Global announcement: ACF Regionals 2010

[grapesmoker]

This is the official global announcement for ACF Regionals 2010. Regionals will take place on the weekend of February 20 and 21, 2010. We are now accepting bids.

Correspondence

Please be advised that ALL official ACF Regionals 2010 correspondence will be carried out via one single email account: acf.regionals.2010@gmail.com. Therefore, please do not be surprised if you received an email from "ACF Regionals" in response to a query. This address will be used to receive bids, packets, and any questions you may have. You may, of course, email any of us personally, but we would prefer that you contact the editing team via this email.

Editors

I, Jerry Vinokurov, will be the chief editor of ACF Regionals this year. I will be assisted by Trygve Meade, Chris Ray, Dwight Wynne, and Ted Gioia.

Hosting

We are happy to accept bids to host ACF Regionals at this time. To learn more about the requirements for hosting an ACF event, please consult the ACF hosting guidelines. If you feel that you are able to meet these guidelines, please submit a bid to acf.regionals.2010@gmail.com by the end of December 6, 2009. Please form your email with the following subject line: "Bid: School name for Region," (e.g. "Bid: Stanford University for California/West Coast").

Packets

Any collegiate team with at least one person on it who played a regular, collegiate, academic quizbowl tournament prior to September 1, 2008 is required to submit a packet in order to participate in an ACF tournament in 2009-2010. If you experience any confusion regarding this requirement, feel free to contact us. You will not be allowed to buy your way out of writing a packet, nor will exceptions be made in any but the most pressing of circumstances (as determined by us). Note that finals, schoolwork, and general laziness will not be considered "pressing circumstances." This applies doubly to experienced teams; we will drop you from the tournament if we have to. Please consult the ACF packet submission guidelines for further edification. I shall summarize the deadline schedule below:

December 27, 2009: make us a Christmas (or Hannukah) present, receive -$50
January 10, 2010: New Year's presents are only worth -$25 (-$50 for optional packets)
January 24, 2010: No penalty (-$25 for optional packets)
January 31, 2010: +$25 (note that the website says Jan. 30, but I'm bumping it to the 31st to align all the Sunday due dates, I think this is just a typo)
February 14, 2010: +$50 and no Valentine's Day card

Please send all packets to acf.regionals.2010@gmail.com with the subject line "Packet: Team," e.g. "Packet: Maryland A."

Other Discounts

Are available. For new teams, high school teams, long-distance travel, laptops, etc. Please consult the ACF packet submission guidelines under "Tournament fees and discounts" to see if any of these apply to you.

Formatting - Read this part carefully!

All packets MUST be formatted according to the official ACF formatting guidelines. I'll say up front that I don't care a whole lot about "10" vs. "ten" or square brackets vs. parentheses; if you do these things right, we will appreciate it, but what we will appreciate much more is if your packet is not full of parasitical Word modifications. I mean it! Turn off all your autoformatting and whatever other nonsense you've got, don't use non-standard templates, and don't mix styles. Ten-point TNR with 1-inch margins is what I want to see. Break up your packets by categories, with tossups first and then bonuses in each category. If I find packets that significantly deviate from these guidelines, I will send them back and make you reformat them. Do not think that I won't. Do it right the first time and we'll be the bestest of friends. I will be enforcing a strict 7-line limit on tossup length at this tournament, but your submitted tossups may be longer than that. If it's longer than 10 lines, you're doing it wrong.

If you have any questions about any of the information in this announcement, please send them to acf.regionals.2010@gmail.com, preferably with the subject line "Question:" followed by the text of your question (I ask for these subject lines because it helps me filter the various messages). If you have a question that you think might be relevant to the whole community as opposed to just your team, feel free to pose it here.

[grapesmoker]

I want to say a few words about the philosophy of this tournament. I have a vision for ACF Regionals this year, and part of that vision will be the roll-back or complete elimination of some of the more noxious tropes I've seen coming up in quizbowl as of late. Andrew Hart has put together a very good list of things you should and should not do in his Winter announcement: read it, twice or thrice if necessary, and follow what it says. Your questions should focus on academically relevant material in each category and your clues should strive for academic relevance. That means you should consult textbooks and encyclopedias before you do anything like consult old packets. In fact, don't even look at old packets; if I find things in your packet like wacky bonus parts that can be directly traced to tournaments like Gaddis or Chicago Open, I will send it back to you and ask you to rewrite it. Describe before you name and don't spend 6 lines on minutia before dropping a title. Ask yourself where a knowledgeable player would buzz on any given clue (or alternatively, what level of knowledge is required to buzz on that clue). Middle clues are of the essence. Make sure they exist in your questions. Don't be afraid to reward real knowledge early: this tournament is not about writing an astronomy tossup that Seth Teitler can't get until line 5, it's a tournament about writing an astronomy tossup on which Seth Teitler will beat less knowledgeable people, even if that means he buzzes on the first clue. Do not reach for pointless obscurata on leadins and hard bonus parts; instead, do your best to find relevant information that rewards real knowledge of a topic. If I find Oe's 10th best known short story in your packet, I will feed it to you (where "it" can refer to the packet or to the story, or both). Feel free to be inventive with your questions within the bounds of reason. Just because something has not come up before doesn't mean it's irrelevant or people don't know it. The converse, of course, is that just because something has come up before doesn't mean it's important or people do know it. Use some measure of judgment. This tournament differs from Winter in that I will allow a broader range of answers, but they must not be answers that are absurd or known only from perusal of previous packets. I will also be on the lookout for any specific eccentricities that I know are peculiar to some writers so if you are one of those people noted for writing on some specific topics, don't! I may not be editing every question in every category in this tournament, but I sure will read them all, so if you think you can be lazy and sneak something by me, think again.

