Fernando Arrabal Tournament of the Absurd: 11/23/13 @ CMU
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Re: Fernando Arrabal Tournament of the Absurd: 11/23/13 @ CMU
This was every bit the absurdly hard tournament that was advertised and a truly unique, (mostly) fun experience. Thanks for writing and hosting this, Jerry et al.
Will Nediger, you are absurd.
Will Nediger, you are absurd.
Jarret Greene
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Re: Fernando Arrabal Tournament of the Absurd: 11/23/13 @ CMU
100% agree with Jarret on all counts. Many thanks to Jerry and friends for putting this on.
Ashvin Srivatsa
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Re: Fernando Arrabal Tournament of the Absurd: 11/23/13 @ CMU
That was fun! Certainly brutal, though.
To a degree, that's to be expected, of course; "really hard, mostly vanity" is what was announced and what was delivered on. I think at times this tournament overreached even on that, which was its major pitfall--there were a not-insignificant number of bad judgement calls on difficulty that resulted in stuff that was incredibly hard even by the standards of the rest of the tournament--but overall I think most people playing it knew what they were getting into and were able to enjoy it for what it was. I was happy to get what I got and, with the possible exception of that Bataan Death March of a final round, consistently enjoyed myself.
Thanks for running it!
To a degree, that's to be expected, of course; "really hard, mostly vanity" is what was announced and what was delivered on. I think at times this tournament overreached even on that, which was its major pitfall--there were a not-insignificant number of bad judgement calls on difficulty that resulted in stuff that was incredibly hard even by the standards of the rest of the tournament--but overall I think most people playing it knew what they were getting into and were able to enjoy it for what it was. I was happy to get what I got and, with the possible exception of that Bataan Death March of a final round, consistently enjoyed myself.
Thanks for running it!
Rob Carson
University of Minnesota '11, MCTC '??, BHSU forever
Member, ACF
Member emeritus, PACE
Writer and Editor, NAQT
University of Minnesota '11, MCTC '??, BHSU forever
Member, ACF
Member emeritus, PACE
Writer and Editor, NAQT
Re: Fernando Arrabal Tournament of the Absurd: 11/23/13 @ CMU
I imagine there will be a discussion thread but my points are just sort of general enough, so I'll say this here.
There's not a whole lot of point in a tournament like this to quibble about difficulty or topics chosen, so I won't. We all knew it would be super hard and vanity because you told us and it was. I didn't particularly find it that interesting, but then I bet Jerry wouldn't find a tournament I wrote in the same vein to be super interesting either, so that's hardly a complaint.
What I would like to gently suggest to Jerry (or whoever else wrote questions) is to keep an eye on the quizbowlese in the questions. I usually can brush these things off (and maybe it's more noticeable in an online format when you're straining to hear anyway), but it felt like a bit of odd pronoun usage ("This work" a lot, "this technique" for something that isn't a technique), awkward "a man who was a friend of this man" type wording, and overly coy phrasings (when I get the set, I can comment more). I had a harder time following the questions in this set than any set I've played recently and when the questions are already super hard, that's not fun times.
The only other criticism of substance I have is that the bonuses certainly had an inconsistent flavor at times. You would get bonuses with traditional easy parts, bonuses with easy but very coy easy parts (the ones with "voting" and "cities" as the easy part, for example), and bonuses that just laid down the gauntlet and said "You have to kill Mr. Tarkanian to get 10 points." Now, I realize this is bound to happen at super hard tournaments...but it stands out a bit when not much scoring is happening anyway. I'm not sure how if there's really a way to fix this because a lot of it is contingent on certain topics being more known in quizbowl.
EDIT: One thing that I will be a bit reproachful over is that for a tournament announced a while ago and given a bit of a fanfare...why did it seem so unpolished? One of the rounds had 18 questions? We were given like 7-8 rounds and told "more later"? This is unacceptable for a tournament where people travel a great distance to play.
There's not a whole lot of point in a tournament like this to quibble about difficulty or topics chosen, so I won't. We all knew it would be super hard and vanity because you told us and it was. I didn't particularly find it that interesting, but then I bet Jerry wouldn't find a tournament I wrote in the same vein to be super interesting either, so that's hardly a complaint.
What I would like to gently suggest to Jerry (or whoever else wrote questions) is to keep an eye on the quizbowlese in the questions. I usually can brush these things off (and maybe it's more noticeable in an online format when you're straining to hear anyway), but it felt like a bit of odd pronoun usage ("This work" a lot, "this technique" for something that isn't a technique), awkward "a man who was a friend of this man" type wording, and overly coy phrasings (when I get the set, I can comment more). I had a harder time following the questions in this set than any set I've played recently and when the questions are already super hard, that's not fun times.
