2018 Sun God History Questions

[naan/steak-holding toll]

Over the past few days, I've heard of a number of miscellaneous complaints about the history through second-hand sources. A couple of specific ones were discussed in the main specific question thread and I've already copped to one massive fuck-up there. Frustratingly, however, few people have made an attempt to articulate exactly what the problem with the overall history distribution was. I've heard complaints about "Will Alston flavor" or "player unfriendliness" or "tough powers." I'm not precisely sure how the former manifested itself in questions, as I think other people would inherently provide better perspective on that than I would, but as for the latter two, we know from stats that this set had about a 19% power rate and a 23% neg rate for the first mirror, which doesn't seem particularly anomalous to me. For history, the subcategory power rates ranged from 20% to 25% and the neg rates ranged from 20% to 30%, both of which are somewhat higher than the same rates for the overall tournament. Anecdotally, I saw lots of strong buzzes for power at both the online playtest mirror and at JHU - maybe those weren't happening at UIUC, but then again the statistics tell us otherwise.

I'll say this right now: aside from whatever work I do on next year's EFT, I do not intend to head edit any other tournaments going forward, and will likely stay away from any history editing roles for any housewrites. Nonetheless, I'd like to answer these questions for the purpose of advancing community discussion, and hopefully helping others learn from my mistakes:

1) What made this set's history questions player unfriendly?
2) If you thought the history questions were hard to power, what made you have this subjective impression?
3) What, if anything in particular, made these questions distinctive?

[naan/steak-holding toll]

The following questions were negged in more than one-third of games (not counting finals packets):

Turkey - 45% neg rate

5. This country’s long-term GAP development program, which targets its southeastern regions, contributed to fiscal problems that caused the Guinness Book of World Records to label its currency the world’s least valuable currency from 1995 to 2004. With its western neighbor, this country engaged in “earthquake diplomacy” after a pair of devastating earthquakes in 1999. Its military carried out a “coup by memorandum” in 1971 and two more coups in (*) 1960 and 1980, and it also plotted the “Sledgehammer” coup when the mayor of its largest city was elected president in 2003. This country’s oldest living party, the Republican People’s Party, still uses the “Six Arrows” symbol created by its founder, whose lieutenant İsmet İnönü (“eese-MET ee-nuh-NEW”) served his last term as Prime Minister in the 1960s. For 10 points, name this country where a Kemalist military coup took place in 2016.
ANSWER: Turkey [or Republic of Turkey; or Türkiye Cumhuriyeti]
<World History, WA>

Cuba - 41% neg rate

20. This country purchased over a million Chinese bicycles as part of a five-year trade agreement that it signed in 1991. It’s not France, but the Chilean ambassador to this country, Jorge Edwards, was declared persona non grata despite Salvador Allende’s attempt to thaw relations. In 1993, this country began to take the dollar as legal tender after a collapse in foreign aid led to a crisis called the “Special Period.” It sent troops to support (*) Mozambique’s FRELIMO and Angola’s MPLA in their respective struggles. In 2000, this country became the northernmost member of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas. Weapons were taken out of this country in exchange for American removal of Jupiter missiles from Turkey. For 10 points, name this country that asked the Soviets deploy missiles in 1961.
ANSWER: Cuba [or Republic of Cuba; accept Cuban Missile Crisis]
<World History, WA>

Yoruba - 50% neg rate

17. This ethnic group’s oldest city is called the “place of dispersion,” since they claim to have originated there after two gods created them. A ruler called an alafin led these people’s greatest empire, whose cavalry forces established supremacy over the nearby Nupe (“NOO-pay”) kingdom. Portuguese sailors named this people’s city of Eko after nearby lakes. They extracted tribute from Dahomey (“duh-HO-mee”) until the collapse of their (*) Oyo empire, which prompted them to found such cities as Ibadan in the chaos after the Fulani jihad. Enslaved people from this ethnic group brought traditions of divination called ifá (“ee-FAH”) and the worship of Olodumare and various orishas to the New World, creating many new religious traditions such as voodoo. For 10 points, name this dominant ethnic group of southwestern Nigeria.
ANSWER: Yoruba (“YO-roo-bah”) people [or Yoruban people/culture]
<World History, WA>

I saw at least one neg with "Igbo"

