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Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 4:54 am
by theMoMA
Minnesota Open Sunday will feature two academic subject events: Eric Mukherjee's science tournament and Mike Cheyne's vanity literature event. Now, it will have a short trash interlude! MO participants and local sports fans named Brian Weikle are encouraged to write 12 sports tossups for a short free-for-all side event to be played free-for-all style. Anyone who writes the tossups is allowed to participate for free; players will read their own tossups and play everyone else's tossups against all of the other competitors.

There are only three rules for writing: 1) adhere to the distribution; 2) write tossups of at least six lines in ten-point TNR with one-inch margins; and most importantly, 3) keep almanacky statistical clues to a minimum in favor of amusing anecdotes. If this means writing a tossup on a team instead of a player, do it. The unnumbered fourth rule is to write tossups that the field will be able to answer (so you should probably keep that thirteen-liner on Chris Widger to yourself).

Here is the distribution, based on some blend of what sports quizbowlers follow and what I deem "important."

3 baseball: at least two from the 1990s or 2000s
3 football: at least two from the 1990s or 2000s; one college; two pro
3 basketball: at least two from the 1990s or 2000s; one college; two pro
1 pro hockey
1 soccer (elite pro or international)
1 other; cannot be any of the above (this can be on sports video games, sports movies, sports in other pop culture media, sports in academia, Olympics, tennis, golf, boxing, wrestling, minor college athletics, auto racing, horse racing, cycling, WNBA, MLS, lacrosse, hotdog eating contests, World Cyber Games, world's strongest man, or, if you must, MMA)

Please post in the thread if you plan on writing for this event. Remember, it's what the Oklahoma City Thunder's swing-forwards and their incredible nicknames would want you to do.

FAQs:

1) where on earth is this tournament located?
the Mayo Auditorium lobby

2) at what time?
for now, 8:30 AM, but that could change.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:08 am
by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)
Am I allowed to play without writing anything? Me writing sport questions=laughable results.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 6:34 am
by theMoMA
Harper v. Canada (Attorney General) wrote:Am I allowed to play without writing anything? Me writing sport questions=laughable results.
For now, no. I guess if we get enough writers, others could subsidize pizza for everyone in lieu of writing.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:43 am
by Kanga-Rat Murder Society
I'll write for this. However, it would be nice to see an example of the level of difficulty you want these, seeing as I have no idea how much you know.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 9:43 am
by Cheynem
I plan on playing and writing for this. I don't understand why Chris Widger is too hard though. HE COMES UP ALL THE TIME. HE'S IMPORTANT.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 11:54 am
by Terrible Shorts Depot
If I'm at MO, I'm so playing this.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 12:22 pm
by Demonic Leftovers
I shall play this.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 12:37 pm
by Cheynem
Also, is Ted's Fine Arts tournament still in the works for this weekend?

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 2:07 pm
by dtaylor4
Assuming I'm there, I'm doing this. Even if I'm not, I'd be happy to pitch in.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:13 pm
by Coelacanth
theMoMA wrote:Minnesota Open Sunday will feature two academic subject events: Eric Mukherjee's science tournament and Mike Cheyne's vanity literature event. Now, it will have a short trash interlude! MO participants and local sports fans named Brian Weikle are encouraged to write 12 sports tossups for a short free-for-all side event to be played during lunch.
Is this some passive-aggressive ploy to get me to show up on Sunday so I can help staff the science and lit tournaments?

I think it's a safe bet that I can come up with 12 tossups for this. I mean, if you're going to call me out by name it's the least I can do.

I will probably lose my voice completely reading the MO proper on Saturday, so I can't commit to the other side events.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 9:20 pm
by Jesus vs. Dragons
Could I possibly just write 12 tossups and email them to you. I am not going to be anywhere near Minnesota, but I wouldn't mind writing 12 sports questions and this would allow someone (i.e. Charlie) to play without writing questions.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 9:27 pm
by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)
I would gladly take those questions for use.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 9:32 pm
by MicroEStudent
I'd also be willing to write questions for this as I won't be able to go to this tournament.

Be advised that this would be my first time question writing, but I would make good use of the ACF question writing guide.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 9:33 pm
by ... and the chaos of Mexican modernity
Like Ethan I will not be anywhere near Minnesota. Can I at least contribute questions to this event so it's to make it somewhat a little longer, and possibly allow someone to play without writing?

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 6:22 am
by naturalistic phallacy
WikiTimeScale wrote:Like Ethan I will not be anywhere near Minnesota. Can I at least contribute questions to this event so it's to make it somewhat a little longer, and possibly allow someone to play without writing?
I, for one, am all for extended lunch breaks.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 12:29 am
by Jesus vs. Dragons
Charlie, I will start working on those questions and just email them to you, if you are still interested

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 6:31 pm
by Broad-tailed Grassbird
theMoMA wrote:Minnesota Open Sunday will feature two academic subject events: Eric Mukherjee's science tournament and Mike Cheyne's vanity literature event. Now, it will have a short trash interlude! MO participants and local sports fans named Brian Weikle are encouraged to write 12 sports tossups for a short free-for-all side event to be played during lunch. Anyone who writes the tossups is allowed to participate for free; players will read their own tossups and play everyone else's tossups against all of the other competitors.

