Search found 859 matches

by Ike
Sat Sep 25, 2021 11:41 pm
Forum: Community Discussion
Topic: How Do We Expand and Improve Our Writing Community?
Replies: 7
Views: 7433

Re: How Do We Expand and Improve Our Writing Community?

A couple of people have reached out to me about this post, and I want to relay a particular incident that has stuck with me for a long time. At an HSNCT, there was a bonus part on John Wayne (I think) which our teams failed to convert. I remarked “ugh, I hate trash” in this tournament. The moderator...
by Ike
Sat Sep 25, 2021 12:31 pm
Forum: Community Discussion
Topic: How Do We Expand and Improve Our Writing Community?
Replies: 7
Views: 7433

Re: How Do We Expand and Improve Our Writing Community?

One thing to realize is that some of our past writers have incredibly racist / sexist attitudes that popped up in their writing. I am rather loathe to name specific people, but over the course of my quizbowl career, I've observed the following: - In 2013, one writer declared that the world literatur...
by Ike
Mon Sep 20, 2021 12:57 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Gender Neutrality in Quizbowl Writing and Playing
Replies: 13
Views: 3958

Re: Gender Neutrality in Quizbowl Writing and Playing

It's a very simple solution--the only complication is that you have to write your Peter the Great questions slightly differently so that your Catherine the Great questions play the way they should, so you have to make this decision when you start writing your set rather than after you've written 20...
by Ike
Tue Sep 14, 2021 10:28 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Thoughts on Question Writing Theory for Harder Tournaments
Replies: 4
Views: 3146

Re: Thoughts on Question Writing Theory for Harder Tournaments

I wanted to post a few thoughts on this topic. In general, I believe that if you're going to use the name of a scholar, or some paper with a hundred or fewer citations (a 9 or 10 on Westbrook's scale) it should be with the intent of talking about clues that are closer to a 7 or 8. Here's an example ...
by Ike
Mon Sep 06, 2021 1:21 am
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: Multi-editing accomplishments
Replies: 4
Views: 5147

Re: Multi-editing accomplishments

Thanks for compiling this Andrew -- I think it's definitely nice to see this kind of achievement listed somewhere. I know you didn't doesn't consider subject editing to be equivalent to editing, but some threshold of having subject edited a number of questions that happen to go into a set should in ...
by Ike
Fri Aug 27, 2021 7:56 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2021 Chicago Open: Thanks and General Discussion
Replies: 14
Views: 1300

Re: Thanks and General Discussion

I think the Japanese-flavor of some of the questions is a matter of perspective. For example, when I wrote the Alexander tossup, I didn't go out thinking that I had to push in a bunch of Japanese related content, it just turns out that because of Japan's position in the world of architecture -- prod...
by Ike
Wed Aug 11, 2021 6:04 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2021 ACF Nationals: Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 35
Views: 8705

Re: 2021 ACF Nationals: Specific Question Discussion

My bad on the continuous tossup; I could have sworn I checked twice for math hoses. Someone who actually knows topology should always playtest those pesky questions.
by Ike
Wed Aug 11, 2021 2:47 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2021 ACF Nationals: Thank Yous and Discussion
Replies: 26
Views: 9683

Re: 2021 ACF Nationals: Thank Yous and Discussion

I wasn't a fan of the Pixar tossup occupying a cs slot though, specifically at Nats - while the content in retrospect does seem interesting and important I think it's also a tossup that only will distinguish teams based on extremely specialized knowledge. In my experience graphics is one of the lea...
by Ike
Wed Aug 11, 2021 2:30 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2021 ACF Nationals: Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 35
Views: 8705

Re: 2021 ACF Nationals: Specific Question Discussion

Ken-kun, the enterpreneur selling sweet potatoes, unfortunately passed away two months before this tournament began. I did not catch this in time, apologies to anyone who may have been confused. It was an open casket funeral. ( Ken-kun will be missed but readers should probably get some warning befo...
by Ike
Tue Oct 20, 2020 2:46 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Packet Submission discussion
Replies: 28
Views: 10336

