The Quizbowl Resource Center

I am pleased to announce FLopen (“flow-pen”), an open level quiz bowl tournament to be played in the late fall of 2020 or winter 2021. The set will be head edited by me, Taylor Harvey, with Jonathen Settle co-editing. The set will be written by members of the University of Florida quiz bowl team.

The target difficulty is 3.5 dots the quiz bowl calendar scale, meaning it is similar in difficulty to recent opens like 2019 Fall Open and 2019 PIANO/MO.

The set will consist of 14 power-marked packets of 22/22 (to be played as such, rather than stopping at 20/20). Toss ups will be capped at 8 lines, TNR, 10 pt font.

The slightly experimental distribution is as follows:

Literature (4/4)

1 Poetry
1 Long Fiction
0.5 Drama
0.5 Short Fiction
1 Non-fiction, Criticism, Mixed Genre, or more of the above

History (4/4)

1 United States
1 British and European
1 World
1 Other, Mixed, and Ancient

Science (4/4)

1 Biology
0.75 Chemistry
1 Physics
1.25 Other Science (Math, Astronomy, Computer Science, Earth Science, Engineering, etc)

Fine Arts (3.5/3.5)

1 Painting and Sculpture
1 Western Classical Music
1.5 Other Arts (Film, Jazz, Opera, Design, Architecture, Photography, World Music, etc)

RMPSS (4/4)

0.5 Mythology
1 Religion
1 Philosophy
1.5 Social Science

Other (2.5/2.5)

0.75 Geography
0.5 Current Events and the Zeitgeist
0.75 Mixed Academic and General Knowledge
0.5 Popular Culture

Total (22/22)

In honor of the 189th anniversary of Hegel's death, the tournament will be available beginning on November 14th, 2020, and will stay available into winter of 2021. Mirror fees will be $50 per non-house team.

If you would like to mirror the set, please email me at [email protected] or PM me on the forums.

Current mirrors (host, date, announcement):
"Main Site": Set editing/writing team, 11/21/20, viewtopic.php?f=8&t=24378
{CANCELLED} Southeast: UF, 11/14/20, viewtopic.php?f=8&t=24377
Mid Atlantic + Southeast: UVA, 11/21/20, viewtopic.php?f=8&t=24552
UK: Southampton, 11/28/20
Northeast: MIT, 1/9/2021, viewtopic.php?f=8&t=24707
Second "Main Site": Set editing/writing team, 1/16/21, viewtopic.php?f=8&t=24658

TaylorH wrote: ↑Fri Feb 21, 2020 1:15 am 1.5 Other Arts (Film, Jazz, Opera, Design, Architecture, Photography, World Music, etc)

Super cool that y'all are writing this, though I do have some concerns about 22/22 at open difficulty resulting in a super long day (though hopefully this will just be communicated well to teams and they'll just deal with it).

EDIT: Also 11/21 is the date for ACF Winter, so this should be moved back or forward one week.

TaylorH wrote: ↑Fri Feb 21, 2020 1:15 am RMPSS (3.5/3.5)

1 Mythology
1 Religion
1 Philosophy
1.5 Social Science

This part adds up to 4.5, not 3.5, and I don't see any compensating mistake elsewhere, so I think the posted distribution actually adds up to 23/23.

I'll play, but only because you included a pronunciation guide for FLopen.

setht wrote: ↑Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:15 am

TaylorH wrote: ↑Fri Feb 21, 2020 1:15 am RMPSS (3.5/3.5)

1 Mythology
1 Religion
1 Philosophy
1.5 Social Science

This part adds up to 4.5, not 3.5, and I don't see any compensating mistake elsewhere, so I think the posted distribution actually adds up to 23/23.

Good catch. This was just my arithmetic goof. The "RMPSS" and "Other" parts of this distro have been tweaked to actually be 22/22

Glad to see the Florida team members continue to produce tournaments. It gives me a ton confidence that the community has "crossed the chasm" and started internally generating more and more motivated writers and editors, helping us sustain the production of excellent tournaments in the long term. Really excited to play this set!

Really looking forward to this tournament! I will note that my open tournament, The World As It Is, is also scheduled for Fall 2020. I think there's room for two such tournaments (especially as this one is listed as late Fall/Winter) but something for hosts to keep in mind.

This set is currently 40% percent written and still on track to be complete by November 2020. That being said, it would be helpful to the editors to have a few more hands on deck when it comes to question production. We are currently seeking several experienced writers who can commit to contribute at least 10 questions to this set. We are most in need of writers in history, science, and RMPSS. If you are interested in working on this set, please email me a [email protected] with a sample of several (2-5) questions you have written at the ACF Regionals difficulty level or higher. These questions need not be written specifically for this sample.

Given the ever-evolving COVID situation, there is a strong possibility that this set will be played primarily or entirely online. We are exploring the possibilities of having other schools host "regional" online mirrors if there is enough interest. We will continue to monitor the situation and make more formal decisions on the front in the coming months.

Is there a fixed date yet for the "main site" of FLOpen? I know things are still very much up in the air, but regions are starting to come together to plan their fall schedules. It be nice to have some additional information here so that regions don't schedule non-novice events against whatever the flagship mirror of what I'm sure will be an excellent set.

Smuttynose Island wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 11:51 pm Is there a fixed date yet for the "main site" of FLopen? I know things are still very much up in the air, but regions are starting to come together to plan their fall schedules. It be nice to have some additional information here so that regions don't schedule non-novice events against whatever the flagship mirror of what I'm sure will be an excellent set.

A separate announcement thread for the "main site" of Flopen is forthcoming. Barring any conflicts I do not know of right now, this mirror will take place on 11/21/20. The "main site" is intended for open teams that wish to compete at the highest level of field strength. In addition, I would also like there to be several regional mirrors run in a similar vein to the upcoming IKEA tournaments. The southeast mirror, hosted by UF, will be taking place on 11/14/20. A separate announcement thread for this tournament is also forthcoming. Teams who do not wish to play at the high field strength of the "main site" are encouraged to play the regional mirror closest to where they would attend the tournament if it were held in person. We are currently seeking mirror hosts for the following regions (using the same geographic divisions as IKEA):

Canada (excluding BC)
Northeast (NY and everything to the east and north)
Midwest (MN, WI, IL, IN, MI, OH) - note Iowa is excluded
West Coast (WA, OR, CA, AZ, British Columbia)
Lower Midwest, Texas, and Rockies (everything between West Coast and SE/Midwest)

If you or your school are interested in hosting any of these regional FLopen mirrors, please contact me at: [email protected]. Regional mirror can be held beginning on 11/14/20. I am also open to merging some of the above fields if the current somewhat arbitrary boundaries cannot get a sufficiently large field. The regional mirrors are still open, but players still in school are encouraged to play with their school teams at regional mirrors.

A private discussion forum for this set now exists, so request and discuss away.

The set has been posted to the archive: https://hsquizbowl.org/db/questionsets/2581/