CO Trash 2024 (Sunday, July 28th at Northwestern)

[Auks Ran Ova]

Hot on the heels, or given when I'm posting this possibly the insteps, of Chicago Open Trash 2022, we're announcing the next installment: Chicago Open Trash 2024. As usual, it will once again run for most or all of the Sunday following the Chicago Open.

The set's distribution will likely remain similar to the 2016, 2018, and 2022 events, though we'll be updating some of the date-based cutoffs for various categories due to the inexorable passage of time. We'll have a final announcement of the distro shortly, and obviously will have more relevant logistical information in like 18 months.

We hope to see you there!

UPDATE:

To form teams, announce your availability as a free agent, or indicate interest in staffing, please use this spreadsheet. Please note that signing up on this sheet does not officially register you as a team or staffer; we'll have registration forms for that open shortly, and will edit this post accordingly. We'll also have more logistical details up shortly; to get an idea of what to expect regarding costs, timing, and the like, you can look at the last tournament's thread.

One thing is guaranteed to remain constant: the editors of this tournament hereby denounce the NBA coaching of Randy Wittman (and include a damnatio against "S.B.," for good measure). May the Wizards prosper in the, uh, Brian Keefe era? Yikes.

Logistics and registration

When

Sunday, July 28, 2024, with check-in around 8:30am, brief announcements just before 9:00am, and games starting shortly thereafter. For those planning travel, we are expecting the tournament's finals series (if necessary) to begin around 6pm. (This assumes 40 minutes per round, for 12 rounds, and a 1-hour lunch break.)

Where

We will update this when we know the CO building at Northwestern.

Last time: The Tech building on the Northwestern University campus in Evanston, Illinois. Teams should arrive at the lecture hall LR2 for check-in between 8:30 and 8:45, with announcements shortly before nine, and gameplay starting at nine.

Cost

$50 per person. You should pay us via PayPal or Venmo before the tournament begins, and we'll include logistics for that later.

-$20 discount per *working* buzzer (-$5 per buzzer per player if you choose to spread it across all players on your team). Minimum entry fee of $30 per player, but you can spread discounts for multiple buzzers across teammates.

Field size

16-team field cap for now, expansion in pairs of two.

Format

TBD based on number of teams.

Distribution and writers

See the next post in this thread for the distribution.

The writers are Rob Carson, Carsten Gehring, Andrew Hart, and NOT Cory Haala.

Staffing

If you're interested in staffing, please fill out this form. Staffers will receive $40 plus a free lunch ($20 + lunch for half-day staffers, if we need them).

Team formation and registration

Registration is now open. You may not register your team if you don't have a full four-player roster. If interest exceeds the final field cap, we will prioritize registrations by (1) teams that have at least one player who is playing, staffing, or editing CO proper (before June 23, 2024), and (2) everyone else (ordered by registration date within each group). We hope we'll be able to accommodate everyone who wants to play, and we should be able to.

Free agents can use the team formation sheet (linked below) to find a team.

Team formation sheet (does NOT register your team officially): here.

Registration form: here.

Mirrors

Email me at [email protected] if you would like to mirror this set on or after the weekend of July 28. We will likely hold an online mirror sometime in August or September, as well.

Editorial stance toward Randy Wittman

The editors of this tournament hereby denounce the NBA coaching of Randy Wittman.

Registered field (as of 7/23)

1. Tejas Raje, Kenji Shimizu, Mike Cheyne, Sam Bailey
2. Henry Atkins, Kais Jessa, Milan Fernandez, Gareth Thorlakson
3. William Golden, John Lawrence, Chris Ray, Matt Weiner
4. Chris Borglum, Adam Sperber, Sean Platzer, Jim Baker
5. Taylor Harvey, Ani Perumalla, Dan Puma, Naveed Chowdhury
6. Juliet Mayer, Kevin Wang, Ryan Rosenberg, Michal Gerasimiuk
7. Michael Coates, Kevin Ye, Eric Chen, Swapnil Garg
8. Dylan Minarik, Drew Scheeler, Charlie Fritz, Andrew Ullsperger
9. Anderson Wang, Jeremy Tsai, Emmett Laurie, Stephen Liu
10. Halle Friedman, Olivia Kiser, Tracy Mirkin, Jerry Vinokurov
11. Andy Brown, Kai Tang, Erin Kuehner, Jacob Licklider
12. Lorin Burte, Ryan Luptak, Charles Aguanunu, Tomás Aguilar-Fraga
13. Matt Lafer, Yogesh Raut, Alexander Darby, Charles Wang
14. Jacob O'Rourke, Jonathan Mishory, Chinmay Kansara, Dan Ni
15. Vincent Du, Jim Fan, Henry Goff
16. Matt Bollinger, Andrew Wang, Billy Busse, Justin Hawkins

