Search found 1528 matches
- Fri Mar 29, 2024 9:32 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
Here's one I think I will get outvoted against on. The Grand Final for EOY FOCAL finals should be a 15r game. Keep the 7 heat games as 9rs, but make the GF 15r :) Throughout the year, most events use 9r as the format, but there is some variation - we have some Goatdown, some 14r events, and some 15r...
- Wed Mar 27, 2024 6:30 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
On a separate note about smaller events. They should count, in full. It's still a CoEvent. Absolutely agree with the sentiment. It's still a proper event, and it's still deserves full the recognition etc. I'm not saying there is less achievement in winning these events, it still always takes a spec...
- Tue Mar 26, 2024 8:37 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
What do people think about the weighting of non main events towards Focal points? This year I think there will be at least 3 non main events, and next year there may be 4 or more. A few people have mentioned they should count as a half weighted event for focal points. Pros: - Small events are tacked...
- Tue Mar 26, 2024 8:31 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
What would people think of doing away with tie-break conundrums and allowing draws to happen? There isn't the same need to declare a winner that the TV show has, and I feel like achieving level scores over 9 rounds should count for slightly more than a defeat and slightly less than a win. Also avoi...
- Sun Mar 24, 2024 8:00 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Goat/Co Rugby 2024
- Replies: 16
- Views: 4857
Re: Goat/Co Rugby 2024
So thank you all for coming for what was a very enjoyable two days. You are all lovely, and it was sublime to see you all. Thanks must go to Beachy and Rach, without whom this would have been a ballache of cosmic proportions. Congrats to Zohaib and Jack for their respective victories-watch this spa...
- Thu Mar 14, 2024 7:41 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: FOCAL Belts
- Replies: 18
- Views: 596
Re: FOCAL Belts
Do you mean like the Special Olympics?
- Mon Mar 11, 2024 8:13 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: FOCAL Belts
- Replies: 18
- Views: 596
FOCAL Belts
Just a fun idea. If across FOCAL tournaments there were belts different categories like in boxing. Examples - Over 40s - Ladies - Hasn't been on the show - Tom (there's enough Toms to justify it) What categories would you have? The first two would be interesting, with Countdown dominated by men unde...
- Sun Mar 10, 2024 8:35 pm
- Forum: Other game shows
- Topic: The 1% Club
- Replies: 52
- Views: 4993
Re: The 1% Club
Saw this for the first time yesterday. Can imagine many Countdowners having a go especially if they need 100 players per episode!
Anybody else find Lee Mack unbearably facetious?
Anybody else find Lee Mack unbearably facetious?
- Wed Mar 06, 2024 1:12 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Goat/Co Rugby 2024
- Replies: 16
- Views: 4857
Re: Goat/Co Rugby 2024
How's it going with setting the Goatnundrums?
If it helps, I could provide a script that runs locally on your machine to batch check a set of potential goatnundrums and highlight invalid ones.
If it helps, I could provide a script that runs locally on your machine to batch check a set of potential goatnundrums and highlight invalid ones.
- Wed Mar 06, 2024 1:10 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: You Are The Ref
- Replies: 345
- Views: 147398
Re: You Are The Ref
100% Agree with Fiona. I think it's a good practise for event organisers to point this out at the start of the day for any event using Goatnundrums: "We've tried our hardest to make sure that the Goatnundrums have a unique solution, however if you spot one that doesn't have a unique solution, b...
- Fri Mar 01, 2024 8:26 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Ask Graeme?
- Replies: 1740
- Views: 684916
- Thu Feb 29, 2024 12:43 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: RIP Dave Myers
- Replies: 2
- Views: 299
RIP Dave Myers
Dave Myers has died at the age of 66. He was best known as half of the Hairy bikers duo. He appeared in Dictionary Corner on 25 episodes of Countdown between 2012 and 2019. He was a guest during the first week of 30BC so a few of the regulars on here (including myself) had the pleasure of meeting hi...
