SC HSAPQ Championship, 02.28.15, Univ of SC, Columbia SC

[thomasgnd]

This event will take place at USC-Columbia. There is no limit to the number of teams a school may register.

Eric Douglass, who heads the quizbowl program at USC, will be in charge of planning and hosting the event. To register or to gather more information, contact him at [email protected].

We hope to have a large and strong field at this first HSAPQ state championship in the Palmetto State!

[Ethnic history of the Vilnius region]

Greetings,

All high school quizbowl teams in South Carolina are invited to the 2015 South Carolina High School Academic Pyramid Questions State Championship Tournament, which is a high school academic quizbowl tournament, to be hosted at USC on Saturday, February 28, from 8:30am to about 3:00pm. We are working with the university reservationist to find a classroom building to host this event and we will update all teams when the location is finalized. Regardless of where it is held, meter parking is free on Saturdays around the university so convenient parking will not be an issue.

Questions:

This tournament will be using questions produced by High School Academic Pyramid Questions. Sample questions from previous HSAPQ tournaments can be found at hsapq.com .

Time and Location

The tournament will take place in the Gambrell Hall. We will meet in room 104. Registration will begin at 8:30 and play will begin no later than 9:30.* There are a few meter parking lots in the immediate vicinity and several parallel meters along Barnwell, College, and Pendleton streets (though not Pickens). The regular meters are not checked on Saturdays, though there are a few 15 minute meters that are. The Cocky mascot is pointing to the building here, and the green represents the metered lots.

Also, there is a downtown 6K event that morning. It will not go directly past Gambrell Hall, but it's possible that certain roads to Gambrell could be cut off. There will be a plethora of ways to get to the site without getting caught in the race route, however, so it shouldn't be a major issue. Here is a link to the route if you need to plan around it: http://gamecocksrun.com/EventInfo.php#RaceRoute

*9:30 is the time we plan to start. However, if there are teams who would prefer a later start (10:00 AM) due to a morning drive, feel free to e-mail me and I will entertain the option of starting a bit later.

Format:

All teams will be offered a minimum of 9 games. Trophies will be awarded to the top teams, and book prizes will be awarded to the top individual scorers. Format and tournament play will be determined based upon our field size.

Fees & registration:
base fee: +$40 per team to your school's total fee. There is no limit to the number of teams who can attend from one school.

buzzer discount: -$10 to your school's total fee for each fully functional system. There is no limit to the number of systems you can bring.

staff discount: -$20 to your school's total fee. This can be a coach, parent, student, or other person who is not playing. Team-provided staffers will keep score for various games. There is no limit to the number of staffers you can bring. In the event that teams more staffers volunteer than are necessary, the teams that have volunteered staffers will receive a discount regardless of whether they are used.

minimum fee: The minimum fee is $20.

Registration:

All that is required to register for this tournament is for you to email Mr. Eric Douglass, the Academic Team at USC’s advisor, at [email protected] with the number of teams, buzzers, and staffers you intend to bring, an email address where you can be contacted with details, and a cell phone number belonging to someone who will be attending the tournament, so that we can contact you if you are running late. There is no further registration form or other action needed on your part in order to be officially registered.

We are accepting teams that have less than 4 players; as few as one person can play for any given school.

Please feel welcome to share this announcement with any schools that you think would be interested in attending.

Method of payment:
All teams must pay by the day of the tournament. We prefer to accept payment in person right before the tournament starts, but we will accept checks by mail ahead of time if required by your school.

We can accept cash, personal checks, or checks from a school, school district, quizbowl club, or other source. We have no ability to process purchase orders, credit cards, Paypal, or any other forms of payment.

Please let us know if your school has any special paperwork needs and we will be happy to work with you on that. In some circumstances, we will accept payment after the tournament takes place.

All checks must be made out to “The Academic Team at USC.” All teams will get a receipt after payment and an invoice.

Food:
Coffee, juice, milk, and donuts will be provided to coaches, volunteers, and players for breakfast. Lunch will not be provided by the tournament. We will provide a list of suggested eateries for the lunch break.

Please email me if you have any further questions. We at the Academic Team at USC hope to see you on February 28th!

Field Update:

Dorman (3 teams)
Spartanburg (1 team)
Aiken (1 team)
St. James (1 team)
Andrews (2 teams)
James F. Byrnes (1 team)
Governor's School for Science and Mathematics (1 team)

Several other schools have expressed interest, and we will update the field as we get more registrations.

[Sandlapper]

I gather that this will be an all divisions tournament? I am new to SC quizbowl, but familiar with the local programs that travel the Atlanta circuit. In Georgia, we typically have size-based divisions for any sort of state championship event.

Also, GSSM will bring at least one team to the event.

[Ethnic history of the Vilnius region]

This tournament will be open to all divisions and interdivisional play will be had. Glad to hear the GSSM is interested. Just e-mail me at [email protected] to let me know how many teams, buzzers, and staffers are coming in the next few weeks.

[Sandlapper]

Thank you. What is the tournament format?

[Ethnic history of the Vilnius region]

Format will depend on how many additional schools sign up in the next few weeks. The main goal is to give all teams at least 9 rounds of play one way or another. I'm leaning towards a round robin right now, but we might split into divisions if the field size expands a lot over the next few weeks.

[Ethnic history of the Vilnius region]

I wanted to update teams regarding our room situation. The tournament will take place in the Gambrell Hall. We will meet in room 104. Registration will begin at 8:30 and play will begin no later than 9:30.* There are a few meter parking lots in the immediate vicinity and several parallel meters along Barnwell, College, and Pendleton streets (though not Pickens). The regular meters are not checked on Saturdays, though there are a few 15 minute meters that are. The Cocky mascot is pointing to the building here, and the green represents the metered lots.

Also, there is still time to sign up and we have plenty of room for more teams. Please contact me at [email protected] and we'll answer any questions you have and get your team signed up. Also, for those teams who have already signed up, I will be contacting you all later this week to update you all.

*9:30 is the time we plan to start. However, if there are teams who would prefer a later start (10:00 AM) due to a morning drive, feel free to e-mail me and I will entertain the option of starting a bit later.

[Ethnic history of the Vilnius region]

One more thing: As per usual, there is a downtown 6K event that morning. It will not go directly past Gambrell Hall, but it's possible that certain roads to Gambrell could be cut off. There will be a plethora of ways to get to the site without getting caught in the race route, however, so it shouldn't be a major issue. Here is a link to the route if you need to plan around it: http://gamecocksrun.com/EventInfo.php#RaceRoute

[Ethnic history of the Vilnius region]

Congratulations to Dorman A for winning the inaugural South Carolina HSAPQ Championship! The Governor's School for Science and Mathematics finished 2nd and Spartanburg High finished 3rd.

Full stats and salutations will be posted later tonight.

[Ethnic history of the Vilnius region]

Congrats again to Dorman A for winning the SC HSAPQ State Championships, and to Governor's School and Spartanburg for their excellent performances! It was our pleasure hosting all of the teams today. Thanks to Coach Geoffrey Thomas of Dorman for moderating today and thanks to all of the players and coaches. I'm sure there will be more HSAPQ events in South Carolina in the near future.

Here are the prelim stats and the stats with the finals.

http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... s/prelims/

http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... th_finals/

[Maury Island incident]

I obviously didn't play this tournament, but since there's no thread for the Massachusetts one, is there or will there be a private discussion forum for the set?

[Halved Xenon Stinging]

There are many comments that I would like to make regarding the set. I share Colin's request for a private discussion forum.