The Quizbowl Resource Center

Culver Academies will host the Fifth Annual Midwest Championship on Saturday, May 14, 2011 (this is the day AFTER AP's end). Culver is located in North Central Indiana, about fifty miles South of South Bend, and about 100 miles Southeast of Chicago.

This tournament is meant as a warm-up for Nationals-bound teams and an opportunity for good teams who can't make Nationals to compete at a similar level. This question is scheduled to use the Division II SCT set. Teams will be guaranteed a minimum of eight games.

We are aiming for a field size of twelve to twenty-four teams. In various years our field has included DCC, DCDS, East Lansing, New Trier (IL), Loyola (IL), Dunbar (KY), Manual (KY), Northmont (OH), and Culver (IN), among others.

The fee structure will tentatively be as follows (subject to change):

Registration fee: $60 per team,
Working buzzer system: -$10
Long drive discount: -$10 (>150 miles)
Really long drive/flight discount: -$20 (>300 miles)

We have housing available in our campus motel for $20/two person room. Our dining hall serves AYCE meals at a reasonable rate: $4/$5/$6 for breakfast/lunch/dinner.

Please register or express interest by e-mail ASAP, but certainly before April 14, 2011: blessmp [at] culver [dot] org
Let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks!

Phil
___________________________________________________________________

Field and Reader Updates (as of 5/8/2011) :

Field:
Culver (IN) x2
Detroit Catholic Central (MI) x2
Detroit Country Day School (MI)
Dorman (SC)
Dunbar (KY)
Harrison (IN)
Lisle (IL)
Loyola (IL)
Manual (KY)
Rockford Auburn (IL) x2
Seven Lakes (TX) x2
St. Joe's (IN)

Maybes/Standbys/Wait List:
Carbondale (IL)
Culver C (IN)
Harrison B (IN)
Loyola B (IL)

Readers:
Greg Bossick
Bryce Durgin
Jonah Greenthal
BJ Houlding
Mike Laudermith
David Madden
Mike Perovanovic

We're looking for experienced moderators for this tournament. Compensation is as follows:

$5 per match read
Motel room provided for Friday night
Breakfast and Lunch provided on Saturday

Please post here or email me to express interest.

Manual expresses interest

Put me down as probable for moderating, no housing required.

We plan to attend again.

I can't predict what i'll be doing on that exact date next year, but I'd love to moderate if I am free.

Even though it's almost a year away, everybody who came this year has expressed interest to attend in 2011 again, and Dorman is also tentatively planning on attending! So the (tentative) field is shaping up nicely:

EDIT: FIELD MOVED UP TO TOP TO UNCONFUSE

Fun! Let me know if you'd like to express interest to read or play!

We would love to go to this next year.
I'm not 100 percent sure we will be able to, but it is definitely a viable possibility.

Dorman isn't in this region... Don't they have a Mid-Atlantic one?

If Loyola can win the Iowa state championship, then I'm pretty sure Dorman is welcome to win the Midwest Championship.

BGSO wrote:If Loyola can win the Iowa state championship, then I'm pretty sure Dorman is welcome to win the Midwest Championship.

I initially thought they were on the same weekend for some reason. That's why I said my last post; no, they are welcome to come destroy us.

Danville is interested in attending next year as well.

Dorman is more than welcome to come, as is any team from anywhere, really. We've had teams from as far as Florida in the past... Thanks to Grayson County and Danville for expressing interest- I've added you to the "interested" list. I also wanted to let Danville (and everybody else out there) know that we are planning on regularly offering a Small School Division and/or trophy at our tournaments. We will do so at our Varsity and Frosh/Soph tourneys and we are planning on also doing this at Midwest. Most likely for Midwest we'll do something modeled on NAQT (everybody plays together and at the end the top small schools play off for the small school trophy). We will use a definition similar to NAQT's as we will not include selective admission schools in small schools, but we will not necessarily use the same cutoff for enrollment.

I would like to be added to the list of attendees. Two teams. Belvidere North, Belvidere, IL

As I mentioned last weekend, I will staff this. Mike Laudermith will be joining me in the trip to staff.

I am also currently discussing with St. Ignatius College Prep whether we will go as a team, Andrew alone, or neither.

I would like to sign up two teams for this event.

Thanks,

Chris Romero
Seven Lakes

Phil,
I'll likely be back to read for a mighty impressive field on 5/14 (let's say about 80% sure) Had a great time reading today, thanks for the most moderator-friendly arrangements of anywhere I've read.

With spring break approaching for many schools I wanted to give this a bump. The field looks great, but we have room for more!

Phil,
Northmont will not be in attendance this year. I will be in Arizona for a conference that weekend.

I think that we have been listed as "interested" or "tentative". We are definitely coming with 1 team.

Yeah I'm kind of confused by the presence of two "tentative" fields. Just curious as to which one is the official field.

Speaking of omissions, Mike Laudermith and I are both planning to staff.

Sorry about the field confusion... I've eliminated the second one and now the first list should be right. I'll double-check with teams in the next couple weeks to make sure everybody is still coming. Looks like our strongest field yet!

