#hashtag scientific notation review!

[unicornsaures]

oh my god i need to stop going onto tumblr after writint a single sentence. Doli this is why you cant get shit done

[theuniversitychallengereview]

UC 48.33 & 34 - Edi/Bri + Man/Dar

I was going to start this by saying it had been a while since I’d last had to do a multi-episode post, but I just scrolled back and it was apparently only a few months ago, so I guess I can’t. I was also going to open with a bit about how, if I wanted to use this blog as an example of my writing prowess to any prospective employers, it would be like putting down as a reference your boss from that bar job where you’d fallen asleep midway through pouring a pint and caused a mini lager-flood. But I said that last time as well, so in addition to showing up my inconsistent posting schedule I’d also be outing myself as an uninspired self-plagiarist. 

Its obvious, both intuitively and from the brief period when I actually did manage to upload a few hours after episodes were dropping, that the only way to grow my engagement and readership is to get my blogs online in that short window immediately after the show when people are in that sweet, sweet UC headspace. Thats how the internet works, you move too slow and you get left behind. So why is it that I’ve allowed myself to postpone my self-imposed deadline by a week, so that I write the previous week’s blog just before the current one should be due? Why is it easier to distract myself from the same focus-scattering effects of Twitter and YouTube that I should be trying to counteract by getting the work done right away after a seven day interval has passed?

I can’t answer those questions, but I’m trying to get the point where I can by sleeping with my phone in the other room and reading my 12 issues for £12 Economist when I wake up instead (all the podcasts were right, its like a collection of really long tweets, but without the hashtag wars). 

One advantage of the fact that no one reads these anymore is that I feel less obligation to not go off on solipsistic tangents before I’ve even started (not that the obligation ever stopped me before).

Anyway, as of two weeks ago, we’d had eight quarter final matches (twice as many as you usually get), and only had two to go. Durham and Teddy Hall were relaxing in the pot for the semi final draw, having already won a couple of QFs each, whereas Glasgow and Emmanuel would be staying forever in this stage after two losses on the trot. Four teams were still trapped here, with a win and a loss under their belts, but they would know their fates soon enough.

Edinburgh vs Bristol

In my last review, I said of Emmanuel, Cambridge that they had had the hardest possible quarter-final draw, getting knocked out by Teddy Hall and Darwin, and I don’t disagree with that, but Bristol faced the same two opponents, and would be sitting pretty in the semis had it not been for a hundred-point comeback by the cuddly Oxonians, after they had neutered the exuberance of Jason Golfinos in their match against Darwin. Edinburgh knew they’d have to be wary of a Bristolian quartet who had shown they could rise to the level of their opposition after a fairly nondescript opening few rounds.

Fitz-James buzzed in after only two words to give Edinburgh the first ten points of the game, and they doubled their score with two bonuses on Sir John Everett Millais. Booth looks anguished as he negs the next starter though, and Basu gets Bristol off the mark with a speculative guess of Tolstoy. Sumner, a physicist who’s been very good at physics questions all series, beats Fitz-James to the buzz for Transistors to give the English side the lead.

But just like the current in an AC circuit, they don’t hold it for too long, as Paxman generously says he’ll accept Fitz-James’ answer of the North Star, one of the given names for Polaris, in place of Polaris. How kind of Paxo. Bonuses on sub-atomic particles as represented by the initials corresponding to numerical scientific notation follow. Having correctly identified 10^-12 as being pico (i.e ‘p’) Booth goes too deep and suggests the pi-meson. FJ frowns, and rightly diverts to proton. Sometimes the questions aren’t so complicated.

Bristol take the lead with the Picture Qs, and it continues to alternate rapidly, with neither side able to take control of the contest. It looked as if it was going to be a matter of who had their noses in front when the gong went, but Edinburgh managed to find something in their locker, taking four out of the last five starters to put the game out of Bristol’s reach.

This will have been filmed soon after Bristol’s devastating last-minute loss to Teddy Hall, so that may have been playing on their minds going into the final stages, and they again seemed to run out of steam, falling just short of the semis for the second time. The Avonside University have now made the Quarter Finals on seven occasions in the Paxman era (including in four of the last five years) but have failed to make it beyond them every time. This was certainly the closest they’ve come.

For Edinburgh its a third semi in as many years, and they’ll be hoping they can make the leap Bristol couldn’t and go one stage further than they’ve ever managed before.

Final Score: Edinburgh 155 - 120 Bristol

Manchester vs Darwin, Cam

Darwin, the last Cambridge college left in the competition, had looked unstoppable in their first two rounds, before coming unstuck against Bristol in their first quarter-final. Their Talismanic captain Jason Golfinos was back on form as they smashed fellow Cantabrigians Emmanuel, but the loss demonstrated an over-reliance on the skipper. Manchester would be hoping for another off-day from the American

However, he introduced himself as being from ‘New York, New York, the city so nice they named it twice’, and you don’t introduce yourself as being from ‘New York, New York, the city so nice they named it twice’, unless you’re feeling full of confidence. Its like when a footballer is so sure they’ll score that they store some kind of prop behind the goal to crack out when they do (see Raul Jiminez vs Watford on Sunday).

It only takes him up until the word ‘Chrysippus’ in the opening question to show that this confidence was not misplaced. Darwin go ten points clear with his answer of laughing, which Manchester are not. They know they’re in for a tough game. Lynott comes in early in a bid to counteract Golfinos, but can only send the Mancunians below zero, where they would stay for some time. In fact, the Golfmeister would amass four starters personally before Hanson finally buzzed in, scared, with Shannon, and brought them back into positive figures.

A starter for Mulley, and Golfinos’ fifth of the evening meant that the match was pretty much out of Manchester’s hands by the halfway stage, but Antao quickly swooped up the music question, on piano pieces with the right hand missing, and was even able to name the exact piece, which impressed Paxman. This would be the highlight of Manchester’s night - not a bad highlight, all told, but indicative of the gulf between the two sides. Golfinos hammered out another starter, and then seemed to ease off a bit, allowing his opponents to break into triple figures.

For Manchester, this series represented their best performance since the end of their dominant era in 2014, and perhaps a sign that they’re on the path back to the top of the game. And for Darwin, if Golfinos turns up, this may well represent a great shot at the trophy.

Final Score: Darwin, Cam 195 - 120 Manchester

The semi finals will thus be as follows:

Edinburgh vs Durham

Darwin, Cam vs Teddy Hall, Ox

This draw is interesting because it guarantees a non-Oxbridge finalist for the first time in 6 years. It also guarantees the Darwin-Teddy Hall match featuring the head to head battle between the series’ two top buzzers in Golfinos and Freddy Leo. Its also a bit strange because Edinburgh and Durham already played each other in the QFs, and rematches are generally avoided until the final. Its in part for this reason that the past five finals have been all-Oxbridge affairs, so unless the past draws have been pure coincidence, this indicates that a conscious decision was made to guarantee a finalist from outside the Big Two...