Monty Burns Tournament at U of Michigan, 8.7.04

Results: Robert Flaxman

    I like Trash.  Well, okay, I love Trash, in a totally platonic way, as evidenced by the fact that I was willing to write a packet and drive to Michigan in the middle of the summer to play one-on-one Trash against various other people willing to do same.  This also may be the last tournament I attend as an undergrad (if I do end up taking a class in the fall, I will certainly attend TRASH Regionals as still an undergrad, though I won't be playing with NU - either way I don't plan on playing academically ever again).  Regardless, consider this the first tournament of my post-NU career, which is why it appears under the new heading of "Unaffiliated Quiz Bowl" on the index page.  Any current affiliation might be described as "People Who Like the Cubs."
    So.  The Burns is a singles tournament featuring guerrilla editing, my first of both.  Guerrilla editing, for those of you who don't hablo español, means that players bring their packets and edit out duplicate questions on the fly - and beyond that, there really is no editing to speak of.  Considering this, I'd say the packet quality was generally pretty high, though there were a few mistakes that I suspect an editor - particularly one of Mike Burger's vast Trash knowledge and editing experience - would have caught.  Still, no packet errors cost me a game (my only three losses were pretty much blowouts), so I can't complain too much.  What's more, I got to have my packet run in the very first round, which meant spending exactly zero seconds determining which duplicate questions I had to remove.  It did mean that I didn't get to get any questions during the course of the day that were easy for me because I'd written one just like that, but again, I didn't have any close losses, so I'm pretty okay with the trade-off.  In addition to which, my packet was generally well-received, with the lone vocalized complaint coming from Alma, who took exception to the lead-in to one of the questions.
    I also think it was a relatively fun packet in that very few of the questions weren't gettable - unlike, say, Nathan's packet.  Between Alma and myself in that round, eleven of the eighteen tossups dropped dead.  (For that matter, of the remaining seven, at least three were probably written a bit too easy, but better that than too hard.)  The packets obtained in a swap with UTC were also uneven - which, I'm sorry to say, seems like the pattern.  (Of the packets I got for submitting a packet to Trash Masters last year, a couple were damn near unplayable in practice and several more were wildly uneven.)  I really shouldn't spend this time bashing packets, though, as the tournament was still quite fun as a whole.
    Favorite Tossup: Edgar Winter, even though I got it right at the end, was a good one; reason below.  Several that appeared in Alma's packet were good for me, which I guess is somewhat understandable, including Television Without Pity, Jonathan Antin, and Greg Sanders (the lab tech on CSI).  I also got the Nick Hornby one very fast ("His book Fever Pitch-"), drawing comments from the room, but that's what happens when they ask about authors I've read, after all.   The Alec Baldwin one in my first game was also good, and Robbie Williams in Round Fifteen, which I got after "His cover of 'Beyond the Sea' appears on the soundtrack to Finding Nemo," again drawing some impressed looks.  Yes, I'm a total ham.
    Favorite Bonus: I never write these down, because it's Trash and there are so many 30s.  I found the Miller/Boyett theme songs one amusing because I was able to sing the lyrics to the Full House and Family Matters themes, though I only got 20 because I didn't watch enough Step by Step to know what its lyrics were.  (I think I'll take 20 if it means I didn't watch much Step by Step.)
    Worst Neg: There were six total.  Worst one: Slamball for foosball.  Most annoying ones: UCSB for Cal State Fullerton, which I knew immediately after negging and could definitely have waited on since Burger didn't know it; "Queen Bees" for Plastics, as I reaction-buzzed once I realized it was talking about Mean Girls before realizing that I couldn't remember what the Plastics were called; being unable to get the correct full name of the 70s cartoon "The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan."
