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ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:49 pm
by Mechanical Beasts
Harvard College Bowl is pleased to announce the Harvard T-Party, a storied tradition first run, so far as my archive shows, in 1995. That edition may or may not have featured variable-point bonuses and other... curiosities. This version should be much better. As the announcement shows, it will be taking place on December 6th, 2008.

Unlike the Harvard International, this tournament will be packet-submission, and the target difficulty will be around that of Penn Bowl 2008. Submitted tossups should be at least six lines in ten point Times New Roman with one-inch margins. Erring on the side of more clues is always better. There will be no powers.

Also unlike Harvard International, this tournament will not be open registration, with a few qualifications: namely, high school players can play on mixed high school teams, and high school players can play on college teams--but all the college players on a team must attend the same school, be degree candidates, et cetera--essentially the same as the ACF eligibility guidelines. The reason we make this distinction is that we want to encourage high school participation, but we also want schools competing as teams when possible.

Fees

$100 base fee for first team
$90 for second and subsequent
-$5 for buzzers (please, please bring buzzers)
-$10 for a moderator (caveats about competence apply)
-$25 for a packet submitted by 11/1/08
-$15 for a packet submitted by 11/8/08
$0 for a packet submitted by 11/15/08
+$25 for a packet submitted by 11/22/08
+$50 for a packet submitted by 11/29/08

Packet submission is required to attend the tournament for any team which has members who are in college and have played in a college tournament before this academic year. Therefore, if your team is all high school players or all college novices, or a mix of the two, then you do not have to submit a packet, but you can still do so to earn the discount.

Formatting

Your submissions should emulate the formatting of the following tossup and bonus, but be hesitant about emulating much else about them. They've been slightly edited (for formatting) from the Harvard T-Party of 1995.

1/1 what the hell

One of his lesser known works was his attempt to use Fourier series to represent stripings of zebras. In 1936, while still a graduate student, he wrote "On Computable Numbers," which outlined a theoretical machine which now bears his name. For 10 points, name this man whose test was performed
on Sean Young by Harrison Ford in "Blade Runner."
ANSWER: Alan Turing

Given an animal, identify its collective term, for 5 points each. All answers are five letter words.
[5] Sheep
ANSWER: flock
[5] Rhinoceros
ANSWER: crash
[5] Kangaroos
ANSWER: troop
[5] Quail
ANSWER: covey [do not accept bevy, which has four letters]
[5] Gnats
ANSWER: horde

Yeah, especially avoid 25 point bonuses, binary bonuses, five point bonus parts, et cetera. Also, trash giveaways to academic tossups. No fun.

Distribution

24/24, among the following:

5/5 literature (at least 1/1 American, British, European, World; at least 1/1 poetry, 1/1 drama, 1/1 novels; vary time periods)
5/5 history (at least 1/1 American, European, World; vary time periods)
5/5 science (at least 1/1 Physics, Chemistry, Biology; 1/1 should come from astronomy, earth science, computer science, math; 1/1 your choice)
3/3 arts (1/1 painting, 1/1 music; one additional question on other visual arts, and one additional question on other musical arts)
3/3 RMP (2/1 or 1/2 mythology, with at least one question non-western; 0/1 or 1/0 religion, written about belief systems, not stories from the mythologies of major religions; 1/1 philosophy)
1/1 social science
1/1 geography
1/1 trash/current events

Vague Approximation of Field
Chicago (3)
Doug Yetman (1)
Brown (1)
Hampshire (1)
Brandeis (1)
Amherst (1)
Columbia (1)

Vague Approximation of Packets
Received:
Mike Bentley, savior of all quizbowl
West Coast (most)
Brandeis
Amherst
Chicago
Hampshire
Michigan
Brown
Minnesota 1
Dartmouth
Weiner

To be received:
Yetman's portion of Yetman's own goddamn packet

Post any questions, comments or concerns, or else email them to me at [email protected].

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 12:04 am
by dyetman89
Yee-haw! another Northeast tournament. Expect a one-man team from Hunter to stumble in.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 1:15 am
by DumbJaques
Therefore, if you are in high school, or if you are in college but have never played a college tournament before, you do not have to submit a packet, but you can still do so to earn the discount.
Either you might want to be a little more clear about this, or this sound's like not the greatest idea. Since this tournament is occurring in December and is regionals level, it's pretty unlikely that anyone who attends it will be attending their first tournament ever. I assume you mean someone who hasn't played before this year, but I just wanted to confirm that (as a Maryland B team, for example, would probably meet that criteria).

