The Decemberist II - 12/06/08 - Rock Valley CC, Rockford, IL

[styxman]

I am excited to officially announce the second annual Decemberist quiz bowl tournament, to be held on Saturday, December 6th, 2008 at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Illinois. We will be using NAQT IS set #76 and NAQT rules with the exception of the clock, using rounds of 20 tossups and 20 bonuses instead.

The tournament will begin at 9 AM, with a coaches meeting at 8:30. The field cap is currently set for 24 teams, and although the official schedule won't be formalized until we know the final field size, the general idea is for preliminary pool play of between 5 and 7 rounds, followed by playoff pool play of likely 5 rounds and an ACF style advantaged final, if necessary. Consolation brackets will also run in the afternoon for all teams.

The entry fee and discounts remain the same as last year:
$75 per team, $60 per (B, C, etc.) team (B, C, etc. teams will be put on a waitlist until after 11/14 to allow A teams first entry)
-$5 for bringing a buzzer system (current maximum 1 per team, not school)
-$5 for any school making its first appearance at an NAQT format tournament. The use of NAQT questions in an IHSA format match/tournament/etc. does not disqualify the school from this discount. (Maximum 1 per school)
The tournament question set is available for purchase for $10. It includes both the extra tiebreaking questions included in each packet and extra packets that we will not be using.

To register, email me (styxman42 AT gmail DOT com) with the following information.

Coach Name
School Name
Preferred Contact Information (if not this email address)
Number of Teams Registering
Number of Buzzer Systems
Whether you are a new school to NAQT format
Whether you are interested in purchasing questions

We're looking forward to a great tournament!
Brad Fischer

[BGSO]

4 people per team or 5, and does Goldfish count as a NAQT format tournament?

[styxman]

4 players play at once...and I'm leaning towards no, Goldfish does not disqualify you from the new-to-NAQT discount.

[Siverus Snape]

Is there a tentative field update?

[styxman]

I could post one tonight, but we had a minor setback with the invitations and they didn't get sent until late Friday night. I'll post an update Monday night or Tuesday morning.

[BGSO]

We're gonna try to convince our coach to let us go, but after the trouble we've had lately I'm not optimistic.

[styxman]

We've found out that the cost of security at RVC on a Saturday has risen from last year's zero dollars to $70 per hour. While we look into whether we can get out of that, I'm tentatively raising the base entry fee to $75 per team and $60 per extra team. Within a few days, I should know whether I can drop that down.

Re: BGSO - I don't believe I have your coach's email on my list of coach contacts...if he's willing to send it out (I don't think it's on IHSSBCA), could you email it to me so I can send him an invite? My email address is styxman42 AT gmail DOT com. Thanks!

[styxman]

Field Update: 11/4 (Go vote!)

With something like 75% of invite replies not yet in - which is fine, because you've got until Nov. 14th, and even then, it's not a hard deadline -

Current Field:
LaSalle Peru
Loyola
Marengo
New Trier
North Boone
Richmond Burton
Rockford Auburn
Rockford East

Current B-Team Waitlist
Auburn x4
East
Loyola x2

Expressed interest - I'm only counting email, Facebook replies, or people I talked to at Kickoff and wrote down, because my mind's a wee bit cluttered to remember anything else - if you think you've expressed interest to me but you're not on the list, email me:
Boylan
Buffalo Grove
Byron
Dixon
Sterling
Winnebago

[David Riley]

Count us in for three teams--paperwork and check are en route.

[styxman]

Field Update: 11/11

We're getting closer to the "official" cutoff (this weekend), so here's a field update:

Current Field:
Byron
Hampshire
LaSalle Peru
Loyola
Marengo
New Trier
North Boone
Richmond Burton
Rockford Auburn
Rockford Boylan
Rockford East
Wheaton Academy

Current B-Team Waitlist
Auburn x4
East
Loyola x2

Expressed interest - I'm only counting email, Facebook replies, or people I talked to at Kickoff and wrote down, because my mind's a wee bit cluttered to remember anything else - if you think you've expressed interest to me but you're not on the list, email me:
Buffalo Grove
Dixon
Sterling
Winnebago

[BGSO]

:.( we're working on a plan B, though, once again I highly doubt we will be able to pull this off.

