The Quizbowl Resource Center

The University of Maryland will host a mirror of "stanford housewrite" on Saturday, February 27, 2016. This tournament is written by members of the Stanford University Quiz Bowl Club, with an intended difficulty level of "Nationals-minus, i.e. noticeably harder than tournaments such as ACF Regionals and Penn Bowl, but not as hard as ACF Nationals or last year’s George Oppen." More information on the tournament can be found by consulting the main tournament announcement. Anyone can play this tournament.

Location and Time:
Games will take place in Jimenez Hall on the University of Maryland campus. The opening meeting will start promptly at 8.30; rounds will start immediately thereafter.

Fees and Payment:
$120 base fee
$10 discount for each capable moderator with working laptop
$10 buzzer discount (current maximum of three buzzers)
$10 travel discount for every 200 miles between your school and the University of Maryland, as per Google Maps (for open teams, average distances for all players)

The minimum fee is $60. Please bring payment on the day of the tournament in the form of cash or a check made out to the Maryland Academic Quiz Team. If we deem that your moderator is not capable or your buzzers are not working, you will not receive a discount.

Registration:
Please send me an e-mail at [email protected] with the number of teams that you intend to bring and any buzzers or staffers that you will supply. If I do not respond within two days, feel free to send another e-mail.

Field (teams/buzzers/staffers):
Maryland (1/1/many)
Chicago (3/0/0)
Columbia (1/3/0)
Michigan (1/1/0)
Rutgers (1/0/0)
Penn (1/2/0)
VCU (1/6/2)
Wilmington Charter (1/0/0)
Mukherjee/Alston/Jose/Golfinos (1/0/0)
Raje/Manners/Prieto/Golimlim (1/1/0)
Barrientos et al. (1/1/0)
Adams/Magin/Bollinger/Rosenberg (1/0/0)

We hope to see you this February in the livable community of College Park!

I just got my plane tickets today. I'll be happy to TD and/or staff my side event if people want to run it.

I'd prefer if the Christmas Present were run on Saturday evening.

I'll play as part of an open team, please pm me if interested.

Let's talk about side events. I think it's assume that there is demand for Eyes and Will Alston's RMP/SS event. Here I am soliciting input regarding timing, format, and possible other events that people are interested in playing.

I'd be in favor of Christmas Present being done on Saturday as well.

Governor General's Foot Guards wrote:Let's talk about side events. I think it's assume that there is demand for Eyes and Will Alston's RMP/SS event. Here I am soliciting input regarding timing, format, and possible other events that people are interested in playing.

Hey Naveed, any chance of COTTAGE Bowl running on Sunday?

The Schopenhauer Power Hour wrote:

Governor General's Foot Guards wrote:Let's talk about side events. I think it's assume that there is demand for Eyes and Will Alston's RMP/SS event. Here I am soliciting input regarding timing, format, and possible other events that people are interested in playing.

Hey Naveed, any chance of COTTAGE Bowl running on Sunday?

I can definitely do this if people are interested. Please provide more input, guys!

Governor General's Foot Guards wrote:

The Schopenhauer Power Hour wrote:

Governor General's Foot Guards wrote:Let's talk about side events. I think it's assume that there is demand for Eyes and Will Alston's RMP/SS event. Here I am soliciting input regarding timing, format, and possible other events that people are interested in playing.

Hey Naveed, any chance of COTTAGE Bowl running on Sunday?

I can definitely do this if people are interested. Please provide more input, guys!

I'd be interested

I mean, while we're offering Canadian trash tournaments, I'm happy to offer Southern Ontario Trash Vortex (Waterloo's trash house-write) as well.

(This offer goes out to all other sites as well).

I don't plan on playing any trash sets - whether I'm available to staff will likely depend on the order of events, since if Christmas Present is run on Saturday evening then I might like to have Sunday free to spend with my family.

Let's play more quizbowl. We should be able to run Eyes Saturday night, Cottage Bowl Sunday, and Will's tournament either Saturday or Sunday depending on time.

I'll have a team if we do COTTAGE on Sunday and if so could commit at least one staffer (myself) for the main event on Saturday.

I've made a team-formation spreadsheet for my side event here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Christmas Present is going to be run in the evening after the main tournament is complete. Since there are only 7 packets, the field is going to be capped at 6 teams. If more people are interested, I will require teams to shrink to 2 people apiece, so we can run multiple brackets.

EDIT: If there's 8 teams, then we can do prelims plus playoffs in two brackets.

I need two (or ideally three, to have a stats/control room person) more staffers for Christmas Present - signups are more than welcome. Free agents who haven't found teams will be allocated to the teams that I deem to be the weakest on-site. [EDIT: Would still like a staaaats person]

Just to clarify, this will be run on Saturday evening right after the main event. I don't suspect it's gonna take more than two and a half hours or so, given the field skill level, question length, and difficulty. The entry fee will be $5 per player.

I have TWO suggested tournament formats:

--- FORMAT ONE ---
1) Teams will be split into two prelim brackets of four, and play a three round round-robin
2) Playoff brackets are formed from the top two teams in each prelim bracket
3) Teams either play two or three playoff games within their playoff bracket (either crossover or round robin). I'm open to either - the former guarantees that there will be enough packets for an advantaged final, while the latter gives everyone at least six games. I'm inclined to favor the latter.

--- FORMAT TWO ---
1) Eight teams play a round-robin of seven games; no finals.

