The Quizbowl Resource Center

The National History Bee and Bowl is pleased to sponsor a new way for quiz bowlers throughout the USA to sharpen their skills in an informal, yet competitive setting: an all-subject (i.e. not just history), online league run through Skype. The league is limited to 24 players, with a limit of 2 from the same school and will run simply for five weeks. At the end of those five weeks, a new group of 24 players will be allowed to play. Players will only be allowed to play twice (or more) over the 2011-2012 season if there is no one else who has expressed interest in playing who has yet to play. The first league will begin on (EDIT) Monday August 15.
All league matches will run from 8:30-10pm Eastern time. Players will be assigned to a team based on rough parity of ability, so there will be 6 teams of 4. Over the course of the five weeks, all teams will play each other. So everyone gets one game a week, at either 8:30, 9, or 9:30 Eastern. On the last week, we will have an advantaged final playoff at 10pm among the top two teams unless one team is ahead by two. All players on the winning team will receive free entry into the National History Bee at one regional or state level tournament for the 2011-2012 year. The league is limited to those going into 12th grade and younger. On September 14, a new league will begin. This process will repeat itself throughout the year. The league is free to join and we will use a randomly selected packet online that people have not heard. As the primary purpose of the league is to give a chance to practice, we will expect students to be forthcoming if they have heard a packet before. In this case, a different packet will be selected.
If you are interested in playing, please email me your name, school, grade you are going into, a brief description of your strengths and weaknesses on a subject by subject basis, and ideally, any links to SQBS reports where your stats are listed. Send all this to [email protected]. The first 24 people to respond will be posted here when I receive their names, which will be updated as they come in.
Good luck!

Standings at end of five prelim matches
1. Ulan Bataar Khan Artists, 3-2, 1585 pts.
3. Fracas from Caracas, 3-2, 1520 pts.
3. Amsterdam Lens Grinders, 3-2, 1380 pts.
4. Phnom Penh Pals, 3-2, 1340 pts.
5. Stockholm Syndromes, 2-3, 1245 pts.
6. Santiago Calatravas, 1-4, 1110 pts.

Champions: Fracas from Caracas (They won 395 - 150 over the Khan Artists in a one-game final.)

Link to SQBS Report, courtesy of Ryan Rosenberg:http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org= ... =standings


Schedule of Round 1 Matches ALL TIMES EASTERN (and pm, duh)

Monday, August 15
8:30 Amsterdam Lens Grinders 265 - Stockholm Syndromes 245
9:00 Phnom Penh Pals 315 - Ulan Bataar Khan Artists 160
9:30 Fracas from Caracas 250 - Santiago Calatravas 205

Wednesday, August 17
8:30 Lens Grinders 335 - Penh Pals 230
9:00 Syndromes 280 - Calatravas 220
9:30 Khan Artists 315 - Fracas 275

Wednesday, August 24
8:15 Syndromes 230 - Khan Artists 150
9:00 Penh Pals 265 - Fracas 230
9:45 Lens Grinders 250 - Calatravas 125

Wednesday, August 31
8:15 Penh Pals 330 - Syndromes 250
9:00 Khan Artists 525 - Calatravas 160
9:45 Fracas 365 - Lens Grinders 320

Wednesday, September 7
7:00 Calatravas 405 - Penh Pals 200
7:45 Fracas 400 - Syndromes 240
8:30 Khan Artists 425 - Lens Grinders 210
9:15 Advantaged final game 1: Fracas 395 - Khan Artists 150

Hi Everyone,
Here are the teams for OSPL Round 1:

Team A - The Amsterdam Lens Grinders
1. Sam Deutsch, Richard Montgomery High School, Rockville, MD
2. Jon Green, Locust Grove High School, Locust Grove, GA
3. Do Won Kim, Torrey Pines High School, San Diego, CA
4. Tristan Willey, Macomb High School, Macomb, IL

Team B - The Ulan Bataar Khan Artists
1. Zackrey Hoverson, Nandua High School, Onley, VA
2. Ryan Rosenberg, Ardsley High School, Ardsley, NY
3. Sohan Vartak, Olmsted Falls High School, Olmsted Falls, OH
4. Ben Zhang, Ladue Horton Watkins High School, St. Louis, MO

Team C - The Fracas from Caracas
1. Jason Fern, Athens Academy, Athens, GA
2. Rodrigo Morante, Earl of March Secondary School, Kanata, ON
3. Eamon Thomasson, Frenchtown High School, Frenchtown, MT
4. Nolan Winkler, Loyola Academy, Wilmette, IL

