Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
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Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
I'm thinking about running an experimental all-geography tournament sometime late next spring.
Reasoning: I've always wanted to play an all-geography event, but no one (to my knowledge) has ever written one. So, I thought I'd step up and offer to run the thing myself. That being said, I still want to play, so this will have a few changes from other recent subject tournaments.
Here's the idea: packet submission, guerrilla-style all-geography tossup-only rounds, to be held sometime around HSNCT (not conflicting with Gaddis, obviously). I'll write a distribution, some guidelines, and a packet. Other people who are interested in playing write their packets. An odd number of teams (5, 7, or 9 sounds plausible) then play a round-robin to determine the Ultimate Geography Champion.
So, post in this thread if you:
A. ... are a person or entity interested in playing in an event like this. If a sufficiently large field actually materializes, I will at some point ask people to commit to writing packets.
B ... are interested in providing a freelance finals packet to resolve circles of death. This would be terrific if someone volunteers, but it's probably not strictly necessary. If need be I could recuse myself and write a second packet.
C. ... think this is a terrible idea for some quizbowl-theoretic reason I failed to outline above.
Comments?
Reasoning: I've always wanted to play an all-geography event, but no one (to my knowledge) has ever written one. So, I thought I'd step up and offer to run the thing myself. That being said, I still want to play, so this will have a few changes from other recent subject tournaments.
Here's the idea: packet submission, guerrilla-style all-geography tossup-only rounds, to be held sometime around HSNCT (not conflicting with Gaddis, obviously). I'll write a distribution, some guidelines, and a packet. Other people who are interested in playing write their packets. An odd number of teams (5, 7, or 9 sounds plausible) then play a round-robin to determine the Ultimate Geography Champion.
So, post in this thread if you:
A. ... are a person or entity interested in playing in an event like this. If a sufficiently large field actually materializes, I will at some point ask people to commit to writing packets.
B ... are interested in providing a freelance finals packet to resolve circles of death. This would be terrific if someone volunteers, but it's probably not strictly necessary. If need be I could recuse myself and write a second packet.
C. ... think this is a terrible idea for some quizbowl-theoretic reason I failed to outline above.
Comments?
Jeff Hoppes
President, Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance
former HSQB Chief Admin (2012-13)
VP for Communication and history subject editor, NAQT
Editor emeritus, ACF
"I wish to make some kind of joke about Jeff's love of birds, but I always fear he'll turn them on me Hitchcock-style." -Fred
President, Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance
former HSQB Chief Admin (2012-13)
VP for Communication and history subject editor, NAQT
Editor emeritus, ACF
"I wish to make some kind of joke about Jeff's love of birds, but I always fear he'll turn them on me Hitchcock-style." -Fred
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
I see we have finally emerged on the other side of the rabbit hole.
Jerry Vinokurov
ex-LJHS, ex-Berkeley, ex-Brown, sorta-ex-CMU
presently: John Jay College Economics
code ape, loud voice, general nuissance
ex-LJHS, ex-Berkeley, ex-Brown, sorta-ex-CMU
presently: John Jay College Economics
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
Notwithstanding the truth of Jerry's rabbit hole observation, I would provisionally be willing to write a packet for and participate in this event.
Ryan Westbrook, no affiliation whatsoever.
I am pure energy...and as ancient as the cosmos. Feeble creatures, GO!
Left here since birth...forgotten in the river of time...I've had an eternity to...ponder the meaning of things...and now I have an answer!
I am pure energy...and as ancient as the cosmos. Feeble creatures, GO!
Left here since birth...forgotten in the river of time...I've had an eternity to...ponder the meaning of things...and now I have an answer!
Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
Definitely in and willing to show that geography can be both well-written and interesting. I might not be able to make it to a mirror site, but I want to at least send in a packet.
Chris C.
Past: UGA/UCSD/Penn
Present: Solano County, CA
Past: UGA/UCSD/Penn
Present: Solano County, CA
- Matt Weiner
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
Would this be strict atlas-style geography, or would it allow Meigs/Meade-style questions that happen to be on places but might include the occasional cultural or historical clue?
Matt Weiner
Advisor to Quizbowl at Virginia Commonwealth University / Founder of hsquizbowl.org
Advisor to Quizbowl at Virginia Commonwealth University / Founder of hsquizbowl.org
Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
I'd play this if it took place at the HSNCT.
