New Scaratings

Danny K’s, The 2022 Sandbag Tournament Champion team, is pleased to announce the rules and signup for the 15th Annual Sandbag Tournament. The team has chosen to use the same rules as last year, and has elected to invite ANON to serve as guest commissioner for the tournament this year. He will be running the week-to-week administration of the tournament; but if there are any issues over the interpretation of the rules or other disputes, they will adjudicated/decided by Danny K's.

From its inception, this Showdown tournament has been by, of, and for those teams dedicated to wetware play. Thus, the main qualification for entering this tournament is that teams must be those that have committed themselves to use assembled brainpower only as a general rule. This means no computers and no references of any kind during gameplay, either paper or electronic (or telecommunication from outside the location). This also means no using of electronic devices such as iPhones, iPads, Android, etc., devices to look up or receive answers from elsewhere. Just to be clear, if a team engages in these activities or any form of cheating, it is a disqualifying offense.

All teams that abide by this primary rule are welcome to play, either by signing up on ScaRatings, BadBart, Friends Who Like Buzztime, or otherwise contacting me via PM. All teams must register no later than NOON ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, the day the tournament starts. Danny K’s reserves the right personally to invite additional qualified teams after the deadline to round out the field and/or include teams that have previously played in the tournament.

There will be two phases to the tournament. First, a four-game qualifying phase will start on October 10 in which the total points for each team will be tracked. Each team will be able to drop one low score for the final cumulative total after the October 31 game.

The second phase will begin on November 7. It will be a standard bracketed elimination phase. The number of teams in the knockout round will depend on how many teams sign up (for example, if only 18 teams sign up, there would more likely be 8 rather than 16 in the final round. If only 12 sign up, there may be a 6-team knockout round with a bye for the top two). Seedings for the brackets will be determined by the cumulative score described above, and will remain in place for the rest of the tournament.

The winning team will receive not just the glory of being the brainiest bunch out there, but also the custody for one year of the beautiful Sandbag Trophy, the right to have a plaque with its team name and date inscribed on it placed on the base, and the solemn responsibility of running the 16th annual tournament next fall,.


Caveats:

Should Buzztime have a system-wide repeat game during the tournament, that week’s scores will be ignored rounds will be rescheduled. Danny K’s reserve the right to cancel the results of a week and reschedule the remainder of the tournament if a significant percentage or more of teams suffer from outages, as has happened in the past. Teams faced with a sudden close or loss of Buzztime at their home location may play at another location as long as they notify ANON in advance of the game and continue to follow contest rules in the new location. In general, Danny K’s takes no responsibility for and offer no solution nor redress for localized problems (i.e. power outages, lack of players due to illness or vacation, etc.) with one possible exception: If a team in the semi-finals or finals suffers a documentable and unavoidable mid-game crash, its victorious opponent may invite that team to a rematch, but is under no obligation to do so.

Danny K’s is in.

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

The Fellowship at Red Fox/Punts and Pints is in.

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

As of this afternoon, here are the teams that have signed up for the tournament so far:

Danny K’s, Orange CA
The Fellowship, Red Fox/Punts and Pints, Cuyahoga Falls OH
Teaser’s, Chicago IL
Wallaby’s, Lenexa KS
Primetime, Tampa FL
Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
Corner Pocket, Montgomery AL
Phat Turtle, Cave Creek AZ
Moose McGuire’s, Ottawa ON
Time Out West, Hanover Park IL
KC’s Time Out, Evansville IN
Hanko’s Sports Bar, Lake Oswego OR
Okie Tonk Café, Moore OK
Alabama Little Bit of Texas, Wetumpka AL
Broadway Bar and Grill East, Orleans ON
Arches II, Rocky Hill CT

The tournament starts Tuesday the 10th. If your team wants to join, please let me know here by Tuesday afternoon.

