ACRONYM 17: Global Announcement

[InvadErGII]

Play Quiz Bowl LLC is happy to be at it again with the upcoming set ACRONYM 17. As with previous sets, this is a low-difficulty pop culture set intended for a wide audience, with its primary focus being enjoyable for high school teams.

Whose fault is this?

Our writing team features myself, Danny Vopava, Ben Weiner, Bryanna Shao, Blake "Sauce" Andert, Lalit Maharjan, and Ganon Evans. We are looking to add another writer or two - particularly of the "not a white dude" variety - so if you have any interest, please hit me up.

Distribution

We're sticking with most of our changes from last year, as well as moving a bit more of the 'small screen' distribution to YouTube and other internet-based content. Here's how it'll break down:

4/4 Movies (2/2 2015-present, 2/2 older than that)
4/4 "Small Screen" (2/2 TV 2015-present, 1/1 older TV, 1/1 Web/Other)
4/4 Music (1/1 each of pop, rock, rap/r&b and other/multi)
4/4 Sports (1/1 football, 1/1 basketball, .75/.75 baseball, 1.25/1.25 other/multi)
1/1 Video Games
1/1 Trash Lit
2/2 Other/Miscellaneous

Oh God, When?!

This will be available for mirrors starting mid-February 2024. We plan to have "premiere" events for both open and high school fields in Minnesota around that time, and will run some online mirrors in the early summer. That being said, we would prefer that this set be played in person! If you'd like to host a mirror in your area, please contact me at your convenience.

[Cheynem]

Still a slight ways off, but just so I can clear my calendar, any idea of when the Minnesota opening mirror of this will be?

[InvadErGII]

It'll be on Sunday, February 18. Location TBD, hopefully within the next day or so.

[Alkres]

any chance that this will be mirrored at any of the upcoming NATS?

[kiestosuccess]

Is there going to be a sign up for this posted soon? Need to get my team sorted out and such

[Cheynem]

I'd also like to know the location!

[Alkres]

Will this be run at MSNCT or HSNCT?

[InvadErGII]

Will this be run at MSNCT or HSNCT?

Not this year, no.

[Alkres]

will there be any online mirrors?

[InvadErGII]

Absolutely, yes.

[jeff6286]

4/4 Movies (2/2 2015-present, 2/2 older than that)
4/4 "Small Screen" (2/2 TV 2015-present, 1/1 older TV, 1/1 Web/Other)
4/4 Music (1/1 each of pop, rock, rap/r&b and other/multi)
4/4 Sports (1/1 football, 1/1 basketball, .75/.75 baseball, 1.25/1.25 other/multi)
1/1 Video Games
1/1 Trash Lit
2/2 Other/Miscellaneous

I'm kind of curious about the Web/Other, and wonder if you can share the thought process. This is not the only place I've seen this, a seeming trend among pop culture trivia to want to de-emphasize TV to make more room for Youtubers or Twitch streamers, etc. While I get that both are watched on a "small screen" so it's logical to put it in that category out of the big four, I don't see the rationale for it to replace actual TV in the distribution. With all of the existing platforms for television, from traditional broadcast to basic cable to premium cable to all of the various streaming services, i.e. Netflix originals, along with Hulu, Amazon, Peacock, Disney+, Paramount, etc etc. There is more TV than there ever has been before, so why does TV shrink as web content grows? wouldn't it make more sense for web content to replace some of movies, music, small screen perhaps in equal parts?

[InvadErGII]

I'm kind of curious about the Web/Other, and wonder if you can share the thought process. This is not the only place I've seen this, a seeming trend among pop culture trivia to want to de-emphasize TV to make more room for Youtubers or Twitch streamers, etc. While I get that both are watched on a "small screen" so it's logical to put it in that category out of the big four, I don't see the rationale for it to replace actual TV in the distribution. With all of the existing platforms for television, from traditional broadcast to basic cable to premium cable to all of the various streaming services, i.e. Netflix originals, along with Hulu, Amazon, Peacock, Disney+, Paramount, etc etc. There is more TV than there ever has been before, so why does TV shrink as web content grows? wouldn't it make more sense for web content to replace some of movies, music, small screen perhaps in equal parts?

