2010 National Tournament of Academic Excellence

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Nick
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Re: 2010 National Tournament of Academic Excellence

Post by Nick »

Jesus vs. Dragons wrote:I am fairly sure a large majority of people have been to Disney World/Disney Land, and for a person who is 18ish years old, this is not very exciting to do again
FALSE.
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Re: 2010 National Tournament of Academic Excellence

Post by Edward Elric »

Nick wrote:
Jesus vs. Dragons wrote:I am fairly sure a large majority of people have been to Disney World/Disney Land, and for a person who is 18ish years old, this is not very exciting to do again
FALSE.
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Re: 2010 National Tournament of Academic Excellence

Post by jdeliverer »

Jesus vs. Dragons wrote:I am fairly sure a large majority of people have been to Disney World/Disney Land, and for a person who is 18ish years old, this is not very exciting to do again
TRUE.
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Re: 2010 National Tournament of Academic Excellence

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

This is a reminder to everyone in this thread that the purpose of these forums is to discuss quizbowl, not to shout "true" and "false" intermittently.
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Re: 2010 National Tournament of Academic Excellence

Post by Auroni »

I'm happy that NTAE is gone, allowing programs that normally waste their money sending people to this tournament to instead use that money to attend better or more tournaments throughout the season.
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Re: 2010 National Tournament of Academic Excellence

Post by jdeliverer »

Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:This is a reminder to everyone in this thread that the purpose of these forums is to discuss quizbowl, not to shout "true" and "false" intermittently.
FALSE.

*readies self for tempban*
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Re: 2010 National Tournament of Academic Excellence

Post by gyre and gimble »

Ice Warrior wrote:I'm happy that NTAE is gone, allowing programs that normally waste their money sending people to this tournament to instead use that money to attend better or more tournaments throughout the season.
Like us.
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Re: 2010 National Tournament of Academic Excellence

Post by nobthehobbit »

I, too, played a tournament, SmartAsk, that was like NTAE in terms of amenities. (Well, it wasn't at Disney World.) It was a school-based competition, not an all-star competition, but was rather popular until it was abruptly cancelled by the CBC.

SmartAsk was an utterly terrible game. The tournament was unseeded single-elimination; teams had three players. All questions were one-liners, and in the first two (or three, in the first season) rounds (there were four or five, depending on the season), you couldn't interrupt to buzz in. In the first two seasons, teams were allowed to confer after the buzz (this practice was banned for the third and final season). Questions were presented in categories with weird names, which included spelling and math comp. (Some think the producers tried to rig games by making packets favor one team's strengths over another, for such reasons as preventing too many teams from one province from making the semifinals and hence setting up the possibility of the final being between two teams from the same province and so not having "national appeal." They also seeded the semifinals so that teams from the same province played each other.) The lightning round(s) (there were two in the third season; the additional round was a one-on-one round with an announced category) allowed interrupts, but you lost points equal to the value of the question if you were incorrect (whether you interrupted or not) and it did not bounce back to the other team; further, in the third season, the point values of the questions doubled roughly halfway through the round. In the second season, the round after the first two was a round in which you bet points on whether a player of your choice on the other team would answer incorrectly. In the second and third seasons, the round I have not mentioned was the round before the last lightning round, which was an assigned questions round: each player on each team was read a question, and if they answered incorrectly, their counterpart on the opposing team (that is, the player sitting directly "opposite" them) was given the opportunity to answer for half points.

My team won in the third season, after which it was cancelled.

The team selection process was offbeat, as well: each team submitted something (a piece of writing, an audio clip or a video clip) on a certain topic, such as "What makes your school cool?" or "What makes the perfect school?" The only team exempt from this was the defending champion. The chosen teams (16 each from BC, Alberta, Ontario, 32 for the Atlantic provinces, though I can't recall the exact split, 14 each from Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec, and one from each territory) played a radio game against another chosen team (except the territories' teams). These were moderated by local CBC Radio hosts who often had a less-than-perfect grasp of the rules and the game format was an abbreviated version of the above (two rounds of no buzzing before I finish, and a 90 second lightning round, except in Alberta, where each team got a 30 second lightning round to itself). The winning teams (and the territories' teams) were put into eight brackets depending on the week of the radio game (territories' teams were in the week four bracket) so that each "region" (ie the six provinces west of the Altantics, and 2 from there) was represented in each bracket. At least in the third season, which provinces' teams played which in the first round seemed random. (In the second season, it was not.) Pre-semifinal taping was done in four weeks, each TV taping week having two radio weeks' teams. The first round was taped Monday and Tuesday, the second round Wednesday, the third round Thursday morning and the week's quarter-final on Thursday afternoon.

