Thoughts on Andrew Hart's Deadspin Article

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Strongside
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Thoughts on Andrew Hart's Deadspin Article

Post by Strongside »

Here is the link to the article:

http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/i-was- ... 1707805654

I realize this article was published in the middle of high school nationals season, but as the longest? and arguably the best article ever written about quiz bowl I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the article within a few days of when it was published.


I feel the most important thing about the article is that it makes quiz bowl out to be a serious and worthwhile activity.

It emphasizes that quiz bowl is a sort of never ending quest for knowledge, as well as an intellectually intensive activity.

I feel it is difficult to read this article without at least coming away with an appreciation for quiz bowl.

It contrasts how simple and basic the rules of quiz bowl are, with how difficult of a game it can be.


I really enjoyed and closely related to the last two paragraphs of the article.


Three things that I hope people get out of reading this article:

1. Be confident in yourself that participation in quiz bowl is worthwhile.

2. Make sure to understand that working hard in quiz bowl can lead to significantly positive unintended consequences.

3. Quiz bowl has the ability to transform and enhance lives.


Also, would it be possible to have create an edited/cleaner version of this article, and post it on the hsquizbowl website the ACF website, etc.?

I don't mind the profanity etc. (it is deadspin after all), but I think this would be a good thing to share with high school/middle school administrators, players, and coaches.
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Re: Thoughts on Andrew Hart's Deadspin Article

Post by minusfive »

Kind of reminds me of "Best in Show" in that nobody watched that for dog-show content. It makes a lot of quizbowlers look weird and anti-social. The pie-eating contest metaphor is strained at best. But all in all, about as positive a spin on highest-level quizbowl as can be done.
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Re: Thoughts on Andrew Hart's Deadspin Article

Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

I thought it made playing quizbowl sound a bit more miserable than it actually is, but Andrew and his teammates at Minnesota put far more work into quizbowl than I ever did, so perhaps it's an accurate assessment of the drudgery of being an elite, high-level player with championship-or-nothing expectations. I never got to that level in quizbowl, but in a few of my other hobbies I eventually got good enough where if I won the championship I was content, and if I did anything else I was miserable, and it does feel oppressive after a while.

I do enjoy the fact that the Palm Frond incident and other similar anecdotes made it into this article, that was probably my favorite part. Sure, the article does plenty to make quizbowl people look weird, but the reality is that quizbowl people are "weird, but not as weird as you'd expect them to be" and the fact that we have a lot of "interesting" people with "interesting" personalities in quizbowl is definitely something we could use to market and promote the game. At the end of the day the tossup/bonus format is not a great spectator sport and any quizbowl penetration into the public eye has to be at least partially personality-driven. This is how a lot of minor activities do it.
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Re: Thoughts on Andrew Hart's Deadspin Article

Post by Cheynem »

I've told Andrew that I enjoyed the article a lot, but I'll note that while it's long, it also only skirts the surface of things you can talk about in college quizbowl--writing/editing questions for one, as well as more of the sheer joy aspects of it (I have found that I have the most joy playing quizbowl when my team is around .500 at major fields, so 18 rounds of that at some CO's was pretty exhilarating).
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Re: Thoughts on Andrew Hart's Deadspin Article

Post by Nabonidus »

Skepticism and Animal Feed wrote:any quizbowl penetration into the public eye has to be at least partially personality-driven.
Agreed. I suggest we spend a couple years staging an epic wrestling-style storyline, except consisting mainly of subtle literary allusions.
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Re: Thoughts on Andrew Hart's Deadspin Article

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

Nabonidus wrote:
Skepticism and Animal Feed wrote:any quizbowl penetration into the public eye has to be at least partially personality-driven.
Agreed. I suggest we spend a couple years staging an epic wrestling-style storyline, except consisting mainly of subtle literary allusions.
You say this as though it hasn't already been ongoing for years now.
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Re: Thoughts on Andrew Hart's Deadspin Article

Post by bmcke »

minusfive wrote:Kind of reminds me of "Best in Show" in that nobody watched that for dog-show content. It makes a lot of quizbowlers look weird and anti-social. The pie-eating contest metaphor is strained at best. But all in all, about as positive a spin on highest-level quizbowl as can be done.
I loved the pie-eating contest, and I was very happy that the tone of the thing was so positive. Andrew told a couple stories about personalities from the quizoverse, but other writers past have used those stories to completely sell out quizbowl as "the time I met all those weirdos." Andrew used them for flavour while still presenting quizbowl and its players as being cool and fun.

I also liked the effort to actually interview Matt Bollinger about his approach to quizbowl -- I'd been hoping for a long time that someone would do that.

EDIT: It was also nice that he didn't spell "quizbowl" with a space.
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Re: Thoughts on Andrew Hart's Deadspin Article

Post by vinteuil »

bmcke wrote:I also liked the effort to actually interview Matt Bollinger about his approach to quizbowl -- I'd been hoping for a long time that someone would do that.
I think this kind of interview is exactly the best kind of way to approach non-event-specific quizbowl journalism.
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Re: Thoughts on Andrew Hart's Deadspin Article

Post by Nabonidus »

bmcke wrote:EDIT: It was also nice that he didn't spell "quizbowl" with a space.
Why is quizbowl spelled without a space? Isn't the intent to mirror "[Blank] Bowl" events in college football?
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Re: Thoughts on Andrew Hart's Deadspin Article

Post by vinteuil »

Nabonidus wrote:
bmcke wrote:EDIT: It was also nice that he didn't spell "quizbowl" with a space.
Why is quizbowl spelled without a space? Isn't the intent to mirror "[Blank] Bowl" events in college football?
"The Quiz Bowl"
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Re: Thoughts on Andrew Hart's Deadspin Article

Post by theMoMA »

I appreciate the feedback I received on social media from a lot of you guys, and the scattered responses here. I'm happy to answer any questions about the essay that people have, so feel free to pose them in this thread.
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