The Quizbowl Resource Center

Hi all --

We'd like your feedback, please, on whether (and how many) people would be interested in playing a few smaller pop culture events in a June weekend at Purdue. Here are some things we'd be interested in hearing back from you on:

-- What weekends in June don't work (if any)?
-- Which of the following sound like the most fun:

1. Mirroring other trash sets already created, but that you haven't been able to play.

2. A buzzer-based "name that tune" tournament with each round comprised of popular music concerning a central theme (I've been doing these at game nights for friends and already have a bunch done).

3. A revival of a packet-submission, guerrilla-edited singles tournament, a la the Montgomery Burns tournament that Mike Burger used to host at Michigan each summer.

4. A revival of a tournament that blends Iowa's "This Tournament Goes to 11" format with Chicago's "Deep Bench" format. This is something we did one year at DePauw and people seemed to enjoy it. Basically, teams are comprised of four players, but each round they have two packets (TU only) to choose from. Teams may split their players 2-2 or 3-1, however they see fit, each round. So, for instance, in one round at DPU, teams had a choice that we cheekily termed "sex or chocolate?" -- players could choose to play a packet about chocolate or a round about Sex and the City (incidentally, some of the packets may be found here: http://trash.quizbowlpackets.com/1268/).

So if UIUC and Purdue were playing, they'd split their players and both the "chocolate" room and the "SATC" room would have a match between UIUC and Purdue. The scores for each room would then be tallied to determine an overall winner for that round. So if Purdue wins the chocolate match by 20 points, but UIUC wins the SATC match by 100 points, UIUC gets the win for that round.

This could be packet-sub, but seems like it'd work better if it were written by Purdue folks, which I think we could manage. Your thoughts on this encouraged.

5. Ideas I haven't yet mentioned.

While I am not opposed to playing alternative formats at events like this, I think I would prefer just playing some side events. There are a lot this year and it's going to be hard to fit them into one larger side event weekend (ala UIUC last year). If you guys want to run say 3 or 4 trash events, I would certainly drive down to Indiana.

I think I'd be interested depending on what's being offered. I can't say I'm interested in a "name that tune" or TTGT11 thing, but existing events and a guerrilla thing might be fun.

I'd be interested in another side event weekend; as Harris points out, there are going to be more tournaments available than can fit into one weekend.

The only weekend I definitively can't do is June 8-9, as that's NSC weekend.

ryanrosenberg wrote: ↑Wed Mar 20, 2019 1:14 pm The only weekend I definitively can't do is June 8-9, as that's NSC weekend.

Good note -- thanks!

I've been kind of not paying attention to what trash side events have been proposed for this summer: does anyone have a list?

We'll probably have players interested in coming to this -- provided it doesn't conflict with the Side Event weekend we were planning to host again (very likely to be August 10th-11th)

Oof, the weekend after CO?

John Ketzkorn wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2019 2:25 pm We'll probably have players interested in coming to this -- provided it doesn't conflict with the Side Event weekend we were planning to host again (very likely to be August 10th-11th)

Cheynem wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2019 3:41 pm Oof, the weekend after CO?

Agreed, this will be rough to impossible to have work for many people.

I too would very much like to come to a UIUC side event weekend again but would very much like it to not be the weekend after CO.

Auks Ran Ova wrote: ↑Tue Mar 26, 2019 4:07 pm I too would very much like to come to a UIUC side event weekend again but would very much like it to not be the weekend after CO.

I think having a week in between side event weekend and chicago open is a good idea. Is UIUC open to doing the 17-18 of August?

1992 in spaceflight wrote: ↑Tue Mar 26, 2019 7:51 pm

Auks Ran Ova wrote: ↑Tue Mar 26, 2019 4:07 pm I too would very much like to come to a UIUC side event weekend again but would very much like it to not be the weekend after CO.

I think having a week in between side event weekend and chicago open is a good idea. Is UIUC open to doing the 17-18 of August?

I've made a new thread so this one can be more focused on Purdue's side event weekend.

