On the day of Europe’s first Commission President debate #EUdebate2014, four contenders for a very different title took on one another for a chance at the ultimate European accolade – EU Twitter Fight Club Champion 2014. Two contenders wrote beautiful poems, if failing to realise they weren’t actually writing in EU minority languages and the other two bashed it out over their favourite kind of Brussels protest. Only two will progress to face it off in Tuesday’s final and, as one judge points out towards the end of this post, only one deep question remains “if the monster is more erudite than you, then who is truly the monster here?”
THING YOU MAY HAVE MISSED
An excellent word cloud for key #TFC14 terms over the championship (thanks @alexekkelenkamp)
I just remembered that @Berlaymonster was the only competitor to submit an EU service tender form as a form of entry for #TFC14. Just look at the fields of specialisation. We should’ve been warned…..
****(1 ) @BrusselsGeek 58% 1 vote
(2) @Christina_D_S 42% 1 vote (1 abstain)
The people’s champion @BrusselsGeek sneaks through on the public’s vote and sets herself up with a place in the Final. Can’t help but think that @Christina_D_S will be a fearsome opponent in #TFC15.
Judge: @usherwood
A tough pairing, with both our competitors having proven themselves in some fights in earlier rounds (as well as @hughbs).
I set a couple of small challenges during the day, to see how much energy (and how many ideas) they had left from last week. The impression was that everyone else had more energy, as the suggestions for new UKIP policies and phrases in tonight’s #EUdebate2014 seemed to come more from all those who should be relaxing/preparing for next year/just stopping altogether.
@Usherwood New rights for Britatarians. All restaurants will be required to serve at least one traditional British dish.
#TFC14
@Usherwood compulsory wearing of tweed jackets on Sunday.Followed by pub lunch-only British beer
#tfc14
However, major bonus to @BrusselsGeek for composing her Gaelic limerick, while @Christina_D_S ran into the ground a bit with the non-rhyming language of Catalan.
@Usherwood Votar per Europa és amar casa nostra. No votar per Europa és ficar la pota.Per tant, si votes Europa, no fiques la pota!
#TFC14
Minus marks to both for not just checking what the EU’s minority languages are (there’s even a whole
Wikipedia page on it, if you’re being really academic), which would have shown that English was perfectly acceptable.
While @Christina_D_S was a bit tied up with work today, she really put the effort in and had a good evening. Her coverage of #EUdebate2014 was the more serious and informative of the two (I was eating my tea instead, so I’ve used both their tweets to reconstruct a picture).
At the end of the day, I think it has to go to @BrusselsGeek, if only for wanting to carry on talking about #EUdebate2014 after everyone else seems to have been glad to turn their back on it. Like @Berlaymonster with his gin, she just doesn’t seem to know when to stop, which is the mark of a winner. Also of a person with an obsessive personality, but hey, it’s what #TFC14 is all about.
Judge: @
I’m afraid I’m not going to be much help tonight… I don’t know if it’s the bus going back to BXL from Maastricht but I just can’t decide between @Chistina_D_S and @BrusselsGeek
They were both great today like really all 4 of them had a great #TFC14…
Judge:
Well today was even tougher than on Thursday, but I made up my mind and my choice for today is: winner @Chrisitina_D_S
Equally as witty, wise, intelligent as @BrusselsGeek, she won me over with her reporting of #EUdebate14, with a great sense of humour, yet with political content.
Also, I think everyone else will vote for Brussels Geek (see her number of followers) whom I also largely enjoyed reading today, especially in her response to the challenge of drafting a limerick in Gaelic (an EU official language, unlike most regional languages, which were the subject of the challenge – we will excuse her)
The EUdebate14 spiced up the whole TFC14 today, it helped Brussels Geek, busy spending money she does not have in the morning, catching up with the “fight” and she did very well.
However, @Christina_D_C showed determination, strength, commitment and did not fail us today, whatever her (personal) schedule was… my vote goes to Christina – also coz I want to see her fight Berlaymonster 🙂
#ReadyForTheLastRound
SEMI FINAL 2
(2) @MissMillicent 20% 0 votes
****(1 ) @berlaymonster 80% 3 vote
@Berlaymonster delivers his best performance yet and storms into the final with a solid win. On any other day @MissMillicent would be an excellent finalist but the Euro-Fraggle monster has made it within a bite of the trophy.
