MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

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MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by Dead Parrot »

This is the general announcement of the Rutgers mirror of the Minnesota Undergraduate Tournament (MUT) on SUNDAY, April 12th. More information about the set, including its distribution, can be found in its original announcement, and questions from past iterations can be downloaded here.

Eligibility: As its name suggests, this tournament will only be open to college undergraduates (i.e. without a bachelor’s degree) and high school students. Graduate students may not play. Furthermore, all teams must consist of players from the same school (i.e. no open teams are permitted).

Field Size: There is a preliminary field cap of 16 teams, which may be expanded depending on how many buzzers and staffers we receive. After the first 16 teams have registered, subsequent registrations will be placed on a waitlist.

Rosters: Teams are limited to rosters of six players, of which four may play at any one time. Substitutions may be made at halftime during games, as well as in between games. Schools with seven or more players must register for more than one team for all of them to play.

Registration and fees:

Base fee: $120
Buzzer discount: -$10
Staffer discount: -$15
Travel discount: -$10 per 200 miles traveled one-way (according to Google Maps)

The minimum fee per team is $60.

To register, please e-mail me at [email protected] and include how many teams, buzzers, and staffers you are bringing, as well as a cell phone number in case it is necessary to contact teams on the day of the tournament. No other form of registration will be accepted.

Payment: All teams must pay by the day of the tournament. Teams that do not will be charged a $25 penalty fee. We will accept either cash or checks. No other form of payment will be accepted. All checks must be made out to “Rutgers University Academic Team”.

Location: The tournament will be held in Hickman Hall (89 George Street) (NOT in Murray Hall as previously announced), on the Douglass campus of Rutgers-New Brunswick.

Transportation and Parking: It is HIGHLY recommended that teams use public transportation on the day of the tournament if at all possible. Teams are particularly advised to take the New Jersey Transit Northeast Corridor train to New Brunswick. The train can be accessed from both New York City (Penn Station) and Philadelphia (via the SEPTA to Trenton). (Unfortunately, however, it stops about a mile away from Hickman Hall.) If you do choose to drive to the tournament and park on campus, you must purchase a $5 visitor parking permit here (permits can only be purchased online on weekdays from 8AM to 5PM) and use this parking deck (do NOT park in the lot in front of Hickman Hall). Alternatively, you can also park in these facilities provided by the City of New Brunswick (please check if a particular lot is open on Sundays), for a slightly higher fee.

Schedule: We ask that all teams arrive by 8:45 AM, and games will begin at 9:15 at the latest. The precise schedule will be determined by the final size of the field, but we hope to provide 10 guaranteed games to all teams. Book prizes will be awarded to members of the winning team, as well as the highest overall scorers.

Food: Neither breakfast nor lunch will be provided at the tournament. We will supply a list of places to eat during the lunch break.
Last edited by Dead Parrot on Mon Mar 23, 2015 2:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by Dead Parrot »

Field:

Teams (#/Buzzers/Staffers):
Columbia (2/0/0)
Delaware (1/3/0)
"J.P. Wynne" (1/2/1)
Lawrence (2/1/0)
Maryland (1/1/0)
NYU (1/0/0)
Penn (3/0/0)
Princeton (2/0/0)
RPI (1/1/0)

TOTAL: (14/8/1)
Last edited by Dead Parrot on Thu Apr 09, 2015 9:38 pm, edited 16 times in total.
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

If there's no normal Northeast mirror announced, I'll probably try to play solo somehow if I can.
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by Aaron's Rod »

...so, Lawrence might come to this.
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

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The location of the tournament has been switched from Murray Hall on College Avenue campus to Hickman Hall on Douglass campus. The original announcement has been updated accordingly.
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by Coldblueberry »

Are there campus-loop buses that can take us to Hickman Hall from the NJTransit station?
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by Dead Parrot »

Coldblueberry wrote:Are there campus-loop buses that can take us to Hickman Hall from the NJTransit station?
Indeed there is. Thank you for reminding me to post about that. Teams who are arriving via the NJ Transit should take the Weekend 2 bus (NOT the Weekend 1) from the Train Station stop (located at the intersection of Somerset Street and Wall Street) to the Cabaret Theater stop (located on Nichol Avenue, across from the Douglass Student Center) and walk to Hickman Hall from there. As teams will most likely be arriving at 8:11 AM (for those coming from NYC/Newark) and 8:27 AM (for those coming from the Philadelphia area), they should do everything possible to make the Weekend 2 bus that departs from the Train Station at 8:33. Since the Rutgers bus system is rather confusing for those unaccustomed to it, we will try our best to send a member of our Club to escort them to the tournament site.
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by Antrobus63 »

