QUAOAR [MS set, 2023-24]

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CPiGuy
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QUAOAR [MS set, 2023-24]

Post by CPiGuy »

This is an announcement for QUAOAR (QUestions, Academic, Oriented At Rookies), a middle school / novice high school tournament set to be available for mirrors starting October 2023 through the end of the 2023-24 school year. The set is head-edited by me, Conor Thompson, with several deputy editors, and written by a large group of writers. The set includes twelve packets of 20/20 tossups/bonuses, plus an additional partial packet of replacements. Tossups are powermarked, and bonuses follow the standard 10-points-each, three-parts-of-varying-difficulty standard.

Difficulty and length
The set is intended to be suitable for both middle school and novice high school audiences. As such, care is being taken to ensure that both tossup answerlines and bonus parts are accessible to brand-new quizbowl players. This tournament will probably be similar in difficulty to this past year's MAKEMAKE set, or ERIS from 2020-21. Tossups will be capped at 450 characters; this is slightly more than the maximum length of an NAQT IS set. Bonuses will not have a hard character cap, but bonus parts exceeding two lines will be rare.

Distribution
The distribution will be as follows:
5/5 Science (including 1/1 non-computational math; there will be zero computational math)
4/4 History
3/3 Literature
1.5/1.5 Geography
1.5/1.5 General Knowledge / Other Academic (including “mixed impure academic”)
1/1 Fine Arts
1/1 Religion
1/1 Mythology
1/1 Popular Culture and Sports
1/1 Philosophy, Social Science, Civics/Government, and Current Events

Writers and editors
I am the head editor. The following categories have one or more subject editors:
Literature: Andrew Gao, Danny Peelen
History: Sam Macchi, Neev Sahgal, Lukas Koutsoukos
Physics/biology/chemistry/math: Aatreyo Bhattacharyya
Earth/space science: Sam Macchi
Visual fine arts: Lukas Koutsoukos, Tanay Bodducherla
Auditory fine arts: Fierro Grey, Tanay Bodducherla
Religion and mythology: Gregory Zeldovich
Geography: Andrew Gao, Neev Sahgal
Popular culture: Neev Sahgal

The set is written by the editors and a large group of writers.

If you would like to write for this set, contact me! No particular experience is required, just a willingness to incorporate feedback and put in effort.

Fees
The mirror fee for QUAOAR is $12 per team, including house teams. This is the same for both middle school and high school mirrors. If you have specific financial circumstances (such as outreach to low-income schools) and would like to negotiate an exception to this fee, you are invited to contact me.

If you are planning on using the set for a non-standard format (for example, by having more than two teams play per match, or reading only the first two parts of bonuses, or by introducing housewritten lightning rounds or worksheets), you must clear this with me in advance of receiving the set.

Contact
If you would like to use QUAOAR for your tournament, or you have any other questions about the set, please contact me at [email protected]. We are open to having this set used by both traditional one-day tournaments and by leagues or conferences in need of a set.

Mirrors

Tusculum College, Greeneville, TN (7 Oct)
Wheaton North HS, IL (14 Oct)
Hunter College HS, New York City, NY (14 Oct)
Sullivan HS, MO (17 Oct and 7 Dec)
University of California at San Diego (28 Oct)
Houston HS, MO (4 Nov)
Innovation Academy, Alpharetta, GA (4 Nov)
Moline HS, IL (11 Nov)
Decatur MS, AL (18 Nov)

Cullman County MS league, AL
Florida Quiz Bowl Association Fall League, FL
Northeast In The Know, OH
Last edited by CPiGuy on Wed Oct 11, 2023 11:42 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Conor Thompson (he/it)
Bangor High School '16
University of Michigan '20
Iowa State University '25
Tournament Format Database
osbornrj
Lulu
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Joined: Sun Jan 05, 2020 9:51 pm
Location: Huntsville, AL

Re: QUAOAR [MS set, 2023-24]

Post by osbornrj »

Hi Conor,

I sent you an e-mail inquiring about this set. Please let me know if it will be available.

Thanks,
Robin
Robin Osborne
Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering (parent)
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Greater Huntsville Section (Associate Fellow)
lsims2
Kimahri
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Re: QUAOAR [MS set, 2023-24]

Post by lsims2 »

I sent you an email.
Lindsay Sims
Academic Competition Coordinator
Decatur City Schools (AL)
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CPiGuy
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Re: QUAOAR [MS set, 2023-24]

Post by CPiGuy »

I've updated the original post with a list of mirrors. We're still looking for mirrors in almost every region, so let me know if you're interested in hosting a tournament on QUAOAR!
Conor Thompson (he/it)
Bangor High School '16
University of Michigan '20
Iowa State University '25
Tournament Format Database
MahoningQuizBowler
Rikku
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Location: Youngstown, Ohio
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Re: QUAOAR [MS set, 2023-24]

Post by MahoningQuizBowler »

Thanks for letting me use this set in Ashtabula County!
Greg Bossick
Director, Mahoning Quizbowl League (2004-2011, 2013-present)
Director, NAQT Ohio Small School State Championship (2018-present)
Executive Director, Ohio Academic Competition (2013-2016)
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