Buzzerfest IX (3/27/10) @ Princeton

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 12:42 pm

This is a tentative date claim for Buzzerfest, Princeton's packet submission tournament. This year, I've enlisted the help of several members of the Princeton team to share the editing responsibilities. However, all of them will still be relatively inexperienced at the college level, so any offers of help (especially in areas I am weak in) would be greatly appreciated. Also, we would like to have some mirrors this year, so hopefully this can serve as a regular difficulty tournament before ICT. If you're interested in mirroring or helping, e-mail me at kdemuren AT princeton dot edu. Fees, submission guidelines and distribution will be posted soon.

(Official announcement below)

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 1:33 pm

I changed the date for you because while I have every faith in the Princeton editing team, I am less sure of their fifteen packets per negative seven months editing speed.

jonpin · Post by **jonpin** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 2:06 pm

Could you clarify what date you intended? Because NAQT's website shows Princeton and Rutgers co-hosting the NJ NAQT HS state championship on the tentative date of March 27, 2010.

Gautam · Post by **Gautam** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 2:06 pm

jonpin wrote:Could you clarify what date you intended? Because NAQT's website shows Princeton and Rutgers co-hosting the NJ NAQT HS state championship on the tentative date of March 27, 2010.

Uh oh!

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 2:12 pm

gkandlikar wrote:
jonpin wrote:Could you clarify what date you intended? Because NAQT's website shows Princeton and Rutgers co-hosting the NJ NAQT HS state championship on the tentative date of March 27, 2010.
Uh oh!

It would amuse me infinitely if some rogue NAQT official decided that NAQT's policy of friendly cooperation with independent quizbowl re: dates was headed the wrong way and started forcing clubs to compete not just with other clubs' NAQT tournaments, but with themselves.

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 4:57 pm

We're moving the date for the state championship to April 17th. I've just neglected to tell NAQT to move the other date, which I will do pronto.

Matt Weiner · Post by **Matt Weiner** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 6:28 pm

olsb25 wrote:We're moving the date for the state championship to April 17th. I've just neglected to tell NAQT to move the other date, which I will do pronto.

Caesar Rodney is hosting a high school tournament on April 17th. I assume they intend to attract New Jersey teams, since they are located an hour from New Jersey.

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 7:04 pm

Matt Weiner wrote:
olsb25 wrote:We're moving the date for the state championship to April 17th. I've just neglected to tell NAQT to move the other date, which I will do pronto.
Caesar Rodney is hosting a high school tournament on April 17th. I assume they intend to attract New Jersey teams, since they are located an hour from New Jersey.

My mistake; I thought that was on the 10th. We'll take the 10th then, pending a conflict with ICT (in which case, we'll probably move it to the 3rd).

grapesmoker · Post by **grapesmoker** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 7:09 pm

Isn't ACF Nationals on April 17th?

Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) · Tue Nov 03, 2009 7:15 pm

ICT is the 10th, Easter weekend is the 3rd.

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 10:31 pm

OK... clearly we need to deliberate amongst ourselves the best day for the state championship, but since it seems to me to that having Buzzerfest after ICT/ACF Nats is not very useful, we'll still have it on 3/27.

EDIT: OK, as I posted in the HS forums, the state championship will be on 2/13/10, leaving 3/27 for Buzzerfest. Official announcement to come soon.

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 11:39 pm

Buzzerfest IX
March 27, 2010
Princeton University

Princeton College Bowl is pleased to announce the latest version of Buzzerfest. Like last year, this will be packet-submission, and regular difficulty.

In a modification of the guidelines for last year (and different than ACF guidelines), teams composed entirely of players who did not play a college tournament before this year will not have to submit packets (this will include mirrors). If this might be a problem, I'll deal with it on a case-by-case basis.

I will be head editor again, and I will be assisted by members of the Princeton team. If other people want to help out, we'd love that.

I would prefer teams to be entirely school-based, but if there is a desire to form some chimera/open team, we'll deal with that when it comes up.

