The Quizbowl Resource Center

vcuEvan

The point is you are asking someone to name a minor detail, which is much much different than remembering what work it comes from if you hear it. The issue is the answer line not the clues. The whole point is that all the clues are good and would be completely valid in a tossup on a work or author,...

vcuEvan

Come on man. It's typical of the way you defend Evan against all rational arguments that you ignore all the content of my post and reduce my ibjection to common link questions to the fact "Ike Jose didn't like it." Really? Really? This avoidance is the probably the worst form of the "...

vcuEvan

Some responses: A lot of these comments have made it seem like common link tossups made up a large percentage of the literature tossups. That isn't true. Only five or six out of about sixty-five lit tossups were common links. I'm still not convinced by the arguments Ted and Andrew are putting forth....

vcuEvan

In most cases, I agree that nitpicking about individual questions is a bad way to assess tournaments after the fact. However, I specifically asked for problems with individual questions in this case, in order to put on a better tournament for the rest of the teams playing. So in this case, I'm actua...

vcuEvan

I read at this tournament today. I've seen a lot of the questions before, and my complaint about the answer selection remains. I'd like to see a much higher portion of the distro dedicated to things from the last decade or so. Other than that, I liked this tournament. Clues in all categories seemed ...

vcuEvan

I'm primarily interested in making broad, sweeping generalizations about the set rather than giving in-depth commentary on specific tossups. I'll probably wait until the set is cleared to do this. Are there mirrors coming up? The set will be cleared after the Texas mirror on Saturday the 27th of th...

vcuEvan

After the Battle of Cannae, the Lex Oppia was passed to limit the dress of this group. Members of this group who achieved the status of “jus trium liberorum” were no longer required to retain a guardian. Only these people were allowed to participate in the mysteries of and know the true name of (*) ...

vcuEvan

redacted

vcuEvan

The Sherlock Holmes question is too easy: What is five pips doing in the fifth line (or before the FTP, for that matter)? Mike Cheyne first clued this. He may have very extensive knowledge, though, so I'll refrain from commenting on the first few clues, but the last few sentences could be condensed...

vcuEvan

On the harpsichord tossup, the clues that I would know are the de Falla concerto and Landowska. When I heard de Falla, I thought, this can't be so early, and didn't buzz. Looking over the question, those are the only two clues I would know. This may be just me (more so than other comments, I unders...

vcuEvan

I don't want to sound ungrateful for the comments. I really appreciate the amount of time you spent looking over the set and am going to put in place a lot of the updates you suggested.

vcuEvan

Overall, I was a little disappointed with this tournament- It seemed like the difficulty was all over the place, making it very difficult for me to buzz on questions because the questions could be ACF nats-level or HS nats-level. There were a number of questions I enjoyed, but there were more "...

vcuEvan

Cheynem wrote:Do you think a different thread would be more appropriate for trash? I have no idea how many, if any, comments people have, but it seems like it could get confusing, especially after next weekend when more people will have played both tournaments.

Yeah, a separate thread is a good idea.

vcuEvan

xpmath wrote:For the Vargas Llosa bonus in Round 6, I think it's The War of the End of the World, not The War at the End of the World. We answered the latter, and it was (correctly) protested.

Fixed, thanks.

vcuEvan

Thank you for writing the set. There were quite a few questions I was happy to see, but there are plenty that still need work. For whatever reason, I got the sense that an unusually large number of those ended up in packet nine, so I'll start there. Maybe I only noticed them more because it was a c...

vcuEvan

gkandlikar wrote:
SirT wrote: 1/1 Biology
1/1 Physics
.54/.54 Chemistry
~.5/.5 Math/CS
~.5/.5 Earth Science
Um, what? 0 astro in the whole tournament? no general "engineering" or other minor stuff like stats, systems analysis, etc?

Cody meant .5/.5 earth science / astronomy.

vcuEvan

We definitely should have posted the distribution, whether or not it was adjusted.

vcuEvan

As much as I like creative questions, the consensus seems to be that the set was over-saturated with them. I'm planning on replacing some of them to hopefully give the set a more solid feel. Can people suggest the five or so they thought were the most awkward to play?

vcuEvan

I thought this was fun, although I agree about there being almost too much effort to be creative in tossup answers. Women was the most egregious example, but there seemed to be a lot of things like "Trials of Oscar Wilde" and "Switching to the new calendar." Most of these were r...

vcuEvan

I very much enjoyed the set, but at times it did seem to try too hard to be creative and it ended up creating some problematic questions. Probably the most emblematic of that was the very ill conceived tossup on Roman women which in my room was negged by Auroni with the completely reasonable guess ...

vcuEvan

The VCU Open 2011 private forum is created. To apply to join, go to User Control Panel > Usergroups > Select "VCU Open/Trash discussion" and submit. Please send me a PM with your name if your username isn't your actual name, so I know who you are. It appears you can click on usernames and...

vcuEvan

If Aidan wants to run what exists of his architecture tournament, we'll be doing that. There will be room for Andrew's tournament that night as well, if people really want to do that. VCU won't be running these, so it will be up to their organizers to figure out teams, rooms, schedules, etc.

vcuEvan

I think having this tournament the day after ICT is a great idea and would make me much more likely to play.

vcuEvan

We're fine with having the architecture tournament.