- Mon Feb 26, 2024 9:41 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
However, I don't like the idea of expanding the definition of "newbie" to include "people who are perceived as slow hosts". If you, as the organiser, are telling everyone the first round is "random", then you shouldn't be interfering with it. You may say that guarantee...
- Mon Feb 26, 2024 5:22 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
I'm curious to hear from hosts (and Graeme) if atropine had a feature where you can mark a player as a an inexperienced/slow hosts and for R1 the draw avoid clustering such players together do you think it would help to keep things running smoothly? I wouldn't want "slow" to cause offence,...
- Mon Feb 26, 2024 5:12 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
As for co event suggestion - I do think if there's somebody who is quite clearly a good host and can hurry a game along that they host first. Shows newer people how it's done and sets a precedent for more experienced but slower hosts on how to carry the game along. Quite annoying when one table is ...
- Mon Feb 26, 2024 2:13 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
Reasons to go with standard declaration; It's the way it's done on the show/ apterous/ Jack's app I think you're confused because my app doesn't do that - and also if it did, it's not necessarily an assertion from me on the correct way to play Countdown, I could have just done it that way because i...
- Sun Feb 25, 2024 4:45 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
Also has this been said - as host, don't write the letters down on the scoresheet until the time starts. You don't need to interrupt the letters selection process to do something you will shortly have 30 seconds to do. I might be considered crazy for saying this, but lets just abolish the selection...
- Sun Feb 25, 2024 4:40 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
[*] Then, put the selection into Lexplorer or Jack's app to see the maxes, which often saves time afterwards. Good system. Worth noting that app app has an "other words" section too, so you only need to do one search. Enter the selection. Its the offered word isn't in the maxes list, or i...
- Sun Feb 25, 2024 2:35 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
Top tip for hosting games at Colin style co-events: A game changer for me as an event attendee was when I started putting no effort/caring into playing along with games that I am hosting. It has many benefits: - I'm able to prioritizing hosting effectively and make fewer mistakes with timing. I can ...
- Sun Feb 25, 2024 12:26 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co:Liv II - Saturday 24 February 2024
- Replies: 31
- Views: 14413
Re: Co:Liv II - Saturday 24 February 2024
Cheers for yesterday Andy! Do you have the full set of results to post here? Interested to see who played who etc and also would be good to have for when I get round to updating ELO. Also for focal standings I think it's important to have all of the correct results in, so posting the atropine result...
- Wed Feb 07, 2024 4:45 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: COLIN XX- your input desired
- Replies: 13
- Views: 815
Re: COLIN XX- your input desired
two calendars' thing it's been a problem for years. Only solution I can think of is to only give prizes on the Saturday for people not playing on Sunday but that feels like cheating somehow. Different prizes on Saturday and Sunday, especially branded ones, would be prohibitively expensive as you ge...
- Wed Feb 07, 2024 10:45 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: COLIN XX- your input desired
- Replies: 13
- Views: 815
Re: COLIN XX- your input desired
My favourite Colin souvenirs are the mug, the coaster and the badges.
3 events all with a final will be a lot! I will probably do all 3 because of FOMO but honestly 2 is already enough to leave me exhausted.
3 events all with a final will be a lot! I will probably do all 3 because of FOMO but honestly 2 is already enough to leave me exhausted.
- Fri Feb 02, 2024 2:56 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: CO:parkrun Recaps
- Replies: 583
- Views: 290434
Re: CO:parkrun Recaps
Great stuff from Adam L shaving 9 mins of his parkrun time!
- Mon Jan 29, 2024 10:32 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: COLIN XIX- Countdown in Lincoln, 27-28 January 2024
- Replies: 44
- Views: 16928
Re: COLIN XIX- Countdown in Lincoln, 27-28 January 2024
Cheers for another fantastic Colin weekend Ben! Looking forward to 2025 already.
