Search found 2130 matches
- Mon Oct 26, 2020 12:31 pm
- Forum: Theory
- Topic: Inconsistency
- Replies: 5
- Views: 929
Re: Inconsistency
Did you play sloppy, or did you just encounter clues you didn't know?
- Fri Oct 23, 2020 9:48 am
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Packet Submission discussion
- Replies: 28
- Views: 4087
Re: Packet Submission discussion
Maybe I'm a confused old man, but why is this such a theoretical discussion? Has packet submission not been dying for close to a decade? If reducing packet submission has deleterious effects on player and writer development, should we not be seeing some consequences by now? Instead it seems that apa...
- Tue Aug 25, 2020 5:05 pm
- Forum: Practices, Scrimmages, Online Packets, and Playtesting
- Topic: DITCH 2020 (A Packet about Hungary)
- Replies: 7
- Views: 946
Re: DITCH 2020 (A Packet about Hungary)
I've been waiting 15 years for this packet. I'll be there if I can figure out how to get to the HSQB Discord.
- Thu Aug 13, 2020 8:48 am
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Why are there negs in QB?
- Replies: 17
- Views: 2442
Re: Why are there negs in QB?
I played without negs in high school and with negs in college. I can't say that the presence or lack of negs really changed my thinking or approach to the game. The other team getting to hear the entire tossup and buzzing in at the end was such a bad outcome that I was sufficiently disincentivized f...
- Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:05 pm
- Forum: Community Discussion
- Topic: General Misconduct Discussion (TW: sexual harassment)
- Replies: 39
- Views: 5753
Re: General Misconduct Discussion (TW: sexual harassment)
Everyone is focused on people with a past history of misconduct. What about people with future potential for misconduct. Suppose, for example, that you, a player, are having a conversation with a friend, and it becomes clear to you that your friend is suffering from some kind of severe mental illnes...
- Thu Jun 18, 2020 12:12 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Announcements & Results
- Topic: Buzzword: A New Online Competition from NAQT
- Replies: 12
- Views: 3377
Re: Buzzword: A New Online Competition from NAQT
This was really fun, and by far the most professional quizbowl-related web thing I have ever encountered. Huge praise due to NAQT.
- Tue May 19, 2020 8:40 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: What makes a good tiebreaker?
- Replies: 6
- Views: 1147
Re: What makes a good tiebreaker?
I think the single worst thing you could do is use a tiebreaker that is impossible. If it doesn't get answered, then, congratulations: you've just delayed the tournament! I have always favored accessible answerlines for tiebreakers.
- Fri Apr 17, 2020 3:16 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: This Time, A Stern Warning
- Replies: 179
- Views: 37115
Re: This Time, A Stern Warning
not everyone gets the same punishment for the same crime in our criminal justice system Hold on, is this supposed to be a good thing? Who are we to say whether or not it is a good thing, but lesser penalties for first-time offenders and/or people who have a long track record of being good citizens ...
- Thu Apr 16, 2020 8:09 am
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: This Time, A Stern Warning
- Replies: 179
- Views: 37115
Re: This Time, A Stern Warning
Jesus fuck. This is one of the most disappointing moments in the history of quizbowl. Like many of you, I have known Eric for over a decade, respected him greatly, and cheered for him. I was in the room when Eric finally won a championship at ACF Nationals and felt so happy for him that I made my wa...
- Sat Mar 14, 2020 9:25 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: Underappreciated Supporting Performances
- Replies: 4
- Views: 2299
Re: Underappreciated Supporting Performances
Behold Peter Austin at the 2007 ICT: https://www.naqt.com/stats/tournament/team.jsp?team_id=11885 42 PPG (compared to Seth Teitler 47 PPG), 17 powers (compared to Seth Teitler 18 powers), powered 29% of all of his tossups (more than Seth Teitler). Finished 2nd overall in scoring on Chicago A. My fav...
- Fri Mar 13, 2020 12:41 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: College Nationals and Its Problems
- Replies: 132
- Views: 15944
Re: College Nationals and Its Problems
Creating subsidiary titles is a very cheap and logistically easy way to give lots of teams something tangible to play for at a nationals. As an undergraduate I cared very much about the Undergrad title at ICT (alas, we lost in the finals) and even the then-nonexistent ACF Undergrad title, which a te...
