Illinois 06-07

Dormant threads from the high school sections are preserved here.
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JohnAndSlation
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Post by JohnAndSlation »

If you do use the school color system, it has to be made clear to the team as well, to have the intended effect. I know on our team, even though we used Red and Black to replace A and B, many of us used them interchangeably, and sometimes being on the B team had a negative feeling. If it's clearly communicated that the A team is the best team (not best players) and the same with the B team, the school color system is useful.
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Post by leapfrog314 »

JohnandSlation wrote:If it's clearly communicated that the A team is the best team (not best players) and the same with the B team, the school color system is useful.
Ah, but unfortunately, no school has such a depth of talent that there is a distinction between "best team" and "five best players." The Team Illinois Selection Committee has to make a distinction, but how many coaches have available to them ten excellent players, many of near-equal caliber?

It's wishful thinking to imagine that there's a huge difference -- almost all the time, the best team will be the best players. When in doubt, however, the B team should simply not be capable of performing as well as the A team, for whatever reason.
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Post by Tegan »

leapfrog314 wrote: Ah, but unfortunately, no school has such a depth of talent that there is a distinction between "best team" and "five best players." The Team Illinois Selection Committee has to make a distinction, but how many coaches have available to them ten excellent players, many of near-equal caliber?
Maine South virtually never had the five highest scoring players playing o the same team at any one time. Just as an example, at one tournament, I occasionally played my second highest scoring math player (who was third highest scorer) down on the "B" team because he was more of a single dimensional player (very good at math, not as strong in other areas), and I felt I could have a stronger team if I could play better SS and Lit people.

I was flat out accused of cheating at that tournament. I later found out that this particular TD assumed (because nothing was ever said) that the "A" team was the 5 highest scoring players. I've always assumed that your "A" team was the five players who give you the best chance to succeed. To me, if the TD doesn't say something in advance, its not cheating.

Now as a counter point, there was at least one team who played their #2 player routinely on their "B" team for a time, and from where I was sitting there was little logic to it. The stated reason dealt with "team chemistry", yet in really important matches (like sectionals) the player started on the "A" team. Maybe as an outsider, I didn't know everythign that was going on, but it sure looked funny. In a different instance, I find it odd when players who start on the varsity team as a frosh or soph also play on the frosh-soph team on weekends the varsity team is not competing.

But that's just me.
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Post by Trevkeeper »

Tegan wrote: In a different instance, I find it odd when players who start on the varsity team as a frosh or soph also play on the frosh-soph team on weekends the varsity team is not competing.
Why? I think there is a difference between Varsity A and B teams and the Varsity and F/S teams. I could see it being sketchy if a freshman or sophomore who normally played on varsity played with the F/S team at a tournament while the varsity team also had a tournament. But if the varsity team isn't playing, why shouldn't they play with the F/S team?
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Post by Irreligion in Bangladesh »

I agree with Trev here. Why shouldn't Auburn's F/S have been amazing last year, just because Siva and John were Varsity caliber? The F/S deserves it just as much as the Varsity does.
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Post by Tegan »

Trevkeeper wrote: Why? I think there is a difference between Varsity A and B teams and the Varsity and F/S teams. I could see it being sketchy if a freshman or sophomore who normally played on varsity played with the F/S team at a tournament while the varsity team also had a tournament. But if the varsity team isn't playing, why shouldn't they play with the F/S team?
My response to that would be: why have a frosh-soph team at all? Most states don't: the frosh-soph team is supposed to be cannon fodder at varsity tournaments. I've seen it (as I'm sure you have: its not very educational, and its not pretty). I sure don't like it much when my team has to play them because they run up the stats, and except for the win get nothing much out of it.

My thuoughts are that we have frosh-soph only tournaments for the specific reason that frosh-soph players shouldn't have to play varsity caliber players.....its strictly developmental: learning the rules, learning how to compete, working on skills, and working on actually learning the material. Otherwise it would be considerably more fair to allow your juniors or seniors who aren't starting on the "A" team to play frosh-soph, than to allow your frosh player who starts on the "A" team to play frosh-soph.

