Page 1 of 1

Chicago Open; also, possible HSNCT-coincident college event

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 12:38 am
by setht
Hi all,

I'm trying to figure out when Chicago Open is going to take place. It can take place on July 7th or 14th if someone else takes over organizing things (locally and with all the editors/writers for the various events), or July 21st, July 28th, or August 4th--I'm willing to work on room reservations and coordinate things with the editors/writers if it's one of these last three dates.

Similarly, I'm trying to figure out who's going to edit Chicago Open, what other events will be attached to it, and who's going to produce those events. We may be set for editors for Chicago Open, or we may not. If you're interested in working on editing CO, let me know ([email protected]). If you're interested in producing some other event, let me know ([email protected]).

Feel free to post in this thread about events you want to produce, events you want to see someone else produce so you can play, and when you think CO should take place. Also feel free to email me privately with any or all of this information ([email protected]).

I guess that's it.

-Seth

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 1:01 am
by Mr. Kwalter
There has been some discussion of holding a masters tournament alongside HSNCT for those staffing. Since it's in Chicago and many of the top players in the country offer their services to NAQT in exchange for room and travel for the weekend anyway, it seems like an ideal way to get a bunch of people together for free. The tournament could either be held Saturday night, Sunday afternoon, Friday, or Monday, especially since it would be abbreviated.

I have tentatively agreed to serve as editor for this shindig, which would be similar to MATTE (except I'd edit the packets, not just collate them and steal Dave Rappaport's laptop). We might do doubles again w/15/15 packets, but screw the theme. The difficulty level of the tournament would most likely be set fairly high, but I certainly wouldn't say post-nationals.

Anyway, if you'd be interested in playing in or even assisting with the editing for MATTE 2 (or perhaps have a subtitle suggestion), then post here or let me know by email. If you don't have or can't find my email then you can't come to the tournament.

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 7:51 am
by Stained Diviner
If the MATTE 2 idea gets carried through, you should make clear the extent to which high school students and coaches will be welcome. I probably wouldn't participate myself, and I would have to look into the details of IHSA policies before allowing my students to participate, but I imagine that there would be some people willing to get repeatedly blown out by the masters circuit.

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 8:14 am
by ValenciaQBowl
Count me as one vote hoping for July 21 or 28, as I'd have conflicts for some of the other dates, and I've really enjoyed attending all the COs so far. I'd also vote for a packet submission CO, which went well last year, likely testament to Zeke's editing work.

However, if the tournament ends up on a weekend I can't attend, I'll be happy to help with editing.

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 4:07 pm
by wd4gdz
Kit Cloudkicker wrote: The tournament could either be held Saturday night, Sunday afternoon, Friday, or Monday, especially since it would be abbreviated.
The tournament sounds like a good idea, and I would vote for Saturday night.

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:07 pm
by vandyhawk
I'd vote for the last couple weekends in July.

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:44 pm
by wd4gdz
Three words: Taste of Chicago
June 29 – July 8, 2007

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:13 pm
by vandyhawk
wd4gdz wrote:Three words: Taste of Chicago
June 29 – July 8, 2007
That event is pretty fun the first couple times, but milling about with tens to hundreds of thousands of people in the heat gets old pretty quick. Plus, travel would be more difficult and expensive for those times.

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 10:56 am
by grapesmoker
I prefer dates that don't involve expensive travel, but other than that I don't care. Also, I won't be able to run a Science Monstrosity this year, but I'd be willing to help someone else with some limited editing (mostly physics and math). If anyone is interested in taking up the torch, get in touch with me.

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 1:48 pm
by dtaylor4
I may go depending on my schedule, and am willing to freelance a packet for MATTE again, and I promise it will be better than last year's.

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 3:22 pm
by Mr. Kwalter
One obvious secondary option for MATTE 2 is that it be held in conjunction with Chicago Open. I don't think there are any declared side tournaments at this time, so if people would rather see it there then that could be arranged.

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 11:26 pm
by suds1000
Kit Cloudkicker wrote:One obvious secondary option for MATTE 2 is that it be held in conjunction with Chicago Open. I don't think there are any declared side tournaments at this time, so if people would rather see it there then that could be arranged.
Sounds like putting MATTE 2 next to HSNCT is better than putting it next to Chicago Open, given that CO is already a fairly high-level tournament. Also, I think nearly two "full" tournaments (i.e. those featuring both tossups and bonuses, as opposed to singles tournaments, which of course merely feature tossups) would be pretty exhausting for the players and the readers if you did it all in one day.

Just my opinion...no idea if I'll be at either tournament, although I'll see what I can do about that.

