Alternatives to Buzzer Systems, in dire situations

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gack1224
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Alternatives to Buzzer Systems, in dire situations

Post by gack1224 »

I'm planning on hosting a mirror of Trashtastrophe and Trashtwostrophe, all in one day. Teams are doubles, and the ratio of teams to buzzer teams is about 4:1. Is there any cheap and legitimate method of creating or using an alternative lockout system? I'm working on borrowing sets, but even then I'll probably have 4 systems for 10 teams (and still be short).

And what if something like this happens the day of a tournament (i.e. some team leaves their system at home, while there are no extras)?
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Re: Alternatives to Buzzer Systems, in dire situations

Post by Marble-faced Bristle Tyrant »

I personally prefer just saying "buzz" to slapping; I can't discern slapping from the general ambiance of the room. "Buzz" is pretty hard to miss.
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Re: Alternatives to Buzzer Systems, in dire situations

Post by Nine-Tenths Ideas »

One thing that might work is assigning each of the 4 people in the room a monosyllabic color to say. For example, team one's players say "red" and "black"; team two's players say "green" and "blue." This eliminates almost any ambiguity as to who buzzed first.
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Re: Alternatives to Buzzer Systems, in dire situations

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

Are there just absolutely no teams in your area with systems?
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Re: Alternatives to Buzzer Systems, in dire situations

Post by gack1224 »

Jeremy Gibbs Free Energy wrote:Are there just absolutely no teams in your area with systems?
We have one; it's broken. Moline has 2. Central has 1. Rock Island has 1. It would be a big inconvenience to ask Sterling or those teams 1 hr+ away for their systems. Otherwise, not many reasonable opportunities.
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Re: Alternatives to Buzzer Systems, in dire situations

Post by Mike Bentley »

When is your tournament? If it's a few weeks away, you can get the buzzer fixed by then.
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Re: Alternatives to Buzzer Systems, in dire situations

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

It would be a big inconvenience to ask Sterling or those teams 1 hr+ away for their systems.
Buzzers are the size of briefcases, and teams that drive overnight or travel to tournaments by plane routinely bring along their buzzer systems those much longer distances than 1 hour. Don't be afraid to ask attending teams from farther away to bring buzzers, it's par for the course (and is the one aspect of tournament direction that really is at least partially their responsibility to help you with).
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Re: Alternatives to Buzzer Systems, in dire situations

Post by dtaylor4 »

Keep in mind that for doubles, you only need four working lights. Having spares in case some break would be great, but normally broken systems with 6-7 working lights would still be fine in this case.
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Re: Alternatives to Buzzer Systems, in dire situations

Post by Marble-faced Bristle Tyrant »

Jeremy Gibbs Free Energy wrote:
It would be a big inconvenience to ask Sterling or those teams 1 hr+ away for their systems.
Buzzers are the size of briefcases, and teams that drive overnight or travel to tournaments by plane routinely bring along their buzzer systems those much longer distances than 1 hour. Don't be afraid to ask attending teams from farther away to bring buzzers, it's par for the course (and is the one aspect of tournament direction that really is at least partially their responsibility to help you with).
Yes, what is taking up so much space in the car/bus that it is an inconvenience?
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Re: Alternatives to Buzzer Systems, in dire situations

Post by gack1224 »

Bentley Like Beckham wrote:When is your tournament? If it's a few weeks away, you can get the buzzer fixed by then.
I'm somewhat planning for it to be fixed by then; I'm not sure I'll be able to get RI's set for various reasons including that they don't usually loan out their system to other schools when they're not attending the tournament.
Jeremy Gibbs Free Energy wrote:
It would be a big inconvenience to ask Sterling or those teams 1 hr+ away for their systems.
Buzzers are the size of briefcases, and teams that drive overnight or travel to tournaments by plane routinely bring along their buzzer systems those much longer distances than 1 hour. Don't be afraid to ask attending teams from farther away to bring buzzers, it's par for the course (and is the one aspect of tournament direction that really is at least partially their responsibility to help you with).
I forgot to mention that I only invited local teams, since this event is more informal than others and doesn't require a coach. If they were coming, yeah, I would ask that they bring their system. We have at least 7 teams from Bettendorf alone competing, we only have one buzzer. Normally, buzzer shortages do not happen.
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Re: Alternatives to Buzzer Systems, in dire situations

