THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

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THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Auroni »

This announcement is for THUNDER II: Lightning Bolt Action, a follow up to last year's similarly named tournament this year. This time, the set is being written mostly by myself, Eric Mukherjee, Mike Cheyne, and Dominic Machado, with Trygve Meade providing a few social science questions. The distribution for this tournament is as follows:

Per Packet:

4/4 Literature
4/4 History
4/4 Science
3/3 Art (1/1 Painting, 1/1 Music, 1/1 Other Arts)
3/3 RMP (1/1 each)
2/2 SS
1/1 Trash/Geo/More Big 3/Your Choice

From this, I will be writing all of the literature, auditory arts, and religion. Eric will be writing all of the science, visual arts, and mythology. Mike Cheyne will be writing all of the American History, and Dominic Machado will be writing all of the other History. We will probably split or find new people to cover SS, philosophy, and the 1/1 Trash/Your Choice category.

We are looking to make improvements over last year's tournament. This edition will be carefully copy-edited, difficulty appropriate, and consistent. It will be around ACF Regionals in difficulty. Power placement will be fairer. All in all, this will shape up to be a polished and enjoyable set for all to play.

We also need some mirrors. We will have 14 packets written by the time the tournament runs. Get in touch with Eric or me if you would like to run one. Pricing information is forthcoming.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by grapesmoker »

Will this tournament be open?
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Sima Guang Hater »

grapesmoker wrote:Will this tournament be open?
We're going to encourage mirrors to have people stick to their college teams, but exceptions will be made on a case-by-case basis by TDs.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Jesus vs. Dragons »

The Quest for the Historical Mukherjesus wrote:
grapesmoker wrote:Will this tournament be open?
We're going to encourage mirrors to have people stick to their college teams, but exceptions will be made on a case-by-case basis by TDs.
Any word on possible mirrors?
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Auroni »

Jesus vs. Dragons wrote:
The Quest for the Historical Mukherjesus wrote:
grapesmoker wrote:Will this tournament be open?
We're going to encourage mirrors to have people stick to their college teams, but exceptions will be made on a case-by-case basis by TDs.
Any word on possible mirrors?
We have confirmed Northern Illinois University as a mirror. Chris Romero wants to mirror this set as well. We would love to have more sites, so email me at [email protected]. Our fee is $30 per team, but we can negotiate if need be.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Mike Bentley »

If plane tickets go down a bit I'd be interested in attending the San Diego mirror of this tournament.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Church51907 »

I saw that NIU is canceling their mirror of Thunder. Are there plans for an additionaly midwest mirror site?
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Papa's in the House »

Church51907 wrote:I saw that NIU is canceling their mirror of Thunder. Are there plans for an additionaly midwest mirror site?
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UIUC will be hosting a mirror of this tournament.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Boeing X-20, Please! »

Papa's in the House wrote:
Church51907 wrote:I saw that NIU is canceling their mirror of Thunder. Are there plans for an additionaly midwest mirror site?
Matt Church
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UIUC will be hosting a mirror of this tournament.
Coolness. On the same date as in the title of this thread and was announced for NIU, I assume?
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Papa's in the House »

Secretary of Bobcats wrote:
Papa's in the House wrote:
Church51907 wrote:I saw that NIU is canceling their mirror of Thunder. Are there plans for an additionaly midwest mirror site?
Matt Church
U of L
UIUC will be hosting a mirror of this tournament.
Coolness. On the same date as in the title of this thread and was announced for NIU, I assume?
Yes.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by mcgroth »

UDel is planning on sending 2-3 teams to the UPenn site of this tournament.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Church51907 »

U of L is planning to send two-three teams to the UIUC mirror.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by itsthatoneguy »

Michigan will be sending at least 2 teams to the Illinois location. More details to come later...
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Ike »

I will announce the Illinois site after our mirror of EFT, but if anyone has any questions post here or email me.

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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Mike Bentley »

I just booked my ticket for San Diego. If anyone has a place for me to stay, that'd be great.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Edward Powers »

Are high school teams welcome? If they are, and my kids continue to develop, Saint Joe's of Metuchen expresses interest in attending Thunder II at U Penn.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Auroni »

Edward Powers wrote:Are high school teams welcome? If they are, and my kids continue to develop, Saint Joe's of Metuchen expresses interest in attending Thunder II at U Penn.
Yeah, high schoolers are absolutely welcome.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Duncan Idaho »

Can the field and/or any other information unique to Penn's mirror be posted, either in this thread or in a separate announcement thread? (I guess UCSD, too, but that's inconsequential to me.)
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by TheKingInYellow »

State College will bring a team to Penn
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by grapesmoker »

Trevor Davis and I are playing together at Penn.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by pennstateqb »

Penn State would love to bring 1 team to UPenn.

