ACF Fall Tournament @ U of Illinois, 11/3/01

Results: Northwestern
(Robert Flaxman, Mike Henninger, Mark Thatcher, Jan Zasowski, Edwin Ramos)

    Now I know what Leah was talking about when she said, and I quote: "HELL NO, NOT ME, NO ACF NO NO NO IT BUUUUUUURNS."  I suppose there are better versions of ACF... but this was not one of them, and it didn't exactly encourage me to go back.
    Let me put it this way: in thirteen rounds, I could swear that at least 75% of the questions were looking for "this author," "this best-known novel of author x," or "this thinker."  The few that weren't were usually looking from some obscure scientific principle.  This is 13 rounds of 20 questions each... we're talking 260 questions that were largely about those few subjects, and that doesn't even include the bonuses, which very often followed the same pattern.   After a while I was just astounded that there were philosophers left to ask about.
    Suffice it to say I didn't get very many questions - just 16 all day in fact (to go with three negs; full results below).  Jan, as I would have expected, carried the team with 60 - count 'em 60 - tossups, although in typical Jan style he also had 33 negs.  33!  That was, when we left before the last round (as though we needed to play Chicago again), more than any other team.
    Favorite Tossup: That would be the only one I got in Round Ten.  I spaced out during a question and heard about five words, two of which were "Cuba" and "religion."  I came back to earth and, two seconds before the moderators threw out the question because it was apparently worded so poorly as to be almost incomprehensible, rang in and said "santeria," which of course turned out to be right.
    Favorite Bonus: Easily the Pacific Islands capitals bonus.  We'll give you the capital (they used Honiara, Suva, and Nuku'alofa) and you give the country (Solomon Islands, Fiji, and Tonga in that order).  Bam.
    Worst Neg: Probably Orléans for Leipzig.  There was something about troops retreating over a bridge that prematurely collapsed - something that did happen at Orléans, but not to such an extent and not as famously.   This is one of the reasons I don't often buzz in quite early, because I'm pretty good at jumping to terrible conclusions like this.  The worst part was that I essentially knew Leipzig on the very next word after I negged.  Lame.

Round One: Illinois 430, Northwestern 50
Round Two: Northwestern 195, Washington U 170
Round Three: Northwestern 180, DePauw A 170 (OT)
Round Four: Indiana 360, Northwestern 110
Round Five: Northwestern 265, DePauw B 75
Round Six: Iowa State 250, Northwestern 175
Round Seven: Chicago 335, Northwestern 140
Round Eight: Illinois 160, Northwestern 150 (OT)
Round Nine: Washington U 365, Northwestern 130
Round Ten: Northwestern 230, DePauw A 90
Round Eleven: Indiana 285, Northwestern 115
Round Twelve: Northwestern 190, DePauw B 10
Round Thirteen: Iowa State 200, Northwestern 35
Round Fourteen: Northwestern v. Chicago (teams agreed to a draw so as not to have to play match)

Final Record: 5-8-1, either fifth or sixth depending on Wash U's results in the last two rounds

Personal Stats: Questions Answered

   No one's asking you to care about it.  Powers would be in bold if they existed in ACF, neg-5s are in italics with the real answer following.  Anything in plain text was just ten.

Round One
Oh, I don't think so.

Round Two
Rabbit (Angstrom)
Baffin Island

Round Three
Gulf of Tonkin
Switzerland
It Happened One Night
Jane Goodall

Round Four
Great Expectations

Round Five
"Black Hawk War" (really Creek War)
Gustave Eiffel
"Orléans" (really Leipzig)
Uric acid
The Comedy of Errors

Round Six
Helllllls no.

Round Seven
Lake Titicaca
Sister Carrie

Round Eight
Well, no.

Round Nine
"Liechtenstein" (really Schleisweig-Holstein)
Cyrano de Bergerac

Round Ten
Santeria

Round Eleven
Ha ha ha!  No.

Round Twelve
The Great Gatsby
Ghana

Round Thirteen
Lake Eyre
(exited at half)

PPG: 11.92