MIRRORS:
There will be at least one of these, at Notre Dame. Other people who want to mirror are encouraged to e-mail me.

FEES:
+$100 - Base fee per team
-$50 - Packet submitted by January 23rd.
-$25 - Packet submitted by February 6th.
+$0 - Packet submitted by February 20th.
+$25 - Packet submitted by March 6th.
+$50 - Packet submitted by March 13th.
+$100 - Packet submitted by March 20th (and you should really let me know if this is going to be you).
+$10 per day - packets after the 20th... and I still reserve the right to deny your tournament attendance if there are major problems with your packet at this point.
-$5 - Working buzzers discount
-$10 - Competent moderator discount
+$15 - Formatting penalty for formatting your questions incorrectly.
-$5 - Travel discount for every 200 miles traveled.
-$40 - High school teams.

Minimum fee per team: $45
(If you are not required to submit a packet, but wish to do so, we can discuss further discounts.)

PACKET GUIDELINES:
Distribution 24/24
5/5 Lit (1/1 American, 1/1 British, 1/1 Euro, 1/1 World, 1/1 Other - more of above, or something else)
5/5 History (1/1 US, 3/2 or 2/3 Euro, Canadian or Australian (of which 1 question must be British), 1/1 World, 0/1 or 1/0 any non-European)
5/5 Science (1/1 Bio, 1/1 Chem (a maximum of 1 organic question per packet), 1/1 Physics, 1/0 or 0/1 Math/CS, 0/1 or 1/0 Earth, 1/1 Any)
3/3 RMP (1/1 Religion, 1/1 Myth, 1/1 Philosophy)
3/3 Fine Arts (1/1 Painting, 1/1 Classical Music (not Opera), 1/1 Other (not above) FA)
1/1 Social Science
1/1 Current Events or Geography or Trash
1/1 Academic Choice - I like the idea that Chris has for TIT, so we'll try it also. However, these 1/1 should be on different areas of the distribution.

Please vary all your questions by time period, region of the world (when applicable) and genre. Also vary the type of question you ask. For example, do not write 5 literature tossups on 19th century British novelists. A better literature selection would include tossups on authors, works and characters, on American, British, and World literature, and on fiction, drama, and poetry.

Also, because this was a problem last year: Check your packets before submitting them to ensure they follow the distribution. If they do not follow the correct distribution, I will send them back for you to fix.
(go to next post for more)

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Sun Nov 15, 2009 11:30 pm

(split into two because I couldn't edit it)
Difficulty:
Please aim for ACF Winter and Regionals difficulty (look at Penn Bowl 2009 and ACF Winter 2008 for examples of the target difficulty). Don't write questions on things that only a quarter of the field has even heard of (God's Bits of Wood come to mind...). Just because you think something is easy, doesn't mean it is. If you have doubts, feel free to e-mail me to ask.

Every bonus should have a clear easy, medium and hard part. Almost every team in the tournament should be converting the easy part of the bonus, while a little more than half of the teams should be converting the medium part. The hard part of a bonus should be able to be answered by those with in-depth knowledge in the field.

Question Length:
All of the following lengths apply to documents written in Word with 1 inch margins (change these from the default), and a 10 point Times New Roman font.
Final tossups will be between 6 and 8 lines long. However, we'd prefer that you submit tossups on the long side (or even over the 8 line limit), since it's always easier for us to get rid of clues that we don't like than to add additional clues by ourselves.

Bonus parts should be kept within reason. Do not write extremely lengthy lead-ins or bonus parts (try to keep them under 2 lines, generally). Also do not write extremely short bonuses or list bonuses, as these are typically not very interesting. The vast majority of your bonuses should be 10-10-10. If you must write a part with two answers, and it seems appropriate, you can go with a 5 points per answer thingy, but keep these sparse.

