c4countdown

Conor

Gary Glitter is an alliterative pseudonymed celebrity with a reasonable chance of dying this year.

Conor

Thanks for all the feedback folks! Glad most are enjoying so far :) Regarding announcing the upcoming participants on here and social media - we received feedback that this was a spoiler for those who had not yet seen the previous episode (depending on who won). We can definitely announce the next ...

Conor

I personally don’t mind the line-up being kept a secret/mystery prior to broadcast of preliminary matches as it is. At the end of the episode I saw there were allusions to who was on next (can't recall if it was on the broadcast or in the chat), so the line-up wasn't secret but I haven't seen anyth...

Conor

Have only caught a few mins of ZD S5, but good stuff.

It'd be good to advertise the line-up of the upcoming show in this thread (and on the Facebook, if it's not advertised there).

Conor

Was walking down my road, and a car pulled over next to me. It was Mark Watson, and he was looking for Mark Deeks to play basketball together.

Conor

Letters round, selection is MNTSWAOIE. You are declaring second and know there is a 9. Unsure what it is, you write down a few random ones. WAMNIOTES MAWSONITE AWMNIOTES Player 1 declares a 9, you also declare a 9. Wait for them to declare MAWSONITE. You then say 'Yep, same word' and point to the c...

Conor

He did lose his points from the tournament where Clostebol was detected (Miami last year), and presumably would have forfeited the title had he won it. I don't think Sinner is genuinely guilty but also a 3 month ban where he doesn't miss any grand slams is very convenient.

Conor

Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Sat Jan 11, 2025 4:58 pm It wouldn't be fool proof but if you had a breathalyser test as part of the ignition process of starting a car it might be a useful deterrrent

You should also have to solve a numbers round and a conundrum before you are able to drive.

Conor

That was a fantastic final, tense and a high standard throughout. I’d watched both semifinals and knew this was tough to call. Congrats Fiona on holding your nerve and finding a special conundrum solve, and unlucky to Chris who played very well too.

Conor

‘Forever home’

Conor

Hansford & Sons

Conor

Have been watching Breeders on Now / Netflix. Main character is called Paul Worsley!

Conor

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Fri Oct 04, 2024 6:53 pm I went for poulter in the outleap round instead of the valid PLOUTER. Two quite main words gone in one round! They were both valid on Apterous prior to the 2015 data dump so I'm not sure why they had to go.

I didn’t think any outleap, Poulter or PLOUTER was valid before the 2015 update.

Conor

All radio stations telling you the news every hour. If I am listening to Absolute 80s or Classic FM or The Football I have no interest in the wider news (and would appreciate the respite). If I wanted to listen to the news I would change over to a news channel.

Conor

I ran a few thousand simulations of new 15 rounders with the current dictionary (perhaps just before the latest update) and with the old ODE3 dictionary (from circa 2013). I was lazy and just assumed 40pts max for the numbers. old mean: 125.76, new mean: 130.67. nothing too special there. it's in t...

Conor

An ideal points system would probably take into account odds of dying (incorporating age and known illnesses) and extra points for the better known they are. I don't think you could really formulate a robust enough system for that. Does the frail 95 year old or the very ill 70 year old have a bette...

Conor

"genuinely" You've changed Perhaps this is how it starts, you start saying right wing opinions when at a party as a 'joke' and then 10 years later you're a racist. To actually offer something genuine: - Everything Everywhere All at Once might be the worst film I've ever seen. Crazy how ma...

Conor

Does anybody have some low effort high impact suggestions for reducing the % of botched printed conundrum reveals? I had a botched conundrum given to me in at least 5/8 of the events I attended in 2023 which had paper conundrums. Reasons for botched conundrums reveals could be any of (but not limit...

Conor

- Tax here is too high, and actually given that high earners have already paid a lot of tax the marginal rates should be inverted: earnings over 125k should be taxed at 20%, whereas up to 50k should be more like 40% - While investing in public transport should be encouraged, cycling should be banned...

Conor

Am I still a sociopath and a trash person if I do this after retiring? Assuming the show holds up until then. Note that even if I lost early I wouldn’t mind. I’d keep living in and enjoying the UK for a while. I like your generally laid-back culture. Why don't you try to live here for a bit anyway?...

