2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Old college threads.

How much does COVID-19 suck?

A lot
10
9%
A lot lot
12
10%
A lot lot lot
94
81%
 
Total votes: 116

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Whiter Hydra
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by Whiter Hydra »

1992 in spaceflight wrote: Sun Aug 01, 2021 12:42 am We have a few COVID-related policies to announce.

We're adopting a lot of the policies that ACF has adopted for Nationals for COVID. Specifically, if you have not been vaccinated yet, please wear a mask. We'd also like for everyone to have proof of their vaccination status (a photo of your vaccination card would be sufficient for our purposes). Please send the photos to me at my email (jacob.orourke.7 at gmail.com) before CO.

The only way we are going to require everyone to wear a mask is if either Northwestern or the city of Evanston institutes a mask mandate.
This is an incredibly idiotic rule and I implore everyone attending CO to seriously reconsider their travel arrangements in light of this policy. There is no good reason why anyone playing in this tournament would not be fully vaccinated, and allowing unvaccinated individuals to play is placing unnecessary risk on all the sensible people at this event.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by Gonzagapuma1 »

Whiter Hydra wrote: Sun Aug 01, 2021 1:57 am
1992 in spaceflight wrote: Sun Aug 01, 2021 12:42 am We have a few COVID-related policies to announce.

We're adopting a lot of the policies that ACF has adopted for Nationals for COVID. Specifically, if you have not been vaccinated yet, please wear a mask. We'd also like for everyone to have proof of their vaccination status (a photo of your vaccination card would be sufficient for our purposes). Please send the photos to me at my email (jacob.orourke.7 at gmail.com) before CO.

The only way we are going to require everyone to wear a mask is if either Northwestern or the city of Evanston institutes a mask mandate.
This is an incredibly idiotic rule and I implore everyone attending CO to seriously reconsider their travel arrangements in light of this policy. There is no good reason why anyone playing in this tournament would not be fully vaccinated, and allowing unvaccinated individuals to play is placing unnecessary risk on all the sensible people at this event.
Wholeheartedly agree. Am I missing something here?
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

I have a statement to post on behalf of myself and the CO editing team. Some of the info in this statement concerns changes made to our COVID policy, so team contacts can expect to receive this information in an email tomorrow.

Both myself and the editing team for CO talked seriously about how we wanted to handle our COVID policy. It is not our place to be your public health authority. Our goal is to run an event that is as safe and as normal as possible.

We want everyone attending this to be vaccinated.

We are going to require our staff to be vaccinated and more than 6 feet apart from the participants while gameplay is going on. We are investigating ways to keep the air circulated in rooms.

People who do not submit vaccine evidence are required to wear masks. We will consider a mask mandate depending on how Nats goes and/or if local ordinance changes.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by Gonzagapuma1 »

1992 in spaceflight wrote: Mon Aug 02, 2021 10:57 pm People who do not submit vaccine evidence are required to wear masks. We will consider a mask mandate depending on how Nats goes and/or if local ordinance changes.
Why not require every person to submit evidence that they are vaccinated or they don't play? Who is opposed to that?
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by Cheynem »

I think part of the challenge is the enforcement of such a restriction. But I'll let the people running CO make such explanations.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

I emailed this out to team contacts earlier, but I don't see a reason not to share this on the forums.

1. We have a buzzer discount of $10 per working system. Please let me know if your team can bring one to the tournament.

2. Northwestern has implemented a mask mandate, so we will be as well for the tournament. More details about our masking policy for CO will be announced next week.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by ThisIsMyUsername »

Jacob, I fully support all of the measures that have been put into effect by you, Will, and the other members of the editing team. I thank you for taking these matters seriously.

One request, however: If you're going to collect photo evidence of our vaccination status (rather than having us show vaccination cards at the door or something like that), would you please issue a public pledge that all medical information we submit will not be circulated on your end and will be deleted by you as soon as the tournament is over?

Thanks.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

ThisIsMyUsername wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 9:35 pm Jacob, I fully support all of the measures that have been put into effect by you, Will, and the other members of the editing team. I thank you for taking these matters seriously.

One request, however: If you're going to collect photo evidence of our vaccination status (rather than having us show vaccination cards at the door or something like that), would you please issue a public pledge that all medical information we submit will not be circulated on your end and will be deleted by you as soon as the tournament is over?

