The Quizbowl Resource Center

Ciorwrong

Sadie and Billy posted a lot of extremely valid concerns. I'll go a step further than Sadie. So far, this seems like an unmitigated disaster that will permanently turn off new teams from pyramidal online quizbowl. This slapshod "company" seems like a complete joke to anyone who has thought about the...

Ciorwrong

According to conversations in the Quizbowl Discord, the editing team for this has refused to let Joe reveal their identities, which is an extremely concerning sign regarding the likely quality of these sets. Strongly agreed. Is there a reason this new quizbowl organization is flouting many of the e...

Ciorwrong

I'm glad you added some additional transparency. I actually did mow yards for three summers in high school and found that experience far more rewarding than anything I've done in quizbowl. If anyone wants to talk about old Lawn Boys from the 70s-90s, hit me up. I don't believe there is a perfect iso...

Ciorwrong

In the interest of transparency, you should have this payment detail higher on the page if you are advertising a full time job. Yes! You will be paid a proportion of however much money QQBC makes based on how much you work. The better job that everyone does, the more money everyone can make. For ref...

Ciorwrong

This post is reserved for online mirrors dates.

University of Florida: September 12

Ciorwrong

Hello quizbowl, I am making a new forum post to announce that my collegiate novice set SUN is available for online mirrors in Fall 2020. This set is ideal for new and less experienced players. See the set announcement here for more details. The set will be mostly unchanged from what it was in the Fa...

Ciorwrong

I also vehemently disagree with not engaging with philosophical primary texts. It's especially strange to hear a comment like that from someone who is editing PSS for an upcoming tournament. I think it's pretty uncontroversial to say that reading primary texts will not help you get very many points...

Ciorwrong

I'm sure the rest of Ethan's post is good, but Malcolm Gladwell is not an academic sociologist and I'm sure anyone who included him in a sociology question would be (rightly) ridiculed. [he is a compelling speaker though] Gladwell is a complete joke and should stop showing up in easy tournaments. H...

Ciorwrong

I've moderated many times both Michigan and Southern California. The times where I felt most uncomfortable as a moderator were with teams with no adult supervision who would say rude or inappropriate things. Frankly, sometimes I would call out misogynistic things but there were times I failed to con...

Ciorwrong

Traditionally, I think it's best to playtest high school questions only with players who are ineligible (i.e. graduated from high school.) Else, you create weird incentives and it's harder to reveal answers because there isn't as much contact between current potential players of this set and colleg...

Ciorwrong

Traditionally, I think it's best to playtest high school questions only with players who are ineligible (i.e. graduated from high school.) Else, you create weird incentives and it's harder to reveal answers because there isn't as much contact between current potential players of this set and collegi...

Ciorwrong

The fact that some features on Zoom require a premium / academic account is not ideal. Our bracket got a late start because I think the person who created the initial meeting didn't have permissions to create breakout rooms. Yes, a lot of people playing are going to have academic Zoom accounts. But...

Ciorwrong

This was a good time.

Ciorwrong

My inner 12-year-old is very interested in this. Where can I find the original packet? Will this be read in the main QB Discord?

Ciorwrong

Well if that's the case, great! Let's run some summer discord tournaments with video and see if any issues arise. If not, maybe we can start implementing discord's video feature more often. We are tentatively thinking of running summer online practices for anyone in the Pacific Time zone. Details w...

Ciorwrong

100% of the video games questions will be on broadly popular games since 2010 (there will be no "classic gaming" or niche JRPG content in this tournament). Why are culturally-significant video games from before 2010 unworthy of being asked about in the same way as culturally significant TV, film, o...

Ciorwrong

Trash can be historically important, but can pop culture not be important in the present? Can a 2020 regionals bonus on the WNBA not reflect a growing recognition of that league, its players, their advocacy? Isn't a question on Megan Rapinoe (as a player) be just as much a comment on her broader ex...

