Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
The University of Ottawa Trivia Club is happy to announce the 2015 iteration of the Ottawa Hybrid Tournament, taking place in the nation's capital on March 14. This is an open tournament; difficulty is mild to medium, as in past years.
The distribution is unchanged from last year:
Academic (11/11)
2/3 or 3/2 Science (1 bio, 1 chem, 1 physics, 1 minor science, 1 your choice)
2/3 or 3/2 Lit (1 Continental Europe, 1 world or ancient, 1 British, 1 Canadian/American, 1 your choice)
2/3 or 3/2 History (1 Continental Europe, 1 “Anglosphere” [Britain/Canada/US/Aus/NZ], 1 World, 1 Ancient, 1 your choice)
1/1 RMP (1 philosophy, 1 religion or myth)
1/1 Fine Art (1 visual, 1 aural)
0/1 or 1/0 Social Sciences
0/1 or 1/0 Geography
0/1 or 1/0 Current academic events
Trash (11/11)
2/2 Sports (3 of American football, ice hockey, baseball, basketball, 1 other)
2/2 Movies
2/2 TV
2/2 Music (maximum of 1/0 or 0/1 pre-dating 1980)
1/1 Video games
1/1 Trash lit (genre literature, comic books, comic strips, popular fiction)
0/1 or 1/0 Other (internet, commercials, products, stores, board games, general pop culture, etc.)
0/1 or 1/0 Trash Current Events (Baby bumps, Taylor Swift songs about the metric ton of people she has broken up with, etc.)
The packet submission schedule is as follows:
$-50 deadline: January 4, 2015
$-25 deadline: January 18, 2015
No penalty deadline: February 1, 2015
$+25 deadline: February 15, 2015
$+50 deadline: February 22, 2015
Beyond the last deadline is an additional $10 per day and requires permission from the editing team.
Packets should be formatted according to the ACF formatting guidelines; we can provide a sample pack from previous years upon request. We reserve the right to send back packets that have the wrong number of questions (i.e. don't follow the distribution properly) or for egregiously bad formatting.
Packet submissions are to be sent to Brendan McKendy at brendan.mckendy AT gmail.com
Any folks interested in holding a mirror should contact Brendan McKendy at brendan.mckendy AT gmail.com
Mirror fees are $15 per team, or $10 per team if someone at your site wrote us a pack.
The discount schedule we will be using in Ottawa is the following:
$120 base fee
-$10 buzzer discount
-$15 staffer discount
-$10 distance discount (over 200 km one way)
-$5 best packet submission, as chosen by the editing team
The distribution is unchanged from last year:
Academic (11/11)
2/3 or 3/2 Science (1 bio, 1 chem, 1 physics, 1 minor science, 1 your choice)
2/3 or 3/2 Lit (1 Continental Europe, 1 world or ancient, 1 British, 1 Canadian/American, 1 your choice)
2/3 or 3/2 History (1 Continental Europe, 1 “Anglosphere” [Britain/Canada/US/Aus/NZ], 1 World, 1 Ancient, 1 your choice)
1/1 RMP (1 philosophy, 1 religion or myth)
1/1 Fine Art (1 visual, 1 aural)
0/1 or 1/0 Social Sciences
0/1 or 1/0 Geography
0/1 or 1/0 Current academic events
Trash (11/11)
2/2 Sports (3 of American football, ice hockey, baseball, basketball, 1 other)
2/2 Movies
2/2 TV
2/2 Music (maximum of 1/0 or 0/1 pre-dating 1980)
1/1 Video games
1/1 Trash lit (genre literature, comic books, comic strips, popular fiction)
0/1 or 1/0 Other (internet, commercials, products, stores, board games, general pop culture, etc.)
0/1 or 1/0 Trash Current Events (Baby bumps, Taylor Swift songs about the metric ton of people she has broken up with, etc.)
The packet submission schedule is as follows:
$-50 deadline: January 4, 2015
$-25 deadline: January 18, 2015
No penalty deadline: February 1, 2015
$+25 deadline: February 15, 2015
$+50 deadline: February 22, 2015
Beyond the last deadline is an additional $10 per day and requires permission from the editing team.
