JECHT Discussion

[Jeaton1]

First of all, I would like to thank Chris Ray, Brittany Clark, Jonathan Magin and Andrew Lim for contributing questions to the JECHT set! It made the set a bit more diverse in subjects I dislike or am unfamiliar with and helped me to complete a huge task that is rather daunting for only a single person.

Second, I would like to know what people thought of the set and the tournament itself -- despite being primarily on a niche subject, this was the first tournament I've ever written and it would be nice to hear feedback from both a gamer's and quizbowler's viewpoints. So bring it on -- likes, dislikes, compliments, complaints, constructive criticism -- I want to hear it all.

I hope everyone who got to play any portion of this tournament enjoyed what they heard as it was simply a blast to write! I will try to post the rounds soon so those interested can see the full set. Thanks!

[fybernyte]

I liked the tournament. It was balanced pretty well between old and new generation games. I really like the audio bonus questions too. Do it again, it was fun.

[grapesmoker]

I enjoyed watching Eric answer questions (and I also answered a few; the Pyramid Head tossup was my favorite). I would have like to see more PC games, since I don't really play console stuff. I figure they should be about 1/4 of the distribution.

[Cheynem]

This was a terrific series of packets. Well done. I liked the few bones thrown to people like me who never got past 16-bit gaming. I especially liked the audio bonuses, even though I sucked at them. Distribution-wise, I agree that perhaps a different variety of PC gaming could be asked about, and perhaps some broader things (video game magazines, movies).

[Auroni]

I enjoyed watching Eric answer questions (and I also answered a few; the Pyramid Head tossup was my favorite). I would have like to see more PC games, since I don't really play console stuff. I figure they should be about 1/4 of the distribution.

i'm going to echo jerry here -- more PC stuff would have been nicer. Otherwise, this was a sublime experience and I really enjoyed the djinns tossup and more tangentially related stuff, though at times I thought that the Nintendo was a bit too overpowering.

[Ike]

After what went wrong with the trash on Sunday, JECHT reinvigorated the day and was easily by far one of the greatest QB experiences I had. I enjoyed every tossup / bonus even if they were well beyond my reach. I know the last round was well beyond reach for many, especially me, but it was absolutely delicious. I think most notably is the Church of Apris tossup where I was circling around the answer, not being able to pin it down.

Either way, Jeremy is the most important question writer on the circuit now for doing this. (At least in my opinion.) And I know I want to see more tournaments like this.

While we were eating the night after the tournament, I've decided that I"m going to write a 20/20 FF7 packet to be played whenever (during lunch) of Illinois Open and its mirrors. (11/15) Its going to be awesome.

Ike

[Mike Bentley]

The questions were very enjoyable, despite the neg-fest that me and my team put up on most of them.

In the four rounds I heard, I thought the distribution was pretty good. But I don't really care about PC games, so I didn't really miss not hearing a lot of questions on them.

There were a few relatively misplaced clues. Ones that stand out was the Nights tossup that began with a clue about the Christmas version, which is a pretty famous version of that game.

Probably the biggest problem was the bonus inconsistency. Some bonuses required pretty deep knowledge of a particular game to answer the questions (for example, the Earthworm Jim bonus) while others featured easier, general surveys of the videogame world.

Overall, though, the tournament was very good and I look forward to playing the last two rounds online or something.

By the way, did anyone actually collect the scoresheets and plan to enter in the stats from the Minnesota version of this tournament?

[Megalomaniacal Panda on Absinthe]

I think most notably is the Church of Apris tossup where I was circling around the answer, not being able to pin it down.

You also got up from your chair and physically circled around the room after buzzing in, in among the most endearingly amusing "Oh my God I can't remember what this is" reactions I have seen.

Also, 20/20 FF7 sounds pretty awesome.

I enjoyed JECHT thoroughly, though I spent most of it watching David and Adam power an impressive variety of tossups. The audio bonuses were well executed and the tournament was the most fun I had all weekend.

[Cheynem]

The only other quibble I guess I have is the slight bits of repetition--while one can perhaps accept the possibility of getting two powers on fairly general Earthbound knowledge (hey, I did!), TWO questions on The Adventures of Lolo, while a kickass game, is probably too much.

[StrongerSide]

Quest 64, anyone?

[Golran]

The first time I saw that game I hated it! It just didn't seem fun for me.

[Jeaton1]

Thanks for your comments so far. It seems that on the whole, this set was well received. (I'm also glad you really enjoyed the set Ike, but I am certainly not the most important writer in quizbowl. Also, I really want to play that FFVII packet).

I will agree that the distribution was skewed to my interests and as a result certain genres and platforms were left out (PC specific games, sports games) compared to others (Nintendo franchises, action-adventure games). For example in terms of distribution of game series alone the tournament had (not including one-off common link or bonus clues):

4/1 Mario-related series
3/1 Final Fantasy
2/0 Zelda
2/1 Pokemon
2/1 Mega Man
and 1/1 other 'series I thought were important' such as Chrono, Earthbound, MGS, Resident Evil, Donkey Kong Country etc...

As far as repetition goes I apologize. Lolo should not have appeared more than once and you can probably tell Pilotwings 64 is one of my favorite games ever as clues about it were referenced everywhere. Other repetitions such as many references to the Smash Bros. series I felt were justified as in that case it allows players that lack a certain deep knowledge in a character or series to have a chance to answer before the FTP line. Also, Zelda appeared in some form in pretty much every common link tossup I wrote simply for the fact that the clues fit eerily well for the topics I chose.

P.S. -- Are there any quick and easy ways to post questions online for all to see? Thanks.

