The Quizbowl Resource Center

The Mid-Atlantic site for ACF Fall 2009 will be held at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond on Saturday, October 31.

To register, mail me at [email protected] with the number of teams, buzzers, and staffers you want to bring, and an email address where you can be contacted with details. I will not count posts in this thread as official registrations; you must e-mail me.

PACKETS/PRICES: The ACF guidelines on packet submission apply--teams with players in their third or greater year of mainstream quizbowl must write packets in order to participate. Submit all packets to Gautam Kandlikar as directed at viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7881. The standard ACF fee schedule also applies, with a base fee of $120 per team, and substantial discounts available for early submission of packets or bringing buzzers and staff to the tournament. Teams who have not played ACF recently get a $25 discount, and teams who have not played any mainstream quizbowl prior to this year get a $100 discount.

LOCATION/DIRECTIONS: The tournament will take place on VCU's Monroe Park campus (aka "Academic Campus") in Hibbs Hall. Meet in the morning in room 440. Directions to Hibbs are in this below post: http://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic. ... 45#p154145

PARKING: On weekends, parking on the street is free and available in most places around the campus.

TIMES: Registration will run from 8:15 to 8:45, with the goal of starting Round 1 as soon as possible after 8:45.

FORMAT: Each team will play at least 12 games, and the tournament will end with ACF-format finals. The specific format will be determined once the field size is known. Games will be played under the official ACF rules. The highest-finishing all-undergraduate and all-Division II teams will receive recognition according to the ACF policy on eligibility for Undergraduate and Division II status.

PAYMENT: All teams must pay on Saturday morning, in one of two forms: cash, or a personal or institutional check made out to "Quizbowl at VCU". Do not make checks out to Matt Weiner, to Andrew Alexander, to "quizbowl" alone, to "VCU Quizbowl", or to any other person or entity besides "Quizbowl at VCU." If you need an invoice ahead of time so that your sponsor can cut a check, let me know. Otherwise, all teams will receive invoices at the tournament.

Post here or mail me if you have any further questions about the tournament itself, travel strategies, or so forth. This is our third consecutive year hosting ACF Fall for the region, and we hope to see every team there and build on past success with this tournament.

--Matt Weiner, tournament director, ACF Fall Mid-Atlantic
[email protected]

Teams so far (to be edited as registrations come in):

Carnegie Mellon
Duke A
Duke B
George Mason
Loyola-MD
Maggie Walker HS
Maryland A
Maryland B
Maryland C
North Carolina Wesleyan A
North Carolina Wesleyan B
Penn State A
Penn State B
St. Anselm's HS
State College HS A
State College HS B
Virginia
William & Mary

Maryland will be there with at least two teams, hopefully more.

After previously expressing interest, due to my schedule I'm hesitant to say I'll be able to make this and/or submit a full packet on my own.

Unless the reservations office completely screws us over the tournament will be here: http://tinyurl.com/hibbshall

copied from a previous VCU thread:

-The nominal address of the building is "900 Park Ave, Richmond VA" if you need to put something into your map software of choice, but be aware that Hibbs does not actually face the street, so you will have to park and then walk to the area where the building is in order to find it. I suggest printing out the appropriate campus maps and bringing them along--note that Hibbs is directly across from the Cabell Library, which will probably be easier for you to find if you have not been to the VCU campus before.
-It is almost certain that the one and only door to Hibbs which will be unlocked for the weekend is the door on the north (interior) side of the vestibule that is on the library side of the building. We will endeavor to have signs up that point you to this door.
-On Saturdays, parking on the street is free and available in most places around the campus; the best place to park for access to Hibbs is on one of the residential streets such as Park Avenue, Floyd Avenue, or West Avenue that branch off Harrison Street to the west near the Hibbs/library area. If you cannot find a space in that area, then you can try parking on Floyd Avenue near the Commons, or, further south, on Main Street. If all else fails, you should use the parking deck at Harrison and Broad, which is about three blocks north of the tournament building and will charge you somewhere between zero and five dollars to park all day on a Saturday.
-We won't be providing breakfast. There are 7-11s along Harrison at both the Main Street and Grace Street intersections, which are three blocks south and north of the tournament building respectively. If you prefer to sit down and/or eat hot food, the Village Cafe at Harrison and Grace is open for breakfast.

There might be a Whitman team and there just might be a Whitman packet.

Considering our packet is now submitted, I'd say our registration is probably imminent.

You can put George Mason down for 1 team, and our packet will probably be in before the October 10th deadline. Would we get any discount since our team is considered by ACF as a "newer team" and since we don't have to write a packet if we didn't want to?

The Mountie wrote:You can put George Mason down for 1 team, and our packet will probably be in before the October 10th deadline. Would we get any discount since our team is considered by ACF as a "newer team" and since we don't have to write a packet if we didn't want to?

The standard -25 for teams who submit non-required packets by the regular deadline.

1 more question. Considering each team is gonna get the ACF minimum number of rounds (12 rounds?), what time is this event expected to end? A few people want to get back to Fairfax by a certain time.

Last year we did 13 rounds and a final and were done a little after 6.

