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Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 7:41 pm
by Sima Guang Hater
Quizbowl Festivus will be held this year on actual Festivus, Saturday, December 23.

As in recent past years this will consist of an open reading of guerilla packets on various themes (or not). There will be no “airing of grievances.”

This year Festivus will move to quizbowl’s Discord server and begin at noon eastern to accommodate West Coast participants as well as give us maximum time to get done at a reasonable hour.

Packet authors will each have the option to use the voice feature to read packets out loud, or copy and paste text.

Generally speaking any kind of packet is fine, with the following suggestions to help with the reality of a long day and 50 or more people playing a packet at once:

*All-tossup packets or quick one-part bonuses are better than full bonuses. In addition to timeliness concerns, there is no reason to include “easy” or “medium” bonus parts as there will be experts in almost every category present.

*Theme which a large portion of the expected audience can enjoy are preferred. You can write that packet of your dreams on the 50 biggest events from this year’s freestyle mountain bike world championships but it may get shuttled to the end of the queue. Last year’s Festivus included broad themes such as “20th-century movies” and “biology” in addition to trash themes that a lot of people were interested in; try to go in this direction if possible.

*It’s OK to write as much as your theme will bear rather than forcing every packet to be 20 questions or some other round number by filling it out with uninspired questions.

*With all of the above in mind, this IS the time to write questions too hard or weird for any other tournament as people will answer them!

You can post your plans to write a packet here. Final ordering of packets will not close until the day of the event.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 7:51 pm
by Mike Bentley
I'll have a packet similar to my Iwata Asks packet last year on mostly old videogames using mostly clues that I find interesting (i.e. more on the technology end, less on the plot end). Will probably be around 40 tossups.

I may also have a packet on current events questions that are too old / bad to be used in any other context.

And who knows, maybe some other surprise packet.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 11:00 pm
by Aaron's Rod
I had so much fun last year reading my academic/trash mashups packet that I'm pleased to say I have another ~20 answer lines for "Trashups Packet 2: Electric Switcheroo." The trash will be mostly music and TV, the academics will roughly follow a standard ACF-ish distro (except maybe 2/0 math and 0/0 bio and/or 1/0 "my choice").

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 11:16 pm
by Ciorwrong
If there is interest, I'm thinking of putting together a half metal music, half internet content packet. I believe my flight from Zurich to USA takes off while this is going on, so unless I plan on reading this in the airport, I would appreciate it if someone would volunteer to read my packet.

EDIT: Saul Hankin graciously offered to read my packet. It'll be a mix of classic metal acts from the 80s and before, alternative metal that people actually know, and a max of two questions on power metal and death metal that only I listen to in the QB community. See my avatar for an idea of what could appear from those genres. The internet content will be mostly on internet memes but will have tons of stuff from websites I've visited, internet history, and maybe a question on internet magazines.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 1:20 am
by Fado Alexandrino
I think I'm gonna finish my Viennese Classical pack for this.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 1:52 pm
by Dantooine is Big!
I think I will submit a packet. First idea for a theme is all indie rock albums. Second idea is all Irish myth stories or works. Third idea is all Spanish philosophers. I'll probably do all of them.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:46 pm
by merv1618
I'll have some A Song of Ice and Fire questions for it.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 3:58 pm
by Habitat_Against_Humanity
~10 questions on the Mountain Goats, assuming I'm available to read them

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:18 pm
by A Dim-Witted Saboteur
I'll have a half-packet of very difficult meme/world history/geo mashups prepared.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2017 6:09 am
by Belgium
I'm sure you'll all be crestfallen to learn that I will not be reading a new and improved F1 packet at this year's Festivus.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2017 2:11 pm
by SpanishSpy
I will try to actually finish my third trash packet for this.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2017 2:38 pm
by TaylorH
I have a packet of ~50 TUs on trash music albums ready to read for this. Mostly on indie rock, classic rock, pop, and soundtracks. I also have a 30 TU + linked bonuses trash/film/lit/fine arts packet mostly consisting of common links I can read, though the bonuses can be forgone to save time.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2017 10:55 am
by magin
I'm planning on writing a hard packet of at least 20 tossups on weird, esoteric Americana.