If anyone has any preferences, please indicate so. Otherwise, I'll just default to the six-games-plus-finals format.

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea wrote:Free agents who haven't found teams will be allocated to the teams that I deem to be the weakest on-site.

Does that mean teams will consist of four people each?

not quite wrote:

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea wrote:Free agents who haven't found teams will be allocated to the teams that I deem to be the weakest on-site.

Does that mean teams will consist of four people each?

Yes. If someone objects to the addition of a person onto their team, I don't have a problem with that.

EDIT: I'm going to change my mind and expand the field size to 12 teams on account of a massive recent surge in interest (this also means I'll need one more staffer). This means the format will be as follows:

1) 5-round round robin for initial brackets of six
2) Single-round crossover game
3) Tiebreaker packet available to determine who gets into which crossover position, rather than just assigning by PPG

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea wrote: EDIT: I'm going to change my mind and expand the field size to 12 teams on account of a massive recent surge in interest (this also means I'll need one more staffer). This means the format will be as follows:

1) 5-round round robin for initial brackets of six
2) Single-round crossover game
3) Tiebreaker packet available to determine who gets into which crossover position, rather than just assigning by PPG

I personally would prefer to not do the tiebreaker game and instead do two crossovers (so top two in each bracket play each other, etc) -- I think the benefits (being a bit more robust with respect to initial seeding, everyone is guaranteed to play all the packets) outweigh the costs (deciding ties within-bracket by PPG, maybe having to break a tie for first at the end of the tournament) for such a side event. I'm not sure to what extent others share this preference.

Mewto55555 wrote:

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea wrote: EDIT: I'm going to change my mind and expand the field size to 12 teams on account of a massive recent surge in interest (this also means I'll need one more staffer). This means the format will be as follows:

1) 5-round round robin for initial brackets of six
2) Single-round crossover game
3) Tiebreaker packet available to determine who gets into which crossover position, rather than just assigning by PPG

I personally would prefer to not do the tiebreaker game and instead do two crossovers (so top two in each bracket play each other, etc) -- I think the benefits (being a bit more robust with respect to initial seeding, everyone is guaranteed to play all the packets) outweigh the costs (deciding ties within-bracket by PPG, maybe having to break a tie for first at the end of the tournament) for such a side event. I'm not sure to what extent others share this preference.

I agree, for a side event more guaranteed rounds are preferable at the expense of some fairness.

Allright, that's totally reasonable. The format will be five prelim games, then two crossover games, with two prelim brackets breaking off into three playoff brackets. This means there won't be an official "finals" but I think guaranteeing everyone seven games is worth it, and it's a side event anyways.

Is there any word on whether or not we're still sticking to Chris Ray's proposed schedule of side events? I'm interested in playing Eyes and COTTAGE Bowl.

On Saturday, Eyes will be run immediately after the conclusion of the tournament, followed thereafter by Christmas Present. Trash will be on Sunday; please register a team if you are interested in playing.

The field is closed at 16 teams. A logistics e-mail will be sent out today.

People who are staffing should email me and I'll give them a copy of the set.

Similarly, whoever is TDing Eyes should send me an e-mail ([email protected]) so I can share the set with them.

Rutgers has an open spot. If someone from Maryland, or some other free agent, would like to join us free of charge at this late date, pm me.

I just emailed the set to Sarang Yeola. Hope everyone enjoys the tournament!

Congratulations to Chicago A, who defeated Maryland 410–190 in a one-game final after Maryland defeated Alston/Golfinos/Jose/Mukherjee 410–230 in a play-in game. Thanks to David Robie, Evan Nagler, Chris Heffner, Andrew Lim, and Sohan Vartak for coming to staff.

Due to time constraints, Eyes has been moved to tomorrow morning at 8:30 and the beginning of COTTAGE Bowl 2 has been moved to 10:00.

Christmas Present finished with a tie for first after seven rounds; I will post the winner (by playoffs PPG) once I have stats on hand. Auroni was top scorer.

EDIT: There was also a tie for playoffs PPG score! I may write and read a tiebreaker question at ACF Nationals to determine the winner.

Thanks a ton to everyone who played - I hope you all enjoyed the set!

Eyes was played this morning. There were two rooms, and so two seeding rounds were played to place teams in the upper and lower room, after which six rounds were played with the two lowest scorers in the upper room switching places with the two highest scorers in the lower room every two rounds. The last two rounds were played during lunch. The standings, as determined by points scored in the upper room, were as follows:

Chris Ray: 155 (2/17/9)
Jordan Brownstein: 110 (2/12/8)
Auroni Gupta: 85 (3/5/2)
Kenji Golimlim: 35 (1/3/2)
John Lawrence: 35 (2/2/3)
Athena Kern: 15 (1/2/4)
Evan Nagler: -5 (0/0/1)
Evan Adams: -10 (0/0/2)

Including the lunch rounds, for which not everyone was present, we have:

Chris Ray: 175 (2/21/13)
Jordan Brownstein: 100 (2/12/8)
Athena Kern: 90 (3/7/5)
Auroni Gupta: 85 (3/5/2)
Kenji Golimlim: 35 (1/3/2)
John Lawrence: 30 (2/2/4)
Victor Prieto: 30 (0/3/0)
Evan Nagler: -5 (0/0/1)
Evan Adams: -10 (0/0/2)

Detailed statistics are attached.

Complete stats for Saturday have been posted. Individual statistics may have some errors; if you have a log of a game and know of any such errors, please contact me and we will fix them.