The Quizbowl Resource Center

I have seen a lot of collegiate players "befriend" high school super stars due to their impressive PPG (at least in part.) This manifests in various ways, including collegiate moderators only engaging with high school teams that put up "impressive buzzes" after a match. That to me is a mistake, I t...

if someone says you hurt them please do not ask for an itemized list of the hurts because that is emotionally exhausting and will inspire them to write a forums post in all lowercase after crying for a bit bc flashbacks thanks !

I thought there was admirable representation of marginalized groups in this set (especially women), so thank you to those on the editing team who made that happen. That effort doesn't go unnoticed! And memes about the difficulty aside, I thought this was a largely engaging and appropriate set for HS...

I'll be attending Stanford University, and hope to be involved with the club there!

What I lack in PPG I make up for in cute animal pictures. Would love to play on a team that’s entirely made up of women, message me on FB/forums if interested.

I edited the American, British, world, and "other" literature for this tournament. My goals in this endeavor were 1) accessibility, 2) highlighting the work of women, POC, and LGBT+ people, and 3) emphasizing what is learned in non quizbowl contexts. I know some questions were rockier than others, b...

I was negged on the Mango Street tossup after buzzing in on the first line and saying "Chicago"- I knew it was referring to The House on Mango Street but wasn't 100% certain what it was asking for (and questions on Chicago that drop Mango Street are a thing). Some form of clarification (or at least...

Right now, it seems there isn't much of a consensus as to where Commonwealth (mainly UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada) content belongs in geographic distributions. As we move forward in quizbowl consistency across sets, I believe it would be worthwhile to decide on at least some widely accepted ca...

As a high schooler with 4 PPG, this was an engaging set to play. I know CO is often seen as one of the less inclusive tournaments in quizbowl, but as a learning experience it's unparalleled and I really do think this set had something for everyone. To anyone considering playing CO (EO??) in the futu...

I did not consider the polls. That being said, my ballot and the Player Poll were fairly similar though not perfect matches. In the player poll, the finalists for this competition are ranked 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 18. The loudest complaints in this thread are about the #6 person in the poll not b...

It would also be nice to have clear criteria regarding what the awards are specifically looking for. Does this consider PPG? Power count? Leadership ability? Finish at nationals? I think the area of confusion for many of us is inconsistent criteria- an indefensible omission in the mind of someone ju...

8. Barrington, 63 pts, 100%, high 5, low 10 Barrington graduates their best player in Wilder but retains science specialist Abraham; their success will depend on if he can generalize and if his teammates can complement his game. Their PPB at HSNCT was rather good. Barrington also gains an uber tale...

Something that could definitely help address this is promoting more diverse writing staffs. I know that, as a woman, I naturally gravitate towards studying and engaging with woman-produced media. It's not surprising that writing staffs made up almost entirely of men, as is often the case in housewri...

The second sheet isn't supposed to be a complete list of players who averaged at least a power per game at either nationals, right? If so, what were the criteria for highlighting these said players? I'm not trying to criticize; I'm just curious. It is not a complete list. The cutoffs for the second...

I put together a spreadsheet for this. The first sheet shows some players' powers per twenty tossups heard at both nationals (for players who didn't attend both nationals, HSNCT had an adjustment of about -.04 power points if I did my math right). The second sheet shows players who had at least one ...

As an often under-emphasized corollary to Olivia's (very correct) point here, I would also discourage well-meaning men from feeling the need to publicly berate themselves in response to a general point made about gender issues in quizbowl, as seems to happen a lot in the discord. To be clear, what ...

Some more tips on how to successfully be a man in discussions about issues primarily affecting non-men: - Monitor your implicit biases. Ask yourself if internalized sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, or other forms of prejudice are affecting your view of someone's arguments. Everyone should be...

These threads don't always turn out well, but I feel obligated to point out how awesome Govind Prabhakar is. He led Stevenson to a t-8 HSNCT and 6th place PACE finish with a dank power count/ratio. You should fill out that Google form and include Govind's name.

