EFT
The Early Fall Tournament (EFT) is a name given to two distinct series of easier-than-regular quizbowl tournaments. The first series, written largely by the Brown club, ran five times between 2006 and 2010. The name was revived by Will Alston in 2016 for a tournament with a similar purpose.
Revival
The EFT name was successfully revived in the fall of 2016 by Will Alston, who went on to edit or be otherwise involved in the next four iterations. After its return, EFT would routinely have the largest fields and most mirrors of any collegiate tournament short of those run by ACF and NAQT.
2019
Roughly 215 teams played the 2019 iteration of the set.
2018
The 2018 iteration was originally intended to be head edited by Joey Goldman alongside editors Alex Damisch, Ewan MacAulay, Dylan Minarik, Tejas Raje, Ramapriya Rangaraju, and Ryan Rosenberg. However, the logistics of the tournament fell into disarray and original editors Tejas, Alex, Dylan, and Ryan were forced to recruit additional editors Billy Busse, Ike Jose, Eric Mukherjee, Will Nediger, Jacob Reed, and Kenji Shimizu in the final weeks of its production. Jordan Brownstein, Rob Carson, Auroni Gupta, Andrew Hart, Kady Hsu, Ryan Humphrey, Young Fenimore Lee, Benji Nguyen, Andrew Wang, and Jason Zhou were credited as writers; it is unclear at what point they joined the project. Joey and Ewan were unable to complete their roles as head editor and science editor respectively and were ultimately credited as writers; the set's subtitle was made I guess Brexit really does mean Brexit as a result. Original editor Ramapriya did not appear in the final credits.
Rob Carson was originally slated to just provide oversight alongside Will Alston but stepped up to write. Alex also served as logistics czar.
Discussion
The final product was thought to have overshot its intended difficulty and its unfortunate editing situation meant that it was much rougher around the edges than previous iterations of the set.
Justine French made several prominent criticisms in the general discussion forum. While others joined them in commenting on overall question quality, French more controversially advocated "against putting hard clues in the easy part, since for players that do not know very many clues it is disheartening to have one of the few hard clues they can get be rendered useless by some (often tangentially related) easy clue."[1] They also made the claims that Advanced Stats was a) "a significant burden on hosts" (and in fact would "[force] hosts to recruit almost double the number of staffers"[2]), b) that they "only exist so that elite players can flex the first buzzes they got because they remembered a clue from Chicago Open four years ago", and c) are "actively harmful to community" unless editors use them to actively fix questions.[3]
French's arguments were criticized as hyperbolic, with Billy Busse comparing the post to "throwing a temper tantrum at McDonalds because they put pickles on your burger after you asked for no pickles",[4] and many of their individual claims were disputed by later posters:
- the level of competency required to operate Advanced Stats is only marginally above that required to use electronic scoresheets, and thus scorekeepers (while preferred) would not be necessary[5] and any region (including SoCal) could find people with this level of competency.[6]
- Advanced Stats play an important role in tournaments that do not require changes from editors (e.g. ACF Regionals[7]) and were in fact used to edit EFT between mirrors.[8]
The set also featured Andrew Wang's memorable tossup on "carbon and carbon", which Graham Reid described as "pathological".[9] The question would be changed to ask for "these bonds" in later mirrors, but mere existence of this question would inspire players to neg future tossups with the pronoun "these two elements" with this answer.
