New Scaratings

Showdown Recap for 8 May 2018 at BWW Gibson in ABQ

BLZBUB was considering taking the week off, without notice to His followers and minions. But He found Himself with some free time today. So let’s just call the one day delay in publishing this a Mental Health Day for Old Scratch and move on.

The Ragged Rascals found each other again this week, congregating on the patio of the BWW on Gibson Blvd. Twelve worthies arrived in time to play Showdown, and wonder of wonders, there were more newly refurbished boxes in the racks this week. The team was able to manhandle 19 of them.


Worn-up Round

1. What is a bayou? {Before even seeing the choices BLZBUB was pondering how far off the mark the Buzzheads could be with their answer. He was amused to see…}
BODY OF WATER.
2. You could witness a Baltimore Chop if you are watching a: BASEBALL GAME.
3. The Kennewick Man is a skeleton discovered by archaeologists in ___ in 1996. WASHINGTON.
4. They are a microgeneration between Gen X and Millennials: XENNIALS.
5. Gotland is this country’s largest island: SWEDEN.
6. Stephen King and his son collaborated on this new bestseller inspired by a famous fairy tale: SLEEPING BEAUTIES.
7. Mountain gorillas are also called ___ gorillas. SILVERBACK.
8. This jazz singer of the 20th Century was nicknamed ‘Lady Day’: BILLIE HOLIDAY.
9. Which of these are classified as succulents? CACTI. {No, CHILL, “Bill Clinton’s girlfriends” is not a valid answer.
10. What Britons call the scullery, North Americans call the: UTILITY ROOM.

Well, that round sucked {No CHILL! Stop it.} We had 5-way splits on #s 2, 3, and 4.

Ground-down Round

1. Michoacan is one of the 32 Federal entities of: MEXICO.
2. Barlett and Steele’s ‘Empire’ is subtitled ‘The Life, Legend and Madness of ___.’ HOWARD HUGHES.
3. What type of cross has one vertical and two horizontal bars? CROSS OF LORRAINE.
4. The Merriam-Webster dictionary added ___ new words and definitions this year. 850.
5. The late Milos Forman directed both ‘Amadeus’ and ‘The People vs. ___.’ LARRY FLINT.
6. Which of these national historic trails is the longest? LEWIS AND CLARK.
7. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was an 18th Century French: NATURALIST.
8. ‘Mademoiselle Fifi’ is an 1882 short story by: GUY DE MAUPASSANT.
9. Canadian producer David Foster has won sixteen ___ Awards. GRAMMY.
10. Cotija, Manchego, and Asadero are ___ Cheeses. MEXICAN.
11. In which year was the first component of the International Space Station launched? 1998.
12. Which person gained fame in the 20th Century as a playwright? WILLIAM INGE.

This round went according to our average. There were third-clue saves on four of the twelve, these being GD’s 2, 4, 6, and 8. The team got 8 of 12 correct without a great deal of difficulty.


Scatology Round

S1. DEMONYMS v singers
The proper term for people who live in Saskatoon is: SASKATONIAN. {3rd-clue save.}

S2. DISEASES v world geography
Beriberi is a medical condition that results from not getting enough: THIAMINE. {REAPER}

S3. Phrases v FAMOUS PAINTINGS
One of Jan van Eyck’s most famous paintings is ‘The ___ Portrait.’ ARNOLFINI. {DUFF & MEERA pre-called it.}

S4. WORLD GEOGRAPHY v demonyms {we’re not taking it a second time, because BLZBUB whined that the category wasn’t about His brethren.}
Of these five peninsulas, which covers the most area? YUCATAN. {A bit of a late call, but good for 80% of the points.}

S5. FAMOUS PAINTINGS v diseases
‘Asmodea’ is a fresco painting done in the 1820’s by: FRANCISCO GOYA. {DUFF got there by running the dates of all the other artists lives and eliminating them.}

S6. SINGERS v phrases
This international singer is known as the ‘Godmother of Punk’: NINA HAGEN. {MEERA, upset that she was not mentioned as a choice.}

The team didn’t get all of them form 1000 points. We did well on the painters. We got quick calls on S2 and S6, but had delays on S5 and a flub on S1.


Frightening Round

1. The ___ Tome Zone is 11 hours earlier the Coordinated Universal Time. SAMOA.
2. ‘Mad Billionaire’ Nick Woodman is the CEO and founder of GoPro, known for its: ACTION CAMERAS.
3. Which country group is a duo? SUGARLAND.
4. What puts the pink in a Pink Lady cocktail? GRENADINE.
5. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin wrote such scripts as “Steve Jobs” and: THE SOCIAL NETWORK.
6. Which word describes an incompetent, even stupid person? DUFFER.
7. What does the middle initial stand for in the name of President Dwight D. Eisenhower? DAVID.

The team got all 7 of these for a good boost in our scores.

Py-Ram-It Round

P1. What American dish is named after the Civil War doctor who created it?
Choices: Salisbury Steak, Oysters Rockefeller, Melba Toast, Cobb Salad, Reuben Sandwich
A: SALISBURY STEAK. {Splits were taken, but many went to Salisbury after Rockefeller and Melba were called out as eliminations.}

P2. ‘Soft Construction with Boiled Beans’ is one of many surrealist paintings by:
Choices: Dali, Lichtenstein, Manet, Klein, Munch
A: SALVADOR DALI. {DUFF pre-called this as one of his two nominees}

P3. The Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 was a defeat for the forces of:
Choices: Henry VIII, Edward II, Leo IV, George V, William II
A: EDWARD II. {DUFF, again put his date-driven neurons to the task.}

P4. What writer created a fictional religion called Bokononism?
Choices: George Orwell, Dan Brown, Edgar Allen Poe, Isaac Asimov, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
A; KURT VONNEGUT JR. {MEERA got this first.}

P5. Vellum, used in ancient Europe as material to write on, was made of:
Choices: Animal Hide, Stone, Crustacean Shell, Plant Fiber, Metal
A: ANIMAL HIDE. {Greek chorus.}

The team got all five of these on 9 of the 19 boxes in play, and the remainder on the other 10 boxes. The difference being the choices made for P1.

