Prelim announcement: RVC SB I: The Decemberist (12/1/07)

[Irreligion in Bangladesh]

This is a preliminary announcement for Rock Valley College's first Scholastic Bowl tournament, The Decemberist, to be held Saturday, December 1st, 2007 on the RVC campus in Rockford, IL. This date is different from the date listed in the May issue of Scholastic Visions (and accordingly, the preliminary schedule posted on the IHSSBCA website) - also, RVC will not be hosting a F-S tournament this year.

I am hoping that this tournament will use NAQT questions and format, including timed matches - however, due to possible conflicts with questions, that may not be the case. A full announcement including fees, scheduling format, and the final information on question providers will be posted as soon as I hear from NAQT about the conflict. Assuming NAQT questions/format is used, in an effort to spread NAQT format around the Northern Illinois area, this tournament will in some way to be determined differentiate between teams that have previous experience in NAQT format and teams that do not.

I am looking into the option of RVC "hosting" lunch for this tournament for fundraising purposes. It would likely be pizzas or sub sandwiches at a rate discounted from what would be expected for fast food options in the area. There are numerous lunch options within a minute or so drive of the campus, so it's not a necessity as it might be in a smaller town. If you have an opinion on this idea, let me know at the email address below. One more option I'm kicking around is, if the lunch is on-campus, an All-Tournament team trash round during lunch. Let me know how you'd feel about this sort of thing.

Email any questions to me at the following email address: styxman42 AT gmail DOT com. I am looking forward to a new tradition of strong quizbowl in the Northern Illinois area.

Brad Fischer
TD and President, Quizbowl Club, Rock Valley College

[Irreligion in Bangladesh]

I've got the information from NAQT about question availability. In a move that would have surprised many just a few short years ago, there is too much demand for NAQT questions in Illinois. :) All of the IS sets have been claimed, so The Decemberist will be using an A-level packet set. This is in keeping with our objective of increasing the exposure of NAQT questions and format to the Northern Illinois area, but it likely pushes this tournament out of the running for a coveted slot in the 18-date limit for most teams that are represented on the board, considering the easier nature of A-level questions. If you are still interested in the tournament, with a full team(s) or even a B-team/weakened A-team, feel free to contact me at the above email address.

A full update will be posted soon.

[First Chairman]

There is also an alternative, which are shared sets from other tournaments run elsewhere in the US. Contact some of the schools that also run high school comps in the DC area for example. (Insert Jessie and David Bykowski plug here.)

[Irreligion in Bangladesh]

After talking with NAQT some more, it has been decided that we will use IS #66 from this year, which no Illinois team has played on or purchased as practice materials.

However, I am still interested in looking for questions for a different tournament in late January - they'd have to be on the easy and short side. Let me know if you have something that fits that description. :)

[Stained Diviner]

That set was used by New Trier and Loyola at Culver a few weeks ago.

I don't think that's a huge problem--New Trier and Loyola already have a pretty full schedule and aren't right next door to you. 548 out of 550 Illinois teams have not seen the questions.

[Irreligion in Bangladesh]

That set was used by New Trier and Loyola at Culver a few weeks ago.

I don't think that's a huge problem--New Trier and Loyola already have a pretty full schedule and aren't right next door to you. 548 out of 550 Illinois teams have not seen the questions.

I was a little worried about that - NAQT wouldn't have caught it as it was held in Indiana, I suppose. I agree, though, that it's not that big of a problem. It'll save gas for you guys :)

[Byko]

However, I am still interested in looking for questions for a different tournament in late January - they'd have to be on the easy and short side. Let me know if you have something that fits that description. :)

If you're looking for questions on the shorter side (about 2-3 lines), I think we (Academic Initiative) would probably be able to help, especially in terms of tossups, since we're already writing questions like that for tournaments outside the Illinois region. Send me an e-mail so we can work with your specifications.

[Irreligion in Bangladesh]

However, I am still interested in looking for questions for a different tournament in late January - they'd have to be on the easy and short side. Let me know if you have something that fits that description. :)

If you're looking for questions on the shorter side (about 2-3 lines), I think we (Academic Initiative) would probably be able to help, especially in terms of tossups, since we're already writing questions like that for tournaments outside the Illinois region. Send me an e-mail so we can work with your specifications.

Check your email - I sent something to you a few hours ago.

[Irreligion in Bangladesh]

Dear Scholastic Bowl Coaches,

I am excited to announce that the Quiz Bowl Club at Rock Valley College in Rockford will be hosting its first tournament, The Decemberist, on December 1st, 2007. This tournament will be run on NAQT questions (IS set #66) in NAQT format with untimed matches. Our goal with this tournament is to increase exposure of NAQT format in the Northern Illinois region and throughout the state.

The tournament will begin at 9:00 AM with a coaches meeting at 8:30. The field is currently capped at 24 teams. We are still considering the schedule, but we can definitively announce 6 games in the morning and 5 afternoon games in a pool play format involving at least half and likely two-thirds of the field.

The entry fee for this tournament is $65 per team, but several discounts can be applied:
-$5 for bringing a buzzer system (maximum 1 per team, not school)
-$10 for each team after the first from a school – note that with the 24 team cap, at the beginning of registration, B teams will be put on a waitlist until it becomes apparent that we will have room for them.
-$5 for any school making its first appearance at an NAQT format tournament. The use of NAQT questions in an IHSA format match/tournament/etc. does not disqualify the school from this discount. This discount only applies to the first team from a school.
The tournament question set is available for purchase for $10. It includes both the extra tiebreaking questions included in each packet and extra packets what we will not be using.

To register, answer the questions below and reply to rvcquizbowl AT gmail DOT com by November 16th. Considering the exceptional quality of the questions, the number of guaranteed games, and the price, this is possibly the best value of all Illinois tournaments held this year. We are looking forward to a great Saturday of Scholastic Bowl!

