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VCU Battle of the Brains Style Tournament (10/28/17)

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2017 9:48 am
by Cody
This is the general announcement for the 2017 Virginia Commonwealth University Fall "Battle of the Brains"-style tournament, which is a high school level academic quizbowl tournament, to be hosted at VCU in Richmond, Virginia, on Saturday, October 28 from 8:00 AM to about 3:30 PM. Registration will run from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM, so teams should arrive before 8:30 AM. Rounds should conclude for the majority of teams before 3:30 PM.

Please note the change to our typical registration process, below, which involves registering via a Google Form. If you need any assistance, please e-mail Matt at the e-mail at the end of this post.

Location, directions & parking:
The tournament will most likely take place in Grace E. Harris Hall, located at the intersection of Main Street and Harrison Street, in Richmond, Virginia. One will want to park either on the street, or in the West Main Street Parking Deck, which has entrances on Cherry Street and Laurel Street and is nominally located at 801 W Main St. A campus map is accessible here.

The opening meeting will likely occur in Harris 101.

Questions:
This tournament will be using a customized set based on NAQT’s IS-167A that is modified to the Battle of the Brains TV show format by the VCU team. Please consult the list of other tournaments using IS-167A, most notably the September tournament at Virginia Tech. Any team who has previously played IS-167A is ineligible for this event.

Affiliation:
This tournament plans to seek certification from the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence, so it will be an opportunity for a top portion of the field to qualify for the National Scholastics Championship, which will occur on June 2nd through 3rd in the Washington, D.C. area. More information is available at this link.

This tournament will be a qualifier for the top 15% of the field to the 2018 NAQT High School National Championship Tournament, which will occur on May 25-27 in Atlanta (details forthcoming).

Format:
This tournament will use a modified format, based on the rules of the TV show. There will be four quarters in each game. The first and second quarters will each consist of 8 tossups worth 10 points each. In the third quarter, each team will pick in turn (with the team behind in the score picking first) from a list of three choices for a category-based lightning round. In the fourth quarter, there will be 8 tossups worth 20 points each.

We expect to offer every team 7 prelim games, then have championship playoffs. Each team will be seeded into a “championship” or “consolation” playoff bracket and continue playing. The tournament will last 10 total rounds and we will try to allow all teams to play in 9 rounds, if the field size permits.

Divisions & eligibility:
The tournament is open to public, private, and homeschool teams. Schools in the Varsity and Junior Varsity divisions must be from the Battle of the Brains eligibility radius, which is defined as anywhere in Virginia that is not part of Fairfax, Loudoun, or Prince William counties, or independent cities within or bordering any of those counties. Schools from those counties, and schools from outside Virginia, are eligible for this tournament, but must play in the National division.

To make sure each team gets a chance to play opponents of a similar experience level, the tournament will be divided into NATIONAL, VARSITY, and JUNIOR VARSITY divisions.

JUNIOR VARSITY division: For a team to play in this division, all players must meet the eligibility for the Varsity division and be in no higher than the 10th grade.

VARSITY division: For a team to play in this division, it must contain NO players who have ever been a Battle of the Brains all-star, or ever played on a team that finished in the top 4 on Battle of the Brains, finished in the top 4 of any non-novice/non-JV invitational quizbowl tournament (or division of a larger tournament), or qualified for the VHSL Scholastic Bowl state championship tournament.

NATIONAL division: Teams which do not meet the eligibility limit for the Varsity division play here. Teams who could play in Varsity but want to “play up” in the National division may be allowed to do so, but we reserve the right to review and deny this on a case-by-case basis in order to maintain workable field sizes in both divisions. Any team from outside the BoB viewing radius as defined above must also play in this division.

Schools are encouraged to enter teams in every division, including multiple teams! You may enter as many teams of 4 students in the tournament as you’d like. Note that some schools may be required to play multiple teams in the National division – if your A and B team both finished in the top 4 at an invitational tournament then you have 8 players who are not eligible for the Varsity division.

Note that it is possible that the varsity and national division will be combined for the prelims and then split out for the playoffs, depending on the field size of the national division. We will ensure that any format is as fair as possible given the field constraints.

