Penn Bowl Online hosted by Ohio State

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zbennyy
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Penn Bowl Online hosted by Ohio State

Post by zbennyy »

Hello! I am pleased to announce that an online mirror of Penn Bowl, hosted by Ohio State, will be held on Sunday, November 27th. The tournament will be co-directed by myself (Zac Bennett) and Luke Miceli. More information about the Penn Bowl set can be found here.

This tournament will be held via Discord, and will start at 10:00 AM eastern to accommodate teams from other time zones.

Fees and Payment
This tournament will use the following fee structure:
Base fee: $100 per team
Moderator discount: -$15 per moderator
New to quizbowl discount: -$50
Shorthanded discount (1-2 Players): -$50

The "new to quizbowl" discount is intended for schools that did not send a team to any regular collegiate academic tournament (not including exclusively novice tournaments) since September 2021, and have no one on the team(s) claiming this discount who played those tournaments for another school.

The minimum fee for this tournament is $50. Teams will not be eligible for additional discounts to lower the cost below $50 for any single team.

Invoices containing information on how and when to pay will be sent to teams as soon as possible once they have registered.

Registration
To register for this event, email Luke Miceli at [email protected] with the number of teams you will be bringing (preferably with expected rosters included) and the names and email addresses of any moderators you will be supplying. Teams should register for this tournament by no later than Wednesday, November 23rd. Teams wishing to register after this date may still inquire about doing so, but will not be guaranteed a spot in the field.

Field
This tournament is capped at 10 teams, subject to expansion pending interest/staffer availability.

Current Field (6/10) (Updated 11/25/2022):
Ohio State
Niagara College
British Columbia
Stanford
Ottawa
UC-Berkeley
Last edited by zbennyy on Fri Nov 25, 2022 9:51 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Zac Bennett
Norman North HS (2016-2020)
Ohio State (2020-2022)
Oklahoma (2022-)
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Liarr
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Re: Penn Bowl Online hosted by Ohio State

Post by Liarr »

Hi, just a couple questions about this tournament.

First, could we get an update on the field so far?

And second, on what platform will gameplay take place?

Thanks.
Lia Rathburn
Eric Hamber Secondary School '16
Langara College '18
University of British Columbia '20, '23

"I've decided I'm going to retire from playing to card full-time." - Milan Fernandez
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zbennyy
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Re: Penn Bowl Online hosted by Ohio State

Post by zbennyy »

Liarr wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 2:13 pmHi, just a couple questions about this tournament.

First, could we get an update on the field so far?

And second, on what platform will gameplay take place?
The field has been updated in the original post - apologies for not keeping that as up-to-date as I should have. I suspect we'll get a couple more signups by next week, and failing that we can field an extra house team or two to round out the field.

We'll be using discord to run the event. We'll send out server information to teams once we have a clearer picture of the field.
Zac Bennett
Norman North HS (2016-2020)
Ohio State (2020-2022)
Oklahoma (2022-)
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Liarr
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Re: Penn Bowl Online hosted by Ohio State

Post by Liarr »

Would you consider using zoom and buzzin.live for gameplay instead?

During the pandemic, pretty much all online tournaments were initially run in this way, with everything taking place on discord, including camera feeds and buzzing. Over the summer of 2021, Canadian tournaments transitioned to using a discord server as a central communication hub but hosting games using zoom and buzzin.live. This change has resulted in a major improvement in tournament quality of life all around. I can talk to and interact with my teammates face to face without my computer crashing, I don't randomly leave the call during tossups, the moderators rarely bleed more than a couple words after a buzz, if ever, and I can actually hear all of the questions, rather than being cut out of the game every time my ping goes red.

To make zoom tournaments work, you need just one staffer with a premium zoom room. Within that room, you make as many breakout rooms as you need (4 for an 8 team tournament, etc). Teams can then assign themselves to breakout rooms each round. The discord server is used so that teams can talk to each other between rounds and so that the TD can send out info like the schedule for the tournament, the link to the zoom room etc and coordinate with staffers.

I think this is a change that would improve the experience of most players at your tournament.
Lia Rathburn
Eric Hamber Secondary School '16
Langara College '18
University of British Columbia '20, '23

"I've decided I'm going to retire from playing to card full-time." - Milan Fernandez
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zbennyy
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Re: Penn Bowl Online hosted by Ohio State

Post by zbennyy »

Liarr wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 3:04 pm Would you consider using zoom and buzzin.live for gameplay instead?
We definitely will be using buzzin.live regardless of what platform we use for video calls - apologies for not making that clear in the original post. As for Zoom vs. Discord for video, I personally haven't noticed much of a difference between the quality of either when I've played online tournaments, so personally I don't have a preference either way; the decision to use Discord is largely based on the fact that it's what I'm most familiar with (and is how I've run every online tournament I've directed).

If there's a strong preference for Zoom (or if most other people don't have an opinion between the two) then I'd absolutely be willing to run the event through Zoom. I'll talk it over with my co-TDs and staff, and in the meantime I invite anyone who's planning on playing to make their opinion heard if they have one.
Zac Bennett
Norman North HS (2016-2020)
Ohio State (2020-2022)
Oklahoma (2022-)
ACF, PACE
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Re: Penn Bowl Online hosted by Ohio State

Post by CadenPetrosian »

I would also rather Zoom be used over Discord.
Milan Fernandez
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zbennyy
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Re: Penn Bowl Online hosted by Ohio State

Post by zbennyy »

A logistics email has been sent out. If you have not received this email, please get in contact with myself or Luke ASAP.

It seems most people who have a preference between Zoom and Discord prefer the former, so we'll go with Lia's suggestion and use Discord as a communication hub and Zoom for the actual gameplay. A link to the Discord server is included in the logistics email; the zoom link will be sent in the server before the tournament begins on Sunday.
Zac Bennett
Norman North HS (2016-2020)
Ohio State (2020-2022)
Oklahoma (2022-)
ACF, PACE
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zbennyy
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Re: Penn Bowl Online hosted by Ohio State

Post by zbennyy »

Congratulations to Ohio State for winning today's event! And congrats as well to our top scorers: Lia Rathburn, Chris Ray, Tim Morrison, Natan Holtzman, and Clark Smith. Full stats can be found here.

Special thanks to our staffers: Luke Van De Weghe, Roxanne Tang, and Tomás Aguilar-Fraga. And thanks to everyone who played today - I hope everyone enjoyed the set and had a fun experience.
Zac Bennett
Norman North HS (2016-2020)
Ohio State (2020-2022)
Oklahoma (2022-)
ACF, PACE
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