VCU Spring Semester Tournament III -- January 23, 2010

[Matt Weiner]

This is the general announcement for the third annual VCU Spring Semester High School Tournament. This is a high school academic quizbowl tournament to be hosted by the quizbowl club of Virginia Commonwealth University on Saturday, January 23 from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM. The tournament is open to any high school team that wishes to attend.

The tournament will take place at the VCU campus, in a building to be determined.

AFFILIATION: This tournament will seek affiliation with the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence and will be an opportunity to qualify for the National Scholastics Championship (pace-nsc.org), which is run by PACE and will occur in June 2010.

QUESTIONS: The questions will be provided by the University of Georgia team, and are the same packets used at UGA's fall tournament. The question format will be ACF; that is, games of 20 tossups with 30-point bonuses, untimed.

FORMAT: Our ideal tournament format is for the maximum 24 teams. The teams will be divided into four brackets of six teams each and play five-game round robins in rounds 1-5. The teams will then be ranked. Over rounds 6-11, each first and second place team will play its counterparts in the other three brackets, each third and fourth place team will do the same, and each fifth and sixth place team likewise, to produce a final ranking. The tournament championship will be decided by a final of up to two games if necessary.

In the event that fewer than 24 teams register, or that we are able to expand the field and host more than 24 teams, the format will change accordingly. All teams will be offered a minimum of 9 games in any format. Trophies will be awarded to the top four teams, and book prizes will be awarded to the top eight individual scorers.

REGISTRATION AND FEES:
-The fee structure is as follows:
Base fee: $70 per team. There is no limit to the number of teams who can attend from one school.
Buzzer discount: $5 off school's total fee for each fully functional system (control box and eight activators all work)-no limit to # of systems you can bring
Staff discount: $15 off school's total fee. This could be a coach, parent, student who is not playing, etc. Team-provided staffers will keep score for various games not involving the team with which they are affiliated. Volunteer staffers must stay through all the games (except finals) in order to receive credit for their school. There is no limit to the number of staffers you can bring.
Minimum fee: The minimum fee is $0 (you can bring enough buzzers and staffers to eliminate your entire fee via discounts, but you cannot have a "negative fee.")
-To register, e- mail me at mattweiner.vcu@gmail.com with the number of teams, buzzers, and staffers you want to bring, and an email address where you can be contacted with details. We are also requiring a cell phone contact number belonging to someone who will be attending the tournament, so that we can track you down if you are running late. Feel free to share this announcement with any schools that you think would be interested in attending. There is no further registration form or other action needed on your part in order to be officially registered; you only need to e-mail me at that address with the information requested. Posts made in this thread will not be considered official registrations; you must e-mail me.

METHOD OF PAYMENT: All teams must pay by the day of the tournament. We prefer to accept payment in person right before the tournament starts, but we will accept checks by mail ahead of time if your procedures require it. Teams who do not pay by the day of the tournament will be charged a $25 penalty and will have two weeks to pay their total amount before we start mailing letters to your school administration about it.

We can accept cash, personal checks, or checks from school, school district, or quizbowl club funds. We have no ability to process purchase orders, credit cards, Paypal, or any other forms of payment. Bringing forms of payment outside of the three listed will be considered nonpayment and subject you to the $25 late payment penalty.

We will contact registered teams with instructions on who to make the checks out to. If you require a pre-tournament invoice in order to have a check cut, let us know by December 29 so that we can send you the paperwork in time. If you do not let us know about this requirement by December 29, and it causes you to come to the tournament without your payment, then you will be subject to the $25 late payment penalty.

TEAM & ROSTER SIZE: There may be a maximum of six players on one team's roster, up to four of whom may play at one time. There will be no exceptions to this rule. If you bring more than six players, you must register a second team to have all of them play. There is a halftime substitution opportunity in each game. Each player may appear on only one team's roster throughout the day-no switching from the B team to the A team, etc. Teams may also play shorthanded with only three players. Teams consisting of fewer than three players may not play without my express prior permission.