FINAL TRAGEDY
Topic: ANIMALS (no doubt of the gawd-damned-pink-fuzzy-armored-venomous kind)

This animal is amazingly adept at changing both its color and shape to elude predators:

1. Marten
2. Armadillo
3. Albatross
4. Emu
5. Cuttlefish

The order of the eliminations was 4, 2, 3, and 1, leaving #5, CUTTLEFISH as the correct answer. As is people’s wont, they started throwing out all kind of random suggestions before the five choices appeared. BLZBUB stuttered out this one somewhere in the cross-fire. But of course, the other four choices were all kind of ridiculous when you stop to think about them. Hence BLZBUB is going to credit the GREEK CHORUS for this answer.

The top individual scores for the night were 57756, 56470, 56325, 56308, 56205, and 55912. The whole team got all of the points they wagered on this question.

The team’s average score for this game was 56,496 points.

The Ragged Rascals’ systemwide ranking was a surprisingly low TWELFTH Place.
The top scores for the night probably reflected the relative ease of both the Pyramid and Final Strategy round questions.
The top score for the night was once again stolen by one of the Borg Collectives. There was a second silicon set further down the Top Ten page

The winners of the WETWARE-ONLY division were:
1. Tailgate, Minneapolis, MN at 58230 points
2. Danny Ks, Orange, CA at 57776
3. Willies ST?, Toronto, ON at 57364la
4. BWW Kalamazoo, MI at 57318
5. Houlihans, Westbury, NY at 57107
6. Halftime S?, Gig Harbor, WA at 56847
7. Mad River, New York, NY at 56809
8. Time Out, Hanover Park, IL at 56582
9. Fellowship BWW Kent, Oh at 56576
10. The Ragged Rascals, BWW Gibson in ABQ at 56496

_________________
}}}--( (x) (x) )--->
Oh my gawd, they killed
Ken Z.
You bastards!

S2. diseases vs. WORLD GEOGRAPHY.
Mato Grasso is the 3rd largest state in BRAZIL.

S3. PHRASES vs. famous paintings.
"Long in the tooth" means OLD.

S5. famous paintings vs. DISEASES.
IMPETIGO is a bacterial skin disease.

S6. singers vs. PHRASES.
The ________ of Damocles. SWORD.

--Rick Magnus
RickM, Blue Goose

_________________
liljol, still residing in a humble lil abode in Buzztime's Backyard, San Diego County, in The Horribly Site-Poor Golden State, California...

<--805 NTN Buzztime sites visited as of 11/13/2018...

F CUBS!!!!! FBOSOX!!!!!

FPDRES!!!!! FCHGRS!!!!!

This was the first time ever I wrote down the Scattergories, but RICKM and LILJOL covered all six Altergories before I could get my end in. No doubt they're both going to hell, and I'll be left out of the party, as usual...

Curious to see ten sites within 2,000 points of each other. The difference may have been merely in the Categories, but at the Tailgate, we got clobbered by the first two rounds. After 22 questions, I was sitting with a 13.2, a score which, back in the day when I used to play solo, might, on a wing and a prayer, result in score above 48K. Perhaps as high as a 56. Far too frequently, a score much, much lower.

Despite the protests of ANON and BO, the difference in scores between Brainbuster and Showdown (two quizzes with similar content) is still a useful metric to distinguish between those who cheat and those who think. Time Out West, in Hanover Park IL, collected a decent 12K site score in Brainbuster, a quiz which was run by MERKIN, CLIPPR & Co to the tune of 14.9. Time Out West turned the tables in Showdown, finishing 9th to Teasers 23rd. To quote GYPSY, who was playing at Time Out West, "Shit happens." (The quotation is taken out of context, but in this context not inappropriate.)

Beelzebub's betes noires at Spectator's finished #1 in Showdown. In Brainbuster, they collected an 11.2 site score, on a quiz no more difficult than an original Countdown. Respectable, but... Chicago Loop put up a 55K in Showdown, yet failed to break 7K in Brainbuster. I looked up a couple of the Loopers and they played all fifteen questions.

Success in entering keywords rapidly enough to succeed in the Countdown format might well be within BO's scope, but in this respect he's a Gladwellian Outlier.

In Showdown, the Pyramid round can make you or break you. I think that Teaser's missed Q1 on Pyramid. The majority of my team went the distance on that round. I stuck around with my original (wrong) answer on Q5 and knocked myself right out of the running. (I should have listened to BOTNST, who correctly corrected us.)

GYPSY

[quote="GONE D"]Chicago Loop put up a 55K in Showdown, yet failed to break 7K in Brainbuster.quote]

From what I understand, the only game for which Chicago Loop uses a laptop is Showdown. They do everything else without help, including Brainbuster. So they were not attempting to Google Brainbuster. There would certainly be enough time to do so.

My deepest apologies.

And, all in all, this isn't a bad place.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hell, ... !4d-83.985

-Rick Magnus
RickM, Blue Goose

_________________
liljol, still residing in a humble lil abode in Buzztime's Backyard, San Diego County, in The Horribly Site-Poor Golden State, California...

<--805 NTN Buzztime sites visited as of 11/13/2018...

F CUBS!!!!! FBOSOX!!!!!

FPDRES!!!!! FCHGRS!!!!!