The Quizbowl Resource Center

This is the announcement for Minnesota Open, which will take place on October 17. Just so there are no misgivings, the difficulty of this event will be comparable to last year's Minnesota Open. This will be a difficult tournament.

Side events. We will be running Mike Cheyne's vanity literature event, Eric Mukherjee's science tournament, and Ted Gioia's arts tournament. Also, a brief guerrilla sports tournament is in the works for Sunday at lunch. See separate threads for details. Tentatively, only Minnesota Open itself will be played on Saturday, so the current plan is to run these three tournaments back-to-back on Sunday. If support for a Friday night tournament materializes, that is an option as well.

Who is editing? Rob, Gautam, and I will be the main editors; Bernadette Spencer and Stanford's own Brian Lindquist will also be on the editing team. The Minnesota team will collaborate to write several editor's packets.

Who can come? This is a true open event, meaning that there are no eligibility requirements.

Target difficulty: The same as last year's Minnesota Open, so responsibly difficult.

Target length: Please submit questions five lines or longer in 10-point Times New Roman font, with one inch margins [note: one inch is not always the default]. The more material we have to work with, the better. Final questions will converge around eight lines in length, with some longer and some shorter.

Power tossups: There will be powers, but the editors will place them. Please don't powermark your submitted questions.

Formatting requirements: Please use the standard ACF style. Ten point, times new roman font with 1-inch margins. If you want to submit packets in Calibri, that's fine too. Please lump together all questions of a certain part of the distribution, preceded with "5/5 Literature" or whatever the heading may be.

Distribution: 25/25 total.

15/15 Big Three
5/5 Literature [at least 1/1 World, American, European, and British; vary reasonably by time, and include a mix of poetry, drama, and novels]
5/5 History [at least 1/1 American, European+British, and World; vary reasonably by time, limit military history to 5 or fewer total questions]
5/5 Science [at least 1/1 Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Other Science (Astronomy, earth science, geology, math); no science biography]

3/3 RMP
1/1 Mythology [at least 1 non-Greco-Roman myth]
1/1 Philosophy [maximum 1 ancient philosophy; feel free to write on pre-Socratics, but only in an interesting way]
1/0 or 0/1 Religion [since we're already segregating myth from religion, try to keep this question as non-mythological as possible]
0/1 or 1/0 other RMP [can be mixed or on things that don't fit will into other categories like literary criticism, or can be additional R, M, or P]

3/3 Fine Arts
1/1 Painting [vary reasonably by time; try to include mostly works-based clues]
1/1 Music
1/0 or 0/1 Other visual arts [sculpture or architecture; no film (see "Your Choice" category for where to write film questions]
1/0 or 0/1 Other musical arts [opera, ballet, dance, or jazz]

2/2 Social Sciences + Geography
2/1 or 1/2 Social Sciences [includes law, anthropology, sociology, psychology, paleontology, economics, game theory; no more than one question on each discipline]
1/0 or 0/1 Geography

2/2 Your Choice
2/2 film, pop culture, sports, current events, general knowledge, or additional academic [no more than 1/1 on any given topic]

Submitting packets: Send your packets to all three primary editors. cars0090 at umn dot edu, gkandlikar at gmail dot com, limozeen at gmail dot com.

Base cost: The base cost is $120.

Discount/penalty schedule:
September 5: -$50
September 12: -$20
September 19: No penalty
October 3: +$20
October 10: +$50
After October 10: +$100 (possibly dropped from tournament)

Other discounts
Buzzer (max 2): -$5
Moderator: -$15
Additional teams from same school: -$10
Travel: $10 off if over 300 miles

Mirrors: We hope that good teams and players from all over want to come to the main site, since last year's event was such a success in terms of drawing a great field. That said, we are looking for mirrors. MIT is planning to host in the Northeast.

Freelancing: We would really appreciate it if anyone wishes to write a freelance packet.

Commandeering Mike Cheyne's post to bring your

Side event schedule
Basketball -- Friday night
Ted's fine arts extravaganza -- Saturday night, by request
Mike's musty lit -- Sunday
Eric's science tournament -- Sunday
INDIA -- probably going to be held at another tournament

Field update
The Maginetic Mountain (Mike Bentley, Jonathan Magin, Trevor Davis, Billy Beyer)
A Slant of Penn on Dull Brown Walls (Jerry Vinokurov, Eric Mukherjee, Guy Tabachnick, Michael Bennett)
List of Fictional Bears (Matt Weiner, Charlie Dees, Auroni Gupta, Joey Spicer)
The Living and Dead Soldiers of Harvard University (Andy Watkins, Ted Gioia, Bruce Arthur, Dallas Simons)
Carleton: J.R. Smith's Suburban New Jersey Gangs of Deer (Carsten Gehring, Frank Firke, Austin Bell, Andreas Stoehr)
The House of Marth (Brendan Byrne, Mike Cheyne, Hannah Kirsch, Charlie Rosenthal)
Illinois A (Mike Sorice, Trygve Meade, Ike Jose)
Illinois B (Charles Martin, Anna Gormley, Jeet Raut)
Chicago A: 120 Days of Gautam (Seth Teitler, Michael Arnold, Shantanu Jha, David Seal)
Chicago B: Obscene Brendan Byrne of Night (Tyler Smith, Paul Gauthier, Marshall Steinbaum, Nolan Esser)
Chicago C: Andrew Hart in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (!)
Chicago D: A Carson of the Middle Skateboarder (Jimmy Ready, Nick Polk, Damon Wang) (!!!)
Michigan

