Search found 567 matches
- Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:51 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2012 ACF Nationals Discussion Thread
- Replies: 106
- Views: 28223
2012 ACF Nationals Discussion Thread
I want to thank all the teams that showed up to this year's ACF Nationals. I saw a lot of excellent play from teams, and I hope to see you all at next year's Nationals. We did our best to take the feedback from last year's Nationals into account and make this year's tournament much more accessible. ...
- Sat Apr 14, 2012 10:07 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Call for Proofreaders/Randomizers for ACF Nationals
- Replies: 0
- Views: 1131
Call for Proofreaders/Randomizers for ACF Nationals
ACF Nationals is coming up soon, and we could use a few volunteers to help us proofread and randomize packets.
If you're interested (and not playing), please email me at [email protected].
If you're interested (and not playing), please email me at [email protected].
- Mon Apr 09, 2012 1:56 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals prediction thread
- Replies: 48
- Views: 11563
Re: ACF Nationals prediction thread
Let's not get carried away, Jerry.grapesmoker wrote:As many as 25% of the questions, even.Skepticism and Animal Feed wrote:I don't think I'm spilling any ACF cabal secrets when I say that Nationals will be substantially more accessible this year. Some may be downright disturbed by how many of the answers they will have heard of.
- Fri Apr 06, 2012 11:07 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Chicago Open?
- Replies: 46
- Views: 9053
Re: Chicago Open?
My vote is for a weekend of literature side tournaments.
Also, I'd enjoy that classical music tournament, but I suspect the audience for it won't be all that large.
Also, I'd enjoy that classical music tournament, but I suspect the audience for it won't be all that large.
- Thu Apr 05, 2012 5:09 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Writing for SCT/ICT
- Replies: 38
- Views: 15749
Re: Writing for SCT/ICT
I don't know if NAQT does this already, but for last year's ACF Nationals (and this year's), I've had a fair amount of success targeting people who like specific subjects and asking them to write those subjects. People are usually happy to write subcategories that they know well and enjoy, especiall...
- Tue Apr 03, 2012 5:47 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
- Replies: 49
- Views: 54996
Re: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
We've already spoken privately to the teams who still have to submit packets, but as a reminder: If your team is required to write a packet and does not submit one by April 7th, you will not play ACF Nationals. Let me be absolutely clear about that. I sincerely hope to see the remaining packets in m...
- Wed Mar 21, 2012 9:53 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
- Replies: 49
- Views: 54996
Re: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
Thanks to all the teams who submitted their packets by yesterday's deadline. As a reminder, after the $50 deadline, you owe us $10/day; if you cannot turn in a packet more than two weeks in advance of ACF Nationals, you will not be playing ACF Nationals. This is a hard and fast deadline and there wi...
- Tue Mar 06, 2012 5:40 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Question set dissemination
- Replies: 20
- Views: 4176
Re: Question set dissemination
To the extent that open packet exchange is a mechanism to combat packet inequity, Chicago is definitely free riding on that collective solution. I suppose that what you mean is IF the tournament had not been proliferated, Chicago would have been "free-riding" on the fact that teams have o...
- Tue Mar 06, 2012 2:34 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: The royal road to being a better writer
- Replies: 6
- Views: 2229
Re: The royal road to being a better writer
(2) Use the New Writer Feedback Program. Great idea in theory. Hasn't worked for my hypothetical person in practice, I assume because the hypothetical person who was supposed to provide feedback is busy with hypothetical med school (which is understandable). Hey, if the person assigned to give you ...
- Wed Feb 29, 2012 11:54 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
- Replies: 49
- Views: 54996
Re: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
If you haven't yet registered for ACF Nationals and would like to, please register here: ACF Nationals 2012 Registration
- Tue Feb 21, 2012 9:17 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
- Replies: 49
- Views: 54996
Re: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
The 25 dollar packet discount deadline has now passed. As a reminder, the no penalty deadline to submit a packet to ACF Nationals is March 6.
- Wed Feb 15, 2012 3:39 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
- Replies: 49
- Views: 54996
Re: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
As a reminder, the twenty-five dollar discount deadline for submitting your team's packet is February 20th, and is rapidly approaching. I'd love to have a bunch of packets in my inbox, so I encourage you to finish your packet by then and to start writing it if you haven't done so yet.
- Fri Feb 10, 2012 6:37 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Regionals at GWU
- Replies: 25
- Views: 13031
Re: ACF Regionals at GWU
Likewise.Der Rosenbergkavalier wrote:I can staff if you need me; let me know.