Also cheers to everybody who came and played, always a pleasure to see you all
Also cheers to everybody who came and played, always a pleasure to see you all
- Mon Jan 29, 2024 10:29 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
Always use the letters packs that Callum made. The ones taken from various copies of the board game all have very bad (and inconsistent) distributions, which make it less fun for most. They used to. Adam 'awesome' Beach has gone through the packs and standardised them all, so everyone from COLIN on...
- Thu Jan 25, 2024 6:47 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: The Countdown Android App is now out!
- Replies: 153
- Views: 28700
Re: The Countdown Android App is now out!
I assumed you get the next unplayed game, so if I sit and play three games in a row at the same time as you do, then that's gonna happen. I think also at the moment there's relatively few people playing - I've had mainly A, quite a few teapots, a few Jack and a smattering of others - have only mana...
- Thu Jan 25, 2024 6:31 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
I guess the question wasn't about method but more about outcome. What's better for R3 tables Version A T1 4W 4W 4W T2 4W 3W 3W Or Version B T1 4W 4W 3W T2 4W 4W 3W Version B has a big downside that 2 players on 3 wins are getting lumped with a pair of 4W players. Version A has the downside that one ...
- Tue Jan 23, 2024 7:41 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Word Checks at Co:Events using the Android App
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2976
Re: Word Checks at Co:Events using the Android App
Version 1.117 is out now and will be required if you want to use the app for word checks at Colin. It has all of the new words (such as ANTIPOLE).
- Mon Jan 22, 2024 7:12 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: The Countdown Android App is now out!
- Replies: 153
- Views: 28700
Re: The Countdown Android App is now out!
I've just rolled out an updated prototype for Async Head-to-Head Games . This feature is still in its early stages and is accessible exclusively through invite links, which you'll find below. Before you dive in, here are some key points you need to know: Rate Limiting for Abandoned Games: To encour...
- Mon Jan 22, 2024 2:05 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-event dictionary
- Replies: 34
- Views: 3728
Re: Co-event dictionary
RIP to these conundrums, all of which now have an anagram:
BROTHERLY
DETAINING
HEADBOARD
WOODBLOCK
BOARDWALK
SMARTNESS
CRAYONING
SEALPOINT
SUNDERING
BANDOLIER
INSOMNIAC
ATONALISM
COCHINEAL
ANTIMONIC
NOISECORE
RADIOLAND
BROTHERLY
DETAINING
HEADBOARD
WOODBLOCK
BOARDWALK
SMARTNESS
CRAYONING
SEALPOINT
SUNDERING
BANDOLIER
INSOMNIAC
ATONALISM
COCHINEAL
ANTIMONIC
NOISECORE
RADIOLAND
- Sun Jan 21, 2024 10:10 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
Is you had 4 players on 4 wins after 2 rounds of games how would you want the tables to be for rd3?
- Sun Jan 21, 2024 10:05 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: The Countdown Android App is now out!
- Replies: 153
- Views: 28700
Re: The Countdown Android App is now out!
There's a maxmimum amount of times you can do it within a fixed time period. At the moment it's twice in 48 hours. Then you just have to wait for one of the abandoned games to fall out of that time window. I forgot to apologise in my previous post for my dropped games which is pretty poor form so s...
- Sun Jan 21, 2024 9:01 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: CO:Rea - 20 April 2024
- Replies: 14
- Views: 12600
- Sun Jan 21, 2024 8:48 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: The Countdown Android App is now out!
- Replies: 153
- Views: 28700
Re: The Countdown Android App is now out!
I also need to add a feature that lets you pause games. It's going to require quite a large refactor which is why I have been putting it off. This would probably help too.
- Sun Jan 21, 2024 8:40 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: The Countdown Android App is now out!
- Replies: 153
- Views: 28700
Re: The Countdown Android App is now out!
[*] Rate Limiting for Abandoned Games: To encourage fair play. If you abandon multiple games, you'll be rate limited. Please make sure to finish the games you start. Loving the head to head feature, thanks Jack. Can I ask what "rate limiting" means please? Sorry if I'm being thick but I d...
- Sat Jan 20, 2024 6:13 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: The Countdown Android App is now out!