    Wrote It: Wonderfalls in Round Four I had written about in a practice packet.  I also wrote one on Chantal Kreviazuk (which I buried due to her general obscurity) for this packet, the research for which enabled me to get "Leavin' on a Jet Plane" in the same round.  The Jayne Mansfield question in Round Five I got, having written a question on her daughter (Mariska Hargitay) for this packet.  I once wrote a question on Friendster for a practice packet, the research for which enabled me to get Tickle in Round Seven.  I got Cleveland Barons in Round Eleven having written a question on that team name for Ann B. Davis 2003.  That's quite a few questions to get off writing them before, but I guess now you know how the best players (just about all of whom have done significant writing/editing) do it.
    Game of the Day: Round Eight.  I led Phil 110-5 at halftime, but he put up 120 points to my ten over the next eight tossups to lead 125-120 with one tossup left.  This was the aforementioned Edgar Winter question, which went all the way to the end before I managed to squeak it out.  I only got ten on the bonus, but I had already won.
    Other Good Ones: Two of my last three round robin games were exciting.  In Round Twelve, I went down to Matt Levine 100-0 after five tossups, and trailed 110-30 at the break and 120-30 after ten.  I proceeded to get five of the next six tossups, 30ing two of the bonuses and 20ing another, to go up 170-120 with two tossups left.  Matt went ten and ten on tossup 17 to pull within 30, but tossup 18 dropped dead and I pulled off the comeback.  In Round Fifteen, the last of the round robin, I led Mark Coen 160-75 at the break, thanks largely to 110 points in bonuses.  He got three of the next five tossups (the other two of which dropped dead) to trail just 160-145 with four tossups left.  I got the next two but could only total 20 points on the two bonuses, and so led 200-145 with two tossups left.  He got #19 to move within 25, and when he got #20 and the bonus was Leslie Nielsen movies, I figured I was toast.  But lo and behold, he got zero points (I would have had 20, for the record, which would have won him the game), and I held on to win 200-185.  Phew.
    This Happened How?: I put up 410 points against Stan on Craig's packet, one of only four rounds which featured neither a zero on a bonus nor a neg-five, and one of only three in which that happened and I won.  I also 30d five bonuses in that round, 20ing five more - across 18 tossups, none dropped dead (thanks, Craig!), and I answered 13 of them, averaging 21.5 points per bonus.  410, amazingly, ended up being the high round of the day to the best of my knowledge.  (Dwight's 396 on the same packet was second, though I'm not sure if this means Craig's packet was too easy or not.  I'll take an "easy" packet if it means I've heard of 17 of the 18 answers.  [The only one I hadn't heard of was something called "Desperate Housewives," which Stan answered, and he may have it.])  I can accept that the only people at this tournament to whom I lost were Craig and Dwight, even though I was not expecting to do this well.  But putting up the high round of the tournament with Craig and Dwight on hand?  I'm pretty proud of that, honestly.  And I kinda feel like a loser for being proud of it... but there it is.
    Undergrad Champion: By the slimmest of eligibility hairs.  Considering I was third overall and only behind two guys I would never dream of beating, it doesn't really matter that I had undergrad eligibility, especially since there were only three of us there.
    The Girl at the Quiz Bowl: Have I mentioned how great it was that Alma was there?  Never mind that I don't usually get kissed after winning a round, it's more than a little great to have your girlfriend come with you to quiz bowl events and be nearly as happy regarding your accomplishments as you are.  Of course, Alma didn't come only because I was there; she played too.  Sadly, she came in last, but she did win a game, and I think generally had fun.

