New Scaratings

You let me win that quiz (9.5.2017) with a 57K? People, where did you go?

Kind of you to play down to my level, etc...

Great game Dave.Yes your excellence was rewarded.

Alas, Gordy, my excellence Tuesday night was counter-balanced by the fine 9,600 I picked up in Countdown the following afternoon.

I took a stab at Papa John at the end of the Lightning Round, uncertain whether I was selecting a voodoo diety, a pizza magnate or a rock musician.

The last six questions of the quiz passed with a consensus among the Tailgate's players. There was no demurral, no second-guessing. It all seemed fairly simple. We had every playmaker above 50K, and were expecting to finish on the first page.

Looking back at the material, I can't figure out where other, generally better players, went wrong. The Collagen question at the end: a deficiency of Vitamin C leads to Scurvy. You become arthritic and your teeth fall out.

Not you, personally, BUGG. I shouldn't project like that. It just didn't seem like a difficult hook.

For us at Houlihan's Westbury, it was L6 (the Dove Awards) and P2 (we went with El Greco) that ruined an otherwise strong game. I think we were shut out on those 2 questions.

Splitting is not our strong point, which is why sometimes we finish 1st, sometimes 81st.

Congratulations on a very nice score.

It is like golf.The game can be very humbling.A golfer can have a great tournament.Then,even though one is outstanding one can fade in the next one.Dave,you demonstrated your outstanding skillset in a very formidable game played by many highly skilled players.

I only play one device at a time, on the premise that groups of five or six or more should be rewarded for their sociability with a place on the site rankings. Does this make me a prude? Yes, but I don't peer down my nose at players who play multiple devices, so while I may be a prude I'm not a bigot.

Does splitting really make sense? There is only one player in my milieu who plays two devices and splits, and it doesn't seem to enhance his game play averages. Posit, for a moment, a player who splits on either-or questions, where three of the five items in a drop down box can be eliminated. If our Splitter - under the microscope you can see ROB/TRONTO - doesn't know the answer, then he is eventually going to split on two wrong answers to some future question. On one of every 6,000 flips, a nickel is going to land on its edge. But really, this is just a coin flip problem. If Heads is the correct answer and Tails the unfortunate split, what is the likelihood that you'll make three successive correct conjectures on the same device? That's only 12.5%. Granting that there is such a thing as intuition and the educated guess, your protest that real-world results are more advantageous than the math would dictate is perfectly acceptable. But then so is my rejoinder, that, if you do have a preferred answer, why take out the insurance?

In very large groups, such as the Ragged Rascals or the Fellowship, splitting twice or three times has an undeniable advantage in promoting a site score. But I play in a group of up to ten, and if I were to broach the idea that we should split strategically, I would only damage my already tenuous reputation.

The results of KING VULTURE's group, who seem to prefer the Bernoulli Process to the Gambler's Fallacy, speak for themselves.

I was referring to a split over multiple players, not one player using multiple tablets. For example, the Dove Awards question. We had about 15 players, and none of us knew the answer. I understand that some other locations may have orchestrated splits in that situation, i.e. 3 players are pre-assigned #1, 3 others assigned #2 etc. We have discussed it but never acted. We usually go as a group with the wild guess of one of our stronger players in a go for broke approach,

Congrats to GONE D et al.! A fine performance on a game we found difficult.

I should probably mention that while it is POSSIBLE to orchestrate a split with a large team like ours; it has been The Fellowship's experience that even if we prepare for one and call one out, it doesn't always happen. We often refer to ourselves as a benevolent chaocracy, and this is most in evidence during the category round and potential splits. Often times a split will be called, but someone calls out a tentative answer and we lemming ourselves onto it right over the cliff.

As for our own post-mortem, the Dove Awards was a pre-call, but we were missing our art guy, so we ended up splitting on Titian. After that, any further split gets diminishing returns, so we usually try to make best guesses after we've used a split. Thus, we went all in on chrysanthemum rather than amaranth, which left most players with only 3 right at the end of the pyramid round. No one knew the answer to the final, so we ended up living up to our reputation as a chaocracy there. I guess on the bright side, we didn't crater entirely.

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

It comes to much the same thing, KING VULTURE. Whether a player splitting the two tablets he's playing or a group disagreeing on two possible answers, the math is equally dismal.

Natural splits occur plenty often, as the players at Houlihan's Westbury must be well aware. In the absence of anything resembling certainty, and often enough when some stubborn fool (such as myself) declares absolute certainty, the players in my own milieu have to fight through my ignorance to arrive at the right answer. And sometimes they do.

The last six questions of the Showdown quiz have, of late, tended to throw many of our best players. ANON rang up a respectable 51K on the quiz in question, but no other player among the Fellowship conjured a 40.

