c4countdown

Okay, so the speed demon is in playoffs, so everyone is in a new bracket. The prelim standings page is updated with the final results. Basic idea: if you had one or two games left unplayed, those were scored 0-0; if you had three+ games unplayed, those were scored 0-1 to your opponent. The exception being Jon Corby, who had played less than half the games and was just removed (this was fairest to Charlie, who was the only player to score points off of Jon in play; yes he lost half a point, but he kept second place instead of getting leapfrogged by a bunch of people behind him). The week 5 matches are here. Apologies to people who saw an earlier version; apparently deleting some of the dropped players really messed with how Sevilla was calculating tiebreakers so I re-did those by hand.

This is also the last week for the "regular season" in the championship flight and in flight B, and the last week period for flight A. The flight B games are up now; the championship flight games are ready to go and will be posted as soon as I'm done typing this, and the flight A games should be along shortly.

Great stuff, don't suppose you could be explicit about how the Flight A first place could be decided. As far as i can tell:

If I win my game against Nick, I come first.

If I lose my game against Nick 2-1, then I come first if Matt Bayfield doesn't win his match 2-0. If he does, I'm not sure what happens.

If I lose my game against Nick 2-0, then Nick comes first if Matt doesn't win his match 2-0, and if he does I'm again not sure.

I'll go and read the page about modified median, but I thought I'd get a second opinion.

Edit: Ok, on reading about modified median I can't really be bothered to try and work out all the possible options, since it depends on everyone's worst opponent, which could presumably change depending on their final round games as well.

Actually, for all three of you, your first-round opponent is the one that will be dropped, since they are at least one point behind everyone else (so even if they win this round, they're still one of the lowest scores). On the assumption that Nick and Matt win (since otherwise there's no tie to care about), the first tiebreakers look like:
Michael 12 points + Matt Morrison (two of your previous opponents are playing this round, so a guaranteed point there)
Nick 12 points + Ben Hunter + Hugh Binnie
Matt 11 points + Henry Meier + Philip Jarvis + Julie Taylor.

But yeah, at that point you're not really in control of your own destiny any more.

Just to make things interesting for Michael and Nick, I've reduced one of the variables in the equation by beating Henry!

Flight A

Matt Bayfield 103 - 90 Henry Meier
Matt Bayfield 93 - 68 Henry Meier

Henry and I have a history of very good, very close games - and true to form, the first went to a crucial conundrum. In the second game, I got off to a good start and Henry had to declare some risky words in the hope of catching up - unfortunately for him, the risk didn't pay off.

PS If it comes to a tie-breaker between Michael, Nick and I - all can say is "come on Julie and Philip"!

Andrew Feist wrote:Actually, for all three of you, your first-round opponent is the one that will be dropped, since they are at least one point behind everyone else (so even if they win this round, they're still one of the lowest scores). On the assumption that Nick and Matt win (since otherwise there's no tie to care about), the first tiebreakers look like:
Michael 12 points + Matt Morrison (two of your previous opponents are playing this round, so a guaranteed point there)
Nick 12 points + Ben Hunter + Hugh Binnie
Matt 11 points + Henry Meier + Philip Jarvis + Julie Taylor.

But yeah, at that point you're not really in control of your own destiny any more.

Ok, I thought I understood how this works, but apparently not. Is the tiebreaker then decided on our opponents' scores?

That said, I'm not sure what these 'points' are, if Nick wins then my 'score' is 4, with net games of 5 (or 6), but I'm not sure where the 12 comes from.

Edit: Ah ok, so my 12 points has come from the score of my opponents, and so I would gain 1 if Matt wins this round, Nick would gain 2 if Ben and Hugh win, and so on? Does my 12 points include the guaranteed point from Lee vs. Matthew?

Michael Wallace wrote: Edit: Ah ok, so my 12 points has come from the score of my opponents, and so I would gain 1 if Matt wins this round, Nick would gain 2 if Ben and Hugh win, and so on? Does my 12 points include the guaranteed point from Lee vs. Matthew?

Yes it does.

Stop trying to confuse me you fucks.

