KICKOFF II (2023-24): Applications for Writers/Editors

[oriley]

Hello!

We are now accepting applications for KICKOFF II, a high school regular to regular-plus* difficulty set for the winter of the 2023-24 season. I, Owen Riley, will be head-editing and directing logistics for this set.

Editors:
Would-be editors should submit a document containing two tossups and two bonuses in each category they are applying to edit. 1/1 should be targeted at regular difficulty, similar to this year’s KICKOFF. 1/1 should be targeted at regular-plus difficulty, similar to Saturnalia or 2021 BHSAT. These questions may not have been reviewed, edited, or seen in any way by anyone but you. This document should be emailed to oriley1201 AT icloud DOT com. Editors will be accepted on a rolling basis beginning one month from now, on May 28.

Writers:
Would-be writers should submit a document containing two tossups and two bonuses in any category other than pop culture. 1/1 should be targeted at regular difficulty, similar to this year’s KICKOFF. 1/1 should be targeted at regular-plus difficulty, similar to Saturnalia or 2021 BHSAT. These questions may not have been reviewed, edited, or seen in any way by anyone but you. This document should be emailed to oriley1201 AT icloud DOT com. Writers will be accepted on a rolling basis beginning on June 1.

Edit: submitted tossups should be between 550-650 characters, consistent with KICKOFF tossup length. Apologies for not clarifying this. Submitted tossups from writers do not have to be powermarked. Submitted tossups from editors do have to be powermarked.

Applications of individuals who will not be in high school during the 2023-24 season will be prioritized.

Distribution:
The distribution of the set will be as follows.
4/4 History (1/1 American, 1/1 World, 1/1 European, 0.6/0.6 Ancient, 0.4/0.4 Other)
4/4 Literature (1/1 American, 1/1 British, 1/1 European/Classical, 1/1 World (incl. CAN/AUS/NZ)/Other)
4/4 Science (1/1 Biology, 1/1 Chemistry, 1/1 Physics, 1/1 Other)
2.5/2.5 Fine Arts (1/1 Auditory, 1/1 Visual, 0.5/0.5 Other)
2/2 Religion and Mythology
1/1 Philosophy and Social Science
1/1 Geography
1/1 Pop Culture and Sports
0.5/0.5 Current Events


A note on deadlines
This set will have four deadlines for category completion. 25% of each category will need to be completed by the date I designate as 25% of the time through the time available to write, and so on. The editor of each category will be responsible for ensuring each of these deadlines are met. If an editor tells me we need more writers, we can get more writers. Otherwise, for example, if we are three questions short the day before the deadline, the editor will be responsible for making sure those questions get written.

*A note on difficulty
I did indeed say “regular to regular-plus.” This set will consist of 14 packets—seven of regular difficulty and seven of regular-plus difficulty. We may or may not write a version with the regular-plus packets downconverted to regular difficulty, depending on interest.

Any associated questions may be emailed to me. Again, my email is oriley1201 AT icloud DOT com. Thanks!

[Krik? Krik?! KRIIIIK!!!]

*A note on difficulty
I did indeed say “regular to regular-plus.” This set will consist of 14 packets—seven of regular difficulty and seven of regular-plus difficulty. We may or may not write a version with the regular-plus packets downconverted to regular difficulty, depending on interest.

What is the point of this? I strongly recommend NOT doing this. Seriously. Most tournaments - even slow ones - go for about nine to ten games. That means that if a tournament uses this set, the set will take a complete left turn for many teams in the middle of playoffs! It will make stats incredibly difficult to analyze. If good teams want to play up, they should play any of the plethora of Regs+ sets announced already. This is only going to ruin the experience for average teams who start questioning in the afternoon why they aren't doing as well as they were in the morning.

I just think this is needlessly complicating the set. I enjoyed KICKOFF last year as a straightforward Regs event. If you want to upconvert the set (which I don't recommend doing because it will only add to the glut of Regs+ events), do it entirely to the set. Or else a Regs+ event is going to have Regs packets in there too, which makes things even worse!

