Post by palmer7 on Aug 27, 2017 18:08:44 GMT -5
England has given us many great sports. Association football (or as we call it, soccer), cricket, rugby. But if there's one thing the intellectual greats of the United Kingdom are all united on, it's the fourth national sport of England: Countdown.
For those who have never seen this show, here's how it works:
Format: Two players compete in rounds testing both literacy and mathematical skill. Each game has ten letters rounds, four numbers rounds and a conundrum.
Letters Round: The contestant in control chooses 9 letters by selecting either a vowel or a consonant until there is a total of 9 letters. The player can choose the letters in any order, but the selection must include at least 4 consonants and 3 vowels, hence there are only three valid choices in modern Countdown: 3 vowels, 6 consonants; 4 vowels, 5 consonants; and 5 vowels, 4 consonants. A player scores points on a letters game by writing down [PMing] a valid word within the 30 seconds [24 hours real time]. This word must be in the current New Oxford English Dictionary, but not a proper noun, nor an abbreviation. Players can use each letter only as many times as it appears in the selection. For example, from the selection EEEECDLST, a player could offer SELECTED, using three of the four available E's. Words score 1 point per letter, except for nine-letter words which are worth 18. After the contestants have offered their solution, Sam "Dictionary Corner" Hodkin offers a few more words which either equal or beat whatever the contestants have offered. Each contestant picks five letters rounds.
Special Rules: Countdown does not allow all nouns to have a plural form. In particular, a mass noun is a noun that that does not logically have a plural, like GUNFIRE or HEALTH -- in standard English they would rarely be used in the plural. Some categories of mass nouns can become count nouns: for example, CONGEES was allowed in one season because it was argued that one could ask for "two congees". (A congee is a Chinese soup.) Of course some nouns like FLOUR are mass nouns but can also be verbs, so that an S can be added to form the third person singular of the present tense, e.g. he flours the table. Sam will act as judge when necessary and all decisions are final.
Numbers Round: The game involves a board of 24 numbered cards, initially arranged face down in a layout of four rows, with the top row containing four large numbers (25, 50, 75 and 100) and the remaining three rows (currently) with two each of the integers between 1 and 10 inclusive. One contestant chooses from where in this layout six numbers are to be picked. Contestants variously choose a specific pattern (e.g. the inverted T), the number of cards to take from each row, or simply the quantities of large numbers (25–100) and small numbers (1–10). And if you want to let our female co-host have a free go, that's fine, too. A three-digit target number is then generated by the computer, and the contestants have 30 seconds [24 hours real time] to make the target number (or as near to it as possible) from some or all of the six numbers. The target can currently range anywhere from 101 to 999. Each of the six chosen numbers may be used only once in any solution. Only addition, subtraction, multiplication and division may be used; moreover, no fractional numbers or negative numbers may appear as part of a solution. All answers must be PMed to me, and you must show your work. And as always, no calculators are allowed. Ten points if you can get the number spot on, seven points if you're within five, and five points if you're within ten. Only the contestant that is closest to the target gets the points, though.
Conundrum: The conundrum is a 9 letter word, presented to contestants in the form of an anagram. The first person to buzz in [PM with the closest buzzcode from 1-100] and provide the answer scores 10 points. If there's a tie, we go to sudden death until there is a clear winner.
Prize Money/Champions: The winner of the match gets a Countdown teapot (imported from the UK, natch) and $400 cash. They may then decide to take the money and run or risk half their winnings to play again against a new challenger.
1st Game: $400
2nd Game: $800
3rd Game: $1,200
4th Game: $1,600
5th Game: $2,000
Any champion who wins five consecutive games wins $2,000, the complete 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, a laptop computer, and retires undefeated.
So, I need two players, a celebrity, and Sam Hodkin to check in.
For those who have never seen this show, here's how it works:
Format: Two players compete in rounds testing both literacy and mathematical skill. Each game has ten letters rounds, four numbers rounds and a conundrum.
Letters Round: The contestant in control chooses 9 letters by selecting either a vowel or a consonant until there is a total of 9 letters. The player can choose the letters in any order, but the selection must include at least 4 consonants and 3 vowels, hence there are only three valid choices in modern Countdown: 3 vowels, 6 consonants; 4 vowels, 5 consonants; and 5 vowels, 4 consonants. A player scores points on a letters game by writing down [PMing] a valid word within the 30 seconds [24 hours real time]. This word must be in the current New Oxford English Dictionary, but not a proper noun, nor an abbreviation. Players can use each letter only as many times as it appears in the selection. For example, from the selection EEEECDLST, a player could offer SELECTED, using three of the four available E's. Words score 1 point per letter, except for nine-letter words which are worth 18. After the contestants have offered their solution, Sam "Dictionary Corner" Hodkin offers a few more words which either equal or beat whatever the contestants have offered. Each contestant picks five letters rounds.
Special Rules: Countdown does not allow all nouns to have a plural form. In particular, a mass noun is a noun that that does not logically have a plural, like GUNFIRE or HEALTH -- in standard English they would rarely be used in the plural. Some categories of mass nouns can become count nouns: for example, CONGEES was allowed in one season because it was argued that one could ask for "two congees". (A congee is a Chinese soup.) Of course some nouns like FLOUR are mass nouns but can also be verbs, so that an S can be added to form the third person singular of the present tense, e.g. he flours the table. Sam will act as judge when necessary and all decisions are final.
Numbers Round: The game involves a board of 24 numbered cards, initially arranged face down in a layout of four rows, with the top row containing four large numbers (25, 50, 75 and 100) and the remaining three rows (currently) with two each of the integers between 1 and 10 inclusive. One contestant chooses from where in this layout six numbers are to be picked. Contestants variously choose a specific pattern (e.g. the inverted T), the number of cards to take from each row, or simply the quantities of large numbers (25–100) and small numbers (1–10). And if you want to let our female co-host have a free go, that's fine, too. A three-digit target number is then generated by the computer, and the contestants have 30 seconds [24 hours real time] to make the target number (or as near to it as possible) from some or all of the six numbers. The target can currently range anywhere from 101 to 999. Each of the six chosen numbers may be used only once in any solution. Only addition, subtraction, multiplication and division may be used; moreover, no fractional numbers or negative numbers may appear as part of a solution. All answers must be PMed to me, and you must show your work. And as always, no calculators are allowed. Ten points if you can get the number spot on, seven points if you're within five, and five points if you're within ten. Only the contestant that is closest to the target gets the points, though.
Conundrum: The conundrum is a 9 letter word, presented to contestants in the form of an anagram. The first person to buzz in [PM with the closest buzzcode from 1-100] and provide the answer scores 10 points. If there's a tie, we go to sudden death until there is a clear winner.
Prize Money/Champions: The winner of the match gets a Countdown teapot (imported from the UK, natch) and $400 cash. They may then decide to take the money and run or risk half their winnings to play again against a new challenger.
1st Game: $400
2nd Game: $800
3rd Game: $1,200
4th Game: $1,600
5th Game: $2,000
Any champion who wins five consecutive games wins $2,000, the complete 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, a laptop computer, and retires undefeated.
So, I need two players, a celebrity, and Sam Hodkin to check in.
