NAQT Sectionals at DePauw University, 2.7.04

Results: Northwestern A
(Colby Burnett, Robert Flaxman, Justin Moles, Kate Rigot)

    Based on last year, you never know what's going to be good enough to qualify for Nationals... but I can tell you what won't be good enough, and that's 4-12.  Interesting stat: this is the second year in a row that our D-I team has won two fewer games - from 8-6 and not good enough for ICT in 2002 to 6-8 and good enough for ICT in 2003 to 4-12 and barely good enough for a CBI campus tournament, if those were invitation-only.  It was kinda neat because the double round robin meant 16 games of quiz bowl, which ties 2001 TRASHionals and 2002 Carleton as the most rounds I've played in a single tournament (this one also had more total rounds than those, due to two byes, though it actually doesn't win the prize for that due to the 20 rounds, including a ridiculous six byes, at 2002 CBI Regionals).  Of course, we only won a quarter of them, which kinda sucks.  Much like last year, a couple bounces would have put us near .500, but no such luck.
    Favorite Tossup: I powered Rwanda off the name of a book about it I read last quarter, and nailed British Virgin Islands when they foolishly gave me "the chief settlement is Road Town" as the first sentence.
    Favorite Bonus: I wrote a few down for once.  The one on Denmark in Round Two was fun because I got to have people stare at me for knowing Skagerrak, and the by now cliché "are these islands Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia, or none" bonus in Round Four was child's play.  (For the record: Borneo, none; Vanuatu, Melanesia; Solomon Islands, Melanesia; Hawaii, Polynesia.)   There was also a poetry one in Round Twelve with a couple of my favorite poems in it (Ozymandias and She Walks in Beauty, along with Ode on a Grecian Urn, one of Drew's favorites), but the best was probably naming the film festival based on the top prize (Golden Palm, Cannes; Golden Bear, Berlin; Golden Lion, Venice).  Not just because it's right up my street, but because it was an okay part of a round in which, for what I calculate to be the second time ever, I did not have a tossup in an NAQT round.
    Worst Neg: As usual, they tend not to be bad.  Worst was probably "Gateway Arch" for "Eiffel Tower."  Turgenev for Lermontov was frustrating because I was thinking about the right book but just said the wrong author's name for it.
    Most Disappointing Moment: Aside from finding out that Alma was moderating in Div II and we wouldn't see her all day, it would have to be any of the three times where we lost a match by one question, especially the first match against Chicago B and second against Michigan C, both of which saw Colby get the last tossup only for us to end up with a bonus we could do basically nothing with.
    We Did Whaaa?: Okay, I realize it wasn't, you know, Subash or anything, but we still took down Chicago A in our second game against them.  The 330-310 win saw us lead 310-65 at the half, then get just one tossup in the second half and hang on for dear life.  I had 65 points, five tossups and a power, but all in the first half.
    Revenge of Jan: In Round Fifteen, I got a tossup on the Vistula after the Nerew was given as one of its tributaries.  Jan, despite being Polish, once negged with "Brahmaputra" because the moderator read Nerew as "Nay-roo," which sounded to Jan like "Nehru" and thus something in South Asia.  However, moderating my room for this was Stan, who as his last name might suggest knew better.
    Yes, Again: Most Extreme Elimination Challenge.  I would almost lay down money that I will never be beaten to a tossup on this show.

Double Round Robin

Round One: Northwestern A 415, Ohio State A 110
Round Two: Michigan A 485, Northwestern A 190
Round Three: Chicago A 330, Northwestern A 200
Round Four: Indiana 275, Northwestern A 240
Round Five: BYE
Round Six: Michigan C 330, Northwestern A 165
Round Seven: Illinois A 320, Northwestern A 175
Round Eight: Chicago B 195, Northwestern A 170
Round Nine: Michigan B 455, Northwestern A 240
Round Ten: Northwestern A 385, Ohio State A 30
Round Eleven: Michigan A 455, Northwestern A 155
Round Twelve: Northwestern A 330, Chicago A 310
Round Thirteen: Indiana 305, Northwestern A 155
Round Fourteen: BYE
Round Fifteen: Michigan C 265, Northwestern A 245
Round Sixteen: Illinois A 375, Northwestern A 225
Round Seventeen: Northwestern A 295, Chicago B 75
Round Eighteen: Michigan B 455, Northwestern A 130

Final Record: 4-12 (seventh place out of nine 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
Whig Party
The Ring
James I
Pepin
Gateway Arch (really Eiffel Tower)
Griffin

Round Two
Northwest Passage

Round Three
Rwanda
El Paso
Dennis Kucinich

Round Four
Nighthawks
Trichinosis
The Brothers Karamazov
Near Earth Objects (really Centaur objects - I took this neg with one second on the clock as a last-ditch effort to win)

Round Six
Behind Blue Eyes
British Virgin Islands
Daphne du Maurier

Round Seven
Evgeni Nabokov (really Arturs Irbe)
Crossroads
Memento
Citizen Kane

Round Eight
United States Olympic Committee
Guam

Round Nine
Female circumcision

Round Ten
Most Extreme Elimination Challenge
Jonathan Franzen
Ivan Turgenev (really Mikhail Lermontov)
Antwone Fisher
Cork

Round Eleven
Comoros
Sympathy for the Devil

Round Twelve
Paraguay
Plymouth Rock
Phil Spector
Las Cruces
Prince Edward Island
Dany Heatley

Round Thirteen
Scholastic Aptitude Test

Round Fifteen
Thomas Eakins
Amos
Soap opera
Vistula River

Round Sixteen
Ulster
Spain
Hit home run on their birthday (really hit walk-off grand slam)
Alice Springs

Round Seventeen
Mulholland
Limpopo River
Chicago Cubs
Barchester Towers

Round Eighteen
Nothin'.  Woof.

PPG: 28.44