Winston Churchill - 45% neg rate

17. When visiting his friend Bernard Baruch during Prohibition, this man was hit by a car and secured a doctor’s note that he should drink alcohol to help his concussion. This politician claimed that he “never received the President without at least a bath towel” to dismiss a rumor that he walked around naked in the White House. He likened a political rival to “one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will feed him last.” An apocryphal story holds that, when this man was told “Sir, you are very drunk!” in the (*) street, he replied “You are very ugly. I will be sober in the morning, but you will still be ugly.” A speech by this politician coined the term “special relationship” to describe US–UK relations. Another of his speeches mentioned a barrier “from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic.” For 10 points, name this Prime Minister who gave the Iron Curtain speech.
ANSWER: Winston Churchill
<British/CW History, EL>

There were some number of negs with "LBJ" on this tossup

Ionian Revolt - 41% neg rate

16. A message that encouraged an ally to start this conflict was written on a slave’s head, then concealed by the slave’s hair growing back. Though none of its battles were at Thermopylae, this conflict included a clash in which Kurian defections enabled Artybius to win a victory; that Battle of Salamis took place during a phase of this war brought about by Onesilus in Cyprus. This conflict resulted in part from the rivalry between a tyrant and the archon Histiaeus (“hiss-tee-EYE-us”). Its first major action was the burning of (*) Sardis, the capital of the satrap Artaphernes (“ar-tuh-FER-neez”), who joined this conflict’s instigator in a failed power play to take Naxos. Aristagoras (“air-uh-STAG-or-us”) started this conflict, which ended with the sack of his city of Miletus. Athens antagonized the Persian empire by backing, for 10 points, what revolt against Darius I in western Anatolia?

For what it's worth, the first and sentences have been swapped for future mirrors

floods - 36% neg rate

3. In 1996, a thesis concerning a hypothetical one of these phenomena was published by Walter Pitman and William Ryan in the New York Times. A time period named for these phenomena occurred before the “Season of Emergence” and after five intercalary days. A notable one of these phenomena mentioned in the Sumerian king list occurs during the reign of king Ziusudra (“zee-oo-SOO-drah”). In the Roman era, these phenomena were predicted with the assistance of large pillars at (*) Elephantine, enabling accurate calibration of the akhet (“AH-khet”) on the calendar. Amenemhat III executed a massive project in the Faiyum depression to control these phenomena, which were widely associated with the annual rebirth of Osiris. The culture hero Utnapishtim survived an example of, for 10 points, what events that occurred annually on the Nile River?

There were at least four negs with "solar eclipse" on this question around the clues about predicting - I'm not super sympathetic because that's far from the only phenomenon that ancient people tried to predict

Sumatra - 50% neg rate

14. When he stopped on this island to study languages, the monk Yijing made records of what he called the “Kunlun peoples.” A Muslim explorer is honored on this island by the Cheng Ho (“jung huh”) Mosque. It’s not Sri Lanka, but the Sulalatus Salatin records how the kingdom of Pannai on this island was a vassal of the Chola empire when the latter was at the height of its thalassocratic (“THAL-uh-socratic”) power. The city of Palembang on this island was the seat of power of the (*) Srivijaya (“SHREE-vee-JAH-yah”) empire. Controlling a strategically important passage between this member of the Greater Sunda islands and the mainland motivated Stamford Raffles to found a settlement. The Sultanate of Malacca controlled the straits between Asia and, for 10 points, what westernmost major island of Indonesia?
ANSWER: Sumatra [or Sumatera]
<World History, WA>

I'm assuming a bunch of people negged with Java

illegal immigrants - 48% neg rate (this tossup was perhaps a bit sketchier than others, but I'm pretty sure the clues were unique)

5. Note to moderator: Read the answerline to this question carefully. Mae Ngai traced the historical origins of this group as a function of government policy in the book Impossible Subjects, which profiles a “confession program” that misled thousands of them. Many of these people were airlifted from Midway in a program implemented by Joseph Swing and Herbert Brownell under Dwight Eisenhower. These people had to demonstrate “good moral character” and pay fines to receive benefits from the Simpson–Mazzoli Act of (*) 1986. This category of people did not exist prior to the 1875 Page Act and was greatly expanded by the 1924 Johnson–Reed Act. These people could not be distinguished from proper participants in the bracero program, leading to many civil rights violations in Operation W3tb@ck, which targeted them. For 10 points, identify these people who move to the US without requisite documentation.
ANSWER: illegal immigrants [or illegal aliens; accept undocumented immigrants or undocumented aliens until “documentation”; prompt on immigrants or migrants or aliens or Mexicans or Hispanics or Chinese or any combination of those words, and accept any of those answers if the words illegal or undocumented or logical equivalents are also provided; accept answers that refer to people “not being allowed to move to America” until the phrase “move to the US” is read]

