2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]

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wcheng
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2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]

Post by wcheng »

I am pleased to announce 2019’s edition of Terrapin, a medium-difficulty tournament that will be available for mirrors starting March 2019. This tournament will be written by members of the Maryland quizbowl team with some assistance and oversight from interested alumni.

Eligibility

All players who are eligible to play under ACF rules can play collegiate mirrors of Terrapin. High schoolers are not eligible to play in collegiate mirrors of Terrapin, but will be eligible to play in designated high school mirrors. All physical mirrors, whether collegiate or high school, are to be closed mirrors without exception. There will, however, be an open online playtesting Skype mirror.

Students who are dual-enrolled are eligible to play in both collegiate and high school mirrors for their respective institutions.

Difficulty

This tournament is designated as medium-difficulty, meaning that the intended difficulty level is below that of ACF Regionals, similar to 2017 EFT. This tournament is intended to be accessible for the vast majority of teams, while still allowing highly experienced teams to play and enjoy the tournament. Hence there will be an emphasis on selecting accessible answerlines, with at least two thirds of tossup answerlines being appropriate for ACF Fall difficulty.

Editing

I, Weijia Cheng, am head-editing this tournament. The subject editors will be as follows:

Weijia Cheng: History, Religion, Social Science, Geography/Current Events/Other Academic
Jordan Brownstein: Literature, Visual Arts, Mythology
Graham Reid: Science
Caleb Kendrick: Philosophy
Ophir Lifshitz: Auditory Arts

Andrew Wang is also joining the editing team as a science oversight editor.

Distribution

The editors reserve the right to change the distribution. Any changes will be posted in this thread.

4/4 Literature
-> 1/1 American
-> 1/1 British
-> 1/1 European
-> 1/1 World/Other
4/4 History
-> 1/1 American
-> 2/2 European/Commonwealth/Classical
-> 1/1 World
4/4 Science
-> 1/1 Biology
-> 1/1 Chemistry
-> 1/1 Physics
-> 1/1 Other*
3/3 Fine Arts
-> 1/1 Painting and Sculpture
-> 1/1 Classical Music
-> 1/1 Other Arts
2/2 Beliefs
-> 1/1 Religion**
-> 1/1 Mythology***
2/2 Thought
-> 1/1 Philosophy
-> 1/1 Social Science
1/1 Geography/Current Events/Other Academic

* Includes 1 Math or CS question per packet.
** With an emphasis on practices, scriptures, and doctrines.
*** Including legends of a religious nature.

Mirrors

The mirror fee will be $40 per team, including house teams. If you are interested in mirroring this set, please send me an email at [email protected]. We are seeking bids from hosts that can guarantee internet access for moderators to use online scoresheets. Moderators will be trained to use online scoresheets that will be used to create detailed stats. I strongly encourage all teams interested in mirroring this set to contact me as early as possible, ideally by the end of October 2018. We are looking for mirrors to take place on March 2 and March 9 in the following regions:

Discord (Open): 2/23
Mid-Atlantic: UMD, 3/2
Northeast: MIT, 3/2
Great Lakes: MSU, 3/16
Pacific Northwest: UW, 4/20
South:
Southeast: Auburn, 3/2
Central: WUStL, 4/20
Southwest:
Northern California: Stanford, 3/2
Southern California: UCSB, 4/20
Canada: Toronto, 3/9
United Kingdom:
Qblitz: 5/13-17

As an additional note: we are planning for this set to be cleared at the end of our Qblitz mirror in May 2019.
Last edited by wcheng on Fri Mar 22, 2019 2:55 pm, edited 29 times in total.
Weijia Cheng (they/them)
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Re: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 201

Post by Charbroil »

Is there a rationale behind not letting closed high school teams play this tournament?
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Re: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 201

Post by wcheng »

Charbroil wrote:Is there a rationale behind not letting closed high school teams play this tournament?
Closed high school teams are allowed to play this tournament, but only at designated high school mirrors intended for nationals preparation. An announcement for high school mirrors is forthcoming.
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Re: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 201

Post by Bosa of York »

wcheng wrote:
Charbroil wrote:Is there a rationale behind not letting closed high school teams play this tournament?
Closed high school teams are allowed to play this tournament, but only at designated high school mirrors intended for nationals preparation. An announcement for high school mirrors is forthcoming.
Okay, is there a rationale behind not letting closed high school teams play at collegiate mirrors?
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Stanford 2025 or whatever
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Re: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 201

Post by Charbroil »

Milhouse wrote:
wcheng wrote:
Charbroil wrote:Is there a rationale behind not letting closed high school teams play this tournament?
Closed high school teams are allowed to play this tournament, but only at designated high school mirrors intended for nationals preparation. An announcement for high school mirrors is forthcoming.
Okay, is there a rationale behind not letting closed high school teams play at collegiate mirrors?
Yes, this was the question I was asking. Sorry for being unclear.
Charles Hang
Francis Howell Central '09
St. Charles Community College '14
Washington University in St. Louis '19, 2x (President, 2017-19)

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Question Writer, National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC and National History Bee and Bowl
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Re: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 201

Post by wcheng »

There has already been significant discussion on other threads about whether high school teams should play in collegiate tournaments; I hope not to rehash that discussion in this thread, which I would prefer to focus on logistics. If you would like to discuss the philosophy behind the eligibility rules, please contact me privately.
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Re: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]

Post by wcheng »

We are currently in the process of confirming mirror sites with potential hosts who have expressed interest, and have updated the OP with those sites that we have confirmed so far. If you are in a region that does not have a mirror site, please feel free to send me an email at [email protected] and we'll gladly see what we can arrange!
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Re: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]

Post by wcheng »

I just got word that Georgia Tech will not be able to host Terrapin because of a room reservation issue. If there are any other sites in the region willing to host, please feel free to the reach out! We can be flexible with the date if hosting on the 2nd proves to be an issue.
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Re: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]

Post by Bosa of York »

Given that it's less than a month away, can an announcement for the Maryland site be posted?
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Re: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]

Post by Abdon Ubidia »

Is there an update on a high school mirror of Terrapin?
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Re: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]

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ansonberns wrote: Wed Feb 13, 2019 1:06 am Is there an update on a high school mirror of Terrapin?
Hi Anson (and other interested high schoolers), MAQT is planning to set up a DC area high school mirror. Can I ask you to direct all future questions about Maryland tournaments to Alex Echikson ([email protected])? I will not personally be involved in running Maryland tournaments now that I have graduated and live in the Bay Area.
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Re: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]

Post by wcheng »

I am very happy to announce that we are partnering with Qblitz to bring our set online! If you haven't had the opportunity to play one of our in-person mirrors, this is a great chance to experience the set in live competition.
Weijia Cheng (they/them)
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Re: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]

Post by wcheng »

Hey, if you're a college or high school player who's yet to hear the Terrapin questions, I would highly recommend checking out our online mirror on Qblitz from May 13-17 if you haven't already! We are very excited to bring our questions to this new platform, and the more people who play, the more people who you can compare your results against. The entry fee is $25 per person.
Weijia Cheng (they/them)
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MDiv @ BU '27
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Re: 2019 Terrapin announcement [medium-difficulty, March 2019]

Post by wcheng »

Since the Qblitz mirror has been canceled, we are uploading our questions to the database earlier than anticipated.
Weijia Cheng (they/them)
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