The Quizbowl Resource Center

DISCLAIMER: Seth Teitler is in no way affiliated with this tournament. If you would like the name changed Seth please let me know.

This is the announcement for Seth Teitler Presents: An Intimate Engagement with Trash, a trash tournament to be run in the Spring of 2013 most likely. The writing team consists of Brian McNamara, Owen Cooper, Nolan "Not Baby Nolan" Esser and myself. We are looking to pair it with an academic tournament in the Spring and are open to mirrors across the nation. If anyone is running a spring tournament and would be interested in pairing this tournament with it please contact me at das4gs [at] virginia [dot] edu. Professional and amateur trash players are welcome.

We expect to write somewhere between 12-15 packets at a difficulty that is something around regular or slightly above regular difficulty trash (including two higher difficulty finals packets). Tossups will be between 6-8 lines 10pt TNR. Powers may be included and there will be no lames or other special rules.

Distribution:
4/4 Sports: 1/1 Football 1/1 Baseball 1/1 Basketball 1/1 Other
4/4 Film: 1/1 Pre-1980’s 2/1 or 1/2 1980’s and 90’s 2/1 or 1/2 2000’s with a mix of genres
4/4 TV: .5/.5 pre 1990 1/1 1990 2.5/2.5 2000 or later with a mix of genres
4/4 Music: 1/1 Rock 1/1 Pop 1/1 Rap, R&B, Soul 1/1 Other or more of big three with a mix of times
1.5/1.5 Video Games
1/1 Comics/Trash Lit
1.5/1.5 Other

Fee: The fee will be $25 per player, with discounts to be determined later.

While this can run anytime, is there any chance it could become next year's CO Trash? I'd hate to see that event die out.

Cheynem wrote:While this can run anytime, is there any chance it could become next year's CO Trash? I'd hate to see that event die out.

I can't speak for the other members of the writing staff, but if that was the situation that created the most demand for this project, then I personally wouldn't object.

ETA: Although, my personal goal for this tournament is for it to be a bit easier than CO Trashes of the past.

Given the excellent distribution and writing competence of the people putting this tournament together, I would be happy to see this act as a CULT-like national trash championship - a huge market niche that has been entirely unexplored since that one year we actually had a CULT.

Yeah, I don't want to be a champion in perpetuity.

I'm not opposed to making this either CO trash next year or a national title tourney but I'd want to see how things go first for a little while. Also we'd have to discuss the difficulty again, as our target difficulty was probably a little low for a national championship type tournament. But I'd say that both of these could be possibilities. However, if it is a national championship I will be naming myself an honorary national champion.

Presuming there are no serious objections I'm going to announce this as CO Trash for this summer. This is of course pending a CO schedule that allows for it.

Cultural Infidel wrote:Presuming there are no serious objections I'm going to announce this as CO Trash for this summer. This is of course pending a CO schedule that allows for it.

As the writer of the most recent CO Trash, I hereby grant your tournament my seal of approval. Looking forward to it.

Since this is now green-lighted with a date, perhaps a field list/team forming spreadsheet could be found? Unless you want to put it another thread?

Team Signup Sheet:

https://docs.google.com/a/virginia.edu/ ... TS3c#gid=0

So what is the target difficulty?

It's a little difficult to be as precise with target difficulty when it comes to trash, but my goal is to approximate the difficulties of past CO Trash tournaments. It should be accessible to most people. Also this tournament's distribution does skew more recent than most other trash tournaments, which I hope will make it more accessible.

Cultural Infidel wrote:Team Signup Sheet:

https://docs.google.com/a/virginia.edu/ ... TS3c#gid=0

The sheet is set to read-only right now.

Should be fixed now.

Dominator wrote:So what is the target difficulty?

If this helps clarify, I prefer to write questions with accessible answers and harder clues than making a tournament difficult through answer selection.

When is this happening?

This is being run on the Sunday of CO weekend.

Any word on start time?

Expect details about start time and other logistical stuff soon. In the meanwhile, I'll reiterate that those interested in playing should sign up, those interested in staffing should staff, and those not interested in staffing should still staff.

There has been discussion about running this in the afternoon starting at 3 and running Urgent Call for Unity in the morning. Before making a decision on this I would like to know if this would interfere with the travel plans of anyone playing STP. Please post here if this time switch would affect your ability to play.