Venice - 45% neg rate

6. A pair of brothers born in this city became martyrs after they were shot in 1844 for attempting to lead a mutiny aboard an Austrian ship. Defenders of this city, who were reinforced by the defeated General Pepe, were subjected to the world’s first bombing campaign conducted by unmanned balloons. Rebels in this city forced Count Pallfy to grant them a civic guard and release their leader Daniele Manin (“dan-YEH-leh mah-NEEN”). A year-long siege of this city commanded by (*) Joseph Radetzky ended in 1849. As part of the Austrian Empire, the region named for this city was formally united with Lombardy. During the revolutions of 1848, it was the capital of the short-lived Republic of San Marco, named after its patron saint. For 10 points, name this Italian city known for its canals.
ANSWER: Venice [or Venezia]
<Continental post-600 History, WA>

Compton - 55% neg rate

20. A group based in a suburb of this name adopted the motto “no kutts.” A disturbance at a venue named for a man with this surname involved a lesbian gang called the Street Orphans and a hustler group called the Vanguards, and took place in the Tenderloin district. People who were excluded from gay bars gathered at a place of this name in an event credited with starting the US trans rights movement; that (*) 1966 riot took place at a cafeteria of this name. The Piru Street Family was based in a suburb of this name where Dick Dollarhide became mayor after white flight due to the Watts riots. That California suburb of this name is where the Bloods formed. For 10 points, give this name of a historically black area of Los Angeles that titles an N.W.A. album.

Apparently this had five negs with "Stonewall" - that answer is just completely wrong and I don't see how this is bait for that

Arizona - 53% neg rate

7. Under the Howell code, settlers of this state established a “first in time, first in right” doctrine for water use. Settlers of this state irrigated their farms with refurbished canals built by the ancient Hohokam (“ho-HO-kum”) culture. Jimmy Carter faced severe pushback when his “hit list” targeted a “Central Project” that managed this state’s water. The 1902 Newlands Reclamation Act funded the creation of a dam in this state named for the sitting president, the (*) Theodore Roosevelt Dam. The huge growth of this state’s major city in the late 20th century can be credited to the nation’s largest nuclear power station at Palo Verde, as well as the Salt River Project that manages the city’s water supply. Lake Powell was created by the construction of this state’s Glen Canyon Dam. For 10 points, name this state whose cities include Tombstone, Tucson, and Phoenix.
ANSWER: Arizona
<US History, WA>

Why were any of these particularly unfriendly to players? Most of them seem extremely straightforward to me, with the possible exception of the illegal immigrants question.

[Mike Bentley]

Posting the content of the ones with a high neg rate would help players like me of the online mirror since it's been a while and I don't remember the particulars of many of these questions.

[naan/steak-holding toll]

added tossup text above

[1.82]

I will say that I didn't play this tournament and haven't looked at the set, but the Turkey tossup stands out to me as unfriendly because none of the clues in power do anything at all to narrow the answer space geographically. A couple of the early clues in that tossup would also be difficult for me to buzz on with confidence: I know that Turkey suffered from hyperinflation, but I wouldn't be able to tell you that the lira specifically was the least valuable currency in the world in the late '90s and early '00s. Similarly, while I'm aware that Turkey experienced coups in 1960, 1971, and 1980 (or, more accurately, I'm aware that Turkey experienced coups sometime around those years), the terms "coup by memorandum" and "Sledgehammer" aren't familiar to me, and without those terms it could be any country that has experienced serious political instability.

One can say that I don't deserve points because I don't actually know any of the clues (a common occurrence), and that's fair. The issue is that if you don't know the clues cold, it seems to me that they don't provide much value in terms of pointing in the direction of the answer, which would (at least to me) lead to the impression of unfriendliness.

Separately, the Compton tossup feels unfriendly for the way that the referent of the pronoun changes; in the first line it's a municipality, in the second line it's a surname. Hypothetically, I can certainly imagine hearing the first line, not noticing the change in pronoun in the next clue, and then hearing "Tenderloin" and negging with San Francisco. I'm not sure how parsable pronouns like these are at game speed.

