The Quizbowl Resource Center

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 2:00 am**

As Seth Teitler posted in a separate thread, I will once again be in charge of the trash tournament following the Chicago Open. (I'm sorry not to have posted earlier; Seth and I discussed my running the tournament last week, but I've been busy and neglected to put up the announcement.)

Anyway, the tournament will be written by me, David Seal, and Michael Arnold. You should expect the style, distribution, and difficulty to resemble that of the previous CO trash tournaments I helped to write. (Note that there will be less meta quizbowl than the Keller featured, though nobody should be surprised if that much-reviled sub-sub-distribution makes an appearance here or there.) However, you should expect the prices to resemble those announced by Matt Weiner for his incarnation of CO trash last summer, since apparently we were foolishly undercharging people in the past.

More details, including the name of the tournament, will follow in subsequent announcements. In the meantime, anyone who wants to register a team, sign up as a free agent, volunteer to staff, or just ask any questions should feel free to e-mail me.

And, since to e-mail me it would help to have my e-mail address, you can contact me at adyaphe at gmail.

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 2:31 am**

I am interested in playing and far, far too lazy to look up your email address. Could that be edited into your announcement or something like that?

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 2:40 am**

Deesy Does It wrote:I am interested in playing and far, far too lazy to look up your email address. Could that be edited into your announcement or something like that?

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 7:18 am**

Birdofredum Sawin wrote:As Seth Teitler posted in a separate thread, I will once again be in charge of the trash tournament following the Chicago Open. (I'm sorry not to have posted earlier; Seth and I discussed my running the tournament last week, but I've been busy and neglected to put up the announcement.)

Anyway, the tournament will be written by me, David Seal, and Michael Arnold. You should expect the style, distribution, and difficulty to resemble that of the previous CO trash tournaments I helped to write. (Note that there will be less meta quizbowl than the Keller featured, though nobody should be surprised if that much-reviled sub-sub-distribution makes an appearance here or there.) However, you should expect the prices to resemble those announced by Matt Weiner for his incarnation of CO trash last summer, since apparently we were foolishly undercharging people in the past.

More details, including the name of the tournament, will follow in subsequent announcements. In the meantime, anyone who wants to register a team, sign up as a free agent, volunteer to staff, or just ask any questions should feel free to e-mail me.

Is the distribution going to be the same as Weiner's (proposed) tournament or the 2006 tournament? From what I recall of the 2006 CO Trash tournament, there was almost no questions outside of the big four of music, movies, sports and television, and there were also less recent questions than I would have liked to see.

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 11:29 am**

Birdofredum Sawin wrote:(Note that there will be less meta quizbowl than the Keller featured...

So much for me playing in this.

MaS

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 12:04 pm**

Bentley Like Beckham wrote:
Is the distribution going to be the same as Weiner's (proposed) tournament or the 2006 tournament? From what I recall of the 2006 CO Trash tournament, there was almost no questions outside of the big four of music, movies, sports and television, and there were also less recent questions than I would have liked to see.

No, the distribution will be similar to that of the Richler/Keller sets. For what it's worth, that distribution calls for about 20% sports, 25% music, 30% movies/TV, and 25% "other." (Which is certainly more than "almost no questions" outside the big four, though I'm not sure what Weiner, or others, have aimed for.) Looking at a random packet from the Keller, I see "other" tossups on Jane Smiley; clove cigarettes; Matt Weiner's head; Darth Maul; and Lacoste; with "other" bonuses on "places that sell chicken wings"; "literature of the Bible, as per Papool"; brands of lingerie; the Sin City comic books; and the number 108 (that one is quasi-TV). Anyway, I would expect to see a similar representation of non-"Big Four" subjects at this tournament.

As for the "recent" stuff, I guess it's a matter of taste. Subash, Zeke, and I tried to include both contemporary and "classic" trash. I'm now working with two current undergrads rather than with another old-timer, so perhaps the ratio of contemporary to classic will change.

Really, my goal is to approximate the Richler and Keller (minus, despite Sorice, a bit of the meta stuff), because I thought those were some pretty high-quality sets. If people have substantial belated objections to those tournaments, feel free to post or let me know and my co-writers and I can consider alterations.

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 12:19 pm**

Please don't change your plans, unless you decide to make the rather drastic change of throwing out all of the sports questions.