Packets should be formatted according to the ACF formatting guidelines; we can provide a sample pack from previous years upon request. We reserve the right to send back packets that have the wrong number of questions (i.e. don't follow the distribution properly) or for egregiously bad formatting.
Packet submissions are to be sent to Brendan McKendy at brendan.mckendy AT gmail.com
Any folks interested in holding a mirror should contact Brendan McKendy at brendan.mckendy AT gmail.com
Mirror fees are $15 per team, or $10 per team if someone at your site wrote us a pack.
The discount schedule we will be using in Ottawa is the following:
$120 base fee
-$10 buzzer discount
-$15 staffer discount
-$10 distance discount (over 200 km one way)
-$5 best packet submission, as chosen by the editing team
Dennis Beeby
Waterloo Collegiate Institute, 2011
University of Ottawa, 2016
Queen's University, 2017, 2019
Waterloo Collegiate Institute, 2011
University of Ottawa, 2016
Queen's University, 2017, 2019
- Masked Canadian History Bandit
- Rikku
- Posts: 443
- Joined: Tue Nov 10, 2009 11:43 pm
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
I will be playing this. I will write questions. I am looking for teammates who preferably will be able to answer science and trash questions.
Patrick Liao
Lisgar Collegiate Institute 2011, University of Pennsylvania 2015, University of Toronto Faculty of Law 2019
Lisgar Collegiate Institute 2011, University of Pennsylvania 2015, University of Toronto Faculty of Law 2019
- naan/steak-holding toll
- Auron
- Posts: 2516
- Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2011 11:53 pm
- Location: New York, NY
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
Why does this have to be when we have exams
I'd be up for writing a packet with someone who wants to submit for this and playing any and all mirrors.
I'd be up for writing a packet with someone who wants to submit for this and playing any and all mirrors.
Will Alston
Dartmouth College '16
Columbia Business School '21
Dartmouth College '16
Columbia Business School '21
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
Journalism! Trash lit is kind of a narrow answer space, but you should absolutely stretch it to include some non-fiction. Write about famous magazines or famous websites with articles.cruzeiro wrote:1/1 Trash lit (genre literature, comic books, comic strips, popular fiction)
The sample pack is here. Just use that file as a template and Dennis will spare you from his wrath.cruzeiro wrote:Packets should be formatted according to the ACF formatting guidelines; we can provide a sample pack from previous years upon request.
Brendan McKendy
University of Ottawa 2011
University of Ottawa 2011
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
Just a reminder (as a fellow competitor) that the -$50 deadline is tomorrow. May want to get your packets in, as last year demand came close to completely filling (or overflowing) the field.
Jordan Palmer, Nick Penner's Hero.
Pass by, and curse thy fill, but pass and stay not here thy gait.
Pass by, and curse thy fill, but pass and stay not here thy gait.
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
RECEIVED
-50: Colonel By, Toronto, "Waterloo A"
-25:
0: McMaster A, Huma's team
+25: Waterloo B, Carleton A
+50: McMaster B, MSU, Ottawa, Carleton B (with Patrick)
-50: Colonel By, Toronto, "Waterloo A"
-25:
0: McMaster A, Huma's team
+25: Waterloo B, Carleton A
+50: McMaster B, MSU, Ottawa, Carleton B (with Patrick)
Last edited by bmcke on Mon Mar 02, 2015 3:48 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Brendan McKendy
University of Ottawa 2011
University of Ottawa 2011
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
Hell no. That team (consisting of Aayush R., Aaron D.R., Christine I., and myself) is "TURN DOWN FOR WHATERLOO." Nothing else will do in addressing this glorious team.bmcke wrote: "Waterloo A"
Jordan Palmer, Nick Penner's Hero.
Pass by, and curse thy fill, but pass and stay not here thy gait.
Pass by, and curse thy fill, but pass and stay not here thy gait.
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
Unlike Pablo Neruda, that night I could not write the saddest lineminusfive wrote:Hell no. That team (consisting of Aayush R., Aaron D.R., Christine I., and myself) is "TURN DOWN FOR WHATERLOO." Nothing else will do in addressing this glorious team.bmcke wrote: "Waterloo A"
Aaron Dos Remedios
Formerly of the Waterloo School of Abstruse Canadian Inside Jokes (University of Waterloo)
Formerly of the Waterloo School of Abstruse Canadian Inside Jokes (University of Waterloo)
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
I assume there are teams still writing out there. Who are you? It'd be good to get a sense of numbers...
