Venetian (Rules, Format, Set Announcement)

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oriley
Wakka
Posts: 107
Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2020 10:31 am

Venetian (Rules, Format, Set Announcement)

Post by oriley »

This is the rules and format summary for “Venetian,” a buzzer-free format developed for use at UQC tournaments.

General Outline
  • 4 players in a room
  • 20 sets of three bonuses are played (five cycles per player, or fifteen parts each)
  • Each cycle has easy, medium, and hard parts like a normal quizbowl bonus
Category Distribution
  • 4 history
  • 4 literature
  • 4 science
  • 5 modern world (3 pop culture, 1 geography, 1 current events)
  • 5 thought and art (2 fine arts, 1 religion, 1 mythology, 1 philosophy or social science)
  • The two unplayed cycles are used for tiebreakers.
Game Format
Players pick the general category of their bonus—“history” or “modern world” and so forth. Players may not select a specific subcategory like “American history.” Once all of the bonuses in that category have been played, the category may no longer be selected.

Timing is generally 15 seconds: 15 seconds to answer a question, 15 seconds to select a category, and so forth.

The four players in the room will take turns answering questions in the following order through the first four rounds (or 16 questions).
Player 1: 1, 7, 10, 16 (1, 3, 2, 4)
Player 2: 2, 8, 11, 13 (2, 4, 3, 1)
Player 3: 3, 5, 12, 14 (3, 1, 4, 2)
Player 4: 4, 6, 9, 15 (4, 2, 1, 3)

After the fourth round (or question 16), players are ranked from 1-4. Ties are broken by awarding the higher placement to the player in the higher seat. The player in first selects which position in the fifth round they wish to pick and answer in (first, second, third, or fourth). The player in second then repeats the process, though they can’t pick what the player in first already picked. And so on.

After the fifth round, if any players are tied on points, sudden-death tiebreakers will be read to those players.

Mechanics
“Double or nothing.” After the bonus leadin is read to a player, the player will be asked if they wish to go for “double or nothing.” That is, if they 30 the bonus, they get 60 on that bonus. If they do not 30 the bonus, they get no points on that bonus.

Mulligan. A “mulligan” is a do-over. Using a mulligan puts the initial selected bonus back in the pool and allows the player to select another bonus, either from the same category or a different one. Each player has one mulligan at their disposal per game. This can be used during any bonus leadin by saying “mulligan.” The bonus leadin ends when a player indicates whether or not they wish to double. A player may use their mulligan on any player’s bonus, including their own. A player may use their mulligan to undo a mulligan, like the function of stacked reverse cards in Uno.

Feel free to reach out at oriley1201 AT icloud DOT com with questions, clarifications, and concerns. The first set on this format is expected to be completed by March 2023.
Owen Riley
Inver Hills ’23
Northfield coach
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