Formatting:
Please format your questions in the following manner:

1/1 Hard Trash
Founded in 1892 after a dispute involving a rival club and the owner of their then-stadium, John Houlding, this club has played at that stadium, known for the first Kop, throughout its entire existence. After languishing in the Second Division in the 1950s, the efforts of Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley brought on a golden era for the club, with the latter signing the club’s all-time leading scorer, Ian Rush. Having not lost at Anfield in the league against Everton since 2000, the team has enjoyed recent success, winning the Champions League in 2005 and the FA Cup in 2006. The most successful English soccer club in Europe and in league titles won, this is, for 10 points, what team currently captained by Steven Gerrard?
ANSWER: Liverpool Football Club [prompt on “The Reds”]

Answer the following questions about failed signings of Alex Ferguson, for 10 points each.
[10] This Uruguayan striker, who now plays for Atletico Madrid, claims he was sold because he refused to change the studs in his cleats... or the fact that he only managed 17 goals in 95 appearances.
ANSWER: Diego Forlan
[10] This Italian goalkeeper, now playing for Serie B's Ascoli, lasted four months from 1999 to 2000, during which he made lots of mistakes, and conceded 5 goals to Chelsea.
ANSWER: Massimo Taibi
[10] Ferguson paid Lazio 28 million pounds too much for this Argentinian midfielder in 2001, although somehow Chelsea believed that he wouldn't be bad for them too... oops.
ANSWER: Juan Sebastian Veron

DO NOT USE ANY AUTOMATIC WORD FORMATTING EXCEPT FOR SMART QUOTES. Specifically, do not use any indentation or automatic numbering in your packets. Submit all packets in .doc or .rtf format please.

If questions are not correctly formatted (at the discretion of the editors), your packet will be returned for you to reformat. If you submit your packet at the deadline and it is rejected for formatting issues, you will be charged a $15 formatting fee (and asked to reformat the packet), but you will not have to pay any additional fees for missing the deadline, unless you are aggravating about resubmitting the format fixes.

Also note that your questions should be organized by category and type, not pre-mixed or divided into tossups and bonuses (thus, you should have the 4 lit tossups followed by the 4 lit bonuses, followed by the 4 history tossups and 4 history bonuses, etc.

Miscellany:
As with all packet submission tournaments, questions must be blind to all other teams attending the tournament. Specifically, if a school is sending more than one team to the tournament, members of different teams should not know of each others' questions.

Please do not plagiarize questions. Do not copy direct passages and phrases from the sources you use to write questions. Additionally, do not write questions directly out of Wikipedia. While Wikipedia can be a useful source in finding preliminary information on a question, we encourage you to use more in-depth, scholarly and peer reviewed sources when writing your questions. Please see various question writing guides such as Jerry's guide (http://acf-quizbowl.com/documents/howtowrite.php) for more information on where to find good sources for writing questions.

REGISTRATION:
To register, email me at [email protected] (this is where you should e-mail packets also). Please indicate how many teams you're bringing (or interested in bringing) and what discounts you think you apply for (such as the number of moderators and buzzers you're bringing).

Details on where on campus the tournament will be held and when specifically registration will be will be announced closer to the date of the tournament.

(note: I copied much of the TIT announcement for this, thought that I should give credit... thanks Chris, this is pretty thorough)

Submitted Packets:

-$50 deadline:
Michigan B

-$25 deadline:

$0 deadline:
Maryland A
Bentley
Boise State

+$25 deadline:
UW A

+$50 deadline:
Michigan A
Columbia A
Columbia B
Columbia C
Delaware/Charter

TheKingInYellow · Post by **TheKingInYellow** » Sun Nov 15, 2009 11:33 pm

I could definitely see State College coming; I'll let you know more definitely soon

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Sun Nov 15, 2009 11:35 pm

After talking with Chris, I have altered the distribution (changes reflected above) in the hopes of not receiving terribly unbalanced packets. Apparently too much freedom is a bad thing. Also, do not send me packets less than 12 hours before the tournament is supposed to begin (as reportedly occurred with TIT)... if you plan on doing this, don't bother coming.