- Fri Mar 06, 2020 9:59 am
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: 5th of March Incident
- Replies: 13
- Views: 2321
Re: 5th of March Incident
Less flippantly, I think the 5th of March Incident is worth studying and commemorating for the following reasons: (1) It is a warning about the dangers of putting one person in charge of everything. It may come to pass that there will be a person in quizbowl's future who has a lot of energy, is good...
- Fri Mar 06, 2020 9:10 am
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: 5th of March Incident
- Replies: 13
- Views: 2321
Re: 5th of March Incident
I've always found that if people are talking about a subject that doesn't interest me, I can just not read that thread.
- Wed Feb 19, 2020 10:48 am
- Forum: Theory
- Topic: Ideal Host Cities for a Nationals Event
- Replies: 10
- Views: 1968
Re: Ideal Host Cities for a Nationals Event
Yeah, this is a very air infrastructure focused analysis and unfortunately there are significantly more factors to consider than just how easy it is to fly somewhere or even how many teams are nearby. I've only been tangentially involved in planning large, Nationals-size tournaments (mostly ACF Nati...
- Wed Jan 29, 2020 9:52 am
- Forum: Theory
- Topic: How to improve on a team with a strong generalist
- Replies: 1
- Views: 834
Re: How to improve on a team with a strong generalist
Learning the categories that your team struggles with is not only a great way to increase your PPG, it is also a great way to win the gratitude of your teammates. Whether you just notice that tossups on subject x always go dead at practice, or you actually talk to your teammates and figure out which...
- Tue Jan 28, 2020 1:54 pm
- Forum: Community Discussion
- Topic: Losing Steam and Motivation in College
- Replies: 4
- Views: 1655
Re: Losing Steam and Motivation in College
Arguably, quizbowl is in far greater need of people who are good at organizing tournaments, running a team, and other logistical tasks like that than people who are good at answering tossups. If you have any interest in these things (in addition to also answering tossups or not), you should explore ...
- Mon Jan 13, 2020 10:23 am
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Should quizbowl reform the three-part bonus?
- Replies: 18
- Views: 3012
Re: Should quizbowl reform the three-part bonus?
I grew up with bouncebacks in high school and think they're just fine and worth experimenting with. One clear consequence that's going to have is fewer upsets. There's something fun about beating a superior team to a tossup, and then watching them squirm and facepalm as you get 0-10 points on a bonu...
- Tue Dec 17, 2019 4:42 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: Notable Buzzers
- Replies: 20
- Views: 3688
Re: Notable Buzzers
I was never a big fan of the Judge (the grippy part of the judge paddle seemed to always come off, making it a sticky mess) but many players of my era have fond memories of it. I'm told that in the years immediately after 9/11, it was often difficult to get the Judge through airport security.
- Mon Dec 16, 2019 4:50 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: Notable Buzzers
- Replies: 20
- Views: 3688
Re: Notable Buzzers
It has occurred to me that it's been a really long time since I've seen "The Knot". It was a 16-player buzzer system, obstinately for four teams of four, but with all 16 cables coming out of a central console. The cables naturally became tangled up in a way that seemed to defy 3-dimension...
- Mon Dec 16, 2019 1:44 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: Notable Buzzers
- Replies: 20
- Views: 3688
Notable Buzzers
Am I correct in saying that the present day is a nadir for buzzer diversity in quizbowl? Seems like due to a combination of other buzzer companies going out of business and Anderson having a superior product at a lower price, everyone is just using those Anderson buzzers now? Certainly, the last qui...
- Tue Nov 26, 2019 10:30 am
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Should I quit quizbowl?
- Replies: 8
- Views: 3355
Re: Should I quit quizbowl?
I remember being in your shoes when I was a college freshman all the way back in 2004. In those days UChicago practices were about 3 hours long, and on many nights I wouldn't get a tossup until 2 hours had passed. Part of it is that I was in a room with 3 Hall of Fame level players (Andrew Yaphe, Su...
