Pacific Northwest MUT Mirror - 4/21 - Taking place online
- Mike Bentley
- Sin
- Posts: 6465
- Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:03 pm
- Location: Bellevue, WA
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Pacific Northwest MUT Mirror - 4/21 - Taking place online
We're having trouble getting enough teams for the Pacific Northwest mirror of MUT that was scheduled to take place in Boise tomorrow, so we're going to experiment with running at least some of the rounds online. We have 5 teams signed up right now and could use a sixth team (we could also use another moderator if anyone's interested in doing this). This team would need to pay the mirror fee and be available from 9:30 AM pacific time until around 5:00 PM pacific time when we expect the tournament to finish. You can have multiple people playing, but they'll need to be in the same location.
The way this will work is that a moderator will read to teams over Skype (and possibly locally if one of the teams is at the same site as the moderator). The teams will yell "buzz" to buzz in. We experimented with a moderator reading remotely to a team in two rooms and that scenario seemed to work okay, although we haven't had a chance to test two teams playing in different locations. I can't imagine things running as smoothly as a regular quizbowl tournament, but it may be better than just not playing.
Anyway, if you're interested in participating or reading some rounds remotely tomorrow, shoot me an e-mail at [email protected].
The way this will work is that a moderator will read to teams over Skype (and possibly locally if one of the teams is at the same site as the moderator). The teams will yell "buzz" to buzz in. We experimented with a moderator reading remotely to a team in two rooms and that scenario seemed to work okay, although we haven't had a chance to test two teams playing in different locations. I can't imagine things running as smoothly as a regular quizbowl tournament, but it may be better than just not playing.
Anyway, if you're interested in participating or reading some rounds remotely tomorrow, shoot me an e-mail at [email protected].
Mike Bentley
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
- Mike Bentley
- Sin
- Posts: 6465
- Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:03 pm
- Location: Bellevue, WA
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Re: Pacific Northwest MUT Mirror - 4/21 - Taking place online
Stats after round 4: http://doc-ent.com/quizbowl/MUT%202012% ... dings.html
Mike Bentley
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
Re: Pacific Northwest MUT Mirror - 4/21 - Taking place online
That actually turned out better than I expected.
Did we have a team from each time zone in the Continental US?
Did we have a team from each time zone in the Continental US?
Colin McNamara, Boise State University
Member, PACE
Idaho Quiz & Academic Teams
Member, PACE
Idaho Quiz & Academic Teams
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- Tidus
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Re: Pacific Northwest MUT Mirror - 4/21 - Taking place online
I agree, this tournament had the best Skype-hosted rounds I've ever been in and is probably as good as you can get with Skype. And yes, we did, with a Missouri team and an Ohio team.tiwonge wrote:That actually turned out better than I expected.
Did we have a team from each time zone in the Continental US?
Ben Zhang
Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell '23
Columbia University '18
Ladue Horton Watkins HS '14
Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell '23
Columbia University '18
Ladue Horton Watkins HS '14
- Mike Bentley
- Sin
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Re: Pacific Northwest MUT Mirror - 4/21 - Taking place online
Finals stats at http://doc-ent.com/quizbowl/MUT%202012% ... dings.html.
Ben Zhang, playing solo, was the official winner of this tournament. Team comically ineligible to actually play the tournament (Alejandro and I) had the overall best record.
Thanks to the remote teams that made this tournament happen. It was fun to get to play some teams outside of the three-team circuit in the area. As others have mentioned, things worked well enough, although I wouldn't use a Skype match for a serious competition. In particular, having a moderator read to both a local team and a remote team was probably not a good idea--we probably won a few buzzer races against Ben, for instance, because we didn't have the latency that he had.
Ben Zhang, playing solo, was the official winner of this tournament. Team comically ineligible to actually play the tournament (Alejandro and I) had the overall best record.
Thanks to the remote teams that made this tournament happen. It was fun to get to play some teams outside of the three-team circuit in the area. As others have mentioned, things worked well enough, although I wouldn't use a Skype match for a serious competition. In particular, having a moderator read to both a local team and a remote team was probably not a good idea--we probably won a few buzzer races against Ben, for instance, because we didn't have the latency that he had.