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Sun Nov 15, 2009 11:37 pm

TheKingInYellow wrote:I could definitely see State College coming; I'll let you know more definitely soon

Awesome, we'd love to have you guys.

Post by **DumbJaques** » Sun Nov 15, 2009 11:55 pm

Kunle, something I forgot to mention during our conversation yesterday - I had wanted people to make sure they wrote different things for their academic choice questions, but it clearly didn't come across that well. Not sure how you view it, but f you also don't want 1/1 for the academic choice distribution to be on the same category, I'd recommend noting it explicitly.

I'm glad you're incorporating the idea into your distribution, despite the rather astounding amount of problems with the TIT submissions to which it undoubtedly contributed. All of the bad things about the academic choice submissions were related to overall packet distribution and whatnot; the submissions themselves netted some stuff I quite enjoyed having questions on.

Post by **theMoMA** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 5:21 pm

olsb25 wrote:Please aim for between ACF Winter and Regionals difficulty, inclusive.

It should probably be noted that these tournaments have been announced at essentially the same difficulty.

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 5:28 pm

theMoMA wrote:
olsb25 wrote:Please aim for between ACF Winter and Regionals difficulty, inclusive.
It should probably be noted that these tournaments have been announced at essentially the same difficulty.

Fixed in the announcement. Thanks for the heads-up.

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 11:10 pm

I've asked for the Buzzerfest main thread to be resurrected from the archives, but until then, I'd still like to drum up interest for potential mirrors. We only have one at Notre Dame right now, so if you're a reasonable distance from them or us at Princeton, and you'd like to mirror, let me know (kdemuren at princeton dot edu).

(Also, the -$50 packet deadline is less than three weeks away).

millionwaves · Post by **millionwaves** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 11:14 pm

Hey, I resurrected it from its untimely demise, and then I merged your new thread into this one. Sorry about that!

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 1:49 am

Just a bump to remind everyone that the -$50 packet deadline is this Saturday (and I have yet to receive any packets...).

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Sun Jan 24, 2010 4:47 pm

The -$50 deadline has come and gone, with only one team submitting a packet (and they were not even required to...). Next deadline is in two weeks, hopefully more packets will be submitted for that one...

(Post above edited with submitted packet)

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 11:02 am

A reminder that the -$25 deadline is only two days away, and I have yet to receive any more packets.

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 12:32 pm

Depending on who ends up hosting MUT (and on what date) in the Pacific Northwest, we might be interested in mirroring this tournament at Washington.

I can try to write a packet by the no penalty deadline to help make sure this tournament actually happens.

grapesmoker · Post by **grapesmoker** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 1:24 pm

It appears increasingly unlikely that Brown will be making this trip. Sorry.

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 2:24 am

Mike: e-mail me about potential mirroring and freelancing.

I got no new packets at this deadline, which slightly alarms me, since right now only one team (at a mirror, no less) will be able to attend this tournament. Obviously the reason to have multiple packet deadlines is to allow teams to submit packets later if they please, but the more later packets I get, the harder editing this tournament will be for me and my teammates.

Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) · Mon Feb 08, 2010 2:40 am

edit lame post i misread what i was quoting

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Fri Feb 19, 2010 3:03 am

$0 packet deadline is less than 48 hours away... need more packets.

journterp · Post by **journterp** » Fri Feb 19, 2010 12:40 pm

Maryland (should be) sending a packet by this deadline, or very shortly thereafter. It's more than half completed at this point.

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Fri Feb 19, 2010 1:07 pm

Did you get my packet? By the way, I'm trying to get UW to write one by the next deadline (not the one this weekend) and I can probably contribute another half packet by the last deadline.

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Fri Feb 19, 2010 1:26 pm

Bentley Like Beckham wrote:Did you get my packet? By the way, I'm trying to get UW to write one by the next deadline (not the one this weekend) and I can probably contribute another half packet by the last deadline.