One possible take on this is: let's stop frosh-soph tournaments, and have "A" level and "B" level tournaments. That gets a lot harder to police. All I'm saying is: once you qualify as a varsity starter, what's the point to playing frosh-soph level? What are you demonstrating? .....Besides, if you send down the varsity starter, you are using one player to eat up two spots on your team, and preventing another frosh-soph player from getting in and getting experience in a tournament. I've asked athletic coaches (yeah, I know, its not the same thing), and they were pretty unanimous in saying that once a payer in their mind is a "starter" on the varsity, they do not go down a level. I've been around high school competition (athletics and academics) for over ten years, and only recently have I seen this idea come up of a player playing both levels, consistently. I have pulled up sophomores to fill roster spots on a single weekend, but I would think that if they were good enough to be on the varsity, then they play the varsity.

Besides, for the really good frosh-soph player, what benefit do they get? They make the All-Tournament team at a frosh-soph tournament, get a whole bunch of toss-ups that their teammates likely aren't going to get, the team wins ...... but the win is pretty empty. In my eyes (and I'm sure someone will explain the hole in the analogy), it would be like the Yankees sending Jeter and A-Rod down to their AA team on an off day team so they could win the Minor League World Series. They each go 5-for-5 with three grand slams and two solo shots, the team wins, and what does it prove?

The other issue that becomes a problem is that coaches need to be very careful about counting dates ...... if you have someone playing every one of your conference dates plus your varsity dates, and some of your fr-soph dates, you get close to going over the 18 date max for the player. That won't disqualify your team from state, but it could disqualify the individual.

I'm not getting snippy ..... that's jsut my thoughts.
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Post by Stained Diviner »

While Mr. Egan is certainly correct about the date counting issues, I don't mind it when Varsity players also play Frosh/Soph.

There are two reasons that Scholastic Bowl is different than athletics in this regard. For one thing, there are no overuse injuries. For another thing, teams can play several matches in one day, so a team that gets blown out by the superstar in one match generally has at least four other matches to play that day. My team wasn't good enough to win any Frosh/Soph Tournaments last year, but they were good enough to win several matches.

When a varsity starter goes to Frosh/Soph, they get time playing with their future Varsity teammates against their future Varsity competition. There was a rivalry last year between the Wheaton North and Auburn Frosh/Soph Teams that will continue when the same students are playing Varsity, and I think that's a good thing.

My Frosh/Soph Team played a great match against Wheaton North that gave us a chance to see what level we should be at. It was a loss that made us a better team.
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Post by Captain Sinico »

This debate again, huh? Since (it's still true that) there aren't any rules about this other than that Frosh-Soph teams are made of... well... freshmen and sophomores, you should be able to do anything you want and anyone who tells you otherwise had better have a better reason than anything I'm seeing offered here. Not only is this purported proscription against moving players between teams impractical and not based in any actual rules, it's also completely unenforceable and the offense that some people claim to take at it is completely capricious. I can think of any number of legitimate (by any measure) reasons that one would want to move players between teams; I'm sure all of you can think of more. Therefore, if you want to move your players around for whatever reason, just do it (within the rules, of course.)

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Post by Maxwell Sniffingwell »

Seems to me that a distinction needs to be made - are F/S tourneys meant to be played as Frosh/Soph, or as Junior Varsity? I personally like the idea of JV... meaning keep the varsity-caliber players out of the F/S matches if they've been starting on varsity. But at the same time, should a first-year schobowler who happens to be a senior get to play in the F/S tourneys? I should hope not.

I think a perfect solution is kind of impossible in this situation... but it sure seems to me that if someone's regularly starting in varsity schobowl, they shouldn't be playing in an activity whose main purpose is to prepare them for varsity schobowl, n'est-ce pas?

Note to reader : My frosh/soph career consisted of a grand total of one tournament and three practices, so take this entire post with a boulder of salt.
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Post by David Riley »

From the archives: At one time, fr/so tournaments were called JV tournaments (especially south of I-80) with the understanding (in writing, in some cases) that they were for freshmen and sophomores only. Then, several unscrupulous coaches started playing juniors and seniors on their teams and most of us started calling them "frosh/soph".
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Post by Tegan »

I agree with cornfused (even if he does neglect writing questions and handing them in an appropriate amount of time). I think the key question is: what is hte purpose of the frosh-soph tournament? If it is a set of tournaments for newbie players who otherwise lack the knowledge of varsity level players, then I assert that once a player is established on the varsity team, (s)he is out of the frosh-soph ranks. The key word being established .... one or two appearances does not necessarily "establish". As the I.D. would bring up, how do you police it? At what point does policing start (clearly November could be too soon, but when do you draw the line)? If it becomes too much of a police action, then it is not worth it.

