CBI Regionals at UW-Madison, 2/21-22/02

Results: Northwestern
(Colby Burnett, Robert Flaxman, Mike Henninger, Jan Zasowski)

    The interesting thing about CBI - well, among the interesting things, but perhaps the only interesting thing that isn't also really, really, ridiculously annoying - is that in Region Eight, we're considered one of the top teams.   I mean, we are one of the top teams; we're #2 to Chicago (at least we have been the past two years, which is enough for me to state that).  But it's just weird having people act all impressed after you whip their ass like they've never seen anyone play quiz bowl before (which I guess a lot of them just about haven't), and furthermore having people get all excited when they beat you.  UIC managed to trip us up in the prelims, and it was amazing because they were as excited as we would have been in beating Chicago (actually maybe even more so).  Don't worry, we gave it back and more in the playoffs.
    Favorite Tossup: I think I got Ethan Frome the quickest (well, don't give me one of the main characters or anything), but I liked Roman Polanski, because in my review of The Pianist I noted how he had turned down Spielberg's offer to direct Schindler's List, and that was how this question began.
    Favorite Bonus: Perhaps the most fun was the very last bonus of the very last game.  We were already going to lose to Chicago, but we had about 15 seconds left.  The question said something about ten languages you can earn degrees for; I don't know exactly.  Anyway, it wanted two non-Indo-European ones.   There were two seconds left and I just yelled out "Chinese and Japanese!"   *BUZZ*  Both right for 20 points.  Boo-yah!  Okay, so it made no difference, nor was it that hard, but it was fun to beat the clock.
    Worst Neg: I guess "seas" for "Mediterranean Sea."  This question was sort of a hose; it started off just saying a bunch of names, some of which were "Ionian" and "Tyrrhenian."   Those are both arms of the Mediterranean Sea, so I could have taken things to the logical conclusion, but the others I didn't immediately recognize.  Turns out they were naming basins in the Mediterranean Sea.  CBI, I hate you.
    Most Disappointing Moment: Aside from going 0-3 against Chicago again - and we were within 30 points in our first playoff game against them, and I think losing 500-0 to Chicago would be less frustrating than losing 245-215 - it would have to be losing to Illinois-Chicago on Friday night.  We had a bad round, or they were just particularly fast, whatever you want, but they beat us 215-115, our second-lowest score of the tournament (the other was 110 in the first Chicago game; these were also our only games under 200).  Then they got all happy like this was some huge upset.  Which I guess it was.  Anyway...
    Most Satisfying Moment: Beating the living shit out of UIC in the playoff game.  Wasn't quite last year's Beloit trouncing, but we put them in their place, winning 290-75.  We had to face them again in Round 3; we heard them say "Next is Chicago" before the match started.  No, next is you go home.  245-135 isn't exactly an ass-kicking, but it'll do for our purposes.   That'll teach 'em.
    Scoring Update (3/5): Yeah, we ended up having way better stats than fucking UIC.  Eat it.  On six fewer tossups in the round robin we scored 2890 total points to their 2320, averaging 14.67 points per tossup to their 11.43.  Take that.
    As to individual scoring, Jan, me, and Colby finished 6-7-8 in the round robin.  Were we balanced?  Yeah, maybe.  I also finished as top scorer in the playoff rounds with 36.25 ppg in four games.  They also only missed one neg in my score in two days, which is pretty good.
    One more fun note... Oakton averaged 28 ppg in the round robin.   Both Jan and I averaged more (and Colby averaged 28 flat).  I hate to pile on, but come on, that's funny.

Prelim Rounds (Round Robin)

Round One: Northwestern 415, Wisconsin-Green Bay 20
Round Two: BYE
Round Three: BYE
Round Four: Northwestern 365, Wisconsin Lutheran 90
Round Five: Illinois-Chicago 215, Northwestern 115
Round Six: BYE
Round Seven: Northwestern 385, Oakton Community College 5
Round Eight: Northwestern 430, Concordia 105
Round Nine: BYE
Round Ten: BYE
Round Eleven: Northwestern 325, Wisconsin-Platteville 85
Round Twelve: Chicago 360, Northwestern 110
Round Thirteen: Northwestern 315, Ripon 55
Round Fourteen: Northwestern 230, Beloit 130
Round Fifteen: BYE
Round Sixteen: Northwestern 210, Wisconsin-Madison 75

Prelims Record: 8-2 (third place)

Playoffs (double elimination)

Round One: #3 Northwestern 290, #2 Illinois-Chicago 75
Round Two: #1 Chicago 245, #3 Northwestern 215
Round Three: #3 Northwestern 245, #2 Illinois-Chicago 135
Round Four: #1 Chicago 350, #3 Northwestern 220

Final Record: 10-4 (second place out of 11 teams)

Personal Stats: Questions Answered

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

Round One
City of God
Alvin Ailey
Ephesus

Round Four
Haiti
Henry David Thoreau
George Foreman
Ashanti
Erbium

Round Five
Stegosaurus
The Twilight Zone
Ethan Frome

Round Seven
Worcestershire sauce
Atacama Desert
The Iditarod
Toussaint L'Ouverture
Somalia

Round Eight
Microsoft
Anorexia
Trenton
Chrysler Building

Round Eleven
Liechtenstein

Round Twelve
Richard Gere

Round Thirteen
Jerry Springer
Darrell Green
Bali

Round Fourteen
CN Tower
Poseidon
Stan Lee
Goat
Alfred Dreyfuss (really Major Esterhazy)

Round Sixteen
Clive Barker

Playoffs Round One
Macchu Picchu
FAO Schwartz
New Jersey
Technetium
Randolph Caldecott (really Hans Christian Andersen)
Chile
Qatar

Playoffs Round Two
Geodesic dome
Denmark
Polo Grounds
Icelandic

Playoffs Round Three
Gaelic Games (really Highland Games)
Bermuda
Benito Juarez

Playoffs Round Four
Vlade Divac
Judy Blume
Seas (really Mediterranean Sea)
Roman Polanski
Curt Flood

PPG: 31.43