That's a lot of information and it may seem daunting to some newer writers. I do not intend it to be so, but I do want everyone, veteran and greenhorn alike, to make an honest effort to write good questions on relevant topics instead of the egregious recycling of material that I've seen over the past few years. As long as I see that the effort is being made, I will be satisfied.

[grapesmoker]

Bids are starting to trickle in, and I would like to ask all future bidders to do me the following favor: could you please include in your bid the list of teams you expect to draw and the approximate distances those teams will have to travel to get to your site? It would be a great benefit to me in terms of deciding how to optimally allocate bids in such a way that everyone's travel time is minimized.

[grapesmoker]

Hey, please be aware that if you have sent in a bid and are waiting to hear back from me, that we will be reviewing the bids soon. I've had a backlog of other things that needed to get done but expect final announcements to be made in the next few weeks.

[Charbroil]

So...if ACF Winter is supposed to be like previous ACF Regionals, what's the difficulty of ACF Regionals going to be this year?

I'm just confused since as it seems now, the two tournaments are going to be of the same difficulty, and I didn't think that was the intent when ACF Winter was created (though I could be wrong).

[Jeremy Gibbs Freesy Does It]

Reading over last year's threads about ACF Winter, it is extremely clear that the intent for this tournament was to be easier than regionals, so I sincerely hope that hasn't changed.

[grapesmoker]

So...if ACF Winter is supposed to be like previous ACF Regionals, what's the difficulty of ACF Regionals going to be this year?

I'm just confused since as it seems now, the two tournaments are going to be of the same difficulty, and I didn't think that was the intent when ACF Winter was created (though I could be wrong).

I'm not an originalist in my legal thought and I'm not going to be one when it comes to quizbowl either. Whatever the idea behind Winter was supposed to be, it's become clear to me in retrospect that it became seriously muddled along the way. That leaves it open for Andrew and myself to reconceptualize what our respective tournaments are about. I am suggesting that Regionals will be a lot like Winter in its difficulty (i.e. both tournaments will essentially try to hit the "regular difficulty" mark), with the possible difference that for Regionals I may allow some things that might be slightly more adventurous. That's a nebulous statement, but playing Winter first will give me an opportunity to calibrate the difficulty scale against that.

[Frater Taciturnus]

It sure would be nice to know where this tournament is so we can make our plans for it including say, knowing who is going so we can write the packet?

[grapesmoker]

It sure would be nice to know where this tournament is so we can make our plans for it including say, knowing who is going so we can write the packet?

All will be revealed tomorrow. Apologies for dragging my feet.

[grapesmoker]

I am pleased to announce that the following sites will be hosting ACF Regionals 2010 (contacts in parentheses):

Northeast: Columbia University (Jason Pflueger)
Southeast: Clemson University (Nick Clusserath)
Mid-Atlantic: University of Maryland, College Park (Chris Ray)
Midwest: Ohio State University (Jacob Durst)
West: UC Irvine (Dwight Wynne)

There will almost certainly be another midwest site more accessible to Missouri and Kansas based teams, as well as a "North" site that will accommodate the Minnesota region. In addition, we are also interested in having a Northwest and a Southwest site but have not received any bids from those regions. We have also not received any bids from Canadian institutions, and we'd really love for there to be an ACF Regionals in Canada this year, so if you're a Canadian school that wants to host, please let us know.

If you're on this list, feel free to post your announcement. You should all get started on your packets.

[grapesmoker]

UT Austin is your Southwest host for ACF Regionals. Eric Kwartler is the contact person there.

[cornfused]

(ignore this post. I was asking about possibly having a host within 8.5 hours of Appleton, but it looks like I won't be able to attend a Saturday tournament that weekend.)

EDIT: Thanks anyway, Carsten.