Re: Packet Submission discussion

Warning: angry post ahead, and speaking entirely personally and not for any organization. Oh Jesus, fucking Christ. When you, on the Discord, post shit like: the acf ideology is a threat to the expansion of qb ...acf people just don't believe it for idk why No one, not even the most Vulcan of us wil...
by Ike
Tue Oct 20, 2020 10:51 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Packet Submission discussion
Replies: 28
Views: 10336

Re: Packet Submission discussion

Um there's a lot that one could post here, but I think what Kevin quoted about Ophir's post basically sums up my thoughts. I would like to add that I think many people fail to realize there are many other benefits to packet submission besides the final product. It is a tool that editors use to seek ...
by Ike
Fri Sep 11, 2020 7:32 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: A Proposal to Deal with the issue of cheating
Replies: 7
Views: 4165

Re: A Proposal to Deal with the issue of cheating

And double posting, because it's a new idea that came about after reading Brad's post in the Princeton thread, and sitting on it. If you need to tab out of the Zoom/Discord tournament, look something up on a computer, make a phone text, or do something that otherwise takes focus away from listening ...
by Ike
Thu Sep 10, 2020 7:16 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: LIT Mid-Atlantic Mirror @ Discord (9/5/20)
Replies: 55
Views: 22822

Re: LIT Mid-Atlantic Mirror @ Discord (9/5/20)

To offer a personal note: Pursuing your friends and players you respect for cheating is one of the worst experiences I've ever had in quizbowl. To use the vernacular, it fucking sucks, and I had to see a therapist multiple times about it. Honestly, I often doubted whether or not it was "worth i...
by Ike
Thu Sep 10, 2020 7:07 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: A Proposal to Deal with the issue of cheating
Replies: 7
Views: 4165

Re: A Proposal to Deal with the issue of cheating

One more note: Just because a player has been sidelined doesn't mean they're guilty. Hypothetically, let's consider the 2014 case of Jordan Brownstein, who went from being a pretty good scorer at ICT and Nationals, to a very good scorer at 2014 Chicago Open. If COVID had happened, I think people wou...
by Ike
Wed Sep 09, 2020 4:22 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: A Proposal to Deal with the issue of cheating
Replies: 7
Views: 4165

Re: A Proposal to Deal with the issue of cheating

I've only recently started browsing this forum again, having been away for a couple years, and even at the best of times I was more a lurker than a poster, but I've read up on some of the current situations. When I was active in in-person tournaments, I often kept a sheet of paper next to me to jot...
by Ike
Tue Sep 08, 2020 10:17 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: A Proposal to Deal with the issue of cheating
Replies: 7
Views: 4165

A Proposal to Deal with the issue of cheating

Speaking for not any organization: This is a topic that has been plaguing quizbowl in the era of COVID, and what follows is basically my thoughts on how to handle the issue of cheating. The problem as I see it, is that up to now, there is a need to quickly address serious accusations of cheating in ...
by Ike
Tue Sep 08, 2020 9:55 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Statement on LIT Cheating Allegation: Princeton A
Replies: 16
Views: 9824

Re: Statement on LIT Cheating Allegation: Princeton A

We provided the tournament organizers the opportunity to observe these tics in a controlled setting, but they refused. What does a controlled setting mean? Speaking personally, if such a request happened at my tournament, I would refuse such a request. Evidence of these tics isn't all that exculpat...
by Ike
Tue Sep 08, 2020 7:15 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Statement on LIT Cheating Allegation: Princeton A
Replies: 16
Views: 9824

Re: Statement on LIT Cheating Allegation: Princeton A

Speaking entirely as a disinterested observer, and not for any quizbowl organization: I find the way many aspects of this report worth discussing, perhaps if only for the future: - Chase was dealing with a serious family incident (of which we were then unaware) that resulted in him texting during th...
by Ike
Mon Jul 20, 2020 8:06 am
Forum: Community Discussion
Topic: Maintaining Boundaries II (Focus on Social Media)
Replies: 8
Views: 9735

Re: Maintaining Boundaries II (Focus on Social Media)

I fully agree with the thrust of Mike's post. I want to give an illustrative example. After being recruited by Andrew Wang, I had the privilege of playing with then high-school senior Jakob Myers at WAO I. He was a great teammate, affable, etc. and we would not have won the tournament without him. I...
by Ike
Thu May 21, 2020 1:59 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: "Should have been prompted" replacement policy
Replies: 15
Views: 5997

Re: "Should have been prompted" replacement policy

Here's an idea if we want to still give the buzzing team some advantage (which I'm still not sure is necessary): Only the protesting team can buzz prior to the "for 10 points" in the tossup. This would require the protesting team to have at least some non-trivial amount of knowledge of th...
by Ike
Wed May 20, 2020 7:54 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: What makes a good tiebreaker?
Replies: 6
Views: 2421

Re: What makes a good tiebreaker?