- Wed Feb 08, 2012 10:00 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: Whatever happened to spite
- Replies: 15
- Views: 18738
Re: Whatever happened to spite
Amusingly enough, Ryan Westbrook made some post back in '06 lamenting the great wasteland of dedicated up-and-coming quizbowlers (besides Will Turner and Dave Rappaport) that really pissed me off and helped motivate me to get better and show those terrible Midwest elitists.
- Wed Feb 08, 2012 12:58 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
- Replies: 49
- Views: 54996
Re: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
Here's a brief update:
The -50 dollar packet deadline has passed, with only one team submitting a packet. The next deadline is February 20th for the -25 dollar packet discount; I hope to see many more packets in my inbox by then.
The -50 dollar packet deadline has passed, with only one team submitting a packet. The next deadline is February 20th for the -25 dollar packet discount; I hope to see many more packets in my inbox by then.
- Tue Feb 07, 2012 6:02 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 50 Million Math Question Fans Can't Be Wrong! (OR CAN THEY)
- Replies: 64
- Views: 12083
Re: Are 20 Questions Enough?
I probably could find less than desireable questions in a number of categories. If you found this question poor, give some feedback to the editors who were working on it I heartily endorse this advice. The most practical way I've seen to improve writing has been to clearly demonstrate why a clue ha...
- Wed Feb 01, 2012 7:24 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
- Replies: 49
- Views: 54996
Re: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
Hey, just a reminder: The packets we've received so far have contained some incredibly hard tossups. Some of them are so difficult that they are not usable. Sure, ACF Nationals is a hard tournament, but again, it's not supposed to be an impossible one. Please try to keep your fellow players in mind ...
- Thu Jan 26, 2012 11:20 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Buzzer race discussion from BARGE thread
- Replies: 48
- Views: 15523
Re: DATE CHANGE: BARGE at Maryland (1/14/12)
'Magister Ludi wrote: 4- San Francisco (Jonathan & I)
Oh yeah, I missed this. I don't think this was a buzzer race at all, since Ted was buzzing on the first clue, while I was only starting to hear the second clue (which was the one I knew).
- Wed Jan 25, 2012 12:06 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Buzzer race discussion from BARGE thread
- Replies: 48
- Views: 15523
Re: DATE CHANGE: BARGE at Maryland (1/14/12)
Also, perhaps this buzzer-race discussion should be moved into a new thread instead of squatting in this one?
- Wed Jan 25, 2012 12:05 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Buzzer race discussion from BARGE thread
- Replies: 48
- Views: 15523
Re: DATE CHANGE: BARGE at Maryland (1/14/12)
The implication, though, isn't that buzzer races are irrelevant to the topic at hand. The ideal tossup is a step pyramid, and it's obvious that buzzer races decrease monotonically with the number of steps. A 100-step tossup of ideal construction would require two 99th percentile players to be in th...
- Wed Jan 25, 2012 10:54 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
- Replies: 49
- Views: 54996
Re: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
The following schools have submitted packets by the -100 dollar deadline: -100 deadline: Minnesota Carleton Yale A Yale B VCU UCSD -50 deadline: Northwestern -25 deadline: Dartmouth South Carolina No penalty deadline: Michigan A Alabama Penn +25 deadline: Illinois Rutgers Virginia A Harvard +50 dead...
- Wed Jan 25, 2012 1:34 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: BARGE General Discussion
- Replies: 72
- Views: 24796
Re: BARGE General Discussion
Jerry, I don't know much about Ancient Greece, but I buzzed in fairly confidently a bit before the end with trials. I think it was a pretty solid question.
- Tue Jan 24, 2012 8:57 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Buzzer race discussion from BARGE thread
- Replies: 48
- Views: 15523
Re: DATE CHANGE: BARGE at Maryland (1/14/12)
Buzzer races are definitely frustrating as a player, but I don't think Ted is correct when he argues that line length causes them. In my experience, early buzzer races are caused by an editor 1) misjudging the knowledge of the field, or 2) using a well-worn clue early in the tossup. The best editors...
- Thu Jan 19, 2012 11:09 am
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Anthropology in high school quizbowl
- Replies: 15
- Views: 4973
Re: Anthropology in high school quizbowl
East Africa's Maasai people and North Africa's Tuaregs were, until recently, ethnic groups that were constantly on the move with no settled residences. For 10 points each-- A. Give the anthropological term for such peoples. answer: _nomad_s or _nomadic_ peoples or _nomadism_ B. Nomads are contraste...
- Mon Jan 09, 2012 10:44 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: TERP 2 (Maryland Trash) 1/15/12
- Replies: 18
- Views: 8519
Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: TERP 2 (Maryland Trash) 1/15/12
I'm looking to team up with a couple of people who know 80s music, TV, video games/comics, and don't mind losing.
