or, why i love ACF. --- In quizbowl_at_y..., nominalize <no_reply_at_y...> wrote: > Such a program should help improve question-writing across the board, > and might eliminate some of the stump-the-chump mentality that > cyclically looms over the circuit, since teams would not just be > writing for ACF or ACF-style tournaments. i have nothing to say about the practice-question swap proposal in general, but i thought the above statement ought to be addressed because it reflects what i perceive to be a common, or at least commonly-expressed, misconception. ACF isn't intrinsically harder (or easier) than any other format. it's just more academic than most, which is an important distinction. in the past, it is true that some people have used ACF as an outlet for all the outrageously difficult questions they've written during the year, but this typically happens only at ACF nationals, which is *supposed* to be hard, unlike ACF in general. and even then, a conscientious editor can do wonders in trimming the outliers in terms of difficulty. fundamentally, "ACF" really only means the following: 1) academically-oriented questions 2) *packet-submission* (so if you want to write an easy packet, you can--and believe me, it would be welcomed) 3) centrally-edited by a highly competent editor or team of editors. i know others will disagree, but to me, question quality is much more important than subject distribution (provided the latter is still within reason--you don't want to play on a packet consisting only of painting questions unless you know in advance that it's all painting). so point 3) is key--subash and raj and kelly and the other guys have by now amply demonstrated their abilities as tournament editors, and we get to reap the benefits. ACF is my favorite format, and if next year they added 2/2 current events and upped the trash distribution and maybe included a little more geography and basically in all ways tried to increase the number of questions on my weakest subject areas, it would still be my favorite format. packet-submission has its strengths (you get to hear what everybody else thinks is important; you get a lot of different styles and voices; you can write questions on stuff you think is cool and have other people hear about it), with one obvious weakness: inconsistency of submissions. with a top-notch editor going at it, though, we get all the plusses of packet-submission without having to suffer through the duds. i am willing to bet that this weekend's ACF fall questions will be somewhere between juniorbird and invitational-level accessibility, while being much higher quality overall (in terms of consistency, use of concrete clues, etc.). in particular, if you have been to a non- juniorbird tournament this year, you will not find any ACF questions more difficult on average than the questions you have heard so far, and in addition, the difficulty wil be much more uniform (so that it's not stump-the-chump one minute, and then find-your-ass the next). due to its packet-submission nature, ACF is what you make of it. i encourage you to make it accessible and enjoyable for all. it's very possible--as kelly proved with last year's ACF fall set--to produce questions that can challenge the top teams while still being accessible for middling and below-average teams. it's the main reason i'm so excited about this weekend--it wouldn't surprise me at all if it turned out to be the best set of questions i've ever heard, and it's well-established that i'm an evil dinosaur who has been playing quizbowl since the paleozoic era. next time you submit a packet for ACF, do everybody a favor and make it easier than your initial instinct suggests. i don't think anyone minds a high-scoring game so long as it still *rewards knowledge*-- and that, rather than being difficult or inaccessible, is what ACF is all about. if you still think ACF is what it was in 1995, wake up and give it another shot, because you're missing out on a great experience. joon unabashed ACF apologist, but not affiliated with ACF as an organization
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