- Replies: 153
- Views: 28700
Re: The Countdown Android App is now out!
I've just rolled out an updated prototype for Async Head-to-Head Games . This feature is still in its early stages and is accessible exclusively through invite links, which you'll find below. Before you dive in, here are some key points you need to know: Rate Limiting for Abandoned Games: To encoura...
- Sat Jan 20, 2024 2:57 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: CO:Rea - 20 April 2024
- Replies: 14
- Views: 12600
Re: CO:Rea - 20 April 2024
Pretty excited about this. With 15 rounders and a decent letters algorithm this is going to be the most realistic co event I can recall.
- Sat Jan 20, 2024 2:31 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-event dictionary
- Replies: 34
- Views: 3728
Re: Co-event dictionary
I'd like to point out some important differences between TV Countdown and Co-Event Countdown that people should take into consideration when thinking about how words are adjudicated. TV Countdown: - Maximum 100 word checks necessary per day of recording in the studio - A highly qualified lexicograph...
- Sat Jan 20, 2024 2:02 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-event dictionary
- Replies: 34
- Views: 3728
Re: Co-event dictionary
Shared version here (almost all of these (AE onwards) are from Ray's great work with the other odd tickets with a few words here and there added too) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HKpAYgAXFja4VHx3k3imPi2nSCDmzpASY5r8w09Ftd0/edit?usp=sharing Thanks for Sharing this! I could make a commitme...
- Sat Jan 20, 2024 11:47 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-event dictionary
- Replies: 34
- Views: 3728
Re: Co-event dictionary
Well I've collated all the outstanding dictionary tickets into a spreadsheet and am happy to share it. There are a handful of edge cases and I guess this is where difficulties occur. FWIW for Reading (if we don't get a full update before then) my thought is to add the new words but flag them on the...
- Sat Jan 20, 2024 11:47 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-event dictionary
- Replies: 34
- Views: 3728
Re: Co-event dictionary
I also don't see a problem with the request. If you ran a project in your spare time, wouldn't you be annoyed if a user raised a specific feature request needed for an event at a weeks' notice on a Friday night? When they could have raised it at any point up to 9 weeks ago. We've just coming to the...
- Sat Jan 20, 2024 11:27 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-event dictionary
- Replies: 34
- Views: 3728
Re: Co-event dictionary
Your app's dictionary is based on the Apterous dictionary, and if Apterous were updated this week you wouldn't have time to update the app to match. Your app's dictionary is up to date, but you don't want the Apterous dictionary to be up to date because then people could check words with that inste...
- Sat Jan 20, 2024 8:53 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-event dictionary
- Replies: 34
- Views: 3728
Re: Co-event dictionary
I was just alerted to this thread on Apterous: https://www.apterous.org/ticket_view.php?ticket=6867 I also agree with the sentiment that Co-Events should be played with the most up to date dictionaries available, however the practicalities of asking for this on apterous at 7 days notice are very que...
- Fri Jan 19, 2024 4:25 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
M8 I'm telling you I dread R2 fixtures more than R3 fixtures.
- Fri Jan 19, 2024 3:43 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
That's incredibly unlikely to happen - and looking through a selection of recent events with full round results confirms that. Tom, I'm not sure where you are getting your data from to make this claim of "incredibly unlikely to happen" from, but I think you are just wrong here. It literal...
- Fri Jan 19, 2024 2:45 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
It's unlikely though that the top 3 after 1 round of Lincoln style will be the actual strongest 3 (given different random rounds to play), so most likely 2 of the very top players will still be on the top table for the following round. I'm inclined to disagree with this. Any single combination isn'...
- Fri Jan 19, 2024 1:14 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
Different event formats probably fall short on different combinations of those principles. We're talking about the Colin format here then I think variety of opponent is the main drawback for me. I can't speak for everybody, but my own experience over the past couple of seasons has been very repetit...
