May 1 (last day): Goldfish TOURNAMENT hosted by Culver

[pblessman]

DISCLAIMER: THIS TOURNAMENT IS ONLY INTENDED FOR TEAMS UNABLE TO COMPETE IN A LIVE TOURNAMENT FEATURING NAQT IS-94. IF YOU CAN PLAY IN SUCH A TOURNAMENT, WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO DO SO- A GOLDFISH TOURNAMENT IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR AN ACTUAL LIVE TOURNAMENT.

SECOND DISCLAIMER: I JUST REALIZED IT'S APRIL 1... THIS IS THE REAL DEAL AND NOT A JOKE. NO REALLY... WE'RE LISTED ON THE NAQT WEBSITE (http://www.naqt.com/schedule.jsp).

As we (Culver Academies) will not be able to compete is a live tournament April 24, May 1, or May 8 due to a variety of factors, and as we have not heard NAQT IS-94 yet, I will offer this set as a Goldfish TOURNAMENT. This means all teams participating in this tournament will play all 15 packets at their home school against an empty set of buzzers (without opponents). Coaches will read the game just like a normal game and record buzzpoints for each question by word number (question sets will have number superscripts labeling the words by what number word they are in each question).

The tournament will be run just like a regular live tournament in terms of scheduling: Preliminary Round Robins in groups of 6-8 and then rebracketed round robins for ALL TEAMS for the Playoffs with an advantaged final for the top two teams to finish it off. Each team will be guaranteed at least ten "games" (two packets reserved for finals, one for a playoff, and one for replacements/OT questions). Please note that in each game each team will "face" only one other team. I will NOT calculate all permutations for all packets (or even one packet). I guess this is similar to Fantasy Football- what matters each round is ONLY how you do against your designated opponent, not how well you would have done against other opponents...

We will mail a copy of IS-94 to each participating school ASAP after you send us a check payable to Culver Academies, c/o Phil Blessman, 1300 Academy Road, Culver, IN 46511, or pay by PayPal to pblessman [at] yahoo [dot] com. We will also e-mail you an electronic scoresheet, so make sure you supply us with a physical mailing address AND an email address. Teams can play the packets at their leisure as soon as they receive the questions but must turn in their electronic scoresheets no later than 11:59 PM EDT on May 1. As copy and mailing costs will be considerable, we need to receive payment first before sending you the questions. Cost for the tournament will be $35 for the first team, $25 for each additional team (I estimate copy and mailing costs at $10, NAQT charges $16 a team, and I want to have some money left over for possible trophies- depends on the number of teams). Please note that ordering this set as practice questions from NAQT would set you back $45... so you'll get the paper set cheaper than ordering it next year from NAQT.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Phil Blessman at blessmp [at] culver [dot] org.

Thanks!

Phil

Field Update (as of April 23): 11 teams (FIELD CLOSED UNLESS SOMEBODY WANTS TO ADD A B OR C TEAM)

Adair County, KY PAID- SET MAILED 4/13
Culver Academies, IN PAID
Detroit Country Day School, MI -SET MAILED 4/17
Hoover, AL x2 PAID- SET MAILED 4/14
Kellenberg, NY x2 PAID- SET MAILED 4/14
North White, IN- PAID- SET MAILED 4/13
St. Joseph's, IN - PAID- SET DELIVERED 4/17
St. Joseph's, NJ x2- PAID- SET MAILED 4/13

[Down and out in Quintana Roo]

We just heard IS-94 so we won't be able to do this.

[Edward Powers]

Coach Blessman---will you periodically list the teams who register to do this so that a "field" is created here on this site? It would probably make it more inviting and more interesting for prospective teams if you could do this, especially if you could attract teams from all over the country, which I suspect you can. I know this adds some work on your end, but I hope you can do it.

[Joshua Rutsky]

This sounds like a great idea for a packet we haven't heard. Hoover's JV and Varsity will participate!

[Edward Powers]

As I stated in my email to you, St. Joe's A & B teams will participate as well.

[pblessman]

First field update posted at the end of the announcement. I will continue to update this regularly.

[pblessman]

I now have the questions in hand and will start sending out paper copies to schools who have paid. If you've registered and haven't paid yet, please go ahead and do so by either sending a check to Culver Academies, c/o Phil Blessman, 1300 Academy Road, Culver, IN 46511, or paying by PayPal: pblessman [at] yahoo [dot] com. The fee is $35 for the first team, $25 for each additional team. If you haven't registered yet, we are still accepting registrations!