Matt Morrison wrote:Stop trying to confuse me you fucks.

It's not confusing*, I just need you to win. So you'd better

* Spoilers: it might be confusing

Charlie Reams 2 - 0 Innis Carson

110-108: Innis and I matched each other most of the way, including DESTAINED and AIRCRAFT, as I GAMBLED for a small advantage but later Innis' STOCKADE PUPATED (okay, that doesn't work) to give him the lead. I needed the conundrum to win and managed to remember CLARINET+U after 10 seconds of nervous brain (and soul) searching.

117-102: An inauspicious start as we both missed INFLATES, but then both hit 6 consecutive maxes including another easy nine to hold the game at 62-62. The selection RREOGINFP distracted us both by superficially profering* a nine, but after Innis declared 6, I stuck with FOREIGN to hold another small advantage. This time I managed to extend the lead, spotting NIDATION in another run of 6 maxes while Innis had 5 himself to stay in the match. Needed to sweep the final numbers to win, he went for an aggressive 6 small; we both declared the target but only my last-second solution held up. Innis took a very impressive conundrum to give himself another losing century score. It's tough at the top!

Cheers Innis, really good games and very unlucky to catch me on a good day.

Speed Demon playoffs:
Hines 60 - 22 Feist Lesley starts off with a bang, and keeps the pressure on scoring in eight of nine rounds for a big win.
Hines 27 - 57 Feist The rematch goes the other way, as Lesley typoes round 2 and then I get some good words in the second half to put it away.

Speed Demon

Matt Bayfield 70 - 39 Ian Volante
Matt Bayfield 70 - 23 Ian Volante

Speed Demon

Lesley Hines 44-58 James Robinson
Lesley Hines 36-44 James Robinson

2 fantastic matches. I personally think I was a tad lucky in both, but there you go.

Nick and I are supposedly going to play at 9pm on Thursday*, in case anyone is interested in watching (I mean, obviously people would want to watch me playing Countdown anyway, but this game might decide who wins Flight A, maybe).

* Actually it'll be more like 9.10pm - we're going to play our speed demon games first.

Edit: Speed Demon - Martin May 2 - 0 Michael Wallace

Michael 31 - 61 Martin

A bad start for me as all I can see is a 7 whilst Martin gets the excellent GENITORS. I then blank in round 2 whilst he gets another good spot in PULSATED. I get some points with a rubbish round and an easy numbers, but slip further behind when Martin gets LOVAGES. I screw up another -ING round but get the last numbers at least, but it was already over.

Michael 38 - 44 Martin

Was expecting more of the same, and got it, although I was a bit miffed that MOLLIED wasn't in. Similarly in round 2 I did the classic thing of spotting a word just too late. Soon enough I'm 20 down but Martin blanks and I scrape back with a whopping 4, and then Martin misclicks the last numbers to make the conundrum crucial. Unfortunately it was WHEELBASE, which I saw as WASHABLE, but then realised my mistake as soon as I'd buzzed. I can't imagine I'd've ever seen that in 10 seconds anyway though. A deserved 2-0 victory for Martin, though.

Beaten by Andrew Herbertson two nil.

Almost got one game though. In game 2, was ahead after each round from 1 to 14, but unfortunately it's only the position after round 15 that counts.

Andrew 80 - 56 Howard

Andrew 89 - 83 Howard

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?ke ... 4892931072
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?ke ... 4295214271
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?ke ... 6260486882

above is my week 5 games against Phillip Jarvis. beat 2-1. Well played Phillip

Scott Gillies wrote:http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?ke ... 4892931072
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?ke ... 4295214271
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?ke ... 6260486882

above is my week 5 games against Phillip Jarvis. beat 2-1. Well played Phillip

Thanks Scott
For the benefit of others, the above links are in reverse chronological order. The result was 2 -1 to me.
1. PJ 65 v 89 SG. I was definitely rusty at the start, losing by 38 to 6 at one point. I then pulled it back so that I was just 8 behind, before lapsing again at the end.
2. PJ 84 v 68 SG. A fairly nondescript game. The highlight was Scott's unsuccessful attempt at HOPLINE. I enquired whether this was a number to ring for a beer!
3. PJ 90 v 86 SG. This went to a crucial conundrum which neither of us got.

