Search found 756 matches

by cchiego
Sun Aug 31, 2014 7:06 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: The Big Vision: [10] Looking Outside Quizbowl for Ideas?
Replies: 11
Views: 15876

Re: The Big Vision: [10] Looking Outside Quizbowl for Ideas?

Some schools in the South in particular have an academic competition class. Unfortunately, there are some issues with offering one: 1. It often only counts as a "standard" class on a student's transcript, which Honors/AP/IB students don't like having on there. 2. The schools that have it o...
by cchiego
Sun Aug 31, 2014 7:06 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The Big Vision: [10] Looking Outside Quizbowl for Ideas?
Replies: 11
Views: 7814

Re: The Big Vision: [10] Looking Outside Quizbowl for Ideas?

Some schools in the South in particular have an academic competition class. Unfortunately, there are some issues with offering one: 1. It often only counts as a "standard" class on a student's transcript, which Honors/AP/IB students don't like having on there. 2. The schools that have it o...
by cchiego
Sun Aug 31, 2014 2:39 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Pennsylvania date claims, 2014-2015
Replies: 16
Views: 12348

Re: Pennsylvania date claims, 2014-2015

Website and organization name have changed (Greater Philadelphia QuizBowl or GPQB), but Ben Herman and I have finished the first personalized email wave to 112 schools in the Greater Philadelphia area. We've got another 50 or so that we're waiting to get in touch with later this month. Out of these...
by cchiego
Sun Aug 31, 2014 2:11 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: The Big Vision: [3] Rooting out the "Eh, who cares" attitude
Replies: 16
Views: 19758

Re: The Big Vision: [3] Rooting out the "Eh, who cares" atti

Maybe we can start by actually calling out these people for their poor jobs than just alluding to them. There seems to be some unwritten rule in this community that format doesn't matter as long as a tournament runs on pyramidal questions and on time, but quite frankly that's just wrong. When Ezell...
by cchiego
Sun Aug 31, 2014 2:11 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The Big Vision: [3] Rooting out the "Eh, who cares" attitude
Replies: 16
Views: 9640

Re: The Big Vision: [3] Rooting out the "Eh, who cares" atti

Maybe we can start by actually calling out these people for their poor jobs than just alluding to them. There seems to be some unwritten rule in this community that format doesn't matter as long as a tournament runs on pyramidal questions and on time, but quite frankly that's just wrong. When Ezell...
by cchiego
Sun Aug 31, 2014 12:23 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The Big Vision: [3] Rooting out the "Eh, who cares" attitude
Replies: 16
Views: 9640

Re: The Big Vision: [3] Rooting out the "Eh, who cares" atti

I'd like to see what, specifically, we are talking about here. Can you give some examples of "breaches of professionalism" so people in this thread can offer answers to your questions? Here are 5 examples from recent years. In all cases, I'd argue that a tournament wasn't quite as profess...
by cchiego
Sun Aug 31, 2014 12:23 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: The Big Vision: [3] Rooting out the "Eh, who cares" attitude
Replies: 16
Views: 19758

Re: The Big Vision: [3] Rooting out the "Eh, who cares" atti

I'd like to see what, specifically, we are talking about here. Can you give some examples of "breaches of professionalism" so people in this thread can offer answers to your questions? Here are 5 examples from recent years. In all cases, I'd argue that a tournament wasn't quite as profess...
by cchiego
Sun Aug 31, 2014 10:13 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The Big Vision: [3] Rooting out the "Eh, who cares" attitude
Replies: 16
Views: 9640

Re: The Big Vision: [3] Rooting out the "Eh, who cares" atti

I know we tend to understand that maybe winning NAQT State isn't much different than winning Random Invitational X in March or whatever This needs more discussion. In a few states, we have a happy medium where there is a well-regarded state championship tournament on good QB questions (VA of course...
by cchiego
Sun Aug 31, 2014 10:13 am
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: The Big Vision: [3] Rooting out the "Eh, who cares" attitude
Replies: 16
Views: 19758

Re: The Big Vision: [3] Rooting out the "Eh, who cares" atti

I know we tend to understand that maybe winning NAQT State isn't much different than winning Random Invitational X in March or whatever This needs more discussion. In a few states, we have a happy medium where there is a well-regarded state championship tournament on good QB questions (VA of course...
by cchiego
Sat Aug 30, 2014 8:51 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: The Big Vision: [9] Re-focusing on the Correct Opponents
Replies: 11
Views: 15251