[BroNi]

Kellenberg will join the fray with 2 teams.

[pblessman]

I'll close the field Sunday night and will send out any last-minute sets Monday to give teams 1.5 weeks to complete the matches. Any additions?

[master15625]

Can we one DCD team be tentatively added? We don't know if we can do this, but we definitely are considering doing this at school. I will let you know if we will or will not participate in this on Sunday.

[AKKOLADE]

I might/might not have some people rounded up by Monday.

[pblessman]

Neil- your coach e-mailed me. You're in.

Fred- Monday would be fine for adding to the tournament, I just want to make sure teams have enough time to complete the sets.

[pblessman]

VERY last call is 11:59 PM tonight...

[AKKOLADE]

Unless they contact you individually, my possibly interesteds are both not interesteds. Sorry!

[pblessman]

Field is closed at 11 teams unless somebody wants to add a B or C Team. We will play a full 11-match round robin followed with an advantaged final (if necessary). I'll keep games 14 and 15 in reserve for tiebreakers etc. I'll send out a "schedule" to all participating schools ASAP. I hope everybody is busy playing matches!

[pblessman]

Goldfish Schedule

Round 1

Adair County Bye
Culver Academies St. Joseph's-NJ B
Detroit Country Day School St. Joseph's-NJ A
Hoover A St. Joseph's-IN
Hoover B North White
Kellenberg A Kellenberg B

Round 2

St. Joseph's-NJ B Adair County
Bye St. Joseph's-NJ A
Culver Academies St. Joseph's-IN
Detroit Country Day School North White
Hoover A Kellenberg B
Hoover B Kellenberg A

Round 3

Adair County St. Joseph's-NJ A
St. Joseph's-NJ B St. Joseph's-IN
Bye North White
Culver Academies Kellenberg B
Detroit Country Day School Kellenberg A
Hoover A Hoover B

Round 4

St. Joseph's-IN Adair County
St. Joseph's-NJ A North White
St. Joseph's-NJ B Kellenberg B
Bye Kellenberg A
Culver Academies Hoover B
Detroit Country Day School Hoover A

Round 5

Adair County North White
St. Joseph's-IN Kellenberg B
St. Joseph's-NJ A Kellenberg A
St. Joseph's-NJ B Hoover B
Bye Hoover A
Culver Academies Detroit Country Day School

Home Away
Kellenberg B Adair County
North White Kellenberg A
St. Joseph's-IN Hoover B
St. Joseph's-NJ A Hoover A
St. Joseph's-NJ B Detroit Country Day School
Bye Culver Academies

Round 7

Adair County Kellenberg A
Kellenberg B Hoover B
North White Hoover A
St. Joseph's-IN Detroit Country Day School
St. Joseph's-NJ A Culver Academies
St. Joseph's-NJ B Bye

Round 8

Hoover B Adair County
Kellenberg A Hoover A
Kellenberg B Detroit Country Day School
North White Culver Academies
St. Joseph's-IN Bye
St. Joseph's-NJ A St. Joseph's-NJ B

Round 9

Adair County Hoover A
Hoover B Detroit Country Day School
Kellenberg A Culver Academies
Kellenberg B Bye
North White St. Joseph's-NJ B
St. Joseph's-IN St. Joseph's-NJ A

Round 10

Detroit Country Day School Adair County
Hoover A Culver Academies
Hoover B Bye
Kellenberg A St. Joseph's-NJ B
Kellenberg B St. Joseph's-NJ A
North White St. Joseph's-IN

Round 11

Adair County Culver Academies
Detroit Country Day School Bye
Hoover A St. Joseph's-NJ B
Hoover B St. Joseph's-NJ A
Kellenberg A St. Joseph's-IN
Kellenberg B North White

[Edward Powers]

Thanks for publishing the schedule so soon. Good luck to everyone participating.

