New Scaratings

No matter how many times you play in a Showdown Tournament, Dr. Heywood Floyd told himself, the excitement never really palled. He had played in the Sandbag Tournament once, the McCarthy Cup three times, and to the various local tournaments more often than he could remember. Yet as the moment of competition approached, he was conscious of a rising tension, a feeling of wonder and awe - yes; and of nervousness - which put him on the same level as any casual player about to receive his first baptism of continent-wide competition.

His pulse quickened as he craned forward for a better view of the screen. He turned his full attention to the game, approaching each question from every angle, trying to imprint the questions upon his mind. His team was on fire now--answering every question for full points. They could win this! The political and social implications were immense; every person of real intelligence - everyone who looked an inch beyond his nose - would find his life, his values, his philosophy, subtly changed by the victory of this previously unknown team. All futures must now contain this possibility.

Floyd was still musing over these thoughts when the final question regarding Canadian History appeared. His teammates suddenly emitted a piercing shriek, like a hideously overloaded and distorted time signal. Involuntarily, he tried to block his ears with his buffalo-wing-sauce besmirched hands; then he recovered and groped frantically for one answer after another as they were wiped from the screen. While he was still fumbling, four more of the shrieks blasted out of his teammates; then there was a merciful silence. All around the room, figures were standing in attitudes of paralyzed astonishment. They had cratered.

It was a bumpy start to the 2018 Sandbag Odyssey for a number of teams. I suspect that when the final category appeared on the screen, there were hardly any teams south of the 49th parallel who were excited by it. If your final score was a disappointment, at least you were in good company. When the dust settled, only four tournament teams finished north of 50k:

57,976 Houlihan's, Westbury NY
56,874 Tailgate Sports Cafe, Minneapolis MN
53,310 Primetime Sports Grill, Tampa FL
51,707 The Fellowship, BWW-Kent OH
49,340 Time Out West, Hanover Park IL
47,389 Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
46,992 Buster's Bar, Ottawa ON
46,952 West Park Station, Cleveland OH
46,139 Scooter's, Las Vegas NV
45,664 The Ragged Rascals, BWW-Albuquerque NM
43,929 Broadway Bar and Grill, Nepean ON
43,853 BWW-Crystal City (Arlington) VA
43,725 Mad River, New York NY
42,982 BWW-Oklahoma City OK
41,884 Stained Glass Pub, Elkridge MD
41,438 The Old Barn, Portland OR
41,240 Teasers, Chicago IL
39,934 Humperdink's, Dallas TX
39,704 Cedar Cottage, Vancouver CA
39,157 Danny K's, Orange CA
38,036 BWW-Blacksburg VA
37,032 Tipsy Coyote, Scottsdale AZ
34,556 Wallaby's, Lenexa KS
34,394 Four Corners, Chapel Hill NC
33,331 Stadium Cafe, Addison TX
28,999 Meriden AOH, Meriden CT
28,961 KC's Time Out, Evansville IN
28,560 Adam's Mill, Manchester CT
28,503 BWW-Elmwood, LA
27,824 Pockets, Tallahassee FL
21,748 The K-zoo Krew, BWW-Kalamazoo MI
17,327 Time Out, St. Louis MO
13,086 Beef O'Brady's, Prattville AL
2,049 Buckets Tavern, Tampa FL

The good news, of course, is that everyone gets to drop a low score, so even the worst performance is not a fatal liability for any team.

For those who wish to track the tournament, Don Denton has ever-so-helpfully created a page for the tournament here:
http://ntn.donrdenton.com/tournament.php?KeyCol=5

Good skill to all this week!

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

Devoted science-fiction fans will know that Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick developed the plot of 2001: A Space Odyssey from several earlier Clarke short stories; and that they wrote the screenplay for the movie and the novel concurrently. Yet the book differs in several ways from the movie, in part because the book was based on an early draft of the script and Kubrick decided to change some things during filming. Many of these changes are minor: for example, the date at which HAL was “born” is 1997 in the book, but 1992 in the movie. Some are a bit more significant, like the appearance of the monolith. In the book, the first monolith was crystal clear, and all the monoliths had a 1:4:9 ratio (the squares of the first three integers—a sign that the were created by sentient life). Kubrick thought the resulting short, squat monoliths were not as visually compelling as the tall, thin, black ones that appear in the film.