For a set primarily written for high school/younger players, we found it increasingly painstaking over the years to write a full 4/4 of TV questions that felt both playable for that audience and relatively fresh from set to set. That, and other observations from years of doing this, led us to consider how the target audience actually consumes media and whether or not the 'standard' pop culture distribution accurately reflects that. Ultimately, we decided that the change to what's now the 'small screen' distro was the best way to address that incongruity.

[Cheynem]

While I don't think that TV and "web based content" are equivalent at all, I do agree that writing good HS-level TV questions is really hard--it's hard to really assume what level of "old" TV HSers have consumed, even really popular current TV shows can become transitory fast, the sheer volume of TV content that Jeff alludes to can mean people just stick to certain lanes (i.e., I would guess lots of people know very little about very popular mainstream shows like, I don't know, the FBIs, but also a lot of people don't know much about very high-rated streaming shows like Ginny and Georgia), etc. Thus, while I loathe the topic, I can understand including web based content. I would probably just put it in the distribution as 3/3 TV and 1/1 Web/Other content though, but that has no real actual effect on the set.

[tiwonge]

Out of curiosity, will ACRONYM 16 be uploaded to the archive at some point? (And if so, do you know when?)

[jeff6286]

I'm kind of curious about the Web/Other, and wonder if you can share the thought process. This is not the only place I've seen this, a seeming trend among pop culture trivia to want to de-emphasize TV to make more room for Youtubers or Twitch streamers, etc. While I get that both are watched on a "small screen" so it's logical to put it in that category out of the big four, I don't see the rationale for it to replace actual TV in the distribution. With all of the existing platforms for television, from traditional broadcast to basic cable to premium cable to all of the various streaming services, i.e. Netflix originals, along with Hulu, Amazon, Peacock, Disney+, Paramount, etc etc. There is more TV than there ever has been before, so why does TV shrink as web content grows? wouldn't it make more sense for web content to replace some of movies, music, small screen perhaps in equal parts?

For a set primarily written for high school/younger players, we found it increasingly painstaking over the years to write a full 4/4 of TV questions that felt both playable for that audience and relatively fresh from set to set. That, and other observations from years of doing this, led us to consider how the target audience actually consumes media and whether or not the 'standard' pop culture distribution accurately reflects that. Ultimately, we decided that the change to what's now the 'small screen' distro was the best way to address that incongruity.

I certainly don't claim to have my finger on the pulse of what teens are watching, but I guess I'd just find it surprising if kids today are watching old movies and not old tv shows, which is what your distribution change seems to imply. Old tv (old being defined as in the dark ages before 2015 according to the distro listed here) is more accessible than it ever has been before, with plenty of tv shows having hundreds of episodes available on streaming services at the touch of a button.

[Sit Quietly, Alone]

I'd just find it surprising if kids today are watching old movies and not old tv shows

this is absolutely the case. i'm not even going to talk about properly old tv, like the love boat and columbo, which are clearly watched far less than film from the same period. this discussion is just about before vs. after 2015. and yeah, people watch fewer tv shows from this era than movies (across all age groups, i'd say with great confidence). because tv shows are a lot longer than movies. a season of the end of the f***ing world is about feature length, but shows that are older, non-streaming, and/or not british are just really long. the two and a half seasons of gilmore girls i've watched add up to roughly 35 hours' worth. this can easily result in people like me watching plenty of tv with our watchtime highly concentrated on very few shows. hence, {pre-2015 movies that a significant number of quizbowlers have seen} >>> {pre-2015 tv shows that a significant number of quizbowlers have watched in their entirety, or even half of}. an editor could approach this by deeply cluing a quite narrow canon of (esp. older) tv and shallowly cluing a far larger film canon, or by cutting back on tv. the latter seems like the better option, especially if it can allow editors to include questions about the online stuff that increasingly defines modern pop culture.

[Krazy]

Is there any word on when the summer online mirror(s) will be this year?

[InvadErGII]

Is there any word on when the summer online mirror(s) will be this year?

We're aiming for Sunday, May 19 and Saturday, June 1. Announcement and signups will be up ASAP.