[Auks Ran Ova]

Hello friends,

This set is currently a little over 15% written, and I finally remembered that I meant to post an updated distribution. Here it is!

SPORTS
1/1 football
1/1 basketball
1/1 baseball
1/1 other
FILM
1/1 pre-1980
1.5/1.5 1980s-2000s
1.5/1.5 2010s-present
MUSIC
1/1 rock
1/1 pop
.75/.75 hip-hop/R&B/soul
1.25/1.25 other/mixed
TV
.5/.5 pre-1990
1.5/1.5 1990s-2000s
2/2 2010s-present
OTHER
1.5/1.5 video games
.5/.5 "trash lit"
.5/.5 comics/comic strips
1.5/1.5 misc/mixed (i.e. both cross-genre stuff and stuff not categorized elsewhere, like food, fashion, advertising, etc.)

The biggest changes here are, as promised earlier, date cutoffs for film and TV. Also, it's not visible in this somewhat simplified list, but in response to concerns from 2022 we've carved out a specific subdistro section in "comics" for mainstream American comics. Otherwise, our approach towards most distributional areas will remain largely the same: sports will include a mix of college and professional where relevant, and will try to hit a representative range of non-big three stuff in the "other" distribution; subjects with defined genre distros will also be varied across time (and vice versa); "trash lit" will continue to draw from the wide range of culturally-relevant writing that doesn't often fit into academic literature distributions; as always, we strive to entertain.

I'm happy to answer any other questions about the set here too! We will of course have more actual information about the event itself whenever CO finally gets announced.

[Cheynem]

I blame these changes on Cory Haala.

[Harpie's Feather Duster]

Can we get a team formation sheet set up for this please?

[Good Goblin Housekeeping]

messed up that american comics gets such a heavy distro as opposed to the comics ppl actually read lul

[Cheynem]

Well, judging by last year, you don't have to worry about a lot of American comics.

[Auks Ran Ova]

Can we get a team formation sheet set up for this please?

Done. More logistical details (like how to officially register) will be added shortly. Please do not attempt to form teams composed of racist internet cranks.

messed up that american comics gets such a heavy distro as opposed to the comics ppl actually read lul

Well, judging by last year, you don't have to worry about a lot of American comics.

If you kids keep this up we'll have no comics at all!!

[Auks Ran Ova]

More logistical details (like how to officially register) will be added shortly.

Sorry about the delays on this; nationals season production crunch has been keeping Andrew and I very busy (meanwhile, Carsten is plotting revenge against Devin Booker for pushing Mike Conley into Chris Finch). Official registration forms will be up by HSNCT weekend.

[kiestosuccess]

Are you fellas thinking of mirroring this in the twin cities again this summer?

[shar2931]

Are you fellas thinking of mirroring this in the twin cities again this summer?

We're planning to have another UMN Open Weekend on August 17-18, with a CO Trash mirror happening on the 18th (that the CO Trash team will run)! We'll hopefully have an announcement up for that soon, just waiting on a couple of logistical things like getting confirmation on booked rooms.

[kiestosuccess]

Badass, I'll be there

[theMoMA]

Here is the official registration form for CO Trash 2024: https://forms.gle/P27D4QU9dwFBM68m9

I have also edited registration and logistical information into the first post of the thread.

You are NOT registered by virtue of being on the team formation spreadsheet alone.

