PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

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PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

Post by jaredlockwood »

On behalf of the Princeton University Quiz Bowl team, I am pleased to announce that Princeton High School Academic Tournament (PHSAT) XXV will take place on Saturday, September 30, 2017. Please note that this is during Yom Kippur. We will be using NAQT’s IS-168 set. The tournament will be structured as a series of bracketed, round-robin preliminary matches followed by re-bracketed round-robin playoffs and consolation rounds after lunch. We will be using NAQT rules for this tournament, with the exception that matches will not be timed (all matches will consist of twenty toss-ups), and that there will be no computational math questions.

Any questions about the tournament may be directed to me at [email protected].

Location and Check-in:
Check-in will begin at 8 am in McCosh Hall, Room 10 on the Princeton University campus and will close at 8:40. We hope to start the first match at 9 am.

Visitor parking is available in Lots 21 and 23 Lot 10, Lot 13, and the North Garage for passenger vehicles (all located along William Street at the north end of campus), and in West Windsor Fields (located south of campus) for buses. A map of the Princeton University campus can be found here.

NOTE: McCosh Hall is located to the north of Frist Campus Center and should not be confused with McCosh Health Center, which is located to the south of Frist.

Registration and Fees:
First Team: $80
Additional teams: $60 per team

Buzzer discount: -$5 per working system that is functional for eight players.
Moderator discount: -$10 per experienced moderator. A moderator must be available to help for the entirety of the tournament in order to receive the discount. Moderators will also be provided with lunch.

Minimum fee: $50

Payment can be made in the form of cash or a check on the day of the tournament. Checks should be made out to “Princeton University Quiz Bowl.”

To register for the tournament, please fill out this Google Form. After registering, you should receive a confirmation email from me ([email protected]) within a few days. If not, please send an email to the address provided above.

Lunch:
Lunch will not be provided, except to staff. A number of eating options are available on Nassau Street at the north end of campus. Teams can also purchase lunch at the Frist Campus Center.

Field (42/46) as of 9/27 (teams/moderators/buzzers):
Bard (1/1/1)
Bergen County Academies (1/1/1)
Darien (3/0/1)
Downingtown East (1/0/1)
East Brunswick (2/0/3)
Henderson (2/2/1)
High Tech (3/1/3)
Hunter (3/0/1)
Kellenberg (4/2/3)
Lawrenceville (2/1/0)
Livingston (3/0/2)
MAST (2/0/0)
Middlesex County Academy (3/0/2)
Mountain Lakes (2/1/0)
Princeton (2/1/1)
Saint Joseph, NJ (2/0/0)
Trinity (3/0/0)
West Egg (1/0/0)
Western Lehigh (1/0/1)
Wilmington Charter (1/0/3)

Wait List:


The field will initially be capped at the first 36 teams to register. We may expand if there is sufficient demand, space, and staff.
Last edited by jaredlockwood on Wed Sep 27, 2017 2:30 pm, edited 30 times in total.
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Re: PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

Post by jaredlockwood »

The initial field cap has been reached. However, if your team is interested in competing at PHSAT I would encourage you to join the waitlist; as it is still nearly two months out from the tournament date and most schools are not yet in session, some teams' registrations are likely to change in the coming weeks and open up space in the field. In the interest of accommodating as many teams as possible, there is also the possibility of a field expansion if we can secure enough tournament staff. If this is the case, the field would be split into "Competitive" and "Standard" divisions as it was last year, with each team having the freedom to select which division in which to compete. Such a field expansion would likely be announced in mid-September.
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Re: PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

Post by nycaqb1999 »

Hi there,

Bard will no longer be attending PHSAT XXV do to its conflict with Yom Kippur. We hope our departure opens up some much needed space for other teams.
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Re: PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

Post by jaredlockwood »

nycaqb1999 wrote:Bard will no longer be attending PHSAT XXV do to its conflict with Yom Kippur.
We're sad to hear that Bard won't make it out to PHSAT, but thanks for pointing out the conflict with Yom Kippur--this is worth noting, as it may affect other teams as well.
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Re: PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

Post by jaredlockwood »

In the interest of accommodating as many teams as possible, we've decided to allow teams that are able to provide an experienced question reader to enter the field, up to a maximum of 46 teams. These teams will still receive the full staffer discount. There is also still the possibility of an unrestricted expansion for teams that are unable to bring moderators, but this may be as late as mid-September.