There are only three rules for writing: 1) adhere to the distribution; 2) write tossups of at least six lines in ten-point TNR with one-inch margins; and most importantly, 3) keep almanacky statistical clues to a minimum in favor of amusing anecdotes. If this means writing a tossup on a team instead of a player, do it. The unnumbered fourth rule is to write tossups that the field will be able to answer (so you should probably keep that thirteen-liner on Chris Widger to yourself).

Here is the distribution, based on some blend of what sports quizbowlers follow and what I deem "important."

3 baseball: at least two from the 1990s or 2000s
3 football: at least two from the 1990s or 2000s; one college; two pro
3 basketball: at least two from the 1990s or 2000s; one college; two pro
1 pro hockey
1 soccer (elite pro or international)
1 other; cannot be any of the above (this can be on sports video games, sports movies, sports in other pop culture media, sports in academia, Olympics, tennis, golf, boxing, wrestling, minor college athletics, cycling, WNBA, MLS, lacrosse, hotdog eating contests, World Cyber Games, world's strongest man, or, if you must, MMA)

Please post in the thread if you plan on writing for this event. Remember, it's what the Oklahoma City Thunder's swing-forwards and their incredible nicknames would want you to do.
This is bullshit, hockey is a major part of the sports trash cannon, and this tournament takes place in Minnesota.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 6:36 pm
by marnold
Odds & Sods wrote:This is bullshit, hockey is a major part of the sports trash cannon, and this tournament takes place in Minnesota.
Whatever, dude. You'll note there's this little thing called "auto racing" that Andrew didn't even include in the "other" category. Agitating for your (or in the case of racing, my) beloved minor sports' place in the distribution in 12 tossup-rounds is doomed to failure. The question of why pro sports should automatically get double college sports on the other hand...

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 6:55 pm
by Auks Ran Ova
Odds & Sods wrote:This is bullshit,
Debatable!
hockey is a major part of the sports trash cannon
Extremely debatable!
cannon
obligatory cannon/canon joke, perhaps we should elect a cannon canon to demarcate the cannon canon from the canon canon, etc.
and this tournament takes place in Minnesota.
And is being run guerilla-style, with attendant arbitrary decisions, by someone who doesn't particularly care for hockey. Your point?

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 7:01 pm
by Cheynem
Well, auto racing should clearly be an acceptable "other" question, I don't think it was intended as an exhaustive list (?).

As for hockey, I would probably argue it deserves a little more love than soccer and "other," and I do think it is a reasonably important part ofthe trash canon. That said, hockey is clearly the least popular of the "Big Four" sports in America and deserves to appear less times than the rest of the Big Three. It's tough with only twelve tossups and no bonuses to be pretty nuanced with dividing everything up fairly.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 9:35 pm
by marnold
Cheynem wrote:Well, auto racing should clearly be an acceptable "other" question, I don't think it was intended as an exhaustive list (?).
Well, yeah - I obviously understand that. I'm just saying that "X is an awesome sport for so-and-so reasons and you don't give it the respect you deserve" isn't going to be effective in arguments about this "tournament."

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:22 pm
by Camelopardalis
Hey, if anyone doesn't feel like writing the hockey for their packet, drop me a line at greenwoc AT uoguelph DOT ca, and I'd be more than happy to freelance it for you.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:56 pm
by Matt Weiner
The fact that this tournament is, in fact, requiring that hockey be asked in every single round, and it is comprising 8.3% of the distribution (ie, at least twice as much as it gets in normal trash tournaments or in the trash portion of NAQT or whatever) might suggest that the organizer of this event agrees with you re: the importance of hockey or the need to include it.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 6:47 am
by theMoMA
Matt Weiner wrote:The fact that this tournament is, in fact, requiring that hockey be asked in every single round, and it is comprising 8.3% of the distribution (ie, at least twice as much as it gets in normal trash tournaments or in the trash portion of NAQT or whatever) might suggest that the organizer of this event agrees with you re: the importance of hockey or the need to include it.
Yeah, pretty much this.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 6:48 am
by theMoMA
Also, horse racing, auto racing, and anything I didn't include on that list that pertains to sport and is answerable is fine to write about in the "other" category. I just listed as many idea-starters for people as I could think of.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 12:15 pm
by Jesus vs. Dragons
theMoMA wrote:Also, horse racing, auto racing, and anything I didn't include on that list that pertains to sport and is answerable is fine to write about in the "other" category. I just listed as many idea-starters for people as I could think of.
Andrew, I understand that this is the Minnesota Open and it is a difficult tournament, but to what level should these questions be? I played the TRASHional mirrors at UTC, and I remember the difficulty level for that, should that be my target?

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 2:08 pm
by theMoMA
The difficulty has nothing to do with MO's difficulty. Write questions that you think people will care about and be able to answer, preferably before the end.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:21 pm
by Jesus vs. Dragons
theMoMA wrote:The difficulty has nothing to do with MO's difficulty. Write questions that you think people will care about and be able to answer, preferably before the end.
Okay thanks. That makes a big difference in writing material lol.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 7:49 pm
by dtaylor4
Bumping this.

