Based on their own data, the US Census is hosting a 64-city tournament: https://www.census.gov/dataviz/visualizations/057/
For each head-to-head "game" (such as Albany* vs. Buffalo) click on the metro area you think has the greater population. Each correct guess is one point; max is 63.
(I got 52; protip don't pick against Riverside early)
* famous for their steamed hams
47...not terrible for a wee old youngster.
For state pops, I got a 55. Let's just say that I don't understand how Montana is smaller than Idaho.
Quote from: kurumi on March 31, 2019, 08:12:31 PM
(I got 52; protip don't pick against Riverside early)
It's randomized.
54 (on Metro Pop). Though I had a final four of NYC, LA, Philly, and Dallas.
---
57 (on state pop)
56 for Metro Pop. 57 for State Pop.
Got a 55...why did Baltimore keep busting my bracket? :-D
60 on the state pops, Florida had an easy run, Ohio was upset, Alabama didn't have a chance; West Virginia and Nebraska were the Cinderellas.
54. If you don't know that the 4 largest metro populations are NYC, LA, Chicago, and Houston, and you don't know the answer, then err on the side of "which area has the most sprawl."
It would have helped if they'd specified with "Columbus" they were talking about; I assumed they meant Columbus, OH.
Got 53 on metro areas, and 60 on states (which gives you 8 automatically).
Given it's April, and pre-draw 64-team knockout tournaments are not unique to College Basketball (eg major tennis tournaments), 'March Madness' seems odd to use as the generic term for these things.
I had 53 on metros, and 58 on states.
Quote from: Verlanka on April 01, 2019, 09:39:40 AM
I had 53 on metros, and 58 on states.
Hey, that's exactly what I had as well.
For me, states was a lot easier than metros - I figured I could get 100%, but then Kansas/Connecticut threw me, and so did Louisiana/Oregon. I clicked through the states breezily, but the metros had me wringing my hands in frustration a few times.
Quote from: abefroman329 on April 01, 2019, 09:10:41 AM
54. If you don't know that the 4 largest metro populations are NYC, LA, Chicago, and Houston, and you don't know the answer, then err on the side of "which area has the most sprawl."
Yeah, definitely. Mentally add a few hundred k for anything in California and Texas, subtract a few hundred k for anything on the East Coast.
QuoteIt would have helped if they'd specified with "Columbus" they were talking about; I assumed they meant Columbus, OH.
What reason do you have to think they
weren't talking about Columbus, OH?
Quote from: webny99 on April 01, 2019, 10:48:31 AMWhat reason do you have to think they weren't talking about Columbus, OH?
Because it was initially seeded with "Greenville," which I assumed was "Greenville, SC," and then I assumed "Columbus, GA," since that's the nearest Columbus I'm aware of to Greeneville, SC.
Quote from: abefroman329 on April 01, 2019, 10:55:05 AM
Quote from: webny99 on April 01, 2019, 10:48:31 AMWhat reason do you have to think they weren't talking about Columbus, OH?
Because it was initially seeded with "Greenville," which I assumed was "Greenville, SC," and then I assumed "Columbus, GA," since that's the nearest Columbus I'm aware of to Greeneville, SC.
Right... and Columbus, GA would have been a wrong assumption because they
were talking about Columbus, OH.
I got 53...should have gotten 56 since I don't know how to disambiguate metro areas that are conjoined? How can I be expected to know where the Riverside area ends and the Los Angeles area begins? Same with San Francisco and San Jose. And if San Jose and San Francisco are separate areas, why not separate Oakland, too?
I scored a 50 on metros and 59 on states. Not bad, IMO. Riverside threw me off big time on the metros; who knew it was so damn big.
Quote from: paulthemapguy on April 01, 2019, 11:31:42 AM
I got 53...should have gotten 56 since I don't know how to disambiguate metro areas that are conjoined? How can I be expected to know where the Riverside area ends and the Los Angeles area begins? Same with San Francisco and San Jose. And if San Jose and San Francisco are separate areas, why not separate Oakland, too?
You have to memorize those county lines! :sombrero:
I got 58 on both on my first try, definitely happy with that.
51 on metro areas, 58 on states. Biggest takeaway is that I apparently have no idea how big Baltimore is. On the states, I only missed one after the first round (Missouri vs. Arizona).
Quote from: abefroman329 on April 01, 2019, 10:55:05 AM
Quote from: webny99 on April 01, 2019, 10:48:31 AMWhat reason do you have to think they weren't talking about Columbus, OH?
Because it was initially seeded with "Greenville," which I assumed was "Greenville, SC," and then I assumed "Columbus, GA," since that's the nearest Columbus I'm aware of to Greeneville, SC.
You're permanently uninvited to any and all Ohio Roadmeets. :whip: :ninja:
Quote from: Hot Rod Hootenanny on April 01, 2019, 09:15:07 PM
Quote from: abefroman329 on April 01, 2019, 10:55:05 AM
Quote from: webny99 on April 01, 2019, 10:48:31 AMWhat reason do you have to think they weren't talking about Columbus, OH?
Because it was initially seeded with "Greenville," which I assumed was "Greenville, SC," and then I assumed "Columbus, GA," since that's the nearest Columbus I'm aware of to Greeneville, SC.