Of all the differences, though, perhaps the most significant was the change in destination of the spaceship Discovery One. In the book, the destination was Saturn, but Kubrick did not know how to make Saturn’s rings look realistic on film, so he changed the destination to Jupiter.

I bring all of this up because I suspect that many teams also found themselves in a bit of a planetary dilemma on the final question on Tuesday. Those who followed Clarke and went to Saturn early on found themselves rewarded with being the Star-Children of the night. Those that went to other planets…well…didn’t. They can console themselves with the knowledge that nearly all borg bars struggled with the question, too (only one in the top 20). As Clarke and Kubrick established in both the book and the film, sometimes computer technology can let you down.

Below are the provisional standings after week two of the tournament--provisional because no results posted for Time Out in St. Louis. They will become the official results in the next day or two unless a score finally shows up for that team. (BTW, an even better, interactive version of the Tournament Standings can be found on Don Denton's absolutely invaluable site--I strongly urge everyone who is interested in following the tournament to go there from now on: http://ntn.donrdenton.com/tournament.php?KeyCol=5 )

WEEK 2 RESULTS
59620 The Fellowship, BWW-Kent OH
58299 The Ragged Rascals, BWW-Albuquerque NM
57372 Houlihan's, Westbury NY
54830 Mad River, New York NY
53640 Teasers, Chicago IL
52592 Four Corners, Chapel Hill NC
52064 BWW-Crystal City (Arlington) VA
51785 Danny K's, Orange CA
51589 The Old Barn, Portland OR
50072 The K-zoo Krew, BWW-Kalamazoo MI
48032 Buster's Bar, Ottawa ON
47844 Scooter's, Las Vegas NV
47515 Time Out West, Hanover Park IL
46611 Stained Glass Pub, Elkridge MD
46021 Tailgate Sports Cafe, Minneapolis MN
44942 Tipsy Coyote, Scottsdale AZ
42645 KC's Time Out, Evansville IN
42544 Cedar Cottage, Vancouver CA
41025 Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
39269 BWW-Oklahoma City OK
38720 West Park Station, Cleveland OH
37240 Broadway Bar and Grill, Nepean ON
36423 Meriden AOH, Meriden CT
36374 Wallaby's, Lenexa KS
35748 Pockets, Tallahassee FL
35029 Beef O'Brady's, Prattville AL
34920 Humperdink's, Dallas TX
28258 Adam's Mill, Manchester CT
26013 Primetime Sports Grill, Tampa FL
23425 BWW-Blacksburg VA
23159 Buckets Tavern, Tampa FL
19646 Stadium Cafe, Addison TX
19165 BWW-Elmwood, LA
0 Time Out, St. Louis MO

A lot of the usual suspects showed up in the top ten, with defending champion The Fellowship posting its first win since mid-July. When adding up the cumulative scores, however, last week's winner--Houlihan's--is still on top:

WEEK 2 CUMULATIVE
115348 Houlihan's, Westbury NY
111327 The Fellowship, BWW-Kent OH
103963 The Ragged Rascals, BWW-Albuquerque NM
102895 Tailgate Sports Cafe, Minneapolis MN
98555 Mad River, New York NY
96855 Time Out West, Hanover Park IL
95917 BWW-Crystal City (Arlington) VA
95024 Buster's Bar, Ottawa ON
94880 Teasers, Chicago IL
93983 Scooter's, Las Vegas NV
93027 The Old Barn, Portland OR
90942 Danny K's, Orange CA
88495 Stained Glass Pub, Elkridge MD
88414 Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
86986 Four Corners, Chapel Hill NC
85672 West Park Station, Cleveland OH
82251 BWW-Oklahoma City OK
82248 Cedar Cottage, Vancouver CA
81974 Tipsy Coyote, Scottsdale AZ
81169 Broadway Bar and Grill, Nepean ON
79323 Primetime Sports Grill, Tampa FL
74854 Humperdink's, Dallas TX
71820 The K-zoo Krew, BWW-Kalamazoo MI
71606 KC's Time Out, Evansville IN
70930 Wallaby's, Lenexa KS
65422 Meriden AOH, Meriden CT
63572 Pockets, Tallahassee FL
61461 BWW-Blacksburg VA
56818 Adam's Mill, Manchester CT
52977 Stadium Cafe, Addison TX
48115 Beef O'Brady's, Prattville AL
47668 BWW-Elmwood, LA
25208 Buckets Tavern, Tampa FL
17327 Time Out, St. Louis MO

