ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Old college threads.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

An actual criticism I think is more useful of the Velvet Underground question is wondering why they were called a punk rock band. I haven't found a single source noodling around on google that actually goes so far as to call them punk, and the consensus I always thought of (and which Britannica says is the case) is that they were only an influence on punk, which arose something like 10 years after they were really active.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

theMoMA wrote:My position on other things that are too hard for Fall continues to be that they are too hard for Fall. Also, I believe Grignard reagents were a noted hard part at this tournament.
Weren't they just a late middle clue in that magnesium tossup?
Jeremy Gibbs Free Energy wrote:The point is that it is much more possible for you to be able to learn about opera, social sciences, or philosophy without taking classes on it. That is barely in the same ballpark as computer science, unless you are extremely geared towards that subject already and are willing to read textbooks (which is still far more time than it takes to learn about any of the subjects I listed above.)
Bollocks. I could have tenned most of these computer science bonuses at age ten, because back then I had--well, a search engine called "Dogpile"--and mild interest in the subject. And you could have done it pretty fast: you learn that a linked list is a structure where there are objects and little links between them called pointers that you use to traverse the list. Hello, converting that bonus part for the rest of your natural life.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by Auks Ran Ova »

Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:
Jeremy Gibbs Free Energy wrote:The point is that it is much more possible for you to be able to learn about opera, social sciences, or philosophy without taking classes on it. That is barely in the same ballpark as computer science, unless you are extremely geared towards that subject already and are willing to read textbooks (which is still far more time than it takes to learn about any of the subjects I listed above.)
Bollocks. I could have tenned most of these computer science bonuses at age ten, because back then I had--well, a search engine called "Dogpile"--and mild interest in the subject. And you could have done it pretty fast: you learn that a linked list is a structure where there are objects and little links between them called pointers that you use to traverse the list. Hello, converting that bonus part for the rest of your natural life.
Dogpile! Awesome. My hat is off to you.

Anyway, yeah, I agree with this sentiment, mostly. CS is no more magically impossible to take a casual interest in than any other science. That said, I do support measures to ask about easier things - shortest-path algorithms, while famous and important (and stock and transparent and...), are too hard as an answer for this tournament. Search algorithms would, in fact, be an easier answer, since you can throw in something about "looking through data" or something about Google at the end. To provide another example, "trees" would also be a fine answer - knowledgeable people will be able to buzz on things like "the splay/AVL/B/red-black/binary search variety of these things", and people who have heard of some computer science thing called a "tree" can buzz at the end when you say that they have child nodes called "leaves". You can also ask about hardware or hardware-related things that people know - "caches" or "RAM" or something, if written by a competent person, could make fine tossups. Since this is indeed the easiest, most accessible tournament of the year, I'd even be fine with doing things like making the easy part of a bonus something like "printers" or something about which easier but still real-sciency clues can be given, like "Fibonacci" as was mentioned earlier - if, as always, these easy parts are solidly connected to the actual CS topic being discussed.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Yeah; shortest-path algorithms I managed to neg with "you are on a graph and you are trying to find a minimum spanning tree for some other purpose" for great glory. I'm less friendly to "printers" as an easy part, simply because there are no real, science-based clues for making you say the word "printers" ("this is what you wish would work in your dorm room RIGHT NOW"), but I support easy CS and don't support magically invoking "this subject is hard to learn about because ___" which applies well to upper-level physics which isn't treated well on the internet, for example, but not many other subjects. (If the internet didn't exist, we wouldn't have a hundredth as many people learning how to program shit as we do. It's easy to learn: the fact that not enough people choose to do so is as much a deficit of the "well-educated person" Andrew was invoking as not choosing to listen to opera; it's just one that quizbowl persons bemoan more because fine arts are, in the majority view, "prettier" than science.)
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by OntarioQuizzer »

On moderating and this tournament:

- This tournament was an absolute joy to moderate. I was quite impressed that the tossups were, at most, 7 lines long. It was very pleasant not to have to battle through monsters.
- A couple of copy/paste issues aside, I was also quite impressed with the packet set. I don't think that I heard a single complaint about the questions the entire day.
- The laptop I bring to tournaments is an Ubuntu laptop, running OpenOffice. I have never had an issue; however, I would also ensure that I had a Windows laptop if somebody else was needing to read from it.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by Cheynem »

I somewhat agree with Andrew. I admit to being rather technologically stupid as a child, but I didn't learn or even hear a lot about computer science or its terms and I 0'ed at least CS bonus at Fall. Regarding opera, even if you never attend an opera in your life (I haven't), I feel like you have at least some cultural exposure to it and that at the very least you will recognize certain names and concepts. I mean, regardless of how fair or logical it is that novices react differently to CS and opera, I still think that if CS is something of a proper area with terminally low conversion rates (not sure if that can be tracked), something should be done.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by The Friar »

