Search found 147 matches

by Gene Harrogate
Thu Feb 15, 2024 4:58 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Alternate locations for ACF Nationals
Replies: 30
Views: 4101

Re: Alternate locations for ACF Nationals

It's a good proposal, but I don't think we should rule out more proven host sites for Nats, like Paul Kasinski's basement EDIT: Just in case the post isn't a bit, I think my experience camping is there's basically no way to book 20 "game rooms" within walking distance of each other without...
by Gene Harrogate
Mon Feb 12, 2024 8:49 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: On Team Splitting at National Qualifiers
Replies: 19
Views: 3876

Re: On Team Splitting at National Qualifiers

What's striking to me in the discussion of this post here and on discord is that there doesn't even seem to be a widespread norm against splitting teams for extra qualifications at the moment. Jack, Vivian, and Matt have all put forward very good arguments as to why it's against the spirit of the ga...
by Gene Harrogate
Mon Jan 29, 2024 6:42 pm
Forum: Collegiate Announcements & Results
Topic: 2024 This Set Is Garbo (a classic Hollywood side event)
Replies: 1
Views: 553

2024 This Set Is Garbo (a classic Hollywood side event)

Answering a commission from Mike Cheyne, I'm excited to announce This Set Is Garbo, a set on Hollywood* film from about 1930-1970! My goal is to produce a challenging tournament that is still as varied and accessible as possible within its narrow scope. In other words, a majority of these questions ...
by Gene Harrogate
Sun Jan 28, 2024 7:21 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Packet submission thoughts
Replies: 16
Views: 3327

Re: Packet submission thoughts

It's reasonable enough when you're setting out to write an entire set in-house, but doing it for a packet-sub tournament means you just throw away a bunch of perfectly workable questions because they didn't match the exact granularity of your arbitrary predetermined plans, which is silly. A stronge...
by Gene Harrogate
Fri Dec 15, 2023 3:57 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 ARCADIA General Discussion
Replies: 14
Views: 1669

Re: 2023 ARCADIA General Discussion

Fwiw I both enjoyed the set and also thought it was what you could reasonably call three dots. I don't think this set was on the whole easier than, say, Winter Closed for instance. The playtest ppbs bear this out -- for a set that's halfway between regionals and winter, you'd want to see some of tho...
by Gene Harrogate
Tue Nov 21, 2023 6:56 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: How many "cooks" is "too many cooks" (when producing a set)?
Replies: 5
Views: 2860

Re: How many "cooks" is "too many cooks" (when producing a set)?

Since you bring up CO, I do think the size of the team created some issues that came through in the final set. When Young, Alex, and I were planning back in February, we tried to make up for the very short amount of time we had to write the thing by taking up as many people as possible on their offe...
by Gene Harrogate
Mon Nov 13, 2023 1:47 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 ACF Winter Discussion
Replies: 23
Views: 7086

Re: 2023 ACF Winter Discussion

This was a quality set that especially shone in its controlled difficulty -- I was happy to see a range of teams at a very large mirror enjoying themselves and getting quality buzzes on a 2 dot set. The commitment (especially in the literature) to simple answerlines with straightforward clues was al...
by Gene Harrogate
Sun Nov 05, 2023 6:02 pm
Forum: Collegiate Announcements & Results
Topic: SUDO
Replies: 19
Views: 8585

Re: SUDO

This was a fantastic side event with entertaining clues, fun conceits, and an accessible difficulty. Can't recommend it enough!
by Gene Harrogate
Wed Oct 18, 2023 10:10 pm
Forum: Practices, Scrimmages, Online Packets, and Playtesting
Topic: Planet of the Guerillas Discord reading
Replies: 1
Views: 13166

Re: Planet of the Guerillas Discord reading

Given the results of the poll above, I'm going to be reading the packets across two sessions on Sunday 10/22 at noon and Monday 10/23 at 8pm.
by Gene Harrogate
Tue Oct 17, 2023 4:36 pm
Forum: Practices, Scrimmages, Online Packets, and Playtesting
Topic: Planet of the Guerillas Discord reading
Replies: 1
Views: 13166

Planet of the Guerillas Discord reading

I'll be reading the packets from this year's guerilla film set on the quizbowl discord before posting them to the archive. This will happen across two sessions: the first Thursday night at 8pm, the second Sunday at 8pm. EDIT: Disregard the above info; to be fair to the players who signed up for the ...
by Gene Harrogate
Mon Oct 16, 2023 10:52 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Commissioning a Set
Replies: 4
Views: 4168

