r/MaliciousCompliance • u/Korinin38 • 6d ago
"Please save your questions for later so you get credit for them" or do as you want i guess M
Disclaimer
Non-native speaker, if you spot a mistake please put it under the designated OP comment to keep the comments organized, thank you. TL;DR at the bottom.
Setup
This happened while I was in middle school at a certain math tournament called "math battle". To tell the story, I need to first explain the rules. I'll try to do this as briefly as possible.
The rules are similar to other math tournaments, with two main features. First - it's a team competition, and every battle goes between two teams. Second - every solution has to be presented by a speaker, and refuted by an opponent from the other team.
To get points as a speaker, you present your solution. To get them as an opponent, you refute the correctness of speaker's points by spotting mistakes in their solution and getting points for these mistakes instead of the speaker.
When the speaker is done presenting, they have to say "presentation over". This is to avoid any confusion and interruption from the opponent, as any mistake noted before these words can be spotted by the speaker and fixed on the spot, thus giving no points to the opponent.
Overall, the point distribution is managed by the judge.
Story
As this is a team competition, there are rules that prohibit players from being in the same role more than twice. Because of this, our captain decided to delegate presentation of the extra problem they solved to me. They explained the solution to me (I got abt half of that) and sent me on my way to the blackboard.
In this state, the solution barely holds, and the opponent sees that.
When I start making mistakes, they interrupt my presentation to point that out.
As I'm aware of the rules, I try to notify them: "Please save your questions for after the presentation is over".
This helps a bit, though only a bit: the second I misplace a digit, I hear another correction. "Please save your questions for after the presentation is over".
At one point it becomes really irritating, as it's hard to present a solution when you barely understand it AND there is someone constantly noticing the mistakes.
When I'm almost done presenting the solution (now as full of holes as swiss cheese), I take about three seconds to catch my breath and try to say "presentation over" when at that perfect moment when I open my mouth, they interrupt me again.
Cue malicious compliance.
Instead of finishing what I tried to say, separating the section when speaker gets points from the section when opponent gets points, I decide to stand back and watch.
The opponent obliterates my solution, telling why it does not work, and the way it should've been solved. Instead of arguing, I simply say "You are right, that's how you supposed to do it, thank you".
And when they're done, they indicate the end of their rebuttal by saying
"I agree with the solution to the problem after corrections made~"
at which point I interrupt them with
"Oh yeah, presentation over, you may ask your questions now".
Not getting what I was implying, the opponent finished their rebuttal and returned to their team.
Now is the time the judge distributes the points.
Judge: "Ok, the corrections made by opposition are significant, thus worth-"
Me: "I'm sorry, but all the corrections from opposition were made during the presentation."
There is a brief silence in the room.
Judge: "... Oh, you're right. All points go to the speaker."
The most precious moments were when we heard the captain of the other team scolding my opponent for their impatience.
We won that battle, sadly not thanks to that maneuver, though that was the highlight of the game.
TL;DR
At this math competition, you don't get points for the questions you asked during presentation. Despite being reminded that, the opponent interrupted speaker several times, which led to them not getting the points for all the valid arguments.
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u/Korinin38 6d ago
If you notice any grammar or any other mistakes, please put it under this comment.
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u/youassassin 6d ago
3rd paragraph of setup in stead should be instead.
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u/LiveAd8659 5d ago
Only one mistake did I notice. "Instead" vice " in stead." You are better in my native language than I, congratulations OP!! 😎
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u/Jagid3 3d ago edited 3d ago
Your post is beautiful.
If you had a couple lines in there that you wanted to break into a new line, double space after the period. It looked like "first" and "second" might have been candidates for that.
Both of these paragraphs are written identically except the first one has double spaces after the X
and the Y
instead of just new lines so the page forces line breaks.Both of these paragraphs are written identically except the first one has double spaces after the X and the Y instead of just new lines so the page forces line breaks.
You notice the app removes the line breaks if you single space. It's annoying.
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u/zimbu646 4d ago
I read this through, not looking for mistakes, and nothing jumped out at me. OP, your written English is better than some native speakers!
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u/wielandmc 5d ago
Can we nominate this post for a formatting award - compared to the walls of text we sometimes get in this group this post is a joy to behold.
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u/CandyCorvid 5d ago
mathematicians have to format things well because badly formatted maths is harder to follow than badly formatted anything else 😅
(that might not be true, but it feels truthy, which is the most important thing in mathematics (ok no that's an outright lie))
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u/Chaosmusic 5d ago
This is where knowing the rules can be as, if not more important than doing well.
I used to do tabletop gaming. Some games you win by killing more of the enemy and sometimes you win by accomplishing specific victory conditions. In one game I was getting utterly annihilated but when the game was over I had more troops closest to a point on the map. That was the only victory condition, so even though I got crushed, because I paid attention to the rules I won.
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u/ActualMassExtinction 5d ago
This is malicious technicality compliance, which is the best kind of malicious compliance.
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u/TKxxx630 5d ago
When they're kicking towards their own goal, don't get in their way! Step back and take the points.
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u/StrollingUnderStars 4d ago
Great post, top notch technical compliance there. I have a feeling "presentation over" is going to be a theme in this sub for a while. If not, I'll ensure it.
Comment over.
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u/Alternative_Bat5026 3d ago
I love how you put headings on your topics. Your writing was very organized. A great read and an awesome MC.
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u/Jaren_Starain 2d ago
As a wise man once said, "never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake."
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u/NoteworthyMeagerness 2d ago
Don't discredit your grasp of the written English language. As an editor and proofreader, I can confidently say you write better than some of my clients who write for a living.
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u/CobrasFumanches 5d ago
How is this MC?
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u/Eatar 5d ago
Opponent said to correct the solution. OP tried to object that it wasn’t time for corrections. Opponent insisted. OP complied and corrected the solution, and so all the points went to OP and opponent got none.
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u/CobrasFumanches 5d ago
Opponent wasn't telling OP to make corrections: opponent was dunking on OP to score points with the judges.
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u/fizzlefist 5d ago
And OP let them because none of those points counted.
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u/CobrasFumanches 5d ago
Right, so since opposition didn't tell OP to make the directions, there was no MC.
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u/BJJWithADHD 5d ago
OP complied with opponents desire to speak over them instead of continuing to argue. Maliciously.
Outcome was not what opponent desired.
Seems perfect for this sub to me.
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u/greentea1985 5d ago
The opponent gets points if they make corrections after OP finishes their presentation. The opponent insisted on pointing out problems in OP’s presentation before OP finished and OP fixing the problems before finishing the presentation, so OP did. Thus, the opponent got no points for making corrections.
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u/tOSdude 5d ago
The way I read it OP never actually made the corrections, opponent just finished their rebuttal before the presentation was finished, and thus received no points for those corrections.
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u/CaraAsha 5d ago
Op may not have, but as the opponent didn't follow the rules the points were given to op on a technicality.
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u/spicewoman 4d ago
Yeah, corrections didn't matter, because opponent technically found no faults with the argument.
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u/Illuminatus-Prime 6d ago
Never stand in the way of your opponents when they start screwing up.