Search found 1787 matches
- Thu May 10, 2012 2:47 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: MSNCT/HSNCT bonus difficulty discussion
- Replies: 25
- Views: 8880
Re: MSNCT/HSNCT bonus difficulty discussion
Your use of "overvalue" leads the reader to understand that you do not want bonus conversion to drive wins, which according to your data means that bonus conversions should be relatively high. Amirite? You were right. Somewhat paradoxically, a further analysis has me justifying that concl...
- Wed May 09, 2012 5:57 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: MSNCT/HSNCT bonus difficulty discussion
- Replies: 25
- Views: 8880
Re: MSNCT/HSNCT bonus difficulty discussion
Discounting negs and powers, and things like "five points per answer" bonus parts, every tossup earned is worth 10+Y points, where Y is a random variable that can take values of 0, 10, 20, or 30 points. (More precisely, it's 10+Y1+Y2+Y3, where Y1, Y2, and Y3 are random variables that take ...
- Tue May 08, 2012 6:56 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Metro areas without enough good high school quizbowl
- Replies: 55
- Views: 17491
Re: Metro areas without enough good high school quizbowl
Just curious...given their stature in college quizbowl, has Brown tried any outreach with the Providence area? Around the time of the whole Trygve fiasco, Guy and Ian did a giant snail mail campaign for a Fall Novice Tournament mirror that may or may not have ever occurred. I have brought this up b...
- Tue May 08, 2012 6:37 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Fixing NHBB Nationals
- Replies: 40
- Views: 10088
Re: Fixing NHBB Nationals
As I was in PACE, I remember one of the major reasons the format was changed was that the sets were far more difficult to write , not because the format was itself convoluted. I'm obviously biased here, but this very clearly applies to NHBB too. The NHBB sets are difficult to write because most com...
- Mon Apr 16, 2012 2:17 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Proposed Alternative to the Neg Prize
- Replies: 6
- Views: 2405
Proposed Alternative to the Neg Prize
As noted over here , the neg prize is slowly dying off, terribly in-jokey, susceptible to "gaming the system" from players doing stupid things, and potentially harmful to players that have buzzer aggression but not the knowledge to back it up. No one's mentioned it, but it also has the pot...
- Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:43 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Painfully Easy Giveaways
- Replies: 30
- Views: 11230
Re: Painfully Easy Giveaways
I feel like it is a bit too common for the giveaway of tossups to have a "curved yellow fruit" feel, Just to clarify, the "curved yellow fruit" giveaway in the strictest and most correct sense of the term is one in which all preceding clues are nigh-impossible to buzz on, making...
- Thu Apr 05, 2012 1:49 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: The New Oberhausen Manifesto: Film Question Reform
- Replies: 28
- Views: 21026
Re: The New Oberhausen Manifesto: Film Question Reform
Tommy, I'd be interested in you looking at the 2008 and 2009 All Movies Tournaments and citing some clues (or even whole questions) that illustrate the points you're trying to make, and perhaps some answer lines from those tournaments that indicate the direction you think canon expansion in more &qu...
- Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:49 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Quizbowl DB Rankings Formula
- Replies: 1
- Views: 1387
Re: Quizbowl DB Rankings Formula
I might have some more analysis later, but I'll just note that this sounds like exactly the kind of thing that FRIAR was built for.
- Mon Mar 05, 2012 9:35 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Peaceful Resolution Discussion
- Replies: 210
- Views: 76551
Re: Peaceful Resolution Discussion
This might've ended a little less farcically if you'd, say, informed anyone that the packets would not be available immediately afterwards, as is standard, before the tournament was run. But as Matt Bollinger noted, that would have been farcical also. Yes; you merely caused a whole bunch of teams t...
- Thu Mar 01, 2012 6:10 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: HSNCT Then and Now
- Replies: 7
- Views: 7349
Re: HSNCT Then and Now
Is that little green notch up top TJ 2005? Yep. The NAQT website's stats for that year include points but not tossups heard/answered during the playoff rounds, so the listed conversion stats are all wrong for playoff teams, but I calculated TJ's prelim PPB to be 23.66. The only other team to get ov...
- Thu Mar 01, 2012 2:04 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: HSNCT Then and Now
- Replies: 7
- Views: 7349
Re: HSNCT Then and Now
Dwight - I love the work. Did you run any tests on negs? I ask because among the many possible reasons for increased power rate, a decreased neg rate is one of the few that can be meaningfully tested. I did not run any tests on neg rate but I do not understand why a decreased neg rate would positiv...