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 8:22 am
by Mechanical Beasts
DumbJaques wrote:
Therefore, if you are in high school, or if you are in college but have never played a college tournament before, you do not have to submit a packet, but you can still do so to earn the discount.
Either you might want to be a little more clear about this, or this sound's like not the greatest idea. Since this tournament is occurring in December and is regionals level, it's pretty unlikely that anyone who attends it will be attending their first tournament ever. I assume you mean someone who hasn't played before this year, but I just wanted to confirm that (as a Maryland B team, for example, would probably meet that criteria).
Yes, good point. I make no sense!

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 1:35 pm
by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)
So then, which is it?

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 2:01 pm
by Mechanical Beasts
I edited the original post to reflect the fact that I was referring to exactly what Chris thought I probably should mean: having played a college tournament before this academic year.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 4:51 pm
by Maxwell Sniffingwell
There's a large chance I will try to mirror this at Lawrence on the same date, but it's Lawrence's reading period, so I'm not sure if I can get rooms.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 10:34 am
by Magister Ludi
Just to clarify, this is a regular difficulty tournament (sorry Ryan Westrbook) aimed at the difficulty of Penn Bowl 2008. It will not be as difficult as ACF Regionals 2007.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:37 pm
by Mechanical Beasts
Hey, the very early packet deadline for this awesome event is coming up pretty soon (namely, 11/1). While this isn't a game-breaker, obviously, or it would be the regular deadline, early entries help your pocketbooks and our sanity, especially since at some point we'll all want a break from filling out the world lit distribution with a common link tossup on "writers from places that aren't the US whose last names rhyme with banana," which actually sounds a lot more appealing now that I've written it down.

So shoot me an email if you at least plan on getting a packet in by this deadline. Or, hell, by any other.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 1:04 pm
by grapesmoker
Damn, another tournament. Brown will bring at least one team; we'll get to working on that packet for you.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 1:07 pm
by Mechanical Beasts
Consider this uncomprehending scream at the problem set I'm working on a note of thanks, sir.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:29 pm
by Mechanical Beasts
Hey, everyone. Between the Brown packet, a Brandeis packet, and an Evan Silberman/Hampshire packet, we have a promised three packets. We currently are writing like five editors packets.

Hearing about packets from the mirror sites (particularly from teams that are, you know, pretty good at writing packets, and probably interested in attending, like Chicago and Minnesota and stuff) would be pretty sweet. I don't even care if you don't plan on getting us a packet by like 12/1; I'd rather at least know that a packet will be happening by some eleventh hour sometime, so I know that I don't have to expand our five editors packets that are in progress into, like, ten. Which I'll totally do, but I already haven't slept in approximately forty-eight hours for the sake of HFT, so writing still more is something I will do if necessary but not for fun (at the moment, at least).

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:38 pm
by Auks Ran Ova
Minnesota will be writing and submitting at least one packet after most of us get done editing ACF Fall.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:53 pm
by Mechanical Beasts
You are pretty cool, you Rob Carson you.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 4:37 pm
by cvdwightw
Andy, I'll talk to Ray and see if we can't finish up a freelance packet to send to you guys.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 1:13 pm
by Dartmouth College Bowl
We don't know whether we can make it to this tournament (because its finals for us) but we can write a packet for it. We'll try to get it to you sooner rather than later.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 1:52 pm
by Mechanical Beasts
Thanks much. Also, finals blow.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 2:02 pm
by alkrav112
Michigan plans to write a packet for this event; it may not be done until, in fact, the eleventh hour, but it will happen.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 3:10 pm
by Mike Bentley
I'll write some questions for you guys.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 5:00 pm
by Maxwell Sniffingwell
alkrav112 wrote:Michigan plans to write a packet for this event; it may not be done until, in fact, the eleventh hour, but it will happen.
Will you be coming to Lawrence, Harvard, or neither?

