The Quizbowl Resource Center

The Academic Competition Federation announces that its 2009 Nationals will take place at Washington University in St. Louis on Saturday, April 25, and Sunday, April 26, 2009. To register for this tournament, e-mail me at [email protected].

Gameplay will run from 9 AM to 7 PM on Saturday, and again from 9 AM to 1 PM on Sunday.

The tournament will be edited by a team of experienced ACF people led by myself. Packet submission guidelines are at http://acf-quizbowl.com/documents/packetsub.php and packets should be submitted to me at [email protected].

As indicated at the above link, the no-penalty packet deadline for those required to write is March 29; that is also the latest time that optional packets will be accepted for a discount. The drop-dead date is April 12. If you are required to submit a packet, and do not do so by April 12, you will not be allowed to play in this tournament.

We will again be recognizing top finishers at the overall, Undergraduate, and Division II levels this year. Please consult the below post for more information on Undergraduate and Division II eligibility.

There will be more information, on things like exactly when and where you should show up, posted as the tournament approaches. However, this post constitutes the official announcement of the tournament. Questions about eligibility or packets should go to Matt Weiner at [email protected], and questions about getting to and staying in St. Louis should go to Neel Kotra at [email protected] .

Registered teams with expected UG/D2 status (updated 4/21):

Brandeis (UG) [packet submitted 3/28]
Brown [packet submitted 4/6]
Carnegie Mellon (D2)
Chicago A [packet submitted 3/16]
Chicago B [packet submitted 4/12]
Dartmouth (UG) [packet submitted 4/2]
Harvard [packet submitted 4/14]
Hunter-CUNY (D2)
Ike Jose (D2)
Illinois [packet submitted 4/10]
Maryland [packet submitted 4/21]
McMaster
Minnesota A (UG) [packet submitted 4/7]
Minnesota B
Missouri (D2)
Missouri State [packet submitted 4/10]
MIT [packet submitted 3/28]
Penn (D2)
Rutgers (UG) [packet submitted 3/15]
South Carolina [packet submitted 4/12]
Stanford [packet submitted 4/12]
Truman State A (UG) [packet submitted 4/9]
UCLA [packet submitted 4/13]
UCSD (D2)
VCU (UG) [packet submitted 4/5]

Thanks for the early notification. We will, in all likelihood, be making our first appearance at ACF Nationals this year.

Awesome.

UCSD is planning to be there (with all the funding and stuff hopefully having been completed way before then).

I've put together an FAQ on eligibility for divisional awards that I hope will clear some things up.

ACF Undergraduate and D2 eligibility FAQ

Q: ACF has Undergraduate and D2?

A: Yes, as of the 2007-2008 year, many Fall and Regionals sites recognized UG and D2 champions, and Nationals officially sanctioned both divisions. For 2008-2009, we are further standardizing it and requiring that *all* ACF tournaments (every Fall, Winter, and Regionals site) recognize Undergraduate and Division II champions provided there are at least four eligible teams competing for the title. ACF Nationals will continue to crown national Undergraduate and Division II champions as well.

Q: Where are the full, legalese-written eligibility rules for Undergraduate eligibility?

A: The criteria for Undergraduate teams are found in the ACF Rules:

...an "undergraduate" player is a player who did not receive a BA or equivalent or higher degree prior to the academic year in which the tournament is taking place, and meets either or both of the following conditions:
1 The player graduated from high school in an academic year four or fewer years prior to the year in which the tournament is taking place
2 The player did not participate in any collegiate or open academic quizbowl tournaments before the fall semester of the academic year three years prior to the year in which the tournament is taking place

Q: Can you translate that into English, please?

A: Conceive of it as having two parts. You must meet both the DEGREE CRITERION and the TIME CRITERION to be Undergraduate-eligible in 2009.

DEGREE CRITERION: If you graduate (receive a BA or BS degree or equivalent) during the 2008-2009 academic year, or have not graduated by the time of the tournament, then you meet the degree criterion. If you received a BA or BS or equivalent in summer semester 2008 or earlier, you are not Undergraduate-eligible.

