Monty Burns Tournament at U of Michigan, 8.6.05

Results: Robert Flaxman

    I don't know how people usually react to finding out that not only are they good at something, but other people think that they're good at something, possibly even to a greater degree than they themselves do.  I do know, however, how I react to that, which is with something akin to total incredulity.  I already knew I was a relatively good Trash player, certainly better than I ever was at academic competition, but to actually be regarded as a formidable player by people whom I fear (in the loosest sense of the word fear, and only in a playing-Trash-against-them sense) is... I don't even know.  I mean, it's pretty awesome, but I'm not even sure how to react.  Like at Duck Bowl earlier this year when I got 140 points in one round and then Stan jokingly called me a "show-off" out in the hall.  I mean, you think anyone was more surprised at that round than me?
    It was surprising enough last year when I finished third at the Burns and lost only to Craig and Dwight.  This year, the field lacked Dwight, but it was also a little tighter and I think stronger as a whole (with all due respect to Carey, Nathan, Ted, and the others who were there last year, I think that replacing them with two of the members of the erstwhile Battleplanet team and Greg Sorenson is a minor step up, except for the loss of Dwight and Mark Coen) - and I finished third again, but was actually quite close to finishing second (whereas last year I lost the three games to Craig and Dwight by an average of ~223 points), with relatively close losses to Mike and Greg (along with the expected blowout at Craig's hands).
    But what had to be the most surprising moment of the day for me was right after the first match.  I won 285-141 over Jeremy White, one of the aforementioned Battleplaneteers, and as we were heading out the door, he remarked, "That wasn't as bad as I expected."  Now, I know that Battleplanet's success has always relied much more on their work as a team than on their individual performances, but he was less than a tossup behind me at TRASHionals in PPG.  I'll grant that I'm much better at packet-submission Trash than at the corporate stuff, but would he have known that?  The real question here is, who the heck am I?  Do I really have this kind of reputation now?  It's possible, of course, that his comment was more self-deprecating than anything else - but even so.
    Favorite Tossup: There are always a few.  I appreciate "the Noid" because of where it came in the round (see below), but my favorite normal one for speed would probably be "Postcards from Buster."  There were a couple good ones in Alma's packet (April O'Neil, Bear City), and the D.B. Cooper one in Phil's packet was fun just because I was apparently the only person in the room who had any idea who that was.  I also liked the "Payday" one in Mike's packet because I was all set to say "The Game of Life," then realized it was wrong after buzzing in and pulled Payday completely out of my ass.
    Favorite Bonus: The one about 1975 things that got me the 20 points I needed to edge Greg in our round robin match.  "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" brought it home.
    Worst Neg: Six last year, six this year.  Worst one: No Child Left Behind for Title IX.  Most annoying ones: Astrodome for Summit (I knew exactly what was being talked about, but I got the building wrong), Scenes from an Italian Restaurant for Movin' Out (the Brenda and Eddie part is the middle of Scenes, not the beginning as in the musical), Al Franken for Alan Colmes (stupid reaction buzz to the title of Franken's book; I would have had the question two seconds later).
    Wrote It: Not so many this year.  I wrote a Mr. Brightside tossup for Duck Bowl, but I'm sure I would have gotten the question in Round One regardless because I listen to that song a lot.  I had a bonus part about Steven Bochco, but again, I think I already knew enough to get the tossup in Round One.  I did write a Ciara question, I think for Duck Bowl, that helped me get that one in Round Thirteen, my only tossup against Craig in the last fourteen.
    Game of the Day: Easily Round Three against Greg.  I got seven of the first ten tossups, but Greg dropped only five points on his three bonuses, so I led 180-115 at the half.  Tossup 11 dropped dead - the only one of the game to do so - and we were off.  I went up 200-115, then Greg got the next two to pull within 200-175.  I picked up 15 and 16 to go up 260-175, but Greg got 17, 18, and 19, and got a ridiculous 40-point bonus on 19 to lead 285-260.  (Identify the song from lyrics.  40 was "I'm crying."  The answer was "I Am the Walrus."  You don't put real lyrics in the 40 spot!  And 30 was "sitting on a cornflake" anyway.  Bah.)  Fortunately, I got tossup 20 to trail by 15 with the bonus - and as noted above, pulled out 20 to squeak by with a 290-285 win.  None of my other wins were especially close (unlike last year where there were several), so this one really stands out.
