The Quizbowl Resource Center

WHEN/WHERE:

This will take place as a side event to Chicago Open. Our hope is to secure the Friday night timeslot, which has been the traditional home of Chicago Open History Doubles.

FORMAT/PRICE:

This will be an mACF, packet-submission doubles tournament, with teams of two. The tournament is considered “guerilla” because it does not have a formal editor like previous history doubles. But see the section about redactors below.

If your team submits a packet, the cost to play is FREE. If space permits, people who did not write packets can join teams that did write packets, but they will have to pay a fee, which will go towards buying food for people who did write packets. It is not guaranteed that we will have space for people who didn’t write packets.

PACKETS:

Packets are due by July 22. If you are late, we reserve the right to charge you a late fee, which will be used to buy food for people who submitted their packets on time. Packets should be submitted to the tournament's chief redactor, Kyle Haddad-Fonda, at [email protected].

Please submit a packet of 24 tossups with the following distribution

1/0 Colonial US
2/0 19th Century US
1/0 20-21st Century US
2/0 Miscellaneous US (can be any of the above)

1/0 Britain
2/0 Western Europe (France, Low Countries)
1/0 Southern Europe (Spain, Italy, Greece)
2/0 Central Europe (Scandinavia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland)
1/0 Eastern Europe (Baltic States, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, ex-Yugoslavia)
1/0 Russia (including European ex-Soviet Republics like Belarus and the Ukraine)
1/0 Classical History
1/0 Explorers/Interactions (any encounters between European and non-European cultures)

1/0 China
1/0 Japan
1/0 Islamic World
1/0 Other Asia (Korea, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, etc.)
1/0 Latin America
1/0 Africa

2/0 Your Choice (can be any of the above)

This distribution was stolen from Spring Offensive, the most recent history subject tournament. Nobody really complained about the distribution after that one so it’s battle-tested.

Usual, common-sense rules about distribution apply. Do not make all of your questions about the same region or time period. Do not make all of your questions social history, nor all of your questions about treaties, nor anything else annoying like that. Be creative with question ideas and generous with answer lines/prompts. Try to keep difficulty down so that as many people as possible can enjoy the event, but don’t sacrifice the question’s ability to reward people who have more knowledge than others.

PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE POWERMARKS. We may have powers, but if we do, they will be added by a redactor after all the packets are submitted, to ensure uniformity.

TEAM NAMES:

In keeping with the event’s guerilla nature (and because I am completely out of WWI puns), teams are encouraged to adopt the name of a current or past guerilla movement.

REDACTORS:

Being “Editor” of a History Doubles tournament is apparently so terrifying that nobody wanted to volunteer for it. So we are asking for people to take on the hopefully less-scary title of “Redactor”. As a redactor, your duties will be to:

(i) have people email their packets to you
(ii) look over the packets, remove any really bad questions or repeats
(iii) send packets back to teams (if they are horrible/need serious work)
(iv) add powermarks to submitted questions
(v) send redacted packets to the TD
(vi) write a finals packet

We are currently taking volunteers for redactors. If you would like to volunteer, please contact me. Our ideal redactor would be a good history player who, for some tragic reason (e.g., Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, doing graduate work in San Diego, currently living in Argentina, etc.), cannot attend CO and play this event.

THEME PACKETS:

This is NOT a theme packet event; packets must follow the regular distribution described above. However, if you wish to write one or more history theme packets, we will play them in a shootout-style event at the conclusion of this tournament.

I will be playing on a team with Brendan Byrne. We will be playing as the Polisario Front.

If he gets in on time, I will be playing with Matt Bollinger. More info to come.

Also, I could perhaps contribute some prizes to this by ransacking some of my lesser read history books.

