BrainBusters Fall 2014 @ Ithaca HS, Ithaca, NY - 11/1/2014

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BrainBusters Fall 2014 @ Ithaca HS, Ithaca, NY - 11/1/2014

Post by Ithaca Cricket Ump »

Hi everyone:

More detailed information will be forthcoming as it becomes available, but the 2014 BrainBusters Fall quizbowl tournament is being planned for Saturday, November 1, 2014, at Ithaca High School in Ithaca, NY. We will once again be running the tournament on a NAQT IS set, and it will serve as a qualifier for the NAQT HSNCT and SSNCT, as well as PACE NSC - we received a Platinum Certification last year and hope to do so again this year. We attracted a 30-team field from New York and Pennsylvania last year (although 9 had to cancel at the last minute due to horrible weather...one of the reasons for the move to November this year), and for this year we are hoping to attract a regional field (including metro-NYC, New England and Canadian teams) and reach a 64-team field size, which would make BB Fall 2014 one of the larger regular-season quizbowl tournaments in the nation, in only its third year. If you'd like to express preliminary interest in attending BB Fall, please drop me a line at [email protected] so that I can add you to the mailing list for the tournament - an official tournament announcement will be forthcoming at the start of September when school starts up again here in New York.

--Scott
Scott M. Blish
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Re: BrainBusters Fall 2014 @ Ithaca HS, Ithaca, NY - 11/1/20

Post by Ithaca Cricket Ump »

Brief addendum to the above announcement: BrainBusters Fall 2014 will also serve as a qualifier for the revived American Academic Challenge, an invitational quizbowl tournament with a national field, directed and organized by Brooks Sanders and myself, to be held on one of the off-weeks between the various NAQT championships and PACE NSC in May or June of 2015. (This tournament is meant to be a supplement to, not competition with, NHBB, NAQT and PACE.) The tournament will be held in a five-period format, using pyramidal tossups, multi-part bonuses, category rounds, and an innovation called the "answer auction" round, and focusing on academic material in the distribution. More information will be forthcoming about the new AAC as soon as our contract with the prospective host is finalized, and I will also be providing information on qualification standards for the AAC (pretty much, the top teams from any tournament advertised here on hsquizbowl will be potential qualifiers, as well).

And before you ask (if you've seen the qbwiki page on the old AAC that Brooks ran at the Opryland in the mid-90s), we're not requiring teams to write essays this time around. There's a funny story about that that I'll tell you all sometime if you ask me, but it's much better told in person than in a message board post. ;)

--Scott
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Re: BrainBusters Fall 2014 @ Ithaca HS, Ithaca, NY - 11/1/20

Post by Ithaca Cricket Ump »

We are pleased to announce that the Third Annual BrainBusters Fall Quizbowl Tournament will take place at Ithaca High School in Ithaca, New York, on Saturday, November 1st, 2014.

Final tournament registration will take place from 7:30 to 8:30 am on the day of the tournament, with simultaneous staff and team meetings to start at 8:30 and the first round of play to begin at 9 am. Exact format will be determined by the number of registered teams (there were 29 last year, although only 21 competed due to severe bad weather on the weekend of the tournament, which is the main reason that we've moved the tournament up a month to early November this year), but all teams will be guaranteed to play a minimum of 9 matches. Trophies will be awarded to the top 4 teams overall and the Small School champion.

TO REGISTER FOR BRAINBUSTERS FALL 2014: Much simpler than the last two years. Just fill out the Google Form linked here, and you're registered!

The format of the tournament will be -timed- NAQT (due to the large number of expected registrations and the need to keep things running on time), but with 10-minute halves rather than 9-minute. There will be no computational math questions (either tossup or bonus) in the tournament, so games will end when the 10 minutes are up in the second half, or the 23rd tossup-bonus cycle is completed (whichever comes first). All stats will be prorated per 20 tossups heard to compensate for different moderator reading speeds.

