Announcement: SCT East at William & Mary (2/7/2009)

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

Guess who’s back? Okay so this is my first post since the conclusion of the CAA men’s basketball tourney (perhaps not coincidentally because of the catastrophic failure which is this year’s W&M basketball team), so I’m making my return with a big splash: the announcement of the East SCT at the College of William & Mary! No, our team has not yet fallen apart despite times when it was held together by glue, paper clips, and food stamps; and if we owe anyone money we’ll be able to pay after we host this. If I forget something here it’s probably because I’m typing this at work (I waste time professionally), so don’t hesitate to ask about it in a post. Sorry this announcement is coming a bit late.

When: Saturday, February 7th.

Where: College of William & Mary, 102 Richmond Rd, Williamsburg, VA

Games will all be played at Morton Hall though I don’t have the specific rooms down yet, but I’ll get them to you all as soon as I know. Due to a limited amount of space there will be a field cap of 24 teams (I know, it’s low, sorry!) so register as soon as possible. Very friendly-looking directions can be found here: http://www.wm.edu/about/visiting/directions/index.php and a campus map here: http://www.wm.edu/about/documents/wmmap.pdf (Morton Hall is right next to a big parking lot that lies parallel to Jamestown Road, and anyone can park there on weekends.)

What: NAQT Sectional Qualifier for the NAQT Intercollegiate Championship Tournament on April 3rd and 4th. The format is NAQT timed rounds (rules can be found here: http://www.naqt.com/rules.html), so please bring some visible timers if you have them.

There will be separate fields for Division I and Division II as long as we have at least four teams in each. There will be trophies for the top two Division I finishers, as well as the top two Undergraduate teams and top two Division II teams. For those new to NAQT, a Division I undergraduate team consists ENTIRELY of undergrads and a Division II team consists ENTIRELY of undergrads who have not been on a team that was invited to the ICT in the past, or have played in the ICT. A Division I open team can have any student affiliated with (i.e., taking classes at) your school on it.

Full eligibility rules can be found here: http://www.naqt.com/rules.html

How: With glue, paper clips, duct tape, and a bit of luck of course.

How Much:
Base fee = $120 for first team, $100 each subsequent team
Base fee for new schools (* see below) = $80 for first team, $60 for each subsequent team
-$5 per fully-functional buzzer system (Must have at least four working buzzers on both sides)
-$5 per functional countdown clock or timer, visible to both teams
-$10 per 200 miles travelled to the event (** see below)
-$15 per pre-approved moderator or scorekeeper (no maximum, but please contact us first)
Minimum fee = $70 ($50 for new schools) – Negotiable though if you bring a lot of stuff we need.
* New schools are schools that have neither competed in nor hosted an NAQT Sectional in the last two years
** One-way distance, based on driving distance as calculated by tournament staff. Discount applies per team. Okay so I know y’all want a bigger discount, but come on, gas in VA is hella cheap, like a buck fifty right now.

Please make checks payable to “Wm and Mary Quizbowl Club.”

What the $#!&: Okay, so we won’t charge for breakfast like we did in the past, that was dumb, sorry . It’ll be free this time. Also we probably won’t be selling food for lunch as that got complicated and there are dining options nearby. I’ll check before the tournament to make sure those options are open (including walking distance stuff like the Dodge Room, which is kind of a deli; Quiznos; and the Marketplace, which has a bunch of places including Chick-fil-A).

Another WTF is the fact that the Big South tournament is the same day as this, which makes no sense at all and keeps teams from competing in real quizbowl. NAQT tried to get the organizers to place that tournament on a different date but they wouldn’t budge. Oh well, hopefully that doesn’t cut into our bottom line and we’ll reach the field cap anyway.

Your tournament directors are tentatively me (Matt Morrison) and Dan Leifer, though that may change. A lot of planning still has to be done for this as William & Mary doesn’t start up class again until the 21st. To register or ask anything and everything about this tournament, please email me at mpmorr AT wm DOT edu. When registering please be sure to give me:

1) Your school's name

2) Contact name and e-mail address

3) The number of teams you are bringing in Division I Open, Division I Undergraduate, and Division II

4) The number of buzzer systems, clocks and/or moderators you would like to bring

Updates about the tournament will primarily be through the hsquizbowl.org site here. I’ll also post this on the yahoo! group though.

