Search found 756 matches

by cchiego
Mon May 07, 2012 9:17 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Metro areas without enough good high school quizbowl
Replies: 55
Views: 17070

Re: Metro areas without enough good high school quizbowl

I like this idea Charlie, but I'm not sure what you mean by "quizbowl-deficient." A number of the places you mentioned have several good teams and a number of less-active teams. They may be more disconnected from the quizbowl mainstream, but there are certainly tournaments in the area for ...
by cchiego
Thu May 03, 2012 7:28 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Article in Slate about ACF Nationals
Replies: 32
Views: 12062

Re: Article in Slate about ACF Nationals

Pretty good overall. The Danticat digression was useful in illustrating the conflict over triviality though I think the author got a bit too critical towards the end in claiming that "testing for 'real knowledge' is impossible." The brief history of College Bowl's demise was pretty funny. ...
by cchiego
Thu May 03, 2012 4:09 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Triton Spring II (5/19/2012)
Replies: 24
Views: 10873

Re: Triton Spring II (5/19/2012)

Bellarmine hasn't been able to confirm yet because we need to work out travel with our school. How many teams would need to join the waitlist before you would expand the field? Field expansion is a matter of resources, not desire; I'd like nothing more than to run a 42-team tournament. Unfortunatel...
by cchiego
Wed May 02, 2012 11:56 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Triton Spring II (5/19/2012)
Replies: 24
Views: 10873

Re: Triton Spring II @ UCSD (5/19/2012)

Effective immediately: -For all teams who have not yet emailed us of their intentions, we will be limiting each school to 1 team each. We will start a "B team waitlist" for these schools' B teams. -The number of players on each team has been raised to 6 rather than 5. Up to four players wi...
by cchiego
Mon Apr 30, 2012 11:51 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Triton Spring II (5/19/2012)
Replies: 24
Views: 10873

Re: Triton Spring II @ UCSD (5/19/2012)

We're now halfway full with our field. We've got lots of new teams, but a number of the usual suspects have yet to sign up. We only have 24 spots unless we miraculously get more rooms or mods, so I'd encourage any interested teams in the area to get your registrations in sooner rather than later.
by cchiego
Wed Apr 25, 2012 11:34 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Southern California Discussion 2011-2012
Replies: 5
Views: 2398

Re: Southern California Discussion 2011-2012

I'll necro this thread here with an update seeing as there's been little other discussion here. I just had a very informative meeting with the East County (Grossmont) Academic League this week. Although the meeting went well, there were no guarantees of changes other than another promise for a gradu...
by cchiego
Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:57 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Westview Novice Tournament - San Diego, CA (22 Apr 2012)
Replies: 8
Views: 4966

Re: Westview Novice Tournament - San Diego, CA (22 Apr 2012)

Del Norte (2) <- Newish Team San Dieguito (3) <-Newish Team Mt. Carmel (3) <- Totally New Team Nice job getting a number of newish/new teams to come. Hopefully some of the other usual suspects will sign up too... and have their non-novice members come read instead of play. I'll be there to read.
by cchiego
Sun Apr 08, 2012 4:04 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals prediction thread
Replies: 48
Views: 11489

Re: ACF Nationals prediction thread

That loser Auroni, beating Harvard and barely losing a tiebreaker to UVA for the top bracket! And getting the last 3 TUs to make up a 100 point deficit in the last 2 minutes to beat Penn. Such a choker. Due to a series of unfortunate events for myself and other obligations for others, we likely won...
by cchiego
Sun Apr 08, 2012 12:40 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Triton Spring II (5/19/2012)
Replies: 24
Views: 10873

Re: Triton Spring II @ UCSD (5/19/2012)

Bumping this with a field update. We've gotten some interest from out-of-area teams, but haven't yet heard from the usual suspects. We'll send out a reminder in late April. Field Update (5/17): FIELD CLOSED Advanced Tech (1) Torrey Pines (2) Scripps Ranch (1) Chadwick (1) San Dieguito (1) North Holl...
by cchiego
Tue Apr 03, 2012 1:18 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT Seeding
Replies: 11
Views: 4349

