Announcement: MATE Part I Skype Tournament (5/18)

[Kafkaesque]

Hello trash fans,

As you may have noticed in the Facebook group, I recently posted about a trash packet I'm writing on all things The Office. I'd like to announce that this packet will be the start of a trash series by myself and Anay Katyal (of Plainfield North) called Mason and Anay's Trash Extravaganza. We have concrete plans to write at least two more trash packets: one on Arrested Development and one on Breaking Bad. Depending on these packets' success and on popular demand, we may write quite a few more packets on individual television series to flesh out our MATE series.

As for The Office (Part I),

A few details about the set: The packet is currently slated to have 30 toss-ups and 30 single-part bonuses. However, time constraints (read: APUSH) may reduce the number of questions to 20-25. All toss-ups are power-marked, and the difficulty is reasonably high (fairly hard early clues on the toss-ups and very specific bonuses).

We're planning a Skype tournament for this Saturday night (5/18) to determine the ultimate Office fan of the quizbowl world. My Skype name is mason.hale, so add me if you want to play. The tournament will start around 9:00 PM EST and should conclude about a half an hour after that. I will be reading, and Anay will be scorekeeping.

I will be playtesting the set with a few friends on Thursday before the series finale. After a bit of editing by the two of us, the set should be completely done Friday night.

I look forward to hosting this tournament, and I hope you all enjoy this and future iterations of MATE!

[4nay]

This will be glorious.

Also, for those of you who're interested in the set but are unable to do to the Skype tourney this Saturday, we'll be releasing the set soon after.

[jonathanmarx]

one on Arrested Development and one on Breaking Bad.

I (along with at least one of my teammates) am extremely interested in these.

[vengefulsweatermensch]

I will definitely play the Office and Arrested Development packets.

[4nay]

Also, for those of you who expressed interest in the Arrested Development set and are also going to HSNCT: since the Netflix premiere of Arrested Development coincides with the last day of HSNCT, if anyone is interested in mirroring the set as a small side event on any of those nights just hit one of us up.

[4nay]

Thanks to everyone who played! Scores are below:

Nate Weiser (LASA): 455 (W)
Sameen Belal (Walter Johnson): 30
Mike Cheyne (Minnesota): 0

Congrats to Nate for cleaning up. Almost powered every single question he got (so clearly he's a huge fan of The Office).

Packet is located here for those interested: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hmumrzg154qsp ... Office.pdf

[Cheynem]

I was clearly in the zone here. Fun packet though.

[jonathanmarx]

Also, for those of you who expressed interest in the Arrested Development set and are also going to HSNCT: since the Netflix premiere of Arrested Development coincides with the last day of HSNCT, if anyone is interested in mirroring the set as a small side event on any of those nights just hit one of us up.

You'd be my hero if you could make this happen.

[jonah]

I would love to play the Arrested Development packet at HSNCT, and I know a few other staffers who might too.

[4nay]

Our respective schools aren't going to appear at HSNCT (ergo neither are we) so we'll need some volunteers to help us make this happen. The interest for the packet seems to be there (per this thread and the Facebook group, among other places) so if anyone is interested or knows someone who would be willing to read and scorekeep for such an event, make sure to contact one of us. We'll also be on the lookout for people to help out.

[Kafkaesque]

Unfortunately, we're going to have to postpone the packet a week. While we would love to have the packet done by HSNCT, we don't think it will be ready (in all its glory) by then. Instead, we plan to host a Skype tourney on (mark your calendars!) June 1st. Also, we'll pursue a minor side-event at NSC if anyone's interested. If you really wanted to play this at HSNCT, join us instead on Skype! It was a ton of fun for The Office, and it'll be a ton of fun for Arrested Development. See you then!