Search found 629 matches

by Dominator
Thu May 04, 2017 1:46 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MASSOLIT (May 2017) Announcement
Replies: 41
Views: 30690

Re: MASSOLIT (May 2017) Announcement

This tournament is about two weeks away. If you haven't yet, please sign up in the Google sheet. If you have signed up, please make sure that I have an email address for you to send out the logistics email. It looks like 1v1 and 2v2 are the most popular formats. I am considering opening up another d...
by Dominator
Tue Apr 18, 2017 11:13 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Documenting plagiarism
Replies: 20
Views: 11198

Re: Documenting plagiarism

wcheng wrote:I'm pretty sure that this shows an instance of plagiarism, but I can't be certain.
It could easily be two cases of uninspired writing from the same source.

Plagiarism or not, it's a problem.
by Dominator
Wed Mar 29, 2017 9:35 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MASSOLIT (May 2017) Announcement
Replies: 41
Views: 30690

Re: MASSOLIT (May 2017) Announcement

kitakule wrote:
Dominator wrote: superpowermarked tossups
Will the tossups have a three-tier point structure? I.e. will there be both superpowers and regular powers?
Yes.
by Dominator
Wed Mar 29, 2017 10:41 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MASSOLIT (May 2017) Announcement
Replies: 41
Views: 30690

Re: MASSOLIT (May 2017) Announcement

What is the starts time for these days and how long do you expect them to run? To try to accommodate all time zones, I'd probably shoot for 8:30 ET/5:30 PT. If this were happening live, I'd say a bit over 2 hours. Since it's on Skype, it will take longer (but at least bonus conferral won't slow it ...
by Dominator
Tue Mar 28, 2017 8:52 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MASSOLIT (May 2017) Announcement
Replies: 41
Views: 30690

Re: MASSOLIT (May 2017) Announcement

Okay, signups are available here . I'm currently offering three options, all on Skype: Tuesday, May 16: 1 on 1 Thursday, May 18: 2 on 2 Sunday, May 21: 4 on 4 Each day, the field is capped at 12 teams. If the field for a particular day and format fills up, we can open up another. Conversely, if inte...
by Dominator
Fri Mar 10, 2017 12:32 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Illinois '16-'17
Replies: 145
Views: 66222

Re: Illinois '16-'17

Big Y wrote:If there are strong arguments to be made, they have nothing at all to do with the 2017 IHSA Set.
You're right, but I'm not thinking of 2017.
by Dominator
Thu Mar 09, 2017 11:17 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Illinois '16-'17
Replies: 145
Views: 66222

Re: Illinois '16-'17

the return of AHAN wrote:Count me among those who was impressed to see Chebyshev's Theorem converted.
Which of Chebyshev's Theorems?
by Dominator
Thu Mar 09, 2017 4:45 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Illinois '16-'17
Replies: 145
Views: 66222

Re: Illinois '16-'17

Joker wrote:
Hyrdofluoric_Acid wrote:A lot of the math questions seemed to be written by someone who doesn't really like math.
This wouldn't be an issue if IHSA accepted the fact 4/4 math is excessive.
How much would you consider not excessive?
by Dominator
Tue Feb 21, 2017 7:50 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Illinois '16-'17
Replies: 145
Views: 66222

Re: Illinois '16-'17

Hyrdofluoric_Acid wrote:I am a bit confused about how Matthew ranked below me and not in the top six....
I'm sorry you expected the rankings to accurately reflect the value of the players involved. Someone should have given you a heads-up.
by Dominator
Fri Dec 23, 2016 5:09 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MASSOLIT (May 2017) Announcement
Replies: 41
Views: 30690

MASSOLIT (May 2017) Announcement

This is a preliminary announcement for Machiavelli Academy'S Set Of LIT (MASSOLIT), an all-literature tournament to be played at the end of the 2016-2017 year. The intended difficulty is regular, although with a few harder answer lines and a bit of whimsy sprinkled in to satisfy the kind of people w...
by Dominator
Sun Dec 18, 2016 11:26 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Non-students playing closed tournaments under false names
Replies: 56
Views: 25610

Re: Non-students playing closed tournaments under false name

Nine-Tenths Ideas wrote:My only real thought here is that I'm disappointed I didn't know SoCal tournaments are semi-open. I live here now! Hit me up, who wants 9 ppg?
This. We can team up, but I can't guarantee 9 ppg.
by Dominator
Thu Oct 20, 2016 6:23 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Thoughts on Quizbowl Employment
Replies: 9
Views: 4862

Re: Thoughts on Quizbowl Employment

Some of the questions you bring up about incentives are interesting. If we've learned anything from Freakonomics, it's that people will do what they they are incentivized to do (that, and that abortions lower crime rates). I think Brad's model of cultural editors for NHBB attempts to do as you sugge...
by Dominator
Thu Oct 13, 2016 12:19 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Changes to NAQT SSNCT eligibility
Replies: 32
Views: 14850