On the other hand, if the state, as a whole thinks it is simply a "frosh-soph tournament" intended for anyone not yet in their junior year, then so be it.

This will likely be an ongoing debate among coaches this up-and-coming season ..... possibly to be more "codified" in some form, one way or the other, over the summer of '07 (if any agreement can be reached).
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Post by leapfrog314 »

Yeah, so I went to the IHSSBCA website, and decided to come here to see whether someone could explain what
Moderator Certification to include test and match components this year
means, and while they're at it, why
Only five players will be on Team Illinois this year
(change in PAC rules?) and also why there is a
$10 fee to try out for Team Illinois this year
These seem like fairly radical changes, and I was surprised that they weren't mentioned on the Illinois thread yet. Or maybe I just have impeccable timing.
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Post by Tegan »

leapfrog314 wrote:Yeah, so I went to the IHSSBCA website, and decided to come here to see whether someone could explain what
Moderator Certification to include test and match components this year
means, and while they're at it, why
This had more or less been a part of the "plan" since it was first conceived. It reitterates what a lot of people on the Board have said: sure, knowing rules are important, but pronunciation, speed, etc are in some ways far more important. This is the simpler of the two ways to handle it (the other being by conducting clinics throughout the state, and giving people a chance to speak in front of a groupf learned elders (which we don't have), and prove themselves. This way, coaches get to judge the moderator on a few different criteria (including the afforementioned speed and pronunciation), which gives you a bigger view into how good a moderator is.

Now, there are drawbacks: if a moderator is used to working conferences/touranments that use elementary school level questions, then they might look stooopendous while in fact when the going gets tough, they're not really good. they might finish a 20 question match in 20 minutes ..... but was that a bunch of one liners? Also, a moderator reading a strong clip might be complained at if the coach prefers a slow talker. Thus, it is imperfect, but we'd like to try it and move on from there.


The other two questions you ask are beyond my ability to offer answer to.
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Post by David Riley »

Re 5 instead of 6: A couple of people have complained to me each year that 4 would be better than 6 so that they could work as a team. We decided on 5 in case someone gets sick.

Re $10 fee: (and the above is actually a small part as well). Sponsoring Team Illinois is becoming increasingly expensive. These two measures were passed such that the players are not having to pay $500 + airfare. I realize a lot of schools will foot the cost of this, but not all.

We will continue to pursue corporate funding such that student costs are mnimal, and I am currently working on some strong leads in this direction.

And I have a "my own $0.02 worth" opinion that I would rather not share on a public forum; at least not right now.
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Post by Tegan »

So, I gets the official invite to the Masonic Bowl yesterday, and see that there is a seeding form included in the mailing .....apparently there will be some attempt to seed within the brackets, though I wonder if this might also influence assignment??
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Post by Stained Diviner »

It's the same thing they have always done. They seed their Sectionals so that the best teams don't play each other in the first round.
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Post by David Riley »

This forum has been inactive for almost a month; let's get going! Lots of news, first and formost that the IHSAA Terms and Conditions are now posted on their website http://www.ihsa.org! Several changes; these will (all right, should) be used for some of the earlier tournaments (Fremd, Kickoffs, etc.).
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Post by David Riley »

I mean IHSA....sorry!
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Post by Irreligion in Bangladesh »

I remember hearing last year that this year's Loyola Ultima isn't Panasonic format or questions...what's the lowdown on that? (It's Oct. 21st, right?)

Random note of interest from the Terms and Conditions - is there a specific reason that Music History isn't a bolded subcategory of Fine Arts?
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Post by David Riley »

Loyola Ultima is in Panasonic format this year, and is Oct 21. At present I am full (holding a place for Auburn, awaiting word from them); cannot add more unless I get four teams and another moderator.

As far as music history, I feel certain that it should be bolded and that the normal case is an error.
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Post by Tegan »

I'm just glad that there will no longer be 45 "Art" questions about people who sang about pickup trucks and broken hearts ......