Registration & fees:
base fee: $60 per team entered in National division, $50 per team entered in Varsity division, $40 per team entered in Junior Varsity division.

buzzer discount: -$5 to your school's total fee for each fully functional system. There is no limit to the number of systems you can bring. A fully functional buzzer system is defined as follows:
  • A buzzer system that clearly indicates which player has buzzed.
  • The control unit and at least 8 activators work, including lights on either or both of the 8 activators and control unit.
  • If the activators plug into a control unit via a modular connector, such as a telephone plug, tape must be provided if any latching tabs are broken.
staff discount: -$10 to your school's total fee. This can be a coach, parent, student, or other person who is not playing. Team-provided staffers will keep score for various games unless they are specifically told that they will be reading. Volunteer staffers must stay through all the games (except finals) in order to receive credit for their school. There is no limit to the number of staffers you can bring.

travel discount: -$10 to your school's total fee for every 150 miles traveled one-way from your school's address to VCU, according to Google Maps.

early registration discount: If you register your teams by October 2, and show up to the tournament, on time, with the exact number of teams you had registered on October 2, then you will receive $10 off your total school’s fee.

minimum fee: The minimum fee is $0. You can achieve unlimited discounts until you eliminate your fee, but you cannot have a “negative fee.”

To register for this tournament, fill out this form. Once you have submitted the form, there is no further action needed on your part in order to be officially registered. You will receive periodic e-mail updates from us after you have registered. Posts made in this thread do not count as official registrations.

Please feel welcome to share this announcement with any schools that you think would be interested in attending!

Method of payment:
All teams must pay by the day of the tournament. We prefer to accept payment in person right before the tournament starts, but we will accept checks by mail ahead of time if required by your school. Teams who do not pay by the day of the tournament will be charged a $25 penalty and will have two weeks to pay their total amount.

We can accept cash, personal checks, or checks from a school, school district, quizbowl club, or other source. We have no ability to process purchase orders, credit cards, Paypal, or any other forms of payment. Bringing forms of payment outside of the three listed will be considered nonpayment and subject you to the $25 late payment penalty.

All checks must be made out to "Quizbowl at VCU". If you require an invoice or W-9 form in order to have a check cut, you must let us know by October 2, 2017, so that we can send you the paperwork in time. If you do not let us know about this requirement by October 2, and it causes you to come to the tournament without your payment, then you will be subject to the $25 late payment penalty.

Team & roster size:
There may be a maximum of six players on one team's roster, up to four of whom may play at one time. There will be no exceptions to this rule. If you bring more than six players, you must register a second team to have all of them play. Teams may select a lineup from their roster for each game but there is no during-game substitution opportunity. Each player may appear on only one team's roster throughout the day; there is no switching from the B team to the A team, etc. Teams may play shorthanded, with fewer than four players.

The VCU team reserves the right to cap the field based on availability of space and staff; the current cap is 33 teams. Teams registering after the field is full will be placed on a waitlist and will enter the field as we expand or as teams drop.

Food:
Neither breakfast nor lunch will be provided by the tournament. We will provide a list of suggested eateries for the lunch break, which will be some time after 12 PM.

Matt Weiner
Tournament Director, VCU Battle of the Brains-style tournament
[email protected]

Re: VCU Battle of the Brains Style Tournament (10/28/17)

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2017 9:49 am
by Cody
Field (14/33):

National (3)
1 Kettle Run
1 Maggie Walker
1 Norfolk Academic Guild

Varsity (6)
1 Collegiate
2 Cosby
2 Kettle Run
1 Maggie Walker

Junior Varsity (5)
1 Kettle Run
3 Maggie Walker
1 Norfolk Academic Guild

Waitlist (0):

Re: VCU Battle of the Brains Style Tournament (10/28/17)

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 12:54 pm
by c*t
Is there a field update available for this tournament?

Re: VCU Battle of the Brains Style Tournament (10/28/17)

Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 10:38 am
by Cody
cat wrote:Is there a field update available for this tournament?
Yes; it is posted above.

Re: VCU Battle of the Brains Style Tournament (10/28/17)

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 8:36 pm
by jonah
Did this tournament happen? If so, could you please send the stats to [email protected]?

Re: VCU Battle of the Brains Style Tournament (10/28/17)

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 11:14 pm
by tabstop
jonah wrote:Did this tournament happen? If so, could you please send the stats to [email protected]?
The stats as posted on the DB are a little wonky in that the finals for the Nationals was treated as a double-length game (not two separate games as it appears in the stats), so Norfolk AG is actually your National division champions. But otherwise I think the DB stat files are correct if you guys can use them (if you can't, well, I don't have the files or the scoresheets; you'd have to check with VCU).

Re: VCU Battle of the Brains Style Tournament (10/28/17)

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 11:20 pm
by jonah
tabstop wrote:
jonah wrote:Did this tournament happen? If so, could you please send the stats to [email protected]?
The stats as posted on the DB are a little wonky in that the finals for the Nationals was treated as a double-length game (not two separate games as it appears in the stats), so Norfolk AG is actually your National division champions. But otherwise I think the DB stat files are correct if you guys can use them (if you can't, well, I don't have the files or the scoresheets; you'd have to check with VCU).
Ideally, whoever has the SQBS data file(s) should please send it (them) to us. I'll see what we can do with the web report in the meantime. Thanks!