Search found 1116 matches
- Fri Feb 09, 2024 9:11 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: On Team Splitting at National Qualifiers
- Replies: 19
- Views: 3929
Re: On Team Splitting at National Qualifiers
So, the issue we have to confront is that team-splitting is seriously compromising the qualifier tournaments. For SCT, of the top 8 teams in this list, 4 split their rosters and 2 had players on the editing team; for Regionals, those numbers were 3 and 2, with 2 other teams missing key contributors....
- Wed Nov 22, 2023 12:08 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: How many "cooks" is "too many cooks" (when producing a set)?
- Replies: 5
- Views: 2880
Re: How many "cooks" is "too many cooks" (when producing a set)?
This is an insightful and well-reasoned post. In the past, posts on this topic have had a bit of a "kids these days" feel to them; this one seems more balanced, identifying the real trade-offs entailed when you increase the size of the editing team. From personal experience, 10 seems like ...
- Tue Nov 14, 2023 12:53 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 ACF Winter Discussion
- Replies: 23
- Views: 7123
Re: 2023 ACF Winter Discussion
To clarify, "Full Fathom Five" etc. are songs included in Shakespeare plays, not pieces he composed separately.
- Wed Aug 09, 2023 3:40 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 Chicago Open - General Discussion and Thanks
- Replies: 41
- Views: 19597
Re: 2023 Chicago Open - General Discussion and Thanks
I would also like to thank Caleb Kendrick for including a literature tossup under philosophy in the Finals. I know this is a joke, but I made an honest effort to be less dogmatic in how I approached this set. I feel like I've mellowed out some since the pinnacle of my philosophy mafia days, and I h...
- Wed Aug 09, 2023 1:47 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 Chicago Open - General Discussion and Thanks
- Replies: 41
- Views: 19597
Re: 2023 Chicago Open - General Discussion and Thanks
I wanted to thank all the CO editors for producing, overall, a rewarding and enjoyable question set. Around six months ago I was genuinely concerned that Chicago Open wouldn't happen, so it's great to see that so many younger editors came together to produce an event of this quality. A non-exhaustiv...
- Wed Aug 02, 2023 11:23 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Announcements & Results
- Topic: Chicago Open 2023 (August 5 at Northwestern)
- Replies: 44
- Views: 25904
Re: Chicago Open 2023 (August 5 at Northwestern)
So...it's always hard to judge open teams before they play together, but these brackets are wildly unbalanced. May I ask what the process for seeding was? It doesn't make thaaaat much of a difference, but it's a bit suboptimal.
- Mon Jul 10, 2023 3:37 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Should ACF tossups be shorter?
- Replies: 30
- Views: 12547
Re: Should ACF tossups be shorter?
I feel like that much length variation would be confusing to players. The difficulty structure of a 5-line tossup is going to be very different from the structure of an 8-line tossup; it'll be jarring to play the 5-line tossup and hear a clue in line 2 that you'd expect to hear in line 4 or 5. Gener...
- Mon May 01, 2023 11:01 am
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2022-2023 End of Season Player Poll
- Replies: 22
- Views: 12555
Re: 2022-2023 End of Season Player Poll
MattBo is probably top 5 afa: his buzzes in that category in the play-in and finals were superb. I'm honored by the mention here, since I've always wished I were better at music questions, but unfortunately my interest in the subject way exceeds my knowledge. Those questions in the finals sequence ...
- Sun Apr 30, 2023 1:54 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 ACF Nationals Specific Question Discussion
- Replies: 53
- Views: 50753
Re: 2023 ACF Nationals Specific Question Discussion
A couple of odds and ends: - I felt like the Painting/Sculpture tossups were harder than the tossups in other categories. It seemed like that category had a larger number of difficult outliers ( The Hunt in the Forest ) and tossups with very difficult clues (the Otto tossup with a minor Dieric Bouts...
- Fri Apr 28, 2023 12:29 am
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 ACF Nationals Discussion and Thanks
- Replies: 13
- Views: 8872
Re: 2023 ACF Nationals Discussion and Thanks
I had a blast playing this set - so many questions (Baldwin and Wright, e.g.) asked about familiar topics with answers I never would have thought to attempt. Often I found myself pretty surprised at what struck me as a hard question topic, only to see a younger team answer it without difficulty. I t...
- Thu Apr 27, 2023 1:47 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 ACF Nationals Specific Question Discussion
- Replies: 53
- Views: 50753
Re: 2023 ACF Nationals Specific Question Discussion
Minor note on the Morricone tossup: In a piece by this composer, the English horn, and later Edda Dell’Orso’s wordless soprano vocals, play a theme with the notes “short A, long C, short E, long C. Is this intended as a description of the opening of "The Ecstasy of Gold"? Bc that track ope...
- Wed Apr 26, 2023 6:54 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Why doesn't film come up more?
