Search found 2189 matches
- Wed Mar 13, 2024 4:40 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Top 100 player list 23/24
- Replies: 7
- Views: 3175
Re: Top 100 player list 23/24
22. Mike Cheyne 35. Howie Kendrick I've been fortunate enough to see both of these guys play. I think if you care about peak at all, or if you care about Nationals/LCS performance, you gotta go with Howie over Mike here. Howie Kendrick had his best season at age 35 when he posted an OPS+ of 146 on ...
- Sun Feb 04, 2024 9:08 am
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Alternative Names in Answerlines
- Replies: 3
- Views: 839
Re: Alternative Names in Answerlines
I agree with you that a wide range of answers should be acceptable and that writers and editors should make a good effort to consider what other answers to list. However, consider that adjudicating rare examples of alternate answers as one-off protests might be a more efficient use of resources than...
- Sun Jan 28, 2024 8:02 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Packet submission thoughts
- Replies: 16
- Views: 3441
Re: Packet submission thoughts
Quizbowl is so much better today than when I played 15 years ago. The game is bigger, the game is more professional and buttoned-up, the players are nicer people. So many things have been left in the dustbin of history and I am personally puzzled why ACF packet submission is not one of them. It look...
- Thu Oct 05, 2023 10:24 am
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Trophies vs Plaques
- Replies: 11
- Views: 5617
Re: Trophies vs Plaques
The intended audience of college quizbowl trophies isn't college quizbowl players, at least not current ones. No true ACF player needs a trophy to feel accomplished - the satisfaction of learning is all the reward they ever need. Indeed for many years ACF shied away from trophies and gave out tatter...
- Fri Jun 30, 2023 12:32 pm
- Forum: Community Discussion
- Topic: Regarding BBB and Community Norms
- Replies: 11
- Views: 7095
Re: Regarding BBB and Community Norms
I wonder how many people in the last 20 years have dismissed and ignored good advice about quizbowl because the manner in which the advice was delivered was insensitive or offensive. Probably a very large number of people, some of whom left the game because of it. Humans are emotional animals and go...
- Fri Jun 30, 2023 6:39 am
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: How should we approach async writing and scoring?
- Replies: 3
- Views: 4065
Re: How should we approach async writing and scoring?
As a hyper-specialized player (in my heyday, I only listened to maybe 6-7 questions on my packet, and shut my brain off for the rest) I actually find the "you're all alone, there's no Ted to save you from literature questions" aspect of asynch quizbowl to be a feature and not a bug. When I...
- Thu Jun 15, 2023 2:10 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Reworking the History Distribution
- Replies: 13
- Views: 6993
Re: Reworking the History Distribution
I think you're running into two issues: (1) More recent history simply means more to people who are alive today because rightly or wrongly they think it's more relevant to their current day existence. They are more passionate about it, they are more likely to know it, they are more likely to read an...
- Sat May 06, 2023 8:21 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Five Questions I Liked From 2023 ACF Nationals — And Five I Didn’t
- Replies: 7
- Views: 4742
Re: Five Questions I Liked From 2023 ACF Nationals — And Five I Didn’t
I would have personally placed the clues about the Cumans before the detailed description of the Battle of Mohi because, at least in my day, the battle was more famous than the backstory behind it. Unless there has been a sudden burst of interest in non-first-tier Hungarian kings, I think you could ...
- Tue Mar 07, 2023 6:45 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: How do we use "Description Acceptable"?
- Replies: 8
- Views: 2755
Re: How do we use "Description Acceptable"?
I agree, this is a solution to the somewhat rare problem of answerlines not being fully reified. Similar to the "violence against women" example above, I recall a tossup in my playing days where the answerline was "pink scares" but we were informed before the tossup that descript...
- Fri Mar 03, 2023 8:45 pm
- Forum: Theory
- Topic: Anybody got strategies for tilting your opponents
- Replies: 13
- Views: 6317
Re: Anybody got strategies for tilting your opponents
Beat them to a tossup in their area of expertise, especially if you are not known for your expertise in that area.