Packets Received:
Harvard (-$50)
Carleton (-$44)
Chicago A - 120 Days of Gautam (-$20)
Chicago B - Obscene Brendan Byrne of Night (-$0)
House (-$0)
Bentley/Magin (+$50)
Chicago D - Andrew Hart in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (-$0)
Illinois B ($0)
Chicago C - A Carson of the Middle Skateboarder (+$5)
List of Fictional Bears (+$20)
Michigan (+$20)
Illinois A (+$75)
A Slant of Penn on Dull Brown Walls (+$100)

Packets Outstanding:
none!

______________
Are we no longer running INDIA at MO?

hey jerry we're going to this right

I am going to go to this, will have my packet done by sometime this summer, and it will be a blast.

Cheynem wrote:Are we no longer running INDIA at MO?

Nooooo, I want to play science.... I guess I will have to find some other tournament to tag along.

Oh, we can do that too. I just forgot to put it down. If we don't have a trash tournament on Sunday (I'm thinking this is a good idea), three subject tournaments is not unreasonable.

Presumably we will be sending a team to this.

I will staff, unless I'm needed to lead a team again.

Sir Thopas wrote:hey jerry we're going to this right

Yeah, we made that mistake of missing it last year but I definitely want to attend this iteration.

There were a lot of complaints about how difficult/expensive it is to get to Minnesota by air when they hosted the ICT. I don't know to what extent that dissuaded people from attending last year's MO, but I thought I'd throw out the fact that MSP is now served by Southwest Airlines. Cheap flights on a reasonably convenient schedule.

So now you have no excuses. Come to this excellent event!

Coelacanth wrote:There were a lot of complaints about how difficult/expensive it is to get to Minnesota by air when they hosted the ICT. I don't know to what extent that dissuaded people from attending last year's MO, but I thought I'd throw out the fact that MSP is now served by Southwest Airlines. Cheap flights on a reasonably convenient schedule.

So now you have no excuses. Come to this excellent event!

Yay!

There's an incredibly slim chance that UCSD will make it to this.

Is basketball still in order?

dtaylor4 wrote:Is basketball still in order?

Of course. I think we will aim for Friday evening basketball again, and it shouldn't cost more than five or ten bucks per person.

I'm definitely interested. And even if I lose teammates at the last minute again, I'll try not to let that stop me this time.

I'll go ahead and assume that Carleton is either bringing a team or sending players to this, and I will make sure everyone knows the tournament may go past 3 in the afternoon.

theMoMA wrote:

dtaylor4 wrote:Is basketball still in order?

Of course. I think we will aim for Friday evening basketball again, and it shouldn't cost more than five or ten bucks per person.

Can you try to get a decent-sized court this time? The lack of decent space on the outside was disheartening.

I will do what I can.

It's likely I will go to this tournament. Let me know if you want to be on my team.

Andrew,

There's a discrepancy in the fee schedule. The $100 Penalty shouldn't be slapped on before the $50 penalty is slapped on.

GK

gkandlikar wrote:Andrew,

There's a discrepancy in the fee schedule. The $100 Penalty shouldn't be slapped on before the $50 penalty is slapped on.

GK

Shh, our secret moneymaking schemes will never work now! I hope no one notices the negative travel discount....

50% chance MSU brings a team.

Just so people know, Ted Gioia et al are planning on running a Fine Arts touranment, using remainder of the HI fine-arts set plus 6 extra rounds (for a total of 12 rounds.) It will most probably happen on Sunday morning.

gkandlikar wrote:Just so people know, Ted Gioia et al are planning on running a Fine Arts touranment, using remainder of the HI fine-arts set plus 6 extra rounds (for a total of 12 rounds.) It will most probably happen on Sunday morning.

Are you up to like five side events now?

Also, I await the arrival of Rob Myth with bated breath.

BuzzerZen wrote:

gkandlikar wrote:Just so people know, Ted Gioia et al are planning on running a Fine Arts touranment, using remainder of the HI fine-arts set plus 6 extra rounds (for a total of 12 rounds.) It will most probably happen on Sunday morning.

Are you up to like five side events now?

Also, I await the arrival of Rob Myth with bated breath.

See Mike Cheyne's commandeered post for the latest news regarding this tournament.

I would like to be a free agent for the time being until I find three teammates like last autumn. After writing my share for the Chicago Open, I can start writing for this Minnesota Open. My family in Milwaukee may finally find me a used car to purchase this summer, so I could remove Avis as a dependent. Alas, I would probably not need to burn yet another sick day on Tuesday, October 20 (my birthday) out of sheer exhaustion from renting from ORD.

