Lowest possible max in a letters round

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Johnny Canuck
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Lowest possible max in a letters round

Post by Johnny Canuck »

http://wiki.apterous.org/Episode_4992

The max for the second round of this game is 3. Given the letter distribution that is currently in use, is it possible to make a letters round with a max of 2 (or lower, if possible)? My best attempt is IIIOQZJVS (I could only find 2s in it), but that still probably has some obscure 3s and 4s.
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James Robinson
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Re: Lowest possible max in a letters round

Post by James Robinson »

Johnny Canuck wrote:My best attempt is IIIOQZJVS (I could only find 2s in it), but that still probably has some obscure 3s and 4s.
According to the solver, the only 3 available from that is SOV.
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Steve Balog
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Re: Lowest possible max in a letters round

Post by Steve Balog »

Looking at the stats board, it doesn't seem like a game with a max of 2 is possible with the letters distribution. I don't see why not, though; it seems like with a single vowel dump and creative consonant picking it should be feasible. There's probably a way to make a round with no declarable words (it's happened almost 200 times on apterous), but I don't know what shuffle the show's letters have.
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Re: Lowest possible max in a letters round

Post by Gavin Chipper »

Steve Balog wrote:Looking at the stats board, it doesn't seem like a game with a max of 2 is possible with the letters distribution. I don't see why not, though; it seems like with a single vowel dump and creative consonant picking it should be feasible. There's probably a way to make a round with no declarable words (it's happened almost 200 times on apterous), but I don't know what shuffle the show's letters have.
Might that have been caused by bugs in the system on Apterous?
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Re: Lowest possible max in a letters round

Post by Hugh Binnie »

What is the current letters distribution? Is this correct? If so, just take a bunch of Us and a few consonants that don't pair up well, e.g. UUUUUHQZJ for a 2-max or UUUUUQZJC for a 0-max.
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Thomas Carey
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Re: Lowest possible max in a letters round

Post by Thomas Carey »

Hugh Binnie wrote:What is the current letters distribution? Is this correct? If so, just take a bunch of Us and a few consonants that don't pair up well, e.g. UUUUUHQZJ for a 2-max or UUUUUQZJC for a 0-max.
This is odd. I go by the distribution in my countdown board game, which is:

E 21
A 15
I,O 13
R,S,T 9
N,U 8
D 6
L 5
G,M,P 4
B,C,F 3
H,V,W 2
J,K,Q,X,Y,Z 1
cheers maus
kieranbray
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Re: Lowest possible max in a letters round

Post by kieranbray »

I'm pretty sure the list from the Countdown Page is incorrect, for the plain reason that I know there is more than 1 W in the set.
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Charlie Reams
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Re: Lowest possible max in a letters round

Post by Charlie Reams »

kieranbray wrote:I'm pretty sure the list from the Countdown Page is incorrect, for the plain reason that I know there is more than 1 W in the set.
How do you know?
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Re: Lowest possible max in a letters round

Post by Dinos Sfyris »

It's in his kiss.
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Re: Lowest possible max in a letters round

Post by Marc Meakin »

Thats where it is, oh yeah!
GR MSL GNDT MSS NGVWL SRND NNLYC NNCT
kieranbray
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Re: Lowest possible max in a letters round

Post by kieranbray »

... I'm sorry, I don't know the next line!

And now I kinda realise that you're on about apterous here with the letter distribution... Thought I was trying to be helpful by pointing out there were two w's in the normal countdown distribution. Sorry Charlie.
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Mark Deeks
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Re: Lowest possible max in a letters round

Post by Mark Deeks »

Charlie Reams wrote:
kieranbray wrote:I'm pretty sure the list from the Countdown Page is incorrect, for the plain reason that I know there is more than 1 W in the set.
How do you know?

As recently as yesterday, there were two W's in a letters round. Admittedly, it does say that in the opening stanza. At the very least, if it's not right, it's nearly right.
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Clive Brooker
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Re: Lowest possible max in a letters round

Post by Clive Brooker »

Charlie Reams wrote:
kieranbray wrote:I'm pretty sure the list from the Countdown Page is incorrect, for the plain reason that I know there is more than 1 W in the set.
How do you know?
The second W seems to be a recent innovation. It was there for the last 6 weeks of Series 61 but went away again for the first 12 weeks or so in Series 62. It reappeared soon after the 5000th episode and seems to have been present ever since.

Previously in the 15-round era it had been seen for a couple of weeks in Series 52 and for 1 day only in Series 57. Three Ws has occurred just once, in Episode 4944.

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Johnny Canuck
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Re: Lowest possible max in a letters round

Post by Johnny Canuck »

Clive Brooker wrote:Three Ws has occurred just once, in Episode 4944.
One of them was an upside-down M.

http://www.c4countdown.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3123
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Charlie Reams
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Re: Lowest possible max in a letters round

Post by Charlie Reams »

Hmm. For the record the apterous tileset has 2 Ws.
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Clive Brooker
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Re: Lowest possible max in a letters round

Post by Clive Brooker »

Johnny Canuck wrote:
Clive Brooker wrote:Three Ws has occurred just once, in Episode 4944.
One of them was an upside-down M.

http://www.c4countdown.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3123
Ah. That does sound familiar now you mention it.

All I was really doing was reminding anyone who might have forgotten that the pack is changed quite frequently, and changes aren't always permanent.

The history of V in the 15-round era is quite interesting as well. There were 2 at the start, then it went down to 1 for a long time. As with W, three Vs in a game has been seen just once, in the first show of Series 62, perhaps making up for the previous 35 shows where it was absent altogether. Since then 2 Vs seems to have become the norm once again.
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