Number of Questions:
The 2006 Deep Bench is a packet-submission tournament. Each participating school is expected to submit one packet of 30 tossups and 25 bonuses prior to the tournament. This packet may be written by the school's entire contingent.
Schools may also submit one or two additional sets of 26 tossups for use in the singles and doubles play for additional discounts. These may also be written by the school's entire contingent.
Overall Style:
This will be an NAQT-style tournament with question length, packet distribution, and other characteristics similar to those found at events using official NAQT questions. Samples of NAQT packets may be found online.
Submission:
The chief editor for this tournament will be Ezra Lyon. All packets (quads, singles, and doubles) should be e-mailed to him.
Packets should be submitted in Microsoft Word or Rich-Text-Format.
Formatting:
Packets should be formatted similarly to the sample packets available from NAQT. Some particulars:
The required portions of the answer should be underlined (but not boldfaced or completely capitalized)
Bonus parts are labeled with capital letters ('A', 'B', etc.)
Power marks should be indicated by "(*)" with at least one space to the left and the right. Tossup text preceding the powermark should be boldfaced.
Difficulty:
The quads packets should be the same difficulty as NAQT's Division I Sectionals questions and the singles and doubles packets should be the same difficulty as NAQT's regular Invitational Series.
We want 85% of the tossups to be answered correctly by the end and 50% of the bonus points converted. In addition, the best bonus conversion should be about 75% and the worst conversion about 25%. Overall, 15% to 20% of the tossups should be answered for power.
Question Length:
Tossup questions are limited to 425 characters (including spaces, but not including punctuation, the answer line, or pronunciation guides). Generally speaking, tossup questions should be at least 350 characters long.
No bonus should have the possibility of more than four prompts.
When possible without affecting conversion, streamline gameplay by combining two or more separate bonus parts into a single part with two or more answers. The Deep Bench will be a timed tournament.
Distribution:
The submitted packets should adhere to this distribution:
| Category | Quads | Singles/Doubles | |
| Current Events | U.S. | 2 | 2-3 |
| World | 2 | ||
| Fine Arts | Visual | 2 | 2-3 |
| Musical | 2 | ||
| Geography | U.S. | 2 | 1 |
| World | 2 | 1 | |
| History | U.S. | 5 | 2-3 |
| World | 5 | 2-3 | |
| Literature | English-language | 4 | 2-3 |
| Non-English-language | 4 | 2-3 | |
| Mythology | 2 | 0-1 | |
| Popular Culture | 4 | 1 | |
| Philosophy | 1 | 0-1 | |
| Science | Physics | 2 | 1 |
| Chemistry | 2 | 1 | |
| Biology | 2 | 1 | |
| Math | 2 | 0-1 | |
| Other | 2 | 1-2 | |
| Social Science | 2 | 1 | |
| Sports | 2 | 1 | |
| Mixed/Other | 4 | 1-3 | |
For the quads packets, the given number is the total number of tossups and bonuses. They should be split as evenly as possible; that is, "4" means 2 tossups and 2 bonuses while "5" means either 2/3 or 3/2.
Within a category, questions should have varied time periods, answer types (person, place, concept, etc.), geographical locations, genres, sports, subdisciplines, or whatever other differentiator is appropriate.
The "Mixed/General Knowledge/Other" category is not "Miscellaneous." It can't be used, for instance, to put three more sports questions in a quads packets. Questions in that category should cross disciplines or be otherwise difficult to categorize.
The vast majority of science questions should be concept-related, but a limited amount of science history is acceptable.
Current events questions should cover events from the last five years and should focus on ongoing, memorable events that are significant at the present time and are expected to have continuing importance. They do not need to reference events of the prior month or two.
Geography questions can be broadly construed as questions that are primarily about a place and its people rather than specific historical events that took place there. Physical, political, and cultural geography questions are acceptable.
The tournament will not be able to accommodate audio bonuses, but we encourage teams to consider submitting visual bonuses.
Power Marking:
Generally speaking, the power mark should appear about half-way through the question and immediately in front of a word that makes the question significantly easier. Questions should be answered prior to the power mark in 15% to 20% of game rooms.
Legal Issues:
The copyright on all submitted questions is transferred to the University of Minnesota.
Further Questions:
If you have further questions about this tournament, please don't hesitate to contact R. Robert Hentzel by e-mail or phone (952.888.2277, central time).