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PSACA presents: The Philly Cheesesteak

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 8:27 am
by btressler
I am pleased to announce the Pennsylvania State Academic Coaches Association's inaugural event, titled The Philly Cheesesteak. The set will be available for mirrors this year. This tournament is 90% written, and I'm willing to accommodate tournaments as early as September 16th, 2017 if someone asks for that date with advance notice.

The tournament is written by me. There are 12 rounds of 22 power-marked tossups and 22 three-part bonuses (which you are welcome to play as 20/20 with replacements and tiebreakers).

The difficulty of this set is on the low end. It can be used for novice HS events, but the intent is that it will be appropriate for mid-level teams as well. Consider having "rookie" and "open" divisions if your field accommodates a split.

Tossup answers have been selected with the intent that most rooms will get most tossups by the end. Tossups are 500-550 characters (often 5 sentences) in length to accommodate hard, medium, and easy clues. A sample may be forthcoming, but not before editing is finished.

The mirror fee is $8 per team, with the funds going to PSACA to support outreach and events in the state.

The template I used for each packet is 4/4 literature, 4/4 history, 4/4 science, 1/1 math, 2/2 fine arts, 3/3 RMP, geography, and social sciences, 1/1 current events, 1/1 popular culture, and 2/2 mixed or more academic material. Please note the math does not include computation.

Please contact me stat74 [at] gmail [dot] com to request use of the set.

You are welcome to give paper copies of the questions to teams at your tournament, but please do not forward electronic copies or publicly discuss the questions until the set is posted, which will happen after all sites have had their events.

If you are a coach who wants to participate in PSACA, I can put you in touch with the organizers.

Best of luck this competition season.

Re: PSACA presents: The Philly Cheesesteak

Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2017 6:59 pm
by btressler
On behalf of PSACA, I would like to thank the following tournaments for asking to use these questions:

Northeast Ohio Quizbowl Conference (starts October)
Wheaton North Novice, Illinois (10/21)
Moline Fresh-Soph, Illinois (11/4)
Carver Novice, Pennsylvania (11/11)
Doral Red Rock, Nevada (2/10)

The set was playtested last weekend at Great Valley. The ability levels ranged from Great Valley's A team to a group of middle school players. A few of the participants were friends with no QB experience. The average match scored 681 points between the teams. The overall conversion rate of tossups was 97%.

The feedback from the intramural suggested some changes being addressed in this round of editing. If you would like to see a sample, please send me a note and I can give you access to an online document.

These questions are available, and we hope to announce more usages in the near future.

Re: PSACA presents: The Philly Cheesesteak

Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 12:19 pm
by btressler
The statistics from the Falcon Kickoff and the Philly Fall Novice have been posted. The Philadelphia field converted an average of 17.6 tossups a round, and remarkably converted close to 15 points a bonus every prelim round.

This set is appropriate for novice fields, and is also usable if you wanted to do a singles or doubles tournament. Please contact me to request use of the set.

Re: PSACA presents: The Philly Cheesesteak

Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2017 6:24 pm
by crbirdx
Pickerington Norte held its first tournament!! Pickerington North, Northmont, Miami Valley, Logan, Olentangy Liberty and Chillicothe were there.

stats:
https://stats.neg5.org/t/H1UG4L4zM/pick ... -standings

Re: PSACA presents: The Philly Cheesesteak

Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2018 3:43 pm
by the return of AHAN
Does anyone know if this set is still available for mirroring?

Re: PSACA presents: The Philly Cheesesteak

Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2018 9:43 am
by bmccauley
The set is still available for mirroring. You can reach out to Bill in the email above or me at [email protected] for more info. Thanks!

Re: PSACA presents: The Philly Cheesesteak

Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2018 11:15 am
by the return of AHAN
Please add the Barrington Invitational Tournament (Middle School; Challenge Division) to your list of mirrors.

PSACA presents: The Philly Cheesesteak

Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 8:21 am
by btressler
Last call for this set.

On behalf of PSACA, I would like to thank the dozen sites that have used these questions. If there are no more requests, I will release the set after the Berwick, PA mirror on 4/14.

Re: PSACA presents: The Philly Cheesesteak

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 4:38 pm
by btressler
These questions are now available on the database.

You may also access them directly on Google drive.