Proposed Alternative to the Neg Prize

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cvdwightw
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Proposed Alternative to the Neg Prize

Post by cvdwightw »

As noted over here, the neg prize is slowly dying off, terribly in-jokey, susceptible to "gaming the system" from players doing stupid things, and potentially harmful to players that have buzzer aggression but not the knowledge to back it up. No one's mentioned it, but it also has the potential to go abysmally wrong if you award it to the wrong player.

I would like to propose an alternative for tournaments that want to give out a non-standard prize such as the neg prize. My understanding is that some tournaments may already award this prize but if they exist, it hasn't caught on nationally.

I suggest giving out a prize for the Buzz of the Tournament.

The rules are simple: anyone who is not among the top individual scorers is eligible. If the tournament doesn't give individual awards, anyone is eligible. The prize goes to the player who makes the best buzz, as subjectively determined by the tournament staff. Some examples of a potential winner might be:
  • The 25 ppg player who grabs a tossup after eight words
  • The 6 ppg player who wins a playoff match with a just-before-FTP buzz on the last tossup
  • The C team player who powers a tossup in a 630-25 loss to the best team in the tournament
Really, it could go to any player who makes an extremely impressive buzz given the question, situation, and/or opponent. If you've got a staff that talks with each other about the tournament, I suspect that all three of the aforementioned buzzes (and similar ones) would be discussed - and I'd pretty much guarantee it if you told your staff to look for them.

Could this prize be gamed? Probably, but that would likely involve guessing one answer and going on a study binge, which would probably make that person the most dangerous player on that answer line at the tournament. And realistically, would you rather award a "humorous" prize to the person that studied the heck out of Garcia Marquez or the person who heard "candy animals" and buzzed in with "Peeps"?

Why do I think this prize is a good replacement for the Neg Prize?
  • Similarly lighthearted and humorous - you'd probably have to recount the anecdote of the buzz to explain the winner - but much more positive in tone
  • Similarly rewards a player for aggressive play
  • Not an in-joke
  • Cannot be awarded to a player for doing something stupid (someone who buzzes in on the first line 8 times and is wrong 7 of them is not winning the prize)
  • Can be given even if a tournament does not keep individual stats
  • Winning via "gaming the system" would almost certainly entail doing some sort of "studying for quizbowl" that would in theory benefit the player in future tournaments
  • Every player who is invested in winning the prize has an interest in trying to buzz all the way through tossup 20 of the last match
  • Can potentially give the winner a newfound confidence in his or her buzzer skills
In short, it has all the positives of the neg prize, and more, and none of the negatives.

Has anyone on the board run a tournament with this sort of prize? Was it feasible? For high school players/coaches, do you think it would be the kind of thing you'd want to see a tournaments you run/attend?
Dwight Wynne
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Auroni
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Re: Proposed Alternative to the Neg Prize

Post by Auroni »

I don't know how you would pick one out of many potential "buzzes of the tournament." Instead, I would informally recognize several good buzzes at the end (or maybe give a book prize, if I was on top of things as a TD).
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Re: Proposed Alternative to the Neg Prize

Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

I believe something like this was awarded at Moon Pie when I played it last year. Obviously the rub here is that you need to collect data from your moderators about potential winning buzzes, and there are all sorts of problems you can have there.
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Unicolored Jay
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Re: Proposed Alternative to the Neg Prize

Post by Unicolored Jay »

EDIT: delete, i think i missed something in the original post
Last edited by Unicolored Jay on Mon Apr 16, 2012 4:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Marble-faced Bristle Tyrant
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Re: Proposed Alternative to the Neg Prize

Post by Marble-faced Bristle Tyrant »

Yeah, the UTC tournaments I've attended all (I guess) gave out the Insanely Early Buzz and Gloriously Wrong Answer awards, with moderators keeping track of nominations.
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Charles Martel
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Re: Proposed Alternative to the Neg Prize

Post by Charles Martel »

Something that I've seen moderators do before (Brad Fischer, Kristin Strey, Chris Romero) is have candy in their rooms, and give it out at their discretion for buzzes. Maybe something as simple as that would work.
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Re: Proposed Alternative to the Neg Prize

Post by Black-throated Antshrike »

whitesoxfan wrote:Something that I've seen moderators do before (Brad Fischer, Kristin Strey, Chris Romero) is have candy in their rooms, and give it out at their discretion for buzzes. Maybe something as simple as that would work.
i.e. Dave Madden's cookies
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