OlympicIRL

Yeah a simple team format is always best because there is so much going on during the final that it makes for a better experience to have easy to follow formats. We may have a previous format tried and tested for a 35 nation contest. @dcro do you know if we’ve had a team event before with 35 nations?

Shawn Mendes - If I Can't Have You - Canada TISC Annual 2020 (20/37 juries) 54.05%

Yep, that is so true. A panic only matched by those juries who had the honour of delivering a one-by-one vote finale who are destroyed by nerves in case they accidentally post the whole thing

Saturday arrives, you are ready for another TISC extravaganza, the banter is plenty, the drinks are flowing, but there is a spectre of that most terrifying demon haunting us. No, no, no, silly @heywoodu, I am not talking about olives. I am not even referring to those Antarctic fiends that we love to hate. No this is a nightmare that is much more terrifying... the dreaded "nul points". Not until we receive those first comforting points can we truly breathe a sigh of relief and settle into the contest. So what happens if you find yourself in that lonely position on Saturday where you are alone at the foot of the table with a duck egg for company? Juries come and juries go but no points have fallen in your basket. Well, fear no more, I have the very post for you to banish those demons so bookmark this post and share with your friends at their time of need. Indeed, if things go badly on Saturday then yes, please please send me this link Reasons to be cheerful 1, 2, 3: No nation has ever officially finished with nul points at TISC. Every single one of the 508 songs which officially participated in the contest has scored points from a national jury. We have yet to leave anyone behind. Lebanon looks away The song which was the last to score points in the contest has NEVER finished in last place in the final rankings! Songs which were the last to score points can and have gone on to achieve great feats such as receiving 12 pointers and even finishing in the top 10 in the overall ranking. Romania's 8th place finish at TISC Open 2019 is testament to that. If that isn't enough to keep your head up then let's look specifically at this edition, TISC Open 2020 for more reasons to be hopeful. TISC is littered with superheroes, ready to save those nations who look doomed to a fate of nul points. Let's take a look at the list of "Lois and Clark"s of years gone by..... Jury # Superhero Damsel(s) in Distress TISC Open 2013 19 Poland Slovakia TISC Annual 2014 10 Montenegro BUL GUY IND MAR TISC Open 2014 21 Azerbaijan Bulgaria TISC Annual 2015 16 Netherlands Czech Republic TISC Open 2015 24 Romania Azerbaijan TISC Annual 2016 14 Spain Kazakhstan TISC Open 2016 6 Czech Republic Italy Poland TISC Annual 2017 12 Moldova India Russia TISC Open 2017 17 Slovakia Algeria TISC Annual 2018 15 Algeria Azerbaijan TISC Open 2018 13 Egypt Tunisia TISC Annual 2019 17 Argentina India TISC Open 2019 7 Malta Moldova Romania Tunisia TISC Annual 2020 11 Tunisia Kazakhstan TISC Open 2020 ? ? ? So the first 2 sessions have concluded, 14 juries have cast their votes but your song is still out in the cold on zero points? Well as we learned earlier, in as many as half of the contests to date, at least 1 song has been waiting longer than 14 juries to receive their very first points. So no reason to panic just yet. But naturally, your demons are growing by now, you are convinced you will be the exception to the rule? Well the middle order is packed full of proven superheroes to help pick you up and get you on your feet: Slovakia (Jury #14) Tunisia (Jury #16) Romania (Jury #17) Argentina (Jury #18) Netherlands (Jury #22) Not to mention the votes of (Jury #21) which is usually a bonanza for the lower-ranked songs. If after this batch of heroes have been dispatched and you are still in peril, then remember, Azerbaijan did not receive their first score until the 24th jury at TISC Open 2015 and better still they did not even finish last. And guess who we have voting in jury position #24? Yes it's New Zealand . If you are on zero points then you are surely in with a chance of arousing the attention of @Wanderer's radar. Ok, so is it time to panic after the 24th jury has passed and you are still on the brink of zero points? The next pair of superheroes will be dispatched: Egypt (Jury #26) Czech Republic (Jury #30) Ok so things are beginning to look bleak but there is still 5 juries to go! 5 more chances to catch the eye of a potential new hero. And to cap it all we have a proven superhero in Malta to round out the voting in a final attempt to save your blushes. So, we have run out of superheroes, run out of juries and if you have come this far then we have failed you and that would be a TISC first. And if that happens we will be there to give you a hug (socially distanced of course), and remind you that we are there to pick you up and carry you on to the next TISC adventure.

Well how about this, Romania voted directly before Argentina at TISC Open 2015.... and they do so again this time. Could it be a sign? Well perhaps not because amazingly, this is the 4th time that Romania will vote directly before Argentina! This also happened at the TISC Annual 2014, TISC Open 2015 and the TISC Annual 2020 earlier this year. As if that wasn't enough, Argentina voted directly before Romania at TISC Annual 2016. These 2 nations seem like magnets in terms of voting position!

