ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard International II/ Fake ACF (3/20/10)

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 7:40 pm

Since so many people are coming late, we'll delay until 8:30pm EST.

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 1:40 pm

Playtesting late tonight (let's say we'll start at 10pm) of the remaining bio and other science (no more math/cs); on the order of 14/6, I'll estimate roughly.

At some point, I'll probably playtest those things that weren't written at the time of playtesting, for a likely ~13/13 in all; that'll be later on, though.

Post by **DumbJaques** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 6:45 pm

The "Penn/Maryland" team is more like Eric Mukherjee, Andrew Lim, and myself at the moment, for whatever it's worth.

grapesmoker · Post by **grapesmoker** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 6:46 pm

DumbJaques wrote:The "Penn/Maryland" team is more like Eric Mukherjee, Andrew Lim, and myself at the moment, for whatever it's worth.

Andrew Lim! How exciting!

Ondes Martenot · Post by **Ondes Martenot** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 10:31 am

Our team will be Hannah, Doug Yetman, Matt G and myself

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 12:01 pm

Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:Playtesting late tonight (let's say we'll start at 10pm) of the remaining bio and other science (no more math/cs); on the order of 14/6, I'll estimate roughly.

At some point, I'll probably playtest those things that weren't written at the time of playtesting, for a likely ~13/13 in all; that'll be later on, though.

Unfortunately, last night ended up dedicated to the housing search this summer; many apologies. Reschedule for 9pm tonight, in #hiother.

Lagotto Romagnolo · Post by **Lagotto Romagnolo** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 5:05 pm

A reminder about the buzzer chain: Brown now has Yale's buzzer, Yale has Penn's. We will attempt to end this on Saturday.

Ondes Martenot · Post by **Ondes Martenot** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 5:42 pm

RPI also has a Yale buzzer system (I'm assuming Yale has multiple systems). Still have no clue who has our buzzer system

ThisIsMyUsername · Post by **ThisIsMyUsername** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 6:27 pm

Yale has only one buzzer system. RPI has it. The buzzer system we brought to T-Party is the one that Brown has now, which is actually RPI's. The one that we have now is the one that Brown brought to T-Party, which is actually Penn's.

Ondes Martenot · Post by **Ondes Martenot** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 6:32 pm

And after six weeks the great northeast buzzer crisis will finally come to a close. I think.

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 6:38 pm

Ondes Martenot wrote:And after six weeks the great northeast buzzer crisis will finally come to a close. I think.

I am going to put "brought by" and "owned by" post-its on the doors where these buzzers will be used at the tournament, and everyone can fill them in there. Because I sure as fuck understand none of this.

Post by **Susan** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 6:42 pm

Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:
Ondes Martenot wrote:And after six weeks the great northeast buzzer crisis will finally come to a close. I think.
I am going to put "brought by" and "owned by" post-its on the doors where these buzzers will be used at the tournament, and everyone can fill them in there. Because I sure as fuck understand none of this.

All of the teams involved in this might want to bring something to put on their buzzer system indicating what school it's from (bumper stickers tend to be reasonably hardy and distinctive but a sharpie and some duct tape will do in a pinch) so that y'all don't have to deal with any of these old-timey-GRE-style buzzer redistribution problems again.

MicroEStudent · Post by **MicroEStudent** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:18 pm

This sounds like the fox, chicken and bag of corn problem.

You can only take one buzzer system across the Charles at a time, but if left alone, Penn's buzzer will eat RPI's...

Theory Of The Leisure Flask · Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:54 pm

Ondes Martenot wrote:And after six weeks the great northeast buzzer crisis will finally come to a close. I think.

It's been more than six weeks since EFT.

magin · Post by **magin** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 8:31 pm

Hey, I need a team for this, since I'd like to split the tournament costs. Any interested teams/individuals should let me know.

Edit: I have just accepted the offer to play with VCU due to my appreciation of Eric Maynor's shot over Greg Paulus.

Not That Kind of Christian!! · Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:04 pm

Ondes Martenot wrote:Our team will be Hannah, Doug Yetman, Matt G and myself

Actually, I was never asked about this... I'm playing with Chris Ray, Eric Mukherjee, and Andrew Lim instead.

Ondes Martenot · Post by **Ondes Martenot** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 2:41 pm

Oh...must have been some sort of miscommunication between Andy and I. Any free agent is welcome to join Matt, Doug and myself on Saturday

DakarKra · Post by **DakarKra** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 3:57 pm

Ondes Martenot wrote:Oh...must have been some sort of miscommunication between Andy and I. Any free agent is welcome to join Matt, Doug and myself on Saturday

Unless I'm much mistaken about the status of other free-agents, I'm exactly what you're looking for. If you're interested in a semi-warm body to fill in next to you, send me an e-mail (this name at Y!).

Ondes Martenot · Post by **Ondes Martenot** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 5:07 pm

That sounds awesome Jeremy. See you on Saturday.

grapesmoker · Post by **grapesmoker** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 10:34 pm

Brown may be bringing a full 2nd team or some free agents. We're not sure yet.

