The Quizbowl Resource Center

Good friends,

This is the good announcement for the third iteration of the Imaginary Landscape set, written by myself, Jonathan Magin, and Rebecca Maxfield.

Imaginary Landscape No. 3 will comprise one hundred and sixty (160) pyramidal audio tossups divided into eight (8) rounds of twenty (20) tossups each, on all aspects of auditory art, with an emphasis on classical music. Each question is around sixty (60) seconds long, divided into an average of six (6) audio clips arranged pyramidally. The set is currently at 100% completion and available for mirrors.

FORMAT

The distribution of each round in the set is as follows:

6 composers
3 orchestral
3 choral, dance, opera
1 keyboard
1 chamber, solo instrumental
1 nationality
1 jazz
1 film
1 musical
1 popular music
1 miscellaneous

In Gaddis / VCU Open / previous Imaginary Landscapes fashion, the tournament will not have a uniform difficulty across the set, but instead a three-tier difficulty quota: half of the set is classified as "easy," three-eighths of the set as "medium," and an eighth of the set as "hard," as per this rough scale:

Easy: accessible topics pervasive throughout culture and media, gettable by anyone who is not living under a rock
Medium: topics popular in the academic and concert repertoire, or otherwise exploring "deeper" works with accessible giveaways
Hard: deep, specialist, or niche topics

Previous iterations of the set can be found on these pages: No. 2 No. 1

LOGISTICS AND REGISTRATION

I will direct the two main mirrors of the tournament, which are respectively at the 2016 High School National Championship Tournament (HSNCT) and the 2016 National Scholastic Championship (NSC). Both tournaments will be a singles tournament using the ladder system with eight players to a room. There will be an initial seeding round of twenty (20) questions, five rounds of ladder play of twenty (20) questions each, and a finals round of forty (40) questions.

The HSNCT mirror is capped at thirty-two (32) players.

Here is a link to a signup sheet for both events.

If anyone else is interested in mirroring this tournament, please contact me by email at [email protected].

Mirrors:
April 23 2016: University of Waterloo
1 May 2016: University of Cambridge
May 28 2016: 2016 High School National Championship Tournament (HSNCT)
June 4 2016: 2016 National Scholastic Championship (NSC)

Oh sweet, this means I might finally be able to play one of these things. Looking forward to it!

I very much hope to play this at some point!

I'm interested in playing.

every year i say i won't be at hsnct and you people keep announcing these fabulous side events

(I'll definitely play this if I end up going to HSNCT (depends on the anticipated quality of Dillo Day festivities), but that's hella iffy for now. I am very sad I missed IL no. 2 and between this and ACRONYM there is a strong case for me actually staffing HSNCT this year.)

Definitely interested in this! Will there also be a mirror at NSC for those unable to make HSNCT this year?

I don't think I'll personally be at NSC, but if there's enough interest I'm sure a mirror can be organized.

Hello, friends. Here's an update on the situation:

Imaginary Landscape No. 3 is happening at both HSNCT and NSC.

The HSNCT mirror is tentatively scheduled for Saturday evening, and NAQT has graciously permitted the usage of their rooms and buzzers. It will be a singles event using the ladder system, in which there are eight players to a room, with promotions and demotions to higher and lower rooms based on performance in each round.

The NSC mirror is looking for folks who are willing to volunteer to provide rooms or buzzers. It will also be a singles event using the ladder system. I'd also like to know whether people would like to see this happen on Friday evening or Saturday evening.

Here is a link to a signup sheet for both events.

Hello, friends.

I'm happy to announce that Imaginary Landscape No. 3 will be mirrored at the U.K. site for the 2016 Minnesota Undergraduate Tournament (MUT) on Saturday, 30 April 2016.

The HSNCT and NSC sites for the tournament are still looking for staffers, players, and (NSC site only) rooms and buzzers. The NSC site in particular can only expand its field cap when more staffers, buzzers, and rooms are available (we are currently at one staffer, one buzzer, and zero rooms, which allows us to support a grand total of zero (0) players). If you are interested, please post below or fill out this signup sheet.

Imaginary Landscape No. 3 is will be having a played this weekend, April 23 2016, at the University of Waterloo mirror of MYSTERIUM.

I've signed up to staff the tournament (since I received my confirmation for staffing the NSC yesterday), and I can probably bring my personal buzzer system along with me.

Is there a fee for this? I have a teammate or two interested in the hsnct mirror.

