Search found 756 matches

by cchiego
Sat Jul 11, 2015 8:42 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Distance Discounts
Replies: 10
Views: 4994

Re: Distance Discounts

No one's addressed my idea of reserving spots for local teams. I'd like to hear what people think of it. Just reserving spots won't by itself induce local schools to decide to attend, as Reinstein pointed out above. If there aren't already academic teams of some kind at the local schools, you'll pr...
by cchiego
Fri Jul 10, 2015 10:33 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: How to do Outreach: A Basic Guide
Replies: 0
Views: 2024

How to do Outreach: A Basic Guide

I posted this over at GPQB, but I thought others might be interested in commenting on it here. I would also encourage people to send this on to teams and people that they think might be interested in helping to spread good quizbowl, but aren't sure where to begin. Here's the text [formatting and lin...
by cchiego
Fri Jul 10, 2015 12:07 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The State of Good Quizbowl, State-by-State
Replies: 61
Views: 51501

Re: The State of Good Quizbowl, State-by-State

There are multiple issues with VA and VHSL that kept me from giving it a higher grade. First, I had a very hard time finding results from anything less than state in VHSL, where it looked like there were very small pools that actually determined the championships and didn't seem to necessarily indic...
by cchiego
Thu Jul 09, 2015 2:18 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The State of Good Quizbowl, State-by-State
Replies: 61
Views: 51501

Re: The State of Good Quizbowl, State-by-State

Does this make Arkansas/Kansas/Wyoming the axis of evil? Although I don't really see a difference between Montana and Wyoming here. Frenchtown (MT) hosted two NAQT tournaments, although the stats are oddly reported . The official state and regional tournaments for Montana though appear to be fully ...
by cchiego
Thu Jul 09, 2015 12:23 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The State of Good Quizbowl, State-by-State
Replies: 61
Views: 51501

Re: The State of Good Quizbowl, State-by-State

A quick check by region (with 1 for F, 12 for A, etc.) shows the following: South Average: 7.2 South Median: C+ West Average: 3.8 West Median: D+ Midwest Average: 7.6 Midwest Median: B- Northeast Average: 6.3 Northeast Median: C+ US Average: 5.92 US Median: C I have no plans to include non-states in...
by cchiego
Thu Jul 09, 2015 9:22 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The State of Good Quizbowl, State-by-State
Replies: 61
Views: 51501

Re: The State of Good Quizbowl, State-by-State

Edited to add information about Michigan and South Dakota, resulting in a change to South Dakota's rating from D- to C-. Any additional helpful information is appreciated!
by cchiego
Wed Jul 08, 2015 11:30 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The State of Good Quizbowl, State-by-State
Replies: 61
Views: 51501

The State of Good Quizbowl, State-by-State

As a way of offering a rough benchmark for the state of good quizbowl across the United States and to encourage outreach across the country, I present the 2015 State of Quizbowl. Many people from good quizbowl-deficient states may not realize just how bad the situation is in their states. On the oth...
by cchiego
Mon Jul 06, 2015 2:13 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: A thought on outreach
Replies: 1
Views: 2166

Re: A thought on outreach

This post is something I discussed with Mike at NSC a bit and I'm pleased to see him bringing it up here on the forums. Two points that I'd like to add on to this: Finding their specific motivation could help with a targeted approach. I fully agree and want to emphasize how important local knowledge...
by cchiego
Tue Jun 23, 2015 3:16 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Pennsylvania Dates, 2015-2016
Replies: 20
Views: 8707

Re: Pennsylvania Dates, 2015-2016

Penn will claim Nov. 21st for our mirror of CALI (tournament title and post forthcoming). We are aware of both the Nov. 14th tournament at Henderson and the Nov. 21st Bloomfield claim, but Penn Bowl and other scheduling demands limit our availability for any other dates. We also will host QuAC in it...
by cchiego
Thu Jun 18, 2015 11:32 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Resetting [pt. 4 of 6]: The Quizbowl-NHBB Relationship
Replies: 46
Views: 26069

Re: Resetting [pt. 4 of 6]: The Quizbowl-NHBB Relationship

I also had high hopes for NHBB as a boon for quizbowl when it first emerged a few years ago. There was a lot of potential for a mutually beneficial outreach effort across the country to bring more quality academic competitions into more schools. But other than a few scattered success stories (which ...
by cchiego
Fri Jun 12, 2015 8:44 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Resetting [pt. 2 of 6]: How Much Quizbowl Does a Man Need?
Replies: 24
Views: 14323

