Central Ohio Tossup Tournament April 21

[JSageNAHS]

Hello everyone! New Albany High School will be hosting an all tossup tournament on Saturday, April 21. I do realize that this is the same day as OAC tournaments. All questions will be one point each, with two halves of 30 questions each. There will be an optional trash round at the end of the day. For more information see our tournament web page at http://www.rudybowl.com.

[Cheynem]

FYI, according to the website, these are Questions Unlimited questions.

[Mr. Scogan]

Hello - yes April 21st is the same weekend as the Ohio Academic Competition regionals competition. That is one of the things that will keep teams from attending. Here is a link to the Ohio message board: http://www.createphpbb.com/oac/ where you're more likely to come across prospective teams that may attend, and there you can talk to coaches and members of the community that can give you more helpful insight and information than a student like me can.

If you want a bigger turnout for your tournament for future reference, you should buy from a reputable vendor; such as High School Academic Pyramid Questions (HSAPQ) or National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT). I see that you are the advisor from New Albany H.S., I believe we played your squad at the Ohio State winter tournament in January. That tournament used questions from HSAPQ, and they are generally considered to be an excellent series in part to its length, distribution and difficulty. Both companies write their questions in the tossup/bonus format, so what you guys played at Ohio State in January and March resonate the popular format in Ohio. If your question source changes to HSAPQ or NAQT, you'll likely to see not only a higher number of teams in attendance, but teams from a wider area. This is because Ohio is full of teams that play lots of tournaments and build from their performances (i.e. Olmsted Falls, Warren G. Harding). To quote the great movie Field of Dreams "If you build it, they will come". HSAPQ and NAQT questions are the preferred sources of academic pyramidal quiz bowl questions in Ohio.

The school I'm from; Fisher Catholic, is from the metropolitan Columbus area as well (Lancaster). I can't speak for my coaches, but if this was a.) on a date that worked well for is and b.) had questions from a reputable vendor, we would probably attend since New Albany is not a far drive.

It's nice to see another Franklin County school getting in the saddle. Hope to see you guys at more tournaments, your squad looked good both times we played them (the second time around in March, we were the team that wore the beards).

[mhayes]

I do realize that this is the same day as OAC tournaments.

If I may ask, why was this event scheduled on the day of OAC regionals? I think your attendance will suffer greatly because of this.

And as Tom said, you would do well to use a reputable vendor. There are several well-known issues with Questions Unlimited.

[penforprez]

Ms. Sage,

As an Ohio quizbowl professional, first of all, let me commend you on making the commitment to hosting a tournament. The Columbus area definitely needs more tournaments, and running a tournament is not a decision to be taken lightly.

I just want to echo the concerns that Tom Moore has raised, the biggest being the date. Every good team in the state (especially traveling teams) will be at one OAC regional or other that day, so in all honesty, your field would be very slim at best. Very few Columbus teams attend outside tournaments from my experience (though that has gotten better), and most of those that do will be at an OAC regional somewhere, most likely Portsmouth. That date would also eliminate the possibility of attracting outside staff such as myself. I love nothing more than helping out a new TD, but I can't that day. :(

The second concern may be more important--the question provider. The merits (or lack thereof) of QUN have been debated ad infinitum on this board, and I don't want to start that argument again. Suffice it to say that QUN is not the best choice available. As a regular quizbowl moderator, I openly refuse to read QUN questions for the main reasons almost no one uses QUN anymore--questions are of poor quality and very poorly written, the company itself is ethically questionable at best, etc. Furthermore, a lot of teams refuse to play OUN for the same reasons/ Far better options (and more affordable ones!) are available from NAQT, HSAPQ, and housewritten sets.

Please do not feel that I'm trying to be discouraging--I really would like to see this tournament happen. It may be able to happen before nationals; I would be more than glad to work with you to try. :) Please do take what we've said under advisement. Feel free to PM me here on the board or send me an email and I'll be glad to do whatever I can to make your tournament better. Tom has also said you can PM him for Columbus area contacts. I hope we can be of further help!

[JSageNAHS]

Thank you everyone for your comments. I had looked through the dates and thought I was clear, but didn't see the OAC dates anywhere on here and I wasn't aware of the other forum that was stated earlier. I will take everyone's comments into consideration, as I do hope to try this again next year, earlier in the year (like February or March) since this seems to be a bad time for almost everyone.

Good luck everyone!