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 12:27 pm**

myamphigory wrote:Please don't change your plans, unless you decide to make the rather drastic change of throwing out all of the sports questions.

Or, better yet, make the tournament ENTIRELY SPORTS AND VIDEO GAMES.

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 12:46 pm**

ImmaculateDeception wrote:
Birdofredum Sawin wrote:(Note that there will be less meta quizbowl than the Keller featured...
So much for me playing in this.

MaS

Birdofredum Sawin wrote:However, you should expect the prices to resemble those announced by Matt Weiner for his incarnation of CO trash last summer, since apparently we were foolishly undercharging people in the past.

...and there goes me.

Seriously, if there turn out to be factors that would keep me from going, the price isn't one of them. Nor is the meta, really -- while I still think it's ill-advised, much of my Keller ire was due to its blindsiding nature. It was still a strong set, and I'm glad Andrew's picking up this event again.

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 1:14 pm**

I believe Sorice was being sarcastic.

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 1:23 pm**

We're all being sarcastic! Except for this post (srs. bsns.)

MaS

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 1:27 pm**

ImmaculateDeception wrote:We're all being sarcastic! Except for this post (srs. bsns.)

MaS

Quotation - X. Name

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 1:40 pm**

Reading back through the Keller tournament, it seems I've misjudged the distribution of that tournament. There were a healthy number of other questions, although I guess the meta cut into some of that.

I would like to see (and from countless dicussions on this, other people do as well) more videogames and Internet trash in the tournament, though.

Anyways, good luck with the tournament. I look forward to playing it.

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 2:27 pm**

Bentley Like Beckham wrote:Reading back through the Keller tournament, it seems I've misjudged the distribution of that tournament. There were a healthy number of other questions, although I guess the meta cut into some of that.

I would like to see (and from countless dicussions on this, other people do as well) more videogames and Internet trash in the tournament, though.

Anyways, good luck with the tournament. I look forward to playing it.

The distribution choices for Richler/Keller stemmed from a general sense that trash tournaments can have an unfortunate tendency to bog down in "niche" subjects which only a few people know. That's why we emphasized film, TV, and popular music so heavily -- those seem like categories which basically anyone who is interested in a "trash" tournament is going to have some familiarity with. Sports was slightly underemphasized, because it seemed slightly more probable that you could be interested in trash but indifferent to sports (see, e.g., Susan's post in this thread). Then subjects like video games, comic books, etc., which have rabid but (we presumed) smaller fan bases, were relegated to the margins somewhat.

It's also harder to know what is "gettable" in the niche areas. While I'm confident that a tossup on, say, Steve Nash should be answerable by anyone who is conversant with basketball, it isn't as obvious that a tossup on any of my favorite video games (say, ATV Offroad Fury) is equally answerable by "anyone who is conversant with video games." Which isn't to say that there won't be questions on video games, obviously.

Anyway, I'm not claiming that this is the only right way to write trash tournaments. My CO trash tournaments have tended to embody a kind of centralist viewpoint about "what trash should be"; it would be interesting to have a trash tournament that consciously embraced a more Balkanizing approach to the distribution, for purposes of comparison. (Maybe there already is such a thing, I don't know.)

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 2:41 pm**

Cool. I mostly enjoyed the Keller and Richtler sets, so I hope this is similar. I did notice that those tended to skew old with the stuff they included (definitely not as much as TRASH, but noticeable for those of us under the legal drinking age). This may be in large part because we read them when they were already a few years old themselves, but I do hope that the writers keep in mind that this could be a problem while they're writing so this sort of criticism isn't a huge issue.

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 4:00 pm**

In all seriousness, though, I'm looking for a team for this.

MaS

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 4:00 pm**

Other than a bit of older-skewed stuff, the Richler and Keller sets were excellent, so I would be glad to play another of those. The first Chris McCray set made me absolutely gleeful, however, so any increased similarities to that would be lovely.

Frankly, I'll play either way.

EDIT: I too am looking for a team.

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 4:24 pm**

This kind of makes my day.

Will the other contain lit that is mostly along the lines of the past two CO trash events (meaning, recent legit lit like the McEwan Letham or "The Terrorist" tus, old important non-academic stuff like Tintin and Maigret and maybe a smattering of recent non-fiction?) Also will sports be basically broken into 1/1 baseball/football/basketball and "other?"

