c4countdown

JackHurst

Always use the letters packs that Callum made. The ones taken from various copies of the board game all have very bad (and inconsistent) distributions, which make it less fun for most. They used to. Adam 'awesome' Beach has gone through the packs and standardised them all, so everyone from COLIN on...

JackHurst

If it were up to me, we'd bin off the Swiss pairs/triples system entirely. I've discussed this general thing before with various tweaks, but here is my definitive system that I think would work: ... The Pot Draw Method This has come from running a chess club in a school, but how it runs at a Co-eve...

JackHurst

Always use the letters packs that Callum made. The ones taken from various copies of the board game all have very bad (and inconsistent) distributions, which make it less fun for most.

JackHurst

Just looking at the sign ups for Colin. Rob and Jack W very likely to be Table 1 together for round 2. Therefore it's a sound strategy to try and win badly in R1 to get on table 2 or 3 for R2. Would be cool at tourneys like this is r2 was random game vs somebody on same wins. i've legitimately trie...

JackHurst

But I appreciate that wasn't your main point :) Surely if those players don't meet in round two, then they're likely to meet in round 3? If you are #4 after R1 then your R3 table can only have one of the top 3 players. When it's players like Rob and Jack W the difference between having to play both...

JackHurst

Just looking at the sign ups for Colin. Rob and Jack W very likely to be Table 1 together for round 2. Therefore it's a sound strategy to try and win badly in R1 to get on table 2 or 3 for R2. Would be cool at tourneys like this is r2 was random game vs somebody on same wins.

JackHurst

A few milestones worth celebrating

- We've hit 50k downloads
- We hit 2 years on 26th Dec
- We hit game 500K on 24th Dec

In 2024 we'll be aiming for the big 1 million

JackHurst

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Wed Dec 27, 2023 6:25 pm COLIN is like Wimbledon, whereas the FOCAL championship is like the ATP finals.

Good analogy. Colin is a major. Also Focal finals and ATP finals both kinda carry less credit than they could in seasons where the big guns don't play enough to qualify.

JackHurst

Merry christmas again everybody xoxox

JackHurst

Fiona T wrote: ↑Sat Dec 23, 2023 11:38 am Yep the word is in the spoilers thread - my vagueness in the opening post was deliberate!

Still. Its spoiled the bit of excitement I would have had watching along and seeing a new word being allowed. Just remember, some people want no information at all about recent episodes

JackHurst

Maintaining an accurate dictionary is a time consuming and largely thankless task. Its requires a lot of time and energy from somebody with experience and a high level of expertise. There are cases where you are behind ODO (that's always the case tbf). Because Charlie has always had ultimate respons...

JackHurst

Spoilers thx

JackHurst

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Thu Dec 21, 2023 1:29 pm
Matt Morrison wrote: ↑Tue Dec 19, 2023 12:42 pm no crisps before conundrums
It's OK if you've got a spoon.

The Mellor method

JackHurst

Congrats to Rob Foster for taking the title, beating Ahmed 2-1 in the final. The Final went all the way to the wire. Game links here: https://wordgamegeeks.com/countdownheadtohead?QZo74 https://wordgamegeeks.com/countdownheadtohead?QZnGw https://wordgamegeeks.com/countdownheadtohead?QZn9G Thanks to ...

JackHurst

Still a couple of R5 games to finish, but a few things look certain already. It will be Rob and Ahmed in the final, with TCap having put together a strong display to claim 3rd place. The final will be a best of 3 games, most likely played over this coming weekend: Ahmed's 9 Rounder: AAAAAALNC Rob's ...

JackHurst

Round 4 Fixtures are up, and will be available to play from 8am this morning until midday tomorrow. Good stuff from all involved so far.

I've hand picked all of the conundrums for these games, so if you dislike them come find me.

JackHurst

Round 1 games available to view in app! Scores and ratings available on Greem (thanks Graeme!) https://greem.co.uk/co/Dec_Dec_2023 R1 T1 https://wordgamegeeks.com/countdownheadtohead?QKXWQ https://wordgamegeeks.com/countdownheadtohead?QKXno https://wordgamegeeks.com/countdownheadtohead?QK0BZ R1 T2 h...

JackHurst

Out of curiosity have you ever been to the UK? Maybe you should time a vacation in the UK with a visit to a co event as a first step.

JackHurst

This is something on my to-do list, because I've overheard it happening a lot. I'm on making a new batch of the foldable conundrum 'tents' as we speak, and will ensure they are included with every set of cards going forward. A stupid idea, to reduce the wonkiness issue pointed out, is to have a pie...

JackHurst

As TCap says, get the players to look away if need be. Put the conundrum in the right orientation on the table and cover it with an object other than your hand. Something like a phone works well. Don't have the object physically touching the conundrum paper though. Place one edge of the phone in fr...

