ACPT: The Numbers (2011)

This year I downloaded the full-version, extra-deluxe, double-the-cost version of the scores spreadsheet (thanks Doug Heller for making it available!) which has for everybody not just the points they scored but how they got there (wrong letters, wrong words, minutes on the clock). Granted they will still be making corrections (one of my errors was inexplicably un-highlighted, so I know there's at least one correction to make), but I can have some more confidence in my formulas. Maybe I'll make some pictures. (If you have some requests for pictures, then let me know.)

655 people were there for at least one puzzle, so my current 59th (after making above correction) will still put me in the top 10%, so at least I didn't reach my anti-goal. I missed all of my actual goals though (11500, B finals, and/or no mistakes, which when it comes down to it are pretty much the same goal at this point). The puzzles themselves definitely had a broader difficulty range, but skewing harder rather than easier (much unlike last year). I felt there was only one real clunker (#6; sorry Maura, but don't lie to me in the blurb: those puns were neither names nor from tomorrowland).

Puzzle #1: median score 1130 (corresponding to finishing correctly with 8:xx on the clock); 84% solved this correctly. I finished with 12 on the clock and 1230 points, which was conveniently enough also the top score in the room for this puzzle.
Puzzle #2: median score 870 (the puzzle proper, with no bonuses, is 890 points, so this is equivalent to one blank square with no time on the clock); 38% solved this correctly. I finished with 17 on the clock and 1465 points; top score was 20 on the clock and 1540 points.
Puzzle #3: median score 1390 (corresponding to finishing correctly with 4:xx on the clock); 50% solved this correctly. I finished with 19 on the clock and 1765 points; top score was 25 on the clock and 1915 points.
Puzzle #4: median score 1135 (corresponding to finishing correctly with 9:xx on the clock); 73% solved this correctly. I finished with 15 on the clock and 1285 points; top score was 17 on the clock and 1335 points.
Puzzle #5: median score 380 (corresponding to getting 38 correct words during the time limit); 12% solved this correctly. I finished with 13 on the clock, but 2 errors, and 1155 points; top score was 21 on the clock and 1595 points.
Puzzle #6: median score 1715 (which is not a score you can get to by finishing correctly, but still requires finishing with plenty of time -- one error and 19:xx on the clock is the easiest way to get there); 55% solved this correctly. I finished with 22 on the clock, but 3(!) errors for only 1695 points; top score was 25 on the clock and 2035 points.
Puzzle #7: median score 1670 (again requires an error -- two errors (in one word) and 12:xx on the clock will do it); 32% solved this correctly. I finished with 32 on the clock, but an error, for 2155 points; top score was 37 on the clock and 2475 points.

Looking at this, that means the median solver (well, the median ACPT solver, at any rate) finished five puzzles (but made errors on two of those) and couldn't get through #2 or #5. In fact, going through gives the following almost-but-not-quite "completion" statistics (presumably this doesn't count people who finish in the last minute, as they will have a 0 for their time-remaining just like people who didn't finish. Arguably this is a flaw in the scoring but I doubt it's at the top of anybody's priority list):
Puzzle #1: 632/653 97%
Puzzle #2: 327/653 50%
Puzzle #3: 436/652 67%
Puzzle #4: 575/651 88%
Puzzle #5: 113/651 17%
Puzzle #6: 617/651 95%
Puzzle #7: 424/616 69%

As you can see puzzles 1-4 all had no more than a 15% "oops!" rate, in terms of the difference between percentage finishing and percentage being all correct. It was rather closer for puzzle 5, probably because of so few finishers (113 finishers, and 81 people correct). In contrast, the "oops!" rate for puzzle 6 is 40%, and for puzzle 7 37%. How much of that is fatigue, and how much to the quality/trickiness of the puzzles is a little hard to get at. (For comparison purposes, last year's "oops!" rates:
Puzzle #1: 13%
Puzzle #2: 19%
Puzzle #3: 16%
Puzzle #4: 18%
Puzzle #5: 4%
Puzzle #6: 24%
Puzzle #7: 24%
so a little larger for the beginning puzzles, and smaller for the last two.)

Things, ACPT and otherwise, in handy bullet format

• First good omen of the trip: when I arrive at LaGuardia and put my MetroCard in the machine, I have more money on it than I thought meaning I don't have to put any money in for the weekend.
• Second good omen of the trip: when I step outside, there is a bus already there.
• Early check-in worked again despite me not bothering to tell them, so hooray for the Brooklyn Bridge Marriott.
• Nap time! before the mingling (or in legal terminology "loitering").
  
