Crag: The Tournament of Champions (Syn., Episode 32)

[dougmorrisontheair]

On our last show, Frank Sartori won his semi-final match against Lenny Jackson.  We're now preparing for our next semi-final -- where the winner plays Frank in the finals.


Marc Enyedy and John Lopez, come on up!

[Deleted]

Checking in.

[dougmorrisontheair]

And I've got Marc's buzz codes. Let's go ahead and start.

---

Staff announcer: "Kevin (Probably) Saves the World" -- tonight at 10.

---

(lights in studio gradually are turned on)

(shortened version of the WGYN opening theme plays)



Three dice...



...five years...



...one big winner.




This is Crag: The Tournament of Champions.

[/div]

(audience cheers)

Helloooo, everybody, I'm Doug Morris. We're celebrating our fifth anniversary of Crag: The Numbers Game.

(audience cheers)

We've had a lot of exciting moments over the last five years. But we've not had a Crag-made millionaire. That's changing this week.

We've invited back four of our biggest winners for a special playoff. Two of them played on Monday's show with Frank Sartori defeating our top seed, Lenny Jackson. We're about to meet two other big winners.

Now, the player who ends up champion of champions not only wins this week's tournament -- but wins no less than $1,000,000 in cash!

(audience cheers)

Let's resume this party with two semifinalists who've combined for more than a million in cash and merchandise.

Returning with $656,950 in winnings -- our second seeded player, Marc Enyedy.

(audience cheers)

And seeded third in this tournament -- back to add to his $456,625 in cash and merch -- John Lopez.

(audience cheers)

Marc, John, a warm welcome back to both of you. Marc, please tell us what you've been up to since you won nearly $660,000 on our show.

[marc412]

Well, I’ve gotten myself two new jobs—one at a grocery store and the other at a CD and DVD manufacturer.

[dougmorrisontheair]

Busy man, you are. Thanks for carving out some time for us here on the tournament of champions. And John, you racked up nearly 460 grand. What have you been up to since then?

[Deleted]

Not a whole lot. Studied up for the past week and a half, but mostly still remained rather low-key.

[dougmorrisontheair]

Well, we'll see if the studying paid off.

Players, the best of luck to both of you as we start this semi-final game in the tournament of champions.

You certainly know how to play Crag: The Numbers Game. Here's a quick rundown of the tournament rules.

Each game in the tournament is still a race to 100 points. The game ends when someone scores at least 100 points or comes closer to 100 after ten completed rounds.

Each game still pays $2500 to the winner and $500 to the runner-up. And each match is still a race to $5000.

Now, here's where the fun really begins. The first player to collect $5000 advances to the finals *and* -- also earns an instant bonus of $100,000.

(audience cheers)

The winner of this match not only goes to the finals -- but also gets to play a special bonus game where another $100,000 could be won.

(audience cheers)

So, John, you could end up with more than $600,000 in total winnings. Marc, if you're the ultimate victor, you could end up with more than 800 large.

(ding)

(audience cheers)

Now that we've talked money, the first numbers game in the semi-final is starting now. That question mark you saw often in earlier games represents the right answer to a single digit question. As always, it's a number higher than 0 and lower than 7.

Single digit question: The Big Bad Wolf is the antagonist in the tale of how many little pigs?
45 marc412
58 john1987248
94 randomizer.org

(John buzzes in)

John?

[dougmorrisontheair]

(Bump for John.)

[Deleted]

3. (AAC)

[dougmorrisontheair]

John says that wolf antagonized 3 little pigs. Is that right?

(ding; audience applause)

You betcha. Good job.

John, as you know, with that correct answer, you have a maximum of two rolls of our Crag dice. If you like your first roll, take the points associated with your combination and we'll end the round. But if you'd like a reroll, you may freeze up to two numbers and reroll the rest.

Both of you are familiar with these combinations. For those who aren't, these are the ways you can score a lot of points on Crag.

There are four different straights worth 20 points. The numbers 1-2-3 make a low straight; 4-5-6 a high straight; 1-3-5 an odd straight and 2-4-6 an even straight. Order of the numbers matters not -- just as long as they're all different and they're all low, high, odd or even.

Anytime you roll three of the same number, that's a triple for 25 points.

And as you're both well aware of, 13 is a lucky number in Crag. Anytime the dice total 13, we'll double the sum for 26 points. *But* if you have a pair of numbers and an odd number total 13 on the board, that's a Crag -- and it's worth 50 big points.