JackHurst

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 limite...

JackHurst

Key detail that I missed in the OP (d'oh)

Top two after 10 games will qualify for the final! I'll decide details of the final closer to the end.

JackHurst

Please only do this if there's at least some way to see our opponent's game. Agree 100% First iteration you will get a link to both players games. Second iteration you will get shown the merged rounds just like a multiplayer game on apterous or on the wiki. Still a lot of work to do before it would...

JackHurst

Note: In async gameplay, both players play from the same set of rounds but don't see each other's solutions until the entire game is completed and a high score is submitted. Standard round-by-round scoring applies, so the single player leaderboard scores seen in the app are not what counts. If both...

JackHurst

it's cool! I'm wondering if there's a way of seeing some of the games that you arent involved in - the ben w ahmed one looks a cracker for example Glad you are enjoying it. It's going much smoother than I expected so far! Agree the Ahmed and Ben game looks like the pick of the bunch so far. Will fi...

JackHurst

Standings available here:

https://greem.co.uk/cgi-bin/colive/tour ... c_Dec_2023

JackHurst

18 Players Signed Up - Round 1 Games Scheduled! All games for Round 1 are now scheduled (going live a whole hour earlier than billed at 11pm tonight). Here's the lineup: Phil S vs. Zubair P Zubair P vs. Dan B Dan B vs. Phil S Josh H vs. Andres S Andres S vs. Rose B Rose B vs. Josh H Jonny D vs. Ahm...

JackHurst

My travel dwelling friends certainly have less money than I do and i'm hardly swimming in cash. Only because you haven't actually *tried*. You could get 1.5 million Uzbek 1 tiyin coins for a mere pound at the latest exchange rate, and I dare say that's enough to swim in. Reminds me of this YouTube ...

JackHurst

Ian Volante wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 1:09 pm I suspect that the basic reasoning is that it's beyond a reasonable effort (or impossible) for production to do the same background checks on overseas persons that they can do on Brits.

100% this. I love Johnny's Enthusiasm and hope he gets on one day. If he can't this would likely be a reason.

JackHurst

Exactly. What I'm asking is, does it really have to come to that or not? If I know the minimum buffer time, I'd be able to determine. If quitting were what I'd need to do then forget it. I'd be a pretty trash human being if I did that. Why would quitting your job to do something you're passionate a...

JackHurst

We're up to 11 participants now, and with under a week to go, I'll open entry to non subscribers. Just get in touch with me at wordgamegeeks@gmail dot com

Include a screenshot of a recent game with your username visible so I can find your user and add you to the games.

JackHurst

BTW, something which I added a long time ago, but since the original post is factional letters to the packs. The motivation is that there are a couple of letters where 1 in the pack seems like a shame, but 2 every time would be annoying. So when the Consonant stack is made, three of the letters are ...

JackHurst

These seem like incredibly extreme and immoral steps to be forced to go through just to appear on a tv show I can't tell if this is sarcasm? Either way, I think you need a reality check (sorry it's a harsh one!) TV production is a business. Having overseas contestants is more risky and more expensi...

JackHurst

I've fixed some issues with links, so that everything should work fine now if you have the app installed and are running 1.96 or higher Here's a nice and tricky numbers round you can have a go at: https://wordgamegeeks.com/countdownround?lgDCWWcdwT22cNnFvvcBaiaacAGHddczBhDwi66cAJs99c3VIaYuryHREfOEtq...

JackHurst

Personally I'm a fan of nice trophies. Me too! I get that the players who've won dozens of them might just chuck them in a box under the stairs I hope nobody does this. I'm quite a way off the "dozens" mark, but if I'm ever lucky enough to get there then I'll be building a bloody trophy c...

JackHurst

By the way, on the topic of writing numbers down, I would advise players to try one classroom event where they don't write the numbers down and see if they feel it's better for them. Unless you have eyesight problems, or are really far away from the screen, then not writing numbers down has multiple...

JackHurst

For all conundrums: Buzz by tapping the table with a pen rather than a handslap. Many advantages: 1. Easier to adjudicate who buzzed first as the sound is crisper 2. Less chance of a half-buzz 3. Less distracting for other tables 4. Less stress-inducing for those sensitive to loud noises It's actua...

JackHurst

I wanted to give shout outs to a few of the players George was fantastic the whole day and I think everybody (except myself!) in the room were saddened to see him come so agonisingly close. Hope to see you get your first event win under your belt soon! Ahmed was incredible in the open, I think(?) ma...

JackHurst

the superior method. *superior in your opinion So far in this thread we've had 2 against and 2 for your idea. If we end up with a clear majority agreeing that your system is superior, then let's go for it. Otherwise, the tried and tested stays. I genuinely believe you should just get better at writ...

