The Quizbowl Resource Center

by **Mike Bentley** » Wed May 04, 2011 2:07 pm

This is the announcement for COLT, a semi-sequel to last year’s CULT that will be run in the CO Trash spot on Sunday, July 31st, 2011 at the University of Chicago. This tournament will largely be written and edited by myself, although I’ll be soliciting some outside help for some areas. The tournament will be similar in style and difficulty to last year’s CULT (available on Wastebin). This implies the tournament will probably be a little easier than CO Trash tournaments in the past. This is not a guarantee (as it’s notoriously difficult to predict bonus conversion before a tournament is played and especially before it’s completely edited), but I expect the top teams to put up more in the range of 23-24 PPB rather than the 20 PPB at last year’s tournament. This tournament will also adhere to a slightly different distribution than past CO Trash tournaments (details on this can be found below). The tournament is open to all players. It’s also available for mirror at sites that are also mirroring the regular Chicago Open—it’s possible I may also consider mirrors for other summer tournaments after July 31st, but nothing’s guaranteed.

PRICING
The base fee per team will be $100. There is a $5 discount per buzzer and a $20 discount for staff. Minimum fee per team is $60. There are no travel or additional team discounts.

DISTRIBUTION
Here are my current thoughts about the distribution. It will probably end up being a little more flexible than outlined here (e.g. one round might have a music tossup from 1962 and 1979 and none in the 1980-1995 range or something).

4/4 Movies (2/2 1995+, 1/1 1980-1995, 1/1 pre-1980)
3/3 Television – (2/2 after 1995, 1/1 pre-1995)
4/4 Music (2/2 1995+, 1/1 1980-1995, 1/1 pre-1980)
4/4 Sports (1/1 Basketball, 1/1 Baseball, 1/1 Football, 1/1 Other Sports. For categories like basketball and football, slightly more emphasis will be placed on professional sports compared to college sports)
1.5/1.5 Videogames
3.5/3.5 Other (comics, trash lit and common link will be the dominant sub-categories here)

As with CULT (but probably to a lesser extent than previous CO Trash tournaments) there will be a small amount of clues or bonus parts that rely on academic knowledge, in much the same way that many academic tournaments include a small trash distribution. There will be no meta in this tournament.

REGISTRATION
Registration is now closed. Consult with teams still needing players from the player spreadsheet (https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreads ... l=en#gid=0) if you're still interested in playing.

LOGISTICS
Registration will be from 8:30-9:00 AM on Sunday morning in the same place where registration for the Chicago Open took place.

by **Cheynem** » Wed May 04, 2011 2:11 pm

I think I'll give this a whirl. I'm playing with Rob Carson and if they're around, some permutation of Carleton people (Carsten, Frank, Chastity Rosenthal).

by **Kenneth Widmerpool** » Wed May 04, 2011 3:33 pm

I'm interested, if anyone wants a fourth who will reliably score you 2 ppg.

by **DumbJaques** » Wed May 04, 2011 4:09 pm

Definitely playing this, looking for teammates.

by **ValenciaQBowl** » Wed May 04, 2011 4:46 pm

I'll be playing this with Amy Harvey and Billy Beyer. Seth Kendall will probably be our fourth.

by **rylltraka** » Wed May 04, 2011 6:11 pm

I'm up for playing this. That is, if you want 15 ppg and no categories locked down.

by **MicroEStudent** » Wed May 04, 2011 7:33 pm

Depending on what lab I have to TA this summer, I'll be there and likely need at least two teammates.

by **Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat** » Wed May 04, 2011 9:05 pm

I'll read for this.

by **dtaylor4** » Wed May 04, 2011 10:12 pm

I'll be there, and will staff as necessary.

Will teams make their own names, or will you continue the tradition of giving teams names?

by **cornfused** » Wed May 04, 2011 11:32 pm

I'll play this for sure and am looking for teammates.

by **theMoMA** » Thu May 05, 2011 7:23 pm

Soliciting teammates. I know a few trash things.

by **Kenneth Widmerpool** » Thu May 05, 2011 11:29 pm

MattBo and I are playing this together and are seeking two more teammates.

by **PISTOL SHOOTING FOR LADIES** » Fri May 06, 2011 12:33 am

every time i refresh i have a new name wrote:MattBo and I are playing this together and are seeking two more teammates.

Sure, why not.

by **itsthatoneguy** » Fri May 06, 2011 11:12 am

Surya Sabhapathy, Jonathan Magin, and myself have formed a team. We are looking for a fourth.

Also, since George Berry seems to be absent from this thread, I have made a Google Spreadsheet with teams. Please update this as I probably made a mistake or two.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreads ... l=en#gid=0

by **itsthatoneguy** » Fri May 06, 2011 11:30 am

rylltraka wrote:I'm up for playing this. That is, if you want 15 ppg and no categories locked down.