Re: Commissioning a Set

I've broken ground on a classic Hollywood set to be ready in the first half of the next year. I'll make an official post when I have a respectable chunk of it done.
by Gene Harrogate
Mon Oct 16, 2023 1:35 pm
Forum: Collegiate Announcements & Results
Topic: [Canceled] Planet of the Guerrillas (Guerrilla Film) Online Mirror - Sunday 10/22
Replies: 1
Views: 2358

Re: Planet of the Guerrillas (Guerrilla Film) Online Mirror - Sunday 10/22

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get enough signups to make this happen. I'll be reading the packets on discord in the next couple weeks instead (if you wrote a packet and would rather read it yourself I'll hold off).
by Gene Harrogate
Sun Sep 17, 2023 12:26 pm
Forum: Collegiate Announcements & Results
Topic: [Canceled] Planet of the Guerrillas (Guerrilla Film) Online Mirror - Sunday 10/22
Replies: 1
Views: 2358

[Canceled] Planet of the Guerrillas (Guerrilla Film) Online Mirror - Sunday 10/22

This is an announcement for the online mirror of the guerrilla film tournament Planet of the Guerrillas , to take place over Zoom on Sunday, October 22nd. This is a hybrid set with no explicit pop culture or fine arts lean. We have 15 paquets by Leo Ashton, Sam Bailey, Julien Bosse, Erik Christensen...
by Gene Harrogate
Mon Aug 21, 2023 3:31 pm
Forum: Collegiate Announcements & Results
Topic: Ahead by a Century: A History Side Event
Replies: 5
Views: 2345

Re: Ahead by a Century: A History Side Event

This was a good set! While the distribution departs enough from an average tournament to give it that side event flavor, there was a good amount of breadth that any history-interested audience will find enjoyable. The difficulty is well controlled as far as single-subject side events go and there ar...
by Gene Harrogate
Fri Aug 11, 2023 4:25 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 Chicago Open - Stories and Favorite Moments
Replies: 3
Views: 3861

Re: 2023 Chicago Open - Stories and Favorite Moments

I'd like to use this space to note some of my favorite submissions in American and World Literature. Bobrow et al.'s submissions on soda in poetry and The Sellout were both very amusing and some of my favorites to edit. I cut a Janet Malcolm hard part to use Brownstein et al.'s question on Sylvia Pl...
by Gene Harrogate
Wed Aug 09, 2023 11:43 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 Chicago Open - General Discussion and Thanks
Replies: 41
Views: 19530

Re: 2023 Chicago Open - General Discussion and Thanks

Thanks to the editors for this tournament. I want to particularly commend Caleb for what I thought was a very fine set of Philosophy questions. This post is about the Literature questions. On an individual level, I feel like most of the tossups in these categories were well-executed. (Like Andrew, ...
by Gene Harrogate
Wed Aug 09, 2023 8:03 am
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 Chicago Open - General Discussion and Thanks
Replies: 41
Views: 19530

Re: 2023 Chicago Open - General Discussion and Thanks

Thank you for sparking this very interesting discussion, Andrew. I don't want to weigh in on the theory at this point, but since I have easy access to the spreadsheet, I thought it would be helpful if I quickly provided some data for the more incidental point about the literature answerlines. Here a...
by Gene Harrogate
Tue Aug 08, 2023 11:34 pm
Forum: Practices, Scrimmages, Online Packets, and Playtesting
Topic: 2023 CO Packet 11 and Editors 5 Discord Reading
Replies: 1
Views: 2682

Re: 2023 CO Packet 11 and Editors 5 Discord Reading

We'll do this tomorrow, at Wednesday 8/8, at 8pm.
by Gene Harrogate
Tue Aug 08, 2023 10:01 am
Forum: Practices, Scrimmages, Online Packets, and Playtesting
Topic: 2023 CO Packet 11 and Editors 5 Discord Reading
Replies: 1
Views: 2682

2023 CO Packet 11 and Editors 5 Discord Reading

We'll read the remaining two packets from this year's Chicago Open sometime this week on Discord. Vote for your preferred dates.
by Gene Harrogate
Mon Aug 07, 2023 2:08 am
Forum: Collegiate Announcements & Results
Topic: Chicago Open 2023 (August 5 at Northwestern)
Replies: 44
Views: 25810

Re: Chicago Open 2023 (August 5 at Northwestern)

