I’ve left this a little late, but here’s the final group ladder:
Bronx - 5-1-1, 55.16
Vienna - 4-1-2, 54.71
Wroclaw - 4-3, 57.41
Zurich - 4-3, 51.49
Omaha - 3-4, 49.03
Beauval - 3-4, 44.44
Plzen - 2-5, 48.70
Chester - 2-5, 39.20
Congratulations again to Bronx: a truly worthy winner. As I said above, consistency counts for a lot and Bronx has it in spades. The late change in the finals format did mean that zoos that had cruised through the qualifying rounds with favourable draws faced comeuppance in the form of unfavourable ones here: the format meant that zoos would ultimately compete on 13 out of 15 categories. Bronx has a big, balanced collection and a series of world-leading exhibits that straddles various categories. There were very few landmines for Bronx to stand on, and that’s what got it the win.
I’m not going to go through all eight zoos here, but I do want to call out Vienna. One vote -
one vote - in the Bronx-Vienna match would have been enough to win the Cup (edit: correction - I neglected that Bronx slipped ahead on percentage. Nevertheless, it was close). Let’s reflect on that achievement: this is a zoo that opened in 1752, and even after 268 years it almost came within one vote of being voted the top zoo in the world! It’s a truly remarkable feat and, though I never cared about the winner and am not at all begrudging Bronx its win, I have to admit that a Vienna win would have been a feel-good result. Maybe next time.
Now, a couple of notes about what to expect of the ZooChat Cup in future. There
will be another one, and when it happens it will be bigger and, I hope, better than ever before. I have a format in mind that will open this game up to more parts of the world and provide more and better opportunities to participate, whether you’re a globetrotter who’s been everywhere, or have your own little patch of the world where you can share your expertise with the rest of us. And it will really push zoos to the limit to find a winner: never again will one big win be enough on its own to get through a group.
There’s only one catch. It won’t be for a while - almost certainly not until early next year. That’s for two reasons. One is that I have something really big that will occupy my time and attention for the rest of 2020. The other is that this game benefits from having an off-season. By the time 2021 rolls around debates that are still fresh in our minds now will be forgotten. Exhibits that aren’t open now will be fair game, and they might change everything. We’ll be back, once we’ve all had a good long rest (of sorts, in my case: watch this space).
This certainly isn’t an Oscars moment but I do want to thank
@lintworm and
@FunkyGibbon , who served as my Cup jury for any contentious decisions. Happily, we made very few of them: this was a game that had its moments but was overwhelmingly played with goodwill and respect for each other, and I’m very grateful for that. Funky was also very patient with me as we spent hours brain-storming and trouble-shooting game mechanics.
And finally, thank you to everybody who played, both by voting and engaging in debate. I just went back and counted, and our 104 matches (including four practice rounds) generated 3,237 replies! There were lots of outstanding contributions, but I hope I won’t put any noses out of joint if I note that one
@TeaLovingDave is indefatigable. I won’t go and count the votes but they will also be somewhere around 3000.
The game was never about choosing a winner - that just happened along the way. It’s really aimed at getting us talking about what makes for a good zoo. I reckon it worked.
