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Matt J's "Word Racing" timewaster/game for the stay-at-home COVID-19 days of 2020

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  • lambers
    replied
    Parrots can eat pizza quickly.

    If they're hungry enough, obviously. And if it doesn't have pineapple on it.

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  • matt j
    replied
    Race #6:

    Test Racer - This is one extended sentence. Scores 117.

    There are three letters this week that will only score 1. There are three letters this week that will score 10.

    Go. Please keep in mind the changes to this week's rules.

    Leave a comment:


  • matt j
    replied
    Season 2 Week 2:
    Here is my plot for this week... All values have been reset, so this is all fresh.

    Our indoor season continues, thankfully the rent is still cheap!

    Major changes for this week. There is no three-word requirement. You can use any number of words and any length of words.

    You can use up to 25 letters total. (You don't 'have' to use all 25, but you can. You must still have at least 15 letters.)

    Sentence construction will be much more scrutinized. You must have a noun and verb, and if I can't tell what they are, you are at risk of a penalty and point deduction. (E.g. more explanation is better than no explanation.)

    There will be a very limited number of clues this week.

    Race #6:
    The Week 2 scratch race. I will give you a test racer score from a sentence of my choosing.

    Race#7:
    The cut-off race. I will provide a sentence. You will need to score under that sentence or be disqualified. If not disqualified, high score for the sentence wins.

    Race#8:
    The blind bet race. I will grab sentences from previously submitted weeks and provide potential bets/predictions you can make. You will earn points based on your bets (by private message).

    Race #9:
    Scratch race but words from other languages are allowed (English alphabet though). We should be able to find the words in the other languages somewhere online.. You must also try to rhyme an entry from Race #6. (Any entry. Rhyming couplet style.) Rhyming entries will receive a bonus.

    Race#10 (possibly extended into week 3):
    The big kahuna. The high-low head-to-head. More will be explained later.

    ---

    All races (except for race #6) subject to change based upon public outcry.

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  • Sits
    replied
    Wow, this is amazing Matt.

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  • matt j
    replied
    Originally posted by Various Artist View Post
    Amazing stuff matt, thanks so much for all that!

    I'm actually a little gutted about the tempo race, now I've discovered what happened there – to score highly enough to rank 3rd in a regular sprint yet only come 10th is a bit of a kick in the teeth when the rest of my week held up really pretty well! A few places higher in that ranking and I might well have topped the overall standings for the week, looking at that last table. Never mind, a podium place is certainly not to be sniffed at against such great opposition.
    Actually that was a mistake in my report. Although you did score high in the tempo (91), it was Vicarious who would normally have finished 3rd.

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  • Various Artist
    replied
    Amazing stuff matt, thanks so much for all that!

    I'm actually a little gutted about the tempo race, now I've discovered what happened there – to score highly enough to rank 3rd in a regular sprint yet only come 10th is a bit of a kick in the teeth when the rest of my week held up really pretty well! A few places higher in that ranking and I might well have topped the overall standings for the week, looking at that last table. Never mind, a podium place is certainly not to be sniffed at against such great opposition.

    Leave a comment:


  • matt j
    replied
    Originally posted by Balderdasha View Post
    Is there an overall list of the week's winners? Or is that information in there and I haven't read it somehow?
    the last chart is actually sorted by average placing for the week.

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  • Balderdasha
    replied
    Is there an overall list of the week's winners? Or is that information in there and I haven't read it somehow?

    Leave a comment:


  • matt j
    replied
    And that's the end of Season 2 - Week 1!

    Thanks for playing, don't forgot to have the racers take their trash with them as the leave, we don't have the crew for clean-up over the weekend.

    We'll return to the indoor circuit next week.

    Leave a comment:


  • matt j
    replied
    Racer Name (time trial points) Place Race #2 Place Race #3 Place Race #4 Place Race #5
    ad hoc 22 1 2 8 3
    Sporting 33 2 3 7 6
    Various Artist 39 3 10 2 6
    Vicarious Thrillseeker 23 5 7 4 9
    wouter d 26 8 5 1 11
    slackster 33 6 1 6 13
    Balderdasha 29 15 8 3 2
    Southport Zeb 12 7 11 10 4
    lambers 29 9 9 9 6
    sits 19 13 4 5 13
    andrew7160 37 4 5 12 15
    sean of the shed 27 14 12 14 1
    nmrfox 38 11 14 13 5
    San Bernardhinault 36 12 13 11 12
    diable rouge 20 10 15 15 10
    Last edited by matt j; 01-05-2020, 17:26.