This set is now on the archive pending approval, with the exception of packets 11 and 16, which will be read on discord this week. I will also submit the zip file containing all packets in docx format after the discord reading.
by Gene Harrogate
Sun Aug 06, 2023 9:42 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 Chicago Open - General Discussion and Thanks
Replies: 41
Views: 19530

Re: 2023 Chicago Open - General Discussion and Thanks

Besides what Alex said above, I'd like to thank a few people in particular: -Alex and Young are the ones who took the initiative to make this tournament happen in the first place, and they're the reason you got to play the 2023 Chicago Open. It was a treat to work with them both these past 6 months....
by Gene Harrogate
Wed May 24, 2023 12:14 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 BHSU: General discussion
Replies: 35
Views: 14529

Re: 2023 BHSU: General discussion

Another good thing I wanted to quickly mention about this set: someone (Justine French?) recently noted that representing a topic is an underrated virtue of quizbowl questions. I take this as picking accurate, evocative, and meaningfully important clues that an expert will quickly recognize and (hop...
by Gene Harrogate
Wed May 24, 2023 11:47 am
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 BHSU: General discussion
Replies: 35
Views: 14529

Re: 2023 BHSU: General discussion

I enjoyed this set quite a bit. Considering clue placement, topic variety, and execution of stated goals, it strikes me as the most technically sound open in several years. In addition to the many good, novel ideas, there was a heaping helping of meat-and-potatoes content (some of it unfashionable) ...
by Gene Harrogate
Mon May 22, 2023 7:43 pm
Forum: Collegiate Announcements & Results
Topic: Planet of the Guerrillas: a guerrilla film tournament (Spring 2023)
Replies: 12
Views: 4534

Re: Planet of the Guerillas: a guerilla film tournament (Spring 2023)

On Sunday, we played a highly enjoyable first mirror of this set at Toronto . If you'd like to play these packets at a summer event, please email me at henrya20 at gmail.com. I'll also host an online mirror/reading at some point in late summer. The event is currently at 14 packets, so submitting que...
by Gene Harrogate
Mon May 22, 2023 7:32 pm
Forum: Collegiate Announcements & Results
Topic: Early Summer Toronto Side Event Sunday (May 21st 2023)
Replies: 1
Views: 848

Re: Early Summer Toronto Side Event Sunday (May 21st 2023)

We got through 11 official rounds of Guerilla film and (due to time constraints) played the remaining three packets as a shootout after the tech tournament. Congratulations to Jenny Mao, Rein Otsason, and Kevin Lei, who won the tournament with an 8-1 record! Congratulations are also in order for our...
by Gene Harrogate
Sat Apr 29, 2023 5:58 pm
Forum: Collegiate Announcements & Results
Topic: Planet of the Guerrillas: a guerrilla film tournament (Spring 2023)
Replies: 12
Views: 4534

Re: Planet of the Guerillas: a guerilla film tournament (Spring 2023)

The main site of this mirorr will take place in Toronto on Sunday, May 21st . The only cost of entry is submitting a packet. If you don't plan on playing this site, we would still love to have your packets in time to hear them! We would also very much welcome additional sites afterwards. A sign up s...
by Gene Harrogate
Tue Apr 25, 2023 12:33 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Summer Opens?
Replies: 16
Views: 7199

Re: Summer Opens?

There will likely be several Canadian weekends hitting all the major events. The only one announced so far is BHSU on 5/20.
by Gene Harrogate
Tue Apr 25, 2023 12:14 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Why doesn't film come up more?
Replies: 24
Views: 8641

Re: Why doesn't film come up more?

Thanks for the excellent post Tim. I'm excited to see its warm reception and look forward to seeing what directions some new sets will take. I'd like to quickly chime in to expand on your point about films having an ample variety of clues from which to draw. My understanding of quizbowl history is t...
by Gene Harrogate
Sun Apr 23, 2023 7:41 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 Canadian Player Poll
Replies: 37
Views: 14085

Re: 2023 Canadian Player Poll

Though no longer a closed player, I had the fortune to attend the same tournaments as many of the people below. This was probably the strongest and deepest year for the Canadian circuit ever - a fact evident from Waterloo’s exciting ICT win - and the tough choices made at the bottom (and top) of the...
by Gene Harrogate
Sat Apr 01, 2023 9:07 pm
Forum: Collegiate Announcements & Results
Topic: Chicago Open 2023 (August 5 at Northwestern)
Replies: 44
Views: 25810

