The Quizbowl Resource Center

The quizbowl team at the University of Pennsylvania is pleased to announce our second-annual Quaker Fall Open, to be held on the Penn campus in Philadelphia, PA on Saturday, December 3rd.

Divisions and Questions: This tournament will have two divisions: Open and Novice. The Open division will use the WHAQ question set while the Novice division will use the SCOP question set.

The Open division is open to any high school team. The Novice division has the following eligibility rules:
1. Any 9th or 10th grade player is eligible
2. Any player who has never played a weekend tournament primarily on pyramidal questions before is eligible (IU competitions of any kind do not count against this)
3. Any player who has never averaged more than 20 PPG for the whole tournament at a pyramidal quizbowl tournament before is eligible

All players on a Novice team must be eligible for the team to compete in the Novice division. Let us know if you have any questions about eligibility; we are happy to address those on a case-by-case basis.

Fees:
$80 per team in the open division (guaranteed at least 10 rounds)
$70 per team in the novice division (guaranteed at least 8 rounds)
-$25 for a competent, experienced moderator who can stay all tournament
-$5 for each fully functional buzzer set
-$30 for the first team from a school that has not played at a pyramidal weekend quizbowl tournament (IU competitions do not count against this) since September 1st, 2014

Payment: Checks should be made out to our co-president, "JinAh Kim" (preferred) or "Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania." We can provide invoices in advance to teams that need them as well as a mailing address (available on request).

Field Size: Our field cap and absolute room limit is 42 teams total, with ideally an 18-24 open/novice split. A school may register up to 3 teams (total) initially. Any additional teams will be placed on a waitlist. Last year, our field filled quickly and we had a waitlist 15 teams deep at one point, though the waitlist later cleared as teams adjusted their numbers.

To Register: Please contact us at [email protected] for further information or to register. To register, please email us your school's name, the number of teams that you are bringing, the number of (working) buzzer systems that you can bring, and any moderators that you can bring. Before you register, be sure that you have talked to all team members who might be in attendance and confirmed that they are available to attend the tournament on that date. This is an SAT date.

Please let us know if you can help moderate! We will seek to have outside moderators reimbursed for the full cost of travel in addition to providing a light breakfast and lunch for all moderators (including school-provided ones).

Full logistical details will be sent to registered teams closer to the tournament date.

Thank you and hope to see you at our tournament in December!

Running Field Update (as of 12/1)

Total: (36/36) Field Cap Reached

Open (12):
Great Valley (2)
Lehigh Valley
Downingtown East
Manheim Township
Carver E & S
Central Bucks East
Friends Select
Wissahickon (2)
Delaware Valley
Lakeland

Novice (24):
Great Valley (2)
Downingtown East
Manheim Township (3)
Pope John Paul II*
Carver E & S
Central Bucks East
Friends Select (3)
Haddon Township*
Wissahickon
Franklin Towne (2)
Delaware Valley
Bodine
Rush*
Science Leadership Academy
Central
Hatboro-Horsham*
Bishop McDevitt (MontCo)*
Downingtown West

* = first pyramidal quizbowl tournament

Open Waitlist:
Charter School of Wilmington (2) (One offer out)

We are more than halfway to our goal of 42 teams with 2 months to go. I'm going to soft cap at 36 total teams since I want to be sure of our moderator situation and I'd like to reserve a few spaces for new teams that I've been in touch with that are in the process of forming right now. On that note, although I've emailed many people in the area directly, if there's anyone who wants to come help read for a bunch of new schools please let me know! We have several brand-new schools signed up and many more likely on the way, so we can use all the outside help that people would like to offer. We have room for up to 42 total in terms of room space; the limiting reagent is moderators.

We have also changed who manages our team account and our team mailing address. Please follow the newly updated instructions in the initial post above when making payments.

I have confirmed with all teams in the field and have sent out a final logistics email.

We will not be expanding to 42 and will instead remain at 36 teams due to a lack of enough competent moderators in the area. Teams on the waitlist are welcome to stay on it in case a team drops; I will contact these schools ASAP if there are any changes.

Full stats for the tournament are available under "Stat Reports" here. The final standings in each division (which aren't on the stat reports) were:

Open Division:
1. Manheim Township A
2. Great Valley A
3. Lehigh Valley
4. Delaware Valley A

Novice Division:
1. Downingtown West
2. Manheim Township B
3. Delaware Valley B
4. Manheim Township C

Thanks to all the teams for coming out for a great day of academic competition in Pennsylvania! Particular thanks to the coaches, members of the Penn team, Brian MacNamara, Bill Tressler, Eliza Grames, Joe Nutter, and Ian Drayer who all helped moderate and made sure the tournament ran smoothly.

Thanks for playing the WHAQ set, everybody in the Open Division! The set is not yet clear, so if you want to discuss the set, please join the "WHAQ 2016" discussion group. (Go to your User Control Panel, click on usergroups, then find "WHAQ 2016 Discussion" and join it)