Thanks.
I will absolutely not be circulating any medical information to anybody else, and will absolutely delete any pictures of vaccination proof either during the day on Sunday or when I get home on Monday. That is a request I will gladly honor.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

1992 in spaceflight wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 11:57 pm
ThisIsMyUsername wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 9:35 pm Jacob, I fully support all of the measures that have been put into effect by you, Will, and the other members of the editing team. I thank you for taking these matters seriously.

One request, however: If you're going to collect photo evidence of our vaccination status (rather than having us show vaccination cards at the door or something like that), would you please issue a public pledge that all medical information we submit will not be circulated on your end and will be deleted by you as soon as the tournament is over?

Thanks.
I will absolutely not be circulating any medical information to anybody else, and will absolutely delete any pictures of vaccination proof either during the day on Sunday or when I get home on Monday. That is a request I will gladly honor.
Friendly reminder to everybody playing CO to submit your proof of vaccination if you haven't yet. Thanks!
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by jinah »

Is the order of side events final? If not, it appears to me that MUSES II is shorter than Scattergories (8 packets vs 10, 20 TU vs 24), which makes it seem like MUSES II might work better in the first slot — less variability as to end time, plus leading off with a shorter event means people are sitting around twiddling their thumbs for shorter.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by Smuttynose Island »

I'd strongly prefer to lead off with Scattergories so that fewer people risk missing the end due to flights.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

In terms of paying for CO - Will would like for everyone to pay him. You can pay him by either Venmo (@walston) or by a check (made out to "William T. Alston"). Please only make one payment per team.

I'll be sending out how much each team owes for CO in an email on Monday.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

We also still need a few buzzers to run CO, so please let me know if your team can bring some (especially if you haven't already communicated this to me)!
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

Here is our mask policy for Chicago Open:

Masks are required while you are in the Tech Building. The only exceptions are when someone is making a tournament announcement, reading a game, eating, or drinking.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

jinah wrote: Fri Aug 13, 2021 1:33 pm Is the order of side events final? If not, it appears to me that MUSES II is shorter than Scattergories (8 packets vs 10, 20 TU vs 24), which makes it seem like MUSES II might work better in the first slot — less variability as to end time, plus leading off with a shorter event means people are sitting around twiddling their thumbs for shorter.
Because I keep forgetting to respond to this, yes, I think Scattergories needs to remain the first event (due to the fact that people have probably made travel plans around Scattergories being the first event). For next CO and future COs, we're going to look into implementing what you're saying here for side events, JinAh.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

We're going to lock into planning the schedule around 18 teams, so you all can expect to receive it tomorrow around 11 AM Central time before I leave for Chicago.

Teams will be split into two brackets of 9, and will play a round robin for the prelims (8 games in 9 rounds). For the playoffs, the top 5 teams from each prelim bracket will play each other; the bottom 4 teams in each prelim bracket will do the same. So each team will be playing at least 12 games in 13 rounds, with teams in the top bracket playing 13 games in 14 rounds.

See you all on Saturday!
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

1992 in spaceflight wrote: Thu Aug 19, 2021 4:50 pm Teams will be split into two brackets of 9, and will play a round robin for the prelims (8 games in 9 rounds). For the playoffs, the top 5 teams from each prelim bracket will play each other; the bottom 4 teams in each prelim bracket will do the same. So each team will be playing at least 12 games in 13 rounds, with teams in the top bracket playing 13 games in 14 rounds.
Update to the playoff schedule: We will be doing a 3/3/3 split after the prelims, with teams playing a round robin. All teams will be guaranteed 13 games in 14 rounds.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

We're planning on starting play at 9 AM. There isn't going to be an opening meeting, so teams will just be going to their round 1 rooms after they drop off any buzzer systems they have. You'll be able to text me any last-minute changes that happen.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

Start time is changing to 8:30.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by MLafer »

If anyone wants to join a team last minute, my team (myself, Eric Wolfsberg and Michael Kearney) now have a spot open. Email me at matt.lafer at gmail or msg me on Discord (Lafer#0250) if interested.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

The schedule is available here.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

Stats through lunch are available here.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

Complete prelim stats are available here. Please contact me if you see any stat errors.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

Live playoff stats will be going up here as I can post them.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

Complete stats for yesterday can be found here. If you see any errors, please contact me.