You're permanently uninvited to any and all Ohio Roadmeets. :whip: :ninja:
:-D :-D
I know one of the guys who was part of the group that developed this, and I got to try a beta version. I got 58, though it really should have been 59 as I knew Washington is bigger than Boston and misclicked. I missed Portland>Jacksonville, Las Vegas>San Jose, Baltimore>Pittsburgh, and Orlando>Columbus
I am getting mixed up due to metro area versus the cities themselves. Philadelphia is the sixth largest city in the U.S., but Washington has a larger metro area, it seems, despite being a significantly smaller city.
Quote from: Rothman on April 02, 2019, 01:57:30 PM
I am getting mixed up due to metro area versus the cities themselves. Philadelphia is the sixth largest city in the U.S., but Washington has a larger metro area, it seems, despite being a significantly smaller city.
61 out of 63 on states; low 50s so far on metro areas.
I got 54/63 on metro areas and 59/63 on states.
It certainly illustrates how metro areas aren't always obvious. I was wondering how Bridgeport (which isn't even a control city) beat not only Albany but other places, only to find out at the end when mousing over it that "Bridgeport" actually meant "all of southwestern Connecticut" (a lot of which I would have thought would have been lumped in with New York). Similarly, "Riverside" had me wondering. I would have thought what they meant would be counted as a suburb of LA; when I think "Riverside", I think of Riverside, IA, because that will be the future hometown of Captain Kirk.
50
Quote from: abefroman329 on April 01, 2019, 09:10:41 AM
54. If you don't know that the 4 largest metro populations are NYC, LA, Chicago, and Houston, and you don't know the answer, then err on the side of "which area has the most sprawl."
That's what I thought, but their data has Dallas over Houston.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi65.tinypic.com%2Fnvcpco.png&hash=bcccd5b9e196a6b3070eb219c55b32eed5fa8b02)
DFW's metro area is larger. Houston is the 4th largest city proper.
When in doubt, click Phoenix, Riverside, Orlando or Tampa. They are the most probable cinderellas in that order. I would have never guessed the Phoenix metro area is that large, considering it is an oven in the Summer.
Quote from: CNGL-Leudimin on April 03, 2019, 08:06:52 AM
When in doubt, click Phoenix, Riverside, Orlando or Tampa. They are the most probable cinderellas in that order. I would have never guessed the Phoenix metro area is that large, considering it is an oven in the Summer.
Maricopa County paid the Census Bureau to conduct an interim Census in 2005 because they were growing so fast and didn't want to wait until 2010 for new data.
Quote from: CNGL-Leudimin on April 03, 2019, 08:06:52 AM
When in doubt, click Phoenix, Riverside, Orlando or Tampa. They are the most probable cinderellas in that order. I would have never guessed the Phoenix metro area is that large, considering it is an oven in the Summer.
Phoenix proper is really large. It's not just because of the metro area/city proper difference.
Quote from: 1 on April 03, 2019, 07:24:05 AM
DFW's metro area is larger. Houston is the 4th largest city proper.
That one also tripped me up when they matched up (I-45 Series?).
54 in the city one, 57 in the state one. That Riverside one shocked me, too.
I feel the state one is easy if you follow presidential elections just by remembering how many electoral votes each state has. Of course, the American Samoa vs. Northern Marianas Islands matchup was a complete guess for me.
Quote from: formulanone on April 03, 2019, 10:17:30 AM
Quote from: 1 on April 03, 2019, 07:24:05 AM
DFW's metro area is larger. Houston is the 4th largest city proper.
That one also tripped me up when they matched up (I-45 Series?).
Yeah, me too, and the frustrating thing is I
knew Dallas has the more populous metro area. But I stupidly clicked Houston anyways.
New York always win. Most of the times the final will be NYC vs Los Angeles, so I like when both NYC and L.A. end up on the same side of the bracket as that means NYC will have a different rival in the final. I've just done a perfect bracket where the top 5 metro areas (NYC, L.A., Chicago, Dallas and Houston) ended up on the same side, thus matching NYC against Washington DC (the 6th largest metro area) in the final.
It would be fun to take this kind of bracket format and apply it to other measurements, like metro area GDP, median household income, population growth, miles of freeways/rail transit, and density. It would be much harder to guess.
Quote from: Bruce on April 03, 2019, 06:20:22 PM
It would be fun to take this kind of bracket format and apply it to other measurements, like metro area GDP, median household income, population growth, miles of freeways/rail transit, and density. It would be much harder to guess.
That'd be too much March Madness for some people.
Okay, I'm going to solve this. As I've said New York City always wins the Championship, and thus will be always a finalist. Avoid Knoxville like the plague, as that is the 64th metro area and thus loses to everyone else.
The least populated metro areas that can reach any given round are...
Round of 32: Albany (it has to be paired with Knoxville for this to happen)
Round of 16: Greenville
Quarterfinals: Bridgeport
Semifinals: Birmingham
Final: Cleveland (for a Cleveland vs New York final to happen, the top half of the field must be all on one side of the bracket and the bottom half on the other)
OTOH, Los Angeles can be out already in the First Round, if it gets paired with New York (I have had this happen a few times already). The first metro area to be out of the field is that of McAllen.
55 on metros
61 on states
Quote from: CNGL-Leudimin on April 03, 2019, 04:14:22 PMI've just done a perfect bracket where the top 5 metro areas (NYC, L.A., Chicago, Dallas and Houston) ended up on the same side, thus matching NYC against Washington DC (the 6th largest metro area) in the final.
Now Washington was in the same side as the other five, so the final featured NYC against Miami (the 7th largest metro area). Miami is also the largest metro area that can win the Wooden Spoon (i.e. lose against a rival which in turn loses in the next round and so on until the final).