NAQT ICT @ Washington University in St. Louis, 4/2-3/04
Results: Northwestern
(Colby Burnett, Robert Flaxman, Justin Moles, Kate Rigot)
After going a rather ugly 4-12 at Sectionals, even if
it was against a pretty strong field (three Michigans, Illinois, Indiana, two
comparatively slumming Chicagos), I think we all assumed there would be no chance for us
to go to Nationals. That was before about eight teams turned down D-I bids, though;
the strength of our opponents had bumped us up the S-curve a little and led to us getting
one of the last couple bids.
Of course, that having happened, it would have been silly of us to
expect very much. Last year we ended up low on the totem pole but romped over the
lower-rated teams. This year we weren't even that good. (Not that it's hard to
see why. Colby and I played comparably to last year, and Justin and Kate, with all
due respect, are not Mike and Jan.) At least it didn't involve flying across the
country this time, though.
Favorite Tossup: Since we bought the question, I can
show you exactly where I got the three questions I powered:
1. "Guests include a mysterious Italian named Paravicini; an architect who is
pretending to be named Christopher Wren;" *BUZZ* Yes, it's The Mousetrap,
which I've only seen performed live. In fact, I have a program signed by the guy who
played Christopher Wren in that show.
2. "In 1986 one of its members confessed: 'Before [Elizalde] came, we lived in huts
on the other side of the mountain and we farmed.'" *BUZZ* The Tasaday, on whom
I wrote a question for a tournament last year.
3. "His love of classic rock is seen in episode titles like 'Bad Moon Rising' and
'Eli's Coming,' while his penchant for repetition resulted in two first-season finales
sharing the title 'What Kind of Day Has It Been?'" *BUZZ* Aaron Sorkin. I
do own the Sports Night DVD set, after all.
I also liked the "Scrabble Dictionary" one, though I didn't
power it.
Favorite Bonus: The one about upsets in the 2004 NCAA
tournament was easy (Nevada, Pacific, Manhattan), but when don't I love March Madness
questions?
Most Ludicrous Clue: The Pablo Neruda question didn't
really reward real knowledge, as I got it off the Simpsons clue; it's this kind of stuff
that I thrive on while more ACF-like players get pissed because someone who spent their
life studying Neruda would get beaten to it by me, who knows little about him. I
only include this here because I didn't get anything off groaners this year.
Worst Neg: I refuse to feel bad about "Northwest
Passage" for "Northeast Passage" because the latter is such a stupid thing
to ask about. The one that annoyed me the most was Lesotho for Swaziland, because I
was thinking Swaziland the whole way and then got confused by the word
"landlocked" (Swaziland is, of course, landlocked, but I was thinking of the
fact that Lesotho is surrounded by a single country). "Exit visas" for
"letters of transit" also pissed me off because I knew exactly what they were
talking about, the movie (Casablanca) and everything, but simply gave the wrong
term.
Most Awesome Moment: Eh, nothing was really awesome.
Colby was a little too excited about beating Rice in part due to a time-killing neg
at the end of the game, but apart from that and a close win against Minnesota, things
mostly blew. Really, for me the most awesome moment was getting to see Alma, who was
there reading.
Most Disappointing Moment: There were a few.
Losing both our "winnable" games against Michigan C and Truman State in the
prelims; losing to Texas A&M on the last question, which was trash, no less; losing to
Missouri (ugh), in no small part thanks to getting three of the last five tossups (the
other two falling dead) and getting exactly zero points on all three bonuses (we lost by
35). In fact, our bonus conversion was generally crap; I'm pretty sure we had more
zeroes than 30s, and we averaged just under ten for the whole tournament.
Division I - Prelims - Division D
Round One: Michigan C 120, Northwestern
85
Round Two: Indiana 375, Northwestern 65
Round Three: Florida 460, Northwestern 75
Round Four: Virginia 305, Northwestern 75
Round Five: Stanford 290, Northwestern
170
Round Six: Yale A 405, Northwestern 100
Round Seven: Truman State 155, Northwestern 95
Division I - Playoffs
Round Nine: #8D
Northwestern 225, #7C Minnesota 180
Round Ten: #7A Texas A&M 205, #8D
Northwestern 180
Round Eleven: #7B South Florida B 275, #8D
Northwestern 85
Round Twelve: #8D Northwestern 210,
#8B Brandeis 50
Round Thirteen: #8A Missouri 130, #8D
Northwestern 95
Round Fourteen: #8D Northwestern 200,
#8C Rice 175
Record: 3-10
Final Ranking: #28 out of 32 teams
Personal Stats: Questions Answered
No one's asking you to care about it. Powers are in bold, neg-5s are in italics with the real answer following. Anything in plain text was just ten.
Round One
Pablo Neruda
Cuyahoga River
Canon in D
Round Two
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Northwest Passage (really Northeast Passage)
Art Modell
Round Three
Macchu Picchu (really Cuzco)
Round Four
Bern
Round Five
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Lake Baikal
The Mousetrap
Charles Taylor (really Alberto Fujimori)
Apollo Creed
Round Six
Klaatu
Adolph Rupp
Round Seven
Ben Curtis
Round Nine
Nothing.
Round Ten
Tasaday
Transit of Venus
Covent Garden
Janet Jackson
Namibia
Round Eleven
Swan Lake
Round Twelve
Exit visas (really letters of transit)
Kidnapped
Waterford crystal
Round Thirteen
Aaron Sorkin
Sharks (really civets)
Scrabble Dictionary
Round Fourteen
Count Dooku
Mr. Boddy
Lesotho (really Swaziland)
PPG: 18.08