Elvis Tournament at UW-Madison, 2/1-2/02
Results: Northwestern
(Colby Burnett, Robert Flaxman, Kate Rigot, Jan Zasowski)
It's somewhat frightening to realize that this was the
15th Annual Elvis Tournament (it has some longer name, but whatever). I don't know
if there were too many people at Wisconsin who were around for the first one, but I bet
someone was.
There weren't too many schools there - 13 teams total - but we had to
contend with Carleton, Illinois, Chicago, Michigan State, Iowa State, and Minnesota, none
of whose A teams are particular slouches. Oddly enough, we handed Illinois their
hats in our one game against them - the difference being that they finished third or
fourth and we finished sixth, with a .500 record.
The other thing, of course, was that this was the second purported mACF
tournament in as many that offered way too little "m" and way too much ACF.
We actually managed to score 2,485 points in 14 rounds - 177.5 ppg, which trumped
our MLK score of 1,175 points, just under 84 a game. To be fair, though, I wasn't on
the "A" team at MLK (because we were trying not to entirely frontload), and not
having Jan at an ACF tournament will drag an NU team's ppg down.
Surprising no one, Jan led us again at this one. He also led the
tournament in negs, which was a little more surprising because Hairboy and Kevin Roth were
both there, even if no other really heavy hitters were. (I single them out because
Hairboy won the Freeburg* at GIT last year, beating Jan by four, I believe, and Roth was
the #1 scorer at HSNCT my senior year - as a junior - and the top scorer here, and guys
who score sick amounts of points often neg a lot as well.) I think he had 21.
Anyway, scores and my personal stats (not too good, unsurprisingly) are below.
* This refers to Nathan Freeburg, a negmeister who is, as far as I
know, the only player from a school called St. Thomas. At least that's what he was
listed as at NAQT Sectionals (Iowa) last year, when he racked up 74 negs. I did a
little math and realized that he in fact negged more times at that tournament than I have
in my entire college career (now comprised of 14 tournaments). (By the by, it should
be noted that he was also the #2 scorer at Sects, because he had 76 10-pointers and 41
powers to go along with the negs.)
Favorite Tossup: As usual for mACF, many of my buzzes were
trashy (not that many this time, thankyouverymuch). However, my favorite
was probably the Maori, because I got it off the first sentence, saying that their history
says they emigrated from Hawa'iki. Helps when you've been to New Zealand and had
Maori history crammed down your throat, I must say, though embarrassingly I later couldn't
get a Western Australia tossup.
Favorite Bonus: I've started writing down vague
descriptions of fun bonuses so I don't forget. Best ones here - Neal Stephenson (I
actually only got 20, but being able to answer Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash
all quick like a badass was worth not knowing his pseudonym); actors in bands (Dogstar
bassist Keanu Reeves; Tenacious D singer Jack Black; 30-Odd Foot of Grunts
guitarist/singer Russell Crowe); and movie taglines of 2001 (Planet of the Apes, K-PAX,
The Princess Diaries) - actually this last one was just painfully easy, for me, but hey, I
enjoy things right up my street like that.
Worst Neg: As usual, there weren't many (just three,
and two in one round). The worst one in my opinion was actually the closest - saying
"Green Mountain Men" for "Green Mountain Boys." Dammit.
Most Disappointing Moment: The "Absolutely
Fabulous" bonus in Round Five, yet another example of clear knowledge getting fucked.
They were looking for you to name the character given the actress. They said
Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley, and Jane Horrocks. I said Edina, Patsy, and
Bubbles. They had Edwina, Patsy, and Bubble. The latter was right for them -
but it actually is Edina, something I didn't bother protesting because I wasn't
sure until later. We lost that round by 20, so the ten there didn't matter in the
final scheme, but there were two other questions in the same round that
we missed by one letter - Colby saying Usiah when it was Usah, and Jan saying
Heckscher-Ohlsin Theorem instead of Heckscher-Ohlin Theorem. We got slight payback
in the last prelim round when Jan rebounded V.S. Naipul off a neg with "Naipur."
Prelim Rounds (Round Robin)
Round One: Northwestern 195, Iowa State Gutterballs 85
Round Two: Chicago 285, Northwestern 140
Round Three: Northwestern 295, Minnesota B 65
Round Four: Carleton A 240, Northwestern 125
Round Five: Iowa State Logjammin' 170, Northwestern 150
Round Six: Northwestern 295, Illinois 95
Round Seven: Minnesota A 280, Northwestern 45
Round Eight: Northwestern 170, Wisconsin 85
Round Nine: Northwestern 255, Carleton C 35
Round Ten: Northwestern 140, St. Olaf 30
Round Eleven: BYE
Round Twelve: Michigan State 200, Northwestern 190
Round Thirteen: Carleton B 165, Northwestern 150
Prelims Record: 6-6 (seventh place)
Playoffs (round robin, second bracket)
Round One: BYE
Round Two: #7 Northwestern 235, #5 Carleton A 135
Round Three: #6 Minnesota A 140, #7
Northwestern 100
Final Record: 7-7 (6th place out of 13 teams*)
* The sixth-place calculation comes from unofficial circle of death stats (as all three teams in our group were 1-1 in the playoffs). It's possible that the official finish will be different - I'll update if and when I see it.
Personal Stats: Questions Answered
No one's asking you to care about it. Powers would be in bold if they existed in mACF, neg-5s are in italics with the real answer following. Anything in plain text was just ten.
Round One
German measles
Left-handed
Ted McGinley
Round Two
None. I would like to note another disappointing moment here which was
fortunately not a neg. They were asking about those Hopi movies with
Phillip Glass scores. I rang in (right as the last word was being said, as it turned
out) and said "Powaqqatsi." Naturally they wanted the other one
("Koyaanisqatsi," if you're interested); Powaqqatsi was the sequel.
Round Three
The Man Who Wasn't There
Frida Kahlo
Round Four
Cate Blanchett
Round Five
The Borrowers (really Brownie)
Round Six
Chinese Gordon
Magwitch
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
J.M. Barrie
Princeton
Ben Kingsley
Round Seven
Javier Vazquez
House of Lords
Round Eight
Green Mountain Men (really Green Mountain Boys)
Battle of Poltava
Maori
Buffalo Bills
Turing Test (really Ashe Experiment)
Round Nine
Los Angeles
Twelve
Virginia
Round Ten
Aruba
Round Twelve
Hookworm
Doppler radar
Round Thirteen
THX
Prelims PPG: 18.75
Playoffs Round Two
Weddell Sea
Playoffs Round Three
Charlottetown
Playoffs PPG: 10.0
Overall PPG: 17.5