Interest in Summer Trash Tournament at UMD?

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 11:27 am

This is cross posted with a post on the College Trash forum. Basically, I'm trying to gauge interest in a potential trash (pop culture) tournament open to all players (high school, college, and post-college) on questions that largely reflect pop culture that is still relevant today. You do not need to be from the same school to form a team for this tournament, and free agents (people who have no teammates to play with) can e-mail me to be matched with other teammates.

A tentative date for the tournament would be some Saturday in the middle or end of June, although that could probably be changed.

The tournament will be packet submission for the college and post-college teams, but high school teams would not have to write a packet, although I certainly would welcome any packets from high school teams. Writing a packet would probably be good experience for a high school team lookings to write questions for academic tournaments in the future, a skill that will become important in the college game.

There will more than likely be a separate prizes for high school teams and players (and another one for undergraduate teams), so you won't feel so intimidated playing against some of the more experienced teams.

I envision the tournament being between 8 and 10 rounds. High school teams who don't write a packet will pay something around $60 to play, a half packet $40, and a full packet $20.

So, if this sounds like something you'd be interested in, please post here or e-mail me at mike000 at umd dot edu. I'll post more specifics if I get enough of a response.

btressler · Post by **btressler** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 12:22 pm

As long as it's not on the 9th, I'll bet the combined Charter/Delaware teams can send you anywhere from 1 to 3 teams.

And packets will not be a problem. They all write them for our intramural tournaments.

Gonzagapuma1 · Post by **Gonzagapuma1** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 1:34 pm

i( and i guess gonzaga) would be interested and could probably write a packet

Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) · Tue Mar 13, 2007 3:13 pm

If I happen to be in D.C. during the summer (which might be a reality) I would be willing to come. On a related note, what happened to the solo tournament in that area during the summer? If that were held I would be incredibly interested in coming.

Post by **DumbJaques** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 5:28 pm

DACQ may be running a solo event, much like the one organized by three members of DACQ staff in Summer 2005. Stay tuned.

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 12:18 pm

So this tournament is going to happen. I'll post more details later this week once I work out the rest of the specifics.

Bigfoot isn't the pr · Mon Mar 26, 2007 10:25 pm

ikillkenny wrote:So this tournament is going to happen. I'll post more details later this week once I work out the rest of the specifics.

I am glad to hear this. Now those questions I have written will not be wasted

First Chairman · Post by **First Chairman** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 10:28 pm

I think I posted from another thread... let me know. I would like to have a boot camp for question-writers and readers this summer.

Post by **DumbJaques** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 10:45 pm

As mentioned earlier, DACQ is considering a one or two day event, possibly the weekend following ACE camp's Maryland site. That would mean a lot of people might be around for, say, a Friday question writing thing.

Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) · Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:28 am

If DACQ did the solo tournament a weekend around camp, would it be the same weekend as the trash tournament? I think I can get to the Maryland camp, and I would love to play at both tournaments. Also, can you give any "distribution," if you can call it that, for a trash packet so I can write something better.

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:38 am

charlieDfromNKC wrote:If DACQ did the solo tournament a weekend around camp, would it be the same weekend as the trash tournament? I think I can get to the Maryland camp, and I would love to play at both tournaments. Also, can you give any "distribution," if you can call it that, for a trash packet so I can write something better.

As for the distribution and general packet requirements, that will be posted later this week. The actual date will be posted at this time as well.

Matt Weiner · Post by **Matt Weiner** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:45 am

Is there a possibility of pairing this with any kind of academic tournament on the same weekend? I know that I am about 99% more likely to attend trash tournaments when that is the case, and it would probably help you get other out-of-town teams as well.

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 8:06 pm

Matt Weiner wrote:Is there a possibility of pairing this with any kind of academic tournament on the same weekend? I know that I am about 99% more likely to attend trash tournaments when that is the case, and it would probably help you get other out-of-town teams as well.

