Amazing Race: USA [Winners: flavanoid & eats]

[Night Strike]

The games are slowly moving along. There have been a couple eliminations, but no games have finished.

[Night Strike]

Groups 3 and 5 are finished.
Group 2 has one game remaining.
Groups 1 and 4 have all three remaining.

[isodice]

Isodice / Superkarn won Game 2140500

[isodice]

Isodice / Superkarn have ALSO won Game 2140503

[Night Strike]

There are still 4 games remaining, including all 3 from Group 1.

[Night Strike]

Virtually no change in the games.

[AtreidesHouse]

negoeien / AtreidesHouse managed a victory in game 2140507

[Night Strike]

Only 1 more game remaining from Round 4, but the eliminations have been determined.

A few great teams have been eliminated:
Deech / .kush
Zombie73 / Juls
dragon dor / pascalleke

Round 5 will start soon.

[Night Strike]

Round 5: American Civil War

The American Civil War was fought between the United States of America (the "Union") and the Southern slave states of the newly formed Confederate States of America. The Union included all of the free states and the five slaveholding border states and was led by Abraham Lincoln of the Republican Party. Republicans opposed the expansion of slavery into territories owned by the United States, and their victory in the presidential election of 1860 resulted in seven Southern states declaring their secession from the Union. The Union rejected secession, regarding it as rebellion.

Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Lincoln responded by calling for a large volunteer army, then four more Southern states declared their secession. In the war's first year, the Union assumed control of the border states and established a naval blockade as both sides massed armies and resources. Confederate resistance collapsed after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

The Conquer Club map plays as a standard map, but it offers many different bonuses. There are bonuses for holding key cities, brigades, and the entire army. Since the Union territory is larger, it provides a larger bonus than the Confederate territories for holding the whole area. The neutral states really are neutral on the map and do not provide any bonuses. Because Maryland is the capital of the Union, it can attack all of the Union ships, which provides a back door to the Confederate territories.

For the tournament, this round begins the second half of the tournament. Only 12 teams remain from the starting 24, and there are some heavyweights still in the race. Scores will become tighter, so remember that tiebreakers are determined by the total scores from all the rounds. The lowest 3 teams will be dropped at the end of this leg of the race.

[Night Strike]

Round 5 PMs have been sent. If there are any problems, please let me know. Good luck.

[Night Strike]

All the Round 5 games are underway.

[AfroDwarf]

Game 2365058, Gozar and AfroDwarf win in 6 rounds, vexx and goggles paisano come in 2nd.

[Night Strike]

1 game finished with a few eliminations in a couple other games.

[Night Strike]

Several Round 5 games have finished.
The following players are safely on to Round 6:

Bones2484 / barterer2002
Natelya / General Franco
Gozar / AfroDwarf
goggles paisano / vexx

Everybody else could still be eliminated.

[negoeien]

I find it unbelievable really that we made it this far.
I don't wan't to complain but I had a very bad teammate, I don't think I will team up at random anymore.
Anyways it has been a fun tournament but I think we are out now .

[Night Strike]

Yeah, you're probably eliminated, but strange things happen. Nice run though.

[isodice]

Isodice / Superkarn have won Game 2365054

[Night Strike]

Only 1 game remaining to finish up Round 5.

[Night Strike]

Round 5 has concluded. The standings were as follows (total points in parentheses):

Advancing to Round 6:

Gozar / AfroDwarf 13 (63)
flavanoid / eats 13 (54)
Timminz / keiths31 13 (52)
Natelya / General Franco 13 (46)
Night Strike / spidey 12 (62)
goggles paisano / vexx 12 (61)
Bones2484 / barterer2002 11 (51)
luckyderus / pault334 10 (54)
Isodice / Superkarn 7 (49)

Eliminated from the tournament:

kronic69 / hiddendragon 7 (46)
Forza AZ / lokisgal 5 (54)
negoeien / AtreidesHouse 5 (40)

Round 6 will be starting soon.

[Night Strike]

Round 6: Great Lakes

In this leg of the race, the remaining participants will travel to the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes are a chain of freshwater lakes located on the Canada-United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth. The Great Lakes contain roughly 22% of the world’s fresh surface water; this is enough water to cover the 48 contiguous U.S. states to a depth of 9.5 feet. The lakes are connected to each other by rivers--including the Niagara River (and Niagara Falls)--and canals. Dispersed throughout the Great Lakes are approximately 35,000 islands. The largest among them is Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, the largest island inside an inland body of water, which is home to the world's largest lake-within-a-lake: Lake Manitou. The effect of Great Lakes on weather in the region is called the lake effect. In winter, the moisture picked up by the prevailing winds from the west can produce very heavy snowfall.

During settlement, the Great Lakes and its rivers were the only practical means of moving people and freight. Barges were able to reach the Atlantic Ocean when the Erie Canal opened in 1825. With the opening of a canal at Chicago, direct access to the Mississippi River was possible. With these canals an all-inland water route was provided between New York City and New Orleans.

The Conquer Club map plays as a straight-forward map. There are several smaller bonuses that are relatively easy to defend. The lakes themselves are territories that are largely ignored by many players, but holding them can be a great boost to your army count. Holding 3 gives you an extra army, 4 gets you 2 armies, and all 5 awards you with a +5 bonus. They also serve as a good path to the other side of the map. The 6 highest finishers (by points) will reach the “semi-finals.”

[Night Strike]

Reminders were sent to Natelya and General Franco earlier today. All other games are active.

[Night Strike]

A couple games from Group 1 have finished.

[wrestler1ump]

I'm in.

[isodice]

Isodice / Superkarn have won game 2530816 in six rounds.

[Night Strike]

Group 1 is finished.

I'm hoping that the games are finished by Tuesday so that I can get the next round started before I leave for a couple weeks.