The semifinals and final were taped later in the year, after all the initial games had aired; those were done as same-day tapes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. (From this I also learned that Toronto's rather nicer in April than in December.)

So enough about how bad this competition was.

The amenities were a really nice deal: free (return) airfare to Toronto (or train if you were close enough; if you were from the Toronto area, too bad), including reimbursement of any airport fees, and taxi fees incurred getting to and from Pearson airport, free hotel accommodations at a nice hotel across the road from the CBC headquarters, $100 per diem per competitor (including alternates) and chaperone, and a mixer party at the hotel on Monday evening, before Monday's losers went home. (You flew out the morning after you lost.) For the semifinals and final, teams were flown out the day before their taping (we barely got to the hotel in time to see the first semifinal), but had the option of staying until Friday even if they lost (and received per diem money for those days). For cash-strapped schools that could barely afford Reach for the Top (where you paid through the nose for everything), this was a great deal, especially with the national TV exposure. For the final tapings in April, instead of a mixer at the hotel, we had dinner with the producers and hosts, and then a night of comedy and improv at Second City. (The per diems were generous enough, and my team frugal enough, that after our quarter-final win we had dinner at Morton's Steakhouse, mostly paid for by our chaperone; after we won the final, we had dinner at the CN Tower's revolving restaurant and paid our chaperone's bill.) In addition, UBC gave me and my teammates decent scholarships for first-year; I think one of my teammates hadn't even applied, or if he had, hadn't initially been accepted.

The younger Reach players at my school were disappointed that SmartAsk was cancelled, since they would've gotten into the radio round automatically; had I been a year younger and it not been cancelled, I probably would've done it again. (But then, I didn't know any better back then and thought Reach was great and SmartAsk only a little worse.)

So I can see where Kay's coming from on this one, but it doesn't make up for the fact that the tournament, as a quizbowl tournament, just plain stank.
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Re: 2010 National Tournament of Academic Excellence

Post by Nine-Tenths Ideas »

The Granny wrote: Seriously, just approach people and have a conversation with them. If the worst case scenario is you have a slightly awkward acknowledgment of each other, then things are okay.
NSC last year:
Me: Hey, Charlie Rosenthal, how is your brother?
Charlie Rosenthal: I do not have a brother.
Me: Are you sure?
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Re: 2010 National Tournament of Academic Excellence

Post by Whiter Hydra »

Arsonists Get All the Girls wrote:I've been to HSNCT. Part of the problem though is that down hyar we don't have a huge circuit where we know lots of people. A lot of the people we do know however don't go to nationals. I guess it's possible, but it's still sort of awkward to be like, "Hey, Loyola Academy people, good game! Wanna watch some CSI: Shamwow together?"
No, the trick is to ask Quizbowl people for their autograph.
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Re: 2010 National Tournament of Academic Excellence

Post by Rococo A Go Go »

It's really not hard to make friends at quizbowl tournaments. While it's true that most quizbowlers aren't social butterflies, most are generally approachable and easy to get along with. You don't need to be at Disney World to meet people.
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Re: 2010 National Tournament of Academic Excellence

Post by Rufous-capped Thornbill »

The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio wrote:
Arsonists Get All the Girls wrote:I've been to HSNCT. Part of the problem though is that down hyar we don't have a huge circuit where we know lots of people. A lot of the people we do know however don't go to nationals. I guess it's possible, but it's still sort of awkward to be like, "Hey, Loyola Academy people, good game! Wanna watch some CSI: Shamwow together?"
No, the trick is to ask Quizbowl people for their autograph.
I almost asked Naren for his last year.
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Re: 2010 National Tournament of Academic Excellence

Post by Jesus vs. Dragons »

Inkana7 wrote:
The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio wrote:
Arsonists Get All the Girls wrote:I've been to HSNCT. Part of the problem though is that down hyar we don't have a huge circuit where we know lots of people. A lot of the people we do know however don't go to nationals. I guess it's possible, but it's still sort of awkward to be like, "Hey, Loyola Academy people, good game! Wanna watch some CSI: Shamwow together?"
No, the trick is to ask Quizbowl people for their autograph.
I almost asked Naren for his last year.
And I almost did this to Kyle and Andy at GUERRILLA.
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ryandillon
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Re: 2010 National Tournament of Academic Excellence

Post by ryandillon »

Yeah dude. Out of 192 teams, a friday night for scrimmaging, a saturday night for relaxing before playoff day (or if you're eliminated just hanging out and then scrimmaging sunday if you're sticking around), you should be able to find some people to chill with. There's like 500 people in the hotel all playing in a national quiz bowl tournament for you to talk quiz bowl or whatever with.

If all else fails, hang out with those Shabiricon fellows.
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