[styxman]

The official "register before a B-team takes your A-team's spot in the tourney" date has passed, and (as I expected) all the B-teams are in and we still have room in the field. Current field:

Teams: 23
Byron
Buffalo Grove
Dixon
Hampshire
LaSalle Peru
Loyola x3
Marengo
New Trier
North Boone
Richmond Burton
Rockford Auburn x5
Rockford Boylan
Rockford East x2
Sterling
Wheaton Academy
Winnebago

Expressed interest - I'm only counting email, Facebook replies, or people I talked to at Kickoff and wrote down, because my mind's a wee bit cluttered to remember anything else - if you think you've expressed interest to me but you're not on the list, email me:
Richmond Burton B

[David Riley]

An Auburn E TEAM???? Zounds!

[BGSO]

Talking to our coach today, we know our JV coach can accompany us, we just have to get the head honcho's permission.

/me crosses fingers

[David Riley]

Yeah!!! Hopefully "the man"(or is it "the woman"?) will let you guys attend.,

[styxman]

Talking to our coach today, we know our JV coach can accompany us, we just have to get the head honcho's permission.

/me crosses fingers

Please please please come it will help me out soooo much on the selfish grounds of I don't want a 23 team, 22 games/1 bye round robin only because we don't have the rooms that long. I suppose we could just pick up the games at my house in Bago, but I've only got 2 rooms for games, and one of them isn't heated.

[BGSO]

Deal, we're going, please email me the registration details and such.

[styxman]

Full field! Woohoo!

Teams: 24
Buffalo Grove
Byron
Dixon
Hampshire
Kaneland
LaSalle Peru x2
Loyola x3
Marengo
North Boone
Richmond Burton
Rockford Auburn x4
Rockford Boylan
Rockford East x2
Sterling x2
Wheaton Academy
Winnebago

[BGSO]

Brad, we're having one and maybe two people that will be coming late due to SAT I and II's, any chance you have a location that I can tell them to put into google maps?

Or should I just give them RVC and tell them specifics later?

[styxman]

Brad, we're having one and maybe two people that will be coming late due to SAT I and II's, any chance you have a location that I can tell them to put into google maps?

Or should I just give them RVC and tell them specifics later?

3301 North Mulford Road, Rockford IL, 61101. We'll be in Classroom Building 1. Email me with a reminder, and I'll email you a map of the campus so you can see where exactly that is.

[styxman]

Congratulations to Rockford Auburn A for going 11-0, defeating Loyola A in the first game of the final. Buffalo Grove finished 3rd and Loyola B finished 4th, and all four teams earned qualifications to the NAQT and PACE national championships. Winnebago went 4-1 to win the first consolation bracket, over Rockford Boylan and Rockford Auburn B. Richmond-Burton went undefeated to win the second consolation bracket.

Here are the statistics for the tournament -- at the top of each page is a link to the Stat Key which explains all the acronyms the stats page uses. If you find any errors in the stats, let me know and I'll correct them.

Morning only stats: http://results.scobo.net/resultmenu.aspx?org=RockValleyCollege&id=2
Afternoon only stats: http://results.scobo.net/resultmenu.aspx?org=RockValleyCollege&id=3
Combined stats: http://results.scobo.net/resultmenu.aspx?org=RockValleyCollege&id=1

The All-Tournament Team (in order of PPG, prelims only):
Siva Sundaram, Auburn A
Machamp (Joe Ahmad), Loyola A
David Garb, Buffalo Grove
Nick Bergeon, Buffalo Grove
Michael Jiang, Auburn A
Slowpoke (Donal Terrel), Loyola B
Connor Christensen, Sterling A
Psyduck (Jack Glerum), Loyola A
Danny Hannan, Boylan
Poliwrath (Marcel), Loyola C

I'd also like to officially and honorably mention Jamie Kelly of Richmond Burton (finished 2 ppg behind 10th place in the morning, then jumped to 3rd overall) and Marc Smith of Byron (also finished 2 ppg behind 10th place in the morning, tied for 2nd most powers in the morning, 5th most powers overall).

