April 6 2020 Recap (Tony Harrison's Return)

Holy crap.

Tony, you rock! 🤩

Absolute domination. Congrats Tony.

tonyscv your second appearance far eclipses the first! YOU GO, TONY!! 🎉

Hi Everyone:

First off, thank you for all the kind words. It was a surreal day, and as you can imagine, this was quite a unique experience to be able to play a 2nd time.

The wait was a long one. Over two years passed from the time I was told I would be brought back to when I was called in to play again, which is a very long time to have to keep a secret! Eventually, the call came. I’d been practicing in earnest for over 2 years, so I was ready.

Side note - I was originally scheduled to tape on Weekend Getaways week with Vanna, but that week they decided to eliminate the Show 6 “America’s Game” taping, so they told the 3 locals who were scheduled to appear that week that we would be rescheduled to a later taping.

Taping day, I did all I could to soak in being given a 2nd opportunity to have the time of my life. The staff were upfront about the fact that I was brought back and why, and the contestants were very supportive.

The only contestant prep that was different from my first time around was that they decided to assign me to show 6 in advance (everyone else had a lottery draw for shows 1-5), and they also drew names for who would play with me in front of the entire contestant pool. Again, all in the interest of transparency and fairness.

It was a long day, but obviously well worth the wait!

In-game items of note:

Kelly and Angela who played alongside me were a pleasure to hang out with during the day. We sat together most of the day, and they were so kind and gracious through it all. Some bad luck with early round letter picks and some bad wheel luck for Angela in R1 made it tough.

TU2 - Thought it was PICNIC BENCH, and right when I rang in, the T came up, which short-circuited my brain. I had no time to switch gears.

The next rounds played out pretty much as you saw them.

TTU1. Given the category (Place), I’d plugged in CAVE fairly quickly, which led to a hilarious mis-solve by me of HAMSTER CAVE instead of CAGE which was thrown out because Pat misheard me and called me correct. Hopefully this will wind up on a blooper reel someday because there were a lot of laughs by all of us, including Pat ad-libbing other possibilities like HAMSTER CAPE “where they would wear tiny little capes", or HAMSTER CAFE, “where they would be sitting around a tiny table sipping on their little espressos”..It was a riot. This took about 7 minutes of a stopdown to replace the puzzle and start again.

Round 4’s puzzle was also a replacement. I solved FLUFFY THROW PILLOWS (AtH) on the buzzer originally. Pat thought I’d beaten the buzzer. They took around 10 minutes of stopdown time to check, but I did not beat it. They threw out the puzzle and replaced it with MECHANICAL ENGINEER.

The bonus round played out as you saw it. I assumed when L - - - - appeared that it probably ended in a Y, and it seemed pointless to call Y because it probably wasn’t going anywhere other than there. H in retrospect was a bad pick for that puzzle. H tripped me up on my first show, and I had trouble with H’s in my practice puzzles, so I called it. F I called because this season F is only 2nd to B in terms of frequency in BR’s. It was a perfect letter for a Wild Card. I should have called a B instead of an H, but I felt comfortable enough using the ULB and plugging in the vowels and consonants left. I used my time picking letters to rule out the toughies of JKQVWXZ as implausible, and U seemed safe to exclude as well. LI - - Y made no sense, that left LO - - Y, the B’s slotted right in. That was it!

The win was very emotional for me. I’d been very sick in 2016, and I told myself and my family that if I got better, I would try out for Wheel. 4 years later, all those dreams of hugging my family and friends on stage who were with me through that ordeal were finally realized. Lots of happy tears that day, and a lot of relief that this long, long journey came to the best of endings.

To all the prospective contestants reading this… practice, practice, practice. It will calm you right down on taping day because you’ll be more prepared than anyone else. The Wheel app’s puzzle maker is gold. Find someone willing to feed you practice bonus rounds similar to what they use on the show, a handful a day, and keep at it. Spin power is also hugely important. Learn the wheel layout, and pay attention to your spins during rehearsal. Keep an eye on where you start your spin, where you finish it, and where you land. It will help you stay out of trouble. There is a LOT to keep track of as a contestant, and most contestants don’t bother paying attention to the wheel and their spin power. You should. As you can see, it makes a huge difference. Keeping your turn is so critical.

All in all, an unforgettable experience.

It should be noted that, with his prior appearance's winnings taken into consideration, Tony is now the #2 all-time winningest contestant amongst BAV members. The full list can be seen here, even though I desperately need to get off my duff and add all these people to it.

Tony, congrats, my man! Talk about vindication!

anyone have the recap from his first game?

Right here: buyavowel.boards.net/thread/9531/december-2017-recap-tony-placeholder


Aren't they a little young to be mechanical engineers?

"Aren't you a little too young to know about all these old detective shows?"

"Yes. Yes we..."


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( •_•)>⌐■-■

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"...are."

YEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHH