Ep 320: Daniel Chua, Kane Gross (November 18, 2011)

OK, the SBS website fixed their bad links and I finally got to play through Friday's episode.  Enjoy!

Rounds: Here.


Richard opens the contestant chat by asking what kind of magicians Daniel admires; Daniel responds that he likes magicians that don't try to outsmart the audience, but focus on entertainment, on keeping them happy and mystified.  I'm not entirely sure about the distinction being drawn here between outsmarted and mystified, but certainly magic should be first and foremost about entertainment.

Daniel's challenger today is Kane Gross, a creative arts student who has recently founded a new literary and arts journal with his wife.  It's currently online only, but they hope to move to a print version early next year.


Both contestants move in lockstep for the first five rounds, but then Kane fades and Daniel takes the remaining main rounds, ending up a 59 to 34 point victor.  The numbers were a bit friendlier this time, but Daniel was able to use them more effectively.  They both could have done more with the early letters rounds, but the latter ones (and the conundrum) were trickier than average.

I was mostly on target this game; I just missed out on one eight-letter word, and decided not to risk another, but aside from that I tracked well.  I had a tough time with the conundrum, but unravelled it with three seconds left to cap off a comfortable win.

As usual, details after the jump.