Difference between revisions of "NAQT Invitational Series"

Revision as of 12:13, 15 May 2017

Invitational Series is NAQT's standard product for high school invitational tournaments. Popularly known as IS Sets, they are 12-packet (formerly 14- and 15-packet) question sets in which each packet consists of 24 tossups and 24 bonuses according to this category distribution. Generally, each IS set is used by many different tournaments around the country on different dates during the school year. Recently NAQT has produced five new IS sets per year.

Sets are numbered consecutively. Invitational Series #166, or IS-166, was the last set for the 2016-2017 competition year.

As with all NAQT products, IS tossups are limited in length. The current limit is 425 characters (with some arcane rules about which characters count).

Introductory Invitational Series

NAQT also produces Introductory Invitational Series sets, commonly called A-sets because their numeric designators are followed by "A" (e.g. "Invitational Series #165A" or "IS-165A"). These sets have easier, shorter (maximum 291 characters) questions and are intended for beginning high school players, and use a slightly different category distribution. Recently NAQT has produced five new Introductory IS sets per year.

Question Sharing

NAQT shares questions between Invitational Series sets (including introductory sets) and custom offerings, such as questions for the unique MSHSAA and IHSA formats, and in 2015-2016 and earlier, questions for TV shows. The corresponding IS sets then become unavailable in the target market for the custom sets.

In 2016-2017, the last IS set of the year (IS-166) used some questions modified from the same year's Division II Sectional Championship Tournament set. This had also been done in some form a decade prior. As of this writing, NAQT has not decided whether this practice will continue in subsequent years.

Reception

Since about 2010, IS sets have been well received, though in the previous decade reviews were more commonly negative. Late-season IS sets are sometimes criticized as being too difficult due to NAQT's practice of trying to minimize repeats between IS sets in the same year. Some analysis was done of difficulty in 2011.

Number of Packets

From the beginning of the IS program (1997), regular IS sets were 15 packets (usually of 24/24) long.

In 2011-2012 NAQT switched regular sets to 14 packets (of 24/24) since almost no tournaments used all 15 packets.

In 2016-2017 NAQT switched regular sets to 12 packets (of 24/24) and introduced alternate versions in which there were 13 packets of 22/22.

Introductory Invitational Series sets have always been 12 packets long (also of 24/24) except for the very first set (IS-36A), which was 15 packets long. When the 13-packet, 22/22 versions of regular sets became available in 2016-2017, the same offering was made for Introductory Invitational Series sets.

Collegiate Use

When the IS program began in 1997, the sets were intended for college tournaments. At some point shortly after that, they became a high school product. In the 2000s some IS sets were used for college tournaments, a widely criticized practice. In the 2010s this practice became very rare. In 2015-2016 NAQT began producing a Collegiate Novice Series, in which one regular Invitational Series set and one Introductory Invitational Set per year would be modified into NAQT's college category distribution, with new questions added to be suitable for a college audience.