I'm very interested in getting feedback on how your moderators were - if you didn't get the moderator's name, I can figure out who it was based on who you played in that round. Also, any feedback about the questions, the tournament schedule, or anything, really, is very much appreciated. I'm considering a few changes for next year's event, and feedback will help me with the decisions.

Thank you again for coming, and we hope to see you next year!
Brad Fischer

[Siverus Snape]

Moderator comments:

I don't want to call out a name in a public place like this, so I'll leave it at "the man who moderated Auburn A's first round." It was pretty clear that he needs more experience with these types of questions and the bonus format. He read slowly enough that it actually became harder to understand him and the question; I found that I was less likely to remember a key distinguishing point from the beginning of a question by the the end. By the time we had him just before lunch, it seemed like he had gotten really tired, because he talked into his desk the whole time.

I had no complaints about the reading speed of the man who moderated our second round, but there was one situation that kind of rankled me. A tossup asked for the measure of a certain angle and didn't specify that it wanted degrees until after the FTP. I buzzed in during what probably would have been FIFTEEEEEN territory and gave the correct answer in radians. The moderator negged me, and the other team didn't get it. My coach wasn't in the room, so I tried to lodge a protest, but I was shot down by the moderator and the opposing team's coach, who said, "Isn't that part of the risk of going in early? Having to guess the units?" Maybe you should add situations like this to the discussion at moderators' meetings in the future.

Other than that, the rest of our moderators (Laird, B.J., Brad, Mr. Laudermith) were great, as expected.

Thanks for running this, Brad. It's wonderful to be able to get up at 7 for a legitimate tournament.

[styxman]

Moderator comments:

I don't want to call out a name in a public place like this, so I'll leave it at "the man who moderated Auburn A's first round." It was pretty clear that he needs more experience with these types of questions and the bonus format. He read slowly enough that it actually became harder to understand him and the question; I found that I was less likely to remember a key distinguishing point from the beginning of a question by the the end. By the time we had him just before lunch, it seemed like he had gotten really tired, because he talked into his desk the whole time.

First off - leaving the identity of a moderator at this is plenty good. It's enough info for me to figure it out, while providing the fault that can be improved.

Second off - this is exactly the sort of info I want to be getting so I can make staffing decisions for next year. Thank you, and keep it coming, everyone!

I had no complaints about the reading speed of the man who moderated our second round, but there was one situation that kind of rankled me. A tossup asked for the measure of a certain angle and didn't specify that it wanted degrees until after the FTP. I buzzed in during what probably would have been FIFTEEEEEN territory and gave the correct answer in radians. The moderator negged me, and the other team didn't get it. My coach wasn't in the room, so I tried to lodge a protest, but I was shot down by the moderator and the opposing team's coach, who said, "Isn't that part of the risk of going in early? Having to guess the units?" Maybe you should add situations like this to the discussion at moderators' meetings in the future.

It surprises me that the answer wouldn't provide radians as an option in general - I'm going to check the questions when I get home just to check that out. As to how the protest played out, A: noted, and it's going into the moderator's meeting notes, and B: this is a prime example of why we need to get more pyramidal training, so that people learn that that's not a risk a player should have to face, not to mention another example of why computational math is bad.

[Dresden_The_Moderator]

Thanks, Siva, for the compliment, and congrats on the victory.

I must say that in general, I was very pleased with the tournament. The staff was (mostly) great as expected, but I thought the teams were a: very competitive, and b: very professional. I really didn't see much of the typical "Well, we're losing so let's completely lose our manners." Overall I think a very good time was had by all. Well done Brad.