BrainBusters Fall will use NAQT question set IS-140. As such, the top 15% of overall finishers (rounded up) will qualify for the 2015 NAQT High School National Championship Tournament in Rosemont, IL, and the top 15% of finishers among -small public schools- (using the NAQT definition of a public school with fewer than 500 students grades 10-12 and a non-competitive admissions policy) will qualify for the 2015 NAQT Small School National Championship Tournament (site and date to be determined soon). For the second straight year, BrainBusters Fall has received the highest possible certification, Platinum, from the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence, meaning the top 25% of the field qualify for the 2015 PACE National Scholastic Championship in Reston, VA.

In addition, any team that plays BrainBusters Fall is encouraged and welcome to register for the first edition of the revived American Academic Challenge (created by Brooks Sanders and I), an open 5-period format quizbowl tournament with a national field, to take place at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel in Chattanooga, TN over Memorial Day Weekend of 2015. I'll be sending out info about our website for the AAC within the next couple of weeks, which will be integrated into the new BrainBusters Tournaments site.

REGISTRATION:

Registration will be open through the Wednesday before the tournament, October 29, 2014. There is a cap of 64 teams for this tournament, which may be a soft cap adjusted upward in the unlikely event we reach the cap. Schools may initially register as many teams as they like for BrainBusters Fall, but we reserve the right (again, unlikely to be used) to restrict school(s) to 2 teams should the need arise. Middle school players and teams are welcome to participate, with the caveat that they will be playing against high schoolers on high school questions. Teams with fewer than 4 players (all the way down to solo players) are also welcome to participate, since teams are always allowed to play short.

Once again, teams will register for BrainBusters Fall 2014 by using this Google Form, which will be kept open until 12:01 am on October 30.

FEE SCHEDULE:

$75 per team base fee (note that this is per TEAM, not per school)

-$10 for each moderator or scorekeeper, no limit

-$5 for each working buzzer system, no limit, but we reserve the right to cut this discount off once we feel we have enough buzzers to properly run the tournament. In other words, it's first come, first served.

-$10 PER TEAM if your school has not previously competed at BrainBusters Fall (in other words, if you're a new school wanting to bring 3 teams to compete, you get the $10 discount for each team you bring. The moderator and buzzer discounts are per school.)

There is no minimum fee per school, meaning that it is theoretically possible to completely eliminate your fee by bringing enough people to read or score and enough buzzers, especially if you're a new school. No negative fees, however. :)

You'll notice that the staffer discount this year is larger than the buzzer discount. That's because, with timed games, it is absolutely mandatory that we have 2 staffers for every game room in the tournament, so that readers don't waste clock time trying to score simultaneously. Therefore, if there is ANY way you can possibly take this discount (by bringing parents, teachers or non-playing students along), please do so. Buzzers, of course, are always helpful as well. :)

METHOD OF PAYMENT:

Once I receive your registration via the Google Form , I will e-mail you with the amount that your school owes. Payment can be by cash, check or credit card/Paypal on the day of the tournament, or by check in advance. We prefer advance payment if at all possible, but will accept payment on the day of the tournament. Please make all checks out to "Scott Blish", and, if paying by check, please mail the check to:

Scott Blish
93 Newfield Depot Road
Newfield, NY 14867
 

FOOD:

There will be bagels, donuts and juice available for teams during the registration period and team meeting on November 1. For lunch, we would prefer if teams stayed on-site at the school to prevent delays, as the nearest restaurants to IHS are 2+ miles away in sometimes heavy and unpredictable Ithaca traffic. Although we will certainly be offering lunch packages and beverages for sale on-site again this year, the exact arrangements as to vendor have yet to be made; once they are, we will communicate that information to you and take your team's orders so that we can get all of that relatively squared away before 11/1.

We look forward to seeing all of you on November 1 for a great day of quizbowl!