- Fri Feb 24, 2023 3:31 pm
- Forum: Community Discussion
- Topic: Why College Recruiting Fails (2 of 3)
- Replies: 8
- Views: 5017
Re: Why College Recruiting Fails (2 of 3)
Is there a single effective faculty sponsor of a college quizbowl team anywhere in the country who is not themselves a former college quizbowl player of some note? I'm nowhere near old enough to know what Chris Borglum was doing in college, but Chris is at the very least also a very notable open/mas...
- Tue Feb 14, 2023 8:23 am
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: How can quizbowl support writers?
- Replies: 9
- Views: 5487
Re: How can quizbowl support writers?
Quizbowl can probably never adequately support writers. Writing is a ton of work, it pays very little, and there's no realistic prospect of it paying significantly more anytime soon. Writing probably fails any objective cost-benefit analysis and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. I t...
- Thu Jan 12, 2023 11:35 am
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: We Need to Make Up Our Minds About Trash
- Replies: 27
- Views: 9017
Re: We Need to Make Up Our Minds About Trash
One thing I don't think holds up is argument based on how people engage with things. I think if you were to actually follow college quizbowl players for months and document how they engage with the material that comes up at academic tournaments, you would find that for the most part they are engagin...
- Wed Aug 17, 2022 12:43 pm
- Forum: Miscellaneous Quizbowl
- Topic: Stop giving your sets cutesy names—they have real-world consequences.
- Replies: 5
- Views: 2879
Re: Stop giving your sets cutesy names—they have real-world consequences.
I think a more likely real-world consequence of giving your tournament a cutesy name is that it would reinforce the stereotype that quizbowl is an unserious or weird event that is not worthy of student participation, university recognition, or social approval. On this front I feel that quizbowl has ...
- Wed Mar 02, 2022 4:27 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: 2022 Carper Award: congratulations Matt Jackson and Chris Borglum!
- Replies: 6
- Views: 3482
Re: 2022 Carper Award: congratulations Matt Jackson and Chris Borglum!
You can become a better quizbowl player just by spending 10 minutes with either of these gentlemen. Also a better human being.
- Wed Feb 02, 2022 9:53 am
- Forum: Community Discussion
- Topic: Quizbowl-"Trivia" Community Relations: What Are They? What Should They Be?
- Replies: 25
- Views: 15995
Re: Quizbowl-"Trivia" Community Relations: What Are They? What Should They Be?
I think the reason you don't see an open division at ACF tournaments is resource constraints: there are limited moderators, limited numbers of game rooms, etc. and it makes sense for ACF to focus this on collegiate players. There'a also, frankly, an ick factor where college students don't really wan...
- Mon Jan 31, 2022 11:46 am
- Forum: Community Discussion
- Topic: Quizbowl-"Trivia" Community Relations: What Are They? What Should They Be?
- Replies: 25
- Views: 15995
Re: Quizbowl-"Trivia" Community Relations: What Are They? What Should They Be?
I think it's impossible to understand my era of quizbowl (I played 2004-2010 and was involved in ACF and open tournaments for a few years after that) without understanding the "bad quizbowl monster" that Matt talks about at the end. College quizbowl circa 2004 had, within living memory, &q...
- Sat Jan 22, 2022 11:50 pm
- Forum: Community Discussion
- Topic: 2022 Carper Award community discussion
- Replies: 16
- Views: 8420
Re: 2022 Carper Award community discussion
I myself would like to push for Ryan Westbrook. Ryan acquired (through his own making, somewhat) a reputation as an eccentric who posts poorly. But he was one of the best editors of his era, producing many acclaimed tournaments and events. Has the Ryan Westbrook era truly ended? The guy has had a f...
- Wed Jan 19, 2022 11:25 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Are college quiz bowl questions too long?
- Replies: 10
- Views: 3398
Re: Are college quiz bowl questions too long?
Like 5-6 years ago, didn't they actually start tracking where in a question people buzzed at some tournaments, and didn't the stats show that very few people were buzzing on early clues?
