Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

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Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

I am pleased to announce a Zoom mirror of Cambridge Open which will take place on SUNDAY May 24th. Daniel Hothem will be coordinating this tournament. More information about the set may be found here.

For now, teams may form and indicate interest here. The field cap is set at 16 teams for now but will likely expand, pending staff availability. An official registration will constitute an email to dhothem [at] uoregon [dot] edu

This tournament is completely open and anyone may play. However, I strongly encourage currently enrolled students to play with their school team. I will be doing the same.

Video will be mandatory for all participants in this tournament with no exceptions. Built-in webcams are fine.

Entry Fee (no discounts):
  • $50 Mirror fee
  • +$5/ team for tournament coordinator
  • +$30/team for staff (1 mod required per 2 teams, plus scorekeepers for half the rooms to speed things up)
  • = Total Fee of $85
Staff Pay Schedule:
  • Tournament Coordinator: $5 per team
  • Moderators and Scorekeepers: $40 for the day
Last edited by naan/steak-holding toll on Mon May 11, 2020 7:03 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by LeoLaw »

I've never played a Zoom tournament before, is a webcam required?
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

LeoLaw wrote: Wed May 06, 2020 11:27 pm I've never played a Zoom tournament before, is a webcam required?
Video will be mandatory for all participants.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Mike Bentley »

naan/steak-holding toll wrote: Thu May 07, 2020 12:50 am
LeoLaw wrote: Wed May 06, 2020 11:27 pm I've never played a Zoom tournament before, is a webcam required?
Video will be mandatory for all participants.
I'd suggest emphasizing this about 100 times given how good quizbowl players are at paying attention to requirements.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Smuttynose Island »

Hey Everyone! I will be coordinating the logistics for this tournament. Given both the novelty of the Zoom tournament as well as the intense interest in this specific event, please bear with me a bit.

Registration: Teams must officially register for this tournament by emailing me at dhothem[at]uoregon[dot]edu. Teams must have at least three confirmed participants before registering. Please include a tentative roster in your email. Priority will be given to formed teams on the interest sheet until 8pm PT today.

Location: As Will mentioned earlier in the thread, this tournament will take place over Zoom with video. This will require each participant to have a working web cam. If you do not currently own a working webcam, please be sure to acquire one by the tournament date (May 24, 2020).

Format: The final format will be decided upon once a final field size is determined. At the moment, the field is capped at 16 teams, but it will expand if we can find enough staffers or a format that supports a larger field size.

Payment: Teams can Venmo or Paypal me their registration fee. Details will be sent to teams later.

Staff: Given how many people are interested in playing this event, we could really use staffers. If you are interested in staffing, please contact me at dhothem[at]uoregon[dot]edu or put your name down on the interest sheet. Staffers will receive 40 dollars for the day.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by VSCOelasticity »

Smuttynose Island wrote: Thu May 07, 2020 2:11 pm Location: As Will mentioned earlier in the thread, this tournament will take place over Zoom with video. This will require each participant to have a working web cam. If you do not currently own a working webcam, please be sure to acquire one by the tournament date (May 24, 2020).
I believe a lot of physical stores are out of webcams currently due to the uptick in online video conferencing. If you don't have one, and want to play this tournament, I recommend ordering one online ASAP.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by warum »

Is it required that the webcam be pointed at our hands? Or is a built-in laptop webcam that can only view our face OK?
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Smuttynose Island »

warum wrote: Thu May 07, 2020 3:58 pm Is it required that the webcam be pointed at our hands? Or is a built-in laptop webcam that can only view our face OK?
Built-in webcams are fine.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by CPiGuy »

Given the apparent huge demand for this tournament, would people consider running a second online mirror if there are a significant number of interested people left out by the first one?
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Mike Bentley »

By the way, there was a 2019 iteration of this tournament, right? Is there a reason the questions haven't been posted to the archive?
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by CPiGuy »

CPiGuy wrote: Thu May 07, 2020 5:39 pm Given the apparent huge demand for this tournament, would people consider running a second online mirror if there are a significant number of interested people left out by the first one?
Re: a conversation I just had with Daniel on Discord, perhaps rather than waiting to see if there's far too much interest for one mirror (which there probably will be), you could organize two mirrors and designate one as "competitive", for the strongest teams to play in (this would probably be the original date) and one as "casual" -- these would not be strict designators but a way of helping teams self-segregate.