--Scott and Becky Blish, co-Tournament Directors, BrainBusters Fall 2014
Scott M. Blish
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Re: BrainBusters Fall 2014 @ Ithaca HS, Ithaca, NY - 11/1/20

Post by Ithaca Cricket Ump »

Current field (as of 8/28/2014):

Elmira Notre Dame: 1 team / ? staffers / ? buzzers
Geneva: 2/2/1
Ithaca: 2/?/1
Montrose (PA): 2/0/0
Mountain View (PA): 2/1/0
Niagara Catholic: 1/2/1
Owego Free Academy: 2/?/?
Pittsford Mendon: 1/0/0
St. Catherine of Siena Middle: 1/0/0
Scott M. Blish
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Re: BrainBusters Fall 2014 @ Ithaca HS, Ithaca, NY - 11/1/20

Post by Ithaca Cricket Ump »

Current field (as of 9/12/2014) (*) next to name indicates Small School Division

Cato-Meridian (*): 1/0/0
Elmira Notre Dame: 1/ ? / ?
Geneva (*): 2/2/1
Ithaca: 2/3+/1
Milford (*): 1/1/0
Montrose Area (*): 2/0/0
Mountain View (*): 2/1/0
Niagara Catholic: 1/2/1
Owego Free Academy (*): 2/?/?
Pioneer: 1/0/0
Pittsford Mendon: 1/0/0
St. Catherine of Siena Middle: 1/0/0
Wyoming Area: 2/0/1

Total registrations (as of 9/12/2014): 19 (10 Small School-eligible)
Tournament cap: 64
Current nationals berths: AAC all eligible, HSNCT 3, PACE NSC 5, SSNCT 2
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Re: BrainBusters Fall 2014 @ Ithaca HS, Ithaca, NY - 11/1/20

Post by Ithaca Cricket Ump »

Current field (as of 10/15/2014) (*) next to name indicates Small School Division:

BERWICK AREA, Berwick, PA (1 / 1 / 0)
BETHLEHEM, Delmar, NY (2 / 1 / 2)
(*) CATO-MERIDIAN, Cato, NY (1 / 1 / 0)
(*) COOPERSTOWN, Cooperstown, NY (3 / 1 / 2)
DELAWARE VALLEY, Milford, PA (2 / 1 / 2)
(*) FILLMORE, Fillmore, NY (1 / 0 / 1)
G. RAY BODLEY, Fulton, NY (1 / 2 / 0)
(*) GENEVA, Geneva, NY (2 / 2 / 1)
ITHACA, Ithaca, NY (2 / 3 / 1)
(*) LEHIGH VALLEY ACADEMY, Bethlehem, PA (1 / 0 / 0)
LISGAR COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE, Ottawa, ON, Canada (1 / 0 / 3)
(*) MARCUS WHITMAN, Rushville, NY (2 / 1 / 0)
(*) MILFORD, Milford, NY (1 / 1 / 0)
NIAGARA CATHOLIC, Niagara Falls, NY (1 / 2 / 1)
(*) OWEGO FREE ACADEMY, Owego, NY (1 / 0 / 0)
PIONEER, Yorkshire, NY (1 / 1 / 0)
WYOMING AREA, Exeter, PA (2 / 0 / 1)

TOTAL AS OF 10/15/2014: 25 teams from 17 schools (cap 64) - 12 Small Schools - 17 staffers - 14 buzzers
CURRENT NATIONALS BERTHS: 4 NAQT HSNCT, 7 PACE NSC, 2 NAQT SSNCT, all eligible for AAC

Registration form can be found at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1L6AZxv ... Y/viewform
Scott M. Blish
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Re: BrainBusters Fall 2014 @ Ithaca HS, Ithaca, NY - 11/1/20

Post by Ithaca Cricket Ump »

This is the current field for BrainBusters Fall 2014, with one week exactly to go to register. The registration form linked to at the bottom of this message MUST be filled out by 11:59 pm, Wednesday, October 29, in order for your team to compete. A (*) next to a name in the following field update indicates Small School Division.