Now, if we can only once and for all resolve that auto racing no longer constitutes a sport, we'd have eliminated all of the nagging loose ends! There is nothing worse in the world than having a close match come down to a bonus: Given the car number, name the NSACAR driver.
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Post by Irreligion in Bangladesh »

Tegan wrote:I'm just glad that there will no longer be 45 "Art" questions about people who sang about pickup trucks and broken hearts ......

Now, if we can only once and for all resolve that auto racing no longer constitutes a sport, we'd have eliminated all of the nagging loose ends! There is nothing worse in the world than having a close match come down to a bonus: Given the car number, name the NSACAR driver.
At least those aren't allowed in the end-game (last 3 tu/b) anymore.
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Post by Trevkeeper »

First tournament only 2 and a half weeks. Woo.
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Post by Siverus Snape »

We still might have a couple of conflicts to resolve for the 21st. Our school's PSAT test date is that day. For those who can't make it then due to sports or whatever, there's one date during the school week....except it's only for TEN students. And there are at least two or three other Auburn sporting events on the 21st. I guess we just have to hope that our whole team gets in for the weekday test....Does anyone know of a way to take the PSAT some other way or on some other day? Because the juniors on our team just about have to take it, and the sophomores would really really like to.
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Post by MJG »

Siv, I'm pretty sure the PSAT is only offered on those two days. Here in Sterling, all of the juniors who took the PSAT took it on the Wednesday (or whatever it was). Of course, there was only like 30 of us :roll:
And for some PSAT related whining, I missed National Merit SF by one stupid algebra mistake.

And just out of curiousity: Brad, where are you headed to school?
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Post by Irreligion in Bangladesh »

MJG wrote:Siv, I'm pretty sure the PSAT is only offered on those two days. Here in Sterling, all of the juniors who took the PSAT took it on the Wednesday (or whatever it was). Of course, there was only like 30 of us :roll:
And for some PSAT related whining, I missed National Merit SF by one stupid algebra mistake.

And just out of curiousity: Brad, where are you headed to school?
Don't feel bad about missing National Merit by one math problem - that's exactly, right down to the subcategory of math, what I did two years ago when I was a junior.

As to where I'm going to school, I'm taking a year off, in a way. I'm going to Rock Valley to get my Associates, and using the extra free time this year to write questions for Aegis, moderate, and work. I haven't decided where I'm going next year, but I've got two shortlists - one of schools with quizbowl teams, and one without. :)
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Post by Stained Diviner »

I believe that the alternative PSAT date is a Tuesday. Sometimes, schools will allow students from other schools to take the test at their site. New Trier sometimes doesn't offer a Tuesday test, so our students take it at Loyola, Niles North, etc.
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Post by Stained Diviner »

Music History will be in bold.
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Post by David Riley »

styxman--

email me [email protected]; I might have a moderating job for you.
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Post by David Riley »

There are still three slots open for the Loyola Ultima on October 21. The field so far:

Bloomington
Carbondale
Fremd
Hoffman Estates
Loyola Academy
Maine East
Maine South
New Trier
Rockford Auburn
St. Ignatius
Springfield
Stevenson
Wheaton-Warrenville


In othe words, a bloodbath! :grin:
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Post by Bubiyuqn »

...Carbondale is going? Interesting predicament...no one told me this. I suppose they'll be going captainless as I'll be acting out some of John Guare's finest that night.

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Post by David Riley »

Actually, Mrs. Lorinskas emailed me yesterday and said that you guys weren't coming due to your play conflict.
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Post by Irreligion in Bangladesh »

For some reason, I was reading the old Illinois thread, and found posts talking about Octangulars. All I know about these are that Tegan does the questions, and that said questions are very good. What's the rest of the story?

Also, best of luck to all teams going to Earlybird!
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Post by David Riley »

I'm sure Mr. Egan is chomping at the bit to answer this one. Tegan?
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Post by dtaylor4 »

Top 4 from Earlybird:

Carbondale
Maine South
Bloomington
New Trier

This is scary. Two teams from the same sectional, two teams south of I-80. I thought I'd never see the day.

