Science Non-Strosity

Science Non-Strosity was a 2009 side tournament run at Cardinal Classic and its mirrors. Its name was derived from Science Monstrosity, an all-science tournament previously run at Chicago Open.

Production

The impetus for the tournament was provided by Andy Watkins, who in the summer of 2008 noted in this thread that he would attempt to relieve the problem of not having enough competent editors by writing his own Science Monstrosity (it is unknown whether his plan of unveiling this tournament at the 2009 Chicago Open will actually come to fruition). Several forum denizens offered to help him write such a tournament; it is unknown whether Watkins has actually contacted any of those people.

One of those people, Dwight Wynne, got the crazy idea that he could write the bulk of a science tournament and, in an uncharacteristic move, actually acted upon the idea. After enlisting the help of eight volunteer co-authors, he was ready to announce the Science Non-Strosity, to take place during the Cardinal Classic weekend. The tournament, consisting of nine rounds of twenty tossups each, was completed in just over two months.

In addition to Wynne, the other authors of the set were Andrew Ullsperger, Darwin Fu, Bruce Arthur, Brandon Hensley, Evan Silberman, Ray Anderson, Colin McNamara, and Matthew Feldman.

Distribution

Although the original announcement called for ten rounds of fifteen tossups with a slightly imbalanced distribution, the final distribution was changed to a more balanced twenty tossup distribution:

3 Biology
3 Chemistry
3 Physics
2 Additional Biology, Chemistry, and Physics
1 Math
1 Computer Science
1 Astronomy
1 Earth Science
2 Additional Minor Science
1 Interdisciplinary Science
1 History of Science, Philosophy of Science, or Technology/Engineering
1 SCIENCE!, Fake Science, or Science-Related Trash

Results

Five teams of two and one team of three played the tournament at the Stanford site; a draft was originally supposed to happen but was scrapped for "find your own partners" in order to allow the tournament to start later.

Gravitational Lensing by New Pepsi, consisting of Seth Teitler and Selene Koo, went 8-0 to win the tournament. Stats for the Stanford site can be found here.

Four rounds were played at the Rolla site, and an unknown amount at the MIT site. The mid-Atlantic site was postponed after both UMBC and Maryland ran into difficulties and may happen at ACF Regionals Mid-Atlantic.

Reaction

Overall, people who had been waiting to play some sort of science tournament were generally satisfied with the tournament.

Wynne noted that he was perhaps too stingy with the placement of power marks in the questions. Most of the other discussion so far has been related to computer science, and it is hoped that a more full discussion will take place once the mid-Atlantic site finishes its mirror.