This is an awesome idea for a forum game!

North Dakota

[HC] Lewis Clark
[NB] Enchanted Highway
[AR] Bison Meat
[HC] Dakota Sioux

Alright, who are we waiting on? Anyone? I think there's one missing, right?

We're so close to finishing, dammit!

Waiting on gstelmack, but we'll wrap it up today one way or another!

Judges, to your posts.

Helloooooooooo, judges?

is the game over?

One judge is scoring, and the other is done.

I just submitted my scores. On another note, it looks like gstelmack's not been on the board since 6/22. Anyone have any idea what he's up to?

FWIW, this is the best I could come up as the best options in each category for Indiana:

[SA] Indy 500 - (One of the most famous sporting events in the world)
[HC] Hoosiers (film) - (Would simply put "High School Basketball" if not for the two word limit.)
[NB] Brown County - (Fall foliage brings people from all over the country every October)
[AR] Steel - (Gary is the largest steel producing area in the US)

Alternates:
[SA] Notre Dame - (Most famous college football program in the country)
[SA] IU basketball - (Five national championships)
[NB] Indiana Dunes


I'd take the -1 and substitute Notre Dame for Brown County in the scoring four as I never really got the big deal for the fall foliage stuff and doubt very highly the reputation extends much out of the midwest. (Indiana is pretty poor for natural beauty, but very strong in sports)

Some of my highest and lowest scores were given in this round.

That's not too bad but the key phrase is "doubt very highly the reputation extends much out of the midwest". You can say that about a lot of entries in this game, some by choice and some not. I think overall scores would have been higher is folks didn't think "what would be famous in my state" and instead "what is famous about my state".

Since you took the time to come up with your entry, here's how I would score them:

[SA] Indy 500 - (One of the most famous sporting events in the world) - 5 (but will it be in the future?)
[HC] Hoosiers (film) - (Would simply put "High School Basketball" if not for the two word limit.) - 3 (not for HC, I think Prep Basketball would score a 4 for SA)
[NB] Brown County - (Fall foliage brings people from all over the country every October) - 2 (yes but not much to Brown County :) )
[AR] Steel - (Gary is the largest steel producing area in the US) - 3 (not a famous area and besides, at least 4 state produces more steel than IN)

Alternates:
[SA] Notre Dame - (Most famous college football program in the country) - 5
[SA] IU basketball - (Five national championships) - 4 (a notch below NC and KY)
[NB] Indiana Dunes - 3 (ok as far as dunes go...)

Round 5 scores
 

Team 1: sachmo71 & JeeberD—Utah [13]
1. NB - Moab 4
2. AR - Aerospace Research 2
3. SA - Winter Olympics 3
4. HC - Brigham Young 4

Team 2: wade moore—Connecticut [11]
1. UConn Basketball [SA] 3
2. Yale University [HC] 4
3. Long Island Sound [NB] 3
4. WWE [SA] 2
-1 [AR]

Team 3: Butter of 69—California [19]
1. Napa Valley [AR] 5
2. TV / Films [HC] 5
3. Yosemite Park [NB] 5
4. LA Lakers [SA] 4

Team 4: path12—Wyoming [16]
1. (SA) Yellowstone Park 5
2. (NB) Grand Tetons 5
3. (AR) Coal, Gas 4
4. (HC) Range Wars 2

Team 6: TazFTW--New York [18]
1. NY Yankees [SA] 5
2. Broadway, museums [HC] 5
3. Niagara Falls [NB] 5
4. 9/11 [HC] 4
-1 [AR]

Team 7: Masked—Alaska [17]
1. [AR] Seafood, oil 5
2. [SA] Iditarod 3
3. [NB] Denali, Kenai 5
4. [HC] Eskimos, Beringia 4

Team 8: tarcone—Tennessee [12]
1. Elvis Presley (HC) 5
2. Beale Street (SA) 3
3. Dolly Parton (NB) 1
4. BBQ,Blues (AR) 3

Team 9: Anxiety—Nebraska [15]
1. U. Nebraska (SA) 3
2. Corn/Beef (AR) 5
3. Scotts Bluff (NB) 3
4. Union Pacific (HC) 4

