One thing I haven’t seen before-or maybe just haven’t noticed: the winning team graciously gets up from their seats at the end 28:45 and walks over to the losing team, extending handshakes. A very classy move.
Certainly enjoyed this episode...the answer Abigail to the Bible story in 1 Samuel 25 in particular. "Be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” And in the account of Abigail, we witness a woman who remained in an attitude of true humility before her enemies - even before someone who had the power to destroy family members, servants, her home, and her life as she'd known it" "Abigail showed great wisdom in acting quickly, swiftly, and speaking honorably to David. She took control of the situation that was potentially dangerous for them all. She didn't just sit around and blame her husband or remain stuck in fear. She sent food and her servants up ahead" Modern feminists can learn a thing or two from imitating this woman.
The winning team has been my favorite. Everyone of them are very likeable, most especially B’s infectious smile. Well, i have to respect J’s competitiveness as he truly showed his weight in previous matches
@@user-qq2bj5ix5nif you have a personal problem with that person you should air it elsewhere. If it is just supposition then you should be ashamed and remember it takes one arsehole to recognise another. n.b. your spelling of the perforative term indicates you may be Nth American. collectively known as Jerks!
@@AlexEwan1 My initial guess is that under pressure she mixed up Händel and Haydn. They are similar names and I regularly mix them up so I wouldn't be surprised.
@@late8641 My initial thought was Ravel or Debussy then I realised it was from the Classical period so then thought Mendelssohn but it didn't sound right for Mendelssohn and I eventually settled for Haydn. Can totally understand mixing up Handel and Haydn though.
I counted 6 correct starters and one wrong answer that lost them points. And other than him, only Chadha got a starter right for them as far as I know.
This marvellous episode had so many memorable moments, from Cairo Station and McMillan, to the need for a South Korean team captain, and Henderson's stunning breakout performance. Both teams did brilliantly, but my favourite won, thank goodness! Thank you so much for everything CosmicP!!! PS Could someone identify the Haydn piece for me, please? It sounds glorious!
The amount of time Birkbeck were given to confer was ridiculous in this match. So much waffling and non-sense discussions. At one point after they established that no one knew the answer to a question, the captain announced that he will just make up an answer and then checks with everyone if they're ok with the answer he's pulled out of his arse. So strange
yep, that was ridiculous. And Amol was trying to hurry up Trinity at the end there. Thats why I fully support an introduction of a timer for bonus questions.
I thought the same, but later I wondered if perhaps it was due to the nature of the question. But even then, I still felt that the time given was too long - especially when compared to how he really seemed to be rushing Trinity in the bonus rounds later on.
Sad for McMillan he was really on fire this game, and he would have got all those Irish history questions. I was disappointed the other team didn’t get even one of them.
@@thescifiZipacnamy memory of Irish history is so dismal but Wolfe Tone is the first thing to come to mind at the mention of 1798, and anyone who has set foot in dublin would know O’Connell street hahah. Interesting that it was referred to as an avenue here.
Great effort by both teams; this was a close fight for much of the game. McMillan is outstanding as always but overall, I think that the more well-rounded team won. I greatly enjoyed the conferring by both teams - it was a spirited discussion by all members and there were some great guesses. Overall, this season has seen a huge improvement in terms of active participation by the players. I remember in some previous seasons, there were players who literally did not contribute a word throughout the series. Btw, Kang looks so stylish in this match - has his dress sense evolved through the series or has he always been a spiffy dresser?
Again sad to see the losing team go but I think the winners were very deserving. I want to see them in the finals. They were all strong in this bout, I thought. We’ll miss you, birkbeck mcmillan! The handshakes at the end were lovely, I wonder if they all got to hang out after.
Thanks again, CosmicPumpkin! This was a tight match for most of the way, until the winners pulled away. They simply had more individuals able to contribute. The losing team relied mostly on one player. But both are worthy teams, and the losing team will be missed. They were an enjoyable bunch. The winners will be a tough out for anyone. My best to both teams, and to each individual.
On the edge of me seat again. Brilliant match - I didn't think Birkbeck was going to pull it off but they did. WELL DONE to both teams. They are all brilliant minds.
They were terrible at Irish history. I got those three bonuses and I’m not even Irish. Glad Trinity won.. Banerjee is the man! And Henderson was excellent on the music questions.
I'm very sorry but the ignorance on Irish history in England is unbelievable. It has to be a deliberate conspiracy to keep people ignorant. They'd never heard of Daniel O'Connell, possibly the most important person in Irish history after St Patrick. He was one of the famous people of the 19th Century, worldwide.
