Question on points and ranking

Do we carry over our scores for the second round or does everyone start with a clean slate?

whew that's a relief thanks

I certainly do hope they use points to seed the Round 2 groups, though.  For example, with my pathetic 26 points, I should be made to face off with a bunch of 47-pointers. Kind of like the NCAA tournament.  I'm thinking they just do it completely random, but that seems a shame.  If a bunch of 47-pointers end up in the same group, more of the those excellent writers are going to cancel each other out.  :\

I guess we'll see what the groups look like in about 15 hours!

JoeK

DBA Lehane wrote: Have to disagree Joe. Just because some has 47 pts doesn't make them a better writer than someone with 26pts. It's just those stories scored better, but doesn't follow they always will. Much in the same way some scored 25 pts on the first challenge but came in really low on the second. Scoring would have been dictated by the quality of groups as a whole. It's all to play for again and I'd dare to suggest that some high scorers won't be in the final 25.

Being a number one seed in the NCAA championship doesn't necessarily mean a basketball team is better than the 16 seed in any particular game, either (that's why upsets are so fun). But previous performance is used to seed future rounds. That is a fairly standard contest mechanism. While writing is definitely more subjective than something like basketball, this is still a competition, and the points are still the final, empirical ruling of the judges.

None of this is saying one writer is better or worse than another (I said the 50 and 47-pointers are excellent writers, not that they are better or worse than anyone else...). There's a difference in my mind between discussing a potential distinction and passing that judgment, and the latter is solely up to the judges.

In any case, if points don't matter at all, then it wouldn't hurt to seed the way I say, would it?  :P  It's just an idea, anyway...

JoeK


Edited by sutekh137 - 15 Oct 2010 at 10:45am

Being a Brit I can't comment on the NCAA but in a writing contest you don't beat other writers, but sporting competitions are a world away from a writing contest. But I accept there's no harm in seeding writers, but if we both accept points don't matter at this stage, what's the point (excuse the pun)? And I do have to take exception with you saying "none of this is saying one writer is better...than another." You clearly said in your original comment that if all the high scorers end up in the same group, then "more of those EXCELLENT writers are going to cancel each other out." To me that's a suggestion someone is better writer because they scored higher. It's akin to suggesting the more excellent writers have made the semi, when we both know some excellent writers haven't made it this far.