NAQT rules revisions 2015

[Important Bird Area]

Also cross-posted to Collegiate Discussion. --JTH

For the 2015-16 competition year, NAQT has made a number of changes to its official rules for all levels of play.

The new version of the NAQT rules may be found here; changes marked in red.

Most of these changes are to formalize "common sense" policies that we have already been using in practice for years.

The next post will highlight some changes with significant impact on gameplay.

[Important Bird Area]

Notable changes:

-F.8.c-d. This explicitly authorizes moderators to stop the clock if needed to resolve procedural issues (such as double-checking a complicated answer line).

-H.6. Teams may now decline an entire bonus, if they feel that such an action is in their best interest re: clock strategy.

-I.3.c. Interrupting a bonus part with an equivalent answer that has not yet been read earns the team a prompt.

-I.7-8. We have removed the "created works rule" and related clauses that allowed multiple connected answers to a single question. In general, this ability was primarily useful for older-style quizbowl that sometimes did not clearly specify what kind of answer was being sought by a tossup. Going forward, our editors will add specific instructions to particular answer lines in the rare cases where this sort of process might be needed (in the style of "accept _name of novel being described_ before 'author'")

-I.10. This is a new rule addressing the common staff-meeting question of "what happens when a player starts giving one response and then makes a correction?" (Our new formal policy: "If a player has begun a response but wishes to change it, he or she may do so if no substantive word has been completed. The determination of whether a word is a substantive part of the response and/or has been completed is not protestable.")

-J.7. Protests now treat the entire game as a single unit; there is no longer an "all protests about events in the first half must be lodged before the second half begins" rule.

-J.13.d. A formal rule to deal with tossups that do not uniquely specify a single answer ("players may not protest that they gave an answer that was "correct when they buzzed" during the first sentence of the tossup").

-J.13.g. A new written policy for the resolution of "I should have been prompted" protests

-K.2. Formal ban on the use of phones and other communication devices by active players

[Important Bird Area]

Updates to our correctness guidelines.

[bsmith]

Updates to our correctness guidelines.

The guideline for foreign language answers still has an ambiguity that has been around since I played:

Can common-noun (eg: "nucleus", "mural", "baptism") answers be given in any language, provided there is no unsportsmanlike attempt to delay the game?

Right now, language rules only specify that geographic places or created works must be answered in English or the native/original language. There is no clarification about other answerlines.

The primary reason for resolving this ambiguity is the use of French in Canada. It is not unusual for a student to have most or all of their education in French, despite being a native English speaker. To a lesser extent, this would affect foreign exchange students who may have had most of their education in another language.

Up to now, I have just recommended to francophone players that they alert a moderator before a match that they might answer non-geographic/created things in French. Since it would be unreasonable to list hundreds of alternate language answers, correctness would be resolved either by a moderator's familiarity with the language or the protest system. No one in a gameplay situation has taken issue with this, but it isn't covered by a rule or guideline.

The other option is to just expand the English correctness to all answers.

[#1 Mercury Adept]

Something slightly related I've sometimes wondered about: what about English-language works whose title is in another language? For instance, can you give "It is sweet and fitting" as an answer for Dulce et decorum est when it refers to the Wilfred Owen poem? (As far as I can tell, the answer seems to be no, but I don't think I've ever heard this issue explicitly discussed.)

[Important Bird Area]

Something slightly related I've sometimes wondered about: what about English-language works whose title is in another language? For instance, can you give "It is sweet and fitting" as an answer for Dulce et decorum est when it refers to the Wilfred Owen poem? (As far as I can tell, the answer seems to be no, but I don't think I've ever heard this issue explicitly discussed.)

In general, we would not accept such answers (as the poem has not been published under that title).

[Important Bird Area]

Can common-noun (eg: "nucleus", "mural", "baptism") answers be given in any language, provided there is no unsportsmanlike attempt to delay the game?

Right now, language rules only specify that geographic places or created works must be answered in English or the native/original language. There is no clarification about other answerlines.

The primary reason for resolving this ambiguity is the use of French in Canada.

We expect that such answers will be given in English at our national championships. Hosts of NAQT tournaments in areas with substantial non-English primary education should feel free to modify our correctness guidelines as needed.