All of Bradley's points seem reasonable to me. Historically, writers often just dumped their worst questions into tiebreakers since they don't have enough time to polish every aspect of their set. I'd argue that rather than putting an extra tossup into each packet, (thus creating something like 15 t...
by Ike
Fri May 08, 2020 6:31 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2021 ACF Regionals Editor Application
Replies: 5
Views: 3416

Re: ACF Regionals Editor Application

The date isn't right ... presumably 2021 regionals.
by Ike
Fri May 08, 2020 4:45 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: It's Time To D-D-D-D....Duel! (Challenge: Columbia vs. Chicago)
Replies: 49
Views: 17292

Re: It's Time To D-D-D-D....Duel! (Challenge: Columbia vs. Chicago)

Knowing several players on both teams, I feel like I am well prepared to write one of my universally well-received Teddy Atlas style "tale of the tapes" for this, complete with notes on the producers of questions, the strategic styles of the teams, the "x-factor" of Jacob Reed's...
by Ike
Fri May 08, 2020 3:47 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: It's Time To D-D-D-D....Duel! (Challenge: Columbia vs. Chicago)
Replies: 49
Views: 17292

Re: It's Time To D-D-D-D....Duel! (Challenge: Columbia vs. Chicago)

If the parties will let me head edit this, I would be willing to coral folk and help edit those 3 packets to crown a winner. The top 8 teams* would be invited and it would be single elimination. Teams are free to decline this extremely informal gathering. I think that's the most fair for all involve...
by Ike
Fri May 08, 2020 3:36 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: It's Time To D-D-D-D....Duel! (Challenge: Columbia vs. Chicago)
Replies: 49
Views: 17292

Re: It's Time To D-D-D-D....Duel! (Challenge: Columbia vs. Chicago)

I will contribute as well. I think one of the things that people always want is a thrilling finals. And I don't mind stepping up to help if that's something we can do to make the community feel like we had a champion crowned this year.

Ike
by Ike
Sun May 03, 2020 2:09 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Running Zoom Tournaments
Replies: 67
Views: 33258

Re: Running Zoom Tournaments

I really appreciate that the U.K. circuit decided to investigate ways to making our online quizbowl experience better. If players / mods of said tournament could also discuss their own experiences here, that would be very welcome!
by Ike
Sat Apr 18, 2020 4:54 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: This Time, A Stern Warning
Replies: 179
Views: 146918

Re: This Time, A Stern Warning

I'm not sure about that with Alman. He put up very good numbers at MIT Penn-ance , where he might have cheated as well for all we know. He played fewer tournaments, so it is difficult to compare between tournaments. His numbers before 2012 are much lower than his 2012 numbers, so on the one hand it...
by Ike
Sat Apr 18, 2020 4:10 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: This Time, A Stern Warning
Replies: 179
Views: 146918

Re: This Time, A Stern Warning

Eh, if anything the issue is with the fact there's just a lot of missing data, not the method itself. There's no data that survives for Minnesota Open 2008, 09, 10, or FICHTE I and II which would be incredibly helpful. I played Watkins at three of those tournaments, and I recall at two of them, he ...
by Ike
Sat Apr 18, 2020 3:35 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: This Time, A Stern Warning
Replies: 179
Views: 146918

Re: This Time, A Stern Warning

Eh, if anything the issue is with the fact there's just a lot of missing data, not the method itself. There's no data that survives for Minnesota Open 2008, 09, 10, or FICHTE I and II which would be incredibly helpful. I played Watkins at three of those tournaments, and I recall at two of them, he d...
by Ike
Sat Apr 18, 2020 10:58 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: This Time, A Stern Warning
Replies: 179
Views: 146918