- Fri Feb 24, 2012 5:05 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: HSNCT Then and Now
- Replies: 7
- Views: 7349
HSNCT Then and Now
Inspired by Jerry's recent posts about how the 2003 ICT field was so weak compared to modern quizbowl, I looked at the HSNCT stats for the first two years of power-matching (2002 and 2003) and the most recent two years (2010 and 2011). I found some quite interesting results. First, bonus conversion:...
- Tue Feb 21, 2012 2:08 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Repeated Toss-Up Answer Lines in a Set
- Replies: 14
- Views: 5272
Re: Repeated Toss-Up Answer Lines in a Set
PROBABLY UNACCEPTABLE Toss-Ups on the Same Answer in the Same Category: You could do fine tossups on George Washington's military career and his presidency, I guess, and they wouldn't overlap, but two history tossups on George Washington in the same tournament is probably pushing it. Tossups on cou...
- Fri Feb 17, 2012 8:57 pm
- Forum: Middle school area archives
- Topic: Middle School Tournaments near Savannah, Ga?
- Replies: 6
- Views: 3017
Re: Middle School Tournaments near Savannah, Ga?
I am looking for one more tournament to do with my middle school quiz bowlers (aside from the state tournament, which we do every year). I was wondering if anyone knows about a tournament within a reasonable drive from Savannah, Ga. A reasonable trip would be 6-7 hours or less. Thanks for the help!...
- Wed Feb 15, 2012 2:31 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2012 SCT: Difficulty
- Replies: 146
- Views: 34387
Re: Difficulty
One objective quantification of difficulty across SCTs is the median D-value; that is, how many points would the median team in the field put up if it were playing a hypothetical average team? DI 2010: 162.770 2011: 164.566 2012: 213.191 DII (not including CCCT teams) 2010: 177.813 2011: 157.147 201...
- Mon Feb 13, 2012 12:21 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Quizbowl sports analogies
- Replies: 38
- Views: 11594
Re: Quizbowl sports analogies
Obviously the solution is to have an open bar at tournaments. Paging Brendan Byrne, paging... what was it, Iowa State? I believe you want this thread . Also, Charles Meigs has told me many times the way to make quizbowl more social is not to make quizbowl practice more social, but to make quizbowl ...
- Fri Feb 10, 2012 9:04 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2012 SCT: Difficulty
- Replies: 146
- Views: 34387
Re: Difficulty
Kenneth, Kenneth, Kenneth! I cannot tell you how to post, but: 1. Making D2 SCT harder in order to please a small minority of community members of generally little influence, thus alienating new teams and new programs, is a surefire way for NAQT to torpedo its business strategy. 2. Allowing players ...
- Tue Feb 07, 2012 2:03 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2012 SCT individual question discussion
- Replies: 114
- Views: 26131
Re: talk about individual questions here
In the D1 tossup on Madrid, the "Atocha station" clue is still within power, while in the D2 tossup on Madrid it is not. I am very confused as to how this happened.
- Tue Feb 07, 2012 1:51 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 50 Million Math Question Fans Can't Be Wrong! (OR CAN THEY)
- Replies: 64
- Views: 12165
Re: Are 20 Questions Enough?
You would be proving that it's possible to have more history and video games in quizbowl. However, no one is asserting that either is being shorted in quizbowl. Math, on the other hand, has been largely marginalized after the demise of computational math. High Schoolers spend as much time, if not m...
- Mon Feb 06, 2012 4:08 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2012 SCT individual question discussion
- Replies: 114
- Views: 26131
Re: talk about individual questions here
2) A common-link tossup on syphilis studies involving human subjects, which then accepted Tuskegee as an answer even though that was only one of several studies mentioned. My teammate was negged after being mystified when he was prompted on "human scientific studies" or something like tha...
- Mon Jan 30, 2012 4:49 pm
- Forum: Middle school area archives
- Topic: CMST III Available for Hosting
- Replies: 8
- Views: 4324
Re: CMST III Available for Hosting
Just a reminder that this tournament is still available for hosting in any area that doesn't already have a host. This tournament is 95% written but we'll need a couple of weeks to do a good editing job, so unfortunately we will not be able to deliver packets before February 14. The last date that w...