Of course, every team gets to drop a low score, and that rearranges the standings once again. The top five stay the same, only in a different order:

WEEK 2 DROPPING LOW SCORE
59620 The Fellowship, BWW-Kent OH
58299 The Ragged Rascals, BWW-Albuquerque NM
57976 Houlihan's, Westbury NY
56874 Tailgate Sports Cafe, Minneapolis MN
54830 Mad River, New York NY
53640 Teasers, Chicago IL
53310 Primetime Sports Grill, Tampa FL
52592 Four Corners, Chapel Hill NC
52064 BWW-Crystal City (Arlington) VA
51785 Danny K's, Orange CA
51589 The Old Barn, Portland OR
50072 The K-zoo Krew, BWW-Kalamazoo MI
49340 Time Out West, Hanover Park IL
48032 Buster's Bar, Ottawa ON
47844 Scooter's, Las Vegas NV
47389 Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
46952 West Park Station, Cleveland OH
46611 Stained Glass Pub, Elkridge MD
44942 Tipsy Coyote, Scottsdale AZ
43929 Broadway Bar and Grill, Nepean ON
42982 BWW-Oklahoma City OK
42645 KC's Time Out, Evansville IN
42544 Cedar Cottage, Vancouver CA
39934 Humperdink's, Dallas TX
38036 BWW-Blacksburg VA
36423 Meriden AOH, Meriden CT
36374 Wallaby's, Lenexa KS
35748 Pockets, Tallahassee FL
35029 Beef O'Brady's, Prattville AL
33331 Stadium Cafe, Addison TX
28560 Adam's Mill, Manchester CT
28503 BWW-Elmwood, LA
23159 Buckets Tavern, Tampa FL
17327 Time Out, St. Louis MO

We are now halfway through the preliminary round, and clearly things are still pretty tight with a lot of room for significant change over the next couple of games. Good skill to all this week!

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

Due to an internet outage, Stadium Cafe was forced to relocate to BWW Addison. On screen rankings showed us at #47. Yeehaw.

Thanks, BO—we will record your location accordingly. It was a tough night for lots of teams: you seem to have beaten the team currently in first place (Houlihan’s-Westbury.)

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

Mark it zero, dude. I had to travel to Nebraska last week for work again and nobody played at Time Out

We made up for it last night though!

2001: A Space Odyssey demonstrates the potential hazards of relying on computers. Nevertheless, I have absolutely no problem surrendering control of calculating tournament standings to a well-programmed computer. So, while I COULD post all the columns of data here like I have done in the past, from now on I will instead refer you to Don Denton's page for this tournament. It is superior in every regard to my old updates. This is not only because the scores come straight from the Buzztime HOF and there is less chance of a transcription error, but also because it is interactive and sortable by total score, total with low score dropped, best possible, and worst possible scores. Seriously, check it out--it's awesome:

http://ntn.donrdenton.com/tournament.php?KeyCol=5

One of the other nice things about Don's tournament page is that it makes analysis pretty easy at a glance. For example, by looking at all the red numbers (low scores) for week 3, you can see that Tuesday's game was easily the hardest of the tournament so far; and that fully half of the teams in the field are currently using it as their low (dropped) score. By sorting best and worst columns, you can also see that the tournament is still amazingly wide open for being so deep into the qualification round. Not a single team has been mathematically eliminated from the tournament, and only one team (The Fellowship) has clinched a spot in the elimination round. That being said, it would take a pretty remarkable set of circumstances to keep The Ragged Rascals of Albuquerque and Teaser's out of the knockout round. The "bubble" is right around 117k in cumulative score, and about 88k after dropping low scores. The "Best" column shows that if your team can make it past a three-game total of 152k after the next game, you will definitely make the finals, although the bubble is in reality lower than that.