EFT Round 5 wrote: 17. A bond between these two elements is reversibly formed and broken in a Wanzlick equilibrium. Some schemes for forming bonds between these two elements use catalytic cycles consisting of oxidative addition, transmetalation, and reductive elimination. A bond forms between these two elements in the first step of a reaction that has a four-membered oxaphosphetane ring intermediate. A bond between these two elements forms in palladium-catalyzed (*) coupling reactions. Organometallic reagents are often used to produce bonds between these two elements by giving one of them an atypical nucleophilic character. Bonds between these two elements are simply drawn as lines with no labels in skeletal structures of molecules. For 10 points, the backbone of organic chemistry consists of bonds between what two elements, which both have an atomic mass of 12? ANSWER: carbon AND carbon [or C AND C; or two carbons; accept carbon–carbon bonds] <AW, Chemistry>
| Region | Host | Date | Champion | Second | Stats | Packets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discord | the editing team | 9/22/2018 | Stats | Packets | ||
| SoCal | UCLA | 12/1/2018 | Stats | |||
| NorCal | Stanford | 11/10/2018 | Stats | |||
| Virginia Tech | Virginia Tech | 11/10/2018 | Stats | |||
| SoCal | UCSD | 10/27/2018 | cancelled | |||
| UK (closed) | Oxford | 10/20/2018 | Prelims Combined | |||
| Boise State | Boise State | 10/13/2018 | BYU | Oregon | Stats | |
| Georgia Tech | Georgia Tech | 10/13/2018 | Prelims Overall | |||
| UK (open) | Oxford | 10/13/2018 | Stats | |||
| Yale | Yale | 10/13/2018 | Amherst A | Harvard B | Morning Complete | |
| UCF | University of Central Florida | 10/13/2018 | Prelims Combined | |||
| Canada | Carleton University | 10/13/2018 | Toronto J | Toronto B | Prelims All Games | |
| Minnesota | Minnesota | 10/6/2018 | "Drangonball Z" (sic) | Minnesota D | Stats | |
| WUSTL | WUSTL | 10/6/2018 | prelims combined | |||
| Michigan | Michigan | 9/29/2018 | OSU A | MSU A | Prelims Combined | |
| Maryland | Maryland | 9/29/2018 | Johns Hopkins A | Maryland A | Prelims Combined |
2017
The 2017 iteration was again edited by Will Alston and Richard Yu, with James Lasker joining them. Other writers included Alex Fregeau, Vasa Clarke, Eric Xu, and Jack Mehr.
It followed in the steps of TTIAC by including a "thought" distribution.
Discussion
As one of the earliest sets to make use of Advanced Stats for buzzpoint tracking and scorekeeping, EFT 2017 marked the first time that many moderators had ever used the system and in some cases the first time they had used online scoresheets at all; the resulting growing pains were sizable. In the thread "PSA - Don't be a Luddite", Will relayed that he had received complaints from attendees of the WUSTL mirror about several moderators who had misbehaved due to displeasure with the technology. After David Dennis came forward as one of the disgruntled individuals from the WUSTL mirror, Nicholas Conder expressed concern that learning a new system on short notice was a daunting task; Cody Voight (and a chorus of others) responded by asserting that it was easy to learn. Hardly starting on the politest of notes, the thread escalated to the point of vitriol within a dozen posts[10] and the conversation about how to improve the interface and usability of Advanced Stats was quickly drowned out by accusations of stupidity, malice, and incompetence leveled between those who had never used it and those who had.
Though many people in the thread indicated that they found the new system as easy or easier than either online or paper scoresheets, it was clear that less experienced moderators likely found it harder. Ultimately, several improvements were made to Advanced Stats and the logistics surrounding it during the time period in which this thread was active (several in direct response to points raised), including updates to the instructions documents and changes in the way bonuses were inputted.
electronic scoresheets are very easy to use thanks to the fact that I've ever used a computer mouse. Thanks Ophir!
| Region | Host | Date | Champion | Second | Stats | Packets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skype | the editing team | 12/26/2017 | Stats | Packets | ||
| Michigan | Michigan | 10/21/2017 | Prelims Combined | |||
| UK | 10/21/2017 | Stats (incomplete) | ||||
| Northern California | Stanford | 10/15/2017 | Stats | |||
| Louisville | Louisville | 10/14/2017 | Prelims Combined | |||
| Southern California | UCSD | 10/14/2017 | Stats | |||
| Canada | University of Toronto | 10/14/2017 | Stats | |||
| Virginia | Virginia | 10/14/2017 | Prelims Overall | |||
| WKU | WKU | 10/14/2017 | (cancelled) | |||
| Georgia Tech | Georgia Tech | 10/14/2017 | Stats | |||
| Minnesota | University of Minnesota | 10/14/2017 | Stats | |||
| Boise State | Boise State | 10/14/2017 | Oregon | Colorado | Stats | |
| WUSTL | WUSTL | 10/7/2017 | Prelims Combined | |||
| Yale | Yale | 9/30/2017 | Prelims Combined | |||
| New College of Florida | New College of Florida | 9/30/2017 | Stats | |||
| Second Skype | the editing team | 12/26/2017 | Stats |
2016
The 2016 iteration of EFT was edited by Will Alston, Richard Yu, and Andrew Wang, with writing contributions from Eddie Kim, Jason Cheng, Parikshit Chauhan, Jason Zhou, and Ryan Humphrey. Auroni Gupta, Ike Jose, and Billy Busse assisted with tournament production.