I see that you don't want mixed teams, but doe this apply to high schools as well? We are looking for an opportunity for the Pennsylvania NASAT team to play together under tournament conditions.
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

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Antrobus63 wrote:I see that you don't want mixed teams, but doe this apply to high schools as well?
I'm going to have to say yes, for now. However, if the head editor ([email protected]) gives you an exemption, I'd be happy to let Team PA into the field.
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by Dead Parrot »

With Delaware's registration, we are closing the field at 14 teams. A logistical e-mail is forthcoming. EDIT: It's been sent out.
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by Aaron's Rod »

Since we'll be travelling for most of the day and I'll only have occasional Internet access, I'll just start this off right now while we're eating lunch.

Shame on Rutgers...all two (maybe three?) of their staffers who were present at 8:45 AM today. A Princeton team apparently dropped last-minute. Sucks, but that's why you have contingency schedules, right? Well, they didn't have that, but maybe a half-hour later David managed to have some 13-team round robin drawn up. At like 9:15, 9:30, RPI still had not shown up, and David was visibly flustered. As RPI had the first bye, that would require six moderators, and again, Rutgers had three. Delaware had five people, so they basically begged Delaware to volunteer their fifth player as a staffer.

After almost an hour and a half after we were supposed to start, it was clear that thousands of dollars of Lawrence's and my money, as I personally fronted a large proportion of our travel fees, we're about to go down the drain, so I (hardly an experienced TD) pushed one of our players into reading and suggested to David that they start with round 2 and whoever was supposed to play RPI had a bye until they showed up (which they eventually did). Lawrence people staffed the first three games where our A team went shorthanded. The Rutgers moderators were near incomprehensible from trying to catch up. We fit in four rounds before a 1:15 lunch.

I'm particularly sad because we have a 6:30 flight and knew we might have to forfeit the last couple of games to make our flight. Now it looks like we might fit in maybe six games before that. I see it as an ambitious freshman who wanted to excite a (possibly nonexistent, from what I can see) Rutgers club. Well, incompetently hosting a tournament was a bad way to start.

We (I) have already wasted thousands of dollars, and I would recommend that everybody view events run by these people with extreme suspicion.

TL;DR I'm not paying our tournament fees. This is outrageous.
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

Wow, thank goodness I didn't come down from Hanover to show up to this disaster. Thank you, Stephen Eltinge.
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by jonpin »

I'm doing my best to help out, but yeah this is... not the best organized effort.

Stats are here: http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... und-robin/
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by Everything in the Whole Wide World »

Let it be known the Delaware moderator who volunteered has a) never read a college event, and b) never read without a second person in the room. Please forgive her for any mistakes or whatever she makes in this ridiculous pressure situation.
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by Cody »

Aaron's Rod wrote:I'm particularly sad because we have a 6:30 flight and knew we might have to forfeit the last couple of games to make our flight. Now it looks like we might fit in maybe six games before that. I see it as an ambitious freshman who wanted to excite a (possibly nonexistent, from what I can see) Rutgers club. Well, incompetently hosting a tournament was a bad way to start.
Not to distract from a poorly run tournament, but no one should ever do this kind of thing! It's extremely disrespectful to attend a tournament knowing you'll have to leave well before even a perfectly run tournament would end. I'm glad you were able to get things going, but your stated plans are bad and you should reconsider such things in the future.
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy »

This is no doubt the worst tournament that I have attended in my short quizbowl career. Starting nearly an hour after it was supposed to, this tournament was riddled with ineptitude from the beginning. Rounds took nearly an hour, and they were so low on staff that players were forced to read. This was an unmitigated disaster, and I am disappointed that I wasted my time coming to this tournament.
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by jonpin »

I think the tournament is now over? Stats are posted through what I have.
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by Ras superfamily »

Penn b defeated Columbia a in the round robin to finish with one loss. Penn a finished with no losses, so the last game of the round robin between Penn a and b would have effectively served as the first game of an advantaged final. We chose to go home and play it off at a later date.

