The Quizbowl Resource Center

There seems to be enough interest, so I will go ahead and get an announcement out here. We are pleased to announce that we will be resurrecting Buzzerfest, Princeton's packet submission tournament, and pairing with SNAPPLE LEMON ICED TEA, which will be held on Sunday (link here: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=6767&p=106918#p106918). I will be head editor for this effort, while Eric Cohen will be editing the trash tournament. This tournament will be held on March 28, 2009 at Princeton University, assuming we can secure rooms. Ideally, we will have someone else serving as TD for one or both tournaments in order to allow us to focus on editing. More details on fees, discounts, etc. will come later, but I can say that I would like a difficulty of Penn Bowl 2008-level (the ubiquitous "regular" difficulty, I believe) and that we will require all teams to submit a packet. I am open to anyone who wants to mirror and is far enough away, just e-mail me (kdemuren at princeton dot edu) and we'll see what we can work out.

Thanks, and I hope to see you all in March!

I may come if there are no HS tournaments that week, probably to help staff.

Like I have said before, I am shooting for a difficulty of "regular" (see Penn Bowl 2008, ACF Fall-level is way too easy). Because of the lateness in the season, I don't think it's unreasonable to require that all collegiate teams attending must submit a packet (high schoolers are exempt). 6 line tossups (in 10 pt, TNR font) is the optimal number, although a few that have less and a few with more are OK.

Please follow these formatting guidelines: http://www.hsquizbowl.org/pennbowl2008.html#formatting. I don't see a need to write it out again when what Penn Bowl/ACF is using is perfectly acceptable to me. Please also submit in a .doc or .rtf format (no .docx!). If I can't open your packet, I will send it right back and it will not be considered submitted until I can open it. Please also name the files in such a way that the team submitting it is clear.

Fee structure:
$100 per team
-$5 for a working buzzer system
-$10 for a competent staffer
-$10 per 200 miles of travel
-$5 for a working laptop
Maximum (non-packet sub related) discount: $35
High school teams, however, will receive a $45 discount regardless of the other ones.

Packet submission discounts/deadlines:
(all deadlines are 11:59 PM Eastern Time)
Submitted by January 18: -$50
Submitted by February 8: -$25
Submitted by February 22: $0
Submitted by March 1: +$25
Submitted by March 8: +$50
After March 8: my discretion, likely a $10 daily fee, with limitations, and definitely no awful packets.
After March 15: must be spotless, or you will be unable to attend. If you wish to take that risk and pay all of the penalties up to that point, be my guest.

Distribution:
5/5 Lit
-1/1 American
-1/1 British
-1/1 European (later than 500 CE)
-1/0 or 0/1 World (not written in English, not covered above)
-2/1 or 1/2 Other (anything not covered above, or more of above)

4/4 History
-1/1 American
-1/2 or 2/1 European, Canadian, or British
-2/1 or 1/2 World

5/5 Science
-1/1 Biology
-1/1 Chemistry
-1/1 Physics
-1/0 or 0/1 Math or Comp Sci
-0/1 or 1/0 Earth Science, Astronomy, or Other
-1/1 Any Science (please only one history of science question, if at all, and a maximum of two orgo questions per packet).

3/3 Religion, Mythology, Philosophy
-1/1 Religion
-1/1 Mythology
-1/1 Philosophy

3/3 Fine Arts
-1/1 Painting
-1/1 Classical Music (except Opera)
-1/1 Other (any other art including opera not already covered, jazz is considered in this category, hip-hop, for example, is not)

1/1 Social Science
1/1 Geography
1/1 Trash
1/1 Current Events (non-trashy, please try to make this a little difficult, but not impossible, and Nobel Prize winners in science belong in history of science)

These things are strictly verboten:
-Binary matching bonuses
-Spelling/computational math
-Wikipedia-only questions
-Funny bonus point distribution (5-5-10-10 or similar is OK if done properly, 5-5-5-5-5-5 or 5-10-15 is definitely not)

If your packet contains an unacceptably high (which is pretty low) level of these things/formatting problems/2-line tossups and the like, I will send it right back. Minor issues will incur small (+$15) penalties.

Also, please don't write questions in the same area (for example, for American history, write questions from different time periods; in religion, from different religions; in geography, from different areas of the world; etc.)

Once again, please e-mail packets to kdemuren##AT##princeton##DOT##edu.

Sorry for bombarding with all this info in somewhat of a jumbled fashion. I hope to see all of you in March!

EDIT: Current events from history makes a lot more sense... thanks.

EDIT:
Regulation packet:
4/4 Lit
4/4 Science
3/3 History
3/2 or 2/3 Art
2/3 or 3/2 RMP
1/1 Trash
1/1 Current Events
1/1 Soc Science
1/1 Geo
20/20 Total

Hey, may I suggest that if you're going to have 1/1 current events, it would make more sense for that to be taken from history rather than literature?