Yet another set of games which could quite easily have gone the other way. Thanks Scott - you were unlucky not to win.

Andrew Feist wrote:The exception being Jon Corby, who had played less than half the games and was just removed

Yeah, sorry about that. Was happy just to forfeit or whatever, and accept full responsibility for all my unplayed games.

Speed Demon: Nick Wainwright 2 - 0 Michael Wallace

Nick 57 - 56 Michael

Nick maxes the first 4 rounds, and I spot ROOMIES just too late (that is, right after I saw MOONIES) to give him the all important 11 point lead. It remains this way until the conundrum, which I get for a flattering loss by only 1 point.

Michael 38 - 58 Nick

A similarly poor show from me, I manage to make the conundrum crucial this time, but lose the "race to the Q" (as Nick put it).

So then, properly warmed up, we moved onto the main event:

The Flight A Pseudo-Final

Thanks to the rather curious tie-break system, it wasn't entirely clear who would win, even after we played this game. All we knew was that if I won I'd take the tournament with 5 wins out of 5, if I lost 2-1 I would be on a tie-break with Matt, and if I lost 2-0 Nick would be on a tie-break with Matt.

Game 1:

A fairly flat start sees it level and maxed to round 5. I then blank in round 6 and have to go for ROOVED, whilst Nick got one of the two 6s with AVOWED. He went further ahead (and maintained his max) with ACIDIC and a nasty numbers, leaving him with a 19 point lead going into the final third. Fortunately (for me) he got just a little further ahead, meaning I didn't have to decide whether to go for 6 small when someone was on for a max game (it was a tournament final after all)... A nerve-wracking conundrum is spotted on 20.6 seconds by Nick to give him a max game. Can't really complain about losing to that.

Game 1 Result: Nick 113 - 77 Michael

Game 2:

So having lost the first game, I had to win the second to stay in with a chance of top spot in the tournament. Unfortunately Nick continued his max run for 20 rounds, with the excellent CANOPIER in round 4. His run ended in round 6, however, when he missed WHORE, amongst others. He then risked the 7 OPULANE (a mis-remembered APOLUNE, apparently), and, declaring second, I foolishly risked UNLAP, which I was still about 95% on. Apparently it is not a word that has got much further than the BBC live text F1 commentator. Still, as long as I lost by more than 4 points, I wouldn't have to curse this mistake. Nick extended his lead to 10 points with INCLUDE, and we split the second numbers before Nick's Internet failed. Once he came back I took the next round to close the gap to 4 points (uh-oh), at which point Charlie, desperate to disrupt my train of thought (and best chance ever to win any sort of Countdown tournament), decided to reset the apterous server. Once it was back Nick and I split the remaining rounds, leaving me 4 points behind before the conundrum. Neither of us spotted it and so Nick ran out the 2-0 winner he needed to be to take flight A to a tie-break, and to leave me plotting to become a Formula 1 driver so I can destroy the sport from the inside.

Game 2 Result: Nick 83 - 79 Michael

Speed demon

Matthew Tassier 2-0 Andrew Herbertson

Though it should have been 1-1 but I mis-spelt the crucial conundrum in the second game, nevermind two good games well done to Matthew

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=157411
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=157415

Here's my 3 sets of games this week against Kirk (Championship Flight) and Kai and Innis in the Speed Demon tournament. Lost all of them 2-0! Highlight of the games were when I didn't risk SIGNALISE against Kirk because it sounds silly! And when Innis and I were interrupted because someone wanted to clean his room After they'd done polishing his trumpet we resumed our game

Kai Laddiman 70 - 44 Dinos Sfyris
Dinos Sfyris 32 - 61 Kai Laddiman

Innis Carson 44 - 40 Dinos Sfyris
Innis Carson 53 - 35 Dinos Sfyris

Dinos Sfyris 92 - 125 Kirk Bevins
Dinos Sfyris 77 - 112 Kirk Bevins

That's now 1 win for me out of the last 10 tournament games! How am I in the top set???

