Lawrence University Fall Tournament II (10/24/09)

[cornfused]

The Lawrence University Quiz Team is pleased to invite your team to the 2009 incarnation of the Lawrence University Fall Tournament. This event will be held on NAQT IS-86 on Saturday, October 24th, 2009, in Main Hall of Lawrence University's Appleton campus.

Each match will consist of 20 tossup questions open to all eight players. Players who first answer a tossup question correctly will be rewarded with 10 points and a chance for their entire team to answer a multi-part bonus question worth a maximum of 30 points. Questions come from all areas: science, math, history and government, literature, current events, geography, popular culture, fine arts, sports, mythology and religion, social science, and general knowledge; with the academic areas heavily emphasized.

In an attempt to ensure that teams have the opportunity to compete against teams of equal skill, the schedule will incorporate a pooled round robin for preliminary play. In addition, we guarantee that each team will play a minimum of seven matches, with the top teams playing head-to-head to determine the tournament champion. Our goal is that each team plays as many matches as possible. We will also attempt to ensure that teams from the same school will not play each other during the preliminary rounds.

We will begin registration at 8:15 AM and hold a mandatory meeting for players and coaches at 8:45 AM. Preliminary rounds will begin at 9:00 AM. and continue through the morning with a lunch break around noon. Playoffs, a brief awards ceremony, and a final game (if necessary) will follow, and we expect to finish no later than 5:00 PM.
Registration should've been addressed to Greg Peterson. There used to be contact info here.
________________________________

The entry fees for the 2009 LUFT are:

First team from a school $100
Each additional team from a school $90
Discount for a fully functional buzzer system (max 3 per school) -$5/school
Distance discount (teams coming from >150 miles away)* -$10/school
Out of state discount** -$20/school
Competent moderator*** that we can use for the entire tournament -$20/school

* Determined as one-way distance from your school to Appleton according to Google Maps. This discount would apply, for example, to teams from Beloit in the south, Chippewa Falls in the west, or all of that lakey stuff north of Rhinelander.
** While out-of-state schools are welcome to attend, they will be ineligible for the distance discount.
***Let me know if you plan to claim this discount, as not all moderator offers will be accepted.

Please feel free to email me at petersogATlawrenceDOTedu if you have any questions.

We look forward to seeing you on October 24th!

Greg Peterson
President, Lawrence University Quiz Team

[cornfused]

This space reserved for future important information.

[cornfused]

Field update:
Athens (1)
River Falls (1)
Oshkosh West (3)

[cornfused]

Up to five teams now.

[cornfused]

With a week to go, we're sitting at five teams, which means that the tourney will still happen but the schedule needs to be scrapped.

Five-team schedule:
Triple round robin (12 packets, 15 games per team.)

Head-to-head (a guaranteed tiebreaker in a 3RR) will be the tiebreaker in case of a two-way tie for first. In case of a 3-way tie for first, the tie will be resolved by an Olympic-committee style tiebreak: that is games against the fifth-place team will be discounted, then the fourth-place team. If this doesn't work - that is, if there is a circle of death at the top and all three teams did the same against #5 and against #4 - ties will be broken on PPB, then PPG.

Each team gets 12 games in 15 rounds.

Six-team schedule:
Double round robin (10 packets, 10 games per team,) then a split into two brackets of three, round robin in those brackets (3 packets, 3 games per team, 2 of which count.)

ACF-style final if necessary: if one team clears the field by 2 games or more, that team wins. If the leader is one game ahead of a single second-place team, those two teams play an advantaged 2-game final - effectively a best-of-three series where the leader is given the first game. If two teams are tied for first, they will play a one-game final. If the leader is one game ahead of two teams tied for second, those two teams will play a game for the right to face the leader in a one-game final. If we get a 1-2a-2b-2c-5-6 scenario, 2b-2c play a 10-question half-match for the right to play 2a in a half-match... for the right to play 1 in a one-game final. If we get a 1-2a-2b-2c-2d-6 somehow, then 2a-2d and 2b-2c play half-matches, winner-winner half-match, winner-1 full match. Math tells me that a 1-2a-2b-2c-2d-2e (with 1 one game up) is impossible in a twelve-game tourney. In all scenarios, a-b-c-d is determined by PPB.

Each team is guaranteed 12 games that count and 13 actual games of quizbowl.

[Jeremy Gibbs Freesy Does It]

Five-team schedule:
Triple round robin (15 packets, 15 games per team.)
...
Each team gets 15 games in 15 rounds.

Think about these numbers for a second.
Also, there is no real reason I know of in a region that is new to good quizbowl to have your tournament be longer than 11 games, and 9 to 10 is still preferable.

[cornfused]

I'll poll the coaches, but that may be a bit high. Good point.

[Jeremy Gibbs Freesy Does It]

I still don't think you noticed the problem with your math in that post.

[cornfused]

Whoops. That should read 12 in 15.

[cornfused]

Final field:

Oshkosh West A
Oshkosh West B
Oshkosh West C
Athens A
Athens B
River Falls

...which makes the schedule DRR, 3-3 split, RR, final.

[cornfused]

1. River Falls (10-2 plus win in game one of final)
2. Oshkosh West A (9-3 plus loss in game one of final)
3. Oshkosh West B
4. Oshkosh West C
5. Athens B
6. Athens A

Stats are finished and ready to be posted, but I don't know where I can post them, as tc.scobo.net appears to be broken.

High scorer after the 10-round prelims was Nick Davidson of River Falls, followed by Isaac L. (OW B,) Julia (OW A,) Gabriel (RF,) and Telia (OW C.)

[cornfused]

Thanks to everyone who came out and played, Catherine Albright and Michael Schreiber of LU and Paul Hoffman of Athens for staffing, and NAQT for the questions.

The tournament was a success - lots of quizbowl for a lot of teams that don't play very much - and it stayed interesting to the end, as River Falls went 10-0 in the preliminary DRR but was beaten by both Oshkosh West teams in the playoffs to force a final.

If I did this again, I would consider using an A set - the teams stayed interested, but the field average was 9.91 PPB with the #1 team at 12.2 and the #6 team at 3.3. Average score across the field was 119.9 points per team per 20-tossup game. It also appears that the teams were pretty cautious, as the average line per team was 4-72-9.

[cornfused]

Also, River Falls, by virtue of their first-place finish, qualifies for the 2010 NAQT HSNCT, which will be held May 28-30th of 2010.

Annoying, we were just shy of qualifying the top TWO teams for the HSNCT: an extra team in the field would've netted us an extra ticket to the HSNCT, as 7*.15=1.05, which rounded up is 2.