Learned League

I too would like to join! Will M, silby, or any other kind ilxor have a spare invite?

theo von is a beast at learned league guys

Oh wait $30 for membership, gotta think about this.

What about high-ranking White House officials

Actually, I am going to answer my own post and note that the Commish has laid down the law about this, so I am going to respect that decision, but I still find the whole thing amazing sometimes.

@Leee: You only have to pay after you've completed a full rookie season, so you can try it out and decide if you like it. I have plenty of invites to spare, too.

can one of you kind individuals send me an invite, please? ilx webmail reaches me :)

Ah ok, that sounds reasonable. You can ilx mail me, and thanks!

Suge was one of the year’s biggest rap hits; surprised that didn’t give away that clue. I guess people aren’t much listening to that world unless they are specialists.

the 30 also covers a full year, which is i believe 3 or 4 seasons, so if you like the first season you're not paying too much to keep going!

i don't see where to send invites tho, is it possible to do so during the season or do we have to wait a month?

also if we have this many ppl i am definitely thinking ilxor private rundle next go around

Okay, I just looked, and you can only give out 1 invite per season (unless you are a Premier or Commissioner's Circle member). Pretty sure there were more at one point, but I don't blame Thorsten for wanting to put some controls on growth.

I'll give mine to you, Leee, since we've actually met IRL!

Oh, and Will, the referral page is here:
https://www.learnedleague.com/thorsten/referral.php

if my quick scan is right, leee, unctious, and jim want invites? and jaymc has leee? so i will send one to Unc & someone else get jim? (lmk if i missed any. i am so tired rn)

Unc contacted me, I will take care of ‘em

ok jim i'll send you a message then!

Why the low get rate on Q4 yesterday, Charles Pathé? This was the flaw in my defense, since I thought everybody must know this, especially an opponent with .761 in Film so assigned it a zero, allowing him to tie me 4(4)-4(3). Note: really don’t care that much, long ago gave up agonizing on defense, valuing speed over accuracy, having long ago settled down into C Rundle, most of my enjoyment now coming from the occasional 1DS or ML.

HI DERE

Also I was in the 6% who put Friendly instead of Howard Johnson the other day.

I got it right, but I wasn't 100% sure about it.

(Pathé, that is.)

I have found the less I overthink defense and the more I just go with my gut, the better my defensive performance is. I have never heard of Charles Pathé before, even after seeing the answer it is totally unfamiliar to me and my lifetime film score is .776

dang, i somehow got to 5 and 0. pride goeth before a fall, i imagine i'm gonna get ganked now.

for every music nerd who's like "i'm surprised hardly anyone got this question about dababy" there's a math dork who's like "i'm surprised hardly anyone got this question about fundamental calculus concepts" etc. also "why did everyone else get this question wrong that i got right" inevitably comes off as bragging

on defense, i think 'age of opponent' is probably a more important factor than any particular subject percentage

lol, i seem to keep hitting the "most common wrong answer;" would not have thought a third of the missing group would've also gone with cornet!

also, i learned something on the "massif" question but holy shit are some of these questions ever posed in the most convoluted way possible

i don't worry too much about defense, i mostly focus on which questions seem hard/easy to me, factored through a glance at their strongest/weakest categories.

i went with cornet too. i overthought the "related to" aspect and the most trumpet-adjacent instruments i could think of were bugle and cornet.

Early in my LL career, I tried to figure out defense by researching my opponent, which is not against the rules (though some people think it should be). These days, I don't have time for that, so I mostly just glance at the info on their profile and occasionally look into their question history to see if their strengths lie more in Games or Sports.

also, i learned something on the "massif" question but holy shit are some of these questions ever posed in the most convoluted way possible

― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, February 26, 2020 9:25 AM (fifteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

This one didn't seem particularly convoluted? I think sometimes he just tries to provide a lot of information, to give players multiple ways to get to the right answer. ("Vinson" triggered "Vinson Massif" for me, so I didn't even read the second sentence.)

hey now's a good a time to ask as any. so cornet, 32%. does that mean 32% of people wrote that? or 32% of the 74% who got it wrong? either way i also wrote it lol and that's a remarkable mcwa

I also answered "cornet"!

