2020 Festivus [20 December 2020]

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meebles127
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2020 Festivus [20 December 2020]

Post by meebles127 »

I will be organizing Festivus this year. After the feedback received from the Internet Charity Tournament hosted this past April, I am striving to have a more structured event this year. As such, I will be adopting many principals that were used in the Internet Charity Tournament. This event will be completely open. It will also run separately from the Main Quizbowl Discord server.

As with the Internet Charity Tournament, writers will submit packets, interest polls will be taken, and then a schedule will be created. I am making this more structured than the Festivusus of the past, but I truly want this to be an enjoyable experience for all. Bonuses are banned from submitted packets but I will be allowing visual packets of no more than 20 questions in length. When choosing your theme for your packet please be mindful to be detailed and coherent. While it was fun, many of the x-persongories did not go over well at ICT mainly due to people not knowing what the packet was about if they did not know that person.

There will be writer sign-ups before the tournament and that form is live now. I will be closing writer sign-ups on December 8, 2020, at 2359 Pacific time. Note: your email address will not be publicly shared in any manner and will only be used by me to contact you regarding this tournament. There is also currently a date poll that is live right now for players to select what date(s) work best for them. I will also close this poll on November 17, 2020, at 2359 Pacific time. I am currently planning for this to be a one-day event unless there is an overwhelming amount of packet submissions.

I am also encouraging, but not requiring, donations to a charity that is to be determined. It will most likely be related to COVID or COVID-related hunger relief.

I will be posting a publicly viewable spreadsheet with packet information once I have received some responses and can create such a spreadsheet. Email addresses of writers will not be publicly visible on this spreadsheet for their privacy.

Please direct any questions you may have to me either here or by email, Discord, or Facebook.

I have updated the deadline to express interest to write.

Writer Sign-up Form: https://forms.gle/prGCRXhFTgZURkQY9
Date Poll: https://forms.gle/jAHSWurKHzLHGiWp9
Registration Form: https://forms.gle/Mtww8PrZogEq4MGQA
Discord Server Link: https://discord.gg/gAgTaWR7Xt
Schedule: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing


A description of what Festivus is: It is a time-honored quizbowl tradition to read packets on Festivus, December 23rd (in 2019 it was on the 20th). If people do not want this to be a full replacement for the event then that is fine, and they can run their own event. The only major change to the past tradition I am guaranteeing is a set schedule, but this schedule (with the schedule only being made 2ish days in advance) will contain some built in holes for packets that "pop-up" out of no-where. I will also note that the writer sign-up deadline is extremely soft.
Last edited by meebles127 on Sat Dec 19, 2020 6:38 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: 2020 Festivus [Date TBD, please answer the poll]

Post by Mike Bentley »

On Discord there's been some pushback to this. As someone who I think suggested that Em take the lead in organizing this, let me mostly offer a defense.

I agree that there's some charm in last-minute Festivus submissions. As such, I think it makes sense to push back the packet deadlines and to explicitly allocate space for last-minute packets.

I strongly disagree with the sentiment that there's something charming about Festivus's giant shootouts, unpredictable schedules, no requirements about packets, and only-one-room traditions. Splitting into multiple rooms and having a real schedule makes it much easier to attend the packets you care about. It also means that we can get through more packets in the day. And offers something more meaningful for packets you have some interest in but aren't very good at. In the Tier 3 room you may still have a chance on the questions.

Similarly, announcing that this event is happening ahead of time lets people prepare their packets. Last minute packets can be fun, but I'm sure there are lots of packets not written because people just forgot Festivus was happening.
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Re: 2020 Festivus [Date TBD, please answer the poll]

Post by Scone »

What is Festivus?
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Re: 2020 Festivus [Date TBD, please answer the poll]

Post by Mike Bentley »

I'll also mention that I have no problem with having both this event on a different date and a more traditional Festivus. There's some danger that it would dilute the number of packets for both events but my suspicion is that there will be more packets available this year than last year given the lack of other things to do with your time in a pandemic.
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Re: 2020 Festivus [Date TBD, please answer the poll]

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

I would agree with Mike. Especially during corona times, I suspect attendance at this event is going to be very high. Having 100 people buzzing on a single packet just isn't very fun, leads to a zillion buzzer races and people giving tons of random guesses, and in general makes stuff take forever.
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Re: 2020 Festivus [Date TBD, please answer the poll]

Post by Krik? Krik?! KRIIIIK!!! »

Scone wrote: Wed Oct 28, 2020 4:11 pm What is Festivus?
Only the best holiday of the year!

In all seriousness, its a time around the holidays in which people put together vanity packets and play them for them on Discord!
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Re: 2020 Festivus [Date TBD, please answer the poll]

Post by Cheynem »

I don't have any problem with some organization of this and it's good that Em stepped up--a schedule at a bare minimum and some plans to allow for multiple rooms in case there are 50 or 100 people for a packet (which has not happened for any Festivus packet in my experience) are good things.

