Region 8 SCT at Wisconsin-Green Bay (February 5, 2011)

[Important Bird Area]

Posting on behalf of Dan Abler. --JTH

The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay is hosting Sectionals for Region 8 (Wisconsin, metro Chicago, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) on Saturday, February 5th, 2011. The tournament will take place in the UW-GB University Union, 2420 Nicolet Drive, Green Bay, WI, 54311.

FORMAT:
We will be playing timed twenty minute rounds on NAQT SCT packets.

ELIGIBILITY:
The tournament may be divided, as in the past, into two divisions with Division II designed for newer players. Please check the NAQT site regarding Division II eligibility rules: http://www.naqt.com/college/division-ii.html

PRICING STRUCTURE:
Team Discounts
Base fee = $120 for the first team from a school, $100 for every subsequent team
-$30 per moderator or staff member
-$10 for a fully-functional buzzer system (Must have four working buzzers on both sides)
-$30 New School Discount
-$5 for a functional clock
Minimum fee per team = $50

REGISTRATION:
The TD for NAQT SCT 2011 is Dan Abler (Daniel.abler [at] marquette.edu)

Please fill out the online registration form at http://naqt.com/sct/hosts.jsp.

SCHEDULE:
TBA

[Maxwell Sniffingwell]

Any word on whether any UW (not Madison) schools are planning to send teams?

[Important Bird Area]

I haven't heard from the other UW schools lately, but we just had two teams register from Northern Michigan.

[Maxwell Sniffingwell]

Just hoping for more DI teams, that's all.

Also, I was wondering if you had any idea when the tournament is planned to end by.

EDIT: Answered by PM. Thanks, Jeff!

[Maxwell Sniffingwell]

If Lawrence A or Wisconsin wins this tournament, would the top DII team get an autobid to ICT?

[Important Bird Area]

If Lawrence A or Wisconsin wins this tournament, would the top DII team get an autobid to ICT?

Yes. (Compare: we don't punish the best DII team just because there aren't enough DI teams to avoid a combined field.)

[Dan-Don]

Oh, I guess I misunderstood the policy on combined fields. Jeff had said you need 4 in a division, but you really need 4 teams in both divisions? Anyways, we found out really late that one of our DII players is ineligible, so if that player's appeal goes unfavorably, we'll also be fielding a DI team.

[Important Bird Area]

I explained combined-field qualification here and am happy to take questions if anything remains unclear.

Meanwhile: we don't take appeals for DI/DII eligibility; you're either eligible or not. Please let me know which player that is and I'll switch your registration to the appropriate division.

[Dan-Don]

I explained combined-field qualification here and am happy to take questions if anything remains unclear.

Meanwhile: we don't take appeals for DI/DII eligibility; you're either eligible or not. Please let me know which player that is and I'll switch your registration to the appropriate division.

The player is Cory Haala, and so Northwestern A will now be a DI team consisting of Cory and Anant Shah. Northwestern B will be me solo (DII), and C (DII) will be Matt Cummings, Connor Sears, and Adam Sperber.

[Important Bird Area]

Please go ahead and register a Northwestern team in DI; I will then sort out the players.

[Dan-Don]

Please go ahead and register a Northwestern team in DI; I will then sort out the players.

Online registration is closed. Should I email Dan Abler?

[Important Bird Area]

No, I'll open it back up again.

[Dan-Don]

Ok. Question: Given that we're using the DII set, will halves be reduced to 9 minutes or remain 10 minutes?

[Important Bird Area]

All halves everywhere are 10 minutes in length.

[Dan-Don]

What will the tournament format be with 9 teams? I'd be kind of disappointed with a single round-robin. Could there be playoff pools of 6 and 3?

[Important Bird Area]

NAQT guarantees a minimum of 10 games. So nine teams will play full round-robin plus bracketed playoffs (five in the top bracket and four in the bottom).

[Maxwell Sniffingwell]

About the schedule for the tournament - when will registration start? Round one?

I'm kind of disappointed that Dan hasn't sent out an email announcing these things... also, Jeff, do you know if there will be anyone staffing this tournament who has ever seen a non-CBI match played before? Last year at UIC, we could draw on the pool of Chicago-area moderators, but unless there's some Door County Quiz Society that I don't know about, I'm worried about a lack of experienced staff.

[mjoy]

Greg,

I've been emailing back and forth with Dan--not sure why he hasn't been in contact with you unless you're not the contact listed on the registration.

What I have is this: registration starting at 7:15 am (!), first match starting at 8:00. My understanding is, it's in the University Center. Dan's cell phone # is on the NAQT website, should you want to call him.