JackHurst

Another one for the "keep it up" list - Adam and Jeff + Rachel at the last two classroom events nailed it in terms of post-round debriefs. It's very easy to make these too long and it slows down the rhythm of the game, and conversely it's easy to make them too quick and leave players confu...

JackHurst

Another thing people were doing well when adjudicating the conundrums: - Using their phone so there was a video record in case the buzzes were super close - Prioritising getting a good video / good view of the players buzzes, rather than being able to see the Conundrum. You don't need to see the Con...

JackHurst

I think someone (probably Graeme, as it sounds such a sensible idea) suggested before that this could be managed at a normal Bristol-style event by simply having A and B conundrums. So half the room plays conundrum A, with the other half adjudicating, and then vice versa. This could be done by tabl...

JackHurst

1) Extra Time for Writing Numbers Down: Should a player be given considerable extra time to write the numbers down before revealing the target? This deviation from the show's format happened for Tim on Saturday. It inadvertently provides extra thinking time for everyone. In games like 6 small, this...

JackHurst

1) Extra Time for Writing Numbers Down: Should a player be given considerable extra time to write the numbers down before revealing the target? This deviation from the show's format happened for Tim on Saturday. It inadvertently provides extra thinking time for everyone. In games like 6 small, this ...

JackHurst

Focal Finals Conundrums Thoughts Here's my thoughts on the conundrums selected for the finals this year. Overall, I was looking for a mix of difficulty levels - medium, hard, and very hard - to truly challenge the finalists. Here's a breakdown of each conundrum: CASEIFORM: Good pick! I think this k...

JackHurst

One other thing - if there's a grand final at the end of a tournament and no screen with the scores, it's important to announce the scores at the end of each round. My bad. I was a complete scatterbrain and overcome with nerves during the final. My board was intended to be used a score display but ...

JackHurst

Mark Deeks wrote: ↑Mon Nov 27, 2023 3:23 pm I was sitting next to you at the time and I also remember your smugness. What a moment.

Did Ian give you A EARACHE?

JackHurst

Having managed it again this morning, it's the back to menu top left I'm pressing on autopilot, so a confirmation there would work if it's a more common issue than just me! Thanks for pointing this one out, I've fixed this. I've also fixed the 6 small issue reported by Phil and Graeme. Thanks for a...

JackHurst

Bumping this - the tool that was used for hosting the finals yesterday implemented "algorithm 2" as outlined by Jack (although with 9 or 15 rounders (code bugs excepted!) we're never going to get near the end of the pack so algorithm 1 is probably fine!) I think it felt about right - ther...

JackHurst

Async games have been well received among the player who have been kind enough to test them out with me, so I'm happy to share that in December, there will be the first ever multiplayer (async) games in the app, which you can sign up for in over in the event thread!

JackHurst

🌟 The December Decathlon: A Countdown Tournament In the unofficial Android app🌟 Event Details: Format: 10 async Countdown 9 rounders. Opponents: A variety of players, and after the first round they should be a similar ability level. Where: Challenges tab in the Android app . Play Window: Games for ...

JackHurst

Thanks for organising and running the whole thing Jeff, it was really fun, and the quiz was particularly impressive :) I'd also just like to say a few words on format. Fwiw, my interpretation of the results is there wasn't much between random draws and Swiss pairs after all, and that's a credit to t...

JackHurst

Super hard cons coming for you at rugby except if you're against maus and i give you guys squeezing Not sure whether to be happy or sad about this haha. Was interesting to see some VERY hard conundrums at Rugby last time. I've been mucking around with multiplayer. It's very prototype, but if anybod...

JackHurst

JackHurst

Bottom of you challenges list.

(These kind of things will probably get their own section of the app one day, but since I don't have the time to do it quickly, for now they'll just be in your challenges list.

JackHurst

I've been mucking around with multiplayer. It's very prototype, but if anybody wants to do a head to head 20 conundrum game, let me know here (with your username). I can set up a game vs myself, or if you have another player in mind lmk who they are. Excited for this mode! I won't have a lot of tim...

JackHurst

The three of you should all now have a game available vs me

JackHurst

I've been mucking around with multiplayer. It's very prototype, but if anybody wants to do a head to head 20 conundrum game, let me know here (with your username). I can set up a game vs myself, or if you have another player in mind lmk who they are.

JackHurst

You declare '9 nwd' to buy yourself an extra few seconds. I know you're not saying you approve of this behaviour, nor that you would ever try it yourself (I am sure you wouldn't). Just a good time to point out to people for when they host games. If a player has a NWD and it seems like they could be...

JackHurst

David Ginola

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