Steven Wellstead
Fisher Catholic High School '07
Case Western Reserve University '11
NAQT writer
Fisher Catholic High School '07
Case Western Reserve University '11
NAQT writer
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
As probably the only person on this board who is a Geography major, I'd be willing to write/play.
Steven Hanley
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
If this occured at HSNCT I'd definitely be interested
Aaron Cohen, Bergen County Academies '08, RPI '12, NYU-???, NAQT writer, HSAPQ writer, PACE writer
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
If this was at HSNCT, I would most definitely play without a doubt.
Zach Foster
North Myrtle Beach High School class of 2009
George Mason University class of 2013
North Myrtle Beach High School class of 2009
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
Really? What's that like?MiltonPlayer47 wrote:Geography major.
Greg Peterson
Northwestern University '18
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Maine South HS '07
"a decent player" - Mike Cheyne
Northwestern University '18
Lawrence University '11
Maine South HS '07
"a decent player" - Mike Cheyne
Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
I would love to play in this tournament.
Arnav // Stanford University
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
I would maybe learn things from moderating. But playing would be hilarious because my geography knowledge consists of world capitals plus a little bit of miscellany.
Andrew Watkins
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
This semester I took Cartography and Geography of Latin America. In Cartography I sat at a computer and made maps. In the lecture we learned about the science behind making maps.cornfused wrote:Really? What's that like?MiltonPlayer47 wrote:Geography major.
Geography of Latin America focused on discussing issues that affect that region. We didn't really do anything where we actually had to know where places are located. That seems to be more of an underlying concept that we're expected to be familiar with already. Tomorrow I get to present a powerpoint about the effects of drug production in the Andes.
I also have to take a couple of climatology classes, since I am going for a B.S. Next semester I am taking Satellite Climatology, Computer Programming for G.I.S., and Urban Geography.
Didn't mean to get off track but I thought I should briefly answer the question.
Steven Hanley
FSU (2004-2006)
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
I was a GIS major for two semesters - this should be fun. I'd enjoy playing it.
Dan Goff
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
It will certainly be the latter (as is my own preference). That being said, we're talking about 20-tossup all-geography rounds, so there will be plenty of clue space to delight the most atlas-addicted players out there.Matt Weiner wrote:Would this be strict atlas-style geography, or would it allow Meigs/Meade-style questions that happen to be on places but might include the occasional cultural or historical clue?
I count eight people who've expressed interest, so it sounds like we have enough people to make this work, maybe even as a doubles event, which would reduce the writing burden on individuals.
Sometime in the next couple of days I'll put together a distribution and post it here for discussion.
Jeff Hoppes
President, Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance
former HSQB Chief Admin (2012-13)
VP for Communication and history subject editor, NAQT
Editor emeritus, ACF
"I wish to make some kind of joke about Jeff's love of birds, but I always fear he'll turn them on me Hitchcock-style." -Fred
President, Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance
former HSQB Chief Admin (2012-13)
VP for Communication and history subject editor, NAQT
Editor emeritus, ACF
"I wish to make some kind of joke about Jeff's love of birds, but I always fear he'll turn them on me Hitchcock-style." -Fred
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
I have interest in playing in this tournament. I don't know if I will be at HSNCT, but this is a cool idea.
Brendan Byrne
Drake University, 2006-2008
University of Minnesota, 2008-2010
Drake University, 2006-2008
University of Minnesota, 2008-2010
Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
I would have interest in playing this, but no confidence in my geography writing abilities. As such, I would prefer it to be a doubles event.
Dwight Wynne
socalquizbowl.org
UC Irvine 2008-2013; UCLA 2004-2007; Capistrano Valley High School 2000-2003
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socalquizbowl.org
UC Irvine 2008-2013; UCLA 2004-2007; Capistrano Valley High School 2000-2003
"It's a competition, but it's not a sport. On a scale, if football is a 10, then rowing would be a two. One would be Quiz Bowl." --Matt Birk on rowing, SI On Campus, 10/21/03
"If you were my teammate, I would have tossed your ass out the door so fast you'd be emitting Cerenkov radiation, but I'm not classy like Dwight." --Jerry
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- Yuna
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
I suppose I'll either play this or read for it, since I'll almost certainly make it up for HSNCT.
