Crusader Cup (N. Greenville U) 3 October 2009: NEW DATE

[eldermaas]

North Greenville University (in Tigerville, SC) is tentatively announcing the Fall 2009 Crusader Cup academic tournament, a quiz bowl competition for high schools. The tournament is slated for October 3, 2009, two weeks earlier than originally scheduled. We will use NAQT A-level questions, as this is an early tournament, but the tournament will be untimed. The bounceback rule will apply. We will again offer a varsity and jv division dependent upon interest.

Rather than using my personal e-mail, as we have in the past, all correspondence should now be addressed to NGUQuizBowl at gmail dot com.

A more formal announcement will follow in August. We hope to see your teams in October.

[eldermaas]

We will be using NAQT set IS-87A.

[RountreeCHS]

Unfortunately, you will lose many, if not most, GA and SC teams with this new date James. That is the weekend of Walton's tournament; they routinely get 40-60 teams to come to their tournament from GA and SC. What was wrong with the 17th might I ask?

[eldermaas]

We are aware of the conflict with Walton and discussed the loss of some of the potential teams (Dorman, Aiken, yourselves), but the majority of our teams did not attend Walton last year, and we are hoping the conflict will not be too great. Additionally, more of our readers can help on the 3rd than on the 17th. Finally, more importantly for me, I will be chairing a session at a conference the weekend of the 17th (I was not aware of the conflict until summer), so I would not be available to direct the tournament. One of the readers offered to step in, but she would rather not (and I can understand).

[Carolus Magnus]

Honaker is definitely interested. Tigerville is a very short jaunt from here despite being two states away, and early October is a good time for us as well. I'll have to talk it over with my coach of course, to make sure we don't have conflicting schedules.

EDIT: We'll be very unlikely to make an appearance. The date is a bit too early for us.

[eldermaas]

Here is the official announcement:

North Greenville University (Tigerville, SC) will hold the fifth annual Crusader Cup tournament on October 3, 2009. This tournament is open to teams officially affiliated with a high school. Unaffiliated teams (playing without official sanction of their school, homeschool cooperatives, etc.) will be accepted at the discretion of the tournament director.

Rather than using questions written in-house, we will be using NAQT set IS-87A. As a result, schools who have attended Kennesaw State or William Rufus King should not attend our tournament. The questions will be pyramidal is structure, and the bounceback rule will apply.

As a result of staffing and facility limitations, we expect to cap the varsity division at 24 teams and the junior varsity division at 8 teams.

Eligibility: Teams will consist of up to four players at a time, with no more than two alternates. Substitutions may be made only between matches, not during. Additionally, once the tournament begins, rosters will be set. Eligible varsity players must be 9th – 12th graders currently enrolled in the school/cooperative for whom they compete. Junior varsity players must be 8th-10th graders currently enrolled in the school/cooperative for whom they compete.

Format: The tournament will be an untimed competition consisting of rounds of 15 toss-up and 15 bonus questions with bounce back bonuses. We expect to run the tournament as a modified round robin. Teams will be divided into brackets and will play games within that bracket (with potentially cross-bracket games) for the first five rounds. After lunch, teams will be ranked according to win-loss record (PPG and head-to-head used if necessary) and will play comparable teams from other brackets. The top team from each bracket will be paired to play in semi-finals. Winners will play in the finals. Two third-place trophies will be awarded to the other semi-finalists. A trophy will be given to the individual high scorer.

Time: We will begin with registration at 8:30am in Hamlin Recital Hall, with opening comments at 9:00am and play at 9:15. We expect to finish by 3:00pm, if not before. We will break for lunch around noon.

Cost: The base fee for the tournament is $60 per team (4 starting players and 2 alternates) with a $10 discount for each additional team. A $5 discount is available for each working lockout buzzer (up to two buzzers) and $10 discount for an experienced full-time reader. Minimum fee per team is $35. While teams may elect to pay ahead of time, final registration and payment will be done at check-in. Question sets will be provided after the tournament to all schools (one set per school).

NOTE: We request that you e-mail your intention to attend (with the number of teams). Those interested in attending may contact James Washick (nguquizbowl at gmail dot com).