Also, we need some pricing info and something that can be called an itinerary in order to get funding. Can you provide a time and base cost for registration?
Last edited by pennstateqb on Mon Nov 01, 2010 10:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Lapego1 »

Info for the Penn site is here.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by nurgles_herald »

TheKingInYellow wrote:State College will bring a team to Penn
&%#$ you Graham Moyer.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Sun Devil Student »

One of my people has inquired about the possibility of writing a packet for a discount. (This of course assumes he and other ASU players actually attend. None of us who want to go are really sure if we can, given the proximity of this tournament to our finals. However, I thought I'd check into the possibility just in case.)
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Auroni »

I think we'll stick to not accepting packets for discounts. If your team is interested in attending and finances are a problem, email me and we'll work something out.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Auroni »

As of right now, just over 1/3 of this tournament has been written -- we are looking to get to 1/2 by the end of today.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Cheynem »

I feel like this tournament could perhaps be described as "Regs +" in difficulty after seeing a lot of the answer lines, but I'll let the other editors weigh in, I guess.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Sima Guang Hater »

Cheynem wrote:I feel like this tournament could perhaps be described as "Regs +" in difficulty after seeing a lot of the answer lines, but I'll let the other editors weigh in, I guess.
Yeah id agree with that. Id ask people to look at TIT from last year to see what to expect.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Auroni »

The literature should be around Regionals or a little bit easier.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

The Quest for the Historical Mukherjesus wrote:
Cheynem wrote:I feel like this tournament could perhaps be described as "Regs +" in difficulty after seeing a lot of the answer lines, but I'll let the other editors weigh in, I guess.
Yeah id agree with that. Id ask people to look at TIT from last year to see what to expect.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by DumbJaques »

I'm glad there are all these wonderful regular difficulty tournaments to choose from this semester.
I mean, this tournament hasn't even happened yet, and you seem to be blaming it for the wider difficulty landscape of the last few months of college quizbowl. Surely that's a bit premature, and even if it's not. . . come on, this tournament was basically invented last year. You're making a good point that this semester has had serious problems with event availability, but acting like the editors of THUNDER have some kind of civic duty to craft it in a certain way is silly. And, you know, it's not like regular difficulty tournaments can be received only by divine revelation - there's a fairly clear way one can try to bring them about, and it doesn't involve snarking at pre-existing events for no particular reason.


On the other hand:
Yeah id agree with that. Id ask people to look at TIT from last year to see what to expect.
To be fair man, I didn't even like the difficulty of last year's TIT all that much. As long as this is clearly a sub-nationals event though, I'd say it's marketed appropriately. Of course, if it's "Regionals plus" like MO was "Regionals plus," well. . . oops.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by The King's Flight to the Scots »

DumbJaques wrote:
I'm glad there are all these wonderful regular difficulty tournaments to choose from this semester.
I mean, this tournament hasn't even happened yet, and you seem to be blaming it for the wider difficulty landscape of the last few months of college quizbowl. Surely that's a bit premature, and even if it's not. . . come on, this tournament was basically invented last year. You're making a good point that this semester has had serious problems with event availability, but acting like the editors of THUNDER have some kind of civic duty to craft it in a certain way is silly. And, you know, it's not like regular difficulty tournaments can be received only by divine revelation - there's a fairly clear way one can try to bring them about, and it doesn't involve snarking at pre-existing events for no particular reason.


On the other hand:
Yeah id agree with that. Id ask people to look at TIT from last year to see what to expect.
To be fair man, I didn't even like the difficulty of last year's TIT all that much. As long as this is clearly a sub-nationals event though, I'd say it's marketed appropriately. Of course, if it's "Regionals plus" like MO was "Regionals plus," well. . . oops.
Hey, man, MO was "Regionals++". There's a clear distinction here.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Auks Ran Ova »

Cernel Joson wrote:
DumbJaques wrote:
I'm glad there are all these wonderful regular difficulty tournaments to choose from this semester.
I mean, this tournament hasn't even happened yet, and you seem to be blaming it for the wider difficulty landscape of the last few months of college quizbowl. Surely that's a bit premature, and even if it's not. . . come on, this tournament was basically invented last year. You're making a good point that this semester has had serious problems with event availability, but acting like the editors of THUNDER have some kind of civic duty to craft it in a certain way is silly. And, you know, it's not like regular difficulty tournaments can be received only by divine revelation - there's a fairly clear way one can try to bring them about, and it doesn't involve snarking at pre-existing events for no particular reason.


On the other hand:
Yeah id agree with that. Id ask people to look at TIT from last year to see what to expect.
To be fair man, I didn't even like the difficulty of last year's TIT all that much. As long as this is clearly a sub-nationals event though, I'd say it's marketed appropriately. Of course, if it's "Regionals plus" like MO was "Regionals plus," well. . . oops.
Hey, man, MO was "Regionals++". There's a clear distinction here.
Thankfully, we've long since dropped that delusion.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Auroni »

We're making a very genuine and concerted effort to curb down some of the "regionals +" difficulty that has crept into the set. Suffice to say that teams that played MO last weekend will notice the decrease in difficulty from that event to this one.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Cheynem »

That promise doesn't mean a whole lot, to be frank! MO was a very hard event intended for open teams, while this was theoretically announced as a regular difficulty tournament.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Auroni »

Why do you have to ruin my fun, Mike Cheyne? I was hoping for some dramatic understatement.

Regardless, I just want to mollify any fears that this event will run out of control difficulty-wise as it did last year.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Cheynem »

Your inscrutable Asian-ness makes it difficult to detect understatement. Fair enough.
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Re: THUNDER II - 12/4/10 - UCSD/UPenn/??

Post by Auroni »

Also, some credit where it is due: Thanks to Ike Jose for knocking out all of the philosophy and much of the social science, to Chris Chiego for stepping up to take some of the history, and to Jonathan Magin for stepping up to write all of the classical music tossups.
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