Even though they won, it seemed Jaksina was unusually quiet this game, hopefully he will be as good as he normally is next time. Congratulations to the winning team, although sorry to see anyone lose at this point .
It seems like it would be easier to have a timer rather than the arbitrary "COME ON!", especially when the early bonuses are given waaaayyy more time. But it seems karmic that the team that wasted all the time, ended up running out of time at the end.
In that instance, the Birkbeck team was chatting so amiably, it was like they were at a garden party. The merest hesitation in answering a starter-“Uh…”-is disqualifying but a team can go on interminably answering a bonus question. The show’s been going on for over six decades (since 1962) so, if some time limit hasn't yet been introduced, it probably won’t be. It might be that whoever decides those things is fine with a longer period to confer during most of the match but wants the flexibility to keep it brief near the end when time is short.
@@jeff__wThey can always implement a timer which gets shorter towards the end, which would be the best way of implementing that. But I agree they’re unlikely to. I wish they would though.
@@kittyswaning They _can,_ sure. The other “variable” thing is that they might want to give more allowance to teams that seem to be getting closer to the right answer, rather than ones that are just mucking about, but even if that’s the case (and I’m not so sure it is or should be), that’s very arbitrary and subjective. But, as we both say, they’re unlikely to institute any kind of uniform “time” rule.
@@jeff__wI think that if they pick a "closer to the answer = long time to answer" style, the teams will stall even more because they'd think they are closer to the answer so they'll end up "using" that time. EVEN if the style doesn't and can't be applied here, I'd like a "chess clock" style. So even if the winning team would stall a lot in the end, the main "fault" would be ON the loosing team for wasting even more time. O.O
Good match and two great, likeable teams. However, too much dithering and time wasting. Good for Amal for trying to get them to hurry up.Congrats to Trinity, sorry to see Birkbeck knocked out. As always, thanks for our weekly fix!!!
Really don't know how he didn't get the answer though - the answer he gave isn't even really north-west of Busan and is less than half the size of the correct answer (which is the 4th largest city in the whole damn country).
Huntley had an uncharacteristically below par evening, repeating the subject in the question twice as a possible answer as in Gauguin and Jason and then over riding MacMillan who answered The Tempest correctly.
@@jameshogan6142 Mariner was still worse though - she's basically been a mascot in every game this season but today as well as seemingly not answering any questions correctly actually lost the team 5 points with an early incorrect buzzer.
If losing five points is in your book worse than losing fifteen points then good luck with that. I am simply saying that the team as a unit did not function in a coherent enough manner to defeat such an opposition as Trinity.@@PhatInAHat
That vector calculus round was. WOW. For those not in the know, there are 3 basic differential operators that are the fundamentals of vector calc 101, and they asked for the names of all 3 as their 3 questions.
Well done to the winning team! As an alumni of the losing team, sad to see them go but valiant effort. Overall, both had too long conferring times on questions that they obviously had no proper answer to give - whether this is from lack of leadership/control/decision-making or a tactical move to waste time, it doesn't reflect well and not an ideal win (if it happened). Hopefully this trend desists...
Thanks as always! That is a startling statline though, McMillan hat 11 out of 14 starter buzzes and 6 out of 7 correct one, wow! Not sure I've seen such a skewed team performance before.
Thanks! Was curious to see what the bonus conversions were considering Birkbeck took so much longer to confer, and it felt like they got a lot less of them too. I see now that that’s true.
Thank you Lindokuhle, as always, for doing a magnificent job with statistics. I really enjoy doing the statistics now, so I've included mine below. Incidentally, I got exactly the same statistics for each individual team member as you: 17 rounds (16 rounds completed; the game ended before any bonus questions could be asked in the 17th round) 22 starter questions (17 answered correctly + 5 additional starter questions on the occasions when neither side answered a starter question correctly) 48 bonus questions (16 rounds x 3; no bonus questions in the 17th round) 70 questions in total (22 starter + 48 bonus) 460 points available in total (22 x10, plus 48 x 5) 57.6% of the 460 points available were scored ((165 + 100)/460) Trinity 35.9% of the total points available (165/460); Starters 10/22; Bonuses 14/27 (51.9%): Penalties x1 Birkbeck 21.7% of the total points available (100/460); Starters 7/22; Bonuses 8/21 (38.1%); Penalties x2 TRINITY, CAMBRIDGE 165 POINTS (starters 95 points + bonuses 70 points) STARTERS 95 points Kang (Capt.) 3/3 = 30 points Henderson 3/4 = 30 points Banerjee 3/5 less penalties x1 = 25 points Jaksina 1/3 = 10 points BIRKBECK 100 POINTS (starters 60 points + bonuses 40 points) STARTERS 60 points Chadha (Capt.) 1/1 = 10 points McMillan 6/11 less penalties x1 = 55 points Mariner 0/2 less penalties x1 = Minus 5 points Huntley 0/0 = 0 points Sometimes a 'wild guess' pays off (23:58).
