Final Hacker Jeopardy results for 2008

[G Mark]

Hacker Jeopardy 2008

Host: Winn Schwartau
Judge/scorekeeper: G. Mark
Vanna Vinyl: Banasidhe
Beer Betty: Li'l Jinny

Winner of the Fourteenth Hacker Jeopardy was NYMPHS (New York Metro Phreakers and Hackers Society), consisting of Bobcat, Foofus, and Billy Goto. Overall results for 2008:

Friday, Aug 8, 2008
Round 1:
Less Than Sober Ninjas (Chris, Scott, Oswald) - negative 200 points [so much for truly random contestant selection improving the intellectual gene pool]
Whopis (Dan, Eddie, Mac) - 299 points [for 2,700 points, how the hell do you pronounce "Whopis"?]
WINNER: RRRRs (Viki, Alice, Mallory) - 2,999 points

Friday, Aug 8, 2008
Round 2:
WINNER: Team Jaeger Muesli (Hypatia, Shardy, Dan Kaminsky) - 2,700 points [WINNER] [finally, a team willing to use their handles at DEFCON. Look on YouTube for Meee's hilarious video of Dan desperately trying to bribe a janitor to use a closed men's room after the round was over]
*Vegas 2.0 (HackAJar, Packet Baron, Jake) - 0 points [well, at least they're consistent; that was their score two years ago]
Flying Packets (?, ?, ?)- 0 points [Team did not identify themselves, and as Winn referred to them as the "Flying Faggots," this is consistent with DEFCON's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy]

Saturday, Aug 9, 2008
Round 3:
**Prevalidate the Goat (Evil MoFo, yotta, iphelix) - negative 1,500 points [I think this is a new all-time low score.]
Satyrs (ravyn, ?, ?) - 5,200 points [Actually, these guys were pretty good, but didn't follow directions on the DEFCON forum posts and figured if they wrote their name on a piece of paper somewhere I'd magically know who they were. Well, they sent me an e-mail at the last minute, got picked, and had one of the highest second place point totals in Hacker Jeopardy. RTFM and come back next year.]
WINNER: NYMPHS (Billy GOTO, Foofus, BobCat) - 5,201 points [Another strategic win as these three-time champions paced themselves with only eight beers since they would play the final round immediately afterward.]

Final round: Aug 9, 2008
Team Jaeger Muesli (Hypatia, Shardy, Dan Kaminsky) - Tied NYMPHs at end of regulation with 2,900 points, but only drank 12 beers to finish with 4,100 points. Bet nothing, got the answer wrong, so finished with 4,100 points.
WINNER: NYMPHS (Billy GOTO, Foofus, BobCat) - Tied at 2,900 but pounded down 18 beers to finish with 4,700 points. Bet and lost 500 on final, so finished with 4,200 to bag their fourth win in ten years.
RRRRs (Viki, Alice, Mallory) - The only team with enough cajones to bet all their points (and sell articles of dainty undergarments to boost their score), they missed the final answer, and so finished with zero points.
Kumquat (defending champions from 2007) - Turned in a disappointing performance, finishing in the hole, but drank themselves to pluss 800 points and then bet none of it.

Winner of Black HAXOR badge: NYMPHS

Special awards:

* Humperdink Award (most beers consumed in one round): Vegas 2.0 (21)

** 2-year Old Award (For pulling a "Mommy said, Daddy said" to trick Winn into permitting a designated drinker (Salem) after I told them "no."): Prevalidate the Goat

POLICY STATEMET for the record: NO MORE DESIGNATED DRINKERS. BUY YOUR OWN DAMN BOOZE.

Special mention to Geoffrey (Monkey) Bennett, who played a number of years on Deus Sex Machina and brought everyone a lot of laughs. He collapsed and died April 6 while jogging. Farewell, my friend. You knew the final, final answer to get you in the pearly gates was "grace."

Final Hacker Jeopardy Question:

Category: Feds

A: This retired Navy admiral and former director of the NSA now serves as the Director of National Intelligence for the Bush Administration.

Q: Who is J. Michael McConnell?

Scores and results certified by G. Mark (judge and scorekeeper)

[hackajar]

For the record, Vegas 2.0 entered the contest though randomization this year, and still did not make it to the final round (after 4 years of entering contest; once as dc702). And yes, that was a Ham radio in my ear, that no one noticed until the last two questions. Further, as you noticed above, it did not help much either :(

[EvilMoFo]

**Prevalidate the Goat (Evil MoFo, yotta, iphelix) - negative 1,500 points [I think this is a new all-time low score.]

** 2-year Old Award (For pulling a "Mommy said, Daddy said" to trick Winn into permitting a designated drinker (Salem) after I told them "no."): Prevalidate the Goat
iphelix was too busy playing (and winning) octf to come play, so my designated drinker (salem) played in his place
yotta lost his watch apparently and didnt make the game on time, so a friend of mine (shazbot) played in his place

[ßobÇat]

Actually, it was the 3rd win in 4 years for NYMPHS. We did not defend at dc15.

SETEC won twice, so I have 5 jackets and 3 black badges in total over 7 cons.

NYMPHS drank 26 beers Saturday, 8 to qualify right before the final, and 18 to win. No one [I think] has done this before, so I propose giving out a NYMPHS award to whatever team manages to outdo us. If that is even possible.

[ravyn]

Hacker Jeopardy 2008

Saturday, Aug 9, 2008
Round 3:
**Prevalidate the Goat (Evil MoFo, yotta, iphelix) - negative 1,500 points [I think this is a new all-time low score.]
Satyrs (ravyn, ?, ?) - 5,200 points [Actually, these guys were pretty good, but didn't follow directions on the DEFCON forum posts and figured if they wrote their name on a piece of paper somewhere I'd magically know who they were. Well, they sent me an e-mail at the last minute, got picked, and had one of the highest second place point totals in Hacker Jeopardy. RTFM and come back next year.]


FWIW, According to the quote below, taken from the original post about HJ entries in this very forum, we did follow directions - we were a last minute entry (mainly because I didn't know if one of my team members was going to chicken out and leave us short-handed), so that's why we signed up at the info booth.

* Any questions, concerns or last minute entries may be sent to hackerjeopardy [at] gmail dot com or during the con in the Info Booth area.

Anyway, thanks for the mention. We won't make the same mistake next year, and I'll make sure that ? #1 (who apparently prefers to remain just "?") doesn't spend all day drinking so that he can pound more beer when it really counts.

--ravyn