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-'''IS Sets''' (short for '''Invitational Series''') are 14-packet (formerly 15-packet) question sets produced by [[NAQT]], typically for use at regular season high school [[quizbowl]] tournaments. Each packet consists of 24 tossups and 24 bonuses; the distribution is posted on [http://www.naqt.com/hs/distribution.jsp naqt.com]. Generally, each IS set is used by many different tournaments around the country on different dates during the school year. As of the 2012-13 season, NAQT produces five new IS-sets per year (down from six).
+'''Invitational Series''' is [[NAQT]]'s standard product for high school invitational tournaments. Popularly known as '''IS Sets''', they are 12-packet (formerly 14- and 15-packet) question sets in which each packet consists of 24 tossups and 24 bonuses according to [http://www.naqt.com/hs/distribution.jsp this category distribution]. Generally, each IS set is used by many different tournaments around the country on different dates during the school year. Recently NAQT has produced five new IS sets per year.
+Sets are numbered consecutively. Invitational Series #166, or IS-166, was the last set for the 2016-2017 competition year.
+As with all NAQT products, IS tossups are limited in length. The current limit is 425 characters (with some arcane rules about which characters count).
 ==Introductory Invitational Series==
+NAQT also produces Introductory Invitational Series sets, commonly called '''A-sets''' because their numeric designators are followed by "A" (e.g. "Invitational Series #165A" or "IS-165A"). These sets have easier, shorter (maximum 291 characters) questions and are intended for beginning high school players, and use [https://www.naqt.com/hs/distribution-introductory.jsp a slightly different category distribution]. Recently NAQT has produced five new Introductory IS sets per year.
+==Question Sharing==
+NAQT shares questions between Invitational Series sets (including introductory sets) and custom offerings, such as questions for the unique [[MSHSAA]] and [[IHSA]] formats, and in 2015-2016 and earlier, questions for TV shows. The corresponding IS sets then become unavailable in the target market for the custom sets.
+In 2016-2017, the last IS set of the year (IS-166) used some questions modified from the same year's [[Division II]] [[Sectional Championship Tournament]] set. This had also been done in some form a decade prior. As of this writing, NAQT has not decided whether this practice will continue in subsequent years.
-NAQT also produces 12-packet Introductory IS sets, also known as "A-series" sets or '''A-Sets''', because their designations end with the letter A (such as "IS #97A). These sets have shorter, easier questions than the regular Invitational Series and are intended for first- and second-year high school players. NAQT produces four new A-sets each year, which overlap substantially with content that NAQT produces for local televised competitions.
 ==Reception==
-Until about 2009, some elite high school teams criticized IS Sets for being too easy, or for being [[funn]] due to a high amount of cutesy or non-academic writing. Though the quality of the writing has improved recently in tandem with [[good quizbowl]] standards, statistics-based inquiry has shown that IS-sets since then are generally more difficult for local/low-level teams than other available options ([http://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=11456&p=215479 see here]). Despite this, IS-sets are the staple of many local high school quizbowl circuits, with overall reception being positive in recent years.
+Since about 2010, IS sets have been well received, though in the previous decade reviews were more commonly negative. Late-season IS sets are sometimes criticized as being too difficult due to NAQT's practice of trying to minimize repeats between IS sets in the same year. Some [http://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=11456&p=215479 analysis] was done of difficulty in 2011.
+==Number of Packets==
+From the beginning of the IS program (1997), regular IS sets were 15 packets (usually of 24/24) long.
+In 2011-2012 NAQT switched regular sets to 14 packets (of 24/24) since almost no tournaments used all 15 packets.
+In 2016-2017 NAQT switched regular sets to 12 packets (of 24/24) and introduced alternate versions in which there were 13 packets of 22/22.
-Tossups cannot be submitted to IS-sets unless they are fewer than 425 characters (about 4 lines) in length, a [[character limit|limit]] which also applies to the [[HSNCT]]. Reaction to this limit has been mixed.
+Introductory Invitational Series sets have always been 12 packets long (also of 24/24) except for the very first set (IS-36A), which was 15 packets long. When the 13-packet, 22/22 versions of regular sets became available in 2016-2017, the same offering was made for Introductory Invitational Series sets.
-==College tournament controversy==
+==Collegiate Use==
+When the IS program began in 1997, the sets were intended for college tournaments. At some point shortly after that, they became a high school product. In the 2000s some IS sets were used for college tournaments, a [http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=4439&start=0 widely] [http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=4810 criticized] practice. In the 2010s this practice became very rare. In 2015-2016 NAQT began producing a [[Collegiate Novice Series]], in which one regular Invitational Series set and one Introductory Invitational Set per year would be modified into NAQT's [https://www.naqt.com/college/distribution.jsp college category distribution], with new questions added to be suitable for a college audience.
-Many people prominent in the college game have criticized college tournaments for using IS sets.  Their arguments include the fact that questions produced for high school players are inappropriate for a college audience, and that these tournaments might sap funds from tournaments aimed at college teams. Though many tournaments such as [[CUT]] and [[WashU]]'s annual [[GIT]] once used IS-sets for college teams, the practice has declined over time and has been largely eliminated from mainstream college quizbowl as other easy alternatives such as [[Collegiate Novice]] and [[ACF Fall]] gain traction. Holdouts such as the [[Big South]] competition remain. See [http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=4439&start=0 these] [http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=4810 threads] for discussion of this issue.
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