Thanks and hope to see you February 7, 2009 (if not earlier at TIT or someplace),

Matt Morrison

Co-Tournament Director, East NAQT SCT 2009
Co-President, William & Mary Quizbowl

PS: Please don’t leave this tournament early, as it’s an official ICT qualifier. If you do leave early, you will be forever banned from receiving cars, hoes, or blow from me or Chris Ray.

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

To register or ask anything and everything about this tournament, please email me at mpmorr AT wm DOT edu.

Or you know, you could just ask me here too, der

[DumbJaques]

if not earlier at TIT or someplace

So does that mean you're coming to TIT?

Also, Maryland will be coming with one DI Open team and one DII team (and two buzzers) at the moment.

EDIT: Er hey we also have some clocks, I'll check on the exact number.

[Matt Weiner]

Some information elaborating on the original post, courtesy of what I found on NAQT's website:

Due to a limited amount of space there will be a field cap of 24 teams (I know, it’s low, sorry!) so register as soon as possible.

Hosts may not close their field until seven days before the tournament. If a host does not have the resources to handle the number of teams that wish to play (even with the assistance of NAQT personnel and equipment), alternatives will be sought. As the SCT is the principal method of qualifying for the ICT, it is important that no team (even multiple teams from the same school) be turned away.

For those new to NAQT, a Division I undergraduate team consists ENTIRELY of undergrads and a Division II team consists ENTIRELY of undergrads who have not been on a team that was invited to the ICT in the past, or have played in the ICT. A Division I open team can have any student affiliated with (i.e., taking classes at) your school on it.

Full eligibility rules can be found here: http://www.naqt.com/rules.html

Those are actually the gameplay rules; eligibility rules are at http://www.naqt.com/college/collegiate-eligibility.html and http://www.naqt.com/college/division-ii.html. Division II also is closed to people who have played DI SCT multiple times.

Another WTF is the fact that the Big South tournament is the same day as this, which makes no sense at all and keeps teams from competing in real quizbowl. NAQT tried to get the organizers to place that tournament on a different date but they wouldn’t budge.

If only NAQT had some sort of power over whether the Big South tournament could, say, have questions to run on, that they could have used as leverage to prevent this stupidity...what a utopia that would be.

Anyway, given that we apparently are racing for limited field space, please register 1 team from VCU, which will be DI and UG-eligible, along with 3 buzzers and at least 3 clocks.

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

Well, considering that NAQT asked me what maximize field size would be (and, it seems, factored that into the decision to have the Pitt SCT), I don't think they'll scream bloody murder at the fact that I didn't keep the field cap a secret until 7 days prior to the tournament. I mean, a lot of times tournaments have waitlists and keep those teams informed of their chances of playing, which I think is better than keeping those teams in the dark until 7 days beforehand and then telling them "SURPRISE! You can't play, congratulations!" Really if I see there's sufficient demand I'll try my best to schedule 4 more rooms (which would make the cap 32). I'll know more about the odds of getting those rooms once I'm back on campus in about a week.

[Paragon]

George Mason will send one team. I guess this answers the email I sent you.

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

George Mason will send one team. I guess this answers the email I sent you.

Oh wow sorry I didn't know you'd sent me one, it's not in my inbox. Occasionally that happens with the WM email server though, it's pretty lame. I have gotten one email from Delaware though, so in case anyone is wondering about the field it's them plus what you see in this thread.

Also I just realized the title of this thread was redundant (doubly eponymous?!) by including SCT and sectional.

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

Hey here's a field update:

Registered:
UMD, 1 DI open, 1 DII
VCU, 1 DI UG
GMU, 1 DII
Roanoke, 1 DII
Delaware, 1 DI open

Hard Verbal:
UVA

Soft Verbal:
Penn

So with just over two weeks to go, people need to start registering for this, PLEASE. Also, I've now thrown in an offer for Big South teams: any Big South school that registers will only have to pay $50 per team, as their tournament is the same day as Sectionals. I doubt there will be any takers except possibly Liberty since their club is big enough to send teams to both events. Finally, this event is now on facebook, check it out! http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event ... 5162107910

[Theory Of The Leisure Flask]

Hey here's a field update:

Registered:
UMD, 1 DI open, 1 DII
VCU, 1 DI UG
GMU, 1 DII
Roanoke, 1 DII
Delaware, 1 DI open

Hard Verbal:
UVA

Soft Verbal:
Penn

So with just over two weeks to go, people need to start registering for this, PLEASE. Also, I've now thrown in an offer for Big South teams: any Big South school that registers will only have to pay $50 per team, as their tournament is the same day as Sectionals. I doubt there will be any takers except possibly Liberty since their club is big enough to send teams to both events. Finally, this event is now on facebook, check it out! http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event ... 5162107910

We will likely be attending the Pitt site instead, but a firm decision has not yet been made.

