c4countdown

Not that I'm accusing anyone of cheating (well maybe I am) but Thomas Cappleman topping the leaderboard caught my eye today. Upon checking out his game, he got the conundrum in 0.2 seconds - an obvious cheat there. If you're going to cheat, don't get the conundrum faster than reactions allow!

Oh, please tell me that people don't really cheat at the Duel!! It's a GAME. A good, enjoyable game. But still, just a game.

Kirk Bevins wrote:Not that I'm accusing anyone of cheating (well maybe I am) but Thomas Cappleman topping the leaderboard caught my eye today. Upon checking out his game, he got the conundrum in 0.2 seconds - an obvious cheat there. If you're going to cheat, don't get the conundrum faster than reactions allow!

I'd like to thank my agent of darkness Kirk Bevins, for trying to get the leader disqualified so I can have my first (and in all likelihood only ever) daily duel win. Now what's the most sarcastic smiley there is?

Julie T wrote:Thanks, everyone!
Maybe I'm just not as good at retaining and visualising, although I did get 'GLASGOW RANGERS' quickly, Kirk!

I got 'CHELSEA'.

Kai Laddiman wrote:

Julie T wrote:Thanks, everyone!
Maybe I'm just not as good at retaining and visualising, although I did get 'GLASGOW RANGERS' quickly, Kirk!

I got 'CHELSEA'.

What a wry sense of humour you have, Kai!

My goodness! I thought I was on form yesterday, but more than half way up the table, just above Charlie - flippin' 'eck!!
Downhill from here, perhaps?

Karen Pearson wrote:Oh, please tell me that people don't really cheat at the Duel!! It's a GAME. A good, enjoyable game. But still, just a game.

I don't think you can cheat on an ordinary rules duel, can you? I wouldn't, even if I knew how, anyhoo.
Men are often little boys when it comes to competition, though, Karen.

Kirk Bevins wrote:Not that I'm accusing anyone of cheating (well maybe I am) but Thomas Cappleman topping the leaderboard caught my eye today. Upon checking out his game, he got the conundrum in 0.2 seconds - an obvious cheat there. If you're going to cheat, don't get the conundrum faster than reactions allow!

Caught my eye too, given that he has a similar rating to me. Hell and Buggery! What a mockery it makes. Sheesh!

5 second rounds today, Charlie!
Maybe there should be a separate octochamp duel and a 'mere mortals' duel!

Being an octochamp does not necessarily mean you can do 5 second rounds! Hell, it takes me that long to realise the round has started sometimes.

I was completely rubbish at it, but I thought it was a fun challenge. I've no idea how people can play well that quickly, it takes me longer than five seconds to really register what letters are there, unless something really obvious jumps out. But yeah, the more variation of game in the Duel, the better. There's not been any Goatdown for a while, has there?

jimbentley wrote:There's not been any Goatdown for a while, has there?

Not ever, in fact. It's a bit fiddly because the Duel works by letting the Duellist pick all the letters, but in Goatdown you need to let the human pick the final letter, so I haven't yet rigged up the appropriate code. But I will.

Charlie Reams wrote:Not ever, in fact. It's a bit fiddly because the Duel works by letting the Duellist pick all the letters, but in Goatdown you need to let the human pick the final letter, so I haven't yet rigged up the appropriate code. But I will.

Why not just let the Duellist pick the last letter?

Jon Corby wrote:

Charlie Reams wrote:Not ever, in fact. It's a bit fiddly because the Duel works by letting the Duellist pick all the letters, but in Goatdown you need to let the human pick the final letter, so I haven't yet rigged up the appropriate code. But I will.

Why not just let the Duellist pick the last letter?

Because then you'd be posting to say "Why can't I pick the last letter?"

I am pleased to find that I came 4th in yesterdays duel

I had done very well up to round 7 inclusive, but then from rounds 8 - 12, I only scored 10 points

At least I got FEIJOA

I thought it might be more efficient to start a topic for each month's daily duel rather than to have an enormous single topic. My comments are:

5 seconds a round is stupidly fast. At least there weren't any numbers.

