Two Arizona Poetry Slam Teams Make Semis

Two of Arizona's four teams are going to the National Poetry Slam's semi-finals.

The Phoenix National Poetry Slam Team (NORAZ Poets alumnus Aaron Johnson, left, The Klute, Ed Mabrey and Myrlin Hepworth) came in at 16th place after winning their first bout Wednesday night and taking second place in their second bout on Thursday night.

In similar fashion, the Flagstaff National Poetry Slam team of Frank O'Brien (left), Brown, Antranormus, John Cartier and Jessica Guadarrama came in at 17th place after winning their first bout Tuesday night and taking second place in their second bout on Wednesday night (Thursday was a bye-day).

Flagstaff came in 0.9 points behind Phoenix in the competition in terms of total points scored.
Mathematically, while two teams from the same state often make semi-finals but the chance of them coming in so close is a statistical improbably.

As both three of the FlagSlam kids and Phoenix's Ed Mabrey competed in the last Sedona Slam on Friday, July 17, I would like to take complete credit for this highly unusual mathematical anomaly and dub it the "CFG Effect." Again, this is for no good reason whatsoever.

In my previous blog post on 8/5/09, I stated: "I predict that by the end of tonight, FlagSlam will be between 12th and 18th place, but no lower and perhaps a little higher."

In any case, the top 20 teams, which include both Phoenix and Flagstaff, are now headed to semi-finals. *This is the first time since 2005 that an Arizona team has made semi-finals (Mesa in 2000 and 2005, Tempe made it in 2007 but was disqualified before reaching the stage) and the first time ever that two Arizona teams have gone.*

Arizona now has a 20% chance of seeing one of its teams on the finals stage and a 4% chance of seeing them both.

Congratulations, good luck and break a leg to both teams. I want to see one of you on that stage on Saturday night.

Place, Slam Team, First Bout, Second Bout, Final Score
Rank 2 Teams:
1st Denver's Mercury Café: 115.5 (1), 116.5 (1), 232.0
2nd IAO Wayward Slam: 112.6 (1), 114.7 (1), 227.3
3rd Minneapolis' Soapboxing: 115.1 (1), 111.5 (1), 226.6
4th NYC's Nuyorican Poets Cafe: 107.8 (1), 116.2 (1), 224.0
5th Hawaii Slam: 114.4 (1), 108.5 (1), 222.9
6th Oakland Poetry Slam: 113.1 (1), 106.0 (1), 219.1

Rank 3 Teams:
7th Albuquerque's ABQ Slams: 114.9 (2), 115.8 (1), 230.7
8th Killeen Poetry Slam: 113.7 (1), 115.0 (2), 228.7
8th Slam Nuba: 111.1 (2), 117.6 (1), 228.7
10th Java Monkey: 116.3 (1), 112.1 (2), 228.4
11th Urbana: 114.8 (2), 110.8 (1), 225.6
12th Austin Poetry Slam: 118.3 (1), 107.2 (2), 225.5
13th LionLike MIndState Slam: 107.9 (2), 116.9 (1), 224.8
14th Orlando Poetry Slam: 112.7 (1), 109.5 (2), 222.2
15th New Jersey's Loser Slam: 113.1 (1), 107.8 (2), 220.9 (withdrew from semi-finals so they could compete in the Group Slam)
16th Phoenix Downtown: 104.8 (1), 113.6 (2), 218.4
17th Flagslam: 106.5 (1), 111.0 (2), 217.5

Rank 4 Teams going onto semi-finals:
18th San Francisco's The City Slam: 117.8 (1), 112.4 (3), 230.2
19th The Fuze: 112.4 (2), 115.6 (2), 228.0
20th Neo Soul: 116.4 (3), 111.3 (1), 227.7
21st Milwaukee Poetry Slam: 107.3 (1), 116.0 (3), 223.3