There's no registration or mirror fee - the purpose of this tournament is to engage as many people as possible in exposure to all kinds of music, so I resent the idea of a financial barrier to doing so. Plus, collecting a registration fee would only give each writer enough money to buy, like, four hot dogs.

Spheal With It wrote:There's no registration or mirror fee - the purpose of this tournament is to engage as many people as possible in exposure to all kinds of music, so I resent the idea of a financial barrier to doing so. Plus, collecting a registration fee would only give each writer enough money to buy, like, four hot dogs.

I bet you can stretch that to 10 if you fly to Richmond on a couple of Tuesdays for the express purpose of eating the $1 Richmond dogs at City Dogs!

Hi friends,

We are still looking for one or two staffers for the HSNCT mirror and one or two rooms for the NSC mirror. If you or your friends, coaches, or teammates are planning to play the side event, please consider helping out to make the tournament possible. Especially in regards to the NSC mirror, I anticipate the event will fill up at least two rooms, but it cannot happen at all in the current state of things.

Spheal With It wrote:Hi friends,

We are still looking for one or two staffers for the HSNCT mirror and one or two rooms for the NSC mirror. If you or your friends, coaches, or teammates are planning to play the side event, please consider helping out to make the tournament possible. Especially in regards to the NSC mirror, I anticipate the event will fill up at least two rooms, but it cannot happen at all in the current state of things.

I can staff this at HSNCT unless something changes.

Hello friends,

Thanks to a staffer graciously volunteering her time, the HSNCT field cap has been moved up to 16 players! This means there's now space for two more happy souls to join before we hit the wait limit again.

EDIT: Due to multiple gracious boons, we are now at a field cap of thirty-two (32) players for Imaginary Landscape No. 3 at the 2016 High School National Championship Tournament (HSNCT). At this point I'm going to permanently cap the field - people on the waitlist beyond that point will only be able to play if someone else drops.

We have secured our first room for the NSC mirror! This means we can support the first (8) players on the list - please continue to register for both sites, and please email me, PM me, or put your name down on the spreadsheet if you have rooms, bodies, or buzzers to volunteer.

I just sent out a logistics email to everyone signed up for the HSNCT site; please notify me if you didn't receive it. It's not too late to register for either site - there's a link to sign up in the original post upthread.

I just sent out a logistics email to all players, which has been reproduced below:

Hello friends !!

Imaginary Landscape No. 3 at HSNCT will be happening on Saturday, 28 May 2016 at 8:00 PM. Please note that this is a start time, not a "show up around this time" time, so please arrive by 7:55 PM at the very latest. This is a little under an hour after the end of the last Saturday round, and please feel free to bring dinner with you if you haven't had time to finish your meal.

We will be meeting in front of the Madrid / Manchester / Milan / Ming rooms on the second-floor Mezzanine level, directly above the first-floor elephants. This location is easily accessible from multiple sets of staircases and elevators, and provides a large lobby space to rowdily mob around before we begin.

We still have a large number of available spaces in the tournament field - ten open spaces at the time of this email. You are welcome to bring yourself, friends, family, teammates, and various other interested persons on a walk-in basis, though it is recommended that you register your name in advance in case we fill the field.

As a general review of tournament logistics and format, we will begin with one (1) seeding round, proceed to five (5) rounds of ladder play, and conclude with a finals using the last two (2) packets. The winner of the finals will be declared the winner of the tournament. All rules, guidelines, and etiquette that apply to traditional quizbowl also apply to the tournament. Correct questions are worth ten (10) points and negs are worth minus five (-5) points. There are no powers.

There are no registration fees or other materials to bring - please just be on time and have fun !!

Thank you to everyone for again for participating in Imaginary Landscape No. 3 and I hope to see you all there.

Don't forget that Imaginary Landscape No. 3 is happening in just under TWO HOURS from now! If for any reason you will be late or unable to attend, please contact me as soon as possible. We currently have thirty-one (31) signups, so I anticipate some number of waitlisted individuals; it is imperative that you let us know if you plan to forfeit your spot so we can let these folks in.

I can moderate this at NSC.

Jasper Lee destoryed everyone in his path. Michael from TJ, who brought like 40 spectators, was 2nd and Ophir came 3rd. This was a great set. Thanks writers!

Thirty-two (32) people attended. The finals came down to: Michael Yue, Jasper Lee, Forrest Hammel, Joe Su, Ophir Lifshitz, Saul Hankin, Young Lee, and David Dennis.

Finals results (not final results):

Jasper Lee won the final with 200 points (20 gets, 0 negs).

Michael Yue took second place with 90 points (10 gets, 2 negs).

