ESPN @ UChicago (3/23/24)

[Daedalus]

I am pleased to announce that the University of Chicago will be hosting a mirror of ESPN on March 23, 2024!

I, Adam Fine, will be serving as tournament director. In a huge upgrade from my previous work as tournament director, I will resolve protests via sending them to the ESPN discord. If you have any questions about the tournament, feel free to email me at afine2 at uchicago dot edu.

Fees
Base fee: $60
Buzzer discount: -$10 per working buzzer set
Staffer discount: -$15 per staffer (with working laptop)
Minimum fee: $25

Payment can be made via check, cash, or Venmo. If you need any paperwork filled out so that you can pay us, please email me.

Team formation and registration
This is an open tournament - an unofficial team formation spreadsheet can be found here.

To officially register for the tournament, please fill out this form. There is a preliminary field cap of 12 teams.

If you are interested in staffing the tournament, please put your name down in the second tab of the team formation spreadsheet. Staffers will receive free breakfast and lunch and may receive financial compensation depending on what UChicago allows.

Logistics
This post will be updated with more information about logistics once our room bookings are sorted. We have put in a request to reserve the entire first floor of Cobb Hall, but that request has not yet been approved. Expect a start time of something like 9 AM CDT.

I look forward to seeing everyone on the 23rd!

[Cheynem]

Will there be any planned side events?

[Auks Ran Ova]

Will there be any planned side events?

And can they include TELEOLOGY?

[Cheynem]

Can there be a consensus as to if there will be side events at this (and if so, when)? Trying to decide on potential travel plans.

[Daedalus]

Sorry for the late reply to all this. I have set up a tab on the signup spreadsheet that people can use to indicate interest in playing TELEOLOGY 2, either Saturday after ESPN (start time ~6 PM based on CMST) or Sunday in conjunction with other side events (or both, interest-wise). If at least 8 people indicate interest by Saturday 3/9 at 6 PM CST we'll run it, format TBD based on how many people sign up/how many moderators I can wrangle.

Also I forgot to tell Google forms to email me when someone fills out the registration form but that has been fixed and I will now update the spreadsheet promptly when you register.

[TaylorH]

I will be in attendance and am happy to read/TD for TELEOLOGY on Saturday evening. Probably can't make sunday though. I can read TELEOLOGY 3 rather than 2 since some folks have heard 2 already.

[Daedalus]

Sufficient interest has been shown! We will be playing TELEOLOGY (probably 3?) Saturday after ESPN. Format TBD, most likely a 1-2 room shoot-out.

[rdc20]

We have put in a request to reserve the entire first floor of Cobb Hall, but that request has not yet been approved.

We have the rooms

[Daedalus]

Congratulations to Chicago A Minus Minus (Matt Jackson, Ned Tagtmeier, featuring Robert Condron as CLAIRE JONES, guest-starring Vivek Sasse as ADAM S. FINE (whoever that is)) for clearing the field! Full stats are here, email or discord DM me with any corrections. People that played should strongly consider joining the subforum for discussing the set and/or the discussion discord (link emailed to team contacts).

A gigantic thanks to all of the staff that persevered through the great pizza theft of 2024 to help this tournament run extremely efficiently, and thanks to all the teams for coming!