TIME CRITERION: If you graduated from high school in 2005 or later, you meet the time criterion. If you didn't play any regular collegiate or open academic tournaments before fall 2005, then you meet the time criterion. You only have to meet one of those tests, not both--if you graduated from high school in 2003 but didn't start playing quizbowl until 2006, you are fine. Conversely, if you've been playing collegiate tournaments since you were 12 but you didn't actually graduate from high school until 2007, you're also fine.

Q: What counts as a collegiate tournament?

A: For purposes of the above rule, trash tournaments, hybrid tournaments, College Bowl/HCASC, and NAQT high school questions do not count against your eligibility--only collegiate-level academic tournaments (which basically means everything collegiate players participate in other than the above) do. Notably, all ACF events, all NAQT Sectionals and ICT events, and all ACF or NAQT style invitational tournaments count against your eligibility.

Q: Where are the full, legalese-written eligibility rules for Division II eligibility?

A: The criteria for Division II teams are found in the ACF Rules:

...a "Division II" player is a player who did not receive a BA or equivalent or higher degree prior to the academic year in which the tournament is taking place, has never played at ACF Nationals, and meets either or both of the following conditions:
1 The player graduated from high school in an academic year year two or fewer years prior to the year in which the tournament is taking place
2 The player did not participate in any collegiate or open academic quizbowl tournaments before the fall semester of the academic year one year prior to the year in which the tournament is taking place

Q: Can you translate that into English, please?

A: Conceive of it as having three parts. You must meet all three of the NATIONALS CRITERION, DEGREE CRITERION and TIME CRITERION to be Division II-eligible in 2009.

NATIONALS CRITERION: If you have ever played at ACF Nationals, you are no longer Division II-eligible. Yes, this includes people who played ACF Nationals in high school.

DEGREE CRITERION: If you graduate (receive a BA or BS degree or equivalent) during the 2008-2009 academic year, or have not graduated by the time of the tournament, then you meet the degree criterion. If you received a BA or BS or equivalent in summer semester 2008 or earlier, you are not Division II-eligible. In other words: Division II eligibility is a subset of Undergraduate eligibility; you must be Undergraduate-eligible in order to be Division II-eligible.

TIME CRITERION: If you graduated from high school in 2007 or later, you meet the time criterion. If you didn't play any regular collegiate or open academic tournaments before fall 2007, then you meet the time criterion. You only have to meet one of those tests, not both--if you graduated from high school in 2003 but didn't start playing quizbowl until 2008, you are fine. Conversely, if you've been playing collegiate tournaments since you were 12 but you didn't actually graduate from high school until 2007, you're also fine.

Q: What counts as a collegiate tournament?

A: The same as for Undergraduate eligibility. Trash tournaments, hybrid tournaments, College Bowl/HCASC, and NAQT high school questions do not count against your eligibility--only collegiate-level academic tournaments (which basically means everything collegiate players participate in other than the above) do. Notably, all ACF events, all NAQT Sectionals and ICT events, and all ACF or NAQT style invitational tournaments count against your eligibility.

Q: So, that's for players. What does it mean to be an Undergraduate or Division II team?

A: Undergraduate teams are composed solely of Undergraduate-eligible players; Division II teams are composed solely of Division II-eligible players.

Q: Will Division II teams play a separate tournament like at NAQT?

A: No. There will still be only one tournament field in which all teams play--Division II will not play separately. This is the policy for all ACF tournaments.

Q: How will the top Undergraduate and Division II team be decided at ACF Nationals?

A: After the playoff rounds have concluded, all teams in the field will be ranked; if the top two undergraduate teams are within n spots of each other (where n is the size of the playoff brackets) then they will play a weighted best-of-three final with the leading team getting a one-game advantage. If the two teams are actually tied, it will be a simple one-game final. Similarly, if the top two Division II teams are within n games of each other, they will play a final under the same conditions.

If the top Undergraduate or Division II teams are separated by more than n spots in the final ranking, then the top team will win without the need for a final.

A Division II team which is also involved in an Undergraduate or overall final, or an Undergraduate team which is also involved in an overall final, automatically wins the lower division without need for an additional final.

Ties which are not for first place will be broken by one-game playoff if and only if there is another final also going on during the same round; if such a playoff would extend the tournament, then it will not be held and the tie will be broken on PPG.

