The Quizbowl Resource Center

As a reminder, Chicago Open Trash will return on the Sunday following this tournament. We will likely be offering a similar system of slightly-tiered registration to incentivize trash participants to play or staff in the main event, and correspondingly will be eternally grateful to anyone willing to staff our event.

Auroni wrote: 2/2 Other Academic (any academic discipline not represented by the above, pop culture viewed through an academic lens, "highbrow" pop culture, up to 1/1 more of any component of this distribution)

Can you elaborate on what "highbrow" pop culture is? What distinguishes acceptable academic content from unacceptable trash?

A couple of (lame-ish) questions:

1) Will there be powers?
2) Will target difficulty be below the previous two COs? I feel that there's been some frustration that, despite expanding interest and a wider audience for CO, the last two COs have increased difficulty over what was generally thought to be a plenty-hard tournament

1.82 wrote:Can you elaborate on what "highbrow" pop culture is? What distinguishes acceptable academic content from unacceptable trash?

In general, if it's important to white men, it's highbrow.

I'm concerned that the history distribution doesn't have any split between time periods. Will the editors take this into account when combining submissions? In the past at submission I've noticed some packets will only have questions on more recent topics.

Also, I'm guessing for European, Canadian, and Australian the editors do no want 3 Canadians history tossups and 3 Austrian history bonuses.

The grandmother is {wise, dead}. wrote:

1.82 wrote:Can you elaborate on what "highbrow" pop culture is? What distinguishes acceptable academic content from unacceptable trash?

In general, if it's important to white men, it's highbrow.

Can we please not hijack this thread to make snarky, divisive comments alluding to racial and cultural politics? I understand the frustration at this highbrow / lowbrow division but come on - the head editor is noted Very Liberal and Not White Person Auroni Gupta.

EDIT: I'm inclined to trust this editing team to deliver a good mix of history topics, but I do share some of Isaac's concern about the recency bias of history questions in submission tournaments based on my past experience. I required some non-20th century history submissions for WAO because of this phenomenon, and even then I thought the older history submissions were disproportionately poorly and hastily executed. That said, I'm willing to believe that this is, to an extent, related to documentaries, historiography, etc overwhelmingly focusing on the 20th century and some limitations on primary source material, or people thinking that it's all boring, or whatever.

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea wrote: Can we please not hijack this thread to make snarky, divisive comments alluding to racial and cultural politics? I understand the frustration at this highbrow / lowbrow division but come on - the head editor is noted Very Liberal and Not White Person Auroni Gupta.

I'm not frustrated about the division, and I don't know jack about the head editor. I'm just pointing out the best guideline there is to distinguish between "highbrow" and "lowbrow".

The grandmother is {wise, dead}. wrote:

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea wrote: Can we please not hijack this thread to make snarky, divisive comments alluding to racial and cultural politics? I understand the frustration at this highbrow / lowbrow division but come on - the head editor is noted Very Liberal and Not White Person Auroni Gupta.

I'm not frustrated about the division, and I don't know jack about the head editor. I'm just pointing out the best guideline there is to distinguish between "highbrow" and "lowbrow".

Ah, my mistake. Based on personal experience, I was under the impression that food, musicals, and genre lit were things that people of many ethnic/racial backgrounds and genders were interested in. I was unaware that they were mainly the interests of white men. Thanks for enlightening me!

1.82 wrote:Can you elaborate on what "highbrow" pop culture is? What distinguishes acceptable academic content from unacceptable trash?

"Highbrow" is an inexact term for the tenor of question we are looking for, so I've removed it from the post. We will give submission on "trash" topics if they make enough of a case as to their self-evident cultural influence or importance. Feel free to contact any editor if you have any questions.

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea wrote: A couple of (lame-ish) questions:

1) Will there be powers?
2) Will target difficulty be below the previous two COs? I feel that there's been some frustration that, despite expanding interest and a wider audience for CO, the last two COs have increased difficulty over what was generally thought to be a plenty-hard tournament

Yes.

We don't want to commit to an overly-precise difficulty benchmark before actually seeing where the experience of writing and editing questions takes us, but please be assured that we value the playing experience of the entire audience, and will think of it at every turn during the set production process. To reiterate my announcement, the goal is to make the set feel challenging, but not demoralizing.

Is there room for whimsy?

