I don't like 5-10-15s, and hardly ever write them, the reason being that if a team doesn't know the "hardest" portion of the clue, then they are limited to 15 points, which I believe is around the average conversion most tournament writers shoot for. It's fairly unlikely in most cases that someone knows the 15 but not one of the other two (though, of course, it has happened). Therefore, there's a jump between 15 points (for demonstrating a good working knowledge of the subject) and 30 (for being able to get a 15-point clue)... that's too much of a points swing. I'd much rather see the difficulty of the 5 boosted a bit and the tossup given as a 10-10-10... at least that way, not knowing an admittedly difficult bonus part would only reduce a team's conversion on the bonus to 20. Another trend which bothers me (and which was prevalent at TRASHionals) involves three-part 10-5 boni. The problem (disregarding the fact that this is a six-part bonus, which bothers some people esp. in timed tournaments) is the opposite here: the 5-point parts of these are generally not unlike the 5-point parts of the 5-10-15s, that is to say, gettable by practically anyone with even the most rudimentary knowledge of the subject. Granted, when being able to say that (to give a fictional but typical 5-point clue) Fielding wrote _Tom Jones_ nets you 5 points on the bonus, that's not a problem. You get 5 on the bonus; that isn't very good, but it puts you ahead of a comparable team that didn't know it; play resumes. However, putting THREE such parts in the bonus allows people to say that Fielding wrote _Tom Jones_, Dickens wrote _Great Expectations_, and Joyce wrote _Finnegan's Wake_ (in other words, things practically any team knows) -- and get 15 points for that. It's practically impossible to get LESS than 15 on such a bonus... and 15 (again, give or take a couple points) is supposed to be the score given to an average team on an average tossup. Clearly, this team hasn't demonstrated that kind of knowledge. Therefore, I suggest that 5-point clues on three-part 10-5 boni be more difficult than 5-point clues in 5-10-15s or the like. No great injucnction here (as though I had the power to carry one out!), just my two cents.
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