Spoilers for Tuesday 15th August 2023 (Series 88, Heat 33)

[Fiona T]

Matey taking the piss. Suggest the wiki write-up kept to the minimum - don't give him the attention he's clearly after. What a tosser.

[Philip A]

I actually feel sorry for him. Not the first to score 0 (4th in fact, including 2 from 30-minute Countdown) so he’s not alone. The numbers didn’t fall nicely and he was up against a good player whose risks paid off in some of the letters rounds. Fine margins sometimes. I also recognised him from The Apprentice 2023! Not the first Apprentice star to have been on a gameshow either.

Worth remembering also, the audition feels different because it’s solo (and therefore raw score), it’s at your home and it’s over the phone rather than in a cluttered studio environment with 8 cameras and bright lights.

Surely long overdue to kill off the 15 round scores under 30 list on the Wiki.

[Gavin Chipper]

Was he taking the piss? I wasn't paying close attention but I didn't pick up on it.

The last 0 went for 3 large on the last numbers from what I remember.

INCISOR as a beater in the last letters.

[Gavin Chipper]

Surely long overdue to kill off the 15 round scores under 30 list on the Wiki.

Noooooooo!!!!!

[Philip A]

Was he taking the piss? I wasn't paying close attention but I didn't pick up on it.

Can’t say for certain. We’ll call this a one-off.

[Ronan M Higginson]

It was a complete mockery of the game.

[Gavin Chipper]

I think you have to be suspicious of anyone whose passion is finance.

[Phil H]

You really think he intended to score 0 all along?

I kind of thought he just lost whatever ability he had to perform under pressure and eventually gave up as a way of coping.

(Either way I doubt an extensive write-up on the apterous wiki was the thing he had his eye on?)

[Fiona T]

You really think he intended to score 0 all along?

I kind of thought he just lost whatever ability he had to perform under pressure and eventually gave up as a way of coping.

(Either way I doubt an extensive write-up on the apterous wiki was the thing he had his eye on?)

Yeah agreed - he's not gonna care about the wiki. Just very disrespectful to his opponent and everyone on the show. And when I think of the very good players I know who don't pass the audition you do wonder what on earth is going on. Still grumpy.

[Graeme Cole]

Matey taking the piss. Suggest the wiki write-up kept to the minimum - don't give him the attention he's clearly after. What a tosser.

I've seen a couple of people suggest this was a deliberately low score to seek attention, but what makes you so sure of that? Having watched the episode, all I can see is a contestant getting beaten in every round by a strong opponent, trying to make the best of it, then getting called a tosser on here.

Is there some additional information or context I'm missing here?

[Joseph B]

Don't mince your words Fiona incidentally Tosser is a good 6 letter word.

[Fiona T]

Matey taking the piss. Suggest the wiki write-up kept to the minimum - don't give him the attention he's clearly after. What a tosser.

I've seen a couple of people suggest this was a deliberately low score to seek attention, but what makes you so sure of that? Having watched the episode, all I can see is a contestant getting beaten in every round by a strong opponent, trying to make the best of it, then getting called a tosser on here.

Is there some additional information or context I'm missing here?

Yeah fair enough. Doubt he'll read the forum, but if he genuinely passed the audition without cheating and then played to the best of his ability on the show, then I apologise. If either of those aren't the case, then I stand by it.

[Gavin Chipper]

Matey taking the piss. Suggest the wiki write-up kept to the minimum - don't give him the attention he's clearly after. What a tosser.

I've seen a couple of people suggest this was a deliberately low score to seek attention, but what makes you so sure of that? Having watched the episode, all I can see is a contestant getting beaten in every round by a strong opponent, trying to make the best of it, then getting called a tosser on here.

Is there some additional information or context I'm missing here?

These were my thoughts but because I wasn't paying that close attention to his behaviour I didn't follow it up.

[Ronan M Higginson]

Matey taking the piss. Suggest the wiki write-up kept to the minimum - don't give him the attention he's clearly after. What a tosser.

I've seen a couple of people suggest this was a deliberately low score to seek attention, but what makes you so sure of that? Having watched the episode, all I can see is a contestant getting beaten in every round by a strong opponent, trying to make the best of it, then getting called a tosser on here.

Is there some additional information or context I'm missing here?

Yeah fair enough. Doubt he'll read the forum, but if he genuinely passed the audition without cheating and then played to the best of his ability on the show, then I apologise. If either of those aren't the case, then I stand by it.

Well he'd have actually scored 56 playing on his own, 23 more than what Sarah from last year would have got.

[Fiona T]

Performance may have been genuine up to second TTT. That may have been the point he decided to go for the joint record, if indeed he did - perhaps more understandable "I'm gonna get thrashed - might as well go out with a bang".