vcuEvan

Any word on mirrors, especially the Michigan one? If that mirrors fall through, I will be coming to the main site, so I'd like to know pretty soon. I can't guarantee it, but a Michigan mirror of VCU Open held at DCC the week before the Richmond mirror is very likely. Hopefully they'll announce soon.

vcuEvan

Here's the correct schedule: Round 13 (9:00am ET) 0208 Illinois vs Texas 0205 Georgia vs Missouri 1117 Maryland vs Kentucky 1211 DC vs New Jersey 1224 Ohio vs California Round 14 0208 Georgia vs DC 0205 Maryland vs New Jersey 1117 Texas vs Ohio 1211 Kentucky vs Missouri 1224 Illinois vs California R...

vcuEvan

When there are really interesting, important clues from a person's life that can be linked directly to why they are important, then question writers should strongly consider using them sparingly to increase the diversity of knowledge being rewarded in a set. I agree with this statement, but I stand...

vcuEvan

I've been meaning to make a post like his for a while. In addition to all the things Charlie said, biography is something that's actually taught in classes for lit, music, painting, and dozens of other subjects we ask about. Obviously we need to make sure useless information is filtered out, but it'...

vcuEvan

My sentiments echo a lot of others. This tournament had more "Awesome, a tossup on that!" moments than any other tournament I've played. The editors really did do a top notch job of producing an astonishing number of proficient and even brilliant questions. I also have no doubt that all th...

vcuEvan

One thing I just thought of (inspired by Mike's point about metaposting rules) is this: 1. Do not make illogical or fallacious arguments is a rule. 4. Pointing out illogical or fallacious arguments is backseat modding. I don't think either of these premises is true. Also, I hope that whatever rule ...

vcuEvan

Most important thing to finishing any round on time, ever, under any format, etc., is to have readers not allow games to be delayed by things not essential to finishing the game, primarily talk between questions This is absolutely right. Just continue reading immediately and anyone who tries to tal...

vcuEvan

I will post a more comprehensive critique of the set later - since singling out single tossups is usually not the best practice Actually this is pretty useful since we have at least another mirror left, especially problems in the realm of typos, wrong information, meaningless filler, excessive unde...

vcuEvan

A few things: While I don't think this set was too easy for the field, I agree that this would have been a great opportunity to employ a harder set, as the field was composed almost entirely of top tier teams. This tournament was written/edited with a universal audience in mind, and it makes sense t...

vcuEvan

There's a fair amount of world literature written in English (Matt mentions Salman Rushdie; one could add people like Vikram Seth, Jamaica Kincaid, Derek Walcott, Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, Ngugi wa Thiongo's pre-1986 work, etc.), but seems like this distribution might end up being pretty weird...

vcuEvan

Fairytale of New York

vcuEvan

"WINNERS" : Christmas Time in Hell 11-8, Christmas Wrapping 11-6, Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis 14-4, Snoopy's Christmas 10-6 The first two Final Four members will be determined by a vote lasting until 11:59 PM EST on Saturday, December 18. HANNUKAH IN SANTA MONICA REGIONAL ...

vcuEvan

1) Christmas Time in Hell by South Park
2) Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses
5) Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis by Tom Waits
10) Snoopy's Christmas by The Royal Guardsmen

vcuEvan

1) Christmas Time in Hell by South Park
5) Happy Christmas War is Over by John Lennon
3) Merry Christmas by Wesley Willis
2) Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses

vcuEvan

Christmas in Hollis, Fish-men, Oi to the World, Christmas Song

vcuEvan

1) Fairytale of New York by The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl
9) I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus by Standstill
4) Let's Have a Patrick Swayze Christmas by MST3K
5) What's This by The Nightmare Before Christmas

vcuEvan

Fred wrote:Brick by Ben Folds Five.

vcuEvan

If everyone who acquired this set or played it can email me a note about any typos, repeats or other problems they find, I'd be grateful.

vcuEvan

One more thing: Packet penalties for formatting are built into the ACF rules. I didn't want to seem like a nitpicking asshole so I chose not to use them, but I'm strongly recommending that future editors enforce these. Bonuses like the following bonus submitted by an experienced team show almost no ...

vcuEvan

First, the editors of this tournament did a fantastic job. Dallas (lit, geo), Carsten (history), Will (science), John (arts), and Guy (RMP, SS, trash) should all be congratulated. I don't have a lot to add on top of what others have said with regard to the vision of the tournament. It seems to me th...

vcuEvan

NOTE FROM THE FORUMS MANAGEMENT: This thread may contain question specifics. Do not read this thread if you are playing at Oxford on 11/20. First, thanks to everyone who submitted packets and to Carsten, Guy, Will, Dallas, and John for doing a good job editing. To everyone who attended: I hope you e...

vcuEvan

Packets have been sent. If you haven't received them (and you're supposed to), email me asap.

vcuEvan

Sun Devil Student wrote:He contacted ACF Fall Editor Evan Adams a couple days ago about their situation and is waiting to hear back.

He may want to resend that e-mail. I haven't heard from him.

vcuEvan

I may have just missed this, but was a location or start time for this tournament announced yet?

vcuEvan

Submit your packets by midnight tonight (your time) to make the +$50 deadlines. All teams that want one can have an extension, but it will cost $10 a day. So finish your packets.

vcuEvan

This is being mirrored at the Huskie Bowl in Illinois. We're still looking for other mirrors.

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