2007 PACE NSC preliminary field

quizbowllee · Post by **quizbowllee** » Fri May 18, 2007 9:10 pm

I was looking at the tentative schedule and noticed only 7 prelim rounds. Is this final, or is there still a chance of 9 prelim rounds like last year? That was fun.

First Chairman · Post by **First Chairman** » Fri May 18, 2007 11:59 pm

There is a chance, but I need to get confirmation from Matt on questions before planning on that.

Byko · Post by **Byko** » Sun May 20, 2007 1:06 pm

The number of preliminary rounds depends on two factors:

1. The number of rounds of questions available
2. The number of teams and how the preliminary groups will be arranged

At this point, I think it may be more likely that there will be 7 preliminary rounds, but this is not final by any means.

vcuEvan · Post by **vcuEvan** » Sun May 20, 2007 4:45 pm

In my opinion, seven preliminary rounds is disappointingly few for a national championship.

First Chairman · Post by **First Chairman** » Sun May 20, 2007 5:11 pm

With full-blown NSC rounds, 28x7 tossups = 196 tossups, which is close to 10 NAQT rounds. 28 x 9 = 252 which is close to 12 standard toss/bonus games. I'm not arguing much on that, but we do have to figure out the effect of scheduling upon the performance of the teams and the volunteers. Also we have to do what we can to have 12 distinct teams into the championship field so that the competitiveness of the Sunday games maintains its rigor (and we run on time). So in addition to all of those games, we have to construct multiple tiebreaker packets. Of course, historically one had to be used to three guaranteed games with ASCN and four guaranteed games (until recently) at QU. I think most of us would enjoy having more games if we can schedule it within reason... but we'll stick with our general policy of scheduling 7 rounds of prelims unless we can do more.

vcuEvan · Post by **vcuEvan** » Sun May 20, 2007 5:42 pm

Yeah, that is true. PACE games do have a lot more content contained within them.

quizbowllee · Post by **quizbowllee** » Mon May 21, 2007 10:53 am

Will the tournament be bracketed like in years past? I seem to recall some discussion about possibly power-matching this year.

First Chairman · Post by **First Chairman** » Mon May 21, 2007 12:29 pm

If we have ever discussed power-matching, it would be for consolations. I don't recall ever fielding discussions about power-matching the prelims.

quizbowllee · Post by **quizbowllee** » Mon May 21, 2007 12:41 pm

E.T. Chuck wrote:If we have ever discussed power-matching, it would be for consolations. I don't recall ever fielding discussions about power-matching the prelims.

OK. I thought I might be mistaken. I think someone (probably just another coach or player) off-handedly mentioned it once.

First Chairman · Post by **First Chairman** » Mon May 21, 2007 12:43 pm

Infidel coaches... :)

Of course, I think I joked once that I would use ladder play... or perhaps it was "Chutes and Ladder Play" for tournament format.

aestheteboy · Post by **aestheteboy** » Thu May 24, 2007 9:03 pm

I remember reading somewhere that the math computation bonuses in the category round are all 15 seconds each. Some of them seemed forbiddingly difficult to solve even in 30 seconds.
Can someone tell me about this?

First Chairman · Post by **First Chairman** » Thu May 24, 2007 9:18 pm

They are 15 seconds for calculation unless we dictate otherwise.

MLWMathStar · Post by **MLWMathStar** » Thu May 24, 2007 9:26 pm

I'm going to agree with the above poster about needing more time, if you're going to have questions like factoring 4th degree polynomials with complex roots (2005). I had a lot of fun trying to do that as a freshman. :(

aestheteboy · Post by **aestheteboy** » Sun May 27, 2007 2:01 pm

I really doubt that any team attending PACE could solve a quadratic equation for intersections, integrate the quadratic, and plug the numbers in to solve the definite integral . . . all in 15 seconds. (2006 R2)

