Results: Maryland Fall Classic (9/30/07) @ Maryland

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 9:57 pm

2007 Maryland Fall Classic Tournament

Sunday, September 30, 2007

University of Maryland, College Park: Physics Building

ANNOUNCEMENT:

The Maryland Academic Quiz Team is pleased to announce the 2007 Maryland Fall Classic Tournament, our annual high school Quiz Bowl tournament based on the It’s Academic style of competition. This year’s event will be held on Sunday, September 30, 2007 in the Physics Lecture Hall in the Physics Building of the University of Maryland.

FORMAT:

Each match in this tournament will be broken into five rounds. Conferring will be allowed on all questions and there will not be bouncebacks on any of the questions, meaning if a question is answered incorrectly the other team will not have an opportunity to answer it (this applies to be heads up and team rounds)..

Round 1: Letter Round – Teams compete in a heads up all-tossup set of ten short questions based on some common letter in the answers. Questions are worth plus or minus ten points in this round.

Round 2: Team Round 1 – Each team is asked seven direct questions on a variety of subjects. Questions are worth twenty points in this round. Answering all eight questions correctly will earn a team a bonus of 20 points.

Round 3: Category Round – Teams compete in a heads up-all tossup set of ten short questions based on a common theme such as “This Day In History”. Questions are worth plus or minus ten points in this round.

Round 4: Team Round 2 – This round is exactly the same as Team Round 1, except that the order that the teams answer questions is reversed. Note that this is slightly different than last year’s tournament, since each team round is now worth the same amount of points and there is a mandated order as to which teams go first in the team rounds.

Round 5: Grab Bag Round – Teams compete in a heads-up all tossup set of fifteen questions. These questions are slightly longer than the letter and category round questions. Questions are worth plus or minus twenty points in this round.

PRICING:

+$50 – Base fee per team.
-$10 – Automatic discount for each additional team from the same school.
-$5 – Discount per school for a working buzzer.
-$10 – Discount per school for providing a staff member to moderate / scorekeep.
-$5 – Early registration discount for teams that register before September 8th, 2007.

Minimum Fee Per Team: $35

The question set will be made available for free to any team attending the tournament. Paper copies will be given out up until the current round being played when the team leaves the tournament, provided that there are enough copies available. Paper copies will be given out in order of registration. Electronic copies will also be sent to teams that request copies. Teams not attending the tournament that wish to purchase questions can do so by contacting tournament director Brittany Clark at [email protected]. Questions will be sold for $15.00 to teams not attending the tournament.

REGISTRATION:

To register, please contact the tournament director Brittany Clark at [email protected] with the subject line “Fall 2007 High School Tournament Registration”. Please include your name, your school’s name, how many teams you are bringing, how many buzzers you are bringing, and if you are bringing any moderators to help staff.

There is an initial cap of 48 teams for this tournament. This limit will possibly be expanded if there is enough interest. Please register as soon as you are sure if you are coming or not so that we can get a sense of what the field size will be.

OTHER:

Specific information on parking, lunch, and registration time will be announced as the tournament draws closer.

If you are in the DC area and would like to help staff at this tournament, please contact Brittany Clark at [email protected]. Staffers will get a free breakfast, lunch, and discounts to future college level tournaments hosted by the Maryland Academic Quiz Team.

Hope to see you in September.

Mike Bentley
Treasurer, Maryland Academic Quiz Team

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:13 am

Since it's been a few months since the initial annoucnement, this is just a reminder that this tournament is happening on Sunday, September 30th. We encourage teams to register early so that they can take advantage of the early registration deadline and so that we can plan the logistics better.

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 2:00 pm

If a school somewhere is looking to mirror this tournament, send me an e-mail at [email protected]. Also feel free to contact me if you already have interest in mirroring our spring NAQT-style tournament that will be happening in late April or early May.

Also, there will be a field update posted around the time of classes starting at Maryland (August 29th or so).

ramlrasul · Post by **ramlrasul** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 9:40 pm

Just a reminder that this tournament is coming up on Sunday, September 30th and that there's still time to get the early registration discount by registering by September 8th.