- Mon Nov 25, 2019 11:09 am
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: Red Bull sponsorship of 2009 ACF Nationals
- Replies: 0
- Views: 978
Red Bull sponsorship of 2009 ACF Nationals
The "stamina at Nationals" thread reminded me of my favorite fact about 2009 ACF Nationals at Washington University in St. Louis: the event was technically "sponsored by Red Bull". I believe the story is that the TD, Matt Weiner, discovered that there was a form on Red Bull's web...
- Wed Nov 06, 2019 3:32 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Abolish packet submission for ACF Fall
- Replies: 29
- Views: 5069
Re: Abolish packet submission for ACF Fall
My Negative Memories of Packet Submission as a Player I remember the first tossup I ever wrote. It was for ACF Fall 2004, where I was playing on Chicago E. The answerline was "John Tyler" and the lead-in clue was that during the nullification crisis, John Tyler was the only Senator to vot...
- Tue Oct 29, 2019 2:17 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: No prizes is better than insulting prizes
- Replies: 22
- Views: 7653
Re: No prizes is better than insulting prizes
One thing I used to do is buy slightly more prizes than there were top scorers (so if I wanted to give out prizes to the top 8 scorers, common in my day, I would get like 10-11 books). This way if some book was truly of no interest to anyone, nobody would get stuck with it. I was often surprised at ...
- Tue Oct 29, 2019 2:06 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Should Baby Seals Smile While Being Clubbed? Or: Why Should Newer Teams Stick Around College Quizbowl?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 5562
Re: Should Baby Seals Smile While Being Clubbed? Or: Why Should Newer Teams Stick Around College Quizbowl?
Maybe I'm reading Bruce's post wrong, but it seems like the advice that was most valuable to him (warnings about particular players and team strengths) are both: not the sort of thing the TD's email was proposed to contain (or should contain, given that the TD should maintain some neutrality and bi...
- Mon Oct 28, 2019 2:32 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Should Baby Seals Smile While Being Clubbed? Or: Why Should Newer Teams Stick Around College Quizbowl?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 5562
Re: Should Baby Seals Smile While Being Clubbed? Or: Why Should Newer Teams Stick Around College Quizbowl?
College Quizbowl is not the only activity where the really good teams are significantly better than the brand new teams. There are a ton of activities that fit that pattern, and most are healthier than college quizbowl (though from my perch in 2010, it sure looks like college quizbowl is much health...
- Mon Oct 07, 2019 8:48 am
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: A Plea for No More Excuses
- Replies: 11
- Views: 5786
Re: A Plea for No More Excuses
A lot of people in our society shy away from difficult or awkward conversations, even when these conversations are necessary. The fact that people who cannot write the questions they signed up to write find it easier to just not talk to their editor than to email their editor early on and say "...
- Mon Sep 30, 2019 10:44 am
- Forum: Theory
- Topic: On the proper method to stop negging so much, 2019 edition
- Replies: 3
- Views: 3665
Re: On the proper method to stop negging so much, 2019 edition
I think there's a distinction between reaction time (how fast does your finger press the buzzer after your brain decides it is time to buzz) and recall time (how fast does your mouth say "The Dean's December" after your brain determines this is a novel set in Communist Romania). My persona...
- Sun Sep 22, 2019 8:01 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: How do you put Quiz Bowl on a resume?
- Replies: 9
- Views: 5606
Re: How do you put Quiz Bowl on a resume?
You should be tailoring your resume to the position you are applying for. Figure out what it is that the people reading the resume want from an applicant, and then highlight the way that quizbowl shows you have that. For instance, if it's a job where you will be managing a budget, talk about your ex...
- Wed Sep 11, 2019 10:20 am
- Forum: Practices, Scrimmages, Online Packets, and Playtesting
- Topic: Daylight time is different from standard time
- Replies: 7
- Views: 4638
Re: Daylight time is different from standard time
I can never remember which one is DT and which one is ST, so whenever I quote a time I make sure to say "ET" or "Central Time" rather than EST or Central Standard Time. This absolves me of the need to remember whether we are in DT or ST. Plus it saves a word or character.