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

We've had an addition over the weekend. Here is the field as of this afternoon, alphabetized for your convenience:

Alabama's Little Bit of Texas, Wetumpka AL
Arches II, Rocky Hill CT
The Beast of Blacksburg, Blacksburg VA
Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
Broadway Bar and Grill East, Orleans ON
Corner Pocket, Montgomery AL
Danny K’s, Orange CA
The Fellowship, Red Fox/Punts and Pints, Cuyahoga Falls OH
Hanko’s Sports Bar, Lake Oswego OR
KC’s Time Out, Evansville IN
Moose McGuire’s, Ottawa ON
Okie Tonk Café, Moore OK
Phat Turtle, Cave Creek AZ
Primetime, Tampa FL
Teaser’s, Chicago IL
Time Out West, Hanover Park IL
Wallaby’s, Lenexa KS

Once again, if your team would like to sign up, please let me know by Tuesday afternoon.

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

Sandbag Tournament, Week 1 Standings:

A number of questions came to mind in Week 1 of the 15th Annual Sandbag Tournament. Who would set themselves up as the team to beat? Who would be David? Who would be Goliath? But chief among them for me was, "Who knew that a bee has five eyes?" We sure didn't, so congrats to all who did.

As will be the case for the whole tournament, the current standings can be found on Don Denton's interactive, sortable by column, tournament page:

https://ntn.donrdenton.com/contest.php?contest=93

As always, sincerest thanks to Don Denton for his generosity with his time, effort, and technological wizardry in making these standings so convenient and accessible.

Perhaps appropriately, defending champion Danny K's set themselves up as the team to beat, with The Fellowship at Red Fox/Punts and Pints not far behind. I don't know who Goliath is, but David is definitely the small-but-mighty crew at Big Guys in Winnipeg: Despite having only a barely more than a quorum of players and operable boxes, they ensconced themselves in third place. Congrats to them, and to Danny K's for the win.

A couple of friendly reminders:

1) Because everyone gets to drop a low score, no one is out of the running for a spot in the knockout round. Although some will need to take this week as their drop, there is no real bubble at this point.

2) I assume most people know this, but it bears repeating: guest boxes do not count toward team scores in the Hall of Fame. Be sure everyone on your team is a registered (PlayersPlus) player. It only takes a few minutes to register, of course, so if you bring a guest to play, offer them one of your registered handles or help them register before the game.

Good skill to all this week!

ANON

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

Sandbag Tournament, Week 2 Standings:

First of all, sincerest congratulations must go to Moose McGuires for the win last night--their first of this year! Congrats also go to Hanko's, which was just a few hundred points behind. This is a perfect example of how these tournaments bring out the "A" games in participating teams, and how competitive the field really is. Here are the current standings, sortable by column:

https://ntn.donrdenton.com/contest.php?contest=93

Thanks, as always, to Don Denton for tracking the tournament for the community.

The big story so far seems to be how Davids like Big Guys in Winnipeg--with only a bare quorum of players--continue to plunk Goliaths like The Fellowship right between the eyes. Big Guys currently stands in second place behind defending-champ Danny K's in total points so far, with Teasers hot on their heels. After dropping low scores, Moose McGuires moves into first, followed by Hanko's, Danny K's, Teasers, Big Guys, and Time Out West. We are now halfway through the qualifying phase, with two weeks to go. And speaking of qualifying. . .

Because 17 teams registered for the tournament, Danny K's has decided that it will return to its more traditional 16-team elimination phase this year. Thus, every team but one will be advancing, giving us the possibility of seeing some Cinderellas join the Davids in the brackets.

Good skill to all teams this week, and the Goliaths out there might want to think about investing in better helmets.

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

15th Annual Sandbag Tournament, Week 3 Standings:

"Blood-bath" would be an overly-dramatic word for Tuesday's results, but perhaps "Tree-sap-bath" would be more apropos. A lot of teams were felled, mostly by the last question about trees. As a result, fully 13 of the 17 teams in the tournament currently have last night's game as their dropped scores. Also as a result, the standings received a viscous and sticky shake up. Here they are, sortable by column:

https://ntn.donrdenton.com/contest.php? ... contest=93

Thanks, as always, to Don Denton for tracking the tournament for the community.

A few notes about the current standings:

1) In terms of total score, Danny K's retained 1st place, and The Fellowship moved into 2nd, with Moose McGuire's taking 3rd. Big Guys and Teaser's tumbled to 5th and 9th, respectively, after being 2nd and 3rd last week. The Beast of Blacksburg is in 4th. Arch II benefitted from avoiding getting stuck in the tree-sap-bath, taking silver for the night and moving up to 7th in the total point standings.

