OQL USA Regions

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NEW Format for OQL USA Regions

Original post by Jasmine Leonas: https://www.facebook.com/groups/oqlusa/posts/1213112773013284/

I am very excited to announce that Regions will be debuting a NEW format starting in June!

When I came on board as editor, having Regions be its own experience, separate from other OQL offerings, was one of the biggest changes I wanted to make. But because I took over mid-year/mid-season, I didn’t want to completely scrap the gameplay OQLers are used to. Through some brainstorming with Commissioner Lindsay Sobczak, we’ve come up with a compromise solution that we hope you’ll be as excited about as we are.

One aspect of OQL game play that can feel pretty random is seat order. Whoever is in each seat any given week currently doesn’t feel like it matters much strategy-wise, as it’s completely random who gets which level of question for different categories. We’re scrapping that unknown variable. We’ll be going back to having a full month to play, but before you set your seat order, you’ll know exactly which categories each seat will get. There will still be a bit of randomness in terms of difficulty levels and specific subject matter, but we’ll be announcing which seats will get which categories ahead of time. Each month will see a different combination of categories across seats.

The category distribution is as follows: Sports/Games, Science, Geography/World, History, Lifestyle, Art & Culture, TV/Film, Music. Seats 1 through 4 will each be assigned a pair of categories for each set. So, for example, you’ll know before the set is released that Seat 1 is Art & Culture & Sports/Games, Seat 2 is TV/Film & Science, Seat 3 is Geography/World & Music and Seat 4 is Lifestyle & History. As a team, you can then decide who takes each seat based off of whatever strategy the team would like to employ. Is one player a knockout Sports enthusiast? Put them in Seat 1! But what about the scientist on the team who isn’t strong on TV/Film? You’ll have to figure out based on the team’s strengths if they should take Seat 2 or not. Questions will be a mix of being specific to one category or maybe a hybrid of both – that will be up to the writers to determine as they craft their sets.

Why the change? Well, besides my own desire to mix things up for Regions, this competition was created to model a sports league. But it was really lacking any kind of game plan or way to utilize each player strategically. If this is going to be a league, let’s make it a LEAGUE (in the most fun and spirited way possible). With the Summer Olympics on the horizon, we also see this as a way to get into the spirit of the Games, where you’re repping a geographic location that’s special to you, but without having to travel to Paris or having trained for years to be the best weightlifter or tennis player or whatever. The plan is for this format to continue until at least the end of 2024, with June debuting the first set with this change (the upcoming May set will be the last with standard OQL-style distribution). We realize that this may not be 100% received as a welcome change by everyone, so if you have any issues playing this new format, please reach out with any concerns. We are also happy to answer any questions you may have.

We are excited to mix things up for Regions and hope you are as well! Allons-y!