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

I mostly agree with and applaud Matt's emphasis on keeping outreach local and doing everything we can to make sure change happens at a local level. However... In reality, Questions Unlimited is more powerless than ever, and likely to stay that way. It’s time to start focusing our efforts on the MANY...
by cchiego
Sat Aug 30, 2014 8:51 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

I mostly agree with and applaud Matt's emphasis on keeping outreach local and doing everything we can to make sure change happens at a local level. However... In reality, Questions Unlimited is more powerless than ever, and likely to stay that way. It’s time to start focusing our efforts on the MANY...
by cchiego
Sat Aug 30, 2014 8:21 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: The Big Vision: [6] Growing staff, teams, coaches, & writers
Replies: 9
Views: 14538

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

Possible tournament hosts who happen to be especially physically close to one another should also talk to each other about the prospect of co-hosting tournaments and splitting the revenue This needs to be emphasized, especially in areas where there is now a surfeit of tournaments that draw just 18-...
by cchiego
Sat Aug 30, 2014 8:21 pm
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

Possible tournament hosts who happen to be especially physically close to one another should also talk to each other about the prospect of co-hosting tournaments and splitting the revenue This needs to be emphasized, especially in areas where there is now a surfeit of tournaments that draw just 18-...
by cchiego
Sat Aug 30, 2014 7:53 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: The Big Vision: [2] The "Sales Pitch": Talking Up Quizbowl
Replies: 45
Views: 45810

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

I fully agree on stimulating intellectual curiosity as the best distillation of the benefits of quizbowl. Unfortunately, I've also seen the very things that we like in quizbowl--that it goes beyond the standard curriculum, that it encourages actually learning specific things--be denigrated by teache...
by cchiego
Sat Aug 30, 2014 7:53 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The Big Vision: [2] The "Sales Pitch": Talking Up Quizbowl
Replies: 45
Views: 34114

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

I fully agree on stimulating intellectual curiosity as the best distillation of the benefits of quizbowl. Unfortunately, I've also seen the very things that we like in quizbowl--that it goes beyond the standard curriculum, that it encourages actually learning specific things--be denigrated by teache...
by cchiego
Wed Aug 27, 2014 8:38 pm
Forum: New High School Teams
Topic: Getting Team Members to Study
Replies: 7
Views: 7896

Re: Getting Team Members to Study

Doing well--and making sure the administration knows you're doing well--can get a school to invest more in your team and raise the prestige of quizbowl within the school. Make sure you get profiled in the school newspaper, the local micronewspaper, the local microblogging site, and everything you ca...
by cchiego
Tue Aug 19, 2014 12:26 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Physical mail examples
Replies: 7
Views: 4969

Re: Physical mail examples

It depends on the region. It wasn't very successful in Southern California when we tried it, but it did bring a couple of new teams immediately to tournaments (out of 60 or so mailed) and, perhaps as importantly, put quiz bowl on the radar at a few schools so when we contacted them in the future the...
by cchiego
Tue Jul 29, 2014 5:28 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Pennsylvania date claims, 2014-2015
Replies: 16
Views: 12348

Re: Pennsylvania date claims, 2014-2015

We'll be keeping track of Eastern PA tournaments as well as tournaments in nearby areas on the new Southeastern Pennsylvania Quizbowl Resource website here . Anything that's posted in this thread or on hsqb should find its way over to this website. It looks like we'll be starting our publicity push ...
by cchiego
Tue Jul 29, 2014 5:09 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2013-14 NAQT IS sets: question-specific discussion
Replies: 34
Views: 13131

Re: 2013-14 NAQT IS sets: question-specific discussion

I doubt a description of the rocks named for the fact they look like chimneys is going to help differentiate between things too much. Even including a mention of the cultural elements within the national monument would have been susceptible to the same reflex-buzz issues: including a mention of kiva...
by cchiego
Mon Jul 07, 2014 1:03 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Giving Answers
Replies: 7
Views: 5026