If Super ACRONYM doesn't end up at Purdue, there is that FOGEY trash set (although the quality of that was very hmm hmm last year). I also wouldn't mind doing a guerrilla trash event. This would be a good place for Harris' Mixtape set and for the surplus of other trash events that may not be played by everyone everywhere. If Purdue folks have the hankering to just write trash packets, I'd certainly play them as well. I'm not going to do my full on film set for this summer, but I'd certainly contribute a couple theme packets to something.

Ok, it seems like Super ACRONYM is on its way to UIUC's weekend, so we'll rule that one out (but I look forward to playing it in C/U!).

I guess my thinking at the moment is that we could do a larger event (like the guerrilla-edited, packet sub singles event) on Saturday and then do smaller events on Sunday, so people can stick around as long as they want or head back at various times during the day. Does that work for people?

So Sunday could be Mixtape and another TU-only event or two...?

The basic idea makes sense; I'm all for going all in on these weekends (especially on Saturday)--perhaps after the main event on Saturday just some quick side events or even just theme packets.

Another possibly fun thing to do if we move Purdue's weekend back to July 13-14 -- there's a college summer wooden bat baseball league that has a team in Lafayette now, and there's a game that Saturday night. They're enjoyable and relatively cheap, if people are looking to make a weekend of it here in town.

Word on the street is that UIUC's side event weekend is set for July 20/21 and will include both Super ACRONYM and MUSES, so that helps us plan our similar weekend.

So, which July/August weekend is best for people and what do you want to play?

Thanks to Mike Cheyne for compiling a list of possible side events. These are the ones that may not have been mirrored yet:

*Look at this Photograph (visual trash)
*Mixtape (popular music)
*The Unanswered Question (20th century fine arts)
*TUPAC (trash music listening)

Others that could work, but that have been mirrored elsewhere:
*Let's Remember Some Guys (sports)
*Fight the Power 2 (hip-hop)

So all of the above could be done 2-3 to a day. Is there interest in a guerilla-edited 20/20 trash tourney that would likely take up an entire morning/afternoon by itself? Do people feel they have enough time to write for such a thing? This was a lot of fun back in the day when Michigan used to host one.

At this point, I think I might like a later August event just to provide some distance from the UIUC one and Chicago Open, but I also realize that as you get more into August, you start conflicting more with school/classes.

If I do go, I would try to do a guerrilla trash event.

Cheynem wrote: ↑Wed May 15, 2019 10:03 am At this point, I think I might like a later August event just to provide some distance from the UIUC one and Chicago Open, but I also realize that as you get more into August, you start conflicting more with school/classes.

So Saturday the 17th would be hard to do, since that's the day of Purdue's student activities fair, and a number of team members will have to spend some portion of their afternoon staffing a table to recruit new teammates.

If the weekend of the 24th/25th isn't too late for people, we could certainly host then (and we should, in theory, have the entirety of the returning Purdue team back on campus to help staff, since classes will have begun).

You might want to set up a poll or something; I know a number of people said August wouldn't work for them regarding the UIUC event (although that was, of course, before UIUC declared a July event).

One last bump to ask anyone who hasn't yet and might be within traveling distance to take the poll that's now on this post about workable weekends for a Purdue side-event-o-rama...

Ok, so it seems like we have a date that's won out -- the first weekend in July. Now, a proposed slate of events:

We would like to run (i.e. I'm going to be contacting the authors and asking their permission to use):

MIXTAPE
Let's Remember Some Guys 2
FOGEY (?)

Please feel free to offer other suggestions of events you'd like to play and if one gets a few votes we can add it to the list. Once I start getting confirmations from tourney authors, I'll set up a Google sign-up sheet for team formation/staffing purposes.

And since there seems to be some interest in it, let's try a (FREE!) guerilla-edited, (EDITED: TU-only!) singles event (tentatively called the Glenn "BIG DOG" Robinson Trash Tournament). Here's how that'll work:

Each player must write a slightly longer trash packet than usual, as you'll be crossing out questions during the course of the day to avoid repeated answers. Here's the distribution:

TOTAL: 26 Tossups (this is a must -- please don't write short packets!)

