Saturday, June 16, 2018

Weight for it...

The Dick Koch Trophy (awarded sorta-annually for the Seeger Olympics competition) is not unlike the House Cup of Hogwarts. 

Points can often come from anywhere - unexpectedly.  The guiding principle (there are few rules and no laws in the Seeger Olympics, methinks) is fair play.

The World Cup picks are in, with the champs being selected:

Andy took England, Brooke - Uruguay, Joel - Belgium, Claire - Switzerland, Davin - Portugal, Kylie - Brazil, Tim - Mexico, Jen - Iceland!

Jen's inspired pick led to a Lovable Loser's event, where each contestant picks a team with less than 1% chance to win the World Cup (according to FiveThirtyEight, the site that makes the improbable unlikely).  No one has yet selected their underdog yet, although they are up for grabs (excepting Iceland, who only Jen can pick until noon on Sunday, because of her bold selection in the first event).

This leads me to two questions for consideration... Unbalanced Justice & Weighting for Events:

The Scales of Justice are an interesting metaphor.  We think of it symbolizing that all are equal in the eyes of the law (although justice is also meant to be blind).  What's interesting about the old-timey scales that we generally associate with justice is that they have built-in weights.  One can 'tip the scale' as it were.  Just like Jen has additional time to choose Iceland because of her boldness, so too advantage should be given to the worthier case.

With a myriad of competitors in this year's SeegerOlympics, I am also curious about exploring the idea of weighted events.  If all 8 of us play Trivial Pursuit with 2 teams of 4, should 4 points be awarded (1 to each winning team member)?  If so, what about an event like the WC picks.  Assuming nobody has picked the winner (Germany, after all remains unselected), there will almost certainly be a tie.  Should all of those tied for the lead get a point or divide one point into fractions (i love the idea of fractional points).  Weighted events where we all compete (say worth 8 total points, or 4, or maybe 10) would allow for sub-group events (Joel & Brooke & Kylie & Andy & Tim) could be for just one point, and that would allow for many sub-group events, but still the big points at stake for the all-competitor events.

Not sure how it would work, but i'm sure we could figure it.