Cancelled: Chris Ray Memorial Open Rescheduled 3/20/10

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

Okay so 2/13 didn't work out since I received feedback from only two teams. Also, with the north pole seeming to shift to DC this year there's less of a chance of inclement weather affecting us on this date, plus it will actually be during college baseball season. This new date doesn't conflict with regionals so hopefully it'll prove more fruitful. As a result the discount for teams at regionals who split up is gone, but everyone gets $10 off for the inconvenience of rescheduling (base fee of 70 now). Here's the announcement basically copied and pasted with the relevant time sensitive corrections:

The William & Mary Quizbowl Club is pleased to announce the Chris Ray Memorial Open (as in, the very much alive former Tribe/Orioles relief pitcher), in honor of his poor UCL that caused his career to tank. It will be held at William and Mary on 3/20, in Morton Hall. This is an official, untimed 10-tossup half NAQT event using IS-92. For those less familiar with NAQT's rules, they can be found here: http://www.naqt.com/rules.html. If we get 21 or more teams then four will qualify for NAQT nationals at this tournament, plus any top small school. When registering please let me know if yours is a small school by NAQT's definition (less than 500 students in grades 10-12 in a public school with non-selective admissions). PACE-NSC qualification has been secured for this tournament as well. If we get 20 or more teams then 4 will qualify, though I'm hoping to get this tournament Gold Certified after the fact so that 6 will qualify.

I envision a competition format similar to college tournaments with two different sets of round robins. If we get a number of teams divisible by six, then we'll likely do a round robin of six, following by rebracketing into new groups of six based on w-l-ppg for a total of 10 rounds. With 20 teams I'd probably go with two round robin groups of ten followed by a playoff RR for the top two in each bracket. 22 works okay as I'd probably do something like a RR group of 8 and two groups of 7 with a RR plus cross bracket against each other, then for rebracketing maybe a championship RR group of six and consolation groups of four for everyone else. Basically everyone should get 9-10 rounds of play at least.

Here's the fee structure:

$70 base fee per team (includes a free copy of the questions per school)
-$10 per working buzzer system
-$15 per solid moderator/scorekeeper
-$10 per team traveling over 200 miles according to Google Maps.
-$20 per team traveling over 300 miles according to Google Maps.

Minimum fee per team: $40

To register, send an email to mpmorr AT wm DOT edu (my address), and include which of the discounts apply, how many teams you'll be sending, your name, and your school's name. Also don't forget to tell me if your school counts as a small school by NAQT's standards (see above). You can direct any questions you have about the tournament/William & Mary to me through this address as well.

We'll have registration from 8:30 to 9, with lunch around 12:00 to 1:00 and we'll hopefully be done with finals by 6. We'll have free breakfast at the tournament, individual awards, and trophies for teams at least 1st, 2nd, and 3rd as usual. For lunch I can direct you to some pretty good options, plus in the morning announcement period I'll take orders for food from Channello's (they have some of the best pizza, subs, and boneless wings in town), which I'll pick up for teams in time for the lunch break. We'll have free food and drink for staffers as well, I'm thinking Chick-Fil-A or Channello's at the moment. Finally, directions can be found here: http://www.wm.edu/about/visiting/directions/index.php.

Sincerely,

Matt Morrison
Secretary, W&M Quizbowl, Tournament Director (may get another one or two on board in the next couple weeks)

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

For teams looking to spend Friday night who are looking for a decent attraction, Friday at 7 the Tribe takes on UMass in baseball at Plumeri Park, a beautiful 11 year old facility built thanks to donations from, and named for, the man responsible for the Sears Tower name change to Willis Tower. Tickets go from $5-7. Also, this tournament won't be in Morton anymore but I'll figure out soon which building(s) we'll use.

