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. These troops made up the majority of what was known as the Convention Army, troops given parole after the Battle of Bemis Heights. Many believe Benjamin Franklin wrote the satire titled “The Sale of [these troops],” which purported that a certain count wanted more of them to die in battle, as the British paid only for dead ones, not wounded ones. First seeing action at the Battle of Long Island, they later were the majority of those surprised by Washington’s crossing of the Delaware, after which 900 were captured. Coming from Zerbst, Waldeck, and Brunswick, FTP name these paid conscripts who nonetheless are generally known by the name of one region of Germany, troops who helped the British in the American Revolution.
ANSWER: Hessians (accept German troops or mercenaries before “Germany” is mentioned)

ValenciaQBowl wrote:They've been sent to George, but let's allow the guy get those Supermelts and shakes out first.

PS--thanks, George!

Frater Taciturnus wrote:
I have no idea why packets 3 and 7 are listed first, and am looking into it

The Toad to Wigan Pier wrote:

Frater Taciturnus wrote:
I have no idea why packets 3 and 7 are listed first, and am looking into it

It's because they have a capital D as opposed to a lower case d.

Frater Taciturnus wrote:

The Toad to Wigan Pier wrote:

Frater Taciturnus wrote:
I have no idea why packets 3 and 7 are listed first, and am looking into it

It's because they have a capital D as opposed to a lower case d.

I hate computers

Carl Sandburg describes buying some brass knuckles in this historical figure’s “city” in his poem “Knucks.” Vachel Lindsay described this man “pacing up and down . . . near the old court house” in his poem with a title stating that this man “walks at midnight,” while Edwin Arlington Robinson called him “The Master” in another poem. His best known poetic chronicler described him in “This Dust Was Once the Man” as well as in a poem in which he apostrophizes him as “the fallen Western star,” the poem “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” FTP who is this historical figure whom Walt Whitman also apostrophized as “O Captain! My Captain!”?
A. Abraham Lincoln

starwarsguy6 wrote:Some of my favorite questions from this tournament (through round 4):
-The Confederate Navy tossup (though I doubt I'll ever see this again)
-The grand jury tossup (though, by the judge's preliminary hearing it became transparent)
-The Britain's Got Talent bonus (but first name of the judges should be acceptable, since that is what is shown on screen)
-The standard deviation bonus (keep it up with these types of questions)
-The A. Huxley novels bonus (but "the Savage" should be acceptable since that is what he is referred to throughout the book)

Some of the worst questions of this tournament (mostly through round 4):
-The Flash Forward bonus (if you were going to do something like this, you could have at least made the full leap and asked about Warehouse 13)
-The frogs tossup (I don't understand why they keep coming up, but if you're going to make it common link, stick to one subject area)
-The Bryan tossup (transparent once you mentioned popular speech and Secretary of State)
-The Congressional Black Caucus tossup (semi-transparent by the time "racial epithet" is used, completely transparent upon noting Roland Burris)
-The dunking on Lebron tossup (again, what is it with this coming up in QB)
-The Holmes, Sr. tossup (there are two important Oliver Wendell Holmes', so the Sr. or Jr. should be needed, especially before the giveaway)
-The Nash tossup (transparent once you mention the 1994 Nobel in Economics)
-The stigmata tossup (I know what this is, but could not recall the name so gave "receiving the wounds of Christ" (or something similar) somewhere in the middle of the question; it seems like this should be acceptable as an alternative, but that may just be me)
-The prisoner's dilemma tossup (it is completely transparent once you mention plea bargaining, which is one of the most used examples for the prisoner's dilemma)
-The Lincoln tossup (mentioning Carl Sandberg in the first line paralyzed my team into not buzzing in (it was the third to last tossup in the round we had it) due to its transparency despite knowing that he wrote about Lincoln. When discussing it with them afterwards we all had the same reaction "there's no way the writer would mention Sandberg in the first line if he was writing a pyramidal question" and subsequently we lost the match for being crippled with knowledge. Please try to get the order of clues correct next time)

