University Challenge 2020-21: First Round Review

OK, so we're all a bit distracted at the moment, and so a lot of things have kinda slipped under the radar, but we're reached the end of the UC first round! A first round we weren't sure if we were going to get it or not, but we have, and it's been a good first round, one of the best in recent years IMO! And at the end of it, we have our fourteen first round winners, listed, as usual, alongside their score and winning margin:

• Glasgow (200, 55)
• Durham (180, 55)
• Open (210, 70)
• Strathclyde (190, 35)
• Birkbeck (295, 245)
• Balliol College Oxford (150, 15)
• Corpus Christi College Oxford (175, 40)
• St Andrews (255, 145)
• King's College London (170, 70)
• Merton College Oxford (210, 170)
• St John's College Cambridge (220, 170)
• Warwick (255, 150)
• Manchester (200, 45)
• Magdalene College Cambridge (170, 40)

So, those are the raw figures; now, as usual, we need to go into greater detail.

Well, Birkbeck have comfortably the biggest score of the round, and by far the biggest winning margin as well. The second highest score is jointly held by St Andrews and Warwick, and, although their winning margins are also similar, both had very different matches, St Andrews being pretty much dominant from the off, while Warwick struggled initially before fighting back.

Anyway, those three would probably start the second round as the obvious standout favourites, although, especially in Birkbeck's case, how they would fare against a more well matched team isn't exactly clear yet. As I said, Warwick had the toughest match out of the three, so I'd probably make them the most likely to progress.

After those three, it's a pretty tight field among the rest, with scores ranging from the 220 of St John's to the 150 of Balliol. And of these eleven teams, all bar two scored their points against opponents who managed double figures themselves, including the four repechage teams who we'll get to in a moment.

As I said, a pretty closely packed and well balanced set of teams, and whoever plays who, I'd expect reasonably tight contests. Even the lower scoring teams have plenty going for them and shouldn't be written off completely.

And then we have to factor in those four teams who'll be coming in from the play-offs; they are, again, in order of score and losing margin:

• Imperial College London (155, 35)
• Edinburgh (155, 45)
• Exeter (145, 55)
• Linacre College Oxford (140, 70)

Now, if a Wikipedia update is to be believed, the draw will break with the traditions of the past several years and place Imperial vs Exeter, followed by Edinburgh vs Linacre. If you asked me to guess on those two matches, I'd go for the two 155 teams to win, and I'd say the same if they switched opponents, but we shall see.

And then, in both these play-offs and the second round matches, there's the unusual circumstances that these matches will have been filmed under...

As far as I understand, the first round matches were filmed, as usual, back in Febrary-March time, just before the ban on indoor gatherings and subsequent lockdown. The show started filming again early last month, around the same time OC and Mastermind filmed, and I'm guessing they did the remaining 21/23 episodes in one big swoop. (I say 21, because I don't know if they still record a couple of second round matches in the same block as the first round)

We'd hope that the teams would all be relatively unchanged from the first round, but there may have to be some exceptions. Back in my blog of the first ep of the series, regular contributor dxdtdemon reported that the two overseas students on the Glasgow team had returned abroad following the initial lockdown. Whether they've been able to come back or not, given the current caution over unnecessary overseas travel, isn't clear. But, if not, I imagine they and several others may have to be substituted.

 

And what about the show itself? Well, I'd imagine similar steps to those taken on other shows, namely spacing the players out a bit more if possible (they do already sit reasonably far apart compared to other shows) and putting perspex screens between them. And maybe extra microphones to allow easier conferring.

We shall have to wait and see. At least the show has been able to remount production and complete the series run, which, given that we weren't sure if it was going to be able to complete at one stage, is only a good thing. Well done to all involved in getting things going again!

However the rest of the series looks, I can only hope it maintains the same good standards of the first round; as I say, it was one of the better first rounds of recent series and I hope the disrupted film schedule won't have taken too much wind out of the sails. Best of retrospective luck to all involed, hopefully the play-offs and second round will be good matches!

Back on Monday with my usual, hopefully shorter than before, summary; until then, sayonara!