Re: Giving Answers

It's never a good idea to showboat on answers. I've seen plenty of frustration in the past on people who gave non-English names for paintings or included the wrong middle initial on an answer. That said, remember that phonetic pronunciation is pretty much always acceptable. Many new players have nev...
by cchiego
Fri Jul 04, 2014 7:11 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Giving Answers
Replies: 7
Views: 5026

Re: Giving Answers

if someone's obviously very close but still incorrect, don't say "Sorry, I can't take that" or things of the sort because it essentially gives it away for the other team Granted, the other team could probably figure this out anyways with a regular -5 since the moderator might need to take...
by cchiego
Thu Jul 03, 2014 9:32 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Giving Answers
Replies: 7
Views: 5026

Giving Answers

In light of what I've seen after reading at a number of quiz bowl events over the years, I thought I would add a few things from the perspective of a moderator for players of all abilities (not just less-experienced players) in terms of giving answers. Some of these are commonsense, but may bear rep...
by cchiego
Thu Jul 03, 2014 2:43 pm
Forum: New High School Teams
Topic: New quizbowl team from History Bowl
Replies: 8
Views: 7157

Re: New quizbowl team from History Bowl

And that leads to my second concern: how do I balance history and non-history in team practices? Because if I read regular difficulty quizbowl packets, the history will be much too easy for my team and not much use, but if I read a higher-level packet, the non-history will be too difficult. I would...
by cchiego
Tue Jun 10, 2014 3:05 pm
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: All-time all-state teams
Replies: 61
Views: 53300

Re: All-time all-state teams

It would be a major oversight to leave Seth Kendall (Sullivan South) out of the all-time TN team. His unparalleled classics (although did he ever play the Larsenal?) knowledge would have been quite useful. Seth may also know of other TN people around the mid-90s--I have no idea. There were plenty of...
by cchiego
Mon Jun 09, 2014 2:13 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Tennessee '14-'15
Replies: 28
Views: 16071

Tennessee '14-'15

At the state level, Farragut should romp through the state next year with the 1-2 punch of Kai and Daniel plus whomever else steps up in the 3rd and 4th slots. Ezell will fall off (though I suspect they'll be rebuilding) after a dream season this year (the best season a TN team has had since the old...
by cchiego
Wed Jun 04, 2014 9:55 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2014 HSNCT Consolation Rounds Discussion
Replies: 13
Views: 8366

Re: 2014 HSNCT Consolation Rounds Discussion

What would happen if you awarded a trophy to the winner of the consolation tournament? I've always thought the idea of a consolation tournament "winner" was kind of silly. It makes sense to play more for placement (finishing 50-70th in the country vs 150th-170th is kind of a big differenc...
by cchiego
Wed Jun 04, 2014 12:39 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Power Matching
Replies: 17
Views: 6119

Re: Power Matching

We believe that many teams would be unwilling to stick around for such tiebreaker games. Better to differentiate 5-5 teams via some measure of quizbowl skill (pptuh) rather than differentiate by "which team forfeited to go see the Art Institute." I don't think so and I hope that NAQT soli...
by cchiego
Mon Jun 02, 2014 4:41 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Power Matching
Replies: 17
Views: 6119

Re: Power Matching

Why not do something better than just the meaningless consolation rounds on Sunday? Why not have a way to differentiate between the 5-5 and 6-5 (first round playoff loss) teams with 2 or 3 more rounds? Perhaps they can't be part of the double elim playoffs, but between 10 AM and 12 PM it seems like ...
by cchiego
Mon Jun 02, 2014 1:23 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Moderators at HSNCT
Replies: 36
Views: 11954

Moderators at HSNCT

I had never before experienced the HSNCT from a coach's perspective and I was rather disappointed by the quality of the moderation that I saw on the whole. One moderator was barely able to get through 16 tossups and kept mispronouncing and tripping over words while speeding up and slowing down in a ...
by cchiego
Mon Jun 02, 2014 1:03 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The logistics of future HSNCTs
Replies: 15
Views: 7248

Re: The logistics of future HSNCTs

Listen to Pinyan here. It is an enormous logistical undertaking to have to fly or travel 8+ hours for most schools. I'm sure some schools have the experience and flexibility with admin to do it, but I'm pretty sure most of the field would not. Keep it as one site (or, split it up between sites in th...
by cchiego
Sun May 25, 2014 11:53 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Tennessee '13-'14
Replies: 120
Views: 70568