Edit: My packet is now done.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2017 10:36 pm
by CPiGuy
I'll write a packet on "music I like". I might also write some questions on random things in my "I should write a quizbowl question on this" bookmarks folder.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2017 7:21 pm
by peteh725
I am beginning work on P.R.O.B.S.T., a small Survivor based trivia packet that I should hopefully have ready for the event!

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2017 1:16 am
by avp
I'll have at most 20 tossups such that tossup n will have a response with exactly n words. Topics will encompass anything I can find, but should be mostly pop culture.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2017 5:10 pm
by naan/steak-holding toll
I'll have a packet of very hard lit, historiography, thought, and myth tossups for this. Like, really hard.

EDIT: This is now more or less all subjects, and Jason Cheng is writing it with me.

EDIT 2: Now featuring a lot of trash

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2017 6:09 pm
by Cheynem
I'm probably going to be in and out for this, but I'd suggest people try to post packets rather than read them if possible. I feel like there's less problems involving non-muted mics, not being able to hear people read clearly, etc. Also I tend to do multiple things at once when I'm IRC'ing, and it's easier for me to look at a screen every once in a while rather than to keep listening. Obviously YMMV.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2017 10:00 pm
by Majin Buu Roi
I may have a musical theater packet for this that will be harder than last year's (though not abusively so, I just want to see if I can avoid having every question get powered this time).

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 12:51 am
by coldstonesteveaustin
I wrote a 20-tossup anime packet called JAP last year but couldn't finish it in time for Festivus, so I read it to my teammates. For this Festivus, I'll read that and another 10-tossup packet called WEEB on recent anime (fall 2016 and later) and other otaku culture related topics that I wrote this last week.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 1:31 am
by Panayot Hitov
peteh725 wrote:I am beginning work on P.R.O.B.S.T., a small Survivor based trivia packet that I should hopefully have ready for the event!

:party: :party: :party:

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 10:44 pm
by Charm Bison
I might write a few questions on ad campaigns or something. I won’t be around to read them, though, but I’ll figure that part out when I actually get around to writing them.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2017 2:41 am
by StabbedCat
I don't usually post here, whatever, university in Japan has left me with lots of free time so I will attempt to throw together a packet (or most of one) on 2017 music. It'll probably be difficult, but I shall keep a festive demeanor.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2017 1:23 pm
by Too Late
I'll have some song of ice and fire that will (I hope) be of a similar difficulty/somewhat harder than last year's.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2017 1:23 am
by CPiGuy
CPiGuy wrote:I'll write a packet on "music I like". I might also write some questions on random things in my "I should write a quizbowl question on this" bookmarks folder.
My "music I like" packet has reached 20 questions, so it will definitely happen. The questions are mostly lyrics-based, and are in general very long (10-14 lines). Not sure I'll get to the second thing, though -- probably not.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2017 12:53 pm
by Fado Alexandrino
I'm not gonna write anything new for this despite what I said upstream but if enough people haven't heard my Hockey-centric pack I wrote for Paul's Basement ICT mirror this past summer I'd love to read it for this.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 12:02 am
by Mike Bentley
Mike Bentley wrote:I'll have a packet similar to my Iwata Asks packet last year on mostly old videogames using mostly clues that I find interesting (i.e. more on the technology end, less on the plot end). Will probably be around 40 tossups.

I may also have a packet on current events questions that are too old / bad to be used in any other context.

And who knows, maybe some other surprise packet.
My videogame packet, ROM Check, is now done with 40 tossups. I'll save the other packets for next year.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2017 7:53 pm
by Ciorwrong
As this is a week from today, I'm wondering if we can start a little schedule sign up? I, and I'm guessing others as well, would like to know what packets are in and when they will be read because some of us may have to do last minute Christmas shopping or whatever on December 23rd.

I'm just about done with my Internet and metal packet (18 tossups written out of 20), and I think I'll be able to read and play as my flight lands in Detroit next Friday night. Thanks to Saul Hankin for volunteering to read my packet though.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2017 3:48 pm
by peteh725
I have 4 tossups left to write and then I'm also wondering if there's going to be some sort of submission or signup period.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2017 2:00 pm
by Habitat_Against_Humanity
Looks like there's a full slate of questions/packets.