FOOD: Neither breakfast nor lunch will be provided by the tournament. There are several eateries within walking distance of campus buildings and a vast cornucopia within a ten minutes' drive; maps and suggestions will be provided at the tournament.

Please e-mail me if you have any further questions. I'm looking forward to seeing a wide variety of teams from Virginia and surrounding states on January 23.

Matt Weiner
Tournament Director, VCU Spring Semester High School Tournament III
mattweiner.vcu@gmail.com

List of registered teams (to be updated as registrations come in):

Blacksburg
Caesar Rodney
Collegiate
Georgetown Day
Maggie Walker A
Maggie Walker B
Maggie Walker C
Monticello
New Kent
Quince Orchard
St. Anselm's A
St. Anselm's B
St. Christopher's
Thomas Jefferson

[Prof.Whoopie]

Hey, is anyone going to this?

St. Anselm's is interested in sending one or two teams.

[t-bar]

TJ is interested, but we are waiting to have our first practice back from winter break before we figure out how many teams we are bringing.

[MLWGS-Gir]

Hey, is anyone going to this?

Maggie Walker will be there with what looks like at least two teams. Dr. Barnes forgot to put a sign-up on the board until I reminded him yesterday, so that's slowed our registration down. Hopefully other teams have been delayed by winter break (like TJ, since Stephen just beat me to posting).

[Self-incompatibility in plants]

If our state tournament doesn't end up on this day, Caesar Rodney might be interesting in going. We shall see.

[Carangoides ciliarius]

Oh, huh, i actually kinda forgot about this tournament. Um, i guess we might go, but we have NAQT States possibly on this date... nothing official yet.

[RyuAqua]

GDS will be sending some number of teams to this, though I personally will not be able to go. Official numbers are delayed for us too, so yeah.

EDIT: The full lineup of Georgetown Day B will attend this tournament.

[Self-incompatibility in plants]

Could we get a quick field update please? Caesar Rodney is really looking at going to this, but the field in attendance at this tournament is a big factor we would like to look at.

[Matt Weiner]

Hey, the first few teams have officially registered. If the people in this thread would get their official plans together and e-mail me their registrations, that would be cool. I expect to hit a field of 12 to 20 teams by means of week-before-the-tournament registrations, as is the norm for our events for whatever reason.

[Carangoides ciliarius]

Good to see a field coming along for this. I sure hope more will be coming.

Question about the questions: it says in this thread viewtopic.php?f=20&t=8738 that there are slightly less social science and philosophy. What replaced them in the packets?

[gwaustin4]

Good to see a field coming along for this. I sure hope more will be coming.

Question about the questions: it says in this thread viewtopic.php?f=20&t=8738 that there are slightly less social science and philosophy. What replaced them in the packets?

Fine arts.

[Carangoides ciliarius]

Good to see a field coming along for this. I sure hope more will be coming.

Question about the questions: it says in this thread viewtopic.php?f=20&t=8738 that there are slightly less social science and philosophy. What replaced them in the packets?

Fine arts.

Ah, thanks Wes. That'll do just fine.

[Prof.Whoopie]

Hey, we'll probably be registering for this tomorrow.

The tournament will take place at the VCU campus, in a building to be determined.

Should I assume the mystery building is going to be Hibbs?

[Frater Taciturnus]

Hey, we'll probably be registering for this tomorrow.

The tournament will take place at the VCU campus, in a building to be determined.

Should I assume the mystery building is going to be Hibbs?

Yes you should.

[Matt Weiner]

We will indeed be meeting in Hibbs, room 440.