Jordan Palmer, Nick Penner's Hero.
Pass by, and curse thy fill, but pass and stay not here thy gait.
Pass by, and curse thy fill, but pass and stay not here thy gait.
- TheRhymeMinister
- Wakka
- Posts: 133
- Joined: Tue Oct 08, 2013 7:01 pm
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
Carleton is working on two packets, both which should hopefully be done next week.
The Nick Penner
Waterloo Collegiate Institute '10
Carleton University '15
Waterloo Collegiate Institute '10
Carleton University '15
- naan/steak-holding toll
- Auron
- Posts: 2516
- Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2011 11:53 pm
- Location: New York, NY
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
Since it appears my only final exam is on March 16th, I'm planning on being a model of responsibility and coming to this tournament. Expect a packet from Dartmouth within a week or so.
Last edited by naan/steak-holding toll on Mon Feb 16, 2015 7:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Will Alston
Dartmouth College '16
Columbia Business School '21
Dartmouth College '16
Columbia Business School '21
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
Any received this weekend?bmcke wrote:RECEIVED
-50: Colonel By, Toronto, "Waterloo A"
-25:
0: McMaster A, Huma's team
Jordan Palmer, Nick Penner's Hero.
Pass by, and curse thy fill, but pass and stay not here thy gait.
Pass by, and curse thy fill, but pass and stay not here thy gait.
- Mightyrodrigo
- Lulu
- Posts: 22
- Joined: Sun Jul 10, 2011 9:09 pm
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
Only Waterloo B submitted one. Other teams are encouraged to submit as soon as possible.minusfive wrote:Any received this weekend?bmcke wrote:RECEIVED
-50: Colonel By, Toronto, "Waterloo A"
-25:
0: McMaster A, Huma's team
Rodrigo Morante
Earl Of March Secondary School '12
University of Ottawa '16
Earl Of March Secondary School '12
University of Ottawa '16
- Deepika Goes From Ranbir To Ranveer
- Rikku
- Posts: 301
- Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2012 2:42 pm
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
So all 3 "Waterloo" packets should be in by now (Team JP+Waterloo people, Team Adam Swift+Waterloo people (Huma's team) and Team Pure Waterloo).
That's all you're getting from us, see you at the tournament!
That's all you're getting from us, see you at the tournament!
Aayush Rajasekaran (he/him or she/her)
University of Waterloo, 2016
University of Waterloo, 2018
University of Waterloo, 2016
University of Waterloo, 2018
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
Let's cap this tournament at 13 teams, since that's all we have space for.
UPDATED: We have received packets from 9 teams, and we've heard interest from 3 others -- Carleton B (with Patrick), an Ottawa team, and America's Will Alston. If any other teams were hoping to submit and play this thing in Ottawa, it will probably only work if their packet requires very little editing.
UPDATED: We have received packets from 9 teams, and we've heard interest from 3 others -- Carleton B (with Patrick), an Ottawa team, and America's Will Alston. If any other teams were hoping to submit and play this thing in Ottawa, it will probably only work if their packet requires very little editing.
Last edited by bmcke on Mon Feb 23, 2015 11:26 am, edited 2 times in total.
Brendan McKendy
University of Ottawa 2011
University of Ottawa 2011
- naan/steak-holding toll
- Auron
- Posts: 2516
- Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2011 11:53 pm
- Location: New York, NY
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
Our packet is about 1/3 of the way there. I'll try to get it done this week; my exams have gotten in the way and I apologize.
EDIT: Unless we come up with a good team name, I highly encourage the Canadians to give us one. The only requirement is that the name has to do with the USA somehow.
EDIT: Unless we come up with a good team name, I highly encourage the Canadians to give us one. The only requirement is that the name has to do with the USA somehow.
Will Alston
Dartmouth College '16
Columbia Business School '21
Dartmouth College '16
Columbia Business School '21
- Mightyrodrigo
- Lulu
- Posts: 22
- Joined: Sun Jul 10, 2011 9:09 pm
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
We are at the ugly number of 12 teams, any awesome 13th team we haven't heard from?
