Countdown Scattergories II

[Joseph Bolas]

Here is the second installment of the Countdown Scattergories game. Below are 10 word rounds and for each round you are to find a word of a specific length. The idea is to come up with a word, that you think will be the least mentioned by the other players. For each round, there are now only 8 possible answers (well hopefully ).

R01: E X I T S D U A L - 7 Letter Word
R02: W A T T E R Y Q I - 6 Letter Word
R03: S T O R E M A I D - 8 Letter Word
R04: J U N K A R O S E - 6 Letter Word
R05: C H O O S E A I R - 7 Letter Word
R06: Z I G V I S A G E - 5 Letter Word
R07: P L A I N F O E S - 7 Letter Word
R08: R E S T G E N I E - 8 Letter Word
R09: B L U E S O D A S - 7 Letter Word
R10: T E N T R A D I O - 8 Letter Word

Rules
1. Check that your words are allowed before submitting your entry. The best way to do this (because not everyone will have an OED2r) is to use the Stemmer feature on Apterous. To use the feature, just type in your word but leaving out one letter (eg if word was APTEROUS, type in APTEROU etc) and then it should come up below.
2. Check that your words match the length required for each round before submitting.
3. Check that your words match the selection for each round before submitting.
4. Check that you have spelt your words correctly before submitting.
5. If your word breaks any of the rules above (1-4), then you will be allowed to have another attempt for that round. However you will then only score half the points for the word. (Eg if in Game 1, Round 1 you came up with HEARING, which is too short and then after being allowed to guess again, you then said CHEATING, you would then have only scored 3.5 points).
6. Once you have submitted a word, that is acceptable for the round, you can not change your answer.

Scoring
Each word is scored by the number of times that it has been mentioned. If a word is only mentioned once, then it will get 10 points, a word mentioned twice will get 9 points and so on down to 0 points for words mentioned more than 10 times. If you end up having another guess for a round, you will then get half the overall score for that word (see rule 5 above).

Time Limit
All entries are to be in before 30th December 2008.

[Jimmy Gough]

An hour late....hopefully that won't matter

[Joseph Bolas]

An hour late....hopefully that won't matter

Have you sent me an email? because my inbox has no new messages.

Edit: Okay now I have got it.

[Jimmy Gough]

yeah, sorry, just sent it.


I predict that most people will have thought that people would've thought not to go for the obvious ones and so decided to go for the obvious ones themselves and exactly the same thing will happen as before and Kirk will win.

[Jimmy Gough]

When will the results be out Joseph?

[Joseph Bolas]

It's time to close this competition and annouce the winner

The winner of the second Countdown Scattergories is Callum Laddiman

The overall scoreboard came out as follows:

1st - Callum Laddiman: 92
2nd - Innis Carson: 91
2nd - Jon O'Neill: 91
2nd - Mrs. Laddiman: 91
5th - Ben Hunter: 88.5
6th - Ian Volante: 87
6th - Kai Laddiman: 87
8th - Michael Wallace: 86
9th - Stewart Scott: 84
10th - Jimmy Gough: 82
11th - Rosemary Roberts: 79

Everyone's guesses and scores can be found here.

Thank you to all who participted and well done to Callum Laddiman

Here are the available words (I had) for each round, that were not mentioned:

R01: DILUTES, LUXATED
R02: RATITE
R03: ASTEROID, MORTISED, READMITS
R04: ARKOSE
R05: SCORIAE
R06: IVIES, VIGAS
R08: ETERNISE
R09: BLOUSES, BOLASES
R10: TENTORIA

[Jimmy Gough]

In your FACE Rosemary Roberts. YES! I am the greatest. Well done to Callum - a surprise winner I think. Odd the words which were and weren't chosen.... do you think there's really a skill to it?

[Joseph Bolas]

In your FACE Rosemary Roberts. YES! I am the greatest.

I don't know about being the greatest, but you were the latest entry

Odd the words which were and weren't chosen.... do you think there's really a skill to it?

I don't think there skill to this game. Maybe that's why I had fewer participants this time.

[Michael Wallace]

So in round 4 I had SOAKER and scored 9, whereas Ben had SOAKER and scored 4.5? Or have I misread?

I adopted the 'first word I saw' tactic again - moderately less successful this time, though...

[Dan Vanniasingham]

So in round 4 I had SOAKER and scored 9, whereas Ben had SOAKER and scored 4.5? Or have I misread?

I suspect the following rule was invoked:

5. If your word breaks any of the rules above (1-4), then you will be allowed to have another attempt for that round. However you will then only score half the points for the word. (Eg if in Game 1, Round 1 you came up with HEARING, which is too short and then after being allowed to guess again, you then said CHEATING, you would then have only scored 3.5 points).


I should've learned not to attempt remotely helpful posts after given Eoin an aneurism, but I just can't help myself. I live to give...

[Joseph Bolas]

So in round 4 I had SOAKER and scored 9, whereas Ben had SOAKER and scored 4.5? Or have I misread?

That is right. Ben offered RESOAK first for Round 4 and then offered SOAKER.

[Joseph Bolas]

I should've learned not to attempt remotely helpful posts after given Eoin an aneurism, but I just can't help myself. I live to give...

You were right though Dan .

Ben had to resubmit a word for round 4 as he came up with RESOAK firstly , so Rule 5 was invoked

[Howard Somerset]

Damn. I misread the instructions, and thought that entries had to be in by 30th, rather than before.