[eldermaas]

With still over a month to go, we still have a plenty of room in both the varsity and junior varsity divisions. We will, however, be capping these at 24 and 8 teams respectively. (Updated 1 Sept 2009)

Teams who have expressed interest so far:

Blue Ridge (1 varsity)
Byrnes (1 varsity)
Daniel (1 varsity)
Dorman (3 jv)
Greenville (2 varsity)
Greenville Tech Charter (1 varsity)
Hillcrest (2 varsity)
James Island (1 varsity)
Spartanburg (1 varsity)
Wade Hampton (1 varsity)
Wren (1 varsity)

[eldermaas]

The list of teams has been updated.

We are going to make the deadline for registering for the tournament Sept 26 (11:59pm). A pageant and a theatre production have taken some of the available space, so we will not be able to expand the field beyond its current size (24 varsity / 8 jv). Depending upon the jv size, we may consider combining jv and varsity and still award a jv trophy.

We are working with the Todd Dining Hall to provide pre-paid vouchers (paid for at check-in) for lunch. At present, lunch is $5.50 per person, but we are seeing if we can get a group rate.

Blue Ridge (1 varsity)
Byrnes (1 varsity)
Daniel (1 varsity)
Dorman (3 jv)
Greenville (2 varsity)
Greenville Tech Charter (1 varsity)
Hillcrest (2 varsity)
James Island (1 varsity)
Southside (2 varsity)
Southside Christian (1 varsity, 1 jv)
Spartanburg (1 varsity)
Thomas Jefferson Academy (1 varsity)
Wade Hampton (1 varsity)
Wren (1 varsity)

[eldermaas]

Latest field update (29 Sept):

Berea (2 varsity)
Dorman (4 teams: 2v, 2jv)
Greenville (2 varsity)
Greenville Tech Charter (2 varsity)
Hillcrest (1 varsity)
Irmo (1 varsity)
James Island (1 varsity)
Riverside (1 varsity)
Southside (1 varsity)
Southside Christian (1 varsity, 1 jv)
Spartanburg (2 varsity)
Thomas Jefferson Academy (1 varsity)
Wade Hampton (1 varsity)
Wren (1 varsity)

Total: 22

Our tournament is affiliated with PACE as a qualifier for the NSC.

[eldermaas]

With the recent reduction of the field by two teams, we still have two openings in the tournament. The jv field (3 teams) is being combined with the varsity, but a jv award will go to the best jv team (since we already have a trophy). Anyone wishing to enter is encouraged to contact me at nguquizbowl at gmail dot com.

Field update is reflected in an above posting.

[Sheila Camp]

Eastside High School's JV team beat Dorman with a fair margin, (AROUND 100 points), had the same win loss record, yet did not receive a trophy. I do not understand why Dorman was given the trophy instead of Eastside's JV Team. Please advise.

[eldermaas]

Spartanburg won this year's tournament with Southside Christian taking second place. Third place finishers were Southside and Dorman.

Full details can be found at ScoBo

http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org= ... =standings

[scquizbowl]

Wow, Spartanburg must be good this year. Dorman had to go to Princeton, so their top teams weren't at North Greenville. I don't know what happened about Southside.

James Island couldn't make it because we had no driver to drive us the 3 1/2 hours or so it takes to get up there. We do plan to go on October 17 to the Spartanburg tournament, and we might have 2 teams.

[dtaylor4]

Wow, Spartanburg must be good this year. Dorman had to go to Princeton, so their top teams weren't at North Greenville. I don't know what happened about Southside.

Southside went to EFT.

[eldermaas]

After Ms. Camp brought it to my attention, I double checked the standings of the teams which were eligible for the JV trophy. There were four teams eligible for the JV award. Southside Christian B, Dorman B, Dorman C and Dorman D. We had left Dorman B off our original list. With a 2-4 record (one bye) as compared to Dorman C with a 2-5 record (and Dorman C had a worse PPG/PAPG ratio), Dorman B should be the rightful owners of the trophy. I have notified their coach of the mistake.

As stated in the eligibility section of our announcement:
"Junior varsity players must be 8th-10th graders currently enrolled in the school/cooperative for whom they compete."

Eastside B had one player (Jeremy B.) who was listed as an 11th grade student, so Eastside B was not eligible for the JV award.

[millionwaves]

Esteemed posters:

I've split the discussion of the tournament format over to here.