Rodrigo Morante
Earl Of March Secondary School '12
University of Ottawa '16
Earl Of March Secondary School '12
University of Ottawa '16
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
Just a couple of questions:
1) Since it was raised, what is the format of the tournament going to be? Full round robin, followed by playoffs, or something a little more innovative?
2)
1) Since it was raised, what is the format of the tournament going to be? Full round robin, followed by playoffs, or something a little more innovative?
2)
Is this still true? With less than 2 weeks to go, you've only listed 9 packets.Mightyrodrigo wrote:We are at the ugly number of 12 teams, any awesome 13th team we haven't heard from?
Jordan Palmer, Nick Penner's Hero.
Pass by, and curse thy fill, but pass and stay not here thy gait.
Pass by, and curse thy fill, but pass and stay not here thy gait.
- Mightyrodrigo
- Lulu
- Posts: 22
- Joined: Sun Jul 10, 2011 9:09 pm
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
We've received a pack from uOttawa's home team and one from Patrick's team, we are at 11 packets.minusfive wrote:Just a couple of questions:
1) Since it was raised, what is the format of the tournament going to be? Full round robin, followed by playoffs, or something a little more innovative?
2)Is this still true? With less than 2 weeks to go, you've only listed 9 packets.Mightyrodrigo wrote:We are at the ugly number of 12 teams, any awesome 13th team we haven't heard from?
Rodrigo Morante
Earl Of March Secondary School '12
University of Ottawa '16
Earl Of March Secondary School '12
University of Ottawa '16
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
Update: We have 11 teams submitting + 3 editor packets. The plan now is to do an 11-team round-robin, plus finals.
Update: Also, some portion of the science is being written/edited by me and is likely to be of very poor quality. We hope you don't mind this.
Update: Also, some portion of the science is being written/edited by me and is likely to be of very poor quality. We hope you don't mind this.
Brendan McKendy
University of Ottawa 2011
University of Ottawa 2011
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
Could we please have a logistical update on this? (i.e. where and when to meet this Saturday)
Ted (Ze Feng) Gan
The Pennsylvania State University, 2025
The Pennsylvania State University, 2021
Carleton University, 2019
Colonel By Secondary School, 2015
Former Executive Member of the Ontario Quizbowl Association (ONQBA), 2015-16
Former NAQT Writer, 2013-2016
The Pennsylvania State University, 2025
The Pennsylvania State University, 2021
Carleton University, 2019
Colonel By Secondary School, 2015
Former Executive Member of the Ontario Quizbowl Association (ONQBA), 2015-16
Former NAQT Writer, 2013-2016
- Deepika Goes From Ranbir To Ranveer
- Rikku
- Posts: 301
- Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2012 2:42 pm
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
How was this post *not* made by Jordan Palmer?!Theodore wrote:Could we please have a logistical update on this? (i.e. where and when to meet this Saturday)
Aayush Rajasekaran (he/him or she/her)
University of Waterloo, 2016
University of Waterloo, 2018
University of Waterloo, 2016
University of Waterloo, 2018
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
Please meet in Lamoureux 215 for 8:30 AM, games beginning at 9:00 AM. A full logistics email will follow later this evening.Theodore wrote:Could we please have a logistical update on this? (i.e. where and when to meet this Saturday)
Dennis Beeby
Waterloo Collegiate Institute, 2011
University of Ottawa, 2016
Queen's University, 2017, 2019
Waterloo Collegiate Institute, 2011
University of Ottawa, 2016
Queen's University, 2017, 2019
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
The Jordan Palmer Superteam beat Toronto in the first game of an advantaged final to win undefeated.
For those of you who wish to do so, message me for any team names. I will update with this in a couple of days in one fell swoop.
STATS: http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/2651
For those of you who wish to do so, message me for any team names. I will update with this in a couple of days in one fell swoop.
STATS: http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/2651
Dennis Beeby
Waterloo Collegiate Institute, 2011
University of Ottawa, 2016
Queen's University, 2017, 2019
Waterloo Collegiate Institute, 2011
University of Ottawa, 2016
Queen's University, 2017, 2019
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
A very enjoyable day!!! I want to thank Head Editor Brendan and all the subject matter experts (really cool questions, even if sometimes your biases showed---looking at your soccer questions, one-who-shall-not-be named!) for a great set, Shelby and Dennis for running a smooth and buffet-compatible tournament (even though the "unlimited bacon" today was only "unlimited Canadian bacon"), and to all the readers and scorekeepers.