Now that normal service is resumed, this "week" now ends on Wednesday, December 16.

Well done Nick and Michael on both playing your parts in what looks like a brilliant final round match in Flight A. Comiserations to Michael on missing out on the Flight title after leading all the way, but Nick’s 2-0 win does at least make it interesting for he and I as we both finish on four 2-0 wins and one 2-0 loss, and we must wait for the results of others to see who finishes first and second!

According to my calculations, this is how our tie-breakers stack up (pls excuse me referring to myself in the 3rd person):

Matt’s opponents finished (or will finish) on the following scores: Nick 4 pts, Philip 3 pts, Henry 3 pts, Scott 3 pts, Julie 2 or 3 pts. Thus, regardless of Julie’s result, Matt’s tie-breaker score is 4 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 13 pts.
(Note: this assumes that Scott’s score is genuinely counted as 3 pts, bearing in mind that one of his points was earned by default. If Scott’s score is not counted as 3, then Matt will only have 12 points if Julie loses her final game.)

Nick’s opponents finished (or will finish) on the following scores: Matt 4 pts, Michael 4 pts, Ben H 2 or 3 pts, Hugh 2 or 3 pts, Gareth 0 or 1 pt. Thus, Nick’s tie-breaker score will be:

14 pts if Hugh and Ben H win their final round games
13 pts if Hugh or Ben H, but not both, win their final games
12 pts if Hugh and Ben H both lose their final games

What this means is that if either Hugh or Ben win, it’ll be enough for Nick to be Flight A champion (since regardless of all future results, Nick is guaranteed to have a superior Modified Median of game scores, which would be the final tie-breaking category if we tie on a Modified Median of 13 match points). Only if Hugh and Ben both lose, will I top the Flight.

I shall watch with interest!

I can't seem to get the links to work this week.
So, if you know you're supposed to be playing me, please send a PM. Alternatively, I'll pop onto apterous about 2pm to 4pm tomorrow, Saturday.

Flight A: Lee Simmonds 2-0 Matthew Tassier

Lee Simmonds 92 - 77 Matthew Tassier
I was pleased with a nice early 8 to put me ahead, but Lee had overtaken me by the time we got to a crucial conundrum which he just beat me to.

Lee Simmonds 96 - 80 Matthew Tassier
I was pleased with a nice early 8 to put me ahead, but Lee had overtaken me by the time we got to a crucial conundrum which he just beat me to.

Well played Lee.

Championship Flight:

Stuart Arnot 88 - 82 Jim Bentley
Jim Bentley 81 - 90 Stuart Arnot

Two closely fought games, not the best either of us has ever played, and two crucial conundrums that we both failed to get. Jim could have had me on another day.

James Leroux 2-1 John Gillies
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=157826
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=157843
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=157857

Championship Flight

James Robinson 75-94 Simon Myers
James Robinson 85-82 Simon Myers
James Robinson 117-77 Simon Myers

3 brilliant matches. I managed to get a lucky break in the second game, and Simon just collapsed at the start of the 3rd game and recovered too late.

At last my first wins in the championship flight!

Speed Demon

Martin May 2 - 0 Simon Myers

Game 1: http://apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=157897

Possibly a candidate for worst ever speed 9 game EVER . I steal the win on the conundrum, just beating Simon to the buzzer.

Game 2: http://apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=157900

A better quality game, with a good spot on the conundrum by Simon.

Speed demon:

In which Ian discovers the advantage of morning games.

Ian Volante 49-29 Simon Myers
Simon Myers 41-51 Ian Volante

Close match here, I bloody misclicked in the third game, grrr!

Peter Lee 86-66 Ian Volante
Ian Volante 97-71 Peter Lee
Ian Volante 80-82 Peter Lee

Charlie Reams 2 - 1 Kai Laddiman

Game 1: 78-62. A weak start from both players although Kai's lovely OPEPE earned him a pencil. My decision making in this game was poor as I resisted TOPWATER and ALLODIA (both good) and went for FIASCOED (bad) in preference to CODFISH (good). I lead by 6 points going into the conundrum, which is never enough to relax against Kai, but luckily I buzzed first on a fairly easy decider.

