Columbia University Fall Tournament - October 17, 2015

[Urech hydantoin synthesis]

The Columbia University Quiz Bowl team is pleased announce our fall quiz bowl tournament, which will be held on Saturday, October 17 in Columbia University's Hamilton Hall. This tournament will be the first of three that comprise the inaugural Columbia Cup series, which, assuming the NAQT bids go through, culminates in a state championship at Columbia for New York schools, or at Princeton for New Jersey schools. More information about the Columbia Cup, as well as information about our winter tournament and the state championships, can be found at this link.

Teams finishing in the top 25% at this tournament will qualify for the National Scholastic Championship sponsored by the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence, which will be held in Chicago on June 4th and 5th, 2016.

Questions: The Columbia Fall Tournament will use a set of questions written by members of the quiz bowl teams of Columbia, Cornell, and the University of Chicago. More information about the set is available here. An excellent example of the format and style of these questions is the set previously used for the 2014 Ladue Invitational Spring Tournament, which can be downloaded here for your teams to practice on.

Tournament format: Morning check-in for this tournament will run from 8:00 to 8:30 AM. The introductory meeting will then follow, and the first round will start as soon as possible afterwards. All teams will be guaranteed 9 or 10 matches, depending on the final number of teams attending. Most teams should be done at around 4:00 to 4:30 PM. The maximum number of teams we can accommodate is 36, and if we hit that number, all teams will play five preliminary matches and five playoff or consolation matches.

Teams: Each school may register as many teams as they would like, either for this tournament only or for the Columbia Cup series. Each team's roster may contain no more than six players, four of which will be playing at any given time during a game. You are encouraged to bring novice and JV teams as well, as the questions will be very accessible and they will be, for the most part, playing against opponents of similar strength during the day. In addition, we encourage schools to register additional teams instead of putting alternates on existing teams.

Registration: To register for this tournament, please email [email protected] with the following information:
School name.
The contact number of a coach or team member who will be present at the tournament.
NY/NJ schools only: Number of teams you are registering for the Columbia Cup (more info here). Teams registered for the Cup will also be entered in our winter tournament and the NAQT New York or New Jersey State Championship, and will amount to a $40 discount compared to registering for these three tournaments separately.
Number of teams you are registering for this tournament only.
Any discounts you will be claiming, such for providing buzzers and staff, or the New to Columbia discount (more information below).

Tournament fees and discounts:
If your school has competed at a Columbia-hosted quiz bowl tournament in the past 3 years, each team you register for this tournament will cost $70. The cost to register teams for the Columbia Cup and enter those teams in all three tournaments is $170 per team, which represents a $40 discount over registering for each tournament separately.

For schools that have not competed at Columbia tournaments before the 2015-2016 school year, each team registered for this tournament only will cost $45. They will also be eligible for an additional $70 discount on their Columbia Cup registration fee, bringing the cost of competing in three tournaments (and 30 matches!) down to $100 per team.

All schools are eligible for a $5 discount for each buzzer system they bring per tournament, and a $10 discount for each reader or scorekeeper they bring (this can be a coach or alternate) per tournament.

All entry and registration fees must be paid either in advance or during morning check-in. If you are registering for the Columbia Cup, the entire registration fee must be received in advance of the Columbia Fall Tournament, or you may hand us the fee in person during morning check-in for that tournament. If the upfront cost for registering for the Cup is a burden for your team, please let me know and we can arrange a payment plan.

If you are paying by check, please make it payable to "Columbia University," with "Quiz Bowl" on the memo line. We will also accept cash on the day of the tournament. If you are mailing a check in advance, we recommend that it be no later than two weeks before the tournament, and the check should be sent to:

Columbia University Quiz Bowl
5559 Lerner Hall
2920 Broadway
New York, NY 10027

We wish you the best of luck this upcoming season, and hope to see you at our Morningside Heights campus on October 17! If you would like to register or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact [email protected].

[Urech hydantoin synthesis]

This post is reserved for field updates.

