2020 ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

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2020 ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

Post by The King's Flight to the Scots »

ACF is now taking applications for subject editors for 2020 ACF Fall, head edited by Ben Miller, and 2020 ACF Winter, head edited by William Golden. The form for ACF Regionals will be opened at a later date. We reserve the right to consider candidates who apply to one tournament for positions on a different tournament's editing team; however, to guarantee you will be considered for a given tournament's editing team, you must fill out that tournament's application. (EDIT: The form to apply for 2021 ACF Regionals can be found in this thread.)

For both applications, we will be looking at the strength of the applicants' question samples, thought processes, and references. We’re aiming to assemble teams of enthusiastic editors with a diverse set of backgrounds, so we highly encourage all those interested to apply.

Below, I have linked the forms to apply to edit ACF Fall and ACF Winter. Applications for both tournaments close at 11:59 PM CDT on Sunday, May 24th. Any questions regarding the Fall and Winter forms can be sent to [email protected] and [email protected], respectively. We look forward to receiving your applications!
Last edited by The King's Flight to the Scots on Fri May 08, 2020 6:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

Post by benmillerbenmiller »

Because of the addition of ACF Winter, the target difficulty for this year's ACF Fall will be lower than in years past. We are intending for the set to be a hyper-accessible introduction to college quizbowl for people with little to no previous playing experience. If you are submitting an application to edit fall (and I hope you do!), please keep this new target in mind when preparing your question sample.

Edit: Removed comparison to Early Autumn Collegiate Novice.
Last edited by benmillerbenmiller on Mon Apr 20, 2020 7:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

Post by Carlos Be »

benmillerbenmiller wrote: Sun Apr 19, 2020 5:39 pm Because of the addition of ACF Winter, the target difficulty for this year's ACF Fall will be lower than in years past. We are intending for the set to be a hyper-accessible introduction to college quizbowl for people with little to no previous playing experience, comprable to the Early Autumn Collegiate Novice sets that Andrew Hart used to produce.
Can you give a comparison to a set that is more recent than Early Autumn Collegiate Novice? It is difficult to gauge the difficulty of sets that old, due to clue drift and changes in writing practices.

If the new intended difficulty is significantly lower than previous years, then I highly recommend changing the name of the set. It would be incredibly misleading if you did not. Also, would you mind giving a justification for this decrease in difficulty? I don't see how the existence of ACF Winter should have any impact on the difficulty of Fall. Even if it did, it would merely be justification for the feasibility of an easier Fall, but it would not explain why making Fall easier is desirable. Personally, I find mind-boggling the decision to transform utterly ACF's most successful tournament, so I am curious to know what ACF's goal is here.
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Re: ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

Post by High Dependency Unit »

Carlos Be wrote: Sun Apr 19, 2020 10:14 pm
benmillerbenmiller wrote: Sun Apr 19, 2020 5:39 pm Because of the addition of ACF Winter, the target difficulty for this year's ACF Fall will be lower than in years past. We are intending for the set to be a hyper-accessible introduction to college quizbowl for people with little to no previous playing experience, comprable to the Early Autumn Collegiate Novice sets that Andrew Hart used to produce.
Can you give a comparison to a set that is more recent than Early Autumn Collegiate Novice? It is difficult to gauge the difficulty of sets that old, due to clue drift and changes in writing practices.

If the new intended difficulty is significantly lower than previous years, then I highly recommend changing the name of the set. It would be incredibly misleading if you did not. Also, would you mind giving a justification for this decrease in difficulty? I don't see how the existence of ACF Winter should have any impact on the difficulty of Fall. Even if it did, it would merely be justification for the feasibility of an easier Fall, but it would not explain why making Fall easier is desirable. Personally, I find mind-boggling the decision to transform utterly ACF's most successful tournament, so I am curious to know what ACF's goal is here.
As someone who played high school quiz bowl right around the end of Early Autumn Collegiate Novice's time, the 2012 edition would still be a regular/regular-minus high school set on tossups, and maybe just a tad harder on bonuses.