Unless we have an unlikely run on experienced staffers in the last week of registration, we will probably have to convert the format from timed 10-minute halves to untimed 20/20, due to the fact that the more experienced readers will have to pull double duty on reading and scoring.

AMSTERDAM, Amsterdam, NY (1 / 0 / 1)
BERWICK AREA, Berwick, PA (1 / 1 / 0)
BETHLEHEM, Delmar, NY (2 / 1 / 2)
(*) CATO-MERIDIAN, Cato, NY (1 / 1 / 0)
(*) COOPERSTOWN, Cooperstown, NY (3 / 1 / 2)
DELAWARE VALLEY, Milford, PA (2 / 1 / 2)
(*) FILLMORE, Fillmore, NY (1 / 0 / 1)
G. RAY BODLEY, Fulton, NY (1 / 2 / 0)
(*) GENEVA, Geneva, NY (2 / 2 / 1)
ITHACA, Ithaca, NY (3 / 3 / 1)
(*) LEHIGH VALLEY ACADEMY, Bethlehem, PA (1 / 0 / 0)
LISGAR COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE, Ottawa, ON, Canada (1 / 0 / 3)
(*) MARCUS WHITMAN, Rushville, NY (2 / 1 / 0)
(*) MILFORD, Milford, NY (1 / 1 / 0)
(*) MOUNTAIN VIEW, Kingsley, PA (1 / 0 / 0)
NIAGARA CATHOLIC, Niagara Falls, NY (1 / 2 / 1)
NOTRE DAME, Elmira, NY (2 / 0 / 0)
(*) OWEGO FREE ACADEMY, Owego, NY (1 / 0 / 0)
PIONEER, Yorkshire, NY (1 / 1 / 0)
PITTSFORD MENDON, Pittsford, NY (1 / 0 / 0)
WYOMING AREA, Exeter, PA (2 / 0 / 1)

TOTAL AS OF 10/23/2014: 31 teams from 21 schools (cap 64) - 13 Small Schools - 17 staffers (+at least 6 non-team-affiliated staffers) - 15 buzzers (+6non-team)
CURRENT NATIONALS BERTHS: 5 NAQT HSNCT, 8 PACE NSC, 2 NAQT SSNCT, all eligible for AAC

Registration form can be found at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1L6AZxv ... Y/viewform

Scott
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Re: BrainBusters Fall 2014 @ Ithaca HS, Ithaca, NY - 11/1/20

Post by The Polebarn Hotel »

Ithaca's game against Cooperstown was 435-80 - it must have been entered wrong into the stats.

Overall, this was a pretty fun tournament. It went much later than I and most people there would have liked, and some of it seemed controllable. For example, I thought that the deciding the circles of death for the playoff rounds using sudden death matches was a waste of time. All in all, it was a good experience and all of Ithaca's teams enjoyed themselves.
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Re: BrainBusters Fall 2014 @ Ithaca HS, Ithaca, NY - 11/1/20

Post by Emperor Pupienus »

Crazyflight wrote:Ithaca's game against Cooperstown was 435-80 - it must have been entered wrong into the stats.

Overall, this was a pretty fun tournament. It went much later than I and most people there would have liked, and some of it seemed controllable. For example, I thought that the deciding the circles of death for the playoff rounds using sudden death matches was a waste of time. All in all, it was a good experience and all of Ithaca's teams enjoyed themselves.
Where are the stats?
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Re: BrainBusters Fall 2014 @ Ithaca HS, Ithaca, NY - 11/1/20

Post by Good Goblin Housekeeping »

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Re: BrainBusters Fall 2014 @ Ithaca HS, Ithaca, NY - 11/1/20

Post by Mark Wolfsberg »

We, Bethlehem, had a great time at the tournament. Considering the size of the field, which I am sure was a pleasant surprise to everyone involved, I don't think that any reasonable person would have thought it was going to run on time. It takes time to compile the stats etc. Eventually you will automate results reporting & stats creation and that will save an hour or so.