Edit: I will have more to say about this tournament when I get home.
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by Ras superfamily »

So I was not initially planning to attend this tournament, but David Song's emails, which indicated his desire to run a good tournament, among other things, convinced me to go. While the desire was there, the experience and knowledge to execute was not. So, as people seem to know, this tournament ran poorly. Here's what went wrong (and how to improve next time) from our perspective:

The start of the tournament was significantly delayed by late teams. This seems to be a quiz bowl culture issue whereby people assume events will run late so they don't mind registration or start times. This needs to stop! People who say they will read tossups without teams should do that, and tournaments that don't make such claims should probably start to do so. Perhaps this is worth more discussion elsewhere, but apathy for timelines appears to affect almost all mirrors of tournaments and the production of the questions for those tournaments.

Some moderators had a general lack of understanding about the game. In our first round, we were only awarded powers the two times when Patrick, in his nice Canadian way, asked whether the tossup was answered for power. After looking at the packet in our next room, we found that were not given power for multiple tossups for some reason. I'm not sure what the issue was here, but it should be made clear in staffer meetings not only that powers exist but how to go about dealing with them in games. It may seem simple to people who have been in the game for years, but a brand new reader who is already stressed out about pronouncing a bunch of foreign words in an understandable way is almost surely not focusing on those five extra points your team could have earned. Moreover, those same moderators would spend actual whole minutes between tossups and bonuses or bonuses and tossups to find the next question. It may be helpful to physically demonstrate easy ways to hold packets so that these kinds of situations don't happen again at tournaments that still use printed packets. Additionally, moderators in many rooms were counting wildly different amounts of time for bonuses, were waiting between 0.5 and 10 or more seconds after prompting for an answer on bonuses, were prompting for answers on tossups, and were either weirdly strict or lenient on actual answers. While I know slight differences in timing are inevitable, things like knowing the rules on whether to prompt for answers on tossups (hint: don't) should be made clear to readers in the staffer meeting.

The general lack of assertiveness from the tournament director(s) was disheartening at times, like in the game before lunch when we were given directions that were, to paraphrase, "return at 1:30 or whenever you can". David clearly wanted to make this a good tournament and I really do appreciate his effort; again, I would not have even shown up if I hadn't seen that enthusiasm in his emails. However, things like the return time from lunch need to be firm.

When the tournament started to go a bit off the rails, people seemed to be offended and resistant to the outside help that they were getting. I admit I may have been heavy handed at times like when I asked to read a round to leave sooner, but the alternative was waiting 15 to 20 minutes longer for the end of the round given previous completion times, and the displaced reader was acting like his or her reading was greatly insulted because of my behavior. I'm not sure what the best way to deal with these scenarios is in the future. I tried not to interfere until it was already past 5pm and we still had 5 rounds to go in the prelims, but it's probably a good idea to be open minded when experienced tournament directors and other staffers are offering to help. To be fair, the hosts were completely accommodating when my team rearranged the schedule to end the tournament something like two rounds earlier by shifting byes around after teams had departed so they were not completely in the wrong here, but readers definitely seemed to be emotionally invested in their statuses as readers whereas this should not at all be a thing. I've definitely encountered this in the past when staffers would demand to be readers or be readers in a specific playoff bracket, so there seems to be another cultural issue here where people feel that they are entitled to their specific desired role at a tournament when they volunteer to help.

I also want to point out that some, though certainly not all, of the general discontent at this tournament could have been avoided if people voiced their concerns openly rather than harboring them and then posting angrily on the forums. If teams like Lawrence had informed Rutgers that they had to leave at a certain time, perhaps we could have started at the announced time and simply played against empty chairs in rooms with absent teams or awarded forfeit wins. Call me old fashioned, but face to face conversation with people who are literally some small number of feet away in the same building as you still seems to be the fastest way to communicate, so maybe we could all be a bit better at making issues known as they arise rather than waiting until they are irreparable to complain. I definitely sympathize with Lawrence and other teams that had to leave, but I think they could have slightly improved their own experience by explaining their constraints to the hosts.