Ophir Lifshitz took third place with 50 points (8 gets, 6 negs).

Forrest Hammel: 35 points (6 gets, 5 negs)
Joe Su: 20 points (3 gets, 2 negs)
Saul Hankin: 40 points (4 gets, 0 negs)
Young Lee: 10 points (2 gets, 2 negs)
David Dennis: 40 points (5 gets, 2 negs)

Thank you to everyone for attend! Please join us in the private discussion forum if you have any questions or comments, and please refrain from public discussion of the set, online or otherwise. The set is not clear until the NSC mirror next weekend, and an impromptu Canada mirror the week after.

A more detail stats report will be uploaded shortly. Thank you to everyone for your patience.

Complete individual stats are now available below. Full round reports and conversion stats will be made available after the completion of all mirrors.

What do you think the likelihood is that people on the waitlist might get to play at NSC?

Cheynem wrote:What do you think the likelihood is that people on the waitlist might get to play at NSC?

Sorry for the late response - I've been busy with HSNCT logistics this whole weekend, but we have successfully obtained enough rooms to move the field limit to twenty-four (24) players! This means everyone currently on the waitlist will get to play, plus the next eleven (11) folks to register. If we can obtain just one (1) more buzzer, we can further expand to thirty-two (32) players, which will be the final field limit.

Thank you to everyone for your generous donation and cooperation to make this event possible.

YAAAAS. I'm coming for you John Lawrence--beat me if you can, survive if I let you!

The field has been expanded (and capped) at the absolute maximum size of thirty-two (32) players. We have a surplus of moderators as well, so please sign up! The next eighteen (18) of you will all be able to play. A detailed logistics email should be going out later today.

EDIT: Logistics email has been sent out. Email or PM me if you didn't receive it, or if you are signing up after right now.

Various people attended. The finals came down to: Jordan Brownstein, Sean Dai, John Lawrence, Dylan Minarik, Aaron Rosenberg, Kai Smith, Jennie Yang, and Jason Zhou.

Finals results (not final results):

John Lawrence won the tournament with 225 points (23 gets, 1 neg).

Kai Smith took second place with 35 points (5 gets, 3 negs).

Aaron Rosenberg took third place with 25 points (3 gets, 1 neg).

Sean Dai: 10 points (1 get, 0 negs)
Jason Zhou: 15 points (2 gets, 1 neg)
Dylan Minarik: 10 points (2 gets, 2 negs)
Jordan Brownstein: 15 points (2 gets, 1 neg)
Jennie Yang: 10 points (1 get, 0 negs)

Thank you to everyone for attend! Please join us in the private discussion forum if you have any questions or comments, and please refrain from public discussion of the set, online or otherwise. The set is not clear until the second Canada mirror next weekend.

A more detail stats report will be uploaded shortly. Thank you to everyone for your patience.

Complete individual stats are now available below. Full round reports and conversion stats will be made available after the completion of all mirrors.

This was an awesome set--very fun and enjoyable. I think my stats (at least my negs) from the last round were not included if that matters.

Cheynem wrote:This was an awesome set--very fun and enjoyable. I think my stats (at least my negs) from the last round were not included if that matters.

Do you mean the last ladder game (Round 6) or the finals (Rounds 7 and 8)? I have your statline as 2/-3 for Round 6, and the scoresheet doesn't have you as playing in Rounds 7 and 8 (if I remember, your usual spot was taken up entirely by Chicago players).

The 2/3 line is correct--my overall stats, unless I'm not parsing them right, have me at 10/2 for 6 rounds, so something is missing (I already had 2 negs going into round 6).

Oh, I see the error now - looking at the stats sheet, it's an issue with the Excel code. I'll fix it once I'm able to get on a computer, thank you for being patient.

EDIT: It's fixed.

Fantastic tournament, really a joy to play. Thanks to everyone involved in writing and moderating!

Now that the last mirror of Imaginary Landscape No. 3 has concluded, here are links to a bunch of stuff that people have been asking about. Thanks again to everyone for playing this tournament.

The set can be downloaded at this Box link.

The list of clues can be found at this Google Drive link. Each row is organized from lead-in (on the far left) to giveaway (on the far right). I've tried to provide as specific information as possible (e.g. movement numbers), but left a number of them blank because it would be impossible to cleanly describe six individual moments from a short piece such as Night on Bald Mountain.

Detailed individual and conversion statistics for the HSNCT site and the NSC site can be found at those respective links.

Please contact me if there are any issues. I'll make the discussion forum public once I have time to reach out to a moderator / admin.