Jr. Wildcat III at Northwestern (3/3/12)

[Dan-Don]

Northwestern will be hosting its annual middle school quizbowl tournament, Jr. Wildcat III, on March 3, 2012. I, Daniel Donohue, will be serving as Tournament Director.

Logistics
Please park in the Lakeside Parking Structure, located at 1 Arts Circle Drive. Check-in will occur from 8:00-8:30 am in the auditorium (Room 217) of Fisk Hall, which is located at 1845 Sheridan Rd. After check-in, we will walk to nearby Kresge Centennial Hall, which is located at 1880 Campus Drive, and gameplay will begin there at 9:00 am. There will be an hour-long lunchbreak, but lunch is not provided. (Teams will be provided with a map of local restaurants.)

For your convenience, an interactive campus map can be found here.

Question set
We will be using ACF Format Set #4, an excellent question set from Olympia Academic Questions, one of the nation's premiere providers of middle school quizbowl questions.

Rules & match format
To make the tournament run more smoothly, and to bring Jr. Wildcat more in line with the format of the Middle School National Championship Tournament, Jr. Wildcat will be following all collegiate rules of the Academic Competition Federation. This format is very different from IESA Scholastic Bowl, and is somewhat different from the format used at last year's Jr. Wildcat. I've attached a handy table that outlines the key differences between ACF and IESA rules, but I strongly encourage you to read the ACF rules for yourself. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to email me (dandonohue@u.northwestern.edu).

Tournament format
We are currently trying to attract 30 teams. The 30 teams will play 5 preliminary matches and 5 playoff matches. There will be no finals or championship games because Olympia is only providing 10 packets. By registering for Jr. Wildcat, you are agreeing to stay and play all 10 matches. If you do not intend to play all 10 matches, then do not register for Jr. Wildcat.

Registration
To register for Jr. Wildcat, simply fill out this form. Shortly after you submit your registration, I will send you an email containing an invoice and additional logistical information. Once the 24 spots are filled, I will start a wait list in the event that teams cancel their registration or we decide to increase the field size.

Registered field (30 TEAMS--FIELD FULL)
Barring Prairie x2
Barrington Station x 2
Cary
Daniel Wright x 3
Holy Cross (Deerfield) x3
Keith Country Day
Lincoln (Schiller Park) x2
Manteno x2
Metcalf x1
Quest Academy x2
St. Mary's Vistitation x 3
St. Raymond x2
Sunset Ridge
Union Ridge x 2
Washington Academy
Wayside x 2

Wait list


If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to email me (dandonohue@u.northwestern.edu). If you would like to staff this tournament, post here or send me an email as soon as possible. (We can provide staffers with a free lunch.)

[the return of AHAN]

Barrington Station would like to register 3 teams.

[African threadfish]

Keith Country Day would like to add 1 team if room is still available.

Thank you!

[the return of AHAN]

Will we be playing 5 vs. 5 as in the past? Or is this 4 vs. 4 like MSNCT? If it's the latter, this represents a change in past practice, and you may need to let teams know.

[Dan-Don]

As per Rule C10 of the official ACF rules, it will be 4 on 4. I linked to these rules both in the announcement post and the invitation emails. I also attached a brief rules summary to the invitation emails that explained this.

That being said, I will attach the same rules summary to the announcement post. And once the 24 spots are filled, I will send out an email to all registered coaches reminding them about roster limits, computational math, and any other rules that may not be clear.

I hope this will clear up any confusion. Thanks!

UPDATE: I've just send out an email to this effect to registrants and invitees.

[Dan-Don]

The 24-team field is now full. I'll start a wait list because some teams will probably cancel, and we might increase the field size to 30.

[MissIrene]

I have written to Amy Robb at Wauconda Middle School to encourage her to attend with a team. I would even be willing to bring them myself, so let me find out what she thinks! Can you tentatively wait-list a Wauconda team?

[the return of AHAN]

Miss Irene,
I've invited Wauconda MS (a fellow suburban middle school conference team) to the Barrington Invitational Tournament in the past, but the closest they've ever come to attending in the past 8 years was signing up and then backing out a week prior.... Kudos if you can get a team from there (or Matthews, for that matter) to attend!


EDIT: A careful inspection of records shows Wauconda attended the inaugural Barrington Invitation Tournament in April 2004.

[the return of AHAN]

And less than 6 days to fill a tournament! Is this some sort of a record?

[No Electricity Required]

And less than 6 days to fill a tournament! Is this some sort of a record?

This was pretty fast: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12411#p230483.

[Dan-Don]

Keith B dropped, so I'm offering their spot to the first team on the wait list, Wauconda. If anyone has contact info for Wauconda, could you please send it to me? I emailed Coach Ducharme asking for info as well.

