Buzzer types

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What style of buzzer do you find easiest and most effective to use?

Table-top buzzers
8
14%
Hand-held buzzers
38
66%
WHO CARES?!?!?!?!??!
12
21%
 
Total votes: 58

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Buzzer types

Post by Thompson »

Just curious about this, really. I'm a hand-held buzzer person, myself, but I'm sure there are dissenters among the crowd. I'm just wondering about the ratio.
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Post by NoahMinkCHS »

Table tops should go away. Generally, if possible, I take table tops and hold them in my hand anyway. Example: The pic in the new board logo, buzzers like that, I just pretend they're really big hand-held ones. The Judge too.

So make life easier for me -- buy hand-helds if you can!
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Post by Captain Sinico »

It doesn't make any difference to me, and I've never understood why it makes any difference to anyone else, either. One should be prepared to compete however one is required to buzz... but then, these are pretty much the same mechanism anyway (in fact, almost all buzzers are: the same force applied by the same muscles.) If you're taken off your game by something so small as not having your favorite buzzer system, expect to lose a lot.

MaS

(Also, since I know it's an issue, the case where someone is physically unable to use buzzers of a certain kind is obviously an exceptional one about which my statements don't necessarily apply.)
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Post by Leo Wolpert »

Poll fixed.
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Post by No Sollositing On Premise »

I'm abstaining from the poll, since I really don't care enough about the issue to have so many exclamation points in my response. Handheld buzzers and tabletop buzzers typically use the same thumb motion to buzz in, and if you really want to you can hold a tabletop buzzer in your hand or lean a handheld buzzer on a table.

The Judge is a bit of an exception, as I think it's the only system I've ever seen with those cumbersome pedals for buzzers, but as long as every person on both teams has to do the same thing to buzz in it really shouldn't make a difference.
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Post by Trevkeeper »

I like hand held buzzers much, much better.
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Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

The tabletop buzzers are cumbersome to pick up and hold in your hand, and often the cables aren't long enough for you to be able to do this. That said, I don't think I've ever been disadvantaged by them. But inconvenienced? Absolutely.

I think the table-top buzzers that say "Buzz In" are amusing, though.
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Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

laszlow wrote: The Judge is a bit of an exception, as I think it's the only system I've ever seen with those cumbersome pedals for buzzers, but as long as every person on both teams has to do the same thing to buzz in it really shouldn't make a difference.
We have a modular system that has both judge-like paddles and sticks with buttons on top. You can switch them while keeping the same number.

This means that, in a game on such a system, not only could one team have paddles and one team have plungers, but different individuals on the same team can have different types of buzzers.

I think that's just asking for a formal experiment, but to my knowledge one has never been conducted.
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tabletop vs. handheld

Post by rcline »

On the "same muscles to activate" argument...

In high school I always activated tabletop buzzers with my paired index and middle fingers rather than my thumb. Thumbing it just seemed awkward to me, and I feel like my fingers have a better reaction time than my thumb, generally.

Even in my College Bowl experience, I felt like my reaction time on the handheld buzzers was a fraction slower because I had to use my thumb rather than my fingers. I don't know whether this was actually true, but it felt that way.
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Post by Captain Sinico »

... Why don't you just use your finger rather than your thumb on the handheld then? Anyway, I've taken some (not very precise) measurements of my response times to a light with two different kinds of buzzers and found not much difference.

MaS
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Post by jrbarry »

I have no science to prove it, but I am convinced that hand-held buzzer sets do not last as long as a basic tabletop set. The Anderson Enterprises ones last really well and are the cheapest I have ever seen. No, I do not have any financial deal with Anderson! :-)
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Post by rcline »

Why don't you just use your finger rather than your thumb on the handheld then?
Well, as I said I preferred to use my paired index and middle finger. That combo feels awkward on the handheld signalling devices. I guess I could have held it with one hand and tapped it with my other hand, but I also liked being able to keep score on paper, and I don't have 3 hands.

