Great battles can turn on the smallest of things. Yesterday was a story of Haikus, EU views and lost luggage. And at least two fights seem to have been influenced by @ktowens luggage challenges in Poland.
For the first time we had three judges on each battle (thanks to the volunteers). The judgements were nasty, brutish and short. The wild card judges proved to be… wild and the faithful judges once again demonstrated the erratic decision-making of a late night council meeting.
Only four twitter fighters will go through to Monday’s semi final, the other four will have to sit on the side and become judges in the final….. Themz the rules. 😉 Have a restful weekend twitter fighters – you, I and they need it!
THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
@jon_worth was rightly upset that the judges had missed his (admittedly excellent) photoshopping of Juncker as #Spliffingkandidaten in his L16 round defeat. So i’ve introduced a new section at the beginning called ‘things you might have missed’. I’ve picked a few of my favourite things from the day not referred to by the judges:
@BrusselsGeek responds to (fallen competitor) @quarsan’s baiting in an astonishing fashion:
For those who worried that the twitter spat between @hughbs, @BrusselsGeek and @quarsan was a little too real. Here’s a pic of them in the pub after fighting hours.
True dedication from judge @mikakosinska throughout the day
Monika Kosinska @mikakosinska@ShearmanM that’s because I’m stuck at home with a suckling babe attached. Quality of my tweets depends on which side he suckling @hughbs
This from a panicky @Berlaymonster…
Day 3 in the #TFC14 Big Brussels household. The lack of anything whatsoever to work with is taking its toll. DO SOMETHING EUROPE.
And @Kosmopolit sums up ‘the historical dimension’ of #tfc14:
THE RESULTS
MONNET L8 round
(2) @hughbs 16% 2 votes
****(1 ) @BrusselsGeek 84% 1 vote
@BrusselsGeek delivers a knockout punch with video footage promoting #TFC14 and herself into the Semis. @hughbs takes a well-deserved consolation of 2 judges’ votes.
Judge: @ganemmaha
My vote is going to @BrusselsGeek of course what tipped the scale is the video! [ed note: can’t embed – click below!]
@BrusselsGeek – takes #TFC14 campaigning to a new level
One might argue that it is easy for a journalist that has a whole segment on Tweets to talk about #TFC14 but what I really liked is that she featured one of @hughbs and also talked about the UKIP campaign which was the main theme of the first round of #TFC14. It was “three” classy, sneaky and funny! All I can say is great job there she really deserves the vote!
Judge:@PH_AdvocateEU
Winner: @hughbs but it was a very difficult vote as I equally appreciated both contenders tweets, humour, reactiveness and real commitment to TFC14 – but had to make a choice, and, maybe that is French humour, but this one won me over – I found Hugh particularly witty …
Judge: @OlgaDziewulska
Certainly not as thrilling as Usherwood and Berlaymonster! My vote goes to @hughbs. Victory with @jonworth did not provide him with a reason to rest on his laurels. Although some of his tweets today probably crossed the line of good taste his creativity needs to be rewarded.
When everyone else was busy copying Herman Von Rompuy with more or less (mainly the latter) attempts at poetry he devised atweasure hunt:
OK kiddies, enjoyed your Easter egg hunts? Now time for #TFC14 tweasure hunt. Next up, first in series of 4 tweets. Can you find 3 others?
Although nobody seemed to understand what the concept was about he got @Mikakosinska and @brunobrussels involved. His use of other people’s tweets and witty comments meant little effort with good results. The question is – will he bow to the popular trend of limerick writing in the next round?
SCHUMAN L8
(2) @kosmopolit 51% 0 votes
****(1 ) @Christina_D_S 49% 3 votes
Another great twitterfighter has fallen. A tired @kosmopolit sneaks the popular vote but succumbs to the humour, employment-related tweets, and determination to secure wifi of @Christina_D_S.
Judge: @ganemmaha
#TFC14 Begged and pleaded for wifi here- nothing much coming out from @kosmopolit so no need to sweat.Greetings from me and Yves Leterme!
Pressure is building only two rounds to go!!!!!
Judge: @PH_AdvocateEU
@Christina_D_S is winning the second battle to my humble opinion, if not by the quantify of tweets she shared today compared to her opponent, by their quality and her full dedication to the cause, whilst travelling, speaking publically and showing concerns for other contenders (Katie Owens, lost luggage)
@ktowens on a panel so can’t go into detail but look here http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-rights/air/index_en.htm … OR just swear in PL 😉 #tfc14 pic.twitter.com/fuuRoDTjuY
I particularly liked the following tweet, not only because it’s funny but because I love the Beatles – and putting John Lennon’s words in Tusk and EU HvR’s mouths was enjoyably surreal – in a quite Belgian way..
Judge: @OlgaDziewulska
It must be a daunting prospect to fight against a Twitter heavyweight of @kosmopolit’s proportions, but for Christina it was easier than expected. She gets my vote as kosmpolit joined the fight late today and although his attempts at gaining votes were good.