• The loitering was made more difficult by the fact that the rent-a-cop seemingly couldn't decide where we weren't supposed to be, so every so often he'd clear us out of wherever we had congregated from the last time we moved. Eventually he did decide that we shouldn't be in front of the escalators or around the big table in the lobby, although by that point we were numerous enough that there was always someone in front of the escalators or around the big table in the lobby.
• Although by that point it was dinner time. This year I wandered off with Peter Gordon et al for Indian food and a very good chicken tandoori (which was not the only item of the menu that I was sure to recognize when it arrived, as they also had kebabs).
• Friday night festivities. I don't know (and I doubt that Wz will ever tell) the paid attendance here; my not-very-good estimating sense guesses 250. I was surprised how many people were there while still maintaining a sworn conviction that they didn't like cryptic crosswords, since the main event was a US/UK cryptic crossword tournament -- not that they had never done them, but that they had done them and didn't like them.
• For the Saturday main event, I do what I always do, which is get there a fair bit early, sit two seats in from the aisle, and see who shows up. This year I was around two rookies, an retiree who has been doing puzzles for a while (and was actually more of a cryptic fan, as he had entered many (and won several) of the English newspaper puzzle weekly contests) and who came back for Sunday, and a younger office manager from Brooklyn, who didn't (but insisted she was having fun on Saturday).
• I made many errors (as in six or so) over the last three puzzles (5,6,7) ranging from "understandable" to "I wasn't even thinking of that letter how did it get in my puzzle", which made for a very disappointing day all told.
• There was a one-act crossword-"themed" play presented, that had originally been done for some sort of playwright's playhouse/community theater organization in upstate New York. My reaction at the time was negative. Upon further review, I guess that any one sub-piece of the play was good; however, they were all mutually inconsistent so stringing them all together led to a not-very-good sum total.
• And then there was the "ACPT-zing [pronounced 'amazing'] race", which was a puzzle fest put together by Pliska'n'Chaneski. It appeared to be a very amazing piece of work, although I had volunteered to be a "judge", also known as "Canada", so I only got to see a very small portion of the thing as it happened. It was fun to see people looking for some flag they didn't really know (like Tanzania, or Nigeria, or the Marshall Islands), realizing that I was a country and scooting around to see my flag, and then saying "Oh. Canada." How they made a national anthem out of that I'll never know.
• Speaking of, I thought being a country would be rather restful, but I was just as excited as the players were watching them scurry around.
• The variety show was certainly varied, with a blues theme.
• The B finals had a really very interesting finish -- you should go look for it to watch.
• Dan smoked through the A finals as expected.

Riichi GMT Round 4

And we end not with a bang, but with an anguished cry of despair. I managed to pay for six of the first five hands, since my I-really-shouldn't-do-this-but-I've-lost-the-last-five-hands-and-this-makes-my-hand-able-to-go-out discard gave two of my opponents mahjong, and in RCR they both win. I had a couple good hands towards the end, but it was far too little. I managed to come in last at the table, even losing to the player who wasn't even there. Ugh.

Riichi GMT Round 3

A lot of self-drawn, a lot of dealer winning and keeping the deal -- in 50 minutes and 12 or so hands, we never did get all the way around as dealer once. I won the first three (two as dealer), then there was a draw, then my RHO won six in a row (five self-drawn so that we all had to pay) and was the winner by far. Still, two points, and I've now moved to the right side of the middle to 17th place.

Riichi GMT Round 2

Ooh now I'm upset. I managed to forget to declare riichi on the first hand (and didn't feel like letting my winning tile go by so I would get the chance on my next turn), so +3200 turned into +1600 right away. Building up a 17000 point lead in the first three hands felt great, though. But then I paid a couple big hands, and was down by a lot. Then I won a big hand back, but I was down 900 points with a minute on the clock and then I was upset again. (I ended up down by 4900 since the last hand was drawn and there was only one tenpai player which we all paid 1000 points to.) Third place at the table, so only 1 point puts me right at 19th of 36 players at halfway.

Riichi GMT Round 1

It's still really weird to me to play 50 minute rounds, rather than the traditional 90 minutes. Had a fair few good hands this go round, and actually won three without discarding for any, which for me is an exceptional go of defense. The last one was a really quick win with about :50 on the clock to get back into second place after East had self drawn a mangan hand, so two points so far.