I disagree with the comment above that playing the tiebreakers out was a "waste of time." For those involved it was the fairest, and normal QB, way to handle it. Its only a waste of time until you are involved.

It was great to get to play a tournament against stiff competition in in central NY. The Lisgar team from Ottawa CA was particularly good. I even think we could have gone longer and played a 4-team ( Semis and Finals bracket) at the end; just because it would have given our A-team a chance to play another tough game against the Delaware Valley team who came in 2nd. If you are going to drive 3 1/2 hrs to play QB, you want to play as many hard games as you can.

I was amazed that you were able to bring in extremely well qualified staff from all over the NE; DC, NYC etc. Having those very qualified individuals made the tournament so much better.

As always, We had a few objections to the packet which you had no control over. As in, a repeat question or two and, as I alway whine about, way too much baseball compared to other sports.; boring sport that the kids just don't care about like the NFL !!!!, How about some Olympics, Car racing, boxing, UCF etc.

All in all it was an excellent tournament, and you can sign us up for next year right now !
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Re: BrainBusters Fall 2014 @ Ithaca HS, Ithaca, NY - 11/1/20

Post by Mark Wolfsberg »

One more comment; I heard several contestants complaining about too much Lit. Thats why it needs to be kept in! As these students continue to play, they will be motivated to read and learn about the classics and other important works. It will make them well rounded people who can hold their own at any cocktail party when they become the leaders of our country, are required to put on nice clothes, eat banquet food, meet with their peers, and talk about something besides politics and the sorry state of affairs in the world :grin:
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Re: BrainBusters Fall 2014 @ Ithaca HS, Ithaca, NY - 11/1/20

Post by Ithaca Cricket Ump »

Stats are forthcoming as soon as I get near an actual computer. Lisgar defeated Delaware Valley A 280-205 in a battle of 10-0 teams in the final to win the championship. More in a couple of hours.
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Re: BrainBusters Fall 2014 @ Ithaca HS, Ithaca, NY - 11/1/20

Post by Urech hydantoin synthesis »

I uploaded the stats for all of the games half an hour after the tournament ended. Also, given my experience with automated scoring systems so far, there paradoxically needs to be much more scorekeeper training involved, which I don't think this tournament could have pulled off.
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Re: BrainBusters Fall 2014 @ Ithaca HS, Ithaca, NY - 11/1/20

Post by Ithaca Cricket Ump »

When discussing the tournament, please remember that this set will remain live until the end of the competition year, so please do not discuss, or even make strong allusions to, the content of the questions in the set. Thanks.

--Scott
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Re: BrainBusters Fall 2014 @ Ithaca HS, Ithaca, NY - 11/1/20

Post by The Polebarn Hotel »

Mark Wolfsberg wrote: I disagree with the comment above that playing the tiebreakers out was a "waste of time." For those involved it was the fairest, and normal QB, way to handle it. Its only a waste of time until you are involved.
I would have thought it was a waste of time if I was involved. It was already clear at that point that time was going to be an issue so having everyone wait for an additional thirty minutes seemed very silly to me. Perhaps the fairest way would have been to play half-packets (or even fairer, full packets). Regardless, what with the lack of available time, that wasn't really a feasible option, and was one of the reasons why teams departed at 7:15, which doesn't even seem reasonable by any circumstances. I recommend taking a look at the ACF rules, which do state that playing half-packets should be done when time constraints permit. While I'm not disagreeing that it would be best in general to play half-packets to determine placement, in this specific situation, it was not the best thing to do. And of course, this is my opinion, which you can take with a grain of salt.

Really, that's one of my only complaints. I was satisfied with the amount of games that everyone was able to play, and I still had fun. I feel for the teams that had to travel many hours to return home, though.
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Re: BrainBusters Fall 2014 @ Ithaca HS, Ithaca, NY - 11/1/20

Post by Ithaca Cricket Ump »

Special congratulations go out to the 2014 BrainBusters Fall Champions, Lisgar Collegiate Institute of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (11-0) who defeated Delaware Valley A of Milford, PA (10-1) by a score of 280-205 in the championship game. Bethlehem A of Delmar, NY (10-1) defeated host school and two-time defending champion Ithaca A (8-2) 305-215 in the third place game. The fifth place game doubled as a qualification game for the NAQT HSNCT in Chicago, and was won by Lehigh Valley Academy (consisting of a solo player, freshman Alex Schmidt) from Bethlehem, PA over Bethlehem (NY)'s B team 260-130. Alex/Lehigh Valley was also this year's Small School champion, as the top-finishing team from a public school with fewer than 500 students, grades 10-12, and a non-selective admissions policy. Ithaca B finished 7th, Cooperstown A 8th (and 2nd among small schools), Pioneer 9th, and Milford 10th (and 3rd among small schools).

The following teams have earned national qualification berths at various nationals this spring.

All teams in this tournament are welcome and encouraged to join us for the re-launching, after an almost 20-year hiatus, of the AMERICAN ACADEMIC CHALLENGE Tournament, an open multi-day quizbowl tournament with an (inter)national field, to be held at the legendary Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel complex in Chattanooga, TN, from May 22-24, 2015 (Memorial Day weekend). There is a 60-team field limit for this tournament due to venue size and game room (in some cases, train car ;) ) availability, so please make sure to register early if interested, as we're expecting teams from all over the U.S. and Canada.

NAQT HIGH SCHOOL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT (Rosemont, IL, May 29-31, 2015) : Lisgar, Delaware Valley, Bethlehem, Ithaca, Lehigh Valley Academy.

NAQT SMALL SCHOOL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT (Atlanta, GA, April 24-26, 2015) : Lehigh Valley Academy, Cooperstown, Milford.

PACE NATIONAL SCHOLASTICS CHAMPIONSHIP (Reston, VA, June 6-7, 2015): Lisgar, Delaware Valley, Bethlehem (2 teams), Ithaca (2 teams), Lehigh Valley Academy, Cooperstown.

The following 17 players were named tournament All Stars. The All Stars consist of the tournament's top 8 scorers in tossup points per game, as well as the top scorers on the 8 highest-finishing teams who didn't have a top-8 overall scorer (in order to honor players from successful teams with a more balanced approach). One of the latter teams (Geneva A) had co-top scorers, who were both named to the list:

BRAINBUSTERS FALL 2014 co-MVPs:
AIDAN RYAN (Lisgar) and ERIC WOLFSBERG (Bethlehem A)

BrainBusters Fall 2014 All Stars:
PRASHANTA AUGUSTINE (Geneva A)
LINDSAY BROWN (Cooperstown B)
DANIEL CONNOLLY (Bethlehem B)
DRAKE ESHLEMAN (Delaware Valley A)
TREVOR FISHER (Pioneer)
MONICA GROTH (Southern Cayuga B)
MASON KELLEY (Fillmore)
ALISON LAMB (Geneva B)
JASON LAWES (Notre Dame A)
JACOB RUSSELL (Cooperstown A)
AIDAN RYAN (Lisgar)
JOSH SCHECHTER (Milford)
ALEX SCHMIDT (Lehigh Valley Academy)
SOPHIA TURBIDE (Geneva A)
CASEY WETHERBEE (Ithaca A)
ERIC WOLFSBERG (Bethlehem A)
JESSE YUAN (Ithaca B)

Our sincere thanks go out to all the staffers, coaches, players and teams who participated this year, but I especially want to recognize three people who came from a LONG way away to help us out: NYU trivia maven, fellow VJer, semi-famous and hopefully future very-famous person and all around good guy (believe me, my son doesn't take to every stranger like he did to him right away) Brandon Saunders, ex-Ladue and current Columbia quizbowl star and lights-out stat guy Ben Zhang, and the reader/tournament organizer extraordinaire Paul Nelson. Ben Kirk didn't come from a long way away, but, as always, served as an outstanding host for the tournament. Between these four gentlemen and my lovely wife and co-TD, Becky Blish, I was prevented from repeatedly lining up 30 feet away from a brick wall, getting a running start, and smashing my head into it as hard as I could until I experienced the wonderful, if quite painful, bliss of temporary unconsciousness, for the following reasons.

