Discussion: A second chance at Mike's Corn Maze

This will be Monday September 19 (the week between the US Classic Champs and the North Americans), late afternoon and evening. Same maze, but different courses than what we had a week and a half ago.

Info is here, will be updated as needed.

And for background info, the discussion thread about the September 3 event is here. Previous year's mazes and courses, the courses used then, photos, video.

A chance for me to redeem myself after my huge mess-up...

!. Entries are due by tomorrow (Sunday) evening.

Name, club, age, gender, SI number, and e-mail address if it isn't obvious. Fee is $20 payable on arrival.

2. Some new developments in the battle for King of the Corn. Long-time King Ian, nearly deposed by the Earl of Ethan at the 2016 Champs two weeks ago, was facing new threats (in addition to Earl E) -- Young Nikolay, for sure, from the Northwest Territories, perhaps a worth challenger, perhaps not. But much more terrifying was the prospect of a meeting with the highly feared (though still a corn novice) Lord Thierry, he from far far away. This despite the fact that there was no way of knowing whether Thierry's ability in the corn would more closely resemble his dominance in the forest or his incompetence on the bowling alleys.

Corn fans were looking forward to the battle. Wagers were being made.

But Ian has done the only smart thing in such circumstances -- fled. Come Monday he will be hiding out in Washington, DC, not a single corn stalk in sight. Sad!

Meanwhile, Lord Thierry himself, perhaps also fearing a devastating loss, has fled as well. Come Monday he will be ensconced in Manhattan. Even sadder!!

So perhaps we should just forget about all the men and their obvious ego issues, and focus on the ladies. Ali and Alex, two of the original corn girls, with battle it out for top honors in what is clearly shaping up to be the most important competition of the week.

So ... it hath come to pass .. that it shall be the Earl of Ethan to defend the egos of the East? Hearty wishes Ethan; may you prevail against the would be usurper from the West.

And may Alex achieve one-wiith-the-corn-maze zen, and so likewise prevail.

Best not forget the Spanish contingent, which includes the newly crowned US M21 Classic Champ.

Also in the small but distinguished filed is the newly crowned US F21 Classic Champ, the newly elected President of OUSA, the new elected VP-Competition, a winner of the President's Award, and the winner of the Silva Award.

A few things still to do before the first start in about 20 hours -- design the night course, draw up the maps and get them copied, get all the computer stuff done including creating start lists, put out all the controls. Hmm, best get my butt in gear and get a little done this evening.

Or am I already too far behind the 8-ball and the only hope is massive thunderstorms that wipe out the maze and reduce the event to one long party? :-)

Rain should be tapering off, but it could be muddy. Not sure if it will be conducive to drone operations. But we'll see.

Start lists for this evening are here

Finding the Maze, and also Wolfie's, our dinner spot in Soth Deerfield --

Results for the classic are posted here.

Close win by Ethan. Surprise (disappointment) was poor Nikolay, wandering, wandering, wandering in the corn....

And sprint and night results posted too.

Awards, each a $20 bill, went to (best as I can remember) --

Classic: Ethan, Ali

Sprint: Greg Ahlswede, Alex, Evalin

Night: Evalin, Greg A., Keegan, Earl (for being macho), Nikolay, Phil

The maps. The Night was on two maps, both received at the start.

Classic

Sprint

Night, map A

Night, map B

Maze conditions 24 hours later, the water having substantially but not entirely retreated. Close examination of the footprints revealed that all belong to Greg Walker (aka Biggins).

In my settling up with Mike and Dave afterwards, I added a fair bit to the payment to cover repairs.

Almost back to normal --



Biggins was definitely here --



And who knows what is under the water here --

And an update on the famous Arlington corn. More tassels - lots of bugs - no taller - no corn. Not much to see, but a guest room is available for anyone who wants to come and see it in person. :)

And a few more here.

Video coming... soon...

What were the rules for the Sprint and Night-O?

I am soooo very envious!

Sprint Shuffle was 12 controls, any order (no restrictions on first or last control). Night was a straightforward course, handicapped by varying numbers of skip controls assigned to each competitor prior to the race, in a fun-filled session that was better than any major-league draft. For many, it started with the question, "How many skips do you want?".

Did half of the Night-O field start with A, and the other half with B? Was there a secret bonus skip again?

Everybody started with A, there were just two maps to improve legibility a bit. The extra skip was available for those who hadn't used it two weeks ago. Or maybe it was people who hadn't been there two weeks ago. Announced ex post facto, of course. CMO, especially CMNO, has a lot in common with Calvinball.

GuyO,
Everyone started with both maps, back to back in the map case. A was the starting map. When you finished A, you flipped to B, effectively a map exchange.

Secret bonus skip --- yes, but with a twist. The commissioner revealed after the night-O that the extra secret bonus skip applied, but it was only good once on an annual basis. So if you used it 2 weeks ago, you didn't get one this time!

I would like to congratulate the Earl of Ethan for stepping up to admirably defend the egos of the East. (King Ian apparently having checked the predicted weather and so choosing to abdicate.)

Congrats also to Alex, Evalin and Ali for prevailing. (The East clearly gets to claim Ali as a local due to her role as a founder of this wonderful silliness.)

And speaking of the founders, it was nice to see the entire "gang of 5" all present and accounted for. Shoulda got a picture.

Wrapping up a few loose ends....

1. The overall results, with Greg Ahlswede and Evalin Brautigam taking the wins.

2. Despite the wet conditions -- Mike's Maze had between 3 and 3.5 inches of rain on the day of the event, but fortunately all before we got there -- (or maybe because of the wet conditions?), the vibes seemed especially good.

3. Very much appreciated was the great clean-up job. With everyone pitching in, controls were retrieved, all the gear was packed up and stowed away, and various items of wet and muddy clothing were taken home (then to be thrown away?). All in about 20 minutes. Wonderful.

4. As for next year, info is here. Anyone interested in helping a little?

5. This was the 9th time we've been at Mike's -- 7 main events (2010-2016) and 2 second chances (this year and one of the first couple of years) -- and it seemed to me that it was a good as any of them. But that's no reason not to keep trying new things in the future.

And, yes, we do seem to have a good bit in common with Calvinball. :-)

4. Will make sure the computer is fully charged before it's given to the CMO MD next year.

Can be registrar and run said charged computer.

I think we need theme songs each year. This is for this year's second chance.

Drone video from the Classic:

https://youtu.be/4Vi_yOUZO3E
Quality is sketchy, maybe just as well, to hide the identity of at least one person spotted blatantly cutting through the corn coming out of control #18. :-)

this is great

And because Balter asked for it, here's the night-O. The camera doesn't do very well in low light, but I'm mildly surprised that it worked at all.

https://youtu.be/uFHrpP_rX9I

Page used to for the screen capture video:
http://routegadget.net/kartta/?mapurl=http%3A%2F%2...

I added my GPX to that RouteGadget just now, but it seems to just add temporarily. If I send you the GPX, can you add it in? It's here:
http://www.attackpoint.org/sessiondata.jsp?session...

None of the traks are stored there. If you look at the link, AP sessions numers are listed in that link. Just add any AP session you like and it should show up there. Map is not stored there either, it comes straight from petergagarin .org. Anyone can make rather easily links like that, not just me. Nothing gets stored on my web site. That page just shows tracks and maps stoted elsewhere in the internet.

Here is same with jjcote's track:

http://routegadget.net/kartta/?mapurl=http%3A%2F%2...