- Mon Jan 30, 2012 4:26 pm
- Forum: Middle school area archives
- Topic: Barrington Invitational Tournament IX (3.17.12)
- Replies: 24
- Views: 8474
Re: Barrington Invitational Tournament IX (3.17.12)
I would suggest two five-team brackets splitting into top 3 and bottom 2 with the top 6 teams playing 3 rounds of crossover playoffs (e.g., team A1 plays teams B3, B2, and B1 in that order) and the bottom 4 teams playing a 3-round round robin. This gives every team 7 games in 8 rounds and leaves you...
- Thu Jan 26, 2012 12:43 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Buzzer race discussion from BARGE thread
- Replies: 48
- Views: 15559
Re: Buzzer race discussion from BARGE thread
I have no idea why this is funny, but I assume that the comedic value of the thought experiment has thus been increased.Ukonvasara wrote:Please rename to "Metal Gear RAY" as soon as possible.cvdwightw wrote:Ray Prime
- Wed Jan 25, 2012 4:31 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Buzzer race discussion from BARGE thread
- Replies: 48
- Views: 15559
Re: Buzzer race discussion from BARGE thread
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT INVOLVING ROBOTS Suppose there exist three great literature players at a tournament: Ted Prime, a robot who knows a great many clues about ANSWER A; Magin Prime, a robot that knows all but 10 clues Ted Prime knows about ANSWER A, and knows 10 clues that Ted Prime doesn't know; and...
- Wed Jan 25, 2012 1:59 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Baby Anteater XIII (1/28/12) at Edison HS
- Replies: 8
- Views: 2889
Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Baby Anteater XIII (1/28/12) at Edison HS
FIELD UPDATE
Rancho Bernardo x2
Arcadia x2
North Hollywood
Capistrano Valley
Tustin x2
Scripps Ranch
Edison house team(s)
Registration ends tomorrow.
Rancho Bernardo x2
Arcadia x2
North Hollywood
Capistrano Valley
Tustin x2
Scripps Ranch
Edison house team(s)
Registration ends tomorrow.
- Wed Jan 11, 2012 1:57 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Baby Anteater XIII (1/28/12) at Edison HS
- Replies: 8
- Views: 2889
Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Baby Anteater XIII (1/28/12) at Edison HS
Right now we have 2 teams from Arcadia, 2 (tentatively) from RB and 1 from Rancho Alamitos. I think that's everyone that's signed up so far. This tournament usually gets around 20 teams so I'm assuming that teams are being really late in signing up.
- Fri Dec 16, 2011 7:59 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 5 years are up (well, they will be 2 weeks from now)
- Replies: 12
- Views: 3992
Re: 5 years are up (well, they will be 2 weeks from now)
Looking at that thread, there were some major events that both Paul's "worst case scenario" and Matt's competing "best case scenario" couldn't have taken into account. Obviously the first of these is the rise of some truly great players and writers who were barely out of high sch...
- Tue Dec 13, 2011 2:49 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Southern California Date Claim 2011-2012
- Replies: 45
- Views: 14268
Re: Southern California Date Claim 2011-2012
March 10 is almost certainly State Champs weekend (we'll have an announcement once Chris finalizes the location, I think).
About 1 tournament a year has historically been held on a Sunday down here, so it's not like it's unprecedented or anything.
About 1 tournament a year has historically been held on a Sunday down here, so it's not like it's unprecedented or anything.
- Fri Dec 09, 2011 3:32 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Greater differentiation at tournaments / problem of brackets
- Replies: 22
- Views: 7605
Re: Greater differentiation at tournaments / problem of brackets
If you're the worst team in the bracket, you have a harder schedule because you don't get to play yourself . This is common sense or something. .... For individual schedule making, there can be inherent advantages to being seeded in certain parts of the "middle of the road" - you get to p...
- Fri Dec 09, 2011 2:43 am
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Greater differentiation at tournaments / problem of brackets
- Replies: 22
- Views: 7605
Re: Greater differentiation at tournaments / problem of brackets
I'm having a lot of trouble understanding how "TD-derived schedules" are more fair to teams. Suppose that we have 6 teams ranked 1-6 at equal ability spacing. Let's take a "difficulty-balanced" five-round schedule: Team 1: 5-4-3-2-2 Team 2: 6-3-4-1-1 Team 3: 4-2-1-5-6 Team 4: 3-1...