Re: ICT Seeding

There are a number of issues with the current tiebreak and seeding procedures that could stand to be improved. First the tiebreaks: The NAQT distribution is already skewed from being a tournament-wide distribution rather than a by-packet distribution. Playing only 12 and 12 increases the chances of ...
by cchiego
Tue Mar 20, 2012 6:57 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The Art of the Cold Call: Contacting High School Teams
Replies: 15
Views: 4249

Re: The Art of the Cold Call: Contacting High School Teams

Try this: Call up school's office. "Hello, do you happen to know who the Academic Team Coach or Sponsor is? If not, can you look it up?" If Yes: "Great! Can you get me his/her email? Thanks! And can you give me his/her extension? Thank you." If No: "Ah okay, do you happen to...
by cchiego
Wed Mar 14, 2012 2:29 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Southern California Date Claim 2011-2012
Replies: 45
Views: 14049

Re: Southern California Date Claim 2011-2012

There are still a few available dates if any schools are thinking about hosting. If schools need help with hosting, please let us know sooner rather than later so we can help out with tournament organization and ensure a good experience for all teams. Also, I've updated my rankings for SoCal just in...
by cchiego
Sat Mar 03, 2012 2:48 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Southern California Date Claim 2011-2012
Replies: 45
Views: 14049

Re: Southern California Date Claim 2011-2012

With Irvine giving up their claim for May 19th, we've moved in to claim that for Triton Spring. This opens up the 12th for any teams considering.
by cchiego
Fri Mar 02, 2012 6:28 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Triton Spring II (5/19/2012)
Replies: 24
Views: 10873

Re: Triton Spring II @ UCSD (5/12/2012)

Since mere hours after this was posted Irvine informed us that they were moving their date to April, we'll now look into trying to do it on the 19th.
by cchiego
Thu Mar 01, 2012 9:47 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Triton Spring II (5/19/2012)
Replies: 24
Views: 10873

Triton Spring II (5/19/2012)

EDITED: Updated date to 19th instead of 12th. The quizbowl team of UCSD is pleased to announce our second edition of Triton Spring, to be held on May 19th. Questions : We will be mirroring Yale's BHSAT set, which has received good reviews in past iterations and is noted for its "often-entertain...
by cchiego
Tue Feb 28, 2012 7:26 pm
Forum: New High School Teams
Topic: Learning Geography
Replies: 16
Views: 10574

Re: Learning Geography

I've had success with the map approach and the physical extremities approach, but what you need to do is start asking "why" to everything you see and read. Why does this mountain range exist? That peninsula looks funny- I wonder who lives on it? This border is weird, I wonder if there's a ...
by cchiego
Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:22 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Southern California Date Claim 2011-2012
Replies: 45
Views: 14049

Re: Southern California Date Claim 2011-2012

After some discussion, UCSD will stick with our May 12th date claim. We understand that it's in the middle of APs, but it also seems to be devoid of other events and we'll try to accommodate teams getting more sleep by moving back the start time. At this point, we will try to use BHSAT but may add a...
by cchiego
Sun Feb 26, 2012 11:15 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Prelim and Combined Stats on SQBS
Replies: 4
Views: 2648

Prelim and Combined Stats on SQBS

Now that many tournaments feature some kind of prelim rounds/afternoon rebracketing, I've noticed a number of posts about difficulties in trying to merge two SQBS files. Trying to merge two separate files is usually a pain due to inconsistent player or team names, so I've learned to do the following...
by cchiego
Sun Feb 26, 2012 11:04 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Carnal Embrace VI at Arcadia High School (2/20/12)
Replies: 29
Views: 8641

Re: Carnal Embrace VI at Arcadia High School (2/20/12)

I've heard NoHo A beat Canyon Crest A in the final (though Canyon Crest had beaten NoHo earlier in the day) and that University may have finished behind them. Torrey Pines was not there and La Jolla was missing its best players.

Stats would be wonderful to have though too.
by cchiego
Sat Feb 25, 2012 8:51 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Southern California Date Claim 2011-2012
Replies: 45
Views: 14049

Re: Southern California Date Claim 2011-2012

The will be no West Coast Invitational. I thought that had been made clear a number of times, but apparently it hasn't sunk in yet. I know both Canyon Crest and Westview are in the market for hosting tournaments in April or May. UCSD will likely host another too. It would be great if people would be...
by cchiego
Sat Feb 25, 2012 8:46 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: RM+TP Housewrite available for Mirrors!
Replies: 42
Views: 16316

Re: RM+TP Housewrite available for Mirrors!