Anyway, another thing that I noticed was that the distribution was very rigid. Of course, it is something those of us flustered with randomness of NAQT would welcome. But perhaps, it's too much to set the distribution with in a match (e.g. The one geography toss up and the one current events toss up were always in the stretch round. Likewise, the only social science tu and the only general knowledge tu of the game were in the Related bonus round. Trash was always in the second section).
It makes it easy to predict what toss up is coming up, which isn't that big of a problem, but moreover, it favors geography/current events team over social science/general knowledge team. If that is what PACE is trying to do, I guess it's not a problem, although I still think social sciences and philosophy tend to be underrepresented in high school quizbowl (I might add that I didn't see any philosophy tu in the first three rounds of 2006 packet).

First Chairman · Post by **First Chairman** » Mon May 28, 2007 9:22 am

Well, I'm not sure exactly how easy for one to predict the general subject of the next tossup, but yes, we have always had an explicit distribution for each of our question sets.

There is also quite an aversion to philosophy for high school rounds. Not too many students really take philosphy to the extent that we could really write more than just a question or two per match. We do religion and mythology (which we put together with philosophy as a category) instead.

I'll let Matt go into detail on distribution questions if you have more.

First Chairman · Post by **First Chairman** » Mon May 28, 2007 9:39 am

We are currently at 35 teams, so I am doing a final call for teams for the NSC. The ideal number we want is between 36 and 40, with getting close to 40 being more ideal so we don't have to navigate byes (if we do divisional RR).

Any currently registered teams who might consider bringing a large-enough contingent that they can allow their younger players to have some experience at the NSC, please let Dave and me know. We'll try to work something out on the registration fee, but I think getting to 36 or 40 makes things a bit easier with our planning.

Kechara · Post by **Kechara** » Tue May 29, 2007 11:42 pm

aestheteboy wrote:(I might add that I didn't see any philosophy tu in the first three rounds of 2006 packet).

With regards to that: There is RMP in the related tossup-bonus section, and we try to have those include philosophy. However, philosophy is such a small part of the distribution that putting it in the RTB section means that another round or two doesn't get their philosophy at all. I probably had a philosophy RTB in round 4 or so that maybe should have gone in round 3. Musta been Emeril saying "Bam!" for the hundredth time that day that distracted me.

First Chairman · Post by **First Chairman** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 7:49 am

Making sure: emails have been sent out from me as the 7-days-to-go update, which includes the latest rosters and the scoresheet template. We encourage you to make copies of the rosters and the scoresheets for your use during the tournament ahead of time as I do not anticipate making additional copies for general use at the tournament site. I will also try to get everyone the latest program booklet online so you can print before coming to the tournament (we will have limited paper copies).

If you have not received these emails, please let me know.

killbill_07 · Post by **killbill_07** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 1:19 pm

What preliminary record is needed for a team to make the championship playoffs on Sunday? Also, are teams randomly assigned to play each other on Saturday or is there some sort of seeding involved that takes into account performance throughout the year?

First Chairman · Post by **First Chairman** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 5:58 pm

On Saturday, we have Angell Hall Auditorium A all day (capacity 300). On Sunday, we have Angell Hall Auditorium C all day (capacity 150 + standing room).

For those who have not been to Michigan tournaments lately: Angell Hall and Mason Hall are connected, and are both in the very large building complex whose information is at http://uuis.umich.edu/cic/buildingproje ... ldingID=12 .

vcuEvan · Post by **vcuEvan** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 9:48 pm

Anyone up for some ultimate frisbee after the prelims?

BuzzerZen · Post by **BuzzerZen** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 12:30 am

iambusyeating wrote:Anyone up for some ultimate frisbee after the prelims?

OH GOD YES. I am bringing a disc.

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 9:15 am

Talk to Jonathan Magin who is moderating. I'm pretty sure he'd play.

The Quizbowl Resource Center

2007 PACE NSC preliminary field

Saturday morning: meet at Angell Hall Auditorium A!