Most Annoying Event?

[John Richardsim]

I have no reason to say this other than the name, but Crave the Wave... Something about it just makes me cringe...

This may not be a popular opinion around here, but I love the cutely named events. It adds some element of 'fun' to SO without (totally) compromising the academic nature of the competition. It's a shame that some B events don't have cutesy names. Meteorology? Fossils B? Bottle Rocket? Food Science? 'Weatherman'*/'Stolen Thunder', 'Mass Extinction', 'Rocket Science', 'Spilled Milk'**...I'm not good at this, but you get the idea. They could come up with more if they wanted to.
*it's gender-specific, but that's an English language thing.
**yes, I know the topic changes.

My favorites are Don't Bug Me and (whenever I look at the National trial events page) Buoy Oh Buoy.

Well, for Meteorology, there's always the old "Weather or Not".

As for Crave the Wave, I'm not crazy for the name. Yes, it is better than "Waves", but it also sucks when your frickin' local newspaper screws the name up as "Ride the Wave" (and you're one of the people competing in it...). Trust me, I already took flak from my brother for being in an event of the name "Crave the Wave", the last thing I need is for someone to screw it up as "Ride the Wave".

As far as whether to give an event a 'cute' vs. serious name: I think some serious names pretty much speak for themselves (e.g. Astronomy- at some point, it's astronomy; correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't really think "Reach for the Stars" sounds any more interesting (or for that matter, any less interesting either)). However, other events I think the 'cute' name is better (e.g. Ornithology vs. Feathered Frenzy).

[Skink]

If you're willing to share, I would be very interested in seeing that article. I think my Crave groups would be mildly amused, too.

[John Richardsim]

If you're willing to share, I would be very interested in seeing that article. I think my Crave groups would be mildly amused, too.

Third paragraph: http://www.grandhaventribune.com/Educat ... ament.html
You can also share it with your ELG kids, because they refer to it as "Elastic Launch Glider", instead of "Elastic Launched Glider"...I don't think this would get as much of a response as the Crave the Wave thing though...Same thing goes for Bottle Rocket...

[AlphaTauri]

I'm a fan of punny event names in general, because 1) they amuse me, and 2) it's better than every event being named [subject]-ology. To be fair, it can get a bit awkward when you're trying to sound serious and important (like on college apps), but you can almost always say something like "blah blah Disease Detectives, an epidemiology event..."

As a volunteer/supervisor, I have to say the most annoying event is I've run is probably Forensics. Don't get me wrong, I loved competing in it and I still enjoy writing for it, but hooooly pigeon there is so much set-up and tear-down to do, plus you have to keep an eye on everything to make sure no major crises are imminent...

I also have a friend who ran Bottle Rockets on a windy day (windy enough that papers and equipment were blowing around). She was definitely not a happy camper by the end of it :P

[aphrussia]

Imo, Forensics is definitely the most annoying event. The sheer amount of stuff we have to bring, the amount of stuff they have to provide, and that fact that the rules flip flop on what kind of cheat sheet we can bring (a single front and back sheet one year, a binder the next) kinda makes it easy to mess up badly. Also, it seems that many people write tests and give people names that make me cringe and/or just base it off of Supernatural.

An honorable mention to Proteins, where our pre build got a 40/40 and we still got 17th place.

[samlan16]

Imo, Forensics is definitely the most annoying event. The sheer amount of stuff we have to bring, the amount of stuff they have to provide, and that fact that the rules flip flop on what kind of cheat sheet we can bring (a single front and back sheet one year, a binder the next) kinda makes it easy to mess up badly. Also, it seems that many people write tests and give people names that make me cringe and/or just base it off of Supernatural.

I do have to agree with you on the glassware- Forensics is virtually the only event that teams have to bring it for in Div C. However, The Woz et. al. were likely concerned about all the costs a tournament could incur if teams used a college's stuff and broke it, so it's sheer anxiety for us.

As for the reference materials, it's not normally like that. We had one sheet up until 2014, then the binder was introduced thanks to Chalker.

For the suspects- well, what do you want? The top 10 most wanted?

An honorable mention to Proteins, where our pre build got a 40/40 and we still got 17th place.

Honestly sounds like one tournament at the end of the season, when everyone had refined their prebuilds to the T and also wrote copious pages of notes.

[Skink]

John,
Thanks. The next mistake may as well be 'Do the Wave'...

Re: references, the five pages deal was a move the chemistry committee made across their events and one that I don't, entirely, understand. Five pages is a compact binder. At that point, there's not a significant difference between the two. I'll be interested if they keep up the five page deal next season.

[Fanglin]

I absolutely hate the event Picture this, and WIDI, because they take absolutely NO skill. I walked into one of the Picture this meetings one day, and I tried it out. I swear, that I was one of the best people at the meeting!!! How do either of those events even scale up to something like Anatomy and Meteorology, where kids spend hours studying college level curriculum and working on their cheat sheets, while Picture this, and WIDI students literally do nothing to prepare. I also hate it how the kids who win either of those events think they are so OP and better than people who get second in Anatomy or Meteorology. Well... I guess I barely know picture this and WIDi, but anyway, that was my rage.

[samlan16]

and WIDI students literally do nothing to prepare.

LOOOOOOOOOL. Where do you compete? My WIDI team practices every week and we still do not consistently rank 1st.

[Mini_Muffins]

Excuse me?
me and my partner study Picture This for hours...
We memorize countless (Hundreds, maybe even a thousand) vocab words and how to draw them.
And Picture This is in the "Inquiry of Science" category. Give me a few examples of "Science Inquiry" that match up to college curriculum. Sorry if you think every single event has to match up with college curriculum. Plus, you don't have to make a cheatsheet in most of the building events. And how much experience have you had with those kids who "think they're better than everyone else"? To me you sound a bit egotistical, with your "I was one of the best people at the meeting."
And please do not rant about subjects that you have little to no knowledge on, as you said "I guess I barely know picture this"
And I would defend WIDI too, but i don't know about it.
Thank you.