The only other criticism of substance I have is that the bonuses certainly had an inconsistent flavor at times. You would get bonuses with traditional easy parts, bonuses with easy but very coy easy parts (the ones with "voting" and "cities" as the easy part, for example), and bonuses that just laid down the gauntlet and said "You have to kill Mr. Tarkanian to get 10 points." Now, I realize this is bound to happen at super hard tournaments...but it stands out a bit when not much scoring is happening anyway. I'm not sure how if there's really a way to fix this because a lot of it is contingent on certain topics being more known in quizbowl.
EDIT: One thing that I will be a bit reproachful over is that for a tournament announced a while ago and given a bit of a fanfare...why did it seem so unpolished? One of the rounds had 18 questions? We were given like 7-8 rounds and told "more later"? This is unacceptable for a tournament where people travel a great distance to play.
Mike Cheyne
Formerly U of Minnesota
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Formerly U of Minnesota
"You killed HSAPQ"--Matt Bollinger
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Re: Fernando Arrabal Tournament of the Absurd: 11/23/13 @ CMU
Mike told me you were unlikely to play more than 7 rounds, and if he had asked, I would have sent him the rest. As for the 18-question round, the short answer is that I fucked up with regard to how much time I thought I had to work on this; I got slammed with a work-related deadline that I didn't anticipate and which basically took two whole weeks out of the time that I had to work on this tournament.Cheynem wrote:EDIT: One thing that I will be a bit reproachful over is that for a tournament announced a while ago and given a bit of a fanfare...why did it seem so unpolished? One of the rounds had 18 questions? We were given like 7-8 rounds and told "more later"? This is unacceptable for a tournament where people travel a great distance to play.
Jerry Vinokurov
ex-LJHS, ex-Berkeley, ex-Brown, sorta-ex-CMU
presently: John Jay College Economics
code ape, loud voice, general nuissance
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presently: John Jay College Economics
code ape, loud voice, general nuissance
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Re: Fernando Arrabal Tournament of the Absurd: 11/23/13 @ CMU
Siddhant is making me post this because he cares too much about fantasy quizbowl, sorry. One of my tossups was misattributed in game 8 (against the Donetsk Metallurgical Academy) -- I got the tossups on Zweig and feeding people though I don't know who they were given to. This allegedly makes him tie or win so I guess it's a Big Deal.
Max
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Re: Fernando Arrabal Tournament of the Absurd: 11/23/13 @ CMU
Are the packets posted somewhere?
M(ir)ia(m) Nussbaum
Former player for Ithaca High School, Cornell, MIT
Former player for Ithaca High School, Cornell, MIT
Re: Fernando Arrabal Tournament of the Absurd: 11/23/13 @ CMU
When I entered this game, I actually suspected there might have been a mistake with the scoresheet because some of the point totals seemed to be out of line with what people were getting in other rounds (Michael was given 60 points and Marshall -5). I will look into this and try to fix it later today when I have a chance to look at the scoresheets again.Mewto55555 wrote:Siddhant is making me post this because he cares too much about fantasy quizbowl, sorry. One of my tossups was misattributed in game 8 (against the Donetsk Metallurgical Academy) -- I got the tossups on Zweig and feeding people though I don't know who they were given to. This allegedly makes him tie or win so I guess it's a Big Deal.
Andrew Nadig
Mannhiem Mannheim Manheim Township, 2005-11
Carnegie Mellon University, 2011-15
Carnegie Mellon University, 2011-15
Re: Fernando Arrabal Tournament of the Absurd: 11/23/13 @ CMU
I have indulged the fantasy quiz bowlers and fixed this.Ndg wrote:When I entered this game, I actually suspected there might have been a mistake with the scoresheet because some of the point totals seemed to be out of line with what people were getting in other rounds (Michael was given 60 points and Marshall -5). I will look into this and try to fix it later today when I have a chance to look at the scoresheets again.Mewto55555 wrote:Siddhant is making me post this because he cares too much about fantasy quizbowl, sorry. One of my tossups was misattributed in game 8 (against the Donetsk Metallurgical Academy) -- I got the tossups on Zweig and feeding people though I don't know who they were given to. This allegedly makes him tie or win so I guess it's a Big Deal.
Andrew Nadig
Mannhiem Mannheim Manheim Township, 2005-11
Carnegie Mellon University, 2011-15
Carnegie Mellon University, 2011-15
Re: Fernando Arrabal Tournament of the Absurd: 11/23/13 @ CMU
Will the packets be posted soon?Distance model wrote:Are the packets posted somewhere?
Billy Beyer, formerly of FSU
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Re: Fernando Arrabal Tournament of the Absurd: 11/23/13 @ CMU
Sorry, I've been entirely too busy to think about this. If you want a copy, just email me.wd4gdz wrote:Will the packets be posted soon?Distance model wrote:Are the packets posted somewhere?
Jerry Vinokurov
ex-LJHS, ex-Berkeley, ex-Brown, sorta-ex-CMU
presently: John Jay College Economics
code ape, loud voice, general nuissance
ex-LJHS, ex-Berkeley, ex-Brown, sorta-ex-CMU
presently: John Jay College Economics
code ape, loud voice, general nuissance