[African threadfish]

Keith B dropped, so I'm offering their spot to the first team on the wait list, Wauconda. If anyone has contact info for Wauconda, could you please send it to me? I emailed Coach Ducharme asking for info as well.

Thanks Dan,

Sorry about that! Gave out our spring schedule to the team and parents and just wasn't going to have enough kids for 2 teams. The "A" team is really excited though and it will be easier for me to transport the group in one vehicle from Rockford. Thanks again and see you in March!

-Kristin Burns

[the return of AHAN]

I've sent an e-mail to the coach of Prairie advising her to contact you ASAP.

EDIT: She said she's 4th on your list... I thought the wait list was 1 team long based on the list above.
:(

[Dan-Don]

We're hoping to increase to 30 teams, but we need staffers. I can offer staffers a free lunch and a good discount on the next Northwestern tournament they play (perhaps Penn Bowl, Penn Bowl trash, Midwest Championship, Wildcat, or Wake-Up Call next year).

[David Riley]

Not sure if I told you in our email exchange, but I can probably staff this tournament as well.

[Dan-Don]

Not sure if I told you in our email exchange, but I can probably staff this tournament as well.

Yep, thanks.

[Dan-Don]

We've increased the field size to 30 teams. Wauconda dropped, but Barrington Prairie A and B, Quest Academy, and Lincoln Middle School (from Schiller Park) A and B have joined the field. Sunset Ridge has been unresponsive all week, so anyone can claim those two remaining spots by filling out the registration form.

As always, outside staffing help would be appreciated, and I can give you a free lunch and a discount for the next Northwestern tournament you attend.

----

Updated to add that Sunset Ridge has claimed one spot, so there is just one more spot left in the field. Fill out the registration form before it's too late!

[Dan-Don]

Washington Academy from Rockford has registered, so the field is closed with 30 teams.

[the return of AHAN]

Bump, since it's coming up. Will the playoff pools be aligned by preliminary pool finish?

[Dan-Don]

Yes, final placement within preliminary pools will be determined by W-L record within the pool, and then PPG in case of ties. The championship pool will consist of the 5 teams that came in first in their preliminary pools, as well as the team that came in second in their preliminary pool with the highest PPB. The first consolation pool will consist of the four remaining second-place teams, as well as the two third-place teams with the highest PPB. (And so on like that.)

[the return of AHAN]

What's the most important thing to pray for this Saturday? Good weather? Or the actual arrival of the question set?

[Charbroil]

What's the most important thing to pray for this Saturday? Good weather? Or the actual arrival of the question set?

The questions were sent today on time, and as promised.

[the return of AHAN]

What's the most important thing to pray for this Saturday? Good weather? Or the actual arrival of the question set?

The questions were sent today on time, and as promised.

Now if we can just get this weather straightened out...

[African threadfish]

What's the most important thing to pray for this Saturday? Good weather? Or the actual arrival of the question set?

The questions were sent today on time, and as promised.

Now if we can just get this weather straightened out...

You said it Jeff! We're leaving Rockford, Illinois at 5:30am, hope the roads are ok

[Dan-Don]

Thanks to Victor from Slam-In, matches from the top room will be streamed live with a scoreboard over the Internet. This stream will not have any sound, however, as Olympia's ACF Set #4 is not cleared. To see it, go here.

[the return of AHAN]

Begging the question, who is playing in the top room? With a tourney of this size, I reckon more teams than not won't see this room.

[Dan-Don]

Begging the question, who is playing in the top room? With a tourney of this size, I reckon more teams than not won't see this room.

Well, by top room, I mean that it is a regular room for the preliminary rounds (i.e. it will have a balance of teams from one of the preliminary brackets). In the afternoon, it will be the room in the top bracket where the 1 and 2 seeds play.

[Dan-Don]

Stats are now up. Don't forget to check out the livestream as well.

[Dan-Don]

We are about to start the playoffs. The top individuals scorers from the prelims can be seen in the prelim stats.

The playoff brackets are:

Rahm Emmanuel: 1. Daniel Wright A 2. Station A 3. Metcalf 4. Station B 5. Washington 6. St. Raymond A

Charlton Heston: 1. Daniel Wright B 2. Prairie A 3. Sunset Ridge 4. Keith 5. Prairie B 6. Cary

Seth Meyers: 1. Quest A 2. Daniel Wright C 3. St. Mary's A 4. Holy Cross A 5. St. Mary's B 6. Lincoln A

David Schwimmer: 1. Wayside A 2. Union Ridge A 3. Holy Cross B 4. Quest B 5. Manteno A 6. Wayside B

Jerry Springer: 1. Union Ridge B 2. St. Raymond B 3. Holy Cross C 4. St. Mary's C 5. Manteno B 6. Lincoln B

[Dan-Don]

Station A cleared the field to win. Here are the prelim, playoffs, and combined stats. If you have any corrections, just email me, and I will do my best to fix them.