Re: Changes to NAQT SSNCT eligibility

The feeling in many quarters seems to be that having different levels of National championships somehow diminishes quiz bowl. I do not follow this argument, and I doubt I ever will. I'm not entirely sure that different levels of national championship by itself diminishes quizbowl. However, I can te...
by Dominator
Fri Oct 07, 2016 10:45 pm
Forum: Databases and Quizbowl Software
Topic: QSWriter - Question Set Creation & Packeting Website
Replies: 11
Views: 7433

Re: QSWriter - Question Set Creation & Packeting Website

I don't intend to use QSWriter, since I already have a system I built to do the same things. So, I won't really be able to weigh in on what QSWriter does well and not-so-well. Still, I want to challenge Cody's notion that this system would not be worth the pittance being charged since methods alread...
by Dominator
Fri Aug 05, 2016 8:19 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Would You Recommend Working for NAQT?
Replies: 22
Views: 9555

Re: Would You Recommend Working for NAQT?

I'd like to remind everyone that these three threads are pretty much entirely a (kind of curious?) rhetorical gesture in an argument that has basically already concluded. I'm curious why you think you know the intentions of the OP, let alone anyone else who may have read this thread, but at least i...
by Dominator
Sat Jul 30, 2016 4:58 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Would You Recommend Working for NAQT?
Replies: 22
Views: 9555

Re: Would You Recommend Working for NAQT?

I can add that I've only volunteered at 2 MSNCTs and 1 ICT, but I've never done anything to warrant pay from them. Still, I'll echo that NAQT was nothing but pleasant to volunteer for. In fact, I was disappointed when I, for no reason apparent to me, did not get an invitation to staff for them this ...
by Dominator
Sat Jul 30, 2016 11:57 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Would You Recommend Working for PACE?
Replies: 7
Views: 4990

Would You Recommend Working for PACE?

Cheynem, in another thread wrote:This is a honest question.
by Dominator
Sat Jul 30, 2016 11:57 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Would You Recommend Working for HSAPQ?
Replies: 6
Views: 3725

Would You Recommend Working for HSAPQ?

Cheynem, in another thread wrote:This is a honest question.
by Dominator
Sat Jul 30, 2016 11:57 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Would You Recommend Working for NAQT?
Replies: 22
Views: 9555

Would You Recommend Working for NAQT?

Cheynem, in another thread wrote:This is a honest question.
by Dominator
Sat Jul 30, 2016 1:45 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Would You Recommend Working for NHBB?
Replies: 75
Views: 81340

Re: Would You Recommend Working for NHBB?

I have some experience working for NHBB, although I'm not sure I want to wade into this thread. Why does this thread exist and not a similar one for NAQT, HSAPQ, etc.? I'd legitimately like to know what working for them is like, and I'm not sure why NHBB is singled out here.
by Dominator
Wed Jul 27, 2016 6:38 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Chicago Open 2016 Set Discussion
Replies: 110
Views: 49502

Re: Chicago Open 2016 Set Discussion

When I was in grad school, a friend of mine was thinking of studying matroids for his dissertation. He asked our professor "Do people still work on matroids?" and was told "It depends who you ask." I'll go out on a limb here and say that matroids were in vogue at some point in th...
by Dominator
Sun Jul 24, 2016 8:06 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Gauging interest for before-and-after contributions
Replies: 13
Views: 7565

Re: Gauging interest for before-and-after contributions

Hey, remember this thread?

Well, I ended up getting a few submissions, and took my sweet time editing them. I now have a 3-half-packet set with contributions from Alex Dzurick, Matt Fleischer, and me with several replacement tossups by Vasa Clarke. If you want them, PM or email me.
by Dominator
Mon Jun 13, 2016 9:46 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Illinois '15 - '16
Replies: 64
Views: 47141

Re: Illinois '15 - '16

To close out this thread, I just wanted to mention that I am leaving Illinois this summer for California. I have loved the 7 years I was a part of the Illinois quizbowl scene, working with, playing with, and playing against so many great people. (I won't try to name them all, because I'd undoubtedl...
by Dominator
Mon Jun 13, 2016 9:32 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Illinois '15 - '16
Replies: 64
Views: 47141

Re: Illinois '15 - '16

To close out this thread, I just wanted to mention that I am leaving Illinois this summer for California. I have loved the 7 years I was a part of the Illinois quizbowl scene, working with, playing with, and playing against so many great people. (I won't try to name them all, because I'd undoubtedly...
by Dominator
Tue May 10, 2016 10:52 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Gauging interest for before-and-after contributions
Replies: 13
Views: 7565

