Chattahoochee HS Tournament (12/8/07) in Alpharetta, GA

[Rountree]

Chattahoochee High School is pleased to announce its 3rd Annual Cougar Academic Team Tournament (the CATT). As in previous years, the tournament will feature split JV and Varsity divisions.

The tournament will be held on Saturday 12/8/07 at Chattahoochee's campus in Alpharetta, GA (in the NE suburbs of Atlanta).

Both divisions will follow a 2-part format for each game:
Part I = 18 shorter 1-2 sentence tossups worth 10 points each.
Part II = 12 longer 3-5 sentence tossups worth 10 points each paired with 12 2-part bonuses worth up to 20 points.

Each team will play 6 preliminary rounds before a single-elimination playoff will determine the champion. (We will have either 16 or 32 team playoffs, depending on the size of the fields in each division.)

Trophies will go to the top 4 teams in each division.

The cost will be $60 for one team, $55 for your 2nd team, $50 for your 3rd team, etc. You may enter multiple teams in both the JV and Varsity divisions.

If you are interested in attending or have any questions, please email [email protected] or [email protected].

[Rountree]

With a little less than a month to go before the 3rd Annual CATT, here is our current field (as of 11/12/07):

Varsity - 20 teams
Alpharetta
Bleckley County
Brookwood (2)
Centennial
Central Gwinnett
Collins Hill
Crescent (2)
Dorman
Etowah
Grayson (2)
Hebron Christian
Meadowcreek
Ola
Providence Christian (2)
Sequoyah
Walton

Junior Varsity - 15 teams
Alpharetta (2)
Bleckley County
Brookwood (2)
Central Gwinnett (2)
Dorman
Hebron Christian
Ola (2)
Providence Christian (2)
Seqouyah
Walton

We still have spots available, so please contact Tournament Director Elliott Rountree if you are interested. My email is [email protected] or [email protected].

Thanks and we look forward to seeing you on December 8th.

[Rountree]

With a little less than 3 weeks until the tournament, here is a current field update - 46 teams (as of 11/19/07)

Varsity - 27 teams
Alpharetta
Bleckley County
Blessed Trinity
Brookstone
Brookwood (2)
Centennial
Central Gwinnett
Cherokee
Collins Hill
Crescent (2)
Dorman
Druid Hills
Etowah
Grayson (2)
Hebron Christian
Meadowcreek
Norcross (2)
Ola
Providence Christian (2)
Robinson
Seqouyah
Walton

Junior Varsity - 19 teams
Alpharetta (2)
Bleckley County
Blessed Trinity
Brookwood (2)
Central Gwinnett (2)
Cherokee
Dorman
Herbon Christian
Norcross
Ola (2)
Providence Christian (2)
Robinson
Sequoyah
Walton

We still have room for 5 - 10 more teams. If you are interested please email me at [email protected] or at [email protected]

[Rountree]

We are less than 2 weeks away from the 3rd annual Cougar Academic Team Tournament at Chattahoochee in Alpharetta on December 8th. We are very close to our capacity. We have 4 spots open in the Varsity Division and 2 spots open in the Junior Varsity Division. Those will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Please email me asap if you wish to register or add more teams ([email protected] or [email protected]).

Current Field - 55 teams (as of 11/26/07):

Varsity - 30 teams
Alpharetta
Bleckley County
Blessed Trinity
Brookstone
Brookwood - 2
Centennial
Central Gwinnett
Cherokee
Collins Hill
Crescent - 2
Druid Hills
Eastside, SC
Etowah
Grayson - 2
Hebron Christian
James Island
Meadowcreek
Norcross - 2
Northview
Ola
Providence Christian - 2
Robinson
Sequoyah
St. Pius
Walton

Junior Varsity - 25 teams
Alpharetta - 2
Bleckley County
Blessed Trinity
Brookwood - 2
Central Gwinnett - 2
Cherokee
Dorman - 3
Eastside, GA
Flowery Branch
Hebron Christian
Norcross
Northview - 2
Ola - 2
Providence Christian - 2
Robinson
Sequoyah
Walton

See you on December 8th. Thanks!

[Rountree]

Here is the final field for this Saturday's 3rd Annual CATT at CHS.

Varsity - 36
Alpharetta
Bleckley County
Blessed Trinity
Brookstone
Brookwood - 2
Centennial
Central Gwinnett
Cherokee
Collins Hill
Crescent - 3
Creekview
Druid Hills
Eastside, SC
Etowah
Galloway School
Grayson - 2
Hebron Christian
James Island
Meadowcreek
Norcross - 2
North Springs
Northview
Ola
Providence Christian - 2
Robinson
Roswell - 2
Sequoyah
St. Pius
Walton

Junior Varsity - 32
Alpharetta - 2
Bleckley County
Blessed Trinity
Brookwood - 2
Central Gwinnett - 2
Cherokee
CHS Freshmen
Creekview
Dorman - 3
Eastside, GA
Flowery Branch
Galloway School
Gwinnett School
Hebron Christian
Norcross
Northview - 3
Ola - 2
Providence Christian - 2
Robinson
Sequoyah
Southwest Magnet - 2
Walton

See you on Saturday!

