2021 WORKSHOP Midwest @ UMN - 3/27/2021

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2021 WORKSHOP Midwest @ UMN - 3/27/2021

Post by Apocolocyntora »

I am pleased to announce that the Midwest site of 2021 WORKSHOP will be hosted by the University of Minnesota on Saturday, March 27, 2021.

The tournament will take place virtually on Zoom. The opening meeting will begin at 8:45 AM CT and gameplay will begin at 9:00 AM CT. I, Tora Husar, will be the tournament director for this event.

Eligibility
Teams from Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio are eligible for this tournament. Teams must be closed and abide by ACF's eligibility guidelines.

Rules
This tournament will follow ACF’s official gameplay rules. Teams and staffers will also be required to abide by WORKSHOP's official code of conduct. This tournament will have an initial field cap of 12 teams, but we will expand the field so long as we are able to recruit enough staffers. This tournament will use Advanced Stats.

Per WORKSHOP's official rules, players will be required to keep their cameras turned on and keep one hand visible on screen during rounds. Any players who are not able to satisfy these requirements should email [email protected] at least a week before the tournament in order to arrange an alternative solution.

Registration
Please email [email protected] in order to register for this tournament. Registration will close on March 21, 2021.

Fees
Base fee: $90 per team

–$25 per each team-provided staffer
–$20 new to quiz bowl discount/team (Teams who have not played any non-Novice collegiate tournaments since Fall 2019 may receive the new to quiz bowl discount. Teams receiving this discount may not include any players who have played non-Novice tournaments for other schools.)
- $20 shorthanded discount (for teams of only one or two players)

We are generally only able to accept payment by check. If your team will not be able to pay via check, please email me so that we can make an alternative arrangement prior to the tournament.

Minimum fee: $50 per team

Staff
If you are interested in staffing, please fill out this form. Due to university-based restrictions, we will be paying external staffers in $30 gift cards to the restaurant, food delivery, or food vendor provider of their choice.
Last edited by Apocolocyntora on Tue Feb 23, 2021 8:40 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: 2021 WORKSHOP Midwest @ UMN - 3/27/2021

Post by Apocolocyntora »

This post reserved for field updates.

Current Field*: 16/16
Columbia (1)
Texas (2)
Iowa (2)
Lewis University (1)
Wisconsin (1)
Indiana (1)
OSU (2)
Minnesota (1)
Northwestern (2)
Illinois (2)
WUSTL(1)



*Out of region teams accepted due to availability conflicts with their local mirrors and/or Midwest teams playing WORKSHOP out of region
Last edited by Apocolocyntora on Tue Mar 23, 2021 3:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: 2021 WORKSHOP Midwest @ UMN - 3/27/2021

Post by Apocolocyntora »

At this time the field is full; we do not expect to be able to expand the field, but this may change depending on staffing recruitment.

We are still quite short on staffers; if you are interested in staffing please fill out this form. Staffers will be compensated $30 via e-gift card to a restaurant or delivery service of their choice. Thank you!
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Re: 2021 WORKSHOP Midwest @ UMN - 3/27/2021

Post by thebluehawk1 »

It seems odd to me that Texas is playing this site despite there being a different site on the same day for their region. Looking at that region I can see yeah the field looks not very fun, only three teams currently signed up. But like we have these region restrictions for a reason and them being signed up is keeping a team from this region from being able to play. Perhaps we could just combine those two fields? I don't know what the staff situation is at the other one, but maybe the sharing of staff will help the overall staff situation?
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Re: 2021 WORKSHOP Midwest @ UMN - 3/27/2021

Post by Bensonfan23 »

There hardly seems like much of a reason to single us out over this. We checked with the editors before asking to join this field, and we were the second team to sign up for this site (just like Columbia presumably did). You're right to assume that like with other recent online tournaments (IKEA, Regs (sort of)), we asked to do this to avoid playing the same teams non-competitively over & over. Its one of the very, very few perks of these online tournaments to have a chance to both avoid this unfortunate situation and actually have fun playing more new and competitive teams. If it helps with staff though (and lets Illinois B in the field) to combine this with the much smaller site you pointed out that would make perfect sense to me too though. 16 teams is a good field size, but this would obviously up to the hosts/editors to work out.
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Re: 2021 WORKSHOP Midwest @ UMN - 3/27/2021