Hey, can you tell us how much of each subject will be used in the 20/20 regulation portion of each packet?

grapesmoker wrote:Hey, may I suggest that if you're going to have 1/1 current events, it would make more sense for that to be taken from history rather than literature?

Yeah, this. Though I would agitate for something like 1/0 or 0/1, honestly.

Post edited to add info.

everyday847 wrote:

grapesmoker wrote:Hey, may I suggest that if you're going to have 1/1 current events, it would make more sense for that to be taken from history rather than literature?

Yeah, this. Though I would agitate for something like 1/0 or 0/1, honestly.

This is why it is more helpful to make the Trash category into an all encompassing "other" category and make it 2/2.

William Afham wrote: This is why it is more helpful to make the Trash category into an all encompassing "other" category and make it 2/2.

I agree with this--I'd rather see it become 2/2 Trash/Geography/Current Events with the extra 1/1 going back to history. I don't know how many tournaments nowadays still allot 1/1 for Current Events.

Dennis wrote:

William Afham wrote: This is why it is more helpful to make the Trash category into an all encompassing "other" category and make it 2/2.

I agree with this--I'd rather see it become 2/2 Trash/Geography/Current Events with the extra 1/1 going back to history. I don't know how many tournaments nowadays still allot 1/1 for Current Events.

Dennis speaks the truth here.

I don't know. Probably you have one of two things happening in that case:
1. People write 2/2 trash, or
2. You tell people not to write more than 1/1 of anything, which is basically the same as having two categories (NOMINALISM!)

MaS

Captain Scipio wrote:I don't know. Probably you have one of two things happening in that case:
1. People write 2/2 trash, or
2. You tell people not to write more than 1/1 of anything, which is basically the same as having two categories (NOMINALISM!)

MaS

I think the point was that those two (functional) categories came from what was once three categories (1/1 each of trash, geography, and current events) thus allowing each packet to have 4/4 history, much like every good tournament since forever.

I see what's happening here! Yes, that's a good idea.

MaS

Post above updated with fee structure and a slight tweak in packet deadlines. Our first packet is complete, and we should be having rooms reserved shortly.

The earliest (-$50) deadline is two weeks from tomorrow, and we would definitely like to have a few mirror sites, so please e-mail if you want to do so.

Before everyone gets caught up with Sectionals, just remember that the last discount deadline for packet submission is today at midnight.

If anyone still planning to come (and therefore submit a packet) could just e-mail me, so I can get a gauge for if we should still do this, and how many house packets we need to produce, I would appreciate it. I understand that ICT bids might affect this, but just letting me know likelihood would be great.

Maryland is coming with one team likely, packet will ensue.

olsb25 wrote:If anyone still planning to come (and therefore submit a packet) could just e-mail me, so I can get a gauge for if we should still do this, and how many house packets we need to produce, I would appreciate it. I understand that ICT bids might affect this, but just letting me know likelihood would be great.

Penn should be giving you one packet and at least one team; it will likely be late just like all our others this year.

Cornell is planning to come with one team and our packet is currently being written.

Rochester will have a team for this and SNAPPLE LEMON ICE TEA.

No-penalty packet sub deadline is at midnight on Sunday. Please try to get them in ASAP, as right now I have a grand total of 0 submitted packets.

Final field update:
Penn
Cornell
Columbia (3)
Maryland
Rutgers
Rochester
Duke

Packets received:
Maryland
Duke
Columbia A
Columbia B
Columbia C
Cornell
Rutgers
Rochester
Tufts

EDIT: Proper deadline.

Our packet will be in by March 1. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Um, don't you mean the deadline is Sunday?

Yes, it's Sunday. My mistake.

If someone mirrored this in North Carolina (ie the Research Triangle), that would be awesome. I think few teams would have a conflict about which site to go to plus Princeton is kind of prohibitively far for us given that we'd have to spend the night (which leads to WAY less interest).

We would love to have more mirrors, although the critical time for that is probably very soon, so e-mail me ASAP if you're interested.

On another note, I was serious when I said that I would send back packets with a large number of too-short (like 4 lines and less) questions. Please bother to read the announcement and know that I want 6-line tossups. I understand that my job is to improve tossups that may not be so great and other things, but I am not going to write half of everyone of your questions. And as for formatting, I would really appreciate it (but don't worry about it now if you're planning to submit a packet in the next ten minutes), if you could list the intended area of distribution (World History, for example) before each question.

Thanks,
Kunle

olsb25 wrote:We would love to have more mirrors, although the critical time for that is probably very soon, so e-mail me ASAP if you're interested.

