Chicago Open 2014 (July 19-20, UChicago)

Post by **theMoMA** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 5:29 am

Hey,

I'm editing CO! It's going to be at the University of Chicago on July 19-20, 2014. Hope to see you there!

Logistics

We'll be in Cobb Hall, just around the corner from the Harper Memorial Library we all know and love. Registration will be in room 107 between 8am and 8:25. We'll have brief announcements and start promptly at 8:30. If you're late, the tournament may start without you. Lunch will take place after six or seven rounds and will last for 45 minutes after the final room lets out. Except staffers, everyone will be responsible for getting their own lunch (no central ordering).

Editing

I'm head editing. Ike Jose, Gautam and Gaurav Kandlikar, Austin Brownlow, and Jacob Reed are also pitching in. Each editor is responsible for various categories:

Me: all history (4/4), painting, other fine art, religion, philosophy, social science, grab bag 1/1
Ike: all lit (4/4), other science, myth
Gautam and Gaurav: bio and chem
Austin: physics
Jacob: music

Packet submission

Normal ACF distribution packet submission.

Packet deadlines

No packets before April 1, please.
Packet submitted by May 4: $60
Packet submitted by June 6: $120 (not a Sunday because of HSNCT)
Packet submitted by June 15: $160
Packet submitted by July 6: $200
Packet submitted after July 6: +$10 per day (on top of $200)

Send the packets to [email protected]. If you've got your packet in my inbox when I check my email the morning after the deadline, you're good.

Other discounts

I'm going to talk with a few people about the availability of buzzers and moderators and get back to you guys on this one.

Teams, eligibility, format, and rules

This is a true open, so anyone can play. Because there was some discussion of this in the other thread, you may have more than four players on your team, but only four can play at any given time. Because of the high demand for this tournament, I will ask that all teams attempt to fill all four slots, and work with me to fill empty spots with free agents as necessary.

The rules will be typical ACF rules, and the format will be typical 20/20. Still undecided on powers and whether to include tiebreaker questions in non-finals rounds (feedback on these issues would be appreciated).

Field cap and registration

There will be a 17-team field cap. Registration for the tournament is not yet open, but please fill out this form to help me gauge team interest. I will create a team formation spreadsheet and open registration sometime around March 1, so please fill out the form and think about teammates until then!

More info about registration will be here eventually.

Side events

History, literature, video games (all on Sunday, July 20)

Post by **theMoMA** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 5:30 am

Packet submission information

Normal, full packet.

Length, format, font, etc.

Your tossups should be between 8 and 10 lines long. Your bonuses should be no longer than 12 total lines, including answers. Please submit packets in .doc, .docx, or .rtf format, in 10-point Times New Roman with 1" margins. Do not powermark your submitted tossups. Format your submissions as per ACF's guidelines. I will return egregious violators with annoyance for reformatting; depending on the degree, I may not accept the packet for a particular deadline.

Style

Proofread for spelling, missing words, grammar, etc. Avoid stringing unrelated clauses together with "and." Make sure every sentence of your tossups has a reference to the answer (either a pronoun or "this novel" or an equivalent). In the first sentence, try to have a reference to the answer before any substantive clue is given (i.e. "This man wrote a novel in which Gordon Brown goes to Jefferson." instead of "Gordon Brown goes to Jefferson in a novel by this man.") The first reference to the answer in both tossups and bonuses should be "this ____" and not "he" or "she" or "it." Do not use "these" as a standalone reference to the answer (i.e. do not say "In a novel about these by John Smith..."; instead, say "In a novel about these animals by John Smith...")

Tournament philosophy

I want this to be a tournament focused on exciting question concepts and clues rather than exciting answer lines. What I really want to see is questions that test on familiar answers but with a conceptual twist. Here's what I mean. In quizbowl past, people have thought that writing a tossup on "Norway" means drawing clues from haphazard points in Norwegian history. And people have thought that something like "the Nazi occupation of Norway" is something that could only be tested about by using that exact thing as the answer line. I want us to instead think along the lines of, "the Nazi invasion and occupation of Norway is an interesting time period that we should write a question about. I will write a question on 'Norway' using clues only from the Nazi invasion and occupation." Instead of writing a tortured question on "the Nazi occupation of Norway," this results in a tossup on a very gettable answer with highly focused clues that test for a particular moment in history.

