Announcement: MRNA II: The Second Dose (Spring 2023, Medium/2 Dot)

[meebles127]

I am very excited to announce Medium Range Academic II: The Second Dose. The set will be head edited by Eric Mukherjee and I, Em Gunter, will be doing set logistics. The set will be subject edited by the following team:

Eric Mukherjee (formerly University of Pennsylvania, currently Vanderbilt University Medical Center) - Biology, Chemistry, Other Science, Social Science
David Bass (University of Virginia) - Physics, Other Science
Chandler West (Vanderbilt University) - American History, World Literature, Other Visual Arts
Erik Christensen (formerly University of Waterloo) - European, World, and “Other” History, Philosophy
Henry Atkins (McGill University) - American, British, Euro, and Ancient Literature
Ganon Evans (formerly University of Iowa) - Painting, Sculpture, Geo/CE/Other
Gerhardt Hinkle (formerly Columbia University) - Music, Opera, Other Audio Arts, Religion, Mythology

The set will consist of 15 packets of 20/20 targeting the upper end of "medium"/2 dot difficulty, similar to the previous edition of mRNA. Tossups will be soft capped at 7 lines (before bolding for power) and hard capped at 8 lines in an effort to control length, and bonus length will be closely monitored.

The set distribution (slightly different, but mostly standard mACF) is as follows:
4/4 Literature:
1/1 World lit (excluding Canada/Australia/NZ); ancient texts from outside the Western world will go here. Broken down into:
-10/10 “pure” world lit, with all clues coming from outside the “west.”
-5/5 mixed lit, with some clues coming from outside the “west.” This allows for more creativity and accessibility.
1/1 American lit
1/1 European + western classical/"ancient" lit
1/1 British + Can/Aus/NZ lit

4/4 Science:
1/1 Biology
1/1 Chemistry
1/1 Physics
1/1 "Other" science (math, CS, earth sci, astronomy, etc.)

4/4 History:
1/1 American history
1/1 World history
1/1 Post-Classical European History (including Britain and Ireland)
1/1 “Other History”: Ancient, Commonwealth, Archaeology, and Cross/Miscellaneous

3/3 Fine Arts:
1/1 Painting + Sculpture
1/1 Classical music + Opera,
1/1 Other arts split as:
-10/10 visual arts
-5/5 auditory arts

2/2 Religion and Mythology:
1/1 Religion (focused more on practice)
1/1 Mythology

2/2 Thought
1/1 Social Science
1/1 Philosophy

1/1 "other" (geography, Current Events (in the "modern world" vein), and other academic); note that this tournament does not have trash.

We have begun writing this set already. Mirrors will be available in all regions beginning on February 25, 2023. The mirror fee will be $45 per team. All mirrors of this tournament will be required to use ACF's official ruleset, found here, with exceptions as granted only by the editors (e.g. any questions of team eligibility). Both hosts and players should familiarize themselves with these rules, including gameplay and protest procedures. If any team is affected by a violation of these rules by the tournament staff at your mirror, please contact the head editor of this tournament, Eric Mukherjee, for a refund of our portion of your tournament fees

[meebles127]

We are holding an open call for writers for this set, for any category. All skill levels are welcome to apply. Writers will be expected to contribute at least 10 questions to the final set. If you’re interested in writing for this set, please fill out an application here. Writers are asked to submit five questions, with at least 1/1 in their two best categories. Questions do not need to be original, but we would prefer they be unedited. Your submission will be anonymized by me, Em Gunter, and reviewed by the editors. This application will be open until summer, and writers will be selected on a rolling basis.

[meebles127]

This is a reminder that the MRNA II team is still accepting writer applications.

[maharhar17]

Will there likely be an online open mirror?

[meebles127]

MRNA II will serve as a qualifier for the IQBT Undergraduate Championship. More details about the IQBT Undergraduate Championship can be found here.

[msarma]

Are writing applications still being accepted? I have some literature questions written already (that have not been shown to anyone), and I can also write some math/physics tossups.

[meebles127]

This is a reminder that MRNA II is still accepting application. If you have any questions, please reach out to me.

[Mike Bentley]

Any reason you all are targeting 15 packets? That seems a recipe for like 90 percent of teams not hearing at least 4 of them except at practice or in a shootout.

[Cody]

Any reason you all are targeting 15 packets? That seems a recipe for like 90 percent of teams not hearing at least 4 of them except at practice or in a shootout.

Why is the fact that most teams don't play them a relevant point? This is guaranteed to happen to 2 packets with an advantaged final, no matter how many packets are produced. 15 packets is the minimum number of packets required to satisfy all common field sizes offering 10 games and an advantaged final, so producing fewer packets is a disservice to host sites, which all need to meet those parameters. Even if you ignored 7- and 13-team fields, you would only be able to cut one packet. The trade-offs don't make sense for the sake of saving one packet.