Re: Resetting [pt. 2 of 6]: How Much Quizbowl Does a Man Nee

Perhaps, if teams were to work together, a team that had less money would get to host tournaments that naturally draw bigger crowds (like a novice set, for example) while a richer team could host a tournament with a more niche audience (an SCT mirror or HFT, for example). The problem is a lot of ne...
by cchiego
Fri Jun 12, 2015 4:21 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Resetting [pt. 2 of 6]: How Much Quizbowl Does a Man Need?
Replies: 24
Views: 14323

Re: Resetting [pt. 2 of 6]: How Much Quizbowl Does a Man Nee

This is a good post. But based on the incentives, I don't see these problems getting resolved next year or in the future. What's more, lot of state-specific writing work (e.g. for VHSL, Masonics, OAC, etc.) is reduplicative, and could be streamlined by use of a single State Championships set of the ...
by cchiego
Tue Jun 09, 2015 2:01 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: San Diego Academic League
Replies: 19
Views: 12438

Re: San Diego Academic League

The admission fee rule applies to "spectators." The $60 that the city league charges for a school to compete is actually a lot less than what some of the other leagues charge.
by cchiego
Tue Jun 09, 2015 12:08 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: San Diego Academic League
Replies: 19
Views: 12438

Re: San Diego Academic League

The post Dwight referenced above is a classic. Also check out the Ken Jennings post that was the source of considerable embarrassment at the time to AL. Eddie Kim and I did a pretty comprehensive breakdown of all the flaws of the AL questions here and here and here a couple of years ago. At this poi...
by cchiego
Mon Jun 08, 2015 6:53 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2015 nAC
Replies: 28
Views: 14053

Re: 2015 nAC

According to this , Coronado High (El Paso, which plays most of its tournaments on NAQT sets) won the overall. From Twitter, it sounds like they may have beaten Lusher in the finals, who in turn beat Bishop Kelley (OK). There's also this great quote: This win makes the Coronado High team the undispu...
by cchiego
Mon Jun 08, 2015 12:21 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Immediate Corrections to Answers
Replies: 1
Views: 2690

Immediate Corrections to Answers

Reading at the NSC this year was the first time that I encountered the "immediate correction" rule for answers (Rule H.2 in PACE's official rules). This rule is a bad idea and in light of rumors that this might be spreading to other formats, I thought I'd explain how this rule ended up pla...
by cchiego
Wed Jun 03, 2015 7:07 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Discussion of press coverage of HSNCT/quizbowl events
Replies: 19
Views: 9914

Re: Discussion of press coverage of HSNCT/quizbowl events

It seems unlikely that a quizbowler-run website would generate content that's at all interesting to people outside of the activity. It also seems unlikely that anyone would regularly contribute to such a venture if it were a volunteer thing; writing unpaid content for a backwater quizbowl site seem...
by cchiego
Wed Jun 03, 2015 2:46 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Discussion of press coverage of HSNCT/quizbowl events
Replies: 19
Views: 9914

Re: 2015 NAQT HSNCT: Congratulations Arcadia!

If we want to promote quizbowl, then we should take a 21st century approach and put together a website whose primary purpose is to promote quizbowl. It should look nice and have good videos, pictures, and announcements that lots of quizbowl people would want to share with their friends, families, a...
by cchiego
Tue Jun 02, 2015 2:07 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2015 nAC
Replies: 28
Views: 14053

Re: 2015 nAC

Try this link if the above doesn't work. The key quote: The team, made up of seventh- and ninth-graders, made it to the finals. But soon into the game, the students spoke up, unprompted, after realizing they recognized some of the questions being posed, their coach later told the players' parents in...
by cchiego
Tue Jun 02, 2015 12:05 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Discussion of press coverage of HSNCT/quizbowl events
Replies: 19
Views: 9914

Re: 2015 NAQT HSNCT: Congratulations Arcadia!