Re: Tennessee '13-'14

Congrats Kai et. al.! That's an impressive performance. And it seems like everyone from Farragut comes back next year.... Oak Ridge also deserves credit for buttressing their high national rankings throughout the year with a solid overall performance. Also, I am now going to predict that White Stati...
by cchiego
Fri May 23, 2014 8:40 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2014 nAC
Replies: 27
Views: 12437

Re: 2014 nAC

Typical ChipField. No new areas and a lot of reliance on old standbys trapped by educratic politics. The poor state of Arkansas is still enthralled in the bonds of Chipdom. Seems the same for Oklahoma and Nebraska/Colorado. Yet the administrations of these schools will continue to blindly pay for th...
by cchiego
Fri May 23, 2014 6:10 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: So Panasonic is back...
Replies: 32
Views: 20612

Re: So Panasonic is back...

Fisher Catholic is representing Ohio. Tom: was there some kind of financial incentive/sponsorship offered for playing in it? Any indication of the question source? I heard that Jesuit (New Orleans) will be representing Louisiana Why is Jesuit--a perfectly competent team on good quizbowl questions a...
by cchiego
Sun May 18, 2014 11:41 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Mississippi 2013-14
Replies: 20
Views: 5187

Re: Mississippi 2013-14

There's really no need to put one's self through writing all those questions--even writing a whole tournament of speed checks is a lot to do by one's self! Good, accessible pyramidal tournaments can be found to mirror for as little as $10 a team (the SCOP novice set for instance would be perfect for...
by cchiego
Sun May 18, 2014 2:37 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Mississippi 2013-14
Replies: 20
Views: 5187

Re: Mississippi 2013-14

Avery--It's good to see someone from Madison Central on the boards. Jackson is a little isolated from other nearby SE circuits, but it's certainly drivable to Memphis, Tuscaloosa/Birmingham, and the burgeoning NOLA circuit. Y'all and other Jackson-area teams like Murrah and Clinton would certainly b...
by cchiego
Tue May 06, 2014 8:59 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Tennessee '13-'14
Replies: 120
Views: 70568

Re: Tennessee '13-'14

Raghav from Lausanne (winner of the West TN JV Bee) actually did pretty well at the JV History Bee too finishing 23rd. Now to figure out how to get Lausanne to actually come to regular tournaments. I'd say 5-5 and 3-7 is about right for us at HSNCT. Our B team is improving faster than our A team tho...
by cchiego
Sun Apr 27, 2014 11:46 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: How successful has NHBB been at promoting regular quizbowl?
Replies: 18
Views: 7773

Re: How successful has NHBB been at promoting regular quizbo

western Tennessee There were 5 pyramidal quizbowl tournaments and 1 History Bowl tournament this year in West TN. While I do appreciate the geographic breadth of History Bowl, most of these tournaments in non-good-QB areas like WY, CO, NE, etc. are tiny and attract a small fraction of those teams w...
by cchiego
Sun Apr 27, 2014 10:53 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NHBB TV
Replies: 7
Views: 3738

Re: NHBB TV

This is a superb idea and the interviews were surprisingly (to me) insightful. A few cosmetic changes (lighting during the interviews is often off), better audio during the matches, and perhaps some more faster-paced editing and this is a great product for marketing to new teams and rewarding curren...
by cchiego
Sun Apr 20, 2014 10:18 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Tennessee '13-'14
Replies: 120
Views: 70568

Re: Tennessee '13-'14

The HS part of the WSHS tournament went off fine as well although the field was rather depleted. There's still an unfortunate tendency for teams to "shut down" after they lose on the Knowledge Bowl TV tournament and I wish there were more events that could induce teams to keep playing in t...
by cchiego
Sat Apr 19, 2014 5:19 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: How to Study American History
Replies: 21
Views: 9654

Re: How to Study American History

One book I have has pages of political cartoons, newspaper drawings of major events, and portraits of people from each presidential administration. It's from 1958 (so I'm pretty sure it's out of print), but it's been a gold mine of information on US history because of all the amusing contemporary im...
by cchiego
Mon Apr 14, 2014 7:47 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Where Are You Going Next Year? [Collegiate edition, 2014]
Replies: 34
Views: 14074