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  • matt j
    replied
    Taking us to the blind high-low race:

    The question was fundamentally, would more people go high (having some good examples from the scratch and some from the elimination) or would they try to go low. Almost invariably, everyone went low.
    Racer Name 1st 2nd 3rd 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 60.13333333 dif from average
    Vicarious Thrillseeker beanz meanz heinz 4 4 1 5 2 6 4 1 5 2 1 4 7 5 2 53 7.133333333
    Wouter D levee break beats 2 4 6 4 4 4 1 4 1 8 4 4 1 8 9 64 3.866666667
    nmrfox trims beard shape 8 1 7 6 9 4 4 1 1 9 9 1 1 7 4 72 11.86666667
    Southport Zeb avoid buzzy mazes 1 6 8 7 9 4 8 2 2 8 6 1 2 4 9 77 16.86666667
    lambers helen riles hazel 1 4 2 4 5 1 7 2 4 9 1 1 2 4 2 49 11.13333333
    Various Artist elder wheel freer 4 2 9 4 1 2 1 4 4 2 6 1 4 4 1 49 11.13333333
    sporting eerie arena haven 4 4 1 7 4 1 1 4 5 1 1 1 6 4 5 49 11.13333333
    Balderdasha blaze hazel zebra 4 2 1 2 4 1 1 2 4 2 2 4 4 1 1 35 25.13333333
    sits kneel girly reeve 8 5 4 4 2 3 7 1 2 8 1 4 4 6 4 63 2.866666667
    Sean of the Shed Round pound found 1 8 8 5 9 7 8 8 5 9 6 8 8 5 9 104 43.86666667
    diable rouge thine black rhino 8 1 7 5 4 4 2 1 5 8 1 1 7 5 8 67 6.866666667
    andrew7160 quick zebra races 2 8 7 5 8 2 4 4 1 1 1 1 5 4 9 62 1.866666667
    slackster needy three rebel 5 4 4 9 8 8 1 1 4 4 1 4 4 4 2 63 2.866666667
    San Bernardhinault barry brews beers 4 1 1 1 8 4 1 4 2 9 4 4 4 1 9 57 3.133333333
    ad hoc zebra brawl cable 2 4 4 1 1 4 1 1 2 2 5 1 4 2 4 38 22.13333333
    Yes that's a incredibly low 35 total points from Balderdasha. Ad hoc not far above that with 38.

    But that middling and under 75 crowd left Sean of the Shed way out in the distance from average. It wasn't even close.
    Sean of the Sead 104 43.86666667 1
    Balderdasha 35 25.13333333 2
    ad hoc 38 22.13333333 3
    Southport Zeb 77 16.86666667 4
    nmrfox 72 11.86666667 5
    lambers 49 11.13333333 6
    Various Artist 49 11.13333333 6
    sporting 49 11.13333333 6
    Vicarious Thrillseeker 53 7.133333333 9
    diable rouge 67 6.866666667 10
    Wouter D 64 3.866666667 11
    San Bernardhinault 57 3.133333333 12
    sits 63 2.866666667 13
    slackster 63 2.866666667 13
    andrew7160 62 1.866666667 15
    Last edited by matt j; 01-05-2020, 17:24.

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  • matt j
    replied
    Leading us into the fantastically fun elimination race:

    In this race, it was all about avoiding the low scoring letters (and if you did hit a low scoring letter, be lucky and hope somebody else did the same).

    diable rouge hit the misfortune of immediate elimination again, getting the double 1's from 'terry' and a low score of 22.

    Sean of the Shed was next to go ('h' in hippo)

    nmrfox next ('r' in brown)

    a tie, both VA and SB posted 1 point letters ('r' and 'a' respectively)

    meaning andrew7160 was eliminated for the two-point 'l', next

    SB's luck ran out with a four-point letter, then a string of ties until Southport Zeb was gone with the same, and lambers in the next.

    ad hoc's dominance finally came to a close, with a 5-point letter spelling his doom ('n' in nutty)

    sporting gone next with a 4-point, slackster with a 2-point ('z'), and sits with a 1 for 'r'.

    Vicarious Thrillseeker fell afoul the same issue as ad hoc ('n' for nutty)

    And left with just a trio of racers, Balderdasha (who hadn't scored lower 7 since letter 6) goes out on a 7-point letter.

    Various Artist, close to elimination way back at letter 8, finally concedes.

    leaving Wouter D as winner, having reeled off nothing lower than a 7 since letter 6.





    Last edited by matt j; 01-05-2020, 17:23.

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  • lambers
    replied
    I particularly like the ideas of banning double letters, alliteration, lowest score wins and super-high scoring words getting penalised (maybe not all in the same round!). Themes are also good, Balderdasha has picked out a few good ones.

    Some ideas of mine:
    • The converse of the most recent round – the most average score wins.
    • Changing word patterns from the standard 5-5-5 formation, to perhaps a more attacking 4-5-6, or a midfield dream of 3-9-3 (with Pep still playing Mascherano at the back).
    • Not to be combined with themed rounds, but if you can make a week's worth of entries into one coherent story then you get a bonus of about 10 points (or the number of opponents in the week?) to your weekly score from positioning. People would then have to calculate/gamble whether the trade off of using high (or low/average) scoring letters is enough to not continue a tale.

