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Guerilla History Event (PIANO side event)

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 2:50 am
by naan/steak-holding toll
Inspired by Ophir's Imaginary Landscape and moderately dismayed by the relative lack of history tournaments recently, I propose to host a Guerilla History Event that will be played after PIANO at sites where people want to play it. It will also be available to play online at a later date.

Players of this event who submit twelve questions will not pay an entry fee; all other players will pay $10. Tournament directors should sent proceeds to Nitin's venmo account (@nitinsr99) or arrange other methods of paying.Tournament directors should keep $10 per staffer to compensate their staff; all other proceeds will go to the editors.

Submitted packets should contain questions of a high difficulty level (think around ICT) but should include at least a few answers that would be appropriate at ACF Regionals or easier tournaments. Don't write tossups that are more than six lines long. Use your discretion with the selection of your most challenging answers and don't swing to extremes, e.g. cookie-cutter tossups on the Whiskey Rebellion or questions on a lesser-known Duke of Courland. Nobody wants to play those at an event like this.

Nitin Rao and his editing team will receive the entire proceeds of this tournament apart from what is paid to staffers. Editor duties will consist of writing two finals packets, selecting questions to use for the 30-question packets, checking for repeats, proofreading, adding prompts, and putting in power marks. Editors should not make any significant changes to submitted questions apart from wording / sentence structure improvements unless there are factual errors in the questions.

Indicate your interest in participating on this spreadsheet by putting down your name and whether you'll be submitting or not.

Submissions should be twelve questions and consist of the following:
1 Ancient History (any before 500 AD)
2 US History
1 Other Anglophone History (Britain/British Empire, Canada, Australia/New Zealand, etc.)
3 World History, each on different parts of the world (East Asia, South/Southeast Asia, Middle East/Central Asia, Africa, Americas not covered above)
2 Continental European History (any post 500 AD history not covered above)
1 Archaeology, Historiography, or other questions pertaining to the "study of history"
2 Whatever You Want

All packets should be sent to Nitin Rao at nitinsrao99 [at] gmail [dot] com. Packets should be sent no later than February 23 to give the editors adequate time. Packets will be compiled from three submissions, with the extra six questions serving as tiebreakers if they are not repeats. Ideally there will be something in the range of 25 to 30 submissions, so there are at least eight packets plus two finals packets.

It is strongly suggested that you vary the areas of history covered in your submissions, e.g. social, political, military, economic/business, etc.

Re: Guerilla History Event (late August)

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 11:06 pm
by ObsidianFoot
I will tentatively express interest, as I, too, am dismayed at the relative lack of history tournaments these days. My actual participation in this, however, is dependent on time. Will, do you have some idea of when you would start this and how long it would run?

Also, are you planning for singles or doubles? CO guerrilla history has been doubles in the past, but what about this?

Re: Guerilla History Event (late August)

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2018 1:27 pm
by naan/steak-holding toll
ObsidianFoot wrote:I will tentatively express interest, as I, too, am dismayed at the relative lack of history tournaments these days. My actual participation in this, however, is dependent on time. Will, do you have some idea of when you would start this and how long it would run?

Also, are you planning for singles or doubles? CO guerrilla history has been doubles in the past, but what about this?
This is going to be a shootout on a Discord server, with everyone's individual scores being tracked. It will probably run for about three to four hours in the evening on a weeknight.

Re: Guerilla History Event (December)

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 12:33 pm
by naan/steak-holding toll
Postponing this until December to hopefully get more signups and planned submissions.

Re: Guerilla History Event (December)

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 12:42 pm
by Cheynem
Can this event also be run as an actual in person event?

Re: Guerilla History Event (December)

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 12:49 pm
by naan/steak-holding toll
Cheynem wrote:Can this event also be run as an actual in person event?
I'm open to doing so for an event such as PIANO or mirrors of SGI, providing sufficient interest.

Re: Guerilla History Event (December)

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 1:04 pm
by Coach Jim
If there is an East Coast mirror of this tournament, we would be very interested in sending one or two teams.

Re: Guerilla History Event (December)

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2018 1:05 am
by naan/steak-holding toll
At this point, are people more interested in playing this as an online event or as an in-person event, with a random other person being asked to edit out repeats? Personally I kind of want to try an online-only event, as I mean for this to be free and I'd like everyone who wrote to play the tournament at the same time if they can.

Re: Guerilla History Event (December)

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2018 1:53 pm
by Tejas
I would prefer to play in person (possibly after a PIANO mirror?).

Re: Guerilla History Event (December)

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 3:21 pm
by naan/steak-holding toll
Based on my positive experience with the somewhat guerilla QANTA event, I'd like to modify the format of this tournament. I'd like to have slightly shorter questions and more questions per round - I think 30 would be good. I think this has the effect of making things feel less onerous for teams that aren't buzzing early, particularly on the more challenging answerlines that are likely to surface at a tournament such as this one.

