The Quizbowl Resource Center

After meeting with the room reservation people at the University of Virginia, I am pleased to announce that we should be able to accommodate a summer open tournament on August 5th and August 6th, which are a Saturday and Sunday respectively.

After polling those interested in attending, we will be hosting a mirror of NASAT, written by HSAPQ, on 8/5, followed by a series of side events on 8/6. Additional side events may be played in shootout format in a casual setting after either day of the tournament.

Hotels are readily available, and flights into Charlottesville are quite readily available from Charlotte, Chicago, and New York should anyone wish to fly in. Please let us know ASAP, since we need to confirm room reservations soon if this is going to happen!

EDIT: There is now a Google Doc with spots to put your name down as being interested in either staffing or playing. A humble request to everyone that you only put your own name down on this thing!

Absolutely in, absolute advocate for the maximum amount of quizbowl.

I'm down(to staff)!

I will definitely be able to staff this at least.

Almost definitely going to make it down for this. If there were side events played, which would they be? Right now both options #1 and #3 look great to me, though the broke part of me is leaning NASAT-mirror only (but would also still come to at the minimum play NASAT if #3 was selected)

I will play as many things as possible and vote for "all of the above." I live close enough to make the drive every day but also would prefer to split a hotel if it's across two days.

Not entirely sure if I'd staff or play, but I'd do at least one of those things for at least one day. If I staff there's a possibility I could bring someone to scorekeep for me.

I and some other Midwest types would be extremely interested in coming to an all side event weekend (much less so a nasat mirror, since there's a localish one) here!

I'm tentatively interested.

So given the disparate interests at play here, I think the safest thing for us to do is to mirror both NASAT on Saturday and then proceed to do a side-event day on Sunday. I'm still trying to lock down which of two possible venues would be best for us to do, but I think that we can handle at least a 10-team field cap for right now (assuming we'd even need that many rooms).

For the veterans in the circuit, how do you all usually go about selecting side events for a side event weekend? A straw poll is my best idea so far, but I also don't want to mirror too many of the ones that will be at CO already.

I still vote for a player draft

I probably won't be here (since I will have already played NASAT and I'm hoping for a Midwestern mirror of side events), but as one of the primary forces behind last year's Side Event Day at Michigan, here's how I organized the proceedings:

-I didn't include events that would presumably have been played by a decent chunk of attending parties. For you, this would be the stuff mirrored at HS nationals and CO, unless there is a very large preponderance of people that never played those sets.

-A poll could work and would probably make the most sense if you only had one day. In general, about 3-4 doubles/teams type side events (assuming no bonuses) can be played on a day, I've found. If you make some of the events pure shootout, the number will go up.

-I tried to be amenable to people's schedules, but you can't, of course, always do that. You're going to find someone who will say "My plane leaves at 2 PM Sunday, please move the side event on identifying insects up to 9 AM," etc. You have to be firm at some point.

-Once you've established the beginning of the day time, every other event is going to be "starts as soon as the other one finishes." Don't encourage people to wander off during events they don't want to play (unless I guess they're okay missing the start time).

-In general, I've found that more general audience tournaments are more popular (naturally). A poll would show what the masses truly think, but more niche things I've found inspire niche reactions (for example, while I enjoyed Tricon last year, it was not well received by over half our site).

Thought Monstrosity is another side event that's available. It has bonuses, though you could theoretically run it tossup-only.

Cambridge Open is also an option

I'm in, would prefer NASAT Saturday/side event Sunday (and perhaps also Saturday night; all quizbowl all the time, etc).

I am also tentatively interested.

No need to take my desires into account now, since Michigan's site will be much cheaper to get to.

I ought to be able to make this while visiting home in August. Like others, I am all for a NASAT mirror on Saturday and side events on Sunday.

There Will Be Stock Clues is an option, too.

Could we consider adding the Chuck Berry rock tournament as part of the weekend? If not as a formal tournament then perhaps as a shootout event.

Given the tremendous amount of side events that are currently being written for the 2nd summer open, I'm amenable to the idea of running a few larger ones during the day on Sunday in a more structured way (The Modern Age, two other ones that are popular) while running the rest as shoot-outs on Saturday night. While we won't have the buildings for any significant amount of time at night, it's always possible to run the side events casually in hotel rooms on Saturday night at the Cavalier Inn (which is the recommended hotel for this event).

Of course, this is contingent upon which events people are actually interested in playing on Sunday. There are a wealth of side events (probably around 5 or more) that are relatively smaller and casual in nature that would lend themselves better to play on Saturday night back at the hotel.

