PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

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PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Majin Buu Roi »

Princeton University Quiz Bowl is happy to announce PHSAT XXII, which will take place on September 27th, 2014 on the Princeton campus. PHSAT XXII will be an official NAQT Event, using a regular IS set. Teams will be capped at six players, though only four players can compete at the same time.
The tournament will consist of a round-robin preliminary, followed by a lunch break. Playoffs will be held after lunch. The number of brackets will depend on the number of teams that sign up.

Registration will open at 8:15 in McCosh 10, which will serve as the main gathering place for the tournament. Matches will begin at 9, so please endeavor to be on time.

The cost structure for the tournament will be:
• $75/team registered base fee
◦ Discount of $10 for every experienced moderator (no limit)
◦ Discount of $15 for every experienced moderator with a laptop (no limit. We will be doing all scorekeeping electronically. If a moderator does not have a laptop, there will be a staffer with a laptop to assist with scorekeeping.)
◦ Discount of $5 for every buzzer set
◦ Discount of $10 if your school participated in PHSAT XXI
• If the fee proves to be too much of a financial burden, please contact the tournament director at [email protected] to discuss registration breaks.

NOTE: We recognize that last year's PHSAT was relatively disorganized and was delayed substantially. We have taken a number of steps to correct for this.
1) We have arranged for a number of outside moderators to help facilitate the running of the tournament. Last year, a number of our problems were caused by moderators who did not know how to take score, delaying rounds substantially. We are also arranging a tutorial for all student volunteers days in advance so that they will be prepped by the tournament.
2) We will be doing all scoring electronically. PHSAT XX used electronic score keeping and everything was much smoother. PHSAT XXI used partially electronic and partially non-electronic, making it harder for our statistics software to update. We are looking into customizable scoresheets that will automatically synchronize with SQDB so that statistics can be parsed faster. Last year, an hour and a half was spent going through scoresheets and entering them in, delaying the tournament.
3) All matches will take place in 2 adjacent buildings (McCosh and East Pyne). Last year, matches took place all across campus, some even 15 minutes apart, making it hard to fix issues should they arise.

We recognize that last year was frustrating, and hence, we are granting a $10 discount to all schools for every team they register. (So, even if a school only brought one team last year and is bringing 3 teams this year, the $10 discount applies to all of the teams.)

In particular, we wish to thank the coaches who participated last year for providing us with an exhaustive list of notes regarding areas in which PHSAT XXI went wrong. Thanks also to Matt Weiner for his extensive help.

We hope that you will join us and help make PHSAT XXII a success.

If you wish to participate, please fill out the following registration form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10CkmSV ... =send_form

If you have any questions regarding the tournament, please e-mail me at [email protected]

Current Field as of 9/23 (Teams, Buzzers, Moderators):
Connections Academy (1,0,0)
Ithaca High School (1,1,3)
Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School (1,0,0)
The Pirates (2,0,0)
Kellenberg Memorial (2,3,1)
Livingston HS (3,1,0)
Saint Joseph's (2,2,1)
Emmaus High School (1,0,0)
High Technology High School (2,1,0)
Middlesex County Academy (2,0,1)
Charter School of Wilmington (4,1,1)
East Brunswick High School (3,1,0)
Bethlehem Central (1,2,0)
Ridgewood High School (1,4,1)
Stroudsburg High School (1,0,0)
Trinity School (2,0,0)
Manheim Township (1,0,0)
Bergen Academies (2,2,1)
Henderson (2,1,1)
Mountain Lakes (2,2,1)

Waiting List:
Team Gotham (2,1,0)
Biotechnology High School (2,0,0)
Mountain Lakes (1,0,0)
Last edited by Majin Buu Roi on Tue Sep 23, 2014 12:12 pm, edited 11 times in total.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by mrkirkmath »

Ithaca High School would like to attend. I have signed us up in the Google form. Thanks!
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Majin Buu Roi »

Some additional information:

The tournament will be using NAQT Invitational Series #138

In order to facilitate the smooth administration of PHSAT XXII, Princeton University Quiz Bowl has decided to cap the field at 24 teams. However, if we receive enough interest, we will strongly consider expanding the field to a maximum of 30 teams.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Majin Buu Roi »

