Ann B. Davis Tournament at U of Michigan, 1.16.05
Results: Just Ask This Scientician
(Flax, Alma, Dan Passner, Ted Stratton)
After four years of playing the full MLK/ABD weekend at
Michigan and always preferring the second day to the first, I graduated from Northwestern
and so stopped playing academic tournaments, and started playing with Alma instead of
Northwestern. Our TRASH Regionals team consisted of the two of us plus Loyolan
Charlie and former Michigan undergrad, current Loyola grad student Ryan, but neither were
on hand for this. Alma and I would have played by ourselves just to go, but then I
got the call from Brandeis' Dan Passner, who was also fielding a two-man team. It
ended up coming out pretty well. We finished fifth overall - not my best finish at
Ann B. Davis, after coming in fourth
just last year, but second-best, so not bad. We also (somehow) managed to take
down the eventual champions - more on this below - so that wasn't too bad. More
importantly, I managed not to have my new car totaled.
Favorite Tossup: Since ABD has powers, those usually crawl to
the top: in this case, they were Just Lose It (Eminem's latest single), Elliott Smith, The
Wonders, and Roy Batty from Blade Runner. The third would be my favorite
just since I've seen that movie a dozen times, but it might also have been the easiest
since it mentioned Guy Patterson (the film's main character) and then was still
power. None of these were especially challenging, really, all things considered -
Elliott Smith was probably the best one in terms of how much had been said at the time.
Favorite Bonus: The one where I had to demonstrate how
refs show football penalties. Holding, intentional grounding, and then correctly
remembering that you pat your head on an ineligible man downfield - 30 for me. The
one about Indiana Jones in the last round was also good.
Worst Neg: I only had two, shock of shocks.
Dimension Films for New Line Cinema was the more annoying of the two since I actually
would have gotten it in another few words.
Most Awesome Moment: Well, several. In Round Six
we leapt to a 276-205 lead on the Gerbils by getting three of the first four tossups in
the final period. They proceeded to get each of the last three tossups, closing
within 276-265 when they got Abby Wambach on tossup 21, but got only five points on that
bonus and we miraculously held on for the win. It was not the first time I'd beaten
a team with Gerbils in the name, but it was the first time I'd beaten the more or less
full Gerbils team that comes to ABD, and also the first time I'd ever beaten a
team on which Dwight was playing, according to my records. How did we do it?
30ing four of the nine bonuses helped. So did all four of us getting at least one
tossup and nobody negging.
That wasn't it for awesome, though, as we then played on a dramatic
last-tossup win in Round Ten. We struggled for most of the first two periods, as Dan
and Ted combined to neg four times in the first 12 tossups. Through 12 we were down
150-65. Then we got five of the next six tossups to lead 220-180 with three to
go. The other team, Vomiting Dugongs (possibly my least favorite Trash name ever),
got tossup 19 to pull within 220-210 and then got tossup 20 only to tank the bonus - but
as it was a 40-30-20-10-1, they led 221-220 going into the final tossup. As soon as
they said "Don Herbert" in the second line I reaction-buzzed with Mr. Wizard,
which was indeed correct and let us win the game 240-221, clinching second place in the
divison for us.
Most Disappointing Moment: We played a tough,
back-and-forth game with Barrett's Privateers in the playoff opener, which was tied at 275
after 21 tossups. They had a bonus part under protest, though, and ended up being
granted those points. They were more or less right, but it would have been a lot
less disappointing if they'd just gotten the points in the first place (the question was
not well-written) and so we didn't think "hey, maybe we won" (as had they lost
the protest we would have won the game on Lafer's overtime neg) only to lose. It was
also annoying as both Alma and I sat on "black hair dye" on tossup 20 too long -
questions with vague answers like that can be tough to go in on. Had we gotten that
and put up at least ten on the bonus, and tossup 21 gone as it did (Dan powering on Pit),
we would have led 275-255 at the end and had the bonus points be meaningless, and we would
have moved into the semifinals. We put up 435 points on the packet we played in the
next playoff round, so who knows what might have happened. I also failed to remember
the name of that gay cowboy movie that isn't out yet (Brokeback Mountain - I
should have remembered it, but there's still a special place in Hell for people who write
questions about movies that have yet to be released) - had I gotten that, we
would have gotten the bonus that was protested which at the very least would have removed
that part of the disappointment.
Money in the Bank: Every year, ABD has a new rule for
the first period (the second period is always "unlimited guessing on completed
tossups"). This year, it was the fifty-or-nothing rule, wherein you could
choose to go for fifty points on a bonus you thought you might 30 - but if you failed to
get 30 - if you got even just 25 - bam, you would get zero. We only used it twice -
once in the first round on a Coen Brothers movie bonus, and once in the very last round on
a Golden Globe nominee bonus. Needless to say, we got 50 on both.
