HOUSTON — Trust issues may be dividing a small group of members of the Toronto Raptors organization. Accusations were flying. A neutral court may be needed.
“I knew I was going to be the first one she screwed over,” Raptors center Jakob Poeltl said late last week.
“All my trust was gone,” he added. “I went on record in the media saying the game was rigged.”
“Who, I think, is the loser on this team,” Raptors physical therapist Amanda Joaquim said.
“The ego is out of control. People who complain – holy. Rules are rules. What do I do? I just have to enforce the rules. There is no room for these rules. But now people want to change the rules. They want to add rules. I Tell them that if they want to do this, they have to run their own Puzzlepalooza.”
Puzzlepalooza has become the subject of controversy among the Raptors or at least seven staff members and one player, the 7-foot Austrian Poeltl, who went public with his match-fixing accusations.
Joakim is the Raptors commissioner for the New York Times Puzzle Tournament, which ends later this week. So far, the group has competed in three separate mini-tournaments – one in Wordle, one in Connections, and another in Mini Crossword. (All three games are owned by The New York Times, which also owns Competitor.)
The competition adopts a single-elimination elimination system and the competition is determined by random drawing. The winning and losing groups will then determine the rankings. The winner of each race is awarded eight points, the last place is awarded one point, and there are rewards for intermediate results. Each game takes three days, with a few days of “load management” in between. (When Joaquim was told the league now frowned upon the term, she called it a “spiritual day off.”)
Tyrannosaurus Puzzle Championship Decider
| game | tiebreaker |
|---|---|
|
Waddell |
The most correct square among early guesses |
|
connect |
Complete in the most difficult order |
|
mini crossword puzzle |
time |
|
The ultimate decider |
Rock, paper, scissors – obviously |
There’s also some, uh, personal touches to the scoring system.
“The random bonuses are mostly based on how I feel,” Joaquim said. “Some people have (actual merit).”
One of the current prizes is who can beat team communications director Jennifer Quinn’s crossword score.
“Even if they didn’t compete with her – bonus points,” Joaquim said. “She’s the crossword puzzle queen.”
Yes, maybe some codification of the rules is in order.
The idea took shape at the beginning of the season when, in Joaquim’s words, “a bunch of nerds” started sharing their scores from various games in a WhatsApp group. Poeltl and Quinn were joined by competitors from across the Raptors organization: Social Impact Manager Katherine Allen, Wayne and Theresa Embry Fellow Gregory Ho, Nutritionist Jennifer Sygo, Massage Therapist Melissa Doldron, Technical Director Brandon Moita and Player Services and Advancement Specialist Rae -Mary Rostant. Garrett Temple has entered the chat room to share his scores, but joined too late to participate in the tournament.
Sygo won the Wordle and Connections tournament, and Quinn won the mini crossword contest. They tied for first place and entered what Joaquim calls “the championship.”
“The rules have not been published yet,” Joaquim said last week.
It’s hard to understand why there is a trust issue here.
Joaquim ultimately decided to hold a final eight-man tournament as the overall championship, a single-elimination tournament with competitors competing in all three matches on the same day. The tournament is decided based on seeding from the first three rounds, with an awards banquet taking place next week. Poeltl once again tied with Quinn in the first round. Quinn won the mini-crossword puzzle, but Poeltl won the wordle, “killing off” faster than his rival. In a particularly difficult match on “The Wired”, neither man answered a single line correctly, leading to a rock, paper, scissors decider. The match was broadcast live to the group, with Poeltl winning and advancing to the semi-finals of the championship.
Perhaps surprisingly, reports describe Poeltl as “a generous winner.” Poeltl’s performance in the game was beyond reproach. One source said Poeltl manipulated his time in a mini-crossword tournament – possibly for his own entertainment – before confessing.
“As far as trash talking, I think there are a few dark horses. I think I’m in the same league as those guys who talk trash,” Poeltl said. “I know Amanda is also at the top of the list of trash talkers.”
Poeltl has been interested in puzzles throughout his life. (Coincidentally, the NBA player guessing game Wordle launched after it went viral in late 2021 is named “Poeltl,” for rhyming reasons. Poeltl said he is officially involved with the game and will announce further development.)
Like many people around the world, Poeltl started playing Wordle shortly after its release and began playing a few games that imitated it, including Pokedle, which was based on Pokémon characters. Game fatigue set in, but he was back in action as scores were discussed in the training room. He said he often plays six or seven games, although he is at a disadvantage in that regard – German is his native language.
“It’s just a different type of problem solving,” Poeltl said. “You also need a specific type of knowledge to be good at these. But at the end of the day, what I really enjoy and what I think I’m good at is trying to find the best solution to whatever problem is in front of me. I may not know all the words because (English is what I ‘s) second language. With Connections, sometimes if there’s a word in there that I don’t know, then I’m screwed. At least I can try my best to understand it, like trying to use an elimination process. I think that kind of stuff really helps me too , just working with the brain.”
Poeltl says Connections is currently his favorite game because it encourages the most creative thinking and reasoning.
“Not only did Jak get involved, he was able to reverse engineer everyone’s guesses about Wordle,” Joaquim said. “He spent a lot of time. He was able to guess all four of our guesses. He was able to figure it out. He’s a master planner, and by spending a lot of time solving these puzzles, he was able to complete two perfect Connections games in a row. game.”
Heading into the new season, head coach Darko Radjakovic said Poeltl is well-suited to attacking from the elbow, picking out cutters and shooters based on the reaction of the defense. The Raptors’ roster has changed dramatically since then, and his assist numbers are on par with his final years in San Antonio.
Still, the Raptors have continued to use him in that role at times, with Poeltl seeing a connection between his hobby and career (sorry).
“I think they are very similar concepts,” Poeltl said. “It’s a completely different field, but the concept is similar. It’s understanding the situation in front of you and trying to attack in the most effective way.”
Another overlap: Complaining to officials and complaining about officials.
“I don’t want to expose myself to a lawsuit or anything like that (by making a specific complaint against Joaquim),” Pertel said. “But something is going on, I can tell you that much.”
These accusations were the reason why Joaquim did not take part in the match. She did not want a conflict of interest to arise.
“This is very unfair,” Joaquim said. “I will reward myself (with points). I do send my points to show off and show that I will be the top winner of the event (if I am).”
(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton for The Athletic; Photo: Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