PHSAT XXII is now also PACE-NSC Platinum Certified.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Mark Wolfsberg »

Bethlehem Central High School would like to attend. I have signed us up in the Google form. Thanks!
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Lo, Marathon Ham! »

We registered a few days back. When will the field be updated?
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Majin Buu Roi »

Princeton University Quiz Bowl has decided to expand the field to 36 teams, which still leaves very few spots left. As some of the registered schools have expressed concerns that one or all of their teams may be unable to attend, schools that register after the field is filled will be placed on a waiting list.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Majin Buu Roi »

The field currently stands at 34 teams, so only two guaranteed spots remain.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Majin Buu Roi »

We know have 36 teams signed up. The registration form will remain open, however submissions will be placed on a waiting list in chronological order. We apologize to any teams that are consequently locked out, but we need to limit the field size in order to guarantee a smooth administration.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Lo, Marathon Ham! »

Could you add a fifth team from Charter to the wait list?
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Great Bustard »

As of this evening, there was an empty spot in the draw. On the off chance that someone sees this, call Jason at the number he sent out last evening if you still want an extra team, even if your team was never officially on the wait list.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Urech hydantoin synthesis »

Prelim and playoff stats have been posted at http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/2311/. Due to some confusion in the consolation rounds, some teams did not play all five scheduled games. Livingston won the right to play Bethlehem Central in one half of the semifinals, and Ridgewood won the right to play High Tech in the other.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Al Hirt »

Is there any word on official nationals qualification? The standings don't reflect the advantages played in the half games so I'm somewhat confused.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by jonpin »

Al Hirt wrote:Is there any word on official nationals qualification? The standings don't reflect the advantages played in the half games so I'm somewhat confused.
By the reasonable and nigh-universal principles of placing, it appears that the standings would be
1. Bethlehem
2. High Tech
3-4. Ridgewood and Livingston
5-6. BCA and East Brunswick
7-8. Livingston-B and Manheim
9-10. St. Joseph and Wilmington Charter
11-12. Mountain Lakes and Emmaus
First underline is top 15% (5.4 = 6) for HSNCT. Second underline is top 25% (9) for NSC, if this was Platinum.

What Princeton considers the official standings, I'm not sure. In the moderator meeting, the notion was to say wins then PPG, but:
(1) This was on the notion that what bracket you're in is arbitrary. This is ridiculous. Since you've designed the playoff brackets, by whatever manner, to be equal, it is totally relevant to say 4th in one group > 5th in the other group. Further, if you're saying the groups are arbitary, that's even more reason why you can't compare W-L record between brackets.
(2) Since the stuff mentioned in the moderator meeting was apparently never communicated to the actual teams, some of it was stricken (hence the tiebreakers to get into semifinals), so [SHRUG]

Let this be a lesson: Announce your formats! That is what opening meetings (and pre-playoff meetings) are for! Print it on the schedules! Write it on the board! Tell the teams who are competing what the manner of competition is.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Ithaca Cricket Ump »

This just in.....Bethlehem ain't no joke.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by jonpin »

Also a coming out party for Emmaus and Ryan Bilger. I met Ryan over the summer at ACE Camp, and it's clear the amount of work he's put in. Emmaus may have gone 0-5 in the playoffs, but got 9 tossups against High Tech and East Brunswick and 10 against Livingston. If they can start picking up a few more powers and bump their bonus conversion by a few points, they'll be a true force to be reckoned with.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Al Hirt »

All things considered, this tournament ran far better from last year. Bracketing wasn't totally awful for an early fall tournament, the mods and directors were rather friendly and helpful, and we got out at a decent time with 10 guaranteed games. It was definitely a good experience and highlighted how competitive this region is going to be this year.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Great Bustard »