This tournament was the first to explicitly include a playtest mirror by holding an open Skype mirror of the tournament a week before any closed mirrors.
| Region | Host | Date | Champion | Second | Stats | Packets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skype | the editing team | 9/17/2016 | Stats | Packets | ||
| Northeast | New York University | 10/1/2016 | Prelims Combined | |||
| Mid-Atlantic | University of Maryland | 10/8/2016 | Prelims Combined | |||
| Southeast | Duke University | 10/8/2016 | Prelims Combined | |||
| Florida | University of Florida | 10/1/2016 | Stats | |||
| Kentucky | Western Kentucky University | 10/15/2016 | Stats | |||
| Texas | Texas A&M | 10/29/2016 | Stats | |||
| North | University of Minnesota | 9/24/2016 | Stats | |||
| Upper Midwest | University of Chicago | 10/22/2016 | Prelims Complete | |||
| Lower Midwest | Washington University in St. Louis | 10/1/2016 | Stats | |||
| Great Lakes | Youngstown State University | 10/8/2016 | Prelims Playoffs | |||
| Northern California | Stanford University | 10/15/2016 | Prelims Combined | |||
| Southwest | University of California, San Diego | 10/8/2016 | Prelims Combined | |||
| Canada | University of Ottawa | 10/15/2016 | Stats | |||
| UK | Oxford | 11/26/2016 | Stats |
Original Brown tournament
2010
EFT 5: The Prince of Aquitaine whose Tournament is Destroyed was a collaboration between Brown, Eric Mukherjee, and Illinois, headed by Ike Jose. Mirrors occurred at Brown, Illinois, VCU, Georgia Tech, and Toronto, with the main site taking place on October 2, 2010.
This incarnation of EFT received more criticism than previous years, with common complaints being the lack of grammar/copy-editing in many questions, absurd difficulty outliers, and an unclear baseline difficulty.
| Set | Region | Host | Date | Champion | Second | Stats | Packets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EFT 5 | New England (main site) |
Brown | October 2, 2010 | Harvard A | Yale A | Prelims, Playoffs | Packets |
| Midwest | Illinois | October 2, 2010 | Minnesota A | Minnesota B | Stats† | ||
| California | Claremont | October 3, 2010 | Irvine | UCSD A | Prelims, Playoffs | ||
| Mid-Atlantic | VCU | October 3, 2010 | Maryland A | Carnegie Mellon | Stats | ||
| Minnesota | Minnesota | October 16, 2010 | Gautam Kandlikar | St. Thomas A | Stats | ||
| Southeast | Georgia Tech | October 23, 2010 | South Carolina A | Chipola & Georgia (tie) | Prelims, Playoffs | ||
| Canada | Toronto | October 31, 2010 | Western Ontario | Toronto A | Stats |
† Broken stats link
2009
EFT 4: Cattle-Related Vocabulary took place on October 3 and 4, 2009 at Brown, Virginia, Illinois, Texas, UCLA, Millsaps, Toronto, Gonzaga, and Macalester. Substantial portions of the set were written by Jerry Vinokurov, Guy Tabachnick, Eric Mukherjee, Aaron Rosenberg, Daniel Klein, and Ian Eppler, with contributions from Seth Teitler, Ike Jose, Trygve Meade, and Hannah Kirsch.
The tournament was mostly well-received, with most of the complaints centered on uneven bonus difficulty and mediocre copy editing. The tournament elicited discussion of the nature of stock clues after Andy Watkins criticized the use of the Reptile Fund as an early clue for Bismarck. A discussion of the trash distribution in academic tournaments also ensued.
| Set | Region | Host | Date | Champion | Second | Stats | Packets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EFT 4 | New England (main site) |
Brown | October 3, 2009 | Harvard B | Harvard A | Prelims, Playoffs | Packets |
| Canada | Toronto | October 3, 2009 | Toronto A | Michigan A | Prelims, Playoffs† | ||
| Mid-Atlantic | Virginia | October 3, 2009 | Maggie Walker | State College | Stats† | ||
| Midwest | Illinois | October 3, 2009 | Chicago D | Chicago B | Stats† | ||
| Minnesota | Macalester | October 3, 2009 | Minnesota Red | Carleton | Stats | ||
| Northwest | Gonzaga | October 3, 2009 | Washington A | Washington B | Stats† | ||
| Southeast | South Carolina | October 3, 2009 | Clemson | Southside | Stats | ||
| Texas | UT-Austin | October 3, 2009 | Rice | LASA A | Stats† | ||
| California | UCLA | October 4, 2009 | UCSD | Steve Katz | Stats | ||
| South | Millsaps | October 4, 2009 | Alabama A? | Alabama B? | Stats |
† Broken stats link
2008
EFT 3: Trapping Bees in a Dyson Sphere ran on October 4 and 11, 2008 at various sites around the country, including Brown, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, UCLA, FSU and Illinois, with many sites seeing record attendance (the Brown site had to cap registration at 24 teams due to staff shortages). The set was written in equal shares by Jerry Vinokurov, Dennis Jang, Eric Mukherjee, and Aaron Rosenberg, with contributions from Jonathan Magin, Evan Nagler, Lisa Qing, and Eric Johnson, and as tradition dictates, was assembled at 7AM on the day of the tournament.