Judge: @Clemencerobin
here is my judgment. My vote goes to berlaymonster.
The weekend took its toll and it was a slow #TFC14 Monday compared with other rounds’ standards. Understandably, constestants start to bond and are less fierce to fight each other – or had other real-life EU stuff to deal with, such as many meetings for @missmillicent and serious salad weighing for @Berlaymonster.
I went to the EP canteen. Lady at the till said I had to weigh my salad. I said “NO WAY!” She said “WEIGH!”
#saladrevolution #TFC14
Lots of insiders’ jokes and info difficult to grasp outside of the bubble so few points for information sharing today in spite of @MissMillicent’s valuable efforts to tweet links on UKIP populist rhetoric and #EP2014 in the UK (including a shocking article from Boris Johnson).
Very interesting briefing about how to counter populist rhetoric from @_Counterpoint_http://counterpoint.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Populist-rhetoric-UKIP.pdf
But while @Berlaymonster was commenting the insides of first-world eurocrats’ problems, @MissMillicent’s timeline focussed a bit too much on the UK. Europe goes beyond Brussels or the UK (especially the UK, I would say…). In addition, the challenges posted by my fellow judge @tom_wein remained unanswered. So, overall, not super impressed by this round.
Hello there !
That being said, I liked that I was able to make them tweet a bit of French – and Dutch, German and what seemed to be either Danish or Swedish- and the overall interaction with them. As a judge I received my fair share of attention from @Berlaymonster and @MissMillicent today.
What ultimately made the difference in my voting is the monster’s cute, furry look when calling out for votes – simply too cute to resist even though he tries to act tough !
He also just made me laugh today with his irresistible humour nailing the EU bubble and its characters. I enjoyed the #expatgripes hashtag and @quatremer even retweeted his – proof that he accepts the crown of ultimate expatgriper.
@Berlaymonster deserves to go to the final because of his (her ?) rare skill of always making me smile while talking about what could seriously be grim European topics (and his ability to tweet fun photos faster than weighing his salad !). That kind of combination can only be found in a true EU tweeter!
What’s his next line going to be ? Already laughing at the thought of it:
And now bring on the final !!
Judge:@alexekkelenkamp
Today’s battle was not an easy one to judge, but definitely an entertaining one as Eurohipster @MissMillicent took on Euroferret @Berlaymonster. Berlaymonster topped the scoreboards from the beginning of TFC14 and continued to do so today- this creature (m/f) was obviously Born To Twitter Fight.
But @MissMillicent matched him/her blow by blow, starting with early morning gin, followed by calls to vote (Berlaymonster was slightly more convincing), and multilingual tweets. I was a little bit disappointed by @Berlaymonster’s refusal to go for a drink with the Dutchies (not as brave as @captain_europe then). Equally unimpressive were the salad jokes and a sad attempt to butter up the judges, fortunately compensated by some first rate trolling as well as a delightful wake-up call (will use as my alarm from now on- best way to run out of bed). [ed note: video
here]
Meanwhile, @MissMillicent managed to uncover some secrets from the @Berlaymonster’s past, including an interesting connection with Mayor Boris. Too little too late, however: as meetings kept her otherwise occupied, the @Berlaymonster rolled on with meme after meme, pun after pun. Including my favourite: “I’m snarkening my pencils already.” In the end, even @MissMillicent herself admitted: “@Berlaymonster deserves to go through to final”.
So here’s my verdict: despite a very strong performance thus far, we will have to say goodbye to @MissMillicent as a contestant, and welcome her in our ranks as fellow judge. I for one am looking forward to more snark and “sneering from the sidelines” from @Berlaymonster. But please, for the love of God, no more salad jokes.
Judge: @Tom_wein
I’d said from the start that I’d be judging capriciously, and on the sound principle of picking whoever did most to assuage my bitterness at an early exit. And Millicent did furnish me with a magnificent photograph of a Belgian farmer spraying a riot policeman with milk direct from the teats of his protesting cow.
Yet in a quiet-ish battle, there was only one winner: Berlaymonster’s stream of wit, unwonted aggression and EUffluent is a recipe for victory, and in this judge’s opinion he should rampage on to the final. Particular highlights for me were the Monster’s campaign poster (‘Vote Scum or the Biting Starts’) [see above] and his contribution to the Ukraine debate ‘EU/US agree to “tut louder” at Russia’.
Twitter Fight Club-EU 