A few notes regarding this tournament:
1. Directors should always ask for a contact cell phone number of the tournament-day coach/chaperone on the registration form, and send out their own phone number (or that of the appropriate contact person in advance.)
2. In terms of how to structure the brackets and advancement criteria, there are some regularly-held principles (using points per game is preferable to points per bonus within a bracket, but not for cross-bracket comparisons, e.g.), but the most important thing is that you announce the way the advancement criteria works and then stick with it.
3. Having moderators' names on a paper schedule with their rooms on them saves time.
4. I played at one of the earliest iterations of this tournament in 1997 (on NAQT IS #1 - the debut of the power tossup! and for more trivia, Jeff Hoppes' Manheim team won that event) with 50 teams in attendance. Later that school year I played at a Yale tournament with about 56 teams. While I completely understand Princeton's desire to cap the field at 36 teams this year, playing at large tournaments always was lots of fun for me (and is more lucrative for the organizers; thereby helping them attend more events and grow their own programs). Have colleges ever combined forces on staffing at tournaments, which could then not only avoid Princeton and Yale hosting on the same day, but also help draw fields in the 50+ range? I know that part of the reason of the decline in field size is simply due to more tournaments being held, but it would be neat if more mutual collaboration happened between college teams. Large field sizes also make it more possible to hold JV/Varsity splits or Novice/Expert splits, which I believe are helpful for many of the newer teams and more experienced teams alike (there were plenty of the usual 500-100 games yesterday, esp. in the morning).
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Grace »

Great Bustard wrote:which could then not only avoid Princeton and Yale hosting on the same day, but also help draw fields in the 50+ range? I know that part of the reason of the decline in field size is simply due to more tournaments being held, but it would be neat if more mutual collaboration happened between college teams.
There is, in fact, an email scheduling discussion thread for all collegiate teams in the greater-Northeast area which traditionally host tournaments; it was started in order to prevent precisely this kind of tournament pile-up.

EDIT 2: for content and tone.
Last edited by Grace on Sun Sep 28, 2014 4:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Rococo A Go Go »

For some reason, I doubt that Yale hosting a tournament 150 miles away is a major reason why Princeton had 14 less teams at their tournament than in 1997.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Mark Wolfsberg »

NickConderWKU wrote:For some reason, I doubt that Yale hosting a tournament 150 miles away is a major reason why Princeton had 14 less teams at their tournament than in 1997.
For Bethlehem it would seem a toss up on which to go to. However, They used an "A" set which is what our local Master Minds League uses, so we could not attend Yale under any scheduling circumstances. As a result, we chose Dave Madden's Alma Matter, which I think we would have chosen even if the Yale set was usable.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Mark Wolfsberg »

One more tiny note on PHSAT: I was a shame that no book awards were given out. I think that book awards are a great tradition that should be upheld. I'm guessing that if anyone had stopped by the Princeton U library and asked for some used books, they would have gladly provided...... If you did, and they said "no", accept my apologies for bringing it up.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by The Polebarn Hotel »

Ithaca certainly enjoyed themselves at this tournament. For some reason, our last match with The Pirates isn't in the stats; could that be fixed? Thanks.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Urech hydantoin synthesis »

Do you know what room it was in? There were some rooms with missing rounds or the like.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by The Polebarn Hotel »

christino wrote:Do you know what room it was in? There were some rooms with missing rounds or the like.
I'm not exactly sure. Does this mean that they're completely lost? I didn't keep stats that round so I don't have them. I'm just curious because I don't know our bonus conversion that round.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by mrkirkmath »

The final match between Ithaca and The Pirates was in McCosh 26 with Scott Blish as the moderator. The Pirates won 335 to 240. I took careful notes of individual stats, but only for Ithaca. I have powers, negs, and bonuses for Pirates, but they're not separated by individual. Let me know if you'd like me to send it.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Urech hydantoin synthesis »

Crazyflight wrote:
christino wrote:Do you know what room it was in? There were some rooms with missing rounds or the like.
I'm not exactly sure. Does this mean that they're completely lost? I didn't keep stats that round so I don't have them. I'm just curious because I don't know our bonus conversion that round.
Nope, the scoresheet seems to be there, but for some reason wasn't entered. I'll send Jason an updated version of the stats with corrections and proper final standings after midterms this week (Thursday/Friday). For now, here's a screenshot of the scoresheet: http://i.imgur.com/CNRnM3L.png.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Majin Buu Roi »