Re: Chicago Open 2023

This tournament will be held Saturday, August 5th at Northwestern University. Please note that the Northwestern club cannot officially secure rooms before the beginning of the summer, and that this date may be subject to change in case of unexpected issues.
by Gene Harrogate
Fri Mar 31, 2023 1:50 pm
Forum: Collegiate Announcements & Results
Topic: Chicago Open 2023 (August 5 at Northwestern)
Replies: 44
Views: 25810

Re: Chicago Open 2023

A slight update: Gerhardt Hinkle is now editing chemistry for this year's Chicago Open. Dan Ni remains the earth science editor.
by Gene Harrogate
Fri Feb 10, 2023 3:10 pm
Forum: Community Discussion
Topic: 2023 Carper Award community discussion
Replies: 3
Views: 3930

Re: 2023 Carper Award community discussion

I would like to put forward Joe Su's name for consideration. Over the past 13 years or so, the Canadian circuit has grown from a few small tournaments to being one of the most established and active in North America. The driving force in this change has been Joe. Joe's organizational work almost sin...
by Gene Harrogate
Mon Feb 06, 2023 8:04 pm
Forum: Collegiate Announcements & Results
Topic: Planet of the Guerrillas: a guerrilla film tournament (Spring 2023)
Replies: 12
Views: 4534

Re: Planet of the Guerillas: a guerilla film tournament (Spring 2023)

Votre Kickstarter Est Nul wrote: Mon Feb 06, 2023 7:07 pm Is there any more specific idea (like a month) when this set is intended for? I'd like to make sure I don't sit down and hammer this out too late
Good question, right now we're targeting a weekend in the second half of May.
by Gene Harrogate
Tue Jan 10, 2023 1:42 pm
Forum: Collegiate Announcements & Results
Topic: Planet of the Guerrillas: a guerrilla film tournament (Spring 2023)
Replies: 12
Views: 4534

Re: Planet of the Guerillas: a guerilla film tournament (Spring 2023)

Votre Kickstarter Est Nul wrote: Mon Jan 09, 2023 5:58 pm Could there be a list of the people who committed to a packet? Gotta get the hype train rollin'
Done!
by Gene Harrogate
Fri Dec 30, 2022 3:02 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2023 ACF Regionals at McGill (28/01/2022)
Replies: 1
Views: 909

Re: 2023 ACF Regionals at McGill (28/01/2022)

Would it be possible to get a field update?
by Gene Harrogate
Thu Dec 01, 2022 4:02 pm
Forum: Databases and Quizbowl Software
Topic: QB Reader Multiplayer
Replies: 2
Views: 3991

Re: QB Reader Multiplayer

I would propose having different skip and next buttons, similar to protobowl. Otherwise it's easy to have multiple people press the button, some lag come up, and multiple questions getting skipped (or even the room crashing).
by Gene Harrogate
Tue Nov 29, 2022 1:45 am
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Editors, please TRIM your bonuses
Replies: 9
Views: 3874

Re: Editors, please TRIM your bonuses

I appreciate the considerable thought and effort you put into your post, John. Your appreciation for unique aspects of quizbowl as a format especially comes through. I'd like, however, to push back on some of your assumptions. Brevity is not an intrinsic good While it may be true that shorter questi...
by Gene Harrogate
Wed Nov 23, 2022 5:52 pm
Forum: Collegiate Announcements & Results
Topic: Planet of the Guerrillas: a guerrilla film tournament (Spring 2023)
Replies: 12
Views: 4534

Re: Planet of the Guerillas: a guerilla film tournament (Spring 2023)

Cheynem wrote: Wed Nov 23, 2022 5:51 pm Can there be questions on gorillas
Sorry, I thought the announcement was clear that there should be only questions on gorillas.
by Gene Harrogate
Wed Nov 23, 2022 5:40 pm
Forum: Collegiate Announcements & Results
Topic: Planet of the Guerrillas: a guerrilla film tournament (Spring 2023)
Replies: 12
Views: 4534

Planet of the Guerrillas: a guerrilla film tournament (Spring 2023)

Alan Smithee proudly presents: Planet of the Guerrillas , a guerrilla-style film tournament to be played in the first half of next year. What is it? This is a guerrilla film side-event, meaning that teams are expected to contribute a packet, which will not be edited. While this side event is meant t...
by Gene Harrogate
Thu Nov 17, 2022 2:43 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2022 C++ @ Toronto (1/14/2023)
Replies: 3
Views: 1563

Re: 2022 C++ @ Toronto (1/14/2023)

Could we please get a field update?
by Gene Harrogate
Thu Nov 10, 2022 3:50 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Can we cool it a bit with the "note-spelling"?
Replies: 27
Views: 7837

Re: Can we cool it a bit with the "note-spelling"?