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 10:39 pm

Cool; just let me know when you can because that makes the difference (most likely) between eight and seven teams (unless someone picks up Jonathan).

APPARENTLY he edited his post and I didn't see that!

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Wed Mar 17, 2010 2:02 am

I have finished writing science bonuses. 31 of them need to be playtested again, and that will happen tomorrow evening, time TBA, in #hiscience.

I'm going to want to review 25 tossups (since I've modified them enough since playtesting the first time that some attention couldn't hurt). And there are 9 tossups that have not been written yet that, I hope, will be written quite soon and that I will be playtesting as soon as that is the case.

Philosophy playtesting will follow once science is, to a greater extent, off my back.

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Wed Mar 17, 2010 7:21 pm

UVA had to drop, so I hope you have that second team, Jerry.

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Wed Mar 17, 2010 9:24 pm

Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:I have finished writing science bonuses. 31 of them need to be playtested again, and that will happen tomorrow evening, time TBA, in #hiscience.

I'm going to want to review 25 tossups (since I've modified them enough since playtesting the first time that some attention couldn't hurt). And there are 9 tossups that have not been written yet that, I hope, will be written quite soon and that I will be playtesting as soon as that is the case.

Philosophy playtesting will follow once science is, to a greater extent, off my back.

Turn "time TBA" into "Thursday night, because I can't seem to finish these tossups." Many apologies!

t-bar · Post by **t-bar** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 10:50 pm

Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:
Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:I have finished writing science bonuses. 31 of them need to be playtested again, and that will happen tomorrow evening, time TBA, in #hiscience.

I'm going to want to review 25 tossups (since I've modified them enough since playtesting the first time that some attention couldn't hurt). And there are 9 tossups that have not been written yet that, I hope, will be written quite soon and that I will be playtesting as soon as that is the case.

Philosophy playtesting will follow once science is, to a greater extent, off my back.
Turn "time TBA" into "Thursday night, because I can't seem to finish these tossups." Many apologies!

Is this happening?

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:01 pm

t-bar wrote:
Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:
Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:I have finished writing science bonuses. 31 of them need to be playtested again, and that will happen tomorrow evening, time TBA, in #hiscience.

I'm going to want to review 25 tossups (since I've modified them enough since playtesting the first time that some attention couldn't hurt). And there are 9 tossups that have not been written yet that, I hope, will be written quite soon and that I will be playtesting as soon as that is the case.

Philosophy playtesting will follow once science is, to a greater extent, off my back.
Turn "time TBA" into "Thursday night, because I can't seem to finish these tossups." Many apologies!
Is this happening?

Goddamn flights. I'll be there right now and I'll see who's still around.

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Fri Mar 19, 2010 12:57 pm

Okay, we playtested all but a couple of tossups I'd like some Experts to look at--so that'll go down tonight.

In other set completion news, we'd love some freelance social science. Email me and we'll have a chat. Auroni, you'd said you were going to write some last night; did that happen?

Ondes Martenot · Post by **Ondes Martenot** » Fri Mar 19, 2010 3:59 pm

I'm assuming this will be held at Sever?

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Fri Mar 19, 2010 4:35 pm

Ondes Martenot wrote:I'm assuming this will be held at Sever?

Yeah: teams should arrive at Sever by nine; gameplay should start shortly thereafter.

If we end up with five teams, which looks overwhelmingly likely, we'll do a double round robin followed by finals (we'd love to do a triple round robin, but there's no way to do that plus have two packets for finals--also, potential tiebreaker packets). I hope we can somehow pull of six teams, because then we'll be able to do the same deal, but with no byes (and we'll be able to follow it with a playoff rebracketing into four and two).

Post by **DumbJaques** » Fri Mar 19, 2010 5:59 pm

Even if the second Brown team is undermanned, is there no way to shore it up with Harvard team members?

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Fri Mar 19, 2010 6:23 pm

DumbJaques wrote:Even if the second Brown team is undermanned, is there no way to shore it up with Harvard team members?

The second Brown team would be solo Ian Eppler, I think? I don't know if he's willing to play alone. I think Dennis Sun hasn't seen the questions, so he could be convinced to play--but then we'd have enough staffers only if I read and keep stats both, which I guess isn't the end of the world after all. Yeah, that seems like a more workable solution.

Post by **DumbJaques** » Fri Mar 19, 2010 7:21 pm

Dual reading/keeping stats for an untimed tournament could never be worth the price of denying someone Dennis Sun (also, you can presumably get someone on one of the teams to scorekeep if it's really necessary). Avoiding double byes for a house-written tournament seems like a pretty central goal to me.

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Fri Mar 19, 2010 7:27 pm

DumbJaques wrote:Dual reading/keeping stats for an untimed tournament could never be worth the price of denying someone Dennis Sun (also, you can presumably get someone on one of the teams to scorekeep if it's really necessary). Avoiding double byes for a house-written tournament seems like a pretty central goal to me.