How many packets are there going to be?

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 7:59 pm
by theMoMA
In the spirit of Donald's post, please email me at [email protected] if you plan to write a packet for this tournament. People who want to write in twos or threes to cover the distribution are welcome to do so, though obviously this will cut down on the total number of questions.

I will keep a running list of those who have already told me of their plans to write:

-me
-David Seal
-Mike Cheyne
-Donald Taylor
-Brian Weikle
-Bruce Arthur/collaborator?
-Nicholas Bergeron?
-Zach Foster?
-Marnold
-Jimmy Ready
-Matt Weiner?

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:16 pm
by theMoMA
Since I plan to be an enthusiastic participant of this event, Donald Taylor has graciously agreed to collect the packets. Please randomize and final-edit your packet before you send it to him at dtaylor1987 -at- gmail.com. Donald will be running a mirror in Illinois, so please, send your packets no later than 11:59 PM on Saturday evening.

Also, anyone anywhere is free to mirror this tournament for free. Just get into contact with me and we'll work out having the packets sent to you.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:23 pm
by dtaylor4
theMoMA wrote:Since I plan to be an enthusiastic participant of this event, Donald Taylor has graciously agreed to collect the packets. Please randomize and final-edit your packet before you send it to him at dtaylor1987 -at- gmail.com. Donald will be running a mirror in Illinois, so please, send your packets no later than 11:59 PM on Saturday evening.

Also, anyone anywhere is free to mirror this tournament for free. Just get into contact with me and we'll work out having the packets sent to you.
I actually plan on running the mirror on Saturday, during lunch at Ultima. So, I'd like to have the packets by Friday night.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:34 pm
by Jesus vs. Dragons
I can't write for this. I am sorry. I planned to have this done before school started back and I never got started, and between studying and homework, I do not feel that I can write 12 quality tossups.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 11:55 pm
by Terrible Shorts Depot
It looks like I won't be playing this. I'll let you know if I'm going to.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 12:18 am
by marnold
It's not clear how we're going to organize things on Sunday in terms of when cars will be leaving. I will call myself a tentative yes for now.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 12:53 am
by Cheynem
So, er, since MO Sunday can't be started until 11:00, where will this "lunch interlude" now fit in?

I'm almost tempted to argue that people eat a hearty brunch or something, get in at 11 and just bang out the day.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 1:00 am
by jready
marnold wrote:It's not clear how we're going to organize things on Sunday in terms of when cars will be leaving. I will call myself a tentative yes for now.
Assuming Chicago is still around, I'll also do this.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 7:54 am
by MicroEStudent
theMoMA wrote:In the spirit of Donald's post, please email me at [email protected] if you plan to write a packet for this tournament. People who want to write in twos or threes to cover the distribution are welcome to do so, though obviously this will cut down on the total number of questions.

I will keep a running list of those who have already told me of their plans to write:
-Nathaniel Kane?
I am going to have to rescind my offer to write for this. I am writing for Mike Bentley's tournament and do not want to lose questions for that tournament.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:17 am
by Coelacanth
I am definitely playing this. My packet is 7-and-a-half-twelfths complete.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 4:17 pm
by Captain Sinico
I'd love to play this if it happens before we have to leave.

MaS

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 8:57 am
by Skepticism and Animal Feed
I am fleeing Minnesota before the start of this tournament, but I would love to help somebody write a packet.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 10:14 am
by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)
Please write mine, I can't write sports questions worth crap.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 2:44 am
by theMoMA
Please note updated time/place information at the bottom of the post; for all your MN Open scheduling questions, please visit the event schedule post located here: http://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8565

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 11:59 pm
by hartm
I will play as well.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:11 pm
by ... and the chaos of Mexican modernity
Please take me off the writer's list because due to the heavy amounts of schoolwork that has been given to me. I am sorry I cannot write for this :sad:

Edit: Grammar

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 12:53 am
by dtaylor4
Bumping this. If your packet is done, please send it to me, as I have no others as of right now. If you have, it may have been caught by my spam filter.

Whoever is in charge of this at the various mirrors, let me know who to send it to and when.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 1:10 am
by Cheynem
I'll be writing mine sometime probably this weekend. Charlie, is Bruce writing yours for you or would you like some assistance?

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 1:03 pm
by dtaylor4
At this point, I have four packets:

Myself/Chris Greenwood
Jeff Amoros
Mike Cheyne 1
Mike Cheyne 2

If yours is done, email it to me.

EDIT: Whoever is running this at the various sites, let me know who to send the packets to.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 2:12 pm
by Coelacanth
My packet is essentially done, but I may end up tweaking one or two questions between now and Sunday.

I'll send it to you when I get home this evening, Donald, and if the final version that gets played at the MO site is slightly different, so be it.

Re: Durantula and Uncle Jeff Present: Guerrilla Sports at MO

Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 12:42 am
by dtaylor4
If you plan on sending me a packet, please do it before 3pm tomorrow, so I can get the set sent out. I have no idea whether I will be able to access internet between now and tomorrow.