Logomachy (side event, late 2022)
- women, fire and dangerous things
- Tidus
- Posts: 717
- Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:34 pm
- Location: Örkko, Cimmeria
Logomachy (side event, late 2022)
This is a preliminary announcement for my next side event, Logomachy, a tournament all about words. As I'm a noted word lover and professional word guy, this is, in one sense, my most vanity side tournament yet. But in an equally important sense it's much less vanity than Scattergories, because it's intended to be of interest to all players, even those who don't think of themselves as word people. To that end, it will draw from all categories of the distribution, and will be pitched at around Regionals difficulty, with tossups hard-capped at 7 lines.
All the non-giveaway clues in the set will be about words and phrases in some meaningful sense. By that, I mean that there won't be, say, a common link on some unrelated books that happen to have the same word in the title (e.g. the tossup on "oblivion" from Scattergories 2 cluing A General Theory of Oblivion and David Foster Wallace's Oblivion). An example of the sort of thing that might come up in this tournament is the Scattergories 5 tossup on "homo," cluing social science phrases like "homo economicus" - that tossup is really about the common formula "homo ___," so it's more meaningfully about the word. Questions will cover etymology, grammar and usage, philology, the literary and artistic use of words, scientific nomenclature, controversies about words, wordplay, and so forth. Of course, you can expect linguistics content, but there will be very few clues which require significant theoretical linguistics knowledge to buzz on. Other examples from Scattergories to give a feel for what this set will be like include the Scattergories 3 tossup on Macbeth cluing words that the play introduced, and the Scattergories 3 tossup on hawks cluing falconry terminology, largely drawn from H Is for Hawk. (Another good example is Will Alston's tossup on kakistocracy from the latest CO, though none of the answerlines in Logomachy will be that hard.)
There will be 10 packets, with the following tentative distribution:
2 literature
1 history
1 science
1 philosophy/non-linguistics social science
1 religion/mythology
1 fine arts
1 modern world
2 pop culture
10 miscellaneous (including linguistics, mixed, general knowledge, other academic, and more of the above categories)
As I said above, I'm working on making this tournament accessible and interesting to all, so I hope you'll consider playing it even if a tournament all about words doesn't necessarily seem like it would be up your alley.
All the non-giveaway clues in the set will be about words and phrases in some meaningful sense. By that, I mean that there won't be, say, a common link on some unrelated books that happen to have the same word in the title (e.g. the tossup on "oblivion" from Scattergories 2 cluing A General Theory of Oblivion and David Foster Wallace's Oblivion). An example of the sort of thing that might come up in this tournament is the Scattergories 5 tossup on "homo," cluing social science phrases like "homo economicus" - that tossup is really about the common formula "homo ___," so it's more meaningfully about the word. Questions will cover etymology, grammar and usage, philology, the literary and artistic use of words, scientific nomenclature, controversies about words, wordplay, and so forth. Of course, you can expect linguistics content, but there will be very few clues which require significant theoretical linguistics knowledge to buzz on. Other examples from Scattergories to give a feel for what this set will be like include the Scattergories 3 tossup on Macbeth cluing words that the play introduced, and the Scattergories 3 tossup on hawks cluing falconry terminology, largely drawn from H Is for Hawk. (Another good example is Will Alston's tossup on kakistocracy from the latest CO, though none of the answerlines in Logomachy will be that hard.)
There will be 10 packets, with the following tentative distribution:
2 literature
1 history
1 science
1 philosophy/non-linguistics social science
1 religion/mythology
1 fine arts
1 modern world
2 pop culture
10 miscellaneous (including linguistics, mixed, general knowledge, other academic, and more of the above categories)
As I said above, I'm working on making this tournament accessible and interesting to all, so I hope you'll consider playing it even if a tournament all about words doesn't necessarily seem like it would be up your alley.
Will Nediger
-Proud member of the cult of Urcuchillay-
University of Western Ontario 2011, University of Michigan 2017
Member emeritus, ACF
Writer, NAQT
-Proud member of the cult of Urcuchillay-
University of Western Ontario 2011, University of Michigan 2017
Member emeritus, ACF
Writer, NAQT
-
- Kimahri
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Mon Feb 08, 2021 4:09 pm
Re: Logomachy (side event, late 2022)
Really cool idea! More like Pogomachy in my opinion.
Last edited by Themanfromkirksville on Wed Feb 02, 2022 6:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Donal Ryan
-Kirksville ‘21 Truman ‘25
-Kirksville ‘21 Truman ‘25
- Mike Bentley
- Sin
- Posts: 6465
- Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:03 pm
- Location: Bellevue, WA
- Contact:
Re: Logomachy (side event, late 2022)
I use words!