Also, FUN FUN FUN LOOKING FORWARD TO THE WEEKND

RUNNING FIELD UPDATE HERE (If you do not name your team, I will use the goofy template name I've put here as a placeholder)

1. Bruce Arthur and Brendan Byrne (Polisario Front)
2. Mike Cheyne and Matt Bollinger (Team Magma)
3. Kurtis Droge and Libo Zeng (The Beagle Boys)
4. Jeff Hoppes and Chris Ray (Friends of Humanity)
5. Ryan Westbrook and Matt Lafer (Keep Royalty White, Rat Catching And Safe Sewage Residents' Party)
6. Jerry Vinokurov and Jonathan Magin (Ilf and Petrov's Excellent Adventure)
7. Mike Bentley and Rob Carson (Get Rid of Slimy Girls)
8. Dallas Simons and ? (International Possum Brotherhood)
9. Carsten Gehring and Mik Larsen (Chipko Andolan)
10. Joe Nutter and Ben Chametsky (The Trung Sisters)
11. ? and Gautam Kandlikar (Codename: Kids Next Door)
12. Marshall Steinbaum and Paul Gauthier (W.O.O.H.P.)

Unmatched

Charles Hang
Rom Masrour
David Seal
Andrew Hart

I'm playing this with Jonathan Magin.

edit: we are Ilf and Petrov's Excellent Adventure.

I'll be playing with Kurtis Droge.

Pending my flight information, I'll be playing this. In theory I have American and Western European knowledge.

I'm definitely playing this tournament, and will be writing a packet. Looking for a teammate (and a co-author in theory, though that's not a necessity).

While a latecomer to this thread, I am playing, writing, and looking for a teammate.

Assuming packets for this aren't due for awhile, I'll write a packet with someone and then play with them.

EDIT: I suppose depending on when exactly this takes place as compared to when I arrive in Chicago that weekend.

Sorry, I've been slow in following this.

I give my support to this event being held Friday night, given that there seems to be some momentum in favor of it, and especially given that it's a sane event and not a crazy splinter niche event.

I believe that I'll be playing this event with M. Lafer.

I'll play this, of course.

Edit: with Chris Ray, who knows Asian history

I will be playing this with teammate TBD. Just out of curiosity, is it certain that Friday evening is the only time slot which will be available for this?

Friday night is probably the best timeslot, because it gives us the most time. The Saturday night slot is undesirable because CO has a tendency to go really late, until midnight last year. The Sunday night slot is undesirable because many people will have flown home by then.

I like playing tournaments, and I've probably got enough pockets of knowledge to not be completely useless. Hit me up if that sounds like a good time.

So Bruce succeeded in roping in the people he wanted to rope in, with the result that Chris Chiego and I are the redactors. We'll write at least one packet for the finals and do a pretty cursory job of making sure everything is in order, which means replacing repeats and egregiously terrible questions. Shall we say that your packets should be in one week before the tournament, which is to say July 22? You can email them to me at [email protected]. I suspect that Chris would like to be copied on that email as well. Do keep in mind that your packet is much more likely not to contain repeats, and thus to be read in full as you intended it, if you send it to us sooner. In fact, if you're the first person to send in a packet, then you are guaranteed not to have repeats. Is that incentive enough to make quizbowl people get this done on time? Probably not. Anyway, let's also be clear that this is a doubles tournament and thus shouldn't be totally impossible in difficulty. As a redactor rather than an editor, I'm not going to rewrite your packet to make it easier. But it's inevitable that at least a couple of teams are going to submit packets that are way more difficult than appropriate. Please remember that other people have to play on your questions. The general difficulty level to shoot for is what might be described as "totally possible." Right?

Ukonvasara wrote:I like playing tournaments, and I've probably got enough pockets of knowledge to not be completely useless. Hit me up if that sounds like a good time.

Looks like Rob and I will be playing this tournament together.

Kyle wrote:...I suspect that Chris would like to be copied on that email as well.

What's his email?

Soliciting teammates. Will get you tossups on Ghaznavids, Tipu Sultan, and songs commemorating Shivaji.
--Gautam

Kyle wrote:So Bruce succeeded in roping in the people he wanted to rope in, with the result that Chris Chiego and I are the redactors. We'll write at least one packet for the finals and do a pretty cursory job of making sure everything is in order, which means replacing repeats and egregiously terrible questions. Shall we say that your packets should be in one week before the tournament, which is to say July 22? You can email them to me at [email protected]. I suspect that Chris would like to be copied on that email as well. Do keep in mind that your packet is much more likely not to contain repeats, and thus to be read in full as you intended it, if you send it to us sooner. In fact, if you're the first person to send in a packet, then you are guaranteed not to have repeats. Is that incentive enough to make quizbowl people get this done on time? Probably not. Anyway, let's also be clear that this is a doubles tournament and thus shouldn't be totally impossible in difficulty. As a redactor rather than an editor, I'm not going to rewrite your packet to make it easier. But it's inevitable that at least a couple of teams are going to submit packets that are way more difficult than appropriate. Please remember that other people have to play on your questions. The general difficulty level to shoot for is what might be described as "totally possible." Right?

