Money - Revision history

Kevin Wang: /* Tournament fees */

2026-08-03T17:08:30Z

Tournament fees

Kevin Wang: /* Case study: OQL */

2025-12-07T01:25:41Z

Case study: OQL

Kevin Wang: /* Practice material */

2025-12-06T17:07:34Z

Practice material

Kevin Wang: /* Spending money */

2025-12-06T17:06:19Z

Spending money

Kevin Wang: /* Writing a housewrite */

2025-12-06T15:20:34Z

Writing a housewrite

Kevin Wang: /* Not spending money */

2025-09-15T20:54:32Z

Not spending money

Kevin Wang: /* Writing a housewrite */

2025-09-04T21:52:17Z

Writing a housewrite

Kevin Wang: /* Writing a set */

2025-09-04T21:51:37Z

Writing a set

Kevin Wang: /* Writing a set */

2025-09-04T21:50:58Z

Writing a set

Kevin Wang: /* Writing a set */

2025-09-04T21:50:31Z

Writing a set

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 The most pressing cost for the typical team is that each team sent to a tournament costs money.
-It is worth remembering that regional tournaments are often a bargain, especially at the high school level. This is because quiz bowl is rarely focused on profit and does not always index to inflation - in some cases, fees have even dropped. The 2024 [[Princeton High School Tournament]] cost $85 for the first team and $75 for each additional one.<ref>[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=28216 Princeton High School Academic Tournament (PHSAT) XXXI, 9/21/24] by [[ParanoidAndroid]] » Sun Aug 11, 2024 8:20 am</ref> The 2004 [[Princeton High School Tournament|PHSAT]] cost $100 for the first team and $80 for each additional one;<ref>[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1144 Announcement: Princeton High School Tournament - 11/20/2004] by [[DanTheClam]] » Mon Aug 09, 2004 5:53 pm</ref> - adjusted for inflation this is equivalent to $166/$132 in 2024.
+It is worth remembering that regional tournaments are often a bargain, especially at the high school level. This is because quiz bowl is rarely focused on profit and does not always index to inflation - in some cases, fees have even dropped. The 2024 [[Princeton High School Tournament]] cost $85 for the first team and $75 for each additional one.<ref>[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=28216 Princeton High School Academic Tournament (PHSAT) XXXI, 9/21/24] by [[ParanoidAndroid]] » Sun Aug 11, 2024 8:20 am</ref> The 2004 [[Princeton High School Tournament|PHSAT]] cost $100 for the first team and $80 for each additional one;<ref>[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1144 Announcement: Princeton High School Tournament - 11/20/2004] by [[DanTheClam]] » Mon Aug 09, 2004 5:53 pm</ref> adjusted for inflation this is equivalent to $166/$132 in 2024.
 This is less true for college sets: the main site of 2019 [[Terrapin]] cost $120 a team,<ref>[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22375 Terrapin @ UMD (3/2/2019)] by [[Noble Rot]] » Wed Feb 06, 2019 11:51 am </ref> while the 2004 [[Terrapin]] cost $80.<ref>[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1216 ANNOUNCEMENT Terrapin Invitational Tournament XVIII] by [[The Goffman Prophecies]] » Mon Sep 13, 2004 1:13 pm</ref>

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 Some numbers:
-*The 11th season of OQL US had 120 teams in 9 divisions. This is on par with a set getting 9 mirrors with 12 teams a piece, which would be quite good for a median housewrite, especially at the college level.
+*The 11th season of OQL US had 120 teams across 9 divisions. This is on par with a set getting 9 mirrors with ~13 teams a piece, which would be quite good for a median housewrite, especially at the college level.
 *Week 6 of season 11 of OQL US had an average of about 181 characters per question (12,258 total). For comparison, questions that [[NAQT]] intends for middle schoolers are over twice as long and have additional requirements like being pyramidal.
 *The base entry fee for OQL is $100 for returning teams - that means the gross take for season 11 was roughly $12,000. The fact that there are no costs associated with hosting means that all of this money also goes to the production team, rather than just the mirror fees.
-This boils down to a unsplit rate of $16.04/question or $8.90/100 characters, which will ultimately be divided between the writing/editing team and the logistics arm of the organization. If it's assumed only a third of a question's value is awarded to a writer working at a slow pace of 30 minutes per question, this easily comes to $10 an hour. Unlike our other examples this is a conservative estimate, as it is much more feasible to write at this pace or faster when producing OQL questions due to how short they are.
+This boils down to a unsplit rate of $16.04/question or $8.90/100 characters, which will ultimately be divided between the writing/editing team and the logistics arm of the organization. If it's assumed only a third of a question's value is awarded to a writer working at a slow pace of 30 minutes per question, this easily comes to '''$10 an hour'''. Unlike our other examples this is a conservative estimate, as it is much more feasible to write at this pace or faster when producing OQL questions due to how short they are.
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 ===The importance of the volunteer ethos===