I have an alternative comparison: score clues in music tossups are analogous to plot clues in lit tossups. Both test “surface level” understanding of a work, i.e., do you know the most famous/memorable/unique things that happen in this work? Certainly they shouldn’t be the only thing asked about (t...
by Gene Harrogate
Mon Nov 07, 2022 1:35 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Eminent Victorians (a 19th century side event)
Replies: 12
Views: 4635

Re: Eminent Victorians (a 19th century side event)

This has been posted to the archives and is now clear. Thanks everyone who played it!
by Gene Harrogate
Sun Nov 06, 2022 11:07 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Toronto Side Event Sunday: Eminent Victorians+Logomachy (11/6/22)
Replies: 2
Views: 919

Re: Toronto Side Event Sunday: Eminent Victorians+Logomachy (11/6/22)

Thanks to everyone who stuck around today to play Eminent Victorians and Logomachy. I had a great time, and I hope you all did too. Congratulations to Angus Walters never zero years (Gareth Thorlakson and Sky Li) for winning Eminent Victorians with a record of 8-2! Stats can be found here . Truly Ga...
by Gene Harrogate
Sat Nov 05, 2022 6:50 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Toronto Side Event Sunday: Eminent Victorians+Logomachy (11/6/22)
Replies: 2
Views: 919

Re: Toronto Side Event Sunday: Eminent Victorians+Logomachy (11/6/22)

Eminent Victorians will start at 9:00am on the second floor of OISE! If you're only playong Logomachy, expect to start playing around 1
by Gene Harrogate
Thu Oct 27, 2022 4:41 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Winter Closed 2022 - Question-Specific Discussion
Replies: 12
Views: 1855

Re: Winter Closed 2022 - Question-Specific Discussion

Bonuses 1 and 7 are both lit, but that's it for the first half. Not sure if you're maybe thinking of the James Agee bonus, which is classified as film. For the posted packets, bonus 1 is on Shakespeare, 4 is on Pablo Neruda, and 6 is on Dickinson. Not sure if that got switched for the current worki...
by Gene Harrogate
Fri Oct 21, 2022 3:51 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Winter Closed 2022 - General Set Discussion
Replies: 6
Views: 1151

Re: Winter Closed 2022 - General Set Discussion

I read for this set at the Canadian mirror and I have a pretty high opinion of it. Medium parts were decently challenging (as you would expect for 3 dots) but it seemed like the editors kept the hard parts reined in across the board. The questions generally didn't feel stingy with powers. I wouldn't...
by Gene Harrogate
Fri Oct 21, 2022 3:50 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Winter Closed 2022 - Question-Specific Discussion
Replies: 12
Views: 1855

Re: Winter Closed 2022 - Question-Specific Discussion

I don't know whether this set will have any more mirrors, but I'll leave some specific question comments: -Like that consciousness tu -Balmoral Castle feels a bit early for Victoria now, for reasons entirely outside your control -moment is an interesting way to ask about that stuff -The literature i...
by Gene Harrogate
Sun Oct 09, 2022 5:23 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Toronto Side Event Sunday: Eminent Victorians+Logomachy (11/6/22)
Replies: 2
Views: 919

Toronto Side Event Sunday: Eminent Victorians+Logomachy (11/6/22)

Hello all! The University of Toronto is graciously hosting a mirror of two tossup-only side events, Eminent Victorians and Logomachy, on November 6th (the Sunday after ACF Winter). Eminent Victorians is a hard all-category side event about content from 1789-1914, written by McGill alumni Sheena Li a...
by Gene Harrogate
Sun Oct 09, 2022 9:52 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Eminent Victorians (a 19th century side event)
Replies: 12
Views: 4635

Re: Eminent Victorians (a 19th century side event)

The last planned mirror for this is in Canada in November. If you'd like to host it at some point this school year, let me know in the next month or two!
by Gene Harrogate
Sat Oct 08, 2022 5:39 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Eminent Victorians Online Mirror (10/8/22)
Replies: 5
Views: 1808

Re: Eminent Victorians Online Mirror (10/8/22)

Congratulations to Plug Uglies (Jakob Myers, Justin Hawkins, Nick Jensen, and Natan Holtzman) and "Hello, Jerry." "Hello, Cardinal Newman." (John Lawrence, Michael Coates, Kenji Shimizu, Stephen Liu) who tied for the win at 9-1 each! Final stats can be found here.