Happy early Armed Forces Day Saturday,
Rom Masrour
CPS/UIC

Hey, this is just a reminder that the first tournament of the upcoming school year is just around the corner! Shockingly, the first discount deadline is less than a month away. We're hoping for another great field next year, so start organizing your teams and coordinating your packet writing efforts!

I've updated the post with info on the side events. For now, we're planning to run three academic side events on Sunday. Eric's tournament will have eight packets and bonuses. Mike's event will have 10+ packets of 26 shorter tossups. I'm assuming that KLEE will have eight to ten packets of twenty longer tossups. I don't think we'll have any problem running all three and concluding before eight or so. This may be a bit ambitious, and people are going to want to travel on Sunday night, so I'm open to moving one of these events.

Because Minnesota Open reserves the right to be a full round robin, we'd like to keep Saturday night open. However, it might be feasible to put Mike's event on Saturday night because it projects to be shorter. Putting this event on Friday night is another option.

I guess I'd like to hear what everyone thinks before we make a final decision, so please voice your input in the thread.

I just booked my ticket. I am now looking for teammates and people to stay with on Friday and Saturday nights.

Bentley Like Beckham wrote:I just booked my ticket. I am now looking for teammates and people to stay with on Friday and Saturday nights.

Looks like I'm on Magin's team now. This team needs two additional people, preferably at least one of whom knows science. Post if you're interested and willing to start writing questions soon.

The $50 discount deadline is coming up soon! We hope to see some packets in our hands by this Saturday!

Gautam

I'd also like to remind everyone that packet submission is a requirement for teams attending the Minnesota site. I'd love to start getting some emails or forum posts in this thread when teams form, so we can keep a running field update and effectively budget our writing and editing time.

Mike Bentley as a field...who needs more?

Cheynem wrote:Mike Bentley as a field...who needs more?

Field status: updated!

I am planning on attending and playing in this fine tournament, and I would not be adverse to completing a packet sooner rather than later. If you would like me to join your team, you can email me at [email protected]

Also I changed the packet requirements to make it clear that your required religion question need not be a tossup.

After speaking with Gautam I was under the impression my arts tournament c be run on Saturday night rather than on Sunday. Is it fine with the other people writing side tournaments if we run arts on Saturday because I unfortunately have to fly back early on Sunday to make it to a meeting and would love to read at my own tournament.

It's fine with me. I'll say that my event is written and is fluffy enough that it really can be done anytime and in any format.

I'm perfectly fine with that, as long as I still get a field for my thing.

Magister Ludi wrote:After speaking with Gautam I was under the impression my arts tournament be run on Saturday night rather than on Sunday. Is it fine with the other people writing side tournaments if we run arts on Saturday because I unfortunately have to fly back early on Sunday to make it to a meeting and would love to read at my own tournament.

I had tried to bring this up in our internal communications once, but I don't think I got too many replies. As such, I had planned on getting this cleared up at our first practice. I guess we might as well discuss it out right now, if there are any oppositions to it.

Gautam

How many rounds of the arts tournament are you running? We ended up running out of time last year, so it might not be the world's best idea to squeeze this in on Saturday night if there's something like 10 rounds.

If I recall, the meta packet took up some time last year. Perhaps a little tauter dinner schedule would also work. That said, it does project to a very long evening.

There will be ten rounds. I think cutting meta packet and HSAPQ meeting from the schedule will clear up some space and if the main event runs more efficiently (which I think it will) we can fit the arts tourney in on Saturday night.

Are we planning to host this at Coffman or Blegen? The latter will likely have fewer people who care if we stay late.

We're not coming anymore, good luck though.

Barring some sort of work-related obligation that makes it completely impossible for me to travel on that weekend, I will be playing this tournament with Missouri people.

I've tried Blegen, but there is a massive CLA Undergraduate Programs Conference being held in there, which makes it impossible for us to use Blegen on the 17th. I'm now sending in a request to reserve rooms for Coffman.

Thanks,
Gautam

So I think I'm going to this. I have no idea if I'm playing or staffing, but I think I'm going. If there's an opening on a team I'll join and if there's something to be written I can do non-science fairly(??) well. Oh, and I'll be putting up a serious 3 PPG so expect that. I assume I can staff all side events since I'll likely be staying with some people playing them.

If anyone is leaving from Southeast Michigan and has room for an extra person, I have gas money and the ability to fall asleep in cars. Same goes for hotel rooms and floor space.

EDIT: One person once told me I was entertaining. So I've got that on the table.

Terry Funk wrote:So I think I'm going to this. I have no idea if I'm playing or staffing, but I think I'm going. If there's an opening on a team I'll join and if there's something to be written I can do non-science fairly(??) well. Oh, and I'll be putting up a serious 3 PPG so expect that. I assume I can staff all side events since I'll likely be staying with some people playing them.

If anyone is leaving from Southeast Michigan and has room for an extra person, I have gas money and the ability to fall asleep in cars. Same goes for hotel rooms and floor space.

Sweet action!

Play my event, Pat. It's got kid lit questions.

Great, now that Pat's coming I can fully regret my decision to not go to the main site :(

Glacier wrote:Great, now that Pat's coming I can fully regret my decision to not go to the main site :(

Not too late to change it!