Q: How many divisional high finisher spots will be recognized at ACF Nationals?

A: The top 3 teams in both the Undergraduate and Division II rankings at ACF Nationals 2009 will receive trophies and recognition at the awards ceremony. The top 4 teams in each division will be submitted for listing on Craig Barker's National Champions List.

Q: How will the top Undergraduate and Division II teams be decided at ACF Fall, Winter, and Regional tournaments?

A: The only requirement on hosts is that if there is an outright tie for the highest-finishing Undergraduate or Division II team, then the title must be played off. Otherwise, hosts will have the option of setting their own guidelines for when the division titles are to be played off in weighted ACF finals format, or of simply awarding the divisional titles to the highest-finishing teams in each division regardless of distance in standings from the next team.

Q: Who, in your opinion, should come to ACF Nationals to compete for the Undergraduate or Division II title?

A: A good question! My personal opinion, which may or may not be shared by other people in ACF, is that any team which feels it is ready to play at the difficulty level of national championship questions should go to both the NAQT ICT and ACF Nationals as soon as possible and continue to do so annually. Thus, anyone who is competing at ICT for Undergraduate or Division II recognition should do likewise at ACF (and if you're not eligible for a divisional title, feel free to just compete for overall ranking). Over the past two years, the ICT and ACF Nationals questions have been roughly equal in difficulty, so I feel that if you enjoy one tournament you will enjoy the other.

Q: What should I do if I have more questions about Undergraduate or Division II eligibility for 2008-2009 in ACF?

A: You should post them in this thread or mail me at [email protected] .

I think Lawrence should be able to make this.

Not that anything is going to change based on my opinion, but I would like to express a strong preference for a one-day tournament. I prefer the uninterrupted one-day slog to the two-day event, and there's a good chance of me being in the field during the time of nationals, which means that's one extra day that I would have to take off.

grapesmoker wrote:Not that anything is going to change based on my opinion, but I would like to express a strong preference for a one-day tournament. I prefer the uninterrupted one-day slog to the two-day event, and there's a good chance of me being in the field during the time of nationals, which means that's one extra day that I would have to take off.

The reasoning for the 1.5-day tournament is pretty simple...last year showed that we can't expect to run a fair format plus finals and get out at a reasonable time in one day. I have a very strong (99 to 100 percent) preference for playing off the ties if we use a format similar to last year's, so that's just going to add more time. You, me and Ryan may be willing to play a tournament from 8 AM to midnight, but I don't think anyone else is.

Matt Weiner wrote:

grapesmoker wrote:Not that anything is going to change based on my opinion, but I would like to express a strong preference for a one-day tournament. I prefer the uninterrupted one-day slog to the two-day event, and there's a good chance of me being in the field during the time of nationals, which means that's one extra day that I would have to take off.

The reasoning for the 1.5-day tournament is pretty simple...last year showed that we can't expect to run a fair format plus finals and get out at a reasonable time in one day. I have a very strong (99 to 100 percent) preference for playing off the ties if we use a format similar to last year's, so that's just going to add more time. You, me and Ryan may be willing to play a tournament from 8 AM to midnight, but I don't think anyone else is.

I understand the justification and I appreciate that you didn't make this a Friday-Saturday thing; that would have been really awful.

Also I would like it understood that we at WUSTL are looking toward this being the most prompt ACF Nationals ever and are investigating a variety of ways to make it so.

I'd just like to bump this thread to remind everyone that the -$50 deadline for ACF Nationals packets is on March 1, so you can still start a packet now and have two and a half weeks to finish it for the big discount. Also, you may now officially register for this tournament by e-mailing me at [email protected] with "ACF Nationals registration" in the subject line. Please let me know your school, number of teams, number of buzzers, number of laptops, and number of staffers if any. Also, if you have some idea whether your teams will be eligible for the Undergraduate and/or Division II title, give me a heads-up on that. I will have a more detailed announcement up shortly.

I want to announce that, due to the issues affecting the timeliness of ACF Regionals and the need for the editors of this tournament to be proactive about avoiding a repeat of that, as well as the importance of avoiding any sort of playing favorites with certain teams, there will be absolutely no extensions or exceptions granted regarding any of the packet deadlines. Get your stuff done on time.