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  • matt j
    replied
    Good stuff, I'll pick and choose from that and other suggestions for next week.

    So backing up a bit, after the time trial results, where the often-to-be-used Zebra scored a measly 12, I think the middle-of-pack time trial-ists found themselves at a slight disadvantage as to where to point.

    I think a few people had zoned in a few values immediately, though Balderdasha had jumped the wrong way for the scratch race, scoring very low. Ad hoc jumped to an overall lead by dominating the scratch race with what would prove to be the theme for the week, lots of 'p-u-t-s'.
    letter Week 1 values
    a 1
    b 4
    c 5
    d 9
    e 4
    f 6
    g 3
    h 1
    i 7
    j 8
    k 8
    l 2
    m 6
    n 5
    o 8
    p 7
    q 2
    r 1
    s 9
    t 8
    u 8
    v 6
    w 2
    x 10
    y 8
    z 2
    Into the tempo race:

    After the first five letters, an immediate elimination for diable rouge whose 'threw' had the double 1's of (h-r) and only scored 16, way-under-half of the early leader ad hoc (scoring 41 right off the bat with stops). The early lead proved important as you will see in due time.

    lap 6: three way tie on a 9-point letter, tiebreaker went to sits who was ahead over the others who tied.
    lap 7: high letter score was only 8, went to ad hoc who lead overall
    lap 8: high letter score of 9, went to slackster (Since diable rouge was already elminated)
    lap 9: high letter score of 9, went to slackster again (double d's)
    lap 10: multi-way tie on a letter score of 9, went to sits for overall
    lap 11: another mult-way tie on 9, this time tie-break back to slackster
    lap 12, 13,14: all went to ad hoc, (only 9-point letter in lap 12, tie-breaker in 13 and 14)

    Final lap with a five-way tie on letter score, tie breaker going to Sporting (for overall score of 104) for the 3 points, and wouter D, slackster, and andrew7160 (all on 100 overall) splitting the 2nd and 3rd place last lap points (1.5 each )

    all told that meant, places in the tempo race went:
    1st: 3 lap points + 1.5 in the last lap - Slackster (vital last dash to get that 1.5)
    2nd: 4 lap points - ad hoc
    3rd: 3 points in the last lap - Sporting
    4th:2 lap points - sits
    5th: 1.5 in the last lap - Wouter D and Andrew7160

    that concentration meant everyone else had to take the placement based on overall score, with a hard luck result for Vicarious Thrillseeker (overall score of 103 - in a normal race good enough for 3rd, but no single scores above 8 hurt bad)
    Racer Name placing
    slackster 1
    ad hoc 2
    Sporting 3
    sits 4
    andrew7160 5
    wouter d 5
    Vicarious Thrillseeker 7
    Balderdasha 8
    lambers 9
    Various Artist 10
    southport zeb 11
    Sean of the Sead 12
    San Bernardhinault 13
    nmrfox 14
    diable rouge 15
    Last edited by matt j; 01-05-2020, 18:53.

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  • Sporting
    replied
    Originally posted by Wouter D View Post
    Some of these suggestions for future races would make it really rather difficult. I find it tough enough to come up with a coherent sentence of three five-letter words each time already, and if those must also be 15 distinct letters, I don't think I can play.

    For example: the rhyming one took me forever, but the ban on double letters was quite doable.

    How about we do a round where any language goes (restricted to the modern English alphabet)?
    I like the last idea.

    Leave a comment:


  • Sporting
    replied
    I like all suggestions.

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  • Balderdasha
    replied
    Feel free to ignore all my suggestions. I'm just having fun spitballing.

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  • Balderdasha
    replied
    An entry that's a new mythical animal (complete with description or drawing)

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  • Wouter D
    replied
    Some of these suggestions for future races would make it really rather difficult. I find it tough enough to come up with a coherent sentence of three five-letter words each time already, and if those must also be 15 distinct letters, I don't think I can play.

    For example: the rhyming one took me forever, but the ban on double letters was quite doable.

    How about we do a round where any language goes (restricted to the modern English alphabet)?

    Leave a comment:


  • Balderdasha
    replied
    An entry that's a new pantone paint colour.

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  • Balderdasha
    replied
    An entry that has to be a cryptic crossword clue and only the answer is scored.

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  • Balderdasha
    replied
    One entry that has to be a new perfume scent.

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  • Balderdasha
    replied
    That last one would probably have to be secret entries.

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  • Balderdasha
    replied
    Matt J assigns five letters each day and the person who can write either the longest word or longest sentence using only those letters wins.
    Last edited by Balderdasha; 01-05-2020, 12:50.

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  • Balderdasha
    replied
    An entry that's a famous person's name (must at least have their own individual Wikipedia page) or a famous place or landmark

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