ANNOUNCEMENT: NAQT Mid-Atlantic Regionals at VCU (5/1)

[Frater Taciturnus]

This is the general announcement for the second annual Mid-Atlantic Regional NAQT Championship. This is a high school academic quizbowl tournament to be hosted by the quizbowl club of Virginia Commonwealth University on Sunday, May 1 from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM. The tournament is open to teams representing high schools located in one of the following states: Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, or the District of Columbia. This tournament intends to crown the regional champion of the NAQT format on questions somewhat harder than those used for the NAQT state championships. It will also be a useful preparatory event for any team attending the NAQT HSNCT, as well as a fun and rewarding tournament for any high school quizbowl team.

The tournament will be held at the VCU campus, in Hibbs Hall. The address of the building is 900 Park Avenue.

AFFILIATION: This tournament will seek affiliation with the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence and will be an opportunity to qualify for the National Scholastics Championship (pace-nsc.org), which is run by PACE and will occur in June 2011. It will also be a qualifier for the High School National Championship Tournament run by National Academic Quiz Tournaments (naqt.com), which will take place in May 2011.

QUESTIONS: The questions will be the NAQT Division II Sectionals set from 2011. Players must avoid exposure to these questions in any other event (including staffing at a collegiate NAQT Sectional in February) in order to remain eligible to play this tournament. We will use the NAQT rules, with the following two exceptions: games will end after twenty tossups rather than being timed, and players will have five seconds to answer tossups. The questions will be offered to participating teams for free.

FORMAT: This tournament will be a round robin. We will be enforcing a strict 11 team field cap. After a full round robin, the tournament championship will be decided by a final of up to two games if necessary.

REGISTRATION AND FEES:
-The fee structure is as follows:
Base fee: $70 per team. There is no limit to the number of teams who can attend from one school.
Buzzer discount: $5 off school's total fee for each fully functional system (control box and eight activators all work). No limit to # of systems you can bring
Staff discount: $10 off school's total fee. This could be a coach, parent, student who is not playing, etc. Team-provided staffers will keep score for various games not involving the team with which they are affiliated. Volunteer staffers must stay through all the games (except finals) in order to receive credit for their school. There is no limit to the number of staffers you can bring.
Minimum fee: The minimum fee is $0 (you can bring enough buzzers and staffers to eliminate your entire fee via discounts, but you cannot have a "negative fee.")
-To register, e- 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. Feel free to share this announcement with any schools that you think would be interested in attending. We are also requiring a cell phone contact number belonging to someone who will be attending the tournament, so that we can track you down if you are running late. There is no further registration form or other action needed on your part in order to be officially registered; you only need to e-mail me at that address with the information requested. Posts made in this thread will not be considered official registrations; you must e-mail me.

METHOD OF PAYMENT: All teams must pay by the day of the tournament. We prefer to accept payment in person right before the tournament starts, but we will accept checks by mail ahead of time if your procedures require it. Teams who do not pay by the day of the tournament will be charged a $25 penalty and will have two weeks to pay their total amount before we start mailing letters to your school administration about it.

We can accept cash, personal checks, or checks from school, school district, or quizbowl club funds. We have no ability to process purchase orders, credit cards, Paypal, or any other forms of payment. Bringing forms of payment outside of the three listed will be considered nonpayment and subject you to the $25 late payment penalty.

We will contact registered teams with instructions on who to make the checks out to. If you require a pre-tournament invoice in order to have a check cut, let us know by April 19th so that we can send you the paperwork in time. If you do not let us know about this requirement by April 19, and it causes you to come to the tournament without your payment, then you will be subject to the $25 late payment penalty.

TEAM & ROSTER SIZE: There may be a maximum of six players on one team's roster, up to four of whom may play at one time. There will be no exceptions to this rule. If you bring more than six players, you must register a second team to have all of them play. There is a halftime substitution opportunity in each game. Each player may appear on only one team's roster throughout the day-no switching from the B team to the A team, etc. Teams may also play shorthanded with only three players. Teams consisting of fewer than three players may not play without my express prior permission.

FOOD: Neither breakfast nor lunch will be provided by the tournament. We will advise you on nearby restaurants and convenience stores.

Please e-mail me if you have any further questions. I'm looking forward to seeing a wide variety of teams for this regional championship on May 1.

George Berry
Tournament Director, Mid-Atlantic Regional NAQT Championship
[email protected]

List of registered teams (to be updated as registrations come in):
Chris Manners
Clover Hill
George Mason
Georgetown Day School
St Anselm's
Thomas Jefferson A
Thomas Jefferson B

[Kouign Amann]

People should register for this.

[warhammerempire]

People should register for this.

Seconded. I mean, AP exams aren't that big of a deal, are they?

[kamikaze]

People should register for this.

Seconded. I mean, AP exams aren't that big of a deal, are they?

We'd love to come to this tournament but not only is it the start of AP exams, it's also the last day of our spring break. For some reason, my kids have terrible priorities. :P

[Kouign Amann]

What's the minimum number of teams for this event to run?

[jlchockey94]

GDS will attend, given that we can get a bus from our school.

[jlchockey94]

GDS will attend this tournament. Will it run with only four teams?

[Frater Taciturnus]

It will run with whatever teams come.

[Smuttynose Island]

It is increasingly likely that TJ will be sending at least two teams to this.

Edit: This is the case.

[Kouign Amann]

Teams consisting of fewer than three players may not play without my express prior permission.

St. Anselm's is actually going to be solo me playing unofficially. Express prior permission, please?

[Bloodwych]

Quince Orchard is actually going to be solo me playing unofficially. Express prior permission, please?

[Frater Taciturnus]

Quince Orchard is actually going to be solo me playing unofficially. Express prior permission, please?

Teams consisting of fewer than three players may not play without my express prior permission.

St. Anselm's is actually going to be solo me playing unofficially. Express prior permission, please?

Please email me as soon as possible.

[Frater Taciturnus]

The Prelims are over: After 7 rounds, the standins look like this.

[Down and out in Quintana Roo]

Why is Chris Manners solo playing as Chris Manners but Aiden Mehigan solo playing as St. Anselm's?

[Frater Taciturnus]

follow along at http://quizbowlpackets.com/vcu/regional ... duals.html

[Down and out in Quintana Roo]

The team with the best PPB by more than a full point went 5-7? Weird.

[Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)]

Which is exactly why when people ramble on about what a great tiebreaker and predictive statistic PPB is I just laugh.

[Mechanical Beasts]

Which is exactly why when people ramble on about what a great tiebreaker and predictive statistic PPB is I just laugh.

That's true, this single data point is adequate justification. I don't think anyone says PPB is perfect, but it's certainly better than anything else available at comparing across brackets. PPG is similarly imperfect, but better than anything else we have within a bracket. I... don't really even see the point you're trying to make. What better tiebreakers/predictive statistics do you suggest, even assuming that this one data point damns PPB forever?

[Auroni]

From experience, I can say that having a higher ppb alone doesn't enable someone to win all of their games, whereas having the ability to intuit the correct answer and buzz confidently against teams of similar skill does.

[Kouign Amann]

Congratulations to VCU for using Mid-Atlantic Champs to again break their own tournament direction landspeed record, completing 14 rounds by 3:50 PM.

[Bloodwych]

Wow this was bad.