Mike Bentley
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
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- Tidus
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- Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 3:35 pm
Re: Pacific Northwest MUT Mirror - 4/21 - Taking place online
Didn't both Boise teams play five rounds and not four?
Ben Zhang
Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell '23
Columbia University '18
Ladue Horton Watkins HS '14
Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell '23
Columbia University '18
Ladue Horton Watkins HS '14
- Mike Bentley
- Sin
- Posts: 6465
- Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:03 pm
- Location: Bellevue, WA
- Contact:
Re: Pacific Northwest MUT Mirror - 4/21 - Taking place online
You're right. I'll look into what happened there.Christ, I Know wrote:Didn't both Boise teams play five rounds and not four?
Mike Bentley
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
Re: Pacific Northwest MUT Mirror - 4/21 - Taking place online
I've got my scoresheet for the fifth round, if you need it. But not for the other BSU team.
Colin McNamara, Boise State University
Member, PACE
Idaho Quiz & Academic Teams
Member, PACE
Idaho Quiz & Academic Teams
- saintanthony
- Lulu
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Re: Pacific Northwest MUT Mirror - 4/21 - Taking place online
Thanks again for hosting this mirror Boise/UW/Mike! It was a great chance to play the set, although Mike sums up most of the issues Case found with the format. As expected, Skype tournaments are better than nothing but shadow in comparison to the real thing. The Skype system led to a few problems: volume inconsistencies between (and during) matches, a couple of contested buzzer races, minor issues with moderator discretion. And of course, having three players crowd around the same enter key to buzz is less than ideal. Nevertheless, those problems did not detract from our enjoyment of the MUT set and the tournament's organization. Another issue -- that we didn't face yesterday, thankfully -- is that as wonderful as Skype is for amplifying a good moderator, I would hate to see how miserable Skype could make a round with a bad reader.
Also, playing quizbowl on a comfortable couch sounds like a great idea until your entire team starts falling asleep. I'll be sitting on the ground next time.
Perhaps it would be worth investigating other ways to hold virtual tournaments, possibly by exploring Google + Hangout. I've played some other trivia activities through Hangout before and think that many of these issues could be solved. Of course, each participant would need to have their own computer setup, but Hangout supports multiple video feeds, would allow every player to buzz at their own discretion and it would free up players to adjust their own settings.
Also, playing quizbowl on a comfortable couch sounds like a great idea until your entire team starts falling asleep. I'll be sitting on the ground next time.
Perhaps it would be worth investigating other ways to hold virtual tournaments, possibly by exploring Google + Hangout. I've played some other trivia activities through Hangout before and think that many of these issues could be solved. Of course, each participant would need to have their own computer setup, but Hangout supports multiple video feeds, would allow every player to buzz at their own discretion and it would free up players to adjust their own settings.
Drew Scheeler
President Emeritus, Case Quizbowl
Case Western Reserve University '13
President Emeritus, Case Quizbowl
Case Western Reserve University '13
Re: Pacific Northwest MUT Mirror - 4/21 - Taking place online
If every player had their own laptop/computer and headset, things would be much easier. You could probably still do it with Skype, but any voice/chat combination would work.
Colin McNamara, Boise State University
Member, PACE
Idaho Quiz & Academic Teams
Member, PACE
Idaho Quiz & Academic Teams
Re: Pacific Northwest MUT Mirror - 4/21 - Taking place online
Were these the last two MUT mirrors? Is the set cleared for discussion?
Colin McNamara, Boise State University
Member, PACE
Idaho Quiz & Academic Teams
Member, PACE
Idaho Quiz & Academic Teams
Re: Pacific Northwest MUT Mirror - 4/21 - Taking place online
MIT will be running a mirror next Saturday, so the set is not clear yet.
Stephen Eltinge
Then: TJ, MIT, Yale, PACE, NAQT
Now: ACF
Then: TJ, MIT, Yale, PACE, NAQT
Now: ACF