UCLA Mirror of Minnesota Open (October 17, 2009)

[Golran]

This will serve as a preliminary announcement that UCLA is planning to host a mirror of Minnesota Open for the west coast. Fees will be approximately the same as the main site. Expect a fuller announcement to be posted here and e-mailed to the west coast list serv later this week or by the end of the weekend.

[Auroni]

UCSD will be sending at least one team to this!

[Golran]

Ok, full announcement:

The UCLA College Bowl Club is pleased to announce its mirror of Minnesota Open

DATE: The tournament will be held on Saturday October 17, 2009.

FORMAT: The tournament will be mirroring the Minnesota Open.

ELIGIBILITY: This tournament is open to all teams. We will attempt to match free agents up if requested.

PRICING STRUCTURE:
Base fee = $120
-$5 for a fully-functional buzzer system (must have at least four working buzzers on both sides) (maximum two discounts per team)
-$10 for additional teams from a school (non-cumulative)
-$15 for a pre-approved moderator (no maximum for pre-approved moderators)
-$10 for travel over 350 miles as measured by Google Maps
Minimum fee = $60/team average (possible only with multiple moderators)

A note on packet writing- I have sent an e-mail to Andrew Hart to see if they are requesting packets from teams attending the mirror sites. If so, we will use the discounts/penalties as he requests.

If your program cannot afford to register, please contact the TD and we will try to make arrangements to accommodate your needs.

Please make checks payable to "College Bowl Club of UCLA." Please do not make a check out to any other person or entity, including "UCLA Quiz Bowl," as we cannot cash those checks. Please bring your check with you to the event. If you will need an invoice made, please contact Ian before the tournament. All teams will be given receipts.

The cap is unofficially going to be set at 24 teams, but we will try to accommodate as many teams as possible. It is likely that the limiting factor will be moderator availability-- we very much encourage teams to send moderators!

The tournament directors is Ian Drayer. If you are interested in attending, please e-mail me at Golran-at-ucla.edu with the following information:

1) Your school's (or team's) name
2) Representative's name and e-mail address
3) The number of teams you are bringing
4) The number of buzzer systems and/or moderators you would like to bring

Updates about the tournament will be posted on the hsquizbowl.org forums and on the quizbowl Yahoo! group; however, they should also be posted online. Our club website is http://quizbowl.bol.ucla.edu. A link should become available once this announcement has been posted.

If you have any questions about any of this, please e-mail either Ian Drayer.

More information such as start time, building location, and parking information will become available as we near the tournament date, though you can expect to pay $10 for an all-day parking pass for a single car to park on UCLA's campus.

[cvdwightw]

More information such as start time, building location, and parking information will become available as we near the tournament date, though you can expect to pay $10 for an all-day parking pass for a single car to park on UCLA's campus.

Parking rates went up again!?

No guarantees of an Irvine team coming - we have very few returning people, I don't know how many new people we'd be able to pull in for wherever the EFT mirror is, and I'm not sure that the way to keep new people is to make their first tournament experience "difficulty: hard." If enough of us (returners and adventurous new people) are up for it, we'll try to get a team there.

[Auks Ran Ova]

There will likely be some sort of optional packet-submission discount schedule for people attending mirror sites.

[Golran]

I was just informed that attending teams are not required to write packets, but can receive discounts for writing and submitting to the main site at their allotted deadlines.

[Golran]

Field Updates will be edited into this post (latest field update September 14, 2009)

Registered:
Caltech (2)
USC (1)
UCSD (1-2)
UCLA House People
Steve Katz

[Golran]

Going to put a registration deadline of October 14th at 8pm West Coast time, just so we can make sure of everything with enough time to spare.

[recfreq]

hopefully with Lederberg science on the same day and/or a lit/misc tourney.

[Golran]

Bumping this to get more interest. Please sign up people!

[Golran]

This is now officially cancelled due to lack of interest. Sorry to all those who will be disappointed. I'll try to generate more interest next year. I would encourage all teams who were considering attending this tournament to look into going to Caltech for ACF Fall on Oct. 31.

[Auroni]

That's a shame, we were trying to organize a second team. Isn't there a way to play this with drafts, like the Maryland site is doing?

[Golran]

We can look into getting a couple of rooms and doing something informal, probably end up taking a couple of rooms in Humanities or Covel up near the dorms to play a number of the packets, reducing the fees to our total costs.

[cvdwightw]

Going to put a registration deadline of October 14th at 8pm West Coast time, just so we can make sure of everything with enough time to spare.

This is now officially cancelled due to lack of interest. Sorry to all those who will be disappointed. I'll try to generate more interest next year. I would encourage all teams who were considering attending this tournament to look into going to Caltech for ACF Fall on Oct. 31.

Not a true criticism, but canceling a non-packet-submission tournament before your self-imposed registration deadline is poor form. For what it's worth, Irvine's trying to get a team together, so I'd greatly appreciate knowing whether this is truly canceled.