In the end, though the outcome was less than stellar, we appreciate the fact that Rutgers tried to host and I hope that they continue to do so, though with a bit more foresight and planning.
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by Muriel Axon »

If any of you have comments on the actual set, feel free to join the private discussion forum by going to the User Control Panel, clicking on the Usergroups tab, and requesting membership in "2015 MUT Discussion."
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by Aaron's Rod »

Cody wrote:
Aaron's Rod wrote:I'm particularly sad because we have a 6:30 flight and knew we might have to forfeit the last couple of games to make our flight. Now it looks like we might fit in maybe six games before that. I see it as an ambitious freshman who wanted to excite a (possibly nonexistent, from what I can see) Rutgers club. Well, incompetently hosting a tournament was a bad way to start.
Not to distract from a poorly run tournament, but no one should ever do this kind of thing! It's extremely disrespectful to attend a tournament knowing you'll have to leave well before even a perfectly run tournament would end. I'm glad you were able to get things going, but your stated plans are bad and you should reconsider such things in the future.
Yeah, I definitely messed up there. First off, I'll mention that the first logistics email said we would be playing 10 rounds. If we had truly started at 8:45 AM and we had to leave by like 3:45, 4 PM, I didn't really see it as being that impossible that rounds would take ~40 minutes, give an hour for lunch, and we wouldn't have to miss a thing. The revised schedule that David proposed after a Princeton team dropped out was like 13 rounds. Didn't anticipate that, or starting an hour-plus late, or that rounds would take an hour each. At the very least I wish I had mentioned something to Rutgers just so we could have had our bye rounds last and we could have used our time better. Again, I don't think my expectations were that unreasonable, but in retrospect they look a little naïve, considering how late starts, etc. tend to come up a lot in tournaments. Which in itself is frustrating.
Ras superfamily wrote:I also want to point out that some, though certainly not all, of the general discontent at this tournament could have been avoided if people voiced their concerns openly rather than harboring them and then posting angrily on the forums. If teams like Lawrence had informed Rutgers that they had to leave at a certain time, perhaps we could have started at the announced time and simply played against empty chairs in rooms with absent teams or awarded forfeit wins. Call me old fashioned, but face to face conversation with people who are literally some small number of feet away in the same building as you still seems to be the fastest way to communicate, so maybe we could all be a bit better at making issues known as they arise rather than waiting until they are irreparable to complain. I definitely sympathize with Lawrence and other teams that had to leave, but I think they could have slightly improved their own experience by explaining their constraints to the hosts.
This, however, I will not cop to, and I'm a little miffed that somebody who was there in the control room when the tournament wasn't starting (which I think you were) would say something like that. Yes, it was definitely the wrong move for me to not tell David about our flight plans. But that is not why the tournament started an hour-ish after it was supposed to start. The tournament was delayed by the fact that a team dropped at the last minute and that Rutgers had three staffers when they needed six.

I was the one who pressed a member of our team into being the fifth staffer, and I made the suggestion to David that we start with the second round so that the tournament wouldn't need a sixth staffer, and whoever was playing the then-absent RPI would have a bye. When David was unsure whether or not to send the staffers we had haphazardly collected to the rooms, I was the one who said yes and literally said to David "this is starting now," long after it was supposed to. It was awkward and frustrating, but who knows how long we would have been sitting in that crowded room if nobody had done that? If I messed up before the tournament by not making our plans clear, I hope I made up for it in advance by helping the TD get the damn thing off the ground at all.
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by Ras superfamily »

Aaron's Rod wrote: This, however, I will not cop to, and I'm a little miffed that somebody who was there in the control room when the tournament wasn't starting (which I think you were) would say something like that. Yes, it was definitely the wrong move for me to not tell David about our flight plans. But that is not why the tournament started an hour-ish after it was supposed to start. The tournament was delayed by the fact that a team dropped at the last minute and that Rutgers had three staffers when they needed six.

I was the one who pressed a member of our team into being the fifth staffer, and I made the suggestion to David that we start with the second round so that the tournament wouldn't need a sixth staffer, and whoever was playing the then-absent RPI would have a bye. When David was unsure whether or not to send the staffers we had haphazardly collected to the rooms, I was the one who said yes and literally said to David "this is starting now," long after it was supposed to. It was awkward and frustrating, but who knows how long we would have been sitting in that crowded room if nobody had done that? If I messed up before the tournament by not making our plans clear, I hope I made up for it in advance by helping the TD get the damn thing off the ground at all.
I actually had no idea why the tournament didn't start because I was not in the control room, which didn't even have enough space for all of the players, for more than like two minutes total. Sounds like you did a good thing, though.