Unfortunately I don't have time to write an article on this but thought I'd share a few interesting stats on voting position. Obviously it's all random and based on pure luck but it's interesting to find some random trends nonetheless: No nation has ever won a medal from voting positions 1, 5, 6, 12, 16, 17, 22, 25, 29, 31 or 32 Voting in those positions this edition: No nation has ever placed in the top 5 from positions 6 or 32 Voting in those positions this edition: No nation voting in positions 24 or 26 has finished outside of the Top 30 Voting in those positions this edition: The nation voting in position 2 has finished in the Top 5 at 5 previous contests Voting in that position this edition: Nations voting in positions 2 and 3 have returned 2 TISC winners each. Voting in those positions this edition: The nation voting in position 31 has twice finished in last place Voting in that position this edition: Other historical stats: The last time Poland voted in position #5 (TISC Annual 2016) they finished in 27th place. India has twice before voted in position #6 and in fact is the second time this year since they voted from this position at the TISC Annual 2020. At the TISC Annual 2016 they finished 34th (last place) while they fared better at this year's TISC Annual, placing 18th. Moldova voted from position #8 at last year's TISC Open 2019, placing 30th. Ireland voted from position #13 at TISC Open 2016 and went on to win the title that year. Slovakia voted in position #14 at the very first contest (TISC Open 2013) where they finished in 33rd place. Great Britain voted in position #15 at TISC Annual 2015 when they claimed silver. Argentina voted in position #18 at TISC Open 2018 where they finished in 18th place. Netherlands voted in position #22 at TISC Open 2016, placing 5th. Malta voted from position #35 already this year at TISC Annual 2020, placing 16th. If we were to make a ranking based on the most favourable voting positions using previous results, we see Egypt have been drawn in the most favourable position while France have been drawn in the least favourable position: Egypt 13.86 Denmark 15.43 China 15.50 Malta 15.70 Bulgaria 15.79 Tunisia 15.79 Greece 15.92 Kazakhstan 16.23 Mexico 16.25 Great Britain 16.93 Italy 17.29 Netherlands 17.29 New Zealand 17.29 Moldova 17.57 Spain 17.57 Germany 17.86 Romania 18.00 Portugal 18.50 Czech Republic 18.71 Argentina 18.86 Slovenia 18.86 Ireland 19.14 Indonesia 19.21 Canada 19.36 Serbia 19.79 Slovakia 20.21 Poland 20.43 Lithuania 20.50 Brazil 20.86 United States 20.93 Croatia 21.29 Hungary 22.00 India 22.21 Israel 22.86 France 24.64

They actually mentioned this on the main news on Irish TV during the sports segment which was a nice surprise. If Liam goes clear he is always in with a chance as he has good speed.

Glen Durrant definitely should have moved over to PDC sooner.

Most of those players will probably not be heard of again as they aren’t good enough to make it to the higher levels of the PDC structure. There wasn’t much money to be made in the BDO anyway in recent years. However a few players could make the transition and as is often the case when BDO players switch over to the PDC they become even better players as they must raise their level. Darts has been becoming more and more international in recent years and I expect that trend to continue in the coming years. Barry Hearn is also the chief of world snooker which has also gradually, if very slowly, been getting more international. Still a long way to go though.

One of the longest matches of the night . I'm being serious actually since we had 4 matches end 5-0

Netherlands v Brazil now in the World Cup of darts. Will the romance survive this test? @heywoodu and @brunamoura

Brilliant cartoon from a South African newspaper:

It’s the state capital so worth remembering in case you ever get asked it in a quiz

And her sister Helena too

Yes we will keep nations in the same teams as they were drawn originally.

Well let's see if those juries request a swap. @Wanderer @Ruslan @titicow your voting time has been scheduled outside of "reasonable hours" in your local time. If you wish to request a swap you can do so. However, if you are unlikely to deliver the votes yourself or if you are happy to stick to the current schedule then that's fine also. Please write on thread in the next 48 hours if you want to request a swap in order to give @heywoodu time to start preparing the scoreboard templates.

1-3% of the population who are currently infectious seems quite high actually. It's not like 1-3% who had the virus at some point, it's people who have it now and who currently can infect you. That's a lot of people

Because you’re looking for some truffles to serve at the TISC banquet?

Wait, I thought you got kicked out of The Committee?

Thanks so much to all who took part in the draw and huge thank you to @mrv86 for all his efforts and for a great live draw. I'm all caught up now. Can't wait for the final Can't wait for a final vote showdown, one-by-one reveal involving 10 nations battling for glory

Woohoo, I got allocated to voting position number 13 on a full moon on Halloween night. I'm screwed

@hckosice sorry I am not up to date on what’s going on. What is the goal of this mass testing? Is it to discover who currently has the virus only or is it an anti-body test also to see who already had it? Also what if some people pick up the virus after this test, maybe as a result of close contact with others being tested. Is this a once-off mass test?

Yes they can be included and if needs be things can be shuffled around if there is any withdrawal (hopefully we won’t need to)

I also sent my votes in last night.

It looks like for the team event we will have 7 teams of 5 nations each (as long as there are no withdrawals).