By "keep stats" I meant "enter stats into SQBS," which will doubtless cause some delay--but it won't add up to the length of the byes and it sure won't add up to the two games you aren't playing, so I'm quite behind this! I've talked to Dennis and he's willing to play, more importantly.

grapesmoker · Post by **grapesmoker** » Fri Mar 19, 2010 8:02 pm

Right now, we have Ian rotating in on our team. If he wants to play with Dennis Sun and this won't ruin the schedule, I'm sure that would work fine too. Can this be a game-time decision or do we need to know now?

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Fri Mar 19, 2010 8:12 pm

grapesmoker wrote:Right now, we have Ian rotating in on our team. If he wants to play with Dennis Sun and this won't ruin the schedule, I'm sure that would work fine too. Can this be a game-time decision or do we need to know now?

If he plays with Dennis, then we have six teams and that's much better for the schedule. You can decide this whenever, since either way we have enough staff. We'd just much rather have six teams.

EDIT: also I'm pretty sure that playing HI doubles qualifies you for a BRASS BEARD

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Fri Mar 19, 2010 9:21 pm

We'll have a guest appearance from Julia Schlozman in the morning and Dennis Sun either in the morning or all day (if Ian gives the okay, Dennis has a concert in the afternoon he'd like to go to, but he's willing to stay for the good of the team and all).

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Fri Mar 19, 2010 9:58 pm

Hey, in case you didn't know, Dallas is hosting the afterparty. People will probably get dinner after and then head to his suite in Cabot.

vcuEvan · Post by **vcuEvan** » Fri Mar 19, 2010 11:43 pm

When is MELD being run?

grapesmoker · Post by **grapesmoker** » Fri Mar 19, 2010 11:46 pm

vcuEvan wrote:When is MELD being run?

I too would like to know the answer. Not that I'm opposed to afterparties but I'd like to play this tournament.

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Fri Mar 19, 2010 11:51 pm

grapesmoker wrote:
vcuEvan wrote:When is MELD being run?
I too would like to know the answer. Not that I'm opposed to afterparties but I'd like to play this tournament.

Of course. We'll run MELD right after the tournament (unless it's an absurd hour, which it shouldn't be).

Actually, we should work this out: I'd imagine Dallas and I are willing to staff (I certainly am), but we're going to need more staffers in order to run this competently at a rate of one per four participants. Email me if you want to play or staff.

Skepticism and Animal Feed · Sat Mar 20, 2010 1:59 pm

Any update on how this is going?

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Sat Mar 20, 2010 5:07 pm

Whig's Boson wrote:Any update on how this is going?

Heading into the last round of play, VCU+Magin are 8-1, Chris/Eric/Hannah/Andrew are 7-2, and Brown is 6-5. Yale is 4-5 and RPI and Ian/Dennis/a few rounds of Julia are both 1-8.

We'll almost certainly be running the three-round playoff rebracket upon the conclusion of these prelim rounds, because why not. (Certainly no one I've talked to is against it, and we've run on a fine schedule.)

MELD still needs staffers, particularly as my voice is next to shot. (Currently, Dennis Loo has replaced me.)

Duncan Idaho · Post by **Duncan Idaho** » Sat Mar 20, 2010 5:21 pm

Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:
Whig's Boson wrote:Any update on how this is going?
Heading into the last round of play, VCU+Magin are 8-1, Chris/Eric/Hannah/Andrew are 7-2, and Brown is 6-5. Yale is 4-5 and RPI and Ian/Dennis/a few rounds of Julia are both 1-8.)

Did you mean "Brown is 6-3"?

Skepticism and Animal Feed · Sat Mar 20, 2010 8:21 pm

The word on the street here in Zurich is that VCU won this.

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Sat Mar 20, 2010 10:46 pm

Yes, after a spirited chriserichannahandrew team took the first game of an advantaged final.

Stats are in the hands of Dennis Loo, who had to split before the tournament ended; they'll be online once we're in touch with him.

Thanks to everyone who came out.

Lagotto Romagnolo · Post by **Lagotto Romagnolo** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 11:33 am

Thanks to Harvard for a fun tournament and a great birthday party. In other news...

the Northeast buzzer crisis continues! I am once again in possession of a Buzzersystems.com buzzer. This one has no label, so I'm guessing it's Penn's. Can anyone confirm this?

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 12:54 pm

You might owe me money for this tournament if you are not Yale, RPI, or VCU. Fix that at some point by mailing a check made out to Harvard College Bowl to me at 3 Sacramento St., Cambridge, MA 02138.

grapesmoker · Post by **grapesmoker** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 1:07 pm

Ben Cole wrote:Did you mean "Brown is 6-3"?

We were so bad we lost a few extra games in the bargain.

Can we start discussing this set? I have to say that I was mostly disappointed in HI; I don't really think it lived up to the "fake ACF," label at all. There were definitely lots of good questions, but there were also a lot of poor ones and the bonus inconsistency was just egregious (bonuses ranged in difficulty from high school level to "you are not getting any points on this, ever."). Basically, it seemed like this set was all over the place and it made for a really frustrating playing experience.

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 1:32 pm

Yeah; I don't (think I) have subforum-creating powers, but I will alert someone who does.

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 1:42 pm

Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:Yeah; I don't (think I) have subforum-creating powers, but I will alert someone who does.

Is this being run somewhere else or something?