Age of Empires II (Actually, this time!)

[naan/steak-holding toll]

I'm pleased to announce that Ankit Aggarwal and I have resumed work on Age of Empires II, a side event that will be available next year (targeting Spring/Summer). This tournament's subject material will cover the period between 500 and 1500 A.D. in keeping with its namesake game. The goal is to imitate the philosophy, difficulty, and experience of the previous Age of Empires set, with a few distributional tweaks.

Fees will be $15 per player. All proceeds will be donated to Be The Match (https://bethematch.org/about-us/).

Each packet will consist of 24 power-marked tossups according to the following distribution:

12 History
1 Northwest Europe (British Isles, France, Low Countries)
1 Orthodox World (Byzantine Empire, Balkans, Rus, Caucasus, etc.)
1 Any Europe
1 Mediterranean + North Africa
1 Middle East + Central Asia
1 Sub-Saharan Africa + East Africa + Adjacent
1 China
1 Any East Asia
1 South Asia
1 Southeast Asia + Pacific
1 Americas
1 Misc / Any

History questions will also be balanced carefully across our time period of interest. Questions on archaeology and primary sources will be included in the history distribution.

12 Non-History
2 Literature (1 Western, 1 Non-Western)
3 Myths + Legends (1 European, 1 Asian, 1 Any)
2 Theology/Philosophy/Thought (1 Western, 1 Non-Western)
1 Religious Practice + Scriptures
1 Painting / Sculpture
1 Any Arts (includes music and architecture)
1 Modern Social Science / Historiography
1 Cultural Influence / Modern Memory

The overall target difficulty of this set is identical to its ancient-focused predecessor Age of Empires 1 (questions can be found at https://hsquizbowl.org/db/questionsets/2457/ under the “Packets” header to the right). Like that tournament, this one will use an approximate difficulty spread:

ACF Fall - 30%
ACF Regionals - 30%
ACF Nationals - 30%
CO-plus - 10%

Finally, if you all know any academic specialists in medieval studies from outside of quizbowl, we heartily welcome them to play this event. Every major subfield in medieval studies will be given its due, either in the aforementioned “non-history” distribution or in the history distribution itself. Our distribution will include social history, economic history, food history, history of science and medicine, cultural history, history of gender and sexuality, environmental history, political history, diplomatic history, military history, legal history, intellectual history, urban/rural history, comparative history, history from below, and more.

If you are unfamiliar with the rules of quiz bowl, a quick explainer is provided here: https://www.pace-nsc.org/resources/what ... newcomers/

We look forward to providing you all a fun, high-quality experience!

[Carlos Be]

I am super excited for this.

Also, in the Theology/Philosophy/Thought distribution, does the Western subdistribution encompass Byzantine and Islamic thought, or is it more focused on the Latin West?

[naan/steak-holding toll]

I am super excited for this.

Also, in the Theology/Philosophy/Thought distribution, does the Western subdistribution encompass Byzantine and Islamic thought, or is it more focused on the Latin West?

"Christian thought" might be a better label for how the distribution is currently shaping up. I'll revisit this later when more questions are written.