2019 Michigan Winter Invitational (Ann Arbor, MI - 23 Feb '19 - CAST)

[CPiGuy]

Michigan Academic Competitions is pleased to announce the 2019 Michigan Winter Invitational, to be held on February 23, 2019.

Location and Schedule

We will begin registration at 8:15 a.m. and hold a meeting for players and coaches at 8:45 a.m. Rounds will begin at 9:00 a.m. and continue through the morning and early afternoon with a lunch break around 1:00 p.m. Playoffs and a brief awards ceremony will follow, and we expect to finish no later than 6:00 p.m., although we usually are done by 5. The tournament will be held on the second and third floors of Mason Hall on the University of Michigan’s Central Campus, just like in years past. More specifics on this will be sent out as the tournament date approaches.

The tournament will likely have some number of round-robin prelims followed by round-robin playoffs. The exact format will be determined based on the field size, but will guarantee each team at least eight games, and we hope to play nine or ten.

Question Set and Rules

We will be using the CAST question set. CAST has a high-quality writing and editing staff from around the country.
We will use NAQT's rules, except that rounds will not be timed.
New this year, we are placing a limit on the number of players from one team who can play in one game. That limit is six. We have recently seen an uptick in the number of schools bringing teams of seven, eight, or even nine players, and we are instituting this policy in order to reduce delays in the tournament, reduce the burden on our moderators and scorekeepers, and encourage teams to allow their students to play more quizbowl. If this policy places an undue financial burden on you or your school, or you have any other questions about it, please contact me.

Fees and Discounts

+$90: first team
+$70: each additional team from a school
-$10: discount for a fully functioning buzzer system (max 2 per school)
-$5: early bird discount for registering by 5 PM, January 23rd (discount is per team registered)
-$10: new program discount** (discount is per team registered)
-$10: distance discount for 100-275 miles driven*** (discount is per team registered)
-$50: extreme distance discount for over 275 miles driven*** (discount is per team registered)
Minimum entry fee per team is $0

** If your school has not participated in a University of Michigan tournament in the calendar years 2017 or 2018, then you are eligible for this discount.
*** Distances are determined as based on distance one way from your school to the tournament site according to maps.google.com.

Payment Details

New this year, we are asking on the registration form if you require an invoice or something else to facilitate payment. We would love to have all teams pay by the tournament date, so if you need an invoice to facilitate this, please let us know what we can do and we'll do our best to make it happen!

Checks should be made out to "Michigan Academic Competitions." While we prefer that you bring them to the tournament and hand them in at registration, if this is not possible, you can mail the check to:
Michigan Academic Competitions
C/O The University Activities Center
4002 Michigan Union
530 S State St
Ann Arbor MI 48109-1349

Registration

Please register by filling out this form.
No other forms of registration will be accepted.
If you email us trying to register, we will either direct you to the form or ignore you, depending on if we see the email. (Probably the former -- I'm pretty good at responding to emails -- but don't do this!)

There will be no field cap before February 5th. If interest in this tournament vastly exceeds our expectations, we reserve the right to institute a field cap before then, but it will not be smaller than 36. On February 5th, we will institute a field cap which will be slightly higher than the number of teams registered at that point, so that we can reserve rooms for the tournament. Therefore, if you want to play the tournament, sign up before February 5th!
Teams who register more than three teams before February 5th will have their fourth and beyond teams put on a waitlist. They will be put into the field on February 5th, assuming that there is room in the field for them. Teams who register after February 5th will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis until the field is full.

Update February 5th: The field is closed. Any teams wishing to register will be put on a waitlist.

Contact

If you have any questions about the tournament, you can contact me ([email protected]), or Nick Guilfoyle ([email protected]).

Current Field (Teams/Buzzers)

Chelsea (1/0)
Cranbrook Kingswood (1/2)
Detroit Catholic Central (6/3)
DeWitt (2/2)
Divine Child (1/0)
Edsel Ford (1/0)
Grosse Pointe South (1/1)
Hillsdale (1/1)
Huron (2/0)
Livonia Churchill (2/1)
Miami Valley [Ohio] (1/1)
Mercy (2/2)
Monroe County Middle College (2/0)
Okemos (1/2)
Ottawa Hills [Ohio] (1/2)
Plymouth (3/2)
The Roeper School (1/0)
St. Mary's Prep (1/0)
UD Jesuit (2/1)

Total: 32 teams

[CPiGuy]

Unfortunately, this tournament will likely not be using IS-183 as originally planned. NAQT has notified us that it is being reserved for another tournament, which we were unaware of because that tournament has not been announced and does not appear on any of NAQT's webpages. As a result, we will likely be using some non-NAQT set. Registered coaches should have already received an email asking what non-NAQT question sets they've played, as I don't want to exclude any already registered teams. Teams that have played one or more non-NAQT sets should hold off on registering until the question set we're using is finalized (although they should also email me and let me know which sets -- we'll do our best to accommodate people!) Teams that have not played any non-NAQT sets this year should be free to register.

We apologize for the inconvenience this causes and hope to have a question set announced within the next week or two at the latest.

[CPiGuy]

Winter Invitational will be using CAST, a set which is targeted at high school regular difficulty. The set has a strong writing and editing staff, and we're excited to be using it for the tournament!

[CPiGuy]

Just a reminder that teams have one week to register for this tournament!

For teams that have requested invoices, I'll try to send them out tomorrow or Thursday, especially now that classes are cancelled...

[CPiGuy]

We are excited to have received platinum certification from PACE, meaning that the top 25% of teams at the tournament will qualify for PACE NSC.

[CPiGuy]

The field is now closed at 38 teams.

We will probably not allow additional teams into the field unless it drops below 36 teams.

[CPiGuy]

Teams who register more than three teams before February 5th will have their fourth and beyond teams put on a waitlist. They will be put into the field on February 5th, assuming that there is room in the field for them. Teams who register after February 5th will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis until the field is full.

In accordance with this, and given staffing and scheduling constraints, we've decided to put DCC F and Troy D on the waitlist. I've also individually contacted those schools.
If any teams drop from the field, teams will be taken from the waitlist to replace them.
We hope that this will allow a stable field size and avoid last-minute changes to the schedule, as well as preserving a 36-team field.

[CPiGuy]

Two updates:

Skyline has dropped, so DCC F has been restored to the field.

Teams should have received an email from me. If you think you are registered and have not gotten an email from me, please let me know.

[CPiGuy]

For those interested in following the tournament, live stats will be available at this link!

[CPiGuy]

This tournament happened. Here are some stats.

DCC A cleared the top superplayoff bracket by two games to win the tournament without need for a final. Congratulations to them, and to Miami Valley School for finishing second.

The top individual scorers were Miami Valley's John John Groger, Ottawa Hills's Mazin Omer, and Monroe County Middle College's Aleija Rodriguez.