The Quizbowl Resource Center

So, is anybody going to this thing? If teams are dropping out left and right, including the defending champions, and the sponsor dropped out, where does that leave those of us who like matching questions and Disney movies in Spanish?

chip beall joke here

mlaird wrote:So, is anybody going to this thing? If teams are dropping out left and right, including the defending champions, and the sponsor dropped out, where does that leave those of us who like matching questions and Disney movies in Spanish?

How many teams are signed up? How dire is the situation?

Dan Greenstein wrote:How many teams are signed up? How dire is the situation?

http://www.polk-fl.net/students/academi ... cation.htm

The tournament does not usually release the names of the states being represented until much closer to tournament time, however, this appears to be an interesting development (unless the change happened last year).

In years past, the state department of education had to name the team (or give such power to someone else). It appears now that in 36 states and territories (including Illinois), the NTAE folks are bypassing that authority. Teams may directly apply to the NTAE to represent the state, and be admitted that way. My interpretation is that they are short on teams coming, and are willing to let go of a very long established rule in order to get teams in. From my experience, this is almost the equivalent of an earthquake in Orlando.

Tegan wrote:

Dan Greenstein wrote:How many teams are signed up? How dire is the situation?

http://www.polk-fl.net/students/academi ... cation.htm

The tournament does not usually release the names of the states being represented until much closer to tournament time, however, this appears to be an interesting development (unless the change happened last year).

In years past, the state department of education had to name the team (or give such power to someone else). It appears now that in 36 states and territories (including Illinois), the NTAE folks are bypassing that authority. Teams may directly apply to the NTAE to represent the state, and be admitted that way. My interpretation is that they are short on teams coming, and are willing to let go of a very long established rule in order to get teams in. From my experience, this is almost the equivalent of an earthquake in Orlando.

Well, let's look at the states that aren't included:

Alabama - they always send the ASCA state champion
District of Columbia - not sure, no official process in recent years
Florida - sends all-star team from performance at CAC
Idaho - not sure how they come up with a team--it has always been a single school, but I'm not sure about an official process
Iowa - I think they've sent one of the Academic Decathlon champions (the large school champion, I think)
Kentucky - has been an all-star team recently, but all indications are that there won't be a team this year
Louisiana - one of their class champions at the LAAC state tournament gets to go each year; this year, Jesuit would be the representative
Maryland - a long-established tradition of an all-star team, but Maryland won't be going this year
Missouri - used to be an all-star team, but after last year's absence, I'm surprised they haven't opened this state up; Larry Allen at N. Kansas City might know more
New Hampshire - either the NHQBL champion or an all-star team
Ohio - OAC champion earns the right to go
Oklahoma - long-established all-star team
Pennsylvania - winner of their "state championship" gets to go
Tennessee - I think it's the second place team at the state championship that gets to go, but I'm not sure
Texas - pretty sure this is still the winner of the state championship at Sam Houston State
Vermont - Scholars' Bowl state champion or an all-star team when Hanover (from New Hampshire) wins
Virginia - I have no clue whatsoever; like Missouri, this one boggles my mind
Virgin Islands - not sure about this one either
West Virginia - I think the WVACA state tournament champion gets to go
Wyoming - an all-star team from their state championship

So, basically, this really isn't unprecedented--I think they had a list like this last year. The big difference is that it just keeps getting longer year after year.

From 2003 through 2006, the Team Virginia selection process pretty much consisted of TJ holding some form of tryouts, then four or five TJ people joining one or two other people (often Gov people) in applying directly to the PAC people for a bid, I think, though it's possible that Sean Pickrell technically was involved somehow. There hasn't been a Team Virginia since 2006.

Dorman High School will again be Team South Carolina in Orlando this year.

Johnson Central will be representing Kentucky at NTAE.

Bill Murphy from Hanover will be taking an New Hampshire all-star team to Disney as usual. However, unless something changes unsuspectedly pretty quick, there will not be a Vermont team this year.

I was wondering what was going to happen because of Panasonic pulling out, thinking that they would either need to pick up another large sponsor or raise the fees dramatically to keep this going. After looking through the registration forms though, the prices are the same as last year, and from what I can tell, so are all of the items that are normally included. So, I'm not sure where the money is coming from, but nothing has really changed as far as I can see.

They may have another big sponsor, but I know that Herff-Jones and the school board sponsorships are the only ones listed currently on their site.

I presume most of the budget came from the state of Florida or their Department of Education. I'd be worried about the foreclosure crisis ruining the budget, but I'm also fairly sure the NTAE folks already put down a contract for use with Disney way ahead of time.

klein high school is representing team texas
practice is pretty ughtastic because of the format, though

Ohio will be represented by Green High School from the Akron area, who won today's OAC State Championship over Walnut Hills.