Mike Bentley
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
- Auks Ran Ova
- Forums Staff: Chief Administrator
- Posts: 4295
- Joined: Sun Apr 30, 2006 10:28 pm
- Location: Minneapolis
- Contact:
Re: Logomachy (side event, late 2022)
Rob Carson
University of Minnesota '11, MCTC '??, BHSU forever
Member, ACF
Member emeritus, PACE
Writer and Editor, NAQT
University of Minnesota '11, MCTC '??, BHSU forever
Member, ACF
Member emeritus, PACE
Writer and Editor, NAQT
Re: Logomachy (side event, late 2022)
Seconded
Conor Thompson (he/it)
Bangor High School '16
University of Michigan '20
Iowa State University '25
Tournament Format Database
Bangor High School '16
University of Michigan '20
Iowa State University '25
Tournament Format Database
- Good Goblin Housekeeping
- Auron
- Posts: 1102
- Joined: Sun May 23, 2010 10:03 am
Re: Logomachy (side event, late 2022)
the absolute madman just cut the objects from words and objects
Andrew Wang
Illinois 2016
Illinois 2016
Re: Logomachy (side event, late 2022)
This tournament is for me and I love it.
Alex Dzurick
====
Owner/Editor, SAGES Quizbowl Questions
Middle school teacher, Rohan Woods School
====
South Callaway '08 -- Mizzou '12 -- Illinois '17
SCMS coach '12-'13 -- EFIP coach '20-'21 -- RWS coach '22-present
====
Owner/Editor, SAGES Quizbowl Questions
Middle school teacher, Rohan Woods School
====
South Callaway '08 -- Mizzou '12 -- Illinois '17
SCMS coach '12-'13 -- EFIP coach '20-'21 -- RWS coach '22-present
- women, fire and dangerous things
- Tidus
- Posts: 717
- Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:34 pm
- Location: Örkko, Cimmeria
Re: Logomachy (side event, late 2022)
I'm looking to get started on playtesting for this set starting soon, and would love to have a diverse set of testers, especially since this set includes categories that I don't typically write for. If you'd be willing to playtest, please get in touch!
Will Nediger
-Proud member of the cult of Urcuchillay-
University of Western Ontario 2011, University of Michigan 2017
Member emeritus, ACF
Writer, NAQT
-Proud member of the cult of Urcuchillay-
University of Western Ontario 2011, University of Michigan 2017
Member emeritus, ACF
Writer, NAQT
- women, fire and dangerous things
- Tidus
- Posts: 717
- Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:34 pm
- Location: Örkko, Cimmeria
Re: Logomachy (side event, late 2022)
This set is now ready for mirroring, so if you're interested in running it as a side event somewhere, please get in touch! I'll also plan an online mirror at some point in the near future.
Will Nediger
-Proud member of the cult of Urcuchillay-
University of Western Ontario 2011, University of Michigan 2017
Member emeritus, ACF
Writer, NAQT
-Proud member of the cult of Urcuchillay-
University of Western Ontario 2011, University of Michigan 2017
Member emeritus, ACF
Writer, NAQT
- women, fire and dangerous things
- Tidus
- Posts: 717
- Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:34 pm
- Location: Örkko, Cimmeria
Re: Logomachy (side event, late 2022)
There's now a private discussion forum set up for Logomachy, which people who played the set at Maryland can apply to join.
Will Nediger
-Proud member of the cult of Urcuchillay-
University of Western Ontario 2011, University of Michigan 2017
Member emeritus, ACF
Writer, NAQT
-Proud member of the cult of Urcuchillay-
University of Western Ontario 2011, University of Michigan 2017
Member emeritus, ACF
Writer, NAQT
Re: Logomachy (side event, late 2022)
This set is an absolute delight, play it if you get the chance!
Jordan Brownstein
UMD '17
UMD '17
Re: Logomachy (side event, late 2022)
This set is very good and has what feels like a little something for everyone, whether you identify as someone who is “into words” or very much do not. It’s also definitely easier than Scattergories while still being both entertaining and edifying.
JinAh Kim
University of Pennsylvania, '18
“Furthermore, the Astros must be destroyed.”
University of Pennsylvania, '18
“Furthermore, the Astros must be destroyed.”
- Adventure Temple Trail
- Auron
- Posts: 2762
- Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:52 pm
Re: Logomachy (side event, late 2022)
This set is so good and full of fresh ideas, it makes me wonder why there hasn't been (at least!) a 1/1 Words distribution at every tournament this whole time. Future editors: consider adding dedicated Words content to your sets forever?
Matt Jackson
University of Chicago '24
Yale '14, Georgetown Day School '10
member emeritus, ACF
University of Chicago '24
Yale '14, Georgetown Day School '10
member emeritus, ACF
- women, fire and dangerous things
- Tidus
- Posts: 717
- Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:34 pm
- Location: Örkko, Cimmeria
Re: Logomachy (side event, late 2022)
This set is now clear, and the packets should appear on the archive shortly. Thanks to everyone who played!
Will Nediger
-Proud member of the cult of Urcuchillay-
University of Western Ontario 2011, University of Michigan 2017
Member emeritus, ACF
Writer, NAQT
-Proud member of the cult of Urcuchillay-
University of Western Ontario 2011, University of Michigan 2017
Member emeritus, ACF
Writer, NAQT