Depending on what ACF Winter looks like, there may be a hole in the "easier than EFT" slot, since Fall is great for a lot of people who still maybe shouldn't play novice. And just to add onto that, if this is at novice difficulty, will ACF draw up eligibility restrictions?
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Re: ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

Post by benmillerbenmiller »

Previously, ACF only had one tournament to fill the "easier than Regs" difficulty window, which is a very large window. Fall had to serve the dual functions of trying to attract brand new players to the game and providing more seasoned ones with a regs-minus experience. By adding Winter, we are effectively splitting those two functions into two different tournaments.

In practice, this will not mean that Fall is dramatically easier, but it will be easier. We will be shooting to approximate the difficulty of ACF Fall 2017, which was a bit easier than the 2018 and 2019 sets. Specifically, I will focus on reining in first lines and hard parts to make the set as accessible as possible. Another point of comparison might be NAQT’s DII SCT set, which is intended to be halfway between an IS set and HSNCT.

ACF is currently weighing eligibility restrictions and will announce a decision within the next few weeks. Fall will not be as restrictive as EACN, but we hope to avoid situations where novices have to play former elite high school players or very experienced college players.
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Re: ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

Post by Carlos Be »

benmillerbenmiller wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:49 pm Previously, ACF only had one tournament to fill the "easier than Regs" difficulty window, which is a very large window. Fall had to serve the dual functions of trying to attract brand new players to the game and providing more seasoned ones with a regs-minus experience. By adding Winter, we are effectively splitting those two functions into two different tournaments.
What do you mean by "regs"? Regionals? Regular? How do you know that ACF Winter will be easy enough to fill the role of "regs-minus experience"?
benmillerbenmiller wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:49 pm In practice, this will not mean that Fall is dramatically easier, but it will be easier. We will be shooting to approximate the difficulty of ACF Fall 2017, which was a bit easier than the 2018 and 2019 sets. Specifically, I will focus on reining in first lines and hard parts to make the set as accessible as possible. Another point of comparison might be NAQT’s DII SCT set, which is intended to be halfway between an IS set and HSNCT.
How much easier is 2017 Fall than 2018 and 2019 Fall? Do you have average PPBs you could share? DII SCT has a notoriously nebulous difficulty, so I don't think that's a very helpful comparison, either.
benmillerbenmiller wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:49 pm ACF is currently weighing eligibility restrictions and will announce a decision within the next few weeks. Fall will not be as restrictive as EACN, but we hope to avoid situations where novices have to play former elite high school players or very experienced college players.
Are there players who played Fall last year that would not have been able to play under the upcoming eligibility rules? Could you give examples, so that we can get an idea of who these restrictions will be targeting?
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Re: ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

Post by Father of the Ragdoll »

Carlos Be wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 3:38 pm
benmillerbenmiller wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:49 pm Previously, ACF only had one tournament to fill the "easier than Regs" difficulty window, which is a very large window. Fall had to serve the dual functions of trying to attract brand new players to the game and providing more seasoned ones with a regs-minus experience. By adding Winter, we are effectively splitting those two functions into two different tournaments.
What do you mean by "regs"? Regionals? Regular? How do you know that ACF Winter will be easy enough to fill the role of "regs-minus experience"?
I am not at all associated with either of these sets, but I do want to say I completely trust William's ability to hit the advertised difficulty, which is "two dots" or EFT 2017 difficulty. I cannot speak to the rest of your concerns, but I think the concern that ACF Winter will not be easy enough is misplaced.
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Re: ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

Post by The King's Flight to the Scots »