Here is the current field for the tournament:
J.E.B Stuart
Rockville (2)
Flowers
Gonzaga
Eleanor Roosevelt

Brittany Clark
Maryland Academic Quiz Team

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:31 pm

For teams that haven't played in this tournament in a while, we've made a few changes that we feel have made it a more academically rigorous and enjoyable tournament. Here are two sample packets from last year:

Preliminary Round: http://www.doc-ent.com/quizbowl/Round%201.doc

Finals Round: http://www.doc-ent.com/quizbowl/Round%2011.doc

Also we're now up to about 12 teams. A further field update will probably be posted this weekend.

ramlrasul · Post by **ramlrasul** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 11:01 pm

J.E.B Stuart
Rockville (2)
Flowers
Gonzaga
Eleanor Roosevelt
Mount Vernon
Whitman (2)
WJ (1-2)
Calvert Hall (2)
Calverton

Centennial and a few other teams have also expressed interest but have not officially registered.

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 9:35 pm

For teams planning on registering late, we will be accepting registrations up until 12:01 AM on Saturday, September 29th.

Again, we'd like to see some more teams register for what ought to be a competitive tournament.

Diet Chuck · Post by **Diet Chuck** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 6:57 pm

yo UMD kids just fyi we (TJ) will probably be sending 2-4 teams. i am posting this here because our captains, while lovable, probably haven't told you we're coming. we also might send more teams due to our immense new member turnout (silberman they were all waiting until you graduated)

BuzzerZen · Post by **BuzzerZen** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:00 pm

Diet Chuck wrote:(silberman they were all waiting until you graduated)

Secretly! I am a terrible recruiter and scare small children.

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:05 pm

Diet Chuck wrote:yo UMD kids just fyi we (TJ) will probably be sending 2-4 teams. i am posting this here because our captains, while lovable, probably haven't told you we're coming. we also might send more teams due to our immense new member turnout (silberman they were all waiting until you graduated)

Thanks. Just have someone contact me or Brittany when you know for sure how many teams you're bringing so we can make it "official".

For those pining for another field update, there will probably be one tomorrow or Sunday.

ramlrasul · Post by **ramlrasul** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 8:07 pm

Field Update:

J.E.B Stuart
Rockville (2)
Flowers
Gonzaga
Eleanor Roosevelt
Mount Vernon
Whitman (2)
WJ (1-2)
Calvert Hall (2)
Calverton
Howard
Centennial(3)
Archbishop Spalding(2)
TJ(4)
Seton Hall

ramlrasul · Post by **ramlrasul** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:47 pm

We will be capping the tournament at 36 team. We have about 35 teams at the moment. Once we reach 36 teams, any additional teams will be placed on a waitlist in order of registration.

The field as it currently stands:

Gonzaga (1)
ER (1)
Mount Vernon (1)
Whitman (2)
Calvert Hall (2)
Calverton (1)
Howard (1)
Centennial (3)
Archbishop Spalding (2)
TJ (4)
Elizabeth Seton (1)
Blake (1)
Churchill (1)
Langley (1)
Seton Hall (1)
Robinson (1)
GDS (2)
Perry Hall (2)

WJ (1-2)
Kellenberg Memorial (1-2)

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 9:16 pm

If anyone in the DC area is available to moderate on Sunday morning (we plan on doing all of the prelims before lunch), please contact me or Brittany. We could use a few more people to fill in the reading gaps and help out our less experienced moderators / scorekeepers.

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 7:02 pm

In case any teams coming check this forum but not their e-mail:

Registration will be between 8:15 and 8:45 on Sunday morning. We're trying to get games started by 9:00 AM. Registration will be taking place in the Physics Lecture Hall in the Physics Building. Parking is available for free across the street in the Regents Drive parking garage. To get there, enter campus from the main Route 1 entrance at Campus Drive. At the "M" traffic circle, take a right. Approximately 200 feet on your left will be the parking garage, and on your right will be the Physics Building.

We're going to be doing 6 preliminary rounds, all before lunch. After that, we'll be doing a single elimination 16 team playoff. Any teams that don't make the playoffs or get eliminated early are welcome to play exhibition matches with one of our moderators reading.

