Difference between revisions of "Fort Osage Novice Set (FONS)"

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The Fort Osage Novice Set (colloquially refered to as FONS) was a novice-level set produced by [[Fort Osage]] High School
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The '''Fort Osage Novice Set''' (colloquially referred to as '''FONS''') was a set marked for novices produced by [[Fort Osage|Fort Osage High School]] beginning in 2015-2016 season.
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==Distribution==
 
==Distribution==
The distribution was as follows:
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Each packet is 21/20, with one tossup serving as a tiebreaker, and was distributed as follows:
 
*4/4 History/Social Studies
 
*4/4 History/Social Studies
 
*4/4 Literature
 
*4/4 Literature
*4/3 Science
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*3/3 Science
 
*3/3 Geography
 
*3/3 Geography
 
*2/2 Fine Arts
 
*2/2 Fine Arts
Line 11: Line 12:
 
*1/1 Current Events
 
*1/1 Current Events
 
*1/1 Trash
 
*1/1 Trash
==Controversy==
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===FONS V Attempted Fix & Subsequent Death===
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One will note that this also adds up to 21 bonuses - to reach 20, one bonus from either literature or history/social studies was removed.
After getting involved in the national quizbowl community and hearing how disliked the school's set was, [[Aidan McWilliams]] started speaking to Coach Malecki about the national opinion, and tried to improve the set based on feedback from the community. Realizing this was alot more than the 2 of them could handle, Aidan reached out to [[Ganon Evans]] for assistance with editing, securing other reputeable editors ([[Matt Mitchell]], [[Eric Mukherjee]], and [[David Dennis]] all agreed to take a look over things), and finding a nice balance between Coach Malecki's ideological distro and a more accepted distro.
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FONS V officially ceased operations on July 20th, 2019 with "...no intentions of returning soon"
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The 2018 iteration of the set (FONS IV) added an additional science tossup, raising the distribution to 22/(21 minus 1).
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==Reception==
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FONS is best known for its poor reception with the community. By the third iteration of the set, it had acquired a reputation for poor editing, an unorthodox distribution, overshooting its difficulty, and overall poor execution.
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[[Josh Malecki]], coach for Fort Osage, was the sole editor for the set and responsible for many of the unusual choices that the set had taken: the 3/3 geography distribution was chosen because "geography is something that EVERY kid has had by their Sophomore year"<ref>[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=336398&sid=ad3def4874384536eb1522791d401892#p336398 Re: FONS III] by [[FortOsageScholarBowl]] Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:32 pm</ref> (a claim that [[Andrew Wang]] succinctly described as "extremely 'not true'"<ref>[https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=336399#p336399 Re: FONS III] by [[Oh No You Didn't]] Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:49 pm</ref>), and the lack of philosophy was because "[Malecki] would not touch Philosophy with a hundred foot pole". Despite continued criticism of the set's production, no additional editors were ever obtained and there were only marginal improvements in quality in each subsequent iteratios of the set.
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{{Pic|Image=Moma.png{{!}}300px|Caption=FONS III: packet 2, tossup 14}}
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Perhaps the most infamous individual question from the set was one in FONS III whose answerline conflated the MoMA and the Met, two different art museums in New York City.
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===The Death of FONS===
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In 2019, FONS V was announced. It was the first iteration of the set to have a second editor, with Fort Osage player [[Aidan McWilliams]] sharing duties with Josh Malecki. Several outside parties were recruited as additional help in ensuring the quality of the set.
 +
 
 +
On July 20th, 2019 Malecki announced that FONS V would be shut down, issuing a final note on community criticism by linking the "It Just Doesn't Matter" speech from ''Meatballs''. In response, [[Joe Feldman]] linked a clip of Amy's Baking Company and stated "screw you too. FONS won't be missed."
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==References==
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<references/>
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{{c|Sets}}

Latest revision as of 20:16, 28 October 2021

The Fort Osage Novice Set (colloquially referred to as FONS) was a set marked for novices produced by Fort Osage High School beginning in 2015-2016 season.

Distribution

Each packet is 21/20, with one tossup serving as a tiebreaker, and was distributed as follows:

  • 4/4 History/Social Studies
  • 4/4 Literature
  • 3/3 Science
  • 3/3 Geography
  • 2/2 Fine Arts
  • 2/2 Religion/Mythology
  • 1/1 Math/Computer Science
  • 1/1 Current Events
  • 1/1 Trash

One will note that this also adds up to 21 bonuses - to reach 20, one bonus from either literature or history/social studies was removed.

The 2018 iteration of the set (FONS IV) added an additional science tossup, raising the distribution to 22/(21 minus 1).

Reception

FONS is best known for its poor reception with the community. By the third iteration of the set, it had acquired a reputation for poor editing, an unorthodox distribution, overshooting its difficulty, and overall poor execution.

Josh Malecki, coach for Fort Osage, was the sole editor for the set and responsible for many of the unusual choices that the set had taken: the 3/3 geography distribution was chosen because "geography is something that EVERY kid has had by their Sophomore year"[1] (a claim that Andrew Wang succinctly described as "extremely 'not true'"[2]), and the lack of philosophy was because "[Malecki] would not touch Philosophy with a hundred foot pole". Despite continued criticism of the set's production, no additional editors were ever obtained and there were only marginal improvements in quality in each subsequent iteratios of the set.

Moma.png
Above:
FONS III: packet 2, tossup 14

Perhaps the most infamous individual question from the set was one in FONS III whose answerline conflated the MoMA and the Met, two different art museums in New York City.

The Death of FONS

In 2019, FONS V was announced. It was the first iteration of the set to have a second editor, with Fort Osage player Aidan McWilliams sharing duties with Josh Malecki. Several outside parties were recruited as additional help in ensuring the quality of the set.

On July 20th, 2019 Malecki announced that FONS V would be shut down, issuing a final note on community criticism by linking the "It Just Doesn't Matter" speech from Meatballs. In response, Joe Feldman linked a clip of Amy's Baking Company and stated "screw you too. FONS won't be missed."

References

  1. Re: FONS III by FortOsageScholarBowl Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:32 pm
  2. Re: FONS III by Oh No You Didn't Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:49 pm