Thank you to some very tough competition (especially Toronto's "I'm in love with the Cocos[?]", MSU, great competitiors, great guys, and Colonel By, who really gave us a scare) and fun/neat people to hang out and play against.
Thanks to my teammates, Aayush, Christine, and Aaron! Champs guys champs.
All in all, a (pretty) perfect day.
Thank you to some very tough competition (especially Toronto's "I'm in love with the Cocos[?]", MSU, great competitiors, great guys, and Colonel By, who really gave us a scare) and fun/neat people to hang out and play against.
Thanks to my teammates, Aayush, Christine, and Aaron! Champs guys champs.
All in all, a (pretty) perfect day.
Jordan Palmer, Nick Penner's Hero.
Pass by, and curse thy fill, but pass and stay not here thy gait.
Pass by, and curse thy fill, but pass and stay not here thy gait.
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
Credits and Thank-Yous
- I wrote or did a full edit on about half the tossups in this set, and on a significantly smaller fraction of the bonuses.
- Rodrigo Morante did the next-most work after me, probably followed by Ian Dewan. Rodrigo was particularly dedicated and reliable on this project. He wrote most of the Ottawa team's round by himself.
- Dennis Beeby, Chris Johnston, Aaron Kozak, Shelby Robert, Ben Smith, and Joe Su all wrote and edited a lot of questions for this tournament.
- Joe packetized the whole tournament. He stayed up very late for this.
- Dennis and Shelby directed the tournament. They are very good directors by now. Many Ottawa people staffed this tournament -- I'll single out Colleen Grieve for scorekeeping my room and getting me to calm down a bit.
- The submissions we received this year were quite good -- certainly improved from the other Hybrids I've worked on. Connor Teevens and especially Patrick Liao were very earnest about doing a good job on their submissions. The Colonel By team sent a very good pack for the earliest deadline.
- Leslie Newcombe and Jordan Palmer both complimented some questions at some point yesterday. That meant a lot.
Apologies
- There were a lot of typos and non-sentences, and a few factual errors, in this tournament. This is mostly my fault for bad planning / management. It also punished the other moderators more than me, because they couldn't really fix my errors as they were reading. We absolutely should have done read-alouds on Friday instead of spending time touching up trash bonuses.
- There were some bad-idea tossups and hoses in this set, and there were some misplaced early clues in tossups. I'd like to think we minimized that, but we let a lot more through than we should have. This might have happened disproportionately in my own tossups.
- There were a lot of my questions where I should have the answer-lines more generous.
- I made an effort, for diversity or whatever, to ask trash questions about some famous things that are mostly famous to other kinds of people than quizbowlers. Those questions disproportionately went dead. I still don't totally regret those questions, but it would have been better to write stuff that the audience could buzz on.
Rants
- Teams were really hostile, throughout the day, about difficulty of some trash questions. I don't think this was fair. As far as I could tell, the trash was still easier than the academic side of the tournament. This tournament was more difficult and lower-scoring than I intended, but at about 213 PPG/team, it was not much lower-scoring than Ottawa's last mirror of ACF Fall.
- The sub-distributions were skewed a little by the editors' interests, but they mostly followed along the lines of what people submitted questions about. We made a pretty real effort to preserve the answer-lines or topics from the questions that teams sent to us.
- People often asked why we changed their questions. Sometimes if people asked nicely, it opened an actual dialogue and I was glad to talk about it. Other times it seemed like people were whining at me for doing my job as an editor.
- People obviously should be allowed to evaluate this kind of project, but I took it personally when I heard some players make really routine complaints about whatever questions they missed. I think most of the complaints I heard weren't actually made about the bad questions in the set -- they were just made by whoever was losing in a given round.
Plans
- VCU isn't mirroring this, but I'm still hoping some American sites will mirror. This means that the question content is not public. People can use this thread to discuss the questions in general terms.
- Teams that played yesterday can contact me for the set we played yesterday, or they can wait a while and contact me for a version with the mistakes fixed. Players can also contact me with queries like "Why did you change X question?" -- I promise to be nice about that kind of thing.
