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Galadedrid Damodred

(a sample of rejected titles: The Tossup with a Thousand Faces; The Tossup in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction; How to Explain Tossups to a Dead Hare) This post is my attempt to reproduce my thought process during the writing of a single tossup for 2017 ACF Nationals. I did not take notes while wr...

Galadedrid Damodred

Warning: Wall O’ Text. Responses to content-related comments come first, then at the bottom is more on my approach to using/not using submissions. The tossup on viscosity includes a prompt for "momentum diffusivity", but not for the broader category of "diffusion coefficient", even though the questi...

Galadedrid Damodred

I may post in more detail at some point regarding my overall quizbowl philosophy as it manifested in my contributions to this set, but for now, I want to make a few scene-setting remarks: I wrote almost all of the tossups in physics, astronomy, earth science, and mythology from scratch, as well as m...

Galadedrid Damodred

When is a healthy time to leave?
For me, right now.

Galadedrid Damodred

So sorry, I had no idea - thought it was a set from a previous year! I self-edited even further than you did, Mike, just to be on the safe side.

Galadedrid Damodred

The lead-in to the question on [REDACTED due to it apparently relating to a set that isn't clear yet-PM me if you want to know, Brian] is apparently a very well-known chestnut. This was the most egregious misplaced early clue that I remember people talking about. There were some other questions that...

Galadedrid Damodred

I think that, for what was basically a guerilla tournament written in a week, this was pretty good. It doesn't hold a candle to a well-curated set like Lederberg 2, but it was still fun to play. I can give some more specific feedback when I see the packets. Also +1 to the praise for these stats! Th...

Galadedrid Damodred

This was a lot of fun. Substantive commentary to come in the discussion forum once I look at the set. Many thanks to the editors for putting this together.

Galadedrid Damodred

What's the per-20 distribution of each packet, i.e. for which categories will there be fewer questions than in the submission distro?

Galadedrid Damodred

I'm interested in an IRC reading.

Galadedrid Damodred

EDIT: Oh snap I thought this was a PM. Whatever, I guess it's public now. Sorry. Hi Billy, I don't want to have to bring this up publicly, but I thought I should tell you in response to your post that not only have I written half of the questions for the Stanford A ACF Nationals packet, all of which...

Galadedrid Damodred

Secondly, if you're the powers that be, I urge you to cancel / postpone this tournament again to something more sensible. I urge this not to happen; rather, people should just be responsible with their writing. Seconded, mainly for the selfish reason that if this doesn't happen at Nats I won't get ...

Galadedrid Damodred

For what it's worth, here are the finalized Stanford rosters. We might be the only school with substantive A and B team differences between the national tournaments, so I'm not sure whether this will be useful in creating a single ranking for each team or just make it more difficult. NAQT ICT A: Aus...

Galadedrid Damodred

What was the classification question? Was that cs? I honestly only remember hearing one distinctly cs tossup on joins but am probably misremembering one of the more math ones. That was math. Design patterns, qubits, and gradient descent were the other CS tossups. I've been overwhelmed with schoolwo...

Galadedrid Damodred

Could someone please post the tossup on Chinese (from poetry)? I felt hosed by it, but I want to see if my complaint is valid or not. 7. A poem written in this language is often referred to as the “Star Gauge,” and can be read forward, backward, horizontally, vertically, diagonally, or in color-cod...

Galadedrid Damodred

This tournament is cancelled due to lack of interest. Sorry.

Galadedrid Damodred

The clue about the HMS Agincourt in the Brazilian First Republic tossup is sub-optimal for two reasons: 1. Commissioning has a technical military meaning (officially entering into service with a navy) that is different from its everyday meaning (putting in an order). In the case of the HMS Agincour...

Galadedrid Damodred

Tell Nathan to stop writing on P2; before the tournament, I was telling people (half in jest, half seriously) to study up on their P2 members because Nathan was writing for this tournament. You tell him that. I don't see what the problem is--do people do studies on what different question writers l...