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 5:01 pm
by Matt Weiner
cornfused wrote:Will you be coming to Lawrence, Harvard, or neither?
5 for one, 10 for two 20 for three, or 30 for all four

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 5:34 pm
by Kyle
Matt Weiner wrote:
cornfused wrote:Will you be coming to Lawrence, Harvard, or neither?
5 for one, 10 for two 20 for three, or 30 for all four
Out of respect for the tradition of T-Parties past (see the first post), we're going to have lots of that kind of bonus in this set.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 5:51 pm
by Mechanical Beasts
Kyle wrote:
Matt Weiner wrote:
cornfused wrote:Will you be coming to Lawrence, Harvard, or neither?
5 for one, 10 for two 20 for three, or 30 for all four
Out of respect for the tradition of T-Parties past (see the first post), we're going to have lots of that kind of bonus in this set.
Also a common link on "paintings."

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 12:40 pm
by alkrav112
cornfused wrote:
alkrav112 wrote:Michigan plans to write a packet for this event; it may not be done until, in fact, the eleventh hour, but it will happen.
Will you be coming to Lawrence, Harvard, or neither?
We were thinking Lawrence, as it's a couple of hours closer.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 2:42 pm
by Mechanical Beasts
Thank you for all the lovely promised packets.

If anyone wants to mirror this in the south (or, really, anywhere not currently occupied like the region around Lawrence and Tulsa) that would be pretty awesome.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 2:28 am
by Mike Bentley
Bentley Like Beckham wrote:I'll write some questions for you guys.
To be more specific, I'm writing a packet, and it will hopefully be done next weekend.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 11:36 pm
by grapesmoker
Hey, can we get a field update for this?

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 11:44 pm
by Mechanical Beasts
At the moment, we have Brandeis, Chicago, Hampshire, and packet-writing intimations from various people at other sites.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 10:35 am
by Maxwell Sniffingwell
Has Chicago indicated where they're going?

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 11:03 am
by Susan
Yes; as Andy's post suggests, Chicago is going to Harvard.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 11:23 am
by BuzzerZen
grapesmoker wrote:Hey, can we get a field update for this?
Sign up, Jerry! I want to lose to you three times in the triple round robin.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 11:27 am
by grapesmoker
BuzzerZen wrote:
grapesmoker wrote:Hey, can we get a field update for this?
Sign up, Jerry! I want to lose to you three times in the triple round robin.
I did sign up. Presumably we're not listed as attending because we haven't finished our packet.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 12:12 pm
by BuzzerZen
grapesmoker wrote:
BuzzerZen wrote:
grapesmoker wrote:Hey, can we get a field update for this?
Sign up, Jerry! I want to lose to you three times in the triple round robin.
I did sign up. Presumably we're not listed as attending because we haven't finished our packet.
Oh, neither have we. Just promised it.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 2:58 pm
by Mechanical Beasts
grapesmoker wrote:
BuzzerZen wrote:
grapesmoker wrote:Hey, can we get a field update for this?
Sign up, Jerry! I want to lose to you three times in the triple round robin.
I did sign up. Presumably we're not listed as attending because we haven't finished our packet.
Nah, I didn't list you because it was you who was asking when I wrote that. Then I included you up top. Look! Look!

Oh, by the way: everyone should come! Not only will it be sweet, I am fairly sure Brown and Chicago will play at least once and that'll be cool because they haven't yet (and, unless I miss my guess, won't get a chance to do so until this tournament)!

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 4:48 pm
by Mechanical Beasts
Packet part of the announcement up top updated. Come to this tournament, dudes! If you don't I'll freelance packets with 1/1 quantum field theory into all your high school tournaments.

What, too soon?

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 5:20 pm
by Magister Ludi
I just want to remind everyone that this is a regular difficulty tournament. After what happened with HFT I will be vigilant about maintaining appropriate difficulty, and I will cut well-written tossups if they are on borderline subjects.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2008 3:33 am
by Mechanical Beasts
Hey, it's about forty-six hours from the +$25 deadline (for teams attending the main site). I hope everyone's packet is coming swimmingly; I look forward to getting my hands on them.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:47 pm
by Mechanical Beasts
everyday847 wrote:Hey, it's about forty-six hours from the +$25 deadline (for teams attending the main site). I hope everyone's packet is coming swimmingly; I look forward to getting my hands on them.
We're currently sitting on two and a half packets and a promise of like nine more. We've handled the two and a half; we'd rather have as much time as possible to handle the nine more (or to know that we need to write more than we thought). If your freelance packet isn't going to happen tell me; if you're no longer coming, tell me; if your packet is going to come via carrier pigeon, tell me. Thanks!