I just read this set today and this iteration wasn't horrible. In fact, the first few rounds were actually pretty good and kept the difficulty nicely under control. Later rounds suffered from a bit more variation in bonus difficulty (as well as length- some were 6 lines total while others were 12-13...
by cchiego
Tue Feb 21, 2012 10:40 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Southern California Date Claim 2011-2012
Replies: 45
Views: 14049

Re: Southern California Date Claim 2011-2012

La Jolla has won the bid for the SoCal state championships. They will be hosting it on March 10th at La Jolla High. More details to come at SoCalQB.
by cchiego
Mon Feb 20, 2012 11:06 pm
Forum: New High School Teams
Topic: Quiz Bowl's Systemic Failure At Expansion and Recruitment
Replies: 75
Views: 45260

Re: Quiz Bowl's Systemic Failure At Expansion and Recruitment

One a slightly happier note than the rest of this thread, I'm pleased to see that the Texas Invitational produced some of the best-quality picture I've yet seen of quizbowl. This group one is nicely situated and makes the players look both parts professional and entirely normal--these could be stude...
by cchiego
Sun Feb 12, 2012 6:02 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2012 NAQT ICT: March 31, Chicago
Replies: 24
Views: 10150

Re: 2012 NAQT ICT: March 31, Chicago

We'll have a female player at ICT who'd rather not room with men. Any other teams interested in going in on an all-female room, please let us know (ucsdqb at gmail).
by cchiego
Sat Feb 04, 2012 9:37 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Region 15 NAQT SCT at UCSD (2/4/12)
Replies: 9
Views: 3064

Re: Region 15 NAQT SCT at UCSD (2/4/12)

Congratulations to UCSD A(uroni) and Claremont B for winning the DI and DII divisions of the 2012 Region 15 SCT. Claremont B cleared the field by 3 games in DII and Auroni decisively won an advantaged final against Berkeley to claim the championship. Full stats for both divisions: Division I Divisio...
by cchiego
Tue Jan 31, 2012 9:45 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Region 15 NAQT SCT at UCSD (2/4/12)
Replies: 9
Views: 3064

Re: Region 15 NAQT SCT at UCSD (2/4/12)

NAQT has closed registration. If anyone from Arizona State or Caltech reads this, please let me know ASAP what your plans are.

At this point, it looks like 6 teams in each division. We'll see how it shakes out.
by cchiego
Sat Jan 28, 2012 3:11 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Region 15 NAQT SCT at UCSD (2/4/12)
Replies: 9
Views: 3064

Re: Region 15 NAQT SCT at UCSD (2/4/12)

Bumped because there's still a number of teams that have indicated interest but have not registered online. Please do so ASAP so we can plan for number of moderators, etc.
by cchiego
Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:07 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Triton Winter III Jan. 21st @ UCSD
Replies: 8
Views: 2567

Re: Triton Winter III Jan. 21st @ UCSD

Congratulations to Canyon Crest Academy for winning the third-annual Triton Winter Tournament today, breaking Torrey Pines' 5-tournament streak of winning UCSD tournaments. Canyon Crest triumphed by running the table in the prelim, playoffs, and cross-bracketed matches. Also congratulations to North...
by cchiego
Sat Jan 21, 2012 2:24 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Georgia 2011-2012
Replies: 19
Views: 7730

Re: Georgia 2011-2012

Who is Whitefield Academy and what's the story of their rise to QB prominence? Neat to see a new team up there at the top of the brackets. Also nice to see Etowah doing quite well. What's the rest of the news from GA?
by cchiego
Tue Jan 17, 2012 3:34 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Triton Winter III Jan. 21st @ UCSD
Replies: 8
Views: 2567

Re: Triton Winter III Jan. 21st @ UCSD

We have capped the field at 28 teams to enable a workable schedule given our room situation. Teams should expect four groups of seven teams in the prelim rounds followed by a rebracket into groups of five (and one of 3) for the playoffs. There will be two championship brackets that will play crossov...
by cchiego
Tue Jan 17, 2012 12:39 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Outreach Tactic: Phone Calls
Replies: 6
Views: 2086