@Christina_D_S well, there is more to life than wifi & #tfc14 😉 Real twitter greatness comes from perseverance & seeing the bigger picture
ADENAUER L8
(2) @ktowens 46% 1 votes
***(1 ) @MissMillicent 54% 1 votes (1 abstain)
@ktowens lost her luggage today and then the fight. With the judges split @MissMillicent sneaks through on the public vote after some neat online wordsearch.
Judge: @mikakosinska
Today was hard. Very hard. Not only were the competitors back with a vengence but this judge was not only pulled into the gladiator ring and sent on a wild goose hunt across Twitter by @hughbs who she was not even judging, but also having to deal with the fall out of the unpopular (and in hindsight unwise given the afore-mentioned wild goose hunt) award of victory to @hughbs over @jonworth in the previous round.
Nevertheless @ktowens hit the ground running with an early limerick and a wordsearch
(completed by @missmillicent with revealing results!)
and despite losing points on tweeting food (a pet peeve as already declared in yesterday’s judging) and having the misfortune to stumble onto two of this judge’s specialised subjects (Poland and Structural Funds), she did an outstanding job of maintaining a strong and engaging #TFC14 whilst having an extremely challenging day.
@MissMillicent had a slower start but quickly caught up and engaged with some heavy hitting and tit for tat responses. A virtual dance around the #TFC14 arena, with a slight edge to @ktowens in the tweeting stakes but given that @MissMillicent gained not only a BBC reporter but also a Commissioner as followers from her tweeting today this judge has no option but to award this a tie.
Judge: @colingoeu
What a match-up here in the quarterfinals. Two of the most accomplished bribers took to the keyboard to claim their place in the semi-final. That being said, @ktowens was already four up in the offers before @MissMillicent rushed in with a late wee dram. But we’ll have no more talk of this untoward bribery based scoring system, what about the content. In a sea of effluent, I mean excellence it’s sometimes hard to keep your head above the water and be brave enough to open your eyes.
However, one of the early highlights that tipped the balance and made me proud to be floating in the bubble was the genius use of the back end of a stinky STIB bus to nobly pitch the cause. From the other corner, we all know that animals in peril do attract a good sympathy vote, but a seal retweet just doesn’t have the resonance of a lost suitcase.
In the dying seconds a late burst of prose did have the potential to be a game changer, but coming to a haiku match and getting a limerick is like going to a sushi restaurant and being hit with a wet kipper.
When push came to shove, at the end of the day, in a game of two halves, it was the sheer volume and variety that took my vote today:
Winner: @ktowens
Judge: @alex__marx
Like it, yes, I do
SPINELLI L8
(2) @usherwood 47% 1 vote
(1) @berlaymonster 53% 1 vote (1 abstain)
@usherwood’s dream comes to an end and his chapter writing may come to a beginning. With only 6% public vote in it @berlaymonster can’t be complacent if he is to take home the #TFC14 gravy…
Judge: @mikakosinska
Our own @Usherwood is competing in the 1st EU TwitterFightClub #TFC14 Vote to keep him in at: https://eutwitterfightclub.wordpress.com/
Simon Usherwood @UsherwoodExplaining Low Turnout in EP Elections: The Role of Issue Salience and Institutional Perceptions tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108… topical for #EP2014
Judge: @colingoeu
This was always going to be a brutal joust of master wordsmiths, a battle of the giants a fight to the bitter end, or the end of the bitter, whichever came first.
The tale of the twop is impressive and surprisingly similar, tough the ferret’s appeal to the common man can be seen in his followerbase:
The quality of the content today was impressive, I fear for the twitterer who has face the victor in the semi’s. We were bombarded from all sides with tweets that would require a thesasurus worth of words actually meaning something very witty to do them justice.
Even though I recognise that the ferret does take full advantage of not being liable for his actions under the Belgian “Wetgeving dierenwelzijn” and would probably cry “rabies” if anyone got too close, the pure ferocity of today’s assault was monumental. You may have imagined that someone coming from the gentile world of British academia was always going to be on the back foot. However the rain of words from Surrey was more than a light drizzle and @usherwood gave as good as he got.
and with charm offensives to the public playing their part,
As the day drew to a close, it looked like the potty, er, poetry training would come to the fore, but neither of them were any good at that, so the result is based on the other stuff.
For sheer audacity, mix of media and witty quips:
Winner: @berlaymonster.
Judge: @alex__marx
Critical self-reflection of my performance on day 3 #TFC14: strong start, excellent middle, finish marred only by paucity of poetic ability
It’s brilliant.
But then I came up with @berlaymonster ‘s:
– So pure.
I give an extra point to each of them. Let the best win. (ed note – taken to mean ‘I abstain)
The semis will be on Monday. Enjoy the rest twitter fighters, there’s only a little more to come….
Twitter Fight Club-EU 