Enter The Fray

Official forum of apterous.org, the website which allows you to play against other people over the Internet.
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Johnny Canuck
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Enter The Fray

Post by Johnny Canuck »

Background
I'm considering running a series of live chat-based competitions, known as Frays, in Apterous's live chat in the near future (live). The competitions would be regularly scheduled, and right now, I'm thinking they will be at 9pm (British Standard Time) on Thursday nights, starting tomorrow. If anyone wants to enter the next Fray, post here or message me via aptomail.

Disclaimer
I haven't let anyone at Apterous Towers know about this upcoming series yet. If Charlie disapproves of holding a live show in the chat, I may move it to private chat or to a chat room hosted by an external server. I do not wish to encroach on his site in any way whatsoever.

Next Fray
Letters Fray - Date & Time TBA


Rules
1. Frays may be in any of the three types of Countdown rounds -- we may have letters Frays, numbers Frays or conundrum Frays. There may also be mixed Frays that feature combinations thereof. The format of the upcoming Fray will always be announced in advance under the "Next Fray" heading above.

2. The dates and times of Frays will also be announced under "Next Fray". Right now, I'm considering holding Frays regularly on Thursday nights at 9:00pm BST. If anyone wishes to join and has a more convenient alternative time, please let me know.

3. You may sign up for a Fray by posting in this thread; contacting me via aptomail; or, while I am on Apterous, posting a message in the chat that says you want to join. I will try to be around for 10-20 minutes prior to each Fray. Signups close as soon as the Fray begins.

4. The Fray's procedure and elimination system is based on that of America's Scripps National Spelling Bee.
- Prior to the competition, contestants will be placed in a random or arbitrary order.
- Each entrant will be given a conundrum scramble or letters or numbers selection, and will be asked to find the conundrum answer (for conundrums) or a max-scoring solution (for letters and numbers).
- Entrants may make as many guesses as they want within their time limits (see Rule #5, below, for time limit information).
- All entrants who find correct maxes will proceed to the next round, and any who do not find them will be eliminated from the competition.
- Selections will start easy, then increase in difficulty throughout the competition.
- Once only one contestant remains in the Fray, he or she must max one final round to win the competition. (Think of the "win-by-two" system used in tennis.) Should the player miss the max here, all contestants from the previous round -- including those who failed to find maxes -- will be reinstated, and the process repeats until a winner is found.
Please relay any questions regarding these rules to me.

5. Base time limits are 10 seconds for Conundrum Frays, 20 seconds for Numbers Frays and 30 seconds for Letters Frays. In late rounds, these time limits may be shortened if many good players still remain.

6. A leader board of past Fray winners will be kept. Probably in this thread. There may, from time to time, be "all-star" Fray series that will be exclusive to past winners.

Leader Board
Marcus - 1 win - 2 points
David - 1 second place - 1 point
Mark - 1 win - 1 point

Conclusion
Remember, you can sign up here; on aptomail; or in aptochat if I'm around. More details to follow. Hope to see you all tomorrow.
Good luck, and may the best Frayer win!
Last edited by Johnny Canuck on Sun Dec 22, 2013 6:49 pm, edited 8 times in total.
I'm not dead yet. In a rut right now because of stress from work. I'll be back later in S89. I also plan to bring back the Mastergram - if I can find a way to run a timer or clock through pure MediaWiki without having to upload to Vimeo every time.
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Callum Todd
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Re: Enter The Fray

Post by Callum Todd »

Can't commit to it but I might pop in i I become available. I like the idea though, hope it works out.
Mark Deeks wrote:Callum Todd looks like a young Ted Bundy.
Zarte Siempre
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Re: Enter The Fray

Post by Zarte Siempre »

Thursdays no good for me. And a few others I think.
Possibly the first contestant to accelerate with a mic clipped...
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Johnny Canuck
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Re: Enter The Fray

Post by Johnny Canuck »

The first-ever Fray is now complete. Congratulations to all 6 players who entered, but particularly to Marcus, who took the glory in the ninth round after spotting CYBERPUNK. David also put up a very strong fight, correctly polishing off six increasingly hard conundrums before finally coming unstuck against the 9-hardness word ADIPOSITY.

These two brave Frayers will be awarded 2 and 1 points, respectively, on our official leader board; they will also retain the eternal honour of having finished first and second in the debut episode of what I sincerely hope will be a successful chat show.

The next Fray will be a numbers one, and it is scheduled for 11:00am BST on the morning of Saturday, December 21. Hope to see you all there.
I'm not dead yet. In a rut right now because of stress from work. I'll be back later in S89. I also plan to bring back the Mastergram - if I can find a way to run a timer or clock through pure MediaWiki without having to upload to Vimeo every time.
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Johnny Canuck
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Posts: 1647
Joined: Sun Oct 03, 2010 10:44 pm
Location: Montréal 😃, Québec 😕, Canada 😃

Re: Enter The Fray

Post by Johnny Canuck »

The first Numbers Fray has run its course. Five people entered; kudos to all of them. However, we needed to play favourites. Mark emerged the victor of this morning's battle in the eighth round after correctly reaching the final target of 953. Guess that unique method -- typing out your numbers solutions in prose -- finally paid off, innit?

Mark's victory has garnered him 1 point on the Fray leader board. (Note: Frays containing 5 or fewer people award 1 point to the winner; those containing between 6 and 10 people award 2 points; those between 11 and 15 people award 3 points; and so on.)

The next Fray is a letters Fray, and I'm not sure when I'll next be available... or whether it'll even be in regular chat. I will post here with details on the time, date and location.

EDIT: The Letters Fray at 6:30pm today has been cancelled.
I'm not dead yet. In a rut right now because of stress from work. I'll be back later in S89. I also plan to bring back the Mastergram - if I can find a way to run a timer or clock through pure MediaWiki without having to upload to Vimeo every time.
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