well, that was certainly a run of hearing Birkbeck McMillan, heh. The semifinals are stacked. Kinda weird to see that the two teams which faced each other in R1 (Manchester and Trinity) will both be there in the SF.
Thanks Cosmic P! This whole arbitrary "come on" admonition has been my complaint for years! What "quiz show" doesn't operate on a timer? I hope UC finally institutes a proper (and fair!) timer for team discussions. This game was a prime example of why it's needed!
I wish they would do that too. It would be so much fairer. Now one team or the other seems to get an advantage or disadvantage depending on the level of frustration or tension that is building.
I'd like to think it's because sometimes the conferring has the possibility to lead somewhere, and that is v enjoyable to watch, while other times it's just waffling nonsense, and ideally you'd like to give the former a bit of time. But quite often they let them waffle on with nonsense for an irritatingly long time.
As always, there's someone shouting something... here, COLONY FORMING UNITS!!!, I shouted so much when they got the "units" part right!... But of course, it's only because I'm a Veterinarian =P
They'll NEVER put a timer (I guess it would "minimize" the role of the host), but for once I'd like a "Chess clock" style of timer... meaning that in the ending parts of the show, the team that stalled more, would suffer the consequences... Yes, the winning team would maybe "stall" at the end, BUT... there will be a reason (they were faster ALONG the game since the start) for they winning.
i literally associate Birkbeck with McMillan now because of all the starters he has managed to get throughout the series lol. birkbeck mcmillan!!! will miss him actually! but really enjoyed the well-roundedness of trinity more :)
@@jamesr141It was impossible for Birkbeck to catch up by that point so it didn’t matter how long Trinity took. And Birkbeck stalled for much longer at the beginning of the match, when they had the lead.
@@kittyswaning If you think recovery from a 20 point lead is "impossible", you haven't seen enough Uni Challenge. This is a play-off match to win a place in the SEMI-FINALS so the stakes are high. Stalling the lead is a time-honored tradition on UC, but it's a filthy move and Amol was right to call it out. There's a new Sheriff in town.
How could Kang not know Daegu (Day-gu, not Die-gu) from its location, his country's 4th largest city, famous for hosting international sporting events?
The only city I can readily name that is “northwest of Busan” (that isn't Seoul) is Daegu, so just by that alone I thought it was an “obvious” answer. (But, of course, the answers one gets right usually seem obvious.)
@@kittyswaning Well, the only other city I had in mind was Gwanju (not saying it’s a major city) which I would say is _west_ of Busan (rather than “northwest”). So, if the only cities I could name offhand are Busan, Seoul, Daegu and Gwanju-and it’s obviously _not_ Seoul and Busan isn’t northwest of itself-the only choice _for me_ is Daegu. (In other words, it was the obvious choice to me only because of the few cities I could name.)
Good teams and extremely likable ones too, but too much hemming and hawing over unknown bonus questions. Feels like Amol had to put in extra work today to push the game along.
Great episode! Unfortunately a bit irritating that Amol allows plenty of conferring time in the first 20 minutes, and towards the end overly rushes the teams
@@andyb3712 I appreciate that, just saying he took it too far. Hardly allowing 4 seconds to confer on the Daegu question vs 16 seconds for the Medea question by Birkbeck
MATCH STATISTICS AND COMMENTS BELOW S53/E34 Note: individual team member stats are towards the bottom. 17 rounds (16 rounds completed; the game ended before any bonus questions could be asked in the 17th round) 22 starter questions (17 answered correctly + 5 additional starter questions on the occasions when neither side answered a starter question correctly) 48 bonus questions (16 rounds x 3; no bonus questions in the 17th round) 70 questions in total (22 starter + 48 bonus) 460 points available in total (22 x10, plus 48 x 5) 57.6% of the 460 points available were scored ((165 + 100)/460) Trinity 35.9% of the total points available (165/460); Starters 10/22; Bonuses 14/27 (51.9%): Penalties x1 Birkbeck 21.7% of the total points available (100/460); Starters 7/22; Bonuses 8/21 (38.1%); Penalties x2 TRINITY, CAMBRIDGE 165 POINTS (starters 95 points + bonuses 70 points) STARTERS 95 points Kang (Capt.) 3/3 = 30 points Henderson 3/4 = 30 points Banerjee 3/5 less penalties x1 = 25 points Jaksina 1/3 = 10 points BIRKBECK 100 POINTS (starters 60 points + bonuses 40 points) STARTERS 60 points Chadha (Capt.) 1/1 = 10 points McMillan 6/11 less penalties x1 = 55 points Mariner 0/2 less penalties x1 = Minus 5 points Huntley 0/0 = 0 points Sometimes a 'wild guess' pays off (23:58).
