MLK Tournament at U of Michigan, 1.18.03

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

    Our A team (which, for reasons of "balance" I was not on, nor for that matter was Mike) finished 11th at MLK last year.  In 2001, the A team finished 9th, but the field was only 14 that year as opposed to 24 the last two years.  I don't have stats before that but I'd be stunned if we'd ever finished in the top five, which we did this year.  After starting off 1-3, including an embarrassing "upset" loss to Chicago C (whom our C team beat), we rolled off seven straight wins to go 8-3 in the prelims, qualifying us for the top six bracket, assuring we would finish no lower than sixth.  We defeated Iowa State, the only top six team we were able to beat, thus putting us at fifth (as we went 1-4 against the top six and they went 0-5).  Pretty sweet.
    Favorite Tossup: Hmm. You have to like Ryne Sandberg (I got it after "he was traded with Larry Bowa for Ivan DeJesus"; I mean, come on), and Anansi was just amusing (I wrote a question about it for Illinois Open which was worded almost exactly the same).  Still, I'll go with Aaron Sorkin, which I got after it started by talking about how his sister was assigned to a case at Guantanamo Bay where two Marines had assaulted a third.
    Favorite Bonus: British dependencies.  Please give me a capital and ask me to name the territory, which is what they did for the first three - Port Stanley = the Falkland Islands; Douglas = Isle of Man; Plymouth = Montserrat.   The fourth was the British Indian Ocean Territory.  Given that I got a tossup on Diego Garcia at an NAQT tournament once, I think I was going to know this.
    Worst Neg: I had two, neither of which were very bad.   I'll go with Bornholm for Gotland just because I'm probably the only person outside of Scandanavia who's ever heard of Bornholm.  Not that Gotland is significantly less obscure.
    That's mACF for you: I went two rounds - round 12's win over Notre Dame A and the playoff loss to Michigan State - without any tossups.   At least I didn't finish any rounds in negative points (though I came close in round eleven).
    Why Even Ask For One?: MLK asks us to submit packets.   Fine.  They proceeded to use three tossups (all Colby's) and two bonuses (both mine), and even changed the answer on one of the tossups to make it wrong.  Well done there.

Prelim Rounds (Round Robin)

Round One: Northwestern A 230, Cornell 130
Round Two: Chicago C 120, Northwestern A 115
Round Three: Chicago A 430, Northwestern A 65
Round Four: Rochester A 310, Northwestern A 130
Round Five: Northwestern A 190, DePauw B 85
Round Six: Northwestern A 165, Northwestern C 95
Round Seven: BYE
Round Eight: Northwestern A 330, Ohio State 45
Round Nine: Northwestern A 200, Western Ontario 120
Round Ten: Northwestern A 195, Pittsburgh 170
Round Eleven: Northwestern A 120, Iowa 35
Round Twelve: Northwestern A 165, Notre Dame A 125

After prelims: 8-3; 3rd place, Division B; qualified for top playoff bracket

Playoff Rounds (Top Bracket)

Round One: #1A Kentucky 410, #3B Northwestern A 120
Round Two: BYE
Round Three: #2A Michigan State 305, #3B Northwestern A 130
Round Four: #3B Northwestern A 230, #3A Iowa State 195

Overall: 9-5; 5th place (out of 24)

Personal Stats: Questions Answered

   No one's asking you to care about it.  Powers would be in bold if they were used; neg-5s would be in italics with the real answer following, except I didn't have any.  Anything in plain text was just ten.

Round One
Richard Nixon
On the Beach
Who Moved My Cheese?

Round Two
Gideon v. Wainwright
Roy Lichtenstein

Round Three
High Anxiety

Round Four
Subway (really Quizno's)
Amur River
Aaron Copland
Kansas City Royals
Fandango
John Singleton Copley
Prince Edward Island

Round Five
Juan Pizarro
Aaron Sorkin
Menthol

Round Six
Sino-Japanese War
Anansi

Round Eight
Ryne Sandberg
Frelinghuysen

Round Nine
New York Times

Round Ten
Mount Cook
Thor Heyerdahl
Anterograde amnesia

Round Eleven
Bornholm (really Gotland)
Felix Leiter

Round Twelve
Big ol' zero.

Prelims PPG: 20.91

Playoff Round One
Jenny From the Block
Lake Malawi

Playoff Round Three
Nothing.

Playoff Round Four
Hokusai
Samuel Pickwick
Lake Maracaibo
Capital One

Playoffs PPG: 20.00

Overall PPG: 20.71