Although we made it to the end, the teams all seemed to enjoy the tournament, and we had a highly competitive tournament especially at the top of the field (including our tournament's first-ever international champion, Lisgar Collegiate Institute of Ottawa), things did not run as smoothly from a logistics standpoint as I would have liked them to run. They certainly did not run to the high standards that we had achieved in the first 2 years of BB Fall. Specifically, the tournament ran about 2 and a half hours over what was originally planned. The impetus for this delay was the same-day without-notice cancellation of two schools, requiring me and other staffers to change the tournament schedule on the fly and start the tournament about an hour late. However, I am taking ownership of the late start and apologize to everyone involved for it. With better and more prescient pre-tournament preparation, I could have been better prepared to deal with the no-shows and kept any necessary delays to a minimum.

The same-day no-show issue was actually something I should have dealt with, or had a workable solution for, pre-tournament. What I should have done, but in my pre-tournament rush neglected to do, was have 4 or 5 backup schedule templates drawn up - we had 34 teams scheduled to come - so I should have had 33, 32, 31, and 30-team schedules (without team names) drawn up and on my Google Drive, so that if teams don't show, I pull up the appropriate schedule, insert the name of the present teams using the Find-Replace function, and then post it outside the stat room for teams to consult. One major mistake related to that that I won't repeat in future years is that I printed and distributed the schedule before the day of the tournament - I won't be doing that in the future. I found out that I need to have the flexibility to make last-minute changes, which distributing the schedule ahead of time severely limits.

I also wasn't strict enough with the start time for the opening meeting, and my planning regarding that was also sub-optimal. I had said in more than one notice before the tournament that the meeting would begin at 8:30 am, and registration started at 7:30 am. While this was fine as far as it goes, we should have had multiple people taking registrations in the foyer outside the GK101 stat room, where there was more room to assemble. Next year, teams that aren't in the lecture hall by 8:30 am will miss part of the meeting, and if they haven't arrived by 9:00 am, we MUST start the games and moderators read questions to their opponents vs. empty chairs until they get there, with the team being forfeited for the tournament once they miss 2 rounds unless they contact us and let us know they're coming (they'll still have to forfeit full games they miss, and join partial games late).

The last major thing that we have to do is make sure that rounds are done within the 30-minute limit. In future years, games in this tournament will be on the clock, played in two 10-minute halves. That was the original plan for this year, but I allowed myself to be talked out of it about a week before. Given the time overrun this year, we're going to certainly be on the clock next year. Some readers may not get through 20 question cycles in that time - that's actually okay, because the tournament stats can and will be prorated per 20 tossups heard, to make it fair for all teams. But we have to cut the slower readers off, so that we can stay on schedule. (Also, the presence of a clock may "encourage" the slower readers to speed up some, although hopefully not to the point of unintelligibility.) And, frankly, any reasonably experienced reader will get through the 20 questions way before time is up in the second half, without rushing. Timing the games works at HSNCT (with 9-minute halves, and in fact, is one of the two major reasons along with their power-matching system that that tournament always runs so smoothly), is more workable for a tournament that uses a fair number of less- or unexperienced volunteers from a relatively new good quizbowl area like ours (anyone can stop and start a kitchen timer) and it'll work for us, too, with a minimum of preparation.

--Scott
Scott M. Blish
Cheval, FL
Cornell 1990-92, 1997
Tournament Director, BrainBusters Fall
HSNCT moderator 2012-, MSNCT 2013-, SSNCT 2014-, PACE NSC 2013-, NHBB Nationals 2014-
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