Conor

Very well played Dan. Took the early opening and held your nerve through the match, strong tactical play getting the call in round 14 right. Really feel for you Elliott: Dan was on form today and the way the letters fell made it tricky to get ahead before the conundrum. I missed the 1st numbers watc...

Conor

Very accomplished performance from Elliott among some tricky rounds. Great work from Elliott today. Can't wait to see if tomorrow's conundrum is: ADAGIETTO Though I doubt it. Damian knows the game and the players well enough to know that he can get away with two in a row, but if you go further then ...

Conor

Overall Lincoln-style is probably more fun with more talking and socializing. But Bristol-style offers advantages for more serious competition: - everyone plays from the same selection which is fairer. As points are used to break ties on wins having some extra nines available or fewer impossible num...

Conor

Mark Deeks wrote: ↑Wed Jun 16, 2021 9:37 am In cryptocurrency terms, what's data mining?

This is probably the best introductory video I've seen.

Conor

Japan doing really well to come 3rd. It does seem like the host nation tends to do better than they normally would. And this time it can't be down to home support. I'm guessing some events confer some inbuilt home advantage (familiarity with the track/venue, or conditions) but mostly is because they...

Conor

Have gone big on Slovakia bandwagon too at 24/1.

Conor

I’d say Federer’s early career advantage probably evens out with Djokovic’s current advantage. But maybe you’ve got to give Federer extra credit for raising the bar in what was conceptually possible and winning more than 50% of slams and threatening on every surface over several years in a way that ...

Conor

The whole match felt so similar to the World Cup semifinal loss to Croatia. A strong start and an early goal before a superior midfield started to control the game. It's just so difficult to keep attacking when your instinct is to defend. This is when you need leadership on the pitch, and ideally in...

Conor

But already the hype machine is saying it puts them in a great place to win the World Cup. Calm down ffs. Italy actually won the thing and I bet they're not talking about winning the world Cup before the qualifiers are even over. It's no wonder the players feel the pressure. This is a bitter loss, ...

Conor

I don't think it was a penalty. England would have had a strong chance of winning it in ET any way. When Italy won the World Cup in 2006, they beat Australia due to a last minute dive for a penalty (they would have had to play extra time with 10 men). Also, the Copa America has a very silly format t...

Conor

The tension must come from having a vested interest (being English or German). From my perspective, the game was just incredibly boring. It didn't have a fraction of the excitement of yesterday. I think this was just to be expected. It's probably not a coincidence that the two last-16 games with th...

Conor

METALOPH in the POLYMATH round too.

Conor

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sat Dec 19, 2020 7:36 am With MAGESHIP and MAEGBOTE, I wonder if Luke just learnt all the words that started with the same four letters and happened to get really, really lucky.

Luke’s very first word (on the show, not as a child) was POSTGAME, so I think he learnt the endings too.

Conor

Mega-congratulations to Luke and commiserations Sam. That was a great final. Despite not crunching the stats Luke was around a 75% favorite in my mind heading into this because of his solidity on the letters and the occasional surprising miss from Sam. But Sam didn’t miss anything easy: MAGESHIP, MA...

Conor

Very well played Luke, and unlucky Ian. Luke again maxing all the letters rounds! That numbers was the first round which Luke has lost despite having a valid word/numsol. i.e. the first time he has scored raw points that haven't also scored properly. Chinks in the armour? If Sam beats Leo tomorrow w...

Conor

Amazing stuff Luke, supreme performance. MAGNESIC in particular was nowhere near.

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Fri Dec 11, 2020 3:13 pm True, but has she ever done it on the day of the game? She'd need to at least find out for herself.

She announced I was on for a max game after rd 13 vs Chris Hawkins.

Conor

When I was researching venues, I found that £1000+ was often the going rate for a Saturday in central London at an accessible venue that fit 50+ people [...] Assuming you are talking about the Brighton Oval (I originally did not realise there was a Brighton one and thought you were absolutely mad f...

Conor

I think a key thing for a Co:Event is keeping the costs down. Event costs keep creeping up to the participant, and while a cost to offset the facility hire is inevitable, a decent proportion of it seems to be spent on the nick-nacks and individuality that I don't really want anyway. By the time tra...

Conor

People who say 'The Rona' to mean Covid-19.

Conor

Really sad to hear this. I had the pleasure of meeting Howard at a few events. He had a really sharp mind and a terrific sense of humour.