- Fri Dec 02, 2011 2:14 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Baby Anteater XIII (1/28/12) at Edison HS
- Replies: 8
- Views: 2889
ANNOUNCEMENT: Baby Anteater XIII (1/28/12) at Edison HS
Baby Anteater XIII will be taking place at Edison High School in Huntington Beach on January 28.
More information at http://www.socalquizbowl.org/announceme ... ii-edison/.
More information at http://www.socalquizbowl.org/announceme ... ii-edison/.
- Fri Nov 18, 2011 9:45 pm
- Forum: Middle school area archives
- Topic: CMST 3-- call for writers!
- Replies: 60
- Views: 26016
Re: CMST 3-- call for writers!
A quick look through the claims reveals that most people who have expressed preferences have noted science or fine arts. So history, literature, or current events would be great. That being said, we also have about eight people who have signed up for "10/10 of whatever" (and because this ...
- Fri Nov 18, 2011 1:58 am
- Forum: Middle school area archives
- Topic: CMST 3-- call for writers!
- Replies: 60
- Views: 26016
Re: CMST 3-- call for writers!
Cted I did forget to do that! Just a second... All fixed! Also, I hate to be that guy, but is there going to be CMST3 user group or is the old one being resurrected? We're just using the same CMST user group as last time - it's easier than creating a new group. It's not like there are any skeletons...
- Wed Nov 16, 2011 2:01 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Southern California Date Claim 2011-2012
- Replies: 45
- Views: 14268
Re: Southern California Date Claim 2011-2012
I still have not heard anything from Caltech about whether or not Technophobia is happening, and I don't have the faintest idea how the rumor that it was on Dec. 3 got started. It was on the http://www.socalquizbowl.org/tournament-calendar/ scheduled for December 3rd until very recently when it dis...
- Mon Nov 14, 2011 7:49 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Southern California Date Claim 2011-2012
- Replies: 45
- Views: 14268
Re: Southern California Date Claim 2011-2012
I still have not heard anything from Caltech about whether or not Technophobia is happening, and I don't have the faintest idea how the rumor that it was on Dec. 3 got started. Has anyone from the area bid for NAQT State Champs yet? Unless any other bids came in before the deadline, Chris and I are ...
- Mon Nov 14, 2011 5:46 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: The High Price of Tournament Attendance
- Replies: 3
- Views: 1338
The High Price of Tournament Attendance
Or, a hopefully rational explanation about why David Madden's argument for raising HFT entry fees is misguided and wrong. Three years ago I spearheaded a movement to rein in tournament fees in Southern California. There are a number of positive effects, the most obvious of which are: 1. More schools...
- Mon Nov 14, 2011 4:26 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: NAQT A set difficulty
- Replies: 23
- Views: 5679
Re: NAQT A set difficulty
Terrible Sports Analogy: Sprinting requires a short burst of very intense speed. Middle distance running requires roughly the same peak speed, but over a significantly longer course. Endurance running requires an extremely long duration of a-few-notches-below-peak speed, and it always helps to have ...
- Mon Nov 14, 2011 4:18 pm
- Forum: Middle school area archives
- Topic: CMST 3-- call for writers!
- Replies: 60
- Views: 26016
Re: CMST 3?
Facilitator A. This job is pretty much over in December except for following up with writers. Over in December, is it? Well, I'll volunteer to do this then. Thanks Jeff. Yeah, the Facilitator's job is to pretty much get everything started, making sure that we have enough writers to complete the set...
- Mon Nov 14, 2011 3:06 pm
- Forum: Middle school area archives
- Topic: CMST 3-- call for writers!
- Replies: 60
- Views: 26016
Re: CMST 3?
All of these writers and ZERO chiefs. Is there anyone who can take on Dwight's role from last year? Maybe Dwight can come back and post an explanation of what needs to be done. I took on about three separate roles last year, so I've split them up below. I'm really busy this November and won't have ...
- Thu Nov 10, 2011 6:27 pm
- Forum: Middle school area archives
- Topic: CMST 3-- call for writers!
- Replies: 60
- Views: 26016
Re: CMST 3?
Any chance a CMST 3 ever gets legs? My team is playing MS-02 this weekend and will definitely play MS-03 in the spring, but I KNOW there's room for another set inasmuch as we intend to host another Barrington Invitational on St. Patrick's Day, 2012. I still get a warm feeling at the reaction at our...
