Phish.net and the Mockingbird Foundation present:

The first annual Mockingbird Mystery Jam Madness Tournament!
The fourth round started yesterday (Friday, April 7th), just before 6:00 PM PT / 9:00 PM ET.

RULES:
1) Each participant gets one guess per day, with the next day beginning at midnight ET (certain rounds may provide hints if needed, but regardless of hints posted, each participant gets one guess per calendar day). All answers must be submitted (along with your .net @username) to mockingbird.mystery.jams@gmail.com – do not post guesses or hints, joking or serious, in the comments section of the Blog – guesses posted to the Blog will not be accepted and will be deleted (irrespective of correctness), the affected round may be voided and restarted, and the offending user(s) may have their accounts suspended and be banned from future (M)MJM competitions. No sharing or trading of answers is permitted. This is for fun and for charity, but we want the tournament to be eminently fair.

2) The first TWO participants to answer correctly will advance to the Championship Round.

3) Our eleven Mystery Jam Monday Emeritus (7+ time) winners are permitted to participate. In fact, of the four remaining players, three are MJM Emeriti.

PRIZE:
The champion will win:
1) Two LivePhish codes, each good for the download of any show from LivePhish.com (courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com and nugs.net);
2) A $100 donation to the Mockingbird Foundation in their name;
3) The staff of Phish.net will do a blog piece about / interview of the winner on their love of Phish and their MJM prowess.

NOTE:
Participants are encouraged (but not required) to make a donation to the Mockingbird Foundation – in the first three rounds, we have received a couple donations – hopefully there are more to come?

SEMIFINALS CLIPS:
The first two people to email the correctly identified songs and dates of these four clips will advance to the Championship round. The theme of this round is "Forgotten or ignored?". Everyone received the clip around 9:00 PM ET on April 7th.

SEMIFINALS PARTICIPANTS:

After three hypercompetitive rounds of jam identification, we've reached the Semifinals. Of our four semifinalists, we've got three MJM Emeriti (7+ time winners), and a talented rookie who has participated and partially answered several multiclip MJMs, but who has yet to win one. Who will win this week? Will @ghostboogie, winner of 9 MJM events, including the MJM Championship Edition and the MJM250 extravaganza, get his record 10th win and possibly cement himself as the undisputed MJM GOAT? Will it be @bl002e, winner of 7 MJMs, the only former MJM host in the field, who recently came out of MJM retirement for the tournament, who shows everyone that just because he disappeared doesn't mean he's lost a step? Could it be @dbertsch, the most recent player to join the All Time Greats list (during this tournament taboot), winning seven MJMs in the past year, who continues his surge all the way to the promised land? Or will it be this year's Cinderella story, @ChalkDustTeacher, the only international player in the field, who teaches the vets that it doesn't matter what you've done in the past, but what you do when it matters most – could he shock the world? We'll know soon...

SEMIFINALS HINT:

Again, without explanation or further reference, I glossed over something in the previous round (which was present but ignored the round before that!); the last thing (if I used the common name, I'd be saying too much) was curiously omitted from the set of things... did I forget to mention it? Did I ignore it on purpose? If you read the right page on phish.net, you'll see that there is a "transcription" (if I used the common name, I'd be saying too much) associated with that thing – it looks like six "paragraphs" (if I used the common name, I'd be saying too much) worth of text. If you look at the shortest line in the shortest "paragraph," you'll see a nice sentiment – sometimes everyone just yells that, right? But if you ignore the first word, you might have other ideas. But if you ignore the first word, you might have other ideas. Maybe you get the idea to look at another "transcription," and when you do, your thoughts drift and you remember what I said about the last thing missing (and it looks funny too, because that last missing thing seems to be missing its last thing, doesn't it?)... did they forget to mention it? Did they ignore it on purpose? Sometimes everyone just yells that, right?

SEMIFINALS UDPATE:

Just before 9:30 PM ET on April 10th, one user followed the train of thought presented in the hint all the way to the Promised Land. Still waiting for our second finalist 18 hours later.

SEMIFINALS WINNERS:

We have our finalists! Within an hour of reading the (convulted) hint, MJM emeritus and former MJM host (and former maker of convoluted hints *cough*) @bl002e was able to hang onto the wild train of thought presented in the hint by a fingernail all the way to the station. Fellow MJM emeritus, @ghostboogie, who was the odds-on favorite to win the tournament and who I was convinced would win it all (what hasn't he won?!), got stuck in the mud with the hint and may have run out of steam after an impressive run. Newest MJM emeritus @dbertsch must have been low on time, or run out of steam (who could blame him after his torrid pace of MJM victories since 4/11/16?), as I'm not sure he even found a single clip... which means that the other finalist is none other than ZERO-time winner @ChalkDustTeacher, who continues his Cinderella story run all the way to the finals – something Davidson and Wichita St. never pulled off! That's right folks, our MMJM tournament finalists are a MJM emeritus and a MJM n00b (who has clearly been around the block when it comes to the h3tty jamZ though!).

You might be wondering: WTF was that hint dude? Here's an annotated version of it:

Again, without explanation or further reference (I used this same phrasing last week when I explained that the four clips had come from the four songs used to name regions in Round 2), I glossed over something in the previous round (which was present but ignored the round before that!) (There were actually five regions: YEM, Tweezer, Piper, and LIght were for seed #1 - #16, but the wild card region was named BDTNL); the last thing (if I used the common name, I'd be saying too much) was curiously omitted from the set of things (i.e. the last song, BDTNL, was omitted from the list of song / regions)... did I forget to mention it? Did I ignore it on purpose? If you read the right page on phish.net, you'll see that there is a "transcription" (if I used the common name, I'd be saying too much) associated with that thing (you can find the BDTNL lyrics page on phish.net) – it looks like six "paragraphs" (if I used the common name, I'd be saying too much) ("stanzas" is probably more accurate) worth of text. If you look at the shortest line in the shortest "paragraph," (the shortest "paragraph" on the BDTNL lyrics page is: "all my friends // go backwards down the numberline" – the shorest line in that "paragraph" is "all my friends") you'll see a nice sentiment – sometimes everyone just yells that, right? (yes, Phish and the crowd often yell "all my friends" throughout the transition between chorus and jam and back to chorus in BDTNL). But if you ignore the first word, you might have other ideas (ignoring the first word gives you "my friends"). But if you ignore the first word, you might have other ideas (I just said that – ignoring the first word gives you "my friends" – oh, I get it: My Friend, My Friend). Maybe you get the idea to look at another "transcription," (ok, now I'm looking at the lyrics for MFMF) and when you do, your thoughts drift and you remember what I said about the last thing missing (what's the last thing on that page? Ah, it's "Myf" – wait, wtf is "Myf"?) (and it looks funny too, because that last missing thing seems to be missing its last thing, doesn't it? (ah yes, it's "myfe" everywhere else – the last letter seems to be missing))... did they forget to mention it? (right, Phish doesn't always yell "MYFE!" at the end of MFMF) Did they ignore it on purpose? (Probably, but who knows?) Sometimes everyone just yells that, right? (yes, they do, and I do, and many people do, right before the evil laughter...).

Here are the clips comprising this week's MMJM:

Maze – 12/2/03
Ya Mar – 12/2/97
Fee – 8/9/93
Energy – 7/21/13

Congrats to our winners, huge props to all our four semifinalists, and a big THANK YOU to the few of you who have donated to the Mockingbird Foundation! If we hit $500 total, I swear I'll go through the trouble of running this tournament next year. But for now, stay tuned for the Finals (schedule TBD by the finalists' and host's schedule, but I'm guessing Friday night again).

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