Ukonvasara wrote:
Jeremy Gibbs Free Energy wrote:The point is that it is much more possible for you to be able to learn about opera, social sciences, or philosophy without taking classes on it. That is barely in the same ballpark as computer science, unless you are extremely geared towards that subject already and are willing to read textbooks (which is still far more time than it takes to learn about any of the subjects I listed above.)
CS is no more magically impossible to take a casual interest in than any other science.
Jeremy Gibbs Free Energy wrote:opera, social sciences, or philosophy
Jeremy Gibbs Free Energy wrote:opera, social sciences, or philosophy
Jeremy Gibbs Free Energy wrote:opera, social sciences, or philosophy
Nevertheless I will go further than Rob in suggesting that CS is easier to take a casual interest in than other areas specifically within science. Although you can read about particle physics or cellular bio at no cost, doing them usually requires Equipment that you can't obtain or even access without Credentials, hindering casual exploration. To do CS you need a computer. Actually, I think most people who actually do CS very much go this route and are way beyond what their high school classes taught them when they enter college (I could, as often happens, be wrong).
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by Cheynem »

I'd agree with you, Gordon. I think people who engage in CS certainly do those things (a lot of my friends did, mocking my eternal confusion with things computer). I would guess, though, that the number of people who do those things is still a minority of people, within society and within quizbowl.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by Lagotto Romagnolo »

Not much else for me to say, really. I thought this was a very solid set, and since this will likely be my last year playing ACF Fall I was glad to go out on a high note. Well done, editors.
Also, FWIW, I got a huge kick out of that batman fighting superman tossup, quirky though it was.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by grapesmoker »

I think this set was very good for what it aimed to do. The only real criticism I have is that I felt that sometimes the wording on some of the questions was somewhat vague. As in, some of the clues sounded like "this is a guy who did a thing," (I'll try to dig up the exact quotation), and "this effect is associated with this other thing." Also, this is not the first tournament at which I've observed the erroneous claim that Husserl is the founder of phenomenology. This is untrue; the founder of phenomenology was Franz Brentano, Husserl's teacher. I know it's neither here nor there but it's a mistake which has cropped up in a few places, and I hope people can stop making it if they know the facts.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by women, fire and dangerous things »

grapesmoker wrote:Also, this is not the first tournament at which I've observed the erroneous claim that Husserl is the founder of phenomenology. This is untrue; the founder of phenomenology was Franz Brentano, Husserl's teacher. I know it's neither here nor there but it's a mistake which has cropped up in a few places, and I hope people can stop making it if they know the facts.
I think you could consider either Brentano or Husserl the founder of phenomenology, depending on your definitions. For instance, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy says, "In 1889 Brentano used the term “phenomenology” for descriptive psychology, and the way was paved for Husserl's new science of phenomenology.
Phenomenology as we know it was launched by Edmund Husserl in his Logical Investigations (1900-01)."
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by ThisIsMyUsername »

jpn wrote:Also, I would appreciate feedback on the music
Some oddities in the two Beethoven tossups.

From the Beethoven's Fifth tossup in the Chattahoochee packet:
A pair of horns in this piece was supposed to recapitulate a theme in C major, but was replaced by its composer in that section by bassoons.
This is an odd way of putting this. The horns play the passage in the exposition and the bassoons play that same passage in the recapitulation. Conductors of an older generation liked to alter the orchestration and use horns here too, sometimes claiming that Beethoven would have wanted the horns to play there if the notes had been available, but there is no evidence that this is at all what he wanted.
This symphony’s most notable feature also appears in its composer’s Appassionata sonata, and is played in E flat major after several imitations of the notes G-G-G-E flat, which is commonly described as “Fate knocking at the door.” For 10 points, name this Beethoven work that precedes the Pastoral Symphony.
The rhythmic motif from the Appassionata sonata is similar to the Fate theme from Beethoven's fifth: the rhythm for both is short-short-short-long, but they are not the same theme: the time signatures and melodies are different. Reading this also confuses me: it makes it sound like the symphony's most notable feature is something that's played in E-flat after several imitations of the Fate theme, rather than the Fate theme itself.