I am signed up as a moderator. I've moderated before, for Eric Hillemann at Carleton, various times. I'm not saying I'm the world's greatest moderator, but at least there'll be one person with experience. It'll all work out. Email me if you have any more questions. We're driving down to GB in a few hours but I'll check my email once we're at the hotel.

Michael Joy
Faculty advisor, NMU quiz bowl
[email protected]

[Dan-Don]

It'd probably be a good idea to have people on their byes read a room (or rooms) in which close matches might be happening, especially in the top playoff pool. Both players on Northwestern A, Greg Peterson, and I could definitely handle that. Is it correct to assume Seth Teitler is staffing?

The email we just got says to meet across from the Credit Union. I don't know what that means, where it is, or what the "University Center" (from Michael's post) is.

[jonah]

Seth is staffing in Champaign.

[Maxwell Sniffingwell]

Michael - great to hear! I was worried about that, but it seems that there WILL be people who've done this before.

Dan - yeah, I think that we should see about reading on our bye rounds. The other two players on Lawrence A could probably do that, too, especially if they have a scorekeeper.

Everyone:

NAQT Participants, thank you for participating in the NAQT Region 8 Tournament. Registration will begin at 7:15am across from the Credit Union. We plan on starting the competition at 8:00am. We have a total 9 teams participating which will all be in one division (We do not have enough Division 1 teams). We will start with a complete round robin. After that we will split the top five teams in Division 1 and the other four in Division 2 and do a round robin within the two groups. At that time if we have a champion we will be done. If not we will run a championship. If you have any question I can be reached at 414-313-2169. Thanks, Dan

Dan Abler
Region 8 NAQT Coordinator

[Important Bird Area]

Stats through round 6

[Dan-Don]

Lawrence A, UW-Madison, NU B, NU A, and NU C went to the top bracket. I think overall records (including prelims) were counted, so Lawrence cleared the field, Madison got second, NU A got third. NU B and C, which were the only D2 teams in the top bracket, wound up tied, so we played one packet for the D2 title, with NU B winning.

[Lightly Seared on the Reality Grill]

I see a match with the winning DI team in which only 14 questions were read despite all of them being answered and 5 of them powered. I imagine that will turn into an object of complaint at some point.

[Maxwell Sniffingwell]

I see a match with the winning DI team in which only 14 questions were read despite all of them being answered and 5 of them powered. I imagine that will turn into an object of complaint at some point.

Yeah, that sucked. But that moderator definitely got better as the day went on, so that was a bright spot.

[mjoy]

Just a public statement of thanks to Dan and the UWGB staff--I thought this was a very well-run and enjoyable tournament. Things stayed on time, the GB student union is a very nice facility, and the buffet spread for the quizbowlers was much appreciated. The slight shortage of inexperienced moderators was the only hiccup, but I think Dan did a good job of getting experienced readers to the rooms that needed them.

GB is also the closest possible SCT host to our very isolated Upper Peninsula campus, which was much appreciated!

[Maxwell Sniffingwell]

Should we be expecting full SQBS stats at some point, or will we first see them when they land on naqt.com?

[Important Bird Area]

They'll land on naqt.com in the very near future.

[Maxwell Sniffingwell]

Great, thanks.

About the way this tournament went: while the tournament was by no means a catastrophe, it was severely lacking in terms of quality readers. Most of the moderators were slow (14 TU in a match where the teams combined to go 5/9/1 is ridiculous, and 17-18 TU felt like a good game moderating-wise), with one exception - and that exception came from Northern Michigan, not UWGB. Also, there was a moderator that was clearly a CBI holdover - once, while he was getting ready to start the round, the scorekeepers led both teams through a buzzer check; he then refused to start the round until we conducted a second buzzer check, even when told we'd just done one.

But similarly to the way the Region 8 SCT went last year, the tournament went relatively smoothly because the TD and his staff were willing to ask for help from the more experienced teams. At least Lawrence A, Wisconsin-Madison, and Northwesterns A and B read on their bye rounds without any objection from the moderators; similarly, the TD, Dan, was always willing to accept advice from at least Dan Donohue and I about things like protest procedure and whether or not a DII final needed to be held.

[Dan-Don]

A few small corrections to that the stats.

Northwestern A should be listed as Undergrad. Also, the Round 11 match between Northwestern A and B can't possibly have 25 TUH since these were 24 TU rounds and the match didn't involve any replacements or ties or whatever.

Also, in case small things like this matter for SCT seeding, I went 5/8/4 in Round 4 and 5/7/2 in Round 6,