So here's the bottom-line rule: When you're writing for this tournament, try to think of a great concept for a tossup, and then distill it to the simplest possible answer for a player to give. Then write the tossup with that simple answer as the answer line, using clues that test for the knowledge of the concept. This way, we can eliminate a lot of the problems that come along with creativity while still writing on very interesting answers.

I'll also note that even the most dubious common-link tossup answers usually make excellent bonus themes, so if you've noticed something really cool but can't think of a great way to write a tossup on it, try to work it into a bonus!

Tournament difficulty

As Matt Bollinger said last year, leeway to write on a broad range of answers makes Chicago Open fun and great. We're looking forward to seeing your exciting ideas. But we also want this to be an event where the good teams can answer the vast majority of tossups. Feel free to write some of your questions to a target audience of "the best five open teams in the country," but vary your answer lines in difficulty, and don't write tossups if you think that there is no gradation of knowledge between players on the subject or the clues you're using.

Focus on core people, concepts, and events

In conjunction with the thoughts on difficulty above, I'd like to see us ask tossups about things that are more than just long bonus parts. So I'm asking that you focus on core people, concepts, and events that players are likely to have more than just cursory knowledge about. If you're dying to ask about that very important novel by the preeminent 18th-century Peruvian authoress, see if you can write a conceptual tossup on "Peru" focusing on clues from that time period, or work it into a bonus.

Post by **theMoMA** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 5:32 am

Packets submitted:

May 4 deadline ($60):
Carsten Gehring, Joe Hansen, Kenneth Lan
Jordan Brownstein, Mike Cheyne, Aaron Rosenberg, Sinan Ulusoy
Sam Bailey, Selene Koo, Marshall Steinbaum, Seth Teitler
Chris Borglum, Billy Beyer, Mik Larsen, Shan Kothari

May 11 deadline ($80):
Charlie Dees, Max Schindler, Ben Zhang, Michael Hausinger

June 6 deadline ($120):
Mike Bentley, Arun Chonai, Eric and Bryn Douglass
Aaron Dos Remedios, Patrick Liao, Brendan McKendy, Jay Misuk, Joe Su, Neil Walford
Matt Bollinger, Evan Adams, Tommy Casalaspi, Eric Mukherjee

June 15 deadline ($160):
Rob Carson, Mike Sorice, Jeff Hoppes, Chris Ray
Libo Zeng, Siddhant Dogra, Kurtis Droge, Matt Lafer
Stephen Liu, Jonathan Magin, Sriram Pendyala, Ryan Westbrook

July 6 deadline ($200):
Auroni Gupta, Will Nediger, Jerry Vinokurov, Richard Yu
Doug Graebner, Will Alston, Benji Nguyen, Ian Lenhoff

Matt Weiner, Matt Jackson, Billy Busse, John Lawrence ($230)
Saajid Moyen, Ashvin Srivatsa, Jarret Greene, Dan Puma ($260)

Adventure Temple Trail · Sat Jan 04, 2014 4:04 pm

I've already discussed this with you semi-privately, but I wanted to post: This "half-packet" submission scheme is a bad idea, and will result in a self-destructive amount of work on the editors' end. Therefore, I don't think you need to wait to decide - you can, and should, just change course and go to a full packet-sub model now. Having worked on CO last year, I can tell you that you want as many questions coming in as you can get, so you can save yourself effort by working with good ideas that you wouldn't have thought of yourself. Even with a full-submission scheme as we had last year, I'd say probably about a third of last year's CO consisted of original questions not submitted by teams, which was also roughly true for Jerry's CO. (And some of those editors' questions were written to explicitly control subdistributions better across the whole tournament.) That's a lot of work, and amping up the amount you have to do far beyond that seems unnecessary. Besides, if a full packet has lots of bad questions that need replacing, nothing is stopping you from up-and-replacing half of them, as though you only received the better half as a half-packet. And four or five of the packets you get will have 17/17 or so of workable material right off the bat, which will save you a lot of time.

