ACF Fall Midwest at UChicago

Notably Not Pierre · Post by **Notably Not Pierre** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 11:59 pm

The University of Chicago will host the Midwest mirror of ACF Fall on Saturday, October 31. You can read all about ACF Fall in Gautam's post at viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7881.

The tournament will probably be in Harper Memorial Library on the south edge of the Quad. Campus maps and directions to campus are both availible from the UChicago website at http://maps.uchicago.edu/index.shtml.

Since there isn't much in the way of quick and affordable dining near the tournament site, we will be providing lunch as usual.

If you are interested in coming or have any questions about the tournament, feel free to contact me at [email protected].

Maxwell Sniffingwell · Thu Sep 03, 2009 1:39 pm

Lawrence will be sending 1-2 teams to this.

swwFCqb · Post by **swwFCqb** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 9:18 am

Expect Case Western to show up with a team. I'll nail down the specifics when we get closer to submitting our packet.

EncyclopediaCDRom · Post by **EncyclopediaCDRom** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 11:47 am

UIC will enter one team. I can bring one UIC lockout system plus my CPS laptop. My packet is forthcoming.

Happy belated 09/09/09,
Rom Masrour

Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat · Thu Sep 10, 2009 5:47 pm

Michigan will be bringing some number of teams to this. I would guess something close to 4, but our mass meeting hasn't happened yet.

Broad-tailed Grassbird · Sun Sep 13, 2009 9:14 am

Michigan State will be bringing 2+ teams.

WellTraveledSalesman · Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:06 pm

Illinois will be bringing 3 teams (well, a very slight chance of 4).

indiaisasubcontinent7 · Sat Sep 19, 2009 4:27 am

Northwestern will be bringing 1-2 teams.

Gautam · Post by **Gautam** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 11:59 am

indiaisasubcontinent7 wrote:Northwestern will be bringing 1-2 teams.

Good to see you on the forums, Anant.

indiaisasubcontinent7 · Sat Sep 19, 2009 12:25 pm

gkandlikar wrote:
indiaisasubcontinent7 wrote:Northwestern will be bringing 1-2 teams.
Good to see you on the forums, Anant.

Thanks, Guatam, but just a heads up, our packet will not be particularly good considering nobody writing it has extensive writing experience.

marnold · Post by **marnold** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 1:21 am

Hey, we have a pretty good sized field for this and it may end up being quite large indeed. People who have come to our tournaments before know that we almost always provide lunch because food options aren't particularly accessible in Hyde Park. If our field ends up being as large as it might be, I'm considering adding a small ($2 - $3 per person, maybe?; possibly by team?) surcharge for food so that hosting this tournament doesn't leave us losing hundreds of dollars. Would people be particularly adverse to this?

There's also at least the chance that we may end up having to cap the field, depending whether we can pull together a enough rooms for a really large field. Try to email Matt with as close to realistic expectations for the number of teams as you possibly can.

evilmonkey · Post by **evilmonkey** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:44 am

marnold wrote:Hey, we have a pretty good sized field for this and it may end up being quite large indeed. People who have come to our tournaments before know that we almost always provide lunch because food options aren't particularly accessible in Hyde Park. If our field ends up being as large as it might be, I'm considering adding a small ($2 - $3 per person, maybe?; possibly by team?) surcharge for food so that hosting this tournament doesn't leave us losing hundreds of dollars. Would people be particularly adverse to this?

I've enjoyed that fact that Chicago generally do not tack on a surcharge when providing lunch, but I would see it as perfectly reasonable.

Also, it seem likely that Notre Dame will be sending 2-3 teams to this tournament.

Edit: Cleaned up sentence structure

JackGlerum · Post by **JackGlerum** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 5:25 pm

1 team for us.

David Riley · Post by **David Riley** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:36 pm

Loyola Academy (HS) will send 1 team to this tournament.

indiaisasubcontinent7 · Mon Sep 28, 2009 1:07 am

Northwestern will be bringing at least 2 teams at this point.

Dan-Don · Post by **Dan-Don** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 8:52 am

Sainit Viator would like to bring 1 team. But we're having some issues with our admin so call us something different, just not "Saint Viator."

the return of AHAN · Post by **the return of AHAN** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 10:03 am

How about, Suburban Catholic HS?

David Riley · Post by **David Riley** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 10:06 am

Or, the Oakton Street Irregulars?

jdd2007 · Post by **jdd2007** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 2:54 pm

Ohio State will be in attendance with at least 2 teams, possibly 3.

