Learned League

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i've been doing a good job of getting answers right, and already got a couple good guesses in, so that feels like the important part.

little johnny juul (voodoo chili), Thursday, 25 February 2021 21:56 (three years ago) link

Sometimes I wake up around the time of the deadline and submit and get the message that my submission may not be accepted.

The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 25 February 2021 22:03 (three years ago) link

That's definitely happened to me a few times. One time I was driving home from somewhere at midnight, and I suddenly realized I hadn't submitted, so I pulled over on the side of the road and did it as fast as I could on my phone.

jaymc, Thursday, 25 February 2021 22:27 (three years ago) link

Rookie defense is especially random. It's not worth stressing out over.

justfanoe (Greg Fanoe), Thursday, 25 February 2021 22:43 (three years ago) link

I thought MEZZOGIORNO would play much easier than it did, just to name one recent example.

The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 26 February 2021 14:13 (three years ago) link

Heh, seems like a few people put SOLARI for that. Never knew what to call those things.

The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 26 February 2021 14:28 (three years ago) link

Have heard/seen that word, but it wasn't quite sufficiently active knowledge for me to dredge it up. Ended up putting MEZZOSOLE, without much hope.

On the luck of the draw and using demographic data for defence: Yesterday's first question was about an artist sharing her name with the Minneapolis art center where she was exhibited in 2007. A reasonably tough art question, and my opponent has modest Art stats... but lives in Minneapolis. No more than 1 point for you, buddy. (And yes, he got it right.)

anatol_merklich, Friday, 26 February 2021 14:45 (three years ago) link

lol, i was all "playa del sol?"

i happen to be on the Walker's mailing list so that was my gimme.

my fuckup was that i got gazprom but TYPED "gazpro" and hit send before i noticed, goddammit. still won, not too incensed

That's not really my scene (I'm 41) (forksclovetofu), Friday, 26 February 2021 15:30 (three years ago) link

best week of my career

mookieproof, Saturday, 27 February 2021 12:13 (three years ago) link

Oh yeah. Pretty impressive.

The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 27 February 2021 12:49 (three years ago) link

I know it's not much of a run to higher rundlers, but my opponents in my last 3 matches have all gotten 5 questions right, and I've been blowing off my defense, so I'm predictably in the relegation zone.

RZA Minnelli (Leee), Saturday, 27 February 2021 18:13 (three years ago) link

5-5-5 the last few days is a pretty tough oppo run for any rundle, I would think -- not much you can do about that, but on the potential upside, it could mean you're done with some of the hardest matches.

anatol_merklich, Saturday, 27 February 2021 21:20 (three years ago) link

Lol I'm playing two of them again this season.

That said, my overall QP puts me squarely in the middle of the rundle (and I've had the hardest schedule so far), so I expect my record will even of at some point.

RZA Minnelli (Leee), Saturday, 27 February 2021 22:32 (three years ago) link

my opponents are allowed to get four right; any more than that and i feel robbed

my good week, as ever, was mostly due to luck. i've lived in mpls so i knew walker, plus browning/periwinkle/theatrical were pulled straight from my ass

mookieproof, Saturday, 27 February 2021 23:15 (three years ago) link

Kind of all over the map for me. In terms of correct answers, I went 6-2-3-6-5.

FWIW, I'd never heard of Mezzogiorno.

jaymc, Saturday, 27 February 2021 23:51 (three years ago) link

i went beretta/indigo/tailor

That's not really my scene (I'm 41) (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 28 February 2021 03:35 (three years ago) link

enfield/lilac/teamster here lol

Kompakt Total Landscaping (Will M.), Monday, 1 March 2021 00:43 (three years ago) link

So about Q4.

The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 12:54 (three years ago) link

Yesterday's, re Devanagari etc? Reasonably well done I thought; a nice way of getting around the difficulty of marking a question like "Devanagari is the fourth most used what?", where it may be hard to draw a clear line in a spectrum of plausible answers encompassing "writing systems", "scripts", "alphabets", "abjads", "abugidas", "written languages", etc etc.

Since I'm quite familiar with what Devanagari is myself, I was at first a bit confused by how easy the question looked to me ("Name one of the three most common writing systems in the world"), before I noticed that "writing system" was nowhere mentioned, and that the essence of the question was knowing what kind of thing Devanagari is. Still played harder than I guessed it would.

anatol_merklich, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 13:47 (three years ago) link

(if you mean today's, we should probably not discuss it until tomorrow obv)

anatol_merklich, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 13:49 (three years ago) link

No, that’s what I meant. I couldn’t figure out quite what he was getting at and ruled out characters for some reason so I put hiragana.