[OctagonJoe]

I guess Greg's question no longer applies, but I would like to point out that Carleton College is hosting a site of ACF Regionals, which would be closer than 8.5 hours for Appleton and some other places. I can be contacted at gehrinca@carleton.edu for anyone interested in attending.

[grapesmoker]

We have received packets from the following teams (discounts/penalties in parentheses):

Miami A (-$50)
Miami B (-$50)
Miami C (-$50)
Yale A (-$25)
Yale B (-$50)
RPI A (-$50)
McMaster A (-$25)
Matt Bollinger (freelance packet)
Waterloo (no penalty)
Rice (no penalty)
Illinois B (-$25)
Minnesota A (no penalty)
UCLA (+$25)
Claremont (+$25)
Dartmouth A (+$25)
UCSD (+$25)
Minnesota B (+$50)

Thanks to everyone who has sent a packet so far! We are very excited to have these packets available to us early on. For those of you who have not yet sent a packet, please note that the no-penalty deadline for required packets is next Sunday. I hope to see many more packets come in before that date.

edit: RPI's packet was optional, so a -$50 discount for them.
edit 2: read the date on Yale A's packet wrong, corrected.

[grapesmoker]

Oh, and pursuant to the discussion that took place regarding the "your choice," category, feel free to use that category for things other than trash that you think are interesting. That thread contains lots of good ideas, avail yourselves of them.

[grapesmoker]

The no-penalty deadline for ACF Regionals submissions is tonight. So send packets! Also, the ACF Website erroneously lists Feb. 14 as the +$50 deadline, which is not the case; that deadline is actually Feb. 7, i.e. two weeks before the tournament.

[grapesmoker]

This coming Sunday is the deadline for the +$25 penalty submissions. I know there are lots of teams out there that want to play this but haven't submitted packets, so go ahead and do that now.

I also want to say that there will be a Regionals site at WUSTL one week after the rest of the sites finish (that would be the 27th). Someone from WUSTL should be announcing that presently. I'm also not seeing too many packets from teams in the Midwest, the West, or the South, and I know not all of you are packet-optional squads, so get those packets written and in to us so we can give you a great tournament.

[every time i refresh i have a new name]

You'll be getting one from us by this Friday at the latest.

[grapesmoker]

Sunday, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!!! Is the last day (+$50 deadline) to send in your packets. After that, I'm going to start charging you an additional $10 per day that your packet is late, if I even allow you to play at all. We've got some great stuff that's been submitted so far, but there are some conspicuous holes in our packet reservoir that I hope will be patched within the next couple of days.

The list of received packets has been updated. If you're not on the list and you know you ought to be, get on it.

[Nick]

Maybe its just me and our site at Clemson- but does it seem like across the board there is an abnormally low number of teams attending ACF Regionals? Is it usually like this with a little over two weeks to go?

[grapesmoker]

Maybe its just me and our site at Clemson- but does it seem like across the board there is an abnormally low number of teams attending ACF Regionals? Is it usually like this with a little over two weeks to go?

Columbia, Irvine, and Minnesota (I mean Carleton) seem to be doing ok. Thing is, guys, you can't just throw up an announcement and forget about it and expect teams to sign up. Clemson's announcement had slipped to the bottom of the second page before I posted in that thread, and that happened with a few others as well. It's part of the responsibility of the hosts to do things like contact teams and let them know about the tournament, try to get them to come out and so forth. We're doing our best to bring you a fun, high quality event, but what that means is that we can't babysit your individual sites and take care of your logistics for you.

[Matt Weiner]

If anyone needs some help collecting e-mails for teams in your region, I probably have at least a few working ones. Contact me.

[Ethnic history of the Vilnius region]

Maybe its just me and our site at Clemson- but does it seem like across the board there is an abnormally low number of teams attending ACF Regionals? Is it usually like this with a little over two weeks to go?

I think there will be other teams signing up (for instance, South Carolina just signed up 2 teams). I'd be shocked if Furman, Ga Tech, UGA, and some of the other usual suspects within easy driving distance of Clemson don't go as well. I'll be sending my Southeastern newsletter out tomorrow sometime, so hopefully that will tickle a few teams into going as well. Anyway, I wouldn't be worrying.

[grapesmoker]

This is a reminder that today is the last day to submit your packets unless you have cleared any extensions with me! Anything that's in my inbox by the time I check my email tomorrow will be considered to have been submitted on time.

[vcuEvan]

December 27, 2009: make us a Christmas (or Hannukah) present, receive -$50
January 10, 2010: New Year's presents are only worth -$25 (-$50 for optional packets)
January 24, 2010: No penalty (-$25 for optional packets)
January 31, 2010: +$25 (note that the website says Jan. 30, but I'm bumping it to the 31st to align all the Sunday due dates, I think this is just a typo)
February 14, 2010: +$50 and no Valentine's Day card

I was working off of this...