Usual info on getting there:

-The nominal address of the building is "900 Park Ave, Richmond VA" if you need to put something into your map software of choice, but be aware that Hibbs does not actually face the street, so you will have to park and then walk to the area where the building is in order to find it. I suggest printing out the appropriate campus maps and bringing them along--note that Hibbs is directly across from the Cabell Library, which will probably be easier for you to find if you have not been to the VCU campus before.
-It is almost certain that the one and only door to Hibbs which will be unlocked for the weekend is the door on the north (interior) side of the vestibule that is on the library side of the building. We will endeavor to have signs up that point you to this door.
-On Saturdays, parking on the street is free and available in most places around the campus; the best place to park for access to Hibbs is on one of the residential streets such as Park Avenue, Floyd Avenue, or West Avenue that branch off Harrison Street to the west near the Hibbs/library area. If you cannot find a space in that area, then you can try parking on Floyd Avenue near the Commons, or, further south, on Main Street. If all else fails, you should use the parking deck at Harrison and Broad, which is about three blocks north of the tournament building and will charge you somewhere between zero and five dollars to park all day on a Saturday.
-We won't be providing breakfast. There are 7-11s along Harrison at both the Main Street and Grace Street intersections, which are three blocks south and north of the tournament building respectively. If you prefer to sit down and/or eat hot food, the Village Cafe at Harrison and Grace is open for breakfast.

Here is how to get to the actual building rather than the parking garage that the VCU website sends you to:

--Get off on exit 76B if coming from the north or west. Turn left at the light at the end of the ramp, putting you on Leigh St. The next intersection will have two different streets running very close to each other than you can turn right onto; turn right onto the second/larger street, Belvidere St. Continue on Belvidere until you reach Broad Street, and take a right. Continue on Broad until you reach Harrison, and turn left. After three blocks traveling south on Harrison, you will pass a statue on your left; the building is located in that area. Turn right from here and park on a residential street, or turn left and park in the loop near the library.

--If coming from the south or east, take exit 76A, then turn left onto Chamberlayne Parkway/Avenue. Moving south on Chamberlayne, it will become Adams St as you cross Leigh. Continue on Adams until you reach Broad Street, and turn right onto Broad. Continue on Broad until you reach Harrison, and turn left. After three blocks traveling south on Harrison, you will pass a statue on your left; the building is located in that area. Turn right from here and park on a residential street, or turn left and park in the loop near the library.

[Prof.Whoopie]

Hey,
In my haste to dash off the registration email for our coach before I had to get down to basketball practice, I think I neglected to put my cell phone number. If you don't still have it from the Winter tournament, I can resend it. Sorry about that.

[Matt Weiner]

14 is a pretty good number schedule-wise, so I'll close registration here. If anyone wants to be waitlisted in case there's a drop, let me know.

[Carangoides ciliarius]

What do you think the schedule will be like with a 14-team lineup?

[Matt Weiner]

Likely two brackets of 7 followed by 3 playoff games for each team (top 3 crossover, 4-5 RR, 6-7 RR) or something along those lines, for 9 games in 10 rounds for everyone.

[Carangoides ciliarius]

Likely two brackets of 7 followed by 3 playoff games for each team (top 3 crossover, 4-5 RR, 6-7 RR) or something along those lines, for 9 games in 10 rounds for everyone.

Ah, okay, that should work just fine. Wonder what those brackets will look like?

We'll see you bright and early on Saturday.

[gwaustin4]

These questions are soon to be mirrored at Lasa and Missouri State, so don't discuss anything too specific. If anyone spots any mistakes or has some feedback on certain tus, I'd appreciate it if you emailed me at gwaustin4@gmail.com. More general critique is also welcome, either on the boards or by email.

[Frater Taciturnus]

maggie Walker has put up scores of 680, 575, 695,670, 780, 565, 675 in the prelims. Also, Matt Bollinger is now here. Awesome.

[Inkana7]

God help the rest of us.

[Matt Weiner]

Here are the prelim stats:

http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org= ... =standings

New Kent defeated St. Chris and then TJ in minigames to claim the last playoff spot out of the three-way tie.

