The Quizbowl Resource Center

Hello all, and we would like to invite you to the University of Maryland on Febuary 20th 2010 to participate in NAQT Sectionals which will serve as qualification for NAQT ICT to be held in April at a location to be decided. We are hosting this at Maryland in hope that it will allow many teams to attend ACF Regionals the next day.

Fees:

$120 Base Fee and $100 for each subsequent team
-$10 for each Buzzer system brought (We really need them, so I'd encourage all teams to bring at least 1 set, $20 maximum discount)
-$10 for Moderators from each respective school
-$40 to any team who hasn't competed in NAQT Sectionals for the past 2 years (As per NAQT's "New quizbowl team" discount)

Questions will be available for purchase at the site for $40 and $35 for any additional packets purchased in addition to the first one per team.

Please make checks out to "GMU Quizbowl" and bring the checks on the day of the tournament and include the price of the questions you wish to purchase, if you wish to wait until the day of the tournament to purchase the questions, then that is fine. Cash will be accepted as well

Format:

Right now depending on how many teams we do get, we will have a guranteed 7-8 games for the preliminaries of both divisions as well as a re-bracketed round robin matching teams of relative skill with another possible 4-5 games in the playoffs of the new brackets.

This tournament will feature 10 minute halves of 2 in each round and we hope to have an average of 20 tossups and bonuses read per round given the time.

Location:

This tournament will be held on the campus of University of Maryland in College Park, MD with teams meeting in the Jimenez Hall on campus for the intial rules meeting and logistics information, registration will be held as early as 8:00 AM and we wish to start the tournament by at least 9:00 AM and hopefully get teams out by 6:00 PM at the latest.

We hope to see you there

Field Update (To be edited as registrations come in, and the field will probably be capped at 20-24 teams)

Division I
Maryland A
Virginia A
Carnegie Mellon A
Virginia Tech
VCU
Pittsburgh A
Penn


Division II
NC Wesleyan
Maryland B
Maryland C
William and Mary
Carnegie Mellon B
Pittsburgh B
George Washington
Georgetown
NC State
Roanoke

Expressed Intrest:

East Carolina
US Naval Academy
Drexel

Edit: Changing host locations

-$80 to any team who hasn't competed in NAQT Sectionals for the past 2 years (As per NAQT's "New quizbowl team" discount)

That should read: -$40. (according to this)

The Mountie wrote:This tournament will feature 9 minute halves

I think (hope!) you mean ten-minute halves.

Yes; nationwide announcement to that effect forthcoming.

It is now slightly less than 1 month away from this tournament, and we have had not 1 team express intrest or register for this tournament. I encourage those schools in Region 4 and/or beyond to please register as per NAQT's website http://www.naqt.com/sct/hosts.jsp

A little over 2 weeks away and we have only 1 team that has registered (Thanks Maryland!). I feel this is quite insulting that only 1 team has indeed signed up for this tournament considering there are quite a few schools with teams in Region 4. Please get these registrations in

My team will be playing and I will be reading.

Obviously we would be less likely to attend a 4-team tournament. Can people who are thinking of going at least post something in the thread?

We are planning on coming.

CMU will hopefully have one team each in DI and DII.

Penn will have one D1 team and maybe some D2 teams, but it's realistically going to be past Penn Bowl before things are firmed up--I'll try to get an estimate for you Thursday and more firm numbers early next week.

Lapego1 wrote:Penn will have one D1 team and maybe some D2 teams, but it's realistically going to be past Penn Bowl before things are firmed up--I'll try to get an estimate for you Thursday and more firm numbers early next week.

As you know Medhi, GMU will be at Penn Bowl. Would it be a problem if I could get some estimate while we are at Penn Bowl. I can ask at Lunch time and what not. If not then that's no problem

Hey Zach, I heard a little birdie tell me that some of the Sectionals sites this year have been assigning non-qb personnel to moderate games (or possibly, ACUI has been insisting this happen). Can you please assure us that nothing like that is going to happen here?

Hey Chris, don't worry about that happening at this site, all of our staff at this site will be not be affiliated with ACUI whatsoever

We will probably have one DI and one DII team.

DumbJaques wrote:a little birdie tell me that some of the Sectionals sites this year have been assigning non-qb personnel to moderate games (or possibly, ACUI has been insisting this happen).

I'd like to reassure everyone that both ACUI and NAQT are committed to using the best possible staff for SCT, and we have been working with the hosts to train staff as necessary.

Our policy is that the priority for staffing is to put the most experienced staff in Division I, followed by Division II, and then as scorekeepers, and that the last is the preferred location for those who have no previous quizbowl experience. All ACUI hosts have been instructed to coordinate with local staff recommended by NAQT.

bt_green_warbler wrote:

DumbJaques wrote:a little birdie tell me that some of the Sectionals sites this year have been assigning non-qb personnel to moderate games (or possibly, ACUI has been insisting this happen).