The Beethoven tossup from Yale B's packet:
A 24 bar Overtura opens a work split from this man’s thirteenth string quartet, his Grosse Fugue.
The Grosse Fugue seems too well known to be the first piece mentioned, as it doesn't allow for any distinguishing between people with moderate or deep Beethoven knowledge, as a less well-known piece might.
One work by this composer contains a subject in E-flat minor in its Grave introduction, and an oft-played piano work by this composer opens with E-D sharp-E-D-sharp-E-B-D natural-C. For 10 points, name this composer of the Moonlight Sonata, Für Elise, and the Choral Symphony.
What piece by Beethoven has a subject in E-flat minor in its Grave introduction? The way this is written makes it sound like you meant the Moonlight Sonata, but that doesn't have a Grave introduction or a subject in E-flat minor. The Pathetique Sonata has a Grave introduction, but the subject in E-flat minor is in the Allegro di molto e con brio and not in the Grave introduction.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by grapesmoker »

women, fire and dangerous things wrote:I think you could consider either Brentano or Husserl the founder of phenomenology, depending on your definitions. For instance, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy says, "In 1889 Brentano used the term “phenomenology” for descriptive psychology, and the way was paved for Husserl's new science of phenomenology. Phenomenology as we know it was launched by Edmund Husserl in his Logical Investigations (1900-01)."
Yeah, I agree with this; I consulted the Stanford Encyclopedia to double-check. I still think it's good to put a little extra information in there to distinguish one from the other. It's a minor nitpick, but if you asked me out of the blue, "who invented phenomenology?" without any other context, I don't know what I would have to say. I'd probably go with Brentano. Since I think there's a clear ambiguity in the question, it should be resolved by mentioning one or the other, or some context.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

The Grosse Fugue has not come up a great deal in quizbowl (and was a hard part at Minnesota Open, even.) It is an example of something I was talking about earlier where it is objectively much more important within music than its quizbowl reputation would lead one to believe, so I guarantee it was an appropriate clue for this leadin, as someone who actually knows about music will be much more likely to buzz on it.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by Not That Kind of Christian!! »

Jeremy Gibbs Free Energy wrote:The Grosse Fugue has not come up a great deal in quizbowl (and was a hard part at Minnesota Open, even.) It is an example of something I was talking about earlier where it is objectively much more important within music than its quizbowl reputation would lead one to believe, so I guarantee it was an appropriate clue for this leadin, as someone who actually knows about music will be much more likely to buzz on it.
I actually talked about this with Andy that evening; I expressed shock that it would be a leadin, and he told me exactly what Charlie just said. It's an extremely significant piece in the greater world of classical music, yet another example of how the spheres of real-world importance and quizbowl importance do not always intersect.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by fluffy4102 »

ThisIsMyUsername wrote:
jpn wrote:Also, I would appreciate feedback on the music
Some oddities in the two Beethoven tossups.

From the Beethoven's Fifth tossup in the Chattahoochee packet:
A pair of horns in this piece was supposed to recapitulate a theme in C major, but was replaced by its composer in that section by bassoons.
This is an odd way of putting this. The horns play the passage in the exposition and the bassoons play that same passage in the recapitulation. Conductors of an older generation liked to alter the orchestration and use horns here too, sometimes claiming that Beethoven would have wanted the horns to play there if the notes had been available, but there is no evidence that this is at all what he wanted.
They still do. Performance practice differs for every conductor in placement of orchestra and instrumentation. Some adhere to period performance. Others don't care. Very few pieces have a distinctive history of performance practice. Often different schools of thought on how to play or conduct influence these decisions. Plus, it's highly unlikely that Beethoven wanted something he didn't put in the score. He famously indicated that he didn't want substitution for his cadenza and the one written should be played in his Emperor piano concerto. Beethoven wasn't one to hold back his opinion.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by ThisIsMyUsername »