With the ARRESTING conundrum, can't you have SERRATING as well? SERRATING was famously offered against Bobby Johnson by Scott Mearns and he got the points. I admit this conundrum might have been at the end of October

With today's duel, I've just been disconnected while I had a valid word in the round during which I was disconnected. Can I resume the duel, and will I get zero for this round?

Martin Gardner wrote:With today's duel, I've just been disconnected while I had a valid word in the round during which I was disconnected. Can I resume the duel, and will I get zero for this round?

You can't resume the duel, although since it sounds like you were disconnected by me doing maintenance, I'm willing to let you have another shot at it (I'll have to trust you to play the rounds you already saw honestly.)

Just in case anyone missed this in the other thread: today's Duel (4 November) will roll over til tomorrow. So if you didn't manage to play it today, you can play both tomorrow.

Congrats to Damo and Neb on winning Tuesday's Duel, which was blind with some tough conundrums. Incidentally no one managed to score in all 20 rounds.

And congratulations to everyone who "won" yesterday's Duel. Especially Gevin, to whom I dedicate my 29 points.

Incidentally, Game #9000 passed during the Duel, courtesy of Karen Pearson.

Charlie Reams wrote:
And congratulations to everyone who "won" yesterday's Duel. Especially Gevin, to whom I dedicate my 29 points.

Charlie, could we please not have a one round duel again? It does skew the points given horrendously.
Not that I'm just sore that I'm one of the 3 who got 4 points, rather than the 22 who got 29 points!
I loathe 4 large numbers rounds. Always freak me out a bit.

Julie T wrote:

Charlie Reams wrote:
And congratulations to everyone who "won" yesterday's Duel. Especially Gevin, to whom I dedicate my 29 points.

Charlie, could we please not have a one round duel again? It does skew the points given horrendously.
Not that I'm just sore that I'm one of the 3 who got 4 points, rather than the 22 who got 29 points!
I loathe 4 large numbers rounds. Always freak me out a bit.

I LOVED that duel . It's the 2nd time I have been joint first

Can't please everyone.

Charlie Reams wrote:Can't please everyone.

Well thats true, because myself, for one love the one-round duels, but I can't say I am a fan of the blind duels (unless they are a conundrum only duel).

Charlie Reams wrote:Can't please everyone.

Surely you admit that a single round makes a mockery of the scoring system, though?

Julie T wrote:

Charlie Reams wrote:Can't please everyone.

Surely you admit that a single round makes a mockery of the scoring system, though?

Well, I realise that it's not enough rounds to be statistically significant, but the scoring system has never taken that into account, whether the duel has 5 rounds or 25 (neither of which raised any complaints at the time). I thought it would be a fun and amusing challenge to go into a round knowing that so many points were at stake for a single solution. Maybe I was wrong, but you're the only person that really objected to it, and The Duel is all about variety so no single person is going to enjoy it every day.

Charlie Reams wrote:

Julie T wrote:

Charlie Reams wrote:Can't please everyone.

Surely you admit that a single round makes a mockery of the scoring system, though?

Well, I realise that it's not enough rounds to be statistically significant, but the scoring system has never taken that into account, whether the duel has 5 rounds or 25 (neither of which raised any complaints at the time). I thought it would be a fun and amusing challenge to go into a round knowing that so many points were at stake for a single solution. Maybe I was wrong, but you're the only person that really objected to it, and The Duel is all about variety so no single person is going to enjoy it every day.

In other words, "Sod off!"

Re: subject title: Novembers's??

Julie T wrote: Re: subject title: Novembers's??

This was actually me, not Kirk that wrote that, I assume only the moderators can change that.

Well done to Martin Gardener, who was the only person yesterday to get the 9 letter word AIRDROMES in the duel

Joseph Bolas wrote:Well done to Martin Gardener, who was the only person yesterday to get the 9 letter word AIRDROMES in the duel

I thought I had all the high probability 8s seared into my brain, but had somehow never encountered AIRDROME before, so was very surprised to see it come up.

