The Quizbowl Resource Center

Whitman is more or less officially hosting the MD/DC state championships.
Date: May 8, 2010. I realize this is not a great date at all, but due to scads of non-quizbowl conflicts in March/April this is pretty much the only date we could get rooms.
Where: Walt Whitman HS, in Bethesda. Directions will be provided as we approach the date.
Who can play? Any and all teams from DC or MD who so desire. However, only teams from DC and MD may play. Exceptions should be discussed with NAQT, not us.
Fee structure: $60 base fee, $10 buzzer discount, $10 staff discount(alums count), $10 long-distance (100 mile one-way) discount, and a $10 discount for teams who are in their first academic year of pyramidal quizbowl.
Contact: To register or inquire, contact me at [email protected] or Jan Danis at [email protected]
Further details will be posted as the date approaches. Express interest away, but note that only emails count as registration. Also, registrations before May 2 would be greatly appreciated.
EDIT: The set is IS-95.
Field:
Expressed interest:
Blake
Registered(!)
GDS(2)
Wilson
Blair
Gonzaga
Quince Orchard
St. Anselm's(2)
RM

I neglected to mention that there will hopefully be an all-tossup visual packet at lunch in imitation of Mike Bentley's visual tournament. The questions will be difficult, but the answer lines will mostly be gettable for decent high school players. The distribution will be as follows:
24
13 painting
3 1420-1600
1 antiquity-1420
4 1600-1850
4 1850-present
1 non-western
5 Scuplture
1 antiquity-1400
1 1400-1600
2 1600-present
1 non-western
5 other visual
min 1 architecture
and 1 non-architecture.
1 non-western
The registration fee will be determined later.

It's hard to imagine that GDS wouldn't be at this.

Yeah, this is a tournament Blake should be at, as Blake, I hope.
However, I've already played the Visual Arts tournament, darnit.

Isaacbh wrote:Yeah, this is a tournament Blake should be at, as Blake, I hope.
However, I've already played the Visual Arts tournament, darnit.

No, the visual packet is Whitman homebrew. A suitable comedy title will be forthcoming.

Quince Orchard will be there, sans coach.

Are we sure we want to let these DC boys come in and win the MARYLAND state championship? :-)

There aren't really enough active teams in DC itself for a viable championship tournament, so by decree of NAQT there's a combined DC and MD championship.
Offical comedy title for the visual packet: The Shantanu Jha Packet of Dandyish Foppery.

First post updated with expressions of interest.

Ok, so two reasonably important announcements:
1. The go/nogo date is probably the 28th. We need at least 8 teams registered by them
2. The visual packet is done pending final edits.
EDIT: Get those registrations in, folks. I know people are interested.

I've updated the field to relfect our very first registration, Gonzaga. If someone has registered/expessed interest and is not in the first post, let me know and that will be corrected. Also, get registered or I will start pestering people.

Top post updated to reflect upsurge in interest.

Thread bump. Register if you want to see this tournament happen,folks!

GDS has registered two teams, one of which will include me.

Thread bump. While we're all happy we hit the magic number, a few more teams wouldn't hurt. Please sign up, MD/DC teams!

Money is tight at WJ and I suck at NAQT anyway, so don't expect a WJ contingent. Oh yea, the Asian parents think APs are important or something.

wexs883198215 wrote:Money is tight at WJ and I suck at NAQT anyway, so don't expect a WJ contingent. Oh yea, the Asian parents think APs are important or something.

Sorry to hear about that.

Hey, we're cutting off registrations this thursday. If you want in, register now.

If you want to register, we will take exactly one more team if they register before 11 PM. If nobody does so, then we will want a scab team.

What is the fee going to be for the visual round? Also, have the edits suggested by previous mirrors been taken into account?

Prof.Whoopie wrote:What is the fee going to be for the visual round? Also, have the edits suggested by previous mirrors been taken into account?

Like $2.50 and yes.

Partway through round 7. 2 more round befores prelims are done, then advantaged finals/tiebreaks as needed.

