The Quizbowl Resource Center

Discuss the set as a whole in this thread.

For reference, the set was written and edited with the following breakdown:

- I wrote all of the literature, fine arts, social science, philosophy, and miscellaneous questions, and edited everything except for science.
- Raynor wrote the religion and myth, and edited the science.
- Mark wrote the U.S. history, geography, and "modern world."
- Sriram wrote nearly all of the science.
- Robert wrote most of the Euro/Ancient/Brit history.
- Vimal wrote the world history.
- Two of our freshmen, Roger and Catherine, contributed bonuses in history and biology.

I think Raynor and I are the only ones listed above who check the forums, but I'd be happy to convey any thoughts about specific categories to their writers.

As a whole, I noticed that the bonuses had two fairly easy parts and a big jump in difficulty on the third. Basically, it was pretty hard to 30 a bonus in the set. It was also pretty hard to power tossups, though for the most part they stayed true to the announced answerline difficulty. This was definitely one of the most enjoyable sets I've played and a more stimulating departure from the standard fall tournament fare.

quadrisecant wrote:As a whole, I noticed that the bonuses had two fairly easy parts and a big jump in difficulty on the third. Basically, it was pretty hard to 30 a bonus in the set. It was also pretty hard to power tossups, though for the most part they stayed true to the announced answerline difficulty. This was definitely one of the most enjoyable sets I've played and a more stimulating departure from the standard fall tournament fare.

Yes, my teammates and I noted this with the bonuses as well. I don't think it was a problem necessarily that the tossups were hard to power (this actually made the set more enjoyable!) but the consistent ease of two parts of the bonus only to be hit with a third part which was exponentially harder made us frustrated at times.

MoeMoney wrote:

quadrisecant wrote:As a whole, I noticed that the bonuses had two fairly easy parts and a big jump in difficulty on the third. Basically, it was pretty hard to 30 a bonus in the set. It was also pretty hard to power tossups, though for the most part they stayed true to the announced answerline difficulty. This was definitely one of the most enjoyable sets I've played and a more stimulating departure from the standard fall tournament fare.

Yes, my teammates and I noted this with the bonuses as well. I don't think it was a problem necessarily that the tossups were hard to power (this actually made the set more enjoyable!) but the consistent ease of two parts of the bonus only to be hit with a third part which was exponentially harder made us frustrated at times.

I'm going to agree with this point. Although it was easier to 30 bonuses than, say, Maryland Spring 2014, it certainly didn't seem to flow as well as it could have. However, Ithaca really enjoyed the set and I think that although it was pretty tough to power tossups, the answerlines were great and the set as a whole was a lot of fun to play.

Could Raynor or someone else explain exactly what happened with the reader, because I'm still kind of confused as to how mixing up packets would have cost everyone almost 2 hours.

Edit: I posted an explanation, but decided to make it a PM.

As for the questions, I'll take a look at the bonus consistency. I'm sorry to hear there was a sense that there was a mountain on the third parts--I'll myself go back to the science and try and level that mountain.

I ask this out of honest curiosity: why are you so reluctant to post information (first in the public thread, now here)? If you don't want to embarrass a team-provided staffer, that's totally understandable, but I don't know who that person is or what team they were on. You can post what happened without publicly calling out that person.

I agree about the difficulty cliff on third bonus parts. The stats haven't been posted yet, but I'm sure you will see little stratification above 20 ppb. Also, the history seemed easier than other categories in terms of clues in power.

In addition to the bonuses with steep difficulty cliffs, there were some randomly easy ones as well.
One example that comes to mind was the Steppenwolf/Siddhartha/Hesse one, and I think there were a few others that I noticed but can't remember off the top of my head.

Otherwise, I think that the set was very well written, especially the lit questions.

Schmidt Sting Pain Index wrote:The history seemed easier than other categories in terms of clues in power.

Maybe it's because you are a legend at history

Not sure where else this should go so I'll just post here.

This is another small problem I had with the set, though I guess it's not that really a problem: A lot of the jokes made were clunkers. The one that I specifically remember was the one about birth control that opened up with something along the lines of "If a mommy and and a daddy really love each other but a mommy and a daddy don't want a kid" or something like that. It ... wasn't funny at all. More cringe-worthy, honestly. It was near-universally received with groans and eyerolls in the control room at the GA site. (EDIT: I should also add that there were a few people who were genuinely offended.)

pajaro bobo wrote:Not sure where else this should go so I'll just post here.

This is another small problem I had with the set, though I guess it's not that really a problem: A lot of the jokes made were clunkers. The one that I specifically remember was the one about birth control that opened up with something along the lines of "If a mommy and and a daddy really love each other but a mommy and a daddy don't want a kid" or something like that. It ... wasn't funny at all. More cringe-worthy, honestly. It was near-universally received with groans and eye rolls in the control room at the GA site.

And if they are "Mommy & Daddy" don't they already have at least one kid.....

For the main site, a related-but-not-quite right answer was prompted, then a more specific answer was given, which the reader responded with "Way-huge anti-prompt!"; a few games earlier a reader said "No!" very sharply to an incorrect answer. There were several related/almost right answers that were outright accepted on the common link tossups ("prison" and "art" come to mind).

Overall, I enjoyed the questions, although our science player shared the sentiment that the third parts of bonuses were very challenging. Loudoun County's stats need updating for game #6 bonus points, at 150 points.
Regards,
Reese

Uh...prison was definitely not accepted for art. I negged it with prison on the Foucault clue, I think against Loudoun County.

quadrisecant wrote:Uh...prison was definitely not accepted for art. I negged it with prison on the Foucault clue, I think against Loudoun County.

I apologize for not clarifying--I was referencing two different tossups. The "prison" tossup came up later, and 'labor camp' was accepted, and for 'art', 'paintings' was accepted.


Reese