Much Ado About Quizbowl

This year’s IHSSBCA Kickoffs are using ACF formatted bonuses with bouncebacks, much like PACE NSC does. This is a change that will likely create some interesting comments from some parts of the state which are unfamiliar with the format.

Some of you might ask, “Well Matt, what’s the deal with these ACF bonuses exactly?”. Quite simply, it is what the majority of college competitions use. If you’ve ever played an NAQT round, then you’ve experienced mACF bonuses (the ‘m’ is for modified, since real ACF is not timed, and does not bounceback like Kickoffs will and NSC does). These bonuses consist of three parts worth ten points each, which do not normally rebound. A few notable tournaments here in Illinois use rebounds in their mACF bonuses, including UIUC Earlybird, the 2007 NT Varsity Tournament and now the IHSSBCA Kickoffs.

We believe that ACF format is a superior method for testing knowledge, and offers writers more creative ways to structure bonuses. Since each bonus is read one part at a time, writers can easily reference facts from one part in subsequent parts Take, for instance, this example:

Bonus: Literature (Literature)
Identify the following about a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
1. Winning as a first-year candidate in 1938, she was selected without due consideration, and is considered a failure of a selection by the Swedish Academy.
Answer: Pearl S. Buck
2. Along with the Japanese occupation of China, this is the work that catapulted Buck into prominence, a novel featuring Wang Lung and O-Lan.
Answer: The Good Earth
3. Under the pseudonym John Sedges, The Good Earth was released together with two of Buck’s other works to form this trilogy.
Answer: The House of Earth Trilogy

This prevents confusing things like this from happening: “…the book-from-part-two was released together with two of the author-from-part-one’s other works…” mACF bonuses also make rounds go by much quicker. There is no longer a lengthy lull while teams are conferring, and the whole team is much more involved during the entirety of the bonus.

There are some coaches who are making a strong push to move Illinois’ format to this type of bonus. It was discussed this year at the IHSA Advisory Committee meeting, and it was decided that the Kickoffs would be used as a trial run for the format. It is going to be very interesting to see exactly what sort of reaction that the questions get from teams around the state. Most teams are very uncomfortable with change, and some have big tantrums when change happens.

If you’ve graduated high school, we hope you’ll apply to be a writer for Aegis next season. The application is up, and even our handbook is available online. This will be our pay scale for next year:

• $0.75 per tossup or bonus that we use (as before)
• $5 bonus for writing 25+ questions
• $5 additional bonus for writing 50+ questions
• $5 additional bonus for writing 75+ questions
• $10 additional bonus for writing 100+ questions

Yes, so if you write 100 or more questions, you get a $25 bonus. You should do it!

So come apply, if you are willing to actually devote a bit of time to our mission over the next year. Please email us if you have any questions about the process.

–Carlo

Aegis is now making its Writers’ Handbook available to the public. You can find our new one here. This is exactly what we send all our writers at the start of the season.

If you’ve ever wondered about the inner workings of our company, or just needed some tips on writing questions, then this is something you might want to thumb through. Some parts are particular to Aegis, but the bulk of the handbook is our guidelines for good question writing. Still, you’re free to peruse the sections on our QED too.

Enjoy!

-Matt

Aegis recently wrapped up its second season in existence, and I thought I would put some information about it up here for anyone who’s interested.

We sent out 14 invoices this season, writing the Masonic State Series, IHSSBCA Kickoffs, and New Trier Varsity, in addition to numerous conferences. We used a total of 1,797 questions, written by 23 writers, including 17 contracted writers, the three directors, and three benevolent affiliates.

As usual, and to our great frustration, there was tremendous variation in the number of questions each writer submitted. The three directors wrote 912 questions, while the 17 other writers together wrote only 753. The ten least productive writers contributed only 144 questions, writing on average only 6.5 questions the whole season after their applications. Here’s the complete breakdown of our questions by writer:

(You can click on it for a bigger version.)

As the big blue slice, I was happy that so many people were interested in writing for us, and I understand that most people won’t have the ability to contribute as much as the top few writers did. But I was still dismayed by how few questions many of our writers did contribute–I don’t expect 100 from everybody, but still, almost half our writers wrote less than 20 questions the whole season, including the eight they wrote for their applications.

We’re looking to change several things for next season. First of all, we understand that it’s difficult for writers to maintain a level of interest in Aegis if they aren’t involved in the actual packets we’re putting together. It’s hard to get others directly involved, but if we avoid last-minute crunches, we can still keep them updated by email on the progress of our tournaments, and maybe divide categories between writers so they have a specific goal to meet.

We’re also thinking of changing our pay scale to add incentive to write more than a certain number of questions, to add further goals for our writers. After all, for us it’s really not about the money (how could it be? there are much better ways to make money…). We’re trying to turn money into great questions, and if we can use more money to make more questions, we’re all for it.

If anyone has more ideas for how to keep our writers more productive, just let us know. Also, if you’re interested in writing for us next season, we’ll let you know once we’ve finalized our new contract and application.

–Carlo