CMU is coming to this tournament with 1-2 teams.

Since I've talked about going to this before, I have to announce that I will not be able to make it. Sorry.

Will be there with a DII team, two buzzers, and a staffer.

Can I get e-mail registrations from CMU and W&M, as well as more clarification as to whether Whitman is coming? This will help me keep you all up to date on tournament location info and stuff. Thanks.

I believe a Penn contingent is tentatively planning on playing at this site. Contact is Sid (desiloyalty-at-yahoo.com).

PN News wrote:Unless the reservations office completely screws us over the tournament will be here: http://tinyurl.com/hibbshall

copied from a previous VCU thread:

-The nominal address of the building is "900 Park Ave, Richmond VA" if you need to put something into your map software of choice, but be aware that Hibbs does not actually face the street, so you will have to park and then walk to the area where the building is in order to find it. I suggest printing out the appropriate campus maps and bringing them along--note that Hibbs is directly across from the Cabell Library, which will probably be easier for you to find if you have not been to the VCU campus before.
-It is almost certain that the one and only door to Hibbs which will be unlocked for the weekend is the door on the north (interior) side of the vestibule that is on the library side of the building. We will endeavor to have signs up that point you to this door.
-On Saturdays, parking on the street is free and available in most places around the campus; the best place to park for access to Hibbs is on one of the residential streets such as Park Avenue, Floyd Avenue, or West Avenue that branch off Harrison Street to the west near the Hibbs/library area. If you cannot find a space in that area, then you can try parking on Floyd Avenue near the Commons, or, further south, on Main Street. If all else fails, you should use the parking deck at Harrison and Broad, which is about three blocks north of the tournament building and will charge you somewhere between zero and five dollars to park all day on a Saturday.
-We won't be providing breakfast. There are 7-11s along Harrison at both the Main Street and Grace Street intersections, which are three blocks south and north of the tournament building respectively. If you prefer to sit down and/or eat hot food, the Village Cafe at Harrison and Grace is open for breakfast.

The location of the tournament has been confirmed as Hibbs. We will be meeting in room 440 between 8:15 and 8:45.

Here is how to get to the actual building rather than the parking garage that the VCU website sends you to:

--Get off on exit 76B if coming from the north or west. Turn left at the light at the end of the ramp, putting you on Leigh St. The next intersection will have two different streets running very close to each other than you can turn right onto; turn right onto the second/larger street, Belvidere St. Continue on Belvidere until you reach Broad Street, and take a right. Continue on Broad until you reach Harrison, and turn left. After three blocks traveling south on Harrison, you will pass a statue on your left; the building is located in that area. Turn right from here and park on a residential street, or turn left and park in the loop near the library.

--If coming from the south or east, take exit 76A, then turn left onto Chamberlayne Parkway/Avenue. Moving south on Chamberlayne, it will become Adams St as you cross Leigh. Continue on Adams until you reach Broad Street, and turn right onto Broad. Continue on Broad until you reach Harrison, and turn left. After three blocks traveling south on Harrison, you will pass a statue on your left; the building is located in that area. Turn right from here and park on a residential street, or turn left and park in the loop near the library.

The biggest issue for other Whitman people is the drive, so we'll probably officially decide Monday.

Right now Maryland is looking at 3-4 teams, rather than 2, but I'll try to and lock that down in the next few weeks, and send a complete buzzer/team/reader email.

Possibly off-topic, slightly ridiculous suggestion, but is anyone else up for playing in costume? It is Halloween, after all, and I have a feeling that Quizbowlers are good at costumes.

Brinkley S. wrote:Possibly off-topic, slightly ridiculous suggestion, but is anyone else up for playing in costume? It is Halloween, after all, and I have a feeling that Quizbowlers are good at costumes.

If you can convince Will Butler to play in costume, you will have earned my eternal respect.

Brinkley S. wrote:Possibly off-topic, slightly ridiculous suggestion, but is anyone else up for playing in costume? It is Halloween, after all, and I have a feeling that Quizbowlers are good at costumes.

NO DON'T

I would be open to dressing as academic things that come up in quizbowl, or even pulling a Harvard.

Lapego1 wrote:If you can convince Will Butler to play in costume, you will have earned my eternal respect.

Will didn't seem incredibly fond of the idea, but we'll see. Maybe I can finagle some sort of silly hat wearing out of him.

I suppose that you are all adults (except those of you who are not?) and I can't stop anyone from doing anything, so I'll just note the following guidelines on costumes, as TD of this event:

*The reason I am generally opposed to such ideas is because the last time I ran a tournament on Halloween and encouraged costumes, someone came dressed as Hitler. If you do something like that, I will send you home. This also applies to costumes that include real or fake weapons, since I would rather not delay the tournament while I explain to the campus police that the bloody knife on your belt is actually plastic.
*Similarly, there will be high school teams, high school coaches, and people who are not high school teams or coaches but have general senses of propriety, like me, at this tournament. So, don't wear your fetish gear (this includes animal costumes) to this tournament.
*Things that prevent you from arriving at the tournament on time, easily moving between game rooms, hearing the questions, holding the buzzer, and so on, will garner no sympathy from me, and I will make you alter your outfit if it impedes the efficient operation of the tournament.
*Again, I'd really prefer that people did not wear costumes, but if you're going to do it, follow the above guidelines and I'll look the other way.