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 12:31 am
by No Rules Westbrook
Actually, barring a significant interest in pairing with hsnct, I like the idea of a "matte 2" with CO, albeit not on the same day. A Friday or Sunday tourney like that seems like a really good idea, since I don't exactly foresee people lining up to write singles or other events connected to CO this year, and CO ideally should consist of a handful of interesting events scattered over that weekend. And, you obviously have a solid group of players there to play a harder tournament.

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:11 am
by Mr. Kwalter
suds1000 wrote:Also, I think nearly two "full" tournaments (i.e. those featuring both tossups and bonuses, as opposed to singles tournaments, which of course merely feature tossups) would be pretty exhausting for the players and the readers if you did it all in one day.
Yeah obviously we'd do it Friday or Sunday. MATTE was alongside Mill, so no reason to believe it wouldn't work. Also, someone else offer to write a side event, CO should be an intense full weekend of quizbowl fun.

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:08 pm
by magin
I'm interested in helping write a literature singles event to go alongside the Chicago Open; however, I doubt that I could write a quality event entirely on my own. So, if anyone else is interested in helping me write such an event, please email me at jmagin at umd dot edu (or post in this thread). Also, would people be interested in playing a lit singles? I'd like to make sure there is enough demand for it. Thanks.

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:48 pm
by Mr. Kwalter
I would most certainly be interested in playing such an event. I can't work on it, but someone definitely should. Remember, doing a side event at a tournament can significantly help with the cost of attending. Plus it means you're cool.

Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 1:59 am
by DumbJaques
I'd like to play on that. Also, was there any talk of reviving the history tournament? I was bummed I wasn't able to attend that last year.

Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 11:11 am
by Skepticism and Animal Feed
DumbJaques wrote:I'd like to play on that. Also, was there any talk of reviving the history tournament? I was bummed I wasn't able to attend that last year.
I was seriously considering attempting to write a History Singles for CO before Teitler asked me to help him edit CO itself. I might still do it if Seth ends up not needing me.

Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 12:01 am
by Rothlover
Is the excellent CO trash likely to happen again? If any of the usual candidates for writing it can't do it, let me know. I'm damn sure gonna be at CO, what else is anyone serious gonna say?

Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 5:30 pm
by DumbJaques
8 rounds of hsqb.org history questions. Doubles tournament. Unlimited buzzing for all teams. Each team must include reasonable candidate for worst person in quizbowl history, submit packet by last June, pick correct number 1-10 or start out with -250 points. 33 rounds, plus playoffs. Plus play-ins.

Suggested breakdown:

5/5 Troll (at least 1/1 each Jonathan Thompson, Andre, Sidar)
2/2 People replying to themselves using poorly hidden gimmick accounts
1/1 Litvak Drunk posting
2/2 MICHIGAN IS THE GREATEST REGION EVER 5 TEAMS IN HSNCT TOP 10
3/3 The three Rs (Regionalism, Racism, Reinstein)
1/1 Matt Weiner's love for wikipedia
1/1 Matt Weiner's head
2/2 Doctor Zaius
2/2 Canadians Ruuuuuuuuun
1/1 Disappointed ICT/HSNCT site speculation threads
3/3 Jason Mueller fanfic
1/1 Reasons not to start a quizbowl team in Florida
2/2 :arminius:

In addition, at least 3/2 or 2/3 must mention the fact that Pat Freeburn is McGruff, Crime Dog. Every other 1/2 or 2/1 must begin with the letter 'X'

Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 6:07 pm
by Matt Weiner
Actually it might be fun to play a real meta packet with the usual CO attendees. People have written such things before but they only were released online.

I might be interested in editing a packet-submission trash tournament on CO weekend if the tournament is later in July (since I couldn't start working on it until the NSC is complete). Regardless of who works on it, I hope the trash tournament makes a return.

If I had my complete druthers, I'd also say it's about time that the traditional-format general-subject singles came back, but a second history tournament or whatever would be great too.

Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 7:47 pm
by Birdofredum Sawin
Matt Weiner wrote:Actually it might be fun to play a real meta packet with the usual CO attendees. People have written such things before but they only were released online.

I might be interested in editing a packet-submission trash tournament on CO weekend if the tournament is later in July (since I couldn't start working on it until the NSC is complete). Regardless of who works on it, I hope the trash tournament makes a return.
I will neither be at the CO, nor writing my usual collaborative trash tournament for it. If other people take it over, I can only hope that they'll find room in their hearts for more questions on the enormous heads of prominent quizbowlers.

Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 8:50 pm
by BuzzerZen
2/2 Avatars
1/1 Russian pr0n spam
1/1 Practical physics
[/ducks out of thread]

Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:07 pm
by Stained Diviner
Is there any interest in a tournament where all the questions are about me?

Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:43 pm
by Mr. Kwalter
So, here's a radical idea.

How about we put CO in late July and do a late June event too. Someone would need to edit and we'd need a host. Thoughts?

Chicago Open?

Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:06 am
by Brian
I realize this may come off as woefully behind the times, but I've been out of quiz bowl for a few years now. What is Chicago Open and who is eligible to play? If there's a convenient place to look for that kind of information, and if someone could point me to it, I would be thankful.

-Brian

Re: Chicago Open?

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 5:02 pm
by suds1000
Brian wrote:I realize this may come off as woefully behind the times, but I've been out of quiz bowl for a few years now. What is Chicago Open and who is eligible to play? If there's a convenient place to look for that kind of information, and if someone could point me to it, I would be thankful.

-Brian
As its name would indicate, Chicago Open is an academic quizbowl tournament that is open to anyone willing to play. It usually takes place in late June or early July and generally hits a fairly high difficulty level (especially relative to the quizbowl circuit of >5 years ago). In addition, CO almost invariably features some of the best active players in the college game, and many other excellent players who are currently retired from play or inactive for various reasons. The format is that of an modified ACF tournament -- if unfamiliar, you can learn more about ACF at [http://www.acf-quizbowl.com/].

In answer to Seth's original question about dates and the like, I have discovered that I will already be in Chicago on the weekend of August 3/4/5 for a wedding, so my vote is for CO to happen on that weekend. In addition, if CO does fall on this date, I would very much be interested in playing a literature singles tournament, especially if it is to happen on Saturday night.

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 5:39 pm
by Mike Bentley
I'll go, pretty much on any date in the summer, so long as either the history or trash tournament also happens.

Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 3:44 pm
by setht
Hi all,

Chicago Open is going to be July 28th or August 4th. If you have a strong preference between these dates, let me know soon ([email protected]). I'll pick a date and make an official announcement in a few days.

-Seth

Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 11:02 pm
by ulls66
Would there be interest in another edition of Science Monstrosity? I'd be willing to edit such an affair.

Also, since I will be otherwise indisposed the weekend of July 28th, I'd like to make my preference known for August 4th.

-Andrew Ullsperger

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 11:58 am
by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)
I know I would love for their to be some kind of solo or duo tournament at the HSNCT, and I think that would be a really good idea because so many good players and teams from HS are there, so we could all try to get our feet wet in the college circuit. Of course it wouldn't be affiliated with CO, but I think a lot of us kids would like to try it out. And there's always the possibility of hosting it at the hotel out of the rooms being used already. On Saturday the schedule has games over at 5:30, so that might be enough time, I don't know.
I would really like to do that.

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 1:05 pm
by First Chairman
Where would anyone get pristeen questions for it? I also think you will be very burned out that a singles/doubles tournament would be too much effort. After all, it is a national championship tournament, and I'm not a big fan of "skills competitions" in that context... Seriously, imagine a "power tossup" shooting contest...

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 1:19 pm
by Mr. Kwalter
charlieDfromNKC wrote:I know I would love for their to be some kind of solo or duo tournament at the HSNCT, and I think that would be a really good idea because so many good players and teams from HS are there, so we could all try to get our feet wet in the college circuit. Of course it wouldn't be affiliated with CO, but I think a lot of us kids would like to try it out. And there's always the possibility of hosting it at the hotel out of the rooms being used already. On Saturday the schedule has games over at 5:30, so that might be enough time, I don't know.
I would really like to do that.
Well, opening it up to high schoolers is an interesting idea. In that case I'd say the tournament might do best as a CUT-style thing, meaning college duos and HS foursomes. Any high school people who would want to register would do so at their own risk. It would also require packet submission from EVERY college team plus probably some freelancers. The addition of more teams might also lengthen the tournament, which would mean maybe we should think about doing it Friday night, This would also beg the question of difficulty. If we are going to open it up to HSers, do we still make it hard or do we moderate it so they don't feel like they've been punched in the face by the questions? Also, there will be 152 teams at HSNCT, and some percentage possibly larger than would be ideal/possible will probably be game for this. What if there are too many HS teams that want to play? Also, are we gonna let HS players show up on their own and form HS "masters" teams, or do whole schools have to come play? As for questions, I have tentatively agreed to do this thing, although if anyone else would like to help that'd be great.

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 1:25 pm
by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)
If possible, I'm all for making it a college-level tournament (between ACF fall and regionals, say). I think there are some high schoolers who could do some pretty good packets. Maybe there could be a combined friday/Saturday event (have some prelims friday night, and playoffs saturday night).