I'd already got my entry ready before looking at this thread again, so I've looked at what would have happened had I read things properly and got my entry in yesterday. I'd have come somewhere close to the bottom, but my entry would certainly have affected the top of the table. Innis would have won, as I didn't match him on anything. Jono second, as I matched him once, and then Mrs Laddiman (matching twice) and Callum (matching three of his 10s).

So just as well for Callum that I got it wrong.

Well done Callum.

And thanks Joseph for another entertaining competition. I'll read the instructions better next time.

[Kirk Bevins]

Damn. I misread the instructions, and thought that entries had to be in by 30th, rather than before.

I was the same, Howard. I just got back to York after Christmas with the family and read the instructions and I thought "I'll do it in the morning" and to my horror the answers had already been revealed. When I went back and checked, I too was shocked to read "before" rather than "by". Usually, when competitions state a date Joseph, you are allowed to enter on the date it states and so they usually say "by" to avoid confusion like this.

[Michael Wallace]

Usually, when competitions state a date Joseph, you are allowed to enter on the date it states and so they usually say "by" to avoid confusion like this.

Usually or not, I find 'before' a far less ambiguous word than 'by', although I think we'd agree that the ideal would be a specified time.

Also thanks for the explanation Dan (and Joseph), that's what I get for not reading the rules...

[Kirk Bevins]

Usually or not, I find 'before' a far less ambiguous word than 'by', although I think we'd agree that the ideal would be a specified time.

You are right, 'by' is quite an ambiguous word when it comes to competitions however, to avoid argument, they always allow entries received on the specified date.

[Joseph Bolas]

Damn. I misread the instructions, and thought that entries had to be in by 30th, rather than before.

I was the same, Howard. I just got back to York after Christmas with the family and read the instructions and I thought "I'll do it in the morning" and to my horror the answers had already been revealed. When I went back and checked, I too was shocked to read "before" rather than "by". Usually, when competitions state a date Joseph, you are allowed to enter on the date it states and so they usually say "by" to avoid confusion like this.

My apologies to you both Howard and Kirk

If I do another game, I will use the word BY and also have a date AND time.

[Michael Wallace]

If I do another game, I will use the word BY and also have a date AND time.

Any chance you could organise a 10-minute warning fireworks display near all of our houses near the time? Or perhaps some sort of Mysteron-esque "this is the voice of Joseph Bolas...I know you can hear me, countdown-men..." thing.

[Joseph Bolas]

If I do another game, I will use the word BY and also have a date AND time.

Any chance you could organise a 10-minute warning fireworks display near all of our houses near the time? Or perhaps some sort of Mysteron-esque "this is the voice of Joseph Bolas...I know you can hear me, countdown-men..." thing.

What I could do is get everything ready (the rules and rounds etc) and then a few days before I start the thread off, I could update my signature to say when the game will be appearing in the forum .

It's a pity I can't actually have an automated countdown in my signature, so people know the exact time left in the competition .

[Kirk Bevins]

It's a pity I can't actually have an automated countdown in my signature, so people know the exact time left in the competition .

I'm not sure if I'm with the majority (I may start a poll) but I think signatures are annoying and unnecessary.

[Kai Laddiman]

I guess...if I have to...I can't say it!...Well done Callum.

[Joseph Bolas]

It's a pity I can't actually have an automated countdown in my signature, so people know the exact time left in the competition .

I'm not sure if I'm with the majority (I may start a poll) but I think signatures are annoying and unnecessary.

I think that's the best way though that people are going to know when the game is up and running. Though I too would like to know what the majority says about signatures.

[Jimmy Gough]

It's a pity I can't actually have an automated countdown in my signature, so people know the exact time left in the competition .

I'm not sure if I'm with the majority (I may start a poll) but I think signatures are annoying and unnecessary.

Why not just change your settings so you don't have to view them? That's what Charlie said you can do.

[Kirk Bevins]

Why not just change your settings so you don't have to view them? That's what Charlie said you can do.

This may sound like I'm being contradictory but I like to see what's going on. They may be annoying and so may some people on here but I don't "foe" anyone and I don't get rid of signatures. If someone posts a message regarding a signature, and I've disabled them, I'll be none the wiser. To prevent this, I don't disable them.

[Howard Somerset]

My apologies to you both Howard and Kirk

No need to apologise, Joseph. It was my fault. I should have read the instructions more carefully, rather than just skimming over them and seeing what I thought was there.

[Joseph Bolas]

My apologies to you both Howard and Kirk

No need to apologise, Joseph. It was my fault. I should have read the instructions more carefully, rather than just skimming over them and seeing what I thought was there.

I think I am fault for not really giving much time for people to enter the competition .

Just a note people that Countdown Scattergories III, will be posted at around midnight tonight and there is a new rule and also there will be a set time limit for entries

[Ian Volante]

Thanks again. Giving us the working week to do this sounds fair. Bear in mind also that a lot of people had interrupted web access during the competition period, otherwise numbers would have been fine I suspect.

[Joseph Bolas]

Thanks again. Giving us the working week to do this sounds fair. Bear in mind also that a lot of people had interrupted web access during the competition period, otherwise numbers would have been fine I suspect.

The competiton will be open for 6 days, so that's Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to get entries in, so hopefully that will be enough time for all