Pennsylvania 2019

[catch-22]

Codebusters (5th): Wow. Just, wow. I have to really commend my partners here, they've worked their butts off since regionals to get better at code. In fact, we did better here than we did at regionals (6th at regionals -> 5th at states). It also wasn't until states that we first tried doing the timed question together. We were the 2nd or 3rd to finish in our timeslot I think, with a time of 5:43. Our biggest weakness at regionals was that we were extremely weak on aristocrats, and my partners worked on that since regionals to solve every aristocrat at states except for two (or one?) of them. However, none of us attempted any of the patristocrats, I tried the xenocrypts but I was unable to solve them, and I was unable to solve any of the Baconians or the RSAs (except for the which numbers do you need and what's the formula for rsa lmao). I also forgot how to do hill in the middle of while I was doing it, and running key i think i messed it up. Aside from those, we pretty much did all of the questions, and that's what led to our 5th place. I'm really proud of my partners for studying their butts off for this since regionals. (funnily enough, my one partner and i took a practice test the night before and our score wasn't even half of what it was at states lol). Interesting how they gave us 58 minutes to do the test though. Overall, well run event, rating 9/10.

7 teams got the bonus and you were the 2nd fastest. In the overall scores only 1 team beat you that did not get the time bonus. Is there a reason you found it interesting to get 58 minutes in a 60 minute time block when my directions took 2 minutes? Not having been in the other events I am not sure what you saw other places. Would you have preferred it to be different?

I'm not from PA so I don't know if things run differently there or something but I'm pretty sure the standard is to run test events for 50 minutes (in the rules the approximate time is stated to be 50 minutes for basically every non build). Whenever tournaments run in 60 minute blocks, I generally see the extra 10 minutes being used to get everyone situated into seats, explaining rules, and as extra time to get to your next event.

Each time block was an hour long, to account for time used to give directions. I don't think I've ever seen that happen before, but it definitely was nice not having to sprint to events.

[Unome]

7 teams got the bonus and you were the 2nd fastest. In the overall scores only 1 team beat you that did not get the time bonus. Is there a reason you found it interesting to get 58 minutes in a 60 minute time block when my directions took 2 minutes? Not having been in the other events I am not sure what you saw other places. Would you have preferred it to be different?

I'm not from PA so I don't know if things run differently there or something but I'm pretty sure the standard is to run test events for 50 minutes (in the rules the approximate time is stated to be 50 minutes for basically every non build). Whenever tournaments run in 60 minute blocks, I generally see the extra 10 minutes being used to get everyone situated into seats, explaining rules, and as extra time to get to your next event.

Each time block was an hour long, to account for time used to give directions. I don't think I've ever seen that happen before, but it definitely was nice not having to sprint to events.

I typically take 5 minutes for an in/out/instructions buffer. That said, I'm probably a less experienced event supervisor than GoldenKnight, having run an event only about a dozen times total.

[UTF-8 U+6211 U+662F]

2. Rustin (109)
3. Lower Merion (112)

Dang, that was super close, kudos to both Rustin and Lower Merion!

[GoldenKnight1]

With 10 or 15 minutes between the 60 minute time blocks to move from event to event I felt you could have most of the hour to work on the test. Setup times for teams in Codebusters does not need the time as it would in Chem Lab where you needed to get out equipment, aprons, and goggles. Two minutes prior to the official start time teams were let in and all competitors were in their seat, wristbands and calculators checked, and ready to hear my directions. At the end the clean up is also very easy again compared to an event like Chem Lab. In designing the test I felt happy having this extra time so that I could increase the number of questions on the test based on the additional types of questions in the rules at the State Level. It would have been rough asking them to complete the test with 10 fewer minutes.

[Anomaly]

With 10 or 15 minutes between the 60 minute time blocks to move from event to event I felt you could have most of the hour to work on the test. Setup times for teams in Codebusters does not need the time as it would in Chem Lab where you needed to get out equipment, aprons, and goggles. Two minutes prior to the official start time teams were let in and all competitors were in their seat, wristbands and calculators checked, and ready to hear my directions. At the end the clean up is also very easy again compared to an event like Chem Lab. In designing the test I felt happy having this extra time so that I could increase the number of questions on the test based on the additional types of questions in the rules at the State Level. It would have been rough asking them to complete the test with 10 fewer minutes.

On behalf of our entire code team we can say we really appreciated those 10 extra minutes, haha. Thanks for that and for your well-written test!

[nendawen]

The 10 extra minutes were at the supervisors discretion, but the intention was to have a 50min test with up to 10 min of instruction and administration.

For example time to check arm bands and binder requirements at the beginning and time to check collect the tests and make sure they are all accounted for before teams leave at the end.

This helps guarantee Competitors have 10 min to move to their next event.

I believe it made the events run smoother. My fear is that supervisors who don’t need it, just make their tests longer and then tsk away the move time
for competitors.

[Paypog]

Good job yesterday everyone

[linzhiyan]

Codebusters (5th): Wow. Just, wow. I have to really commend my partners here, they've worked their butts off since regionals to get better at code. In fact, we did better here than we did at regionals (6th at regionals -> 5th at states). It also wasn't until states that we first tried doing the timed question together. We were the 2nd or 3rd to finish in our timeslot I think, with a time of 5:43. Our biggest weakness at regionals was that we were extremely weak on aristocrats, and my partners worked on that since regionals to solve every aristocrat at states except for two (or one?) of them. However, none of us attempted any of the patristocrats, I tried the xenocrypts but I was unable to solve them, and I was unable to solve any of the Baconians or the RSAs (except for the which numbers do you need and what's the formula for rsa lmao). I also forgot how to do hill in the middle of while I was doing it, and running key i think i messed it up. Aside from those, we pretty much did all of the questions, and that's what led to our 5th place. I'm really proud of my partners for studying their butts off for this since regionals. (funnily enough, my one partner and i took a practice test the night before and our score wasn't even half of what it was at states lol). Interesting how they gave us 58 minutes to do the test though. Overall, well run event, rating 9/10.

7 teams got the bonus and you were the 2nd fastest. In the overall scores only 1 team beat you that did not get the time bonus. Is there a reason you found it interesting to get 58 minutes in a 60 minute time block when my directions took 2 minutes? Not having been in the other events I am not sure what you saw other places. Would you have preferred it to be different?

I found it interesting how our ES's came 15 minutes late and only gave us 45 minutes... -_-
They didn't even explain any rules or anything... they just... came late. And when they called time, I asked for another 5 minutes because we're suppose to have 50, but they said no because they didn't want us to be late to our next events, but we already were late... sooo... And I'm pretty sure all of the other time slots had 50 minutes...
(salty salty salty salty salty ahhh)

[Anomaly]

I found it interesting how our ES's came 15 minutes late and only gave us 45 minutes... -_-
They didn't even explain any rules or anything... they just... came late. And when they called time, I asked for another 5 minutes because we're suppose to have 50, but they said no because they didn't want us to be late to our next events, but we already were late... sooo... And I'm pretty sure all of the other time slots had 50 minutes...
(salty salty salty salty salty ahhh)

that's how it was like for one of my invitationals, ugh. we were destined to do badly anyways but like that was baaaaad

[alchzh]

I found it interesting how our ES's came 15 minutes late and only gave us 45 minutes... -_-
They didn't even explain any rules or anything... they just... came late. And when they called time, I asked for another 5 minutes because we're suppose to have 50, but they said no because they didn't want us to be late to our next events, but we already were late... sooo... And I'm pretty sure all of the other time slots had 50 minutes...
(salty salty salty salty salty ahhh)

Which event was this?