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

Hey so I just got the rooms confirmed and thankfully it's a bit more than I thought, 14, so our hard and fast field cap is 28, but right now it appears we won't reach that unless teams really start signing up en masse. No change in the field since I last reported, except now I know we can field up to 2 house teams if needed (though I'd like to not do so if we have a bigger field).

Edit: Also we'll meet in Morton 20, registration from 8-9.

[The Toad to Wigan Pier]

UVA will be coming with one DII team

[fett0001]

If it's not too late, Virginia Tech will be bringing 1 Div II team, w/ up to 3 moderators.

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

Never too late as long as the field is this small, in fact, it'd be nice if possibly you could have less moderators and a second team instead (but I know this may/may not be feasible depending on your situation).

[Headmaster Thursby]

Wake Forest will almost certainly be bringing one D1 Undergraduate team, and I'm hoping that we'll be able to bring a D2 team as well, but that's a bit more up in the air. Has the field expanded by any besides VT?

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

Not really except a shaky possibility of one GWU DI open team. And of course UVA as Will posted. Oh and if the field's small it's pretty apparent now we have enough for a house team (DII).

Speaking of North Carolina teams, what's up with Duke going to UGA's site? lamesauce

[fett0001]

We'll discuss a second team at practice on Monday, but It's unlikely, as we only have 2 players for a Div I team.

But I'll let you know Monday around 9 or 10 PM

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

Don't forget also that just because a player is DII eligible doesn't mean they HAVE to play there, so if you have two DI players you could always have two more with DII eligibility play with them and still field a second, DII team (well, if you have enough willing people, that is...)

[fett0001]

Sorry for the delay, but current plans are to not send a second team.

[Matt Weiner]

Hey, what time should we be there on Saturday? Also, what's the latest field and format?

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

Registration is 8:15-9 at Morton 20 and the field is, well, still up in the air:

EDITED - FINAL COUNT:
DI
VCU (UG)
Wake Forest (UG)
Delaware
UMD A
SVU (UG)
VA Tech A (UG?)

DII
UVA
UMD B
Roanoke
VA Tech B
Georgetown
W&M

We could REALLY use some DI UG teams right now, so that I'd be justified in handing out the two trophies I bought (not to mention the autobid that goes with the UG champion).

[gonzagaeagleahy]

Georgetown's a definite.

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

OUT OF NOWHERE my prayers are answered and SVU registers a DI UG team - this proves God exists, QED you fools. Problem is it might also mean we have to all read the book of Mormon, shoot.

Anyway it looks like our house team will in all likelihood play DI now, especially if Jon is playing (it's in the air now since he's up in Washington with his dad for his deputy AG confirmation hearing - hah! take that Dana Gioia).

Dan will probably manage DI after the tournament starts, his email is daleifer AT wm DOT edu and his number is 301 300 0473

Finally, I was originally thinking of doing double RR for DII, but there are only 16 packets, so if we had a tie for second and the tied teams were within one game of the leader, theoretically we wouldn't have enough packets. Also DI will almost certainly be 10 rounds (plus UG and overall playoffs), so to keep the number of packets down and be more in line with their schedule, perhaps RR then split into two divisions of four is best. Any thoughts/comments? I'll send a late email or two to all teams soon.

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

Unfortunately GMU unexpectedly dropped, so it's 5-7 in DII for now. I should hear from Wake within 12 hours. Also, can UNC please stop being anti-social and holla back! Please contact me and let me know your plans ASAP.

Edit: err hey forgot to mention way back my number is 804-909-7565 hit me up if you have problems.

[Headmaster Thursby]

We had somebody drop out because of illness, so Wake Forest will not be sending the Div. II team. We will be bring one Div. I (UG) team.

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

Okay so Tech will now activate its auxiliary DI team, with W&M going down to Division II. Double RR and then 3 rounds of playoffs is the current plan.

Edit: Also, Dr. Chuck, are you still coming?