Brad Fischer
Tournament Director, The Decemberist
President, Quiz Bowl Club at RVC


Registration information for The Decemberist – Email to rvcquizbowl AT gmail DOT com

Coach’s Name
School Name
Preferred Contact Information (if not this email address)
Number of Teams Registering
Number of Buzzer Systems
Whether you are a new school to NAQT format
Whether you are interested in purchasing questions


(Moderators - please change the thread title to reflect the update. Thanks!)

[Irreligion in Bangladesh]

Now that we're into November, a field update. We've had some setbacks in terms of staffing, and so while we're looking into new avenues of staff, I've decided to drop the tentative cap from 24 to 18. This could go back up to 24, and I'll announce if it does. We still have open spots, and all B teams are still considered waitlisted as of now. We will be making a decision on B team eligibility sometime shortly after the IHSSBCA Kickoff tournament on Nov. 17th.

Current confirmed teams
Auburn (2)
Byron
East
Elkader Central (IA) (2)
Hampshire
Marengo
North Boone
Rock Island
Winnebago (2)
Teams that have expressed interest but have not yet registered
Guilford
Pecatonica
Sterling
Wheaton North

for a total of 13-16 teams out of 18. Registration is still open, and we're still looking for schools. If you haven't contacted me, why wait? Drop me a line at rvcquizbowl AT gmail DOT com.

[Irreligion in Bangladesh]

Hello everyone! First off, let me say THANK YOU to everyone for braving the weather to come out and participate, whether it was playing, coaching, moderating, scoring, or just generally helping out. This tournament would have crashed and burned without big help from our incredible staff. A huge, huge thanks to everyone who helped out!

Of course, had the tournament crashed and burned, it might have been beneficial - we could have melted the ice that descended upon the entire state during the tournament. After five preliminary games out of an originally planned seven, we switched to playoffs immediately to play 3 games instead of the planned 5. We divided into 3 pools of 4 teams each

We had some exciting results in the playoffs, in all three pools.
In the championship bracket, Auburn A stormed to victories over Sterling, East, and Byron to win the tournament, averaging 430 points per game en route to the title. There was some suspense in the 2nd/3rd/4th race, however; Byron defeated East, East defeated Sterling, and Sterling defeated Byron to create a 3-way tie by record. The tiebreaker here is points per game in the matches that don't include the team out of the tie (in this case, Auburn) - so East's total of 440 in two matches earned them second place, but Byron and Sterling both had 360 points, requiring the third tiebreaker option - tossups in those matches, which Sterling won by one, 15-14. In the first consolation bracket, Rock Island went 3-0 to top Auburn B, Marengo, and Winnebago and earn the championship plaque. In the second consolation bracket, Pecatonica rebounded from an 0-5 morning to go 3-0 and claim the second consolation championship plaque over Byron B, Hampshire, and North Boone.

Full statistics from both morning and playoff matches are available on Google Documents at these websites:

Individual Detail:
Individual Standings - ranks players by points per game. This does not accurately reflect the official all-tournament team because it includes playoff rounds. http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhrh94p3_5g29pwk
Individual Detail: shows results for each player by game. http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhrh94p3_6gt6brg
Team Standings - Pools ordered by winning percentage, also shows points per game and other stats: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhrh94p3_7g8vf8k
Team Detail - shows team totals for powers/tossups/negs, bonuses, and other stats: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhrh94p3_8g4f4mq
Scoreboard - list of every game played with counting statistics: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhrh94p3_3wthq5w
Stat Key - explains the acronyms used in the stat pages: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhrh94p3_9cf3vs8

They should load as Firefox pages, although it might be just that Firefox is my default browser. The pages are just HTML text. Feel free to give these links to your players, as it's interesting to see how everything came together today.

The individual detail ranks players by points per game over both morning and afternoon games, but the All-Tournament Team went by just the morning matches (as usual) and by total points (to eliminate players who played a small number of matches).

The official All-Tournament team was...
Hunter Fast, Bloomington
Siva Sundaram, Auburn A
Bruce Spencer, East A
Jerry Denhel, Rock Island
Aaron Deets, Byron A
Zahed Haseeb, Auburn B
Jonathan Schweiss, Sterling
Madeline Dillner, Winnebago
Michael Jiang, Auburn A
Breanna Neubauer, Sterling

One innovation we introduced in this tournament is the college bowl concept of a "neg prize" - a funny gag gift for the player who picked up the most negs. Siva Sundaram's eight negs in the preliminaries earned him a limited edition Jane Austen action figure - complete with writing desk and quill pen!

One issue that arose was handing out copies of the questions after the tournament. Our primary concern was getting out of RVC alive, so we didn't do an excellent job of tracking down each team and making sure they got their questions. Some teams left without questions at all, and some only left with packets 1-10 (because I hid/misplaced 11-15 before the tournament). Email me with how many packets you got (or didn't get) and we can arrange delivery of the remainder.

Once again, I thank everyone for making RVC's first Scholastic Bowl tournament a success! I hope to see everyone (and more) next year!

Brad Fischer

[crobbins52]

Ha, too bad about all-tournament. Lots of impressive players and an incredibly fun tournament. One question, was Winnebago missing something? Because when we played them at the Kick-off in Sterling, they beat the everloving snot out of us.

Thanks for posting all the info!

[actoftheapostle]

Thanks for posting all that information

[Maxwell Sniffingwell]

What happened to Bloomington?

[Irreligion in Bangladesh]

Re: Winnebago - they had their captain, but everyone else from their varsity team was missing.

Re: Bloomington - the snow forced them to leave at the lunch break. They were tearing up their pool when they left, too - 345 ppg, 18 ppb.