    Minor disappointments: As surprised as I've been to have done as well as I have at the Burns, I actually felt a little let down this year because I had a shot at second (beating Greg meant that I controlled my own destiny, more or less) and it slipped away.  While I certainly never expected to beat Craig, I would have finished alone in second with only one loss, but I came up short against Mike, 260-197.  He just beat me to four of the tossups in that round; if even two of them swung to me, I probably would have managed to win.  But what are you going to do?  Similarly, I beat Greg in the round robin but found myself matched up with him in the tiebreaker round; this time he took me down, 225-180.  It reminds me of 2003 TRASHionals, where we somehow led every game, even against Battleplanet and the Keenans, at the 15-tossup mark; I was hardly expecting to be able to finish second, but to look back and realize how close I was can be a tad aggravating.  Well, there's always next year.
    Phew: Last year my packet was read in the first round, which meant that I was spoiled in terms of actually having to do guerrilla editing.  This year I drew Round Eight, but fortunately I only had to cross off a single tossup (on the late Hank Stram; most of the clues in the tossup were given away by a bonus in the previous round); I might have crossed off my Tapestry tossup after Goffin/King came up in an earlier round, but I decided the overlap was small enough to let it ride.  Other than that there really wasn't any contradiction, which was nice.  Going to a tournament like this is kind of like competing in a big Rare Entries tournament; you'd better make sure you don't have the same answers as everyone else or you, my friend, are screwed.
    And one more note on writing: My packet was easier than the average again this year, though this time it was by only 40.88 points, which I don't think is that bad (last year it was over 100, though that was helped by the horrors of the harder packets).  I really try to make them easier, though; generally speaking, I want a room with two good players (and pretty much everyone at the Burns qualifies as good enough, because otherwise they wouldn't bother showing up) to get no fewer than 16 of my tossups between them (if 20 are read).  In the round I moderated between Greg and Jeremy, I'm pretty sure that only two went dead - the Phil Vassar tossup (i.e. the country music tossup), and the Peter Jacobsen golf tossup (which I predicted, apparently correctly, most people would hate).  And I'm fine with that.  Greg also ate up my bonuses, though it should be noted that Greg is very very good.  Remember that we're talking about one guy to a team here, not four like usual - bonuses can't be as niche as normally they might be because you figure someone on the team will probably know.  In individual competition, if you're not a music guy, say, and a music bonus comes up that isn't overly mainstream, you're probably SOL.  I try to write around that; not everyone does.  I know at least Craig agrees with me on this count; it's not necessarily about making the questions easy, it's just about making the answers things of which most people will have heard.  It's just more fun.  I will say that most people were fine on the tossup count; it was more the bonuses that were an issue.  On Greg's round, for example, I got nine tossups, which may not be amazing but isn't terrible.  But of the nine bonuses, I zeroed four of them and got more than ten on just two.  Or Phil's round, statistically the hardest - I got just eight tossups, and more than ten points on only one of the bonuses.  Fully nine questions dropped dead, and two more were probably too hard and were answered because Jason and I happened to know them (I think Nelson DeMille is probably too obscure, for example, but I got it because I happen to have read The General's Daughter in a lucky coincidence).  But I don't want to bag on packets too much - I always enjoy the Burns regardless, and I think that Craig and Mike have a plan to standardize the packets a little better and hopefully make them easier.  Hard packets are always a risk you run with tournaments that don't have an editor; in general this year's weren't too bad despite that.