Meanwhile Coach Blessman---if we've already started playing rounds, would you like us to start mailing in results little by little, or would you prefer all rounds to be submitted at once? ( To illustrate---we finished Rounds 1 & 2 this past Tuesday, and Rounds 3 & 4 today. We will play 2 more next Tuesday, 2 next Friday, and we will have a Goldfish-Pizza Fest for the final 7 Rounds at school on Saturday May 1.) So---should I wait until May 1st to send in the results of all 15 matches, or, would it be better for you if I were to email them piecemeal?

[master15625]

So, we finished all 15 packets. Hopefully you will receive our statistics at that time.

Thanks for allowing this tournament to happen.

[Edward Powers]

Coach Blessman,

Did you receive all of the Goldfish scorebooks in a timely fashion?

[Edward Powers]

Coach Blessman,

My Goldfish here are swimming crazily---seems they hunger for news of their cross-country brethern from the broad expanse of "Goldfishdom"---including locales like Alabama, Michigan, Kentucky, Looooong Island and your very own Indiana! I've never seen such Goldfishian behavior before---so curious, so anxious---I think it's the pre-nationals nerves that are doing it...they see teams like Hoover and Kellenberg and DCDS and Adair and Culver and..and..and...Well you know, Coach...they may be Goldfish, but I swear they think they are peacocks, they are "strutting so much"...(foolish and really anxious struts, of course, but you will understand their folly as you contine reading...

So---can you help my little Goldies out? I know, I know---it's a busy time of the year---but these are YOUNG Goldies, so they don't really know any better...One even suggested the heretical notion that you had forgotten about them!!!! ( a Sophomore, naturally---young but not inhibited at all by any of the accepted standards of basic civility---feeling his oats, you know---and sooooooooooooo impatient. Of course, being a soph, that doubtless comes with the territory, as we all know...so, I'm sure you'll forgive his sophmoric foolishness...( redundant, I know, but used to hone in on the source of the folly mentioned above, of course---and I have not even mentioned the frosh!!!!)...

Anyway coach, can you help my youngins??? I fear they might start circling the drain without at least a modest update...So---could you throw them a lifeline???( And me as well , since their supplications about Goldfish news are driving all the mature fish here crazy...)

In the future, when they are more mature, I am sure they would not be or even seem to be such pests...

So---can you help a fellow coach out to wisely address this fishy madness in a timely fashion???????????????

:):):)

[Edward Powers]

Edit: The previous post was duplicated so I deleted it.

[Ben Dillon]

I know Phil couldn't stick to the May 1 date because one team had an emergency. He moved the deadline to Tuesday night, so results are delayed a bit but should be forthcoming soon.

[pblessman]

Funny! I am aiming to complete calculations and stats postings this weekend. The last results came in Tuesday, so I'm a bit behind. Patience, grasshoppers... uhmmm... I mean goldfishies!

[ryandillon]

Coach Blessman,

My Goldfish here are swimming crazily---seems they hunger for news of their cross-country brethern from the broad expanse of "Goldfishdom"---including locales like Alabama, Michigan, Kentucky, Looooong Island and your very own Indiana! I've never seen such Goldfishian behavior before---so curious, so anxious---I think it's the pre-nationals nerves that are doing it...they see teams like Hoover and Kellenberg and DCDS and Adair and Culver and..and..and...Well you know, Coach...they may be Goldfish, but I swear they think they are peacocks, they are "strutting so much"...(foolish and really anxious struts, of course, but you will understand their folly as you contine reading...

So---can you help my little Goldies out? I know, I know---it's a busy time of the year---but these are YOUNG Goldies, so they don't really know any better...One even suggested the heretical notion that you had forgotten about them!!!! ( a Sophomore, naturally---young but not inhibited at all by any of the accepted standards of basic civility---feeling his oats, you know---and sooooooooooooo impatient. Of course, being a soph, that doubtless comes with the territory, as we all know...so, I'm sure you'll forgive his sophmoric foolishness...( redundant, I know, but used to hone in on the source of the folly mentioned above, of course---and I have not even mentioned the frosh!!!!)...

Anyway coach, can you help my youngins??? I fear they might start circling the drain without at least a modest update...So---could you throw them a lifeline???( And me as well , since their supplications about Goldfish news are driving all the mature fish here crazy...)

In the future, when they are more mature, I am sure they would not be or even seem to be such pests...

So---can you help a fellow coach out to wisely address this fishy madness in a timely fashion???????????????