Ciorwrong

I think that IS true about how a lot of trash questions are written, but not all, and it's entirely possible not to write them that way. You could write a very fine De Niro tossup just cluing, say, Taxi Driver and Goodfellas. In fact, that's probably going to be better than a catch-all De Niro toss...

Ciorwrong

I'm not sure what is meant by "trivial clues" in this context. I wouldn't toss Troll 2 up at like ACF Fall or SCT because I doubt many in the target audience have seen it or know about it in a non-meme context, but you could take, I don't know, any number of "trash" films (off the top of my head, l...

Ciorwrong

I remain unconvinced why we need trash in collegiate quizbowl. ACF should eliminate it from its distribution like many tournaments have already done. I think having a few pop culture-adjacent questions is fine per tournament. For sports, it seems perfectly reasonable to ask about historically import...

Ciorwrong

Is there a way we can like scrimmage on some of the later packets? Paying for sevens games(assuming elimination in first round of single elim playoffs) is a poor deal in terms of $/hour. My team and I would be happy to play other squads if/when we get eliminated in the playoffs provided we qualify....

Ciorwrong

Is there a way we can like scrimmage on some of the later packets? Paying for sevens games(assuming elimination in first round of single elim playoffs) is a poor deal in terms of $/hour. My team and I would be happy to play other squads if/when we get eliminated in the playoffs provided we qualify. ...

Ciorwrong

While I don't agree with its main prescription, Harris's post has another issue with trash writing that I'd like to highlight: the disconnect between the age of trash writers and the age of their audiences. For other categories this isn't much of an issue, but pop-cultural tastes evolve dramaticall...

Ciorwrong

As someone who has written literally hundreds of trash tossups and bonuses over the years (see FTP), I think trash does not balance the intercollegiate game of quizbowl very well. I would like to see it removed from the already incredibly crowded distribution at events harder than ACF Fall. Events s...

Ciorwrong

The Main room in each zoom call needs to have one person active there at all times to troubleshoot people who cut out during games, replace moderators who cut out, etc. This increases staffing demand, but for a tournament like ACF fall there would be excess club members around anyways. Nothing ment...

Ciorwrong

Yes, and for IRL tournaments, lots of people get home well past 9, so playing into the late evening is not that big a deal. It goes both ways. My point is that forcing West Coast players to accommodate East Coast players every single time is not a fair solution. Yes, but that usually includes a pos...

Ciorwrong

I more or less agree with everything Mike said above. None of the UCSD players particularly enjoyed the Zoom tournament experience. The waiting time was obnoxious and sometimes my Zoom would freeze up or audio would echo or whatever. Moderators still not using a headset might have contributed to thi...

Ciorwrong

10 cents per entry is a ripoff and I hope people who do this hope they know they are probably making hourly wages far below minimum wages. If you really need the money, I'm sure surveys and mturk are better options. At 10 cents per entry, a person from California would have to find 130 quizbowl team...

Ciorwrong

Thanks for posting! Yes, a lot has changed and we have a lot more information about COVID-19 now. I do believe that the quizbowl community will come up with feasible solutions, if it is possible to hold in person events in the fall. I know some of us coaches are about to end school for the year and...

Ciorwrong

Here you go! Of note - there are currently just five teams who have specified that they'd like to play in a high school-only division. If you're a high school team who'd like to play in such a division, please sign up soon to ensure we have enough teams! EDIT: I took a look at the free agent sheet ...

Ciorwrong

It appears the free agent sheet is out of date and there is no way of knowing who is in the field or what. I am still looking for a team and teammates. Please email me. I'd prefer to play this set than not but remain confused why details on this have been so scant.

Ciorwrong

For a variety of reasons, I've decided to more or less leave the national quizbowl community active immediately with no foreseeable date of return. I'd ask you respect this and not discuss this here or frankly anywhere. However, I still want to at least recoup some of the lost money for this set so ...

Ciorwrong

This tournament happened . I think much fun was had by all. Teams should feel free to join the discussion forum for SUN 2020 to get a .zip file with the packets. I gotta make the initial posts in the subforum but this should happen later today. Avinash has graciously decided to convert the stats to...