- Hosts interested in mirroring this can contact me to look over the set for themselves. (I realize that people might want to check the quality before they decide if this is worth hosting.)
Notes
- For a project like this, much more effort goes into making good academic questions, but players pay much more attention to the trash questions, for really understandable reasons. I kind of wonder if the nature of doing a Hybrid tournament is that most players show up to hear trash and then they don't get what they want half the time.
- I don't plan to do much writing or editing for future tournaments. I mostly think there shouldn't be a 2016 Ottawa Hybrid Tournament, or if there is, it should have a team of 10 or so experienced editors with very clear category assignments.
I am really grateful that so many people made questions for this event and traveled long distances to play in it.
- I wrote or did a full edit on about half the tossups in this set, and on a significantly smaller fraction of the bonuses.
- Rodrigo Morante did the next-most work after me, probably followed by Ian Dewan. Rodrigo was particularly dedicated and reliable on this project. He wrote most of the Ottawa team's round by himself.
- Dennis Beeby, Chris Johnston, Aaron Kozak, Shelby Robert, Ben Smith, and Joe Su all wrote and edited a lot of questions for this tournament.
- Joe packetized the whole tournament. He stayed up very late for this.
- Dennis and Shelby directed the tournament. They are very good directors by now. Many Ottawa people staffed this tournament -- I'll single out Colleen Grieve for scorekeeping my room and getting me to calm down a bit.
- The submissions we received this year were quite good -- certainly improved from the other Hybrids I've worked on. Connor Teevens and especially Patrick Liao were very earnest about doing a good job on their submissions. The Colonel By team sent a very good pack for the earliest deadline.
- Leslie Newcombe and Jordan Palmer both complimented some questions at some point yesterday. That meant a lot.
Apologies
- There were a lot of typos and non-sentences, and a few factual errors, in this tournament. This is mostly my fault for bad planning / management. It also punished the other moderators more than me, because they couldn't really fix my errors as they were reading. We absolutely should have done read-alouds on Friday instead of spending time touching up trash bonuses.
- There were some bad-idea tossups and hoses in this set, and there were some misplaced early clues in tossups. I'd like to think we minimized that, but we let a lot more through than we should have. This might have happened disproportionately in my own tossups.
- There were a lot of my questions where I should have the answer-lines more generous.
- I made an effort, for diversity or whatever, to ask trash questions about some famous things that are mostly famous to other kinds of people than quizbowlers. Those questions disproportionately went dead. I still don't totally regret those questions, but it would have been better to write stuff that the audience could buzz on.
Rants
- Teams were really hostile, throughout the day, about difficulty of some trash questions. I don't think this was fair. As far as I could tell, the trash was still easier than the academic side of the tournament. This tournament was more difficult and lower-scoring than I intended, but at about 213 PPG/team, it was not much lower-scoring than Ottawa's last mirror of ACF Fall.
- The sub-distributions were skewed a little by the editors' interests, but they mostly followed along the lines of what people submitted questions about. We made a pretty real effort to preserve the answer-lines or topics from the questions that teams sent to us.
- People often asked why we changed their questions. Sometimes if people asked nicely, it opened an actual dialogue and I was glad to talk about it. Other times it seemed like people were whining at me for doing my job as an editor.
- People obviously should be allowed to evaluate this kind of project, but I took it personally when I heard some players make really routine complaints about whatever questions they missed. I think most of the complaints I heard weren't actually made about the bad questions in the set -- they were just made by whoever was losing in a given round.
Plans
- VCU isn't mirroring this, but I'm still hoping some American sites will mirror. This means that the question content is not public. People can use this thread to discuss the questions in general terms.
- Teams that played yesterday can contact me for the set we played yesterday, or they can wait a while and contact me for a version with the mistakes fixed. Players can also contact me with queries like "Why did you change X question?" -- I promise to be nice about that kind of thing.
- Hosts interested in mirroring this can contact me to look over the set for themselves. (I realize that people might want to check the quality before they decide if this is worth hosting.)
Notes
- For a project like this, much more effort goes into making good academic questions, but players pay much more attention to the trash questions, for really understandable reasons. I kind of wonder if the nature of doing a Hybrid tournament is that most players show up to hear trash and then they don't get what they want half the time.