Bryce Durgin
Culver Academies '07
University of Notre Dame '11
Texas A&M '15
Culver Academies '07
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
I would certainly like to play or read.
Michael Hausinger
Coach, Bay City Western High School
formerly of University of Michigan and East Lansing High School
Coach, Bay City Western High School
formerly of University of Michigan and East Lansing High School
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
I'll assist, and if you'd like it to be at least lightly edited (duplicates, grammar, etc), I'd be happy to do that. I couldn't do anything more in-depth, but if it might still be useful...
Katy
Vanderbilt '06 / Harvard '11 / freelance moderator
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
I would play this.
Evan
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
If it's at HSNCT, I'll read for this.
Greg Peterson
Northwestern University '18
Lawrence University '11
Maine South HS '07
"a decent player" - Mike Cheyne
Northwestern University '18
Lawrence University '11
Maine South HS '07
"a decent player" - Mike Cheyne
Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
I would love to play this, but under the very likely circumstances that I won't be able to do so, I would be interested in serving as the editor of the tournament.
George Stevens
Dorman High School 2008
Clemson University 2012
Dorman High School 2008
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
Jeff,
I just sent you a message on Facebook, but wasn't aware of the existence of this thread. Have you come up with a distribution yet-I'm very curious to see it.
That being said, I'm going to try my darnedest to get some vacation time that would allow me to spend a couple of weeks in California and go to HSNCT, either directly from Kiev or from LA, depending on my work schedule. I would really like to play in this tournament and by that time, I won't have been in the States for ~ 1 year, so my family would probably appreciate me coming and visiting.
I would suggest that this be run after Gaddis (I will recklessly abandon any plans to organize a social event in favor of geography), even considering that Gaddis will probably run until 11 PM. An all night geography marathon would be much more interesting to me than sleep, and I can moderate on little or no sleep on Sunday. Another option would be Friday night, after the scrimmage rounds-this might be slightly more palatable and from my experience, the scrimmage games seem to break up before the scheduled end (10:00, right?) and the field could probably be organized at something like 9, pending NAQT's permission. I don't think all of NAQT's scrimmage moderating contingent will want to play this, so starting at 9 or so would probably not disrupt the scrimmages. I actually do try to do as many scrimmages as I can, and I often find myself released from duty at like 8:30 because there's just more moderators than HS teams that want to scrimmage.
Also, in terms of players: Peter Austin and Kyle Haddad-Fonda, where are you? Go to HSNCT, get your free trip to Chicago, and play this. And even though the tournament would likely end at 2 AM or later, what better practice could you have for NAQT HSNCT, famed for its high geography content, than this tournament, Henry Gorman? I also encourage other interested high school players to play, although I don't know that this could be run at a time that would allow this tournament to get done at anywhere near a reasonable hour of the night, what with Gaddis presumably having the post-HSNCT slot locked up, and given that tournament director's notoriously slow way of running tournaments.
Charles
Also, I'll just add a list of people who expressed interest in this thread:
Players:
Ryan Westbrook (packet)
Jeff Hop-pes (packet)
Charles Meigs (packet)
Chris Chiego (packet)
Steven Wellstead
Steven Hanley (packet)
Aaron Cohen
Zach Foster
Arnav Moudgil
Dan Goff
Brendan Byrne
Dwight Wynne
Michael Hausinger
Bryce Durgin
Evan Nagler (packet, come on)
Moderators:
Andy Watkins
Auroni Gupta
Greg Peterson
Likely (?) Editor:
George Stevens
Copy Editor/Proofreader (?):
Katy Peters
At this point, it looks like you will need to make it a doubles tournament (possibly trios, since this is so preliminary). Given the possibility of a paucity of good geography players, I'd suggest that no superteams be formed. That being said, I will offer my tentative open spot on my team to Dwight, since you don't want to write a packet and since I love you.
I just sent you a message on Facebook, but wasn't aware of the existence of this thread. Have you come up with a distribution yet-I'm very curious to see it.