I'll come down and staff, Mr. Blessman.

Auburn tentatively registered two teams today, which puts us at nineteen registered teams, thirteen of which are in the most recent Top 100 (http://hsqbrank.wordpress.com/2011/02/2 ... e/#more-68), including six of the top 25:

6. Dorman A (SC)
9. Seven Lakes (TX)
11. Auburn A (IL)
13. Detroit Catholic Central A (MI)
15. Dunbar A (KY)
17. Loyola (IL)
31. duPont Manual (KY)
38. Detroit Catholic Central B (MI)
55. Culver (IN)
70. Danville (KY)
77. Auburn B (IL)
93. Belvidere North (IL)
97. Detroit Country Day (MI)

I'm thinking of capping the field at 24, which would leave five spots open at this point. Please e-mail me ASAP if you'd like to add.

I'm sorry to say that we will not be able to make it to this tournament this year. Maybe next year!

Champaign Centennial will bring one team so long as the field is still open.

Novi is interested in coming to this tournament, probably with one team. At this point it looks unlikely that we will be able to come, but we just wanted to let you know that we are considering coming.

If needed, I can probably come and staff this. Or, Lisle might be able to field a team.

Greg and Harsha (and any others)- we're happy to have you at the tournament, but please let me know in the next day or two if you are seriously interested in coming. I would like to get this field settled soon.

Phil,

Danville will be unable to attend this year. Sorry.

I cannot believe I had absolutely no clue we were attending this. But, more quizbowl is more quizbowl!

EDIT: Looks like North is out due to an extreme lack of funds, apparently.

Belvidere North has indeed officially withdrawn- hopefully you can make it next year! We still have a VERY strong field of ffifteen with six teams ranked in Fred Morlan's Top 20, the next seven in the Top 100 and only two unranked teams (both of which are going to NAQT Nationals):

6. Seven Lakes A (TX) 
7. Dorman A (SC) 
12. Detroit Catholic Central A (MI) 
13. Auburn A (IL) 
16. Dunbar A (KY) 
18. Loyola (IL) 
29. duPont Manual (KY) 
34. Lisle (IL)
36. Detroit Catholic Central B (MI) 
56. Culver A (IN) 
88. Detroit Country Day (MI)
89. Seven Lakes B (TX)
93. Auburn B (IL)
UR Culver B (IN)
UR St.Joe's (IN) 

At this point I am happy to stick with the field we have and play two seven-team round robins with exhibition cross-overs in the morning followed by an 8-6 re-bracket in the afternoon with matches from the morning carrying over, followed by an advantaged final. However, I am also open to expanding the field to 16 or 18 if a few more teams want to come. Please let me know ASAP if you'd like to add!

pblessman wrote:At this point I am happy to stick with the field we have and play two seven-team round robins with exhibition cross-overs in the morning followed by an 8-6 re-bracket in the afternoon with matches from the morning carrying over, followed by an advantaged final. However, I am also open to expanding the field to 16 or 18 if a few more teams want to come. Please let me know ASAP if you'd like to add!

Why not do a full round robin followed by advantaged finals? This takes the same number of packets as what you have proposed (namely, all 16 if there is a two-game final) but is decidedly more awesome.

I think when he says "morning matches carry over" he means "carry over and therefore don't get replayed," which would take fewer packets than 16. Still, a full RR might go over well with the field.

Brad's right. I was intending for 11 rounds plus the final... Hmmm.... I kind of like the full RR idea... Thanks, Jonah, for the suggestion! Let me check with the other teams to see if they can/want to stay that long... with a 9 am start 13 rounds plus any possible tiebreaker plus finals might be a bit long... we have sixteen packets, but this would take us possibly until 6 pm, assuming we crank through rounds at 30 min per round.

By the way, I made a mistake: it only takes 15 packets (13 regular, 2 finals).

Lisle (IL) just added, so we're at 15 teams. Things just keep getting better!

Harrison (IN) just added one team for sure and maybe a second team... Loyola B and Culver C are also available, so we have sixteen registered and three standing by to round out the field if necessary... Looks like 18 will be the field size, so if anybody out there is still thinking about adding, I need to know ASAP.

We're at 16 right now, and I'm wondering if that might be a better number than 18... Considering the quality of the field I want to:

1. Provide as many matches as possible (11+Tiebreakers+Advantaged Final seems the max to me).
2. Make sure as many of the top-50 teams as possible play each other (we have nine in the top 36).
3. Avoid repeats.

So I'm thinking two eight-team round robins followed by a two rebracketed RRs with top teams playing four matches against the other morning RR's top teams, and bottom teams playing four matches against bottom teams. This means everybody plays all seven of the other teams in their half of the final standings and four from the other half... If we have 18 teams the best I can come up with is 3x6 rebracketed WITH repeats (to maximize games). This would mean all teams play all five other teams in their third of the final standings at least once (with one repeat) and two of the teams from each of the other two PM brackets.