When isn't there room for whimsy?

I am looking for a team. I was pretty bad at the last CO.

Benji Nguyen and I are seeking two rabblerousers to be our teammates. Contact either of us if you're interested, especially if you know science.

Jonathan Magin and I have formed a team and are looking for two more players to join us. A science player would be greatly appreciated!

I am announcing a field cap of 18 teams for this tournament. As a reminder, please email me to actually register.

Hey, as people are putting their packets together, I'd like to request that everyone include 1 or 2 non-western arts questions per packet (not in the same subdistro). This isn't a request for reckless canon expansion ("time to whip out this TU on the 10th most famous Burundian sculptor"), but it's also an attempt to nudge people out of established ruts. I'm not trying to get 20 tossups on Hiroshige.

That said, if you have ideas for a bunch of other questions on other underrepresented topics (women artists, ancient and medieval art, other neglected art forms) instead, message me and I'll probably OK it—definitely not trying to impose too much of a burden on teams.

EDIT: To clarify, this is 1 or 2 questions out of the entire 3/3 arts—again, nothing too onerous.

wcheng wrote:Jonathan Magin and I have formed a team and are looking for two more players to join us. A science player would be greatly appreciated!

sup

Since this tournament will almost certainly be both bracketed and packet submission, I'm tightening up the field cap to 18 teams, with possibility for later expansion based on interest, staff availability, and my ability to come up with a good schedule for larger field sizes.

Is the slate of side events confirmed yet?

Benin Rebirth Party wrote:Is the slate of side events confirmed yet?

Yes, it's Chicago Open Trash 2018 and Imaginary Landscape No. 4.

dang it someone play this tournament with me

grapesmoker at gmail dot com

If any teams out there still need teammates, feel free to hit me up.

Opening post updated with full writing and editing team.

Reminder that the first packet deadline is coming up this Sunday, May 13th. Additionally, I'm awarding one-week extension upon request to packet writers who are significantly involved in producing this year's high school national sets; if this applies to you, contact me with the deadline you're aiming to meet and the date you expect to hand me your questions by.

I emailed you a while back to register my team (Tamara Vardomskaya, Mike Cheyne, Sam Bailey, and me) for the tournament. Did you get the registration? It appears that we are not included in the field in the first post.

Fucitol wrote:I emailed you a while back to register my team (Tamara Vardomskaya, Mike Cheyne, Sam Bailey, and me) for the tournament. Did you get the registration? It appears that we are not included in the field in the first post.

We're in the same situation.

A slight clarification and revision of the distribution as originally posted. The 3/3 arts will be subdistributed as follows:

• 1/1 Auditory. This includes jazz and "world music," but not opera or ballet, which will count as "audiovisual" below.
• 1/1 Visual. This includes painting, sculpture, and anything else that you interact with (almost) exclusively by looking at.
• 1/1 Other. This includes audiovisual media like film and musical theater; it also includes performances and art that you're more likely to touch, hold, live in, or otherwise interact with. Please vary your questions as much as possible by type of art; do not submit two "audiovisual" questions or two "useful arts" questions.

I've updated the opening post with the packets we've received for the earliest deadline. Some of you have emailed me about reasonable extensions; your packets will be added once I actually receive them. Several more of you have messaged or asked me in person about extensions which will remain hypothetical until you actually email me about them.

Our field is now full, but I have begun soliciting/keeping track of staffers and there may be the possibility of expansion once I've got enough.

Side note: potential staffers, please send me an email so I can easily keep track of who'll be around. Thanks!

As this is both HSNCT and a holiday weekend, can the deadline for packets on the 27th possibly be pushed back a couple days (like the 29th)?

Auks Ran Ova, in the trash thread, wrote:We have increased the fee by $5 a player in order to pay staffers

It's very late to bring it up, but is replicating some form of this (probably not in the form of a sudden surcharge for teams) for CO proper possible, considering it's arguably the most physically demanding single day of reading in the entire season? Or if not this year, for future COs?

The Bold Ideas of Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wrote:

Auks Ran Ova, in the trash thread, wrote:We have increased the fee by $5 a player in order to pay staffers

It's very late to bring it up, but is replicating some form of this (probably not in the form of a sudden surcharge for teams) for CO proper possible, considering it's arguably the most physically demanding single day of reading in the entire season? Or if not this year, for future COs?