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 4:40 pm
by Auks Ran Ova
everyday847 wrote:
everyday847 wrote:Hey, it's about forty-six hours from the +$25 deadline (for teams attending the main site). I hope everyone's packet is coming swimmingly; I look forward to getting my hands on them.
We're currently sitting on two and a half packets and a promise of like nine more. We've handled the two and a half; we'd rather have as much time as possible to handle the nine more (or to know that we need to write more than we thought). If your freelance packet isn't going to happen tell me; if you're no longer coming, tell me; if your packet is going to come via carrier pigeon, tell me. Thanks!
is still going to happen, will be in by this weekend at the absolute latest

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 4:43 pm
by cvdwightw
everyday847 wrote:
everyday847 wrote:If your freelance packet isn't going to happen tell me;
Andy, we will have an oddly unbalanced half-packet by tonight, if you would like to get started on that. It is debatable whether we would get the other 12/12 done since no one at UCLA is responding to my e-mails. Perhaps 20/20 (with 1/1 cut from lit, hist, sci and 1 question each cut from arts/RMP) by sometime over the weekend?

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 4:49 pm
by Mechanical Beasts
cvdwightw wrote:
everyday847 wrote:
everyday847 wrote:If your freelance packet isn't going to happen tell me;
Andy, we will have an oddly unbalanced half-packet by tonight, if you would like to get started on that. It is debatable whether we would get the other 12/12 done since no one at UCLA is responding to my e-mails. Perhaps 20/20 (with 1/1 cut from lit, hist, sci and 1 question each cut from arts/RMP) by sometime over the weekend?
All of that sounds great. Thanks so much.
Ukonvasara wrote: is still going to happen, will be in by this weekend at the absolute latest
Still two packets as had been asserted before?

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 5:01 pm
by Auks Ran Ova
everyday847 wrote:
Ukonvasara wrote: is still going to happen, will be in by this weekend at the absolute latest
Still two packets as had been asserted before?
As far as I know.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 6:44 pm
by alkrav112
Packet will probably be coming as late as possible; I don't think anyone's begun it yet, but progress should be made over Thanksgiving break.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 6:54 pm
by Theory Of The Leisure Flask
everyday847 wrote:
everyday847 wrote:Hey, it's about forty-six hours from the +$25 deadline (for teams attending the main site). I hope everyone's packet is coming swimmingly; I look forward to getting my hands on them.
We're currently sitting on two and a half packets and a promise of like nine more. We've handled the two and a half; we'd rather have as much time as possible to handle the nine more (or to know that we need to write more than we thought). If your freelance packet isn't going to happen tell me; if you're no longer coming, tell me; if your packet is going to come via carrier pigeon, tell me. Thanks!
My freelance half-packet will be coming eventually, probably on Sunday. I'm not going to any of the T-Party sites, so feel free to chop it up and disperse the questions if that's what you need to do.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 1:41 am
by Dartmouth College Bowl
We should hopefully have the packet to you by this weekend.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 1:33 pm
by Mechanical Beasts
I just wanted to check in with everyone, since it's about thirty-six hours before the final deadline, and I have one packet, one half-packet, one freelance packet, and one freelance half-packet. Needless to say, I would recommend to every team that has said that it will be coming to this tournament to write its packet! As traditional, the late packet penalty will increase by ten dollars every day after Sunday (you can thank me for the one day grace period later) that it's submitted. We really do not want to write more than five editors packets, and in the status quo we have a total of nine packets.

(Granted, in the status quo we have two teams with packet or half-packet submitted attending our site, so nine packets is not actually a problem.)

In sum: We wanna host a tournament and we want all our friends to come! So write your packets or I dissolve in sadness!

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 1:44 am
by Maxwell Sniffingwell
Andy - have you thought about pulling an Andrew Hart and soliciting freelance 5/5s?

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 1:31 pm
by alkrav112
Apologies - we figure we're going to be a couple of days late with our packet. We have something like 8/8 right now; a lot of (if not all of) our team members have decided that, because of finals, they do not want to go to this tournament. As a result, this packet got swept under the rug. We will do our best to have it in ASAP.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 2:01 pm
by Mechanical Beasts
That's fine. Thanks for letting us know.

Feel free to send what you have now.

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Harvard T-Party - 12/6/08

Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 2:53 pm
by Cheynem
So, Andy, do you officially want freelance 5/5's? I can send you some, depending on what categories you would especially need (especially if it's history).