Post by jonpin »

List of wrestling-based comic books wrote:I personally prefer just saying "buzz" to slapping; I can't discern slapping from the general ambiance of the room. "Buzz" is pretty hard to miss.
From my experience at practice and having to actually run buzzerless for a few rounds of a tournament last fall, I much preferred slapping. The idea is that while reading, I'm also more or less looking at the teams, and thus I can see which player has slapped first, rather than hearing "buzz" from one side and not being sure which player said it.
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Re: Alternatives to Buzzer Systems, in dire situations

Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

jonpin wrote: From my experience at practice and having to actually run buzzerless for a few rounds of a tournament last fall, I much preferred slapping. The idea is that while reading, I'm also more or less looking at the teams, and thus I can see which player has slapped first, rather than hearing "buzz" from one side and not being sure which player said it.
My experience is the opposite; everyone's hand pretty much makes the same sound when it hits the table, whereas humans tend to have distinguishable voices.
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Re: Alternatives to Buzzer Systems, in dire situations

Post by Marble-faced Bristle Tyrant »

Whig's Boson wrote:
jonpin wrote: From my experience at practice and having to actually run buzzerless for a few rounds of a tournament last fall, I much preferred slapping. The idea is that while reading, I'm also more or less looking at the teams, and thus I can see which player has slapped first, rather than hearing "buzz" from one side and not being sure which player said it.
My experience is the opposite; everyone's hand pretty much makes the same sound when it hits the table, whereas humans tend to have distinguishable voices.
Exactly.
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Re: Alternatives to Buzzer Systems, in dire situations

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

List of wrestling-based comic books wrote:
Whig's Boson wrote:
jonpin wrote: From my experience at practice and having to actually run buzzerless for a few rounds of a tournament last fall, I much preferred slapping. The idea is that while reading, I'm also more or less looking at the teams, and thus I can see which player has slapped first, rather than hearing "buzz" from one side and not being sure which player said it.
My experience is the opposite; everyone's hand pretty much makes the same sound when it hits the table, whereas humans tend to have distinguishable voices.
Exactly.
It might work slightly differently in team-based practices, where you're quite familiar with what your teammates' voices sound like. Whereas at SCT several teams I read for had never played before--let alone the teams that had players I hadn't met.
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Re: Alternatives to Buzzer Systems, in dire situations

Post by jonpin »

Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:
List of wrestling-based comic books wrote:
Whig's Boson wrote:
jonpin wrote: From my experience at practice and having to actually run buzzerless for a few rounds of a tournament last fall, I much preferred slapping. The idea is that while reading, I'm also more or less looking at the teams, and thus I can see which player has slapped first, rather than hearing "buzz" from one side and not being sure which player said it.
My experience is the opposite; everyone's hand pretty much makes the same sound when it hits the table, whereas humans tend to have distinguishable voices.
Exactly.
It might work slightly differently in team-based practices, where you're quite familiar with what your teammates' voices sound like. Whereas at SCT several teams I read for had never played before--let alone the teams that had players I hadn't met.
Right. At a practice, yelling buzz is probably better not only because you can distinguish other peoples' voices, but because you then don't even need to worry about table space. At a tournament, the three guys on Team Left may have distinct voices, but that doesn't always mean you'll be able to assign a voice to a person. But also, what I had said was that I like to read while keeping an eye on the players (one of the reasons I prefer a paper copy of the questions), thus allowing me to see which hand hits the table first.

In any event, it's a matter of personal preference.
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Re: Alternatives to Buzzer Systems, in dire situations

Post by New York Undercover »

I think the red, black, green, blue suggestion is a good way of distinguishing different people. Certainly better than slapping the table.
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Re: Alternatives to Buzzer Systems, in dire situations

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

People should say "ding" to indicate buzzing.
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Re: Alternatives to Buzzer Systems, in dire situations

Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

Harvard has been practicing without a buzzer since I came here (there was ONE practice with a buzzer -- I brought champagne to that practice to celebrate the fact that there was a buzzer), so I've had plenty of time to do empirical observations on this issue. Even when such physically different players as Julia Schlozman and Ted Gioia slap the table at the same time, it sounds pretty much the same.

"ding" is, of course, preferable to "buzz", and "ring-a-ding" even more so.
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