The tournament was well-received overall, with the exception of a tossup on peer-to-peer networks and an excess of questions on comic books in the trash distribution (everyone knows whose fault that is). The tournament also set off a large discussion about the writing of music questions, due to a tossup on the Leningrad Symphony containing some technical middle clues that were not uniquely identifying.
EFT 3 was also notably the subject of Christian Flow's Mind Games Article in the Harvard Crimson, which followed the exploits for Dallas Simons and the Harvard B team.
| Set | Region | Host | Date | Champion | Second | Stats | Packets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EFT 3 | New England (main site) |
Brown | October 4, 2008 | Harvard A | Dartmouth A | Stats† | Packets |
| California | UCLA | October 4, 2008 | UCLA 2 | UCSD A & Stanford (tie) | Stats | ||
| Mid-Atlantic | Wake Forest | October 11, 2008 | Maryland B | Virginia | Stats | ||
| Florida | FSU | Stats† | |||||
| Midwest | Illinois | Stats† | |||||
| Southeast | Vanderbilt | Stats† |
† Broken stats link
2007
EFT 2, subtitled Rataplan Ghost Rides the World War I Ambulance, was written by Dennis Jang, Eric Mukherjee, and Jerry Vinokurov, with the same goal as the previous incarnation. Mirrors were held at Brown, UCLA, USF, William and Mary, Chicago, Vanderbilt, and OU, with the main mirror taking place on September 29, 2007.
Rutgers won the Brown mirror after defeating Harvard, with Jason Keller winning the individual scoring award. The tournament was a huge logistical nightmare however, and prizes couldn't be given because stats were not compiled in time. Surprisingly, people did not complain.
The question set itself was praised fairly highly, with some qualms about the length of the questions (which averaged somewhere between 6 and 7 lines), the difficulty of tossups on Tlaloc and Legendre, the representation of the social science canon (some liked it, some didn't) and a factual error about the writer of Harrision Bergeron. The two packets written exclusively by Jerry were also seen as much more difficult than the others. Willie Chen returned briefly to complain about problems in the set that didn't exist, but was quickly refuted by Eric and Chris Ray.
| Set | Region | Host | Date | Champion | Second | Stats | Packets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EFT 2 | New England (main site) |
Brown | September 29, 2007 | Rutgers | Harvard | Stats | Packets |
| Texas/Oklahoma | Oklahoma | September 29, 2007 | UT-Austin | Harding | Stats | ||
| California | UCLA | October 6, 2007 | Irvine A | UCLA B | Prelims, Playoffs | ||
| Florida | USF | October 6, 2007 | Not available | ||||
| Mid-Atlantic | William and Mary | October 6, 2007 | Maryland A | Penn | Stats† | ||
| Midwest | Chicago | October 6, 2007 | Minnesota B | Illinois A & UIC (tie) | Prelims, Playoffs | ||
| Southeast | Vanderbilt | October 6, 2007 | Alabama A | WUSTL A | Stats† |
† Broken stats link
2006
The first incarnation was written by Seth Teitler, Ryan Westbrook, Jerry Vinokurov, and Selene Koo, with the intent being to have an additional early-season novice tournament that, unlike ACF Fall, did not require teams to submit a packet to play. EFT was held at several regional sites over the weekends of October 7-8 and October 14-15, 2006. Host schools included Chicago, Brown, Maryland, Texas, Georgia Tech, USF, and UCLA.
Feedback can be found in this thread. Overall, this tournament was received with praise. Much of the commentary revolved around the difficulty of "hard" bonus parts as well as niche subjects like world literature and social science.
| Set | Region | Host | Date | Champion | Second | Stats | Packets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EFT 1 | New England (main site) |
Brown | October 7, 2006 | Yale A | Rutgers | Stats† | Packets |
| California | UCLA | October 7, 2006 | Stanford A | UCLA A | Stats | ||
| Florida | USF | October 7, 2006 | Not available | ||||
| Texas | UT-Austin | October 7, 2006 | Not available | ||||
| Southeast | Georgia Tech | October 8, 2006 | Vanderbilt | Kentucky | Stats† | ||
| Midwest | Chicago | October 14, 2006 | Chicago A | Michigan A | Prelims, Playoffs |
† Broken stats link