Post by db0wman »

Justin's idea to combine the fields seems like the best move for both my team and the three teams currently in the Lower Midwest field. 16 is also a nice number with which to run an 8, 9, or 10 round tournament. If for some reason this isn't feasible, Illinois B can register for the Lower Midwest mirror, but I'd much prefer to combine the fields.
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Re: 2021 WORKSHOP Midwest @ UMN - 3/27/2021

Post by Apocolocyntora »

Thanks everyone for your comments. We have had a team drop, so Illinois B has now entered the field. We'll be working with the WORKSHOP team and WUSTL to see if a combined field is the best option for everyone over the next couple of days.
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Re: 2021 WORKSHOP Midwest @ UMN - 3/27/2021

Post by Apocolocyntora »

Apocolocyntora wrote: Sun Mar 21, 2021 9:39 pm Thanks everyone for your comments. We have had a team drop, so Illinois B has now entered the field. We'll be working with the WORKSHOP team and WUSTL to see if a combined field is the best option for everyone over the next couple of days.
WUSTL and UMN have decided to combine our fields for a 16-team field (thanks to the addition of a WUSTL house team). The original field post has been updated to reflect this change. We look forward to seeing everyone on Saturday!
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Re: 2021 WORKSHOP Midwest @ UMN - 3/27/2021

Post by Apocolocyntora »

Thank you to everyone for attending our mirror of WORKSHOP, and a huge thank you to all of our staff for making this possible!

OSU A won the tournament after clearing the top playoff bracket. Congratulations, OSU! Full stats are available here.

Players and staff are encouraged to join the 2021 WORKSHOP discussion forum (it can be found under the Usergroups tab on your user control panel).
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Re: 2021 WORKSHOP Midwest @ UMN - 3/27/2021

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

This tournament was efficiently run and I encourage people to play this question set. Congratulations to OSU on winning.

My information here may be incomplete or mistaken, but I heard that a resolution on a game-deciding protest was apparently made in-house by UMN, rather than by consulting the editors. I spoke later about this question to the editors, who said that the answer our team gave would probably have been ruled promptable, which would have given us the game by default under ACF rules as the other team would lose sufficient points to have us win. I recognize that this tournament is fairly inconsequential, but it was extraordinarily frustrating to hear that a game-deciding ruling was made in such an ad-hoc manner, especially as the tournament had not yet been completed at that point.
Last edited by naan/steak-holding toll on Sat Mar 27, 2021 8:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2021 WORKSHOP Midwest @ UMN - 3/27/2021

Post by Apocolocyntora »

I completely understand how losing on a denied protest may be frustrating; however, we had reached out to the editors to address a couple protests during the last prelim round, and we did not get a response within ~15-20 minutes, so we used our best judgment to deny both protests, and I decided not to reach out again when a protest in the same category arose in the next round and to use my best judgment instead.

Ultimately, I felt there was a greater obligation to maintain the flow of the tournament without excessive interruptions than to address a protest with 100% certainty -- of course, there would be a different norm at a national championship or a qualifying tournament, but WORKSHOP is neither of those things. I also did not expect to get a fast response on the prelim protests from the editors in the first place, since the WORKSHOP editors had never guaranteed that they would be available to address protests (nor do I think this should be an expectation for such a tournament).
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Re: 2021 WORKSHOP Midwest @ UMN - 3/27/2021

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

Apocolocyntora wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 8:02 pm I completely understand how losing on a denied protest may be frustrating; however, we had reached out to the editors to address a couple protests during the last prelim round, and we did not get a response within ~15-20 minutes, so we used our best judgment to deny both protests, and I decided not to reach out again when a protest in the same category arose in the next round and to use my best judgment instead.
My frustration is less that we lost a protest - god knows, I lose them all the time and for good reason - but that the ruling was apparently wrong according to the people who edited the questions!!!

I appreciate the challenges involved in such decision-making, but this is a game with defined rules. Which leads me to another point: if I'm reading the above correctly, the end-of-prelims protests weren't ruled on by the editors either. The protest that decided our end-of prelims game was given ruling a ruling that was, to put it mildly, extraordinarily baffling to both teams involved, not including an explanation as to why the answer did not apply to the clue that was buzzed on, the previous clue, or even any reference to ACF rules at all. I don't think it's too much to ask for a clear explanation of why your answer was wrong under the rules, especially in the case of what both teams agreed was an ambiguously worded clue.