5 Sports
5 Music
5 TV
5 Movies
1 Food and Drink
2 (Video/Board/Card/Other) Games
1 Comic books/literature
1 Internet
1 Other (may add to any of the above categories or write on any subject not otherwise covered)

You need not send these questions in advance -- just bring printed copies to the tournament with you, which you'll edit during the course of the day, and then hand out when it's your round to be packet author. In the days leading up to it, I'll send everyone a note letting you know how many copies you'll need to bring.

That's all for now -- updates as I get them, and please suggest other events that you might be interested in adding to the schedule.

A singles event where players have to write huge packets seems both a) rough on the writing side to have to produce 26/26 solo, and b) unworkably long if there's any decent number of people participating. I'd recommend bumping it up to doubles or triples, if not full teams.

We could certainly bump it up to teams if enough people are going to play. But I guess we'd need an indication of that, first. That said, it worked well enough in days of yore. Worst case scenario is multiple divisions of people.

I have reached out to the owners of the following tourneys in hopes they might grant us use of their sets for the weekend (assuming people are interested):

TUPAC
MIXTAPE
FOGEY
Let's Remember Some Guys 2
Look At This Photograph


I'll update once I hear back from the authors.

Since FOGEY is a full 20/20 tournament, maybe the singles set should be just tossups? That would be much easier to produce.

My thanks to the writers/owners of FOGEY, TUPAC, Photograph and Let's Remember for their quick responses and willingness to partner with us for the weekend. Those tourneys are now confirmed as available, and I hope to hear from Harris soon about MIXTAPE's availability. Several of these have mirror fees associated with them, and we will try to keep player fees to a minimum, since the travel to West Lafayette is its own cost. More on those costs to come in a later post.

I see the point about making the singles event TU-only, and given the fact there's only about 6 weeks until the tourney, if it helps increase attendance, I'm for it. Perhaps a 2020 iteration can be announced further in advance and expanded. So let's use the existing rubric and make each packet just 26 TU apiece.

I'm also soliciting a couple people to write blind packets for this, please. If you're interested, please send me a note (stan DOT jastrzebski AT gmail.com). We'll be happy to send you the rest of the packets after the event.

Here is the link to the event signup: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

With the exception of the singles tourney, I've left four places for each team in the signup document, but it feels to me like several of these (FOGEY excepted) might run better with 2-3 person teams (with combining happening if we run into a buzzer shortage). So if you're forming teams, please consider doubling/tripling up.

Please also note: Purdue has four buzzer systems, but we're likely going to need more, so please let me know if you're able to bring a set (or three!), so we can schedule accordingly. Also, it would be helpful if everyone agrees to staff at least one event over the weekend, so we ensure enough moderators.

If you're looking for lodging, there are a number of hotels near the intersection of State Road 26 and I-65 in Lafayette which you might explore.

More updates as they become available.

I'm not entirely sure I can make this, but I might be there--if so, am looking for teammates for some of these things (I already played Guys, of course).

Also, what are you guys thinking for scheduling? Like FOGEY on one day, the trash singles/doubles thing for another, and then drop the side events on both days, tilting more for Saturday?

Another event that a lot of people may not have played is the visual film tournament BUMPY II (the author of this set has authorized me to run a mirror, although I'd obviously prefer to play if someone else could physically operate the slides).

Cheynem wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2019 7:30 pm Also, what are you guys thinking for scheduling? Like FOGEY on one day, the trash singles/doubles thing for another, and then drop the side events on both days, tilting more for Saturday?

Yes, I'd say this is a pretty good approximation of what I'd been thinking.

Also, Harris has been kind enough to let us run MIXTAPE, so that's now confirmed as well.

I'm happy to staff Guys since I've played that. Some of these events, like the visual or listening ones, I assume would work better as quasi-shootouts depending on the number of people/teams.

Edit: For FOGEY, Ryan Rosenberg, Will Nediger, and I have all tentatively formed a team, depending on all of us actually being there. Looking for potential fourths.