After consideration, I have decided not to attend this tournament playing solo. If you do wish to undertake such an endeavor, let me know and I may be able to provide a small amount of questions for your packet. If you are attending ACF Nats for the first time and want a veteran to look over your packet before you send it in, I can do that too.

When is the 25 dollar discount deadline...assuming there is one? Or the final no-penalty deadline?

EDIT: Never mind, you updated the original post.

P3nguinP0wered wrote:When is the 25 dollar discount deadline...assuming there is one? Or the final no-penalty deadline?

As posted at http://acf-quizbowl.com/documents/packetsub.php, the remaining deadlines are:

March 15 -$25
March 29 $0
April 5 +$25
April 12 +$50

I am available to do some freelance question writing / editing / mixing if needed. Let me know.

I emailed Neel about a week ago about where to stay in St. Louis and I still haven't heard back from him. Since the Holiday Inn we stayed at for ICT last year was pretty inconvenient, I was wondering if anyone else had any hotel recommendations.

Whenever NKC played Wash U's High School stuff we stayed at the Drury Inn near Union station. If you are not using a car you will want to look for a hotel near a metrolink station, which should get you to WUSTL. Other options as someone last year pointed out are the fact that there are hotels across the river (stick to Belleville, Fairview Heights, and O'Fallon or Shiloh, nothing in East St. Louis), but if inconvenience is a concern, you'd probably need to get on the road a good deal earlier from those locations that you would in downtown St. Louis.

For ICT last year, we stayed at the Sheraton Clayton Plaza, which was only like a 5 minute drive west of campus and near a bunch of restaurants and stuff.

Thanks for the help, guys.

Yeah, Clayton similarly gets my approval as a safe place to stay. Unfortunately some ends of Wash U are safer than others.

Reminder, all packets are due by April 12. If you are required to submit a packet but you don't do so by April 12, you will not be permitted to play this tournament. If you haven't started on your packet, you had best do so.

I sent out a bunch of e-mails to this effect yesterday, but in case I forgot anyone I want to remind you that if you did not send me an e-mail registering for this tournament, you are not registered. People who posted on the board or said something to me about probably coming are not going to be put on the list until they send me an e-mail saying they definitely are coming. Registration is still open until April 12 for people who have to write packets by April 12, and until the week before the tournament for those who are packet-exempt.

Turns out I have two final exams on the 27th. Ergo, I will not be at ACF Nats, and Penn's team will be D2-eligible.

Matt Weiner wrote:Reminder, all packets are due by April 12. If you are required to submit a packet but you don't do so by April 12, you will not be permitted to play this tournament. If you haven't started on your packet, you had best do so.

Reminding everyone of this again. If you're going to Harvard this weekend and won't have time to write your packet when you get back on Sunday, then you should plan to do it tonight.

I have not heard back from the other members of my team re: our packet, but my quarter is done, something like 1/1 history and 1/0 trash has been written by Bruce, and I will write the rest of it on Sunday if everyone else is too tired to, because I do plan to play this tournament.

Oh, in case anyone was unclear: The travel discounts do not apply to this tournament, for obvious reasons. The shorthanded discount, high school discount, and international discount still may be claimed, and of course we'll give the normal discounts for buzzers, laptops, and staffers.

Thanks for announcing that fact this late, after I already submitted the funding request with the travel discount in mind.

...really?

P3nguinP0wered wrote:Thanks for announcing that fact this late, after I already submitted the funding request with the travel discount in mind.

I hope you didn't expect that ACF Nationals was going to be effectively free for everyone...in any case, isn't UCSD a new team this year, and thus eligible to play for $20?

I'm all set to come down to ACF Nats; however, as of right now I have no place to stay, and would be loath to shell out for two nights in a hotel room when my team consists of...one man. If any teams would be willing to lend me their floor for Friday and Saturday nights, I'd be hugely grateful, and would of course split the room [however many ways] with you. My email is dyetman89 AT yahoo DOT com.

As much as this pains me to say, Lawrence's funding request for ACF Nats has finally been denied after about a month of back-and-forth with the finance committee. We won't be sending a team, after all.

