Search found 394 matches
- Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:37 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: geography
- Replies: 36
- Views: 21078
There's one general reflection that comes to mind from reading these posts about geography. It's useful to remember that the distributions we have grown accustomed to were created arbitrarily. At some point in the distant past, a handful of people decided that the ACF game should have four times as ...
- Wed Dec 14, 2005 6:50 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: geography
- Replies: 36
- Views: 21078
Since I may have initiated this poll with my post about the modified JS Mill distribution, I'll weigh in. First, I should say that one main reason for our excising geography from the tournament was that none of us felt like writing it. In particular, I loathe writing geography tossups, whereas I enj...
- Wed Dec 14, 2005 2:36 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: New masters tournament for May 2006
- Replies: 3
- Views: 2609
Re: New masters tournament for May 2006
This is a preliminary announcement of an open tournament which will be held next May in Chicago. The tournament will be written by myself, Seth Teitler, and Selene Koo, and will aim for a difficulty level between ACF Regionals and Nationals. We may make minor modifications in the distribution, whic...
- Mon Dec 12, 2005 6:31 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: The date for these May tournaments
- Replies: 0
- Views: 1733
The date for these May tournaments
The John Stuart Mill Bicentennial Open Tournament will be held on Saturday, May 20. The "Kwartler-edited" theme tournament will be held the next day. There may also be other singles-tournament-type craziness that weekend. Again, all of this fun will be had at the University of Chicago and ...
- Mon Dec 12, 2005 11:59 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: New masters tournament for May 2006
- Replies: 3
- Views: 2609
The as-yet-unnamed May masters tournament will be completely distinct from Chicago Open, which will presumably be held in late July/early August. (I won't be writing this year's Chicago Open, but the tournament will happen; whether it will be centrally-written or packet-submission is not known to me...
- Sat Dec 10, 2005 8:10 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: New masters tournament for May 2006
- Replies: 3
- Views: 2609
New masters tournament for May 2006
This is a preliminary announcement of an open tournament which will be held next May in Chicago. The tournament will be written by myself, Seth Teitler, and Selene Koo, and will aim for a difficulty level between ACF Regionals and Nationals. We may make minor modifications in the distribution, which...
- Tue Nov 22, 2005 1:49 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: double standard?
- Replies: 61
- Views: 31747
With all due respect, I don't think I can agree. One can act in a manner consistent with civility, and a measure of minimum civility is necessary in any competitive event. Your supposition that suggests that merely being taciturn during an event does not have an effect on other partcipants is simpl...
- Mon Nov 21, 2005 11:11 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: double standard?
- Replies: 61
- Views: 31747
Hello all--- There were, however, players present who didn't seem to be in the right mindset to have fun. One player in particular seemed to be especially spiteful, and seemed poised to spread his attitude of disdain to other players. This player's behavior boiled to an ugly head during Sunday's TR...
- Mon Nov 21, 2005 4:07 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: TRASH structure
- Replies: 20
- Views: 10092
Eric makes some good points which ought to be considered (rather than drowned out in a barrage of ad hominem nastiness). First of all, let me point out that unlike most people on this board, I've actually written the lion's share of a trash tournament (this summer's Richler Open). I wouldn't have in...
- Wed Nov 16, 2005 7:03 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Tossup length
- Replies: 6
- Views: 6487
Tossup length
The ACF Fall discussion is getting a little wild, so I thought I\'d start this as a separate thread. Some of the comments about tossup length seem to indicate confusion about how the game is played. That is, they seem to assume that every buzz is of the following nature: a player recognizes a clue h...
- Tue Nov 15, 2005 7:18 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: ACF Fall discussion
- Replies: 107
- Views: 105884
To wade back into the fray ... I think some confusion could perhaps be alleviated if the purpose of ACF Fall were made more clear. This quote will help: I want to note that this year's ACF Fall is the easiest and best written novice tournament I have ever seen. Well, I have to disagree. It's not eas...