2) After dropping low scores, the shake-up is perhaps even more pronounced: Danny K's moved up to 1st from 3rd, and The Fellowship leap-frogged up to 2nd place after being in 7th place last week. Big Guys--the Davids from Winnipeg--seized 3rd place with Teaser's less than 170 points behind. Moose McGuire's, Hanko's, and Time Out West rank 5th through 7th and round out the teams with scores above 100K.

3) With one week left in the preliminary round, a few teams have mathematically clinched a spot in the brackets of the knockout phase. Danny K's, The Fellowship, Moose McGuire's, The Beast of Blacksburg, Big Guys, and Primetime have all officially punched their tickets to the dance--their worst possible score is better than the best possible score of the team in 16th place. Congrats to them! Seedings are still quite wide-open, of course, although Danny K's and The Fellowship are guaranteed a higher seed (in the top 8) right now.

There is still a lot of jockeying for position to be done here in the final week of preliminaries, so good skill to all teams on Tuesday!

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

It looks like at the bottom of the board where only one will be eliminated, it’s not that close.
KCs Time Out will need to put up a number bigger than they have so far.
But 2nd to last “Alabama wishes they were in Texas” better not screw up.

It will be interesting to see how the 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 seeds shake out.
Right now it seems to be Danny vs the Beast and Red Fox vs the Moose…….if those 4 make it through to the final 4.

Then who will Sandbag this last game to avoid playing the number 1 or 2 seeds early in knockout rounds.

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

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

It looks like K.C.'s has put up numbers in the mid- to high-30k range a few times this year, so if they do that and ALBOT or a couple of other teams have an off-night, K.C.'s could still squeak in.



I agree. I don't remember it being so wide-open with one week to go very often, if at all, in the past. Often by this point a team has locked up a top-2 or top-3 seed, but it seems that--at least mathematically--Danny K's is assured of only 6th or higher, and The Fellowship only 7th or higher.



That's a big "if," of course. Any score under 52.7k locks The Fellowship into its worst score, for example, and a bunch of teams are poised to take advantage of that. And while the top four have indeed all advanced to the semifinals on occasion, it has been an exceedingly rare event. It happened in last year's Sandbag and the 2019 McCarthy, but before that you have to go all the way back to the 2006 McCarthy Cup (on paper, it looks like it happened in the 2010 McCarthy and Sandbag Tournaments, but that was because teams were re-seeded each round based on the previous round's scoring). Teams should be advised to Sandbag in the Sandbag at their own peril.

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

I don't recall the exact wording of the Final Question in Showdown Tuesday, but I believe it was something to the effect of "Which of these trees is native to the Americas?". Don't remember the fifth choice, but 4 of the choices were: eucalyptus, wisteria, cypress, and mahogany.

Well, several species of cypress (including the bald cypress) are indigenous to the americas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypress), as well as wisteria (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisteria), although wisteria is more of a vine. No wonder there were so many low scores, particularly when you take into account differences in wipe-out orders.

When you consider all of the questions that could have been asked about trees, surely Buzztime could have come up with something better and less ambiguous.

Reb

Hey Reb, how’s it going?

Now if that final question had the word “only” in front of “native to the Americas” would that have made a difference?

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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!!!!

Cleveland

I had considered that, and yes, it would have made a difference. I don't believe the word "only" appeared in the question.

Is the cypress tree (family cupressaceae) indigenous to the Americas? Yes

Is the cypress tree only indigenous to the Americas? No

Please excuse Ray, he is off his meds.

Hmmm, is Ray talking about Drew Carrey? Does he need some edibles? Are they legal in IL yet?

As for if the Q said “only”, I’m also not sure if it did.
If it did then I think Mahogany would be the species choice only native to the Americas.

Either way very confusing. But could have been correct with 1 right answer as written.

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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!!!!

Does anybody play Buzztime Trivia on Halloween night??