Paul Howe wrote:

Joseph Bolas wrote:Well done to Martin Gardener, who was the only person yesterday to get the 9 letter word AIRDROMES in the duel

I thought I had all the high probability 8s seared into my brain, but had somehow never encountered AIRDROME before, so was very surprised to see it come up.

I had DISARMER and thought I had done very good in that round , until AIRDROMES came up

I knew AIRDROMES and have missed it before - I was just as peeved when I missed it again. I had ARMOIRES like Paul.

Joseph Bolas wrote:Well done to Martin Gardener, who was the only person yesterday to get the 9 letter word AIRDROMES in the duel

I think this had just coincidentally come up in one of my Apterous games the day or two days before, I'm a little surprised to be the only one to get it because it uses all common letters. I was quite proud of being the only person to get IRITIS in the blind duel, although it wasn't the only six. I was a bit pissed off to have LOACHING disallowed in yesterday's duel - I wasn't the only person to do it either.

I was the only person to get ROPEWAYS a few duels ago, but nobody gave me any toffee.

Damian E wrote:I was the only person to get ROPEWAYS a few duels ago, but nobody gave me any toffee.

I for one was well impressed. I don't know how many people read the full results breakdown, it's really good you know...

I was a little pissed off yesterday - first of all I think that UNLIKED is a quite a common word (he's unliked by most of his workmates), and I thought I'd seen it allowed on Countdown before - I seem to think it was about Series 47 and Barry Criar was the guest - currently recaps don't go back this far. Obviously EVVE was a complete typo, I was playing at my mum's house and her keyboard is diar, I was actually just going to offer VEERS for five but still that would have gained me a couple of points.

Martin

There there.

Damian E wrote:I was the only person to get ROPEWAYS a few duels ago, but nobody gave me any toffee.

Sorry Damian, I must've missed that one as I normally read the breakdowns of the duel

Damian E wrote:I was the only person to get ROPEWAYS a few duels ago, but nobody gave me any toffee.

I read it and was seriously impressed too - however, I don't want to make your head much bigger.

I look at the breakdown every day, especially days which I win. Like yesterday. Go me.

Damian E wrote:I was the only person to get ROPEWAYS a few duels ago, but nobody gave me any toffee.

And I was the only one to get SPECIATES on Sunday, which I found slightly amazing.

In a related incident, both Kirk and I got the same word in an amazing 15-rounder (that Kirk inevitably won on the conundrum) pretty soon afterwards. The Kirkulator learns too fast.

And I was the only one to get an 8 on the entire game of the 5 second duel the other day - ESCALOPE.

I've noticed that I played really well last month, consistently finishing in the top 5 almost every day, but this month I've been finishing either 5th or 20th. But because I've done every single duel, I'm 6th and last month I was more like 15th, noting that I'm not doing nearly as well this month.

Well done to Nick Wainwright, for being the only one to spot LASSITUDE in yesterday's duel

Well done to Ben Pugh for spotting WHEATEAR in yesterdays duel

I was crap on the number rounds yesterday and was the only person not to get any points on them

Joseph Bolas wrote:Well done to Ben Pugh for spotting WHEATEAR in yesterdays duel

I was crap on the number rounds yesterday and was the only person not to get any points on them

WHEATEAR is / was a TTT very recently.

Something about crying in Scotland, ie shed a wee tear.........you know, the usual convoluted tripe.

Anyway, great spot from Ben yes. I won a duel for probably the first time ever, then, with an almighty crash, screwed up the 1st round of the new duel for Sat 15th. Short-lived pomp.

Damian E wrote:I won a duel for probably the first time ever, then, with an almighty crash, screwed up the 1st round of the new duel for Sat 15th. Short-lived pomp.

Well done though Damian for winning the duel on the 14th

I don't think this word has been a TTT before, but well done to Kirk who was the only to get ROCAILLE for a max in round 3 yesterday.

ROCAIILE is an 18th century artistic or architectural style of decoration characterized by elaborate ornamentation with pebbles and shells, typical of grottos and fountains. Or it can be a tiny ornamental bead.