That being said, I'm going to try my darnedest to get some vacation time that would allow me to spend a couple of weeks in California and go to HSNCT, either directly from Kiev or from LA, depending on my work schedule. I would really like to play in this tournament and by that time, I won't have been in the States for ~ 1 year, so my family would probably appreciate me coming and visiting.
I would suggest that this be run after Gaddis (I will recklessly abandon any plans to organize a social event in favor of geography), even considering that Gaddis will probably run until 11 PM. An all night geography marathon would be much more interesting to me than sleep, and I can moderate on little or no sleep on Sunday. Another option would be Friday night, after the scrimmage rounds-this might be slightly more palatable and from my experience, the scrimmage games seem to break up before the scheduled end (10:00, right?) and the field could probably be organized at something like 9, pending NAQT's permission. I don't think all of NAQT's scrimmage moderating contingent will want to play this, so starting at 9 or so would probably not disrupt the scrimmages. I actually do try to do as many scrimmages as I can, and I often find myself released from duty at like 8:30 because there's just more moderators than HS teams that want to scrimmage.
Also, in terms of players: Peter Austin and Kyle Haddad-Fonda, where are you? Go to HSNCT, get your free trip to Chicago, and play this. And even though the tournament would likely end at 2 AM or later, what better practice could you have for NAQT HSNCT, famed for its high geography content, than this tournament, Henry Gorman? I also encourage other interested high school players to play, although I don't know that this could be run at a time that would allow this tournament to get done at anywhere near a reasonable hour of the night, what with Gaddis presumably having the post-HSNCT slot locked up, and given that tournament director's notoriously slow way of running tournaments.
Charles
Also, I'll just add a list of people who expressed interest in this thread:
Players:
Ryan Westbrook (packet)
Jeff Hop-pes (packet)
Charles Meigs (packet)
Chris Chiego (packet)
Steven Wellstead
Steven Hanley (packet)
Aaron Cohen
Zach Foster
Arnav Moudgil
Dan Goff
Brendan Byrne
Dwight Wynne
Michael Hausinger
Bryce Durgin
Evan Nagler (packet, come on)
Moderators:
Andy Watkins
Auroni Gupta
Greg Peterson
Likely (?) Editor:
George Stevens
Copy Editor/Proofreader (?):
Katy Peters
At this point, it looks like you will need to make it a doubles tournament (possibly trios, since this is so preliminary). Given the possibility of a paucity of good geography players, I'd suggest that no superteams be formed. That being said, I will offer my tentative open spot on my team to Dwight, since you don't want to write a packet and since I love you.
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
Friday night is a lot more likely than late Saturday-into Sunday morning. I think I would enjoy playing the tournament a lot more if I were actually awake, never mind that I would like to moderate coherently and/or search for the Prothonotary Warbler Sunday morning.
The first priority is of course to coordinate with Jonathan so there's no overlap with Gaddis II.
There's enough interest that I fully support people creating doubles teams, or even regular four-player teams as long as we can balance a field. I'm not really worried about superteams, given the proposed extreme difficulty level.
The first priority is of course to coordinate with Jonathan so there's no overlap with Gaddis II.
There's enough interest that I fully support people creating doubles teams, or even regular four-player teams as long as we can balance a field. I'm not really worried about superteams, given the proposed extreme difficulty level.
Jeff Hoppes
President, Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance
former HSQB Chief Admin (2012-13)
VP for Communication and history subject editor, NAQT
Editor emeritus, ACF
"I wish to make some kind of joke about Jeff's love of birds, but I always fear he'll turn them on me Hitchcock-style." -Fred
President, Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance
former HSQB Chief Admin (2012-13)
VP for Communication and history subject editor, NAQT
Editor emeritus, ACF
"I wish to make some kind of joke about Jeff's love of birds, but I always fear he'll turn them on me Hitchcock-style." -Fred
Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
Bring it on, Charles.canaanbananarama wrote:Kyle Haddad-Fonda, where are you?
Kyle Haddad-Fonda
Harvard '09
Oxford '13
Harvard '09
Oxford '13
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
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Re: Interest check: experimental all-geography tournament
Charles, just so you can have an accurate list, I'm thinking that I'm more likely to read than play.
Bryce Durgin
Culver Academies '07
University of Notre Dame '11
Texas A&M '15
Culver Academies '07
University of Notre Dame '11
Texas A&M '15