About Fucking Time: I finally got the Otto Preminger
tossup by reaction-buzzing on Laura (after thinking, "Gosh, this 'actually
lit a stake on fire on a film' clue sounds really familiar"). It turns out
Colby had included that question (this was NU's packet) for my benefit, after I missed
perfection in Duck Bowl's
directors packet last year due to not knowing enough about Preminger, and then failed
to remember that he was the director of Laura in a bonus at TRASHionals
despite accidentally having predicted that he would come up in that very round.
Comedy, Thy Name is Big Boy: The Big Boy in Paw Paw,
Michigan has been the stuff of Northwestern legend for some time, even though I don't
think any Northwestern team has eaten there since my freshman year. The chief source
of humor is the Brawny
Lad, part amusing name and part hilarious picture in the menu, though as Alma and I
found out, it is no longer pictured. The picture was hilarious because of the
ginormous onion slice that comes on top, mostly. Well, Alma actually ordered the
Brawny Lad, and it really is a pretty standard burger except for how huge that onion piece is - she gave
me about half of it and still had a tremendous amount left. The other hilarious
thing was the sign behind me advertising the banquet room as being available for "Private
Paris". Obviously this was supposed to be "parties" and someone
removed a couple letters, which leads to the next question: if you're going to turn
"Private Parties" into a joke, wouldn't removing the I and the E be the more
obvious source of fun?
Individual Blah Blah Blah: I was seventh overall with
45.56 ppg, which of course was not how many I actually had - the stats were taken through
the prelims, meaning I had 47.22. In past ABDs, wrong stats didn't make any
difference, but this year I would have finished sixth instead had my stats been right.
Of course, there's no guarantee that the guy ahead of me didn't have his stats
messed up too, so whatever, I was top ten and got a prize (the "this was supposed to
be in theaters but seems to have been pulled and apparently for good reason" DVD
screener for Eulogy). 47.22 is pretty good anyway - it's my worst at ABD
since freshman year, but only by about half a tossup per game, and Dan, Ted, and Alma's
combined 63.89 per game in the prelims is the best team I've played with at ABD since
freshman year (when Tyler was our leading scorer). So kudos all around, especially
since we also averaged almost 20 points per bonus by the official stats, which was third
best at the tournament behind only the two teams who met in the finals and which is the
best ABD bonus conversion the team I've played on has ever had.
Prelim Rounds (Round Robin)
Round One: Just Ask This
Scientician 545, Rochester Slytherin 40
Round Two: Just Ask This Scientician 500, Team Wernham-Hogg 145
Round Three: BYE
Round Four: Brock: The Fools on the Hill 330, Just Ask This Scientician
255
Round Five: Just Ask This
Scientician 235, I Can't Believe It's a Trash Team
168
Round Six: Just Ask This Scientician 276, The Life Gerbilic with Steve Zissou 270
Round Seven: Just Ask This
Scientician 295, Rochester Gryffindor 180
Round Eight: Just Ask This
Scientician 370, Five Pitt Students in Varying
States of Ferocity 70
Round Nine: Just Ask This
Scientician 370, Unfit to Direct, etc. 70
Round Ten: Just Ask This Scientician 240, Vomiting Dugongs 221
Prelims Record: 8-1 (second place, Kenny Blankenship Division)
Playoffs
Round One: #V3 Barrett's Privateers
290, #K2 Just Ask This Scientician 275
Fifth-Place Game: #K2 Just Ask This
Scientician 435, #V2 The Guild of Calamitous Intent
100
Final Record: 9-2 (fifth place out of 20 teams)
Personal Stats: Questions Answered
No one's asking you to care about it. Powers are in bold, neg-5s are in italics with the real answer following. Anything in plain text was just ten.
Round One
Spanglish
Cesar Romero
Jean-Claude Van Damme
John Wooden
Just Lose It
Steven Spielberg
Little Debbie
Round Two
The Oblongs
Turk Wendell
Gollum
Warriors
Dragnet
Round Four
Models Inc.
Elliott Smith
The Wonders
Round Five
Just What I Needed
Heritage Bowl (really Bayou Classic)
Johansen/Johanson/Johanssen/Johansson (just the last name)
Round Six
Andrew Largeman
This Week in God
Christopher Guest
Bobby McFerrin
Round Seven
Iowa/Minnesota
Time traveler
Orrin Hatch
Pac Ten
Solaris
Samuel Dalembert
Round Eight
How to be Good
Dimension Films (really New Line Cinema)
Dwyane Wade
What's the Story (Morning Glory)
The Brown Bunny
Freejack
Charlie (from "Lost")
1994 Montreal Expos
Round Nine
Lappy 486
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Otto Preminger
Ciara
Round Ten
Tom Coughlin
Frankenstein
Nine Months
Mr. Wizard
Prelims PPG: 47.22
Playoffs Round One
Army
Flight of the Navigator
Minnesota North Stars
Playoffs Round Two (Fifth-Place Game)
Collective Soul
Crispin Glover
Dennis Farina
America's Team
Bungalow Bill
Roy Batty
Argentina men's basketball team
Playoffs PPG: 52.5
Overall PPG: 48.18