RAY J

Most bars are a zoo on Halloween way too many once a month bar drunks like on New Years Eve. We would play Buzztime through and enjoy and be the craziness back at Hardtimes Germantown MD and JJ Muldoons Gaithersburg MD before that. Ah the good old days of the late 80s through Feb 2014 when Hardtimes closed for good. Then it was terrible BWW and now far away Stained Glass Pub.

Some teams that have a separate room to play in are at an advantage for sure.
Enjoy the party scene and yelling drunks spilling drinks all over your boxes if you sit at the bar like we always have for decades.

Good luck tonight and let’s hear how it was on Halloween at everyone’s bar.

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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!!!!

Halloween people are scared of US.

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Merkin

We do. In the past, some our regulars might not attend so they could help their little ghosts and goblins in Trick-or-Treating, but for better or worse we are mostly empty-nesters now. That being said, I assume team communication might be a bit trickier tonight than it is most Tuesdays. In such situations, I am among the loud-mouths that help re-broadcast answers over the background din.

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

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

15th Annual Sandbag Tournament Preliminary Round Results and Brackets

It was another rough week for the field: No team cracked 50k, only three tournament teams were in the 40k range, and more than half of the field had to take last night as their dropped score. Beyond that, though, not much changed except for jockeying for seeds in the bracketed phase that starts on Tuesday. Final qualification round results can be found on Don Denton's tournament page, sortable by column:

https://ntn.donrdenton.com/contest.php?contest=93

As always, sincerest thanks to Don Denton for tracking the tournament for the community.

There was no change at the top, with Danny K's and The Fellowship locking down the #1 and #2 spots. Teaser's moved up to 3rd from 4th place, Moose McGuire's moved to 4th from 5th, and Big Guys dropped from 3rd to 5th. The Beast of Blacksburg, Time Out West, and Hanko's rounded out the top eight.

Before moving on to the brackets, I would like to thank the folks at K.C.'s Time Out Lounge in Evansville, which will not be moving on. They gamely joined the tournament even though they usually have six or fewer players every week, and knew that the odds would be stacked against them. We appreciate their efforts and their sportsmanship.

Congratulations, then, to all of the teams that will be advancing to the knockout rounds! Here are the brackets for the first round:

1) Danny K's, Orange CA
16) Alabama's Little Bit of Texas, Wetumpka AL

8) Hanko's Sports Bar & Grill, Lake Oswego OR
9) Corner Pocket, Montgomery AL

5) Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
12) Phat Turtle BBQ, Cave Creek AZ

4) Moose McGuire's, Ottawa ON
13) Wallaby's, Lenexa KS

3) Teaser's, Chicago IL
14) Okie Tonk Cafe, Moore OK

6) The Beast of Blacksburg, Blacksburg VA
11) Arch II Bar and Grill, Rocky Hill CT

7) Time Out West Sports Pub, Hanover Park IL
10) Primetime Sports Grill, Tampa FL

2) The Fellowship (Punts & Pints/Red Fox), Cuyahoga Falls OH
15) Broadway Bar and Grill East, Orleans ON

There are some good matchups here, and it is a rare tournament that does not see at least one upset in the first round. Good skill to all teams this week!

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

2023 Sandbag Tournament, Sweet 16

There were a couple of upsets in the first knockout round of the Sandbag Tournament last night, but most of the top seeds advanced:

59,712 1) Danny K's, Orange CA
no score 16) Alabama's Little Bit of Texas, Wetumpka AL

21,651 8) Hanko's Sports Bar & Grill, Lake Oswego OR
45,184 9) Corner Pocket, Montgomery AL

47,917 5) Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
2,625 12) Phat Turtle BBQ, Cave Creek AZ

43,666 4) Moose McGuire's, Ottawa ON
40,005 13) Wallaby's, Lenexa KS

50,564 3) Teaser's, Chicago IL
40,184 14) Okie Tonk Cafe, Moore OK

59,429 6) The Beast of Blacksburg, Blacksburg VA
35,108 11) Arch II Bar and Grill, Rocky Hill CT

26,292 7) Time Out West Sports Pub, Hanover Park IL
50,443 10) Primetime Sports Grill, Tampa FL

54,409 2) The Fellowship (Punts & Pints/Red Fox), Cuyahoga Falls OH
28,165 15) Broadway Bar and Grill East, Orleans ON

(As usual, brackets and standings can be found on Don Denton's tournament page. Thanks as always to him for doing this for the community: https://ntn.donrdenton.com/elimination.php?KeyCol=22)

Congrats to Danny K's for the win, and to The Beast of Blacksburg for putting up a monster score last night. Congrats, too, to Corner Pocket and Primetime for pulling off the upset in their brackets.