People who played the first tournament could also be offered a discount on their entry fee for staffing the second tournament.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Smuttynose Island »

CPiGuy wrote: Thu May 07, 2020 5:39 pm Given the apparent huge demand for this tournament, would people consider running a second online mirror if there are a significant number of interested people left out by the first one?
I am open to this idea.

In other news, we are expanding the field to 18 teams.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Smuttynose Island »

I'd also like to float the idea of increasing the tournament fee by $10. Doing so will allow us to fund scorekeepers, which I think are especially helpful for online events.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Smuttynose Island »

I am happy to announce that we are expanding the field to 24 teams with the possibility of expanding to to 28 teams if there is interest. As the tournament is under two weeks away, I strongly encourage free agents to coalesce into teams.

In order to accommodate such a large online field for a TUs+Bs event, we would like to ensure that the majority of rooms have scorekeepers. In order to make that possible, we plan on raising the entry fee by $10 per team. If this makes the fee prohibitively expensive for your team, please get in touch with me privately.

As a reminder, this tournament will be run with video on Zoom. If you plan on participating as a player, please make sure that you have a working webcam by May 24, 2020.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

I've updated the original post to reflect the fee changes. $85 is a bit high for an online tournament, but considering that this is a large event with a dedicated, paid staff I think this is more than fair. I hope for this tournament to be a model for how online tournaments can be organized more thoroughly and professionally for the future, in the event that lockdowns and travel restrictions persist into the fall and more such events are necessary, in addition to helping facilitate summer events.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Smuttynose Island »

Some updates:
  • Those who expressed interest in staffing should get an email tomorrow asking for them to confirm their availability. There will also be a short survey with regards to past online moderating experience plus preferred staffing roles. Filling out this survey will help us assign staffing assignments intelligently.
  • Depending upon staff confirmations, we are looking to expand the field to 28 teams, possibly to 32 teams. I hope to make this announcement by mid-week.
  • All teams should work towards finalizing their rosters in the coming days. If your roster changes from what is on the public spreadsheet, please let me know so that I can update the spreadsheets. If your team currently has fewer than 4 players, please begin to reach out to free agents.
  • Please remember that a webcam is required to play this tournament. If you do not currently own a webcam, please work on getting one.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Mike Bentley »

Friendly reminder to everyone that this tournament is on a Sunday. That caused some problems for the last online tournament on a Sunday.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Carlos Be »

Smuttynose Island wrote: Sun May 17, 2020 9:43 pm [*] Please remember that a webcam is required to play this tournament. If you do not currently own a webcam, please work on getting one.
[/list]
I'm assuming that this is intended to prevent cheating, but how would it do that? If someone is googling, the webcam won't pick that up.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

Carlos Be wrote: Wed May 20, 2020 3:24 pm
Smuttynose Island wrote: Sun May 17, 2020 9:43 pm [*] Please remember that a webcam is required to play this tournament. If you do not currently own a webcam, please work on getting one.
[/list]
I'm assuming that this is intended to prevent cheating, but how would it do that? If someone is googling, the webcam won't pick that up.
The webcam will pick up if someone is typing, unless they are pretty subtle. It will also make it obvious if someone gets on their phone. Generally, I am adequately confident that if a player is showing one arm/hand away from keyboard in some meaningful manner, I'm pretty confident that they aren't cheating. It also puts the "fear of god" into people when they're on camera.