- - - - -

Rank 4 Teams not going onto semi-finals:
22nd Cantab: 105.1 (2), 116.5 (2), 221.6
23rd SlamRichmond: 113.6 (1), 107.9 (3), 221.5
24th Seattle Poetry Slam: 107.4 (2), 113.3 (2), 220.7
25th San Diego Poetry Slam: 105.4 (3), 114.0 (1), 219.4
26th Echoverse Poetry Slam: 106.3 (2), 110.7 (2), 217.0
27th Writing Wrongs Poetry Slam: 105.0 (3), 108.0 (1), 213.0
28th Lizzard Lounge Poetry Slam: 102.5 (2), 109.8 (2), 212.3
29th Hampshire Co Slam Collective: 109.5 (1), 99.2 (3), 208.7

Rank 5 Teams
30th Forth Worth Poetry Slam: 111.4 (2), 117.2 (3), 228.6
31st Berkeley: 111.4 (4), 116.3 (1), 227.7
32nd SlamCharlotte: 112.8 (2), 112.5 (3), 225.3
33rd Dallas Poetry Grind: 105.0 (3), 118.0 (2), 223.0
34th Dallas Poetry Slam: 106.1 (2), 115.2 (3), 221.3
35th Slam Free or Die: 107.6 (3), 112.0 (2), 219.6
36th Life Sentence Slam: 111.3 (3), 107.0 (2), 218.3
37th Providence: 106.0 (2), 110.4 (3), 216.4
38th DCSlam: 111.6 (2), 104.5 (3), 216.1
39th The Stage: 97.0 (4), 116.6 (1), 213.6
40th Toronto Poetry Slam: 101.6 (4), 111.7 (1), 213.3
41st Slam Nahuatl: 105.7 (3), 104.3 (2), 210.0
42nd Young Chicago Authors: 109.5 (1), 91.1 (4), Disqualified

Rank 6 Teams
43rd Art Amok: 113.5 (2), 115.1 (4), 228.6 44th Writers Block: 110.9 (3), 114.5 (3), 225.4 45th Eclectic Truth Poetry SLam: 104.5 (4), 116.3 (2), 220.8 46th Mental Graffiti: 111.3 (2), 109.0 (4), 220.3 47th Durham-Bull City Slam: 105.3 (4), 113.1 (2), 218.4 48th Boise Poetry Slam: 108.9 (3), 109.1 (3), 218.0 49th Worcester Poets Asylum: 109.0 (3), 108.1 (3), 217.1 50th Omaha Healing Arts Poetry Slam: 105.4 (3), 110.9 (3), 216.3

Rank 7 Teams
51st Respect Da Mic: 109.1 (4), 110.0 (3), 219.1
52nd Vancouver Poetry SLam: 109.5 (3), 108.6 (4), 218.1
53rd Tucson's Ocotillo Poetry Slam: 110.8 (3), 107.1 (4), 217.9
54th Paris: 107.1 (4), 109.8 (3), 216.9
55th Salt City Slam: 109.5 (4), 105.3 (3), 214.8
56th Slamarillo: 106.7 (3), 104.8 (4), 211.5
57th Second Tuesday Slam: 104.6 (4), 106.3 (3), 210.9
58th Houston Poetry Slam: 101.6 (3), 108.6 (4), 210.2
59th Lincoln: 98.6 (3), 108.1 (4), 206.7
60th Montevallo: 102.0 (4), 101.3 (3), 203.3

Rank 8 Teams
61st SlamMN: 116.7 (4), 106.0 (4), 222.7
62nd San Jose Poetry Slam: 107.6 (4), 112.9 (4), 220.5
63rd Puro Slam: 114.8 (4), 102.0 (4), 216.8
64th Ozark Poetry SLam: 108.8 (4), 104.0 (4), 212.8
65th St. Louis Poetry Slam: 106.6 (4), 103.1 (4), 209.7
66th Mesa Slam: 101.9 (4), 100.1 (4), 202.0
67th Madison Poetry Slam: 96.2 (4), 100.4 (4), 196.6
68th Kalamazoo: 85.2 (4), 98.2 (4), 183.4

*Correction as advised by The Klute. Thanks.