The Quizbowl Resource Center

University of Minnesota Quizbowl will be hosting the Minnesota Undergraduate Tournament on the 6th of March 2010. This tournament will be edited by members of the University of Minnesota Quizbowl.

Location
This event will likely take place at Blegen Hall on the West Bank campus of the University. Further information will be announced as appropriate.

Who can play this tournament?
Only undergraduate (and high school) students can play this tournament. If you are a grad student, you cannot play this event.

What kind of difficulty can I expect?
MUT 2010 will be in line with other novice tournaments such as recent incarnations of ACF Fall and past incarnations of MUT.

Is Packet Submission Required?
Any team attending any mirror may submit a packet, but is not required to do so. We encourage enthusiastic teams to submit packets; it helps us get a good feel of what young writers are thinking of, and allows us to reevaluate our own perceptions of difficulty, viability of answer choices, etc.

If I Do Submit A Packet, Can I Get Discounts?
Absolutely. The discount schedule is as follows:

Packet received by 01/10/2010: $50 discount.
Packet received by 01/24/2010: $25 discount.
Packet received by 02/07/2010: $10 discount.

Can I Write A Half Packet Instead Of A Full Packet?
You certainly can. The discount schedule remains the same as above, and the amount of discount offered will simply be halved.

My Team Has Never Written A Packet Before, And We Would Like to Explore The Possibility Of Writing A Packet. Is Minnesota Quizbowl Willing To Help Us Out?
Absolutely. Feel free to email Gautam Kandlikar ([email protected]) regarding what you're comfortable with, and we can try to work something out.

Edit:
If I want to write a packet, what should the distribution be?

15/15 Big Three
5/5 Literature [at least 1/1, American, European, and British; at least 1 question on world literature; vary reasonably by time, and include a mix of poetry, drama, and novels]
5/5 History [at least 1/1 American, European+British, and World; vary reasonably by time, limit military history to 5 or fewer total questions]
5/5 Science [at least 1/1 Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Other Science (Astronomy, earth science, geology, math); no science biography]

3/3 RMP
1/1 Mythology [at least 1 non-Greco-Roman myth]
1/1 Philosophy [maximum 1 ancient philosophy; feel free to write on pre-Socratics, but only in an interesting way]
1/0 or 0/1 Religion [since we're already segregating myth from religion, try to keep this question as non-mythological as possible]
0/1 or 1/0 other RMP [can be mixed or on things that don't fit will into other categories like literary criticism, or can be additional R, M, or P]

3/3 Fine Arts
1/1 Painting [vary reasonably by time; try to include mostly works-based clues]
1/1 Music
1/0 or 0/1 Other visual arts [sculpture or architecture; no film (see "Your Choice" category for where to write film questions]
1/0 or 0/1 Other musical arts [opera, ballet, dance, or jazz]

2/2 Social Sciences + Geography/Your Choice
1/1 Social Sciences [includes law, anthropology, sociology, psychology, paleontology, economics, game theory; no more than one question on each discipline]
1/1 Geography or your choice. Please avoid writing trash for the "your choice" part. Current events count for this part.

1/1 Trash [film, pop culture, sports, TV, etc.]

EDIT 2: Here is info on distribution for half packets.

Mirrors
We are certainly interested in running mirrors of this tournament across the country. We are open to having the mirrors on pretty much any weekend in March (and potentially the weekend of 2/27.) Please contact Gautam if you'd like to mirror this set.

Costs and other discounts
Base fee: $100
Buzzer discount: -$5
Moderator: -$10
Travel: -$10 if over 200 miles by Google maps

EDIT: Included important stuff about mirrors and who qualifies to play.

It probably goes without saying, but we are seeking mirrors for this tournament, and we're lenient on the actual weekend hosts want to run the set.

theMoMA wrote:It probably goes without saying, but we are seeking mirrors for this tournament, and we're lenient on the actual weekend hosts want to run the set.

Of course. For some silly reason, I deleted this info from the original announcement I made... The first post has been updated with info about mirrors.