Even if all of your editors feel like they're up for writing 10.5 packets' worth of editors' material (which is the minimum you'd need, if 0 submitted questions required replacing), you'll find you're actually on the hook for a lot more once repeats and simply bad questions are factored in (this "feedback" procedure is a good idea if you can actually adhere to it, but believe me, there will be some teams who are just unable to fix their questions or write better ones, no matter how many times you try to talk to them. Don't expect your feedback to bump all submissions up to usable quality, especially if you get in a time crunch and have to cut back on it.). When all the numbers are tallied up, you're probably consigning yourself to writing two-thirds of the hardest tournament of the year all by yourselves. Why not try the new feedback procedure on full packets, to get the best of both worlds? Again, if you want the editors to write half of each packet, you totally still can cut and replace half of each full packet coming in.

Even if you insist on making your own lives harder by taking half-packets, you need to actually impose a subdistribution on teams submitting the half packet, rather than letting them write whatever they feel like. Otherwise, you'll end up with a gigantic hole in categories such as science or music (or with less predictable gaps, which might result in editors working overtime a month before the tournament without realizing they have to), whereas with a fixed subdistribution, editors know they have exactly half a packet (plus repeats/replacements) to fill with each submission that comes in. Minnesota Open 2011 made teams adhere to the following, which you can adjust somewhat to account for the changes you want to make to SS/Geo/trash/"Your Choice":

MO 2011 thread wrote:DISTRIBUTION 12/12 total. See MO thread for full-packet distribution for those of you who want to submit a full packet. Keep in mind the packet must have 12 tossups, 12 bonuses by the time you're done.

3/2 or 2/3 Literature [at least 1/0 or 0/1 World, American, European, and British; vary reasonably by time, and include a mix of poetry, drama, and novels]
3/2 or 2/3 History [at least 0/1 or 1/0 American, European, and World and at least 1 British; vary reasonably by time, limit military history to 5 or fewer total questions]
3/2 or 2/3 Science [at least 0/1 or 1/0 Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Other Science (Astronomy, computer science, earth science/geology, math, paleontology); no science biography; no more than 1 of any given "other science"]

2/1 or 1/2 RMP
1/0 or 0/1 Mythology [at least 1 non-Greco-Roman myth]
1/0 or 0/1 Philosophy [maximum 1 ancient philosophy; feel free to write on pre-Socratics, but only in an interesting way]
1/0 or 0/1 Religion [at least 1 J/C/I is encouraged but not mandated; I'd like to see some inventiveness here since minor religion bowl can get kind of old]

2/1 or 1/2 Fine Arts
1/0 or 0/1 Painting [vary reasonably by time; try to include mostly works-based clues]
1/0 or 0/1 Non-opera Music
1/0 or 0/1 Other arts [sculpture, architecture, justifiably-fine-arts film, installation art] or [opera, ballet, dance, or jazz]

1/1 Social Sciences + Geography + Current Events
1/0 or 0/1 Social Sciences [includes law, anthropology, sociology, psychology, economics, game theory; no more than one question on each discipline]
1/0 or 0/1 Geography or Current Events

0/1 or 1/0 Your Choice
pop culture, sports, general knowledge, or additional/fringe academic [no more than one question on any given topic, trash is fun, but try some accessible creative ideas here]

Also: why are all the entry fees so damn high after the first discount? Transportation to Chicago isn't cheap, and I imagine most people don't want to pay more than market price for the actual tournament for seemingly no reason. I don't think the United States has undergone enough inflation to make the base fee for a quizbowl tournament $160 or $200.

Post by **theMoMA** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 6:58 pm

We're going to have to agree to disagree on the packet submission. I've left an out to go back to the traditional system if it becomes necessary, so that's all I'll say about that.

The change in the fees reflects two things. First, if the editing team does end up producing more questions centrally, I think it's only fair that the fees increase to reflect the difference. Second, I want to put my money where my mouth is and set up the fees in a way that I think will make the rewrite system most effective. I see early packet submission as the best way to do that, so I'm using the fee deadlines to place as big an incentive on early packets as I think is fair.

ThisIsMyUsername · Post by **ThisIsMyUsername** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 8:50 pm

theMoMA wrote:We're going to have to agree to disagree on the packet submission. I've left an out to go back to the traditional system if it becomes necessary, so that's all I'll say about that.