On a perhaps unrelated note, I believe it's time for NAQT to formally invite some number of (unobtrusive) journalists to cover the largest quiz bowl tournament in history. NAQT is losing major opportunities for good quiz bowl PR by not pursuing this. I'm not going to pretend to understand the logis...
by cchiego
Mon May 18, 2015 9:38 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Georgia 15-16
Replies: 8
Views: 5465

Re: Georgia 15-16

Mitch, it's not just for rankings purposes--when the HSNCT and NSC draws are being set up, it's hard to accurately seed teams if you have few or no accurate PPB stats on them. Individual stats can also be a useful way to figure out why a team didn't have a good performance and discount it accordingl...
by cchiego
Thu May 14, 2015 1:06 am
Forum: New High School Teams
Topic: Need help convincing my coach to get us to tournaments
Replies: 19
Views: 11096

Re: Need help convincing my coach to get us to tournaments

I like that idea, that could work. from there, we could rent a van/charter a bus/ yadayadayada, i assume? You could definitely use that $$ from hosting to help ease the cost of transportation and entry fees. It's also always good to be able to show the board/your principal that you're putting in th...
by cchiego
Thu May 14, 2015 12:52 am
Forum: New High School Teams
Topic: Need help convincing my coach to get us to tournaments
Replies: 19
Views: 11096

Re: Need help convincing my coach to get us to tournaments

One of the neat things about quizbowl is that you can raise a lot of money for it by hosting quizbowl tournaments. I'm not sure of what the calender for NY looks like next year, but there are probably at least a few good dates that you could host on that wouldn't conflict with other annual tournamen...
by cchiego
Thu May 14, 2015 12:25 am
Forum: New High School Teams
Topic: Need help convincing my coach to get us to tournaments
Replies: 19
Views: 11096

Re: Need help convincing my coach to get us to tournaments

It sounds like your school may be one of those with stricter guidelines than most, but there still should be ways to go through the proper procedures to allow you to travel. Your coach might want to ask the sports coaches or other extracurricular sponsors at your school what they do since they may h...
by cchiego
Wed May 13, 2015 11:12 pm
Forum: Middle school area archives
Topic: Team Going to 2015 NAC, Should I Be Worried?
Replies: 7
Views: 5384

Re: Team Going to 2015 NAC, Should I Be Worried?

That QB Wiki article hasn't been updated with some of the more recent shenanigans. Here's what one of the moderators at the 2013 NAC had to say: After my experience at the DC phase of the NAC this weekend, as well as some thoughtful contemplation of the sentiments and arguments that I have read on t...
by cchiego
Thu May 07, 2015 7:42 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Subject Rankings Thread
Replies: 36
Views: 12311

Re: Subject Rankings Thread

Will H-M definitely goes up there for social science. For sure, along with Chris Chiego. In my limited experience, most of the usual suspect top-level generalists are solid at the subject as well. Nah. I've gotten the occasional good buzz in those areas based on research methods or the very rare po...
by cchiego
Wed Apr 22, 2015 10:04 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The Good Quizbowl Media Strategy (or lack thereof)
Replies: 34
Views: 25034

Re: The Good Quizbowl Media Strategy (or lack thereof)

Here's basically the ideal pre-nationals quizbowl team profile : nice picture with trophies, relevant info about the national tournaments, nice quotes from the kids, and some understanding on the reporter's part about what the game is like. More teams and coaches should make an effort to get in touc...
by cchiego
Tue Apr 21, 2015 8:22 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: On Introducing Good Quizbowl
Replies: 10
Views: 6315

Re: On Introducing Good Quizbowl

You do need to let them know up front that the questions will be a bit different, but this is also your chance to point out how cool pyramidal questions are. Make sure to emphasize the "all teams of all levels can play on these questions" and "rewarding players for learning" part...
by cchiego
Mon Apr 13, 2015 2:47 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2015 NAQT Colorado State: April 11, Fairview HS, Boulder
Replies: 4
Views: 6240

Re: 2015 NAQT Colorado State: April 11, Fairview HS, Boulder

This is awesome and a huge achievement. Fairview especially should be congratulated and lauded for hosting (I had heard Grand Junction kept planning on doing an NAQT tournament years ago, but I don't think it ever materialized). If only more quizbowlers in bad QB areas would do this! How aware are t...
by cchiego
Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:05 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Question-specific discussion: 2015 Division I ICT
Replies: 27
Views: 7566

Re: Question-specific discussion: 2015 Division I ICT

Could the "not-WPA" thing on the Writers Project be posted?
by cchiego
Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:02 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2015 ICT: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback
Replies: 23
Views: 7341

Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback

I also enjoyed the Searchers TU. The shot in the door (framing) seems like a legit film-ish clue too. I wrote 30 questions for this year's ICT, mostly in history and geography. This was the first time I've ever written anything this difficult, so I'm very interested in hearing people's thoughts on m...
by cchiego
Mon Mar 30, 2015 10:31 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The Good Quizbowl Media Strategy (or lack thereof)
Replies: 34
Views: 25034

Re: The Good Quizbowl Media Strategy (or lack thereof)

Clearly the only important national "quiz bowl" championship that occurred last weekend was in Torrance, CA.

