Results from the first segment of eight zoos: Prague d. Amsterdam Colchester d. Salzburg Zlin d. Rostock Bristol d. Zagreb Prague will face Colchester and Zlin goes up against Bristol in the second round, with the winners of those matches to face off in the round of 16.
There has been only marginal movement in vote totals after the first few days of each poll. Just gauging the thoughts of others - would you like me to reduce the length of polls to, say, four days? I don't think this will have any material impact on the level of engagement with each match, but it will get us to the business end of the competition somewhat faster.
Oh, and recent results: Doue-la-Fontaine d Cotswold Magdeburg d Munich Dresden d Barcelona Vienna d Tallinn Doue will take on Magdeburg and Dresden faces Vienna in the second round. I was genuinely surprised to see Munich fall at the first hurdle: the first really big casualty, I think. Note these matches won't take place until the entire first round is complete. But feel free to debate the implications of possible categories for each match in the mean time.
One half of the draw has been revealed in full! Here's where we are so far: Prague d Amsterdam Colchester d Salzburg Zlin d Rostock Bristol d Zagreb Doue-la-Fontaine d Cotswold Magdeburg d Munich Dresden d Barcelona Vienna d Tallinn Chester d Valencia Budapest d Jardin des Plantes Ostrava d Odense Cologne d Frankfurt Hamburg v Mulhouse - Hamburg decisively ahead London v Planckendael - Planckendael decisively ahead Attica v Whipsnade - too early to call Copenhagen v Zurich - too early to call The second round matches will be as follows: Prague (1) v Colchester Bristol v Zlin Doue-la-Fontaine v Magdeburg Dresden v Vienna (8) Chester (5) v Budapest Ostrava v Cologne Likely - Hamburg v Planckendael Attica/Whipsnade v Copenhagen/Zurich One of those zoos is a finalist.
The second half of the draw is a little light on, I admit. Both Berlins, Burgers and Plzen are the seeds. Not a lot of depth, unfortunately. Only the likes of Basel, Beauval, Leipzig, Nuremberg, Pairi Daiza, Rotterdam, Stuttgart, Wroclaw and Wuppertal.
So it is only 4 of the 5 largest European collections by species numbers, the 2 best zoo-aquariums, two of the fastest rising stars and dangerous underdogs like Nuremberg and Stuttgart. Easy win for Basel!
And woe betide the zoo that cops Twycross on primates. Wouldn't like to be playing Cabarceno on ungulates or large carnivores, either.
After discussion with CGSwans we've moved the individual round threads to the Competitions subforum, here: Games, Simulators, Quizzes & Competitions
This seems like a nice competition. If only there was another one dealing with North American zoos...
Nothing stopping you. The only trouble is getting a critical mass of people who have visited a critical mass of US zoos. While it’s not necessary to have actually visited the zoos in order to vote, the game would struggle if there were many in the field where very few have visited.
I don't understand how the seeding system works... Also, has anyone else been thinking of scenarios in their heads? Berlin Zoo vs Twycross for Primates Berlin Tierpark vs Chester for Large Carnivores Duisburg vs Bristol for Small Mammals They are some that I have been thinking of.
Towards the end of my European travel thread a number of well-travelled European zoo-goers listed their personal top tens. The eight seeds were the top eight ranked zoos based on aggregates of those lists.
Seeding means they were guaranteed not to play each other until the quarter finals, and then in a defined order (1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6 and 4 v 5). It's the same way seeding works in tennis tournaments. If I do a second one of these (something I'm warming to, but let's see in due course), I think I'd expand the seeding list out to 16 but randomise their order (ie, not ranked seeds, just a pool of seeds).
I truly don’t know - but it would be a very exciting match, I would greatly enjoy hearing the cases for both sides, and it would really be one to mull over thoroughly.
