The Quizbowl Resource Center

mrs. dalloway

Adding to the suggestion to major in your previously weakest category: I would vote against majoring in something you already know a lot in. I was a lit specialist going in and still learned a lot in Lit II, but it seems like some of the people were just there to win their major tournament at the en...

mrs. dalloway

So...if I'm not mistaken, Rockford Auburn scored 1831.

mrs. dalloway

Having played against WN for almost four years now, I have nothing but respect for them and their coaches for their perennial success; any disappointment at losing to them (or any other team) has never developed into reckless accusations. I hope that the comments of a certain anonymous coach won't e...

mrs. dalloway

The questions at Sterling (Question Bank) were decent as far as how they were written, but I hate to see close games be decided on elementary school material. Maybe I'm just biased because our team tends to be relatively slow on the buzzer, so we prefer questions that test KNOWLEDGE more than the sp...

mrs. dalloway

It's Annie Proulx.

And that Calvin and Hobbes/Thomas Nast question was awesome; you just don't comprehend the genius yet.

mrs. dalloway

Having attended camp for three years, I second everything Nancy said (half the fun of camp is all the guys). There is a wide range of people there; don't expect "quiz bowl camp" to be full of kids who spend their free time memorizing more digits of pi or reading Homer in the original Greek...

mrs. dalloway

Matt--I noticed the same problem with the PLEASE MAKE FUN OF ME BECAUSE I SPEAK NEITHER LATIN NOR ENGLISH at our tournament; we did try to make sure that the last four or five tossups were serious and fairly hard to prevent such complaints, but didn't consider the bonus issue. Pop culture and youth ...

mrs. dalloway

Thanks for placing me in the top 6, guys, but I wasn't actually planning to try out this year...good luck to those of you who are, though. And (while recognizing the value of Mr. Egan's warning against predictions), I will dispute the assertion that Bloomington has no stand-out players. Kristina War...

mrs. dalloway

I was kidding about the penultimate tossup thing (Mr. Laird is somewhat known for doing that)...although I don't like for moderators (or players, or coaches) to toss out random words or info just to seem smarter. And yeah, running commentary = bad. Although the occasional joke to lighten the mood is...

mrs. dalloway

Here's a tip that all moderators should adhere to:

Do not refer to tossup 19 (in a 20-question round) as "the penultimate tossup."

Sorry, couldn't resist.

mrs. dalloway

I have to admit that we did have Tyler early in the day, like when we played IMSA. He had to leave early, but he did help us rack up enough points to be on our way to first seed. Brad, I feel the same way...I loved IHSA until ACE camp, the Earlybird, etc. But don't let badly run tournaments get in t...

mrs. dalloway

Results from Rockford Boylan (12/10): 1: Auburn (without Tyler, I must add) 2: Maine East (without Erin Li) 3: IMSA 4: Byron (with two people! but wait, one was Patrick Shanley) Winnebago, Moline, and Boylan also made it to the afternoon; right now I can't remember the last team from the top 8, sorry.

mrs. dalloway

Class A: Brad Fischer. We now refer to that team as "Brad...um (cough) I mean Winnebago..." How about John Bracke from Moline? No one's mentioned the team as a possible state contender, but John is pretty good. He got the desperation shot at Solo. Not that I'm prejudiced, but Tyler seems l...

mrs. dalloway

Just a question: is a power (or generally insanely early buzz) considered good if the person was just lucky (see Harriet Beecher Stowe question above; there are at least two more minister's daughters I can think of that might come up), or only if the player had genuine knowledge of the subject that ...

mrs. dalloway

I also made the Liszt-for-Bartok mistake. Also from the Sterling kickoff: "Although he served as governor of Ohio, he is better known for his later political career..." Buzz: "Jerry Springer" The question went on to say that he went on to become president in a controversial elect...

mrs. dalloway

At Northwestern there was no all-tournament team, although they did announce Tyler Kerr as the top scorer.