I'd like to reassure everyone that both ACUI and NAQT are committed to using the best possible staff for SCT, and we have been working with the hosts to train staff as necessary.

Our policy is that the priority for staffing is to put the most experienced staff in Division I, followed by Division II, and then as scorekeepers, and that the last is the preferred location for those who have no previous quizbowl experience. All ACUI hosts have been instructed to coordinate with local staff recommended by NAQT.

What's going on with the Illinois SCT, then?

It appears that, apparently, Penn won't be sending a Div I team to Sectionals. Hopefully the younger players will get a Div II team together or something.

Attention all participants at of this SCT site. I would like to inform you that e-mails and posts will be put up if campus closes due to bad weather. I really hope this is not the case this weekend, and we would have to postpone it indefinitely. So please if anything does come up where this site has to cancel or postpone, please do not get mad at us, as we have no control of the weather, and campus will cancelall activities if this is the case. I will keep you informed.

Jeff, if a sectional has to cancel for weather, will the ICT look at stats at comparable tournaments (winter, regionals, etc.) of would-be attendees?

Plan A will certainly be to reschedule sometime later in February (obviously not conflicting with Regionals, T-Party, local hs tournaments that take away a bunch of teams/staff). Oddly, in a dozen years of hosting SCT, we've never had major problems with snow... but we'll keep you posted.

Thanks. We are monitoring the weather situation, but as we are borderline Southern... :)

We'll try to send information out in a timely manner, but the current weather models suggest a winter storm (even more than the current storm that is laying down a fresh 3 to 6 inches) that will begin in the DC area around Friday afternoon and continue through Saturday. We'll try to inform everyone quickly here about the situation here and any contact info we have from registration.

Just so you know William & Mary will be there, probably with a DII team, gathering the details tomorrow at practice before I register...

In case we have 5 players is it possible to have a rotating moderator for the discount? I.e., first 5 rounds one guy next 5 rounds another, or something similar?

Zip Zap Rap Pants wrote:Just so you know William & Mary will be there, probably with a DII team, gathering the details tomorrow at practice before I register...

In case we have 5 players is it possible to have a rotating moderator for the discount? I.e., first 5 rounds one guy next 5 rounds another, or something similar?

I am mystified by the NAQT "registration deadline" being in no way a deadline, by the way. If next year's SCT works with the same centralized system, it should probably adhere to the announced deadline and stuff.

Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:

Zip Zap Rap Pants wrote:Just so you know William & Mary will be there, probably with a DII team, gathering the details tomorrow at practice before I register...

In case we have 5 players is it possible to have a rotating moderator for the discount? I.e., first 5 rounds one guy next 5 rounds another, or something similar?

I am mystified by the NAQT "registration deadline" being in no way a deadline, by the way. If next year's SCT works with the same centralized system, it should probably adhere to the announced deadline and stuff.

It's difficult when teams are dealing with tournaments announced less than six weeks in advance and on-campus people who say they will give you money and then lock themselves in fallout shelters when you try to get specifics. Given what's been going on this year I think enforcing an arbitrary "it's impossible to let teams into this non-packet-submission tournament less than a week beforehand!" deadline is far less important than letting people react to the various situations by registering for the SCT site that makes sense for them at a time that makes sense for them.

I agree with that, certainly. It's just an additional layer of confusing to tell hosts "there's this registration deadline" and then for that not to be true.

There's also an all-too-real deadline of when I could be shipped clocks; the fact that that was before the actual registration deadline of "whenever" means that we will be lucky to scrape up clocks for our tournament.

You can buy digital countdown timers online for $5, and I've even heard reports of them being available at the dollar store. Go buy four of them, run your tournament, and save $20 on every future NAQT tournament you participate in.

For those interested, Facebook event link: http://www.facebook.com/etchuck?ref=nf# ... 76&index=1 .

Matt Weiner wrote:You can buy digital countdown timers online for $5, and I've even heard reports of them being available at the dollar store. Go buy four of them, run your tournament, and save $20 on every future NAQT tournament you participate in.

I don't want practical solutions to my (what I realize in the morning to be) trivial problems! I want over-the-top pity! Goddammit.

So as a person who has to personally rent a van and pay for hotel rooms, would it be possible to know whether this tournament is happening by, say Friday morning?

Or should I plan to re-reschedule and head to the New England SCT?

Wall of Ham wrote:So as a person who has to personally rent a van and pay for hotel rooms, would it be possible to know whether this tournament is happening by, say Friday morning?

Or should I plan to re-reschedule and head to the New England SCT?

We have eight/twelve teams right now, which is the limit of what we can take until I hear from staffers I expect will not come. As such, we can't let you into the field (until we hear from said staffers we will probably not hear from).

Wall of Ham wrote:So as a person who has to personally rent a van and pay for hotel rooms, would it be possible to know whether this tournament is happening by, say Friday morning?

