Difference between revisions of "MACF"

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'''mACF''' is a term applied to academic tournaments that follow the [[ACF]] format without being official ACF events. They may occasionally deviate from ACF Rules, such as by having powers or supers.
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'''mACF''' (short for "mock-ACF" or "modified-ACF") is a term applied to academic tournaments that follow the [[ACF format]] without being official ACF events.  
  
==Usefulness of term==
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==Powers==
  
Since every full-length tournament in collegiate quizbowl besides actual [[NAQT]] events involves untimed tossup/bonus format, it is unclear what helpful information is communicated by dubbing a collegiate tournament mACF as opposed to not doing so. (However, as recently as 2005 there was a major independent tournament in NAQT format -- Michigan MLK). It is, however, quite helpful to distinguish good housewritten high school tournaments from bad ones with consummate ease. Generally, high school sets that are good and used in multiple states are in mACF format, while high school sets that are bad and used in single states are not in mACF format. mACF is starting to be used by some middle school tournaments. Some middle school and high school (especially novice high school) tournaments are called mACF even though they do not have neg penalties.
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As ACF tournaments do not include [[powers]], the term "mACF" often refers to tournaments that use twenty untimed tossups and bonuses with powers. However, since the joint ACF/[[PACE]] [[common ruleset]] project before the 2016-2017 season, the ACF rules now include an "optional powermark addendum," meaning that these tournaments do not actually modify the existing ACF rules.
  
==Notable mACF Tournaments==
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==Usefulness of term==
* [[Michigan MLK]] (from 2006 to 2008)
 
* [[Terrapin Invitational Tournament]]
 
* [[Western Invitational Tournament]]
 
* [[Penn Bowl]]
 
* [[Chicago Open]]
 
* [[Illinois Open]]
 
* [[Bulldogs Over Broadway]]
 
* [[Cardinal Classic]]
 
* [[PARFAIT]]
 
* [[Deep Bench]]
 
* [[Early Fall Tournament]]
 
* actually, pretty much every tournament
 
  
==Tournaments with Doubtful mACF Status==
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The term was used more often in the early and mid-2000s, when college and high-school tournaments were more likely to imitate [[CBI]] or bad local formats. Since every full-length tournament in collegiate quizbowl besides [[NAQT]] [[ICT]] uses an untimed tossup/bonus format, and most use questions that are closer to ACF style than NAQT's, it is unclear what helpful information is communicated by dubbing a collegiate tournament mACF as opposed to not doing so. It is generally more effective to give a more detailed description of the intended length and difficulty standards of one's tournament (e.g. "7-line tossups, difficulty akin to [[ACF Regionals]] 2010"), and more tournament announcements have done so since the early 2010s, leaving the term "mACF" behind.
  
Tournaments run by [[Charlie Steinhice]] usually advertise themselves as "mACF" despite not using the ACF format, distribution, or question style. This tenuous semantic connection may be why Charlie Steinhice, who has previously accused ACF of being poison and repeatedly told his teams that ACF is impossible, continues to claim that he is a "supporter of ACF."
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More recently, the term has seen a resurgence of usage among the high-school quizbowl community, to distinguish sets with an ACF-like [[distribution|subject distribution]] (including [[PACE NSC]] and most [[housewrite]]s) from NAQT sets. Since 2018–19, [[GrogerRanks]] has released a set of "mACF-only" rankings (along with a set of "NAQT-only" rankings) before each year's midseason and pre-nationals polls, and after each year's nationals.
  
==See Also==
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==See also==
 
* [[ACF]]
 
* [[ACF]]
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* [[ACF format]]
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==External Links==
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* [https://acf-quizbowl.com/gameplay-rules/ ACF Gameplay Rules]
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* [https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=19064&p=320729 Forums post announcing ACF rules changes]
  
 
[[Category: Formats]]
 
[[Category: Formats]]
[[Category: Quizbowl basics]]
 
 
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]
 
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]

Latest revision as of 12:58, 18 December 2020

mACF (short for "mock-ACF" or "modified-ACF") is a term applied to academic tournaments that follow the ACF format without being official ACF events.

Powers

As ACF tournaments do not include powers, the term "mACF" often refers to tournaments that use twenty untimed tossups and bonuses with powers. However, since the joint ACF/PACE common ruleset project before the 2016-2017 season, the ACF rules now include an "optional powermark addendum," meaning that these tournaments do not actually modify the existing ACF rules.

Usefulness of term

The term was used more often in the early and mid-2000s, when college and high-school tournaments were more likely to imitate CBI or bad local formats. Since every full-length tournament in collegiate quizbowl besides NAQT ICT uses an untimed tossup/bonus format, and most use questions that are closer to ACF style than NAQT's, it is unclear what helpful information is communicated by dubbing a collegiate tournament mACF as opposed to not doing so. It is generally more effective to give a more detailed description of the intended length and difficulty standards of one's tournament (e.g. "7-line tossups, difficulty akin to ACF Regionals 2010"), and more tournament announcements have done so since the early 2010s, leaving the term "mACF" behind.

More recently, the term has seen a resurgence of usage among the high-school quizbowl community, to distinguish sets with an ACF-like subject distribution (including PACE NSC and most housewrites) from NAQT sets. Since 2018–19, GrogerRanks has released a set of "mACF-only" rankings (along with a set of "NAQT-only" rankings) before each year's midseason and pre-nationals polls, and after each year's nationals.

See also

External Links