[naan/steak-holding toll]

I will say that I didn't play this tournament and haven't looked at the set, but the Turkey tossup stands out to me as unfriendly because none of the clues in power do anything at all to narrow the answer space geographically. A couple of the early clues in that tossup would also be difficult for me to buzz on with confidence: I know that Turkey suffered from hyperinflation, but I wouldn't be able to tell you that the lira specifically was the least valuable currency in the world in the late '90s and early '00s. Similarly, while I'm aware that Turkey experienced coups in 1960, 1971, and 1980 (or, more accurately, I'm aware that Turkey experienced coups sometime around those years), the terms "coup by memorandum" and "Sledgehammer" aren't familiar to me, and without those terms it could be any country that has experienced serious political instability.

One can say that I don't deserve points because I don't actually know any of the clues (a common occurrence), and that's fair. The issue is that if you don't know the clues cold, it seems to me that they don't provide much value in terms of pointing in the direction of the answer, which would (at least to me) lead to the impression of unfriendliness.

Huh, that's an interesting perspective. I'll come out and say this - Turkish is a pretty distinctive-sounding language (as Alston's comment about The Idiot in the other thread illustrates), and so giving some Turkish place or politician names probably wouldn't be great. However I think the clues help to narrow the answer space in a non-geographical sense, e.g. if you don't know the specifics of the hyperinflation clue, you at least know it's a country that experienced hyperinflation; then you get that it's an earthquake-prone country; then you get that it's prone to chronic coups. Even if you don't know the specific information, I think these are all hints that help to narrow the answerspace somewhat, especially as they add up.

[Smuttynose Island]

illegal immigrants - 48% neg rate (this tossup was perhaps a bit sketchier than others, but I'm pretty sure the clues were unique)

...These people could not be distinguished from proper participants in the bracero program, leading to many civil rights violations in Operation knight of infinite resignation, which targeted them...

Might want to fix the bolded typo.

[naan/steak-holding toll]

illegal immigrants - 48% neg rate (this tossup was perhaps a bit sketchier than others, but I'm pretty sure the clues were unique)

...These people could not be distinguished from proper participants in the bracero program, leading to many civil rights violations in Operation knight of infinite resignation, which targeted them...

Might want to fix the bolded typo.

It's the forums' automatic censorship - I'll change it

[Kazunogawa Pumped Storage Power Station]

I did neg two of these, so I guess I can provide my feedback.
On Sumatra, we were playing against Jakob Meyers, so I felt like I needed to buzz fairly quickly. I buzzed at Palembang, and incorrectly chose Java, because I knew what area of the world we were in but chose poorly.
For Arizona, it was in a close game and buzzed at Hohokam, because, again, I knew mostly where we were, but guessed New Mexico instead.
For what it’s worth, I certainly didn’t really mind the history, and out of these I liked the flood tossup. I got it at Ziusudra, and now that I’m looking at the tossup, I’m remembering that I’ve heard of the Pitman thing before, which is cool.

[Mike Bentley]

Those questions mostly look fine. I was one of the people who negged with eclipse on the flood question, but that was partly due to me guessing (I had remember reading something about how they correlated king lists to specific years thanks to eclipses, but if I was paying more attention to the earlier clues that wouldn't have made as much sense). I also negged the illegal immigration tossup after not being able to figure out what you wanted. Re-reading the question I probably should have figured it out, but these things can be hard at game speed, especially on Discord.

Overall I didn't get much of a sense that this tournament had an unusual "Will Alston" flavor to its history. I felt that more in other categories (which I'm not actually sure you wrote) where there were more references to modern works in the early clues. An example I've already mentioned is on the question on The Idiot whose leadin was about the 2017 book. I personally like these clues but can see how they're not to everyone's taste.

[naan/steak-holding toll]

I think I'm just going to replace the illegal immigrants question, or find some way to make it a bit more specific. I wrote the question because I've been reading a lot of immigration related history books recently and wanted to talk about illegal immigrants in a historical sense, but the way the question is framed is probably confusing to players. I'll post my replacement in a bit.

[Jason Cheng]

Overall I didn't get much of a sense that this tournament had an unusual "Will Alston" flavor to its history. I felt that more in other categories (which I'm not actually sure you wrote) where there were more references to modern works in the early clues. An example I've already mentioned is on the question on The Idiot whose leadin was about the 2017 book. I personally like these clues but can see how they're not to everyone's taste.