I obviously can't speak for everyone participating in the boycott, but I personally view it as a means to let NAQT members know what the vast majority of the quizbowl community is hoping for from the investigation process, rather than as an instant solution forgoing all established standards. A inst...

There haven't been too many underage girls participating in this thread, so I'll chime in. The existence of Matt Bruce does in fact make me feel incredibly unsafe. I'm just one person, but if NAQT continues to implicitly support him by retaining him as a member, I can't imagine attending NAQT events...

(CW: Pedophilia) Are any of these reports/allegations actually substantiated at this time? Or proven in any way? It's interesting that Matt went from having a background role to not being able to staff. Was this decision made based off public pressure or actual facts one way or the other? There are...

fittingly, when i heard about it i was watching silicon valley. the show is exactly what it sounds like- a fictional representation of the boys' club that is the modern tech industry. i'm halfway through season two and they just introduced a new character, a female engineer. she has a blue streak th...

Just heard about this: https://www.gallaudet.edu/youth-programs/academic-bowl. Anyone familiar with it? Questions appear to be non pyramidal and such, but the concept is awesome.

Copied from ILQBM, submissions will be accepted until next Tuesday April 17: It's nearly the end of the school year, so why not commit to a project you probably don't need to do? Time for Mixed Academic Guerilla Event (MAGE). What? A guerilla event that will probably be read over Skype/Discord/prefe...

I’m one of those high schoolers who want to make a change, but with that perception and the insularity it’s hard to see how I can get more involved and truly make a difference. I’ve seen the many positive sides of college quiz bowl and appreciate the love of the game quiz bowlers share, but I’ve al...

Finally, I agree with Tejas that the trash in this set was really unbalanced. I'd rather have there be no trash than hear the nth bonus on Indie rock or whatever niche film thing the writers like. There was literally no sports in this tournament aside from what I saw as a Current Events-esque Olymp...

As an IL kiddo who played this, this set was awesome. Writing for teams as varied as the ones who play IHSA Regionals is a ridiculously hard task and y’all did a fantastic job. Stevenson wouldn’t typically be the target audience of a set of this difficulty, but I thought leadins/hard bonus parts gen...

Here were some of the notes I took during the tournament: The tossup on Medea starts with a clue from Owen Meany. The only play I remember in that is a performance of A Christmas Carol. Maybe Medea happened in it but I didn't see any references in a Google book search. Strangely enough, the perform...

A forum thread every six months or so criticizing the lack of/treatment of underrepresented groups in qb is really, really frustrating when nothing comes of it. There seems to be a general consensus in this and other threads that a) there aren't enough underrepresented prominent players/editors/gen...

While Athena is right to point out that putting the work on women isn't necessarily fair, I am willing to do some work as both a woman and a board staffer here. In such a forum or the existing one, I would like to propose something like "Dear Prudence," which I would run, possibly along with anothe...

A big thing for me in regards to the WiQb forum is that it isn't visible to non forums members- I think it says a lot about the quizbowl community that this forum is hidden away from public eyes just like AHAN or the Forbidden Zone. IMO, as a 16 y/o cis white girl whose takes should be considered wi...

I imagine you're already aware of this but just in case: chess state is in Peoria the same day as NAQT state. A number of competitive players will not be attending the tryout because of this. I also imagine players who live far from UofI will have trouble staying over Sunday without forcing a parent...

Your neighborhood nobody who happens to identify as a girl reporting. Because everyone likes listicles and this is going to devolve into an ally dominated thread soon anyways, here's my top four ways to be a good ally to women in quizbowl. 1. Surprise, We're Human: I know, right? I was hoping I was ...

I played the Bee and Rounds 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the Bowl. Overall, I thought it was a really well run event. The transparency in how people were placed in championship rounds was nice and I enjoyed the Twitter feed and live stat update. The technology was very convenient and a luxury you don't usually...