ANNOUNCEMENT Terrapin Invitational Tournament XVIII

[The Goffman Prophecies]

(Note: I'm posting this on Casey's behalf. Please contact him at the email listed below if you have any questions or wish to register a team.)

The Maryland Academic Quiz Team is proud to announce the 18th annual Terrapin Invitational Tournament, which will be held Saturday, October 23rd at the University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland). This modified ACF tournament is open to all collegiate teams. Bastard and master teams may play with the consent of the tournament director, but they will not be eligible for prizes and/or playoffs.

Base fee: $80
Working Buzzer: -$10
Experienced Moderator: -$10
Travel: -$10 per school for travel over 300 miles per MapQuest (one-way)
Novice: -$10 per school if you have not attended a TIT within the past 3 years
Parking is free on weekends
Minimum base fee: $40

Packet discounts/penalties (all times EDT):
Packet in by Friday, September 24 at 11:59pm: -$25
Packet in by Friday, October 1 at 11:59pm: -$10
Packet in by Friday, October 8 at 11:59pm: $0
Packet in by Friday, October 15 at 11:59pm: +$15
Packet after Friday, October 15 at 11:59pm: +$30
If your packet is not in by Sunday, October 17 at 11:59pm, you may be subject to being scratched from the tournament

Cancellation fees:
Any team that cancels within 2 days prior to the tournament or fails to show and for non-emergency reasons without notifying the tournament director will be charged $30.

Packets are subject to approval by the question editor and/or tournament director, who have the right to reject packets/questions and request rewrites. Rewrites will not be subject to late packet fines unless initial packets are flagrantly bad, which is at the discretion of the tournament director. Please try for a difficulty level around that of ACF Regionals.

You must have permission to play from the tournament director if you do not submit a packet by the end of the day October 17.

Distribution:
Science (5/5)
No more than 1/1 should be written in each major science (biology, chemistry, physics). At least two of the other sciences should be represented.
No more than 2/2 should be science biography.
Computer programs (Windows, AIM and even Matlab) are not acceptable subjects for mathematics and computer science questions. They belong in Your Choice or Trash.

History (5/5)
Please write at least 1/1 on history before 500 AD, and limit questions to 2 per century. Also please write at least 1/1 on non-North American or European history.

Literature (5/5)
At least 1/1 should be about non-American and non-European literature. Limit 2/2 for literature biography and 2/2 for each of the major genres of literature (novels, poetry, plays, etc.).

Fine Arts (2/2)
No more than 1/1 should be about any major field of Fine Arts.

Religion, Philosophy and Mythology (2/2)
Write a maximum of 1/1 and minimum of one question about each of the three disciplines.

Social Science (2/2)
Write a maximum of 1/1 about each major discipline

Geography (1/1)
Do not write both questions about similar landforms like bodies of water or mountain ranges. Questions about countries should not include historical information unless it relates directly to its geography.

Trash, General Knowledge and Current Events (2/2)
No more than 1/1 Current Events should be written.

Your Choice (1/1)
Anything goes, within reason. Interdisciplinary questions are encouraged

Formatting the Document:
Packets should be submitted as one of the following, in order of decreasing preference: MS Word (.doc); Rich Text File (.rtf); and text (.txt). The following applies to the first two formats.

All text should be in 12 point Times New Roman font, or the closest available equivalent. The tossup and bonus sections should be separated with a page break.

Tossups:
Do not number or otherwise indent tossups. Do not use tabs. Tossups should generally be between five and seven lines in length. Tossups outside of that range but close are acceptable sparingly, but do not write two-line quickies or ten-line novels.

Do not abbreviate "for ten points". The answer should be on the next line, preceded with “ANSWER:â€