Hello, everyone, thank you again for coming to PHSAT XXII. I apologize for the lack of follow up on my part so far, but I unfortunately had to tend to a family emergency on Sunday and didn't have time to sit down and look at the message boards until now. On that note, thank you especially to Ed Powers, David Madden, and Jon Pinyan for your advice regarding setting up this tournament, improving future tournaments, and of course your patience during this one. Ben and I are currently working on getting that missing Ithaca match into the stats, but right now I can state who qualified for HSNCT and PACE-NSC:

Bethlehem Central
High Tech A
Livingston A
Ridgewood
East Brunswick A
Bergen A

Congratulations on qualifying for HSNCT. I am currently wrapping things up with NAQT, so hopefully an official invitation will arrive soon.

Manheim Township
Livingston B
Wilmington A

Congratulations on qualifying for PACE-NSC. This qualification already has been finalized. You will all hopefully receive and email from PACE in the very near future.

That said, given NAQT's stated policy of extending invitations to all teams that tie for the top 15% except at their discretion, there is a non-zero chance that Manheim, Livingston B and Wilmington A may also qualify for HSNCT as well.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Great Bustard »

NickConderWKU wrote:For some reason, I doubt that Yale hosting a tournament 150 miles away is a major reason why Princeton had 14 less teams at their tournament than in 1997.
True, although one of the nice things about said 1997-vintage tournaments was that both Princeton and Yale that year had great fields from throughout both the mid-Atlantic (including greater DC; I remember TJ at Princeton and Governor's School (pre-Maggie Walker days) at Yale) and New England. And I know mutliple teams from SC/GA went there as well. There have been other events of this ilk of late (especially Texas Invitational, Midwest Invitational, and Harvard) but it would be fun to have more, especially in the Northeast.
My point here, is more that I think one limiting factor on field size has been insufficient staff. If schools joined staffing forces (Ben Zhang's helpful presence at PHSAT on Saturday is part of what prompted this train of thought) then they could potentially plan on having a large field size and extending invites to more schools. There are other outreach issues at play here, no doubt, but certainly, big name colleges have a built in advantage in recruiting for high school tournaments, and they should take advantage of it wherever possible.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

Great Bustard wrote:
NickConderWKU wrote:For some reason, I doubt that Yale hosting a tournament 150 miles away is a major reason why Princeton had 14 less teams at their tournament than in 1997.
True, although one of the nice things about said 1997-vintage tournaments was that both Princeton and Yale that year had great fields from throughout both the mid-Atlantic (including greater DC; I remember TJ at Princeton and Governor's School (pre-Maggie Walker days) at Yale) and New England. And I know mutliple teams from SC/GA went there as well. There have been other events of this ilk of late (especially Texas Invitational, Midwest Invitational, and Harvard) but it would be fun to have more, especially in the Northeast.
My point here, is more that I think one limiting factor on field size has been insufficient staff. If schools joined staffing forces (Ben Zhang's helpful presence at PHSAT on Saturday is part of what prompted this train of thought) then they could potentially plan on having a large field size and extending invites to more schools. There are other outreach issues at play here, no doubt, but certainly, big name colleges have a built in advantage in recruiting for high school tournaments, and they should take advantage of it wherever possible.
I was talking about this with one of Maggie Walker's coaches recently, and part of the reason for smaller field sizes is that sets are being mirrored much more widely these days. For example, until 2009 or so, if you wanted to play the GSAC set at a tournament, you had to come to Richmond. Now, teams from New York or South Carolina or what have you can play that set much closer to home. The same holds for most other housewritten tournaments.

Staff and outreach are of course also limiting factors, but teams simply don't have to travel as far as they used to if they want to play a bunch of tournaments.
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Re: PHSAT XXII-Princeton, NJ (9/27/2014)

Post by AnirudhD »

Just a couple of comments -

I think the biggest limiting factor for us is an active staff. We'll try to find ways to get more moderators/staff in the future, but our biggest concern going forward is to ensure that the field does not become too large to the point where it harms the speed/efficacy of the tournament itself.

Moreover, I just wanted to thank Ben Zhang one more time; his inordinate help in making sure stats got entered, etc. was probably the single most helpful thing that anyone could have done. I'm not sure that PHSAT this year could have run as efficiently without his help.
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