My overall thoughts of the tournament:
I enjoyed it for the most part, but the link between tossups answered by my team and science bonus parts was unbearable (though I realize this is mostly a result of chance). It also seemed like the bonuses were not of consistent difficulty across subject areas (though I should note that I am operating under the assumption that most bonuses should have at least one part converted, even if the team knows nothing about the subject area unless it came up in quiz bowl).

swwFCqb wrote:I haven't looked over the set yet, but the one tossup I remember hating was the one on Mt. Fuji, which began by stating how many people climb it every year, and giving the period its climbers are most active, right before dropping that an artist made "36 views" of it. Looking past the fact that "36 views" was dropped half way through the question rather than near the giveaway (I'd like to think that this clue is fairly well known, even amongst novices/cc players/etc., but feel free to call me out on this if I'm wrong), are the clues preceding "36 views" really buzzable? I'm at best an "average" college player, but I feel that these clues are unbuzzable even for the most well knowledgable players out there. If you're going to write a tossup on a mountain peak, which IMO is really tough to do well and pyramidally, at least stick to some concrete clues that people have a chance at knowing.

12. Almost 200,000 people climb this mountain every year, with the most popular time being between July 1st and August 27th, while the huts and other facilities are still operating. One artist is best known for his woodblock print series Thirty-Six Views of this mountain. It is still an active volcano that last erupted in 1707 and is well-known for its almost perfectly shaped cone. For ten points, name this highest mountain in Japan located on the island of Honshu.
Answer. Mount Fuji

tiwonge wrote: And there's not much more before then, unless the dates July 1st and August 27th have some significance.

TheLessFamousEthan wrote:

starwarsguy6 wrote: -The dunking on Lebron tossup (again, what is it with this coming up in QB)
-The Holmes, Sr. tossup (there are two important Oliver Wendell Holmes', so the Sr. or Jr. should be needed, especially before the giveaway)
-The Nash tossup (transparent once you mention the 1994 Nobel in Economics)
-The prisoner's dilemma tossup (it is completely transparent once you mention plea bargaining, which is one of the most used examples for the prisoner's dilemma)
-The Lincoln tossup (mentioning Carl Sandberg in the first line paralyzed my team into not buzzing in (it was the third to last tossup in the round we had it) due to its transparency despite knowing that he wrote about Lincoln. When discussing it with them afterwards we all had the same reaction "there's no way the writer would mention Sandberg in the first line if he was writing a pyramidal question" and subsequently we lost the match for being crippled with knowledge. Please try to get the order of clues correct next time)
quote]

1.) It is a perfectly good tossup, and you felt the need to complain about it because it comes up in QB too much? A tournament that has a trash/CE distribution is going to have stuff like this. Don't say it is a bad question because you don't like it.

2.) Again, if you were playing this set (and not reading it off of the internet) it would be no concern to you. Yes there are two extremely famous Oliver Wendell Holmes, but that have nothing in common (other than their names).

4.) You used information you gathered from hearing other packets to get a tossup. Seems to me you are on your way to being a good quizbowl player!

5.) See number 4
6.) Horrible excuse for not buzzing. Because Sandberg is from Chicago (which is in Illinois!) doesn't make him an automatic easy clue for Lincon (who was associated with Illinois). Also, Abraham Lincon Walks at Midnight seems more famous to me that Knucks.

millionwaves wrote:Everyone who is not a board staffer: stop meta-criticizing people's posts right now. Thank you.

theMoMA wrote: A similarly misused word is “stock.” Most basically, this word means that a particular clue comes up in quizbowl enough that many people with sufficient packet experience associate it with the answer. It typically refers to a clue that often comes up at the beginning of a question, even when a lot of people buzz off of it repeatedly (these clues are alternately called “chestnuts”); one could say that the fact that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet is stock, but the word is usually reserved for clues that are misplaced too early, too often. Stock clues happen when people keep putting the fact that Cuchulainn has seven eyes with seven pupils each, or the fact that there are things called Wadati-Benioff zones in subduction zones, into the leadins of questions on those topics. Sometimes, especially in older tournaments, “stock” evokes a sense of trivial unimportance. A lot of people know that Shakespeare supposedly wrote that terrible poem on his grave about disturbing his bones, but it’s not really important enough to come up in a tossup, let alone in the beginning where it will create an immediate buzzer race. These trivial clues are no longer pervasive in the college game.