[grapesmoker]

December 27, 2009: make us a Christmas (or Hannukah) present, receive -$50
January 10, 2010: New Year's presents are only worth -$25 (-$50 for optional packets)
January 24, 2010: No penalty (-$25 for optional packets)
January 31, 2010: +$25 (note that the website says Jan. 30, but I'm bumping it to the 31st to align all the Sunday due dates, I think this is just a typo)
February 14, 2010: +$50 and no Valentine's Day card

I was working off of this...

I posted in this thread that there was a mistake in that schedule. The deadline is always two weeks before the tournament and that was a typo:

The no-penalty deadline for ACF Regionals submissions is tonight. So send packets! Also, the ACF Website erroneously lists Feb. 14 as the +$50 deadline, which is not the case; that deadline is actually Feb. 7, i.e. two weeks before the tournament.

In any case, if someone was seriously confused by this, I'm willing to grant reasonable extensions.

[Pilgrim]

Hey, Jerry, could we get an updated account of packets? I'd like some sort of confirmation that ours was received. (there was also a question in the email that I'd like an answer to when you get a chance)

[grapesmoker]

Trevor, your packet got caught in the spam filter, which usually doesn't happen. We did get it, and packets from Michigan, Oklahoma, and USC. I'll update the list of packets tomorrow. And I've replied with an answer to your question.

[grapesmoker]

Since I'm sure you're all clicking F5 feverishly for updates, I'd just like to say that the packets are being randomized and proofread and will go out sometime tomorrow afternoon or evening.

[Camelopardalis]

We're having a bit of a problem with the questions. Apparently they contain a virus of some sort, but we just sent an email about it. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[Crazy Andy Watkins]

We're having a bit of a problem with the questions. Apparently they contain a virus of some sort, but we just sent an email about it. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Jerry Vinokurov wants to break your Micro$oft Office!

[grapesmoker]

We're having a bit of a problem with the questions. Apparently they contain a virus of some sort, but we just sent an email about it. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

I apologize for this situation. I think some email servers automatically quarantine anything that comes in as an attachment. This actually happened when I sent the questions to Columbia except my email was rejected outright; what I did was to create a fake gmail account, send the questions there, and give Jason the password. I would have done the same for the Guelph folks but I never got a rejection email so I assumed everything was fine. It looks like you guys were able to get the questions from Ted, which is good, but I'm really sorry about this happening. This was definitely an emergency situation in which it would have been good to call me.

[OntarioQuizzer]

This was definitely an emergency situation in which it would have been good to call me.

I agree. Unfortunately, apparently your phone number was also in a quarantined email, inaccessible to us (leaving us to resort to other methods of attempting to contact the editors).

[grapesmoker]

This was definitely an emergency situation in which it would have been good to call me.

I agree. Unfortunately, apparently your phone number was also in a quarantined email, inaccessible to us (leaving us to resort to other methods of attempting to contact the editors).

Foiled!

[millionwaves]

As an editor of this set, it's my sincere and fervent hope that everyone who played the set today found it enjoyable. We've set up a hidden forum to facilitate the discussion of ACF Regionals, as some sites will be playing the questions as late as next Saturday.

TO ENTER:

From your user control panel, select usergroups. Find ACF Regionals at the bottom of the list, then click the radio button and submit as "join selected." Dwight, Jerry, and I will be in charge of approving people to join the ACF Regionals discussion, so if you think they might not recognize your username, let us know who you are. This would be a good thread in which to do so.

[gkandlikar]

I have requested access to these forums.

[Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat]

I have also requested access.

Thanks for writing a set that was lots of fun to play on!

[megatr0n]

I have requested access to these forums

I am probably not recognizable but I am someone from Hunter College High School's team, as I'm sure Guy or someone currently attending Hunter would attest.

[Gaterion]

I've requested access as well.

[millionwaves]

To clarify, you don't need to post just because you requested access; we all get an e-mail telling us that. We only need you to post if you think we're not going to recognize your username and therefore wouldn't approve you based on not knowing whether or not you've played.

[Ben Cole]

To clarify, you don't need to post just because you requested access; we all get an e-mail telling us that. We only need you to post if you think we're not going to recognize your username and therefore wouldn't approve you based on not knowing whether or not you've played.

I played for Southside at the Clemson site, under the team pseudonym "Exactly 3rd," because we were not allowed to use our school's name.

[majadirks]

I didn't play yesterday, but always enjoy seeing the post-competition chatter.

[gentleunwashed]

I played at Guelph.

[KevinL]

I played a few rounds for Clemson.

[sobek27]

Hi -- I moderated at the Mid-Atlantic ACF Regional this past Sunday.

Thanks,

[cornfused]

Hey, is this set going to be posted soon?

[grapesmoker]

Hey, is this set going to be posted soon?

Yes, I'll send it to George tonight.