Beevor Feevor wrote:
For the veterans in the circuit, how do you all usually go about selecting side events for a side event weekend? A straw poll is my best idea so far, but I also don't want to mirror too many of the ones that will be at CO already.

Last year's VCU weekend basically had us doing everything available. I don't think there was a tournament any individual who really wanted to play didn't get to play in one form or another. For some of the more niche events (like comics and NBA), we basically just played shootout style events for the handful of people who wanted to do those things.

So in case this wasn't clear, the NASAT mirror will be played by pre-assembled teams and not by doing any kind of draft on the day of the tournament. Consequently, anyone wishing to formally submit a team to play should email me at [email protected] about registering. I'll most likely accept every team that asks to play, but I just want to make sure that people aren't signing up teams willy-nilly.

I will be interested in playing this, since I can't make it to the Michigan dates. Would also be interested in There Will Be Stock Clues.

Regarding the NASAT mirror, Anand Nanduri and I are currently looking for 2 more teammates to round out a team. If you're looking for a definitely-not-gonna-win but (hopefully, assuming I can self-evaluate) not total crap team to join and have lighthearted fun while taking the games seriously send me a PM, hit me up on facebook, or email [email protected].

I am a history/visual arts + operaish kinda guy and Anand is on that science/music grind, so our most obvious gap is literature aside from stuff picked up over the years. If you aren't a lit player but still wanna play with us all good just figured I'd provide some background. We're open to playing with anyone :)

Am a free agent for this. Looking, as always, to play with people who know lit and/or science in particular.

Me, Lawrence, and Vasa are looking for someone to play with who knows lit and science! Because Jack has written part of NASAT, he is ineligible to play with us. Message me if you're at all interested; we're a pretty nice crowd.

As far as side events go, I think we're pretty locked-in to doing at least The Modern Age and Naveed Bork as main events on Sunday. The third one is still TBD, but definitely post if there is a specific one you think should get more tread!

Beevor Feevor wrote: Naveed Bork

If there's already a huge glut of side events and we're going to limit ourselves to just ~3, why use one of those slots on something that a non-zero fraction of the field will have already heard at CO?

Kouign Amann wrote:

Beevor Feevor wrote: Naveed Bork

If there's already a huge glut of side events and we're going to limit ourselves to just ~3, why use one of those slots on something that a non-zero fraction of the field will have already heard at CO?

On first glance, I suggested it because it looked like it had relatively more people signed up with Xs than the other two, but looking over it again, it does look like XENOPHON has more collective interest. Maybe that and Modern Age should be the two that are confirmed, then, with maybe a trash tournament to round things out?

Also, could you add Thought Monstro, Stock Clues, The Celebs, OCTAVIAN, and whatever else to that sheet, just so we can try to gauge interest in the whole slate of potential events? Obviously, it's all too much, but I figure the more data you have the better, and it might come in handy for figuring out what to prioritize for whichever Saturday night shootouts end up happening.

Kouign Amann wrote:Also, could you add Thought Monstro, Stock Clues, The Celebs, OCTAVIAN, and whatever else to that sheet, just so we can try to gauge interest in the whole slate of potential events? Obviously, it's all too much, but I figure the more data you have the better, and it might come in handy for figuring out what to prioritize for whichever Saturday night shootouts end up happening.

Done and done! Wasn't aware of a lot of those, sorry!

Don't mean to sound like a broken record (pun intended!), but could we add the Chuck Berry rock tournament to the list of possible tournaments spreadsheet so we can gauge interest on that?

Ethnic history of the Vilnius region wrote:Don't mean to sound like a broken record (pun intended!), but could we add the Chuck Berry rock tournament to the list of possible tournaments spreadsheet so we can gauge interest on that?

Pun appreciated, and tournament added! Sorry for not getting to it earlier.

By ACRONYM, do we mean ACRONYM or Super ACRONYM? I feel like a lot of people will have already played ACRONYM, right? CCCT, Crime, UConn, and HSNCT especially.

Edit: I see that the link goes to Super ACRONYM, it just says "ACRONYM," my bad.

Aaron's Rod wrote:By ACRONYM, do we mean ACRONYM or Super ACRONYM? I feel like a lot of people will have already played ACRONYM, right? CCCT, Crime, UConn, and HSNCT especially.

Edit: I see that the link goes to Super ACRONYM, it just says "ACRONYM," my bad.