Conor

Been a rather quiet year, all things considering. Bit suspicious really.

Conor

In hindsight, it would have been better to bring up the overlay beforehand, but I didn't even think of possible accusations of cheating. I had something I'd made in Python tkinter which was potentially going to be used by the ZD production team but wasn't ready in time. Personally, I find it makes q...

Conor

I should probably say, this was a black IPA with blueberry and maple syrup in it, which should go some way to explain 1 and 3. And well, what do you know - looked up vaccinium and apparently we're talking blueberry. Thanks Conor! Is that a word you know? Not really, but it didn't seem like it could...

Conor

Vaccinium?

Conor

Thiem looks like the best shot for getting to No. 1 outside the big 3. I can see one or more of Medvedev, Zverev, Tsitsipas making a breakthrough and winning a grand slam in the coming years but they don't have the consistency to challenge for no. 1. Especially as Djokovic is super consistent in bot...

Conor

I don't agree with going back to 9 rounders. If the problem is too many one-sided games then you should try to reduce these rather than shortening the whole show. I'd allow past contestants to reapply. Not just 'unlucky losers' but everyone (series champions etc). There'd be a min number of years be...

Conor

What I would suggest is that we don't have to decide right now what we should do in a year or two years or whatever if things haven't changed. It would obviously be a big problem if no vaccine proves effective and we can't keep the virus under control without big restrictions on our lives. And I th...

Conor

Regardless of your position about the offensiveness of a word taken out of context or used in a quotation, there is still a double standard here. Strong swear words are expressly forbidden before the watershed in any context but this word is not. Whatever process deemed the F-word unsuitable for br...

Conor

The word "garlicky". Such a horrific construction with "licky" in it and the k is arbitrary anyway. It should be "garliccy" and that's how I will spell it from now on (if I ever need to write it). Similarly it should be "panicced", not "panicked" (t...

Conor

With the collusion case, it might not be explicitly overheard but it would likely be pretty obvious what it is going on at a Lincoln style event. The host would pick up on it and if this was the game to decide who makes the final there’d be some spectators to witness it too. But at a Bristol style ...

Conor

With the collusion case, it might not be explicitly overheard but it would likely be pretty obvious what it is going on at a Lincoln style event. The host would pick up on it and if this was the game to decide who makes the final there’d be some spectators to witness it too. But at a Bristol style e...

Conor

If you show the scores but not the standings, it might solve the error correction problem, but for the prevention of potential tactical antics, that's almost the worst of both worlds. The majority of players, who are just naturally curious about where they're finishing in relation to others, now ha...

Conor

I don't like this idea, and not (only) because it would mean the loss of that sweet Atropine videprinter action. I think players like being able to see the running standings. At every event with a public-facing display, there's always a crowd of people gathering round the monitor as tables finish. ...

Conor

It's the "coming to an agreement" thing that makes this bad, not the individual decisions by each player to play conservatively in the hope of not dropping too many points, which itself is of course within the letter and the spirit of the rules. But in Gevin's example they also came to an...

Conor

I've had a tacit assumption that over the years the standard of the top contestants has generally risen while the standard of 'most' contestants has slightly dipped. I don't think there's much point testing the first part, but how about the second? I'd suggest something like comparing the average ma...

Conor

I don't like redoing it if it's an -S plural but not if it's an -S third person singular verb. The former might be explicitly forbidden in the Contestant guidelines, but plenty of people attend Co-events without having been on the show: how would they know? A regular viewer might have reasonably not...

Conor

It also makes the game more inaccessible, since you'd need to know exactly which words (many of which are in common usage) have been removed.

Conor

ANGRIEST stems with 19 I think. I'd be surprised if that can be beaten. For which words stem with any vowel: http://wiki.apterous.org/Fruitful_8s http://wiki.apterous.org/Fruitful_7s http://wiki.apterous.org/Fruitful_6s Ahh very nice - I thought something like this would likely have already been co...

Conor

ANGRIEST stems with 19 I think. I'd be surprised if that can be beaten.

For which words stem with any vowel:
http://wiki.apterous.org/Fruitful_8s
http://wiki.apterous.org/Fruitful_7s
http://wiki.apterous.org/Fruitful_6s

Conor

All things being equal, I think most players are inclined to copy their opponent’s word just because of an instinctive loss aversion.

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