ghosts - 2025 ACF Nationals

Tossup

In a novel titled for this type of character, a writer narrates his father’s resistance during the Dirty War after finding articles about the janitor Alberto José Burdisso’s murder. At the end of a novel, a girl leaps “into the void” after some of these characters invite her to the Big Midnight Feast. That novel titled for these characters is set on New Year’s Eve at an apartment complex construction site (10[1])and (10[1])is by César Aira (-5[1])(“SAY-sar EYE-rah”). These characters’ (-5[1])murmurs fill a town at “the very mouth of hell” in a (-5[1])novel in which the hostess (10[1])Eduviges (10[1])Dyada (10[2])(“ay-doo-VEE-hess dee-YAH-duh”), the cook Damiana Cisneros, and the deaf mule-driver (10[1])Abundio (10[1])Martínez are revealed (10[1])to be (-5[1])this (10[1])type (10[1])of character. (10[2])Juan (10[1])Preciado (10[2])visits a town (10[1])inhabited by these (10[1])characters (10[2])in Pedro Páramo. (10[1])For 10 points, Clara del Valle (“VAH-yay”) can communicate with what (10[1])beings (10[1])in an Isabel Allende (“ah-YEN-day”) novel partly titled for them? ■END■ (10[1])

ANSWER: ghosts [or fantasmas; or dead people; or spirits; or specters; accept The House of the Spirits or La casa de los espíritus; accept My Father’s Ghost Is Climbing in the Rain or El espíritu de mis padres sigue subiendo en la lluvia] (My Father’s Ghost is Climbing in the Rain is by Patricio Pron. Pedro Páramo is by Juan Rulfo.)

= Average correct buzz position

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Buzzes

Player	Team	Opponent	Position	Value
Tim Morrison	Stanford	Rutgers	70	10
Caleb Ott	Waterloo B	WUSTL B	71	10
Raymond Chen	Toronto B	Iowa State	75	-5
Anuttam Ramji	UC Berkeley B	Penn State	77	-5
Tony Chen	Toronto A	Northwestern	89	-5
Adrian Wong	Ottawa	Florida	94	10
Bryan Ugaz	Arizona State	Georgia State	95	10
Charles Young	Columbia A	WUSTL A	96	10
Eve Fleisig	UC Berkeley A	Chicago A	96	10
Albert Yingzhi Nyang	LSE	NYU	104	10
Arjun Kala	Illinois B	Maryland	105	10
Nathan Zhang	Cornell A	MIT	108	10
Jisoo Yoo	Texas	Minnesota	110	-5
William Orr	Yale	British Columbia	111	10
Thomas Tibbetts	UCF	North Carolina B	112	10
Shourjo Ganguli	Ohio State	Virginia	114	10
Henry Bon	Winona State	Cornell B	114	10
Alvin Guo	Chicago B	Johns Hopkins	115	10
Kevin Wang	Georgia Tech	Virginia Tech	116	10
Andrew Wang	Illinois A	North Carolina A	116	10
Justin Hawkins	Indiana	Waterloo A	119	10
Michael Kearney	Harvard	Toronto C	122	10
William Groger	Columbia B	Michigan	123	10
Mitch McCullar	Penn State	UC Berkeley B	123	10
Guy Indorante	Iowa State	Toronto B	126	10
Cade Reinberger	RIT	Vanderbilt	136	10
Foster Hughes	Minnesota	Texas	137	10
Sharath Narayan	Northwestern	Toronto A	147	10

Summary

Tournament	Exact Match?	TUH	Conv. %	Power %	Neg %	Average Buzz
2025 ACF Nationals	Yes	24	100%	0%	17%	111.25