[DumbJaques]

Okay so Tech will now activate its auxiliary DI team, with W&M going down to Division II. Double RR and then 3 rounds of playoffs is the current plan.

I really do not understand why you would run this and not just run a triple round robin. A bye is unnecessary, you don't need to leave two free packets for finals series because the teams have already played each other three times (hence you only need to break an even tie), and it would only add two rounds to the tournament while enabling us to play more packets. It seems evident enough that you have the staff, considering you'd only really need 6-8 people to run the tournament for a couple rounds (if that).

[Matt Weiner]

I really do not understand why you would run this and not just run a triple round robin. A bye is unnecessary, you don't need to leave two free packets for finals series because the teams have already played each other three times (hence you only need to break an even tie), and it would only add two rounds to the tournament while enabling us to play more packets. It seems evident enough that you have the staff, considering you'd only really need 6-8 people to run the tournament for a couple rounds (if that).

Well, NAQT does require that all ties for first be played off, so if there was some sort of wacky scenario such as a three-way tie, it would need to be played on half-packets. Were this to happen, it would hardly be the first time that a bunch of teams who were all going to qualify anyway played a hilarious mini-final for an SCT championship, so it's not necessarily the worst thing.

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

Also, it's not a huge deal, but we only have the rooms till 6, and as it stands now, we have EXACTLY the right number of moderators and scorekeepers with a 3 player house team. Things are tight with Tech's team playing, so I'm worried about some house volunteers leaving after 6 (actually the plan now is for six house volunteers at that point not counting me and Dan, so it could be a real issue if we ran late as there would be no scorekeepers).

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

Georgetown's a definite.

Hey thanks for showing up and all.

[Matt Weiner]

At least they didn't come and require you to staff three out of six rooms with incompetent people who get through 15 tossups a game, rather than just the two out of five we're on now.

[DumbJaques]

At least they didn't come and require you to staff three out of six rooms with incompetent people who get through 15 tossups a game, rather than just the two out of five we're on now.

ITTournament games end after tossup 13. Also woooooooo NAQT you are the bestest!

[Frater Taciturnus]

At least they didn't come and require you to staff three out of six rooms with incompetent people who get through 15 tossups a game, rather than just the two out of five we're on now.

Sarah Angelo you owe me a dollar.

[Matt Weiner]

DI: Maryland wins, VCU second, Delaware third
DI UG: VCU wins, William & Mary second
DII: UVa wins, Maryland B second

[Matt Weiner]

So, I can hardly begin to elucidate all the ways in which this tournament was run improperly. Matt, your enthusiasm for getting your relatively new program to host things is admirable and I'm happy to see W&M attending nearly every tournament this year, but you really need to take some direction from other people on avoiding very avoidable mistakes. The primary thing is definitely that, when you have five game rooms and more than five competent moderators, don't schedule people who have either read at no tournaments ever, or read at one tournament ever where they were castigated for being terrible, to read games on a clock (or, if possible, to read at all). VCU didn't pay the NAQT entry fee so that they could lose a game that ended after 15 tossups to an opponent who ended up 5 games behind them in the standings. (Oh wait--apparently they did.) You had three of the four best moderators on-site either scorekeeping or reading in Division II, while Division I games for the entire morning were a farce. You could have given both DI and DII excellent games all day if you had arranged the staff more sensibly.

Also, I observed you sending members of the WM team home both at the start of the day and before the playoffs. The idea that a tournament can be overstaffed is absurd, and this one certainly was not. You stocked the William & Mary house team with a full four people, some of whom I imagine would be good moderators (given that they have been to a few dozen tournaments, which goes a long way to making someone competent at moderating). I don't understand why this happened; you already have an automatic bid to ICT based on hosting the tournament, so you should have just played a 1 or 2 person dummy team for schedule-completion purposes, rather than trying to pointlessly win your own tournament when those people were desperately needed to staff. My afternoon-rounds "scorekeeper", if you can call him that, wandered off before each round. I delayed the tournament by a total of 20 minutes running around the building trying to find him before round 8 and round 9; finally, tired of making people wait, I ran rounds 10 and 11 solo. The idea that you had four people playing on the house team and two people sitting in their dorms who had shown up and been told they weren't needed really hit home for me as I was trying to read and keep score at the same time under timed-game conditions. When my scorekeeper came back, it wasn't much better; he insisted he was "not good at math" and made me add up the teams' scores at each half. This guy was a WM student! How can he not add a bunch of numbers ending in 0 and 5! He also appeared to have no idea how to do extremely basic things (he had to be reminded each time to write down the names of the teams and the players). If I'm expected to provide basic staff training to your people, you should at least tell me in advance next time rather than throwing me in a room with some guy I don't know and making me discover every 2 minutes what you didn't teach him to do. I also didn't appreciate being sent to read round 6 in a room that was running so slowly (in a timed tournament, somehow) that it hadn't even started round 6 by the time I came back with my finished round 6, then getting there to find that yet another random WM person had already started to run the game solo. Some sort of basic communication between rooms about what people are supposed to be doing does not seem like a tall order for a five-room tournament. You also didn't need separate DI and DII control rooms when DI was three game rooms and DII was two; one person could have easily handled stats and packet distro for the whole event, freeing up the other to staff games.