Prelim Rounds (Round Robin)

Round One: Robert 285, Jeremy W. 141
Round Two: BYE
Round Three: Robert 290, Greg S. 285
Round Four: Robert 375, Brian H. 180
Round Five: Robert 280, Phil C. 15
Round Six: Robert 155, Jason K. 60
Round Seven: Mike B. 260, Robert 197
Round Eight: BYE (my packet was read)
Round Nine: Robert 155, Matt O. 25
Round Ten: Robert 276, Alma 30
Round Eleven: Robert 295, Rob L. 60
Round Twelve: Robert 285, Stan 85
Round Thirteen: Craig B. 326, Robert 100

Round Robin Record: 9-2 (t-2nd)

Tiebreaker Game
Greg S. 225, Robert 180

Final Record: 9-3 (3rd out of 12 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 One
Cardassians
Warren Schmidt
Mr. Brightside
Clive Owen
Steven Bochco
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Zoobas
Brian Griffin
Clint Barmes
Metroid
The Goonies

Round Three
Casey Stengel
Eva Marie Saint
The Funniest Joke in the World
Louis Sachar
Linus Caldwell
Andrew Bogut
American Dad
Kool-Aid
Coffee and Cigarettes
Althea Gibson
The Noid

Round Four
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Bonnie and Clyde
Disneyland
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant (really Movin' Out)
Ride with the Devil
China Beach
Pride (In the Name of Love)
Apollo 13
Morbo
Coke Zero
Sen. Fred Dalton Thompson
No Child Left Behind (really Title IX)
Little House on the Prairie
Skipper

Round Five
The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3D
A Man with a Tape Recorder Up His Nose
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Shareef Abdur-Rahim
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The Nutcracker
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy
Chop Suey
Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance

Round Six
The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes
D.B. Cooper
Drop-kick
Broken Lizard
The Shop Around the Corner
Cornelius
The Matrix (music producers, not the movie)
Nelson DeMille

Round Seven
Labrador retriever
Ned and Stacey
Hustle and Flow
Diane Lane
Astrodome (really Houston Summit)
Mario
John-Boy Walton
Michael Mann
Elisabeth Rohm

Round Nine
Parcheesi
Lifehouse
Parts: The Clonus Horror
Steve Christie
Postcards from Buster
Let's All Go to the Lobby
Carradine
Trapped in the Closet
Loretta Lynn

Round Ten
All Your Base are Belong to Us
The Beautician and the Beast
Ajax
Kung Fu Hustle
Lee Smith
Grace Under Fire
Amherst-Williams game
Nermal
Bela Lugosi
Nate McMillan
Peaches and Herb
The Vogons

Round Eleven
Spartacus
Brad Garrett
Washington Generals
Payday
Dr. Johnny Fever
Toronto Argonauts
Clint Howard
Lou Piniella
Long Island Iced Tea
Herbie: Fully Loaded
Gorillaz
Al Franken (really Alan Colmes)
Louisville

Round Twelve
The Ketchup Song
Truly Tasteless Jokes
The Hours
April O'Neil
Bear City
Toby Keith
Deborah Gibson
Joe Johnson
Michael Keaton
Barry Alvarez
Hayden Christensen
I Found a Golden Ticket

Round Thirteen
Kelly Monaco
My Dinner with Andre
Don't Phunk with My Heart
Ciara

Average tossup points per round, round robin only: 98.18

Tiebreaker Round
Antwone Fisher
Super
Indiana (really Indiana Fever)
Jim Lehrer
Wrangler
Chief Wahoo (really Slider)
An Affair to Remember
Chris Tucker
Poker

Average tossup points per round: 95.00

Bonus Conversion (Total Bonus Points / # of correct answers)
Round One: 175/11 = 15.91
Round Three: 180/11 = 16.36
Round Four: 265/12 = 22.08
Round Five: 170/11 = 15.45
Round Six: 75/8 = 9.38
Round Seven: 122/8 = 15.25
Round Nine: 65/9 = 7.22
Round Ten: 156/12 = 13.00
Round Eleven: 180/12 = 15.00
Round Twelve: 165/12 = 13.75
Round Thirteen: 60/4 = 15.00
Tiebreaker Round: 120/7 = 17.14 

Cumulative Bonus Conversion: 1733/117 = 14.81

Pretty representative of this year as a whole, I think - my tossup points were up (by more than two tossups a round), and I had 12 more total correct answers despite playing two fewer rounds, which I think speaks both to an improvement on my part and improvement in packet quality.  On the other hand, I averaged about half a point less per bonus - though I had more rounds this year where I averaged 15 ppb or better (eight to last year's seven), I also had two rounds below 10 ppb, whereas last year I had none.  (Greg, if you're reading this, look at that 7.22 and you'll see where the kidney-punching remark came from.)  Still, half a point per bonus is a pretty small fluctuation, and I'm okay with that if it means better tossups, though of course one would like to see improvement in both camps.  Again, that's one for next year.