The change in the fees reflects two things. First, if the editing team does end up producing more questions centrally, I think it's only fair that the fees increase to reflect the difference. Second, I want to put my money where my mouth is and set up the fees in a way that I think will make the rewrite system most effective. I see early packet submission as the best way to do that, so I'm using the fee deadlines to place as big an incentive on early packets as I think is fair.

This is a highly disingenuous explanation. You've been playing collegiate quizbowl for far too long not to understand how fee structures work. Housewritten regular-season tournaments do not have higher base fees than do packet submission tournaments, pleading the excuse that the editors are writing more questions themselves. Rather, the two tournaments have the same base fee, and the difference is mediated by the fact that the packet submission tournament has packet discounts, and the housewritten tournament does not. Base fees do not correlate with the number of questions written by the editors themselves; they correlate with the number of total questions produced, regardless of production scheme.

Furthermore, Matt Jackson has already explained why your scheme will create a needless work increase for you and the other editors. While it's fine for you to ignore him and say you think this method works best, it takes real chutzpah to turn around and charge us more money for extra work that no one is asking you to do, and some people are actively asking you not to do! You are asking us to pay more money for a more inconvenient system!

I get that you plan to be very thorough, but quizbowl does not pay for man-hours put in; we pay for questions produced. I'm an extremely committed editor too, and I suspect that I spend an above-average amount of effort doing research for my questions. But I sure as heck would never try to squeeze more money out of people to compensate me for the time-consuming methods that I freely choose to employ.

By the way, the reason that early deadlines for CO submission are rarely met is not that we're all lazy. It's that most of the top players are major writers/editors for HSNCT, NSC, or NASAT, which they need to devote a lot of attention to, or are just coming off of editing or playing ACF Nationals. The incentive of "not getting hit over the head with a +$160 fee" is not really going to be of much help, here.

Post by **theMoMA** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 3:45 am

Here is my rationale. First, I don't think, given the amount of work submitting a half packet requires, that the early-packet discount should be as big. Second, I want packets to come in early enough to allow the editors time to assess the questions and work with the teams to retool them as necessary. So you can think of everything after May 1 as a penalty over the regular base fee, and the May 1 deadline as a discount. I hope everyone can find the time to write 3/3 and submit by the discount deadline, because that's what I want! But if you've got other priorities or obligations, I think $40 or $50 a person is an eminently fair price for 16 rounds of quizbowl. This is and was my rationale, so I don't really appreciate the idea that I'm being "highly disingenuous" (i.e. very insincere or dishonest).

Adventure Temple Trail · Sun Jan 05, 2014 12:18 pm

theMoMA wrote: I think $40 or $50 a person is an eminently fair price for 16 rounds of quizbowl.

Well, if a round of quizbowl is worth about $2.50 per person or $10 per team, it doesn't seem as odd, I guess...

edit for clarity

Sam · Post by **Sam** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 1:58 pm

theMoMA wrote: Packet deadlines

No packets before April 1, please.
Packet submitted by May 1: $80
Packet submitted by June 4: $160
Packet submitted by June 15: $200
Packet submitted by July 1: $240
Packet submitted after July 1: +$10 per day (on top of $240)

Is there any chance these deadlines could be altered so as to all fall on the same day of the week?

Post by **theMoMA** » Sun Jan 05, 2014 4:55 pm

Sure. I just adjusted a couple deadlines back so they mostly fall on Sundays. Jeff requested that I not have a deadline over HSNCT weekend, so one deadline is a Wednesday.

Post by **theMoMA** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 4:33 pm

Hey all, I've decided to move to regular packet sub. People who are interested in trying out the instant feedback/rewrite system are welcome to opt in, but I won't require it. I'll update the information in the main post shortly.

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 4:44 pm

theMoMA wrote:Hey all, I've decided to move to regular packet sub. People who are interested in trying out the instant feedback/rewrite system are welcome to opt in, but I won't require it. I'll update the information in the main post shortly.

Are we still writing half packets?

Post by **theMoMA** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 6:04 pm

No. That's what I mean by regular packet submission: regular, full ACF distribution packet submission.