Re: This Time, A Stern Warning

The probability (again assuming that ICT 2011 is a regular difficulty tournament,) of doing that well at both of those tournaments is simply calculated by multiplying those probabilities, which amounts to about 1/500,000. Doesn't this assume that the probabilities are independent? Is that a good as...
by Ike
Sat Apr 18, 2020 7:13 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: This Time, A Stern Warning
Replies: 179
Views: 146918

Re: This Time, A Stern Warning

One more fun tidbit for those who wondered what would happen if we ran the same algorithm for Andy Watkins, a known cheat. Counting only power-marked tournaments, the surviving stats from that era indicated Watkins played SCT 2009, THUNDER I, Terrapin 2009, and Penn Bowl 2009. That's four regular di...
by Ike
Fri Apr 17, 2020 4:44 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: This Time, A Stern Warning
Replies: 179
Views: 146918

Re: This Time, A Stern Warning

All this talk about proscriptions feel odd to me. Whether it's in poker, where it's common to use silly sounding terms like "angle shots" to describe acts of questionable integrity, to the goofy sounding term of "doping" to describe the serious act of using drugs to cheat, or &qu...
by Ike
Fri Apr 17, 2020 2:58 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: This Time, A Stern Warning
Replies: 179
Views: 146918

Re: This Time, A Stern Warning

I'll preface this by saying this post, perhaps with the exception of a few points of clarification, will be my last post in the thread. I've made an 18-minute Youtube video explaining what my basic method was, and how one might tweak the method to get it to apply in the general case. Eric agreed to ...
by Ike
Mon Apr 13, 2020 7:40 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: This Time, A Stern Warning
Replies: 179
Views: 146918

Re: This Time, A Stern Warning

In any case, I think that it would be a very bad thing for the community if self-appointed vigilantes were to continue leveling accusations that we have to take on faith, because not even the director of the affected tournament is allowed to see the supposedly "damning" evidence. Clearly ...
by Ike
Mon Apr 13, 2020 7:23 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: This Time, A Stern Warning
Replies: 179
Views: 146918

Re: This Time, A Stern Warning

I'm confused as to the seeming secrecy around the statistical evidence that has been rumored to be what prompted Eric to confess. The seeming secrecy is that while I would like to explain what I did, I want to put in as many caveats as possible to show that you must subject your own methods to inte...
by Ike
Mon Apr 13, 2020 5:09 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: This Time, A Stern Warning
Replies: 179
Views: 146918

Re: This Time, A Stern Warning

Elsewhere Ike has stated his interest in informing NAQT and ACF of the details of his investigation I would hope there be a formal recommendation on this from perhaps the tournament directors or ACF or...somebody I don't believe this will actually happen, but I would be strongly opposed if ACF make...
by Ike
Sun Apr 12, 2020 3:08 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: This Time, A Stern Warning
Replies: 179
Views: 146918

Re: This Time, A Stern Warning

I cheated at this tournament. I looked up answers on my phone during this tournament on approximately 8-10 tossups, and would not have powered them otherwise. This was a severe lapse in judgement that disrespected and dishonored my competitors, my teammates (past and present), everyone who stood by...
by Ike
Fri Apr 03, 2020 3:20 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: This Time, A Stern Warning
Replies: 179
Views: 146918

Re: This Time, A Stern Warning

allowing any potential current malefactors to quietly mend their ways This point articulated by my esteemed colleague Professor Carson is the general thrust of what was aimed for. As I have said in several places, I am not out of for blood, and I would be really happy if all we got out of this is t...
by Ike
Thu Apr 02, 2020 11:29 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: This Time, A Stern Warning
Replies: 179
Views: 146918

This Time, A Stern Warning

There’s been a few posts in the past about cheating on the Discord being bad, but I think it’s now time for a very stern public warning: no, really, stop cheating, motherfuckers! Mike Sorice frequently calls in to a sports talk show whose segments include “Who you crappin’?” and that’s the question ...
by Ike
Mon Mar 23, 2020 8:53 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Degen Packet
Replies: 6
Views: 2748

Re: Degen Packet

Jack Mehr won this by a large margin. Thank you all for coming out and degening!