- Mon Jan 17, 2022 11:20 pm
- Forum: Collegiate Discussion
- Topic: Some Thoughts on Bonuses
- Replies: 35
- Views: 15125
Re: Some Thoughts on Bonuses
At almost every tournament that isn't a championship or a qualifier for a championship, convincing marginal teams and players that quizbowl is something they want to do again is a far more important goal than fine-grade differentiating between teams. One theory says that extremely obvious bonus part...
- Sun Nov 14, 2021 10:58 pm
- Forum: Theory
- Topic: Myths about Westphalia
- Replies: 8
- Views: 7557
Re: Myths about Westphalia
You are indisputably correct about the facts. And many similar things could, with great accuracy, be said about the Treaty of Utrecht or the 1783 Treaty of Paris or doubtlessly many others. Unfortunately, your correctness is a bit besides the point. Our society has, by convention, long referred to t...
- Sat Oct 30, 2021 7:57 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Name Changes
- Replies: 4
- Views: 3547
Re: Name Changes
I would say that at some point there are not just diminishing returns to answerlines with lots of alternate answers, but actually negative returns. I don't think I'm the only person here to have run into the situation where an inexperienced moderator sees an answerline with 3-4 lines of alternate an...
- Fri Sep 17, 2021 11:34 am
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: How do you write and edit quizbowl creatively?
- Replies: 7
- Views: 4359
Re: How do you write and edit quizbowl creatively?
This is a great thread! I'd like to discuss my personal experience in trying to bring a good amount of creativity to my questions over the past year. I'd love to talk about just some of the lessons I learned and some of my ideas on what "creative writing" is. 1. Creative questions don't a...
- Sat Mar 06, 2021 8:54 am
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: HSNCT and its Problems
- Replies: 30
- Views: 16481
Re: HSNCT and its Problems
Does anyone else get uncomfortable when we start having conversations about what "elite teams" are deciding should and should not be done as part of a national tournament, and when the threat that the elite teams will cease attending the event because it does not meet their standards is p...
- Mon Oct 26, 2020 12:31 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Inconsistency
- Replies: 6
- Views: 4898
Re: Inconsistency
Did you play sloppy, or did you just encounter clues you didn't know?
- Fri Oct 23, 2020 9:48 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Packet Submission discussion
- Replies: 28
- Views: 10497
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: College area archives
- Topic: DITCH 2020 (A Packet about Hungary)
- Replies: 7
- Views: 3185
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: College area archives
- Topic: Why are there negs in QB?
- Replies: 17
- Views: 5038
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: 23472
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: College area archives
- Topic: Buzzword: A New Online Competition from NAQT
- Replies: 12
- Views: 5464
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: College area archives
- Topic: What makes a good tiebreaker?
- Replies: 6
- Views: 2448
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: College area archives
- Topic: This Time, A Stern Warning
- Replies: 179
- Views: 147685
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: College area archives
- Topic: This Time, A Stern Warning
- Replies: 179
- Views: 147685
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: 7464
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: College area archives
- Topic: College Nationals and Its Problems
- Replies: 132
- Views: 54534
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: 9872
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: 9872
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: High school area archives
- Topic: Ideal Host Cities for a Nationals Event
- Replies: 10
- Views: 5187
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: High school area archives
- Topic: How to improve on a team with a strong generalist
- Replies: 1
- Views: 2536
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: 4416
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: College area archives
- Topic: Should quizbowl reform the three-part bonus?
- Replies: 18
- Views: 5270
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: 32
- Views: 20768
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: 32
- Views: 20768
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: 32
- Views: 20768
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: College area archives
- Topic: Should I quit quizbowl?
- Replies: 8
- Views: 5498
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: 5412
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: College area archives
- Topic: Abolish packet submission for ACF Fall
- Replies: 29
- Views: 8584
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: College area archives
- Topic: No prizes is better than insulting prizes
- Replies: 22
- Views: 11088
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: College area archives
- Topic: Should Baby Seals Smile While Being Clubbed? Or: Why Should Newer Teams Stick Around College Quizbowl?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 7843
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: College area archives
- Topic: Should Baby Seals Smile While Being Clubbed? Or: Why Should Newer Teams Stick Around College Quizbowl?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 7843
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...