Congratulations to Hush Hush, Keep It Down Wang, Losses Carry (Matt Bollinger, Jordan Brownstein, Andrew Wang, Ophir Lifshitz), who cleared the playoffs with a 5-0 record to win the 2021 Chicago Open. Three teams finished the playoff round robin at 3-2: They might decide to play it off at a later date.

Thanks for coming out to Chicago Open, everybody! I hope you all had a blast.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

1992 in spaceflight wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 11:57 pm
ThisIsMyUsername wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 9:35 pm Jacob, I fully support all of the measures that have been put into effect by you, Will, and the other members of the editing team. I thank you for taking these matters seriously.

One request, however: If you're going to collect photo evidence of our vaccination status (rather than having us show vaccination cards at the door or something like that), would you please issue a public pledge that all medical information we submit will not be circulated on your end and will be deleted by you as soon as the tournament is over?

Thanks.
I will absolutely not be circulating any medical information to anybody else, and will absolutely delete any pictures of vaccination proof either during the day on Sunday or when I get home on Monday. That is a request I will gladly honor.
I've deleted all of the vaccine information that has been emailed to me just now.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by warum »

I really enjoyed this tournament, both in terms of question content and organizational smoothness.
Will there be a discussion forum for it?
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

warum wrote: Tue Aug 24, 2021 5:03 pm I really enjoyed this tournament, both in terms of question content and organizational smoothness.
Will there be a discussion forum for it?
We've requested the creation of one, hopefully that will be up soon!
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by theMoMA »

I appreciate all the hard work that made an in-person CO possible. Thank you to all the editors and logistics people, especially Will and Jacob, for making it happen!

A minor criticism: it was quite annoying to look at the schedule and see that our round-one matchup was against Matt Weiner's team. I think it's good practice to avoid scheduling games between the top few seeds in a prelim pool in the first round if possible; it's nice to be able to shake off some rust and get a feel for the set before having to play a high-leverage match.
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

Thank you all so much for playing this year's edition of Chicago Open! I know for many attendees, it was their first in-person quizbowl tournament in a long time; we hope the set made for a challenging and rigorous, also but fun and rewarding return to in-person play.

While we wait for a discussion forum to be set up, I wanted to publicly acknowledge the people who made this set possible:

--- EDITORS ---

Jonathen Settle - Jonathen edited the physics and other science for this tournament and wrote most of the questions in those areas, in particular taking full advantage of the expanded other science to ask an incredibly wide range of topics, all of them exemplars of his signature carefully considered cuts. He was also was an incredible team player from day one, contributing questions in several other categories, proofreading throughout the production process, and offering thoughtful and useful comments on every part of the set. Thanks, Jonathen, for going above and beyond everywhere on this tournament - seeing your hard work these past two years made it all the more joyous to see your team win Nationals.

Brad Maclaine - Brad edited the beliefs, philosophy, and psychology for this tournament and wrote most of the questions in those areas, bringing a wide range of academic experience to bear on the social sciences and a great mixture of serious scholarship and hilarity/joy in their question ideas. They were also a willing contributor of ideas in many areas and wrote a bunch of great other academic and geography questions in particular while leading the charge to ameliorate the sore lack of fun myth in recent COs. Thanks Brad, for helping make this tournament be as wacky and fun as it was to assemble (and hopefully play) and for being someone I can happily blab about obscure religion and mythology with any time.

Eric Mukherjee - Eric stepped up to edit biology and chemistry after Ryan Humphrey had to step down. You all know Eric well and he once again brought his vast experience with biology and chemistry to bear on this tournament, serving up well-written, challenging, and relevant questions that could stand among the best of Lederberg, and playtesting questions and offering feedback across every area of the set. Thanks, Eric, for giving me a step back on the writing ladder at my lows after Modern World, and being a great friend, editing colleague, and occasional teammate since.

--- OTHER BIG TEAM PLAYERS ---

Ike Jose - Ike was the original literature, philosophy, and visual arts editor for this tournament, but had to step down due to other commitments. Nonetheless, he contributed a number of excellent questions across many categories early in the production process, in particular writing most of the philosophy. He came in really clutch late in production and bailed me out at the last minute, doing some needed second-eyes editing on categories I'm not as experienced with and filling those categories, especially other arts, out with some awesome ideas. Thanks, Ike, for being a great friend over the years and me giving needed advice, confidence, and encouragement to execute my vision for this tournament.