Doink the Clown wrote:Partway through round 7. 2 more round befores prelims are done, then advantaged finals/tiebreaks as needed.

Who is winning?

Frater Taciturnus wrote:

Doink the Clown wrote:Partway through round 7. 2 more round befores prelims are done, then advantaged finals/tiebreaks as needed.

Who is winning?

St. Anselm's and GDS in the finals (SAAS with the advantage). RM got third, and Blair got 4th iirc

MD/DC state championship '10: freaking mathcomp - how does it work?

GDS wins both games of final to take the title.

Yeah, it was fun to watch the first game be settled on a mathcomp tossup.

Was there any reason the full 24/24 was decided to be used? I'm just curious as to the rationale.

Isaacbh wrote:Yeah, it was fun to watch the first game be settled on a mathcomp tossup.

Was there any reason the full 24/24 was decided to be used? I'm just curious as to the rationale.

I figured that we couldn't go wrong with hearing more tossups and. Also, I didn't want to have a "#20 is the mathcomp, #21 is the social science" situation.
Anyhow, offical tournament wrapup post: the top 4 are:
1. GDS
2. St. Anselm's
3. RM
4. Blair
5 QO, probably
Stats were not really kept for the visual round, which was won by Aidan. Stats for the actual tournament will be up when the Scobo.net webmaster emails me back Whitman's login info. Thanks for coming and we hope we'll see everyone at our next tournament!
EDIT: Oh, and congrats to GDS.

Doink the Clown wrote:

Isaacbh wrote:Yeah, it was fun to watch the first game be settled on a mathcomp tossup.

Was there any reason the full 24/24 was decided to be used? I'm just curious as to the rationale.

I figured that we couldn't go wrong with hearing more tossups

If having mathcomp isn't something wrong, I don't know what is. But that is just me.
But the tournament managed to be run very efficiently and quickly despite the increase in questions, so kudos to you for that.
Also, NAQT: No more "what is x word in y language?" pleeeeeeease. So much can go wrong with that. Readers can mispronounce words and totally change the meaning. Also it just doesn't seem like something that should be asked about in my opinion.

Wurzel-Flummery wrote:

Doink the Clown wrote:

Isaacbh wrote:Yeah, it was fun to watch the first game be settled on a mathcomp tossup.

Was there any reason the full 24/24 was decided to be used? I'm just curious as to the rationale.

I figured that we couldn't go wrong with hearing more tossups

If having mathcomp isn't something wrong, I don't know what is. But that is just me.
But the tournament managed to be run very efficiently and quickly despite the increase in questions, so kudos to you for that.
Also, NAQT: No more "what is x word in y language?" pleeeeeeease. So much can go wrong with that. Readers can mispronounce words and totally change the meaning. Also it just doesn't seem like something that should be asked about in my opinion.

NAQT decreed that we had to run mathcomp to be a state championship, although Jeff Hoppes said he'd get that rule changed for next year. Also, no details but on Raynell's note if you want to write linguistics write actual linguistics questions on things like "vowel shifts".
EDIT: To clarify, had NAQT not decreed otherwise, we would have cut the mathcomp and read whatever was left, which probably would have been 23/23 or something like that.

Doink the Clown wrote:

Wurzel-Flummery wrote:

Doink the Clown wrote:

Isaacbh wrote:Yeah, it was fun to watch the first game be settled on a mathcomp tossup.

Was there any reason the full 24/24 was decided to be used? I'm just curious as to the rationale.

I figured that we couldn't go wrong with hearing more tossups

If having mathcomp isn't something wrong, I don't know what is. But that is just me.
But the tournament managed to be run very efficiently and quickly despite the increase in questions, so kudos to you for that.
Also, NAQT: No more "what is x word in y language?" pleeeeeeease. So much can go wrong with that. Readers can mispronounce words and totally change the meaning. Also it just doesn't seem like something that should be asked about in my opinion.