All,

You may be excited to know about the mirrors we have lined up so far:

Florida region: Univ. of Southern Florida (contact: Ahmad Ragab)
Mid-Atlantic: Carnegie Mellon (contact: Trevor Davis)
California: UCSD (contact: Auroni Gupta [?])
Canada: Guelph (contact: Tom Minard [?])

There's also going to be a mirror of MUT at the Weekend of Quizbowl @ Clemson for all high school teams who'll be attending that event.

Feel free to contact me at [email protected] if you'd like to host a mirror of MUT. We'd particularly like to see mirrors in:

• Illinois/Missouri
  Northeast
  Kentucky/Tennessee
  South Carolina/Georgia (there is a possibility that we could work something out for 2/27, as this would enable people from the SC area who're staffing WoQ to play; however, this rather unattractive due to the CCCT conflict.)
  Texas
  Northwest US/Western Canada

EDIT: If anybody wants to avail a juicy $50 discount, please submit a packet by January 9, 2010!

I may have missed this, but what is the distribution?

Of course, I wonder how I forgot to post that. The original thread will soon be updated.

--Gautam

EDIT: This info has been provided in the first post.. I've also added info on writing half-packets.

Northwestern will bring 1-2 teams.

gkandlikar wrote: Feel free to contact me at [email protected] if you'd like to host a mirror of MUT. We'd particularly like to see mirrors in:

• Illinois/Missouri
  Northeast
  Kentucky/Tennessee
  South Carolina/Georgia (there is a possibility that we could work something out for 2/27, as this would enable people from the SC area who're staffing WoQ to play; however, this rather unattractive due to the CCCT conflict.)
  Texas
  Northwest US/Western Canada

EDIT: If anybody wants to avail a juicy $50 discount, please submit a packet by January 9, 2010!

2/27 is also the date for the Southeast mirror of T-Party, and there is already a conflict with Georgia's Shorter College planning to host Sword Bowl on that date.

Yeah not having it on 2/27 would be a good idea it seems, as Snead and maybe a couple other CCs might be interested in attending. I've mentioned this tournament to my teammates periodically and the interest is growing because we only get to play IS/A-Series in the CC Circuit and would love to play on good questions. The SC/GA mirror may end up being closer for us (assuming it's in GA of course) than a KY/TN mirror unless it was held at UT-Chattanooga or Vandy.

Okay, for the second time this academic year, I have made the foolish mistake of setting Saturdays as packet deadlines. I realize that this is really short notice (7 minutes for some people ) but the packet deadlines have been pushed back.

The deadlines are:

Packet received by 01/10/2010: $50 discount.
Packet received by 01/24/2010: $25 discount.
Packet received by 02/07/2010: $10 discount.

Again, I profusely apologize for catching this so late. If this causes you any inconvenience, you pretty much know where I live by this point....

--Gautam

We have packets! A BIG BIG thanks to all who submitted questions!

In by the -$50 deadline:
EP Tony (Half packet)
EP Gaurav (Full)
Andy/Hannah (Full)

This is sort of an odd question, but is the "Minnesota Distribution" (i.e., the distro more or less used for MUT and MO) based off another tournament's distribution or is it the editors' own creation? If the latter, I'd be interested in hearing some of the logic used in creating the distribution (this isn't a criticism, I'm genuinely curious), such as only 1 Religion, the disallowing of art film for Visual Fine Arts, and the lumping of geography with Your Choice.

Ben Cole wrote:2/27 is also the date for the Southeast mirror of T-Party, and there is already a conflict with Georgia's Shorter College planning to host Sword Bowl on that date.

Never mind this. With Andy Watkins's permission, we're moving our mirror to 2/13. Shorter's tournament (NAQT IS) is still on 2/27.

Hi,

I've received a couple of emails asking about possible side events to be mirrored for MUT. Here is our stance on side events:

We strongly suggest that side events not be paired with this tournament. For a tournament that's targeted towards younger audiences there is no reason for MUT to be associated with long weekend that resembles the "Bataan Death March of quizbowl." Ultimately, it is up to the hosts of each mirror to decide whether or not they would like to host side events. For instance, if the hosts feel like they will be able to attract enough grad students (as staffers) by hosting side events, then it is in their best interest to host it.

Hopefully this clarifies things.