I'm pretty sure those names from the Earlybird are right.

mrs. dalloway

Ha ha, I proved you all wrong by only getting one lit ribbon and by making it into the finals. On the other hand, Trevkeeper proved me wrong by being one of two Trevians to make the finals, so I guess I owe him an apology... I really enjoyed the tournament; it seemed more exciting and well-run than ...

mrs. dalloway

3. Brad's right. Buzzer beaters will hurt me. Chris Ray would have killed me at ACE had he not negged out. But if I say so myself, I don't think lit is the ONLY thing I know. Obviously Tyler's got a lot of the history, geography, art, and music covered in team play because he's Tyler, but that doesn...

mrs. dalloway

I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more pyramidal questions in IHSA, although I'm not sure about powers and negs. But I disagree with Trev that our format is fine...I, for one, get pretty bored with the monotonous tossup/bonus format by the State Series each year (one reason I like fast moderators, as...

mrs. dalloway

I much prefer faster moderators if they can still speak clearly enough to be understood by most teams. I loved Sudheer and Sorice at the Earlybird, and so did the rest of my team (Auburn) as well as our coach. IHSA rounds tend to drag a bit, and are fairly notorious for always being behind schedule;...

mrs. dalloway

Yeah, I noticed all the math, and I wasn't the only one, from what other people were saying. And I'm most assuredly not a math person (proof that I'm not: I said Leipzig for Liebniz at one point), so I wasn't happy about that aspect of the tournament. Hey, does anyone know what's going on with MacAr...

mrs. dalloway

You beat me to the punch, Trevkeeper. Also: Loyola got fourth. I don't know if you can make IHSA predictions from a Panasonic tournament, but the top four here would probably be my top four for the state right now. Contrary to popular opinion (including mine, previously), Fremd has more than just Be...

mrs. dalloway

Yeah, I've played that shocking game (I think it's called "Lightning Reaction"). One of our team members brought it on the bus to a tournament, joking that it would help us improve our buzzer speed. You never know...

mrs. dalloway

As of right now, I believe I (Colleen Powers) am the only one from Auburn attending the Solo. Tyler expressed doubts when we discussed it at practice; he's unfamiliar with the Solo, not having heard about it from fellow ACE campers, plus I think he was planning a college visit or something that day....

mrs. dalloway

Um, yeah, John, we did win on a neg.

mrs. dalloway

John...what are you talking about? Loss of innocence paper...what? The Earlybird was great (check out the thread under Regular Season Tournaments). Judging by that, Loyola, Bloomington, and possibly New Trier will be tough this year, as predicted. (And Auburn, I guess, although I feel odd praising m...

mrs. dalloway

I know everyone's already said what a great tournament it was, but I must agree. It was the first time we (Auburn) attended, and we had a good time. The questions were good, and I really liked the moderator speed and knowledge of what they were doing, as opposed to the usual random high school stude...

mrs. dalloway

Based on conversations at our first team meeting, Auburn will almost certainly be at the Ultima, although maybe I'll urge my teammates to reconsider if the rounds are going to be so long... I remember last year, when I was a junior and had the happy task of taking the PSAT, those of us on Scholastic...

mrs. dalloway

[quote="DaGeneral"][quote="ericblair"]Great teams usually show modesty and don't jock themselves this much.[/quote]

Most do, but it's ok to be confident. Once you get too cocky, then your ass should be kicked.[/quote]

Exactly.

mrs. dalloway

So far, everyone posting on here has placed Auburn as "far and away the best team in Illinois," and while I like to see accolades for my team, I will say this: the thing that's going to hurt us will be a lack of interest among our own players. After talking to teammates, I'm concerned that...

mrs. dalloway

Chris: â€œI once wrote a question about how Klan members identify each other subtly.â€

mrs. dalloway

I'm sorry; I was just being whiny. I will try to get you that stuff next week. In the meantime, are you familiar with NAQT's "You Gotta Know" lists? They've been helpful for me in the past; there are a few lit lists but also various other subjects and some general quiz bowl ones like "...

mrs. dalloway

Aw, man, why can't you get Trevkeeper to do it?