Team D - The Santiago Calatravas
1. Jordan Bekenstein, Maggie Walker Governor's School, Richmond, VA
2. Gabe Brison, Hanover High School, Hanover, NH
3. Scott Remer, Beachwood High School, Beachwood, OH
4. Sunanthan Sivakumar, Woburn Collegiate Institute, Toronto, ON

Team E - The Phnom Penh Pals
1. Scott Blain, Grayson County High School, Leitchfield, KY
2. Akshay Chandrasekhar, Southside High School, Greenville, SC
3. Todd Pollak, Walt Whitman High School, Bethesda, MD
4. Rishab Revankar, Early College at Guilford, Greensboro, NC

Team F - The Stockholm Syndromes
1. Lizzie Bream, Beachwood High School, Beachwood, OH
2. Bobby Dorigo Jones, Detroit Catholic Central High School, Novi, MI
3. Venu Katta, Clover Hill High School, Midlothian, VA
4. Alex Kling, Latin School of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Thanks for signing up and good luck! Anyone else who's interested in Round 2 should still email me, and I'll keep a running waitlist going.

Just checking here to see if you got my email. Thanks

Are Canadians eligible?

@Alex - you're on the list, sorry I overlooked your email
@Patrick - Canadians and other nationalities are welcome/bienvenue tho you have to still be going into a high school (or middle school) grade this year

nationalhistorybeeandbowl wrote:@Alex you're on the list, sorry I overlooked your email
@Patrick - Canadians and other nationalities are welcome/bienvenue tho you have to still be going into a high school (or middle school) grade this year

Will recommend this to some Canadian high schoolers.

Sorry to sound like a "noob", but does this require Skype "Premium" or in other words, is $$$ contingent to the actual service needed for this? Like do we have to pay for the service. I'm not very familiar with Skype.

Ulster Clay Pigeon Shooting Association wrote:Sorry to sound like a "noob", but does this require Skype "Premium" or in other words, is $$$ contingent to the actual service needed for this? Like do we have to pay for the service. I'm not very familiar with Skype.

I would presume that mass video-chat is not required to play quizbowl on Skype (which I think is one of the main features of Skype "Premium"), though that could build camaraderie. The ordinary group voice chats should probably suffice for this (e.g. one person reads questions, others buzz in chat - which is monitored by moderators - and answer via voice), but I don't know what David Madden has planned.

Google+ has hangouts (group video chat) for free, I would rather use that than have to pay for Skype Premium

Nobody will have to pay a cent for this (beyond whatever your internet hookup costs your parents). We won't use video chat, but that won't be an issue. I read for some players before HSNCT this year on Skype and it worked fine. Once we get to 24 students (which looks like it will happen pretty soon), I'll email everyone how this is actually going to work, but don't sweat it for the time being. If for whatever reason google+ and its video capabilities seem like a better fit, then we'll go for that, but I have no major feelings on this all one way or another.

theflyingdeutschman wrote:Google+ has hangouts (group video chat) for free, I would rather use that than have to pay for Skype Premium

I would much rather use Skype since I already know how it works, and also, there is apparently an age minimum for Google+ right now, which I think is 18. When I got an invite from a friend, it said that I had to be over a certain age "to use this feature", and seeing as we're all hopefully under 18 (unless you put down a fake birthday for your email), then I'm not sure how that would work. I believe that video capabilities are, as has been previously mentioned, unnecessary.

I agree with the above. When the DCC kids practice on Skype, we just type in buzz and whoever is reading just recognizes the first buzz.

jabekens wrote:

theflyingdeutschman wrote: (unless you put down a fake birthday for your email)

No, we'd never do that.

Unless Google+ has a buzzing apparatus built into the video chat (which would be really cool, any Google engineers reading this), I'm fine with just using Skype.

Seems the consensus favors Skype, which is cool with me.

August evenings I have Band Camp a lot of the time, so that would be a no. Is it too early to sign up for the September league?

@Dylan - Yes, it's too early, as I don't know when it will start, but I'll keep you in mind. It may not be until October; I'm not sure.
@Everyone - Once the last two spots are filled, I'll start drawing up rosters and will be in touch with more information. We'll stick with doing this via Skype following the general consensus.

I emailed the email address mentioned, however I received no reply, nor is my name on the list. I have no way of knowing if I have to re-send the email. Can someone tell me if I have been accepted?

The rosters for OSPL 2011-2012 Round 1 have been posted on the second post in this thread. Full schedule for matches will be announced soon. Good luck!

Those are the best team names ever.

Thanks for setting this up Madden. You truly are a service to your academic bowl community and a true role model Madden the man.