Game 2: 51-100. A fantastic reversal from Kai, as I led by 20 points after 6 rounds. I got hung up on a 9 from RNOSEOCAM and missed ROMANCES, and Kai's MITIGATED to my DIGITATE gave him the lead for the first time. He finished with 10 maxes from the last 11 rounds and I just couldn't compete, leading to my biggest defeat in months.

Game 3: 106-83. I opened with good old SOLITUDE+C, but to my great surprise Kai missed it and I found myself 18-0 up. I played fairly steadily from there, Kai's TOOTSIE closing the gap somewhat but TUTORIAL and SERVICE gave me 23 point lead with 3 to play. The final letters was LSAINTEEM and I immediately spotted easy 8s and wondered about MENTALISE. Kai declared first and went for the 9, which forced me to go for it even though I was fairly sure it wasn't in, since missing a 9 was the only way I could lose the game from there. Sure enough it wasn't in and we both scored 0, but the win was secure. Kai outbuzzed* me on the conundrum to give a decent score for us both.

Phew!

Charlie Reams wrote:I led by 20 points after 60 rounds

Wrong game?

peter lee 62 Ben Hunter 32
Peter Lee 45 Ben Hunter 42

Early result for (I'm told) next week:

Matt Bayfield 0 - 2 Simon Myers

Matt Bayfield 43 - 60 Simon Myers
Simon Myers 58 - 31 Matt Bayfield

In the Speed Demon results I'm down as having won against James Hurrell but we haven't played yet, is there a reason for that or just mistake?

Innis Carson wrote:In the Speed Demon results I'm down as having won against James Hurrell but we haven't played yet, is there a reason for that or just mistake?

Also I saw James passing Feisty a brown envelope...

Speed Demon:

Jim Bentley 33 - 37 Andrew Herbertson
Andrew Herbertson 29 - 57 Jim Bentley

Neither Andrew nor I like speed games very much and I think it showed!

Innis Carson wrote:In the Speed Demon results I'm down as having won against James Hurrell but we haven't played yet, is there a reason for that or just mistake?

Did you play in the first phase?

Ian Volante wrote:
Did you play in the first phase?

Ah yeah that's what it is, didn't read that bit. Cheers and never mind.

More speed action:

Jim Bentley 36 -33 Julie Taylor

Oh god the awfulness from both of us.

Jim Bentley 60 - 35 Julie Taylor

Bit better.

Speed Demon: Charlie Reams 1 - 1 Innis Carson

58-52: Innis the better player here, including the lovely CONNOTED, and only rare numbers spot kept me in it. He then typoed the conundrum on 0.8 seconds, allowing me to steal the game on 0.9. Harsh.

52-67: Again Innis dominated, with ADORNERS and the fantastic MINIVAN handing him an unassailable advantage. I fished for STROBILAE in Round 7 but Innis nailed it too and an easy numbers game put the result beyond doubt, even as we both missed the conundrum.

1-1 a generous result in the end, well played Innis.

ben hunter 2-1 tom rowell

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=158776
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=158783
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=158793

tomrowell wrote:ben hunter 2-1 tom rowell

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=158776
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=158783
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=158793

The practical upshot of this game being that Nick Wainwright is our Flight A champion!

Speed: Matthew Tassier 2-0 Peter Lee

Matthew Tassier 49 - 44 Peter Lee

Matthew Tassier 45 - 18 Peter Lee

I thought Lloyd would have posted our games from yesterday, since he won so resoundingly!

Julie Taylor 65 - 101 Lloyd Pettet

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=158545

Julie Taylor 55 - 102 Lloyd Pettet

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=158556

speed demons

tom rowell 2-0 ian dent

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=158926
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=158929

tom rowell 2-0 andy wilson

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=158936
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=158941

Well done Nick on winning Flight A - you deserve it after that max game! Mind you, I'm sure the main tie-breaker should've been head-to-head record rather than all this "modified median" nonsense. Especially after I got knocked out of the top bracket of Speed Demon on a tie-breaker as well. (Of course, I'd've been absolutely mullered had I ended up in that top bracket. At least in bracket 2, I've managed one win!)

