MAD FIGS Digest 7-1: 4/19/03
Welcome once again to the wonderful world of the MAD FIGS Digest, now in its seventh stunning year! Although the onset of new technologies has rendered the digest format somewhat obsolete, there are a lot of things ready to be announced this week.
WEB UPDATES:
-Completed updates on 2001 and 2002 Septathalon pages. Includes complete results for all events, conveniently arranged photo
galleries, and a comparison between the predictions for 2002 and the actual results.
-Recreated MAD FIGS Ping Pong League info. Although the info on some tournaments has been lost, the posted results are pretty
accurate. There is some slim chance that someone might have the original brackets for the "lost" tournaments that I didn't
attend, but it's not very likely.
MAD FIGS NEWS: The most important thing on everyone's' minds right now is the 5th Annual MAD FIGS Septathalon, taking place on July 25-26, 2003. All the news for the week regards this subject.
-Rules are pretty similar to what's been followed in previous years. Once again we will emphasize a strict adherence to the
official schedule, but since no one is ever on time it will all get screwed up immediately.
http://www.madfigs.org/septathalon/seprules.html
-Since virtually no one will be there this year (as far as Atlantic City has heard), here are the current odds:
Jacob - 2:1
Jayne - 5:1
Jenny S. - 10:1
Scott Dogg: 50:1
Now is a good time to place your bets if you're rooting for any of these competitors! If you plan on attending, email our Atlantic City contact at: madfigs@hotmail.com
-The official Septathalon Planning Committee has extensively discussed ideas for 2003. It has been determined that, based on last year's Supplementary Event debacle, there will be no public debate on the issue. Since so many people wanted Underwater Swimming, that's what you're getting. All details subject to change upon further committee deliberation.
2nd Supplementary Event: Underwater Swimming
Scoring will be based on both distance traveled and time underwater. Exact details TBA.
Location: TBA
Tie Breakers: 1st: Diving Competition. 2nd: Underwater noisemaking competition.
-The schedule for 2003 was another point of great concern. While the first day went smoothly in 2002, the second day of events
ended up running far later than expected. Therefore, we have two options.
a) Start the Adventure Race at 6am instead of 7am, thus causing half the people to be late, and the other half to be late for
Ultimate Frisbee instead. However, there may be more time between events. Then when people gallivant off for no apparent
reason, it will not bring the entire competition to (as much of) a standstill.
b) Stay at 7am, attempt to cram in underwater swimming AND ping pong in the same timeframe as last year (which was not long
enough for just ping pong), end up being late for bowling again, and run the barefoot mile and awards in the dark.
I personally support the moving back to 6am option, though I'm sure everyone will complain about losing A WHOLE HOUR of sleep.
Actually, no one will say anything until a day before the event, then they will start complaining.
-As some of you may know, the scoring system for the Septathalon bears little resemblance to actual Decathlon scoring. The benefit of the Decathlon system is its basis on individual results: if you lose to someone in one event by a couple seconds, you will probably only be a couple points behind. In our current system, a gap of a few seconds can be worth several hundred points, depending on how many people finish close together. However, the disadvantage to this system is that it is insanely complicated. It may prove impossible to make this system work with the odd range of events found in the Septathalon, but once the subject has been studied in more detail I will post the findings.
-Of course, no one receiving this email has the attention span to read this far. Although it's a pointless offer that no one has ever taken me up on before, you can offer suggestions or opinions either to me privately at madfigs@hotmail.com, or here to the list for public discussion (ha ha). I once again remind you non-existent readers that if you don't reply and then decide to complain after the decisions are already made, you WILL be punched in the nuts and/or groin area.
See you all at the Septathalon!
Scott Dogg
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