- Sun Dec 18, 2011 3:28 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Distribution
- Replies: 60
- Views: 13994
Re: ACF Distribution
Yeah, if you want more earth science, or Math, or whatever in quizbowl, the way to do that is to write good, accessible questions on those topics and submit them to tournaments (or offer to write them for tournaments). Editors will not turn down good questions, especially if they knock out a pesky s...
- Tue Dec 13, 2011 12:41 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
- Replies: 49
- Views: 54996
Re: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
It's also fairly convenient for teams flying in Friday night to land at National airport in DC and take the metro to College Park.
- Fri Dec 09, 2011 1:36 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Minnesota/Penn Open IV Discussion
- Replies: 121
- Views: 44923
Re: Minnesota/Penn Open IV Discussion
I have no qualms with a cap for ACF Regionals; as for this tournament, I was very happy with most of the content in the questions, even if it made them longer, and I liked hearing the extra clues. For an open tournament being played by a host of good players, why not? I can think of a few reasons w...
- Fri Dec 02, 2011 12:14 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Minnesota/Penn Open IV Discussion
- Replies: 121
- Views: 44923
Re: Minnesota/Penn Open IV Discussion
I disagree with Ted; I think 7-8 lines is fine for easy answer lines at hard tournaments as long as you choose appropriate answer lines and clues. To my mind, Ted's argument goes astray by assuming that knowledge is mostly linear: Person A has 5 units of knowledge about Garcia Marquez, and Person B ...
- Mon Nov 14, 2011 10:04 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Harvard Fall Tournament VI (11/12/11)
- Replies: 164
- Views: 69563
Re: Harvard Fall Tournament VI (11/12/11)
2) Have one set of questions, but specifically have all the afternoon rounds in the upper bracket played on longer 7-8 line versions of those questions that better approximate PACE NSC length while keeping the lower brackets playing on normal 5 line questions. You already did this in 2008 and it wa...
- Sun Nov 13, 2011 8:23 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Harvard Fall Tournament VI (11/12/11)
- Replies: 164
- Views: 69563
Re: Harvard Fall Tournament VI (11/12/11)
I wonder if this is because potential hosts are rebelling against the perceived inappropriate difficulty of the tournament... Dallas just posted stats for 15 of the 34 teams. 2 of those teams have a ppb better than 12. Last year, HFT had the 3rd worst average and 4th worst median ppb of all the set...
- Thu Nov 10, 2011 5:53 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: DATE CHANGE: BARGE at Maryland (1/14/12)
- Replies: 107
- Views: 63336
Re: DATE CHANGE: BARGE at Maryland (1/14/12)
I plan on playing.
- Mon Nov 07, 2011 3:26 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Fall and numbers of packets
- Replies: 35
- Views: 10868
Re: ACF Fall and numbers of packets
Also, ACF is very concerned about providing feedback to writers young and old. Jonathan Magin spearheaded the creation of our new writer feedback program to address this issue. Anyone who wants prompt and specific feedback on their questions (even questions that were already submitted to Fall) is w...
- Sat Nov 05, 2011 4:45 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Fall and numbers of packets
- Replies: 35
- Views: 10868
Re: ACF Fall 2011 Global Announcement (November 5, 2011)
I think it's a good thing to have teams get experience writing a full packet, especially when many tournaments these days are housewritten.
- Fri Nov 04, 2011 12:26 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Penn Intergalactic (Nov 19-20th)
- Replies: 42
- Views: 12447
Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Penn Intergalactic (Nov 19-20th)
I'm in the same boat as Bruce; if anyone can give me a ride, I will give them a book for free. An interesting book.
- Sat Oct 29, 2011 8:34 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
- Replies: 49
- Views: 54996
Re: ACF Nationals 2012: April 21 & 22 at Maryland
Here’s the fee schedule and distribution for this year’s ACF Nationals. Guidelines for who is eligible to play ACF tournaments and packet submission can be found here: ACF Packet Submission Guidelines Fee schedule: Base fee: $220 -$100 discount: January 23 -$50 discount: February 6 -$25 discount: Fe...
- Fri Oct 28, 2011 1:14 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Prompt and Anti-Prompt: A Tale of Woe
- Replies: 24
- Views: 10145
Re: Prompt and Anti-Prompt: A Tale of Woe
I think that a lot of this could be avoided by making sure to list alternate answers; if the clue refers to a scimitar and the answer is "sword," making sure to say "accept scimitar" on that clue is pretty important. I also agree with Chris that if a player gives an answer which ...
- Wed Oct 26, 2011 11:51 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2011 All Subject Side Tournament - postponed
- Replies: 26
- Views: 7826
Re: Singles/Doubles/Quads 2011 All Subject Side Tournament
I would enjoy playing this.
