The Quizbowl Resource Center

Play Quiz Bowl is excited to announce the ACRONYM League, a one-of-a-kind online quiz bowl league.

WHAT?

This league will be using the ACRONYM 13 question set. If you played or moderated this set in February, you are not eligible for this league (sorry). The schedule will be similar to that of the Minnesota High School Quiz Bowl League, albeit on a slightly smaller scale - each team will have two preliminary sessions of three games each, and the top teams (exact amount tbd, depending on field size) will be invited to compete in a playoff tournament following the regular season to determine a League Champion.

Like the ACRONYM @ HSNCT events of recent years, we are interested in having both an open and high school field, assuming there is enough interest in both. If there is not, a single open field will be organized, and a separate high school-only playoff bracket/award will be considered (again, depending on the field makeup).

WHEN?

Prelim rounds will occur on Wednesdays and Thursdays in May and early June, with sessions beginning at 7pm. When you sign up your team(s), you will be given an opportunity to indicate which dates your team will be available. From this information, we will put together a schedule that fits every team's needs and is as balanced as possible. After the prelims are finished, a playoff event will be held on a Saturday in June. It is possible that not every date on the registration form will actually be used as a game day, but we encourage teams to select all dates that would work for them.

HOW?

Games will be held via Zoom, with players using a camera and microphone. We feel this provides a more authentic quiz bowl experience, and also acts as a deterrent to cheating. Zoom also allows for a few other useful things, including an automatic waiting room for players waiting for a future round, and an ability for moderators to mute/unmute participants at their discretion for the sake of keeping games moving.

RULES

We'll be following ACF-style rules, with a few modifications (subject to additional changes and additions):

- Due to the occasional issues with video chatting, moderators will allow 7 seconds to begin and answer on bonus parts.
- In the cases of bonuses, a moderator may choose, at their discretion, to re-read a bonus part if it is clear that a technical issue prevented it from being heard.
- For an abundance of logistical reasons, team rosters will be limited to 4 players (in other words, there will be no substitutions).

REGISTRATION

The ACRONYM League will cost $15 per player. Registration is now open via this form and will remain open until the end of the day on Sunday, May 10th (after which we'll lock the field and make the schedules).

Players looking for a team to play with are encouraged to coordinate via this free agent spreadsheet. Please note that this is not an alternate form of registration - an assembled team is expected to formally register.

Excited to hear reports on how quizbowl over Zoom compares to Discord.

Mike Bentley wrote: ↑Mon Apr 20, 2020 2:39 pm Excited to hear reports on how quizbowl over Zoom compares to Discord.

We did some test games last week, and the consensus was that it worked well. We'll still be using the chat feature to buzz, but the rest plays out more or less the same way in-person events do (with the added bonus that unlike in real life, you can mute people who are slowing games down).

InvadErGII wrote: ↑Mon Apr 20, 2020 3:26 pm

Mike Bentley wrote: ↑Mon Apr 20, 2020 2:39 pm Excited to hear reports on how quizbowl over Zoom compares to Discord.

We did some test games last week, and the consensus was that it worked well. We'll still be using the chat feature to buzz, but the rest plays out more or less the same way in-person events do (with the added bonus that unlike in real life, you can mute people who are slowing games down).

My main concerns here would be:

1. How does audio quality of the moderator compare to Discord?
2. Does Zoom's 40 minute time limit (for some users) require you to rejoin matches in progress?
3. What is the reliability of joining a call compared to Discord? This was often a problem with Skype that you wouldn't be able to have people connect to each other. It's still a little bit of a problem with Discord but usually isn't an issue
4. Does having separate calls per round increase the delay between rounds? Can links for each round's rooms be created ahead of time?
5. How reliable is the chat interface compared to Discord? Often calling apps don't necessarily optimize their text chats and so you get more out-of-order messages which is a problem in a quizbowl tournament

I'm happy to address these to the best of my ability:

1. How does audio quality of the moderator compare to Discord?

To be fair, I don't have a great quantitative way to compare these two options, but over the course of 2-3 test games, I believe there was one bonus part I opted to re-read due to an audio glitch. Each of those games took a little over 30 minutes, and that was with a non-zero amount of getting side-tracked.

2. Does Zoom's 40 minute time limit (for some users) require you to rejoin matches in progress?

We have a Pro zoom account and are prepared to acquire the necessary number of rooms, so this won't come up. While we expect the vast majority of games to take less than 40 minutes, having to potentially make new meetings to finish games in progress would certainly make for a worse experience for players.

3. What is the reliability of joining a call compared to Discord? This was often a problem with Skype that you wouldn't be able to have people connect to each other. It's still a little bit of a problem with Discord but usually isn't an issue

In my time using Zoom, I don't know that I've ever had an issue with this, either personally or with other users that I was joined with (either for playtesting or for Jackbox games or the like). Again, this is anecdotal, but I'm quite happy with it at present - I'd say for social gatherings I've been measurbly happier in general with Zoom than with Discord.

4. Does having separate calls per round increase the delay between rounds? Can links for each round's rooms be created ahead of time?