Unless someone else was willing to edit it or we just do a mirror of another tournament, we will not be hosting an accompanying academic tournament. Jonathan has already committed to working on the Lit Singles tournament for the Chicago Open and Chris is working DACQ stuff, so that excludes our two most qualified academic tournament editors. Plus, this will be about two months after our house written high school tournament, meaning it would be very hard to coax team members to write questions for this tournament after they already wrote an entire high school packet.

If no one wants to edit such an academic tournament and there aren't any other academic tournaments around the time of this date, it might be possible for us to mirror the HSNCT (pending the permission of NAQT, of course) as an open tournament for college players. Since most of the high school players who would be coming to Dr. Chuck's boot camp probably already played in the HSNCT, it would offer them a chance to get practice reading and scorekeeping in a tournament setting.

I realize the HSNCT is a little easy for some college player's tastes, but perhaps this is better than no academic tournament if there aren't any others to mirror or host.

To summarize, if anyone wants to be in charge of editing a packet submission academic tournament at the ACF Fall level (so as to include any high school players wishing to play), send me an e-mail at mike000 at umd dot edu. Do the same if you’re planning on hosting some June college tournament and would be interesting in mirroring the academic tournament. If I don’t hear any responses, I’ll contact NAQT about mirroring the HSNCT.

And as for the trash tournament, details on that will probably be posted tomorrow or Thursday.

BuzzerZen · Post by **BuzzerZen** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 8:51 pm

If this is actually going to be timed closer to ACE camp, rather than during June, I'd come and perhaps write an internet-meme-centered theme packet.

I'd also come to any solo academic tournament Chris et al might run.

Dr. Chuck, can I help at your question-writing boot camp?

Post by **DumbJaques** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:50 pm

A mirror of the HSNCT might actually be fun. Yeah, it's quite under the skill level of a lot of college players, but there are plenty of good players who could still have fun doing it for whom it wouldn't be a 96-power exercise in wtfness (me, for instance). I think the HSNCT questions are actually pretty decent and would like a chance to play on them. I think one of the things that got annoying last year when they mirrored it in MN was some guy bragging about winning or getting a high score. I propose mandatory stoning to death of anyone who does this, using thrown chairs in the Muellerian style rather than actual stones.

And yeah, sorry, I would try to get a tournament together, but I'd like to go ahead and not default on all of the DACQ orders.

First Chairman · Post by **First Chairman** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 11:34 pm

I am open to all suggestions and volunteers. Again, it just depends... the concept of the writers camp is Weiner's and Romero's. I'd like to have a moderators bootcamp to complement it.

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 8:09 pm

Ok, we are going to do a mirror of the HSCNT on Saturday, June 23rd. The trash tournament will then take place on Sunday, June 24th.

I'm still writing the formal announcement. It will be up once I finish a comp. sci project tomorrow.

First Chairman · Post by **First Chairman** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 2:57 pm

It appears that there will be an ACE quiz bowl camp at Mt. St. Mary's College in Maryland in Emmittsburg between July 30 and August 3.

That said, I am wondering if there would be interest in doing the question-writing and reading bootcamp and conference on August 4-5 in the DC area so we can capture some of the attendees who may be straggling from that week's worth of activities.

I know we have a couple of people who are interested at least. Weiner and Romero have been interested in organizing the writing project, while I would be happy to organize a similar track for readers and tournament directors.

I will likely wind up charging some money if we want to actually have food and some nice amenities... photocopying charges also have to be covered somehow. Right now we don't have an estimate of how much it would be, but I'd like to certainly keep it under $100 for high school/college students and $200 for others. Discounts likely for early submission of questions for Simon Cowell-like critiques during the conference. :)

I am not sure I can host this at GMU though I'll see what I can do. There's more in hotel/motel room space out in Fairfax compared to inner DC. I do have to check our calendar because we have summer orientations going on all the time so I may ask whether there might be an interested host elsewhere.

So that said, it's a nice opportunity to have the ACE contingent in the mid-Atlantic this summer.

Bigfoot isn't the pr · Fri Apr 06, 2007 10:22 pm

Just incase you weren't aware, more information concerning this tournament has been posted in the College Trash section