- Replies: 24
- Views: 8685
Re: Why doesn't film come up more?
I think it would honestly be criminal to put Better Call Saul or Succession in the arts distribution. Even with some of the most critically-acclaimed TV programs, showrunners have way less freedom to experiment than arthouse filmmakers do; these are products for consumption and it shows.
- Tue Apr 25, 2023 4:28 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 ACF Nationals Specific Question Discussion
- Replies: 53
- Views: 50753
Re: 2023 ACF Nationals Specific Question Discussion
I found the tossup on time series to be extremely confusing. I am currently taking a graduate-level class titled "Applied Time Series," but failed to connect my knowledge of the Durbin–Watson statistic and ARMA models to the indicator "these things," which I suspected was asking...
- Mon Apr 17, 2023 5:26 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
- Replies: 59
- Views: 36044
Re: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
Could I see the "klezmer" tossup in Packet 7? Judging from the older version posted in this thread (and my memory of what I heard during the online mirror), it said that Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes was published as the "overture no. 34," but I can't seem to find any so...
- Sat Apr 15, 2023 9:07 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 BHSU: General discussion
- Replies: 35
- Views: 14581
Re: 2023 BHSU: General discussion
So, this was always going to be a tournament that some people were going to really like and some people probably wouldn't like so much. We set out to write in a very particular kind of mode that appealed to our senses of humor and quizbowl aesthetics; if you have very different tastes in those areas...
- Tue Apr 11, 2023 5:14 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
- Replies: 59
- Views: 36044
Re: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
I don't think it's quite accurate to say that clue is about the same kind of battle trance that berserkers go into. The character being described is Bodvar Bjarki, a (possible) Norse analogue of Beowulf with the ability to summon a ghost bear while he's asleep; the bear is his spirit animal in a muc...
- Mon Apr 10, 2023 1:03 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: BHSU Online Mirror (4/15/2023)
- Replies: 3
- Views: 4800
Re: BHSU Online Mirror (4/15/2023)
With eight teams registered, the field for BHSU online is now closed. We may choose to expand the field if we get enough interested free agents to form two additional teams. For now, if you're a free agent and would like to play, please try to join one of the registered teams with open spots.
- Tue Apr 04, 2023 1:41 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: BHSU Online Mirror (4/15/2023)
- Replies: 3
- Views: 4800
Re: BHSU Online Mirror (4/15/2023)
We've got an excellent field shaping up, but please remember you have to email me to formally register. It would be great if the teams listed on the spreadsheet could do that by the end of Friday or so. Looking forward to seeing everyone in 11 days!
- Mon Mar 13, 2023 6:18 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
- Replies: 59
- Views: 36044
Re: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
Word forms like "introspective method" should be addressed in the "introspection" tossup, the moderator was unsure what to do with that answer. The answerline for "federation of Australia" could be fleshed out more to deal with answers like "the union of Australia...
- Sat Mar 11, 2023 9:35 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: BHSU Online Mirror (4/15/2023)
- Replies: 3
- Views: 4800
BHSU Online Mirror (4/15/2023)
Hello, Ball So Hard University is pleased to announce the launch of its distance learning program, with a mirror of the BHSU set to be held on April 15, 2023 over Zoom. The tournament will be directed by Andrew Wang and me, Matt Bollinger. Fees Base Fee: $100 Payment should go to Billy Busse by Venm...
- Wed Mar 01, 2023 8:33 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
- Replies: 59
- Views: 36044
- Tue Feb 28, 2023 2:56 am
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
- Replies: 59
- Views: 36044
Re: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
And, last followup here.
- Tue Feb 28, 2023 2:55 am
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
- Replies: 59
- Views: 36044
Re: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
Posting this followup to include the distributions I mentioned. Also, I'd like to take a moment to address the issue of players feeling targeted by some of the category fake-out bonuses. Our intention was entirely to provide people with entertainment, rather than to have fun at players' expense; I d...
- Tue Feb 28, 2023 2:49 am
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
- Replies: 59
- Views: 36044
Re: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
I think the answerspace issues that Mike and Matt bring up should be examined in relation to the goals of the set. As we announced from the beginning, we wanted to write a "Nats-" set that felt like a real midpoint between Regionals and Nationals. That goal necessarily entailed writing a s...
- Mon Feb 27, 2023 9:09 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
- Replies: 59
- Views: 36044
Re: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
Buzzpoint and conversion stats from the Northwestern site can be found below.
- Sun Feb 26, 2023 6:21 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 BHSU: Thank Yous and Acknowledgements
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1723
2023 BHSU: Thank Yous and Acknowledgements
I wanted to start a new thread to acknowledge the people whose work produced this set over the past two years. Along with writing a combined 170 questions, in their categories and outside of them, Tejas Raje and Billy Busse provided an enormous amount of logistical and moral support throughout the p...