I'll admit that I didn't know that those were two separate tournaments until now, but thanks to your very astute observation, that has now been changed! You're right, we'll be offering to do Super ACRONYM rather than ACRONYM for the reasons you've mentioned, though that depends on interest (obviously).

I would strongly prefer a Side Event Weekend with no NASAT, and it's not in my self-interest to say that as someone who will make money from NASAT. The last Side Event Weekend was delightful and superior in every way, I thought, to a second summer open. Besides, NASAT is a regular-difficulty tournament, not exactly summer open fare to begin with. When there are so many fun-sounding tossups-only side events, why not knock out as many of those as we can rather than invest half of the available time in a familiar regular-difficulty tossup-bonus slog? Not saying normal tournaments aren't fun, just that side events are more fun. In addition, running NASAT will exclude many players who wrote for NASAT and probably drive down attendance for the weekend as a whole. If other folks agree with me, please post; obviously if a majority of people would rather play NASAT than many more side events, that's the way to go, but I thought I'd reopen this discussion since there were gestures towards it above but it never really happened.

Time to go three days!!!!!!

felgon123 wrote:I would strongly prefer a Side Event Weekend with no NASAT, and it's not in my self-interest to say that as someone who will make money from NASAT. The last Side Event Weekend was delightful and superior in every way, I thought, to a second summer open. Besides, NASAT is a regular-difficulty tournament, not exactly summer open fare to begin with. When there are so many fun-sounding tossups-only side events, why not knock out as many of those as we can rather than invest half of the available time in a familiar regular-difficulty tossup-bonus slog? Not saying normal tournaments aren't fun, just that side events are more fun. In addition, running NASAT will exclude many players who wrote for NASAT and probably drive down attendance for the weekend as a whole. If other folks agree with me, please post; obviously if a majority of people would rather play NASAT than many more side events, that's the way to go, but I thought I'd reopen this discussion since there were gestures towards it above but it never really happened.

I agree with this stuff. I'll also throw out the potential compromise of running NASAT as a much shorter tossup only event if that's workable.

I strongly agree with tommy and judging by the google doc there doesn't seem to be much stated interest in NASAT at present. Two days doing all the side rents is infinitely preferable to evening + Sunday death march that wouldn't be able to cover everything of interest.

a

(Accidentally posted as "squiddharth," which is not my account on the forums but somehow I logged in as him - will delete that post promptly)

I agree with Tommy - side events are wonderful, and basically all I personally enjoy out of Quizbowl nowadays.

felgon123 wrote:I would strongly prefer a Side Event Weekend with no NASAT, and it's not in my self-interest to say that as someone who will make money from NASAT. The last Side Event Weekend was delightful and superior in every way, I thought, to a second summer open. Besides, NASAT is a regular-difficulty tournament, not exactly summer open fare to begin with. When there are so many fun-sounding tossups-only side events, why not knock out as many of those as we can rather than invest half of the available time in a familiar regular-difficulty tossup-bonus slog? Not saying normal tournaments aren't fun, just that side events are more fun. In addition, running NASAT will exclude many players who wrote for NASAT and probably drive down attendance for the weekend as a whole. If other folks agree with me, please post; obviously if a majority of people would rather play NASAT than many more side events, that's the way to go, but I thought I'd reopen this discussion since there were gestures towards it above but it never really happened.

So I'm obviously biased since I didn't write for NASAT, but I like regular-difficulty tournaments and am adamantly opposed to the idea that every open event needs to be super hard. I enjoyed playing NASAT on an open team twice, as well as playing Terrapin (somewhat illicitly but past is past) - perhaps it's being on a balanced team with many contributors at regular difficulty is a bit of a novelty for me given my collegiate career, but I find it highly rewarding. Others may disagree.

With efficient planning, I don't think it's impossible to get through like 4-5 side events and NASAT - one during the night after NASAT and three to four the next day, since I don't think many folks will have flights to catch. Some of the other side events could be saved for other instances, like the potential WAO-style event this fall.

EDIT: Revisiting this, there are even teams of high school kids who are signing up to play this...a lot of the hard side events aren't for them, but something like NASAT is accessible. I think this weekend can and should cater to more than a niche audience of Virginia/VCU alums and elite collegiate players.

Unfortunately I can't actually make this event. Sorry to be missing it.