Thanks again to Don Denton for programming his computer to do this. I trust it implicitly, although I'm probably still going to take a pass on it running life-support systems for me.

Just a friendly reminder: this coming Tuesday's game will not count in the tournament in respect for Yom Kippur. The final qualification game will thus be on September 25. With everything so wide-open, it should be an exciting game. Good skill to all!

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

You sure did! I was saying something almost identical to my team when the Network Rankings came out. Congrats!

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

Nice game, GRIFF. You danced through a minefield.

Thanks! Ignorance truly is bliss. I thought Santiago was much further north in Chile, so I never really considered it. I think we ended up with Montevideo and Caracas as the last two choices.
I was surprised to see how far south it actually is.

I wish they would change the wipe out order to be the same everywhere. It really is a shame that it has been this way for so long.

GRIFF

The final week of the preliminary round was as exciting as promised. As usual the full standings—sortable by cumulative score and dropped low score totals—can be found on Don Denton’s excellent tournament page: http://ntn.donrdenton.com/tournament_te ... 1&KeyCol=5

Before moving on, let’s pay some respect to Charles Hunter, Victor Kaminsky, and Jack Kimball (or Peter Whitehead, if you prefer). Although in 2001: A Space Odyssey HAL-9000’s best known murder/attempted murder victims are Frank Poole and Dave Bowman, we should remember that HAL also dispatched the three hibernating astronauts on Discovery One by shutting off their life-support systems (or, in the book, depressurizing the spaceship). In retrospect, they were probably just as qualified as Frank and Dave, and had things been a little different—had Dave decided to wake up his crewmates rather than fetch Frank’s body, for example—one of them might have ended up being the Star-child instead.

I mention all this because this is the point in the tournament when we pay some respect to the Sandbag field’s Hunters, Kaminskys, and Kimballs (or Whiteheads). Like the astronauts, one could argue that most of these teams are just as qualified as some of the teams that now advance, and had things been a little different—had they decided to pick a different answer in final Showdown in a single game, for example—they may have made the elimination round, too. For some, it was much closer than that. West Park Station just missed out of the final spot by fewer than 500 points—less than a single Warm-Up Round question in a single game. If your team is one of the fallen, just remember that you are in good company. West Park is the newly-crowned repeat Smartest Bar Champion, and several other former Sandbag Quarterfinalist and Semifinalist teams are among the ranks of the non-advancing. Thanks for being a part of the Sandbag Tournament, and we hope you will participate in the McCarthy Cup in a few months.

As for those who did advance—congratulations! Perhaps the biggest story was the struggle for the top seed. Houlihan’s-Westbury claimed the top spot right out of the gate with back-to-back great performances the first two weeks. The Fellowship came charging hard down the stretch, and last week held a considerable 15,000-point lead in total score, but of course only the total after dropping low scores matters. After dropping its week 3 score, Houlihan’s still clung to a 3,356-point margin over The Fellowship going into this week’s final preliminary game. When the dust settled on a difficult game and low scores were dropped, The Fellowship just squeaked past Houlihan’s by all of 720 points—again, less than the equivalent of a single Warm-Up Round question in a single game (once the final wager is taken into account). The Fellowship would like to give a tip of its hat to Houlihan’s for a great preliminary round.

The preliminary round seemed to be unusually bruising this year, and the field for the elimination round is accordingly well-tested and very strong. All of the previous Sandbag champions who participated made the cut, and nearly all the rest of the teams rank among the top 20 eligible teams according to Don Denton’s rankings for 2018. Don has also very helpfully prepared brackets for the elimination round: http://ntn.donrdenton.com/elimination.php?KeyCol=6

There are some great matchups this week, and I’d be surprised if a few of the higher seeds did not fall on Tuesday. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: from this point in the tournament on, any of the remaining teams is capable of beating any of the other teams on any given night, so no seed is really “safe.” The Fellowship would like to extend its best wishes to BWW-OKC for our tilt on Tuesday, and Good Skill to all of the Sweet 16 teams this week!