MFNOIAERT

He declared FEAR. Could he genuinely not see miner or minor or train or format or ration or moaner or moanier or foamier?

SDGEUMRIP

He declared DRIES. Primes or primed or prides or dumpers or dumpier or umpires would all have beaten his score


50 100 75 4 7 3 → 644 he declared 663. Could he really not find 643 or even 646/647/650 ? 663 a much trickier solve than any of those!

Anyway - maybe I was harsh - felt really quite annoyed at the time. I quite liked him on apprentice fwiw!

[Toby McDonald]

ROMANITE in R10
RICINUS in R13

R3 alt.: ((5+2)*9+1)*8+3 = 515
R14 alt.: (100+50-7)*4+75-3 = 644

[Steve Hyde]

Is there some additional information or context I'm missing here?

His website (https://www.avitv.co.uk/) doesn't exactly scream "not an attention-seeking weapon"

[Mark Deeks]

I launched Avi TV, centred around business, wealth and success.

[samir pilica]

Wonder what his motivation for going on the show was ? No doubt a successful, intelligent man in real life, bothered to fill in the form, auditioned, travelled to Salford and then...

[Ronan M Higginson]

Wonder what his motivation for going on the show was ? No doubt a successful, intelligent man in real life, bothered to fill in the form, auditioned, travelled to Salford and then...

Got himself a free hotel...

[Ahmed M]

Just caught up on the ep and all this seems very overblown tbh, wouldn't say he played particularly bad and his level only really dropped in the last third of the game where he might have started feeling disheartened. Looks like he made the best out of a bad situation and came across well to me honestly

[Philip A]

Just caught up on the ep and all this seems very overblown tbh, wouldn't say he played particularly bad and his level only really dropped in the last third of the game where he might have started feeling disheartened. Looks like he made the best out of a bad situation and came across well to me honestly

Fully agree.

[Tom S]

Just caught up on the ep and all this seems very overblown tbh, wouldn't say he played particularly bad and his level only really dropped in the last third of the game where he might have started feeling disheartened. Looks like he made the best out of a bad situation and came across well to me honestly

Yeah agreed. It's not like he did the Nazi salute or something like that. Whether he purposely tried not to score, only Avi knows, but even if he did, I feel that it has been blown out of proportion given the nature of the show.

[Tracey Anne Mills]

When I recap the game at some point I need to be careful what I put

[Rhys Benjamin]

Wonder what his motivation for going on the show was ? No doubt a successful, intelligent man in real life, bothered to fill in the form, auditioned, travelled to Salford and then...

Got himself a free hotel...

There's other ways to get a free hotel in this country. #satire

[Ryan Lam]

Matey taking the piss. Suggest the wiki write-up kept to the minimum - don't give him the attention he's clearly after. What a tosser.

Just watched this episode today after a very busy work week. I at no time could detect Avi intentionally trying to score zero at all until closer to the end like what most people have pointed out already. I thought George going for six small plus him going for Three Large in the Numbers round was one problem (and literally suicidal).

I also honestly thought the fact that George and DC could add on to his declarations in the first two thirds of the show probably shattered his confidence and he never recovered. To add insult to injury, if I want to be extreme, I could say Colin's quote of "We've never had a contestant that was so happy to score zero" immediately after the second break was over probably made him think "I can't win anyways, so f*ck this, let's go out with a bang".

Him being on The Apprentice and showing off the Free Hotel stay (thanks very much ) is one thing, but I seriously do not think this is a situation you know like say the Manchester team on University Challenge decades ago where they buzzed in with Communist names in a deliberate attempt to derail the game and damage the reputation of not just the opponent, but also the gameshow as a whole.

All I can say is that this is a case where people's expectations here on this forum are high and then when people do not put in the effort they expect or should see on the show, the bad words come out. We have to remember, not everyone is an Apterous player, and while people may do well in the Audition, they may stumble on camera and that's where all of us will judge one's performance. Having a tag of "Scoring Zero on Countdown" is definitely not a way others will want to remember people, and I'm sure Avi's got enough heat already thanks to this episode. Let's just move on and just try to be more restrained in the future.

[Stewart Gordon]

I'm surprised nobody got 515 by what seems to me the most intuitive method. I saw it within the time.

((9 + 1) × (8 + 2) + 3) × 5

[Philip Wilson]

I'm surprised nobody got 515 by what seems to me the most intuitive method. I saw it within the time.

((9 + 1) × (8 + 2) + 3) × 5

Me too! I was surprised Colin couldn't see 103 and Rachel doing it a different way.
For the second numbers it was good of Rachel to say later she'd done it but then not say how. I remembered her clue of looking for 875 though, and on revisiting, it was the first thing I tried.

25 * 50 - 75 * 5 - 5 - 9 = 861
(Not 100% sure I don't need brackets )