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 1:50 pm
by Matt Weiner
Personally speaking, I'm not at all interested in reading all day Saturday and then trying to play a tournament, and then showing up on four hours sleep for more staffing the next day. If there is a collegiate tournament in Chicago on the same weekend as the HSNCT, it really should be held as a normal event (ie, teams of four, full packets with regular distribution, and starting at 9 AM) on Memorial Day. HSers who want to stick around following their shindig and play should of course be welcomed but will have to make their own arrangements.

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 2:31 pm
by First Chairman
All right... expression of some frustration coming.

Hell... you have 154 teams, and 48 teams play Sunday for playoffs. I doubt most of you guys who are staffing Saturday will be needed Sunday, so why not just run a freakin' consolation tournament for the remaining 96 teams?

Seriously, I doubt that you'll have that many high school teams that want to play additional games who aren't in the top 48 (or whatever number NAQT decides to use). You should have enough people hanging around on Sunday to run whatever little consolation competition... college players, high school players, whatever! Wherever the packets come from... I am sure you can find ways to entertain the people who aren't needed on Saturday all day. But I don't think people want to stick around Monday to run a comp when they may have to work on Tuesday.

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 4:03 pm
by Byko
E.T. Chuck wrote:All right... expression of some frustration coming.

Hell... you have 154 teams, and 48 teams play Sunday for playoffs. I doubt most of you guys who are staffing Saturday will be needed Sunday, so why not just run a freakin' consolation tournament for the remaining 96 teams?

Seriously, I doubt that you'll have that many high school teams that want to play additional games who aren't in the top 48 (or whatever number NAQT decides to use). You should have enough people hanging around on Sunday to run whatever little consolation competition... college players, high school players, whatever! Wherever the packets come from... I am sure you can find ways to entertain the people who aren't needed on Saturday all day. But I don't think people want to stick around Monday to run a comp when they may have to work on Tuesday.
Here's the biggest problem: they use all the staff on Sunday so that they can staff all the random whoever-wants-to-play-whoever-it's-all-made-up-and-the-points-don't-matter games on Sunday among the non-playoff teams. I'm not sure that NAQT would necessarily want competition on their own weekend at their own tournament site, and they're very firm about maintaining the completely unmanaged consolation rounds like they've been doing for years.

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 4:24 pm
by grapesmoker
As far as HSNCT goes, I'll be there and would love to play some kind of tournament afterwards. Guerilla singles ahoy.

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 4:31 pm
by Mike Bentley
Is NAQT paying for people to stay the extra day? If not, that could be an issue with having a tournament on Monday.

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 5:10 pm
by First Chairman
Replying to Bykowski:

I think that's my point why I think the ideas of running something on the same weekend as HSNCT are not going to work. You're not there to run a tournament if you're helping out. You get a subsidized (if not free) trip to Chicago to help out at their event, not to worry about running your own show among yourselves on the Monday afterwards.

I'm trying to figure out what I would do if I were in NAQT's shoes... frankly if it were my competition, I'd be a little upset that people weren't talking with me about these satellite tournaments (guerrilla singles/doubles or whatever) when I have a major national championship to run. In light of this dilemma of running a guerrilla consolation bracket, I don't think the rest of the volunteer staff realizes that this has to be done as well.

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 5:31 pm
by Mr. Kwalter
Actually, Dr. Chuck, I think you're missing the point. If we were to include HSers in this event, we'd probably want to include those of them that are most likely to a) not be discouraged by the tournament and b) play in college at all. I recognize that there probably are a number of such people in the lower 54 or whatever, but the fact is that most of them are in the top 48. Now, personally, I like Matt's idea. Have the event on Monday. As to the cost, NAQT is footing the bill for people to fly and for people to stay for fri/sat. If they won't foot the bill for Sunday night, big whoop. It's still practically free. So let's hear it people, who will stay for a full-scale Memorial Day event? Hell, if you're in the midwest and don't want to staff you could still drive down (I'm looking at you, Ryan Westbrook). If there are enough college teams to form a quorum, then we can work out logistics. I'll also email R personally to make sure he doesn't mind our fucking around on his weekend, in case he and/or his friends hasn't read this already. Truthfully, I think he'll welcome it. A side tournament would attract some of the best, most experienced moderators in the country who maybe wouldn't come otherwise. So what's it gonna be?

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 5:37 pm
by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)
If this is masters-y then could groups of high schoolers form teams that aren't necessarily all from 1 school?

Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 5:39 pm
by Mr. Kwalter
That's right dude but if they're on a school-sponsored trip they might not be able to stay individually. There would certainly be no regulation against such things, nor would there be a problem w/high schoolers playing w/college players.

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 8:42 pm
by Mike Bentley
So is it safe to assume that this HSNCT tournament isn't happening? I need to book my flight soon and I would need to book a flight that does not return until Monday if this tournament is happening.