theMoMA wrote:Since this is somewhat relevant, and I don't want to clutter the other thread with tangents, here are what are sure to be the two most-cited definitions in my upcoming Hart's Dictionary of Quizbowl Criticism

I think we've harped on this recently, but "transparent" means that you can figure out the answer without knowing the actual specific clues. At worst, a transparent clue will tell you something that narrows down the answer to only one thing for all players with basic knowledge of the answer at hand. A tossup on "Hungary" that mentions an obscure figure with a very Hungarian-sounding name would be incredibly transparent. A tossup on Don Quixote that talks about a lot of Spanish names and a crazy guy going around and doing crazy-guy things would be pretty transparent, too, even if a bunch of people know the actual events going on.

A similarly misused word is “stock.” Most basically, this word means that a particular clue comes up in quizbowl enough that many people with sufficient packet experience associate it with the answer. It typically refers to a clue that often comes up at the beginning of a question, even when a lot of people buzz off of it repeatedly (these clues are alternately called “chestnuts”); one could say that the fact that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet is stock, but the word is usually reserved for clues that are misplaced too early, too often. Stock clues happen when people keep putting the fact that Cuchulainn has seven eyes with seven pupils each, or the fact that there are things called Wadati-Benioff zones in subduction zones, into the leadins of questions on those topics. Sometimes, especially in older tournaments, “stock” evokes a sense of trivial unimportance. A lot of people know that Shakespeare supposedly wrote that terrible poem on his grave about disturbing his bones, but it’s not really important enough to come up in a tossup, let alone in the beginning where it will create an immediate buzzer race. These trivial clues are no longer pervasive in the college game.

Whig's Boson wrote:

millionwaves wrote:Everyone who is not a board staffer: stop meta-criticizing people's posts right now. Thank you.

We're not allowed to criticize other posts for being meaningless? What is this meaning of this statement.

Huang wrote: My second question: Is it still ok to drop "stock" clues (like Wadati-Benioff) early in TUs? Or does it just depend on whether or not the targeted audience reads old packets or not?

Huang wrote:

theMoMA wrote:These trivial clues are no longer pervasive in the college game.

I've recently (past year or so) been told that "stock" clues do not exist in any meaningful way anymore. Is there a general consensus on whether or not this is true?

ValenciaQBowl wrote:Still hoping to actually hear things about questions in this set!

ValenciaQBowl wrote:Still hoping to actually hear things about questions in this set!

theMoMA wrote:My feeling from reading a couple of packets is that this tournament shows the progression of Delta Burke from a somewhat idiosyncratic tournament to something closer to the circuit norm for novice tournaments. I think it accomplishes this without losing the distinctly Borglumian feel or the ultra-accessibility that the field demands. Few tournaments are designed for true novices or draw a lot of true novice teams, but this one is clearly designed with both in mind. It seems to accomplish its goals pretty well.

This term refers to the twelve years following the Civil War in the former Confederate states. FTPE:
A. What is this term denoting the de facto occupancy of the South by federal troops?
ANSWER: Reconstruction Era
B. Created immediately after the war, this federal agency, headed by Oliver O. Howard, was established to protect former slaves and even whites made destitute after the ravages of the South.
ANSWER: Freedmen’s Bureau (or Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands)
C. The Reconstruction era ended when this man became president, as he agreed to remove all federal troops from the South in return for electoral college votes to win over Samuel Tilden.
ANSWER: Rutherford B. Hayes

There were a few instances of things being too hard (for instance, the Oe/Abe/Tanizaki bonus might be 'canonically' easy, but new players had pretty much never heard of these authors)

ValenciaQBowl wrote: This helps ground me for next year: I have no doubt that I unnecessarily allowed myself to worry that with mirrors at non-CC sites, I should allow more rigor in the bonuses. But next year I'd rather err on the side of having 25% of the teams around or above 20 ppb rather than concern myself with any complaints from elite players/teams that the bonuses were too easy.

Captain Sinico wrote:Fair enough, so make those dudes a hard part. The point Chris is making, I think, is not that none of those dudes should have come up, but that a bonus entirely of them isn't the way to go. I agree with that.