This time switch would probably preclude me from playing the last few rounds. This tournament should be run in the morning.

I'm currently signed up, but I would be extremely unlikely to play if this were held in the afternoon.

Since Evan is on my team and I intend for him to be on my side as I hoist the championship in the air with a tear in my eye, I would also like it in the morning.

Cheynem wrote:Since Evan is on my team and I intend for him to be on my side as I hoist the championship in the air with a tear in my eye, I would also like it in the morning.

Me too.

As two-time defending second place champion of Chicago Open's trash tournaments, I would prefer this be in the morning so I can maintain/lose my title the proper way.

I'd prefer this to be a morning event.

Given the consensus seems to be that a morning start is preferential, that's what we're going to to go with. Play will start as soon as humanly possible at 8AM. This means that teams will have to be physically present outside of Cobb at no later than 7:45 AM. Registration will be done outside and setup will be done as soon as the doors are unlocked. We are attempting to get through two 10 round events in one day, so leeway given in showing up late will be extremely minimal. I know this horse has been beaten to death, but WE WILL START WITHOUT YOU. Marshall and I will be TDing the event and I'm giving Marshall final authority to make the call as to whether we start without teams present. We're going to be trying to successfully complete 20 rounds of quiz bowl over the course of the day and we simply do not have any room to wait 15-20 minutes for a team who gives the "we'll be there in five minutes" or "we're just finding a parking spot" lines.

As Nolan says, I will be TDing the trash tournament with him, including sticking to the 8AM start time and maintaining the pace of the tournament to finish at 2.00 PM. Please arrive outside Cobb between 7.30 and 7.45 AM to register; if we can enter the building then, we will. I'd like to keep a master list of staffers for both trash and history, as well as buzzers, so if you're planning to bring either please email me the details at msteinbaum at gmail. In order to make a tightly scheduled day run smoothly, we will need as much cross-staffing as possible, so if you're only planning to play one tournament, please staff the other.

We will be making a collective order for a delicious jerk chicken lunch from Uncle Joe's, to be wolfed down carnivorously between the two tournaments. It will be something between $5-$10/person to partake. If you need to eat between 7.45 and 2.00, please make sure you bring something because there will not be any breaks during the tournament.

I am a free agent for this tournament, and I added my name to the spreadsheet.

Hey folks,

We're trying to get an idea of which free agents are still looking for teams so we can announce a field cap. If you're sitting on the fence about coming, make a decision and get your name in the Google Doc within the next few days.

EDIT: Not a field cap inherently, so much as a concrete number of teams.

I'll sign up as a free agent. I'd prefer to play with someone I know, though there aren't too many of those people. I don't care how good my teammates are.

For what it's worth, I set up a QB Database entry here with a link to the sign-up doc there and I'll guess I'll drop it here again as well:

Sign-up Doc

A couple of things:

1) If you have any interest in mirroring this tournament after it runs during CO weekend, please send me a PM.

2) I'm going to start playtesting questions in the IRC. I'll start tonight at 10:30 PM Eastern time.

I'll be playtesting again at 10:30 Eastern tonight.

Hey folks,

I'm going to drop another reminder about consolidating teams. Right now, we've got 13 full teams with 11 possible free agents. Given the number of currently unaffiliated free agents, I'd like to see that number drop before the field is closed, so hash that out amongst yourselves.

Also, for the teams of four on the spreadsheet that have committed to play, I'd like to request a confirmation email from one member of your team with the following information:
1. Confirmation that you indeed are planning on attending
2. An official roster so I can get the preliminary SQBS work done ahead of time.
3. A yes or no as to whether your team is bringing a buzzer.
4. A phone number where I can contact at least one member your team if you're running late (which you won't because we will start without you).

If you're staffing, send me an email that you are indeed going to staff. It looks like a few more staffers are needed to make this run efficiently.

Send the relevant info to esser dot nolan at gmail.com soon.

Thanks everyone,
Nolan

Also, Marshall could use some staff for history as well. Like smoking, all the cool kids are doing it, so if want to be cool with the Varsity football team, you'll staff too.

We've got another spot open on my squad - if anyone wants in, just ask me.