Carlos Be wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 3:38 pm
benmillerbenmiller wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:49 pm Previously, ACF only had one tournament to fill the "easier than Regs" difficulty window, which is a very large window. Fall had to serve the dual functions of trying to attract brand new players to the game and providing more seasoned ones with a regs-minus experience. By adding Winter, we are effectively splitting those two functions into two different tournaments.
What do you mean by "regs"? Regionals? Regular? How do you know that ACF Winter will be easy enough to fill the role of "regs-minus experience"?
Regs is Regionals, yeah. We're confident that William Golden and his team, with ACF oversight, will produce a Winter set that meets the two-dot target difficulty.
benmillerbenmiller wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:49 pm In practice, this will not mean that Fall is dramatically easier, but it will be easier. We will be shooting to approximate the difficulty of ACF Fall 2017, which was a bit easier than the 2018 and 2019 sets. Specifically, I will focus on reining in first lines and hard parts to make the set as accessible as possible. Another point of comparison might be NAQT’s DII SCT set, which is intended to be halfway between an IS set and HSNCT.
How much easier is 2017 Fall than 2018 and 2019 Fall? Do you have average PPBs you could share? DII SCT has a notoriously nebulous difficulty, so I don't think that's a very helpful comparison, either.
The packets for 2017 ACF Fall can be found here; stats for all sites, such as this one at OSU, are on the HSQB tournament database.
benmillerbenmiller wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:49 pm ACF is currently weighing eligibility restrictions and will announce a decision within the next few weeks. Fall will not be as restrictive as EACN, but we hope to avoid situations where novices have to play former elite high school players or very experienced college players.
Are there players who played Fall last year that would not have been able to play under the upcoming eligibility rules? Could you give examples, so that we can get an idea of who these restrictions will be targeting?
We'll be able to give you our decision within a few weeks, but Ben's answer should give you an idea of what we're trying to achieve: we would like to institute an eligibility regime that allows novice teams to enjoy Fall without having to play former high school stars or college players with a great deal of experience. As Ben said, we won't be setting rules that are as restrictive as EACN had.
Last edited by The King's Flight to the Scots on Mon Apr 20, 2020 4:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

Post by Carlos Be »

Illinois Admin wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 3:59 pm I am not at all associated with either of these sets, but I do want to say I completely trust William's ability to hit the advertised difficulty, which is "two dots" or EFT 2017 difficulty. I cannot speak to the rest of your concerns, but I think the concern that ACF Winter will not be easy enough is misplaced.
I meant, what if the target difficulty of ACF Winter is not easy enough? EFT 2017 is quite a bit harder than ACF Fall.
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Re: ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

Post by Auks Ran Ova »

I'm not sure I understand what you hope to achieve with this oddly antagonistic line of questioning. What sort of response to the question "what if the target difficulty of ACF Winter is not easy enough?" could possibly satisfy you? What do you even expect possible responses to be? The only reasonable answer an editor can provide to a question like "How do you know that ACF Winter will be easy enough to fill the role of "regs-minus experience"?" is "Because that's what we will be trying to achieve", but I suspect that would not be enough for you.
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Re: ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

Perhaps if you don't trust the editors to hit the right difficulty, you should sign up to write the tournament yourself...which ACF is graciously allowing you to do! Props to ACF for this excellent step towards adding more accessible tournaments, helping institutionalize a lower "regular" difficulty of college tournaments, and bringing new writers into the fold.
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Re: ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

Post by Carlos Be »

Auks Ran Ova wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 5:28 pm I'm not sure I understand what you hope to achieve with this oddly antagonistic line of questioning. What sort of response to the question "what if the target difficulty of ACF Winter is not easy enough?" could possibly satisfy you? What do you even expect possible responses to be? The only reasonable answer an editor can provide to a question like "How do you know that ACF Winter will be easy enough to fill the role of "regs-minus experience"?" is "Because that's what we will be trying to achieve", but I suspect that would not be enough for you.
Are not there players for whom ACF Winter will be too hard, but the new ACF Fall will be too easy? That is all I am trying to ask. Some satisfactory answers to this question could be:
1. The post-ACF Fall 2019 survey indicated overwhelming support for an easier Fall.
2. PPBs (or PPGs) from ACF Fall 2018 and 2019 form two clusters, one high and one low, without many teams in between.
3. ACF expects Fall 2020 to be appropriate for nearly all players who played in 2019.