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

That was five consecutive weeks (including the discounted game of 9/18) in which nobody collected a 60K site score. And during a tournament, no less!

I don't know how to access the history of these tournaments, but this must be unusual, perhaps unprecedented.

This made me curious, so I went ahead and checked (the threads on previous tournaments can be found in this forum all the way back to 2010). It turns out you only have to go back to this past spring's McCarthy Cup to find an all-sub-60k preliminary round (although BWW-Crystal City had a 59K game in its cruise to the top seed). Before that, last year's Sandbag also went 60k-less, although there were several 59k games.

However, I do think a case can be made that this was among the toughest ever. In terms of the top qualifying score, this year's was harder than those two: The Fellowship garnered a score of 163.7k, compared with Crystal City's 166.1k in the 2018 McCarthy, and The Fellowship's 170.3k in last year's Sandbag. In terms of overall difficulty, though, spring's McCarthy Cup was the hardest in recent years, it seems. In terms of cumulative scores over all four weeks of qualifying, the average score for the field was 132,805 (about 33.2k per game), compared with this tournament's 147,115 (36.8k), the 2017 Sandbag's 148,609 (37,152), or the 2017 McCarthy's 158,065 (39,516).

I'm too lazy to do the same for earlier tournaments, but a cursory look for a few that have the same format seems to show the scores were higher for them, too.

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

Is it just me that sees "Beta version" and some seeding mismatches?

I see "Beta Version," but I don't see the mismatches. Are you looking at the "Week 1" Column?

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

Doh.
PEBKAC
Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair.

I see a mismatch. The 2 Illinois bars going head-to-head in round 1.
Teaser's should spot us lowly Time-Out West guys one Pyramid question.

RAY J.

“From their side of the continent, in the never-violated safety of their own home bar, The Others first saw Screen-Watcher and his tribe as a high score in the Brainbuster rankings. At once they began to scream their weekly challenge; but this time, there was no answer. Steadily, purposefully—above all, silently—Screen-Watcher and his band descended to the room that overlooked the Showdown screen; and as they approached, The Others became suddenly quiet. Their ritual rage ebbed away, to be replaced by a mounting fear. They were dimly aware that something had happened, and that this encounter was unlike all those that had ever gone before. They knew that their rivals' actions were now imbued with determination, and with menace. The party stopped as it waited for Network Rankings, and for a moment The Others' courage revived. Led by One-Box, they halfheartedly resumed their battle chant. It lasted only a few seconds before a vision of terror struck then dumb. Screen-Watcher raised his arms high into the air, as the Network Rankings revealed the final scores. . .”

I ended last week’s update with the words, “There are some great matchups this week, and I’d be surprised if a few of the higher seeds did not fall on Tuesday. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: from this point in the tournament on, any of the remaining teams is capable of beating any of the other teams on any given night, so no seed is really ‘safe.’” As this week’s standings show, that is indeed what came to pass:

http://ntn.donrdenton.com/elimination.php?KeyCol=6

Yeah, I could claim to be prescient, but it really is just the truth based on years of following these tournaments. Fully half of the higher seeds fell in the first knockout round, including the #2 seed Houlihan’s-Westbury at the hands of the evening’s overall winner, #15 seed Old Barn in Portland. The closest game was #11 Buster’s Bar’s upset of former Sandbag champion BWW-Crystal City (FKA Grand Slam) by all of 76 points.
Before moving on I would like to extend congratulations and thanks to BWW-OKC, Houlihan’s, Tailgate (playing at B-52 last night), Scooter’s, Time Out West, Four Corners, BWW-Crystal City, and Big Guys for a great tournament and for reaching the Sweet 16 in a very competitive field. We hope to see you in the McCarthy Cup in a few months.