[Ben_Dodson]

Great tournament Mr. Rountree. Norcross had a great time. The rounds were nicely run and the questions (with the exception of F. Scott Fitzgerald being listed as a character in Great Gatsby) were excellent. Spectacular job and Norcross looks forward to attending next year.

[AdamL]

Thanks to all teams that participated today! We had 36 teams in the Varsity division and 32 (including one CHS Freshmen team) in JV.

Brief results:
JV semis

Dorman A(1) def. Dorman B(4) (210-110)
Brookwood A(2) def. Walton A(3) (250-130)

Finals/consolation

Dorman A def. Brookwood A (220-150)
Walton A def. Dorman B (190-110)

Standings: Dorman A, Brookwood A, Walton A, Dorman B

Varsity semis

Brookwood A(1) def. Centennial(13) (310-70)
James Island(2) def. Brookwood B(6) (230-200)

Finals/consolation

James Island def. Brookwood A (260-140)
Centennial def. Brookwood B (250-200)

Standings: James Island, Brookwood A, Centennial, Brookwood B


We used the cards (32 teams + 5 rounds = convenience) for the JV division only, sort of as a test run; the varsity division was standard pooled round-robin for prelims. I don’t know if any Swiss-paired tournaments have been done in the South lately, but most of the coaches were definitely staring at the cards in confusion. Luckily, it went off without a hitch, with Dorman A emerging as the lone 5-0 team. I read for Dorman A’s team for most of the playoffs and they were very impressive for a team of sophomores. I’m sure we’ll hear more from them in the future. Congrats also to James Island, who bounced back from a very close game with Brookwood B to beat Brookwood A in the finals by a fairly large margin (though I didn’t see the match, so I don’t know the nature of the win).

The questions were all house-written, and we were also trying a new format. If you have any comments or feedback, we’d love to hear it. About the F. Scott Fitzgerald thing… a few of the bonuses did have some iffy prompts since we had to change some bonus parts around to avoid repeats and perhaps didn’t fix the prompt. I had to correct a few on the fly, and hopefully most other readers did as well. I hope it didn’t confuse any teams too greatly.

Finally, a big thank you goes out to all of our volunteers, including the key assistance of some experienced readers from UGA and other places.

Hope to see everyone next year!

[JLai]

No complaints except having to get a diet soda for my combo meal during lunch... Seriously though, the questions were good. This is my third year attending your tournament and I believe you guys have used a different format each year (Three quarters w/o worksheets in 2006, 4 quarters w/ worksheets earlier this spring, and this year's 18 short sentence/12 long sentence tossups with bonues.) Overall I enjoyed this year's format the most because it offers something different from the Brookwood/Dorman tournament. I hope you guys stick with it next year.

[Ben_Dodson]

I agree. It's rare you find tournaments that reach 30 tossup questions. That just made for more exciting rounds and was probably one of the best formats I've ever seen.

[jburnsOHS]

I thought the Swiss pair system went well, afer brief confusion on my own part. The only problems we ran into resulted from apparently poor reader/timer training. I know how difficult it can be to get good readers and I always try my best to get adults instead of students. However, in our first round, we were told by the reader that they were instructed to give only one team a chance to answer a completed tossup, so when team A buzzed in and missed it, he would immediately give the answer without giving the other time a chance. Then, in the second round, the reader refused to give answers to missed questions saying that both Mr. Rountree and the "student director" had given him explicit instructions not to give any answers unless both teams had buzzed in and missed (except strangely on tiebreaker questions). Otherwise, it was a good tournament.

[Rountree]

Yes, the Swiss Pairing in the JV Division seemed to go really well, all things considered. That format is very new to most teams in the south, so it was fun to see them get to experience something different from what they are used to. 30 tossups per round also seemed to appeal to a lot of people, so we will probably stick with that for a while.

Obviously the readers were instructed to give the answers after the questions were over, regardless of who buzzed in, but everyone makes mistakes. We had about 75% - 85% experienced people reading, so we knew there might be some confusion in early rounds with the workers, but when your tournament increases from 47 to 68 teams in one year, finding quality readers is something you are going to have to deal with.

On the flip-side, it shows we are at least doing a few things right. I was glad to see such a strong turnout and I am already looking forward to next year. Thanks again for all the teams that came out.