c4countdown

Someone suggested that this thread go in the spoiler section, so we'll try it for this series. A bit early, but I also figure since it's the spoiler section people would only look in here if they want to be spoiled anyway.

With George Skinner losing today, we have the 8 finalists confirmed. I have had no word that any of them failed to show up, so here we are. This was a very strong series, with 6 octochamps and three people over the 900 club, and even the weakest octochamp scored 754. Everybody averaged at least 86 points per game, and four people averaged over 107 per game. We have quite a line up in our midst: The owner of the highest 8 game total ever, two women including perhaps the strongest female in Countdown history, three returning contestants including a previous quarterfinalist, the two six small wizards, and other compelling tales. It's also very interesting to see who did not make it, three 5 game winners missed the top 8, and in particular Zarte Siempre and Abdirizak Hirsi averaged over a century per show in their 6 games but still didn't make it, not something you see every day. I'm really looking forward to this one.

Here are the match-ups:
Thursday December 12th: #1 seed Dylan Taylor vs #8 seed Gemma Church
Friday December 13th: #2 seed Jen Steadman vs #7 seed Callum Todd
Monday December 16th: #3 seed Glen Webb vs #6 seed Jonathan Liew
Tuesday December 17th: #4 seed Bradley Cates vs #5 seed Alex Fish
Wednesday December 18th: Winner of Game 1 vs Winner of Game 4
Thursday December 19th: Winner of Game 2 vs Winner of Game 3
Friday December 20th: Winner of Game 5 vs Winner of Game 6

Who will take it? I think my answer to this question depends on if Jen can defeat Callum (for those who don't know, Callum has improved his game leaps and bounds since taping, and he was already pretty good before). If she can, I think it'll be her's for the taking, otherwise I think it'll be Dylan. So while my official pick will be Jen, it's not an easy thing to decide, I think.

Me, obviously!

edit: oops spoilers

Can I just say it's great to have this table published, although being a follower of this site I was pretty sure how things were anyway. I just wonder why the viewer isn't kept up to date with this info during the series, as used to be the case on Fifteen-to-one I think. Maybe the team are reading and can explain, and sorry if it should be on a different thread. I'm happy to move it if required.

Philip Wilson wrote:Can I just say it's great to have this table published, although being a follower of this site I was pretty sure how things were anyway. I just wonder why the viewer isn't kept up to date with this info during the series, as used to be the case on Fifteen-to-one I think. Maybe the team are reading and can explain, and sorry if it should be on a different thread. I'm happy to move it if required.

I think this is a very good point. I do wonder how many viewers are aware of how the finalists are decided, how their seed order is determined, whether there's a seed order at all, how this affects who plays whom in the quarter finals, etc. I think it's been quite a long time since these details were explicitly referred to on the show.

Most of us know how it works, but only because it's documented on the wiki and occasionally on here, and even then sometimes it's wrong - for ages we thought that finalists are ordered by wins, then points, then highest score, when actually it's wins, then points, then conundrums. (Well, I did.)

I like the idea of the seedings table occasionally being shown on screen, like Fifteen to One. It would be especially useful at the end of someone's octorun, or when someone's defeated but has won enough games that they've got a good chance of making the finals.

As I recall, on 15-1 they showed the leaderboard at the end of a show when they had a minute or so to fill. Occasionally the same requirement pops up on Countdown, and currently they fill it in with a bit of extra chat with the guest or one of the contestants.

Of course, it could be that most viewers don't care about that sort of detail, which would seem to be a good reason for not referring to it very often. Perhaps Countdown Team can enlighten us?

Jordan F wrote:Who will take it? I think my answer to this question depends on if Jen can defeat Callum (for those who don't know, Callum has improved his game leaps and bounds since taping, and he was already pretty good before). If she can, I think it'll be her's for the taking, otherwise I think it'll be Dylan. So while my official pick will be Jen, it's not an easy thing to decide, I think.

I think (hope) it will be very close. I can't agree that it will be Jen's for the taking if she gets past Callum. That's implies that she's pretty much got in the bag her potential match-ups against Glen Webb and Dylan Taylor. (Has she become significantly better than the other top players since recording her heats?) Looking at it like that, I think she's got quite a bad draw, and I think for that reason Dylan is the favourite. I think it's very unlikely he won't be in the final so he's got less to do.

There's no particular reason why we can't recap the standings a few times during the series. We used to do it all the time but somehow it kind of dropped away.

