New Scaratings

Danny K’s, The 2023 McCarthy Cup Tournament Champion team, is pleased to announce the rules and signup for the 24th Annual McCarthy Cup Tournament. The team has chosen to use the same rules as it chose for last year’s Sandbag Tournament, 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.

As has become customary for this tournament, it is for teams made up of assembled brainpower in the location only. Thus, the main qualification for entering this tournament is that participating 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 or email. All teams must register no later than NOON ON TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 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 March 12 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 April 2 game.

The second phase will begin on April 9. It will be a standard bracketed elimination phase. The number of teams in the knockout round will depend on how many teams sign up (e.g., if 16 or more teams sign up, there will be a round of 16. If fewer, then a round of 12 or 8, depending on what Danny K’s decides). 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 what has been called “the ugliest trophy awarded in any field of human endeavor,” 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 25th 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.

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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."

Teasers

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Merkin

Here's a list of teams that have signed up so far, to be updated periodically until the tournament starts:

Danny K's, Orange CA
The Fellowship (Red Fox/Punts and Pints) Cuyahoga Falls OH
Phat Turtle, Cave Creek AZ
KC's Time Out, Evansville IN
Time Out West, Hanover Park IL
Hanko's, Lake Oswego OR
Wallaby's, Lenexa KS
Moose McGuire's, Ottawa ON
Primetime, Tampa FL
Teaser's, Chicago IL
Olde London Road, Asheville NC
Okie Tonk Cafe, Moore OK
The Market at John Hall Store, Cecil AL
Lost In Taste, Christiansburg VA
Arch II, Rocky Hill CT

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

One suggestion for the tournament, which we will do in the fall when we defend the Austin Gonzales Memorial Sandbagger trophy. I recommend we formalize the 3rd Place game between the two 'losing' semi-finalists for the 'bonze medal'.

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Merkin

I will check with Danny K's to see if they would like to add this. If I might add my own suggestion--and I want to make it clear that I have absolutely nothing against Buddhist monks--I'll ask instead if they want to award a bronze medal for the game.

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

Pat, are there any Rs?

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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!!!!

Not with my typing.

Vey cleve.

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Merkin

what would be even moe cleve would be to just go ahead and call it the bonze medal at this point

Danny K's has no problem with adding a 3rd place or bronze, whatever it may be.

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Middle age is when a broad mind and a slim waist exchange places.

I don't get it.

Ray J.

The first week of the 24th Annual McCarthy Cup is in the books! The current standings can be found here:

https://ntn.donrdenton.com/contest.php?contest=97

(Sincerest thanks, as always, to Don Denton for creating and maintaining the tournament page for the community!)

A few notes on the standings and the tournament:

1) A full year-and-a-half after Red Fox officially changed its name to Punts and Pints, it finally showed up by its new(-ish) name in the Network Rankings for the first time on Tuesday. For those wondering who these new guys were at Punts & Pints last night, they were the same old Fellowship.

2) Congrats to Time Out West, Primetime, Moose McGuires, and Phat Turtle for rounding out the top five and getting what will probably be "keeper" scores for the preliminary round. For those teams which had a stumble, remember that everyone gets to drop a low score, so everyone is definitely still in it at this point.

3) Because only 15 teams signed up this year, Danny K's has chosen to make the knockout round a quarterfinal of the top eight teams after the preliminary round. Currently, Danny K's and Wallaby's straddle that bubble of the 8th seed, but again, with dropped scores and three more weeks of preliminaries, there really isn't a bubble yet.

4) At the request of MERKIN from the Teaser's team, Danny K's had also chosen to have a bronze-medal game between the two teams knocked out in the semi-finals. If the runner-up and the 3rd-place team want them, I will have a silver(-ish) and bronze(-ish) medal made up and sent to them after the tournament.

Good skill to all teams this week!

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

It was a nerve-wracking evening for a lot of tournament teams in the lead-up to Showdown Tuesday. Earlier in the day, a number of teams reported that their scores did not seem to be reporting out, and their Network Ranking screens after the afternoon Countdown games were blank. Other locations reported no problems, but the issue persisted into the early evening. At Punts & Pints, for example, we got no Network Ranking screens for the 5:30, 6:00, and 6:30 games. Fortunately, we showed up after the 7:00 game (and unfortunately, we also showed up with a terrible score in the Sports game that followed). Even with this, though, there was still the possibility that other teams would not report out and this week of the tournament might need to be scrapped.