Right now we have 34 teams registered, and it looks like that will be the final number unless some teams drop. Hopefully we can not have any bye rounds.

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 11:12 pm

Again, if you're in the DC area and are free tomorrow, we could really use your help moderating and scorekeeping. The majority of our readers can leave by lunch time, or stick around and get some free pizza. Just let me know if you're coming.

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 4:46 pm

Thanks to everyone for coming. I'd like to thank all of the teams and all of the moderators for making this a good tournament. The final stats (including playoffs) can be found here:

http://www.studentorg.umd.edu/maqt/2007 ... dings.html

TJ A defeated Whitman A in the finals, while Seton Hall and Gonzaga tied for third (as Seton Hall had to leave, we couldn't play a 3rd place game).

We'll be sending out the packets later tonight or tomorrow.

If you have any comments on the questions or the tournament in general, please feel free to post them here or to e-mail me at [email protected].

By the way, most of the matches were recorded for the Quizbowl Cast, and will be going up eventually.

aestheteboy · Post by **aestheteboy** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 5:18 pm

I really thought the questions were great, especially for a tournament that is allegedly "speed." I'd encourage any team who wants practice in both speed and pyramidal to buy this set. . . It also went in a timely fashion.
With that said, I thought the category round could have been better distributed (things like "September" and "Colors" are more or less neutral, but "Canada" and "Art" are less so). And a few of the moderators we had were a little hard to hear.
In retrospect (after the 6 prelim rounds), it did seem somewhat unfair that WJ was in the same bracket with TJ A. Also it was puzzling that Gonzaga and TJ B managed to not play each other and therefore be both undefeated. Most of all the bracket with GDS/Kellenberg/Seton Hall was significantly stronger than all the other brackets. I guess it's hard to predict how the teams would do this early in the season, but a little research could have made the brackets a lot better, IMO.
In any case, the tournament was great, and I'd like to thank you guys for running it.

I wrote to Brittany, but please send me (izumickk @ hotmail) the question set once you get to it.

Stat Boy · Post by **Stat Boy** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 5:23 pm

The questions, especially the ones in the final round of each game, were very good, and it was also well-run. IMO a couple of the team rounds may have been slightly unbalanced, but that seemed like only a minor issue.

gonzagaeagleahy · Post by **gonzagaeagleahy** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 6:29 pm

Yeah this was a really well run tournament and really fast-running too, which was great. Like Daichi said the questions were good in that they were able to squeeze a little pyramidality in there.

Stat Boy wrote:a couple of the team rounds may have been slightly unbalanced, but that seemed like only a minor issue.

I agree and think this is probably the only slight problem with the question variance. For example, I do not think that the Mali empire and Great Zimbabwe are of the same caliber of difficulty. But yeah it doesn't really matter that much. Overall great.

And Father loved/loves the cold pizza.

ramlrasul · Post by **ramlrasul** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 6:58 pm

Packets have been sent out to the email addresses used to register for this tournament. Teams who attended the tournament and have not received the questions and teams who did not attend the tournament but wish to purchase the question set for $15 should email me at bclark3 at umd dot edu. Thanks again to all the teams for coming and to all the moderators who came and helped out.

And I'm glad to hear that Father Meehan liked the pizza.

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 11:43 pm

aestheteboy wrote:In retrospect (after the 6 prelim rounds), it did seem somewhat unfair that WJ was in the same bracket with TJ A. Also it was puzzling that Gonzaga and TJ B managed to not play each other and therefore be both undefeated. Most of all the bracket with GDS/Kellenberg/Seton Hall was significantly stronger than all the other brackets. I guess it's hard to predict how the teams would do this early in the season, but a little research could have made the brackets a lot better, IMO.
In any case, the tournament was great, and I'd like to thank you guys for running it.

Yeah, sorry for the schedule and bracket stuff. In retrospect, we probably should have made the cut off a little earlier so we could finalize the bracket before Saturday night. This would have given us some more time to go over stuff and try to balance things out a bit more. We also wouldn't have had to worry about creating to separate schedules based on how many teams would show up. Regardless, there would still have probably been some scheduling issues as dividing 32 teams into 6 prelims is pretty complicated. We didn't want to do 7 games and force teams to stay for lunch.

In regards to the team rounds, unfortunately I'll have to plea the standard TD defense of "we didn't have enough time to edit them to our satisfaction". Particularly egregious things (such as the Sirius/Vega pair) were mainly due to them being last minute replacement questions. The issue with some of the category rounds not having that fair of a distribution also falls along these lines.

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 5:15 pm

By the way, if anyone remembers any glaring factual errors or repeats that we didn't catch, please e-mail them to me at [email protected]. This set is probably being used for another tournament (although don't worry about talking about stuff here), so I'd like to clean up any errors anyone might have found.

It's also been called to my attention that some of the playoff results are wrong. In the interest of not screwing up Byko's ranking thing, I'll be fixing them a little later.

Mike Bentley · Post by **Mike Bentley** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:14 pm

Actually I heard that another high school would be interested in mirroring this tournament, so if you could, please refrain from discussing about specific questions here. Again, you can send comments directly to me at my e-mail address.

Byko · Post by **Byko** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 2:34 pm

Bentley Like Beckham wrote:It's also been called to my attention that some of the playoff results are wrong. In the interest of not screwing up Byko's ranking thing, I'll be fixing them a little later.

Thanks--that would help. I was just trying to figure them out looking online and things just didn't make sense. You might also want to enable the setting on SQBS that puts round numbers in the final stats display in the scoreboard section (I wish that could be set by default--too many people just don't use it, and it's not easy to find).

I'm curious how the apparent tie for the 16th playoff spot between Churchill and Eleanor Roosevelt A was settled--I don't think I've ever actually seen that happen before.

Stat Boy · Post by **Stat Boy** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 3:59 pm

Play-in game. Just like March Madness, but without Dicky V.

The 2007 San Diego Padres · Tue Oct 02, 2007 4:04 pm

Stat Boy wrote:Play-in game.

NO DON'T

Byko · Post by **Byko** » Wed Oct 03, 2007 10:29 am

Byko wrote:
Bentley Like Beckham wrote:It's also been called to my attention that some of the playoff results are wrong. In the interest of not screwing up Byko's ranking thing, I'll be fixing them a little later.
Thanks--that would help. I was just trying to figure them out looking online and things just didn't make sense. You might also want to enable the setting on SQBS that puts round numbers in the final stats display in the scoreboard section (I wish that could be set by default--too many people just don't use it, and it's not easy to find).

I'm curious how the apparent tie for the 16th playoff spot between Churchill and Eleanor Roosevelt A was settled--I don't think I've ever actually seen that happen before.

Okay, I figured out your problem. Centennial A was mistakenly given a win in the playoffs over Whitman B. That should have been GDS A getting that win instead. From what I see (hopefully someone who was there can verify), Centennial A went 2-4 in the bracket of death while Centennial B went 3-3 in an easier group, so the B team made playoffs while the A team did not.

Howard · Post by **Howard** » Wed Oct 03, 2007 12:15 pm

Byko wrote:From what I see (hopefully someone who was there can verify), Centennial A went 2-4 in the bracket of death while Centennial B went 3-3 in an easier group, so the B team made playoffs while the A team did not.

I'm see you've already put the results in. I'm curious to find out whether this compounds the current problem of Centennial A being ranked below Centennial B.

jonpin · Post by **jonpin** » Wed Oct 03, 2007 5:46 pm

The 2007 San Diego Padres wrote:
Stat Boy wrote:Play-in game.
NO DON'T

Fifteen. In all seriousness, they did hold a minigame to determine the 16 seed as everyone was getting back from lunch. It was kinda funny as in the stat room, we were discussing the NCAA play-in game and then all of the sudden one was needed (unless the need for a play-in game was why the NCAA play-in game was being discussed).

Byko wrote:From what I see (hopefully someone who was there can verify), Centennial A went 2-4 in the bracket of death while Centennial B went 3-3 in an easier group, so the B team made playoffs while the A team did not.

Yeah, Cent-B at 3-3 made the playoffs, and Cent-A did not (though I don't recall their record, it was no better than 2-4).

First Chairman · Post by **First Chairman** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:22 am

Reminder for TD: http://www.hsquizbowl.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4358