WIT XIII

Paul Reverdy <*paulreverdy_at_paulreverdy2.yahoo.invalid*> · Tue, 2 Aug 2005 01:22:36 -0700

Hi everyone, this is the official announcement for WIT XIII: 
"Cheese-eating surrender monkeys", to be held at UC Berkeley on 8 
October, 2005. Editing by me, Paul Reverdy, and Chris Nguyen. 
Tournament direction by Paul Reverdy, a herd of majestik møøse, and 
possibly Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones. Details as follows:

REGISTRATION:

Email us (reverdy (at) berkeley (dot) edu) if you have questions or to 
register.  We must hear from you before September 24.

ELIGIBILITY:
Anyone.

RULES:
ACF, ok non-verbal conferring, all ties broken by OT questions.

SUBMISSIONS:
A packet of 22/22 sorted by the major categories below should be sent 
to the editor (Paul) at: reverdy (at) berkeley (dot) edu.

4/4 literature
Divided into: 1/1 fiction, 1/1 drama, 1/1 poetry, 1/1 anything. Please 
balance with regard to time period and author's nationality (one name 
the author from Latin America question is ok, two such questions is 
not).

4/4 history
Divided into: 2/2 Modern Western, (US, European, etc.) 1/0 or 0/1 
Ancient, 1/0 or 0/1 Asian or non-US American. Please balance with 
regard to time period and subject matter (one Greco-Roman question is 
ok, two such questions is not).

4/4 science
Divided into: 1/1 biology, 1/1 chemistry, 1/1 physics, 1/0 or 0/1 math 
or computer science, 1/0 or 0/1 astronomy or earth science. Please 
balance with regard to subject matter (one organic chemistry and one 
physical chemistry question is ok, two physical chemistry questions is 
not).

3/3 religious studies
Divided into: 1/1 religion, 1/1 mythology, 1/1 philosophy.

3/3 social studies
Divided into: one question each in either geography or current events, 
either psychology or economics, either anthropology or sociology, one 
more geography or current events.

3/3 cultural studies
Divided into: one question each in popular culture, sports, painting, 
music, either sculpture or
architecture, either film or opera or dance.

1/1 miscellaneous
Divided into: one interdisciplinary question and one question on 
anything you like.

Small deviations from the subdistributions are acceptable AS LONG AS 
ALL SUBCATEGORIES ARE REPRESENTED.  For example, having both a math and 
a computer science question can displace the astronomy, but only if 
astronomy or earth science appears in a physics bonus somewhere.  
Similarly, if you want to write both a film and an opera question, 
we'll let you dispense with the popular culture or music, but not 
painting or sculpture.  On the other hand, sending me two sports 
questions is unacceptable.  All packets
that blatantly try to deviate from the subdistributions will be 
returned for modification. You are welcomed to submit extra questions 
for us to choose from.

IMPORTANT:
1. Please submit grammatically correct ACF-style questions of 
reasonable length -- no more than four long or five short and long 
sentences -- no less than three sentences.  Please aim for a difficulty 
level at about that of last year's ACF Fall.  This tournament has a 
light load in terms of question submission, therefore we want the 
questions to be of the highest quality, and hence usable.

2. Files in rtf format (courier new, 10 pt) with required answers 
underlined but not bolded is
preferred.  Sort questions by category.  Begin each part of the bonus 
with the point value in parentheses, not A, B, C, nor 1, 2, 3.  Do not 
use tab.  Feel free to use contractions like FTPE.  Don't send us more 
than one six-part bonus, nor more than two 30-20-10s.

3. Balance the difficulty of your bonuses -- don't send me extremely 
easy or extremely hard bonuses -- everyone should be able to get at 
least 10 points on a bonus, but only good players should be able to get 
30. Don't write ass-hard questions.  Don't give useless clues.

4. Teams with only novice players or less than 3 team members may 
request a dispensation or a reduced distribution by emailing the editor 
(Paul) by September 11.  If you can only muster a half packet of 12/12 
due to extraordinary circumstances, please email Paul, preferably 
before September 11.  We hope to have a tasty best packet award.

FEES:
$100 base fee.
-$10 more than one team.
-$05 buzzer system.
-$10 best packet in the tournament as determined by the cabal of 
cheese-eating surrender monkeys
-$40 packet received before Saturday, September 3.
+$30 packet received after Saturday, September 24.

:FREELANCING:
You will receive the entire tournament set for a packet of 11/11 on 
various categories subject to approval received before September 3, or 
a full packet of 22/22 following the distribution above received before 
September 24.  We also welcome packet swaps.

If you're interested, please first email Paul before working on the 
packet to ask him what kind of questions he needs: reverdy (at) 
berkeley (dot) edu.  We withhold the right to reject packets that we 
deem to be extraordinarily poor in quality.