In any case, short of implementing some sort of API which locks the player out of their browser once they start an online quizbowl game, there are few ways to completely prevent cheating. But in this case, the perfect (absolutely no cheating possible whatsoever) is the enemy of the good (quizbowl during the COVID-19 pandemic, where there would be none otherwise, with a mitigated possibility of cheating).
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Mike Bentley »

naan/steak-holding toll wrote: Wed May 20, 2020 3:52 pm
Carlos Be wrote: Wed May 20, 2020 3:24 pm
Smuttynose Island wrote: Sun May 17, 2020 9:43 pm [*] Please remember that a webcam is required to play this tournament. If you do not currently own a webcam, please work on getting one.
[/list]
I'm assuming that this is intended to prevent cheating, but how would it do that? If someone is googling, the webcam won't pick that up.
The webcam will pick up if someone is typing, unless they are pretty subtle. It will also make it obvious if someone gets on their phone. Generally, I am adequately confident that if a player is showing one arm/hand away from keyboard in some meaningful manner, I'm pretty confident that they aren't cheating. It also puts the "fear of god" into people when they're on camera.

In any case, short of implementing some sort of API which locks the player out of their browser once they start an online quizbowl game, there are few ways to completely prevent cheating. But in this case, the perfect (absolutely no cheating possible whatsoever) is the enemy of the good (quizbowl during the COVID-19 pandemic, where there would be none otherwise, with a mitigated possibility of cheating).
FWIW I just tried a test with my webcam and it looked pretty difficult to detect that I was typing. Probably the most obvious thing was sudden changes in eye movements if you're navigating a web page. I'm guessing some people look at their keyboards more when they're typing so that could also be a sign.

I suspect this will make some forms of cheating at least a little harder, especially if someone is already suspicious and looking carefully at a feed. It's at least worth trying a few times, although if in the end it isn't making much of a difference it should be reevaluated.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Carlos Be »

naan/steak-holding toll wrote: Wed May 20, 2020 3:52 pm
Carlos Be wrote: Wed May 20, 2020 3:24 pm
Smuttynose Island wrote: Sun May 17, 2020 9:43 pm [*] Please remember that a webcam is required to play this tournament. If you do not currently own a webcam, please work on getting one.
[/list]
I'm assuming that this is intended to prevent cheating, but how would it do that? If someone is googling, the webcam won't pick that up.
The webcam will pick up if someone is typing, unless they are pretty subtle.
Will it? Let's say that it does. How does that help? They could be typing an answer, responding to a text message, updating a scoresheet, writing down a clue, googling a clue they negged on, or probably several other things.
naan/steak-holding toll wrote: Wed May 20, 2020 3:52 pm It will also make it obvious if someone gets on their phone.
I generally connect to audio on my phone since the audio input on my computer doesn't work well. Should I find a workaround for this tournament? More generally, I think there's several legitimate reasons to check one's phone during a tournament, so I'm not sure what this would accomplish.

I think the most significant problem with this idea is that, if I had not made this post, I would have had no idea that "hands on keyboard" or "using phone" would be what was considered suspicious. If this tournament is going to use webcams to enforce anti-cheating rules, then it needs to be clear and specific about what constitutes suspicious behavior.
naan/steak-holding toll wrote: Wed May 20, 2020 3:52 pm But in this case, the perfect (absolutely no cheating possible whatsoever) is the enemy of the good
Obviously we can't stop all cheating. But how many people does this camera system stop from cheating? To me, it is unclear that it would actually deter anyone. Even if it makes most forms of cheating a little bit harder, I don't think that outweighs the issues that the camera system presents:
  • Minor inconveniences to people who like to connect on mobile, or like to play minesweeper during tossups, or whatever.
  • Major inconveniences to people who do not own a working webcam.
  • Potential issues with respect to bandwidth. Connection issues are already a problem with just audio, so adding video sounds like a nightmare.
  • Flawed evidence that can become fodder for bad accusations. If someone looks down at their lap for too long, will they be accused of checking their phone?
I think that when an anti-cheating measure threatens players' privacy, it is the burden of the tournament to prove that it is a good measure. Specifically, the tournament has to show that the method is effective at preventing cheating, does not present a significant burden on normal play, and will not be abused. I don't think the webcam system satisfies any of these criteria, so this tournament should either explain why it does or stop using it.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Smuttynose Island »

As I've interpreted Will's public statements, the purpose of using Zoom and webcams is two-fold. The first is to more accurately recreate the in-person quizbowl experience by allowing players to see each other. Maybe this isn't meaningful to you, but it seems worthwhile enough of a goal to me to experiment with. I understand that this may inconvenience some people. But I don't think that the inconvenience is great enough or unreasonably discriminatory that tournament organizers should be prohibited from such experimentation. Furthermore, there is a lot of interest in playing CamO. Probably more than we can accommodate with this mirror. If you don't view a Zoom tournament as a worthwhile experiment, please host a Discord mirror of CamO! I'd love to see more people play CamO!

