The Ohio Quizbowl Forum

I'd like to hear people's thoughts on what the next year of quiz bowl is going to look like. It sounds like most of the high school competitors will be able to be vaccinated by the fall. Are people planning on more online events or are we going back to something closer to normal?

I know what I THINK the answer is, but I also am just here in my own little chunk of the world.

For us, a lot will depend on what our school will allow as far as in-person events, but right now I hope to host the MVS Fall Kickoff in person in its usual spot, last weekend in September (this year 9/25).

Online quizbowl will just become obsolete. Or, at least reduced back to its original pre-pandemic utility (fun for some mirrors of sets.)

Presuming that the public health outlook is conducive to full-time transition back into in-person, its the way it should go. We're not going to have a circuit if we're primarily (if not exclusively) playing online for another year.

I'm optimistic we will be back to bus rides and pizza . I have consumed so much less pizza this year

Tom,

I'm not near that pessimistic. I don't think it is near that bad.

I have made it clear to everyone in my sphere that we are going to back to in person, but I don't think that whole thing will collapse if that changes. The top tier teams that travel all over playing one another like a traveling circus going from town to town all over the state aren't going away, just because of a year or 2 absence.

That is pretty much what I am thinking about next year, Tyler and Coach Eck, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't being TOO optimistic.

Online will help in League play as an option for teams that are quite far apart and/or affected by inclement weather. I intend to keep that as a definite option for the Toledo League and probably Mahoning as well.

What I would love to see retained from this year is electronic scoring -- particularly the masterwork that is the Eckbook in Google Sheets. They got better and better as the season went along and despite my best efforts to destroy one by allowing ties, they proved to be quite adaptable.

Online scoresheets are an absolute godsend and should absolutely be "industry standard" going forward. Just takes a little norm-shifting to know that if you're staffing an event, best bring a laptop if you've got one.