- Sun Feb 26, 2023 4:27 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
- Replies: 59
- Views: 36044
Re: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
Some tossups that I recall thinking narrowed down the answer space too quickly included: "wireless Internet" in Africa (what else are people delivering to rural areas by balloon?), the Dominican Republic dance tossup (it's not Cuba but in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and has musical gen...
- Sun Feb 26, 2023 3:56 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
- Replies: 59
- Views: 36044
Re: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
BHSU packets that were played at the main site can be found here.
- Sun Feb 26, 2023 3:40 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
- Replies: 59
- Views: 36044
Re: 2023 BHSU: Specific question discussion
Lastly: You really should remove the "Matt Bollinger's favorite 2020 presidential candidate Kanye West" gag from that one bonus immediately. I know many of us used to be fans of his music, but as worded it sounds like you're either glossing over Kanye's extremely public anti-Semitism, or ...
- Sun Feb 26, 2023 3:30 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2023 BHSU: General discussion
- Replies: 35
- Views: 14581
Re: 2023 BHSU: General discussion
Hi folks, I subject-edited European Literature, European History, Philosophy, and Religion, and co-edited Music with Aaron Rosenberg. I also head-edited the set along with Rob Carson, which entailed helping the tone and philosophy for the tournament as a whole. I generally prefer to have the players...
- Wed Feb 22, 2023 9:54 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: BHSU Main Site at Northwestern (02/25/2023)
- Replies: 11
- Views: 8038
Re: BHSU Main Site at Northwestern (02/25/2023)
Purdue has registered for the twelfth spot in the field. With that, the field is now closed. We hope everyone is looking forward to the twelve-team round robin this Saturday as much as we all are. In summary, get hype.
- Fri Feb 17, 2023 7:00 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: BHSU Main Site at Northwestern (02/25/2023)
- Replies: 11
- Views: 8038
Re: BHSU Main Site at Northwestern (02/25/2023)
Hi folks,
Looking forward to seeing everyone next weekend! Right now we're at 11 teams; we'd really like to get a twelfth so we can do a full round robin. If your team has any extra players to contribute to such a team, please let us know. Thanks!
Looking forward to seeing everyone next weekend! Right now we're at 11 teams; we'd really like to get a twelfth so we can do a full round robin. If your team has any extra players to contribute to such a team, please let us know. Thanks!
- Sun Feb 05, 2023 2:48 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Who's Doing CO This Year?
- Replies: 31
- Views: 8257
Re: Who's Doing CO This Year?
Like I said before, I am willing to edit the history, and, with proper support, I suppose I could be the head editor . Buddy I'm afraid you may have drawn the short stick. More seriously: you did an amazing job on the history for IO and both iterations of FRENCH, I think you'd do a great job subjec...
- Sun Jan 22, 2023 7:35 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Who's Doing CO This Year?
- Replies: 31
- Views: 8257
Re: Who's Doing CO This Year?
Also: With no formal institutional support, Could there... perhaps... be sources of this? CO is not exactly in the ambit of ACF or PACE or IQBT or NAQT, but perhaps some existing entity or entities see enough value in "capstone achievement that anyone can play" to support it a bit. For a ...
- Sun Jan 22, 2023 3:05 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Who's Doing CO This Year?
- Replies: 31
- Views: 8257
Who's Doing CO This Year?
So, we're getting rather deep into the academic year without anyone stepping up to edit Chicago Open. This situation was probably inevitable, given how much harder CO editing has become over the past decade. Since I edited CO, quality standards have gotten higher, packet submission has gotten rarer,...
- Mon Jan 16, 2023 7:51 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: BHSU Main Site at Northwestern (02/25/2023)
- Replies: 11
- Views: 8038
Re: BHSU Main Site at Northwestern (02/25/2023)
Registered Teams Amartya Senpai Notice Me (© John Lawrence): Mike Bentley, Will Alston, Eric Mukherjee, John Lawrence Chicago A: Adam Fine, Matt Jackson, Claire Jones, Ned Tagtmeier (1 Staffer, 2 Buzzers) Chicago B+: Alston Boyd, John Marvin, Vivek Sasse, Liam Starnes Epic Games: Andrew Nadig, Ashv...
- Mon Jan 16, 2023 3:27 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: BHSU Main Site at Northwestern (02/25/2023)
- Replies: 11
- Views: 8038
- Sun Jan 15, 2023 9:59 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: BHSU Main Site at Northwestern (02/25/2023)
- Replies: 11
- Views: 8038
BHSU Main Site at Northwestern (02/25/2023)
Hello, Ball So Hard University is pleased to announce the main site of BHSU , to take place on February 25, 2023 at Northwestern University. The tournament will be directed by Rob Carson. Additional information on logistics will be forthcoming in the following days. Fees Base Fee: $150 Qualified Sta...