The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 13:53 (three years ago) link

Some discussion on the message board. A few others are annoyed with the wording.

The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 15:51 (three years ago) link

I really enjoy those ones where I have no idea and I just let my mind relax and something like "Joker's Wild" bubbles up and I'm just like, OK, brain, I don't really know what that is but but if that's the response to the stimulus I gave you let's go with it

Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 16:04 (three years ago) link

i had no idea what devanagari was and guessed "bikram" lol

na (NA), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 16:29 (three years ago) link

You are not the only one, apparently.

The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 16:30 (three years ago) link

i went with English which is my own fault for not thinking. Then I watched an old episode of Only Connect last night WITH THE SAME QUESTION SET and the guy also answered English. At least I know where they got it from.

G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 16:55 (three years ago) link

Really? Do tell.

The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 17:24 (three years ago) link

Was there some kind of hidden theme then?

The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 17:56 (three years ago) link

Broke my losing streak, still in relegation. Somehow I keep facing opponents with QPs of over 70% -- what are these people doing in C?!

RZA Minnelli (Leee), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 18:13 (three years ago) link

Speaking of QPs, I can never seem to relocate the place where the stats abbreviations are defined.

The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 18:52 (three years ago) link

Oh, section 8.5 of the rules, I think, shows most of them: https://www.learnedleague.com/thorsten/therules.php

The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 18:54 (three years ago) link

I also tried to mouse over and hover but didn’t seem to work.

The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 18:58 (three years ago) link

Oh wait on Player Tracker it does

The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 18:59 (three years ago) link

Was there some kind of hidden theme then?

are you familiar with the show? for the second round, they offer three answers and you have to determine the pattern and name the fourth as quickly as possible. more point if you guess with fewer clues.
So this question was 1) Devanagari 2) Arabic 3) Chinese 4) ?

G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 19:01 (three years ago) link

basically everyone who plays Learned League should be watching Only Connect and vice versa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videos

G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 19:02 (three years ago) link

oh ffs
search "wheelsongenius" on youtube

G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 19:03 (three years ago) link

You set the question set/ Were there five similar questions?

The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 19:11 (three years ago) link

At minute 16.

The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 19:13 (three years ago) link

i had no idea what devanagari was and guessed "bikram" lol

― na (NA), Tuesday, March 2, 2021 10:29 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I almost guessed "yoga," which I remembered was part of a set (the six orthodox systems of Hindu philosophy, though I couldn't have told you that). Then I changed my mind and went with "ayurvedic." Good question, though.

jaymc, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 19:21 (three years ago) link

yup, that's the one.

G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 19:22 (three years ago) link

I really enjoy those ones where I have no idea and I just let my mind relax and something like "Joker's Wild" bubbles up and I'm just like, OK, brain, I don't really know what that is but but if that's the response to the stimulus I gave you let's go with it

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, March 2, 2021 10:04 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ha, that one was kind of the same for me. Although maybe in the back of my mind was a dim memory of when the same question was asked in 2014.

jaymc, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 19:23 (three years ago) link

"Yoga" was my first thought, too. But then I reasoned "OK surely it's possible there is some set of traditional Indian physical/mental practices of which yoga is the most famous and devenagari is #3 or #4 but I can't think of any other besides yoga, and if divanagari were the #3 or #4 most popular type of yoga I would have heard of it, so it just can't be that." I think what really helped me is the word "system" -- not that many things are customarily described as systems. Yoga isn't, for instance.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 19:25 (three years ago) link

when the same question was asked in 2014.

I didn't know they repeated questions!! I honestly feel kind of disillusioned.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 19:26 (three years ago) link

I kind of love that best wrong answer though.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 19:26 (three years ago) link

There aren't too many repeats. I'd say maybe a couple of times a season. And it's usually from at least a few years ago.

I do sometimes wonder to what extent Thorsten is aware of it, though. If I were him, I'd probably do a search of the archive just to see if and when a question was last asked, so I'm guessing that when it happens, it's because he figures it's been long enough that he can go back to the well.

jaymc, Tuesday, 2 March 2021 19:37 (three years ago) link

my brain spat out this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYlcim0Dc60

G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 20:08 (three years ago) link

and i WATCHED joker's wild as a kid so i KNEW that

G.A.G.S. (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 2 March 2021 20:09 (three years ago) link


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