The second purpose is to deter cheating. Whether or not using Zoom will actually deter cheating is unclear. Will and others have proposed some reasons why they believe it will deter cheating. Again, I think it is worth experimenting to see if they hold true. I do concur with you that this secondary purpose should be clearly outlined so that players understand how they should behave while playing this mirror especially when it comes to phone use.

As to some of the potential downsides. I've never been particularly swayed by anti-camera arguments that revolve around "legitimate uses of a phone" during an online event. There also exist legitimate uses of a phone at in-person events and yet we, largely by unspoken agreement, restrict the use of phones during in-person events. I see no reason why this can't hold for online events as well. If you wish to use your phone during an online event, restrict your use to after a neg by your team or during the other team's bonus. If you are using your phone to connect to the audio, make it clear prior to the match that you are connecting via mobile. Same goes for writing down answers/keeping score if you are concerned about that being mistaken for phone use. This isn't that difficult. More generally, if you want to engage in non-quizbowl related activities that could be mistaken for cheating (playing minesweeper, checking email, etc), don't! We don't allow this during in-person events and need not allow it for online events either.

Potential bandwidth problems are also a concern. However, the two UK Zoom tournaments did not seem to run into these issues. This tournament will be slightly larger than the largest UK Zoom tournament. It's possible that this added size will cause bandwidth issues. I'm actively working on solutions to mitigate this risk including the use of separate Zooms calls for each bracket. Regardless, a back up Discord server will be created in case bandwidth or other technological issues make it impossible to run the tournament as originally planned over Zoom.

EDIT: Added a line about scorekeeping.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by LeoLaw »

Obviously people who are gonna cheat will find a way to cheat even with a web-cam pointing at their face. There is nothing you can do to make remote mirrors as cheating-proof as in person events. But echoing back to the infamous cheating thread from earlier, the camera will at least be an obstacle against the temptations to cheat that many ("honest") quiz bowl players claimed to have experienced in past Discord tournaments simply due to how easy it was to cheat in Discord tournaments.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

Justine, I hate to sound dismissive since I greatly respect you as a writer and player, but I think one reason people take issue with your posting style is that far too often, it comes across as nitpicky and critical of flaws that have already been recognized by the people who are actually implementing anti-cheating solutions, without proposing serious solutions of your own or attempting to implement them. I appreciate that you have made an effort to do this to some extent with regards to other issues in the past, but I seriously don't get what you think you will accomplish here by pointing out fairly obvious workarounds without even attempting to offer a solution. If the point is that there is no solution, then fine. Based on discussions I've had with others, which I've partially summarized above, I think there are more measures available which would involve some technical work that neither myself or Daniel (to my knowledge) are able to do as of this moment.

Obviously, people who really want to cheat will figure out some way to cheat. Some may even go so far as to not only cheat, but make up reasons as to why their performance might be anomalous after the fact, angrily DM people who are posting in ways that advance skepticism against them, never admit to such in public, etc. The job of people organizing tournaments is to find non-onerous ways to prevent this. If you can help in doing this, then by all means do so!

(Addendum: Perhaps it would be possible to require players to buzz using their phones and sit away from the keyboard. Don't know if we need to do this for this tournament, but it's another possibility)
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Carlos Be »

naan/steak-holding toll wrote: Wed May 20, 2020 8:00 pm Justine, I hate to sound dismissive since I greatly respect you as a writer and player, but I think one reason people take issue with your posting style is that far too often, it comes across as nitpicky and critical of flaws that have already been recognized by the people who are actually implementing anti-cheating solutions, without proposing serious solutions of your own or attempting to implement them. I appreciate that you have made an effort to do this to some extent with regards to other issues in the past, but I seriously don't get what you think you will accomplish here by pointing out fairly obvious workarounds without even attempting to offer a solution. If the point is that there is no solution, then fine. Based on discussions I've had with others, which I've partially summarized above, I think there are more measures available which would involve some technical work that neither myself or Daniel (to my knowledge) are able to do as of this moment.