Matt Bayfield wrote:Well done Nick on winning Flight A - you deserve it after that max game! Mind you, I'm sure the main tie-breaker should've been head-to-head record rather than all this "modified median" nonsense. Especially after I got knocked out of the top bracket of Speed Demon on a tie-breaker as well. (Of course, I'd've been absolutely mullered had I ended up in that top bracket. At least in bracket 2, I've managed one win!)

In case people wonder (since head-to-head is a rather popular tiebreak), the argument against head-to-head tiebreakers is that they double-count just one game (after all, that head-to-head win must come at the expense of a loss to somebody else that the other player doesn't have); whereas the tiebreakers we used used most/all the game results. (I'll actually look at the end of the day how much these results differ from what we would have had with the previous "points-per-game" regime.)

Andrew - whatever tie-breaker you chose was fine with me. I only mentioned head-to-head as it was nice for me to get a win over a Countdown champion, even if he was having a shocker that day!

Winter Closed:

Kai Laddiman 2 - 0 Phil Makepeace

Kai Laddiman 91 - 57 Phil Makepeace

Kai Laddiman 78 - 44 Phil Makepeace

Speed Demon:

Kai Laddiman 1 - 1 James Hurrell

Kai Laddiman 45 - 29 James Hurrell

Kai Laddiman 37 - 61 James Hurrell

Speed Demon

Stuart Arnot 41-36 James Robinson
James Robinson 48-24 Stuart Arnot

Flight A

Edwin Mead 101-73 Niall Seymour
Edwin Mead 89-58 Niall Seymour

Speed Demon: - Bracket A

James Hurrell 1 - 1 Dinos Sfyris

The battle for the wooden spoon in Bracket A was shared. A really good game from Dinos in the 1st was followed by an equally good one by me in the 2nd. Probably shows why we are both struggling in this top bracket - both capable on our day but too inconsistent to mix it with the very best.

Thanks for the games Dinos - very enjoyable.

James Hurrell 31 - 55 Dinos Sfyris

James Hurrell 71 - 33 Dinos Sfyris

I PMd Ben Hunter on Sunday as we hadn't managed to bump into one another on apterous.
I even texted him yesterday. No reply yet, so I've been unable to set up our speed demon games.

Julie T wrote:I PMd Ben Hunter on Sunday as we hadn't managed to bump into one another on apterous.
I even texted him yesterday. No reply yet, so I've been unable to set up our speed demon games.

He's doing a marathon stay-awake session, so I guess he's not in the best place for speed games.

Charlie Reams wrote:

Julie T wrote:I PMd Ben Hunter on Sunday as we hadn't managed to bump into one another on apterous.
I even texted him yesterday. No reply yet, so I've been unable to set up our speed demon games.

He's doing a marathon stay-awake session, so I guess he's not in the best place for speed games.

Unless by "speed" games, you mean...

Julie T wrote:I PMd Ben Hunter on Sunday as we hadn't managed to bump into one another on apterous.
I even texted him yesterday. No reply yet, so I've been unable to set up our speed demon games.

Sorry Julie, my mind is a bit frazzled for the reason Charlie mentioned and I haven't been keeping up with correspondence. I'll be online this evening and we'll play.

Ben Hunter wrote:

Julie T wrote:I PMd Ben Hunter on Sunday as we hadn't managed to bump into one another on apterous.
I even texted him yesterday. No reply yet, so I've been unable to set up our speed demon games.

Sorry Julie, my mind is a bit frazzled for the reason Charlie mentioned and I haven't been keeping up with correspondence. I'll be online this evening and we'll play.

No probs, Ben, play you then! Might even win if you're a bit tired.

1 all in the speed demon for me and Ben:

Julie Taylor 60 - 24 Ben Hunter

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=160076

Ben Hunter 36 - 29 Julie Taylor

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=160078