My mother has been expressing concern at the things I am planning to do this summer because of the outbreak of swine flu. Now, I realize that it doesn't seem to be a huge deal other than being a new strain, or whatever, but a number of school districts around Texas are closing, and I'd imagine that this isn't unique to our state. I hope that there is no postponement or anything but does anyone have any clue what may happen to this tournament (and other national competitions which I know are happening within the next month or two) if swine flu does appear to be the pandemic that some people are calling it?

While this may have to suffice to satisfy anyone who is worried, PACE NSC will most likely adhere to whatever actions taken by George Mason University on emergency situations. The latest communication simply notes that University officials are monitoring things and letting the University community know. I'm not sure what will happen yet for summer-related programs, especially since there are camps that will be run for middle and high school students over the summer. It won't surprise me if I am summoned to find out.

It's the flu. Senior citizens and infants with compromised immune systems are not normally involved in quizbowl. Everyone calm down.

There has been one reported death from swine flu in the USA, and it was a small child who also reportedly had several other illnesses. During the last week, roughly a thousand people died of regular influenza.

My coach got a list of teams participating in the mail today, along with Day 1 matches. 20 teams signed up. This tournament appears to be very near its death.

klebian wrote:My coach got a list of teams participating in the mail today, along with Day 1 matches. 20 teams signed up. This tournament appears to be very near its death.

Is that a record low for the tournament?

If it was ever lower, it was when the tournament was getting off the ground in the late 1980s. My data doesn't go that far back.

It peaked in 2000 with 47 teams.

Shcool wrote:It peaked in 2000 with 47 teams.

I was on Delaware's team that year!

Our "motto" for the tournament: "Delaware. Caution: may cause drowsiness."

A little research on my part shows twenty to be the lowest ever. Here's a graph based on data from the QBWiki. I have data from every year except 1989 (which the graph interpolates).

klebian wrote:My coach got a list of teams participating in the mail today, along with Day 1 matches. 20 teams signed up. This tournament appears to be very near its death.

Care to post the info?

klebian wrote:My coach got a list of teams participating in the mail today, along with Day 1 matches. 20 teams signed up. This tournament appears to be very near its death.

Does this mean that they're going to have fewer teams playing at a time in the playoffs, or will only two teams miss it?

My best guess:

Round 1: 4 rooms. Top two move on. 12 teams play round 2.
Round 2: 4 games of 3. Winners move on. Losers out. 12 teams remain.
Semis: 3 rooms of 4. Top 2 move on to finals.
Finals: Six team free for all.

According to the website:

Six rooms in the opening round. Winners move on.

The remaining 14 teams are split into 3 rooms. Top 2 move on.

Twelve remaining teams split into 3 rooms. Top 2 move on.

Finals.

Source.

mlaird wrote:

klebian wrote:My coach got a list of teams participating in the mail today, along with Day 1 matches. 20 teams signed up. This tournament appears to be very near its death.

Care to post the info?

I will gladly do so later today when I see my coach again. I was unaware that in Round 2, 2 teams advance from each room. I guess that's probably better than having 6 matches of 2-3 teams (well better as in adhering more to how the games usually are, rather than what we consider 'better' on the forums).

I used to really like this type of format; but as of late, I've started to dislike it. As much as I'd hate to admit it, NTAE will probably be done for good or extremely crippled in the near future. They'd probably have to completely reformat due to their lack of pyramidal questions. It's not a very legit format relying more on pure speed than knowledge. But nonetheless, it's kept alive by great planning, sponsorship, and the fact it's in Disney World. Also, it appears that HSAPQ is trying to take over the market for all-star teams. It will be interesting to see how NTAE will respond, if at all, to the change (and hope). If NTAE would like to be relevant in the near future, then it'll need a good reformatting.

Agreed. Good, competitive quiz bowl has moved in another direction and some serious reformatting is needed.

Our coaches' association decided not to send a team from Illinois this year due to that (many of our top students weren't interested), but also because it was becoming prohibitively expensive and we thought our funds could be better spent.

For those interested
Round 1, Sunday June 14, 2009, 1:30-3:30
Fantasia Salon KL- Louisiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina
Fantasia Salon MN- USVI, Colorado, Connecticut
Fantasia Salon PQ- Texas, Florida, Tennessee

Round 2, Sunday June 14, 2009, 4:00-6:00
Fantasia Salon KL- Wyoming, New Jersey, Kentucky, New Hampshire
Fantasia Salon MN- Iowa, Indiana, Alabama
Fantasia Salon PQ- New Mexico, Oklahoma, California

Of course, the top-scoring teams in each room advance to semifinals on June 16, 9:00 AM- 11:00 AM
Round 3 for non-advancing teams is on Monday, June 15

I'm not sure that pyramidal questions alone could save the NTAE. The game format is significantly out of the mainstream way of thinking about playing quizbowl as one-on-one team matches (or at the maximum three teams playing against each other). There are probably other issues that will not make a transition away from their preferred style of questions easy.