Teams with at least one player who is editing, staffing, or playing CO proper will receive priority registration until Sunday, June 23, after which registration will be first come, first served. (Teams without any such players can still register before then, but will be placed behind CO-affiliated teams for purposes of registration priority. For now, there is a 16-team field cap, but we will do our best to expand that as necessary so everyone can play.

You must designate a team contact who will register your team and receive communications from us (multiple people should not register the same team twice, so please coordinate this).

Because we don't want incomplete teams holding spots, you must have a complete four-person roster before registering. You can make substitutions later if needed by emailing me at [email protected].

[theMoMA]

I want to highlight that, if you're interested in staffing, you should fill out this form: https://forms.gle/C3QwqTJH9gcKybiR7

We are looking for 6-10 staffers in addition to the main writing team (preferably comfortable solo staffing in an untimed format). We'll pay you $40 plus lunch. We may be interested in half-day staffers as well.

[theMoMA]

With about a week to go for the priority registration deadline, ten teams have registered (eight of which are CO-affiliated), and six people have expressed staffing interest. We would like to increase both those numbers. Registering your team before June 23 ensures your spot in the field (although we will hope to expand in pairs of two once we hit 16 teams).

[theMoMA]

The priority deadline has passed, so registration is now strictly chronological. We will expand in pairs of two once we reach 16 teams. There are currently 12 registered teams, 3 incomplete teams with 3 total open spots, and 3 free agents; 15 teams is not a great number, so we're likely looking for at least one additional team of four.

[theMoMA]

Update: I just sent an email out hoping to get two more teams formed so we can have 16 (which is a good number). If you're interested in playing CO Trash, now is the time to list yourself as a free agent here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... id=0#gid=0 (or to form a team of four and register). Thank you!

[theMoMA]

Hi everyone,

We're currently at 16 teams, and the field is closed. One of our teams (composed of Vincent Du, Jim Fan, and Henry Goff) is looking for a fourth player. If you're interested in playing with an established team, this is your chance! Please email me at [email protected] if you'd like to play.

[Auks Ran Ova]

We've had a few inconvenient last-minute staff drops, but are still relatively set--that said, if you're in Evanston on Sunday and interested in free lunch and reading some amusing quizbowl, we'd still be happy to have you. Contact me or Andrew to let us know!

[Auks Ran Ova]

CO Trash attendees: please meet in Kresge 2311 between 8:15 and 8:45 tomorrow to check in. The tournament schedule is here: https://tinyurl.com/cotrash2024

See you in the morning!

[OctagonJoe]

Stats for the prelims can be found here.

[OctagonJoe]

Full stats for the tournament can be found here. Thanks to everyone who played and staffed the tournament!

[theMoMA]

We set up a private discussion forum that you can use to talk about the tournament. You can request access to it through your "user control panel" under the "usergroups" tab. Send me a PM if you have any trouble with it. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on the set!

[Auks Ran Ova]

I too want to thank everyone who came out to this event in any capacity. I hope you all had a good time.

In an unthinkable continuation of our run of post-tournament efficiency, I have set up a private discussion forum for this set that people who played and/or staffed can join through the user control panel. Semper posts.

(oh no we're so efficient that Andrew beat me to posting this)

[Cheynem]

I'll have more specifics to say in the tournament forum, but this was a very entertaining and fun tournament. There is nothing that can really replicate the experience of playing enjoyable, hard questions against a superb field, and I hope that CO Trash continues to be a quasi-regular feature of the CO experience.

[fritzstl]

Wanted to second everything Mike said. Immaculately well-run tournament, the set was super fun and the perfect blend of challenging and accessible, and the competition was top-notch. The team names, however, made me want to jump in Lake Michigan. 10/10, already counting down to 2026.

[theMoMA]

If anyone is interested in mirroring the tournament (in person) sometime this summer/fall, please email me at [email protected]. We are planning to host a mirror in the Twin Cities in August and an online mirror at some later time.

[BurteL]

Will the questions be available? After the mirrors?

Thanks for a challending and fun day.

[theMoMA]

Anyone (who has played) may request the questions from Carsten at [email protected].