- Tue Nov 15, 2005 12:47 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: ACF Fall discussion
- Replies: 107
- Views: 105884
Although I had no part in editing the literature, the abundance of biography questions in the lit distribution jumped out at me. If I were playing, I would definitely have preferred more tossups on works rather than authors. Too many of the questions, to me, had the feel of being laundry-lists of w...
- Mon Nov 14, 2005 9:58 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Plagiarism in packet submissions
- Replies: 1
- Views: 2342
I should add that while outright plagiarism is obviously wrong, it is also not a good idea to submit questions to tournaments that were previously submitted to (but not used at) a different tournament. Even if you are fairly certain that none of the editors for the first tournament will be playing a...
- Mon Nov 14, 2005 8:46 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Plagiarism in packet submissions
- Replies: 1
- Views: 2342
Plagiarism in packet submissions
I don't want to pre-empt any discussion of ACF fall, but I need to make an announcement regarding this year's submissions. The editors received multiple packets in which questions were plagiarized from packets previously used in other tournaments. In one case, an editor recognized a tossup as one th...
- Mon Nov 14, 2005 4:16 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: ACF Fall discussion
- Replies: 107
- Views: 105884
There are two problems I've consistently had with the few ACF tournaments I've been to: length and diversity of field. First, length. All three ACF tournaments I've gone to have had problems with running way overtime. This particular tournament promised thirteen rounds; after round 7, there was see...
- Mon Nov 14, 2005 12:56 am
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: ACF Fall discussion
- Replies: 107
- Views: 105884
I was planning on posting about this separately, but for now I'll follow up on Seth's message by noting the following. The ACF fall editors would like to offer question commentary to any team that a) wrote a packet or partial packet for ACF fall, and b) would like to receive such commentary. If you ...
- Sun Nov 13, 2005 12:43 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Fall @ Chicago Results
- Replies: 5
- Views: 3992
To expand: Illinois A lost the final game of the playoff round robin to Michigan A, after which the two teams advanced to an ACF-style finals in which Michigan was up one game. Illinois won the next game by 10 to stay alive, and then convincingly won the deciding game (something like 500-100) to win...
- Thu Nov 10, 2005 4:30 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: personal stats data analysis
- Replies: 55
- Views: 29880
- Wed Oct 26, 2005 4:15 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Terrapin Discussion
- Replies: 14
- Views: 8592
I agree with all the comments about how well-run the Terrapin was. However, I want to cavil about the questions. For the most part, they were really good. The two exceptional packets, though, were really lousy. One was nothing but buzzer races on the opening clues, while the other was rife with awfu...
- Tue Oct 18, 2005 3:46 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: how not to write questions
- Replies: 18
- Views: 11970
- Mon Oct 17, 2005 3:35 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: how not to write questions
- Replies: 18
- Views: 11970
I guess the part I omitted was that I have not heard Levinas come up in a quizbowl tournament ever. Maybe I've been going to the wrong tournaments or something, but I think his absence at multiple ACF Regionals, Nationals, and Open tournaments corroborates my assertion that he is non-canonical. Min...
- Wed Oct 12, 2005 9:31 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: WIT discussion
- Replies: 12
- Views: 7688
WIT discussion
I don't know when the tradition of performing tournament post-mortems died down, but I've noticed that most circuit tournaments just come and go nowadays without any comment. In any event, I haven't seen any discussion of last weekend's Berkeley tournament, the WIT. I have a few things to say about ...
- Wed Sep 28, 2005 10:48 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals Location
- Replies: 0
- Views: 1842
ACF Nationals Location
ACF is pleased to announce that the 2006 Nationals will be held at the University of Michigan. As previously announced, the tournament will be on April 1, 2006. More information will be posted in the near future, but in the meantime you can get in touch with me if you have any questions about the to...
- Wed Sep 28, 2005 8:19 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: New questions available on the archive
- Replies: 0
- Views: 1848
New questions available on the archive
I just wanted to apprise everyone of an exciting new group of questions which have just been added to the Stanford Archive. To wit, the aptly-named "Pericles Abbasi Is a Big Fat Greek Homo: The Tournament," an in-house theme tournament held at the University of Chicago last spring. Fans of...