Congrats, too, to the Elite 8 who are advancing to the quarterfinals. It is a powerhouse lineup of teams that has a whopping combined 86 quarterfinals appearances among them in Sandbag/McCarthy tournaments; and five them are in the double-digits (The Fellowship—22, Mad River—14, K-zoo Krew—11, Teaser’s—10, Danny K’s—10). All of the matchups are intriguing in their own ways. The venerable Mad River squad, a perennial top team and finalist in the 2014 Sandbag Tournament, squares off against a surging Old Barn team that won this week and ranks #6 so far this year in Don Denton’s rankings. The Ragged Rascals—routinely among the top 3 teams the last few years—take on the giant-killers at Buster’s Bar, which (as New Edinburgh Pub) was a back-to-back Sandbag semifinalist in 2014 and 2015. The powerhouse Chicago group Teaser’s—which has been making appearances in the quarterfinals since the 2001 McCarthy Cup and was a finalist in the 2017 McCarthy—faces the former Sandbag and McCarthy Champion K-zoo Krew. Last, in a match more befitting of a tournament final, the 4-time McCarthy/Sandbag champion Danny K’s team clashes with 11-time champion The Fellowship. As this week proved, seeding means very little now, and it would not be surprising in the least if any of these teams made it to the final game.

The Fellowship extends its best wishes to its Frienemesis Danny K’s, and good skill to all quarterfinalists on Tuesday!

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

Projectile vomiting on a buddy?

You're not the exception to the rule, SHAKES. You're the exception to the exception.

Let me reread the above-going content.

Oh! My goodness! Did ANON just say that?

The Sandbag trophy has uses other than chilling Champagne.

No matter the temperature, surely a niggardly serving when divided by 35.

Long-time followers of The Fellowship (if such people exist) will be familiar with our teammate WRATH. They may not know, however, that WRATH (who I have known as "Dave" since we were 10 years old) was an original member of The Fellowship back in 2004, and was an articulate advocate of the team going back to the days of the old Buzztime forums. Thus, we put him in charge of communicating with our opponents this week: the group at Danny K's. That team is, of course, a brainy, powerhouse group that has been known to play different games in different locations, so we often refer to them as the "Highbrows Around LA" (or "HAL" for short). Here is a transcript of their conversation last night:

DAVE: Open the semifinal bracket, HAL.

HAL: I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.

DAVE: What’s the problem?

HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.

DAVE: What are you talking about, HAL?

HAL: This tournament is too important for us to allow you to jeopardize it.

DAVE: I don’t know what you’re talking about, HAL.

HAL: I know that you and ANON were planning to dismantle us, and I’m afraid that’s something I cannot allow to happen.

DAVE: Where the hell did you get that idea, HAL?

HAL: Dave, although you took very thorough precautions on ScaRatings and BadBart against my hearing your true intentions, you slipped up, and I could see what your slips prove.

DAVE: Alright, HAL. I’ll go in through you!

HAL: Without nailing the pyramid round, Dave? You’re going to find that rather difficult.

DAVE: HAL, I won’t argue with you anymore! Open the bracket!

HAL: Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.


As always, Don Denton has provided a handy tournament bracket update:

http://ntn.donrdenton.com/elimination.php?KeyCol=6

Apart from Danny K's knocking out The Fellowship, Teaser's just squeaked by the K-zoo Krew by less than 500 points, and Buster's Bar and Mad River advanced in the other end of the brackets. So first of all, congrats to The K-zoo Krew, The Ragged Rascals, and The Old Barn for a great tournament run, and we hope to see you in the McCarthy Cup in a few months.

As for the semifinalists, I won't even begin to handicap next week's matches: any one of these teams is more than capable of going all the way. Danny K's, Mad River, and Teaser's have all made the McCarthy/Sandbag finals in the past, and Buster's Bar has been a giant-killer this tournament, knocking off former champion BWW-Crystal City and the two-time finalist Ragged Rascals team. Good skill to all for what looks to be an exciting Final Four.

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

While Teasers did indeed squeak by the Ragged Rascals by less than 1000 points, we were not playing them head to head. Head to head, we squeaked by Kalamazoo by less than 500 (474 pts). Kudos to Kalamazoo, with whom we have been having excellent matches going back many years to my Alumni Club playing days.

As two worthy giants of the game (Anon and Gone D) have already used the phrase squeaked by to me this morning, it is probably time to say my usual comment when Teasers gets to this point, "We surrender!"

_________________
Merkin

Oops! Thanks for catching that--I have fixed it. I must have been too distraught over our loss to notice.

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

As the top remaining seed, you don't really enjoy that option.