Field (as of 10/4/15):

Acton-Boxborough (1)
Bergen (2)
Bethlehem Central (1)
Bronx Science (2)
Cardinal Spellman (1)
East Brunswick (2)
Gotham (2)
Half Hollow Hills East (1)
Half Hollow Hills West (3)
High Tech (2)
Hunter College HS (2)
Kellenberg (2)
Lexington (1)
Livingston (2)
North Babylon (2)
"GOSAT" (1)
Preston (1)
Smithtown West (2)
St. Joseph (1)
West Egg (3)
Wheatley (2)

Total: 36/36

Waitlist Tier I (schools that can bring a reader)

Ardsley A

Waitlist Tier II (all other schools not already registered)

Paul D. Schreiber
North Shore A
Ramapo A

Waitlist Tier III

Livingston C
Livingston D
St. Joseph B
North Shore B
Ramapo B
East Brunswick C
Ardsley B

[Urech hydantoin synthesis]

If you can staff this tournament, get in touch with me at [email protected] We anticipate having a full 36 team field, so we'll need as many staffers as we can get!

[Urech hydantoin synthesis]

Less than 24 hours after the announcement was sent out, the field has already filled to 25%! Get your registrations in for the Columbia Cup soon so that your team doesn't miss out on the chance to compete at this tournament and at our January 23 winter tournament and the NAQT State Championships on March 26!

[Urech hydantoin synthesis]

The Columbia Fall Tournament is now 60% full, and it's only been 5 days since the announcement. Thank you to everyone who has registered so far! I anticipate that this tournament will fill up quickly, so register soon! If you are unsure of exactly how many teams you would like to send, but intend to compete at this tournament and/or all Columbia Cup tournaments, I would recommend registering one team so that your school does not miss out on the opportunity. You will be able to add teams to your initial registration if spots are still available when you add those teams.

In addition, if the tournament is full when you register, your teams will be placed on a waitlist. In the past, nearly every team on the waitlist has been offered a spot in the tournament at some point (due to drops and such).

A couple of coaches have asked me to clarify some details about the Columbia Cup, so here are some points of clarification:

- In the registration email, the Columbia Cup teams and the teams for this tournament only are separate. This means that if you indicate you're registering 2 teams for the Columbia Cup and 2 teams for the Columbia Fall Tournament, you've registered 4 teams for the Fall Tournament, 2 for our winter tournament, and 2 for the NAQT State Championship.

- Although the Columbia Cup is a series of tournaments (in a manner of speaking), teams registered for the Columbia Cup do not need to maintain the same roster through all the tournaments.

- If you register teams for the Columbia Cup, you will still be able to register additional teams for only the Winter Tournament and/or the NAQT State Championships; email invitations for those tournaments will come out later.

[Urech hydantoin synthesis]

A week after the announcement, the 36-team field has been filled! It is still almost two months before the tournament, so if you're interested in competing at this tournament, please register and I will put you on the waitlist. I anticipate a lot of changes to the field in the coming months, and in the past, we've been able to offer a spot to nearly every waitlisted team. Additionally, when you register a team for the waitlist, try to indicate the latest that I can notify you about open spots - in the past, we've had teams drop as late as the night before, though obviously a lot of schools will need more advance notice than that.

This year, we'll be separating our waitlist into three tiers. In order of preference, they are:
Tier I - schools who have not registered, and can bring a reader.
Tier II - all other schools who have not registered
Tier III - additional teams from registered/waitlisted schools.

For instance, if you have not registered, can supply a reader, and would like to put 3 teams on the waitlist, one team would be put under Tier I, and the other two would be put under Tier III.

[Edward Powers]

Ben,

I registered 2 teams last Sunday or Monday for the Columbia Cup, but I do not see them listed on the waiting list for the first leg of the Cup on October 17th. If I understand the guidelines you outlined, one should be listed as a Tier I team, the other as a Tier III. I also sent you a PM requesting clarification concerning registration for the Cup. If my St. Joe's team(s) do not manage to get off the waiting list for the 1st leg of the Cup, are they still automatically registered for legs 2 & 3, at Columbia in January, and Princeton in March, respectively, or must a school register for each leg separately? Curious here in Jersey.

[Urech hydantoin synthesis]

To publicly answer Mr. Powers' question, waitlisted schools that do not make it into the field will have to register separately for the winter and spring tournaments.

The field and waitlist has been updated. If you have registered for this tournament, please check with your students to ensure that you are still able to field the number of teams you have registered. If you need to drop, please inform us sooner rather than later, so we can contact waitlisted teams about an open spot as soon as possible.

[Bosa of York]

This happened. Lexington won, followed by Bethlehem, followed by High Tech A and West Egg A, though I don't know the order of the latter two.

Edit: Also, seconding Casey's request from the other thread for a set-discussion usergroup to be made.

[kitkat]

High Tech A got third (1-2 in superplayoffs) and West Egg A fourth (0-3).