In addition, we will be dividing the field into "Competitive" and "Standard" divisions as we did last year. Each team is free to determine in which division it would like to compete, but please be cognizant of the spirit of the split--we want each team at PHSAT to have as positive an experience as possible!
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Re: PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

Post by jaredlockwood »

PHSAT has received platinum certification from PACE; the top 25% of teams will qualify for the PACE NSC in Washington, D.C. on June 2-3, 2018!
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Re: PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

Post by jaredlockwood »

Here is a floorplan for McCosh Hall. It is worth noting that some rooms on the first and second floors can only be accessed through their corresponding entryway. For example, if you want to get to room 21, you will need to go through entryway 2.
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Re: PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

Post by monty »

When do we need to decide which division our team/teams want to be in?
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Re: PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

Post by jaredlockwood »

monty wrote:When do we need to decide which division our team/teams want to be in?
I'll send out an email asking for tentative rosters and division placement in two weeks or so; of course, if teams have already decided on some or all of that information, they are welcome to email me any time, since it will make planning on my end that much easier.
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Re: PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

Post by jaredlockwood »

Here is the division breakdown, current as of 9/28:

Competitive (21)
Bard
Bergen County Academies
Darien A
Darien B
Downingtown East
East Brunswick A
Henderson A
High Tech A
High Tech B
Hunter A
Hunter B
Kellenberg A
Kellenberg B
MAST A
Mountain Lakes A
Princeton A
Princeton B
Saint Joseph A
Trinity A
West Egg
Wilmington Charter

Standard (21)
Darien C
East Brunswick B
Henderson B
High Tech C
Hunter C
Kellenberg C
Kellenberg D
Lawrenceville A
Lawrenceville B
Livingston A
Livingston B
Livingston C
MAST B
Mountain Lakes B
Middlesex County A
Middlesex County B
Middlesex County C
Saint Joseph B
Trinity B
Trinity C
Western Lehigh

Please remember to make your final division selections and send me tentative team rosters by Wednesday! Also, as a point of clarification regarding qualification for HSNCT, the top 15% of all teams competing at PHSAT will earn bids, but for qualification purposes all teams competing in the Competitive division are considered higher-ranked than those that compete in the Standard division (in other words, in order to qualify for HSNCT a team will most likely need to compete in the Competitive division).
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Re: PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

Post by alexdz »

Just wanted to say thanks to the Princeton club for having me as a staffer for my first east coast tournament ever (in fact, my first tournament not in Missouri or Illinois). Teams played really, exceptionally well today and I was glad to meet some new faces!
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Re: PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

Post by Edward Powers »

Who won? Who qualified for nationals? Stats are incomplete at the hsquizbowl.org site.
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Re: PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

Post by Couch's Kingbird »

Edward Powers wrote:Who won? Who qualified for nationals? Stats are incomplete at the hsquizbowl.org site.
I also am curious to know when stats will be posted. Hunter A won the Competitive Division (over High Tech A in the finals), while High Tech C won the Standard division (over Darien C in the finals).
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Re: PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

Post by elyne road »

This only applies to the competitive division because our school only competed in it. I believe that every team in the championship bracket qualifies for HSNCT, so that would be Hunter A, High Tech A, Wilmington Charter A, St Joe's A, Princeton A and Darien A (I do not know the exact order outside of the top 3, but we got 3rd place). I'm not quite sure how PACE qualification works with multiple divisions, but at least the top 5 teams have qualified. Besides that, the winner of the Consolation 1 bracket should also receive HSNCT qualification, and from my conversations with other teams, it might be Trinity A. Thanks to Princeton for organizing the tournament, and I hope other teams had as much fun as we did. I'm looking forward to seeing the faces my teammates and I met here at other tournaments later this year!
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Re: PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

Post by jonpin »

Remember that:
No thread may contain more than one request for the posting of tournament statistics within the same week or from the same person.
So we don't need to make multiple posts asking for stats. Further posts should instead ask why Princeton continues to do things like: not have printed schedules ready on Saturday morning, take an hour-plus break for lunch and then still need nearly an hour for rebracketing two rounds later, have the championship division in another building but then come back to the main building to sit around for who-knows-how-long before finals, and so forth.
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Re: PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

Post by jaredlockwood »

I want to take a quick moment to note that all of the questions and rightly deserved criticism about the conduct of this tournament are not being ignored, and that I will do my utmost to address everyone's concerns and have full stats posted by this weekend when I am not drowning in schoolwork and other obligations. In the interim, I know that this tournament fell far short of what is expected from a quality tournament in just about every metric and that much of that blame falls on myself, and I want to apologize for what turned into an unecessarily long and stressful day for everyone involved.
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Re: PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