So I'm probably missing something, but, erm, how are you going to notify teams of repeats? If you let them know what the repeats are, but don't change both packets with repeats, you're basically giving away an answer, but the alternative seems to be having them rewrite their entire packet...

Atlee Hammaker wrote:

Kyle wrote:So Bruce succeeded in roping in the people he wanted to rope in, with the result that Chris Chiego and I are the redactors. We'll write at least one packet for the finals and do a pretty cursory job of making sure everything is in order, which means replacing repeats and egregiously terrible questions. Shall we say that your packets should be in one week before the tournament, which is to say July 22? You can email them to me at [email protected]. I suspect that Chris would like to be copied on that email as well. Do keep in mind that your packet is much more likely not to contain repeats, and thus to be read in full as you intended it, if you send it to us sooner. In fact, if you're the first person to send in a packet, then you are guaranteed not to have repeats. Is that incentive enough to make quizbowl people get this done on time? Probably not. Anyway, let's also be clear that this is a doubles tournament and thus shouldn't be totally impossible in difficulty. As a redactor rather than an editor, I'm not going to rewrite your packet to make it easier. But it's inevitable that at least a couple of teams are going to submit packets that are way more difficult than appropriate. Please remember that other people have to play on your questions. The general difficulty level to shoot for is what might be described as "totally possible." Right?

So I'm probably missing something, but, erm, how are you going to notify teams of repeats? If you let them know what the repeats are, but don't change both packets with repeats, you're basically giving away an answer, but the alternative seems to be having them rewrite their entire packet...

My impression is that the redactors will replace repeats themselves and that the teams will only realize a repeat when they don't hear that question on a bye round (or hear one on the same answer in anothr round).

The reason we are asking for 24 tossups per packet is to cushion against the risk of repeats. Rounds at this tournament will actually be 20 tossups long; if there is a repeat, the repeat will be deleted from the packet.

If there are still more than 20 tossups in a packet left after repeats are deleted, the remaining questions will simply be tiebreakers.

Only if 5 or more questions in a submitted packet are repeats will the redactors actually have to write new questions.

I am looking for a teammate who could write at least the non-American & non-Western toss-ups for starters.

Looking forward to blessing the 100th anniversary Indy 500 grid till "Ladies & Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!"
Rom

I will be in Chicago and am interested in playing this tournament. I will also be looking for a partner.

Send packets to my first initial + lastname at Gmail. I'll be mostly out of touch with the world until at least May 13th and probably until the end of May, but then I'll embrace my redacting and editors packet-writing duties with glee.

Look for a vanity history packet entitled "Southern Fried Quizbowl" featuring the best of the historical happnins in the Southland.

What is the estimated start time for this tournament?

Bentley Like Beckham wrote:What is the estimated start time for this tournament?

Sometime between 5-7 PM seems likely. I think it's a bit premature to pick an exact time, but with no bonuses we can probably get through the entire set in just a few hours, even accounting for all of the usual delays that plague quizbowl events.

I'll be playing this with Ben Cohen.

Mik Larsen and I are now the Chipko Andolan.

OctagonJoe wrote: Chipko Andolan.

Awesome.

Ben Carbery and I are playing this as the Trung Sisters.

Chametz wrote:Ben Carbery and I are playing this as the Trung Sisters.

"The most overrated sisters in all of quizbowl."
-M. Sorice

I'm pretty sure I'm going to play this (although not 100% sure). If you want to team up let me know. I'm best at American history, although I know some European history as well.

I think I'm playing this with Gautam Kandlikar.