- Mon Aug 05, 2019 11:29 am
- Forum: Theory
- Topic: Faster (Human) Parsing of Answer Lines
- Replies: 6
- Views: 5321
Re: Faster (Human) Parsing of Answer Lines
Anecdotally, seeing "England" in scare quotes made it really easy for me to understand that it was somehow different from the list of promptable answers in front of it.
- Fri Jul 26, 2019 10:31 am
- Forum: Theory
- Topic: Different Styles of Making Flashcards
- Replies: 11
- Views: 6620
Re: Different Styles of Making Flashcards
I never used flashcards. I tried making them once (I think I made actual index card flashcards where the front was an object from Norse myth and the back was the owner of that object) and I found that I found the process of making flashcards to be boring and unpleasant. It was more fun to just read ...
- Tue Jul 16, 2019 3:04 pm
- Forum: Databases and Quizbowl Software
- Topic: Does every quizbowl organization need its own blog?
- Replies: 9
- Views: 5938
Re: Does every quizbowl organization need its own blog?
Sounds like this could be better accomplished by an individual running their own quizbowl news site, rather than by any of quizbowl's notoriously bureaucratic and slow-running organizations.
- Wed Jun 26, 2019 8:58 pm
- Forum: New Collegiate Teams
- Topic: Public Trivia Nights into Quizbowl Play
- Replies: 7
- Views: 5792
Re: Public Trivia Nights into Quizbowl Play
If I were doing this, I'd basically chop up some ACF Fall or SCT questions and insert them among the trivia rounds. Then I'd announce at the end something to the effect of "and a lot of these questions were based on REAL quizbowl questions!" Might help combat the impression that quizbowl i...
- Sun Jun 09, 2019 8:56 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: The Deep Bench Format
- Replies: 6
- Views: 5586
The Deep Bench Format
The University of Minnesota used to host a tournament called "Deep Bench". The entire point was to reward the, well, bench strength of quizbowl teams. You had to bring a lot of people (I think 8?) and then there was a round where everyone broke up into singles (teams of 1) doubles (teams o...
- Thu Jun 06, 2019 12:46 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: Vulching
- Replies: 14
- Views: 12789
Re: Vulching
I've seen captains point to a specific player on the team, to say "YOU buzz in and take this one". This could be another way to determine who buzzes in. I agree with Chris that a lot of the advice in this thread is for like 99th percentile teams seeking to become 99.9th percentile teams. M...
- Tue May 21, 2019 12:14 am
- Forum: New High School Teams
- Topic: Running Club Meetings
- Replies: 10
- Views: 10549
Re: Running Club Meetings
Saying "buzz" instead of setting up a buzzer system is what Harvard did during my time there. It definitely works better than the other no-buzzer alternative, which is people slapping the desk with their hand. Human voices differ from each other more than the sounds our hands make.
- Wed May 15, 2019 3:12 pm
- Forum: Theory
- Topic: Making things stick.
- Replies: 8
- Views: 6038
Re: Making things stick.
I often made mnemonics for things that, for whatever reason, I was unable to make stick. For example, for the life of me I could not recall the order of the major battles of Alexander the Great. I could read about them all I could, but in the end I still messed up the order of Granicus River, Gaugam...
- Fri Apr 19, 2019 8:13 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: Let's tell the kids stories about CBI
- Replies: 33
- Views: 18729
Re: Let's tell the kids stories about CBI
I vaguely recall a story about an incident in the late 90's where there was a tossup about India that was the subject of a protest, and they resolved it by asking a player from another team who was Indian. Was that at CBI Nationals?
- Thu Apr 11, 2019 11:30 am
- Forum: Miscellaneous Quizbowl
- Topic: Ken Jennings Slate article on quizbowl
- Replies: 7
- Views: 6535
Re: Ken Jennings Slate article on quizbowl
Yeah, quizbowl is certainly a "minor league" into Jeopardy in the way Mike Cheyne articulates above. I'm sure I'm not the only person in this thread who has auditioned for Jeopardy, and they make you list all the people you know who have been on Jeopardy...and yeah I have to list like 20 p...