Like the QANTA event, I'd like to have things submitted to a central editing crew a couple of weeks in advance for basic proofreading and adding additional prompts where need be, and to take out repeats. I'd also like these editors to add powers, since powers are fun and for a guerilla event I don't think we should care too much if some of the powers are misplaced, and to write a finals packet or two.

In accordance with this, I'd also like to modify the fee structure: $5 per player who does not submit at least 12 questions (since presumably some will be repeats and need to be excised). All tournament proceeds will go to the editing crew - ideally we'd get something like 20-30 submissions and 50-100 players across various sites, meaning the editors would get a few hundred dollars for their effort.

Obviously, we'd need a volunteer editor or two for this. Please PM me if you're interested.

Re: Guerilla History Event (December)

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 3:27 pm
by Mike Bentley
When is the latest estimate fot when this tournament would run?

Re: Guerilla History Event (December)

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 3:28 pm
by naan/steak-holding toll
Added to the OP - I'd like to run this event after PIANO. In accordance, I am going to suggest 30-question rounds to not make the tournament go too long. I'd like to make sure the editors get fair compensation as well.

EDIT:

I've changed the entry fee to $10 to incentivize writing, and to generate enough revenue at each site to compensate staffers as well as boost editor income. Assuming 20 submissions and 80 players across various sites, that means a total of $600 in revenue. Assuming 15 staffers getting $10 each, that means the editors would get $450 for writing 60 questions and doing the editing and proofreading work, which I think is fair for a relatively low-effort editing job. Editors can and should feel free to solicit contributions from others to assemble these packets.

I've also noticed a potential issue with players on different teams having their packets in different rounds. I think the small, flexible, packet "units" for editors to mash together are still optimal for a tournament like this, but I've modified the sign-up sheet so people can indicate who they intend to play with, so editors can work things out. I've also removed anyone who doesn't plan on writing from the sign-up sheet.

EDIT 2: Nitin Rao will be in charge of the editing team. Contact details are in OP. Please send him your packets no later than February 16.

Re: Guerilla History Event (PIANO side event)

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 12:46 pm
by naan/steak-holding toll
One more thing - please don't share any of your questions with anyone, not even people you're playing with and who your packet will presumably be grouped with! I would really like each packet to feel like a bit of a wild ride and have a minimal amount of coordination, in order for there to be an even more authentic "guerilla" feeling.

Re: Guerilla History Event (PIANO side event)

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2019 7:46 pm
by naan/steak-holding toll
Hi all,

A friendly reminder that this is still a Thing! Please help Nitin out and get your packets in before February 16th. I understand a lot of folks are busy with Nationals submissions, so if you're an open player, submissions are particularly appreciated :)

EDIT: I've added a column to the spreadsheet so that people can indicate whether they have submitted or not. Also changed payment info

Re: Guerilla History Event (PIANO side event)

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2019 2:46 pm
by Justice William Brennan
Submission deadline is in 2 weeks and I've only received 3(!) submissions. If you're planning to submit a packet (highly recommended), it'd be helpful if you did that sooner rather than later!

Re: Guerilla History Event (PIANO side event)

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2019 2:57 pm
by naan/steak-holding toll
Hey folks - so Nitin tells me there are very few submissions in so far, and that's disappointing. Since the submissions don't need much editing, we've decided to extend the deadline by a week. Also wanted to remind people that the questions should only be about six lines long - so it shouldn't take too much time to write them. Please get things in as soon as possible :)

Re: Guerilla History Event (PIANO side event)

Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 4:28 pm
by Justice William Brennan
As of Feb. 23rd, I have enough submissions for 4 packets. If you're planning on playing the set and haven't submitted, I would highly recommend doing it despite the passed deadline if you want to have enough packets to play a round robin on (particularly at the Hopkins site, which I expect will have far more teams than the set can currently support).

Re: Guerilla History Event (PIANO side event)

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 11:40 am
by naan/steak-holding toll
Hey folks - I'm told 14 packets are in so far and a few more are promised. I know it's past the nominal deadline, but if you can still help out by submitting, please reach out to either Nitin or myself. I'm extremely glad that this event is happening!

Also, if you can figure out who you're playing with sooner rather than later, that would be fantastic - it lets the editors know how to combine packets so that teammates don't find their questions in separate packets.

Re: Guerilla History Event (PIANO side event)

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2019 1:00 am
by naan/steak-holding toll
Update: this tournament will have 7 packets: 5 prelims + 2 finals packets. Plan your schedules accordingly! And a reminder, you don't need to submit to play this tournament (indeed at this point it would be hard to do so).

Re: Guerilla History Event (PIANO side event)

Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2019 3:31 pm
by naan/steak-holding toll
Wanted to thank Nitin, Mike Cheyne, and Matt Lehmann for their work on this set. It was a ton of fun to play, fast paced, and showcased a ton of different people's ideas and approaches to history

Also, congrats to Jordan for continuing to be The Greatest :)