[recfreq]

Thread hijacked by Ray Luo.

OK this is NOT canceled; supposedly the registration deadline was (or will be) October 14, although I've been pushed into serving as pseudo-director despite having a conference to attend the very next day until next week. But since I'm director, I get to make the rules. Anyhow, here's the field:

Caltech 1
UCSD 2
USC 1
Steve Katz 1
Berkeley 1
Irvine 1
UCLA 1(+more if SD ends up with less)

If this is incorrect, let me know ASAP. This is 8 teams, and a legitimate tournament. If it turns out that some of the teams have too few people, as Irvine may have, we'll just draft UCLA people into those teams instead of breaking teams apart, if this is alright with people. By the way, I was supposed to play in this tournament, and given the reduced field, it will be a good idea for me to play. If someone from UCLA can handle getting the packets from Minnesota and Eric M., it'd be tremendously helpful. We'll likely try to get rooms in Humanities building (Avram!) or Covel. Be ready to start by 8:30AM or so Saturday the 17th (as we'll need time to run the science mirror in the afternoon/evening).

Finally, I'd like to ask Minnesota if it'd be alright if we reduced the tourney fees for this tourney out in the west, since the interest is so low. I'm guessing the teams mostly have 1 or 2 people in them, and we're getting rooms in the last minute. I'd like to offer the teams a 50% discount. This means it'll be $60 per team flat. Is this alright, Minnesota? I'm not sure what you worked out with Ian. Interest out here is super low, guys.

Best.
Ray.

[theMoMA]

I wouldn't have a problem with reduced fees; our cut was originally $30 per team, so reduce the fees however you think will benefit you best and pay us ((1 - discount %) * 30) * n teams

[recfreq]

OK, to make the numbers work out nice, we're charging every team $70 each (that's way lower than original--almost 50% lower--and also lower than the main site); and should serve as incentive for teams that are on the fence to come. (To Minnesota we're paying $20 for each team as mirror fee.)

We're working on the rooms at the moment. I believe we have two buzzer systems, and would therefore need at least two more buzzer systems for the main tourney. For science, we may go back to the draft. We'll need people from UCLA to bring their computers to read from, and Andrew should send the questions to Ian for putting onto a USB. For science, Eric could send it to Ian or myself I guess, and we'll promise not to look at them.

[cvdwightw]

OK, to make the numbers work out nice, we're charging every team $70 each (that's way lower than original--almost 50% lower--and also lower than the main site); and should serve as incentive for teams that are on the fence to come. (To Minnesota we're paying $20 for each team as mirror fee.)

We're working on the rooms at the moment. I believe we have two buzzer systems, and would therefore need at least two more buzzer systems for the main tourney. For science, we may go back to the draft. We'll need people from UCLA to bring their computers to read from, and Andrew should send the questions to Ian for putting onto a USB. For science, Eric could send it to Ian or myself I guess, and we'll promise not to look at them.

As I emailed you, I can bring our buzzer system. I can also potentially bring my laptop as long as it returns to me at lunch and other times at which the room is relatively unattended.

For science, I will be doing last-minute work on the questions (Friday at least) and would be thus willing to pick up the questions.

[unnecessarily hot]

Berkeley is bringing 1 team of 3 players, all 3 of whom probably want to play in the science tournament.

We can also bring our Judge buzzer system.

[recfreq]

Hey.

We now have rooms for the tournament on Saturday October 17 (per below), thanks to Avram. We're going to meet outside Humanities (which is next to Powell library opposite Haines: http://www.ucla.edu/map/map-w-bldgs-jul08.pdf) at 8:30AM. Avram will show us to the rooms, and we'll begin play no later than 8:45AM.

After the main tourney (I presume Ian has the schedule, double RR probly), we'll get some early dinner or get pizza and continue with the science tourney (which any and all are welcomed to).

Ray.

[recfreq]

Field update:

Berkeley 1 team.
Irvine 1 team (2 persons).
USC (?) 1 team.
UCSD X teams (2?).
Steve Katz 1 person.
UCLA perhaps 1-2 persons.

Looks like with this roster, we should do 6 teams double RR, and plug free agents into existing teams (and discount the fees appropriately), then break earlier for science. Any how, we're still meeting 8:30AM at Humanities building. See you tomorrow.

[cchiego]

EDIT: one UCSD team with 3 people on it. But we'll definitely be there.

[Golran]

Semi-live stats will be available at:

http://quizbowl.gimranov.com/stats/stat ... p?t=mo2009

[cvdwightw]

This sign is on the door to one of the rooms we're playing in. Clearly, it is not enough.

[recfreq]

We had four teams: UCSD, Irvine, a bastard UCLA team with Steve Katz, and Berkeley.
We played a triple RR and Irvine finished with only 2 losses, and UCLA et al with 3 losses.
Therefore Irvine wins the tournament. Stats are as above.