We're about a month off and the fields for these things are kind of moribund (although there's kind of random stuff like people only signed up for one event)--are more people going to sign up (I'm assuming some folks will make plans after NSC)?

To Mike's point, I agree it would be nice if we had a few more contestants. I don't mind a small-ish group of people to enjoy some quiz bowl with on a weekend, but we probably need at least a dozen combatants (outside of Purdue folks) to make this viable, and I'd rather people not have their travel plans (especially if those involve hotel rooms, planes, or anything else costly) in flux.

So let's give this until the end of the week for people to sign up, or we might have to bag it. Please, if you've been considering signing up, do so!

12 would seem really optimistic seeing as how only 8 people said they were able to come on the poll. Maybe like 8-10 plus Purdue people? I guess I don't know how much getting rooms costs. We could also scale back to one day.

Cheynem wrote: ↑Mon Jun 10, 2019 11:43 am 12 would seem really optimistic seeing as how only 8 people said they were able to come on the poll. Maybe like 8-10 plus Purdue people? I guess I don't know how much getting rooms costs. We could also scale back to one day.

I very much endorse the idea of one day event. That makes it much easier for out of state people such as me who might want to play this tournament if it still exists. I'd suggest cutting the packet submission trash event. That's a lot of work for a singles events.

Is anyone interested in mirroring STARBOWL for this tournament? That would greatly increase my chances of attending.

I would love to play that and crush Connor Teevens into dust.

Cheynem wrote: ↑Wed Jun 12, 2019 9:40 am I would love to play that and crush Connor Teevens into dust.

Who got the Star Trek and Star Wars TUs at SOUNDTACK again?

But seriously, everyone I've talked to about Star Bowl viewtopic.php?f=19&t=22217has raved about it and only 15(?) people have it heard it so far... So let's get that number up!

I've also played (and beat!) that Saul fellow at BUMPY II so I'd be happy to moderate for that.

Ok, so here's where we are --

The following non-Purdue people have signed up for at least one event apiece on the spreadsheet:

Mike Cheyne
Will Nediger
Ryan Rosenberg
Kenji Shimizu
Adam Sperber

The following Purdue people have indicated they plan to attend:

Drew Benner
Truman Bennet
Stan Jastrzebski
Lalit Maharjan
Andy Schingel

There are also a couple other people I've heard rumors might be interested, but they have not formally signaled it. To be honest, this does not feel like enough people to justify the effort (for one thing, it doesn't leave much wiggle room for people to back out at the last minute if they need to), but I'm willing to be convinced otherwise. Your thoughts?

SPJ

So I'm certainly willing to attend but I'm not sure why this is is unexpected when six people confirmed that this weekend was okay as indicated by the poll above. I haven't yet confirmed because I wasn't sure if this was happening and didn't want to be out the hotel money. Again, I'd highly recommend condensing this weekend to a one day Saturday event. It's disappointing that this may get cancelled but I would strongly urge a reconsideration of the structure of the event.

We could just do FOGEY as the main event on Saturday and try to run as many shootout things after that, and then for those who are sticking around, do BIG DOG and remaining shootouts on Sunday. Or drop BIG DOG (which require a lot of work) and try to do everything on Saturday.

I'm fine doing this, but I also realize this is a pretty small field as well. I'd like to get the "non-Purdue" people more in the range of 8-10 to really justify running this. I certainly wouldn't blame the Purdue people for cancelling and not having to travel another weekend is probably a good thing. If this gets cancelled, I'd try to arrange a slapdash Michigan mirror of some of these things.

To help people's scheduling, can you decide whether or not you're going to cancel by the end of this week?

If the field hovers around the size it's currently at, I probably wouldn't be inclined to make the drive down, personally.

Since this field didn't expand and some people have begun to even drop out, I went ahead and tried to see if Michigan folks might be interested in a smaller event--this was under the assumption this event wasn't going to happen, but I'm happy to point people back to Purdue if this does happen (I just wanted to give time for organization).

Yes, it seems we didn't get critical mass to make this happen. Sorry it didn't work out, but I'm going to officially cancel this. Hope to see some of you at UIUC's event later this summer.