Given that a.) My Mountain Goats questions probably have a fairly limited appeal and b.) my larger family is doing their Christmas on the 23rd, I'm gonna hold off on my reading my questions for a while. That said, I still might be able to drop by for playing, but I have no idea when.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2017 2:45 pm
by avp
avp wrote:I'll have at most 20 tossups such that tossup n will have a response with exactly n words. Topics will encompass anything I can find, but should be mostly pop culture.
This is complete to 18 tossups, with the following description.

For all n, tossup n in this packet has an answer line consisting of n words. Formally, a “word” is defined as a contiguous sequence of alphanumeric characters, hyphens and apostrophes; all other characters are considered separators. Exact answers containing n words are required in order to be ruled correct; note that this may include leading articles for titles. The difficulty variance is high, and tossups 18 and 19 don’t exist. The packet encompasses all topics, except the French New Wave, which has been explicitly banned with extreme prejudice.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 2:02 am
by Caleb Rentpayer
I know this is last minute, but I wrote 20 Homestar Runner tossups.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 2:09 pm
by anderson
I'll have another music packet similar to my packets the last two years (and with contributions from Diana Gerr this time). There will probably be around 15 tossups.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 2:27 pm
by merv1618
Caleb Rentpayer wrote:I know this is last minute, but I wrote 20 Homestar Runner tossups.
Please and thank you

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 3:02 pm
by Aaron's Rod
Aaron's Rod wrote:I had so much fun last year reading my academic/trash mashups packet that I'm pleased to say I have another ~20 answer lines for "Trashups Packet 2: Electric Switcheroo." The trash will be mostly music and TV, the academics will roughly follow a standard ACF-ish distro (except maybe 2/0 math and 0/0 bio and/or 1/0 "my choice").
The Good: This is happening.
The Bad: "~20" really means "15+"
The Ugly: There is indeed no bio and 2 math.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 7:27 pm
by A Dim-Witted Saboteur
Sit Room Guy wrote:I'll have a half-packet of very difficult meme/world history/geo mashups prepared.
I only wrote three of these. I guess I'll prob read what I have.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 7:46 pm
by Majin Buu Roi
jasongg17 wrote:I may have a musical theater packet for this that will be harder than last year's (though not abusively so, I just want to see if I can avoid having every question get powered this time).

We'll see exactly how much I get done after a family dinner tonight/tomorrow morning, but this will happen and will probably be closer to a half-packet.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2017 2:00 am
by Wynaut
I have a packet of 24 6-line geography questions I intended to use in an aborted GEODUCK sequel.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2017 3:51 am
by SpanishSpy
Travel plans changed so I might not be at this, but the packet is ready 20/20. My understanding is that bonuses are frowned upon; I will consult whoever is listening as to whether I read them or not should I be there.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2017 12:19 pm
by Sygyt/Kargyraa
I've got 15 tossups on the SCP Foundation, vocal music, and common links between the two.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2017 12:37 pm
by Majin Buu Roi
As I've already mentioned on the discord (but in case people don't see it there) my musicals packet will almost certainly not quite be a full packet, but it will have at least 15 tossups that range in answer-line difficulty from "harder than anything that comes up in SCT/IS packets but still reasonable" to "hard even for broadway fanatics." They are all 9 lines (though the 9th line isn't always full) and also have super-powers that for the most part cover score clues written by a dude who doesn't actually know music well enough to write score clues (i.e. me).