- Mon Nov 07, 2011 8:01 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Fall 2011 Discussion
- Replies: 105
- Views: 21728
Re: ACF Fall 2011 Discussion
This is your friendly neighborhood reminder that just because something is not hard to you does not mean that it is not hard to the target audience of this tournament. Don't say "this bonus lacked a hard part" or "this clue was too early;" state why you think so and let others de...
- Mon Nov 07, 2011 2:19 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Fall 2011 Discussion
- Replies: 105
- Views: 21728
Re: ACF Fall 2011 Discussion
The whole Graham's Law clue in the Georgia Tech A packet refers to both the answer (diffusion) and a thing that is not the answer (effusion). From my experience, chemistry classes treat Graham's Law as a Law of Effusion. In our packet, I figured that "court case" + "import tax" +...
- Sun Nov 06, 2011 10:41 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Fall West (11/6/11) at UCI
- Replies: 14
- Views: 18904
Re: ACF Fall West (11/6/11) at UCI
UCSD A, ASU "B", and Claremont A finished in a three-way circle of death at 9-1. Because we were getting kicked out of the rooms while the last round was finishing, we were unable to play a finals series and UCSD A was declared the winner based on PPG. UCSD B was the Division II winner. ST...
- Sun Nov 06, 2011 2:36 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Fall West (11/6/11) at UCI
- Replies: 14
- Views: 18904
Re: ACF Fall West (11/6/11) at UCI
Caltech seems to have secured transportation, so our attendance is now "highly probable." Can you respond to my e-mail from this morning asking whether "highly probable" has changed to "we're definitely coming, barring extreme and extenuating circumstances" since this ...
- Fri Nov 04, 2011 1:14 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Fall West (11/6/11) at UCI
- Replies: 14
- Views: 18904
Re: ACF Fall West (11/6/11) at UCI
CRITICAL INFORMATION FOR REGISTERED TEAMS You should be parking in the Student Center Parking Structure off the corner of West Peltason and Pereira. There should be someone there to sell you a parking permit, which costs $10 for a full day. If you are feeling cheap, you can try to park for free in ...
- Thu Nov 03, 2011 3:59 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Playoff Formatting Help
- Replies: 77
- Views: 12236
Re: Playoff Formatting Help
Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't see why you're insistent on having divisions when the divisions seem to be arbitrarily defined by you (as opposed to, say, experience-dependent divisions). If you have 10 teams, you can just rank everyone by their performance in the round robin, and have...
- Thu Nov 03, 2011 2:07 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Playoff Formatting Help
- Replies: 77
- Views: 12236
Re: Playoff Formatting Help
Since I hadn't thought of this situation before, but it is now more apparent it'll happen - what is a good format for a TEN-team tournament ? My thought was -2 divisions of 5 (say "A" and "B") -Prelim. round robin tournament (4 games, 5 rounds, BYE teams play a practice match) -...
- Thu Nov 03, 2011 2:04 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: MAGNI Question Discussion
- Replies: 138
- Views: 30813
Re: Individual Question Requests and Discussion
Another example is the protein folding tossup. I've had enough protein folding lectures to fill a 12 line tossup, but it immediately leads in with talking about how bacteria use a heptameric protein to initiate it. Not only is the GroEL-ES complex like the third thing you learn about protein foldin...
- Wed Nov 02, 2011 8:44 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Fall West (11/6/11) at UCI
- Replies: 14
- Views: 18904
Re: ACF Fall West (11/6/11) at UCI
The following teams have registered for ACF Fall: Rancho Bernardo HS (D2; 1 buzzer, 0 staffers, 0 laptops) UCSD x2 (Divisions unknown; 1 buzzer, assuming Claremont brings it, ? staffers, ? laptops) Claremont x3 (1 D1 undergrad, 2 D2; 1 buzzer of their own, 0 staffers, 3 laptops) North Hollywood HS x...
- Wed Nov 02, 2011 12:32 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Rule Amendment Proposal: Eliminate Blitz Rules
- Replies: 15
- Views: 3664
Re: Rule Amendment Proposal: Eliminate Blitz Rules
Shouldn't this whole thing work on the principle of "player provided the correct answer with no extra incorrect information within the allotted time"? If so, the creator/creation rule doesn't need to exist as a separate entity. That's an excellent way of putting it. Fair enough. I also th...