I'm not just a player. I'm a fan.

And as for us, Clipper knew Dove awards, I knew Tit-a-an (heh, heh) and we were cruising to 59K. Then the last one, total tank.

Wonder what will screw us tonight?

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Merkin

Star Spangled Banner

Finally an easy one.

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Merkin

GONE D,

You may not find value in splitting because you usually know the answer. Personally, I need all the help I can get, and every last point I can. Actually, I'd wager that all the times I won at Teasers were due to splitting against the crowd in the Pyramid Round or Final Question. Unless the Final Question is precalled, I'll cover the dark horse answer (and maybe two of them) just because no one else in the room is. Individual scores don't matter. Bar scores matter. But who wants to take a chance on blowing a good score on the mere possibility that his or her teammates are wrong? I will. (Sometimes it's my ONLY contribution.)

It helps more in the premium games, but even in a Countdown it can save a perfect game on the last question. And I don't think anyone randomly splits. Once IVY or GYPSY takes the lead, I feed that board my first choice answers. Then the other board is just playing safety in case the leader blows it.

All fine and lawyerly, GYPSY, but it would make no more sense to say that you've won because you've split than it would be to say you've won despite your splitting.

Either way, I hope that IVY isn't the type to hold a grudge.

Noting the Latin motto of the Fellowship (legible on ANON's McCarthy Cup pics), I can propose one for my friends at the Tailgate: Felix melius est quam bonum: Better to be lucky than good.

I find that in most games I need an educated guess to win often on a question or two.Sure that involves some luck.The best time to split answers may be when a person has eliminated all but 2 of the choices and is clueless as to which is the right answer.On the other comment as hard as it might be to not to hold grudges it is nonproductive.As the song goes -Why can't we be friends.None of us is perfect.We are here for a short time.We do control our own attitudes so even though others may hold a grudge,my suggestion is that you don't.

I don't know that my left hand has ever held a grudge against my right hand.

Mercy.



By extension, BUGG - and by the way, you nailed it - in looking back over the rich text which New Scaratings has provided for many years, it's utterly beyond my imagination why anyone who has been insulted on this bulletin board would drop out simply owing to the bruise. We are, or can provoked to be, rude, crude, nude, or in GYPSY's case, ambidextrous.

But we share a common interest, and among all public entertainment, I think ours is wonderful stuff which, regardless of how cranky we are with each other, we should all wish to foster.

Collectively, you are among the smartest people that I know. Granted that I should get out more often, but still.

Thank-you,Dave for the compliment
Yes,where else in the world can you play this type of game other than the US and Canada.Yes,it is a great hobby to have.Some people like to restore cars,play cards,play bingo,play golf, crochet,etc.This is another venture one can have fun with and challenge oneself.Along the way social interaction can lead to more meaningful relationships.Meaningful relationships in life are so vital and enrich the human experience.Of course, Dave your skills are in the upper tier.You have hall of fame skills and results.

Or, to quote Stephen Schwartz from "Pippin":

"A simple rule that every great man knows by heart:
It's smarter to be lucky than it's lucky to be smart."

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

Apparently the local BWW here is showing the fight tomorrow night and is having a $20 cover charge to get in. It's unclear if this is happening at all BWWs or just select ones

Definitely not all BWW. In fact I thought it was the opposite. All 14 or so BWW in the Maryland franchise have had the policy of never showing any boxing ever, only UFC will be shown. I assumed the same held true for the other franchises. The way I understood it UFC and BWW have an exclusive deal of some sort. Maybe your Pittsburgh BWW is going solo on this boxing night.

Guess we'll see you on the boards from somewhere else.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

There should be a thread devoted simply to Buffalo Wild Wings. The BWW tail has been wagging the Buzztime dog for how many years?

If BWW were to offer me $20 to watch one of their captured sporting events, none of which are universally popular, I would refuse the money; and advise my 17 year old hostess that I would pay many times the $20 she requested, for the privilege of meeting a principal investor of the Mercato Group in a really dark alley.

And I would add to her upturned, foolish smile - tell your boss to bring some muscle.

The franchise arrangement is notoriously flabby.

I meant to post that in the BWW thread, not this one. My apologies

Lady Luck certainly can happen,but being prepared helps.I will use a sports analogy.Many people consider Brady the greatest QB of all time.Many consider Bill Belichek one if not the best coach of all time.What if Seattle scores from 1 yard line.What if Atlanta does not blow 28-3 lead.Then go all the way back to the snowy game against Oakland when the tuck rule negated an Oakland win.Would they still be viewed in the same light.

Conversely, were it not for two preposterous catches by NY Giant receivers they could be undefeated in Super Bowl games as well........