So, we're up to 11 packets plus a finals. At what point do we either wish to close the field or start allowing slightly larger teams? I ask this because I think there are obvious limits as to how many rounds we wish to play on Friday night.

Well, Mike, you're assuming that everybody who has signed up to write a packet actually writes a packet.

Looking for potential teammates.

Cheynem wrote:So, we're up to 11 packets plus a finals. At what point do we either wish to close the field or start allowing slightly larger teams? I ask this because I think there are obvious limits as to how many rounds we wish to play on Friday night.

Yeah, you have to realize that these are quizbowl players signing up for the event, and quizbowl players have a habit of signing up to write questions and then not actually writing them.

I hope it's not too late to announce that Paul Gauthier and I will set the new average age of the players in this tournament by raising the previous average age to the third power.

I would just keep letting 2 person teams join - and then I'm sure some math wizard here can swing a schedule that implements byes, or combines teams if necessary, or whatever. True guerilla play-it-by-ear style.

No Rules Westbrook wrote:I would just keep letting 2 person teams join - and then I'm sure some math wizard here can swing a schedule that implements byes, or combines teams if necessary, or whatever. True guerilla play-it-by-ear style.

Two brackets would probably work if the number of teams keeps increasing.

theMoMA wrote:

No Rules Westbrook wrote:I would just keep letting 2 person teams join - and then I'm sure some math wizard here can swing a schedule that implements byes, or combines teams if necessary, or whatever. True guerilla play-it-by-ear style.

Two brackets would probably work if the number of teams keeps increasing.

Would the idea be that teams have packets combined by the redactors?

Some comments about the distribution: I think that too much weight is given to Central Europe. It basically works out to Germany getting as much history as England, which I don't think agrees with what people actually know. I'd rather see 1/0 Central Europe and the extra 1/0 moved to Your Choice European history.

Furthermore, I don't really think that every packet needs both a Chinese and Japanese history tossup in addition to a misc. Asia tossup. I'd rather see Asia get 2/0 and 1/0 be devoted to your choice world history.

Yeah, looking now this distribution seems way too rigid. I could explicate more but in the spirit of the ad-hoc nature of this event, and the experience level of the people signed up for this event, I would even go to the extreme and simply multiply the Chicago Open's 'distribution' by 5 to give people more freedom (i.e. 'history 25/25 at least 5/5 american, 5/5 european, 5/5 world, vary by time and place')

Like I said, all I did was take the distribution used by the last three history subject tournaments and expand it to accomodate the larger packet size.

I'm not particularly keen on getting into an argument over "what people know", nor do I claim that this is the be all and end all of distributions. But I think it's a good guide because it's been done before without people complaining about the distribution.

Given the guerilla nature of this tournament, nobody will punish you if you deviate from the distribution in the way that Mike Bentley suggests (or in a way that you suggest). If you want to write 2/0 Britain and 1/0 Central European, or 2/0 China and 0/0 Other Asia, or a few other thins like that, go ahead. Writing good questions is far more important than distribution. Just don't do something dumb like four tossups on France.

Morraine Man wrote:Just don't do something dumb like four tossups on France.

Can I write four tossups on Portugal if they use different clues?

Bruce -

If you need assistance with this tournament (moderating, stats), I can be in the area by 5 (or whatever hour) Friday and would be willing to help out.

So by coincidence I'll be in Chicago this night, and, if it's not too late, would enjoy playing this if someone wants to be on a team with me.

Morraine Man wrote:

Bentley Like Beckham wrote:What is the estimated start time for this tournament?

Sometime between 5-7 PM seems likely. I think it's a bit premature to pick an exact time, but with no bonuses we can probably get through the entire set in just a few hours, even accounting for all of the usual delays that plague quizbowl events.

I'm voting for a later (7 PM at the earliest) time slot. My guess is that we want to accommodate as many travelers as possible, and as someone who may be megabusing down to Union Station, it would be nice to have a little more padding on the start time (perhaps also for meals and whatnot). Also, it seems unlikely that the tournament will take more than a couple hours.

I can't play this, since I will be on a Megabus to Chicago at the time.

It turns out Ben Cohen can't make it either, so I'm still looking for a partner.