Ike
by Ike
Wed Mar 18, 2020 8:19 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Degen Packet
Replies: 6
Views: 2748

Re: Degen Packet

I am a little behind on this about half of the packet is written. So Im going to have to bump this to the weekend, Sunday. I'll settle on a 9pm central time zone reading. Also, Max Schindler has splashed the pot. The winner of the packet will get to participate in a heads up freeroll against him! :p...
by Ike
Sat Mar 14, 2020 12:11 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Degen Packet
Replies: 6
Views: 2748

Degen Packet

I am in the middle of writing a packet on gambling, mostly related to poker. It's going to be at least 20 tossups with one part bonuses that are related to the tossup. Don't expect the distribution to be balanced, it's just stuff that has amused me over the years. I'll probably schedule a reading fo...
by Ike
Fri Mar 13, 2020 11:10 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: College Nationals and Its Problems
Replies: 132
Views: 54058

Re: College Nationals and Its Problems

13.This object was designed to generalize the positive Grassmanian. For 10 points each: [10] Name this theoretical geometric object from particle physics introduced by Nima Arkani-Hamed in 2013. Scattering amplitudes can be calculated by finding the ‘volume’ of this object. ANSWER: amplituhedron [1...
by Ike
Fri Mar 13, 2020 10:23 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: College Nationals and Its Problems
Replies: 132
Views: 54058

Re: College Nationals and Its Problems

I'm not arguing that nats shouldn't be easier (I'm actually leaning towards those who argue that something like Fall Open level is a good target, solely from their arguments since I've never attended a national tournament myself). My (poorly stated) point here is that changing nats to improve reten...
by Ike
Fri Mar 13, 2020 7:30 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: College Nationals and Its Problems
Replies: 132
Views: 54058

Re: College Nationals and Its Problems

Mike Bentley wrote: Fri Mar 13, 2020 12:29 pm I'm a little skeptical of someone like Ike representing himself as a non-top player at any point in college.
I played 2009 Nats as a high school student, and the posts I've made are about that experience specifically.
by Ike
Fri Mar 13, 2020 11:46 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: College Nationals and Its Problems
Replies: 132
Views: 54058

Re: College Nationals and Its Problems

For some people, like Ike and other top players, the thrill is playing hard questions and learning things, even if they're not winning or getting questions. At the ACF Nationals I was referring to, I was not a "top player" in the sense that you're using it throughout the rest of your post...
by Ike
Fri Mar 13, 2020 11:10 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: College Nationals and Its Problems
Replies: 132
Views: 54058

Re: College Nationals and Its Problems

I feel like there's several things being discussed here. One is about grad students, and another is about Nats difficulty. Those seem like two very different topics, and probably should be discussed in their own threads for the sake of sanity and keeping the conversation going smoothly. And yes, the...
by Ike
Fri Mar 13, 2020 9:41 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Internet Charity Tournament (April 4th, 5th)
Replies: 81
Views: 25592

Re: Internet Charity Tournament (April 4th)

mandatory minimum donation May I make a recommendation? While I understand the nobility of the charity aspect of this tournament, I think it might be a particularly trying financially for some in a time with a lot of uncertainty (this situation could last for months.) I'd suggest making it so that ...
by Ike
Thu Mar 12, 2020 6:56 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 NAQT ICT: CANCELED
Replies: 8
Views: 4592

Re: 2020 NAQT ICT: CANCELED

Speaking only as an observer who has no knowledge of NAQT's financials, I suspect that a lot of the uncertainty regarding the status of the other national tournaments that NAQT puts on makes rescheduling ICT a relatively low priority. Championship season NAQT is where a lot of the revenue comes from...
by Ike
Sun Feb 16, 2020 1:02 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Marking bonus parts as hard, medium, and easy
Replies: 16
Views: 5811

Re: Marking bonus parts as hard, medium, and easy

I don't think there is too much value or harm done in adding these tags. By and large, I think that one part of being good is intuitively learning what is a hard part and a medium part, and certainly these tags would help a beginner on some sense. Also, I occasionally write bonuses that have two dis...