Page 1 of 1

Full Announcement: ACF Fall 2007

Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:08 pm
by Mr. Kwalter
This is the announcement for ACF Fall 2007. ACF Fall will be held on the weekend of Saturday, November 3, 2007. Hosts have the option to run the tournament on Sunday, November 4 instead of Saturday if football, other tournaments, or other conflicts make doing so preferable. Date announcements from each host will follow once host bids are awarded.

On that note, please mail Eric Kwartler at ekwartler at gmail dot com if you are interested in hosting. As always, we are looking for hosts in every region of the United States and Canada where active quizbowl teams exist. Please get your host bids in ASAP so that we may announce the hosting lineup sooner rather than later.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR WRITING ACF FALL PACKETS

ACF Fall is designed to be a very accessible tournament and an enjoyable introduction to the game for newer players. To help meet this goal, packet writers should keep question difficulty low and question quality high. An ideal packet in terms of question difficulty, question structure, and formatting may be found at http://www.hsquizbowl.org/acf-model.doc . Consult this packet for all your questions about formatting, and feel free to contact Eric Kwartler if any of your questions remain unanswered. For question structure: note the dense, specific, helpful clues packed into each question, the structuring of each bonus to give 10 points to all teams, 20 to many, and 30 to the best, and the selection of widely known tossup answers with many interesting and useful clues available. For this tournament, always err on the side of easier if you are unsure about the difficulty of a particular question.

Another rule that we’re making this year:

There will be a hard cap on question length at 6 lines. This is in 10 pt Times New Roman font with 1 inch margins. Do not write questions longer than this. If you do, they will be cut down to size with a large frown in your general direction from the editing staff.

You may also find it useful to review Subash Maddipotti's Ten Tips For Question Writing, located at http://acf-quizbowl.com/documents/subash.php, as well as Jerry’s “How to Write Questions,â€

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 5:58 am
by theMoMA
In case anyone's unclear as to what Social Science encompasses, this is from ACF Regionals 2007's announcement:
Social science includes but is not limited to psychology, economics, anthropology, sociology, law, linguistics, and archeology.
Also, I'll be more than happy to provide editing feedback on questions that I edit. Those will be visual fine arts (painting, sculpture, and architecture) and social science. Happy writing!

Andrew Hart,
ACF Fall 2007 category editor

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 7:42 pm
by miamiqb
Also for science questions try to avoid answers that are people; let's not play "Name that scientist".

Jay Sridhar
ACF Fall 2007 Bio/Chem Editor

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:28 pm
by bigdogstalfos
The only thing I have to add is for history, try to mix up what types of history you write about (political, social, economic, etc.). Variety is the spice of life.

Patrick Hope
ACF Fall 2007 Editor, US/British History (aka History of the English-Speaking Peoples)

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 12:46 am
by grapesmoker
I'm not an editor, but I'll be updating the formatting guidelines on the ACF webpage soon, so if this is a source of confusion, all your formatting questions will soon be answered.

Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 9:06 pm
by Maxwell Sniffingwell
I'm seeing lots of discount/penalty info, but no base fee. Will that be different at each site?

Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 10:09 pm
by Sima Guang Hater
miamiqb wrote:Also for science questions try to avoid answers that are people; let's not play "Name that scientist".

Jay Sridhar
ACF Fall 2007 Bio/Chem Editor
What about questions about people who have lots of important things named for them? I tend to enjoy those.

Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 11:45 pm
by vandyhawk
ToStrikeInfinitely wrote:
miamiqb wrote:Also for science questions try to avoid answers that are people; let's not play "Name that scientist".

Jay Sridhar
ACF Fall 2007 Bio/Chem Editor
What about questions about people who have lots of important things named for them? I tend to enjoy those.
I think those are fine. Just avoid the random biographical clues that have no scientific relevance.

Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2007 3:49 am
by QuizBowlRonin
ToStrikeInfinitely wrote:
miamiqb wrote:Also for science questions try to avoid answers that are people; let's not play "Name that scientist".

Jay Sridhar
ACF Fall 2007 Bio/Chem Editor
What about questions about people who have lots of important things named for them? I tend to enjoy those.
There are limits on those, and even then those questions tend to be gimmicky because the answer space reduces quickly to "people who have a lot of things named after them". You can only write on Langerhans, Malpighi, or Cajal a limited number of times =).

Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2007 4:17 pm
by Mr. Kwalter
cornfused wrote:I'm seeing lots of discount/penalty info, but no base fee. Will that be different at each site?
Yes, it is the host's choice. I don't want to make a public suggestion, as hosts might then feel obligated to use that as their base fee.

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 6:18 pm
by wd4gdz
Ready to announce the hosts, or at least some of them?

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 5:29 pm
by Mr. Kwalter
Here are the schools that have thusfar committed to hosting ACF Fall 2007:

Northeast: MIT

Mid-Atlantic: VCU

Midwest: UIUC

Southeast: Shorter College

Southwest: Somewhere in Dallas, Chris Romero is in charge.

North: University of Minnesota

We're still waiting on confirmation from our West Coast host. We do not have hosts in the Pacific Northwest or in the Great Lakes/Eastern Canada region, so if there is sufficient demand for sites in those regions (or any others not sufficiently covered by the list above) please post here or let me know by email at ekwartler at gmail dot com. Each individual host will be announcing their site soon.