Re: Gauging interest for before-and-after contributions

Coach Rutsky: That sounds great! I figured at this point that I'll just throw in the packets I have with Wodern Morld 2, so these can go in there.
by Dominator
Mon Mar 14, 2016 7:37 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: IHSA 2016
Replies: 36
Views: 14214

Re: IHSA 2016

You can get a lot from the pairings column here . If you go back a few years, you have to make adjustments for the round lengths and the value of bonuses changing. Fun fact: Those data do not include 2014 Class AA Sectional scores, which I really want to include in my analysis. Any ideas how to get...
by Dominator
Sun Mar 13, 2016 2:07 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: IHSA 2016
Replies: 36
Views: 14214

Re: IHSA 2016

Thanks, David. I can get what I need there, but I'll have to adjust the script to read in the data from this format first.
by Dominator
Sun Mar 13, 2016 12:19 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: IHSA 2016
Replies: 36
Views: 14214

Re: IHSA 2016

I wrote a script to pull and analyze scores from IHSA ScoreZone. Here are the average combined scores for the matches so far. How do these look?

Also, I would be interested in seeing how the data compare to previous years. Can I access ScoreZone archives? If not, does someone have the data saved?
by Dominator
Sat Mar 12, 2016 3:20 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: IHSA 2016
Replies: 36
Views: 14214

Re: IHSA 2016

So, Sectionals have been played. Thoughts? I was disappointed to see more errors in the Sectionals questions than the Regionals ones. There were a few small (on the order of a typo) mistakes in math that should have resulted in questions being thrown out. Hopefully the correct resolution was made to...
by Dominator
Tue Mar 08, 2016 1:40 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: IHSA 2016
Replies: 36
Views: 14214

Re: IHSA 2016

Joker wrote:Some weird bonuses
Some weird phrasing...
Is there any way you could clarify what you meant by "weird"? All regionals have reported results at this point, so we can talk in specifics about questions (although people do not have access to the full text).
by Dominator
Mon Mar 07, 2016 10:14 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: IHSA 2016
Replies: 36
Views: 14214

IHSA 2016

At this time, all IHSA Regional matches are scheduled to have completed, but we do not yet have confirmation. I think it is safe to speak in generalities, but perhaps we should avoid mention of specifics until we get confirmation that all rounds are complete.

So, what did we think of the set?
by Dominator
Thu Jan 14, 2016 8:50 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Gauging interest for before-and-after contributions
Replies: 13
Views: 7565

Re: Gauging interest for before-and-after contributions

Great question. I sort of forgot about this project after putting it on the back burner for a while. I should be able to finish it fairly soon since there were only three completed half-packets. When would people want to hear them? If nothing else, we can put them in Wodern Morld 2.
by Dominator
Tue Nov 03, 2015 3:24 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2016 NASAT: June 18-19 @ University of Kentucky
Replies: 56
Views: 53912

Re: 2016 NASAT: June 18-19 @ University of Kentucky

Will NASAT 2016 allow coaches to call timeouts? For background, I called timeouts in close to 10 rounds of NASAT 2015 before Daniel Hothem realized it and informed the moderators that there were no timeouts. From a coaching perspective, if I cannot call a timeout midround, there is very little reaso...
by Dominator
Fri Oct 23, 2015 7:11 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Discussion of quizbowl game theory
Replies: 10
Views: 4468

Re: Summa contra potestates

The probability of a 30 is actually irrelevant to your strategy in this case Not really. The 30 decides whether a neg loses the game vs. takes it into overtime (in the event of a power), so if you knew that Billy Busse was superclutch on tiebreakers you'd not risk losing it in regulation. I don't r...
by Dominator
Fri Oct 23, 2015 1:08 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Discussion of quizbowl game theory
Replies: 10
Views: 4468

Re: Summa contra potestates

Let S be the percent probability of Seth powering, to the best of your knowledge. You buzz here your probability of being correct is bigger than max(100-S,50) -- so if this clue is that easy that you think Seth has a greater than 50% chance of knowing it, you should have gone in if you think you're...
by Dominator
Tue Oct 13, 2015 2:35 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Protesting against your own team
Replies: 15
Views: 9079

Re: Protesting against your own team

I think there is a key distinction between the two original scenarios: moderator discretion. The moderator must rule on what is heard (or not). If you thought you heard one thing and the moderator heard another, you have to rely on the moderator's judgment. (It's not like you can go back to the film...
by Dominator
Wed Sep 30, 2015 9:28 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Quizbowl Round Table Webinar
Replies: 0
Views: 2327

Quizbowl Round Table Webinar

In case you missed it, Quizbowl Round Table held its introductory webinar on September 22. You can view it here . The topic was practice strategies. The beginning and end of the video are introductions to what Quizbowl Round Table is. The video has been edited to correct a technical issue during the...
by Dominator
Sun Sep 27, 2015 10:11 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2015 HSNCT discussion
Replies: 102
Views: 77103