Obviously, people who really want to cheat will figure out some way to cheat. Some may even go so far as to not only cheat, but make up reasons as to why their performance might be anomalous after the fact, angrily DM people who are posting in ways that advance skepticism against them, never admit to such in public, etc. The job of people organizing tournaments is to find non-onerous ways to prevent this. If you can help in doing this, then by all means do so!

(Addendum: Perhaps it would be possible to require players to buzz using their phones and sit away from the keyboard. Don't know if we need to do this for this tournament, but it's another possibility)
I think I probably said too much in my post, and it distracted from the the most significant issue. This tournament wants to collect video recordings of everyone while they play the set, but it has given no official guidance about what behavior would be considered suspicious. When you suggested typing or being on a phone as examples of suspicious behavior, I listed counterexamples to show that those behaviors weren't inherently suspicious. My point wasn't that people can invent excuses for being on their phone retroactively; it was that your metric of suspicious behavior would indict a lot of people who were not cheating. I think it's totally reasonable (say) to ask people not to use their phones, but it has to be clear before the tournament that phone use will be prohibited. For a serious solution, I wrote in my earlier post:
Carlos Be wrote: Wed May 20, 2020 5:08 pm If this tournament is going to use webcams to enforce anti-cheating rules, then it needs to be clear and specific about what constitutes suspicious behavior.
This point was acknowledged, so I expect that guidelines for phone/keyboard use will be posted before the tournament.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Smuttynose Island »

Here's some preliminary logistics information.
  • WHEN: This tournament will take place on 5/24/2020 beginning at 11am ET/8am PT.
  • WHERE: On Zoom with a Discord backup. Please don't forget your webcam! Discord link etc will go out in the logistics email tomorrow.
  • SIZE: We are officially running a 24 team tournament. The official field is here. If your team is in the official field, but are unable to play let me know as soon as possible! There are still teams on the wait list that we cannot accommodate due to staffing restrictions.
  • FORMAT: Current plan is to play 11 rounds. Exact format is TBD. This should take between 9 and 10 hours.
More information about payment, tournament etiquette etc will go out in the logistics email tomorrow.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by nickdai »

I’m just a high schooler who‘s not exactly good and wanted to play some Brit content, and I don’t want to come off as disrespectful, but I was wondering why it would not be possible for the field to be expanded to 28 teams (which seems appropriate for the waitlist/FA list) and then have prelim brackets split into 7/7/7/7 with each team playing all 7 teams from the parallel bracket? With 22 staff and 14 games going on at all times, 8 rooms could have 2 staff and 6 faster rooms could have a solo staffer. I’ve never TDed before and am relatively new to QB so please forgive me if I’m making some wrong assumptions.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Smuttynose Island »

nickdai wrote: Fri May 22, 2020 12:16 am I’m just a high schooler who‘s not exactly good and wanted to play some Brit content, and I don’t want to come off as disrespectful, but I was wondering why it would not be possible for the field to be expanded to 28 teams (which seems appropriate for the waitlist/FA list) and then have prelim brackets split into 7/7/7/7 with each team playing all 7 teams from the parallel bracket? With 22 staff and 14 games going on at all times, 8 rooms could have 2 staff and 6 faster rooms could have a solo staffer. I’ve never TDed before and am relatively new to QB so please forgive me if I’m making some wrong assumptions.
There were two main considerations in making this decision. First and foremost is that, at the time of writing, I have 17 confirmed staffers, not 22. Running 14 rooms leaves us with 2-3 scorekeepers, which is fewer than I anticipate needing based upon my staffing survey.