On another note, I was serious when I said that I would send back packets with a large number of too-short (like 4 lines and less) questions. Please bother to read the announcement and know that I want 6-line tossups. I understand that my job is to improve tossups that may not be so great and other things, but I am not going to write half of everyone of your questions. And as for formatting, I would really appreciate it (but don't worry about it now if you're planning to submit a packet in the next ten minutes), if you could list the intended area of distribution (World History, for example) before each question.

Thanks,
Kunle

Welcome to the wonderful world of editing.

+$25 deadline is a little over 26 hours away. Right now I have only 2 submitted packets, so let's get those in!

I think it's unlikely that Brown will make this trip. We're pretty burned out from writing and we're headed to FICHTE the weekend before, plus this is the closing weekend of spring break and I'm sure we all would like to spend that weekend at home. Unless something major changes, we won't be coming.

Field updated above. If you have e-mailed me your packet, and you're not on that list, please e-mail me ASAP.

Tufts

Really?

Lapego1 wrote:Our packet will be in by March 1. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Yeah, sorry about that. Apparently my "lofty" goal of finishing a packet in a week was too much. It's over halfway done and will DEFINITELY get to you by this weekend.

Someone from Tufts e-mailed me saying a packet would be forthcoming.

Note the change in the "drop-dead" deadline above... with midterms and lab work, I won't be able to edit as much before spring break as I thought, so if I don't receive your packet by March 15th, the most I should have to do is randomize it, or you will not attend.

olsb25 wrote:Note the change in the "drop-dead" deadline above... with midterms and lab work, I won't be able to edit as much before spring break as I thought, so if I don't receive your packet by March 15th, the most I should have to do is randomize it, or you will not attend.

That's quite a criterion, man. What about things like repeats?

The Quest for the Historical Mukherjesus wrote:

olsb25 wrote:Note the change in the "drop-dead" deadline above... with midterms and lab work, I won't be able to edit as much before spring break as I thought, so if I don't receive your packet by March 15th, the most I should have to do is randomize it, or you will not attend.

That's quite a criterion, man. What about things like repeats?

Also, like, if you're not looking to do much work before spring break, denying yourself raw material is a bad idea. Like, if by March 15th you have seven packets, what do you do? Do you already have nine editor's packets written or something?

olsb25 wrote:the most I should have to do is randomize it

I can count the number of packets submitted to tournaments I've edited for which this has been true on zero hands.

Man, now I really wish I could make it out to play this.

OK, OK, a bit of an exaggeration... but I'm doing the bulk of the editing, and trying not to bite off more than I can chew, since this is my first time. And I do have some editor's packets already finished.

Hey, since I'm not going, I'd be happy to look over some the questions and help a little with editing. I am primarily putting myself forth as a physics/math/cs/astro guy, but I can look at philosophy, history, and literature. I can't guarantee that I will have loads of time to do this, but I can at least bring the non-bio/chem sciences up to par if necessary. Email me at grapesmoker at gmail dot com.

I am also not going, so I will echo Jerry's offer to help a little. I should have some time to look over or even just playtest arts questions.

I can help out with bio, chem, and pretty much anything except for philosophy and geography, but I'd like to be brought in before 3/21, because my spring break is packed as is.

I can edit the same things Eric can, but I'm not as good as he is, so I'll offer myself up as playtester.

Last (+$50) deadline is in 24 hours.

OK, the deadline's passed. If you have sent me a packet, and your name is not on the above list, then you should post here or e-mail me right away so we can figure out what happened. If you still want to come, and have not yet submitted a packet, you should e-mail me ASAP with your packet's status.

PS: Jerry and Eric, can you confirm that you got my e-mails? I already know of at least one e-mail that I've sent recently that never made it, so just let me know.

Kunle, I got your email. I'll take care of it this week; you can send me more questions if you have to at InfiniteStryker0NOSPAM [at] gmail [dot] com

Final field:
Columbia A
Columbia B
Columbia C
Columbia D
Cornell
Duke
Maryland A
Maryland B
Penn
Rochester
Rutgers


This has all been e-mailed to everyone, but just to be sure...
-Start time: We would like to start registration at 8:30, with an idea to start rounds by 9:15-9:30. Please don't be late, as we will start without you if necessary. The registration will be in Frist Campus Center, room 302. All game rooms are also in Frist.
-Parking: See map: http://www.princeton.edu/main/visiting/ ... p+regs.pdf. You can park in any numbered lot (except 8 or 9), but remember the tournament is in Frist Campus Center.
-Rounds: As of now, we will be running a full round-robin, with three rounds saved for playoffs, and a 1-game final if necessary.
Also, please bring buzzers if you said you would.

E-mail if you have questions.

Maryland cleared the field with a 13-0 record. I'll post the link to stats once I'm back to my room.