Does this make CO weekend 68 hours of quizbowl and four hours of sleep?

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 4:51 pm**

Assuming I can make the CO weekend (which I have every intention to do), I'll definitely play this tournament, and I'll need a team of course.

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 5:55 pm**

DeisEvan wrote:Assuming I can make the CO weekend (which I have every intention to do), I'll definitely play this tournament, and I'll need a team of course.

HAY EVAN WANNA BE ON MY TEAM

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 7:28 pm**

Rothlover wrote:
Will the other contain lit that is mostly along the lines of the past two CO trash events (meaning, recent legit lit like the McEwan Letham or "The Terrorist" tus, old important non-academic stuff like Tintin and Maigret and maybe a smattering of recent non-fiction?) Also will sports be basically broken into 1/1 baseball/football/basketball and "other?"

Yes, and yes. (25% each of baseball, football, basketball, and "everything else" is the current plan.)

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 8:03 pm**

I too, am looking for a team.

Edit: No longer looking for a team for this... Instead, we'll have Team Touchdown Travelling Restrictions participating

Posted: **Thu Mar 27, 2008 8:04 pm**

DeisEvan wrote:Assuming I can make the CO weekend (which I have every intention to do), I'll definitely play this tournament, and I'll need a team of course.

QFT

Posted: **Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:01 pm**

Naturally, I could compete in trash quads after the CO. I hope to power all classic cinema questions, but I shall release my buzzer during video game queries. I am always looking for teammates for the CO et al, but right now I am more concerned with finding more teammates for next month's NAQT ICT warm-up at UIUC, Rollapalooza, and ACF nationals.

Happy early Earth Hour (My late WI senator Gaylord Nelson founded Earth Day),
Rom Masrour
UIC/CPS

Posted: **Tue Apr 01, 2008 3:12 pm**

I'm looking for a team for this.

Posted: **Sat May 03, 2008 1:09 am**

If I come (quite likely), I'll be looking for a team.

Posted: **Wed May 28, 2008 4:37 pm**

I am strongly considering participating in this, but first I want to see if I can round up some of my Chicago-area Alma College homeboys before pursuing other options.

Any META would have them scratching their heads, but oh well.

Posted: **Thu May 29, 2008 12:08 am**

The "Mike Bentley et al" team mentioned in the CO team thread is the same as the Matt Weiner team.

Posted: **Sat May 31, 2008 1:01 am**

OK, so here's a slightly more official team list than the one I posted in the discussion forum:

Susan, Ed, Mike Sorice
Matt Weiner, Matt Weiner's friends WHICH INCLUDES MIKE BENTLEY
Matt Lafer's Army of Sullenness
Bryce Durgin et al.
Rom
Chris Ray, Jeremy Eaton, etc.
Eric Douglass, Bryn Reinecke, etc.

There are also such free agents as Rob Carson and Arnav Moudgil. And, of course, there are all the people who have tentatively posted in this or other threads, but haven't actually been in touch with me.

Andrew

Posted: **Sat May 31, 2008 8:58 am**

I'm looking for a team. My email is [email protected]

Posted: **Mon Jun 02, 2008 12:36 pm**

possibly a stupid question, but where and when is this exactly?

Posted: **Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:59 pm**

Sunday, July 20th, at the University of Chicago

Posted: **Mon Jun 02, 2008 6:29 pm**

I will read for this event.

Posted: **Mon Jun 02, 2008 8:03 pm**

How much will the registration fee be?

Posted: **Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:17 am**

I'm going to play, but I'm still looking for a team.

Posted: **Tue Jun 03, 2008 11:34 am**

DeisEvan wrote:I'm going to play, but I'm still looking for a team.

Hey, Evan Nagler, guess who might be going to CO now? (hint: me)

Posted: **Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:55 pm**

As far as I know Matt Weiner and I are still looking for teammates, Evan.

Posted: **Tue Jun 03, 2008 8:19 pm**

Actually Matt and Ryan accepted our offer, so sorry.

Posted: **Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:21 pm**

Question:

What time would the CO TRASH tournament be starting?

I've got a presumptive fellow teammate whose morning on the 20th is booked because his significant other is running a 5k, but, I'm guessing, 1pm on, he's open.

