16c) What are "CUR's"? (College Bowl)
Description
This article is from the College Bowl FAQ, by George Atendido aten0001@tc.umn.edu with numerous contributions by others.
16c) What are "CUR's"? (College Bowl)
(after Matt Colvin)
CUR is the colorful acronym for "Colvin Unfair Result". The term was
coined by Gary Greenbaum of the GWU as a name for a situation posited in
debate by Vishnu Jejjala and Matt Colvin of Maryland. The name has stuck.
Matt Colvin originally defined a CUR as a game in which:
1. Team A scores as many or more tossup points (tossups times 10 minus
interrupts times five) than Team B.
2. Team A converts a higher percentage of its available bonus points than
Team B.
3. Team A loses the match.
(At first, it was believed that a CUR could only occur in matches using
VVB's. However, it has been demonstrated by Colin Russell that the above
definition can produce a CUR even if bonus values are held constant.
Colin and Matt have both submitted alternate definitions.)
Opponents of VVB's consider such a result unfair because they feel each
tossup should carry the same point opportunities, and should not be
affected by randomness in bonus value distributions. On the other side,
it's argued that the result is not "unfair" because a loss cannot be
solely attributed to any one factor.
Although many, including the editor, scoffed at first that a CUR was
a philosophical construct that could never happen in reality, in the 1995
CB NCT there were two documented CUR's by the above definition.
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