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

[matt j]

Team/User	Race 11 points	Race 12 points	Race 13 points	Race 14 points	Race 15 points	Week 3 total
ad hoc	19	32	30	20	25	126
Balderdasha	24	30	2	30	22	108
diable rouge	32	28	8	26	12	106
Wouter D	19	26	28	17	16	106
Various Artist	13	18	22	22	25	100
sits	22	20	26	24	2	94
slackster	26	14	18	14	18	90
lambers	2	22	16	17	28	85
Sporting	4	6	24	28	20	82
San Bernardhinault	29	8	20	7	14	78
Vicarious Thrillseeker	16	24	13	7	10	70
nmrfox	29	4	10	12	8	63
Southport Zeb	10	2	18	10	6	46
sean of the shed	7	16	6	4	4	37
elguapo04	13	12	4	2		31
delicatemoth		10				10
andrew7610	7					7
hot orange						0
Kevin S						0
Patrick Thistle						0
s.aureus						0
ursus arctos						0

(I think. don't sue.)

[matt j]

Team/User	Full Season Total
ad hoc	531
Wouter D	458
lambers	442
diable rouge	393
San Bernardhinault	365
sits	353
slackster	328
Balderdasha	315
sean of the shed	313
Vicarious Thrillseeker	305
Various Artist	286
Sporting	278
nmrfox	231
Southport Zeb	227
hot orange	200
elguapo04	179
andrew7610	150
delicatemoth	143
Kevin S	110
ursus arctos	81
Patrick Thistle	34
s.aureus	10

I don't think there is much surprise there.

[matt j]

letter	Week 3 values
a	1
b	9
c	1
d	7
e	1
f	7
g	1
h	1
i	6
j	7
k	1
l	7
m	2
n	9
o	3
p	7
q	9
r	3
s	4
t	1
u	1
v	7
w	3
x	3
y	5
z	3

[matt j]

Low value week:

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
8	1	5	1	1	1	6	0	3	0

[matt j]

Okay, after all that. I'll come back Monday and everything starts fresh.

[Sits]

<applause> matt, great entertainment, thanks.

And <applause> ad hoc too for mastering the game.

[Various Artist]

Race #15:

No bear pennant, alas, yet glorious,
our racers flew! 'Twas lambers blinding pace,
what prov-ed leaders might. O'er ad hoc's guss,
and V-A's guile, like blobby, naught a trace.

In middle dasha, 'meh' they be, sporting
was bon, and slackster too! Dutchman (yolo)
in righteous creed, no french-e words he sing.
A nasty trout odor pursued: diablo?

Vicarious, heart broken he, "hell-Fire!"
was scream'd, a-gain. And fox, "Egress!" did blurt!
While bitter, quitter, Hey it's Zeb!, oft tired,
and sits, around the house, went not a spurt.

Fourteen in total, true, but does it scan?
Yeah, fuck, the judge has done the best he can.

Seriously, people, this needs all the likes. Incredible, almost literally. Amazing stuff matt, and I'm not just saying that because I got on the podium for the first time...!

Delighted to have got a solid full season under my belt for the first time, too. Looking forward greatly to next week now. Many thanks again for all your efforts with this chief.

[Sporting]

I can but echo the last two posts.

[lambers]

What Sporting said*. Brilliant stuff matt j


*How many layers of inception can we go?

[slackster]

Low value week:

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
8	1	5	1	1	1	6	0	3	0

I’ve no idea what this means! Which might help explain my solidly meh performance in this competition.

But thanks, matt j. Enjoyable nonsense.

[ad hoc]

Yes, thanks Matt, this has been great

[Various Artist]

I’ve no idea what this means! Which might help explain my solidly meh performance in this competition.

Actually, yeah, me neither. I think I looked at it before, nodded sagely, and skipped onward, but now I look again I realise I think I know vaguely what it's getting at but don't actually really know.

[ad hoc]

Those are the values randomly assigned to letters. So there were 8 letters which were worth 1 point, 1 that was worth 2, etc etc up to 3 that were worth 9

[Various Artist]

Ahh, thanks AH! Easy to see you're the king of this game so far.

[matt j]

Thanks all. Glad people are having fun and getting their distractions.

Welcome to SEASON 2.

----

Season 2:

With the turning of the season, the word racing tour turns (for the first time) to the indoor races, and with the indoor races new rules apply.

Here are the things that aren't changing:
1) Letters are still assigned a random number 'score' between 1 and 10. This is purely randomized (as the last week of Season 3 can show).
2) The goal (for most races) it to score high with (typically) a three word sentence, made up of 5-letter words.
3) the random assignment gets shuffled, typically between weeks. (# of weeks for Season 2: TBD depending on interest/availability)
4) Can reuse words, can't reuse sentences.

Here are the things that are changing:
Being an indoor race, each racer must take a practice round on the indoor track to see how their machinations will perform. As such this is the unofficial 'time trial race' that starts this new season off.

Race #1:
The practice circuit, or time trial. One word, 5 letters. These entries are scored and you are told the actual point total of your word (privately). (Race #1 does not generate any weekly points.) The top scoring word and the bottom scoring word will be identified to all (though not, it must be said, which is which).

Race #2:
The scratch race. First across the line (most points per sentence) wins.

Race #3:
The Tempo Race. Points awarded for being in 1st place for each letter after the 5th (so, 6-15). Should you perform poorly (at any point obtaining only half the points of the leader) you will be penalized and leader given a bonus.

Race #4:
Elimination race (miss and out). You must submit the normal 3-words of 5 letters. You also must continue your sentence (in a logical flowing manner, to include as many additional 5 letter words as you believe will last you through the elimination). The racer in last place after 5 letters (one word), is eliminated, then every letter after that eliminates the racer in last, until only one rider remains. (so, depending on number of racers, could require at least many, many total letters.) Ties are 'photo finishes' - no racer eliminated.

Race #5:
Undetermined, as of yet.

---

too long didn't read, just tell me what to do:

Race #1:
The practice circuit, or time trial. One word, 5 letters. Go.

[Various Artist]

Potty!


And yay for this matt, great to see a whole slew of new challenges await us. Race #4 sounds like it could be particularly fascinating.

[Sporting]

Spurt

[Sits]

Hoary

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

Ocean

[San Bernardhinault]

Sassy

[Southport Zeb]

Zebra

[ad hoc]

Clown

[Wouter D]

Buggy

[andrew7610]

spoon

[Balderdasha]

Biome.

Edit: accidentally duplicated Vicarious Thrillseeker's entry of "Ocean" first time round.