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

[slackster]

Bugger. I wasted literally two minutes putting together my extensive random guess list to send by PM the other day, and typically enough both my best & worst scoring phrase has subsequently been taken in the amended race. I really can’t be arsed to check through what’s still available, so my entries shall be:

best score - the nearest one left to the top of the list that hasn’t been taken
worst score - the nearest one left to the bottom of the list that hasn’t been taken.

Be funny if that means I get allocated the same phrase as both best & worst. But so.be.it.

[Wouter D]

Alright, getting there... getting there.

Let's start assuming I will close this revised race sometime today (approx 8 hours from now). I'm just going to ping everyone to thread, ignore if this race is being ignored and/or you've already entered and/or you just can't take this anymore.

Cheers. I'm having a real roller coaster of a week and a half at work (mostly good, most likely, but very energy-sapping), so I'm lacking the energy to participate in this bit of fun. Please proceed without me for a bit.

[matt j]

This was so complex. Results coming shortly. Going to do a hard reset for next week.

[Sporting]

Still one race left this week, or not?

[matt j]

I think skip that last race since I'm going to reset the random values. This particular race shows why word racing is only professionals, not amateurs. Total chaos. Blood on the track, etc...

[matt j]

Race #8: The total chaos race

This reporter doesn't even know where to begin. The first (and last) amateur word racing event has certainly put a damper on season's celebrations. So lets just get right (write) to the charts:

Sentence	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Total
dovesenjoyyoyos	1	5	10	8	5	8	3	8	5	9	9	5	9	5	5	0	95
bolderfroyoyoyo	7	5	3	1	8	6	10	6	5	9	5	9	5	9	5	0	93
wheregoethromeo	9	3	8	6	8	8	5	8	1	3	6	5	9	8	5	0	92
yahoomeanswahey	9	4	3	5	5	9	8	4	3	5	9	4	3	8	9	0	88
exertprimezebra	8	8	8	6	1	3	6	4	9	8	1	8	7	6	4	0	87
yuckyviruskills	9	10	5	2	9	10	4	6	10	5	2	4	3	3	5	0	87
loveslabourslost	3	5	10	8	5	3	4	7	5	10	6	5	3	5	5	1	85
confusionreigns	5	5	3	10	10	5	4	5	3	6	8	4	8	3	5	0	84
Gateauxplateaux	8	4	1	8	4	10	8	3	3	4	1	8	4	10	8	0	84
weirdsweetdairy	9	8	4	6	1	5	9	8	8	1	1	4	4	6	9	0	83
borisfucksducks	7	5	6	4	5	10	10	5	2	5	1	10	5	2	5	0	82
tastywrensliver	1	4	5	1	9	9	6	8	3	5	3	4	10	8	6	0	82
nakedcrimespree	3	4	2	8	1	5	6	4	9	8	5	3	6	8	8	0	80
avertaphidswarm	4	10	8	6	1	4	3	3	4	1	5	9	4	6	9	0	77
muchadoaboutnothing	9	10	5	3	4	1	5	4	7	5	10	1	3	5	1	3	76
threwpudgyokapi	1	3	6	8	9	3	10	1	8	9	5	2	4	3	4	0	76
ajelliedeelhide	4	8	8	3	3	4	8	1	8	8	3	3	4	1	8	0	74
lullylullslilly	3	10	3	3	9	3	10	3	3	5	3	4	3	3	9	0	74
penisrisesagain	3	8	3	4	5	6	4	5	8	5	4	8	4	4	3	0	74
bossygothstaunt	7	5	5	5	9	8	5	1	3	5	1	4	10	3	1	0	72
adderbitesudder	4	1	1	8	6	7	4	1	8	5	10	1	1	8	6	0	71
banalricinparty	7	4	3	4	3	6	4	5	4	3	3	4	6	1	9	0	66
skinkballssmell	5	2	4	3	2	7	4	3	3	5	5	9	8	3	3	0	66
southcoastsnoop	5	5	10	1	3	5	5	4	5	1	5	3	5	5	3	0	65
blindpanicentry	7	3	4	3	1	3	4	3	4	5	8	3	1	6	9	0	64