- Fri Sep 16, 2005 4:02 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: A possible spring tournament
- Replies: 0
- Views: 2074
A possible spring tournament
I'm thinking about running a Manu-like tournament next spring, to fill the time between ACF regionals and nationals. Before committing to anything, I want to get a better sense of how many people would be interested in attending. So, could you email me 1) if you would come to Chicago for such a tour...
- Thu Jul 14, 2005 6:09 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Chicago Open 2006
- Replies: 0
- Views: 2110
Chicago Open 2006
I was meaning to post about this, but Chris's nice paean to Subash provides a helpful spur. There will, in fact, be a Chicago Open in 2006. There's a small possibility that I will write it myself; a somewhat larger possibility that I will write it in collaboration with others; a perhaps even larger ...
- Wed Jul 06, 2005 1:06 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Mordecai Richler Memorial Trash Tournament Results
- Replies: 0
- Views: 1869
Mordecai Richler Memorial Trash Tournament Results
Thanks to everyone who showed up on Sunday for the first annual Mordecai Richler Memorial Trash Tournament. The tournament was won by The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Ezequiel Berdichevsky, Matt Lafer, Paul Litvak, Matt Weiner) who were undefeated in the round robin. The leading scorer was the l...
- Fri Apr 08, 2005 12:48 am
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: ACF Nationals aftermath/discussion
- Replies: 50
- Views: 67157
There have already been plenty of literary-critical clues, I think, especially in the last two tournaments. I have no objection to such clues, and in fact, no objection to a little more literary theory. A little more, but not too much more, because after all, the study of literature, in my view, is...
- Thu Apr 07, 2005 3:20 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Dates for next year's ACF regionals and nationals
- Replies: 3
- Views: 2901
Revised date for next year's ACF nationals
Thanks to everyone who noted that we had overlooked NAQT's announcement of April 7-8 as the date for the 2006 ICT. (Curse their confusing web site! They fooled us with great success by hiding the date behind a link marked "2005 SCT Host Call.") In fact, next year's ACF nationals will be he...
- Thu Apr 07, 2005 2:56 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: ACF Nationals aftermath/discussion
- Replies: 50
- Views: 67157
Music was generally solid, although my annoyance with common link tossups was building up by the end of the day. The tossup on clarinet works was good, but I didn't care for Te Deum's, Second Symphonies, and ballades, especially when considered as elements of a collective set. Since people disagree...
- Thu Apr 07, 2005 2:17 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Dates for next year's ACF regionals and nationals
- Replies: 3
- Views: 2901
Dates for next year's ACF regionals and nationals
In 2006, ACF regionals will be held on February 4. Next year's ACF nationals will be held on April 8. Locations for both tournaments will be announced in the future, as will a date for ACF fall.
Andrew
Andrew
- Thu Apr 07, 2005 12:51 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: ACF Nationals aftermath/discussion
- Replies: 50
- Views: 67157
I want to dissent from my esteemed colleague Paul. Until we conduct a scientific poll of the entire community, all we can say for sure is that a few vocal science players have made a habit of denouncing science history questions on this board. Against this, at least one player (i.e. me) likes scienc...
- Wed Apr 06, 2005 9:47 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: ACF Nationals aftermath/discussion
- Replies: 50
- Views: 67157
I wanted to speak to the complaints about science history. First of all, I should note that I am entirely responsible for the science history in this tournament. I edited or wrote all the questions on it, and I included them in the set despite the complaints of some of my co-editors who also dislike...
- Wed Apr 06, 2005 1:28 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: ACF Nationals aftermath/discussion
- Replies: 50
- Views: 67157
I don't want to pre-empt discussion of the tournament, but I thought I'd offer a perspective on the issue of difficulty before this whole discussion is swept aside by the perennial post-ICT hullaballoo. Clearly, the bonuses at this year's ACF nationals were hard. In fact, they were much too hard. In...
