Battle of the Burgh XVI - University of Pittsburgh - 4/6/13

[bis17]

Pitt Quiz Bowl invites your team to participate in Battle of the Burgh XVI, which will take place on Saturday, April 6, 2013, at the University of Pittsburgh campus in the Cathedral of Learning. This tournament is open to quiz bowl teams from all high schools, regardless of location, public/private status, or level of prior experience in academic competition. Schools wishing to form new teams and attend this event are encouraged to do so and we will provide any assistance possible in this endeavor. All teams should be registered by Saturday, March 30, which is the Saturday before the tournament, however limits may need to be set beforehand if not enough buzzer systems can be provided.

We will follow the official NAQT rules for match play, which can be found at http://www.naqt.com/rules.html. NAQT will supply the questions.

You may enter as many teams from your school as you wish. Up to six students may play for a single team during the course of the tournament, but only four may play at one time. Players may not switch from one of their school’s teams to another during the course of the tournament. You may register by physical mail using the included form or by emailing the relevant information to [email protected], which is overwhelmingly preferred. In either case, please provide an email address and check it regularly. All follow-up communication about this event, including any emergency announcements in the event of inclement weather, etc., will occur by e-mail.

The fee structure is as follows:

• $70 for the first team from a school, $60 for the second team, $50 for the third team, etc.
• $10 off your total fee for each working buzzer system brought
• $10 off for each team from a school that has never attended a Pitt tournament before
• $10 off per moderator brought to assist with the tournament
• $10 off for traveling over 200 miles to attend
• $5 for each timer system.

You may mail a check to:

Brandon Sherman (Quiz Bowl)
190 Lothrop St. Room 625
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

or pay with a check or cash at the tournament. Please make checks out to “Pitt Quiz Bowl.” Copies of the tournament’s questions will be available afterwards for $20, which can be included with your tournament fee or paid separately. Payment is preferred on the day of the tournament.

Team check-in will run from 8:30 to 9:00, to be followed by a brief orientation meeting. Gameplay will commence until approximately 5:00, with a break for lunch midway. The specific schedule depends on the field size and will be distributed at the tournament. Regardless of tournament schedule, all teams are guaranteed at least ten games.

If you have any questions or concerns not addressed in this letter, or your team has special needs, please contact us using the information below.

Hope to see you there,

Brandon Sherman,
Tournament Director
E-mail: [email protected]

[bis17]

Here is the registration form and the above letter.

[Sniper, No Sniping!]

For future reference, is it at all possible to have Battle of the Burgh announced/invitations being sent out further in advance? Fisher Catholic usually attends this tournament, but since this was announced so late, that window closed and we can't go now (well that, and the fact we're attending a considerably closer tournament instead, but that's definitely beside the point).

[bis17]

I'll be bring it up at our next meeting, and thank you for your concern! As far as I know, the main reason we've always announced these relatively last second is because we need to make sure we won't be short on volunteers.

[mithokie]

Do you know which set you will be using?

[bis17]

We are not sure yet, but our president e-mailed Chad from NAQT to find out. Once we know I will post here and let you know.

[Important Bird Area]

Chad's traveling home from CCCT right now. It is likely that this tournament will be assigned IS #124 (which has not yet been used elsewhere in Pennsylvania).

Note that both the Ohio and eastern Pennsylvania state championships are also on April 6th, so this tournament will draw from western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and perhaps Virginia teams.

[bis17]

Our president got a response. We're using IS-124. Thank you for your patience.

[Magritte's Pipe]

For future reference, is it at all possible to have Battle of the Burgh announced/invitations being sent out further in advance? Fisher Catholic usually attends this tournament, but since this was announced so late, that window closed and we can't go now (well that, and the fact we're attending a considerably closer tournament instead, but that's definitely beside the point).

Definitely agree with this. Your SAGACITY tournament has been pretty predictable in terms of what weekend it is held, but this tournament seems to bounce around from year to year, and notice is sent out so late that it's hard for me to plan ahead as a coach. My team members are involved in numerous other activities, and I need as much advance warning as possible to be able to ensure I can field a team. In this case, by the time I knew about the date of this tournament, over half my team were committed to other activities. In the end it didn't matter - we went to the Blue Hen tournament that used the same packet you will be using, so we aren't eligible anyway. However, more advance notice for this tournament in future years would be GREATLY appreciated.

I will say, however, for those who can attend, that this is a good tournament, and well worth your team's time.

[bis17]

Thank you! And we apologize again about the timing. Our main issue with regard to timing is that Pitt's room reservation system is semester-based, so we can't reserve rooms for a tournament in the spring until the beginning of the spring semester. We need a weekend where we are guaranteed a ton of rooms in a specific building, and quite often in the spring, people will reserve one or two rooms, just barely preventing us from being able to hold a tournament that weekend.

We will make a conscious effort to update you as far in advance as possible, as much as the system will allow us.

[Sniper, No Sniping!]

So how'd this go? I am curious if Winchester Thurston, certainly a talented team captained by a phenomal player, came away with this one.

[bis17]

It went pretty well! Winchester got first, going undefeated with 12 wins and 0 losses. The final team count was 10 teams.