Good game, but it felt a bit off hurrying Trinity at the end when Birkbeck were just as waffly earlier. It's like Amol only pushes urgency post 2nd pictures. A 20 or 30 second clock would work wonders.
@@PS-vm3weyes, but I think it was really much too rushed this match, especially when compared to how he allowed Birbeck soooooo much time earlier that it bordered on the ridiculous.
@@enlisty It's been established that you have less and less time to confer as the episode progresses. He would have done the same had it been vice versa.
@@prestonage yes, but it happened that in this match, he really gave Birkeck A LOT of time to confer (almost 20 seconds per question?) while seeming to be rushing Trinity after barely 8 seconds? The disparity is just too much.
I thought “too bad you don’t have a South Korean captain” was a cheap shot by Amoi, who I generally like. It appeared Amoi was trying to reprise some of Paxo’s sarcastic shtick, when that is really not Amoi’s shtick. It looked like Kang was annoyed by Amoi and, I think. rightly so.
I thought so too. It clear from Trinity’s reactions that Kang isn’t an SK expert. Plus he’s said in interview that he’s actually from Philadelphia, and then moved to SK. No one on the team really laughed at the joke except Sarah, it wasn’t funny. Not to mention he could have come to the answer if Rajan hadn’t yelled at him after a mere five seconds.
Disagree. The answer Kang gave isn't even really north-west of Busan. It shouldn't have required that detailed a knowledge of South Korean geography to get the answer, especially given it's the 4th largest city in the country (and more than double the size of the answer Kang gave)!
I had the impression that Amol Rajan was trying to reprise his gag to the Oxford team two episodes ago, serving up questions having to do with the history of astrophysics, about having an astrophysicist on the team (when Melika Gorgianeh _is_ a doctoral student in astrophysics), the difference being he said the gag _before_ she answered anything, rather than after she answered wrongly (which she actually did with one of the bonus questions). I’d be willing to give Rajan some slack for attempting a light-hearted jape but making a joke that (1) is in response to a serious answer that is not ludicrously, obviously wrong (which we can differ about here) and (2) is aimed at the contestant personally, i.e., _you_ should know that!, has its perils, e.g., it might come off as a cheap shot. Ryan Kang 25:35 doesn’t appear all that insulted, although one’s assessment doesn’t have to turn on the reaction of the recipient.
@@kittyswaning It's mainly only West of Busan. Some bits of it are a tad north-west of some of the bits of Busan, and some bits of it are a tad south-west of some bits.The northern-most boundary of the two cities is basically identical in latitude and if anything Busan's northern border is about 1km or so further north. Most of it is basically just directly west of each other (as is their two centres). Wikipedia also describes it as "west of Busan". The two cities' boundaries are also basically directly next to each other (the cities are certainly not 80km apart as the question also stated).
That was a tough but fun match. Would have been graceful for the winning team to have quickly passed on the Irish name questions though, instead of dragging it on when they clearly had no idea and already had a healthy lead.
Yes. You don't mind so much if they show some chance of answering correctly but it grates when they just sit there tooling around when it is obvious they haven't the faintest clue.
The whole series is finished before the first episode airs - except for the couple recent years where coronavirus restrictions delayed the filming of later rounds to the September/October
at 4 minutes they take 20 seconds for a single answer, meanwhile later on Trinity are rushed after taking 8 seconds. Shouldn't happen like this! :( Still great though
@@enlistyExactly. The 9 seconds Rajan cut Trinity’s Joyce answer off after is the amount of time Birkbeck were taking on average… They only had three bonuses they answered clearly under that time.
@@kittyswaningit was wrong anyway though, and it was obvious he was guessing wildly, and at that point every second was precious if the other team were going to get one more chance at a starter
This series is painfully slow! There is far too much dithering. You wouldn't think this was near the end given how the teams have to be reminded to not confer.