We have completed playoff round 1 (tournament round 8) and are now about to start round 9 of 10.

[Bentley Like Beckham]

Nice Andrew Hart Grail against St. Christopher's, Maggie Walker.

[Matt Weiner]

St. Anselm's and Maggie Walker are both undefeated going into their matchup in the last game of the playoffs, making this effectively the first game of a best-of-three championship.

The third through sixth places are still up for grabs among championship bracket teams, depending on the results of other Round 10 games. Caesar Rodney is in third place right now, with Quince Orchard and Georgetown Day tied for fourth and New Kent in sixth.

[Inkana7]

Nice Andrew Hart Grail against St. Christopher's, Maggie Walker.

I'm more impressed by their near perfect game against St. Christine's. 20-0 and 29.0ppb.

[Frater Taciturnus]

Finals game starting now, Maggie Walker has one game advantage.

[Matt Weiner]

MW wins playoff game 460-230, finals commencing now.

Caesar Rodney clears third place and Quince Orchard fourth without the need for tiebreaker games. Georgetown Day was fifth and New Kent sixth in the championship bracket.

[Frater Taciturnus]

HALFTIME: maggie walker 280- st anselm's 60

[Frater Taciturnus]

maggie Walker just won 420-240

[Matt Weiner]

Final overall stats separated by playoff bracket: http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org= ... =standings

Final spots of placement may be slightly different since they were based on games against same-bracket playoff teams only; I'll upload the playoff-only stats later so this is more apparent.

[Prof.Whoopie]

So, this was fun. Thanks to the VCU people for getting things done with the usual efficiency.

The set left something to be desired, but it was acceptable. Only one team was under 10 ppb (and that one team, by less than a point), so I guess that's a virtue.

Also, big ups to QO for actually traveling some non-negligible distance to attend a pyramidal tournament. I've been talking to Mr. Schuman recently, and he seems dedicated to getting them to more stuff.They're definitely a team to watch.

[Carangoides ciliarius]

Nice Andrew Hart Grail against St. Christopher's, Maggie Walker.

I'm more impressed by their near perfect game against St. Christine's. 20-0 and 29.0ppb.

I moderated and kept score for that game. 780 points. They 30ed nineteen bonus questions, and 10ed one of them. The 10 was just a brainlapse by the team... it should have been a perfect game, but pretty incredible to see firsthand.

[Carangoides ciliarius]

Hey, this was yet another great VCU tournament. There's a reason why we don't mind meeting at our high school at 4:45am a couple times a year to drive to competitions held at VCU. This club knows how to host stuff. Everybody else should experience the efficiency, professionalism, and quality of tournaments held here. Plus, there are usually great people and great teams to meet and play!

The set was pretty good; not as good as i was anticipating, but decent. There were issues with repeats... not just repeat topics, but at least 5-6 totally repeated answers (either repeat in a bonus after the answer was a tossup, or an answer that was given away in one of the bonus clues just 30 seconds before this one - this second thing confused teams on more than one occasion). I'm quite surprised this was not caught/edited before this tournament was run... the set has been completed since early Fall, i thought.

The pyramidality of the questions was pretty good too; there were a lot of really good leadins that did not lead to buzzer races that i thought were interesting and meaningful.

Also, this was pretty awesome to get third place for CR. We've never gotten a trophy in a "good quizbowl" tournament since i've been the coach (almost exactly 4 years). So, even without this, it was worth the trip... but yeah, this was a neat thing to finally say that we did.

Congrats to Maggie Walker for demolishing everybody and being the cool and professional team that they are, even in all those blowout wins. Good job St. Anselm's for hanging in there and giving them a couple decent games.

Once again, thanks VCU, Matt Weiner, etc., for a great tournament. It was a pleasure to moderate and help out. I'm sure we'll see you soon again this year.