[Mike Bentley]

If you e-mail me the packets I can post them online.

[Mike Bentley]

Packets are up at: http://www.doc-ent.com/quizbowl/jecht

[StrongerSide]

4/1 Mario-related series
3/1 Final Fantasy
2/0 Zelda
2/1 Pokemon
2/1 Mega Man
and 1/1 other 'series I thought were important' such as Chrono, Earthbound, MGS, Resident Evil, Donkey Kong Country etc...

That explains the Mega Man at least, but I do not believe that you are telling the truth regarding Pokemon and Final Fantasy. There were maybe 2 Pokemon questions in the whole tournament that I heard, and Final Fantasy wasn't done justice. These are just minor fallacies, though, on the whole I really enjoyed the tournament.

[ClemsonQB]

I only looked at three packets, but I only saw 1/1 Final Fantasy in each...

[Mike Bentley]

I fixed Round 5, so that should work now.

Also, we played Round 6 at UW practice and that was one hard ass packet. I'm curious to learn how other people did on this packet.

[pray for elves]

I thought that, for the answers I knew something about, the questions were solid to very good, and Jeremy is to be commended. However, there were a few correctable issues; for one thing, a tossup on "Kazooie" should not come after Banjo-Kazooie has been mentioned in a bonus in the same packet. The difficulty kept ramping up as the rounds went on; I'd have preferred a more uniformly distributed difficulty level.

I was also disappointed (minorly) by the lack of a question on Glover.

Overall, though, I had fun playing these packets, and I thank Jeremy for the experience.

[Cheynem]

Round 6 was really hard--I powered Shadowgate and got Lolo and won a buzzer race on vampires after "Alucard" was mentioned.

Questions that prompted blank stares included "Sexy Silvia," "King of the Monsters," "Georama." Of bonuses, having to possess intense Frogger/Phantasy Star/Dead or Alive Xtreme knowledge was interesting.

An oddly very easy question thrown in though was "Indiana Jones," where you could get power with the "infernal machine" reference.

[AKKOLADE]

Reading this set is a joy.

[Sima Guang Hater]

I just finished reading this set: its pretty amazing, and should be done again. I'm seriously considering doing one of these myself, if anyone is interested in collaborating with me.

Are there stats for this somewhere? I'd like to see how badly I would have been beaten at MO.


EDIT: another small thing. Chef Torte from Super Mario RPG was a terrapin, which I think is some subset of Koopa Troopa. Since there were no Koopa Troopas in Super Mario RPG would that have been acceptable?

[Jeaton1]

The last packet was indeed difficult and perhaps it was a poor decision (my original name for it before I slapped on the Super Mario World names was 'Ruby Weapon'). I'll admit the Georama tossup was bad in a number of ways and this is probably due to the fact it was the last tossup I wrote in order to hurry things along to finish the set.

Concerning the Chef Torte clue, he and his bumbling apprentice are certainly Terrapins -- I did not specifically list this in the question, but if it had come down to a protest you would have gotten the points. The only 'true' Koopas in SMRPG I believe were the fat ones in Bowser's castle and the clouds above Bean Valley if I recall correctly.

I have the stats for the first round only -- I'm not totally sure if anyway actually took stats at MO for the subsequent rounds. Anyone know about this?

[Cheynem]

Stats were being kept in all the rooms I was playing...whether that actually translated into someone saving and recording said stats, I dunno.

[Pilgrim]

I could be wrong, but I don't think anyone kept the scoresheets.

[Auks Ran Ova]

I'm not really sure what happened to the stat sheets, but it seems like Auroni somehow ended up with a few of them and the rest disappeared into the void, which is tragic. We'll see what we can find and cobble together.

What I do know is that after we reconvened and played a six-team round robin, a team of me, Sean Skaar, and Mike Cheyne (accompanied by Trevor Davis for three rounds, until he left to replace Mike Bentley) went 5-0, while the team of Jack/Nathan/Carissa finished either 4-1 or 3-2; regardless, we beat them 2xx-1xx on the crazy final packet. I guess some sort of committee decided to award me the copy of Superman 64 for probably being the high scorer on my team.

All in all this tournament was an absolute delight to play, and even if there were some swings in bonus difficulty or whatever I really cannot compliment it enough. Jeremy and the other writers did an incredibly awesome job and should be commended.

[Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)]

I just feel like dropping in to say how awesome it is there is an HSQB thread discussing the Super Mario RPG. What an awesome game.

[Mike Bentley]

I could be wrong, but I don't think anyone kept the scoresheets.

I think I asked Ike Jose to gather them, but I'm not sure if he did this or not.

[Ike]

I don't recall that request, but you may very well have. But either way, I didn't.

[StrongerSide]

I'm not sure about anyone else, but this tournament has definitely made me want to go back and play some of those games, particularly the ones I never got the chance to. The bonus on Nazca made me want to bust out the SNES and play Illusion of Gaia again - what a great game. In a sense this tournament was an ode to video games, and that's why, at least as far as I can see, it was well received. Most tossups/bonuses encouraged discussion afterwards. I would definitely be interested in having more video game tournaments to complement the more academic tournaments.

[Auroni]

I could be wrong, but I don't think anyone kept the scoresheets.

I think I asked Ike Jose to gather them, but I'm not sure if he did this or not.

he didn't, and they were in my notebook. the sheets are now lying in my room and i'm willing to collaborate with jeremy to get the stats online. (I only have 4-5 scoresheets, and not all of them have the round numbers written down)

[Gautam]

I have some scoresheets too... for some odd reason.