- Mon Apr 04, 2005 1:12 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF: thanks and prospects
- Replies: 0
- Views: 2037
ACF: thanks and prospects
This could probably be two separate posts, but I'll combine them in one. First, I want to thank everyone who helped make ACF nationals possible this year. The set couldn't have been produced without the assistance of my redoubtable co-editors: Jason Paik, Wesley Matthews, Paul Litvak, Matt Reece, an...
- Mon Apr 04, 2005 12:56 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2005 Carper Award
- Replies: 3
- Views: 3315
2005 Carper Award
This year's Carper Award went to Charlie Steinhice, whose renown as an inveterate hoster of tournaments speaks for itself.
Andrew
Andrew
- Sun Apr 03, 2005 9:05 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals: Questions for sale
- Replies: 0
- Views: 1941
ACF Nationals: Questions for sale
The question set from this year's ACF nationals is now available for purchase. $25 buys you 17 packets, each of which is guaranteed to be chock-full of clues. If you're interested, please email me at adyaphe@gmail.com. Note that the packets will not be made available for free download prior to April...
- Tue Mar 01, 2005 4:32 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Regionals comments
- Replies: 0
- Views: 2041
ACF Regionals comments
I don't mean for this to pre-empt whatever remarks other people might have about the question set, which is why I've written this post as a separate thread. I wanted to say a few things about question writing and ACF, in the aftermath of editing this year's regionals. First, let me say that I apprec...
- Tue Mar 01, 2005 12:26 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Midwest Regionals: results
- Replies: 0
- Views: 2077
ACF Midwest Regionals: results
Complete stats for regionals have been posted at the following URL: http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~dmp/acf_reg_2005/ACF%20Regionals%202205_standings.html The results are somewhat confusing, as the upper and lower playoff brackets are lumped together. The actual standings were as follows: The upper b...
- Sat Feb 26, 2005 10:36 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Midwest regionals: brief results
- Replies: 0
- Views: 2120
ACF Midwest regionals: brief results
In the final, Michigan A defeated Chicago A. Subash was the leading scorer. Complete results will be posted in a few days.
Thanks to Alice, Mike and Sudheer for moderating, and to all the teams for coming out for what was, I hope, an enjoyable tournament.
Andrew
Thanks to Alice, Mike and Sudheer for moderating, and to all the teams for coming out for what was, I hope, an enjoyable tournament.
Andrew
- Wed Feb 02, 2005 5:06 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF regionals -- general packet comments
- Replies: 0
- Views: 1872
ACF regionals -- general packet comments
At some point, the editors of this year's ACF tournaments offered to provide constructive criticism on their packet to any team that wanted such criticism. I don't know whether we've mentioned the offer recently, so I'll say it again: If you've written a packet for ACF regionals and you want feedbac...
- Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:35 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF regionals -- second deadline approaching
- Replies: 0
- Views: 1779
ACF regionals -- second deadline approaching
Anybody who wants to save their team $20 can still do so, by submitting an ACF regionals packet before tomorrow's deadline. Remember, those packets should go to Jeff Hoppes at [email protected].
Andrew
Andrew
- Wed Jan 12, 2005 9:24 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF regionals -- first deadline approaching
- Replies: 0
- Views: 1909
ACF regionals -- first deadline approaching
The first deadline for ACF regionals is almost open us. Teams can still save $30 by submitting their packets (to Jeff Hoppes at [email protected]) by this Friday, January 14.
Andrew
Andrew
- Wed Nov 10, 2004 12:41 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF regionals announcement -- packet requirements
- Replies: 0
- Views: 2052
ACF regionals announcement -- packet requirements
As previous posts have mentioned, ACF regionals will be held on February 26, 2005. This year's team of editors consists of Jeff Hoppes, Mike Sorice, and Andrew Yaphe (i.e. me). If you're interested in hosting a regional site, please contact me or Jeff (jthoppes@socrates.berkeley.edu). With the first...