Jeremy Gibbs Free Energy wrote:The Grosse Fugue has not come up a great deal in quizbowl (and was a hard part at Minnesota Open, even.) It is an example of something I was talking about earlier where it is objectively much more important within music than its quizbowl reputation would lead one to believe, so I guarantee it was an appropriate clue for this leadin, as someone who actually knows about music will be much more likely to buzz on it.
I'll buy that it separates those with real-world knowledge of Beethoven from those who have only quizbowl knowledge of Beethoven, but what about distinguishing between two players with different levels of real-world Beethoven knowledge? Or are we saying that there are too few people with real-world knowledge of Beethoven for this to be an issue? I hope not.
fluffy4102 wrote:
ThisIsMyUsername wrote: Conductors of an older generation liked to alter the orchestration and use horns here too, sometimes claiming that Beethoven would have wanted the horns to play there if the notes had been available, but there is no evidence that this is at all what he wanted.
They still do.
That practice has declined in popularity with the surge of interest in textual fidelity.
Performance practice differs for every conductor in placement of orchestra and instrumentation.
In instrumentation, rarely. Reorchestrating a piece or section of a piece is a big deal. There are conductors who became infamous for doing this (Mahler, Stokowski, etc.) or pieces that often have them done to them (Schumann's symphonies), but one generally assumes that the orchestration is an integral part of the piece that's not going to be tampered with. That's why the fact that this passage is often reorchestrated is notable.
Some adhere to period performance. Others don't care. Very few pieces have a distinctive history of performance practice.
The fact that there are and always have been different ways of performing various pieces does not mean that there is no distinctive history of performance practice. There are significant trends and schools of thought that ebb and flow with the times, and there are interpretive ideas particular to idiosyncratic individuals and those which become part of mainstream interpretation, and the study of these trends is a legitimate field. Beethoven's Fifth is certainly such a piece with a distinctive history in performance practice.
Often different schools of thought on how to play or conduct influence these decisions. Plus, it's highly unlikely that Beethoven wanted something he didn't put in the score. He famously indicated that he didn't want substitution for his cadenza and the one written should be played in his Emperor piano concerto. Beethoven wasn't one to hold back his opinion.
So, now I am no longer sure what your point is: are we then in agreement on the fact that saying "a pair of horns in this piece was supposed to recapitulate a theme in C major" is inaccurate? Because the point of my writing that was to say that the idea that the horns is what Beethoven wanted all along is an argument conductors use to justify that bit of reorchestration rather than something we should take as fact; my mentioning the performing history was just background for that point.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by grapesmoker »

ThisIsMyUsername wrote:I'll buy that it separates those with real-world knowledge of Beethoven from those who have only quizbowl knowledge of Beethoven, but what about distinguishing between two players with different levels of real-world Beethoven knowledge? Or are we saying that there are too few people with real-world knowledge of Beethoven for this to be an issue? I hope not.
I am betting that the number of people that are able to enter into the details of the debate you're now having is not that large. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be accurate in our writing, but I think in terms of basic "how many people know this vs. that" kind of distinguishing of players, the question was probably fine as it was.
So, now I am no longer sure what your point is: are we then in agreement on the fact that saying "a pair of horns in this piece was supposed to recapitulate a theme in C major" is inaccurate? Because the point of my writing that was to say that the idea that the horns is what Beethoven wanted all along is an argument conductors use to justify that bit of reorchestration rather than something we should take as fact; my mentioning the performing history was just background for that point.
This seems like a legitimate controversy which I'm not qualified to enter into, but it doesn't seem clear to me that either argument is overwhelmingly persuasive. Instead, let me ask this: given that there seem to be discrepancies between various knowledgeable people, how much does that affect how the question plays amongst knowledgeable players?
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by fluffy4102 »

ThisIsMyUsername wrote:
So, now I am no longer sure what your point is: are we then in agreement on the fact that saying "a pair of horns in this piece was supposed to recapitulate a theme in C major" is inaccurate? Because the point of my writing that was to say that the idea that the horns is what Beethoven wanted all along is an argument conductors use to justify that bit of reorchestration rather than something we should take as fact; my mentioning the performing history was just background for that point.
I agree with the fact that the clue was inaccurate. I think we can also agree that performance practice is controversial and shouldn't be part of questions.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by #1 Mercury Adept »

ThisIsMyUsername wrote:I'll buy that it separates those with real-world knowledge of Beethoven from those who have only quizbowl knowledge of Beethoven, but what about distinguishing between two players with different levels of real-world Beethoven knowledge? Or are we saying that there are too few people with real-world knowledge of Beethoven for this to be an issue? I hope not.
Are there that many people who could be expected to buzz early on music who don't have much real-world knowledge of music? (Well, maybe at ACF Fall, but on the very first sentence?) It seems to me that quizbowl knowledge of music is very closely associated with real-world knowledge of music, perhaps more so than other categories (maybe?). If I'm right about this, then if the first sentence of a question is to distinguish between two people with the kind of quizbowl knowledge of Beethoven that would allow them to be likely to buzz that early, it should also be able to distinguish between two people with that level of real-world knowledge of Beethoven, since it wouldn't be likely that the possession of real-world knowledge at the "Grosse Fuge" level would distinguish between them.