NAQT decreed that we had to run mathcomp to be a state championship, although Jeff Hoppes said he'd get that rule changed for next year. Also, no details but on Raynell's note if you want to write linguistics write actual linguistics questions on things like "vowel shifts".
EDIT: To clarify, had NAQT not decreed otherwise, we would have cut the mathcomp and read whatever was left, which probably would have been 23/23 or something like that.

OK I see about the math comp. fair enough. There's a big difference between linguistics and language in this case. Linguistics is like diphthong and dialect. Language is like "How do you say cat in Spanish?" There's a big difference in the type of knowledge and experience that requires; the former is more consistent with what we have in quizbowl today and I have nothing wrong with tossups on linguistics. But honestly, if I'm not Russian or have never taken Russian, how do you expect me to know how to say "lion" in Russian or whatever? Also i don't know what this has to do with me writing questions.

Wurzel-Flummery wrote:

Doink the Clown wrote:

Wurzel-Flummery wrote:

Doink the Clown wrote:

Isaacbh wrote:Yeah, it was fun to watch the first game be settled on a mathcomp tossup.

Was there any reason the full 24/24 was decided to be used? I'm just curious as to the rationale.

I figured that we couldn't go wrong with hearing more tossups

If having mathcomp isn't something wrong, I don't know what is. But that is just me.
But the tournament managed to be run very efficiently and quickly despite the increase in questions, so kudos to you for that.
Also, NAQT: No more "what is x word in y language?" pleeeeeeease. So much can go wrong with that. Readers can mispronounce words and totally change the meaning. Also it just doesn't seem like something that should be asked about in my opinion.

NAQT decreed that we had to run mathcomp to be a state championship, although Jeff Hoppes said he'd get that rule changed for next year. Also, no details but on Raynell's note if you want to write linguistics write actual linguistics questions on things like "vowel shifts".
EDIT: To clarify, had NAQT not decreed otherwise, we would have cut the mathcomp and read whatever was left, which probably would have been 23/23 or something like that.

OK I see about the math comp. fair enough. There's a big difference between linguistics and language in this case. Linguistics is like diphthong and dialect. Language is like "How do you say cat in Spanish?" There's a big difference in the type of knowledge and experience that requires; the former is more consistent with what we have in quizbowl today and I have nothing wrong with tossups on linguistics. But honestly, if I'm not Russian or have never taken Russian, how do you expect me to know how to say "lion" in Russian or whatever? Also i don't know what this has to do with me writing questions.

It doesn't. That was targeted at NAQT. Anyhow yeah the world would be a better place if we took language questions and made them linguistics.

Doink the Clown wrote:

Wurzel-Flummery wrote:

Doink the Clown wrote:

Wurzel-Flummery wrote:

Doink the Clown wrote:

Isaacbh wrote:Yeah, it was fun to watch the first game be settled on a mathcomp tossup.

Was there any reason the full 24/24 was decided to be used? I'm just curious as to the rationale.

I figured that we couldn't go wrong with hearing more tossups

If having mathcomp isn't something wrong, I don't know what is. But that is just me.
But the tournament managed to be run very efficiently and quickly despite the increase in questions, so kudos to you for that.
Also, NAQT: No more "what is x word in y language?" pleeeeeeease. So much can go wrong with that. Readers can mispronounce words and totally change the meaning. Also it just doesn't seem like something that should be asked about in my opinion.

NAQT decreed that we had to run mathcomp to be a state championship, although Jeff Hoppes said he'd get that rule changed for next year. Also, no details but on Raynell's note if you want to write linguistics write actual linguistics questions on things like "vowel shifts".
EDIT: To clarify, had NAQT not decreed otherwise, we would have cut the mathcomp and read whatever was left, which probably would have been 23/23 or something like that.

OK I see about the math comp. fair enough. There's a big difference between linguistics and language in this case. Linguistics is like diphthong and dialect. Language is like "How do you say cat in Spanish?" There's a big difference in the type of knowledge and experience that requires; the former is more consistent with what we have in quizbowl today and I have nothing wrong with tossups on linguistics. But honestly, if I'm not Russian or have never taken Russian, how do you expect me to know how to say "lion" in Russian or whatever? Also i don't know what this has to do with me writing questions.