I think what it boils down to is that I liked using some wrist movement instead of just the finger push.
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Post by mentalchocolate »

good teams are good teams regardless of the buzzers...
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Post by rcline »

good teams are good teams regardless of the buzzers...
Oh, absolutely, and the difference (if there even was one) was minute. Generally, if the buzzers are the same for each team, all's kosher. I was just stating my personal preference.
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Post by AKKOLADE »

mentalchocolate wrote:good teams are good teams regardless of the buzzers...
What if your star player shatters his or her wrist in an attempt to grip a table top buzzer like a hand-held?
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Post by Howard »

I suppose you put the player on the DL so the next available player can be brought up from the minors.
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Post by cvdwightw »

leftsaidfred wrote:What if your star player shatters his or her wrist in an attempt to grip a table top buzzer like a hand-held?
Use your head. Instruct him/her to use his/her head to hit table top buzzers, and hold the hand-held one next to his/her head with your non-buzzing hand. If you can understand the difference between them, your star player only needs to know how far he has to move his/her head.
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Post by AKKOLADE »

Dwight - yes, but what about the risk of concussions? I wouldn't want my best player to end up like Troy Aikman at the end of his career?

Howard - agreed, but the called up player wouldn't be as good, plus there's the chance of the injury totally ruining the players' reaction time or cause a deep rooted phobia of buzzers. I mean, we're talking about long term damage to a player's developmental abilities.

I certainly hopes no coaches here run full contact drills during practice, causing unnecessary injuries.
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Post by mentalchocolate »

if we consider this then we must consider the possibility of a star player being injured by a chair, an assassin, the drive to the tournament....this leads me to conclude any great player should have body guards and be encased in a bubble that is made of highly durable compounds...also if it were a bubble perhaps the means of transportation could now be rolling the star player down the freeway as a bubble and he would experience to many g's of force from the centripetal force and be sick before the competition

or maybe i just need help
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Post by cvdwightw »

No. Assassins, car accidents, etc. are out of the realm of things a star player should be able to avoid by using common sense. All great players, however, should be able to do the following things:
1) Show up on time to the correct game room. This is considerably harder than it sounds, and many up-and-coming quiz bowl players have had entire careers ruined by their inability to read tournament schedules.
2) Locate a chair and sit in it in a comfortable manner. Again, it sounds easy, but I subjected myself to several minutes of discomfort after sitting in an awkward position in a chair yesterday.
3) Differentiate between a hand-held buzzer and a table top buzzer, and
4) Use the buzzer check to understand how the buzzer works. No points can be scored by pressing the incorrect part of the buzzer.

If you can do these four things, you too are on your way to becoming a great quiz bowl player!
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Post by solonqb »

Every star player should know that when they are repairing a Zeecraft buzzer and have the plastic cover off, to not feel tempted to touch both the squarish metal filaments inside at the same time unless you need a pick-me-up that caffeine just can't provide.
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You know...

Post by jeffburns1 »

Don't get me wrong, I love quiz bowl, and I'm really only kidding, but, guys, this thread has to win the prize for geekiest quiz bowl discussion ever. If any outsider reads it, it will only confirm the stereotypes.

Hey, somebody want to set up a poll for geekiest discussion ever?
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Post by bigtrain »

I was wondering what setting you all put your buzzers on. I know the venerable Humza, formerly of RM, used to "Set buzzer to stun!!!" I'm more of a buzz to kill kind of guy myself.

This post is almost as cool as :kenj: .
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Re: You know...

Post by AKKOLADE »

jeffburns1 wrote:Don't get me wrong, I love quiz bowl, and I'm really only kidding, but, guys, this thread has to win the prize for geekiest quiz bowl discussion ever. If any outsider reads it, it will only confirm the stereotypes.