Will changed a lot of his questions in response to my comments, and in general I noticed our writing team was pretty enthusiastic about "rewarding many varieties of knowledge" (or rather ask about the ways they encounter cool new knowledge) which I talked about at length in the general discussion thread.

At the risk of derailing this thread, I think, to his credit, that Will was more than happy to make adjustments to his questions against our (my?) claims of playability or difficulty to parse or poor aesthetic experience (whatever the downsides of the "Will Alston Flavor" are), and that he also worked the most out of all of us to adhere his questions to the substantial amount of feedback we got while producing/playtesting this set.

Thanks for the compliments, though. Glad to hear you enjoyed the set!

[naan/steak-holding toll]

Here's the revised question - I decided to keep most of the content and change the answerline, since I think "illegal immigration" might be a bit easier to think of as a common action than "illegal immigrants" as a common group of people. Also decided to make the power a bit more generous:

Many Chinese people who had performed this action were targeted by a misleading “confession program” in the 1950s, as profiled in Mae Ngai’s book Impossible Subjects. People who had performed this action were airlifted from Midway in a program implemented by Joseph Swing and Herbert Brownell under Dwight Eisenhower. People who had performed this action could demonstrate “good moral character” and benefit from the Simpson–Mazzoli Act of 1986, which was one precedent for a bill drafted in (*) 2013 by Chuck Schumer and other members of the “Gang of Eight.” People who had performed this action could not be distinguished from proper participants in the bracero program, leading to many civil rights violations in Operation W3tb@ck. For 10 points, identify this action in which one moves to the U.S. without requisite documentation.
ANSWER: illegal immigration [or illegal migration or unlawful immigration or equivalents; accept undocumented immigration before “undocumented”; prompt on any answer referring to immigration or immigrating or migrating to the U.S.]

[Here Comes Rusev Day]

I don’t really know how much of the history took the “heterodox” approach (whatever that means) that people were perturbed by it more so than people being mad they negged with a wrong answer. After reading through the answer lines and remembering the clues I best can, the history questions were largely great and clearly were written by someone who searched for fresh content. I really can’t comment on why people were saying the history was bad, but if it stems from what the writer’s philosophy is, then that’s a different question entirely.

[That DCC guy]

Can we see the HIdalgo Tossup

[Borrowing 100,000 Arrows]

Here's the revised question - I decided to keep most of the content and change the answerline, since I think "illegal immigration" might be a bit easier to think of as a common action than "illegal immigrants" as a common group of people. Also decided to make the power a bit more generous:

Many Chinese people who had performed this action were targeted by a misleading “confession program” in the 1950s, as profiled in Mae Ngai’s book Impossible Subjects. People who had performed this action were airlifted from Midway in a program implemented by Joseph Swing and Herbert Brownell under Dwight Eisenhower. People who had performed this action could demonstrate “good moral character” and benefit from the Simpson–Mazzoli Act of 1986, which was one precedent for a bill drafted in (*) 2013 by Chuck Schumer and other members of the “Gang of Eight.” People who had performed this action could not be distinguished from proper participants in the bracero program, leading to many civil rights violations in Operation W3tb@ck. For 10 points, identify this action in which one moves to the U.S. without requisite documentation.
ANSWER: illegal immigration [or illegal migration or unlawful immigration or equivalents; accept undocumented immigration before “undocumented”; prompt on any answer referring to immigration or immigrating or migrating to the U.S.]

Yeah, I think changing the pronoun to "this action" really makes it clear what you want as an answer. I remember buzzing on the first bracero clue saying like immigrants or something, getting prompted, and being really confused about what exactly the question wanted.

[warum]

I was prompted on "Selassie" for "Haile Sellassie I" although the question does not say to prompt on that, while it does say to prompt on "Haile". I don't know enough about Ethiopian royal naming customs to say whether the prompt was appropriate. It would be good to include a prompt or don't prompt instruction for Selassie.

[naan/steak-holding toll]

I was prompted on "Selassie" for "Haile Sellassie I" although the question does not say to prompt on that, while it does say to prompt on "Haile". I don't know enough about Ethiopian royal naming customs to say whether the prompt was appropriate. It would be good to include a prompt or don't prompt instruction for Selassie.

Thanks for pointing this out. I'll add a prompt instruction.