Once again, good QB seems to have no national media strategy/angle/"in."
by cchiego
Sun Mar 01, 2015 2:39 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Improving a Team (For Coaches)
Replies: 9
Views: 7131

Improving a Team (For Coaches)

One lacuna in good quizbowl resources is advice targeted to coaches. While there's a decent amount of information out there on how to improve as a player, there's very little in-depth guidance for how to be a good coach. The few pieces I've found are good, but often lacking in specifics. In fact, mo...
by cchiego
Sun Feb 08, 2015 3:43 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2015 SCT: Trash
Replies: 16
Views: 5017

2015 SCT: Trash

Let's seriously reconsider doing trash from before the 1990s, if not the 2000s. And even in the trash that's recent, do it on things people have universally heard of and which might have some sort of general pop culture value. If you do it on some in-joke that only devoted fans of a show will know, ...
by cchiego
Thu Dec 04, 2014 11:06 pm
Forum: Middle school area archives
Topic: Information for HHS Middle School Scholar's Bowl
Replies: 3
Views: 2910

Re: Information for HHS Middle School Scholar's Bowl

This is great to see. Have you contacted the Memphis area teams? I think that Schilling Farms, White Station, and St. George's all have middle school teams with some degree of organization and I suspect there may be a few others as well (I think ECS was looking to start a team at some point?). I don...
by cchiego
Tue Dec 02, 2014 4:10 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: CSWIFT, Charter School of Wilmington (DE)-1/24/15 [DATE CHG]
Replies: 7
Views: 5084

Re: CSWIFT, Charter School of Wilmington (DE)-1/24/15 [DATE

Public service announcement: Don't do this, people! Claiming dates and then backing off creates confusion among newer teams and takes dates from teams looking for weekends to host. This is something like the 3rd or 4th time this year that Charter team members have publicly posted a date for a tourna...
by cchiego
Thu Nov 20, 2014 7:44 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: SWAG: The Ron Smith Experience" at Webb in Bell Buckle, TN
Replies: 5
Views: 5811

Re: SWAG: The Ron Smith Experience" at Webb in Bell Buckle,

the worksheet round allows even the greenest of teams to at least score a few points. Well-written pyramidal questions combined with rebracketed playoff rounds based on prelim results allow the greenest of teams to score at least a few points, have more competitive matches, and avoid having matches...
by cchiego
Mon Nov 10, 2014 4:24 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Audience Member - how to introduce better QB?
Replies: 6
Views: 4399

Re: Audience Member - how to introduce better QB?

Where is this particular league? Some areas may be easier to change than others depending on who runs it and nearby good qb options.
by cchiego
Tue Sep 30, 2014 3:20 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Tennessee '14-'15
Replies: 28
Views: 16071

Re: Tennessee '14-'15

There are many unique things about TN tournaments even in the year 2014. Look no further than the continuance of single-elim playoffs pretty much everywhere, AUK tournaments in Memphis, Middle TN tournaments using 16 TU rounds (although this isn't limited to TN either, alas), the use of total points...
by cchiego
Fri Sep 26, 2014 12:20 pm
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: I found the creator of Vanderbilt ABC
Replies: 6
Views: 10548

Re: I found the creator of Vanderbilt ABC

Awesome. I would be very interested in the history of Tennessee hs quizbowl in general and especially if west TN used to have more presence in the rest of the state. Also, how did ABC end up attracting so many far flung teams? Some kind of marketing or word of mouth?
by cchiego
Mon Sep 22, 2014 10:38 pm
Forum: New High School Teams
Topic: New Team Practice Strategies
Replies: 1
Views: 4284

Re: New Team Practice Strategies

For a new team and mostly inexperienced members, simulated games are probably a good thing. What players need more than anything at the start is just to be exposed to questions from different tournaments and start to realize what clues and answers are most likely to come up ("the quizbowl canon...
by cchiego
Mon Sep 22, 2014 6:31 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: ERHS Quizbowl Tournament; Greenbelt MD; (9/27/14)
Replies: 12
Views: 7883