Galadedrid Damodred

There's not as many answers available for pre-modern world history, that's true - you can't toss up nearly as many leaders or countries. But there is a wealth of clues to be mined - they aren't flashy or anything (compared to exciting named events, death squads, and coups) but there are mountains u...

Galadedrid Damodred

If anything, I think the middle parts of bonuses tended to be a bit generous - a lot of them felt like they had two easy parts (by this set's standards) or Regionals-level middle parts. This, of course, is still better than having bonuses be way too hard. Most (though not all, but that's inevitable...

Galadedrid Damodred

I'm not much qualified to comment on the philosophy or social science, but it did seem like in those categories especially there was an odd mix of very straightforward, super-canonical, approximately Regionals-difficulty questions with the occasional way-out question on something that most CO editor...

Galadedrid Damodred

I don't think there's a real hard part in the Suharto / Indonesia / Asian financial crisis bonus - there's barely even a real middle part. The Asian financial crisis is one of the most important modern economic events - I'd put it right up there with the dot-com bubble and only really below the 200...

Galadedrid Damodred

Hey, if this is going to happen on March 12 then we need at least 4 teams to register this week. There's still no sign of a Northeast mirror materializing, so figure out what you're doing, people!

Galadedrid Damodred

I'm too busy trying to make sure I graduate in the next 3 weeks to be able to post a lengthy manifesto concerning my approach to writing questions for this tournament, but here's a list of the raw tossups that I wrote. Some of them were changed more than others, but I'll take the blame for anything ...

Galadedrid Damodred

I just emailed the set to Sarang Yeola. Hope everyone enjoys the tournament!

Galadedrid Damodred

I just sent out a logistics email to the contacts for all registered teams. I also decided to avoid any further confusion by finalizing the schedule as follows: "stanford housewrite", then Eyes, then Christmas Present on Saturday and Cottage Bowl on Sunday. Christmas Present and Cottage Bowl will bo...

Galadedrid Damodred

A McGill team is highly interested in this. Can we pay you in person at ICT or Nats? Yes, that's fine. We'd prefer that American teams send checks by mail, but if that is too much of a headache then we're open to being paid at ICT instead. I would love to play but would prefer the subsequent weeken...

Galadedrid Damodred

For what it's worth, my preference would be to do Christmas Present as a doubles tournament and not a shoot-out (and not try to do COTTAGE Bowl on the same night). I suspect that there won't be any problem getting at least 4 doubles teams for Christmas Present. I doubt that if we tried to cram in b...

Galadedrid Damodred

Yeah what I meant was that it definitely won't be possible to do Cottage Bowl as a full tournament of 10+ packets on Saturday evening, so it's not going to happen as a normal team event. There's probably just enough time to run Christmas Present as a doubles tournament if we don't hold Cottage Bowl....

Galadedrid Damodred

With 6 teams in the field, it's very likely that there will only be 10 or 11 rounds of the main tournament. So if we can start Round 1 at 9 AM, we should be able to finish around 5 PM, then run both Eyes and at least one of the other side events afterward, since it sounds like people don't mind bein...

Galadedrid Damodred

I'm closing the field at 6 because it doesn't look like there will be 2 more teams that register in the next few days (although you're welcome to prove me wrong!). I will send out a logistics email this Sunday. Side event registration is more flexible, but please try to let me know ahead of time ins...

Galadedrid Damodred

Despite our best efforts, there is still no Northeast site for this tournament. Therefore, teams in that region should either arrange a physical mirror in the next week or sign up for the Skype mirror. We can move the date if that will work better for more teams, so when you sign up, please let me k...

Galadedrid Damodred

Stanford A went undefeated in the round robin and defeated Berkeley A in the first game of an advantaged final to win the tournament. Many thanks to our excellent team of staffers, which consisted of Terry Drinkwater, Nicholas Karas, Niki Peters, Dennis Sun, and Andrew Yaphe. Complete results: Overa...

Galadedrid Damodred

I just sent out a logistics email. PM or email me if you didn't get it.