According to mlb.com, tickets remain on sale for the Cardinals-Cubs game at nearby Busch Stadium (3rd?) on Sunday, April 26 with gametime scheduled for 1:15 CDT.

Remember the White Star Line,
Rom Masrour
CPS/UIC

Oh dang, Cards/Cubs and quizbowl on my bday ... how could I want more?

The detailed update to teams went out a little while ago. I'll repost the when/where information here so that it's as easy as possible to find:

We will be meeting on Saturday morning in Louderman 458; Louderman Hall is building 61 at http://visitor.wustl.edu/danforthmap.pdf. Please arrive and register at that location between 8:00 and 8:45. The opening meeting will begin at 8:45 and last a few minutes, and we'll get going with Round 1 soon after. Thus, the latest time at which you can arrive and be sure not to miss any gameplay is 8:45. Games will take place in Eliot Hall (building 32 on the above map) and Harry and Susan Seigle Hall (building 92) on both Saturday and Sunday.

Seigle L006 will be the meeting room for Sunday. Teams involved in tiebreakers should show up there by 8:15 AM to be directed to their tiebreaker matches.Everyone else should be present by 8:45 to be informed of their playoff seed. Seigle L006 will be used for finals and the trophy presentation as well.

Hey--

What's the best/cheapest-besides-walking way to get from the airport to hotels like the Hampton Inn Downtown at the Arch? I seem to remember splitting some sort of shuttle or large cab with the rest of the team last year, but we had like nine people there (and I'd rather not pay for a cab solo).

You can take the Metro from the airport to downtown. Conveniently, the Metro also stops near Kayak Cafe, which is right by WashU's campus. If you time everything correctly and leave early enough, you should have no problem...unless there is an issue with the Metro that I am unaware of at the moment.

What stop on the St. Louis metro is "downtown"

Whig's Boson wrote:What stop on the St. Louis metro is "downtown"

My instinct would be to say Union Station, but when Andy says "downtown," he seems to mean "the riverfront-Laclede's Landing" instead - which is apparently called Laclede's Landing/Arch by the MetroLink system.

Depends what you mean by downtown. For the Hampton Inn, it looks like Convention Center is the closest Metro stop, a few blocks west, but there's also Arch/Laclede, a few blocks east.

I talked to the hotel today, and they said to get off at the Convention Center stop and walk two blocks down Washington St. to the hotel.

Jeremy Gibbs-Donnan Effect wrote:

Whig's Boson wrote:What stop on the St. Louis metro is "downtown"

My instinct would be to say Union Station, but when Andy says "downtown," he seems to mean "the riverfront-Laclede's Landing" instead - which is apparently called Laclede's Landing/Arch by the MetroLink system.

Yeah, my "downtown" = the name of the hotel is "Hampton Inn Downtown at the Arch."

Hey, while people are talking about getting places in St. Louis, is anyone else planning on dashing downtown right after the finals to catch the Cardinals-Cubs game? Also, do any St. Louis-ites know whether backpacks are allowed into Busch Stadium?

We're flying back Monday morning, so I can talk to my team and see if anyone is interested.

After spending five days in Boston around HI and three days in Philadelphia around TRASHionals, I simply had no time to write an entire packet to enter UIC at ACF Nats. According to mlb.com, tickets are still available for the Cardinals-Cubs game at Busch Stadium Sunday at 1:15 P.M. CDT. Backpacks under 16" x 16" X 8" are allowed. All persons and carry-ons are subject to visual and, perhaps, wand inspections. You would bring in outside food and beverages at your own risk of confiscation.

Good luck to all 25 teams,
Rom Masrour
CPS/UIC

I'm surprised to learn that there are tickets available to that game. Are enough tickets close together available for there to be a quizbowl delegation?

Saturday night dance party for those interested:

http://www.londoncalling.us/

I shall be there and hope to see some of you older (21+) folk dancedancedancing.

I hope not.

Potentially scary visuals.... I know.

Only information I have so far: Harvard 2-1, having defeated Ike and Matt Chadbourne and lost to Illinois A; Dees has lost at least one game (to Illinois A by like sixty points); Dartmouth lost to VCU; Dartmouth beat UCLA; Dartmouth beat Yetman.

We have played three games in four rounds. Whee!