I'd prefer the 2x8 over the 3x6, but I'm open to input (especially from people attending, but everybody can chime in, of course).

pblessman wrote:If we have 18 teams the best I can come up with is 3x6 rebracketed WITH repeats (to maximize games). This would mean all teams play all five other teams in their third of the final standings at least once (with one repeat) and two of the teams from each of the other two PM brackets.

You could do 2 brackets of 9 and then 3 of 6, though it requires paper tiebreakers.

jonah wrote:

pblessman wrote:If we have 18 teams the best I can come up with is 3x6 rebracketed WITH repeats (to maximize games). This would mean all teams play all five other teams in their third of the final standings at least once (with one repeat) and two of the teams from each of the other two PM brackets.

You could do 2 brackets of 9 and then 3 of 6, though it requires paper tiebreakers.

Or the other way around.

New Trier just expressed strong interest, so this might be a moot point! Yay! For 18 the 6-6-6 then 9-9 idea looks interesting... If I'm not mistaken this should allow us to get done in 12 rounds plus tiebreakers, plus advantaged final, if the two matches from the morning rounds are carried over to the pm. Has anybody schedules this before? If yes, can you send me your bracket?

pblessman wrote:New Trier just expressed strong interest, so this might be a moot point! Yay! For 18 the 6-6-6 then 9-9 idea looks interesting... If I'm not mistaken this should allow us to get done in 12 rounds plus tiebreakers, plus advantaged final, if the two matches from the morning rounds are carried over to the pm. Has anybody schedules this before? If yes, can you send me your bracket?

I am suspicious as to whether you can really do the afternoon in 7 rounds, since you can't schedule all your inter-bracket games into two rounds and then eliminate them, like you can with nice even numbers. (I'm still fiddling with it, but I'm moderately confident about not succeeding.) If you went the other way (i.e., 9s first then 6s), then you would be able to get out in 12.

tabstop wrote:

pblessman wrote:New Trier just expressed strong interest, so this might be a moot point! Yay! For 18 the 6-6-6 then 9-9 idea looks interesting... If I'm not mistaken this should allow us to get done in 12 rounds plus tiebreakers, plus advantaged final, if the two matches from the morning rounds are carried over to the pm. Has anybody schedules this before? If yes, can you send me your bracket?

I am suspicious as to whether you can really do the afternoon in 7 rounds, since you can't schedule all your inter-bracket games into two rounds and then eliminate them, like you can with nice even numbers. (I'm still fiddling with it, but I'm moderately confident about not succeeding.) If you went the other way (i.e., 9s first then 6s), then you would be able to get out in 12.

This is correct. It's not a huge deal, but another reason that doing the brackets of 9 first is that then, there can be (non-counting) crossover matches that actually make sense.

Thanks, Jonah! Good point... just got to the same conclusion after I thought about it a bit more.

A1-B1, A2-C2, B3-C3, A3-B2, C1 free
A1-C1, B2-C2, A3-B3, A2-C3, B1 free
B1-C1, A2-B2, A3-C3, B3-C2, A1 free
A1-B2, B3-C1, A3-C2, B1-C3, A2 free
A1-C3, A2-B3, B1-C2, A3-C1, B2 free
B2-C3, A2-C1, A3-B1, A1-B3, C2 free
A1-C2, A2-B1, B2-C1, A3 free, B3 free, C3 free

Where the As, Bs, and Cs were in the same bracket and have carryover matches.

Nice job! I actually just finished my own solution after redoubting myself (and Jonah...):

B1-C3 A2-C2 A3-B2 C1-B3 A1BYE
A1-B3 A3-C3 A3-C2 C1-B2 B1BYE
A1-C3 B1-A3 A2-B2 C2-B3 C1BYE
A1-B2 C1-A3 B1-C2 B3-C3 A2BYE
A1-C2 B1-C1 A2-B3 A3-C3 B2BYE
A1-B1 C1-A2 B2-C3 B3-A3 C2BYE
A1-C1 B1-A2 B2-C2 A3B3C3 BYES

Fun! I think we'll play this if we have 18... seems more fun than the 2x9 then 3x6 option... gives us five rounds before lunch, seven after plus Finals. Yay!

If you switch the 1s and 3s, and make the top three teams in each bracket 1,2,3, then this would also maximize the chance of being able to start the finals a round earlier.

New Trier is not going for sure, so I am going to close the field at 16. Any additional teams beyond the 16 registered can be added to the waitlist/standby list. As things stand I am planning on running two groups of eight in the morning. Teams will be seeded by the most current Top 100 published by Fred Morlan, with switches in the AM RR composition only being made to avoid prelim matches between teams from the same school (only three teams are unranked). The top four from each Prelim RR advance to the Championship RR, and the bottom four advance to the Consolation RR. Morning matches against teams advancing to the same bracket carry over to the afternoon. Tiebreakers will be common matches. Paper tiebreakers will only be used to decide order of playoff if a three or more-way tie exists. We'll finish with an advantaged final, if necessary.

Yay! We're VERY excited about this event! Thanks so much to all the teams who will attend!