--Gautam

Field Update:

EPHS: 2 teams, 1 buzzer
Northwestern:1 teams, 0 buzzers
House: 1-2 teams, 1+ buzzers
Lawrence: 1 team, 0 buzzer
Morris: 1 team, 1 buzzers
Andy&Hannah: 1 team
St. Olaf: 2 teams, 1 buzzers
CMU (Trevor): 1 team
Carleton: 3 teams, 2 buzzers
RogueChanhassen: 1 team

Total: 13-14 teams, 6 buzzers

As we are running this under another name, I just wanted to say that the University of Illinois is running a mirror of this on March 6, 2010. Details can be found here

gkandlikar wrote:Field Update:
Wisconsin: ? teams, ?? buzzers
EPHS: 2 teams
Drake: 1+ team, 1 buzzer
Northwestern: 1-2 teams, ?? buzzers
House: 1-2 teams, ?? buzzers

NU will have 2 teams for sure with a shot at a third, and we have 0 working buzzers.

NU's playing at this site instead of at U of I?

Lawrence will be sending one team and one buzzer system, probably to this site.

Hannah and I will be playing this tournament (at this site).

How are you guys on packets? I wouldn't mind writing one...

Edit: if it gets me a discount at the uiuc mirror.

Dan-Don wrote:How are you guys on packets? I wouldn't mind writing one...

Edit: if it gets me a discount at the uiuc mirror.

We would more than happy to give you a discount for writing a packet, regardless of which site you're playing at.

--Gautam

Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:Hannah and I will be playing this tournament (at this site).

Does this mean you'll be playing on one team or on different teams?

--Gautam

gkandlikar wrote:

Dan-Don wrote:How are you guys on packets? I wouldn't mind writing one...

Edit: if it gets me a discount at the uiuc mirror.

We would more than happy to give you a discount for writing a packet, regardless of which site you're playing at.

--Gautam

Ok. I'll have a half-packet by Sunday.

gkandlikar wrote:

Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:Hannah and I will be playing this tournament (at this site).

Does this mean you'll be playing on one team or on different teams?

--Gautam

One team; we submitted a packet together as well awhile back.

Field Updated. Looking forward to this.

--Gautam

Due to an unforeseen change in circumstances (and the continuing weirdness of university rules,) Lawrence is probably going to be flying to this tournament and therefore will almost definitely NOT be bringing a buzzer.

How many packets will this set include?

Frazer Yeats wrote:How many packets will this set include?

We've got 15 lined up, two of which are designated finals packets.

theMoMA wrote:

Frazer Yeats wrote:How many packets will this set include?

We've got 15 lined up, two of which are designated finals packets.

Awesome, thanks.

What's with all the Tuesday tournaments these days?

Zip Zap Rap Pants wrote:What's with all the Tuesday tournaments these days?

Matt what on earth are you taking about.

Frater Taciturnus wrote:

Zip Zap Rap Pants wrote:What's with all the Tuesday tournaments these days?

Matt what on earth are you taking about.

I think Matt is confusing Saturday, March 6 with Tuesday, April 6.

Yeah seeing mirrors listed as April 3rd made me wonder, guess I forgot about that third month (lousy Smarch weather...) On a more pertinent note, is CMU really hosting a mirror of this at a known date? Haven't seen any info.

Yes, CMU is hosting a mirror on March 20.

In other news, Drake has had to drop, but Carleton is sending 3 teams and St. Olaf has confirmed that it is sending 2 teams.

And now Northwestern will have only 1 team.

gkandlikar wrote:Field Update:

EPHS: 2 teams, 1 buzzer
Northwestern:1 teams, 0 buzzers
House: 1-2 teams, 1+ buzzers
Lawrence: 1 team, 0 buzzer
Morris: 1 team, 1 buzzers
Andy&Hannah: 1 team
St. Olaf: 2 teams, 1 buzzers
CMU (Trevor): 1 team
Carleton: 3 teams, 2 buzzers
RogueChanhassen: 1 team

Total: 13-14 teams, 6 buzzers

This is a field update as of today.

How goes the buzzer situation? I still have ours, but I really have no idea how to go about getting one of those things on a plane, so I'd rather not bring it.

