(Format Poll Added) FLopen 2020 Open Main Site @ Discord (11/21/2020)

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wjg
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(Format Poll Added) FLopen 2020 Open Main Site @ Discord (11/21/2020)

Post by wjg »

Thus is the announcement for the fully open Discord main site of FLopen, which will take place on Saturday, November 21st, 2020. Details on the question set can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=23813

Since this is an open tournament, teams can consist of players from any academic institutions, as well as players without any affiliation with an academic institution. This "main site" is intended for teams seeking the highest level of competition, or teams without a regional mirror or acceptable alternative regional mirror (if any). All other teams are encouraged to play their regional mirrors.

This tournament will take place over Discord, with a start time TBD. The discord link will be sent to all registered teams via email the night before the tournament. The use of webcams will be required for this tournament. If you cannot use a webcam for any reason, please contact me at [email protected] explaining your situation.

Registration
A team formation and free agent spreadsheet can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

To register for this tournament, you must enter your team on the spreadsheet and email me your team roster at [email protected]
Please register no later than November 14th, 2020. The field is presently capped at 16 teams, but expansion if possible if there is enough interest and staff.

This tournament will have a code of conduct to which all players and staffers will be required to agree in order to participate; it will be sent out with the logistics email. Any individuals who violate the code of conduct will be either removed from the tournament or warned as appropriate.

Staff
If you are interested in staffing this tournament, please put your name and contact email on the spreadsheet, and also email me at [email protected] notifying me of this. All staff will receive monetary compensation for their time and effort. Please do not sign up to staff if there is any chance you will play a regional mirror of FLopen at a later date.

Fees
This tournament will cost $75 per team. Payment by Venmo is preferred, but if that is not possible please let me know and another form of payment can be arranged.

Please contact me at [email protected] if you have any further questions. We look forward to seeing you all virtually on November 21st, 2020!
Last edited by wjg on Fri Oct 09, 2020 8:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Will (he/him/his)
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Re: FLopen 2020 Open Main Site @ Discord (11/21/2020)

Post by TaylorH »

This tournament is still about a month and a half out but I've been thinking about the format a bit and wanted to take a poll on our options. As to avoid an endless Discord-fatigue day, I think it'd be best to either do a single day of 8-10 rounds OR spread the mirror out over Saturday and Sunday, with teams playing prelims on Saturday and playoffs on Sunday. This would allow teams to play more packets (we are writing 14 packets of 22/22) and would likely reduce the dreaded online qb fatigue, but of course would interfere if players/staff had conflicts on Sunday or didn't want to play two days in a row. I personally favor the second option, but would like to take a poll of all people playing, planning on playing, staffing, or planning on staffing this mirror as to which is preferred. Poll is here:

https://forms.gle/EAk8spherrkidLYM9

Let me know if there are any other sensible formats that I haven't considered.
Taylor Harvey (he/him)
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Re: (Format Poll Added) FLopen 2020 Open Main Site @ Discord (11/21/2020)

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

I would love to play more packets, but at least speaking for a team with three graduate students, it might be hard to find the time for two days of QB over a weekend. Not sure what the situation is for other teams.

I'll also speak in favor of bouncebacks, they really do help with engagement, and the field will be very good so I don't think we should worry about it taking too long.
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Re: (Format Poll Added) FLopen 2020 Open Main Site @ Discord (11/21/2020)

Post by Smuttynose Island »

naan/steak-holding toll wrote: Sat Oct 10, 2020 6:42 pm I'll also speak in favor of bouncebacks, they really do help with engagement, and the field will be very good so I don't think we should worry about it taking too long.
Each packet is already 22/22. Adding bouncebacks to what will already be abnormally long rounds seems like a bad idea. I say this having enjoyed the bouncebacks at IKEA.
Daniel Hothem
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Re: (Format Poll Added) FLopen 2020 Open Main Site @ Discord (11/21/2020)

Post by Aaron's Rod »

Smuttynose Island wrote: Sun Oct 11, 2020 6:03 pm
naan/steak-holding toll wrote: Sat Oct 10, 2020 6:42 pm I'll also speak in favor of bouncebacks, they really do help with engagement, and the field will be very good so I don't think we should worry about it taking too long.
Each packet is already 22/22. Adding bouncebacks to what will already be abnormally long rounds seems like a bad idea. I say this having enjoyed the bouncebacks at IKEA.
I would also strongly prefer that we don't do bouncebacks, regardless if this is a one-day tournament or not.
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Re: (Format Poll Added) FLopen 2020 Open Main Site @ Discord (11/21/2020)

Post by Zealots of Stockholm »

As a vocal bounceback hater, I would also prefer this tournament didn't use them.

Also, I am searching teammates (that don't have aspirations to win the tournament) for this! I know some amount of lit and vfa.

edit: team found
Chandler West
Staff, Emory
Vanderbilt University '22
Auburn University '20
Good Hope High School (Cullman, AL) '16
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Writer/editor, ACF, PACE, IQBT
wjg
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Re: (Format Poll Added) FLopen 2020 Open Main Site @ Discord (11/21/2020)

Post by wjg »

This tournament is a little over two weeks away. Just a reminder, to all the teams who are listed in the spreadsheet but have not officially signed up yet, please do so as soon as possible. Looking forward to seeing you all virtually on 11/21!
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Re: (Format Poll Added) FLopen 2020 Open Main Site @ Discord (11/21/2020)

Post by Smuttynose Island »

Has a final format been chosen?