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 ===Practice material===
-There are many high-quality packets available '''for free''' on [[the packet archive]] and via databases like [[QBReader]]. These questions are customarily posted for public consumption by [[housewrite]] teams after their set has finished being played and has been [[cleared]] for discussion. There are enough of these questions at various difficulties that players could easily have a successful career studying only from the archive.
+There are many high-quality packets available '''for free''' on [[the packet archive]] and via databases like [[QBReader]]. These questions are customarily posted for public consumption by [[housewrite]] teams after their set has finished being played and has been [[cleared]] for discussion. This community norm is an enormous boon for the frugally-minded player, as there are enough of these questions at various difficulties to have a successful career studying only from the archive.
 An alternative source of study material is to purchase past questions from organizations like [[NAQT]] and [[LIQBA]] - NAQT also sells [[frequency list]]s and "Power Up" study guides. Teams who play NAQT events already have access to questions from the tournaments they attended, they just need to request access - this can lead to a considerable archive for older teams. Historically these resources were sent as physical paper media but in recent years this has given way to electronic distribution via email or (in the case of NAQT) LockLizard.

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 :''Main page: [[Buzzers]]''
 Buzzers cost money. The Anderson Officiator ten-buzzer system is generally considered to be the standard and starts at $320. All in-person tournaments require roughly one set of buzzers for every two teams in attendance.
 ==Not spending money==

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 |}
-This implies the median writer probably makes about $3.61 an hour while working on a set. It is entirely possible to be make less than $1 an hour if a low number of tournaments mirror the questions and it takes longer than 45 minutes to write each question.
+This implies the median writer probably makes about $3.61 an hour while working on a set. It is entirely possible to make less than $1 an hour if a low number of tournaments mirror the questions and it takes longer than 45 minutes to write each question.
 ===Case study: OQL===

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 **The corollary to this point is that '''if you are responsible for organizing a set or tournament, tell people information as soon as possible'''. While it may have little impact on you, delaying an announcement can have material impacts on teams that need to secure funding.
 *Talk with your advisor about costs. In many cases the faculty member that advises your team can be an invaluable resource on administration and bureaucracy, especially as their tenure may span several undergraduate careers. However, this is not a magic bullet - it's probably just as likely that they're a rubber-stamp as a helpful resource.
 The two options available to team leadership are to be a responsible steward of your team's finances and take advantage of all available avenues to minimize costs for your team ''or'' to pay for everything out of pocket - to do something else, like force your team to incur unnecessary expenses, would be gauche, uncool, and decidedly not hip.

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 |}
-As a reminder, these numbers are based on Planetfall, which had 23 mirrors. A high school housewrite can receive as low as 2 mirrors if aimed at Nats-minus difficulty, with the median lying closer to 12. Here's what the numbers look like if one takes that same 45 minutes per question benchmark and scales down a set's profits:
+As a reminder, these numbers are based on Planetfall, which had a very high mirror count of 23. A high school housewrite can receive as low as 2 mirrors if aimed at Nats-minus difficulty, with the median lying closer to 12. Here's what the numbers look like if one takes that same 45 minutes per question benchmark and scales down a set's profits:
 {|class="wikitable"

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 The average salary of a McDonald's employee is '''$13/hour''' and the threshold for part-time work is 20 hours a week. Someone who works a part-time job for two months over the summer will make roughly $2080 for 160 hours of labor. Someone who worked an equivalent amount of time at the federal minimum wage of $7.50/hour would make $1,160.
-===Writing a set===
+===Writing a housewrite===
 A typical high school [[housewrite]] has a [[mirror fee]] of $15-20 a team. Sets intended for lower [[difficulties]] tend to be cheaper, while those with harder questions can be up to double the cost. Discounts are often provided for sites which provide complete statistics. A typical [[set]] will have roughly 13 [[packet]]s of [[20/20]], plus extra questions.
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 |}
-The median writer probably makes about $3.61 an hour while working on a set. It is entirely possible to be make less than $1 an hour if a low number of tournaments mirror the questions and it takes longer than 45 minutes to write each question.
+This implies the median writer probably makes about $3.61 an hour while working on a set. It is entirely possible to be make less than $1 an hour if a low number of tournaments mirror the questions and it takes longer than 45 minutes to write each question.
 ===Case study: OQL===

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 * It seems unlikely that editors would take a larger fraction than 50%, so if anything the money made by writers should be slightly better.
 * A uniform spread of the distribution is not uncommon for editing (though Planetfall actually had one editor take 11/11 and another take 1/1). In contrast, writing usually follows a Zipf distribution; also, editors can often double-dip and also write. However, these only affect total compensation and not the per-hour wages.
 * By far the worst assumption is ''the time taken to write questions.'' It is possible to achieve the assumed rate of 20 minutes a question but this usually requires (i) a very fast (likely experienced) writer (ii) producing low-difficulty questions (iii) for a shorter format like [[NAQT]] (iv) with preselected answerlines. A slow person producing hard questions from scratch will go much, much slower - anecdotally I (Kevin) often took several hours per question while editing for Nationals - but a more reasonable rate for a newer writer of easier questions might be 45 minutes each. Using this number a writer's compensation slips well below minimum wage:
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 |-
 |}
 As a reminder, these numbers are based on Planetfall, which had 23 mirrors. A high school housewrite can receive as low as 2 mirrors if aimed at Nats-minus difficulty, with the median lying closer to 12. Here's what the numbers look like if one takes that same 45 minutes per question benchmark and scales down a set's profits: