VCU Closed: Penn Mirror (February 2, 2013)

[Ras superfamily]

This is the official post for information regarding the Penn mirror of VCU Closed. This tournament is taking place on February 2nd, 2013.

For information regarding the questions for this set, please see viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12678. This is a packet submission tournament. Please see the original announcement post at viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12678 for information regarding submissions.

Registration Fees:

The base fee for this tournament is $120. The packet discounts/penalties are as follows:

Packet submitted by October 31, 2012: -$60
Packet submitted by December 11, 2012: -$30
Packet submitted by January 1, 2013: No discount or penalty.
Every day after January 1 adds $5 to your fee, with an unless-otherwise-agreed-to deadline of January 22 (+$105). After January 22, you must apply for an exemption to continue accruing $5 penalties, or be dropped from the tournament.

Working buzzer discount: $10 each
Approved moderator discount: $10 each
Travel discount: $10 (more than 200 miles one way according to Google maps)

Logistics:

This tournament will take place in Williams Hall. Registration will be in room 318 starting at 8:15am. More information has been sent out to team contacts.

Field/Registration:

Please email me at [email protected] with your number of teams, buzzers, and moderators and whether you are claiming a travel discount. Please bring your buzzers if you are able to do so.

Registered: (teams/buzzers/staffers)
Columbia (2/2/0)
Dartmouth (3/1/0)
Delaware (1/2/1)
Harvard (2/0/0)
Haverford (1/1/0)
Maryland (2/1/0)
Penn (2/1)
Rutgers (1/1/0)
Stony Brook (1/1/0)
Williams (1/1/0)
Yale (2/2/0)

Total: (18/13/1)

[Sima Guang Hater]

Hey everyone, I'd like to put out a special call for staffers for this tournament; if there is a team near you who is coming to Philadelphia for VCU closed, or if you have some easy way to get to Philadelphia that day, please consider coming down and staffing. We're planning to have a pretty large field (from both the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast) and would like to have as large and well-run a tournament as possible. We will of course provide lunch, gratitude, and lodging to the best of our ability.

[Sima Guang Hater]

Here's a list of teams that have indicated their interest, either by talking to me or sending a packet in, without officially registering - please email Saajid to get signed up!
Harvard - 1+ (packet not yet submitted)
Haverford - 1+ (one packet submitted)
Maryland - 2+ (one packet submitted)
Rutgers-NB - 1+ (one packet submitted)


Total unaccounted for field - 5 teams


Furthermore, there's a lot of the usual suspects who haven't told me anything. Cornell, GMU, GWU, Penn State, Pitt, Brown, MIT, Brandeis, Wellesley, Princeton, Stony Brook, RPI, Buffalo, Hunter College High School, NYU, Whatever Team Doug Yetman's On, where are you guys.

[Ras superfamily]

The field cap has been removed because we got additional rooms

[Sima Guang Hater]

Hey, I want to remind people that if you haven't played a college tournament before May 1, 2011, you can play this tournament without writing a packet. Several teams who showed up to Penn-ance at Penn, I believe, meet this no-packet requirement (CCNY, Cornell, people from Penn State, Stony Brook). Furthermore, I know there are several New England teams who also don't have to write packets (I'm still waiting for your packets though, Harvard and Brown!). So come on down.

[gyre and gimble]

Hey, I think we have interest for 2 teams but put us down for 1-2. Our packet's coming very soon.

EDIT: 2 teams it is.

[Ras superfamily]

Field update: Dartmouth registered 3 teams. If any other teams are interested in signing up, please do so by the end of the weekend.

[Ras superfamily]

This field is now closed

[Adventure Temple Trail]

Just to confirm, what time will round 1 be starting? 9 AM? If the schedule is particularly long, I might suggest being especially stern about starting on time, and would also strongly consider having teams order food for central delivery during a shortened lunch break.

[Ras superfamily]

We will be starting at 9:00am and will take orders for lunch at registration. More information has been sent out to team contacts.

[Sima Guang Hater]

Hey if anyone can bring an extra team, extra players for a scab team, or hasn't yet signed up and doesn't require packet submission, please let us know. It would make the format much easier.

[btressler]

A scab team.

Isn't this one of the crimes that incurs the zillion dollar penalty for quizbowl shenanigans during this event?

[Matt Weiner]

A scab team.

Isn't this one of the crimes that incurs the zillion dollar penalty for quizbowl shenanigans during this event?

This is true. Only real teams representing exactly one real school may play this tournament.

[Sima Guang Hater]

A scab team.

Isn't this one of the crimes that incurs the zillion dollar penalty for quizbowl shenanigans during this event?

This is true. Only real teams representing exactly one real school may play this tournament.

I stand corrected.

[Masked Canadian History Bandit]

Stats after Prelims available here.

[Masked Canadian History Bandit]

Yale A went 5-0 and cleared the field. Harvard A, Maryland A, Penn, Columbia A, and Yale B rounded out the top bracket. The top scorers from the preliminary rounds were Matt Jackson from Yale and Chris Ray from Maryland.

Prelims: http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... standings/
All games: http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... standings/
Games that counted: http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... standings/

Thanks to everyone who showed up!

P.S. Feel free to PM me any stats corrections.

[Nine-Tenths Ideas]

Hey, this tournament went pretty well. We got out at a reasonable time and everything seemed pretty together.

My only question is, what happened during this Dartmouth C- Delaware game? How did it happen?

[Sima Guang Hater]

During round 8, the wrong packet was read to Dartmouth C vs Stony Brook. The next round, Dartmouth C heard the same packet against Delaware, but didn't say anything about it; therefore, they have forfeited that game. I am trying to ascertain what happened in the next game that Stony Brook played, but if they also heard the same questions again similar actions will be taken.

[Lightly Seared on the Reality Grill]

What happened was that we heard the/an editors packet (thus explaining the awful 110-50 score). We had the same moderator in all of our playoff games; there's no way he would've read the same packet twice.

[Cheynem]

Don't persecute Robert Pond, Eric!

[Sima Guang Hater]

What happened was that we heard the/an editors packet (thus explaining the awful 110-50 score). We had the same moderator in all of our playoff games; there's no way he would've read the same packet twice.

Excellent. No problems here then.

I don't know the procedure for this, but I believe that Dartmouth C team should be sanctioned in some way.

[Chimango Caracara]

I would like to apologize on behalf of Dartmouth C. None of the players on the team had ever played at a tournament before. One had attended only one practice, one had attended two and one just came with his friends without ever even coming to practice before.

Given the team's lack of experience, I hope that everyone will understand their behavior as the product of confusion rather than the intention to cheat. I spoke with the team and they were all puzzled by the fact that they were hearing the same questions again, but they did not know that this was an error since they had never really played before. I can assure you that there was no ulterior motive behind their decision to continue to play. As hard as it may be to believe, they thought that the repetition of packets was just a new wrinkle in the tournament that they didn't fully understand yet.

The members of Dartmouth C now understand that they should not have continued to play. At future tournaments, I will personally ensure that every Dartmouth player knows that when he or she hears repeated questions, he or she should immediately inform the moderator and that a failure to do so is cheating. Again, I'm sorry that this occurred and I hope that the quizbowl community will not hold it against the members of Dartmouth C should they decide to attend another tournament.

[Cheynem]

This strikes me as a slightly more extreme level of when a new team doesn't realize you can't just talk during tossups and gets negged for conferring. Yeah, ideally, someone should have figured out what was going on and stopped the round before it finished (or even got to the half), but I think Nick's explanation makes sense. These did not seem like circuit veterans or professionals who knew exactly what they were doing was wrong. The forfeit was the correct move and I think we should just leave it at that. Of course, this is not my tournament, so I'll hold off on making pronouncements.

[mastaloo]

If it means anything coming from the opposing team, I agree that the forfeit is enough of a penalty.

[Sima Guang Hater]

Sounds fair to me. I consider the matter resolved.