Colby Burnett wrote:We've got another spot open on my squad - if anyone wants in, just ask me.

Translation: who wants to win CO trash?

I'm still teamless and planning to play; if anyone wants a mediocre trash player who knows some things about sports/movies/comic strips, I'd be happy to join your team.

merv1618 wrote:

Colby Burnett wrote:We've got another spot open on my squad - if anyone wants in, just ask me.

Translation: who wants to win CO trash?

I have lived my life with one rule and one rule only: to be THE MAN, you have to BEAT the man. And on July 21, 2013, my team and I will be THE MAN at CO Trash.

It's true. It's damn true.

Please continue posting exclusively in the form of promos, Mike.

I think 16 teams would be ideal for this: two brackets of 8 for a 7 game prelim round robin, followed by four brackets of four for a three round playoff, followed by finals if needed. According to the sheet, we've got 14 teams; two of which currently have three members and one team which currently have two members. If in the next couple days we could flesh to out to 16 full teams, my life would be made easier. I think fifteen is doable, but more difficult, but fourteen seems nasty based on my past 15 minutes or so of brainstorming.

However, only six teams have sent me confirmation messages. Fix that please. Thanks all.

Cheynem wrote:

merv1618 wrote:

Colby Burnett wrote:We've got another spot open on my squad - if anyone wants in, just ask me.

Translation: who wants to win CO trash?

I have lived my life with one rule and one rule only: to be THE MAN, you have to BEAT the man. And on July 21, 2013, my team and I will be THE MAN at CO Trash.

It's true. It's damn true.

To be THE MAN, you must also beat the man who has placed second through fourth at all of these other than that year he played with you. So, I propose our match as a Dimona street fight. This will require filling the match room with sand and a plane to fly in A. B. Yehoshua. Make it happen infinity $ budget.

We are also looking for a 4th for our team. Ideally will be someone who can lock down NFL and NBA or video games and 2010s music/culture, since I am currently the youngest member of our team... humanstainremover at gmail dot com

I'm going to declare a field cap of 16 teams. As of right now, we have 14 teams, three of which currently only have three members. That means the field can accommodate eleven more players. The following people are listed as free agents:

Delano Barnes (maybe)
Bernadette Spencer
Jerry Vinokurov
Ryan Westbrook
Jake Sundberg (maybe)
Jonathan Magin
Eric Mukherjee
Stephen Liu
Trevor Davis
Gordon Arsenoff

I'd imagine the above folks might want to sort themselves out into teams to get in the field.

I'm going to be doing some playtesting for this tournament Tuesday and Wednesday (ie: tomorrow and the day after) in the IRC at 10PM EST. Questions will mainly be on film and television.

I just realized that I should probably ask if anyone is going to want an invoice for this.

Playtesting will now be at 10:30 EST tonight, instead of 10:00. Sorry if this inconveniences anyone!

This is starting in approx ten minutes in #cotrash.

Thanks to everyone who helped with this tonight. It was just brought to my attention that VCU Open has playtesting tomorrow as well, so we'll start again around 10:30 EST (or, when VCUO is finished up) tomorrow evening #cotrash. Questions will be on TV, predominantly.

Hey folks, as of right now I count 12 staffers for this event. While this is enough to run it, it would probably go smoother with a few more. The following people are on my list of staffers. Please let me know immediately if I should take you off of this list.

Staff:
Me
Sara Burke
Marshall
Joe Su
Alex Gerten
Jacob O'Rourke
John Lawrence
Mike Laudermith
Ahmad Ragab
Nick Jensen
Cameron Orth
Jeff Hoppes.
Kurtis Droge

I think we'll be running eight rooms at a time, so technically we have enough to run the tournament, but given how important it is to keep this going as quickly as possible, I'd like to be able to get a few more scorekeepers. As for buzzers, I've been promised a total of eight from the following sources:

Chicago House Buzzers: 4
Jacob O'Rourke: 1
Will Nediger's team: 1
Matt Laird's Contingent: 1
Sam Bailey and co.: 1

One or two more sets might help in case of technical difficulty. Let me know if that buzzer list needs to be changed. We also still need a 16th team to form. If you're a free agent, expect a message from me through some channel (most likely a PM here or on Facebook).