Region 1 (Europe) SCT at Oxford (February 5th, 2011)

[Important Bird Area]

Crossposting on behalf of Kyle. Note that this tournament, unlike the North American SCTs, does not use NAQT's online registration system. To register, please contact Kyle and Tom directly. --JTH

The NAQT Sectional Championship Tournament 2011 for Region 1 (Europe) will be held on Saturday 5th February in St John's College, Oxford. The Oxford University Quiz Society invites participation from any university that may be interested.

Some details:

Teams of four players will compete in a buzzer-based starter-bonus format that is similar to University Challenge. Matches are timed at 20 minutes, and the pace in bonuses is accelerated, with answers required within five seconds. You may bring as large a squad as you choose, but only four may play at any one time.

We expect each team to play nine or ten games. Apart from a possible final, the format will not be knockout and so all teams will play the same number of matches. Registration will be from 9.30-10am and we would like to start matches at 10.30am at the latest. The day will finish by 7pm at the absolute latest.

The cost will be £45 PER TEAM, with a £5 discount if you can provide a buzzer system (let us know in this case). This is a slight increase from last year; but due to our arrangements with NAQT, we have decided a simplified model with a small increase was the best course of action to cover our costs whilst keeping prices fair. You will be asked to pay on arrival.

The questions are from an American source and are unedited, since this tournament is a qualifying tournament for the NAQT Intercollegiate Championship Tournament. Although the bias is by no means heavily American, some cultural differences may be expected. You may expect the questions to be predominantly on academic subjects, to be of high quality, and to be difficult. In particular, they will be more difficult than those used in our ACF Fall mirror tournament last term.

If your intended team is all undergraduates, they may be eligible to qualify for a separate division at the ICT. Let us know if this is the case; the full rules are here.

If any of your team members have disabilities or impairments that may make getting round a college difficult (mobility difficulties, visual or hearing impairments etc), let us know, as we should be able to cater accordingly.

If you would like to attend, please let us know by Thursday 3rd February at the latest. The tournament will be capped at twelve teams and we will assign places on a first-come first-serve basis. Contact Kyle Haddad-Fonda (kyle.haddad-fonda [AT] magd [DOT] ox.ac.uk) or Tom Speller (thomas.speller [AT] jesus [DOT] ox.ac.uk) if you are interested in attending!

source

[Kyle]

Oh. Thanks, Jeff. I guess you can't get away with not posting here.

Field update:

Imperial (2)
Oxford (2)
Oxford Brookes
Manchester
Sheffield (2)
Southampton
Warwick
York
TOTAL (11)

EDIT -- Also, Tom Ed has a way with words.

The questions are from an American source and are unedited

[Edmund]

EDIT -- Also, Tom has a way with words.

The questions are from an American source and are unedited

Be nice to Tom. I wrote that. I don't think any British reader will understand it to say that they weren't edited in the first place, rather, they haven't been edited since reaching us, in contrast to the ACF Fall set.

[Kyle]

Right, but your writing this on the website resulted in Jeff posting on behalf of NAQT in a forum read by Americans that the SCT questions would be unedited. That's sort of funny to me.

[adosreme]

As I had mentioned a few weeks ago, I am happy to offer my services as a moderator if you could use the help. Having only been in the country for a few weeks, however, I would need directions on how to get to the tournament site from London.

[Kyle]

As I had mentioned a few weeks ago, I am happy to offer my services as a moderator if you could use the help. Having only been in the country for a few weeks, however, I would need directions on how to get to the tournament site from London.

Yes, I will send you an email now. Thanks!

[Kyle]

Congratulations to Imperial A, who just won both the Division 2 and Undergraduate titles when York's train arrived bearing a PhD student.

[Kyle]

Oxford A 10-0, Manchester 8-2, Brookes 7-3 at the end of an 11-round round-robin. Oxford defeated Manchester convincingly in the first game of an advantaged final. Just back now from post-tournament pub; stats to follow shortly. A huge thanks to Aaron Dos Remedios, who took the train up from London and moderated all day.

Stats from the final:

Oxford A 325, Manchester 35

18 tossups heard
Oxford bonus conversion: 12.14
Manchester bonus conversion: 10.00

Oxford A

George 1 1 0 25
Alex 3 3 0 75
Edmund 0 5 1 45
Aaron 0 1 0 10

Manchester

Jonathan 0 1 0 10
Tom 0 0 0 0
Adam 0 1 0 10
Mike 0 0 1 -5

[Kyle]

Stats: http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org= ... =standings