Notably Not Pierre · Post by **Notably Not Pierre** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 12:37 am

Here's a field update:

Loyola Academy (1)
Notre Dame (2-3)
Northwestern (2-3)
Ohio State (2-3)
Illinois (3, possibly 4)
Michigan State (3)
Michigan (~4)
UIC (1)
Case Western
Lawrence University (1-2)
DePauw (1)
Saint Viator (1)

plus some number of house teams.

If you think you've signed up with me but you're not on this list, or I have the wrong number of teams, just let me know and I'll fix it. Also, if you weren't sure previously how many teams you're bringing, let me know as soon as possible.

marnold · Post by **marnold** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 4:44 pm

The nightmare that is our room reservation process has left us with a vastly insufficient number of rooms. I'm doing absolutely everything in my power to get more, but for right now the field is closed effectively immediately and we are implementing a hard cap of 3 teams per school. If the situation changes, I will post here and lift the cap.

Also, let me just add that I'm not quite sure why some people think we at UChicago are a quizbowl charity. Yes, we get a pretty large amount of money from our school, but we also have a large team with a ton of good quizbowlers that we send to tournaments. We don't take our money and light cigars with hundred dollar bills and we use all our budget on real quizbowl stuff. This means we just factually don't have the disposable income to do things like bankroll high school teams to come play our [college] tournaments for free, especially when we have so few rooms and the fact that when we host tournaments, we almost always do so at a loss. Some reasonable negotiation about entry fees is fine; panhandling is not.

Matt Weiner · Post by **Matt Weiner** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 5:14 pm

marnold wrote:Also, let me just add that I'm not quite sure why some people think we at UChicago are a quizbowl charity. Yes, we get a pretty large amount of money from our school, but we also have a large team with a ton of good quizbowlers that we send to tournaments. We don't take our money and light cigars with hundred dollar bills and we use all our budget on real quizbowl stuff. This means we just factually don't have the disposable income to do things like bankroll high school teams to come play our [college] tournaments for free, especially when we have so few rooms and the fact that when we host tournaments, we almost always do so at a loss. Some reasonable negotiation about entry fees is fine; panhandling is not.

I don't know what particular incident inspired this post, so I'll just note, for the benefit of any teams who were thinking about making up their own entry fees at Chicago or any other site of an ACF event this year, that the ACF fee guidelines are very explicitly set out at http://acf-quizbowl.com/documents/packetsub.php. Some provisions that people might want to be aware of:

*High school teams receive a discount of $50, which means their base fee is $70 before other discounts/penalties are applied. They don't receive a discount of any smaller or larger amount than that. High school teams are not eligible for the "new to ACF" or "new to quizbowl" discounts
*Teams who have trouble coming up with money may negotiate for delayed payment so long as BOTH the head editor of the tournament AND the director of the site you are playing come to an agreement with you. Also, this is for DELAYED payment, not non-payment. Do not assume you are entitled to any special arrangements without talking to the appropriate people first, and don't act miffed if they say no.

David Riley · Post by **David Riley** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 7:36 pm

This really surprises me--I've been hosting tournaments for 16 years and NEVER has a team asked for a reduced tournament fee.

Maxwell Sniffingwell · Tue Oct 20, 2009 1:27 pm

Lawrence will no longer be sending a team to this.

indiaisasubcontinent7 · Mon Oct 26, 2009 1:26 am

Northwestern will be bringing 2 teams for sure.

Notably Not Pierre · Post by **Notably Not Pierre** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 2:00 am

Here are some final announcements regarding the tournament:

Doors open at 8am, registration starts at 8:15, and we're aiming to start the first round at 9:00. As most of the game rooms will be in Harper, we'll be meeting there.

We've decided to charge $3 / person for lunch.

We really need teams to bring buzzers. It would be really helpful if everyone who is bringing buzzers lets me know; we don't want to end up with 3 rooms of slap-bowl.

Teams who haven't already done so need to contact me in order to let me know how many teams they are actually bringing. The field as it currently stands is

Loyola Academy (1)
Notre Dame (3)
Northwestern (2)
Ohio State (3)
Illinois (3)
Michigan State (3)
Michigan (3)
Case Western
DePauw (1)
Saint Viator (1)
Wayne State (1)
+ some number of house teams

As always, you can contact me at mmenard _at_ uchicago.edu

swwFCqb · Post by **swwFCqb** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 8:53 pm

Case is flying in to Chicago, so we would rather not bring along our buzzers (1 or 3 depending on when my Zeecraft order gets here) due to the $30 fee per system we'd have to pay, but if you are going to be short then I suppose we could bring some number along. Just contact me on Thursday/Friday if it turns out you're going to need some.

Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat · Mon Oct 26, 2009 11:56 pm

Along the same lines, how badly do you expect to need Michigan's buzzers? Since we seem to be sending a team to the Canada site, we need to figure out how they would most be needed.

JackGlerum · Post by **JackGlerum** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 12:48 am

We're bringing a buzzer system.

Dan-Don · Post by **Dan-Don** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:01 pm

For those of you have received emails from me, disregard them. This is the final word (I hope) on my team:

-We'll be a 3 or 4 person team. So we're not asking for the $60, 2-man team discount
-We're a high school team, so minus $50.
-We're bringing a staffer who has a laptop (minus $15?)
-Don't call us Viator, otherwise we get in trouble. You can call us the Federal Union of Catholic Kids.

David Riley · Post by **David Riley** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:38 pm

oh, for shame.....

Post by **Susan** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:43 pm

Based upon your team name suggestion and my deep and abiding affection for the works of John Ashbery and James Schuyler, I suggest that the high school team be called "A Nest of Ninnies".

David Riley · Post by **David Riley** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 8:00 am

We will bring a buzzer system.

marnold · Post by **marnold** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 12:01 pm

Since some of the other site are posting thrilling live updates, I'll note that apparently our insane system of having 9 rooms in one building and 2 rooms a few blocks away actually isn't working out too poorly. Score!

EDIT: Heh, I say that, but apparently being in one of the 2 outlier rooms twists my perception of what's going on. Maybe things aren't quite so smooth!

marnold · Post by **marnold** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 5:09 pm

WOW did we bracket this tournament terribly.

Margo · Post by **Margo** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 8:52 pm

The stats for the prelims are here

dtaylor4 · Post by **dtaylor4** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 1:19 am

(Somewhat) short: Illinois B (Meade/Baboukis/Canning/Hodosh) beat Illinois A (Taylor/Sorice/Martin) in game 2 of an advantaged final 365-280 on the last tossup (it was tied at 285 after 18, and Sorice negged on TU 20).

Also, those prelim stats are not done. Everyone played 11 prelim games plus 2 crossover games before a final. The other top bracket teams were Michigan A and Chicago B.

Marnold is right, the bracketing sucked. Usually you should try to split up teams that bring multiple teams, not shove all of them into one bracket (our bracket featured Illinois A/B/C, Ohio State A/B/C, and Notre Dame A/B/C).

Margo · Post by **Margo** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 2:37 am

These stats are for all of the 11 prelim games. For some reason the stats program says that all but two of the teams played 10 games even though if you go to the team detail and count games played there are 11 for each team.

Rounds 13, 14, and the finals will probably be up tomorrow or monday. Some people left without giving me scoresheets so I need to get those before posting those stats.

Broad-tailed Grassbird · Sun Nov 01, 2009 3:41 am

marnold wrote:WOW did we bracket this tournament terribly.

Was there a worse way to bracket the teams? All 7 teams from Michigan were in the same side of the bracket. I was kinda confused why we drove 4 hours, and spent a night in a hotel, when we could have just played the "B" side of the round robin in Ann Arbor or East Lansing. The first thing I always do when I make schedules (which I do at least a couple days before, as opposed to after teams have started arriving) is to separate the teams from the same school. As much fun as it was to play MSU A vs. MSU B, we can do that twice a week in practice.

Also, this is nitpicking, but it's Ohio State, and not Ohio, and DePauw and not DePaul.

JackGlerum · Post by **JackGlerum** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 12:21 pm

Yesterday was lots of fun; thanks to Chicago for hosting. Every time I attend an event at Harper, I continue to be utterly impressed by Chicago's program. Things run smoothly for the most part, from pizza to stats, and all of the moderators were in-house (and good!). I also think that Chicago's large contingent reflects the vibrancy of the Midwest circuit as a whole. Like at EFT, 20+ teams showed up and all appeared to have a genuine interest in quizbowl--and the Missouri & Minnesota squads weren't even there. I hope DePauw continues to be a part of this circuit.

Dan-Don · Post by **Dan-Don** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 1:43 pm

Apart from the bracketing issues, congratulations to Matt and the rest of Chicago for hosting a great tournament. Well done!

Ringil · Post by **Ringil** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 2:12 pm

Like everyone before me, I thought the bracketing was weird. However, I thought the tournament went pretty smoothly in general and was pretty well organized. The two rooms that were in the other building weren't too much of a problem either. Overall, it was a pretty fun tournament.