12-15 each week. (Only ten players last night but still had a nice finish, 7th in the Big East.)

The better you are at recruiting, the better your team will become. BWW-Kent has done a superb job there. Reminds me of the old National West Covina team in the late '90's. I heard they used to post ads for teammates on the bulletin boards at Cal Tech. You can't just wait for players to walk in your bar and ask if they can play along. Ya gotta be proactive.

They don't win because the have the numbers. They win because they go get what they need. And, btw, Kent Ohio is not exactly Metropolis. If they had to depend on the people that call the BWW their local, it would be a small group indeed.

s o b

Thanks, S O B! You are quite right that it did not happen overnight. We started out in early 2004 with just 6 or 7 regular players at Bennigan's-Cuyahoga Falls and Damon's-Stow. It wasn't until about 2007 or so that we could reliably get 12-15 regularly. Our main goal was not to play for the McCarthy Cup (which we had never heard of), it was to recruit enough members to maybe win the Bronze League, then the Platinum League. The rest just sort of happened.

As for recruiting, you are also right that we were (and are) proactive about it. Some of it was deliberate and persistent (it took years of prodding to get VICTOR finally to play with us). Some was totally accidental. We got RABBIT essentially by stealing her from her date who happened to take her to Damon's on a Tuesday. Then RABBIT knew FROG, and convinced him to come, and that's how we got our first Jeopardy!-winner member. We got our second when I contacted MELEG, who was featured in a series of stories in the local paper about her (successful) stint on Jeopardy!. I had qualified for an audition and cold-emailed her asking for pointers. She was not only incredibly gracious and helpful to me regarding the audition, but she also came to play when I asked her to come during a tournament, and she soon brought ARBEZ, who is just a stone-cold genius and could anchor any team, anywhere. Our most serendipitous recruit of all was BOTAN. One Wednesday morning I was bemoaning to a friend that we cratered the night before because we did not know the scientific name of the banana plant. BOTAN was literally just walking by at that moment and threw out the proper answer as he passed. I ran after him and handed him my card, and sold him on coming the next Tuesday. He immediately became our go-to guy on all things botanical as well as all things geographical (not to mention most things bird and animal), and he could also anchor any team. BOTAN then brought in HU, who was not only a sorely-needed hard-science guy, but who is also a wizard on classical music, golf, and tennis questions. We also invited any other casual players who were at the location on any given night to play with us. Most turned us down, but some became stalwart team members and have since followed us in our frequent moves to other locations. There are many other people I could (and probably should) name here, but you get the picture. The more players we had, the more successful we became, and the more solicitous management became when they knew we could deliver 15-20 players on most Tuesdays. For the last couple of moves, we have been in the enviable position of having the management of locations lobby for our business.

Of course convincing people to play with you once or twice is one thing, and convincing them to continue to come is another. The Fellowship has always had just a few simple rules that bear on this: 1) Everyone is valued as a team member and all are always welcome to play, 2) All contributions are gratefully acknowledged, 3) There will be no recriminations for the occasional bad answer (unless it's ANON's fault, in which case all bets are off), 4) It's a game, so let's have fun.

Fortunately, the last part has always taken care of itself, which is why I still keep coming after all of these years.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

It is always fun! And as for #2 (answers are gratefully acknowledged) - this is done week in and week out by the dutiful and arduous recordation of answers (in long hand) on our "Napkin of Fame" (which is now a Notebook). ANON, as team secretary and leader of the Fellowship chaocracy, records each answer and the handle of the first player to shout it out. Or, sometimes the two players who combine knowledge to land on the correct answer. These notes are combined into an e-mail sent to all teammates (and some fans on our list). Often they are themed (similar to the fun readings of the recaps found on these boards). ANON always closes with a list of next week's category round choices, tourney updates, and team news (marriages, deaths, vacations, expectations of future parking issues, etc...). I would bet my next pay check that he's written over 350 of these updates. It really does keep the team in touch and keeps us all excited for the next game. Heck, my mom has only played with the team a few games and she reads the update every week to see if MEH or I am mentioned.

ANON has done a great job recruiting... but, I practically forgot that I recruited FROG back in the day... go me! Boy, we miss FROG! ANON will go to great lengths to make all new players feel welcomed. There's an introduction, a round of applause, an explanation of the game and each round, a review of our strategy, and usually a free drink for each newcomer and visitor.

We are a very good group that absolutely does NOT shame or fight or pick on any players. This is clearly evident in our absolute adherence to team play - if no one knows an answer, we will dutifully split our answers amongst all choices and each team member knows that doing so could result in the wrong answer for her individually, but provides the best chance for the team as a whole to succeed.

We certainly would not have won the tourney (or any games) without such a great team. And we would not have such a talented and great team without our ANONymous and far-too-humble leader.

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RABBIT

I'm not bad -- I'm just drawn that way.