It's not a problem if he misses the first few rounds but I would like to get him in at least, say, half the tournament because, well, he's pretty knowledgeable, and he is certainly interested in playing.

But it's your show, and people need to catch flights, so que sera sera.

Thanks in advance.

Posted: **Thu Jun 05, 2008 1:37 am**

Quentin Roper, Carsten Gehring, and myself will be forming a team for this, and we have room for a fourth person. Be warned, though, we all suck at trash.

Edit: My email is [email protected]

Posted: **Thu Jun 05, 2008 2:21 am**

So I guess Lafer and Weiner joined forces? In that case, the team list is:

Susan, Ed, Mike Sorice
Matt Weiner, Matt Weiner's friends WHICH INCLUDES MIKE BENTLEY AND MATT LAFER AND RYAN WESTBROOK
Bryce Durgin et al.
Rom, presumably playing with Bruce?
Chris Ray, Jeremy Eaton, etc.
Eric Douglass, Bryn Reinecke, etc.
Quentin Roper, Carsten Gehring, Trevor Davis
Kelly Tourdot, Andrew Hart, Rob Carson, Trygve Meade

other people who haven't really formalized any plans yet?

There's a separate announcement elsewhere in this forum, but basically the tournament is $25 per person (so you don't have to pay a full $100 if you don't have a team of four). There will be ten rounds, so I don't think we can afford to start too late if there's going to be a subject tournament Sunday night as well.

Andrew

Posted: **Thu Jun 05, 2008 8:09 am**

Guy Tabachnick, Charlie Dees, myself, and a mysterious to be determined fourth will be playing this.

Posted: **Fri Jun 06, 2008 4:06 pm**

I want to play trash and have no team. Beware, I'm not very good.

Posted: **Fri Jun 06, 2008 5:17 pm**

Eric, would you like to join Charlie, Guy, and myself?

Posted: **Sat Jun 07, 2008 8:10 pm**

That sounds like a fine idea.

Posted: **Sun Jun 08, 2008 12:37 pm**

I'm now officially interested. Mike Sorice, are you interested in letting me round out your team? Otherwise, I'll throw myself out as a free agent.

Posted: **Sun Jun 08, 2008 1:31 pm**

Jeremy and I are currently looking for teammates.

Posted: **Wed Jun 11, 2008 8:58 pm**

Just thought I'd post an updated team list:

Susan, Ed, Mike Sorice
Matt Weiner, Matt Weiner's friends WHICH INCLUDES MIKE BENTLEY AND MATT LAFER AND RYAN WESTBROOK
Bryce Durgin et al.
Rom, presumably playing with Bruce?
Chris Ray, Jeremy Eaton, etc.
Eric Douglass, Bryn Reinecke, etc.
Quentin Roper, Carsten Gehring, Trevor Davis
Kelly Tourdot, Andrew Hart, Rob Carson, Trygve Meade
Guy Tabachnick, Charlie Dees, Christian Carter, Eric Kwartler
Jacob Durst, Andy Sekerak, etc.
Dan Passner and Lorin Burte, maybe

There are also free agents, e.g. Colby, and other tentative teams, e.g. Greg Sorenson et al. A number of people have volunteered to staff the tournament, so I don't think I'll have to close registration any time soon. As always, just let me know if you're interested in playing/staffing (adyaphe at gmail dot com).

Andrew

Posted: **Wed Jun 11, 2008 9:09 pm**

Birdofredum Sawin wrote:Matt Weiner, Matt Weiner's friends WHICH INCLUDES MIKE BENTLEY AND MATT LAFER AND RYAN WESTBROOK

I'm requesting that this be the actual name of that team.

Posted: **Thu Jun 12, 2008 12:10 am**

Birdofredum Sawin wrote:
There are also free agents, e.g. Colby, and other tentative teams, e.g. Greg Sorenson et al. A number of people have volunteered to staff the tournament, so I don't think I'll have to close registration any time soon. As always, just let me know if you're interested in playing/staffing (adyaphe at gmail dot com).

Andrew

Yeah, looks like it's myself, Jeremy White, and Brian Hight for now; the latter depending on whether he can tear himself away from a new baby for a day.

The Quizbowl Resource Center

CO trash announcement

CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement

Re: CO trash announcement