Galadedrid Damodred

The current projected lineup for Stanford B includes Tabitha Walker at ICT and Kyle Sutherlin at ACF Nationals, in addition to James, Nathan, and Freed. (In other words, they'll be eligible for the UG title at ICT, but not at ACF Nationals.) EDIT: Jay Bhasin has replaced Tabitha on the ICT team, so ...

Galadedrid Damodred

OK, here's the plan for side events. I'll keep track of the fields and staffers for these in the OP. Please PM or email me if you are willing to staff either or both of the Sunday side events. Eyes: This will take place Saturday evening, immediately after the conclusion of "stanford housewrite". It ...

Galadedrid Damodred

Alabama will host the South mirror on March 5. Sorry for the delay and the general confusion. From emails I got back in November, it seems like a bunch of schools in the Northeast (including Harvard) have already declined to host a physical mirror. So, if one of those schools—or another in the North...

Galadedrid Damodred

What's the field status for this tournament?

Galadedrid Damodred

It looks like I need to clear some things up. The below statement is my own and does not represent the opinion of the Stanford club as a whole. I was not aware that there exists so much opposition to the use of Skype for quizbowl tournaments. I have played two Skype tournaments and did not experienc...

Galadedrid Damodred

Where are there no plans to hold a mirror in The South? We'd like to assess the potential size of the Skype mirror (which would primarily draw players from the Northeast and the South) before considering a 4th physical site in the US. We'd rather have fewer mirrors with larger fields than more mirr...

Galadedrid Damodred

There is now a near-complete list of mirrors in the OP. There may or may not be a Northeast mirror; we hope to resolve that situation in the near future. UPDATE 12/27: There are no plans to hold mirrors in the Northeast or the South at this time. We encourage individuals and schools in those regions...

Galadedrid Damodred

The Skype mirror of "stanford housewrite" will take place on March 12, 2016. Refer to this thread for information about the set. As of February 29, there will not be a Northeast mirror, so people in that region who are not attending the Maryland site and want to play should sign up for the Skype mir...

Galadedrid Damodred

Stanford University will host the California mirror of ACF Regionals on January 30, 2016. I, Austin Brownlow, will be the tournament director. For specific questions about this tournament (hotels, parking, and the like), send an email to me (acb13 AT stanford DOT edu). For general information about ...

Galadedrid Damodred

Berkeley B cleared the field after an 11 team round robin, thus winning the overall, UG, and D2 trophies. Berkeley A, Berkeley C, and Stanford all went 8-2. Stanford's players had to leave, so they forfeited the play-in match for 2nd place; Berkeley C then forfeited the 2nd place match, so Berkeley ...

Galadedrid Damodred

Stanford A defeated Berkeley A in the first match of an advantaged final. Thanks to everyone who attended and especially to our excellent team of staffers. Stats can be found here: http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... all_games/

Galadedrid Damodred

There may be a non-negligible number of extra questions that don't make the final cut of the set, and I'm thinking of writing a packet or two of super-hard religion tossups, but I can't guarantee anything at this time. If and when side events materialize, we can definitely host them on Sunday, as lo...

Galadedrid Damodred

With less than a week before the tournament, I am closing the field at 10 teams. I will send out a logistics email tomorrow night.

Galadedrid Damodred

The main site of "stanford housewrite" will take place at Stanford University on February 27, 2016. Refer to this thread for information about the set. Register by posting in this thread or emailing me, Austin Brownlow (acb13 AT stanford DOT edu). Cost Base fee: $120 Minimum fee: $0 Working buzzer d...

Galadedrid Damodred

I am delighted to announce “stanford housewrite”, an open tournament written by members of the Stanford University Quiz Bowl Club and available for mirrors beginning on February 27, 2016. Stephen Liu will be the head editor. THE SET “stanford housewrite” will consist of 15 packets of power-marked qu...

Galadedrid Damodred

Everyone from Stanford who's not totally swamped by finals week is coming to this tournament.

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