The good news is that the problem seems to have resolved itself, and all of the tournament teams reported a score for last night. As always, the current standings can be found on the tournament page of Don Denton's site, sortable by column:

https://ntn.donrdenton.com/contest.php?contest=97

(Thanks again to Don for creating and maintaining the tournament page!)

While Punts and Pints solidified its lead on top, there was significant movement elsewhere in terms of total score. The biggest leaps were taken by Teaser's and Danny K's, which moved from 6th to 2nd and 8th to 4th, respectively. However, because all but three teams posted lower scores this week than last week, the standings after dropping low scores look very similar to last week's, with P&P, Time Out, Primetime, Moose McGuires, and Phat Turtle rounding out the top five.

We are now halfway through the preliminary round, and all the teams are still in the running to get into the brackets for the knockout round. Good skill to all teams this week!

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

Just a heads-up: if most Showdown scores fail to report again tomorrow, I will seek guidance from Danny K’s regarding the tournament (see “Caveat” above).

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

Update:

It seems there was a similar issue with last night's scores, too. I have dropped a note to someone at BT alerting them to the issue, and specifically asking if they could retrieve missing scores from Tuesday and Wednesday while they were fixing it. I have been told that the Development Team is looking at the problem.

Any tournament decisions and updates will probably have to wait until we know more. I'll let folks know if/when I hear anything else.

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

Update, Friday Morning Edition: Buzztime was able to retrieve the scores from nearly all of the tournament teams for Tuesday. I am consulting with Danny K's currently.

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

Good job getting that straightened out.

Ray J.

Thanks, Ray, but credit also should also to MERKIN (from Teaser's) and Don Denton who also put bugs in Buzztime's ears (eww) about this.

I'm still waiting to hear back officially from Danny K's, but whenever I do I will post the usual update here.

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

It was another nerve-wracking week for the McCarthy Cup. As most players are all too aware, Buzztime had a major reporting issue earlier this week that was not (mostly) resolved until this morning. The good news is that nearly all of the previously-absent scores have been recovered. I would like to extend a special thanks this week to Don Denton for spending extra time this week for his work in updating the tournament standings page. Here are the tentative standings as of today:

https://ntn.donrdenton.com/contest.php? ... contest=97

A couple of extra items before the usual brief analysis:

1) These standings are tentative because Okie Tonk did play, but its score still has not reported. An inquiry has been sent to Buzztime to see if it can be retrieved. If so, Danny K's has ruled that its score will be included in an amended standings later.

2) Teaser's had a computer problem that knocked it offline and it was unable to play. The system still was not working as of yesterday. If the team wishes to play at another location until the technical issue is resolved (or for however long they wish to), that of course will be fine.

So, with one week to go in the preliminary round, the field is still very fluid. Only one team (The Fellowship) has mathematically clinched a spot in the brackets. For nearly all other teams, it is still possible to advance. After dropping low scores, Primetime has edged out Time Out for 2nd place, and Danny K's has moved up from 7th to 4th. Despite Teaser's' technical difficulties, it actually moved up a spot to 5th place, and Hanko's, Moose McGuire's, and Wallaby's round out the top 8. Fewer than 100 points separate Phat Turtle and Arches II for bubble-y 9th spot. Lost in Taste, The Market, and Okie Tonk are all still in the mix for the knockout round, too.

With just one week to go in the preliminary round, here's hoping that the only drama comes from the actual game results. Good skill to all!

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

24th Annual McCarthy Cup Preliminary Round Results and Brackets

The last week of the McCarthy Cup Preliminary Round was relatively drama-free compared to previous weeks: All scores seem to have reported, and there was relatively little movement among the teams fighting for seeds in the brackets, with one notable exception. Here are the final standings after dropping low scores:

https://ntn.donrdenton.com/contest.php?contest=97

(Thanks, as always, to Don Denton for creating and maintaining the tournament page for the community!)

With the exception of Danny K's swapping places with Primetime for 3 and 4th place, there was no appreciable movement among the top seven from last week. The biggest change was at the bubble, where Arch II knocked out Wallaby's for the final seed.

This sets up the brackets, but before we get to that, we must first thank Phat Turtle, Wallaby's, Lost in Taste, Okie Tonk Cafe, The Market at John Hall Store, K.C.'s Time Out, and Olde London Road for contributing their competition to the preliminary round. It was great to have you in the tournament, and we hope to see you the Sandbag Tournament this fall!

