The Quizbowl Resource Center

I am pleased to announce the premiere of Sci-Fi, Physics, Astronomy, and Cosmology Extravaganza (SPACE): The Final Frontier, a mixed, tossup-only tournament that will be available for mirroring in the 2013-2014 season. This side event will be written by me, with contributions from other Buffalo players, and is intended to serve as an entertaining mix of physics, astronomy, and sci-fi trash, all at about regular difficulty.

The tournament is intended in my region (Niagara/Northeast) to be played as an open, doubles event--but other sites will be allowed to place their own play conditions and eligibility restrictions.

I will attempt to stick to my goal of writing harder questions about easier topics, but for some distributions I may lean harder on some more obscure concepts, especially in the interest of canon expansion and variety.

The (approximate) distribution of the 6-8 packets, split basically evenly between academic and pop culture, will be as follows:
High-Energy Physics/Particle Physics: 4 tossups
Astronomy/Astrophysics/Cosmology: 5 tossups
Any Physics: 1 tossup (mostly condensed matter, for the sake of overall variety)
History/Current Events of Space Exploration: 2 tossups (about an 80/20 split in favor of history)
Sci-Fi Lit: 2 tossups
Vintage (before 1980) Sci-Fi TV: 2 tossups
Modern Sci-Fi TV: 2 tossups
Vintage Sci-Fi Film: 2 tossups
Modern Sci-Fi Film: 2 tossups
Any sc-fi trash, any era: 1 tossup
Mixed, or other relevant topics: 1 tossup
Total: 24 tossups/packet

If you are interested in mirroring, I hope to finish writing this by the beginning of October, so contact me over PM or at zpace twenty-one (numerical) AT gmail. I'd also appreciate someone more experienced than I reading over questions in the early fall to root out any bad clues. So if you don't plan to play, then I'd appreciate a few hours of your time.

You are welcome to charge for this side event if you want to, although I probably will not. If you do, and you find the questions enjoyable, I would not say no to a few bucks for my troubles.

Edits (a couple on 4/29): distribution, difficulty, and policies

MIRRORS:
Niagara/Eastern Canada: Buffalo, weekend of 16 Nov (with DRAGOON)
New England:
Mid-Atlantic:
Midwest:
Upper Midwest:
Lower Midwest:
South:
Texas:
West:
Regions not listed or overlapping should contact me to clarify availability

I endorse this product and/or service.

Tale of Mac Datho's Pachycephalosaur wrote: all at about the ACF Fall level.

I encourage you to relax this restriction--attempting to write 24-32 ACF Fall-appropriate level tossups on high-energy physics without repeats sounds like, frankly, a fucking nightmare to me. Without the difficulty restriction though I bet you could write on some really cool things.

I'm definitely excited to play this tournament where/whenever it gets mirrored in the midwest.

This is awesome. Listen to Billy and make it harder, though.

EDIT: I will be playing this with James Lasker.

The above advice is well-taken. I will make the tournament regular-difficulty or maybe slightly harder, if the answer space is significantly improved.

On the advice of Brice Russ, I also plan to add 2 questions (edit) per packet on the history of space exploration, from the beginning of history to present, including current events.

The Quest for the Historical Mukherjesus wrote:This is awesome. Listen to Billy and make it harder, though.

EDIT: I will be playing this with James Lasker.

I'm glad I've been told about this.

EDIT: Not that I didn't expect this anyway.

I already anticipate that this will be my favorite side event ever. I hope this is mirrored somewhere where I can battle James Lasker and Eric to become the champion of SPACE.

If I can't play this, I will cry.

Excelsior (smack) wrote:I already anticipate that this will be my favorite side event ever. I hope this is mirrored somewhere where I can battle James Lasker and Eric to become the champion of SPACE.

I hope that not only will this be mirrored but that you'll allow non-students to play. I would be very sad to miss the chance to be schooled by the younger generation.

Scarlet Minivet wrote:

The Quest for the Historical Mukherjesus wrote:This is awesome. Listen to Billy and make it harder, though.

EDIT: I will be playing this with James Lasker.

I'm glad I've been told about this.

EDIT: Not that I didn't expect this anyway.

It's called Impressment. Remember?

grapesmoker wrote:

Excelsior (smack) wrote:I already anticipate that this will be my favorite side event ever. I hope this is mirrored somewhere where I can battle James Lasker and Eric to become the champion of SPACE.

I hope that not only will this be mirrored but that you'll allow non-students to play. I would be very sad to miss the chance to be schooled by the younger generation.

Whatever mirror I host directly will be open to all, including non-students. I see no particular reason why other sites would want to limit eligibility, but the freedom to do so exists (coupled with the possibility of dirty looks from spurned physicists).

Update: I plan to host this at Buffalo, on the weekend that we host DRAGOON (16-17 Nov). I have not decided whether to make it a Saturday night or Sunday morning event--I am leaning towards Sunday morning.

Due to senior thesis and graduate school application commitments, I anticipate that this tournament will probably not be available until the spring. I may manage to finish writing it in late October, though.

So I realize this probably isn't happening (unless good things have happened since your last update Zach? Please?), but is DRAGOON still happening at UB? I don't see a thread for it to sign up...

cruzeiro wrote:So I realize this probably isn't happening (unless good things have happened since your last update Zach? Please?)

Yeah, it will probably be done this spring. Definitely not before January, probably not before February.

cruzeiro wrote:but is DRAGOON still happening at UB? I don't see a thread for it to sign up...

I was under the impression that many Canadians were going to the Alabama mirror, and we were consequently debating whether to hold DRAGOON or not... Someone will get an announcement up, though, and we'll discuss there.