Post by **theMoMA** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 1:01 pm

I've received a question about partial packet submissions. Ideally, everyone would submit a full packet so I don't have to deal with tracking down dozens of individuals and keeping track of dozens of payments owed. So I'm asking everyone to negotiate with your teammates first to see if you can coordinate turning in a full packet (and I expect that nearly everyone will be able to pull off this feat). But I will accept partial submissions if, for some reason, it's impossible for your team to get a full packet together. I'd appreciate knowing beforehand.

Also, just a reminder, packet submission (and official registration) opens on April 1. Teams will be considered registered when I receive their packets.

Tees-Exe Line · Post by **Tees-Exe Line** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 8:25 pm

I am pleased to announce that it looks like I'll be able to host the third annual Chicago Open barbecue on the Friday evening before the main event. It will be at the same location as in previous years: 5338 Harper Ave. Let's say it will officially begin at 6.00 PM, but arrive whenever your travel plans allow. In addition, I believe that another year's worth of British questions exists so I hope to run a similar side tournament as was done last year.

I am going to increase the fee to $7 (beer inclusive) as last year's event was run at a loss. Please email me (msteinbaum at gmail) if you plan to attend. Parking is usually not an issue in this neighborhood. There is also a new hotel right down the block at 53rd and Harper, though I believe it's substantially more expensive than the options around Midway, it would enable you to stumble home from the barbecue on foot, as well as to attend the rest of the weekend's festivities with a minimum of fuss.

Post by **theMoMA** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 8:25 pm

Hey everyone, just a reminder that a) we're requiring full packets, b) packet submission opens on April 1, and c) your team isn't officially registered for the tournament until I get your packet.

Post by **theMoMA** » Thu May 01, 2014 6:57 pm

Hi everyone, just want to remind people that the first packet submission deadline is on Sunday, May 4. Any packets that are in my inbox when I open it on Monday morning will meet the deadline. I'd also like to remind everyone that your team is not officially registered until I receive your packet. On that note, congrats to Carsten, Joe, and Kenneth for submitting the first packet (and becoming the first team guaranteed a slot in the field).

Cheynem · Post by **Cheynem** » Wed May 07, 2014 3:15 pm

Can we get a packet update?

Post by **theMoMA** » Wed May 07, 2014 6:03 pm

Cheynem wrote:Can we get a packet update?

Packets updated in the third post.

Post by **theMoMA** » Thu May 08, 2014 12:52 am

By popular request, I will allow people to turn in packets by the end of Sunday, May 11 for $80, and by the end of Sunday, May 18 for $100. The other deadlines remain in effect.

Ike · Post by **Ike** » Sat May 10, 2014 12:24 am

Hello players,

I have started working on the submissions I have received and many of them are quite good. However, there have been some problematic submissions, and I have to say the following in regards to my categories:

1.) Please do not make all of your questions on answer lines that are on the fuck-you ass-hard level. I don't know why I am receiving packets where all literature tossups will have 10% or less conversion rates. It's not fun for me to edit, it's not fun for your fellow players if they would have to play it, and it's lazy...please spend some time writing on easier answer lines as well.

2.) Please keep a distributional balance in mind. Some packets I received have no poetry or no drama, and that's not fun to edit too.

3.) The longer your tossup the better. Let's say you read a book on X, then you certainly have enough material to write a 10-13 line tossup on X, which I can easily trim down. What I don't like are 7-8 line tossups where one or more of the clues are unusable...then I have to really dig and sort your tossup out and spend much longer on your question.

Obviously, these are all suggestions to reduce my workload...but that will make the tournament more enjoyable - I believe that CO is a tournament for the players by the players - you, the players and writers, have a collective knowledge base greater than I, the editor, has in categories such as literature and mythology. Instead of imposing some sort of agenda on how questions should be, I want to let in as many as high quality submissions from as many diverse sides as I can; please follow what I wrote above so that we are able to do so.

Thanks,
Ike

Post by **theMoMA** » Thu Jun 05, 2014 3:41 pm

Hey all, technically the June 4 deadline passed, but because I didn't warn you, and in the interest of possibly getting a few more packets, I'll extend the $120 deadline to Friday, June 6 (in my inbox when I wake up Saturday morning).

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Sat Jun 07, 2014 10:17 pm

Can you update the packets received list?

Post by **theMoMA** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 2:00 pm

Mike Bentley wrote:Can you update the packets received list?

Updated.