[matt j]

Claim section	winner pred	loser pred						winner gap				loser gap				total gap score
sean of the shed	bolderfroyoyoyo	Gateauxplateaux						1				17				18
sporting	bossygothstaunt	exertprimezebra						19				20				39
balderdasha	ajelliedeelhide	banalricinparty						16				3				19
Vicarious Thrillseeker	dovesenjoyyoyos	nakedcrimespree						0				12				12
Southport Zeb	yahoomeanswahey	lullylullslilly						3				8				11
San Bernardhinault	southcoastsnoop	threwpudgyokapi						23				10				33
lambers	yuckyviruskills	loveslabourslost						4				18				22
andrew7160	tastywrensliver	confusionreigns						10				17				27
sits	skinkballssmell	adderbitesudder						21				4				25
diable rouge	blindpanicentry	wheregoethromeo						24				22				46
various artist	avertaphidswarm	penisrisesagain						13				8				21
slackster	borisfucksducks	weirdsweetdairy						10				15				25

[matt j]

Blind bonuses:
Sean of the Shed - correctly predicted two of the top three finishers, and 1 of the bottom three
sporting - correctly predicted one of the top three finishers
Various Artist - ditto
slackster - nada
nmrfox - correctly predicted a tie
Balderdasha - correctly predicted top three finisher
Vicarious Thrillseeker - corrected predicted winner, and two of the top three finishers, and a tie (a whopping 12 points in the original system)

[matt j]

Racer:	Place:
Vicarious Thrillseeker	1
sean of the shed	2
Southport Zeb	3
balderdasha	4
various artist	5
lambers	6
sits	7
slackster	8
andrew7160	9
San Bernardhinault	10
sporting	11
diable rouge	12
nmrfox	13

Long story short, Vicarious Thrillseeker chaperoned his charge "doves enjoy yoyos" straight to the top a the table for this race, and rode his blind bet to a good bonus.

Sean of the Shed's blind bonus kept in the podium place.

Southport Zeb (with no blind bonus) did the best on the claim section, with "yahoo means wahey" and "lully lulls lilly" being in not too far off the top and bottom respectively.

and now, let's never speak of this catastrophe again.

[Balderdasha]

Well done! I am thrilled to have come 4th as I had no idea what I was doing!

[slackster]

That race was...something else.

Maybe you could finish the season off behind closed doors, matt. No spectators. No racers. Just make up results as you fancy.

[matt j]

That race was...something else.

Maybe you could finish the season off behind closed doors, matt. No spectators. No racers. Just make up results as you fancy.

My all-time favorite deep-cut Simpsons quote:

"So I says to Mabel, I says"

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

I think I can die happy now.

[Various Artist]

5th! I've got to be happy with that, it's a bleddy miracle I tells ya.

[nmrfox]

and now, let's never speak of this catastrophe again.

Seconded

[matt j]

"The week of the hard reset (or whatever it is)" Season 3, Week 1 - all five races:

There was a hard reset on the values.

This week you can submit up to 25 letters for each race entry.

Foreign words (in moderation) are permitted, assuming we can find them online and translate them.

Only restriction:
Every entry should be part of a limerick, so by the time you get to race #5, you have the full limerick written. (submission order of the limerick's lines is racer's choice.)

Test racer for Race #1:
"So I went to a bar in Wisconsin..." - scores 148

[nmrfox]

There was an old man named Fox

[ad hoc]

though he rushed down the hill

[Balderdasha]

I met an old woman from Hitchin

[Sporting]

I once laid a woman from Dover

[San Bernardhinault]

covid made him go quite insane

[lambers]

Making up limericks ain't easy

[Southport Zeb]

To greet a Scot clad in woad

[Diable Rouge]

Chorizo and ouzos go together.

[matt j]

Chorizo and ouzos go together.

I can't wait to see you pull this one together completely.