Team 10: Radii/Oliegirl--North Dakota [9]
1. [HC] Lewis Clark 3
2. [NB] Enchanted Highway 2
3. [AR] Bison Meat 2
4. [HC] Dakota Sioux 3
-1 [SA]

Final Scoreboard
 

Scoreboard:
85 - Team 3 (Butter of 69) = WINNER!!!
84 - Team 7 (Masked)
81 - Team 4 (path12)
75 - Team 6 (TazFTW)
73 - Team 9 (Anxiety)
72 - Team 8 (tarcone)
68 - Team 1 (sachmo71 & JeeberD)
65 - Team 10 (Radii & Oliegirl)
62 - Team 2 (wade moore)
57 - Team 5 (gstelmack)

Congrats to Butter, and thanks everyone for sticking it out. Special thanks to Bucc and Wolfpack for judging.

There's so many things I would have done differently in this game if I had it to do over...

But, it was a GREAT experience... the unfortunate thing, to me, is I think this is a tough game to repeat.... unless you say you can't use anything used in this version, but that would make some of the "hard" states REALLY hard.

One variation to the game might be that you had to balance your states overall in the four categories, rather than state-by-state. Each state would have one category rather than four, but you'd be limited on how many states you could take in each category.

That's true, I guess you could shift the rules in that way...

The other thought is you could change the categories... Maybe even dedicate to sub-categories.. say a game where you do SA and you have 4 sub categories of Sports, History, Amusement, and Shopping or something...

Just thinking out-loud.. I know this took a long time, but I enjoyed it immensely...

Thanks for running this, WSU... had fun strategizing it and came up lucky to squeak past Masked on that last state.

That was a fun game! Thanks Coug, and Bucc and Wolfpack for judging!
And Jeebs for the ideas for Utah...our best state!

Congrats Butter!

I had a very had time deciding what to submit for my last entry in order to maintain my lead. I was hoping the judges might ding you for submitting TV/Films instead of Hollywood, because otherwise I didn't think I could catch you.

Great game - I'm glad I was able to join late.

Congrats to Butter and thanks to WSU and the judges. That was a lot of fun. Will there be judge comments? I was curious as to the low rating for the Range Wars.....

I know my bidding strategy would be much different if I had it to do over again, but I can't complain about a bronze.

Are you sure about that? It is admittedly difficult to find current supporting evidence, but everything I've seen indicates Indiana is the largest producer of steel in the nation.

http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pu.../instmyb04.pdf
"Indiana continued to lead the Nation in the production of raw steel, with an estimated output of about 24.8 million
metric tons of raw steel, as reported by the American Iron and Steel Institute (2005, p. 76)."

http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/...05/story5.html (from 1996, but a 50% lead over #2 Ohio and 150% more than #3 Pennsylvania at the time which would be a hard margin to overcome even in 10 years I imagine.)


[HC] and [NB] are admittedly tough areas for Indiana... famous people didn't seem to do well, but one I thought of was "[HC] Jackson Five"

Yeah, I'm somewhat appaled at the 2 for WWE under SA unless the argument is that much of it doesn't happen there ;)..

Thanks a ton for running this WSUCougar. I really screwed myself with the historical blunder with Kent State early, and then a couple of tactical errors that ended up landing me New Hampshire and North Dakota... but even with my own poor play, I had a lot of fun with this. Great game.

I had fun as well. thanks to all
i have one complaint though......Dolly Parton a 1 for natural beauty? c'mon

You're lucky it didn't get a 0. I think the Kent State entry deserved a higher score than that bullshit entry. 1. She's no way can be called a beauty. 2. Some of it ain't natural either. You judge it...



:)

To the rest of you, well done. There were some great entries this round even though one could argue that some of them were no brainers. The only quibble that California missed an easy (and only 20) if it had picked Disneyland for SA instead of the Lakers.


Saved me from typing an answer since you had already done so.

I had already used Disney World in Florida... I just didn't really consider using Disney again for some reason.

Daimyo, the source I saw showed IN 4th. It may have been a certain kind of steel production but I cant' find it again (it showed a map shaded by steel production based on tonnage or something like that). I know that Gary has the largest steel production plant but I was thinking more of the state as a whole for AR.

That reasoning makes sense to me, so no qualms here.