Part of my confusion is that I really don't understand what the target difficulty for Fall 2020 is. First, ACF gave Early Autumn Collegiate Novice as a sample, which seems to be approximately equal to HS Regular difficulty. Then, ACF gave ACF Fall 2017, which seems harder, and much closer to recent iterations of Fall. (I think it would be useful if ACF calculated average PPB, or some other aggregate stat, to compare Fall 2017 to Fall 2018 and Fall 2019.) Finally, ACF gave DII SCT as another benchmark, which is arguably the most variable set in quiz bowl.
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Re: ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

Post by Father of the Ragdoll »

Well it seems undeniable that this is an improvement, no? Before we had an ACF Fall that was too hard for true novices and too easy for good former high school players and less experienced but competitive players. Now we have an ACF Fall that is easy enough for true novices and an ACF Winter for good former high school players and semi experienced players.

Additionally, ACF has stated that Winter will be accessible for new college players. Unless you are implying that they are lying or not capable of creating a tournament of that difficulty, then the supposed cohort of players too good for an easier fall and "not good enough" for ACF Winter simply do not exist.
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Re: 2020 ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

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A reminder the Fall/Winter editor applications close this Sunday, May 24th, so please get your applications in!
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Re: 2020 ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

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The application deadline for ACF Fall and Winter has been extended to June 7th. We'd like to have a diverse, enthusiastic editing team, so if you're interested, please apply!
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Re: 2020 ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

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A reminder to get in your applications — they're due this Sunday!
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Re: 2020 ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

Post by caroline »

Congratulations to the following editors of this year's Fall and Winter tournaments:

Ben Miller will be head editing ACF Fall 2020 with a team of Alex Hardwick, Arjun Nageswaran, Catherine Qian, Drew Benner, Justin Duffy, and Karthik Prasad, with assistance from Matthew Lehmann.

William Golden will be head editing ACF Winter 2020 with a team of Andrew Wang, Bryanna Shao, Chandler West, Chris Sims, Ganon Evans, Jaskaran Singh, Nick Jensen, and Vishwa Shanmugam.

Thank you so much to everyone who applied! We're very excited for the sets these teams produce and look forward to these upcoming tournaments.
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Re: ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

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The King's Flight to the Scots wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 4:05 pm
We'll be able to give you our decision within a few weeks, but Ben's answer should give you an idea of what we're trying to achieve: we would like to institute an eligibility regime that allows novice teams to enjoy Fall without having to play former high school stars or college players with a great deal of experience. As Ben said, we won't be setting rules that are as restrictive as EACN had.
I can't seem to find any announcement regarding this on the ACF website. Was there a decision made? Given that this tournament is in less than a month (and with many packet sub deadlines passed), I'm sure schools would like to start figuring out what teams they should send.
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Re: ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

Post by caroline »

Gene Harrogate wrote: Sun Sep 20, 2020 1:28 pm
The King's Flight to the Scots wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 4:05 pm
We'll be able to give you our decision within a few weeks, but Ben's answer should give you an idea of what we're trying to achieve: we would like to institute an eligibility regime that allows novice teams to enjoy Fall without having to play former high school stars or college players with a great deal of experience. As Ben said, we won't be setting rules that are as restrictive as EACN had.
I can't seem to find any announcement regarding this on the ACF website. Was there a decision made? Given that this tournament is in less than a month (and with many packet sub deadlines passed), I'm sure schools would like to start figuring out what teams they should send.
Due to concerns about tournament fields being smaller than previous years because of the challenges associated with online quizbowl, ACF has decided not to issue any eligibility restrictions. Thank you for bringing this to our attention!
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Re: 2020 ACF Fall and Winter Editor Applications

Post by Gene Harrogate »

Thank you!
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