COME TO MICHIGAN, JERRY

vcuEvan wrote:

felgon123 wrote:I would strongly prefer a Side Event Weekend with no NASAT, and it's not in my self-interest to say that as someone who will make money from NASAT. The last Side Event Weekend was delightful and superior in every way, I thought, to a second summer open. Besides, NASAT is a regular-difficulty tournament, not exactly summer open fare to begin with. When there are so many fun-sounding tossups-only side events, why not knock out as many of those as we can rather than invest half of the available time in a familiar regular-difficulty tossup-bonus slog? Not saying normal tournaments aren't fun, just that side events are more fun. In addition, running NASAT will exclude many players who wrote for NASAT and probably drive down attendance for the weekend as a whole. If other folks agree with me, please post; obviously if a majority of people would rather play NASAT than many more side events, that's the way to go, but I thought I'd reopen this discussion since there were gestures towards it above but it never really happened.

I agree with this stuff. I'll also throw out the potential compromise of running NASAT as a much shorter tossup only event if that's workable.

Since not too many people have leapt into the discussion (presumably Will Alston is not the only person who prefers NASAT), could the organizers of the event set up a poll to settle this? I like Evan's idea, so perhaps that would be an acceptable option in case of a relatively even split.

I'm personally in favor of running a full NASAT mirror, but, like Tommy, am intrigued with Evan's idea of running it as a TU only event. I'll second Tommy's call for a poll with the three options being - run a full NASAT mirror, run NASAT as a TU only event, and not run NASAT.

Sorry for not being completely on top of this; I'm currently studying abroad until July 10th and have been more preoccupied with being a tourist than being a Quizbowler.

Linked here should be the Google Form that I have set up with the 3 NASAT options listed above, as well as a more user-friendly form requesting that people rank their top 7 side events. If a full NASAT mirror is indeed run, we'll most likely go with the top 4 side events requested. NASAT is also included as a side-event should people decide instead to use it as a tossup-only event.

Please submit this form, even if you have already filled in your requests on the Google Doc! Let me know if there's anything to be fixed on it, and I'll try to get to it as soon as possible. As always, PMs are very welcome.

Any chance that the poll results--and thus the slate of events for this weekend--could be announced soon? Thanks.

ThisIsMyUsername wrote:Any chance that the poll results--and thus the slate of events for this weekend--could be announced soon? Thanks.

This is a good point, and I shall do so right now. We ended up having 35 respondents, which is about the number of people that I think could conceivably make it out to this event. Out of our 35 responses, a majority of 21 (60%) voted for having NASAT take up the entire day on Saturday. While I understand the desire to get rid of the NASAT mirror altogether, especially coming from those who are already pretty bored of college regular, I think that we'll be keeping it in, just based on the survey results. If it would entice those who really don't like the idea of forming open teams for NASAT, I would also be amenable to doing a draft at the start of the tournament instead.

As for the side events, after ignoring the NASAT option (assuming that we'd run the mirror), a distinct upper and lower tier of side events have emerged. While I am prepared to run the rest as shootouts or something at the hotel on Saturday or Sunday night, here are the ones that achieved the most mentions in people's top 4 lists.

XENOPHON (20)
NASAT (17)
The Modern Age (15)
TRICON 5 (15)
Super ACRONYM (14)
There Will Be Stock Clues (14)

Based on this, it looks like we can accommodate the two highest-ranked academic tournaments (XENOPHON and The Modern Age), while also playing out two of the trash tournaments. With regards to the trash tournaments, I'm rather torn. Although 1 more vote was cast for TRICON than the other 2 trash events, both it and There Will Be Stock Clues seem perfectly amenable to playing in hotel rooms rather than using up precious time in academic spaces. Super ACRONYM has also been mirrored at HSNCT; I'm not certain how much of our field also staffed that event, but it might detract from the quality of our field if it's announced and nobody plays it.

Basically, XENOPHON and The Modern Age are locked-in and confirmed for this event, as is a NASAT mirror on Saturday. I'll consider the state of the three trash tournaments currently in the running and get an announcement about that soon, but if people have strong opinions about that, I welcome them in the thread. As far as other events to play during the nighttime, the next top vote getters were:

Whichever one of TRICON, Super ACRONYM, or There Will Be Stock Clues isn't mirrored (around 14)
Thought Monstrosity (9)
The Celebs Are At It Again (8)
Naveed Bork (7)
It's Lit (6)

That above list is just to give guidance to people who want to set those up later during the event. Hopefully that clarifies some things!

Beevor Feevor wrote:Super ACRONYM has also been mirrored at HSNCT

I'm pretty sure that was just regular ACRONYM.