EDIT: And if a final format hasn't been picked, when might it be picked by? I imagine people would prefer to know sooner rather than later if they can schedule anything else on the 22nd. Thanks!
Daniel Hothem
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Re: (Format Poll Added) FLopen 2020 Open Main Site @ Discord (11/21/2020)

Post by TaylorH »

Smuttynose Island wrote: Mon Nov 02, 2020 4:54 pm Has a final format been chosen?

EDIT: And if a final format hasn't been picked, when might it be picked by? I imagine people would prefer to know sooner rather than later if they can schedule anything else on the 22nd. Thanks!
The one-day option won the the format poll, so we will being going with that. We have 16 teams signed up, so the format I think is best is an 8/8 split RR followed by top 4/bottom 4 crossovers, for a total of 11 rounds for all. Finals can occur if the teams in contention feel like playing it out. Given this is a hard online tournament of 22/22, it could be a long day, so plan accordingly. The staff will make every effort to have the day go as smoothly and as quickly as possible.
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Re: (Format Poll Added) FLopen 2020 Open Main Site @ Discord (11/21/2020)

Post by The King's Flight to the Scots »

Could I ask if you guys have decided on a start time yet? We have players from the Midwest and West Coast on our team, so it would be beneficial to us (and others) if the tournament started at a time that accommodates them.
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Re: (Format Poll Added) FLopen 2020 Open Main Site @ Discord (11/21/2020)

Post by TaylorH »

The King's Flight to the Scots wrote: Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:33 pm Could I ask if you guys have decided on a start time yet? We have players from the Midwest and West Coast on our team, so it would be beneficial to us (and others) if the tournament started at a time that accommodates them.
We will start at 10 AM Eastern.
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Re: (Format Poll Added) FLopen 2020 Open Main Site @ Discord (11/21/2020)

Post by TaylorH »

We could use a few more staffers for this, especially fast, clear readers. If you are interested in staffing, please email me at [email protected]. Staffers will be paid $30 for their work.

Edit: We are good on staff now. Thanks to those who have volunteered!
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Re: (Format Poll Added) FLopen 2020 Open Main Site @ Discord (11/21/2020)

Post by Crazy Khan Tech »

Stats are being updated at the end of each round at https://hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/6697/
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Re: (Format Poll Added) FLopen 2020 Open Main Site @ Discord (11/21/2020)

Post by heterodyne »

This tournament was, in general, very well run, and I want to thank the staffers who made that possible. Getting through 11 rounds of difficult 22/22 with 75 minutes of break time in about 11.5 hours would be commendable in person, let alone online! I also think the "hand visible" rule was not particularly onerous, and easy to maintain with some gentle reminders. The camera-on rule was also perfectly manageable. I was kind of worried about the ability of my graphics card and my internet connection to handle a bunch of video streams at once, but (as I discovered) its possible to turn off everyone else's video feed while still broadcasting your own. Also, having complete stats within like 30 minutes of the tournament's conclusion was pretty sweet, thanks Zach.

I did have one minor suggestion I wanted to make. In one of our rounds, there was a rather complicated protest resolution-tiebreaker situation. Both teams involved ended up staying in the room while it was worked out, which meant that we arrived to our next game rather late. Since (in this case) the remainder of our games didn't depend on the resolution of the protest, I think the best option would have been to send both teams to our next rounds, work out the various possible scenarios and resolve the protests while those rounds are played, and then have us go through any necessary gameplay later. I want to stress that I don't blame anyone involved for how it actually went down; it was a complicated and stressful situation under a time crunch, and I know that at least some of those involved in the protest resolution were also staffing games. I just think that this is an especially good policy to follow online, where waiting for another team to show up is even more boring than it is in person.

Again, though, overall this seemed like about as good of an experience as one can expect of online qb. Thanks again!
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Re: (Format Poll Added) FLopen 2020 Open Main Site @ Discord (11/21/2020)

Post by VSCOelasticity »

heterodyne wrote: Sun Nov 22, 2020 2:15 pm I did have one minor suggestion I wanted to make. In one of our rounds, there was a rather complicated protest resolution-tiebreaker situation. Both teams involved ended up staying in the room while it was worked out, which meant that we arrived to our next game rather late. Since (in this case) the remainder of our games didn't depend on the resolution of the protest, I think the best option would have been to send both teams to our next rounds, work out the various possible scenarios and resolve the protests while those rounds are played, and then have us go through any necessary gameplay later. I want to stress that I don't blame anyone involved for how it actually went down; it was a complicated and stressful situation under a time crunch, and I know that at least some of those involved in the protest resolution were also staffing games. I just think that this is an especially good policy to follow online, where waiting for another team to show up is even more boring than it is in person.
Yeah, this was totally my fault. I apologize for holding up the tournament instead of resolving the game at the later, appropriate time.
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Re: (Format Poll Added) FLopen 2020 Open Main Site @ Discord (11/21/2020)

Post by Borrowing 100,000 Arrows »

Even despite being very sick, I had a lot of fun playing this tournament. Thanks for everyone who made it possible!
Caleb K.
Maryland '24, Oklahoma '18, Norman North '15
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