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

Sorry for this being under the radar a while, but I've been waiting on Dan to get rooms straight so I would know for sure we could do this on 3/20 still. Turns out we will now host this in the beautiful new business school building on campus, Miller Hall (on the corner of Ukrop Dr. and Jamestown Rd.). Miller has its own cafeteria serving flatbread pizzas, paninis, and sushi. There are flat screen TV's everywhere turned to CNBC, Bloom, CNN, and the like constantly. Though the rooms we got are somewhat small, this building is several times nicer than Morton would have been. Our field cap is still 24 teams as originally stated. Please let me know if you're interested in this tournament.

Registered:

Dorman (2)
Nandua (2)
Collegiate
Freeman

[smithp5]

Unfortunately, Guilford will not be able to attend this tournament. Thank you for your consideration.

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

So Miller Hall has an event going on at 4:00 pm, but Morton is free after 3:00 pm and I just reserved rooms in there from 3-7 (and really no one will be there after 7). After the first round ending after 3 pm, we'll switch over to Morton which is directly across the street (Ukrop Drive) from Miller. Hopefully by then we'll be in the playoff stage. I hate to do things like that but the campus is swamped that day with Model Congress, Debate, and Center for Gifted Education events. At one point I had edited what I said about the timing of the tournament in the first post to make it seem like I'd cut this off at four, but ignore that since we now have Morton.

Vice President Annie Adams will be the Co-Tournament Director now, in case I fall into a crevice over Spring Break and you can't reach me after a couple of days her email is akadams@wm,edu (usually I'm pretty good about responding promptly though).

[dtaylor4]

So Miller Hall has an event going on at 4:00 pm, but Morton is free after 3:00 pm and I just reserved rooms in there from 3-7 (and really no one will be there after 7). After the first round ending after 3 pm, we'll switch over to Morton which is directly across the street (Ukrop Drive) from Miller. Hopefully by then we'll be in the playoff stage. I hate to do things like that but the campus is swamped that day with Model Congress, Debate, and Center for Gifted Education events. At one point I had edited what I said about the timing of the tournament in the first post to make it seem like I'd cut this off at four, but ignore that since we now have Morton.

Vice President Annie Adams will be the Co-Tournament Director now, in case I fall into a crevice over Spring Break and you can't reach me after a couple of days her email is akadams@wm,edu (usually I'm pretty good about responding promptly though).

Any chance you could reserve the rooms in Morton for an earlier time, and move everything during the lunch break? Otherwise, this will probably result in a disaster.

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

Unfortunately no since Debate is running a tournament in Morton till 3. By then hopefully we'll have gotten pretty far along in our tournament, or we'll be right around playoff announcement time, in which case there would be a break anyway.

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

New field edit above. I've heard a few "we'll sees" from some others.

If the field stays fairly small I may try to get everything besides finals done in Miller Hall, which will mean running things on the early side (like having an 8:30 or 9 drop dead starting time). I'll see though and keep everyone updated.

Also, freelance volunteer staff members are encouraged and welcome. Staffing will be coordinated by the club VP Annie so email her (akadams@wm,edu) if you're interested!

Come on and register, people!

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

Although I'm fine with Friday registrations usually, tonight by 11 pm if I don't hear from more teams that they're coming then I'll cancel this, as we're down to 5 and I'd like to have at least 8. Last chance!

EDIT: Well not only did I not hear from anyone but Dorman dropped as well. I heard Rappahannock is hosting a tournament Saturday so that may have taken away some of our potential draw, as well as Spring Break. So I'm cancelling this, sorry it didn't work out, we'll try to host something next year!

[Carangoides ciliarius]

Sorry to hear that.

Just in general, i really think it would be great if colleges (and high schools, i guess) started hosting a few more tournaments in the Fall instead of the Spring. It seems like every weekend from the beginning of February until the beginning of May is filled up with tournaments (or collegiate obligations, whether they be Spring Break, ACFwhatevers, or other events), but there are always big gaps in October and November for high school competitions. So, i hope more tournament hosts keep this in mind. Perhaps it was just a phenomenon that i noticed, but it appeared to be pretty clear in many regions through the country.