Re: 2015 HSNCT discussion

It looks like IMSA had a really good day though, almost came from relative obscurity to play in the finals. I'm not sure we can say that IMSA came from "relative obscurity". IMSA had a top 20 finish in each of the last 4 HSNCTs at that point, a streak only topped by LASA. This sounds more...
by Dominator
Tue Jul 07, 2015 1:05 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Resetting [pt. 5 of 6]: How We Treat Each Other
Replies: 40
Views: 21856

Re: Resetting [pt. 5 of 6]: How We Treat Each Other

I actually completely disagree with Will. The difference may by "only five years", but those are an important five years. It is because those five years are important that we must be especially careful in how we treat each other across gaps. I find that a lot of problems develop when high ...
by Dominator
Mon Jul 06, 2015 9:29 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Resetting [pt. 5 of 6]: How We Treat Each Other
Replies: 40
Views: 21856

Re: Resetting [pt. 5 of 6]: How We Treat Each Other

In particular, I think the idea that "you have to be good at quizbowl to have any social clout in the community" is an incredibly toxic one that people need to stop complaining about, as it's been demonstrated to be untrue time after time and should be apparent to anybody who has set foot...
by Dominator
Thu Jul 02, 2015 6:57 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: How to become a good theoretical math player?
Replies: 29
Views: 12639

Re: How to become a good theoretical math player?

for example, a real analysis textbook would go all into how to find the Fourier series of a handful of equations while it does not do much with the theory behind a Fourier series that a quiz bowl toss-up may ask. This is interesting for me, because I was unhappy with my Fourier analysis book (Stein...
by Dominator
Thu Jul 02, 2015 1:48 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Gauging interest for before-and-after contributions
Replies: 13
Views: 7565

Re: Gauging interest for before-and-after contributions

Excellent! Thanks in advance for your contributions. I will lay out my expectations for submissions here. If you have any questions, please post them in this thread. (1) I would like these questions by September 1. These sorts of questions are fun to write and can generally go quickly. Also, if we w...
by Dominator
Thu Jul 02, 2015 1:08 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Supporting Quizbowl Coaches
Replies: 4
Views: 4521

Supporting Quizbowl Coaches

I recently had an idea of a way to support quizbowl coaches. Personally, when I started coaching, I felt completely on my own, and I essentially had to figure everything out for myself. I have heard the same sentiment from others, and I think we can do better. What I am proposing is a quizbowl coach...
by Dominator
Tue Jun 16, 2015 10:36 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Gauging interest for before-and-after contributions
Replies: 13
Views: 7565

Gauging interest for before-and-after contributions

I am interested in putting together a set of before-and-afters, like those end-of-year ones written by John Lawrence or those found here . I do not have an event in mind for these, but I figure it would be nice to have them for moderator scrimmages at invitationals or nationals or something. As such...
by Dominator
Mon Apr 27, 2015 9:35 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2015 NHBB/USGO Discussion Thread
Replies: 122
Views: 58932

Re: 2015 NHBB/USGO Discussion Thread

I'll agree with everything that Coach Jones said about the format. I thought the format was bad last year since the bracket-rebracket-elimination format leads to very lopsided games, followed by somewhat lopsided games, followed by elimination games against opponents whose caliber you have not yet c...
by Dominator
Sun Apr 12, 2015 5:55 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: VCU Open at Michigan - August 8
Replies: 122
Views: 60480

Re: VCU Open at Michigan - August 8

I am looking to put together a team for this.
by Dominator
Tue Mar 10, 2015 7:37 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Literary Phrasing
Replies: 20
Views: 8973

Re: Literary Phrasing

There's not really many situations where it's truly necessary to obfuscate the literary form of a work. Just say "novel", "play", "poem", etc. unless you have a very compelling reason to want to hide it. There may not be many of these situations, but they do exist. For...
by Dominator
Fri Nov 28, 2014 10:16 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Huskie Bowl at Northern Illinois University, 31 January 2015
Replies: 8
Views: 6205

Re: Huskie Bowl at Northern Illinois University, 31 January

IMSA will be there. The actual coach will send the actual registration fairly soon.
by Dominator
Wed Nov 26, 2014 6:47 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Illinois '14-'15
Replies: 91
Views: 40997

Re: Illinois '14-'15

As some of you may have heard, the IHSSBCA is once again sponsoring Team Illinois to compete at NASAT in June 2015. There has been a change in coaching staff this year - the coaches will be Brad Fischer of Keith Country Day School and Noah Prince of IMSA. The official tryout for Team Illinois will t...
by Dominator
Mon Sep 22, 2014 2:02 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: New Trier Scobol Solo 11/1/14
Replies: 10
Views: 7202

Re: New Trier Scobol Solo 11/1/14

The coach should be officially contacting you soon, but IMSA would like to reserve 8 spots for players and 1 spot for a moderator.