If you have feedback about the tournament, please email me. If you have feedback about the question set, please email contact@olympiaquestions.com. Do not discuss set specifics here. The set is not cleared for public discussion.

Jr. Wildcat is Northwestern Quiz Bowl's single-biggest money-maker, and it couldn't have possibly happened without the excellent outside moderators we had: Colby Burnett, Michael Falk, Nathan Hollinsaid, Mike Laudermith, Neva O'Laughlin, David Riley, Jonathan Schening, and Allen Witkowski. Many, many thanks to them for volunteering their Saturdays. Several members of the quizbowl team at Saint Viator High School also served as scorekeepers, so thanks go out to them as well. Thanks also to Victor Kluck for bringing his amazing Slam-In technology to the tournament.

[the return of AHAN]

Great tournament, Dan! This was easily the smoothest tournament I've seen at NU. If I had one complaint, it was that we had to stand around for 20-25 minutes waiting for the final round to conclude in one of the rooms where our buzzer was set up, but if that's the biggest problem, big deal. Besides, I still had the players home nearly an hour before I said I would. If there's one takeaway I got from this, it's that 10 rounds at middle school are very doable IF you have no bonucebacks. This is why the Barrington tournament is geared for 8 rounds (9 in the Challenge). On another note, the questions were such a refreshing change of pace from the usual buzzer races, though the mods stumbled over some typos and it was hard not to notice a few repeated answer lines (one occurring in the same match).
It'd be awesome if you could somehow expand the tournament into a "New Trier Varsity" size event. Middle school teams in Illinois are starved for tournaments of any sort, let alone ones on good questions.
Thanks again, and we look forward to Wildcat IV (or as one of my B players would say, "Wildcat Eye-Vee"... Inside joke; ask Colby Burnett to explain)!

[MichaelFalk]

Agree with Mr. Price.

I was struck by how well on-time the tournament ran. Rounds took 30 minutes without fail in my part of the building. Nobody even seemed particularly exhausted or "let's get this over with" like often happens at the end of a day. It was nice not having to rush our lunch.

I was moderating and agree with the negative effect of the typos and grammatical mistakes.

I'm used to non-bounceback quiz bowl, but I'm curious to hear how the other coaches feel about this format if they're used to bouncebacks.

[the return of AHAN]

I should elaborate that by "usual buzzer races," I mean what we often encounter in IESA play, not previous Jr Wildcats which have always been good.

[David Riley]

To piggyback on what Mike and Jeff said, this was a very enjoyable tournament to moderate and I wasn't the least bit tired when I went home for the day. I will also add that in my rooms, I didn't hear any griping/whining/complaining about no bouncebacks or no timeouts all day, which was very refreshing.

Questions were problematic: lots of repeats and uneven answer space, some of which I thought was too difficult even for the most competitive of middle school teams. On the plus side, I agree with the comment above that they were still far better than the sets most middle schools play, and hopefully Wildcat and Barrington, etc. will spread the gospel of good quiz bowl to even more middle schools toward a smoother transition to high school play.

[African threadfish]

Dear Mr. Donahue:

What an exceptionally well-run and exciting tournament in which to play! This was our first Junior Wildcat tournament as well as our first AFC tournament and the team had a fantastic time. There were a few problems with the question set with typos and some errors but overall, much better than the vast majority of questions that are available for middle school players. The moderators were excellent and their time, talents, and patience (especially with our challenge to a poorly written question in round #9) were very much appreciated! Thank you to everyone that read or helped with this tournament and made it such a great experience for all teams involved.

I also wanted to note that your methods for determining morning and afternoon pools were laudable. The afternoon rounds in our pool (#2) were evenly matched and scores for the matches often came down to the final questions which made for exciting and challenging play!

Thank you again Mr. Donahue and your excellent cadre of moderators and volunteers! We hope to be invited back next year.

Sincerely,

-Kristin Burns and Keith Country Day School team.

[Charbroil]

...Questions were problematic: lots of repeats and uneven answer space, some of which I thought was too difficult even for the most competitive of middle school teams.

I'd like to emphasize that anyone with comments on the questions should email us (contact@olympiaquestions.com). Some of the repeats may be intentional (the same answer coming up in different subjects because of limited answer space), but regardless, let us know if you notice anything.