Now, congratulations are in order to the team advancing to the elimination round! Here are this week's quarterfinal matchups:

#1 The Fellowship(Punts and Pints)
#8 Arch II

#4 Time Out West
#5 Teaser's

#3 Danny K's
#6 Hanko's

#2 Primetime
#7 Moose McGuire's

Congrats again to the quarterfinal teams, and good skill to all this week!

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

McCarthy Cup 2024 Quarterfinal Results

At this point in every Showdown tournament, there is no such thing as a "safe" seeding--all of the teams are capable of pulling off an upset--a case in point was #7 Moose McGuire's win over #2 Primetime last night. Yet this upset is worthy of special note given the difficult circumstances under which Moose McGuire's has been playing. The location only has six functional boxes capable of holding a charge through Showdown, and yet with this bare quorum of boxes, it has managed to earn a spot in the Final Four. Congrats to them, and to the other winning teams last night:

54,285 #1 The Fellowship(Punts and Pints)
32,010 #8 Arch II

34,770 #4 Time Out West
48,787 #5 Teaser's

58,497 #3 Danny K's
40,096 #6 Hanko's

35,885 #2 Primetime
45,840 #7 Moose McGuire's

Before moving on to the semifinal brackets, I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate and thank Arch II, Time Out West, Hanko's, and Primetime for their excellent runs in the tournament. They can justly claim to be among Buzztime's best, and we hope to see them in the Sandbag Tournament this fall. Congrats, too, to Danny K's for winning last night's game!

Here, then, are the Final Four matchups:

#1 The Fellowship(Punts and Pints)
#5 Teaser's

#3 Danny K's
#7 Moose McGuire's

Again, no seed is safe here: The Final Four all rank among this year's top eight in average score, and every one of these teams has beaten its opponent on more than one occasion already this year. It should be an exciting night on Tuesday. Good skill all the semifinal teams!

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

McCarthy Cup 2024 Semifinal Results

Here are last night's results:

54,410 #1 The Fellowship(Punts and Pints)
50,940 #5 Teaser's

59,299 #3 Danny K's
43,473 #7 Moose McGuire's

Before moving on, we must recognize the excellent tournament runs by both Teaser's and Moose McGuire's. To make it to the final four in a tournament like this proves the talent and skill both of these teams command. Congrats to them, and we hope to see both of them in fall's Sandbag Tournament.

So next week's final pits two of the most historically-successful major tournament teams against each other. This is The Fellowship's 20th trip to a McCarthy/Sandbag final, and Danny K's 9th. Only the D.C. team (Grand Slam/BWW-Crystal City) and its 13 appearances stands between the two of them. While on the surface these figures might make it seem that The Fellowship should be the favorite, when you scratch the surface, Danny K's has more of an edge. First of all Danny K's record in tournament finals is 6-2 (75%), while The Fellowship's is 13-6 (68%). Furthermore, and more significantly, in the three head-to-head finals between these two teams, Danny K's is 2-1. Further-erthermore, and even more significantly, while The Fellowship may have finished ahead of Danny K's in the first three games of the tournament, in the last three games, Danny K's is 3-0 against them, showing they have the momentum and are peaking at the right time.

Of course, what is true of the stock market is also true of Buzztime Trivia: Past performance is no guarantee of future results, and it won't be a huge surprise if either team wins. The Fellowship wishes good skill to our friends at Danny K's for what promises to be an exciting finale.

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

Sincerest congratulations to 2024 McCarthy Cup Champion Danny K's!

52,596 Danny K's
49,827 The Fellowship

This is Danny K's fifth McCarthy Cup win, and its seventh major tournament (McCarthy and Sandbag) overall. They now have the honor of running the 25th Annual McCarthy Cup Tournament next spring.

Congrats, too, to Teaser's for winning the bronze medal game:

47,368 Teaser's
46,183 Moose McGuire's

I think that it is appropriate that all of the top non-computer assisted scores this week were from McCarthy Cup semifinal teams.

Before signing off, I would like to extend sincerest thanks again to all the teams that participated in the 24th Annual McCarthy Cup. You are what make these tournaments a success every year. I would also like to extend my personal thanks to Danny K's for allowing me the honor of serving as guest tournament commissioner this time around. They were not just the best team this year, they were also excellent hosts of the tournament.

We hope to see you all (and other teams!) in the Sandbag Tournament this fall, which Teaser's will be running. Until then, good trivia and good skill to all!

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

Congratulations to Danny K's on their win!!

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Merkin

Thanks for hosting the tournament for us. You did an excellent job as usual.

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Middle age is when a broad mind and a slim waist exchange places.