[oriley]

“We may or may not write a version with the regular-plus packets downconverted to regular difficulty, depending on interest.”

There will be 14 packets. Hosts will have the option of running prelims on regular difficulty and running playoffs on regular-plus difficulty, if that is what is preferred for their field.

[Krik? Krik?! KRIIIIK!!!]

“We may or may not write a version with the regular-plus packets downconverted to regular difficulty, depending on interest.”

There will be 14 packets. Hosts will have the option of running prelims on regular difficulty and running playoffs on regular-plus difficulty, if that is what is preferred for their field.

Right...I got that. But that doesn't answer my question: why do this in the first place? Why split the tournament into two different difficulties? How will tiebreakers be split up? What if you run out of packets of one difficulty for prelims/playoffs and have to use one of the other? How are you going to keep the set's distribution and content consistent across two different difficulties but under one set? These are just a few questions that you should be able to answer as the head editor under a new design like this.

As a potential host for Regs events in the fall, I don't want a tournament completely different in the morning than in the afternoon. The afternoon can be pretty exhausting for teams, let alone everything now being harder.

As you alluded to a completely downconverted version...I strongly recommend you do this instead of the current structure! The set in my opinion should not be this half/half project that can't decide what difficulty it wants to be.

[Cheynem]

So, like MSNCT does much easier prelims than playoffs, but in that case, the explanation is that playoffs have to be harder to gradate the best of the best playing for a national championship (also, it's a clear gradation between prelim and playoff difficulty). I'm somewhat skeptical that a regular season tournament really needs to up the playoff difficulty in this vein.

[oriley]

“We may or may not write a version with the regular-plus packets downconverted to regular difficulty, depending on interest.”

I would like to hear from potentially interested hosts. If you would be interested in mirroring this set only on regular-difficulty packets, please email me at oriley1201 AT icloud DOT com. If you would be interested in the regs/regs+ split outlined previously, please also email me. I will take all feedback into consideration.

[Krik? Krik?! KRIIIIK!!!]

I would be interested in mirroring this set in the Kansas City area seeing as how KICKOFF turned out last year. In fact, I could help get this set played by hundreds of teams in the state if Missouri or through my contacts elsewhere. But I feel disrespected that you are brushing off simple questions about this set and its nontraditional vision for a regular season housewrite.

The reason I ask, and which I've written about extensively here, is that there is a massive creep towards Regs+ housewrites which in turn has increased the difficulty of HS housewrites. This has resulted in a growing gap between ordinary teams and a small group of elite players who make up a fraction of the quizbowl market. I strongly advise you to reconsider your format, for the sake of the community and the validation of your work by both site size and pay. Good luck.

[Irreligion in Bangladesh]

FYI - if you have a mirror site with exactly 9 or 10 teams, the best tournament format by far is a simple 9-game round robin + finals. Providing two different seven-packet question sets makes it impossible to fairly run the round robin. That'll hamstring your ability to get mirror sites of those sizes, in addition to the points already made about sites big enough to need prelims & playoffs.

[oriley]

After collecting feedback from potential host sites, we have decided to remove the initially proposed half regs/half regs+ setup, in favor of producing 12 packets of solely regular difficulty. Thank you to everyone who took the time to reach out and offer feedback.

[Krik? Krik?! KRIIIIK!!!]

After collecting feedback from potential host sites, we have decided to remove the initially proposed half regs/half regs+ setup, in favor of producing 12 packets of solely regular difficulty. Thank you to everyone who took the time to reach out and offer feedback.

Great choice. I appreciate you taking (and responding to!) feedback. I look forward to hopefully having this tournament hosted in my area!

[oriley]

The editors and I have decided to postpone this set’s mirror window to the fall of 2024. The chief factors which led us to make this decision were firstly, a general lack of progress being made on set writing, and secondly, the abundance of regular-difficulty sets already available for mirroring this year. We will have another round of writing applications this coming spring, in which graduating high school seniors will be welcome to apply.