[aestheteboy]

Also, this was pretty awesome to get third place for CR. We've never gotten a trophy in a "good quizbowl" tournament since i've been the coach (almost exactly 4 years). So, even without this, it was worth the trip... but yeah, this was a neat thing to finally say that we did.

Hey, congratulations! You guys came a long way from being virtually unknown at the national level just few years ago to becoming a solid contender at every tournament you go to. Great work.

[Carangoides ciliarius]

Also, this was pretty awesome to get third place for CR. We've never gotten a trophy in a "good quizbowl" tournament since i've been the coach (almost exactly 4 years). So, even without this, it was worth the trip... but yeah, this was a neat thing to finally say that we did.

Hey, congratulations! You guys came a long way from being virtually unknown at the national level just few years ago to becoming a solid contender at every tournament you go to. Great work.

Thanks a bunch Daichi. That means a lot. I'll say we came a long way alright... from playing crap quizbowl sponsored by Comcast, to hanging in there with teams that have been doing this stuff the "good" way for like a decade with the best group of kids i've ever had the pleasure of being around... yeah, it's neat to have that trophy to finally show to our administration that has no idea what we're doing practicing 2-3 times a week and disappearing 15 Saturdays a year.

[Matt Weiner]

So my opinion of the Georgia questions: Definitely need some work on grammar and not using made-up words, and there were a few repeats. On the other hand, I really liked the answer and clue selection. Looking at how clearly the teams were graded by bonus conversion, I think it's obvious that this set took a lot of care to select second and third bonus parts that were of a consistent and meaningful difficulty. A lot of times on high school sets, you just get a small cluster at around 24 PPB, another at 16, and then a bunch of people struggling between 8 and 11. This one was smoother all the way down and actually had hard parts that the top team knew, rather than stupid-hard third answers. The tossups also had some thoughtful leadins and middle clues that produced good buzz distributions. I wish more high school sets looked like this in terms of the difficulty structure, though I also wish that readability wasn't a concern.

[Carangoides ciliarius]

So my opinion of the Georgia questions: Definitely need some work on grammar and not using made-up words, and there were a few repeats. On the other hand, I really liked the answer and clue selection. Looking at how clearly the teams were graded by bonus conversion, I think it's obvious that this set took a lot of care to select second and third bonus parts that were of a consistent and meaningful difficulty. A lot of times on high school sets, you just get a small cluster at around 24 PPB, another at 16, and then a bunch of people struggling between 8 and 11. This one was smoother all the way down and actually had hard parts that the top team knew, rather than stupid-hard third answers. The tossups also had some thoughtful leadins and middle clues that produced good buzz distributions. I wish more high school sets looked like this in terms of the difficulty structure, though I also wish that readability wasn't a concern.

This pretty much more eloquently offers my opinion on the questions as well. This might have been the fewest amount of times where i've looked at "hard" bonus parts with a lifted eyebrow... meaning nearly all of them were important, accessible to very good teams with very good knowledge of that subject, and consistent for all topics. There were a few bonus series where i saw a couple easy answers then a very hard answer (or at least, a very easy answer, a still pretty easy but clearly not tough answer, and then a really difficult answer), but that's going to happen on occasion and can be excused considering it was pretty rare.

I still think these could have been edited a little better considering how much time there was since this set's first iteration.

[Cernel Joson]

So my opinion of the Georgia questions: Definitely need some work on grammar and not using made-up words, and there were a few repeats. On the other hand, I really liked the answer and clue selection. Looking at how clearly the teams were graded by bonus conversion, I think it's obvious that this set took a lot of care to select second and third bonus parts that were of a consistent and meaningful difficulty. A lot of times on high school sets, you just get a small cluster at around 24 PPB, another at 16, and then a bunch of people struggling between 8 and 11. This one was smoother all the way down and actually had hard parts that the top team knew, rather than stupid-hard third answers. The tossups also had some thoughtful leadins and middle clues that produced good buzz distributions. I wish more high school sets looked like this in terms of the difficulty structure, though I also wish that readability wasn't a concern.