- Mon Oct 24, 2011 10:30 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Penn Intergalactic (Nov 19-20th)
- Replies: 42
- Views: 12447
Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Penn Intergalactic (Nov 19-20th)
Since I ended up being unable to make it to Minnesota, I'm throwing my hat in the ring for this tournament.
- Sat Oct 01, 2011 3:02 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Writer Feedback Program (DISCONTINUED 2014)
- Replies: 1
- Views: 3763
Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: New ACF Writer Feedback Program
Just a reminder: the questions you submit to this are fine to use at tournaments because we'll make sure that a person who isn't playing that event looks them over. We haven't had a ton of people submit questions, and we'd love to give more feedback/support to writers, so if you want to improve your...
- Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:28 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Imaginary Landscape no. 1 Answer Lines
- Replies: 2
- Views: 1151
Re: Imaginary Landscape no. 1 Answer Lines
Ah, that's because I didn't have access to the answer lines, just the file names. I apologize.DumbJaques wrote:You didn't "be generous and prompt" me on Star Wars, mofo.
- Fri Sep 23, 2011 11:14 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Imaginary Landscape no. 1 Answer Lines
- Replies: 2
- Views: 1151
Imaginary Landscape no. 1 Answer Lines
The old thread is locked, so moderators feel free to move this there.
People wanting to have answerlines for the Imaginary Landscape packets can go here: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B-vOb_ ... x&hl=en_US
People wanting to have answerlines for the Imaginary Landscape packets can go here: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B-vOb_ ... x&hl=en_US
- Sun Sep 18, 2011 2:29 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: New ACF Writer Feedback Program
- Replies: 0
- Views: 3247
ANNOUNCEMENT: New ACF Writer Feedback Program
Crossposted from College Announcements: On behalf of ACF, I'm very pleased to announce our writer feedback program, which is designed to help quizbowlers of every level improve their writing. How it works: send up to 5 questions to feedback.acf@gmail.com, along with what level the questions are for ...
- Sun Sep 18, 2011 2:27 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Writer Feedback Program (DISCONTINUED 2014)
- Replies: 1
- Views: 3763
ACF Writer Feedback Program (DISCONTINUED 2014)
On behalf of ACF, I'm very pleased to announce our writer feedback program, which is designed to help quizbowlers of every level improve their writing. How it works: send up to 5 questions to feedback.acf@gmail.com, along with what level the questions are for and what you'd most like help with. We'l...
- Wed Sep 14, 2011 10:27 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Minnesota Open IV (Nov. 19-20)
- Replies: 72
- Views: 25674
Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Minnesota Open IV (Nov. 19-20)
If ticket prices aren't too crazy, I'm pretty interested in flying out and playing.
- Mon Aug 22, 2011 6:15 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: World Literature and Time-Subdistribution
- Replies: 20
- Views: 8007
Re: World Literature and Time-Subdistribution
Quizbowl doesn't seem to be missing any major writers; however, I think that question writers could do a better job of asking about a range of not-major-but-still-reasonably-known authors. For some reason, people will find some previously neglected but prominent author, such as, say, Jose Donoso, an...
- Wed Aug 17, 2011 10:06 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: VCU Open 2011 Thanks & Discussion
- Replies: 151
- Views: 33893
Re: VCU Open 2011 Thanks & Discussion
I think Ted and Matt W. are both going a bit too far in their positions here. I think that Ted is discounting the responsibility of players to actually play tossups; sometimes, you forget part of something you've read, or it just doesn't register for you. That sucks when it happens, but it's part of...
- Tue Aug 02, 2011 2:56 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Split topic on CO science
- Replies: 104
- Views: 23796
Re: Split topic on CO science
I don't buy what Cameron says at all - with science and music, we've really gotten to a point where you can't "coach up" writers other than the handful of two or three expert writers. The only people who are going to meet the standard proposed are the people who are both (1) a very good q...
- Thu Jul 28, 2011 8:42 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Guerilla History Doubles (July 29 @ CO Weeknd)
- Replies: 132
- Views: 44877
Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Guerilla History Doubles (July 29 @ CO Weeknd)
Since Jerry's flight lands at 6:35 tomorrow, could we read our packet first to make it more likely he doesn't miss any rounds?
- Sat Jul 16, 2011 2:02 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Imaginary Landscape no. 1 Discussion
- Replies: 16
- Views: 8360
Re: Imaginary Landscape no. 1 Discussion
I've been looking through this lately, and I really like this set. Well done. The only complaint I have so far is small. In the Faure tossup, the Pavane, Op. 50 showed up much earlier than I expected for it to, since it's a standard piece in the orchestra repertoire. Although, maybe I'm just biased...