Terrapin Invitational Mirror at UToronto-Jan. 22/2011

[minusfive]

Terrapin Invitational Tournament XXIV
Saturday, January 22, 2011 (9:00 a.m. sharp start)
University of Toronto-St. George Campus, Downtown Toronto, Ontario (OISE Building, 252 Bloor Street West, 2nd Floor)

In the interests of maximizing participation, this is an OPEN tournament (anyone can play, and mixed teams are allowed)

This set will be head edited by SteveJon Guth (e-mail packets to batsteve "at" umd.edu please), with assistance from the rest of the Maryland Academic Quiz Team.

Teams exempt from ACF packet-writing requirements are exempt for this tournament as well
Teams coming to this site will have a modified question deadlines as outlined below:
(All prices CAD)
+$100 - Base Fee
-$50 - Packet submitted by Saturday, December 11th (optional!)
-$25 - Packet submitted by Saturday, December 18th.
+$0 - Packet submitted by Saturday, December 25th.
+$25 - Packet submitted by Saturday, January 1st.
+$50 - Packet submitted by Saturday, January 8th.
+$100 - Packet submitted by Saturday, January 15th.
+$10 - every day thereafter: UMD reserves the right to boot from tournament, put foot in asses, etc.
+$10 - Formatting penalty for formatting your questions incorrectly (see formatting section below).

Discounts
-$10 - Working buzzer discount, unlimited
-$10 - Staff discount
-$10- Distance: More than 300 KILOMETRES
-$15- All high-school team
Minimum Fee Per Team: $30.

If you are facing hardship of any kind, let us know and we’ll work something out.

The guidelines for question writing are:
PACKET GUIDELINES

5/5 Literature [1/1 American, 1/1 British, 1/1 European, 1/1 World, 1/1 Your Choice]
5/5 Science [1/1 Biology, 1/1 Chemistry, 1/1 Physics, 1/1 Other, 1/1 Your Choice]
5/5 History [1/1 American, 2/2 European, 1/1 World, 1/1 Your Choice]
3/3 Fine Arts [1/1 Painting, 1/1 Non-Opera-Music, 1/1 Anything Else]
3/3 RMP [1/1 Philosophy, appropriately vary 2/2 Religion and Mythology]
1/1 SS [two different disciplines]
1/1 Geo/CE/more SS [pick two, and write one of each]
1/1 Your Choice [at most one may be trash, but the other may be borderline]

Difficulty

Your answer selections should range between Fall and Regionals difficulty, inclusive. Last year's Terrapin is probably the best model for likely difficulty of this event, and is definitely the best model for how hard you should make your questions. You are strenuously encouraged to err on the easier side. I'm happy to be excited by accessible tossups on stuff that doesn't get as much coverage as it should, but if you're writing a tossup you honestly don't believe more than 20% of the field will convert - stop.

Every bonus should have a clear easy, medium and hard part. Almost every team in the tournament should be converting the easy part of the bonus, while a little more than half of the teams should be converting the medium part. The hard part of a bonus should be able to be answered by those with in-depth knowledge in the field.

Question Length

All of the following lengths apply to documents written in Word with 1 inch margins (change these from the default), and a 10 point Times New Roman font.

Final tossups will be between 6 and 8 lines long. However, we'd prefer that you submit tossups on the long side (or even over the 8 line limit), since it's always easier for us to get rid of clues that we don't like than to add additional clues by ourselves.

Bonus parts should be kept within reason. Do not write extremely lengthy leadins or bonus parts (try to keep them under 2 lines, generally). Also do not write extremely short bonuses or list bonuses, as these are typically not very interesting. The vast majority of your bonuses should be 10-10-10. Please do not write any 30-20-10 bonuses, as these really throw off the balance of the bonuses in a round. 5-10-15 bonuses are similarly bad and should be shunned, since they arbitrarily weight the hard part when in theory the bonus should have the same relative difficulty to all the others. However, I have an unusual tolerance for 10-5 bonuses and a few other creative point structures, so including one or two of these isn't out of the question, but don't do it more than that.

REGISTRATION:

To register, email either myself at Jordan “dot” palmer “at” utoronto.ca or President Max Trower at Maxwell “dot” Trower “at” utoronto.ca. Please indicate how many teams you're bringing (or interested in bringing) and what discounts you can claim.

Field Update:
Queen's (2 teams)
McMaster (2 teams)
Toronto (2 teams)
Zafar/Nediger/Burton/Mire
UOIT
Ron D. et al.
Waterloo

[minusfive]

I can confirm that we also have Mike Bentley's "VAIN" (Video Games are Entirely Niche) and Bruce Arthur's Wild Kingdom to run as side events! It's looking good!

[minusfive]

Have edited the field (Canada is going to contribute a significant number of packets, it seems!). Also, just wanted to confirm that the Julius Civilis Classics tournament is going to be run as a side event!

[minusfive]

If people attending this tournament could just confirm numbers (I know, it's been done, but this will add a 2011 flair to the whole thing) and staff/buzzers, it would be much appreciated. Also, there's still room if teams are looking to play. I've added all the rest of the teams (good on UOIT for 2 teams! Yay!).

[women, fire and dangerous things]

I believe Nediger/Zafar is being joined by Muna Mire and Peter Burton. I'll bring one buzzer set, and I suppose Huma can post if she is bringing one.

[the third garrideb]

Someone from Waterloo will have our buzzers. We may also have one staffer.

[minusfive]

Hello All,
I can confirm that the site of the tournament will be at OISE (the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education), located at 252 Bloor Street West. It will be held on the second floor.
Here is a map:
http://maps.google.ca/maps/place?hl=en& ... 1470540081

The nearest subway station is St. George Station (there are street entrances on both sides of OISE, as the station is actually underneath it).

Regarding car parking, there is parking in the campus circle of U of T for a flat rate on Saturday...s (I believe it is $5), about 5-10 minutes away. Here's a parking map of the area, although it may be incomplete:

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s ... SE+Toronto

There is also limited street parking on streets north of OISE in neighbourhood known as "the Annex," although it will be more (about $2.50 per hour) and you will need to feed the meter every 3 hours.

Any questions, please let me know.

[minusfive]

Thanks to our amazing volunteers, and to all the players who braved the cold and snow to attend TIT @ Toronto.

The tournament was handily won by Will N., Muna M., Huma Z. and Peter B. (Pedro the Cool), with Will being by far the highest scorer.

Special mention goes to University of Ontario Institute of Technology (led by Greg L.), who made their first-ever quizbowl appearance, and to Ron D.'s team Max Power, which showed class and stuck around through a tournament which probably exceeded their difficulty expectations. Congrats!

Stats (or staaaats) will be posted within the week.

Thanks again to everyone who came out to make this a success,

Best,
Jordan

[minusfive]

http://results.scobo.net/UniversityofToronto/terrapin

I realize there are some inconsistencies (for example, U of T appears to have played one more game than others), I think due to our statskeeper leaving (for a valid reason) early.
I will try to rectify the errors, and add the stats that I have for the playoffs, this weeked. Note: I don't have the scoresheets for McMaster A versus Queen's A versus Queen's B in the 2nd playoff bracket, but for interested third parties, McMaster went 2-0 and won the 2nd bracket.

Any questions or comments, just let me know.

Best,
JP