User was reminded to add a signature.

What difficulty packets will the league use?

I'm thinking of something comparable to IS level, I don't yet know what packets we'll use, obviously that won't be stated in any case.

Monday August 15 works slightly better as a start day for more people (including myself it turns out). So we'll do two matches that first week, and then matches on Wednesday thereafter. None of the later dates are subject to change, but we will start the matches the final day an hour earlier so that we're not playing at 10:30 eastern on a school night.

Stockholm Syndromes went down to the Amsterdam Lens Grinders.

will stats/standings be posted for this?

Amsterdams beat the Stockholms 265-245 (i think that was the exact score but idk)

Ulan Bataar Khan Artists lost to the Phnom Penh Pals 160-315. Man, I wonder how ancient that packet was.

Fracas from Caracas beat the Calatravas by some margin.

Final scores from last night:
Amsterdam Lens Grinders 265 - Stockholm Syndromes 245
Fracas from Caracas 250 - Santiago Calatravas 205
Phnom Penh Pals 315 - Ulan Bataar Khan Artists 160

I'll keep standings updated in the first post starting on Thursday (i.e. after tomorrow's games). I don't have the time to do SQBS results, but I have the scoresheets, if someone else wants to take charge of that.

New rule: Teams are limited to two substitutions throughout the five matches. Otherwise, the potential for ringers to skew the results is too high. Substitutions are not permitted in the championship match.

Thanks to all who played; I think this went pretty well for the first time. We are clearly going to need more than 30 minutes for each match, so I'll adjust the times later today for the remaining matches. OSPL is looking for sign ups for Round 2 starting next month. Don't delay, sign up today! Email me if you're interested.

What purpose do substitutions serve for four player teams? Like, when would they ever be needed if theoretically its 4v4?

Subs in this context mean if someone can't make a game, then whoever can't make it can find a sub for them. But the conditions for allowing this are limited.

I thought this went pretty smoothly. Thanks to David for organizing this and reading for the teams. I hope more people sign up to play in future Skype Leagues!

I don't have the time to do SQBS results, but I have the scoresheets, if someone else wants to take charge of that.

I'll do this...more entertaining than college apps.

The match did go very well. Looking forward to tomorrow's game.

Seeing scores would be nice.

nationalhistorybeeandbowl wrote:Subs in this context mean if someone can't make a game, then whoever can't make it can find a sub for them. But the conditions for allowing this are limited.

Can you make a substitution sign up list? I might want to substitute into one game (if it's possible) to see how it goes.

SmallerMegalomaniacalPandaOnAbsinthe wrote:Seeing scores would be nice.

ditto that

Khan Artists 315, Fracas 275

SmallerMegalomaniacalPandaOnAbsinthe wrote:Seeing scores would be nice.

See first post of this thread. Scores will be updated after each match going forward. Sign up for Round 2 if you're not yet a part of OSPL!

Bump to show link to SQBS Report, courtesy of Ryan Rosenberg: http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org= ... =standings
This has also been posted in the first post of this thread. Game 3 on Wednesday.

For those of you at home who are wondering why PPB was so low in the first round (and subsequently lowered overall), that round used a 22/22 packet with two-part, 20 point bonuses.

Stats are updated through Round 3.

Round 4 stats are up. This round had powers.

Still remarkably close going into the last round. Ties are broken by PPG, right?

Dripping Springs State Park wrote:Round 4 stats are up. This round had powers.

Still remarkably close going into the last round. Ties are broken by PPG, right?

Thanks for uploading the stats, but FYI, I was absent in my Round 3 game.

theflyingdeutschman wrote:Thanks for uploading the stats, but FYI, I was absent in my Round 3 game.

Fixed. Thanks for letting me know.

Dave, I'm not entirely sure what your email address is. In any case, Todd Pollak is out of power at the moment due to the heavy rain we've been experiencing here. He has asked me to ask you permission to let me sub for him, if you'll allow it.

edit: This is Ketan Jha by the way. Apparently Shantanu was logged in on my laptop and I didn't notice.

PYLONS ACQUIRED. POWER OVERWHELMING.

For those non star craft players, I have power back and can play!

Caracas and Kahn Artists are playing in the finals. And thanks again to David Madden for setting this up, it was fun and I strongly recommend it!

Final: Fracas from Caracas 395, Ulan Bataar Khan Artists 150

Thanks again to Dave for setting this up, it went way more smoothly than I thought possible and I'd also highly recommend it to other players.

Calatravas won 395-150. I'd like to thank Madden for hosting this, it was a great time.