Seconding this

Cheynem wrote:As this is both HSNCT and a holiday weekend, can the deadline for packets on the 27th possibly be pushed back a couple days (like the 29th)?

Did you one better and pushed it back to the end of the month.

The Bold Ideas of Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wrote:It's very late to bring it up, but is replicating some form of this (probably not in the form of a sudden surcharge for teams) for CO proper possible, considering it's arguably the most physically demanding single day of reading in the entire season?

To match the incentive structure for CO Trash, I have now have edited the announcement to explicitly mention our $20 stipend (and customary free lunch) for staffers.

Auroni wrote:

Cheynem wrote:As this is both HSNCT and a holiday weekend, can the deadline for packets on the 27th possibly be pushed back a couple days (like the 29th)?

Did you one better and pushed it back to the end of the month.

The Bold Ideas of Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wrote:It's very late to bring it up, but is replicating some form of this (probably not in the form of a sudden surcharge for teams) for CO proper possible, considering it's arguably the most physically demanding single day of reading in the entire season?

To match the incentive structure for CO Trash, I have now have edited the announcement to explicitly mention our $20 stipend (and customary free lunch) for staffers.

Awesome. Thanks.

I've expanded the field to 22 teams after assessing the staff situation, letting Mike Etzkorn's team in.

Since the field's expanded, I'll tentatively express interest. My case schedule keeps getting moved around but theoretically I am free for CO weekend.

Inspired by a suggestion from Alex Damisch, I shall have a packet with the theme of "annoying / mean / horrible things to make people say" - not in the sense of the answers being offensive words, but in the sense of the answer being hard to give, or pertaining to making someone say something that's annoying / hard to have to say. I'd like to read to folks at some point over CO weekend - perhaps on Friday evening. The questions may feature some amount of extreme vanity.

People are more than welcome to suggest drinking game rules to accompany this.

EDIT: Vanity warning.

EDIT 2: Further clarification

Reminder that tonight is the deadline for -$25 packets (unless you've emailed me asking for an exception).

Can you update the packet list (to make sure you got our packet, among others)?

Is there a sign-up for Imaginary Landscape 4? Has a format been confirmed?

Benin Rebirth Party wrote:Is there a sign-up for Imaginary Landscape 4? Has a format been confirmed?

I've had a format in mind for a while now. I'm still waiting for confirmation from the university as to which building(s) they're giving us this year. (Whether it will be Cobb again is up in the air.) This could affect how many rooms have A/V capability, and during what times we'll have those rooms. I didn't want to announce the format, have people sign up, only then for me to need to change it. But if people would prefer that I get the ball rolling with the tentative format, I can do so.

Due to issues with the room reservation process at the University of Chicago, this tournament will instead be held at Northwestern University.

Will the tournament be renamed to reflect its new location?

No.

I for one welcome more tournaments moving closer to my home

Auroni wrote:Due to issues with the room reservation process at the University of Chicago, this tournament will instead be held at Northwestern University.

Tomate, Chicken Shack, here I come!

In all seriousness, if anyone wants food suggestions/needs any help with where to stay or anything else in Evanston, drop me a line.

Guile Island wrote:

Auroni wrote:Due to issues with the room reservation process at the University of Chicago, this tournament will instead be held at Northwestern University.

Tomate, Chicken Shack, here I come!

In all seriousness, if anyone wants food suggestions/needs any help with where to stay or anything else in Evanston, drop me a line.

There's only one option

Guile Island wrote:

Auroni wrote:Due to issues with the room reservation process at the University of Chicago, this tournament will instead be held at Northwestern University.

Tomate, Chicken Shack, here I come!

In all seriousness, if anyone wants food suggestions/needs any help with where to stay or anything else in Evanston, drop me a line.

In concordance with the emoji and the new, suburban location, I intend to host festivities at my parents' north shore home on Saturday night, following whatever hellish hour EO concludes. All quizbowlers who are over 18 and have graduated high school are welcome. It is not accessible by transit, so while I won't organize it myself, DDing/splitting rideshares is strongly encouraged. If you want more details (such as an exact location, especially if this may influence your hotel-booking purposes) hit me up over a medium of your convenience: text/Facebook/email/Discord DM/forums DM/skywriting over Lake Michigan.