Re: Outreach Tactic: Phone Calls

E.g.: "By using pyramidal tossups and progressive-difficulty bonuses, we can write on topics that are important in the high school context and accessible to the lower teams, while still distinguishing in a meaningful way between the top teams. That way everyone can play an enjoyable game on on...
by cchiego
Mon Jan 16, 2012 2:48 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Outreach Tactic: Phone Calls
Replies: 6
Views: 2086

Outreach Tactic: Phone Calls

Last week, I tried a different approach to getting in touch with coaches of teams who didn't normally come to our tournaments: phone calls. Though the sample size was small, I'm encouraged by the results thus far which yielded a few registrations and useful information on why some teams weren't atte...
by cchiego
Thu Jan 12, 2012 7:48 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Triton Winter III Jan. 21st @ UCSD
Replies: 8
Views: 2567

Re: Triton Winter III Jan. 21st @ UCSD

Unfortunately Arcadia will not be able to send teams to this tournament since our Science Bowl regional is the same day and we're not going to play devoid of all our science players. There are so few tournaments now (how did we end up hosting 2/3 of all the fall tournaments and almost half of all t...
by cchiego
Sun Jan 08, 2012 8:41 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Improving SoCal's Circuit
Replies: 9
Views: 2583

Re: Improving SoCal's Circuit

Three major suggestions: 1. More tournaments in more locations. There's a huge SD bent to the circuit right now and not surprisingly most of the new teams we've been able to get come from the SD area. Irvine, University, NoHo...y'all gotta step up and host. It also wouldn't hurt if Caltech and the C...
by cchiego
Tue Jan 03, 2012 10:32 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Triton Winter III Jan. 21st @ UCSD
Replies: 8
Views: 2567

Re: Triton Winter III Jan. 21st @ UCSD

Field Update: (as of 1/19) Rancho Alamitos (1) Tustin (2) Torrey Pines (2) Westview (2) La Jolla (3) Irvine (2) Francis Parker (2) Canyon Crest (2) North Hollywood (2) El Capitan (1) Rancho Bernardo (3) Eastlake (1) La Jolla Country Day (1) Southwest (1) Scripps Ranch (???) Newly off the waitlist: ...
by cchiego
Tue Jan 03, 2012 4:02 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Region 15 NAQT SCT at UCSD (2/4/12)
Replies: 9
Views: 3064

Re: Region 15 NAQT SCT at UCSD (2/4/12)

Interested:
ASU (1)
Caltech (1?)

Registered (via the NAQT website):
UCI (2)
Claremont (3)
Riverside (2)
Berkeley (1)
Stanford (1)
House (2-3)

Teams should let us know ASAP if you're planning on coming. We'll have house teams to round out the field as needed.
by cchiego
Thu Dec 29, 2011 9:26 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Southern California Date Claim 2011-2012
Replies: 45
Views: 14049

Re: Southern California Date Claim 2011-2012

Unfortunately, there are lots of conflicts all the time out here. Many San Diego area kids have youth orchestra most Saturdays, there's science bowl and ocean science bowl to consider, etc. What we need are schools to host more tournaments more weekends so that players and teams can pick and choose....
by cchiego
Mon Dec 19, 2011 5:22 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Triton Winter III Jan. 21st @ UCSD
Replies: 8
Views: 2567

Triton Winter III Jan. 21st @ UCSD

(Posting on behalf of Nimish and Andrew) The third Triton Winter Tournament will be held on Saturday January 21st, 2012, most likely at our usual location in HSS. QUESTIONS: The questions will be written by National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC. The set identification number is IS-109. NATIONAL QU...
by cchiego
Sat Dec 17, 2011 1:03 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Distribution
Replies: 60
Views: 13899

Re: ACF Distribution

There's a lot of bad ideas here (though, to be fair, there are some good ones as well). Please don't start tossing up specific orogenies, things like sprites or elves and various other things in this post. Use common sense. The Laramide Orogeny is definitely important enough to be an ACF Nationals ...
by cchiego
Fri Dec 16, 2011 3:57 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Distribution
Replies: 60
Views: 13899

Re: ACF Distribution

A non-exhaustive list of ideas for Earth Science: - Catastrophic glacial floods (and their aftermaths, like coulees) - Flood basalts and other fun things related to volcanism - Various orogenies (Laramide, Grenvile, Sevier, etc.) and other aspects of historical geology besides the time periods - Var...
by cchiego
Mon Nov 14, 2011 7:24 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The High Price of Tournament Attendance
Replies: 3
Views: 1329