Also, congrats to Bloomington for grailing (getting 20/20 tossups). Even after losing to Carbondale, they're still my pick to win it all this year.
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Post by David Riley »

I can't believe that Herr Taylor's comment is the only one thus far about the U of I Eary Bird, the first tournament of the season. How were the questions? the moderators? our Hoosier neighbors from Lafayette? We want details!
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Post by Tegan »

styxman wrote:For some reason, I was reading the old Illinois thread, and found posts talking about Octangulars. All I know about these are that Tegan does the questions, and that said questions are very good. What's the rest of the story?

The concept of the octangulars grew from a concern that the reason morepeople didn't try and host tournaments is because they were too overwhelming ..... bringing in 20, 30, or 40 + teams can overwhelm some people. So the idea was: let's interest people in small 8 team tournaments, playing in a round robin style so that teams would walk out having played seven rounds (vs. just 3 - 5 which is more common). The prejudices of strong vs weak pools vanish because there is only one pool. I wanted to run a tournament like this, and thought I would share the wealth by providing questions for free to any tournament host who asked.

I started writing the questions as pyramidal, but rather shabbily. As time went on, the quality improved (both my opinion as a writer, and based on local reaction).

Another issue that I tried to address was expanding the Illinois quizbowl cannon. I tried to write at least a couple of questions in each round that dealt with topics that I had never before seen in Illinois quizbowl.

The problems have been:
1. The raction from certain parts of the state was less than warm. I received many complaints about the questions being "too long" and "too tough". As one respondent to my questionaire put it "There were too many questions that dealt with things you don't lwarn in in school. There needs to be more Industrial Arts." (no, I'm not exaggertaing that statement ..... I have shown it around to several coaches who saw it).

2. Starting the second year, I wrote two sets: one was for "Northern Illinois teams, and was more pyramidal. The other was for my frosh-soph tournament, and finally I took the frosh-soph questions and shortened them and sent them to the downstate hosts. I still got back complaints about "too long" and "too tough".

3. I started getting conference requests to use the octangulars. I was glad to help out, but I soon found my pool of possible teams was drying up because several conferences using my questions couldn't go to an octangular.

This year, I am writing the octangulars, but I am writing only one set (seven rounds), and I will nto be sharing them. I will use them at my tournament, or I will be giving them to Fenwick for their tournament if I can get hold of the PACE mirror questions .... while I write these questions, my varsity team has never won the tournament (three seconds in a row!)


If another team in northern Illinois that was far enough from my area wanted to, I might relent. My stance is: with the new question writing requirements, U of I, Northwestern, and my octangular questions are the only questions in Illinois that will get you ready for state. U of I is over, Northwestern is in a few weeks, and mine are the only questions out there the month prior to state. That may sound like bragging, but if you want to go elsewhere, go for it. My team will be using state caliber questions in a competitive tournament right before state.
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Post by Tegan »

Tegan wrote:My stance is: with the new question writing requirements, U of I, Northwestern, and my octangular questions are the only questions in Illinois that will get you ready for state. U of I is over, Northwestern is in a few weeks, and mine are the only questions out there the month prior to state. That may sound like bragging, but if you want to go elsewhere, go for it. My team will be using state caliber questions in a competitive tournament right before state.
Addendum: Having seen the Aegis Questions, I would throw in any tournament using Aegis Questions as good preparation (meaning New Trier's Varsity and Loyola's Frosh-Soph).
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Post by Stained Diviner »

(meaning New Trier's Varsity and Loyola's Frosh-Soph)
...and Kickoffs and the Maine Township Cup, and conferences that use NAQT or Aegis.

While I'm correcting Mr. Egan, let me congratulate his team for defeating New Trier in a well-played match even with some lucky breaks going New Trier's way.

After seeing the level of competition at Champaign and considering a few teams that weren't there, I'll state that there are about ten teams from Illinois who by all rights should go to a major national tournament this year because they are better than New Trier's team from last year that eked out a playoff spot at NAQT.

I hope that there are a lot of teams at Northwestern in a few weeks. I sent them an email but haven't heard anything from them.
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Post by ktour84 »

The top individual scorers at UIUC earlybird were Justin from Carbondale, Hunter from Bloomington, and Luke from St. Ignatius.
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Post by Trevkeeper »

David Riley wrote:I can't believe that Herr Taylor's comment is the only one thus far about the U of I Eary Bird, the first tournament of the season. How were the questions? the moderators? our Hoosier neighbors from Lafayette? We want details!
The level of play was excellent. The questions were well written and overall the moderators were very good.