Hey, do you want to play with Surya, Magin, and myself?

by **Papa's in the House** » Fri May 06, 2011 11:41 pm

I'm interested in this. Let me know if you'd like to team up.

by **jdd2007** » Sat May 07, 2011 12:25 am

Some sort of Ohio State team will play this event.

by **EncyclopediaCDRom** » Tue May 10, 2011 1:29 pm

I just added my name to the spreadsheet as a free agent.
COLT/CULT are acronyms for what?
The Brickyard 400 that 2011 CO weekend recently made more sense for me to attend in 2012.

Hoping for Miss Pippa M. (Mann, not Middleton) to qualify for her 1st Indy 500,
Rom

by **MacSR** » Sun May 15, 2011 12:10 am

McMaster is interested in playing this at Chicago, and possibly mirroring it in early August.

by **Edward Elric** » Sun May 15, 2011 12:15 am

Hey so chances are i'm going to play this. I'm decent in most trash categories, not anything spectacular. Good for 15-20ppg. I'm probably not going to log back on to HSQB for a while so if your interested in teaming up email me at cybermichaelp at JUNO dot com.

by **Colby Burnett** » Mon May 30, 2011 11:01 am

I am actually very good at Trash, and throwing myself as a free agent in the meantime.

by **Cheynem** » Tue May 31, 2011 8:43 pm

My official team appears to be: me, Rob "You Know You Want Me Baby" Carson, Franklin Delano Firke, and Car$ten "Kid Icarus" Gehring.

by **ArloLyle** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 9:47 am

I'll throw my hat into the ring. I'll play with anyone who will take me.

Also, I'd be willing to moderate CO if needed since I have no intention of embarrassing myself by playing in that tournament. Not sure if that would give me a discount here, but also not really worried about it either way.

by **Geringer** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 11:13 am

Colby Burnett wrote:I am actually very good at Trash, and throwing myself as a free agent in the meantime.

If you're interested in teaming up, I'm looking for a few teammates.

by **Dominator** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 7:41 pm

I'm hoping to be able to form some kind of NIU/IMSA team for this. Failing that, I'll be a free agent.

by **Mike Bentley** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 12:52 am

So, counting free agents, there are about 10 teams registered right now. I've written 12 packets of questions and will not be writing any additional packets to compensate changes in the field. Teams are encouraged to finalize sooner rather than later so that you don't get left out in the event we get some number that doesn't work out great for scheduling.

by **Edward Elric** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 11:29 am

Dominator wrote:I'm hoping to be able to form some kind of NIU/IMSA team for this. Failing that, I'll be a free agent.

In the event that you don't have enough people for an IMSA/NIU team, i'd be interested in joining you.

by **Kanga-Rat Murder Society** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:14 am

I guess I will throw my hat into the ring for this tournament. For as bad as I am at actual quizbowl, I am actually pretty solid at trash. Sports are my specialty (especially collegiate sports, tennis, and boxing), but I also have my niches within movies, television, and music. If this sounds like what your team needs, or you just want me as a teammate for whatever reason, send me an e-mail at bergeon@wisc.edu.

by **Mike Bentley** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:36 am

By the way, the official way to register for this tournament is to add yourself to the spreadsheet referenced in an earlier post in this thread.

by **Papa's in the House** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:58 pm

Arlo Lyle and I have teamed up and are looking for 2 teammates.

by **Edward Elric** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 12:09 pm

Does anyone have any email address or a way to contact Delano Barnes (since I believe he doesn't frequent the boards)?

by **pray for elves** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 5:57 pm

Edward Elric wrote:Does anyone have any email address or a way to contact Delano Barnes (since I believe he doesn't frequent the boards)?

Sent you an email.

by **Edward Elric** » Sat Jun 25, 2011 11:58 pm

Hilarius Bookbinder wrote:
Edward Elric wrote:Does anyone have any email address or a way to contact Delano Barnes (since I believe he doesn't frequent the boards)?

Sent you an email.

Gracias.

by **SnookerUSF** » Mon Jun 27, 2011 1:58 am

I would certainly enjoy staffing this tournament.

by **Mr. Kwalter** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 1:48 am

Dan Passner, Lorin Burte, and I are in need of a fourth player for this tournament. The specific areas we're looking to fill are things like comics and video games, but obviously we'll consider anyone who expresses interest. Email me (ekwartler at gmail dot com).

by **Edward Elric** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 12:44 pm

Noah, Delano and I are also looking for a fourth player. We'd love to have someone who knows video games and comics but at this point we'll probably take whoever expresses interest. PM me if interested.

by **Mike Bentley** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 11:16 am

According to the spreadsheet, we currently have 12 teams plus a few free agents who can possibly fill in on some of the short-handed teams. I am now going to put a cap on team registration. No other teams can register without first getting my permission.

Here are some options for schedules:

1. A full round robin of 11 rounds followed by a one game final.
2. Split teams into two brackets, play 5 prelims. Divide teams into top 3 / bottom 3 from each bracket. Play another round robin of 5 games with prelim records not carrying over. Have 2 packets available for finals.