Prelim Rounds (Round Robin)

Round One: BYE (my packet was read)
Round Two: Robert 410, Stan J. 125
Round Three: Robert 200, Mike B. 90
Round Four: Robert 165, Carey C. 45
Round Five: Craig B. 390, Robert 100
Round Six: Dwight K. 305, Robert 75
Round Seven: Robert 185, Ted S. 95
Round Eight: Robert 140, Phil C. 125
Round Nine: Robert 130, Alma 0
Round Ten: Robert 270, Nathan B. 65
Round Eleven: Robert 265, Mike P. 60
Round Twelve: Robert 170, Matt Levine 140
Round Thirteen: BYE
Round Fourteen: Robert 180, Matt O. 80
Round Fifteen: Robert 200, Mark C. 185

Round Robin Record: 11-2 (t-2nd)

Tiebreaker Game
Dwight K. 290, Robert 140

Final Record: 11-3 (3rd out of 14 players)

The Ones I Got, plus crap about bonuses

   This is usually the place where "personal stats" go, but at a singles tournament, "points per game" doesn't really have much value as a separate stat.  So instead this is just a list of the tossups I got (and my neg-fives, of which there were, as usual, few).  I'm still not asking you to care about it; read if you want.  There are no powers at Monty Burns.

Round Two
Derek Jeter
Pompatus
Liberty's Kids
Poker
Paige Davis
Penn Jillette
Clive Owen
San Diego Chargers
Blind Faith
Nokia
Rick Baker
Wonderwall
Alec Baldwin

Round Three
Amen Corner
Freddie Mercury
Vizzini
UC-Santa Barbara (really Cal State Fullerton)
Delroy Lindo
Slamball (really foosball)
Bradley Whitford
James Horner
Industrial Light and Magic
Thirst
North Shore

Round Four
The Straight Story
The Reason (by Hoobastank)
Tim Brown
Wonderfalls
Maurice Greene
Showgirls
Manos, the Hands of Fate (really Coneheads)
Leavin' on a Jet Plane
Oscar Robertson

Round Five
Debbie Downer
Jayne Mansfield
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
Robert Barone
Jonathan Demme

Round Six
Hidden ball play
Queen Bees (really Plastics)
Liberty
Confessions (by Usher)
Master Sword

Round Seven
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen
Albert Pujols
Jack Palance
Tickle
Gabriela Sabatini
Three Kings
Quagmire
Daytona 500 (really Pepsi 400)

Round Eight
Birdman
Anderson Cooper
The Little Engine that Could
Brian Cox
Jackal
Edgar Winter

Round Nine
Viktor Navorski
Two Brothers
The Angry American (Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue)
Martin Mull
Kansas City Scouts
Sam Raimi

Round Ten
Ron Weasley
Here, My Dear (by Marvin Gaye)
Television Without Pity
Major League Lacrosse
Tom Landry
The Chan Clan (really The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan)
Thirteen
Keira Knightley
Sugar in the gas tank
University of Nevada
Jonathan Antin
University of Nebraska
Greg Sanders, the CSI lab tech
*batteries not included

Round Eleven
Ready to Die (by the Notorious B.I.G.)
Strangers with Candy
Michel Gondry
White Castle
Mischa Barton
Toledo
Cleveland Barons
Maroon 5
American Splendor
The Brown Bunny

Round Twelve
Open Range
Dick Gephardt
Max
Buddy Lee
Vlade Divac
Planeteers

Round Fourteen
Saddledome
Barry Alvarez
Mo'Nique
Pitchfork
Marcus Welby, MD
Napoleon Dynamite

Round Fifteen
Robbie Williams
Port-o-Potty
Winnipeg Jets
Tom Bodet
FoxTrot
CCNY
Farnsworth

Tiebreaker Round
John Cusack
Vin Diesel
Damon Stoudamire
Graham Norton
Nick Hornby

Average tossup points per round: 72.86

Bonus Conversion (Total Bonus Points / # of correct answers)
Round Two: 280/13 = 21.54
Round Three: 120/9 = 13.33
Round Four: 90/8 = 11.25
Round Five: 50/5 = 10.00
Round Six: 40/4 = 10.00
Round Seven: 120/7 = 17.14
Round Eight: 80/6 = 13.33
Round Nine: 70/6 = 11.67
Round Ten: 145/13 = 11.15
Round Eleven: 165/10 = 16.50
Round Twelve: 110/6 = 18.33
Round Fourteen: 120/6 = 20.00
Round Fifteen: 130/7 = 18.57
Tiebreaker Round: 90/5 = 18.00

Cumulative Bonus Conversion: 1610/105 = 15.33

So I got pretty much exactly half of every bonus, on average.  Not terrible, all told, especially considering that I have obvious weak points (Trash Lit, certain types of music, some TV) and no teammates to defer to (and still only the single lame).