It doesn't. That was targeted at NAQT. Anyhow yeah the world would be a better place if we took language questions and made them linguistics.

Ohhhhh. Ok that makes sense. and yes I agree.

Yes, because most high schoolers, nay, people, could answer a tossup on "vowel shift" before FTP.
EDIT: If at all!

The problem with the, like, 1/1 foreign language (tournament) distribution in NAQT is that it is very hard, if not impossible, to write a properly pyramidal foreign language tossup. Two lines of, "This word is flyjlklj in Finnish" is not helpful to anyone except native speakers of those languages, since no high schools (that I know of, correct me if I'm wrong) offer those courses. The bonuses, which usually deteriorate to, "what English word does the German 'eichbein' translate to" are even worse. I wish NAQT would just adopt the ACF distribution.

Kwang the Ninja wrote:The problem with the, like, 1/1 foreign language (tournament) distribution in NAQT is that it is very hard, if not impossible, to write a properly pyramidal foreign language tossup. Two lines of, "This word is flyjlklj in Finnish" is not helpful to anyone except native speakers of those languages, since no high schools (that I know of, correct me if I'm wrong) offer those courses. The bonuses, which usually deteriorate to, "what English word does the German 'eichbein' translate to" are even worse. I wish NAQT would just adopt the ACF distribution.

OK, since it has been demonstrably proven that:
-quizbowl never has based its distribution on what is offered in high schools
-quizbowl should not change such that its future distribution is based on what is offered in high schools
-"what is offered in high schools" is a nebulous concept with no consistent meaning above the local level
and
-neither you nor anyone else actually believes that the quizbowl distribution should be based on what it taught in high schools

perhaps we can look at a different approach. Like other categories, foreign language can be written well, or written badly; also like other categories, encouraging and rewarding the seeking-out of knowledge beyond that which (the literally hundreds of thousands of) good high school students who are graduating this year have been mandated to learn in class is a goal, not something to be avoided. A tossup which alludes to less commonly studied languages and then concludes by being answerable if one has taken a very common high school language such as French or Spanish seems able to meet the criterion of a good tossup. At somewhere between 1 and 2 questions per tournament for the "foreign language" distro, I think NAQT (or HSAPQ, or independent high school writers) can reasonably expect to fill this distro with good questions.

I also think that there are many areas of linguistics which are answerable in high school (the next person to write a question on "vowels" with information about vowel shifts early on will be far from the first) and that even questions on particular languages which start off with technical info and then discuss political issues involving the speaking of that language or simply English words loaned from that language are eminently academic and accessible.

Doink the Clown wrote:NAQT decreed that we had to run mathcomp to be a state championship, although Jeff Hoppes said he'd get that rule changed for next year.

I said I'd ask R. to change the rule (which I have). We haven't made a decision about this, although I imagine we will probably decide to get rid of it, since this rule has (in my opinion) no real value.

Foreign language questions: not speaking for NAQT, I'd be happy to see these disappear.

Isaacbh wrote:Yes, because most high schoolers, nay, people, could answer a tossup on "vowel shift" before FTP.
EDIT: If at all!

There are very few tossupable linguistics topics, yes. Hence it having an extremely small part of distribution.

Oh, and I forgot to mention this, but thanks to our volunteer staffers, Mrs. Danis, and everyone else who made this happen.

STATS STATS STATS
EDIT: Oof, forgot the link. http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org= ... =standings
this includes both games of the advantaged final.

GDS A probably didn't hear 28 bonuses in round 4.

Also, in the GDS A vs. GDS B game, Matt Jackson probably didn't go 14-13-3, especially since GDS B did score 135 points.

Isaacbh wrote:Yeah, it was fun to watch the first game be settled on a mathcomp tossup.

Was there any reason the full 24/24 was decided to be used? I'm just curious as to the rationale.

More questions = more funn?

Does someone from GDS have notes on that game?

All reported stats errors have been fixed.