Oh, and speaking of music lead-ins, there's also the Debussy question – I almost buzzed on "gamelan", but waited until "G minor" just in case.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

Hey guys, this is ACF Fall we're talking about. We don't need to worry about distinguishing between people who know a Beethoven work that, for whatever reason, is even less famous within quizbowl than The Creatures of Prometheus. If we want to distinguish between expert music players, we send our teams to Regionals and Nationals and Opens and other "regular" tournaments. To talk about ACF Fall in these terms, especially for a category that such a vast majority of people don't know anything about, is ludicrous.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by #1 Mercury Adept »

I don't think it's only "expert music players" who know what the Grosse Fuge is (or that Beethoven wrote it, which is basically all I for one know about it), but I would guess that all or most "music players" of a certain level would be able to say who wrote the Grosse Fuge, even if quizbowl gives them the opportunity to do so less frequently for whatever reason.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

I'm saying it's ACF Fall and people should shut up about a clue like this being too hard for this field. It's not. Even if it were, I'd rather an ACF Fall clue be slightly easy than too hard.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by #1 Mercury Adept »

Jeremy Gibbs Free Energy wrote:I'm saying it's ACF Fall and people should shut up about a clue like this being too hard for this field. It's not. Even if it were, I'd rather an ACF Fall clue be slightly easy than too hard.
No, it's too easy to be the first clue of a question. That's what I meant, at least.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by grapesmoker »

Kaleido Star Legend of the Phoenix wrote:
Jeremy Gibbs Free Energy wrote:I'm saying it's ACF Fall and people should shut up about a clue like this being too hard for this field. It's not. Even if it were, I'd rather an ACF Fall clue be slightly easy than too hard.
No, it's too easy to be the first clue of a question. That's what I meant, at least.
Is that really true? I keep asking because it seems like a bunch of people who really know music are saying this, when in fact those people probably should be buzzing at that stage.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by Captain Sinico »

I don't think it's categorically too easy for the first clue at this level. It's a decidedly second-tier Beethoven work in the popular consciousness. I would have appreciated some more substantive description of it first, but that's hardly a damning fault.

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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by Gautam »

I just looked through the discussion we had on the Beethoven tossup. Seth had suggested that the Grosse Fugue possibly was too early in the question, but I think it was pretty much fine where it was. I am no music expert, but I've played enough tournaments of various difficulty levels, and I think I can safely say that the particular piece is not all that famous in quizbowl circles for it to merit being further down in the question.
Kaleido Star Legend of the Phoenix wrote: if the first sentence of a question is to distinguish between two people with the kind of quizbowl knowledge of Beethoven that would allow them to be likely to buzz that early, it should also be able to distinguish between two people with that level of real-world knowledge of Beethoven, since it wouldn't be likely that the possession of real-world knowledge at the "Grosse Fuge" level would distinguish between them.
I really don't think that at a tournament like ACF Fall it's possible to have leadin and middle clues for every tossup which allow for distinguishing between people who have real world knowledge of Beethoven works. It would be simply impractical to attempt to differentiate people who have knowledge of third-tier works from people who have knowledge of second tier works by Beethoven.

If I wanted to use a clue about a Beethoven work that has never "come up" in quizbowl in order to award someone with deep knowledge of Beethoven works, I'd be much better off saving it for a tournament like Regionals or Nationals. Only at Regionals or Nationals will I find many people with varying levels of "real world" knowledge of Beethoven works so that my special clues can produce meaningful results. I can be 100% positive that the clue would be useless at ACF Fall since it will only be differentiating .1% of the field.

If the tossup in question led to a buzzer race between two music players with a good background in the works of Beethoven, it's unfortunate. However, all I can say is that there is very little we can do to simultaneously ensure coarser gradation between "people who know something about second tier Beethoven works" and "people who only know about first-tier Beethoven works" and finer gradation between people with varying levels of real-world knowledge of Beethoven.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by Gautam »

I thought I'd clarify this before I'd forget:

All issues that arose due to repeats and questions being pasted improperly and any issues which inaccuracies in the questions are to be attributed to me. As head editor, I was responsible for making sure that clues used in this tournament would be factually correct and that the final product (i.e. the packets) would not cause any inconvenience to the various teams playing the tournament. The teams who submitted packets put in a lot of hard work to write those packets and they are not, in any way, to be blamed.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by Lagotto Romagnolo »

gkandlikar wrote: I really don't think that at a tournament like ACF Fall it's possible to have leadin and middle clues for every tossup which allow for distinguishing between people who have real world knowledge of Beethoven works. It would be simply impractical to attempt to differentiate people who have knowledge of third-tier works from people who have knowledge of second tier works by Beethoven.
Agreed. I'm going to ask my fellow classical music mafiosi (as Ryan has dubbed us) not to hijack another thread.
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Re: ACF Fall 2009 Discussion

Post by Auroni »

I specifically used the Grosse Fugue clue because I knew it was a work that people with deeper knowledge of Beethoven would know, as opposed to those people that know of Beethoven by studying previous packets. If you got that question early, that means that you know actual stuff about music.
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