I realize that i've made about half of the recent posts on this topic but here's the list of photo times

(All on Sunday June 14)
9:00 LA
9:10 OH
9:20 PA
9:30 SC
9:40 USVI
9:50 CO
10:00 CT
10:10 TX
10:20 FL
-----------------
1:00 WY
1:10 NJ
1:20 KY
1:30 NH
1:40 IA
1:50 IN
2:00 AL
2:10 NM
2:20 OK
2:30 CA
--------------
3:30 TN


pretty much in order of the teams in the games

And regional divisions for the All-America Team
Region 1: California, Colorado, Wyoming
Region 2: New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas
Region 3: Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania
Region 4: Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey
Region 5: Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee
Region 6: Florida, South Carolina, US Virgin Islands

Any predictions? Any interest? I expect a full report on how much scaling back there's been and how the tournament's future looks from anyone who's going.

I'll probably make some posts here but you can check a blog I'm keeping- <website edited out> for updates before I post them here.

As for predictions...
First round advancing teams will be:
South Carolina, Colorado, Texas; Kentucky, Iowa, California
Other 6: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Wyoming, Tennessee, Oklahoma

Final 6 will be Texas, South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky

Final Placing: Texas, South Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio

(These were fairly randomly selected)

Team Florida would like to apologize in advanced for our arrogant and not-so-well written team statement.

Team Florida would like to apologize in advanced for our arrogant and not-so-well written team statement.

WE NEED A RIVER. . . A RIVER, OF FREEDOM.

Green is good, but I can't see Ohio making the top 6. We fell just short last year with a team that would've crushed Green, and the year before with an all-star team we fell just short as well.

Reports are that Johnson Central won this tournament.

I'm guessing that is Johnson Central of Kentucky, the Governor's Cup State Champions. I know they went to NTAE this year. I wish these guys had went to NAQT or PACE, they are better than this tournament. As far as I know however, they return everyone for next year, so they'll have a chance to go to those then. If they did win this thing, I would not be surprised in any way.

These reports are indeed true; Johnson central succeeded in capturing the title of ntae national champion, which is somewhat akin to being the world's sheep in the category of being herded.
Not trying to take anything away from them tho they played a hell of a game. We wouldve prolly done better if we hadn't been distracted by hannah Montana and Adam brody.

Team Texas apologizes after the fact for having a member who grossly overestimated his team's performance at this competition. On the plus side, our poor showing did help convince the rest of my team that it is just not worth it to come back here again.

Also, all scores are here

Any indication at the ceremony whether NTAE will be held in 2010?

The last slide of the end of banquet presentation read
"See you next year!
June 19-22, 2010"

On the other hand, I was at a table after the banquet writing a review for the slam-in systems they implemented this year and overheard Mrs Rawls talking about how she was going to see what she could do to get funding for future years... this conversation didn't indicate much. But someone else said that one of the readers said that NTAE had lost funding for next year and that the competition may not happen- so I guess time will tell. I talked to a few people about the problems of the competition and its format but I'm sure that many of the high-ranking teams were inspired to want to come back again next year.

That may not be so, considering the story of the Illinois team last year, so we can hope.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know who was on the NJ and PA teams? Were they single schools, or all-star groups?

Theory Of The Leisure Flask wrote:Just out of curiosity, does anyone know who was on the NJ and PA teams? Were they single schools, or all-star groups?

PA has traditionally been a single school, don't know about NJ.

Pennsylvania was always the state champion of their awful tournament whenever I went to Panasonic.

PA was represented by Wilson High School

A few things I would like to say about the National Tournament of Academic Excellence - by Kay Li.

Cons: Well, it's a pretty widely accepted fact that the format is not a legitimate quizbowl format. It angered me that the team who buzzed in early on the famous quotations question were not awarded the points because they didn't supply first names. However, I'll leave the criticisms of the question format for another thread. Something that has always irked me about this type of tournament is that there are six teams in the finals. Twelve buzzers going off within a .3 second time frame on a speed questions is aggravating to all who play. Also, the bracketology smells of something rotten in the state of Florida...

Pros: I have to say that this tournament has THE funnest event I've ever been to in my high school career (pending on a search over 16 years of living before saying best time of my life). I have to admit that it was funner than International Science Fair (I blame the city of Reno) and also a lot more fun than HSNCT. I enjoyed that my team got to meet and make friends with other teams. I enjoyed that it was more relaxed than the hectic HSNCT. I enjoyed that I got to meet people great people. And I enjoyed that it was more sociable and in a location where there's always something to do.

Overall, it was a fun and well run tournament. However, I have to say that the format needs severe changing. If you only want to come to a legitimate quizbowl tournament to determine the best state, then I wouldn't suggest attending. If you want to have a hell of a lot of fun while playing a rather mediocre, aggravating tournament, then come to the National Tournament of Academic Excellence.