Post by jaredlockwood »

Stats for this tournament have been uploaded. Requests for corrections can be emailed to me at [email protected]. As has been mentioned, in the Competitive Division, Hunter A defeated High Tech A to claim the championship. Wilmington Charter took third place. In the Standard Division, High Tech C defeated Darien C to claim first place; Western Lehigh came in third. All teams in the Championship bracket of the Competitive division (Hunter A, High Tech A, Wilmington Charter, St. Joseph A, Princeton A, Darien A) earn bids to HSNCT, as well as the top team in Consolation 1. Both Trinity A and East Brunswick A finished with the same record in their afternoon matches, so it is possible that they will both receive bids, but that determination is ultimately up to NAQT. I believe that in addition to the teams that earned bids to HSNCT, Henderson A, Kellenberg A, and West Egg will also receive bids to the NSC.
jonpin wrote:Further posts should instead ask why Princeton continues to do things like: not have printed schedules ready on Saturday morning, take an hour-plus break for lunch and then still need nearly an hour for rebracketing two rounds later, have the championship division in another building but then come back to the main building to sit around for who-knows-how-long before finals, and so forth.
I think one of the reasons these problems have persisted for so long in our program is that we have no form of institutional memory; what lessons each generation of leadership has learned about what works and what doesn’t is only passed down verbally (if at all), and quickly becomes lost or forgotten. Because of this, the same mistakes are repeated and the format and organization of PHSAT vary from year to year, usually resulting in a tournament of lower-than-expected quality. For what it’s worth, my co-president and I are doing our best to rectify this. Over the past year we’ve been working on compiling a guide to be passed on to future leadership with tips and information on how to more effectively run our team—and you can be sure that the section on PHSAT will include things like making it explicitly clear to staffers the exact place they should be putting old packets and scoresheets after each round to prevent disarray, running the Standard and Competitive divisions entirely separate from one another with their own TDs to relieve the administrative burden, retaining a staffer who is solely dedicated to ensuring stats are kept up to date after each round so that rebracketing and finals can be determined in a timely manner, etc. Obviously we can’t undo the things that already happened, but at least we can try to make sure that they won’t happen again.
jonpin wrote:not have printed schedules ready on Saturday morning
Although the schedules were printed Friday, there were still 3-4 copies of the questions being printed off on Saturday morning, which was frankly even worse. To avoid paying our school $250 to make copies, we tried using our individual student printing quotas to get them, which was a huge mistake since some students couldn’t print theirs until the morning of the tournament, and trying to organize the packets diverted attention from other facets of the tournament and was a significant factor in kicking off the whole mess. Next year we will definitely be taking the $250 loss. (Ideally, though, we’d be able to read packets electronically, which would render the whole problem moot)
jonpin wrote:take an hour-plus break for lunch and then still need nearly an hour for rebracketing two rounds later
This is hugely annoying to many teams, and resulted from really bad planning on our part. Obviously it should not take that long to rebracket, but even so we should have just finished all 7 prelim rounds before breaking, even if it necessitated a late lunch. This would have mitigated the impact of slow-moving rooms, made the actual process of rebracketing quicker, eliminated the extra break, and allowed us to do individual awards after lunch so that there isn’t even a need for all the teams to reconvene following afternoon matches.
jonpin wrote:have the championship division in another building but then come back to the main building to sit around for who-knows-how-long before finals
This is another failure that came about through a combination of a lack of foresight and the snowballing of all the other problems that were going on. The original intent was for teams in that building to go straight into their finals without returning to the main building, but because I was trying to address problems in the main building I had one of our other staffers oversee the championship brackets and clearly failed to properly explain to both him and the teams involved how things should’ve proceeded, so that's another screw-up on my part.
jonpin wrote:and so forth.
I know there were many things that went wrong with this tournament, and I want to do my best to make sure they don’t happen again at Princeton or under my watch. Anyone with particular issues they would like to address and/or advice on how to improve our tournaments in the future should please feel free to post here or email me at [email protected].
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Re: PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

Post by Northern Central Railway »

Okay, so lack of institutional knowledge transfer as you mentioned is definitely a problem with multiple college clubs, but that's only a good reason up to a point.

To a large degree, running tournaments is just plain common sense. Wacky room assignments between different buildings that make no sense and not having things printed off are not things that require institutional knowledge transfer to take care of effectively.

Also, given that Princeton's team almost always has multiple people who have been to more than a few high school tournaments in their career, not taking care of the easy things deserves even more scrutiny.
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