The Quizbowl Resource Center

Hello everyone,

This is an announcement for YMIR (Your Mythology Invitational, Revised), an 8-packet, all-mythology, all-tossup (side) tournament to be head-edited by Seth Teitler and written by me (Ben Zhang), Joe Brosch, Ankit Aggarwal, and several other people. Any contributions are welcome; if you would like to help with writing this set, please email [email protected].

Tournament specifics:

This will happen on June 9th at the official PACE hotel, after the Saturday rounds of PACE. The format will consist of a round robin with teams of one, two, or three people, followed by a one-game final between the top 2 teams after the round robin.

Questions:

The vast majority of the questions at this tournament will be intended to be largely around ACF Regionals difficulty, although there will be harder answerlines that may be closer to ACF Nationals difficulty. We intend for answerline selection to be the only reason tossups would be more difficult. The average tossup should be around 5-6 lines, with none exceeding 7 and none below 5. We are aiming for this to be played by college-level players and knowledgeable high school players, although we obviously won’t be turning anyone away because of ability.

The current breakdown of the distribution looks like this:

Total: 21 tossups per packet

8 Greco-Roman
3 Norse
2.5 European (Celtic, Arthurian, Slavic, Finnish)
2 Egyptian
1.5 American (Native American, Mesoamerican, South American, Polynesian)
1 Hindu
1 Asian
.5 Middle Eastern/Babylonian
.5 African
1 Other (mythologies that don't fit into the above categories, multi-system common-link tossups, and trash myth)

---Teams (8)---

Matt Jackson / Max Schindler / Richard Yu
Charles Hang
Nolan Winkler / Morgan Venkus / Sohan Vartak
Itamar Naveh-Benjamin / Avery Wagner / Adam Sperber
Matt Messana
David Madden
Zihan Zheng / Kisan Thakkar / Dan Kim
Daniel Brach-Neufeld / Raynor Kuang

---Interested People (free agents) (1+1)----

Mike Hundley

Trevor Davis?

Readers:

Jacob O'Rourke
Stephen Eltinge
Connor Teevens
Nikhil Desai

Buzzers:

Jacob O'Rourke: 2
Ladue: 1
Nolan/Morgan (from Matt Laird): 1

Rooms:

Matt Jackson
Nikhil Desai
David Madden
Connor Teevens?

Your ideas intrigue me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

I hope to see some folklore questions.

Why is Polynesian part of the "American" part of the distribution? Doesn't Polynesian/Aboriginal mythology warrant its own, albeit a small, part of the distribution?

Cheynem wrote:I hope to see some folklore questions.

Like local legends and somesuch? We did originally have some, but they were too hard for this level, and we're having trouble representing all world peoples as it is. There will be some curveballs, however.

John Bunyan?!

John Bunyip?!

deserto wrote:Why is Polynesian part of the "American" part of the distribution? Doesn't Polynesian/Aboriginal mythology warrant its own, albeit a small, part of the distribution?

Presumably because of our imperialism leading to control of Hawaii. Maybe it should be separate, but I'm not really sure it matters much (if you pulled it out and put it in "other," for instance.)

I am suddenly interested in moderating NSC.

Skepticism and Animal Feed wrote:I am suddenly interested in moderating NSC.

For anyone else who has developed this sudden interest, please contact Matt Bollinger as soon as possible. See viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12606 for full details.

We've had a couple of new writers for this set, but more are always welcome- email me at [email protected] if you want to help with this!

I'm so in.

If I'm at NSC as planned I might be willing to play this, either riding the coattails of college players or on a high schooler team.

EDIT: So will this be at WUSTL like NSC, or the official hotel?

I'll play this, assuming it's open to me which it should be, or else you're all excluded from playing Sports/Entertainment History Bee at NHBB. So there.

Also, what on earth is other then? New Guinea myth?

Yeah, anyone can play this. Also, whether this is a single/double/team event will probably depend on the number of registered people.

"Other Myth" is any myth that doesn't fit the above categories (so that would include New Guinea myth) and common link tossups. Stuff like that.

Where my tall tales at, from the front to back?

I assume in the American distro.

Anybody interested in playing this tournament should either email [email protected] or post here as soon as possible. I'm going to go ahead and say that it will be in shootout format, unless there is something else that would work better. It should be happening the Saturday evening of PACE at WUStL.

Anybody willing to staff this, please email me too.

Edit: see my latest post.

I am interested in this

I'm in.

Out of curiosity, who are the "several other people" mentioned up top?

Sam Donow, Andrew Wang, William Dou, Jessica Li, Esther Sun, and Sameer Rai. I think Donald Taylor has been roped into this somehow, but I'm not sure yet.

I can staff this, if need be.

I am very much interested in playing this, unless I'm needed for mid-NSC logistics stuff while this is being run.

I'd be interested in staffing this.

I play quizbowl

I'll play

I like myth and this sounds fun. I'd love to play this set.

Tommy Tutone 2 wrote:Sam Donow, Andrew Wang, William Dou, Jessica Li, Esther Sun, and Sameer Rai. I think Donald Taylor has been roped into this somehow, but I'm not sure yet.

I told Joe I'd help pitch in should people continue to fuck out, as I will be near O'Hare during the event.

I'd be interested in playing this.

I can staff or play, as needed.

I'd like to read for this

I would play this as well.

I'll play it.

Matt Messana (who doesn't post) of Notre Dame is interested in playing this. I can staff.

Instead of shootouts, I am now thinking of doing something along the lines of a RR between 6 teams of 3 or 4. For now, I will be freezing the field/list of interested people until I get more feedback on this.

Put me down as interested/waitlisted, anyways. If I can't play, I'd like to staff

I'd be interested in this if the field were to open up.

This is being expanded to 8 packets, which means that the field is now open again since there are more logistical options. There have been some slight distribution changes (to 21/0 per packet), and tossups will now be 5-6 lines long, but the difficulty should remain the same.

I want to play this.

Chances are I'll end up staffing.

Would anyone be particularly opposed to a ~$5-7 per-person entry fee? Once this even gets nearer, I'll have all interested people email me regarding teams and stuff, since an 8-team round robin appears to be most suitable.

Hi, I'd like to play in this as well!

EDIT: I would not personally be opposed to paying.

Now that I'll be at PACE, I'd like to play. I'd prefer a doubles or triples event just so my glaring lack of knowledge appears slightly less glaring.

I would be happy to pay some small amount of money to play this tournament.

Definitely interested in playing.

If anyone wants to form teams of (up to) 3 now, please email [email protected] with some names (don't just post here).

I just got word that the WUSTL rooms will be locked after the Saturday rounds are over, so this will no longer be held in the game rooms there. Current options include hotel rooms / hallways -- I'll update this later when I make a decision (and suggestions are welcome).

Christ, I Know wrote:I just got word that the WUSTL rooms will be locked after the Saturday rounds are over, so this will no longer be held in the game rooms there. Current options include hotel rooms / hallways -- I'll update this later when I make a decision (and suggestions are welcome).

The Danforth University Center (which is a short walk from where the tournament will be held) is open until 9 on Saturdays and has a series of conference rooms that are perfect for Quiz Bowl (we hold our practices there).

Having playtested some of these questions, I would be glad to read for this or staff in any helpful way.

Having heard the sad news that fellow Bengali quizbowler Eric Mukherjee will not be playing this tournament, I have no prospect for vicarious glory and thus will unfortunately not be attending