Post by **theMoMA** » Thu Jun 12, 2014 3:25 pm

With a month and a week to go, there are 15 teams listed on the team formation spreadsheet, and 8 of them have submitted packets. Unless two more teams coalesce, it looks like the format will be a 15-team round robin followed by finals if necessary.

At this point, to preserve a round-robin-friendly number of teams, one option would be to close the field to the 15 teams in the spreadsheet, and place any additional teams on a waitlist until there are two confirmed teams to bring the field to 17. This may be moot, because it doesn't look like there are enough free agents to create two additional teams and I don't see many notable personalities missing from the current ones. But I'd like to float this idea first before I anger anyone who's still trying to put together a CO team; if that's you, please post here or email me so we can figure out other solutions.

Also, if there's any chance that one of the 15 teams currently in the signup doc will drop out before the tournament, I need to know now.

Post by **theMoMA** » Mon Jun 16, 2014 6:15 pm

I'm now closing the field to the 15 teams currently listed in this document. Teams not in the field can contact me to get on the waitlist; I will reopen the field if two more teams register.

I've agreed to extend the $160 deadline for one team, so I might as well extend it for the 4 other teams I'm still waiting on. If I get your packet by the time I open my email on Thursday, I'll count it as in time for the $160 deadline.

Post by **theMoMA** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 9:08 am

Packet list updated. We're still awaiting packets from two teams; I've heard from both of them, and neither is late yet, so please get them to me by the time I check my email on Monday morning (if you're planning to meet the July 6 deadline; if you won't, please email me).

Post by **theMoMA** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 10:49 pm

A logistical update: we'll be in Cobb Hall, just around the corner from the Harper Memorial Library we all know and love. Registration will be in room 107 between 8am and 8:25. We'll have brief announcements and start promptly at 8:30. If you're late, the tournament may start without you. Lunch will take place after six or seven rounds and will last for 45 minutes after the final room lets out. Except staffers, everyone will be responsible for getting their own lunch (no central ordering).

Tees-Exe Line · Post by **Tees-Exe Line** » Sat Jul 12, 2014 7:57 am

It's time for the annual message where I point out that less than a week before the CO barbecue, two people have officially told me they're coming. If you're planning to come and you're not Bryan Berend or Ian Lenhoff, please email me at msteinbaum at gmail, even if you think I already think you're coming. This is happening at 6.00 PM at 5338 Harper Ave in the backyard, as in years past, and there will be British questions.

Sat Jul 12, 2014 9:16 am

Anything that me or anybody else driving need to know about parking for the tournament proper?

Post by **Auks Ran Ova** » Sat Jul 12, 2014 10:12 am

Goole by-election, 1971 wrote:Anything that me or anybody else driving need to know about parking for the tournament proper?

Unless something has drastically changed, parking along 59th Street (the one which runs past Harper) is free, and it's a very short walk from there to Cobb.

Tees-Exe Line · Post by **Tees-Exe Line** » Mon Jul 14, 2014 9:00 am

If you're willing to read rather than play the British rounds on Friday night, please let me know privately so you can receive packets from Edmund without my involvement. We have three packets, so hopefully we'll have a four-team round robin like we did last year. Thus, two readers would be ideal.

Post by **theMoMA** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 12:56 am

Please email me if you're planning to bring a buzzer (and let me know how many you're planning to bring).

Adventure Temple Trail · Tue Jul 15, 2014 9:03 pm

--Is there a specific time at which police kick people out of the building we're using?

--Is there a final order of events on CO Sunday (it seems like it's history, then video games, then Gorilla Lit), and information on start time, what breaks between them might look like, etc.?

Cheynem · Post by **Cheynem** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:24 pm

The schedule on Sunday is history/video games/literature. I think history can start at 8:30 (maybe with a drop dead start time of 8:45?). Thoughts?

Tees-Exe Line · Post by **Tees-Exe Line** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 9:35 am

Cheynem wrote:The schedule on Sunday is history/video games/literature. I think history can start at 8:30 (maybe with a drop dead start time of 8:45?). Thoughts?

There's no reason not to start both days as close to 8am (when the building's outside doors are unlocked) as possible.

Cheynem · Post by **Cheynem** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 6:01 pm

How about (at least for Sunday) we start registration at 8 AM and have a drop dead start date at 8:30?

