NAQT Sectionals @ U of C, 2.8.03

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

    Last year we went 8-6 and finished fifth in a massive sectional.  This year we went 6-8 and finished fifth in a sectional with eight teams.
    Notice any difference there?
    On the whole we played tougher teams than last year (teams that were not in attendance: Rolla, UMKC, Tennessee Tech), I think, but the bottom line is we lost at least two and probably four games that we could - nay, should - have won.   Particularly in the case of the two Minnesota games, both of which we held huge leads in only to choke it big-time.
    On the other hand, we redeemed ourselves a bit with a huge comeback against Illinois B in our second game against them, and we absolutely lit up a two-person Wisconsin team in our second match with them, scoring 535 points, 75 of which were tossups from me, my highest-scoring NAQT round since I began tracking (though I probably topped it in high school given that I was averaging that much at RUAT and HSNCT), as well as the second-highest team game in college play.
    Well, we didn't have much money for the trip to LA anyway, and besides that our D2 team is looking good to qualify.
    Favorite Tossup: I had a big-time power day, recording 12 total.  While Rocky Horror Picture Show was a good one, I'll have to go with Maldives.  Here's why: the question began "Its official language is Divehi," at which point I buzzed.  Now, that's not the world's hardest clue - for me, anyway - but it caused everyone else in the room, including Carleton, to gasp.   And that's just fun.  Princeton was also great because I got it off the first clue of "They lost 50-49 to Georgetown in the first round of the 1989 NCAA tournament."  Come on, man, I live for #16 seeds that almost beat #1s.
    Favorite Bonus: There were several good ones, actually.  I like the one where they would give you an island group and you had to say whether it was in Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, or none - then they go with New Guinea (Melanesia), Marshall Islands (Micronesia), Tahiti (Polynesia), and the Philippines (none).  In that order!  I also liked where they name a bunch of the islands in the Aleutians and wanted Aleutians, and then the second part was "name the other two island groups with three letter mammalian names."  Fox and Rat?  Why, yes!   There were also a couple easy sports ones and a childish High Fidelity quotes 30-20-10 (or in this case, 30-done), but I like geography.
    Most Ludicrous Power: Have you ever seen a question in which they gave a country's capital and it was still power several words later?   Porto-Novo is the capital of Benin, but I had to think for a second to be sure - and then it was still power.  Eh?
    Worst Neg: Mollusks for cephalopods; in retrospect I should have known that they were looking for something more specific (they said mollusks about two words after I negged).  Spoon for spork I jumped on the word "runcible"... there's something about a "runcible spoon," in a poem, but I guess it's referring to a spork-like object.  Either way, both very legit negs, and only two is pretty good for someone who had 12 powers.
    Most Awesome Moment: Trailing 155-0 after an early burst by Illinois B, we climb to within 210-85 at half, then roll off a 220-45 second half to win the game 305-255.  Going for 535 against Wisconsin was cool in its own way (me like points), but there's something about a big comeback.
    Most Disappointing Moments: There's also something about a big-time choke job.  We blew 100-plus point leads in both Minnesota games, losing the first by 35 points and the second by a tossup in overtime.  We also were well within striking distance of every team we played at some point during the game... not a single game was out of reach at halftime.  We led Michigan State 115-0 in our second game before seeing them go on about a 200-point run.  We went 6-8... but we should have gone 8-6, and definitely could have gone 10-4.   That's really the only reason this sucked, because otherwise it was pretty fun.

Division I - Double Round Robin

Round One: Minnesota 320, Northwestern A 285
Round Two: Northwestern A 310, Northwestern B 90
Round Three: Carleton A 250, Northwestern A 125
Round Four: Northwestern A 345, Illinois B 275
Round Five: Michigan State 425, Northwestern A 200
Round Six: Illinois A 285, Northwestern A 150
Round Seven: Northwestern A 330, Wisconsin A 180
Round Eight: Minnesota 245, Northwestern A 235 (OT) (teams were tied at 225 after 18 minutes of play)
Round Nine: Northwestern A 305, Northwestern B 170
Round Ten: Carleton A 295, Northwestern A 215
Round Eleven: Northwestern A 305, Illinois B 255
Round Twelve: Michigan State 395, Northwestern A 265
Round Thirteen: Illinois A 410, Northwestern A 260
Round Fourteen: Northwestern A 535, Wisconsin A 150

Record: 6-8
Final Ranking: #5; #3 u-grad

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
Woody Hayes
Peter Benchley
Sam Seaborn

Round Two
Key West
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Round Three
Melvil Dewey
Rabbit Angstrom
Kyrgyzstan

Round Four
Kingsley Amis
Maximilian
Overture
Thames River
Princeton University

Round Five
Spoon (really spork)
Fay Vincent

Round Six
Pyongyang
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Witwatersrand

Round Seven
Memento
Lake Ponchartrain
Kingdoms
Tagus River

Round Eight
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Salisbury
Michael Chabon

Round Nine
Jeff Kent
Tashkent
Dr. David Livingstone

Round Ten
Ain't It Cool News
Maldives
Al Michaels

Round Eleven
White Sea

Round Twelve
Utah Jazz
Echinodermata
Angola
Federico Fellini
Mollusks (really cephalopods)

Round Thirteen
Benin
Chlorofluorocarbons

Round Fourteen
A.E. Housman
Bermuda
Gizzard
Dan Rather
Warren Buffett
Feta cheese
The Andromeda Strain

PPG: 35.00