For a MCWA, the percentage is of *all* players. In other words, more people answered "cornet" (32%) than "tuba" (26%).

A MCWA that's more common than the actual correct answer is not totally uncommon; it usually happens a few times a season. AFAIK, the most extreme example is still this question, in which the MCWA had 71% and the correct answer had 11%.

ok that is straight up a cruel question hahahaha

I think this was before MCWAs but I remember this question being very tricky - https://www.learnedleague.com/ll52/questions/md15/md15q2.php

I don’t want to do too much research against my opponent but if I have a history of any kind with them and remember to click on the appropriate button I find that useful.

Damn right I put "cornet," cornu is the one 5th declension noun I remember from high-school Latin! I was like "it's a horn, cornu, I GOT this."

I'm also in the "Pavlovian response to Vinson = Massif" crowd.

I'll give mine to you, Leee, since we've actually met IRL!

Thanks! My time in Chicago finally paying off!

“Age of opponent” is indeed useful info, but never noticed it in the profile.

for every music nerd who's like "i'm surprised hardly anyone got this question about dababy" there's a math dork who's like "i'm surprised hardly anyone got this question about fundamental calculus concepts" etc. also "why did everyone else get this question wrong that i got right" inevitably comes off as bragging

i had a clean sheet on a one-day once -- i don't even remember what -- and still finished like 23rd due to subpar moneyball choices

i've had a couple of clean sheets on one days! and i had a mini league where i was perfect through 7 or 8 days.

i have a niche.

I...
have...
a...
niche.

I've done 12/12 on a 1DS three times: Poetic Women, New Jack Swing, and Mystery Theme 22. But the first one is the only one where I actually finished on top (and it was a tie).

xp Ha, I always get the regular-season questions about video games wrong.

the regular season video games questions are usually pretty damn hard!! i think it's because they're written by someone who's like "uhhh i need a video game question" and asks about, like, the most popular free app in the apple store in 2018 or something lol

wow, i remembered that pretty precisely

i feel like there is/was a way to check what your wrong answer was on questions you blew. is that still hidden somewhere on the site?

https://learnedleague.com/thorsten/pastanswers.php

Yes, that’s always good for the current/past season. Keep meaning to train myself to review it but don’t quite care enough.

best i've done in a one-day was a clean sheet and 6th place overall in "rock 'n roll oddities"
best i've done in a minileage was 11 wins 0 losses, 1st place in my division, and 23rd place in the championship for "rock 'n roll." though i lost one day of the "indie rock" minileague but ended up in 7th place in the championship, so maybe that's better.
i also have a niche

at least when i get 9-6'd i don't have to worry about my defense

I got 9-6'd yesterday. :( Could've been a tie, but I second-guessed myself on "tomato" and went with "eggplant."

received!

Another link in the jaymc (and Mary) chain.

Today's 1DS for 2025 Maps is pretty fun! I recommend it even if you live under a rock like me.

That was fun, though there is a minor error in one of the questions that made me second-guess myself.

(I'll explain tomorrow.)

^James won the Pulitzer Prize in 2025, but it was published in 2024.

got 25th place in the 90s Music mini league despite missing two answers

Nice! I finished 182nd. I only missed one, but I put money on it: I answered Gang Starr instead of Black Moon. Wasn't confident about that answer but thought it was worth the risk.

(Don't know that I have ever heard of Black Moon, tbh.)

Last few posts made me realize Player Tracker does not seem to work for ML Championships, although manual inspection tells me that Greg finished 59th and only missed one, the one you just mentioned.

I wonder if "astronomically named" and "funky, jazzy samples" led anyone to Digable Planets

my first thought was black star, which I knew was wrong, but it led me to black moon. it's probably good I didn't put more thought into it or I would have realized how many other options there were. I also got very lucky with the selena question, just guessed the first texas city I thought of that wasn't one of the biggies.

Yeah, I wasn't 100% on that, either, but figured that 8th-largest city ruled out Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Fort Worth, and El Paso, and a South Texas city seemed likely.

always thought this sounded fun, if anyone else has an invite avail id be grateful..

Who else was part of the 18% MCWA on Q4?

I see that teh rock star got it right