2c) What is "blitzing"? (College Bowl)
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This article is from the College Bowl FAQ, by George Atendido aten0001@tc.umn.edu with numerous contributions by others.
2c) What is "blitzing"? (College Bowl)
In CB, players are exhorted to be as precise as possible in their answers.
In general, unless the question specifically asks otherwise, a player may
offer only one piece of information in his/her answer. Players sometimes
try to give two or more related facts in their answer. This practice is
called "blitzing". For example, if a question begins "On June 6,
1944...", a player might ring in and say "The D-Day invasion occurred on
the Sword, Juno, Omaha, Gold, and Utah beachheads of Normandy, France".
Such an answer would be ruled incorrect, as stated in Rule 26:
"....The Moderator and Judge must determine if the player
has pinpointed the answer, giving _clear and precise
knowledge_ [emphasis CBI's] of the information requested,
or if the player is just rattling off a list of related
facts in an effort to hit the required answer...."
Blitzes are permitted in official CB play only under Rule 29, the so-called
"creator/creation" rule. In brief, when a question deals with "created"
artistic works (novels, plays, paintings, sculpture, music, etc. but NOT
film) or scientific works (theorems/-ies, inventions), a player can give
both the "creator" and the "creation". If either is the sought-for
answer, the creator/creation pair is correct, and the two were given by
the player without a discernible pause, the player's answer is correct.
Occasionally, players can give answers that appear to be blitzes, but
really aren't. For example, a question could begin: "Amalthea, Io,
Ganymede..." If a player rang in at that point and said "moons of
Jupiter", he would be correct even if the sought-for answer was
"Jupiter", as the player demonstrated "clear and precise knowledge"
without spewing out a list of possible answers.
In ACF, however, the situation is drastically different. A full treatment
is provided in the rules used for the 1995 ACF NCT. According to this
rule, a player may give several related pieces of information so long as:
1. The entire chain of information is correct. That is, in the D-Day
example above, if the player had said "Nebraska" instead of "Utah",
the whole answer is invalidated. and
2. The player is not simply rattling off a list of answers of the same
class. I.e., the player can say "Jefferson defeated John Adams in
election of 1800", but s/he can't rattle off a list of Presidents. and
3. One of the proffered pieces of information is that which the question
sought.
Some invitationals have sought a middle ground, allowing "two related
pieces of information". In effect, such a rule works pretty much like the
ACF rule, except that the number of related pieces of information is
strictly limited.
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