Before moving on, I would like to take the chance to thank Alabama's Little Bit of Texas, Hanko's, Phat Turtle BBQ, Wallaby's, Okie Tonk, Arch II, Time Out West, and Broadway Bar and Grill for participating in the tournament and making the field as competitive as it was. It was great to have you in the tournament and I hope we will see you in the McCarthy Cup this coming spring.

Congrats to all of the teams that will be advancing to the quarterfinals! There will be some good matchups this week:

1) Danny K's
9) Corner Pocket

4) Moose McGuires
5) Big Guys

3) Teaser's
6) The Beast of Blacksburg

2) The Fellowship (Red Fox/Punts and Pints)
10) Primetime

One might think that some of these matches are foregone conclusions. If that's what One thinks, though, One would be wrong. Most of the lower-seeded teams beaten the higher-seeded team at least once since the beginning of October, and Big Guys and The Beast of Blacksburg had higher scores than their upcoming opponent just last night. When it gets to this phase of the tournament, any team is more than capable of pulling off the upset, no matter who they are facing.

Good skill to all quarterfinal teams this week!

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

Any idea what happened at Alabamas little bit of Texas? Did they not play the elimination round? Or had reporting out trouble? Do they get 3 days to report if that’s the case? Probably didn’t beat Danny Boys either way.

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

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

Unfortunately, I do not. The standings could have been updated if they reported out late, but they never reported a score and, as you say, Danny K’s won the game outright, anyway.

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

Avid readers of these updates--if any exist--will remember that I finished last week's update with the following observation:
"One might think that some of these matches are foregone conclusions. If that's what One thinks, though, One would be wrong. . . .When it gets to this phase of the tournament, any team is more than capable of pulling off the upset, no matter who they are facing."

The #10-seed Primetime proved my point last night by taking out the #2-seed The Fellowship in a convincing fashion, as did the Davids at Big Guys in knocking out Moose McGuire's:

49,565 #1 Danny K's
14,838 #9 Corner Pocket

19,345 #4 Moose McGuire's
23,964 #5 Big Guys

41,485 #3 Teaser's
29,426 #6 Beast of Blacksburg

42,945 #2 The Fellowship
49,281 #10 Primetime

Before moving on, I would like to take a moment to congratulate Corner Pocket, The Beast of Blacksburg, and Moose McGuire's for making the quarterfinals and for participating in the tournament. I sincerely hope to see you again in the McCarthy Cup this fall.
Congratulations to Danny K's, Teaser's, Primetime, and Big Guys for making the semifinals of a major tournament. Extra congratulations to Primetime, which--as near as I can tell--is making its first trip to the semis. The folks from Winnipeg have the distinction of being the most venerable semifinal team: the first of their three trips was all the way back in the 2000 McCarthy Cup. Danny K's (12) and Teaser's (6), of course, are regular semifinals denizens. Here are the pairings for this week:

#1 Danny K's
#5 Big Guys

#3 Teaser's
#10 Primetime

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Any one of these teams is capable of going all the way, so it should be an exciting Final Four this week. Good skill to all the semifinalists!

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

There are some readers, maybe not avid but definitely a reader.

Wow look at Primetime go, any extra players down there? I haven’t looked at the HOF.

As far as last week goes with Little Bit of Texas is seems they are down and have been for weeks. No play there, just dead I guess?

Speaking of dead, I just had trouble getting Scar to load pages to read. Kept getting the server error notice on some pages but not all. I just kept retrying the newer threads from different links like unread posts etc. and it seems to eventually go through. I check again later and tomorrow to see if the slowdown has passed. If you read this just keep trying and things will load. Older threads seem fine. Gremlins.

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

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