Consider it reborn.

Cool. I hope its rebirth will be in on-screen graphical form. Very cool.

Like it. Maybe every 2nd Friday or at the end of every 3+ winning streak?

Put it up at the end of every run that affects the seedings, I reckon. This'll mean quite a few airings at the start of the series but fewer towards the back end.

After a decent run, maybe 3, 4 wins, something like that.

Someone voted for me but not Glen. What's wrong with you all?

It seems a bit silly me voting, as I was there, so I'm not going to.

Countdown Team wrote:There's no particular reason why we can't recap the standings a few times during the series. We used to do it all the time but somehow it kind of dropped away.

Consider it reborn.

Brilliant! Agree with Mark for when, ie when it changes.

Also the last day of the heats or the first day of the quarter finals (at the start).

My predictions for the finals:

QF1 - Dylan vs Gemma - Dylan to win by 40-50
QF2 - Jen vs Callum - Jen to win on crucial
QF3 - Glen vs Jonathan - Glen to win by 30-40
QF4 - Bradley vs Alex - Bradley to win by 20-30
SF1 - Dylan vs Bradley - Dylan to win by 20-30
SF2 - Jen vs Glen - Jen to win by 15-20 points (possibly crucial)
GF - Dylan vs Jen - Dylan to win on crucial

I've voted for who I thought would win before the finals were filmed. Obviously I can't confirm whether or not I got it right.

Somebody else has voted for me :S I struggle to understand why Glen hasn't had more votes yet, I would have made him a very comfortable 3rd favourite.

To be honest Callum, I think you came one series too early. If you were filming now I think you'd have a good chance of winning any series.

I have put Jen to win. Both Jen and Dylan looked pretty unbeatable throughout their heats but I think by the time Jen has played Callum and (likely) Glen, I think she'll be ready for the challenge with Dylan.

Dylan to win this in record-breaking style!

How have I not seen this thread? I automatically filter by new posts when I navigate to c4c.

If Dylan doesn't win it, I'd say it's about time a bird won it for a change.

Callum Todd wrote:Somebody else has voted for me :S I struggle to understand why Glen hasn't had more votes yet, I would have made him a very comfortable 3rd favourite.

I think someone said something similar about a player in another series when we had this thread. He has hardly any votes because everyone sees him as third favourite and you only vote for one.

Dave Preece wrote:If Dylan doesn't win it, I'd say it's about time a bird won it for a change.

Hmm, I don't see a bird among the possibles, there is a fish though, maybe he will win .....

Dave Preece wrote:If Dylan doesn't win it, I'd say it's about time a bird won it for a change.

I want Jen to win, but think Dylan will.

I think it'll be a very memerable final should both top seeds get through!

Everyone's saying about two or three contestants having vastly improved since their runs, but who hasn't improved and who has stayed on their par?

9 people down...

Anthony Endsor wrote:To be honest Callum, I think you came one series too early. If you were filming now I think you'd have a good chance of winning any series.

I think because of the gap between his heats and the quarter finals and the Apterous practice, that has been shown not to be the case. Callum has improved to the level of the other top players.

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Anthony Endsor wrote:To be honest Callum, I think you came one series too early. If you were filming now I think you'd have a good chance of winning any series.

I think because of the gap between his heats and the quarter finals and the Apterous practice, that has been shown not to be the case. Callum has improved to the level of the other top players.

Gavin, I agree Callum did show a massive improvement from his prelims, and indeed on that performance would be right at Countdown's top table, but I have seen his recent performances on apterous, and he has improved even more since. Don't forget, in Thursday's game, Dylan got a max game. Neither player did that on Friday, and that would seem to be a requirement now to win this series. I think if Callum was to re-record his QF now, he would get a max, thus catapulting him to the Countdown stratosphere

Anthony Endsor wrote:Don't forget, in Thursday's game, Dylan got a max game.

Difficult to forget something that didn't happen

Jennifer Steadman wrote:

Anthony Endsor wrote:Don't forget, in Thursday's game, Dylan got a max game.

Difficult to forget something that didn't happen

Oooops.....well...........almost

Anthony Endsor wrote: if Callum was to re-record his QF now, he would get a max, thus catapulting him to the Countdown stratosphere

You're right; I would. Mainly because I know all the selections now.

All but 15 people are out of the running...

Callum Todd wrote:Someone voted for me but not Glen. What's wrong with you all?

Do you see why now?