The Quizbowl Resource Center

Hello.

The Richard Montgomery HS Academic Team would like to announce our spring tournament on March 28, 2015 from 8:15am to ~5pm at our school in Rockville, MD. The tournament will be the main-site of our question set, HERMES (about which more information can be found here).

Format
Each round of the tournament will consist of 20 tossup questions paired with 20 three-part bonuses. Teams will play in a preliminary round-robin, and their performance will be used to place them in a play-off bracket. We request that teams stay for the entire duration of the tournament. Teams will consist of a maximum of six players, any four of whom can play at any given time. Teams planning to bring more than six players should register a second team. Players also cannot switch between their school's teams; they must stay on the same team for the duration of the tournament.

Registration
Base fee per team: $70
Each additional team: $65
Buzzer discount: -$5
Moderator discount: -$10
Minimum fee per team: $50

Registration is here.
Alternatively, you can send your registration to [email protected]. If you opt for the email option, please clearly indicate the number of teams, buzzers, and moderators you plan to bring. We will most likely be capping the field at 24 teams; teams that register after the cap has been filled will be placed on a wait list. Remember that forum posts do not constitute a registration.

Payment
Payment must be received before or on the day of the tournament. Checks should be made out to “Richard Montgomery High School” with “It’s Academic” as the memo line. They can be mailed in advance to:

Noah Grosfeld-Katz
250 Richard Montgomery Dr.
Rockville, MD 20852

Food
An assortment of breakfast delicacies will be provided. As the school is located in the midst of a small suburban hub, a list of eateries and a map of the local area will be provided for lunch.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to send them to us at [email protected].

With about a week left until the tournament, the field is currently:

Running Total (23 teams/17 buzzers/2 moderators)

Quince Orchard (2/1/0)
GDS (2/2/0)
Centennial (6/3/0)
Maggie Walker (1/1/0)
Wilmington Charter (2/4/0)
JEB Stuart (1/1/0)
Montgomery Blair (1/1/0)
Rockville (1/1/1)
Archbishop Spalding (2/1/0)
Walter Johnson (1/1/0)
Gonzaga (1/0/1)
Thomas Jefferson (2/1/0)
Loudon County (1/0/0)

We will likely be capping the field at 24 teams. Please send in your registrations soon!

I am pleased to announce that this tournament has been Platinum Certified by PACE, meaning that the top 25% of our field (rounded up to the nearest integer) will qualify for the national high school quizbowl championship, the PACE NSC, on the weekend of June 6th-7th.

We are just two teams away from filling our field! If you want to come out, send us your registration asap to secure your spot.
Once we reach our 24-team field-cap, any additional teams to register will be placed on the waitlist.

UPDATE: Down to just one spot left!

With the addition of Loudon County, the field is now closed!

EDIT: We had some teams drop out, so we are reopening the field for one more team. Please let us know ASAP if you are interested!

This tournament did end up happening with 22 teams. Maggie Walker beat Centennial A in the first game of an advantaged final to win the tournament and go undefeated. Quince Orchard A beat Wilmington Charter A in a matchup of 2 loss teams to finish 3rd. Other teams in the top 8 (in no particular order) included Blair, Charter B, TJ A and Loudon County. Thanks to all 22 teams for playing through the whole day. Remember, this set is not yet clear, so if you have comments on the question content go to user groups and ask to join the HERMES group and Farah will approve it soon. Full stats will be up within the next 48 hours.

Thanks to Ben for posting that wrap up!

B-Rob and Hemingway- showing the way wrote:if you have comments on the question content go to user groups and ask to join the HERMES group

I myself just want to reiterate this point. We have had many people join the usergroup from across the country but no one has used it thus far :( We really do want to hear everyone's thoughts on the set.

EDIT: grammar

I would like to say first that we greatly enjoyed the set and the tournament. However, I believe there is an error in the posted stats for our first round game with Wilmington Charter A. I have Centennial with one less 10 point toss-up and 26 of 30 on bonuses. Charter had an additional 10 point toss-up.

Just out of curiosity, will this set be released to the database anytime soon?

We'll probably wait until after the season ends/after Nationals. (Not that we're waiting for anything, but in theory we'd want to update based on comments from this tourney, so a date that far into the future gives us ample time...)