Don't worry about bringing it; I'm procuring some from R.

--Gautam

Great, thanks.

As there are questions about this in the MCMNT thread: Are there going to be powers during this tournament (like last year)? If so, are the other sites using these powers?

On another note: When can I expect to see the questions in my inbox (I'm assuming the night before the tournament)?

The tournament is 90+% done as of now. You can expect the questions in your inbox by 7PM tomorrow, I think. We're planning on having powers.

gkandlikar wrote: Location
This event will likely take place at Blegen Hall on the West Bank campus of the University. Further information will be announced as appropriate.

Sorry if I missed this in an email update or announcement here, but is this still taking place in Blegen? At what time will rounds start?

Does anyone know the time we are to arrive and when the matches are to begin?

-Stu

From an email send earlier tonight:

Hi all:

Here's a final field update for MUT:

EPHS: 2 teams, 1 teams
Northwestern: 1 teams, 0 buzzers
House: 1-2 teams, 1+ buzzers
Lawrence: 1 team, 0 buzzer
Morris: 1 team, 1 buzzers
Andy&Hannah: 1 team
St. Olaf: 2 teams, 1 buzzers
CMU (Trevor): 1 team
Carleton: 2-3 teams, 2 buzzers
RogueChanhassen: 1 team

For a total of: 13-14 teams and 7 buzzers.

The tournament will occur in Blegen Hall on the University on Minnesota's West Bank campus. This is NOT the same as the East Bank, where Coffman Union is located. Registration will happen in Blegen 235 and will commence at 8:15 AM. Games will begin at 9AM. Call me (952-465-7155) if you can't be there on time. If you don't call and don't show up by 9:15, round 1 will begin without you.

Parking will be available at the 21st Avenue Ramp and the 19th Avenue Ramp. There's also a cheaper surface lot at the corner of 22nd Ave. and 5th St if you're interested.

Thanks,
Gautam

Very incomplete results:

The two out-of-area teams (Andy/Hannah and Trevor) are playing a final right now. The rest of the top bracket was Carleton A (7-4,) Carleton B (6-5,) Lawrence (7-4,) and Northwestern (5-6,) but I'm not sure of the order 'cause those are overall records and prelim records didn't carry over.

Second bracket was (in some order) St. Olaf A, two teams from Eden Prairie, and the house team.
Third bracket was (in some order) Morris, Chanhassen, Macalester, and Stolaf B.

Individual: 1. Trevor (CMU), 2. myself, 3-4 Tony (EP) and Andy (um, Andy/Hannah) in some order.

Trevor won a one-game final over Andy and Hannah, 450 to 70. Full stats to be posted shortly.

Prelim Stats: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~kand0028/quiz_bo ... dings.html

Playoff Stats: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~kand0028/quiz_bo ... dings.html

Thanks for all the teams that participated in the tournament. I hope everyone enjoyed it.

Gautam

gkandlikar wrote:The tournament is 90+% done as of now. You can expect the questions in your inbox by 7PM tomorrow, I think. We're planning on having powers.

Did the powers get cancelled or something?

Played this today at UIUC. I really enjoyed it and the found the difficulty and content to be near-perfectly consistent and appropriate. Congrats to the Minnesota squad on a job well done! Could I trouble you for a copy of the set? ([email protected]).

EDIT: Nevermind. I gots it.

gyre and gimble wrote:

gkandlikar wrote:The tournament is 90+% done as of now. You can expect the questions in your inbox by 7PM tomorrow, I think. We're planning on having powers.

Did the powers get cancelled or something?

We didn't start out including powers, but we initially thought that we would be able to go through all of the questions and place powers on Thursday/Friday. We didn't have enough time so we decided to scrap the idea.

Dan-Don wrote:Played this today at UIUC. I really enjoyed it and the found the difficulty and content to be near-perfectly consistent and appropriate. Congrats to the Minnesota squad on a job well done! Could I trouble you for a copy of the set? ([email protected]).

EDIT: Nevermind. I gots it.

Just so you know, we're planning on making a bunch of fixes over the next couple of days (difficulty wise, grammar wise, etc.)