(rolling sfx)

There go the dice. John, stop them one at a time as they lock into your buzzer.

(ding)

Stop on a 3.

(ding) (scattered cheers)

Stop on a 5!

(dings; audience cheers)

Another 5! CRAG! WOW!

(Doug walks over to John's podium)

Well, you're familiar with the cash bonus for the first Crag in the match. I know it's chicken feed compared to what's at stake. But it's always nice to pick up an extra...


(crowd and Doug count money in unison)



Doug: 100...
Crowd: One...

(ding)



Doug: 200...
Crowd: Two...

(ding)




Doug: 300...
Crowd: Three...

(ding)



Doug: 400...
Crowd: Four...

(ding)




Doug: 500...
Crowd: Five...

(ding)



Doug: 600...
Crowd: Six...

(ding)



Doug: 700...
Crowd: Seven...

(ding)



Doug: 800...
Crowd: Eight...

(ding)



Doug: 900...
Crowd: Nine...

(ding)



Doug: $1000!

(dings; audience cheers)

(Doug returns to his podium)

Marc, keep the faith. If John can get a Crag right off the bat, you can roll a Crag in Round 2. It's starting now with this.

Single digit question: How many flavors are there in an original bag of Skittles?
09 marc412
27 john1987248
03 randomizer.org

(Marc buzzes in)

Marc?

[marc412]

5 (DBF)

[dougmorrisontheair]

Five flavors, Marc says. True dat?

(ding; audience applause)

Yes. As to the number of calories? Eleventy billion.


(rolling sfx)

Okay, Marc, let's see if you can even up the score.

(ding)

Stop on a 2.

(ding)

Stop on a 4.

(ding)

And stop on a 2. That's not one of the combinations worth 20 or more. Marc, I could give you the sum of the dice -- 8 in this case -- but I have a hunch you'll be rerolling.

[marc412]

You’re right—roll ‘em all again. (AFE)

[dougmorrisontheair]

(scattered cheers)

Probably not a bad idea at this moment. No dice on ice. Let's reroll 'em all, fellers, please.

(rolling sfx)

Okay, Marc, let's see if you can even up the score this time.

(ding)

Stop on a 6.

(ding)

Stop on a 3.

(ding) (scattered groans)

Stop on a 2. Traded up to 11 points.

After Round 2:
marc412
john1987248

Well, anything can still happen as we prepare for our first missing digit question in this semi-final match. To refresh everyone's memory, we'll play a sample question first.

(ding)

This is the year Crag went into syndication after one year under the title of Net Crag on VBS. All you'd have to do is signal and tell me the first digit in the year. Smart money says the missing digit's a 1.

(ding)

There ya go. Now, we'll clear the board...

...and continue on that path down memory lane for this question.

Missing digit question: Eddie Timanus, who was a big winner on our original version of our show under the title of Net Crag, is a sportswriter at USA Today. I'll show you the year the national newspaper was founded -- and you tell me the missing digit.

(ding)

07 marc412
67 john1987248
98 randomizer.org

(John buzzes in)

John?

[Deleted]

2. (FDC)

[dougmorrisontheair]

Was USA Today founded in 1982?

(ding; audience applause)

Indeed it was. Well, John, you could win this first semi-final game with just one roll of the dice. A lucky roll got you half way toward victory.


(rolling sfx)

As Marc hexes the dice, let's see what happens for you, John.

(ding)

Stop on a 2.

(ding)

Stop on a 4.

(ding)

And stop on a 3. Well -- that may be *a* straight -- but it's not a Crag-approved straight. So that's a total of 9 points if you stop here, John.

[Deleted]

Hold the 4 and reroll (CE)

[dougmorrisontheair]

All right, we'll hold that 4 by freezing it.

(freeze sfx)

For the rest of this round, the 4 will not reroll. The outer dice now reroll.

(rolling sfx)

There they go.

(ding)

Well, stop on a 1.

(ding)

And stop on a 5. Traded up a bit to 10 points.


After Round 3:
marc412
john1987248

John leads 60 to 11. Gonna throw in some geography as we go into Round 4.

Single digit visual question: On the big screen, I'll show you the map of one of the 50 states in the U.S. How many times does the letter "a" appear in the name of this state?

(ding)

25 marc412
53 john1987248
15 randomizer.org

(Marc buzzes in)

Marc?

[marc412]

There are two A’s in Nevada. (EDD)

[dougmorrisontheair]

Marc says he's looking at Nevada. Is he at least right about the 2 A's?