I might also mention that I showed 3 different people how to make our SVBZ work, each of whom tried to set it up the wrong way before complaining that it was "broken"; finally culminating in the whole system being thrown, still-assembled, onto the floor, by the fourth person who chose not to bother following basic instructions. Not only is this a little disrespectful towards the equipment that other people are bringing to your tournament, it led to you using two Knot systems in DI, including in the room I read in for the afternoon games. NAQT is timed; stopping after every buzz to call out a buzzer number is annoying to both the reader and the players. You had at least one Judge if not other systems sitting in HQ; why did you set up a buzzer that sucks for timed quizbowl, to replace one that wasn't broken? Think ahead for two seconds when you do things. There are plenty of other lesser offenses like this one that I could list, but I think you get the picture.

In the future, please spend less time buying and explaining four (4) "funny" neg prizes or doing whatever else it was you were doing all week, and spend more time on acquiring and training the appropriate staff for a timed tournament and thinking about the other things that successful quizbowl events of the past did to prepare.

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

I prefer staff with multiple tournaments' experience moderating over ones with 0-1. Also, the only time I sent people home was when we had at least two for each room; the only people without scorekeepers were Chris Dao briefly because Dr. Hollis decided to take a break out of the blue, but that was okay because Dan replaced him for a round or two, and you because Matt Beato unexpectedly took off without any instructions to do so (resulting in me frantically texting and calling him after a round) though he came back at least. I'm really sorry how that turned out though, I should have left Kashurba in. Let's look at some of the staff: Andrew Feist - thought he would moderate but was sick and didn't want to, can't blame him because his voice was awful; Alex Kashurba - moderated a previous tournament but was very slow; Chris Dao - made him a moderator after round 3 because he's pretty good; Dr. Hollis - heard him moderate once before and he was fairly slow, so I had him keep score; all three Tech people - when you send three staffers to a tournament, you generally expect them to do some moderating, so, not having previously heard them in a tournament or known what to expect besides what they told me, I had them start with two moderating, but as quickly as a could replaced one with Chris Dao (as quickly as I could was after 3 rounds b/c of the discontinuity b/t DI and DII, didn't want to interrupt a game, plus Dr. Hollis insisted on reading a round so I gave him a chance), and told the other two to switch so the fastest guy was moderating, but then he told me that he kept being told to read slower by SVU, so his getting through 18 a game wasn't totally his fault when teams are demanding a change in speed. One more halfway decent reader, Rhyanne, I sent home in the morning because she was really hungover, didn't want to do anything, was leaving at lunch anyway, and we had 2 per room (also in a previous HS tournament she had some inappropriate remarks to a couple teams). In hindsight I should have had her read a DI room, but alas, I didn't want one of the Tech volunteers doing nothing and I really didn't know they would be that slow. Anyway, Chris had to leave at one point and was replaced by Mark, who I assumed to be pretty good, but he was slightly slow from all reports. Not much I could do to prepare him as he's done nothing with our club for a year and I never see him (FWIW Matt Beato was confused partly b/c he's not affiliated with our club either and wouldn't show up to practices this past week when I had volunteers learn the basics; also, he's just a weird dude - and this guy almost won a city council seat!) I switched DI and DII at lunch to help things out, and that seemed to go pretty well as Cameron got through about 22 a game and the Tech people got through 20 whichever was moderating. So okay what should I have done? Train our house staff better - yeah okay that's a legit point but I really expected Dr. Chuck and Andrew to read, plus a lot of people in practice the previous week were just hopelessly slow readers or didn't show up Sat., but there were a couple I could have taught better and then had staff (Ellen and Annie come to mind). Have another scorekeeper read? Who, pray tell? Feist while he loses a lung? Honestly due to our generally bad and low number of house staff I didn't want to host this until I heard NO ONE really wanted to do it in the Mid-Atlantic. Did I make some mistakes in preparation? Yeah, sure, we could have had our house staff be better. Is it like I had R. Robot Hentzels just sitting around eating donuts ? Hell no.