- I don't plan to do much writing or editing for future tournaments. I mostly think there shouldn't be a 2016 Ottawa Hybrid Tournament, or if there is, it should have a team of 10 or so experienced editors with very clear category assignments.
I am really grateful that so many people made questions for this event and traveled long distances to play in it.
Brendan McKendy
University of Ottawa 2011
University of Ottawa 2011
- Arch Stanton
- Lulu
- Posts: 25
- Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2013 2:07 pm
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
Hey guys, thanks for editing/running this tournament! We had a really good time, and I definitely consider the tournament well worth the somewhat lengthy drive from East Lansing to Ottawa.
A few thoughts:
Logistically, this tournament ran quite well. I believe that we were done before 5, and all the games we played ran quite smoothly.
There were a pretty large amount of typos and grammatical errors throughout this set; hopefully, this can be corrected prior to future mirrors.
It seems pretty clear that the difficulty for this tournament was really all over the place. I think the blame for this lies both with the uneven editing and the submissions themselves. Difficulty variance is unavoidable in a tournament with a large trash distribution; when it comes to trash, it’s often hard to estimate what’s well known by a lot of people as opposed to what you as an individual know a lot about. I totally understand that editors are in a bit of a lose-lose situation when faced with submissions that are full of obscure, difficult trash answer lines on niche subjects. Get rid of the questions entirely, and the writers complain that you cut their pet question. Keep them, and players complain about the difficulty. I would say that it's probably better to err on the side of removing questions that seem too difficult. I’d also say it’s incumbent on the writers of trash questions to try and balance out writing on your particular interests with writing questions that a reasonable percentage of the field can answer. With this tournament, I definitely think the distribution swayed too much towards the latter.
Again, MSU had a really good time at this tournament. If future iterations of Ottawa Hybrid happen, and our schedules permit, we will definitely make the trip up.
A few thoughts:
Logistically, this tournament ran quite well. I believe that we were done before 5, and all the games we played ran quite smoothly.
There were a pretty large amount of typos and grammatical errors throughout this set; hopefully, this can be corrected prior to future mirrors.
It seems pretty clear that the difficulty for this tournament was really all over the place. I think the blame for this lies both with the uneven editing and the submissions themselves. Difficulty variance is unavoidable in a tournament with a large trash distribution; when it comes to trash, it’s often hard to estimate what’s well known by a lot of people as opposed to what you as an individual know a lot about. I totally understand that editors are in a bit of a lose-lose situation when faced with submissions that are full of obscure, difficult trash answer lines on niche subjects. Get rid of the questions entirely, and the writers complain that you cut their pet question. Keep them, and players complain about the difficulty. I would say that it's probably better to err on the side of removing questions that seem too difficult. I’d also say it’s incumbent on the writers of trash questions to try and balance out writing on your particular interests with writing questions that a reasonable percentage of the field can answer. With this tournament, I definitely think the distribution swayed too much towards the latter.
Again, MSU had a really good time at this tournament. If future iterations of Ottawa Hybrid happen, and our schedules permit, we will definitely make the trip up.
Dillon Edwards
ex-MSU
ex-MSU
- Mightyrodrigo
- Lulu
- Posts: 22
- Joined: Sun Jul 10, 2011 9:09 pm
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
Thanks to everybody that came out to the tournament! I had a lot of fun in my first experience editing. Shout-out to all the editors, but in particular Brendan. I learnt a lot from Brendan and without him this tournament wouldn't have happened.
There were some kinks and errors in the tournament, but they will be fixed for any potential mirrors. Any constructive criticism is encouraged
There were some kinks and errors in the tournament, but they will be fixed for any potential mirrors. Any constructive criticism is encouraged
Rodrigo Morante
Earl Of March Secondary School '12
University of Ottawa '16
Earl Of March Secondary School '12
University of Ottawa '16
- TheRhymeMinister
- Wakka
- Posts: 133
- Joined: Tue Oct 08, 2013 7:01 pm
Re: Announcement - 2015 Ottawa Hybrid - March 14, 2015
On behalf of Carleton, a big thanks to everyone at uOttawa who helped write/put on this tournament. We all had lots of fun and a great day!
The Nick Penner
Waterloo Collegiate Institute '10
Carleton University '15
Waterloo Collegiate Institute '10
Carleton University '15