A Statement on Stony Brook Quiz Bowl

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JA01
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A Statement on Stony Brook Quiz Bowl

Post by JA01 »

As some may know, Stony Brook hosted the northeast mirror of LIT on September 26. There were a decent amount of problems for me to step back and reassess everything. I was the co tournament director and the sole stat keeper for the tournament and it can be concluded that I was to blame for most of the tournament's problems.

There were errors in stats that affected the standings of the tournament. I was relatively not as experienced in keeping stats and I definitely bit off more than I could chew by thinking I could keep stats. One of the biggest errors of the stats was a win lose record for a team. This error caused the wrong team to be included in the championship bracket and this eventually affected the final standings. I will not name the team to protect their anonymity.

There were cheating allegations at the tournament and while we investigated these and found no substantial evidence, we received many criticisms of our handling of the situation. I consulted with outside sources that were deemed questionable by some and I also failed to effectively discourage cheating with the camera policy.

I also failed to handle protests in an effective manner and did not contact the set editors for consultation. The club has emailed them with all the specifics from the tournament.

I acknowledge these mistakes and take full blame for them. Your criticisms should not be directed at Stony Brook, but rather at myself. I apologize for every negative aspect of the tournament. Because of this, I have decided to reconsider my future as a tournament director.

I'd like to thank every staffer and every player that came to the tournament. I apologize for the negative experience that you might have endured.
Jade Anderson
Smithtown High School West President Class of ‘19
Stony Brook University President Class of ‘23
JA01
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Re: A Statement on Stony Brook Quiz Bowl

Post by JA01 »

Also can this be moved to collegiate discussion?
Jade Anderson
Smithtown High School West President Class of ‘19
Stony Brook University President Class of ‘23
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UlyssesInvictus
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Re: A Statement on Stony Brook Quiz Bowl

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

This was very mature of you to post, and I'm sure the people who underwent negative experiences appreciate this statement, but I hope you're not too hard on yourself. Reading this as an unrelated 3rd-party, you were much more responsive and levelheaded than many other people in similar situations in the past. I'm sure this was a good learning experience, and I don't think anything you did was something people should judge you too harshly on. Hopefully you're not facing too much stress or anxiety as a result, and if you are, I know there are lots of TDs who have faced similar experiences in the past that would be happy to talk (myself included).
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Re: A Statement on Stony Brook Quiz Bowl

Post by AGoodMan »

UlyssesInvictus wrote: Sun Sep 27, 2020 8:02 pm This was very mature of you to post, and I'm sure the people who underwent negative experiences appreciate this statement, but I hope you're not too hard on yourself. Reading this as an unrelated 3rd-party, you were much more responsive and levelheaded than many other people in similar situations in the past. I'm sure this was a good learning experience, and I don't think anything you did was something people should judge you too harshly on. Hopefully you're not facing too much stress or anxiety as a result, and if you are, I know there are lots of TDs who have faced similar experiences in the past that would be happy to talk (myself included).
I want to second Raynor's thoughts and also express that I am thankful to Stony Brook for hosting a large NE mirror (plus a few teams from other regions as well), given that teams in the region aren't always enthusiastic to host stuff. I genuinely welcome Stony Brook as an addition to the quiz bowl community and I hope they are here to stay. Perhaps for the next few tournaments, a bit more guidance and input from more experienced members of the community could ensure greater success.
Jon Suh
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Re: A Statement on Stony Brook Quiz Bowl

Post by Cheynem »

While it is always good to acknowledge what you could have done better, I would not beat yourself up too much. As cliche as it is, these are truly unprecedented times for all quizbowl teams and TD's--the quizbowl community does not have a lot of experience in running large online tournaments, or in handling online cheating accusations/investigations. This underscores the need for more standardized procedures and resources, especially in regards to cheating prevention and investigation, so that the burden isn't falling on TDs who understandably may not have much experience in handling this. I agree with Jon that calling upon others for assistance or help in running future tournaments might be a very good idea.
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1992 in spaceflight
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Re: A Statement on Stony Brook Quiz Bowl

Post by 1992 in spaceflight »

Jade, everyone has a bad tournament. Sometimes it's your first tournament, sometimes it's your 100th. Everyone can direct a bad tournament; most of the greatest TDs in the history of quizbowl have directed bad tournaments in their career. (I have definitely directed a bad tournament in my time, and I know I'm not alone among the TDs of quizbowl) I think it's very mature of you to post this and reconsider what happened, but I'd encourage you to learn from it and become an all-star director, which I'm confident you can be.

Also...for real, let's all give ourselves some slack here. These are highly unprecedented times for everybody, even experienced TDs would have struggled to know what to do.
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Re: A Statement on Stony Brook Quiz Bowl

Post by SortesVirgilianae »

The first tournament I TDed was a small end-of-semester open, with 6 teams (all made up of very experienced players) taking part. While modding the final, I made a mistake (allowing a team far, far too long to pull a bonus part, without timing properly) which ultimately swung the match result (a 240-235 win for that team). That error still haunts me sometimes.

More importantly, note that this was a tiny tournament (only 6 teams), where all the players knew exactly what they were doing - compared to the 30-team behemoth you organised, likely including some very new players, with the added challenges of running your event online. If I can bounce back from my mistake, and continue directing tournaments in the future, then you should absolutely forgive yourself for making mistakes under much more challenging circumstances.
1992 in spaceflight wrote: Mon Sep 28, 2020 3:34 pm Everyone can direct a bad tournament; most of the greatest TDs in the history of quizbowl have directed bad tournaments in their career.
Be kind to yourself. By all means take note of mistakes and think about what you can learn from, but don't be disheartened and don't take this as an assessment of your abilities. It also might be worth ensuring that your next experience as TD is a more bite-sized and manageable tournament (this absolutely isn't a judgement on your abilities - I think even the most experienced TDs on the circuit would struggle with a 30-team online mirror!).
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