Missouri Fall Academic Tournament (11/1/2008)

[alexdz]

Dear Coaches,
I am a member of the quizbowl team at the University of Missouri, and I am pleased to announce that we are planning on hosting the first annual Missouri Fall Academic Tournament on November 1st, 2008. We are aware that in the past some tournaments held at Mizzou had some real problems that might have deterred you. However, all of the people responsible for those tournaments have moved on, and we are going to do our part to make sure the best tournament possible can happen. We will be using questions from NAQT's set 80A, which are the lowest level of difficulty, and will be guaranteeing each team at least 5 games, more if possible, and are hoping that you are interested in using this opportunity to get lots of playing experience early in the season.

The entry fees are as follows:
One team will cost $70 to enter
Any additional teams from the same school will cost $60 to enter.
Any team bringing a buzzer system will receive a $5 discount. There will be a maximum of $15 discounted.

This tournament will be using a rule where each team can have a maximum of 6 players. If you have more than that, do not feel hesitant signing up an extra team so that every player gets more opportunities to participate in games. Please send your registration information to MizzouQuizbowl@gmail.com.

The field will be capped at 18 teams, although if there is demand and space we will look into expanding it. If the field fills, then the top 3 teams and possibly the top small school will qualify for the 2009 NAQT High School National Championship. Additionally, the top 2 teams will qualify for the 2009 PACE National Scholastics Championship.

We hope to see you in Columbia on November 1st, and best of luck to your teams this season!
Alex Dzurick
Co-Tournament Director

[alexdz]

Current Field:
1. DeSmet A
2. DeSmet B
3. Rock Bridge A
4. Rock Bridge B
5. Hannibal A
6. Clayton A
7. Liberty A
8. Weaubleau A
9. North Kansas City A
10. Glasgow A
11. Pilot Grove A
12. Hallsville A
13. Richland A
14. Kickapoo A
15. Kickapoo B
16b. Eureka A
17. Hickman A
18. South Callaway A

At this point, any further schools that contact us will be placed on a waiting list in order of contact. The spot labeled b denotes a school that has expressed interest but did not verbally commit a team. Their spots will be held until October 1, when we will open up their spot to the next team on the waiting list. If any other teams drop out, we will also go to the next team on the waiting list.

So, if you are still interested, please contact us. We'll put you on the list, and who knows, we may see you in November!

[ecks]

Wow, you guys got quite a response in team sign-ups. I'm glad to see that Mizzou's new quizbowl team will be getting a good start on things.

[Jeremy Gibbs Freesy Does It]

Since this is happening today, you can probably find sporadic results at http://taftqb.com/t/2008mfat. The now current field is:
Clayton
DeSmet A
DeSmet B
Glasgow
Hannibal
Helias
Hickman
Kickapoo A
Kickapoo B
Knob Noster
Liberty
Monroe City
North Kansas City
Pilot Grove
Richland
Rockbridge A
Rockbridge B
Weaubleau

[Jeremy Gibbs Freesy Does It]

For those of you who are waiting eagerly at home, North Kansas City (missing about half their scoring) won the tournament by going undefeated in all 10 rounds and clearing the field by 2 wins. Hickman went 8-2, and Rockbridge A went 8-2, but the points per game tiebreaker favored Hickman, so they placed 2nd. All three of those teams qualified for the NAQT High School National Championship, while NKC and Hickman also qualified for the PACE National Scholastics Championship. Glasgow won the advantaged final for the small school teams, also qualifying for NAQT Nationals. The all tournament players were:
1st. Brandon Roney (NKC), 112 ppg
2nd. Grant Monnig (Glasgow), 71 ppg
t2nd. Spencer Fish (Liberty), 71 ppg
4th. Mike (Rockbridge A), 55 ppg
5th. Adam Sperber (Hickman), 47 ppg
t5th. Conner (Rockbridge A), 47 ppg

I want to really thank all the people who helped scorekeep this tournament like the Pilot Grove and Hickman extras, as well as all the MU club members who moderated. Chad Kubicek is the man for coming all the way from Kansas City to moderate. All the teams really helped by coming and playing almost all of the games, that's really awesome that we had so many people stay despite running probably an hour late. Also, much love to U-Win trophies in Columbia; if you ever run a tournament in this area, please use him, his plaques were really great for our tight budget. If you deserve to be thanked and I have forgotten to mention you, please don't be offended. I would probably thank you in person for it.
I know there were some flaws (printing the wrong rooms on one schedule, taking a little long to run rooms, not having enough scorekeepers), but in spite of all the setbacks, I'm personally really proud the tournament went as well as it did, without any monstrous blowups. Hopefully this means we will just get smoother and smoother, as I've learned some stuff from this to do better next time, and hopefully we will have more staff by then. Even so, I'm really glad we accomplished everything we set out to do, which was give teams 10 games and a national qualifier with a fair playoff (at least I feel like we accomplished them). I hope teams had an enjoyable time, and congratulations to everyone for such a good performance early in the year, especially on some undermanned teams like Liberty and NKC. We will be hosting another event on January 24th, so look out for the announcement for that soon.
Thanks everyone!

P.S. We have the playoff stats but didn't have time during the tournament to enter them, so I have them here on my desk and will get to it in the next couple days, I promise.

[every time i refresh i have a new name]

wow, brandon really is excellent.

[Jeremy Gibbs Freesy Does It]

As a former teammate of them both, I have full confidence that Grant playing solo could have done the exact same damage (albeit, on some different subjects) that Brandon did today, so once NKC plays their full A team together they should be very solid.

[Jeremy Gibbs Freesy Does It]

More quizbowl in the news. Awesome stuff.

[Matt Weiner]

Nice to see Missouri Quizbowl Alliance in print. The article could have used more tales of self-inflicted wounds, though.

[Crazy Andy Watkins]

Christian Flow remarked to me the other day that a Word Freak style book ought to be written about quizbowl. I made no headway in convincing him to write it.

[Matt Weiner]

Christian Flow remarked to me the other day that a Word Freak style book ought to be written about quizbowl. I made no headway in convincing him to write it.

The problem is that anyone who really understands what makes quizbowl worthwhile and interesting is too busy writing tournaments to write a book.

[Crazy Andy Watkins]

Christian Flow remarked to me the other day that a Word Freak style book ought to be written about quizbowl. I made no headway in convincing him to write it.

The problem is that anyone who really understands what makes quizbowl worthwhile and interesting is too busy writing tournaments to write a book.

Katy Peters should just quit her job, obviously.