Re: Where Are You Going Next Year? [Collegiate edition, 2014

Going to UPenn to finish up the PhD in polisci. Will certainly help read/staff in the area. May play selectively.
by cchiego
Sun Apr 13, 2014 11:11 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: It's Academic discussion
Replies: 105
Views: 53578

Re: It's Academic discussion

Texas, Illinois, California, Georgia, and Missouri all lack regular "It's Academic"-style shows on TV. NorCal has Quiz Kids and SoCal has Academic League. Georgia also has Hi-Q. My experience is that many TV show teams tend to be "once-a-year," if even that, attendees at regular...
by cchiego
Sat Apr 05, 2014 7:09 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Red Devil Bowl @ Germantown HS (Germantown, TN) 4/5/14
Replies: 2
Views: 2133

Re: Red Devil Bowl @ Germantown HS (Germantown, TN) 4/5/14

Congratulations to Houston A for winning the 2014 Red Devil Bowl with an undefeated record after a narrow 315-295 win in the championship bracket over the eventual runner-up, White Station A. Itawamba A took 3rd after a strong 200-pt victory over the 4th-place finisher, MUS A. Itawamba B and MUS B r...
by cchiego
Tue Mar 04, 2014 4:56 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Montana - Torch Bowl Tourney
Replies: 10
Views: 3321

Re: Montana - Torch Bowl Tourney

Also, I understand people's feelings for the NAC, and I hope next year we can qualify for people for the other tournaments, but as it is, this is the first year of Torch Bowl. As it stands, time is running out, and we may not have the time to become an NAQT or NSC qualifier. This makes no sense. NA...
by cchiego
Sun Mar 02, 2014 11:03 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Tennessee '13-'14
Replies: 120
Views: 70568

Re: Tennessee '13-'14

I received an email informing me that voting was open for an all-state team. Unfortunately, a number of excellent players were left off the list. Here would be my ballot for an all-state team: 1. Kai (Farragut) - While not quite a one-man team, Farragut's success at tournaments this year is even mor...
by cchiego
Mon Feb 17, 2014 3:55 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: What are the main criticisms of pyramidal Quizbowl?
Replies: 36
Views: 10801

Re: What are the main criticisms of pyramidal Quizbowl?

For what it's worth, the mailings Chip is sending out to HS teams now advertise that NAC is "100% Pyramidal." Apparently, the loss of much of his financial base has changed his philosophy, though I suspect his idea of pyramidal is closer to the bad pyramidal that Magin describes above. Cri...
by cchiego
Thu Feb 13, 2014 11:37 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Red Devil Bowl @ Germantown HS (Germantown, TN) 4/5/14
Replies: 2
Views: 2133

Red Devil Bowl @ Germantown HS (Germantown, TN) 4/5/14

The Germantown High School Knowledge Bowl team is pleased to announce the Red Devil Bowl, our spring tournament, to be held on April 5th at GHS' lovely campus in Germantown, TN. We look forward to welcoming a wide-ranging field from across the Mid-South area and beyond to Germantown this spring and ...
by cchiego
Sun Feb 09, 2014 1:50 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Tennessee '13-'14
Replies: 120
Views: 70568

Re: Tennessee '13-'14

With Vanderbilt on the horizon providing what will essentially be the first tournament in quite some time where multiple teams from every region of TN are represented, it might be a nice time to check in with the different regions. Houston is probably the best team in West TN still, with impressive ...
by cchiego
Sat Jan 25, 2014 8:57 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: GATT (Germantown TN, 1/25/14)
Replies: 5
Views: 3515

Re: GATT (Germantown TN, 1/25/14)

24 teams from West TN came out to the first-ever housewrite mirror in the region for a great day of solid competition. Varsity featured 14 teams divided into two prelim pools and was played on JAMES. After 7 prelim rounds (with 1 bye round match that was not recorded), 6 teams advanced to the champi...
by cchiego
Sat Jan 18, 2014 7:39 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Tennessee '13-'14
Replies: 120
Views: 70568

Re: Tennessee '13-'14

Bolton's tournament happened today on IS-133A.

1. MUS A
2. White Station A
3. Houston A
4. Germantown A

Full stats including both the scoring system Bolton used and regular scoring will be forthcoming in a week or so once I get a chance to enter the scoresheets into SQBS.