Or should I plan to re-reschedule and head to the New England SCT?

I would like to know this too, and we can't really afford to go north since we can't exactly afford the extra expense of hotel rooms.

I will post within the next 2 hours after I meet with Dr. Chuck about this Saturday. It definitely looks like this tournament will still happen, but we will officially announce/confirm this Friday morning if any impediments come up.

Crazy Andy Watkins wrote: We have eight/twelve teams right now, which is the limit of what we can take until I hear from staffers I expect will not come. As such, we can't let you into the field (until we hear from said staffers we will probably not hear from).

Yeah, I figured we could scrap our Div I team, and then I could help moderate while the freshmen played, but it would probably be too big a hassle to the bracketing and schedule.

Update: We will confirm Friday morning if this tournament will still happen as campus will inform us if we are shut down for Saturday. So don't pull out of this field just yet.

Wall of Ham wrote:

Crazy Andy Watkins wrote: We have eight/twelve teams right now, which is the limit of what we can take until I hear from staffers I expect will not come. As such, we can't let you into the field (until we hear from said staffers we will probably not hear from).

Yeah, I figured we could scrap our Div I team, and then I could help moderate while the freshmen played, but it would probably be too big a hassle to the bracketing and schedule.

That would actually kind of work if you have a buzzer to bring.

Update: With the announcement due tommorow morning if campus is shut down Saturday, then this tournament will be officially held this Sunday with the approximate times being the same (Be there by 8:00-8:45 AM). Though if we change the day, the initial meeting will be held in the Student Union II building in rooms 5,6, and 7. Though we will try and fit everybody in 1 room. I hope we don't lose any of the field IF we do switch to Sunday. Though again I will confirm tommorrow morning if we are holding this on Saturday or Sunday.

So asking the obvious question....

Is there a chance of the school being closed both days?

Frater Taciturnus wrote:So asking the obvious question....

Is there a chance of the school being closed both days?

Yes the obvious question has indeed been asked. Yes there is a chance, but since there will be no snow predicted. I imagine the campus might still be open (dining) and buildings because of there being about 7000 students that do live on campus (including myself). I will though have full answers tommorrow.

NC Wesleyan wouldn't be able to make Sunday, FYI. Adjust schedule accordingly if you need to.

Unfortunately, one of our drivers can't run the risk of being stuck in Virginia until Sunday, so our Div I team is going to have to withdraw. Our Div II team can still go, provided the tournament is on Saturday. No one can make it down there for a Sunday tournament. Sorry if the late notice causes any issues with the schedule.

We most likely would not be able to do Sunday as well.

Just wanting to be sure... there are tournaments running next weekend at VCU, right?

The VCU T-Party mirror is happening next Sunday. I believe most of the VCU squad plans to spend Saturday staffing the Central Region VHSL tournament.

The Motley Eye wrote:The VCU T-Party mirror is happening next Sunday. I believe most of the VCU squad plans to spend Saturday staffing the Central Region VHSL tournament.

2/27 is a pretty open weekend, right?

Cornell is going to withdraw from this, due to the fact that the predicted weather has gotten worse (now 20-28 inches forecasted). We probably have the longest drive, and I do not trust my driving skills in this weather. We would consider a later, non-sunday date though.

Good luck!

GMU website wrote:Today, February 5, 2010 George Mason University classes and campus activities are canceled at 12:30 pm today and all day Saturday, February 6, 2010. Administrative offices are closed at 12:30 pm on February 5, 2010.

Classes held at 10:30 am on February 5, 2010 will meet as regularly scheduled.

I assume this means cancellation, and in any case, I also do not trust my driving in terrible snow, so we will also withdraw.

It looks like the tournament's going to be postponed anyway, but we're also going to have to withdraw due to snow. If the tournament's rescheduled to any date past Sunday we should be able to send both teams.

Okay yeah this tournament has been postponed. We most likely are looking at the week of 2/27 to hold the SCT with due respect to Maryland and VCU both hosting ACF Regionals (We hope to attend) and T-Party respectively. Please if any further questions are wanted, please do ask and I will hopefully be able to answer them.

Lucy Lane wrote:Okay yeah this tournament has been postponed. We most likely are looking at the week of 2/27 to hold the SCT with due respect to Maryland and VCU both hosting ACF Regionals (We hope to attend) and T-Party respectively. Please if any further questions are wanted, please do ask and I will hopefully be able to answer them.

Why not host the tournament on 2/20 alongside Maryland hosting Regionals on Sunday 2/21? Wouldn't that be better in every conceivable way, including less time for embargoing question discussion, higher attendance at both tournaments and lower travel costs for teams, and no conflict with long-held plans by people involved in nearby teams to staff an important high school tournament on 2/27?

GMU, Maryland, NAQT: Your thoughts?