Re: The High Price of Tournament Attendance

One additional area I wish more hosts around the country consider is new team and novice tournament pricing. To help brand-new teams get over that initial barrier, you need to be willing to take a hit and have brand-new teams play at-cost (not just a $10 or $20 discount--make it as cheap as possible...
by cchiego
Mon Nov 14, 2011 4:06 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Harvard Fall Tournament VI (11/12/11)
Replies: 164
Views: 67219

Re: Harvard Fall Tournament VI (11/12/11)

you really want to do an activity, you can find an extra $100 for it - and if the whole point of that price increase is to continue to develop the activity, then ultimately, it is for the good of the game. The problem is that every hour spent working for quizbowl funding is less time preparing for ...
by cchiego
Sat Nov 12, 2011 2:52 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Region 15 NAQT SCT at UCSD (2/4/12)
Replies: 9
Views: 3064

Region 15 NAQT SCT at UCSD (2/4/12)

The quizbowl team of UCSD is pleased to announce that we will be hosting the NAQT-ACUI Region 15 Sectional Championship Tournament at UCSD on Feb. 4th. Base Fees: $120 for first team, $100 per subsequent team Discounts: -$10 for a competent scorekeeper -$30 for experienced, competent moderator -$5 p...
by cchiego
Sun Oct 30, 2011 7:04 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MAGNI Question Discussion
Replies: 138
Views: 30574

Re: Individual Question Requests and Discussion

Overall, I enjoyed the set, but I was wondering--is bandwagoning really all that well known? It seemed to be one of those questions where everyone knew what was going on but had no idea this concept had a name. Bandwagoning and Deterrence are both pretty basic concepts specifically named and descri...
by cchiego
Tue Oct 25, 2011 9:36 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MAGNI Question Discussion
Replies: 138
Views: 30574

Re: Individual Question Requests and Discussion

Packet 3: For "Deterrence", is it just me, or does this hose for "brinksmanship" pretty early? When discussing the “perfect” form of this concept, Zagare and Kilgour noted that most threats are incredible and credible threats actually might provoke conflict. Thomas Schelling dis...
by cchiego
Sun Oct 23, 2011 8:23 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MAGNI Question Discussion
Replies: 138
Views: 30574

Re: Individual Question Requests and Discussion

I thought Operation Fast Five was a good idea but perhaps too hard (at least I could not remember the name of the operation and neither could many teams at our site). I admit it's not something I know a lot about, but I thought perhaps making an easier answerline might have been the better idea. Is...
by cchiego
Sun Oct 23, 2011 6:56 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MAGNI Question Discussion
Replies: 138
Views: 30574

Re: Individual Question Requests and Discussion

Some of the geography tossups were rather lacking. I admit I'm not an expert on this category, but I don't really know what the point of say tossing up Cape Verde satisfies. The tossup on Washington featured very easy lead-in clues--Mt. Olympus, the fact that there's salmon fisheries, and rain fore...
by cchiego
Wed Oct 19, 2011 7:18 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: New QTQ High School Question Set is Available
Replies: 5
Views: 2354

Re: New QTQ High School Question Set is Available

These samples aren't encouraging. A novel with a SOCIALIST and a FACTORY OWNER you say? And the most important clue in basically any literature TU is the author, so why does that come well before the end of the question? And what's with that weird "Now for ten points" placement in the midd...
by cchiego
Sun Oct 16, 2011 3:12 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Southern California Discussion 2011-2012
Replies: 5
Views: 2398

Re: Southern California Discussion 2011-2012

Update: We got the San Diego City League coaches to vote on whether or not to go with pyramidal questions this year and they voted to reject the idea. I'm not sure what exactly happened, but it sounded like they didn't like that the NAQT curricula was "national" while they wanted questions...
by cchiego
Wed Oct 12, 2011 3:11 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Southern California Discussion 2011-2012
Replies: 5
Views: 2398

Re: Southern California Discussion 2011-2012

North County doesn't appear willing to change this year, but they're moving in the right direction. I'm meeting with the City League folks tomorrow and tracked down some contacts in the East County League, so we'll see how things progress with those. Another issue with Academic League is the geograp...