Hey, somebody want to set up a poll for geekiest discussion ever?
Hey, you can sit there in your ivory tower and ignore injuries, but they happen all the time. I've seen many a quiz bowler have to leave tournaments early due to serious injuries; in fact, back in 2004, TJ A nearly lost a match after Sam Lederer pulled a hammy due to a non-regulation chair.
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Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

I've actually had to leave a real game at ACF Regionals last year because I swallowed a piece of aluminum. So this thread is not that divergent from reality.
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Post by NoahMinkCHS »

Bruce wrote:... I swallowed a piece of aluminum...
A statement like that is begging for some elaboration.
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Post by AKKOLADE »

This is proof that the buzzer style is important, as if it doesn't make sense, you could actually attempt to eat the buzzer, leading to an early tournament exit and/or death.
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Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

NoahMinkCHS wrote:
Bruce wrote:... I swallowed a piece of aluminum...
A statement like that is begging for some elaboration.
You know how aluminum cans have a tab, but the tab isn't attached to the actual can, its attached to this tiny semicircle that is then attached to the can.

Well, when I tore the tab off my can of Pepsi, part of that little semicircle came lose and got into my Pepsi.

I asked some Biology PhD students who happened to be there if this would cause me to die, they said no, so I kept playing, then after the tournament I went to a doctor and he confirmed this. I'm still around, obviously.
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Post by mentalchocolate »

this is why you live in a bubble and are fed through a straw
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Re: You know...

Post by hardeecoach »

leftsaidfred wrote:
jeffburns1 wrote:Don't get me wrong, I love quiz bowl, and I'm really only kidding, but, guys, this thread has to win the prize for geekiest quiz bowl discussion ever. If any outsider reads it, it will only confirm the stereotypes.

Hey, somebody want to set up a poll for geekiest discussion ever?
Hey, you can sit there in your ivory tower and ignore injuries, but they happen all the time. I've seen many a quiz bowler have to leave tournaments early due to serious injuries; in fact, back in 2004, TJ A nearly lost a match after Sam Lederer pulled a hammy due to a non-regulation chair.
Apparently fear of injury has infiltrated the administration of our school. My JV coach and I were mandated to attend a Red Cross first aid training before school started. We were the only non-athletic coaches there ( no club sponsors, either) and we were getting some pretty strange looks from the jocks!

As for the buzzer system : my kids prefer the hand-held models, but since our state tournament uses tabletops, by George, that's what we practice with. I do agree that hand-helds are not as durable. And everyone I know HATES the Judge.
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Post by First Chairman »

Well, I guess if you do it right, you can use a Judge as a defibrillator...
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Post by The Toad to Wigan Pier »

That gives new meaning to the word "clear"....
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Post by DumbJaques »

Well, I guess if you do it right, you can use a Judge as a defibrillator...
I would hope it works better in that capacity than it does for quizbowl. Otherwise. . .


I personally find that buzzing with your hand on the judge is not any better than buzzing with other limbs. I have played several rounds using my feet and played fairly well. In fact, I buzzed once on a bounceback with my head during a playoff consolation game and later saw my team beaten to a buzz by an opposing player's forehead (we were all buzzing the "normal" way). I would like to see NAQT introduce a rule offering bonus points for buzzes made with heads, feet, or by throwing the buzzer at a wall. It would add a new, dynamic element to competition.

Also, if buzzers have the potential to shock people, who votes for doing away with the -5 for negs? Clearly we have found a more efficient way of punishing them. . . Japanese gameshow style!
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Post by DVader »

Actually, I did play a game once where four people hold onto buzzers and wait until the central console beeps then everyone has to buzz in as fast as possible. The last person to buzz gets shocked. If that could be converted for use with quiz bowl...
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Post by trial and error »

DumbJaques wrote:I buzzed once on a bounceback with my head during a playoff consolation game and later saw my team beaten to a buzz by an opposing player's forehead (we were all buzzing the "normal" way).
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Post by mrs. dalloway »

Yeah, I've played that shocking game (I think it's called "Lightning Reaction"). One of our team members brought it on the bus to a tournament, joking that it would help us improve our buzzer speed. You never know...
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Post by quiz4life »

Thanks to all who answered my original post and this poll thread. I ordered the http://www.buzzersystems.com We bought the handheld version. So far we are very happy with it. The system that Mr. Barry had suggested does look very good but the website is not up to snuff and the buzzersystems machine can be orered with a universial power pack for schools like ours.
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