I guess I could...

mrs. dalloway

I've thought of some possibly decent teams that no one's mentioned thus far. IMSA: They've had good teams in the past; they were decent last year but, I seem to recall, were in Wheaton North's sectional. Yeah, they lost some seniors, but so did a lot of teams on these top ten lists, and I think they...

mrs. dalloway

We go back August 24; we'll probably start practicing in late September. We're starting something new this year, though: having a varsity-team meeting before the school year starts (it's scheduled for next Tuesday). This way, maybe we can plan ahead so we're not showing up at tournaments with half o...

mrs. dalloway

Yes; why?

mrs. dalloway

I'm not sure exactly who will be starting for Auburn (besides Tyler, of course, and I, the token lit girl), but Siva Sundaram '09 will almost certainly be up there. He captained the West Middle School team for his last two years of junior high, winning state both times. He's basically Tyler, Jr. The...

mrs. dalloway

By the way, taking a gander at who's posted on here so far, I move we use this thread for any random ACE rantings we may, in the future, feel the need to unleash on the world like so many snuck bunnies.

mrs. dalloway

The gi-normous man ring gives you away every time.

Two pictures for me...one more than last year...I'd call that an improvement.

mrs. dalloway

Illinois Class AA: Stevenson graduated 10 players; Auburn graduated 1, who didn't even play at State. Just saying... I think Fremd will be one of the toughest to beat. As has been said, they've got Beata. And after ACE camp, I'm rather frightened of Dec Mac. Donald may claim that they'll be nothing ...

mrs. dalloway

The Ryan mentioned above is Ryan Stander from Liberty, MO. I have no idea how he's been doing on the quizzes; he hasn't been recognized for top scores, but he could still be doing well enough for a handicap of three or four. Terin from Savannah seems to know a lot of random stuff but maybe not have ...

mrs. dalloway

Any predictions for the subject tournaments?

In lit, Chris Ray and Julie Reynolds will almost certainly be in the top three, with the third spot up for grabs between four or five others (based on the first quiz and some buzzer practice in lit 2).

mrs. dalloway

Well, all I can say is that after the New Hall, the Towers seem quite a letdown, now that I'm here. The food should be the same, though.

It would be funny if those of us that are here just kept communicating with each other through the boards.

mrs. dalloway

I had a friend who always said "Johnny Cash" for his random guess, when it was obvious that no one from our team had any idea about the answer. Then, in the State finals, we actually got a question with the answer "Johnny Cash." He was quite pleased with himself.

mrs. dalloway

Just to clarify: the school from China is called Shanghai American, so it apparently does cater to the children of English-speaking people living in China. They also appeared at NAC Chicago, going 6-0 in the preliminaries and losing in the first round of the playoffs. I'm not sure how they did at NA...

mrs. dalloway

Aw, man! I loved the pasta shape questions!

Seriously, can anyone explain for me the benefit of more computation?

mrs. dalloway

I think I'm going to be the only one from Rockford (IL) Auburn attending at SEMO, but we do have a freshman, Matt Hargrove, who will be going to the one in Tennessee. Unfortunately, most of our players either had conflicts or are macho guys who couldn't bring themselves to attend something like quiz...

mrs. dalloway

Thoughts on the tournament so far? All I can say is that predictions of Chip milking Brad Rutter for all he's worth have been entirely true. Cheesy Jeopardy jokes...constant references to the guy as "Mr. Brad Rutter over here"...and so on. But I've enjoyed it so far. I kind of like the fas...

mrs. dalloway

[quote]Colleen, those must have been Chip Beall questions. I'd rather make fun of the question writer than the player who negged. After all, Chip breeds those kinds of answers.[/quote] I do realize that it was a bad question, but still, what does Thanksgiving have to do with anything in that questio...

mrs. dalloway

Q: "In 1992, the 500th anniversary of Columbus...blah blah blah...what is the name for a 500th anniversary?"
A: "THANKSGIVING!" (cried very loudly and excitedly)

(Some of our team members still torment the kid about this, two years later.)

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