As Apterous has been down since 6:15pm, will today's daily duel roll over till tomorrow?

BTW, I was really annoyed at myself that I didn't get the AUTHORIAL conundrum yesterday, as I'd solved it in a game I played just a few days ago.

Apterous came back after 11pm, and I managed to squeeze in the duel.
Today's one - blind, plus 5 second rounds! I think I'll pass!

Interestingly, looking at Benjamin Page's profile - he plays this game:

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=10023

scoring just 19 points in a 15 round format and then this game:

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=10026

scoring 29 points in a 15 round format.

Not sure what was in the water he's been drinking because after just 5 days he's performing like this:
http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=10705

and

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=10732

AQUATINT and ISCHIUM? Come on! I got 72/73 on the duel and it was a sure-fire bet I was going to be top because I bet nobody would get ISCHIUM to beat me with a perfect game - Ben was the only one to get ISCHIUM.

I'd love to know what he's drinking or how he improves that quickly....

Julie T wrote:Apterous came back after 11pm, and I managed to squeeze in the duel.
Today's one - blind, plus 5 second rounds! I think I'll pass!

Actually, it says 5 second rounds but it's more like 10 seconds - I don't get that.

Julie T wrote:Today's one - blind, plus 5 second rounds! I think I'll pass!

I wish I had

Kirk Bevins wrote:I'd love to know what he's drinking or how he improves that quickly....

I believe it's called CHEATING.

Maybe he's a fast learner.

Ha ha to everybody (but Kirk) who I beat in the duel, despite being kind of shit

Damian E wrote:

Joseph Bolas wrote:Well done to Ben Pugh for spotting WHEATEAR in yesterdays duel

I was crap on the number rounds yesterday and was the only person not to get any points on them

WHEATEAR is / was a TTT very recently.

Something about crying in Scotland, ie shed a wee tear.........you know, the usual convoluted tripe.

Drat, I think that was in my game.

DebbiF wrote:

Julie T wrote:Today's one - blind, plus 5 second rounds! I think I'll pass!

I wish I had

I did intend to play all the November daily duels, to make a decent showing in the monthly rankings, as even if you come last you get one point.
However, what I see IMHO as the unnecessarily difficult formats, annoy me intensely, so I don't do those ones anymore.

Julie T wrote:

DebbiF wrote:

Julie T wrote:Today's one - blind, plus 5 second rounds! I think I'll pass!

I wish I had

However, what I see IMHO as the unnecessarily difficult formats, annoy me intensely, so I don't do those ones anymore.

That's not the attitude, Julie! It's good to have a go - you'll always beat someone and it's good to pick up a few points here and there.

Kirk Bevins wrote: That's not the attitude, Julie! It's good to have a go - you'll always beat someone and it's good to pick up a few points here and there.

It's obvious that you're a teacher, Kirk!
I don't wanna!

Julie T wrote:

Kirk Bevins wrote: That's not the attitude, Julie! It's good to have a go - you'll always beat someone and it's good to pick up a few points here and there.

It's obvious that you're a teacher, Kirk!
I don't wanna!

In fairness you can score 0 and still get one point for being last, which is a bit odd I suppose.

Julie T wrote:

Kirk Bevins wrote: That's not the attitude, Julie! It's good to have a go - you'll always beat someone and it's good to pick up a few points here and there.

It's obvious that you're a teacher, Kirk!
I don't wanna!

I'm always apprehensive about both blind games and fast games, but I totally loved today's Duel, it was awesome. I missed loads of stuff, but scored a lot more points than I expected just by entering something safe on every round, even if that was a 4 or whatever. Play it, Julie!

Yep, I quite enjoy playing the Duels which are so difficult that you have no chance of getting any number of maxes or even a decent percentage; you just dig in and spot what you can. I played safe in every round and finished mid-table without breaking much of a sweat.

That's my philosophy too. After taking lots of risks at first, I realised that I can usually end up mid-table or occasionally better by playing safe. Especially so on the tough formats. Where's the fun if people just dodge the ones that are difficult? Surely the challenge is a lot of the fun?