Ciorwrong

I sent out a brief final logistics email for this with the link to the Discord server. Please let me know if you anticipated this and did not receive it. Stats will be uploaded on Neg5 throughout the day. A schedule can be found here . I look forward to seeing teams compete bright and early tomorrow...

Ciorwrong

Out of respect for my competitors, the writers and editors of the question set, the organizers and staff of this event, and the spirit of the game, I [STATE YOUR NAME] promise that I will not attempt to gain any unfair advantage during this event. I recognize that attempts to gain an unfair advanta...

Ciorwrong

This thread makes me think about how I write questions. When I think of topics for a math question, I usually default to picking one of the major subfields: analysis, algebra, topology, geometry, combinatorics/discrete, or something like that. For some reason, "statistical theory" (e.g., the Kolmog...

Ciorwrong

I have sent out a preliminary logistics email to the 14 teams I had from the waitlist and the formal team list after accounting for drops, etc. Please let me know if you anticipated the email but did not receive it. I will send out more information after teams confirm their attendance via email tomo...

Ciorwrong

We are doing 14 teams RR tossups only. Basically, everyone on the team list is in the field unless you have told me you are going to drop. I will try to send something out later this afternoon.

Ciorwrong

Yeah, frankly I don't really want to play this tournament unless the mods are paid at least $40 for their work for the day - that's what I've paid for the last several tournaments I've organized. It's well below minimum wage, but it's still something, and has been very successful at recruiting mods...

Ciorwrong

Has there been a decision made as to whether this tournament will be tossup-only or not? Also, has there been any consideration given to adjusting the tournament price if we just play tossups, in light of the fact that people presumably signed up under the impression that it would be run with bonus...

Ciorwrong

I'm looking for at least two more experienced mods so I can make the field 14 teams and use Conor's idea. Please DM me for further information. If I can't get the moderation staff together by 9 pm Pacific tomorrow, I will decide to run a 10 team round robin but will still be tossups only. I apologiz...

Ciorwrong

Would obviously prefer to play in person over online, but very excited for this.

Ciorwrong

While college quizbowl has a relatively low and reasonable number of questions on statistical theory, I personally think quizbowl overall is pretty lacking in questions concerning applied statistics and statistics-adjacent fields such as machine learning, which many people use in both academia and ...

Ciorwrong

In light of recent events, I am reconsidering bonuses for the open online mirror of this set.

Ciorwrong

The best format for a 14 team mirror, to me, seems like paired brackets (each team plays all 7 teams in the other bracket), and then split 4/3 with the bottom bracket getting a bye as one of their three playoff rounds. I'm personally fine with this format and will attempt to get enough staff for a ...

Ciorwrong

I'd favour doing bonuses purely from a "more QB is more fun" perspective. If there's a format where we can fit more games in by not doing bonuses I could be persuaded to do that, but I'm fine with the current plan too. We have 13 full packets because this is a novice set. Given this constraint, thi...

Ciorwrong

Personally, as Daniel mentioned, I'd prefer this be run with bonuses even if the average ppb is 25 or whatever it's going to be. Here is a straw poll people can use to express their opinions in a more concise way. My primarily goal here is to have a fun tournament that won't last forever.

Ciorwrong

A waitlist has been added. I may try to get additional staffers depending on interest or if there is a good format for 12 team mirrors. If teams are okay with something like two pools of 6 for prelims (5 games) and then 3 crossover playoff games and a final (8/9 games), I could expand. My worry as a...

Ciorwrong

I now have registrations from nine teams. We are one team away from a field cap and I will reassess the staffing and field situation after this. Please check to see if you have registered and are noted because I might have missed your email.

Ciorwrong

I've suggested this elsewhere but I believe that the buzzer systems thread needs an overhaul. It's extremely outdated and that is what lead me to write my buzzer systems thread last year. I'm more than willing to update this page to help teams get strong and durable buzzer systems in their hands I ...

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