:):):)

LIKE

[Edward Powers]

LIKE---Thanks...But the situation is now dire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My youngish Goldies, with no news from their beloved Coach Blessman, are now DELIBERATELY circling the drain!

Coach!!!!!!!! They are young and foolish---AGREED---but a lifeline might help. Any news for my Goldies about their tourney---the Goldfish Tournament? They're whining "He promised, he promised!!!!!!!!!!!!"---They do not seem to understand the complexities involved. Like your grasshoppers, my Goldies need all the help they can get---but they must be alive to receive it, and now they are playing "chicky" with the drain!!!!!!! I really do fear the worst if no lifeline arrives soon.

So---any help coming in the immediate future? Or must i say "Hasta la vista" to my youngins?????????

[master15625]

Mr. Blessman is preparing for Culver's Academic Regional Tournament this weekend, so he might have made sure that everything is going well for this upcoming tournament, and so he probably wasn't able to finish them over the weekend.

[pblessman]

Congrats to DCDS for CRUSHING the competition! Here are the final standings, game results forthcoming:

1. DCDS 10-0 607 PPG!!!
2. St. Joe's NJ 9-2 (St. Joe's defeated Hoover in Playoff for second)
3. Hoover 8-3
3. Kellenberg 7-3
5. Adair County 6-4
6. Culver 6-5 (Culver defeated St. Joe's in playoff for sixth)
7. St. Joe's, IN 5-6
8. Hoover B 3-8 (Hoover B defeated North White in playoff for eighth)
9. North White 2-9
10. St. Joe's NJ -B 2-9 (St. Joe's B defeated Kellenberg B in playoff for tenth)
11. Kellenberg B 1-10

[Joshua Rutsky]

Thanks for running this, Phil. I am sorry we couldn't get through all the packets and make it more interesting in that playoff round, but I really appreciated the opportunity to run the packets in a competition situation even if we couldn't make an actual tourney.

See you all at Nationals!

[pblessman]

Thanks, Josh, and thanks to all the teams who participated! It was a lot of fun, even though I have not figured out a convenient way to get individual stats calculated without spending hours upon hours doing this. DCDS is REALLY impressive. Putting up over 600 ppg (over 500 PP20TUH) on a field that includes five out of ten other teams (St. Joe's-NJ, Hoover, Kellenberg, Adair County, Culver) who will have a good chance of winning some games in the HSNCT playoffs... Wow! Those five teams all were between 300 and 365 PP20TUH... pretty good, but DCDS was over 130 PP20TUH clear of the field (NAQT will have game by game results posted later today). I'm looking forward to seeing DCDS in person this Saturday at Midwest playing against Dunbar, Manual, and DCC... Get ready for a buzzplosion! Good luck to all teams in the next couple of weeks. See you at HSNCT!

[Down and out in Quintana Roo]

Man i wish we could have done this. Hopefully next time.

[pblessman]

NAQT has uploaded results: http://www.naqt.com/stats/tournament-te ... nt_id=3319

[Edward Powers]

Coach Blessmen,

You have many young new friends here in Jersey, for just when things looked the worst, you came through and all of my youngins are celebrating---they won TWO matches and they are sooooooooooo excited. Looking at the field they thought victories would be quite, quite hard. And, of course, they were. But your timely intervention with scores restored their faith ( a volatile entity within their characters, for sure), so, you have new and devoted fans.

My A Team members of course want to pretend that they were calm throughout---but they were not. They secretly enjoyed the prospect of playing the many excellent teams you assembled in this field from distant parts of the country, and of course overall they are quite pleased by the results, for they had some wonderful successes against some very formidable teams. But what was most impressive about the field as a whole---DCDS excluded, of course, for it humbled us all by its obvious briliance---to repeat, what was most impressive about this field was its overall excellence as a whole, for 5 teams scored roughly between 300-360 pp20tuh, which means each of those 5 teams were superbly matched and were within one tossup & a 30'd bonus of basically turning the tables on any of the other 4---so we salute all these teams while candidly acknowledging DCDS' superb performance.

And thanks for doing this as well, Coach. See you and most of the other teams in Chicago, and good luck in the meantime with your tournament at Culver this weekend---seems you've assembled another outstanding field, this time one you can watch up close & personal, so, enjoy the fireworks. I will look forward to the results as they come in ( and this time without the braying of young and impatient goldies, thank goodness!!!!).