As far as the point I made, it seems that we agree that explaining travel arrangements to TDs is the correct course of action. I'm not saying the tournament would have magically become perfect if you had told them about your flights, but they may have done, and other TDs may in the future do, something differently if they know about those kinds of things. I was also making the more general point that people almost always choose to save all of their complaints for their forum tirades rather than trying to improve the situation at hand. In the future I hope that people make an effort to point out shortcomings as they arise so that hosts can at least have the opportunity to make amends.
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by jonpin »

I've been around and seen enough tournaments that I'm not going to declare this The Worst Thing Ever, as I've seen slower, less coordinated events from people who have made the same mistakes year after year. But there were significant issues. In line with my post from the "your worst moment" thread, I want to offer some constructive advice for Rutgers and all other novice tournament hosts.
I sped down the turnpike to get to Rutgers at about 8:30, hoping that I wouldn't be late for the staff meeting. Upon my arrival, I discovered that in fact the only other people there were David Song and "JP Wynne". A few other teams, I think Delaware and Lawrence, arrived in the next 20 minutes or so, but a number of teams weren't there on time, and RPI was quite late. At one point, Stephanie (the second and last Rutgers person there at the start of the tournament, to my knowledge) tried calling and got no response. I think RPI reported they had bad directions and wound up at the wrong campus. Tournament directors: give your phone number to teams with one of the late-week logistics emails, and ask for a contact phone number from teams as well, so you can reach them and vice versa if they're running late. Teams: show up on time!
With the Princeton drop, we were at 13 teams, which sucks for a split RR. I noted that there appeared to be enough packets for a round-robin, and so suggested it. A schedule was gotten from the internet and projected for all. TDs: If at all possible, bring a printer and some paper. This protects against last-minute schedule changes and computer issues (including lack of computers) that prevent the use of emailed packets, and it allows printing out of stats. You can get a printer for not a lot of money, and it's nice to have one for personal use anyway, so just have someone bring theirs with them.
I thought we were going to get rolling at that point with round 1 on the new schedule (conveniently RPI's bye), but we instead started with Round 2. It wasn't quite clear if this was a buzzer issue, moderator issue, or both. On buzzers, there are multiple groups at fault. Upthread there are EIGHT buzzers listed as being brought by teams. I know the high school team forgot to bring both of theirs, and I'm told a parent had them in a car and was driving down if they were needed and he was told they weren't. That still leaves a few more that didn't show up. Teams: Quiz Bowl is played with buzzer systems. Bring your :capybara:-ing buzzer systems to tournaments! WORKING systems! I think we did quickly get to six games running at a time, though.
Since I was reading and running stats, I had a whole mess of windows open and thought it might be a bit easier if we just got emailed all the packets and then got passwords one at a time via text. I suggested that in response to Round 2 or 3, and was told "OK, we'll do that starting next round." It did not happen. Not to be overly self-aggrandizing, but when you're given good advice, take it, especially when you say you're going to take it.
We all realized quickly that there was a moderator who was over their head, and somewhere around the third round I realized "hey, we have all 13 teams here, so that means someone's on bye, they should be able to read" and suggested that to David. David them emailed all the teams to say that, but... people turn their phones off or on silent while they play quiz bowl. It would've been a much better idea to just literally walk around to the six rooms and tell that announcement to everyone. This ties in with one of the issues I have with how I've seen electronic scorekeeping implemented, which is that the TD doesn't really get the same sense of how the tournament is proceeding when you physically see "OK, that moderator's not back yet. It's been about 40 minutes... we need to replace them somehow." As TD, you need to stay on top of these things.
30 minutes for lunch is :capybara:-ing impossible even if it's getting delivered right at the start of lunch. I know you were trying to catch up, but telling us at 12:20 to read a round and then be back from lunch at 1:30 was never ever going to work. My lunch was ordered right after the start of break, and didn't arrive until about 2, much like those teams that walked to the suggested lunch places.