Look, I'm a bit of a known hothead in competition and I'll admit that I certainly could have handled the situation better. It also certainly isn't an enviable position to have to rule on protests without the support of editors between a number of nationally contending teams. But ultimately, it just felt like we weren't given a fair shake - and that really sucks, because the mods were excellent and the rest of the event went extremely smoothly.

EDIT: I'd be remiss if I did not append the above with a comment on the particularly excellent moderating skills of Mia from UMN (?), who I'd never seen around the scene before, but did an absolutely excellent job, including superb reading clarity and timing.
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Re: 2021 WORKSHOP Midwest @ UMN - 3/27/2021

Post by Apocolocyntora »

naan/steak-holding toll wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 8:24 pm
Apocolocyntora wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 8:02 pm I completely understand how losing on a denied protest may be frustrating; however, we had reached out to the editors to address a couple protests during the last prelim round, and we did not get a response within ~15-20 minutes, so we used our best judgment to deny both protests, and I decided not to reach out again when a protest in the same category arose in the next round and to use my best judgment instead.
My frustration is less that we lost a protest - god knows, I lose them all the time and for good reason - but that the ruling was apparently wrong according to the people who edited the questions!!!

I appreciate the challenges involved in such decision-making, but this is a game with defined rules. Which leads me to another point: if I'm reading the above correctly, the end-of-prelims protests weren't ruled on by the editors either. The protest that decided our end-of prelims game was given ruling a ruling that was, to put it mildly, extraordinarily baffling to both teams involved, not including an explanation as to why the answer did not apply to the clue that was buzzed on, the previous clue, or even any reference to ACF rules at all. I don't think it's too much to ask for a clear explanation of why your answer was wrong under the rules, especially in the case of what both teams agreed was an ambiguously worded clue.
For the record, the editor responsible for the questions that were protested on in the last prelim round agreed with my denial of both protests. I understand that having someone who is not well-versed in the content of a question decide on a protest is not as ideal as having the editor of a question decide on it. However, having editors decide on protests is not a guaranteed right in the first place. I apologize for not reaching out to your team personally to tell you why your protest was denied, but I hope it is understandable that this was not my top priority when spending additional time handling this would have prolonged the wait until playoffs.
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Re: 2021 WORKSHOP Midwest @ UMN - 3/27/2021

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

Apocolocyntora wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 9:34 pm
For the record, the editor responsible for the questions that were protested on in the last prelim round agreed with my denial of both protests.
Greatly appreciate the clarity on this matter. For what it's worth, the comment about "it was wrong" refers to the playoffs round protest - I checked in with said editor regarding the prelims protest and heard the reasoning. Thank you for your prompt response, Tora! And again, great job running today's event.

EDITED for clarity and updates from conversations
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Re: 2021 WORKSHOP Midwest @ UMN - 3/27/2021

Post by Santa Claus »

naan/steak-holding toll wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 8:24 pm My frustration is less that we lost a protest - god knows, I lose them all the time and for good reason - but that the ruling was apparently wrong according to the people who edited the questions!!!
I talked with you, Will, after the tournament concluded, where the issue of your protests naturally arose. While we were discussing this, I gave my thoughts but I was not expecting them to be made public (to be clear, I don’t particularly mind that happening) because that would be kind of weird. Either way, I don’t think these sorts of chats are useful for arguments of this sort because a) I didn’t recall the entire question and its answerline off the top of my head and b) it doesn’t actually matter what I think - the protest has been resolved. Separately, I don’t want my comments to be used to critique a tournament’s protest committee (and I don’t think the resulting argument is particularly strong).

As the editor of a question, my thoughts (definitive and otherwise) about whether certain answers should be acceptable or promptable shouldn't matter to the protest committee beyond what I write in the answerline and what I directly tell them while they’re in the progress of adjudicating (and to be clear, I did not directly tell them anything and that’s fine). I can think that something deserves a prompt but that doesn’t mean that a protest committee is wrong for disagreeing, and I think it would be unreasonable to suggest that they are going out of their way to be unfair or something.

If you still have concerns about what answers should be accepted for specific questions, you’re welcome to post about it in the discussion forum.
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