I really question though why there have to be dates for writers to sign up (barring I guess time for the person making the schedule). In particular, if Festivus ends up on the 19th or 20th, there is no reason why the sign-up date should end on the 8th. Festivus does not have to be tightly organized as a regular tournament--part of its charm to me is that it is the purest of quizbowl--a lot of packets read, one right after the other, and perhaps more added at the spur of the moment (and some never being read because the author flaked). As long as the person making the schedule has time to do so, I see no reason why the deadline date shouldn't be much closer to the actual event.
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Re: 2020 Festivus [Date TBD, please answer the poll]

Post by Father of the Ragdoll »

Is this still happening?
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Re: 2020 Festivus [Date TBD, please answer the poll]

Post by meebles127 »

Illinois Admin wrote: Mon Dec 07, 2020 9:38 pm Is this still happening?
Yes, I'll be posting tomorrow.
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Re: 2020 Festivus 20 December 2020

Post by meebles127 »

Sorry for posting late.

This event is still happening and will be taking place on 20 December 2020. I'll be making a schedule of events next Thursday with all sign-ups to that point. I will additionally be placing a few "free" spots so people can pop-in with last-minute packets. At this time I am currently planning to run 3 rooms of each packet concurrently, so when a schedule is opened up please consider signing up to moderate a packet during a time when you won't be playing.

Here is a list of all packets current as of 12/12/2020 at 2325 ET.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

I'll be posting again sometime in the middle of next week with more information.
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Re: 2020 Festivus [20 December 2020]

Post by meebles127 »

I'm going to make a schedule either tonight or tomorrow and work permissions out sometime soon but you can go ahead and join the server at the link below, or in the main post. I used the ICT server as a template, so you can disregard the fact that there are six rooms (but I don't even think you can see those right now because of permissions), I'll remove some of them between now and Sunday.

https://discord.gg/gAgTaWR7Xt
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Re: 2020 Festivus [20 December 2020]

Post by meebles127 »

Amidst the craziness of December, I've somehow forgotten to create a packet interest survey. Here is the link to that. I am asking that you have this done by 2359 on December 18, 2020, if you'd like your interests taken into account when making the schedule. I apologize that this is so last minute.

Writers: Even if you are not playing, please complete the survey, there is a question for you to indicate your availability.

https://forms.gle/Mtww8PrZogEq4MGQA
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"That's got to be one of the most useful skills anyone has ever gotten from quizbowl." -John Lawrence
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Re: 2020 Festivus [20 December 2020]

Post by meebles127 »

To be clear, this is on the 20th, not the 23rd. I apologize for that but I have personal matters that will have me tied up on Wednesday. People are free to still use the Festivus server on Wednesday if they'd like to though.
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"That's got to be one of the most useful skills anyone has ever gotten from quizbowl." -John Lawrence
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Re: 2020 Festivus [20 December 2020]

Post by meebles127 »

Due to misconduct allegations that have come to my attention, I have decided to remove Stefan Calin's packet from Festivus and ban Stefan from participating in the 2020 edition of Festivus. I want Festivus to be a welcoming event for all players and I encourage anyone who has issues during the tournament to speak to me. The quizbowl misconduct form is also available at https://tinyurl.com/qbmisconduct.
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"That's got to be one of the most useful skills anyone has ever gotten from quizbowl." -John Lawrence
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Re: 2020 Festivus [20 December 2020]

Post by meebles127 »

I have made the schedule for Festivus. It can be found in the main post and in the Discord server. I have made every effort to ensure that time slots are not too short, though some of them might be a tad bit too long. I apologize if I severely overshot on time length in any given packet.

WRITERS: Please send your packet to egunter127 AT gmail DOT com as soon as you reasonably can. Please try to have this done at least an hour before your packet is being read, if possible.

On the left side of the schedule, there is a listing of events, and on the right side, there is a moderator sign-up. Writers of their own packet get priority in which room they would like to read. If you are free during a portion of the day, please sign up to read in an additional room. If an event happens to have more interest during the event than was indicated in the initial sign-ups, I will open a third room for that event.

You will notice that there are three slots available for "Drop-In" packets. If you wish to contribute a packet for this purpose, please inform me as soon as you'll know, so I can modify the spreadsheet to reflect such. Please don't try to do this yourself as I don't want you to inadvertently break the spreadsheet.

In order to enter into the room for your event please go to the #roles channel, and select the appropriate number. If you will be moderating an event, you will select the turtle emoji for that event. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES may you have the @Mod Powers role if you will not be reading during that time slot. If you are caught doing this, you will be immediately banned unless it was a technical issue or some other mistake like you left to go get lunch, for example.

