Felicity Smoak: Do you ... hold the thing up to your ear like a phone?
Hawk Jefferson: Where are ... the buttons?
stinger4christ: If it's made out of wood ... I have no idea.
MasonK: What manner of backwoods sorcery is this?!
Brad: *snatches the object and spits to the side* Give me that!
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Felicity Smoak: LOOOOOOK!!!
Hawk Jefferson: Ohhh ... myyy ... gawwww...--------------------------------
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GREAT SPORTS CALLS-ELIMINATION ROUND-The time has come. Waffel, you selected this round's theme as your specialty. You selected The Iron Bowl kick heard round the world.
Sheriff Tyger, not to be outdone, you chose the underwear-staining hype of Phil Taylor vs. James Wade in all its glory.
Mr B and suave, you ...
NOT SO FAST!Read carefully...Mr. B and suave, you find yourselves in the elimination round primarily because you failed to comply with the rules of the game. Timeliness and efficiency is something that the rest of the player pool has been able to achieve. Waffel and Sheriff Tyger both made bold choices all the way to the end, as did all of our contestants who have already advanced. The most fair thing to do, I feel, was to go forward with the Elimination Round as planned as if you fought for your lives, just like Waffel and Sheriff Tyger. However, what benefit does it do both Tyger and Waffel to have complied with everything asked of them if two others can come and go as they please and still reap the rewards of advancing? None actually. So thus is the decree...
The Elimination Round has a stipulation. Mr. B, you chose the epic George Foreman vs. Joe Frazier in-ring encounter.
suave, you chose the heartbreaking Gonzaga debacle late in the game vs. UCLA in 2006 NCAA Basketball Tournament, words that at this very moment torment my soul as Bulldogs basketball fan all of my life.
I did not want to eliminate anyone immediately as a result of the unfortunate events of Stage One (i.e., the no-shows throughout the game so far). So, this was your chance to come back. The winner of this round shall advance to STAGE TWO, the next four rounds of competition. If Waffel or Sheriff Tyger win, we go forward with our three eliminations as planned. Since Waffel and Sheriff Tyger would be unfairly penalized if they lose to one of the two of you, suave and Mr. B, you are now playing for your World Series of Pop Culture lives. This is your play-in game, if you will. In order to advance, one of you must win the Elimination Round. The other will be eliminated. However, Waffel and Sheriff Tyger cannot be eliminated by either of you; they can eliminate each other, as per the rules of the Elimination Round as it was originally set up, but they cannot be eliminated by those who have not fulfilled their duties up to this point.
So, the results...
{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}Sheriff Tyger, the judges have spoken.
Your 1st Place tally... 1 VOTE
Waffel, the judges have spoken.
Your 1st Place tally....2 VOTES
Let's move on the 2nd place votes...
{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}Sheriff Tyger, your 2nd Place tally ...1 VOTE
Waffel, your 2nd Place tally ... 1 VOTE
Moving on to the 3rd Place votes...
{Spoiler}{Spoiler}Sheriff Tyger, your 3rd Place votes ... TWO VOTES
Waffel, your 3rd Place votes ... NONE
THAT MEANS ...
{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}
WAFFEL IS IN THE LEAD by ONE RAW AGGREGATE RANKING! BUT HOLD ON...
Onto our next tallies...
{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}
Mr B. and suave, at this point, you must overcome the odds set before you by our two previous players. Let's take a look at the leaderboard. The judges have spoken.
Mr. B, you received ... TWO FIRST PLACE VOTES!
suave, you received ... ZERO 1st Place votes.
This could determine our first eliminated contestant ...
{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}The judges have spoken.
Mr. B, you received ... TWO SECOND PLACE VOTES
suave, with one Second Place vote, I'm sorry, it's not going to be enough for this Elimination Round. We must bathe you in red light. Thank you for your entries and for signing up for our game!
So now, in order to stay alive ...
{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}Mr. B, you must earn one third place vote to advance and avoid two fourth place scores.
People who have read along line by line and who are good at in-your-head statistics may already know the answer ...
{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}Mr. B NATURAL, YOU HAVE EARNED ONE THIRD PLACE VOTE! AND THAT IS ENOUGH TO CLENCH IT IN THE ELIMINATION ROUND! CONGRATULATIONS, YOU LIVE TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY!!! THIS MEANS THAT SHERIFF TYGER AND WAFFEL BOTH ADVANCE AS COLLATERAL EFFECT OF THE VICTORY. EIGHTEEN PEOPLE HAVE ENTERED, SIXTEEN HAVE ADVANCED TO STAGE TWO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love it or hate it, them's the breaks. I was put in a tough position, but at the end of it all, I have to answer to myself, and I feel like this was the most fair to all parties involved. For those that advanced and escaped the Elimination Round to begin with, you should look at it this way: the game was set up unlike other editions of these types of games in that EVERYONE was going to get a chance to play Five Rounds in STAGE ONE. We were set to eliminate Three People after giving everyone five rounds to play.
{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}As it turns out, we lost two instead of three. So your efforts were not useless. You still had to avoid the bottom four. Who knows what you would've picked and how that would've influenced the scores? So, we're not really off the pace at all of what I first set before you all. Be happy for those that have advanced and pat those two on the backs that are no longer with us: suave and Too Many sMurfs.
Going forward, we are now at STAGE TWO!
Read carefully, the rules of STAGE TWO.STAGE TWO consists of FOUR ROUNDS. There is ONE swerve included in STAGE TWO. You do not need to worry yourselves with that. It cannot harm anyone (in theory). Because Jonathan Michaels won STAGE ONE, he has been granted a box.
{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}
ONLY Jonathan Michaels knows what is inside the box and ONLY Jonathan Michaels will know what's inside the box until he sees fit to reveal it to the world. (Insert "MUHAHAHA..." here.)
The scores DO reset, as in all of our games. It's survive and advance, stage by stage, here at the World Series of Pop Culture. At the end of four rounds, we will take our Bottom 5! That's right, bottom 5. At this point, every one will have gotten to play nine rounds, and that's a really fair shake in a game this big. By my count, it's the most people in one of these games that have gotten to play that many rounds. So, for that, I feel I can sleep easy at night. I want to make an enjoyable game, and getting to play five rounds before you're eliminated sounds great to me. And getting to play nine before you're up for a second elimination sounds even better. So, if you hate me or hate that set up, I tried. I feel it's fair, and it IS an elimination competition, so we have to cut people at some point. You have 9 opportunities to shower us with your Pop Culture faves, and that's what I'm talking about. I love that about these games: the community shared interests.
So, at the end of STAGE TWO, five people will go head-to-head in a four-person elimination. It's winner take all. All five judges matter (unless we get an unforeseen circumstance, in which case I'll have to adjust this ruling on the fly). The total raw aggregate will determine the winner. In the event of a tie, the person with the most first place votes wins. If that is a tie, then those two (or more) parties in a tie will advance.
I feel like I've covered everything, so if you have any questions, let me know.
Round by round scoring will still be the same. Four judges will be counted. If five judges all turn in their scores, the fourth and fifth judge to turn in their score will be averaged for that fourth ranking. Low score dropped as we've done before.
I'm having a blast so far, and I hope you are too!