(ding; audience applause)

Yup -- and it's Nevada alright. Hard to stump someone playing a dice game about Nevada, isn't it?

(scattered laughter from the crowd)

(rolling sfx)

Marc, ya need some points. Let's see what you can get.

(ding)

Stop on a 2.

(ding)

Stop on a 6.

(ding)

And stop on a 1. Well, that's 9 points if you stop here. At this stage in tourney time, I have a hunch you're going to reroll.

[marc412]

Freeze the 6. (AF)

[dougmorrisontheair]

Freezing just the boxcar. We'll reroll the other dice.

(freeze sfx) (rolling sfx)

There they go. Let's see if you can put together a Crag.

(ding)

Stop on a 4.

(ding) (scattered groans)

And stop on a 1. Total of 11 points that round.

After Round 4:
marc412
john1987248


(Frasier's theme plays)

John still with a big lead. Hear that music calling? Time to bring letters into this numbers game. We're going to play a Scrambled Eggs question.

(audience cheers)

I don't think we play Scrambled Eggs during your earlier appearances. So, I'll briefly explain the Round 5 question involves an eight-letter scrambled word. I'll give you a clue about the scrambled word and then show it to you.

Don't tell us what the word is. Instead, tell us how many letters are in their correct positions. As many as six of the letters in the word you're about to see are in their right spots.

So -- here's the query.

With the eggs, against this Ohio State fan's wishes, the Crag staff has scrambled the name of a city in Michigan. Tell us how many of the eight letters are in their correct positions.

(ding)

40 marc412
23 john1987248
25 randomizer.org

(John buzzes in)

John?

[Deleted]

2. (BCB)

[dougmorrisontheair]

John says just 2 letters are in their right spots. Is that right?

(ding; audience applause)

Yes -- and it's interesting how that "Dearborn" is an anagram of Snoopy's arch nemesis.

John, you got this game off to an interesting start. Another roll of a Crag will give you this game and another $2500.

Marc, hex if you'd like -- 'cause here go the dice.

(rolling sfx)

Let's see what's about to happen.

(ding)

Stop on a 1.

(ding)

Stop on a 4.

(ding)

And stop on a 2. Well, 7 more points in your coffers if you stop the round here.

[Deleted]

Hold the 4 again and roll them bones! (EE)

[dougmorrisontheair]

Freezing the 4. A Crag is possible -- as is automatic victory in this first numbers game.

(freeze sfx) (rolling sfx)

There go the outer dice.

(ding) (scattered cheers)

Stop on a 5!

(ding) (loud groans from the crowd)

And a 3. So close.

Well, we still have five rounds to go unless someone reaches the goal of 100 sooner than Round 10. Round 6 question's on a classic movie series.

Single digit question: According to the "Star Wars" movies, Darth Vader fathered how many children?
71 marc412
85 john1987248
94 randomizer.org


(John buzzes in)

John?

[Deleted]

2. (EAE)

[dougmorrisontheair]

John says Darth Vader sired 2 children. Oh -- the results are in. (scattered laughter from the crowd)

(ding; audience applause)

Darth Vader *is* the father of Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker.

John, a Crag makes you a winner. An official straight, a triple or a non-Crag 13 puts you really close. Marc, put the whammy on the dice if you'd like -- 'cause away they go.

(rolling sfx)

Stop 'em when you feel that magic touch.

(ding)

Stop on a 3.

(ding)

Stop on a 6.

(ding)

And stop on another 6. That's a good roll without getting a straight or better. John, want the 15 points or a reroll?

[Deleted]

Hold both sixes and reroll (D)

[dougmorrisontheair]

(freeze sfx)

(scattered cheers)

Boxcars are already frozen. Turn that 3 into a third 6, you'll have 25 points and a triple. Obviously, you're going for a 1 to complete the Crag. Let's see if victory happens here.

(rolling sfx)

There it goes.

(ding)

Didn't trade up to a Crag or triple -- but it is a slight gain to 16 points for the round.

After Round 6:
marc412
john1987248

Four rounds remain. Anything can still happen. Follow-up question coming on "Star Wars".

Missing digit question: Never tell Han Solo the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field in a scene from a "Star Wars" movie. On the big screen, I'll show you the approximate odds calculated by C-3PO in the aforementioned scene. Tell me the missing digit based on the dialog in the movie.

71 marc412
43 john1987248
81 randomizer.org

(Marc buzzes in)

Marc?