Furthermore, all players are required to be in only one room throughout the entire reading of an event, i.e. once the mod has started reading an event, you can't switch to another room. (You can obviously still switch rooms between different events, though). This is to prevent players from listening to one room that goes ahead of another, then switching rooms and exploiting the information they heard. Any player who does this once will be kicked and forced to sit out the round unless it's a technical issue, and anyone who does it twice will be banned from the rest of the event unless they successfully appeal to me.

Regarding cheating, I'm going to quote something that Will Alston said in April:
Will Alston wrote:If you need to cheat to win an online charity packet to boost your ego, you're a fucking loser and should feel ashamed of yourself.
I am also going to request that everyone playing use a camera during the events that you are playing unless you have some shitty internet or some other excuse that you speak to me about ahead of time. I will not be requiring you to use a camera; however, writers have the right to require a camera for you to play their packet, except in instances where you have prior permission. If you expect this to be an issue please reach out to me as soon as possible. If you are playing without a camera, and any allegations of cheating arise, you will be asked to turn it on. If you do not, you will be immediately ejected.

Regarding 23 December Festivus readings: Auroni has already stated that she will be using the server to read her packet in the server at 9:30 Eastern time. Others are free to do so as well, and I would like to appoint a server administrator for this if at all possible, as I will be tied up with personal matters most of the day and will be unable to fix any technical issues that may occur. If you wish to volunteer for this position please reach out to me.

Finally, I will be soliciting donations for Partners in Health to help support frontline healthcare workers, following the event. Do not feel obligated to donate if you are not able to do so.

If there are any other questions please reach out to me.
Em Gunter
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Re: 2020 Festivus [20 December 2020]

Post by meebles127 »

For the sake of my sanity please include "Festivus 2020 Packet" in the subject line of your email with your packet please.
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"That's got to be one of the most useful skills anyone has ever gotten from quizbowl." -John Lawrence
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Re: 2020 Festivus [20 December 2020]

Post by meebles127 »

Festivus happened and I will have more concise words to say soon.

There is a 23 December tab on the spreadsheet now for free sign-ups so people can know that stuff is happening. I don't really care what people do, and I won't be there for the most part. If someone wants to volunteer to be an admin for tech stuff, please DM me.
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Assistant Tournament Director, 2022 and 2023 ACF Nationals

Author of: My Guide to High School Outreach and So You Want to Buy a Buzzer System

"That's got to be one of the most useful skills anyone has ever gotten from quizbowl." -John Lawrence
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Re: 2020 Festivus [20 December 2020]

Post by meebles127 »

Two other things before my follow-up post:

1) I will be collecting donations for PIH to help support Frontline Healthcare workers. If you would like to contribute to this please fill out the original sign up sheet so I will have your email address to reach out this week.

2) The packets aren't going to be uploaded to the archives for a while as I am quite busy with my personal life right now. Please do not bug me for packets. Expect them sometime around the middle of January. If it's January 15th and I have not posted them you are free to bug me about it, but not before then.
Em Gunter
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Tournament Director, 2023 Chicago Open
Assistant Tournament Director, 2022 and 2023 ACF Nationals

Author of: My Guide to High School Outreach and So You Want to Buy a Buzzer System

"That's got to be one of the most useful skills anyone has ever gotten from quizbowl." -John Lawrence
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Re: 2020 Festivus [20 December 2020]

Post by meebles127 »

I sent out the donation email a few minutes ago, if you wanted to receive this email and did not, please let me know, and I will forward it to you.

I'd also like to thank everyone who wrote for this, played, staffed, or otherwise supported the event. This was a great time for me, and I'm glad that so many people were able to enjoy themselves.
Em Gunter
Club President, University of Virginia
Tournament Director, 2023 Chicago Open
Assistant Tournament Director, 2022 and 2023 ACF Nationals

Author of: My Guide to High School Outreach and So You Want to Buy a Buzzer System

"That's got to be one of the most useful skills anyone has ever gotten from quizbowl." -John Lawrence
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Re: 2020 Festivus [20 December 2020]

Post by meebles127 »

I'm happy to announce that between direct donations to Partners in Health on behalf of Festivus from various players, and donations that I collected, and subsequently donated to Partners in Health, a total of $1310 was raised to help support PIH's COVID relief efforts.

I'm very happy with how this event turned out and while I'm not sure if I'll be in a position to run it again in 2021, I hope 2020's Festivus can help serve as a model for many years to come.
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Club President, University of Virginia
Tournament Director, 2023 Chicago Open
Assistant Tournament Director, 2022 and 2023 ACF Nationals

Author of: My Guide to High School Outreach and So You Want to Buy a Buzzer System

"That's got to be one of the most useful skills anyone has ever gotten from quizbowl." -John Lawrence
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