My only complaint was that there seemed to be too many questions on the Bible and Napoleon (admittedly, it might have felt like more since our team is awful on those topics).
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Post by Maxwell Sniffingwell »

After seeing the level of play at the Earlybird, I think we can say that this is going to be a good year for Illinois quizbowl.
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Post by Stained Diviner »

...and the solo tournaments at New Trier and U of I and some out of state tournaments, most notably Washington University.
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Stained Diviner
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Post by Stained Diviner »

Just heard from Northwestern. The teams that have expressed an interest so far are New Trier, Moline, Naperville North, Hoffman Estates, Sterling, Loyola, Maine East, and Bloomington. That's a small but strong field, but it is far from set in stone. Expect an announcement from them soon.
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Irreligion in Bangladesh
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Post by Irreligion in Bangladesh »

Are there going to be full SQBS stats posted like the last two years?

Also (and more importantly for me), Bago purchased a set of questions for me (I couldn't go and really wanted the set), and they mentioned that they would be mailed. Is there a timeline for this?

Also, Tegan, thanks for the info on the Octangulars. I might be interested in begging for the Octangular questions for a Northern Illinois tournament, but I don't know if the logistics would work. If they look possible, I'll talk to you sometime in December (the date would be 1/27.)
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Post by Irreligion in Bangladesh »

Pseudo-edit - I just noticed Sorice's post in the announcement thread that full stats will be up shortly, so never mind that :)
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Post by Captain Sinico »

styxman wrote:Also (and more importantly for me), Bago purchased a set of questions for me (I couldn't go and really wanted the set), and they mentioned that they would be mailed. Is there a timeline for this?
These will be sent-out shortly; certainly by the end of the week.

MaS
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Maxwell Sniffingwell
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Post by Maxwell Sniffingwell »

Trevkeeper wrote: The level of play was excellent. The questions were well written and overall the moderators were very good.

My only complaint was that there seemed to be too many questions on the Bible and Napoleon
Our team did well with the Bible questions - one of our players knows her Bible - but yeah, it did seem like there were a bit too many. Most important work of literature EVER or not, it's still a single work.
I didn't notice any particular Napoleon heaviness, though.

Overall, though, these questions were excellent. My thanks to the U of I ABT for a tournament well done.
Greg Peterson

Northwestern University '18
Lawrence University '11
Maine South HS '07

"a decent player" - Mike Cheyne
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Post by Captain Sinico »

cornfused wrote:
Trevkeeper wrote: The level of play was excellent. The questions were well written and overall the moderators were very good.

My only complaint was that there seemed to be too many questions on the Bible and Napoleon
Our team did well with the Bible questions - one of our players knows her Bible - but yeah, it did seem like there were a bit too many. Most important work of literature EVER or not, it's still a single work.
I didn't notice any particular Napoleon heaviness, though.

Overall, though, these questions were excellent. My thanks to the U of I ABT for a tournament well done.
There weren't that many Bible questions, actually. I'll double-check this (I didn't produce this set myself, so I can't say for sure) but I think a couple rounds wound-up with two Bible-based questions, a tossup and a bonus, which is maybe too much for every round, but not every round was like that. No single round should have had more than two religion questions at all and about half the religion questions were non-Judeo-Christian (hence, not the Bible.) Among the Judeo-Christian ones, there was probably a lot of Bible-based stuff, but not exclusively that.

Anyway, I'll check that for sure later,
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Post by leapfrog314 »

ImmaculateDeception wrote:There weren't that many Bible questions, actually. I'll double-check this (I didn't produce this set myself, so I can't say for sure) but I think a couple rounds wound-up with two Bible-based questions, a tossup and a bonus, which is maybe too much for every round, but not every round was like that.
Well, at least in the Illinois high school circuit, you can go a whole tournament without hearing a Bible question, or at least you won't hear more than two in any given tournament. I remember quite a few (read: way more than two) Bible questions in the whole tournament, particularly bonuses.

As religiously inept as we may be, New Trier still very much enjoyed the tournament, despite having to get up at 4:45 AM. My only comment was that it felt there was more humanities than math/science, which might have even been intentional.
Carlo Angiuli, Indiana University
Director, Aegis Questions, Inc.
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