Matt Weiner wrote:So, don't wear your fetish gear (this includes animal costumes) to this tournament.

Not a warning one really wants to have to give!

Matt Weiner wrote:I suppose that you are all adults (except those of you who are not?) and I can't stop anyone from doing anything, so I'll just note the following guidelines on costumes, as TD of this event:

**Similarly, there will be high school teams, high school coaches, and people who are not high school teams or coaches but have general senses of propriety, like me, at this tournament. So, don't wear your fetish gear (this includes animal costumes) at public events in general.

fixed.

We have 19 registered and four more on the possible list. This will be VCU's largest-ever college tournament, which, in addition to being awesome, means several things:

1) Given that we only have ten rooms available, the field will be closed at 21 teams; further registrations will be waitlisted until we figure out a schedule with weird byes or find more rooms.
2) Volunteer staffers are our new favorite people. We will reimburse your gas, lunch, and dinner if you come to read at this tournament. Richmond is a fun city, especially on a Saturday night, so consider this a good chance for DC-area people to visit on us. We currently have exactly enough people to read and run stats for this tournament, and would rather have more so that we can have a TD who is not moderating and some scorekeepers to help move things along.
3) Teams who can bring staffers, please consider doing so for the discount. High school teams, I know you have coaches. College teams, I know you have alumni. Every little bit helps and will be very appreciated.

Penn won't be attending.

Neither will Whitman.

The field has stabilized at 18 teams. The format will be a preliminary two-bracket round robin over 9 games, followed by division into three brackets of 6 (teams 1-3 from each prelim bracket will go to top playoff group, 4-6 to middle, 7-9 to bottom). In line with last year's tournament, which ran 13 rounds and ended around 6 PM, we expect to finish this 14-round schedule at a similarly reasonable hour in the early evening.

A team has dropped. If anyone was vacillating about adding another team to their contingent, we can still accommodate you, obviously contingent on having met eligibility/writing requirements if applicable.

Stats through round 6 are up http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org= ... =standings .

It's exciting to follow these stats. Looking forward to the Maggie Walker/State College match.

Stats through round 8 are at http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org= ... =standings . After round 9 we'll rebracket into 5 rounds of playoffs.

The Round 7 Maryland A-State College A game has been thrown into a tie by a delayed protest ruling and is now being reseated for sudden death. Once that's done we'll have full prelim standings and playoff seeds.

Final prelim stats are at http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org= ... =standings. I'm waiting for one more round 10 game before I post results from the first playoff round, which will also show playoff brackets.

Here's the standings of the first two playoff rounds, with three to go. http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org= ... =standings

The brackets seemed pretty unbalanced... lots of 20+ppb in one and only two of them in the other.

Dr. Isaac Yankem, DDS wrote:The brackets seemed pretty unbalanced... lots of 20+ppb in one and only two of them in the other.

The teams are divided to just play within their own bracket from what I can tell. The good bonus conversion in the first bracket is because it contains the top six teams.


Edit: I'm an idiot!

Precious Roy wrote:

Dr. Isaac Yankem, DDS wrote:The brackets seemed pretty unbalanced... lots of 20+ppb in one and only two of them in the other.

The teams are divided to just play within their own bracket from what I can tell. The good bonus conversion in the first bracket is because it contains the top six teams.

I think he means the prelim brackets.

t-bar wrote:

Precious Roy wrote:

Dr. Isaac Yankem, DDS wrote:The brackets seemed pretty unbalanced... lots of 20+ppb in one and only two of them in the other.

The teams are divided to just play within their own bracket from what I can tell. The good bonus conversion in the first bracket is because it contains the top six teams.

I think he means the prelim brackets.

Yeah I saw that right after I posted. I'm not good with tenses.

Following a huge delay caused by a moderator wandering off, round 12 was successfully completed and here are the stats with 2 playoff games left to go. http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org= ... =standings

Round 13 scoresheets are still coming in, but we've confirmed that State College A and Maggie Walker are both undefeated heading into their last playoff game with each other. The winner will gain the advantage in the best-of-three final, which will be for all three (3) trophies.

State College wins 510-150 and will hold the advantage in the final, starting ASAP.

Here's full playoff stats. Final starting right now. http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org= ... =standings

350-325 sc wins

State College wins the first finals game 350-325. The tournament is over.

Matt Weiner wrote:State College wins the first finals game 350-325. The tournament is over.

Out of curiosity, on which packet was the final played?

This tournament, despite being severely delayed at several junctures, was nonetheless highly enjoyable. Many thanks to the VCU staff for running this. Questions, when they were actually being asked, were well-written and and speedily read.

Congrats to State College, who obviously still have mad skills at the whole quizbowl thing.

I'm actually kind of shocked that Maggie Walker and State College High School have now played each other twice, in two finals - of college tournaments, defeating veteran college teams on their way there. What, if anything, can the rest of us mere high-schoolers do to avoid getting crushed? Cower in fear? Study even harder?