[Mike Bentley]

Any reason you all are targeting 15 packets? That seems a recipe for like 90 percent of teams not hearing at least 4 of them except at practice or in a shootout.

Why is the fact that most teams don't play them a relevant point? This is guaranteed to happen to 2 packets with an advantaged final, no matter how many packets are produced. 15 packets is the minimum number of packets required to satisfy all common field sizes offering 10 games and an advantaged final, so producing fewer packets is a disservice to host sites, which all need to meet those parameters. Even if you ignored 7- and 13-team fields, you would only be able to cut one packet. The trade-offs don't make sense for the sake of saving one packet.

As far as I can tell, last year no mirror played more than 11 rounds and many played 9. Regular season events with this many packets is in general a big waste of effort. Even prestige open events like last year's Illinois Open typically get 10 rounds these days. Set editors should focus on higher quality sets with slightly fewer overall packets.

[Cody]

Any reason you all are targeting 15 packets? That seems a recipe for like 90 percent of teams not hearing at least 4 of them except at practice or in a shootout.

Why is the fact that most teams don't play them a relevant point? This is guaranteed to happen to 2 packets with an advantaged final, no matter how many packets are produced. 15 packets is the minimum number of packets required to satisfy all common field sizes offering 10 games and an advantaged final, so producing fewer packets is a disservice to host sites, which all need to meet those parameters. Even if you ignored 7- and 13-team fields, you would only be able to cut one packet. The trade-offs don't make sense for the sake of saving one packet.

As far as I can tell, last year no mirror played more than 11 rounds and many played 9. Regular season events with this many packets is in general a big waste of effort. Even prestige open events like last year's Illinois Open typically get 10 rounds these days. Set editors should focus on higher quality sets with slightly fewer overall packets.

Of the in-person events, 2 had 9 rounds, 4 had 10 rounds, and 4 had 11 rounds. This means 13 packets were required at minimum last year, and 13 were used at at least one site. This is as expected based on formats for the available field sizes: 12 and 13 packets have a very high probability of being at at least one site, with decreasing but definitely non-zero probability for 14 and 15 packets. Without changing the length and fairness of tournaments, which teams pay a ton of money to attend, it's simply not possible to cut the number or packets lower than 14 because plenty of field sizes require 12 packets + 2 finals. But getting stuck with 7 or 13 teams sucks bad enough as a host without having to devise a wacky format because there aren't enough packets, so what's the point of the set being 1 packet shorter?

In any case, I find it dubious that cutting packets for a normal tournament yields a higher quality event. It's not going to increase the amount of time per question that's spent, so slightly fewer packets has little bearing on the quality of the set.

[meebles127]

This Post Reserved For Mirrors:

Northeast: Boston College [TBD March/April]
Upstate NY: Cornell [11 March 2023]
Upper Mid-Atlantic: Columbia University [25 March 2023]
Lower Mid-Atlantic: University of Virginia [8 April 2023]
Southeast: Vanderbilt University [25 February 2023]
Florida:
Great Lakes:
Midwest: WUSTL [15 April 2023]
North:
South Central: UT Austin [26 March 2023] 𐠒
California: University of California, Berkeley [25 February 2023]
Northwest:
Eastern Canada: University of Waterloo [18 March 2023]
UK:

Others:
Big Ten Invitational: Online [25 March 2023]

𐠒 This mirror will be an online region-restricted mirror. Teams from Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Louisiana may register. Team that consider themselves geographically dispossessed may reach out to me, Em Gunter, at vef2jj AT virginia DOT edu to request permission to attend this mirror. This exception is intended to allow teams from geographically isolated areas to play MRNA II: The Second Dose. This is not intended for teams who have a local mirror of MRNA II: The Second Dose unless there are extenuating circumstances. The MRNA II team requests that all teams with a local mirror play that mirror if at all possible.

[meebles127]

Any institution interested in hosting MRNA II: The Second Dose should email me at vef2jj AT virginia DOT edu to inquire. I will begin specifically soliciting hosts in a few days.

[meebles127]

The University of Virginia has rescheduled its mirror to March 18, 2023.

[meebles127]

The University of Virginia has rescheduled its mirror to March 18, 2023.

This date is awaiting approval by The University, as this date overlaps with March Madness.

[meebles127]

The University of Virginia has rescheduled its mirror to March 18, 2023.

This date is awaiting approval by The University, as this date overlaps with March Madness.

This has been updated now that we have finally received confirmation from UVA.

[meebles127]

There is now a private discussion forum for the set called "2023 MRNA II Discussion". Please use your user control panel to request to join the private discussion forum.