But the biggest issue of all, of course, was the lack of staff from the hosts. You need a bare minimum of people who are capable of reading to host a tournament! If they're not used to reading, have them read at practice the few weeks beforehand and tell them how they can improve, such as "You're giving too long on bonuses" to "Tell the team how much they got" to "Here's how you can quickly go between tossups and bonuses" and so forth. And then, get those people to show the hell up! Remind your team that the tournament you host is the thing that makes going on trips cost less money, and that it only works if people show up. I don't know how many Rutgers staffers you were expecting to be there at 9, but you have to make it clear "This is a known thing that's been on the schedule for a long time. Just saying 'I have to study for finals' is not a valid excuse for missing it." And if you don't have half a dozen people you can genuinely count on, then sorry, but don't host a tournament.
Jon Pinyan
Coach, Bergen County Academies (NJ); former player for BCA (2000-03) and WUSTL (2003-07)
HSQB forum mod, PACE member
Stat director for: NSC '13-'15, '17; ACF '14, '17, '19; NHBB '13-'15; NASAT '11

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Muriel Axon
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by Muriel Axon »

Along the lines of what Jon said, can someone from Rutgers explain why this tournament was so understaffed? Did people commit to staffing but flake out? Or did you fail to get enough volunteers? You should never have to take people who drove or flew in from far away, expecting to play, and impress them into staffing under the threat that the tournament won't happen otherwise.

Also, don't incentivize showing up late by delaying tournaments, especially if it's just one or two teams that are late. If they miss a game, they forfeit. Move on.
Shan Kothari

Plymouth High School '10
Michigan State University '14
University of Minnesota '20
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Dead Parrot
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by Dead Parrot »

Hello, everyone. Well…that was a mess…

We will not mince words: we severely screwed up this tournament. More detailed communication will be sent out to the teams in attendance about the nature of all the problems that arose, including a full explanation of our staffing fiasco (others who wish to know about this can feel free to PM me), but we will say here that a combination of poor planning and, more importantly, a general lack of realistic vision when it came to the capabilities of our club resulted in a horribly unpleasant experience for all parties involved. Internal discussion has already taken place and will continue to take place among us regarding our mistakes and the best ways to rectify them going forward. If and when we host a tournament again, we will assuredly put much more effort into running an efficient, enjoyable event and all of the logistical wrangling that such a task entails.

On a more positive note, we would like to thank everyone who took time away from their busy schedules to staff this tournament, as well as the players who graciously agreed to read when we essentially begged them to. Especially large kudos is due to Jon Pinyan, who was willing to both read and keep stats at (what turned out to be) a dysfunctional tournament after already having spent an inordinate amount of time and energy on running a high school tournament of his own the day before. We also thank Rob Carson and the rest of the tournament editors for creating a well-written, difficulty-appropriate question set, and regret that their faith that we could present their work in a competent manner was so misplaced. Lastly, we would like to thank everybody who played this tournament, especially those of you who posted constructive criticism in this thread. We hope that you were able to salvage at least an iota of enjoyment and/or productivity out of an otherwise catastrophically bad experience. We apologize once again for all the inconvenience that our ineptitude has caused you.

Also, in the interest of making amends with those who had to suffer through this, we are relinquishing any and all rights of profiting from this tournament and reducing the fee of every team in attendance to $35, for the SOLE purpose of paying back the MUT editors for their hard work in creating this question set and one of the only positive elements of this whole ordeal. Further details on this will be sent to teams shortly.

In closing, we would like to acknowledge that the trust the quizbowl community had in us has been severely damaged by our running of this tournament, and that we will do everything possible to gain back that trust using whatever methods are open to us.

Sincerely,
The Rutgers University Academic Team
David Song
Livingston '14, Rutgers '18
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by ProfessorIanDuncan »

but a number of teams weren't there on time
Teams: show up on time!
I will say that in defense of Columbia and NYU that we waited 15 minutes for a bus that never came so we ended up walking from the station to campus. Ultimately, we could (and probably should) have arrived 15 minutes earlier. On that note however, all three of these teams had completed registration and were ready to play the round 1 games by 9:15, which was a scheduled start time.
Alec Vulfson
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Re: MUT @ Rutgers (04/12/15)

Post by Auks Ran Ova »

If teams who haven't already paid Rutgers would like to pay me their mirror fees directly, I'm fine with that - please (a) let Rutgers know you're doing it and (b) shoot me an email so I can send you an invoice and a W-9.
Rob Carson
University of Minnesota '11, MCTC '??, BHSU forever
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