I did; thanks a bunch. I've had to deal with some "what to do with my life" stuff this week, so my response time is a bit slow.

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Mon Feb 22, 2010 12:46 pm

Post above updated with packets submitted... get those packets in ASAP.

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Mon Mar 01, 2010 5:11 am

It would be cool if people planning on coming to this would, like, register and submit packets, because I don't think Maryland really wants to play rounds against itself.

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 11:39 am

So, if I don't get some registrations and submitted packets soon, this tournament is not going to happen. +$25 deadline is this Saturday.

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 12:29 pm

I'll try to get you the UW packet this weekend, although that may be a bit late.

Papa's in the House · Post by **Papa's in the House** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 2:45 pm

You should also get an Illinois packet by this weekend.

EDIT: We're still a couple questions short, so there will be a slight delay.

EDITx2: Rereading this post brightened up my day a little

.

Lapego1 · Post by **Lapego1** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 3:10 pm

Just so you know, I don't think Penn will be able to attend due to conflicts with the date.

Sima Guang Hater · Post by **Sima Guang Hater** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 12:39 am

Lapego1 wrote:Just so you know, I don't think Penn will be able to attend due to conflicts with the date.

We can't?

mpellegrini · Post by **mpellegrini** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 1:24 pm

olsb25 wrote: I would prefer teams to be entirely school-based, but if there is a desire to form some chimera/open team, we'll deal with that when it comes up.

Delaware and Charter School of Wilmington are interested in sending a chimera team. Is this allowed?

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 5:14 pm

mpellegrini wrote:
olsb25 wrote: I would prefer teams to be entirely school-based, but if there is a desire to form some chimera/open team, we'll deal with that when it comes up.
Delaware and Charter School of Wilmington are interested in sending a chimera team. Is this allowed?

I don't see a problem with this. We're not really in a position to be refusing registrations at this point. You won't get the HS discount, though.

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 9:20 pm

Post above updated with submitted packets. We have two more submissions pending once people fix formatting and other issues, but I still expect this to happen, since even if we get no more submissions (other than those already promised/submitted once) and write no more questions other than to replace, etc., we'll have 12 packets, and we can come up with a few more packets if need be.

Sima Guang Hater · Post by **Sima Guang Hater** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 4:47 pm

I'm still not sure if Penn is sending a team, but either way you'll have a packet from us in a few days (only 10 tossups left)

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 12:12 pm

Just a reminder that the last deadline for submissions is this Saturday. I'm willing to cut some slack if necessary, but you absolutely need to let me know by e-mail if you need it. Also, since this has been a problem with some submissions: look at the formatting guidelines in the original announcement, especially: 1 inch margins, 10 point, Times New Roman font. If your packet is not formatted in this fashion, and I make the adjustments and your questions come up short, I will send it back for you to fix.

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 1:18 am

Packets submitted posted above. If you sent me a packet and it is not in the above list, post here ASAP. I did just switch to Gmail, so something may have gotten lost in the transition.

Edward Powers · Post by **Edward Powers** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:17 am

Kunle,

Saint Joseph HS might be interested in sending one team, with one buzzer and a 2nd buzzer in reserve if you needed it. But we are not sure due to possible busing problems---so, what is a rough estimate of the date by which you would need to know? A week before? Several days?

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 12:50 pm

I would say several days is fine. We're not going to have any issues with space, so late notice is fine, and obviously you don't need to submit a packet.

Edward Powers · Post by **Edward Powers** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 1:39 pm

Thanks. And I will try to give you as much advance notice as possible.

olsb25 · Post by **olsb25** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 1:21 am

TheKingInYellow wrote:I could definitely see State College coming; I'll let you know more definitely soon

Are you guys still thinking of coming? We definitely have the space.

Edward Powers · Post by **Edward Powers** » Fri Mar 19, 2010 3:37 am

Do you have a field update?

EDIT: Good luck with your field and your tournament; unfortunately Saint Joe's will not be coming---my kids voted to attend a high school tournament instead. Hope you understand.