Rooms will be setup not unlike a real-life tournament - each moderator will be the host of a separate room that will remain open for an entire session. Players who arrive early are placed in a waiting room, and then allowed in when the current match completes. All players will be given a schedule with links for which rooms they'll need to be in an when.

5. How reliable is the chat interface compared to Discord? Often calling apps don't necessarily optimize their text chats and so you get more out-of-order messages which is a problem in a quizbowl tournament

I don't have a ton of data for this (and a quick Google search isn't turning up much), but during our testing I don't recall any issues where it seemed like buzzes appeared out of order or the like.

As a reminder - registration for this league closes this Sunday. If you're interested but have not yet registered, please do so soon!

Is there a list of registered teams anywhere?

It appears the free agent sheet is out of date and there is no way of knowing who is in the field or what. I am still looking for a team and teammates. Please email me. I'd prefer to play this set than not but remain confused why details on this have been so scant.

Here you go!

Of note - there are currently just five teams who have specified that they'd like to play in a high school-only division. If you're a high school team who'd like to play in such a division, please sign up soon to ensure we have enough teams!

EDIT: I took a look at the free agent sheet and removed two people from it who are now listed as being on teams (Kenji Shimizu and James Lasker). As far as I'm aware, no one else on the free agent sheet is on a registered team.

InvadErGII wrote: ↑Thu May 07, 2020 12:15 am Here you go!

Of note - there are currently just five teams who have specified that they'd like to play in a high school-only division. If you're a high school team who'd like to play in such a division, please sign up soon to ensure we have enough teams!

EDIT: I took a look at the free agent sheet and removed two people from it who are now listed as being on teams (Kenji Shimizu and James Lasker). As far as I'm aware, no one else on the free agent sheet is on a registered team.

access denied

Ciorwrong wrote: ↑Thu May 07, 2020 12:28 am access denied

Dang it, sorry - should be working now.

how do we pay

It's Drew wrote: ↑Thu May 07, 2020 2:09 pm how do we pay

I'll be sending out invoices this weekend or thereabouts.

Are there any teams looking for players still? And if so, is it still legal to add free agents, or are rosters completely locked? I completely missed this thread and am bummed.

Is there a way we can like scrimmage on some of the later packets? Paying for sevens games(assuming elimination in first round of single elim playoffs) is a poor deal in terms of $/hour. My team and I would be happy to play other squads if/when we get eliminated in the playoffs provided we qualify. How many packets are there and has any thought been given to casual play after the official ACRONYM games are completed? Given the work we spend to assemble teams and organize, I'd like to play more than half a dozen games and I imagine other teams agree especially given the paucity of other quzbowl activities.

Ciorwrong wrote: ↑Mon Jun 01, 2020 4:35 pm Is there a way we can like scrimmage on some of the later packets? Paying for sevens games(assuming elimination in first round of single elim playoffs) is a poor deal in terms of $/hour. My team and I would be happy to play other squads if/when we get eliminated in the playoffs provided we qualify. How many packets are there and has any thought been given to casual play after the official ACRONYM games are completed? Given the work we spend to assemble teams and organize, I'd like to play more than half a dozen games and I imagine other teams agree especially given the paucity of other quzbowl activities.

C'mon, dude. That's ~$2 per round/packet/person. NAQT is (very fairly) charging $5 for 50 tossup rounds that don't require a reader or Zoom subscription. There's a pandemic and Play Quizbowl is trying to provide all of us some entertainment.

Ciorwrong wrote: ↑Mon Jun 01, 2020 4:35 pm Given the work we spend to assemble teams and organize,

Again, c'mon, dude. I sent three text messages.

Gonzagapuma1 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 01, 2020 5:57 pm

Ciorwrong wrote: ↑Mon Jun 01, 2020 4:35 pm Is there a way we can like scrimmage on some of the later packets? Paying for sevens games(assuming elimination in first round of single elim playoffs) is a poor deal in terms of $/hour. My team and I would be happy to play other squads if/when we get eliminated in the playoffs provided we qualify. How many packets are there and has any thought been given to casual play after the official ACRONYM games are completed? Given the work we spend to assemble teams and organize, I'd like to play more than half a dozen games and I imagine other teams agree especially given the paucity of other quzbowl activities.

C'mon, dude. That's ~$2 per round/packet/person. NAQT is (very fairly) charging $5 for 50 tossup rounds that don't require a reader or Zoom subscription. There's a pandemic and Play Quizbowl is trying to provide all of us some entertainment.

Ciorwrong wrote: ↑Mon Jun 01, 2020 4:35 pm Given the work we spend to assemble teams and organize,

Again, c'mon, dude. I sent three text messages.

I'm asking if we are allowed to play casual scrimmages on the questions. I'm sure you have played the remaining packets after a tournament ended and asked the host for the packets on a car ride home or whatever. I don't expect Play Quizbowl to mod these casual matches or anything. Very commonly in Discord events, there may be a shootout or a casual reading of the remaining tossups. At the least, I've always released the full packets to all the teams that paid for the Discord mirror when I TDed Discord events.

I'm willing to pay a meager amount for the questions to be released after the fact, but it's unclear what other events will be using these ACRONYM questions. NAQT's situation does not seem particularly germane and I don't appreciate the brusque sarcasm when I asked a genuine question in a public forum.