I didn't know people threw your buzzers and didn't understand how to operate a system, that is pretty ridiculous of them and I shall chastise them properly. I had just the Judge left I think (maybe 1 other buzzer) but I should have had that instead of the Knot, you're right. It wouldn't have been an issue if our buzzer patrol people hadn't been idiots. But yeah I should have stepped back and thought about the knot issue rather than thinking "oh hey, off the top of my head I know who's system this is, so I should put this in as backup." Silly.

Anyway I wanted to make this post on a more positive note, so I really do thank all staffers at this tournament, especially those unaffiliated with any team, namely Mark Guerci, Cameron Orth, Andrew Feist (big ups since you even showed up before I got there, and were sick), and Ian Eppler.

Stats for DII are up, as well as stats for DI after round 10 for individuals and standings only (remaining stats will be posted shortly):
http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org= ... =standings - DII
http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org= ... =standings - DI
Please let me know of any mistakes.

PS: Yeah I had heard some bad things about Sectionals last year, so maybe I should have known better about Tech, but the only culpable parties I knew of were Jason Thweatt and Sarah Mahood, didn't really know the three people who showed up well. Anyway they did a good job in DII.

[Theory Of The Leisure Flask]

In the future, please spend less time buying and explaining four (4) "funny" neg prizes or doing whatever else it was you were doing all week, and spend more time on acquiring and training the appropriate staff for a timed tournament and thinking about the other things that successful quizbowl events of the past did to prepare.

At the Pitt site, we had six count 'em six neg prizes.

[Terrible Shorts Depot]

In the future, please spend less time buying and explaining four (4) "funny" neg prizes or doing whatever else it was you were doing all week, and spend more time on acquiring and training the appropriate staff for a timed tournament and thinking about the other things that successful quizbowl events of the past did to prepare.

At the Pitt site, we had six count 'em six neg prizes.

Out of thread-derailing curiosity, who ended up with the Golden Earring (the Dutch band) video? I actually wanted that. Still, one really needn't give out more than one neg prize, and that only needs to be for having the most negs, not for negging in a stupid manner.

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

Complete DI stats posted, follow the same link. Also, I have a scoresheet from a scrimmage game between Delaware and Wake Forest that won't be in the stats (there was only one complete scrimmage game as in round two of the playoffs Maryland played the packet by themselves and in round three SVU went home).

Moderator: Mark TUH: 15

Mark (Del): 0 4 2
No other scoring buzzes from Delaware's other players
30/120 on bonus points. Final: 60

Danny (Wake): No scoring buzzes
Ross (Wake): 0 1 0
Jacob (Wake): 0 7 1
Stewart: 0 1 0
90/270 on bonus points. Final: 175

As for the neg prizes, what can I say, I'm a generous man.

[tabstop]

I'm assuming the SBVZ are the blue buzzers? We replaced them after Chris Ray, Phil, and Jeff all buzzed in on the same question and all three lights lit up (in a row, at least). Since we were in the middle of a game, we did not take the time to disassemble; we put them down, got the new one up, and continued. I did not personally supervise the connection of the cables, nor did I examine them afterwards (I had always thought them rather idiot-proof, but God is always making better idiots); it is possible that that was the issue rather than four boxes being non-functional (counting the two buzzers we had replaced in round one).

[Zip Zap Rap Pants]

Yeah my apologies for my choice of words, I mean not to call out the 1-2 people who set up the buzzer there as idiots, just that if they literally threw the system on the ground, that's pretty stupid. I don't know what the deal with that system really was, but my putting the Knot there as backup was probably only a bit worse than putting the Judge there given the Judge's track record of breakdowns. The delay in recognition on the Knot is only a fraction longer than with the Judge since players have to check the lights first, plus I've seen people get negs b/c they thought they were first rather than their teammates next to them, so they answer first.