I'm open to other suggestions. Remember that there are 12 packets available for this tournament.

For the record, those 12 teams registered are:
Matt Bollinger et al
Mike Cheyne et al
Chris Borglum et al
Surya Sabhapathy et al
Matt Weiner et al
Chris Ray et al
Craig Moysey et al
Matt Laird et al
Charles Martin Jr. et al
Jeremy White et al
Michael Perovanovic et al
Lorin Burte et al

by **Mike Bentley** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 5:32 pm

I updated the first post with the registration time (8:30-9:00 AM).

We still need at least two more staffers for this tournament and ideally a few more than that. Interested staffers should add their name to the spreadsheet.

Also, I haven't heard any feedback regarding the two proposed schedules.

by **Cheynem** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 5:52 pm

I prefer the format with the most rounds of play because I like playing quizbowl.

by **Distance model** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 6:11 pm

Mike Bentley wrote:We still need at least two more staffers for this tournament and ideally a few more than that. Interested staffers should add their name to the spreadsheet.

I have a flight that leaves around 4:30 on Sunday, but I'd be able to help out until the early afternoon at least.

by **Mike Bentley** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 2:21 pm

Here's another schedule idea I came up with:

Divide teams into 2 brackets of 6 teams each. Play a 5 game round-robin.
Divide teams into top 3 and bottom 3 from each bracket. Play 3 cross-over games.
After playing these 8 games, teams are ranked into brackets of 1-4, 5-8 (with 5 and 6 coming from the top bracket even if they have a worse record than 7 and 8) and 9-12. Records against teams in your same bracket from the prelims carry over.
Play an additional round robin of 3 games.
Play a final if the top two teams are tied at this point.

All ties in record will be broken by PPG.

This gives everyone 11 guaranteed games and doesn't just throw out the prelim matches like my other bracketed idea. However, it does make it so that the bracket of teams ranked 5-8 is in this weird state where teams 5 and 6 would have a worse record going into round 9 than teams 7 and 8 because they played harder opponents. This can probably be solved by just treating the 5v7, 5v8, 6v7 and 6v8 games as exhibition games.

I'm now leaning towards using this schedule unless someone has a big problem with it.

by **Cheynem** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 2:55 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAuPb16jRjY

by **Mike Bentley** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 10:50 pm

Ok, I'm going with the bracketed schedule. Here are my initial thoughts on brackets. It's hard to get reliable trash stats, so I'm willing to listen to arguments for rebalancing backed by evidence.

Bracket 1
White
Cheyne
Ray
Bollinger
Sabhapathy
Moysey

Bracket 2
Weiner
Passner
Borglum
Perovanovic
Martin
Laird

by **marnold** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 12:05 am

It would be easier if you could post full teams. Perhaps more pointedly, is the Jeremy White team the usual Professional Trash (TM) players?

by **Mike Bentley** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 12:59 am

Full teams:

Matt Bollinger, Auroni Gupta, Bernadette Spencer, Andrew Hart
Mike Cheyne, Rob Carson, Frank Firke, Car$ten Gehring
Chris Borglum, Amy Harvey, Billy Beyer, Seth Kendall
Surya Sabhapathy, Jonathan Magin, Bryan Berend, Mik Larsen
Matt Weiner, David Seal, Michael Arnold, Matt Lafer
Chris Ray, Dan Puma, Trevor Davis,
Craig Moysey, Victor Ferreira, Sameer Rawal, Alexander Poon
Matt Laird, Greg Peterson, Emily Koenig, Tom Egan
Charles Martin Jr., Arlo Lyle, Nick Bergeon, Brendan Byrne
Jeremy White, Colby Burnett, Brian Hight, TBD
Michael Perovanovic, Delano Barnes, Noah Prince, Mark Taylor
Lorin Burte, Dan Passner, Eric Kwartler, Micah Hodosh

by **Mike Bentley** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 12:05 pm

By the way, I'm printing the schedules tomorrow morning, so if you have any issues with the brackets, tonight if your last chance to complain.

by **Coelacanth** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 1:30 pm

Mike Bentley wrote:reliable trash stats

This phrase has perhaps never been used before.

Anecdotally, it looks like you have a lot of ridiculously-good trash players in Bracket 1.

Wish I could come down and play this!

by **Mike Bentley** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 4:06 pm

Distance model wrote:
Mike Bentley wrote:We still need at least two more staffers for this tournament and ideally a few more than that. Interested staffers should add their name to the spreadsheet.

I have a flight that leaves around 4:30 on Sunday, but I'd be able to help out until the early afternoon at least.

Yeah, I think we could use your help. Thanks.

by **MacSR** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 5:59 pm

Hey,

So what's the name of the building for the tournament/registration?

by **Mike Bentley** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:01 pm

MacSR wrote:Hey,

So what's the name of the building for the tournament/registration?

The building is Harper. I believe we're meeting in Room 103.

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