This pretty much more eloquently offers my opinion on the questions as well. This might have been the fewest amount of times where i've looked at "hard" bonus parts with a lifted eyebrow... meaning nearly all of them were important, accessible to very good teams with very good knowledge of that subject, and consistent for all topics. There were a few bonus series where i saw a couple easy answers then a very hard answer (or at least, a very easy answer, a still pretty easy but clearly not tough answer, and then a really difficult answer), but that's going to happen on occasion and can be excused considering it was pretty rare.

I still think these could have been edited a little better considering how much time there was since this set's first iteration.

I'd agree that the set was mostly accessible, but during the finals, the difficulty of third parts seemed to increase sharply, to the point that I'm not sure any high school team could have gotten some of them.

[Arsonists Get All the Girls]

Final overall stats separated by playoff bracket: http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org= ... =standings

Final spots of placement may be slightly different since they were based on games against same-bracket playoff teams only; I'll upload the playoff-only stats later so this is more apparent.

Oh wow, Maggie Walker. God help us all.

[gwaustin4]

The set was pretty good; not as good as i was anticipating, but decent. There were issues with repeats... not just repeat topics, but at least 5-6 totally repeated answers (either repeat in a bonus after the answer was a tossup, or an answer that was given away in one of the bonus clues just 30 seconds before this one - this second thing confused teams on more than one occasion). I'm quite surprised this was not caught/edited before this tournament was run... the set has been completed since early Fall, i thought.

The pyramidality of the questions was pretty good too; there were a lot of really good leadins that did not lead to buzzer races that i thought were interesting and meaningful.

Hey Andrew I sent you an email at andrew.chrzanowski@cr.k12.de.us to get a little more specific feedback on what you brought up. As I have yet to hear back from you, is this email address correct?

[Carangoides ciliarius]

Yes it's correct... i won't be able to give a lot of specifics since i don't have the questions and i didn't take notes... but i'll try.

[gwaustin4]

Thanks, I'd appreciate it.

[QOHS]

Also, big ups to QO for actually traveling some non-negligible distance to attend a pyramidal tournament. I've been talking to Mr. Schuman recently, and he seems dedicated to getting them to more stuff.They're definitely a team to watch.

Thanks for the kind words, Aiden. I wanted to go but couldn't be there. I will be with my team at competitions though 7 of the next 8 weekends. We have gotten the feeling that people are starting to notice us as we are on a mad quest to qualify for nationals, and collect a few trophies along the way (something that wasn't even a thought 2 years ago when I took over) since our superstar is graduating this year. I will be left with 2 GREAT speed players who I'm hoping will continue to grow as players and keep us competetive on the "real" quizbowl circuit.

[Matt Weiner]

Final stats are available for prelims, playoffs, and everything including finals combined.

[Carangoides ciliarius]

Thanks Matt. Again, this was a great tournament and i urge teams to make the drive to VCU for any future competition held here.

What happened in this game?

St Anselm's A 240, Quince Orchard 145
St Anselm's A: Aidan Mehigan 0 10 2 90, Jacob Wasserman 0 2 1 15, Brendan Ziebarth 0 0 1 -5
Quince Orchard: Sean Reidy 0 1 0 10, Chris Manners 0 1 1 5, David Cohen 0 4 1 35
Bonuses: St Anselm's A 12 140 11.67, Quince Orchard 6 95 15.83

That's a pretty low conversion rate for a really good team (even with Matt still missing at that point in the day), and it seems like across the board that that round was lower than any of the others, save for the final couple packets which were quite hard.

[Prof.Whoopie]

What happened in this game?

We sucked. Plain and simple. We just couldn't find a way get anything more than 10 on a bonus in that round. I think we had like 0 thirties, 2 twenties, 8 tens, and 4 zeros. I don't remember if it was the packet's fault or ours, but that was just not a good round for us at all.