Tees-Exe Line · Post by **Tees-Exe Line** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 7:03 pm

Cheynem wrote:How about (at least for Sunday) we start registration at 8 AM and have a drop dead start date at 8:30?

Oh, so you mean I should get there at 9?

And to answer Matt's question, the buildings officially close at 10pm. We've been done before that the past two years; in 2011, we managed to hold them off until around 11 and then got booted.

Post by **theMoMA** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 11:26 pm

As I noted in a recent post (and edited into the initial announcement near the top), CO proper will start promptly at 8:30, and as I said, I reserve the right to begin on time regardless of who's there.

As Marshall said, we haven't had an issue with the end time of CO proper in recent years. With two fewer teams (and rounds) this year, I expect that to hold. But everyone still needs to be on time.

Unrelated update: we'll have enough buzzers and then some. If you emailed me already, bring them. If you haven't, no need.

Sun Devil Student · Post by **Sun Devil Student** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 12:30 am

This is my first time at Chicago Open and I live >1 hour away from the tournament site by public transport. What time does this usually end? Also, is there a dinner break?

If it is going to end substantially after dark, are there any safe places to stay overnight at/near the tournament site?

Thanks for your help! Looking forward to the tournament.

Auroni · Post by **Auroni** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 1:35 am

To get things moving on Sunday, food will be ordered for players and staff for all events from Uncle Joe's jerk chicken. If you want in, you need to pay me $5.

Post by **Auks Ran Ova** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 1:50 am

Auroni wrote:To get things moving on Sunday, food will be ordered for players and staff for all events from Uncle Joe's jerk chicken. If you want in, you need to pay me $5.

<3<3<3

Good Goblin Housekeeping · Thu Jul 17, 2014 4:04 am

i am interested in giving u $5

Excelsior (smack) · Post by **Excelsior (smack)** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 12:07 pm

Auroni wrote:To get things moving on Sunday, food will be ordered for players and staff for all events from Uncle Joe's jerk chicken. If you want in, you need to pay me $5.

Is the plan for there to be a lunch break on Sunday (I guess between history and video games)? (Whether or not there is one, I'll be leaving to scavenge for non-chicken food.)

Cheynem · Post by **Cheynem** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 12:39 pm

I am hoping there is no lunch break because of the provided food (or at least, a very very short one). I would recommend non chicken fans to either bring their own lunch or order their food.

Tees-Exe Line · Post by **Tees-Exe Line** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 12:40 pm

Excelsior (smack) wrote:
Auroni wrote:To get things moving on Sunday, food will be ordered for players and staff for all events from Uncle Joe's jerk chicken. If you want in, you need to pay me $5.
Is the plan for there to be a lunch break on Sunday (I guess between history and video games)? (Whether or not there is one, I'll be leaving to scavenge for non-chicken food.)

Ashvin, if the issue is vegetarianism, I suggested to Auroni that he also order a couple of Uncle Joe's also-excellent sides.

Auroni · Post by **Auroni** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 12:47 pm

Yeah, I am going to order sides as well. By the way, there is such a thing as a free lunch, and you can get it by emailing me and offering to drive to Uncle Joe's to pick up the goods around 11:30.

naan/steak-holding toll · Thu Jul 17, 2014 1:29 pm

Auroni wrote:Yeah, I am going to order sides as well. By the way, there is such a thing as a free lunch, and you can get it by emailing me and offering to drive to Uncle Joe's to pick up the goods around 11:30.

my entire degree program is a lie

Excelsior (smack) · Post by **Excelsior (smack)** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 1:31 pm

Tees-Exe Line wrote:Ashvin, if the issue is vegetarianism, I suggested to Auroni that he also order a couple of Uncle Joe's also-excellent sides.

Auroni wrote:Yeah, I am going to order sides as well. By the way, there is such a thing as a free lunch, and you can get it by emailing me and offering to drive to Uncle Joe's to pick up the goods around 11:30.

Ah, well in that case, I'm in and will have $5 for Auroni.

kayli · Post by **kayli** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 3:03 pm

Is food free for staffers or do we need to pony up as well?

Also, Chicago is having a pre-CO practice on Friday in the Regenstein library from 2-5 if anyone wants to come.