Tuesday, February 7, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[TenPoundHammer]

Also had never heard of Bloemfontain before.

It's one of South Africa's 3 capital cities. How can you never have heard of it?

For one, geography is a weak spot of mine. For the other, it hasn't been mentioned on the show in over two years, and the last time, it was a TS at $2000.

[alietr]

This is what came to mind on the Count of Monte Cristo clue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGiiy09mCtU

Beat me by about 10 minutes on that. Rats. That's an instant association in my mind.

[bpmod]

Also had never heard of Bloemfontain before.

It's one of South Africa's 3 capital cities. How can you never have heard of it?

For one, geography is a weak spot of mine. For the other, it hasn't been mentioned on the show in over two years, and the last time, it was a TS at $2000.

You mean you remember every clue from the past two years?

What? An archive? You mean people save every clue? People: get a life!

Brian

[xxaaaxx]

...it hasn't been mentioned on the show in over two years, and the last time, it was a TS at $2000.

And I'd argue that it shouldn't have been. For that matter, neither should the time before that, when they basically asked the same question as tonight.

[cheezguyty]

Stats maniacs, what's the record for a single-day win in the College Tourney?

Matt's $40,000 is the second highest total, behind Danielle Zsenak's $44,400 from her QF match: http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=2454 (had Matt pulled a Danielle he still wouldn't have surpassed Andy Richter's $68,000 for highest one-day total in a special-play game).

[dhkendall]

Also had never heard of Bloemfontain before.

It's one of South Africa's 3 capital cities. How can you never have heard of it?

To be fair, people shouldn't be expected to memorize all ~200 world capitals (unless they're a Sporcler ) - hell, even I have problems with one or two of them! Even those of a more prominent country, people should be given a break. Hell, given my above statement with capitals, plus having a good friend who was born in South Africa (J-burg) many years ago didn't give it to me (I said Pretoria). (In my defence, my daughter was playing Wii next to me during Jeopardy, and she was doing very good, so I was quite distracted, that's my excuse for my incredibly dismal ($4,200) Coryat. Lesson, boys and girls, never Jeopardy! while distracted.)

Did anyone else catch the line "Llsten up, Dumas!" in the clue about The Count of Monte Cristo? I'm not sure if that is incredibly witty, a terrible pun, or perhaps both.

I chalked it up to both - or more exactly: the writers thinking they were being incredibly witty and failing miserably.

[MarkBarrett]

I had a different reaction to The Count of Monte Cristo clue: http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=532 (World Lit $1200)

At least Paula Deen didn't present the FJ clue.

Jason Keller and Dave Leach must have sat up while watching tonight's game. For the next three games they might be wise to root for 8 other players. Matt looks like the real deal if the cards fall his way.

[Paucle]

To be fair, people shouldn't be expected to memorize all ~200 world capitals

But the unusual situation in South Africa - 3 different capitals- should make it well known among trivia geeks.

[karoliner]

Did Zach cost himself a WC with that late round neg? I don't remember the clue value.

It was a 2K clue and he absolutely did. I have no idea why he felt the need to ring in on that clue. I'm sure Jaime thanks him very much, though.

I don't know much about dogs and I was like: "Australian shepherd? No can't be that easy..." But when Matt rang in with sheep dog and Alex hesitated before negging him, I couldn't help but shout out "shepherd".

I felt Zach might have had the same thought process and would have clammed if Matt hadn't answered.

Would sheep dog be negged if the answer was shepherd though?

[Sage on the Hudson]

Such is the stupidity of political correctness.

No, it's just politeness, though misplaced because the clue writers apparently didn't bother to check the deaf's preferences as to nomenclature.

[alietr]

I had a different reaction to The Count of Monte Cristo clue: http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=532 (World Lit $1200)

Something funky is going on in the Archive ... when I click that link, that doesn't show up at all. But then I do a search for "Cristo", and the same link you cite shows up, but again, it's not there.

[John Boy]

Nowhere in the discription is the term "hearing impared."

Such is the stupidity of political correctness.

Now, now. They prefer to call it "intelligence-impaired."

[Creed Bratton]

This is what came to mind on the Count of Monte Cristo clue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGiiy09mCtU

Totally agree. I fear that if I am ever fortunate enough to get on the show, and I get a question on this book, I will either call it "Crisco" or "dumbass," since that's what I say every time I watch it at home.

[Volante]

To be fair, people shouldn't be expected to memorize all ~200 world capitals

But the unusual situation in South Africa - 3 different capitals- should make it well known among trivia geeks.

Well, Bloemfontein is the least well known of the three.

Kept waiting for the -escu. Took a while there.

[Lefty]

I don't know much about dogs and I was like: "Australian shepherd? No can't be that easy..." But when Matt rang in with sheep dog and Alex hesitated before negging him, I couldn't help but shout out "shepherd".

I felt Zach might have had the same thought process and would have clammed if Matt hadn't answered.

I'll bet that's what happened. Alex does that rather often; gives the impression of an excruciatingly close judgment call before negging a response that is simply wrong wrong wrong. It is a trap that potential contestants must watch for.

[barandall800]

I also agree that this FJ was a joke. At the risk of offending anyone who may not have come up with it, surely this will be in the 90-95% range in the weekly poll, won't it? It seems like there could have been some way of writing a clue about Paulescu with the intended response being "What is insulin" without the total giveaway that was including the word "Pancrein" in the clue.

I'm not offended, but I didn't get it. There was just no connection there for me...it was kind of a "you know it or you don't" clue, except in this case apparently almost everyone knows it.

[Jacobson00]

I agree this was the easiest fj. Wow jaime dodged a bullet there. I thought he was out. How are they going to distribute the semi? Is it randon or by amount won? So far Matt seems to be a serious pretender

[seaborgium]

I agree this was the easiest fj. Wow jaime dodged a bullet there. I thought he was out. How are they going to distribute the semi? Is it randon or by amount won?

Neither. They come up with arrangements that they think will produce the most interesting competitions. How exactly they do this is unknown, but there's no random or strictly by-the-numbers distribution of players.
edit: one thing I've noticed is that if five of the semifinalists are women, they'll put three into one game, thereby guaranteeing there will be at least one in the final.

I'm happy for Jaime. I couldn't tell when he appeared in his QF thread whether that was a good sign, but the very fact he showed up here made me want him to make it.

[opusthepenguin]

Did Zach cost himself a WC with that late round neg? I don't remember the clue value.

It was a 2K clue and he absolutely did. I have no idea why he felt the need to ring in on that clue. I'm sure Jaime thanks him very much, though.

Jaime should also thank Matt for dominating the game. If Zach had been able to get a little more of a toehold, that mistake wouldn't have sealed his doom. And Jaime should thank the writers for sucker punching the first set of contestants with that "magazine" clue. To be safe, he should probably thank the Academy and his mom.

[dhkendall]

Wondering: Did anyone scan the QR code to see where it was? (I have a pretty good guess, but a) lacking a phone at the moment and b) not liking QR codes for a variety of reasons (one of which being you have no idea where they'll take you) means I couldn't/wouldn't.)