- Mon Nov 21, 2022 7:08 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: CMST II @ UChicago (11/19/22)
- Replies: 11
- Views: 4100
Re: CMST II @ UChicago (11/19/22)
Are Logomachy stats available?
- Fri Aug 12, 2022 10:32 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: MUSES III: First Online Mirror (August 27th)
- Replies: 14
- Views: 4146
Re: MUSES III: First Online Mirror (August 27th)
Alex Damisch and I are going to try to play this. Since it looks like it'll be tricky to hold a well-attended mirror during the school year, I'd encourage interested players to consider signing up for this event.
- Tue Aug 09, 2022 3:40 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2022 Chicago Open: Specific Question Discussion
- Replies: 14
- Views: 4643
Re: 2022 Chicago Open: Specific Question Discussion
Yeah, I concur with John that every clue in the Chekhov question sounded like the most Chekhov story ever; I held off from buzzing until late due to both situational pressure and sheer disbelief. I will say that I don't think I'd narrowed it down chronologically as much as John did, although I likel...
- Tue Apr 19, 2022 10:14 am
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2021-22 Collegiate Player Poll
- Replies: 37
- Views: 18016
Re: 2021-22 Collegiate Player Poll
I'll try to keep this brief, but I'd like to take a moment to recommend my teammates from Georgia Tech this year. Coming off a very strong performance at ICT, S.A. Shenoy was an absolutely ideal fourth scorer in the Nationals playoffs this year. The highlight of their performance was answering three...
- Fri Apr 15, 2022 9:53 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Directed Prompts
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1960
Directed Prompts
Following my post in the Nats discussion, I wanted us to talk about some guidelines for when prompts should include additional instructions. Directed prompts, e.g. asking "In what country?" for a buzz on a tossup on "Chinese Muslims," have proven to be a positive development, and...
- Wed Apr 13, 2022 9:54 am
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2022 Thanks and General Discussion
- Replies: 30
- Views: 12009
Re: ACF Nationals 2022 Thanks and General Discussion
A couple more notes: Definitely think John's comments on difficulty inflation are correct. A significant pitfall for Nats editors is thinking a topic is more "canonical" than it really is, when it's come up a handful of times at harder events. While striving to ask about novel material and...
- Tue Apr 12, 2022 2:37 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2022 Thanks and General Discussion
- Replies: 30
- Views: 12009
Re: ACF Nationals 2022 Thanks and General Discussion
I had a great time playing this set. A couple of preliminary thoughts: - I appreciated having the directed prompts at several points as a player. Along with other welcome changes, like more concrete answerlines and notes before the tossup, they made for questions that produced much more satisfying o...
- Fri Mar 18, 2022 3:56 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Illinois Open 2021 - Errata
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1016
Re: Errata
Here are my two cents, I suppose: it is misleading to write a question with clues about Julius Caesar and ask just for the answer "Roman emperors." But it's not entirely wrong; I believe writers under the Roman empire usually listed him as the first emperor rather than Augustus. Although A...
- Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:39 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Illinois Open 2021 - General Discussion and Thanks
- Replies: 12
- Views: 2052
Re: General Discussion and Thanks
Read at Maryland this weekend after playing the set months ago - wanted to come back and observe that I really liked the set! In particular, this was one of my favorite sets of history questions ever. I was super happy to hear great new questions in the boring old areas I like.
- Mon Mar 14, 2022 3:33 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2022 WORKSHOP: Thanks and General Discussion
- Replies: 19
- Views: 5557
Re: 2022 WORKSHOP: Thanks and General Discussion
I don't think you need to appeal to a Bloomean notion of the "Western Canon" to object to the way Other Arts was done in this set. Looking over the packets, a third or more of the Other Arts tossups were written on topics we'd usually consider popular culture. The clues, rather than emphas...
- Sun Feb 13, 2022 12:39 pm
- Forum: Community Discussion
- Topic: Quizbowl-"Trivia" Community Relations: What Are They? What Should They Be?
- Replies: 25
- Views: 15841
Re: Quizbowl-"Trivia" Community Relations: What Are They? What Should They Be?
With apologies for coming to the thread so late, I wanted to post a couple issues I have with the "importance vs. interest" framing that's been brought up here. Although I'm interested in the prospects for a rapprochement between the quizbowl and trivia worlds, I don't think that framing d...
- Mon Jan 31, 2022 2:20 pm
- Forum: Community Discussion
- Topic: Quizbowl-"Trivia" Community Relations: What Are They? What Should They Be?
- Replies: 25
- Views: 15841
Re: Quizbowl-"Trivia" Community Relations: What Are They? What Should They Be?
Another big difference between quizbowl and most trivia formats I've played is that trivia gives you more to do when you're losing. If you play a quizbowl tournament and you're not one of the best teams there, you're likely to lose several games by margins of 500 points. In those situations, you're ...