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 4:29 pm
by Mike Bentley
Good to see VCU still hosting tournaments after Weiner's departure from the school. Maryland should be bringing two-ish teams to the tournament.

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 10:34 pm
by Jeremy Gibbs Lemma
Truman will be bringing at least one team to the UIUC location.

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 11:00 pm
by Zip Zap Rap Pants
Steroid McBlooddoper wrote:Good to see VCU still hosting tournaments after Weiner's departure from the school. Maryland should be bringing two-ish teams to the tournament.
Yeah William & Mary will bring some number of teams, probably 1-5 depending on how the corral of recruits pans out and how many drivers we can get.

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2007 11:01 pm
by Mike Bentley
Wall of Shawarma wrote:
Steroid McBlooddoper wrote:Good to see VCU still hosting tournaments after Weiner's departure from the school. Maryland should be bringing two-ish teams to the tournament.
Yeah William & Mary will bring some number of teams, probably 1-5 depending on how the corral of recruits pans out and how many drivers we can get.
I look forward to a good showing from W&M E.

Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 10:42 pm
by Maxwell Sniffingwell
Lawrence will be bringing a team to the UIUC location. By which I mean, um, I'm going to show up.

Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 11:46 pm
by MiltonPlayer47
cornfused wrote:Lawrence will be bringing a team to the UIUC location. By which I mean, um, I'm going to show up.
I think that counts as a whole team :)

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 1:48 pm
by Mr. Kwalter
It has now been confirmed that Stanford will be the West Coast host.

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 12:21 am
by wd4gdz
I'd like to applaud Jay for his almost instantaneous feedback.

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 5:27 pm
by Maxwell Sniffingwell
MiltonPlayer47 wrote:
cornfused wrote:Lawrence will be bringing a team to the UIUC location. By which I mean, um, I'm going to show up.
I think that counts as a whole team :)
From Lawrence, it does.

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 8:40 pm
by evilmonkey
Notre Dame would like to bring a team to UIUC. However, November 3rd is the day of the Notre Dame - Navy game. The only way we would be able to attend is if the date was moved to Sunday. Can anyone tell me the probablility of this occurring?

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 9:33 pm
by Jeremy Gibbs Lemma
i'm guessing slim to none ??

you guys have to be there for the ND-Navy game or risk social ostracism or are there team members or band members or what ?

it might actually be a contest this year .... that was slightly embarrassing against georgia tech

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 9:47 pm
by millionwaves
3D Lemmings wrote:Notre Dame would like to bring a team to UIUC. However, November 3rd is the day of the Notre Dame - Navy game. The only way we would be able to attend is if the date was moved to Sunday. Can anyone tell me the probablility of this occurring?
Hey -

It's great to hear you guys are interested, but I think the chances are pretty much nil that we can change the date. If that changes, I or the TD will let you know by e-mail.

However, if I may, I couldn't help but notice that on October 6, Notre Dame is playing an away game. The Early Fall Tournament, which promises to be excellent this year (and is about that difficulty), is going to be held in Chicago on that date. If you were planning on going to ACF Fall and can't, EFT would be quite an alternative.

Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007 10:27 am
by Demonic Leftovers
Chicago is planning on sending at least two teams to the UIUC site. Also for the Notre Dame people, if you are interested in EFT please email me at [email protected].

Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 9:26 pm
by Mr. Kwalter
Valencia Community College in Orlando will also host ACF Fall this year. Details will be posted soon by Chris Borglum.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 4:41 pm
by wwellington
Did someone from VCU post more specific information and I missed it, or are we still waiting on that?

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 5:35 pm
by Matt Weiner
Still waiting. If you have any immediate questions, you can contact me, but there will be a full announcement with registration instructions from a current team member once they can reserve rooms (which will be about a week from now, due to university procedures).

I guess the most important thing to know right now is that the VCU site will be running the tournament on Saturday, Nov 3.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 8:18 pm
by wwellington
Good to know. Just wanted to know if we could register yet; I can wait until whenever the announcement's made.

Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 6:45 pm
by Mr. Kwalter
Just to let everyone know, I am willing to grant packet amnesty to teams who under the rules are obligated to write a packet. The amnesty fee will be $75. If you don't submit a packet by this weekend or give me a good excuse as to why you haven't, you will not be allowed to play unless you pay this fee.

Edit: You should also know that one of the sites is being delayed by a week due to logistical concerns. This means discussion of specific questions from the ACF Fall set will have to be postponed until the night of November 11th.

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 1:19 am
by Mr. Kwalter
The tournament has concluded, so feel free to discuss the questions in the Fall discussion thread. We should applaud the editors for a job that I think overall was well done. Special thanks go out to Matt Weiner, who went above and beyond to help us finish the set on time despite not being officially involved with the tournament, Mike Sorice, Andrew Hart, Dennis Jang, and Jonathan Magin, all of whom spent a shitload of time compiling, checking, and preparing the set the few days before it was to be read. Oh, and thanks to Ryan Westbrook for writing the bulk of the geography in the tournament.