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2017 2:38 pm
by Majin Buu Roi
I took scores on my 19-tossup musicals packet for some reason, which came out as follows:

John Lawrence: 110
Greg Peterson: 100
Alston Boyd: 55
Dakota (?): 45
Alex Damisch: 10
Erik Christensen: -5
Adam Sperber: -10

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2017 5:14 pm
by heterodyne
jasongg17 wrote:I took scores on my 19-tossup musicals packet for some reason, which came out as follows:

John Lawrence: 110
Greg Peterson: 100
Isabel Archery (?): 55
Dakota (?): 45
Alex Damisch: 10
Erik Christensen: -5
Adam Sperber: -10
I'm Isabel.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2017 5:35 pm
by merv1618
heterodyne wrote:
jasongg17 wrote:I took scores on my 19-tossup musicals packet for some reason, which came out as follows:

John Lawrence: 110
Greg Peterson: 100
Isabel Archery (?): 55
Dakota (?): 45
Alex Damisch: 10
Erik Christensen: -5
Adam Sperber: -10
I'm Isabel.
I'm John Lawrence

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2017 8:53 pm
by Auks Ran Ova
merv1618 wrote:
heterodyne wrote:
jasongg17 wrote:I took scores on my 19-tossup musicals packet for some reason, which came out as follows:

John Lawrence: 110
Greg Peterson: 100
Isabel Archery (?): 55
Dakota (?): 45
Alex Damisch: 10
Erik Christensen: -5
Adam Sperber: -10
I'm Isabel.
I'm John Lawrence
even negging on the forums now, my goodness

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2017 12:16 am
by theMoMA
If you've already read your packet, could you please email it to me at [email protected]? Rob, Carsten, and I are going to try to get into the Festivus spirit.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2017 2:45 am
by Aaron's Rod
jasongg17 wrote:I took scores on my 19-tossup musicals packet for some reason, which came out as follows:

John Lawrence: 110
Greg Peterson: 100
Alston Boyd: 55
Dakota (?): 45
Alex Damisch: 10
Erik Christensen: -5
Adam Sperber: -10
Dakota is Dakota Williams.
Aaron's Rod wrote:
Aaron's Rod wrote:I had so much fun last year reading my academic/trash mashups packet that I'm pleased to say I have another ~20 answer lines for "Trashups Packet 2: Electric Switcheroo." The trash will be mostly music and TV, the academics will roughly follow a standard ACF-ish distro (except maybe 2/0 math and 0/0 bio and/or 1/0 "my choice").
The Good: This is happening.
The Bad: "~20" really means "15+"
The Ugly: There is indeed no bio and 2 math.
After 17/0 the standings were as follows:
Aaron Dos Remedios 30
Kenji 20
Greg Peterson 15
Will Alston 10
Alston Boyd 10
Daniel Brezina 10
otsasonr 10
Eric 10
Erik Christensen -5
Chip Horton -5
Jack S -5
Harris Bunker -5
Sam Brrochin -5
Aakash -10
Jakob Myers -15

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2017 7:54 am
by Mike Bentley
Here were the scores for my 40 question packet. There were 20 point powers but no one got any.

Code: Select all

Oliver Clarke / 0 / 3 / 3 / 0 / 75
Mik / 0 / 3 / 4 / 3 / 70
avp / 0 / 2 / 2 / 0 / 50
Matt Lafer / 0 / 2 / 1.5 / 3 / 30
Matt Weiner / 0 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 20
Christpoher Stern / 0 / 0 / 2 / 0 / 20
Chip Horton / 0 / 2 / 0 / 3 / 15
Kevin Wang / 0 / 1 / 2 / 5 / 10
Kenji / 0 / 0 / 1 / 0 / 10
Greg Peterson / 0 / 0 / 1 / 0 / 10
Aaron Dos Remedios / 0 / 2 / 1 / 7 / 5
Raynor / 0 / 0 / 1 / 2 / 0
Wang Anshi / 0 / 0 / 1 / 2 / 0
Ben Salter / 0 / 1 / 0 / 4 / -5
Annie L / 0 / 0 / 0 / 1 / -5
Daniel Chiverton / 0 / 0 / 0 / 1 / -5
Jlasker / 0 / 0 / 1 / 4 / -10
Adam Sperber / 0 / 0 / 0 / 2 / -10
Jack S / 0 / 0 / 0 / 2 / -10
Will B / 0 / 0 / 0 / 3 / -15
I've attached the questions.

Re: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 12:57 am
by Ciorwrong
Forgive me if this actually happened, but has someone combined all the Festivus packets and posted them to the archive in one entry? There are a couple I'd like to read that I didn't get a chance to. If someone volunteers to do this, let me know where to send my packet. Thanks!