- Fri Jan 19, 2024 11:53 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
If it were up to me, we'd bin off the Swiss pairs/triples system entirely. I've discussed this general thing before with various tweaks, but here is my definitive system that I think would work: ... The Pot Draw Method This has come from running a chess club in a school, but how it runs at a Co-eve...
- Fri Jan 19, 2024 11:47 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
Always use the letters packs that Callum made. The ones taken from various copies of the board game all have very bad (and inconsistent) distributions, which make it less fun for most. They used to. Adam 'awesome' Beach has gone through the packs and standardised them all, so everyone from COLIN on...
- Mon Jan 15, 2024 11:33 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
If it were up to me, we'd bin off the Swiss pairs/triples system entirely. I've discussed this general thing before with various tweaks, but here is my definitive system that I think would work: ... The Pot Draw Method This has come from running a chess club in a school, but how it runs at a Co-eve...
- Mon Jan 15, 2024 11:09 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
Always use the letters packs that Callum made. The ones taken from various copies of the board game all have very bad (and inconsistent) distributions, which make it less fun for most.
- Sun Jan 07, 2024 12:38 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
Just looking at the sign ups for Colin. Rob and Jack W very likely to be Table 1 together for round 2. Therefore it's a sound strategy to try and win badly in R1 to get on table 2 or 3 for R2. Would be cool at tourneys like this is r2 was random game vs somebody on same wins. i've legitimately trie...
- Thu Jan 04, 2024 12:14 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
But I appreciate that wasn't your main point :) Surely if those players don't meet in round two, then they're likely to meet in round 3? If you are #4 after R1 then your R3 table can only have one of the top 3 players. When it's players like Rob and Jack W the difference between having to play both...
- Thu Jan 04, 2024 8:30 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 149
- Views: 13470
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
Just looking at the sign ups for Colin. Rob and Jack W very likely to be Table 1 together for round 2. Therefore it's a sound strategy to try and win badly in R1 to get on table 2 or 3 for R2. Would be cool at tourneys like this is r2 was random game vs somebody on same wins.
- Sun Dec 31, 2023 10:11 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: The Countdown Android App is now out!
- Replies: 153
- Views: 28700
Re: The Countdown Android App is now out!
A few milestones worth celebrating
- We've hit 50k downloads
- We hit 2 years on 26th Dec
- We hit game 500K on 24th Dec
In 2024 we'll be aiming for the big 1 million
- We've hit 50k downloads
- We hit 2 years on 26th Dec
- We hit game 500K on 24th Dec
In 2024 we'll be aiming for the big 1 million
- Wed Dec 27, 2023 6:38 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Could a Countdown World Championships be a feasible event
- Replies: 6
- Views: 1912
Re: Could a Countdown World Championships be a feasible event
Good analogy. Colin is a major. Also Focal finals and ATP finals both kinda carry less credit than they could in seasons where the big guns don't play enough to qualify.Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Wed Dec 27, 2023 6:25 pm COLIN is like Wimbledon, whereas the FOCAL championship is like the ATP finals.
- Sun Dec 24, 2023 6:31 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Merry Xmas C4C! 2022
- Replies: 15
- Views: 2494
Re: Merry Xmas C4C! 2022
Merry christmas again everybody xoxox
- Sat Dec 23, 2023 1:24 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-event dictionary
- Replies: 34
- Views: 3728
Re: Co-event dictionary
Still. Its spoiled the bit of excitement I would have had watching along and seeing a new word being allowed. Just remember, some people want no information at all about recent episodes
- Sat Dec 23, 2023 9:28 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-event dictionary
- Replies: 34
- Views: 3728
Re: Co-event dictionary
Maintaining an accurate dictionary is a time consuming and largely thankless task. Its requires a lot of time and energy from somebody with experience and a high level of expertise. There are cases where you are behind ODO (that's always the case tbf). Because Charlie has always had ultimate respons...
- Sat Dec 23, 2023 9:00 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-event dictionary
- Replies: 34
- Views: 3728
Re: Co-event dictionary
Spoilers thx