Itamar Naveh-Benjamin - Itamar was part of the set from Day 1 and took over visual arts editing after Ike stepped down, but had to step down himself due to medical school commitments. Nonetheless, he stuck around and consistently offered actionable feedback across tons of questions, in particular in the literature and visual arts, and pitched in a bunch of superb tossups in line with the best of Fall Open. As Brad put it, Itamar was the "unfun parent" to this set, i.e. significantly is responsible for this set being very hard, as opposed to ridiculously hard. Thanks, Itamar, for helping make this tournament (and others we've worked on) both reasonable and a ton of fun to produce.

--- LOGISTICS ---

Jacob O'Rourke - Jacob was on board to do logistics from day one and did an excellent job of doing so across the board. He took immediate charge of a diverse range of tasks from registration, to staffer organization, to payment collection, to directing the tournament the day of, and also playtested a number of questions. This was a hard, 14-round tournament that started early and still lasted until around 9PM, and it's thanks in large part to Jacob's extensive experience and excellent execution here. Thanks, Jacob, for being an all-around great contributor to quizbowl over the years.

--- WRITERS ---

Thanks to Jack Mehr, Ryan Humphrey, Noah Chen, Caroline Mao, Kirk Jing, and Joseph Krol for each contributing great questions to this tournament helping fill out crucial areas both early and late in the production process.

--- PLAYTESTERS ---

Thanks to Tim Morrison, William Golden, Richard Yu, Ani Perumalla, Lia Rathburn, Vikshar Athreya, Gerhardt Hinkle, Shahar Schwartz, Caroline Mao, Rohith Nagari, and C. Danko for helping playtest this tournament and offering great feedback and clue ideas that helped us tune the set and significantly improve its smoothness and quality.

--- PROOFREADING ---

Alex Damisch - As always, Alex is a willing and able contributor; she read through the set and caught several imprecisions, missing pronunciation guides, and improvable wordings. Thanks, Alex, for making quizbowl better wherever you can.

(If I missed anyone, I'm sorry - please let me know!)

This Chicago Open was made possible by you all, and it was a privilege to work with you to create what I hope was a fun and memorable experience, an opportunity for players of all ages to gather and enjoy the game we love.
Last edited by naan/steak-holding toll on Thu Aug 26, 2021 3:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Will Alston
Dartmouth College '16
Columbia Business School '21
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1992 in spaceflight
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

theMoMA wrote: Wed Aug 25, 2021 10:53 pm A minor criticism: it was quite annoying to look at the schedule and see that our round-one matchup was against Matt Weiner's team. I think it's good practice to avoid scheduling games between the top few seeds in a prelim pool in the first round if possible; it's nice to be able to shake off some rust and get a feel for the set before having to play a high-leverage match.
I agree fully that it's good practice, and I'm really sorry that that had to happen. It was unfortunately the only way to make the schedule work with the way the packet order was set, since that determined the order of some of the byes.
Jacob O'Rourke
Washington (MO) HS Assistant Coach (2014-Present); MOQBA Secretary (2015-Present)
Formerly: AQBL Administrator (2020-2023); HSAPQ Host Contact; NASAT Outreach Coordinator (2016 and 2017); Kirksville HS Assistant Coach (2012-2014); Truman State '14; and Pacific High (MO) '10


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The King's Flight to the Scots
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by The King's Flight to the Scots »

On the logistical side, I think payment for CO and its side events could be handled a little better in the future. Right now I (still, oops) have about six people I need to pay for various CO-related items. I was not aware before the tournament who I was even supposed to pay for a couple of the side events. Requiring people to pay before the tournament to receive the schedule, or else to specifically request a waiver, seems like a potentially reasonable measure so that the editors get compensation for their work.

EDIT: An alternative suggestion I just received: have the CO TD send a single invoice to each player for all the events they're playing that weekend.
Matt Bollinger
UVA '14, UVA '15
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

A private discussion forum for this tournament has been created.
Will Alston
Dartmouth College '16
Columbia Business School '21
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

All packets from Chicago Open, except for Editors 7-9, are now clear for public discussion. We will be looking to host several different types of events on Editors 7-9 in the near future. After some clean-up and mistake-fixing, we will post the clear packets.
Will Alston
Dartmouth College '16
Columbia Business School '21
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Re: 2021 Chicago Open (August 21st @ Northwestern)

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

The packets have been uploaded to the archive. I hope you all enjoy perusing them as much as we enjoyed compiling this set for you.
Will Alston
Dartmouth College '16
Columbia Business School '21
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