- Wed Apr 03, 2019 6:11 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: Old time bonus formats
- Replies: 19
- Views: 9852
Re: Old time bonus formats
The trash tournament Ann B. Davis had the feature where once a game a player could answer a bonus all by themselves and if they got all three parts they earned 60 points, but if they got any part wrong they earned 0 points. I don't think I'm the only specialist who dreamed of one day seeing that in ...
- Tue Apr 02, 2019 3:19 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: Old time bonus formats
- Replies: 19
- Views: 9852
Old time bonus formats
When I began playing college quizbowl in 2004, there were still some wacky bonus formats being used. They were beginning to be phased out then, and we were explicitly told by our elders not to use them and to use the standard three-part bonus instead, but they definitely came up in mACF events, incl...
- Thu Mar 28, 2019 10:17 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: 10 Years of Chicago Open: My Greatest Memories
- Replies: 8
- Views: 7587
Re: 10 Years of Chicago Open: My Greatest Memories
In 2006, there was a war between Israel and Lebanon. Matt Weiner sided with Israel. Chris Borglum sided with Lebanon. They argued about it on the internet, and Beirut Borglum told Matt Weiner to put down the giant turkey leg he was holding (Matt Weiner, if you've never seen him, is a very large man)...
- Fri Mar 22, 2019 1:29 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: Happy 6th Watkinsgate Anniversary!
- Replies: 18
- Views: 10541
Re: Happy 6th Watkinsgate Anniversary!
Well, the difference between Andy Watkins and Guy Fawkes is that Guy Fawkes was caught before he did anything, right? Parliament did not blow up, the plotters were executed, and disloyal papists all over the country were dragged out of their priest holes and jailed. It's a far more satisfying outcom...
- Thu Mar 21, 2019 2:33 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: Let's tell the kids stories about CBI
- Replies: 33
- Views: 18729
Re: Let's tell the kids stories about CBI
CBI also must have notified the university of results, because at one point after UChicago's embarrassing 2nd place finish at CBI regionals in 2005, I was meeting with a university administrator on an unrelated matter, and upon learning that I was on the quizbowl team she congratulated me for our 2n...
- Thu Mar 21, 2019 9:17 am
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: Let's tell the kids stories about CBI
- Replies: 33
- Views: 18729
Let's tell the kids stories about CBI
I'm not the best person to make this thread because my college quizbowl career only briefly overlapped with CBI, but I'll kick it off and perhaps other veteran college quizbowl players can run with it. In ancient times (like the 80's or something), there was a TV game show run by an organization cal...
- Wed Mar 20, 2019 9:48 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: Happy 6th Watkinsgate Anniversary!
- Replies: 18
- Views: 10541
Re: Happy 6th Watkinsgate Anniversary!
Watkinsgate is the biggest news story in the history of quizbowl. It was the subject of an article in a newspaper in Nepal, which I'm pretty sure has never happened before or since. As far as people in Nepal are concerned it's the only thing to ever happen in quizbowl. I have long critiqued the cele...
- Wed Mar 20, 2019 12:26 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Harder Questions in the Finals?
- Replies: 11
- Views: 5559
Re: Harder Questions in the Finals?
I actually buy into this, with the caveat that, if the answerlines are too hard, then you've created dead tossups in the most consequential matches of your tournament! That's obviously bad. I think this is an "underrated bad". Writers don't live in sufficient fear of creating this outcome...
- Tue Mar 19, 2019 4:28 pm
- Forum: Theory
- Topic: Specializing for the college level
- Replies: 2
- Views: 4624
Re: Specializing for the college level
If literature is what interests you the most, go ahead and download a bunch of college packets, read them, and look up every lit clue and answerline you haven't heard of. In the fall when you go to your first college practice, figure out what the teams weaknesses are and see if you can specialize in...
- Sat Mar 16, 2019 4:31 pm
- Forum: Community Discussion
- Topic: Indulge me a moment...
- Replies: 19
- Views: 11635
Re: Indulge me a moment...
Honestly, the most rewarding thing I've done with quizbowl the last ~5 or so years is hanging out on the "Theory" section of this very forum and giving the kids advice on things like what books to read or how to learn myth. Hopefully, the advice is not horrifically off-base, though I can i...