Re: ERHS Quizbowl Tournament; Greenbelt MD; (9/27/14)

This is sad to see; GPQB could probably help y'all with PR next time if you announce the tournament further in advance. It looks like many teams that would've been closer to this location had already committed to Princeton since that was announced during the summer and a lot of schools need to make ...
by cchiego
Fri Sep 12, 2014 1:52 am
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: The Big Vision: [6] Growing staff, teams, coaches, & writers
Replies: 9
Views: 14545

Re: The Big Vision: [6] Growing staff, teams, coaches, & wri

This is an interesting video about knowledge bowl in Minnesota. The most relevant part comes from about 15:45 to 16:15 when the presenter talks about why he prefers knowledge bowl over quiz bowl. Alas, the guy in this video represents the kind of stupidity we are up against in far too many parts of...
by cchiego
Fri Sep 12, 2014 1:52 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The Big Vision: [6] Growing staff, teams, coaches, & writers
Replies: 9
Views: 7290

Re: The Big Vision: [6] Growing staff, teams, coaches, & wri

This is an interesting video about knowledge bowl in Minnesota. The most relevant part comes from about 15:45 to 16:15 when the presenter talks about why he prefers knowledge bowl over quiz bowl. Alas, the guy in this video represents the kind of stupidity we are up against in far too many parts of...
by cchiego
Fri Sep 05, 2014 11:53 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The Big Vision: [2] The "Sales Pitch": Talking Up Quizbowl
Replies: 45
Views: 34115

Re: The Big Vision: [2] The "Sales Pitch": Talking Up Quizbo

Dwight's point about trying to find other entryways into the system than teachers/students is quite true, if hard to accomplish in practice. If you get a line-item in the district budget for quizbowl, it can be neigh-impossible to remove and often leads to more institutional support. If you fund qui...
by cchiego
Fri Sep 05, 2014 11:53 am
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: The Big Vision: [2] The "Sales Pitch": Talking Up Quizbowl
Replies: 45
Views: 45811

Re: The Big Vision: [2] The "Sales Pitch": Talking Up Quizbo

Dwight's point about trying to find other entryways into the system than teachers/students is quite true, if hard to accomplish in practice. If you get a line-item in the district budget for quizbowl, it can be neigh-impossible to remove and often leads to more institutional support. If you fund qui...
by cchiego
Wed Sep 03, 2014 3:43 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: The Big Vision: [5]Resources, Results, Recordings, Reporters
Replies: 9
Views: 15174

Re: The Big Vision: [5]Resources, Results, Recordings, Repor

I'm not sure what the big deal about recording actual matches is. Yes, it is nice, especially from the perspective of current players who want to be immortalized in film or audio. I know I made my family listen to the 2006 ICT DII match that was recorded with my team more times than they ever wanted...
by cchiego
Wed Sep 03, 2014 3:43 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The Big Vision: [5]Resources, Results, Recordings, Reporters
Replies: 9
Views: 7344

Re: The Big Vision: [5]Resources, Results, Recordings, Repor

I'm not sure what the big deal about recording actual matches is. Yes, it is nice, especially from the perspective of current players who want to be immortalized in film or audio. I know I made my family listen to the 2006 ICT DII match that was recorded with my team more times than they ever wanted...
by cchiego
Mon Sep 01, 2014 12:47 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The Big Vision: [9] Re-focusing on the Correct Opponents
Replies: 11
Views: 7291

Re: The Big Vision: [9] Re-focusing on the Correct Opponents

With the proper outreach, good tournaments and eventually competitive circuits could grow rapidly in those areas, and make good quizbowl truly national. So what is the proper outreach to these far-away teams? Who's going to do it? Who's going to follow up on it? We've talked about this for awhile n...
by cchiego
Mon Sep 01, 2014 12:47 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: The Big Vision: [9] Re-focusing on the Correct Opponents
Replies: 11
Views: 15261

Re: The Big Vision: [9] Re-focusing on the Correct Opponents

With the proper outreach, good tournaments and eventually competitive circuits could grow rapidly in those areas, and make good quizbowl truly national. So what is the proper outreach to these far-away teams? Who's going to do it? Who's going to follow up on it? We've talked about this for awhile n...