The second is that we are now three days out from this tournament and only 26 teams have registered. At a certain point, the onus is on free agents to assemble into teams and to register so that tournament organizers know exactly how many teams want to play. Given that we currently sit at 26 teams and we have had some late drops, I didn't feel comfortable prematurely expanding the field to 28 teams.

If two more teams register, I will look into procuring more staff in order to run a 28 team tournament.
Daniel Hothem
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by nickdai »

Smuttynose Island wrote: Fri May 22, 2020 3:15 am
nickdai wrote: Fri May 22, 2020 12:16 am I’m just a high schooler who‘s not exactly good and wanted to play some Brit content, and I don’t want to come off as disrespectful, but I was wondering why it would not be possible for the field to be expanded to 28 teams (which seems appropriate for the waitlist/FA list) and then have prelim brackets split into 7/7/7/7 with each team playing all 7 teams from the parallel bracket? With 22 staff and 14 games going on at all times, 8 rooms could have 2 staff and 6 faster rooms could have a solo staffer. I’ve never TDed before and am relatively new to QB so please forgive me if I’m making some wrong assumptions.
There were two main considerations in making this decision. First and foremost is that, at the time of writing, I have 17 confirmed staffers, not 22. Running 14 rooms leaves us with 2-3 scorekeepers, which is fewer than I anticipate needing based upon my staffing survey.

The second is that we are now three days out from this tournament and only 26 teams have registered. At a certain point, the onus is on free agents to assemble into teams and to register so that tournament organizers know exactly how many teams want to play. Given that we currently sit at 26 teams and we have had some late drops, I didn't feel comfortable prematurely expanding the field to 28 teams.

If two more teams register, I will look into procuring more staff in order to run a 28 team tournament.
Thank you, this makes a lot of sense. I apologize for my false assumption. I will form and register a team with a few other free agents and hopefully one more team will join so that we can have a 28 team field size!
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Father of the Ragdoll »

Carlos Be wrote: Thu May 21, 2020 7:18 pmThis tournament wants to collect video recordings of everyone while they play the set
I don't see where in the post it says that recordings are being made. However, if recordings are being made, I think it is incumbent on the hosts to make that explicitly clear for a variety of privacy reasons.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Smuttynose Island »

I am still working on trying to expand the field to 28 teams. Expect a resolution of this within an hour or so. After the final decision is made, a logistics email will go out to all teams in the field and to staffers.
Daniel Hothem
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Smuttynose Island »

Logistics email has gone out to teams in the field.

We were unable to find the staff to hold a 28 team tournament. I'm very sorry for those teams who were unable to make it off the waiting list. My hope is that there will be a second mirror that you all can play.
Daniel Hothem
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Smuttynose Island »

Preliminary Schedule here
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by Smuttynose Island »

This tournament was won by Mattdaniel Squirrel. They defeated We're Playing CO in the finals. Final stats will be up tomorrow. In the meantime, here are prelim stats.
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by JA01 »

Just curious, when will payment for staffers be distributed?
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Re: Cambridge Open Online (5/24)

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

Thanks to Daniel for organizing this event and the staff to dealing with what seemed to be a frustrating experience with breakout rooms and all. In particular, I thought the quality of reading by staff at this tournament was very high, not just for an online event but in general for any non-Nationals event. The readers definitely earned their pay.

Even if video is desired for future events, I do not recommend the use of Zoom for future tournaments. It's entirely possible that we're just not very good at using Zoom on this side of the pond, but I think that relying on the breakout room function introduces too many potential points of error. In particular, people frequently got assigned to the wrong breakout rooms, and I think this is just going to be inevitable given the functionality. It seems much easier to just have a bunch of set up Discord rooms and use the video chat functionality (with the pop-out button) since this limits ahead of time who can access each room, rather than requiring moderators to reshuffle people between rooms between each round, where they can easily make an innocent mistake or two and cause delays that really add up across a tournament.

Finally, I think the set was a decided step up from previous editions of this tournament and would encourage the Cambridge team to keep improving. I think more of the pitfalls came from trying to be clever than in the more standard questions, which tended to be pretty strong, especially in the literature.
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