The Quizbowl Resource Center

The WKU Academic Competition Club will be hosting the second annual WKU Hilltopper Invitational on November 19, 2011. This will be a tournament aimed at academic teams in Kentucky and Tennessee, although we'll welcome any team who wants to come here to play. Once again, I will be serving as Tournament Director with Brian Riddle serving as Assistant Tournament Director/Stats Coordinator. Feel free to email me at [email protected] with any questions, concerns, or advice. We'll be sending out information to schools (along with a registration form that can be used as an invoice) this fall.

Location: Cherry Hall, Western Kentucky University (Bowling Green, KY)

Questions: This will be a mirror of Harvard Fall Tournament.

Fee: $70 per team. There will be a $20 discount for bringing a moderator or scorekeeper. Because we're offering such a large discount, we prefer you bring a (competent) moderator, although a good scorekeeper will suffice if you have nobody able to read questions. Also, every school that attends must bring a buzzer system.

Payment: We would prefer you pay on the day of the tournament, rather than sending a check ahead of time. We will accept cash or check, and we can accept purchase orders as well. All checks should be made out to the Academic Competition Club.

Format: We will have a pool play format (probably pools of 4, 5, or 6 depending on field size) and will rebracket into another set of pools in the afternoon that are based on performance in the morning. This format is the same basic one we have used at past tournaments.

To register, coaches can e-mail me at [email protected]

I've decided that I'd like this tournament to mirror a housewrite, because it's cheaper and the questions should be of a high quality. With that in mind, I would like to open this up to the market a bit and see what questions teams interested in coming would like us to use. Fire away.

If there aren't too many objections I think this will be a mirror of Harvard fall.

Staffing help for this tournament would be greatly appreciated, both from the teams attending the tournament (who get a nice discount for helping out!) and other quizbowl people who think they can make it to Bowling Green on Nov. 19th. As always we will feed every staffer and for volunteer staffers (people not traveling with an attending school) who drive more than 50 miles round trip to come help us, remind Brian of that fact enough times and he may open the club's treasure chest and give you some gas money.

Field Update (10/11):

Adair County A
Adair County B
Barren County
Danville A
Danville B
Dunbar A
Dunbar B
Franklin Road (TN)
Grayson County A
Grayson County B
Northmont (OH)
Oldham County
Owensboro

Expressed Interest

Adair County C
Brentwood (TN)
DuPont Manual
Rossview (TN)
Scott (TN)

Right now we're at 13 teams with a few others having expressed interest. We're probably going to cap the field at 24 teams unless we get more help with staffers. Also, this tournament has been platinum certified by PACE, meaning that the Top 25% of the field will qualify for NSC and be able to register on Decmber 1st with a $75 discount.

Another thing I would like to point out is that we have a $20 discount for providing staffing assistance. However, we also know that some schools may have trouble bringing the required buzzer system, so if you can't bring a buzzer, you can provide a staffer to fulfill that requirement. If you're bringing a staffer in lieu of a buzzer system, you won't get the staffing discount unless you have 2 or more staffers.

Did you not get an entry from Owensboro High School?

jwoolley wrote:Did you not get an entry from Owensboro High School?

I can find an email for our JV Tournament on October 29th, but I can't find an entry for this tournament. It's very possible it got lost in the jungle that is my TopperMail account, so if you can just have someone post here or send me another email with how many teams your bringing.

Field Update (11/16)

Adair County A
Adair County B
Adair County C
Ballard
Barren County
Danville A
Danville B
Franklin Road (TN)
Grayson County A
Grayson County B
Lexington
Manual A
Manual B
Northmont (OH)
Oldham County A
Oldham County B
Owensboro
Woodford County A
Woodford County B
Woodford County C
Woodford County D

Nick,

Ballard HS would like to send a team. Please let me know if there is still room for us.

Thanks,
Bryan Rich
Ballard HS

‎The WKU Academic Competition Club is looking for quality moderators for this tournament. Right now we are looking for 8 people to read 10 rounds of questions. If you are interested, we will pay you with breakfast, lunch, and $25. We welcome anybody, although preference is given to those who live in Bowling Green and nearby counties. This doesn't apply to people coming with a team, although teams do get a discount for bringing a staffer if you're interested in that. Please let me know if you're interested by sending me a PM or an email.

As of right now, we have one spot left. I'm going to email coaches later and see if there are any more drops, and then we'll look at the field again then.

what time is the tournament starting?

User was reminded to enable a signature --Mgmt.

martinfox88 wrote:what time is the tournament starting?

Teams should make plans to be there by 8:30 on Saturday morning.

Registration is from 8:00-8:30 and we hope to have play started by 9:00. When teams arrive they will be sent to a specific room where they will set up their buzzers and wait until their coaches return from the coaches meeting and take them off to their first match. Also, there will be an interest meeting for the formation of a Kentucky Quizbowl Alliance that will run from 8:30-8:45. Anybody interested in being involved with such an organization can let us know when they register and we'll tell you where to go. The coaches meeting will take place at 8:45, with play starting as soon as I answer any and all questions coaches may have. Staffers will undergo a brief training session from 8:30-9:00 with Brian Riddle.

We will have a lot more logistical information soon, once we have everything finalized and I can get it all sent out at once.

Field Update (11/18)

Adair County A
Adair County B
Adair County C
Ballard
Barren County
Danville A
Danville B
Franklin Road (TN)
Grayson County A
Grayson County B
Lexington A
Lexington B
Manual A
Manual B
Northmont (OH)
Oldham County A
Oldham County B
Owensboro
White House Heritage (TN)
Woodford County A
Woodford County B
Woodford County C
Woodford County D

We're at 23 teams now. We'll put together a scrap team tomorrow morning for team #24. In the morning we'll do 4 pools of 6, and after lunch we'll re-bracket into 4 pools of 6 again. The top two afternoon pools will be balanced pools of the morning's top 12 teams, and we'll have an 11th round consisting of crossover games between those two top pools to determine placement for 1-12.

Quick Results:

1) Lexington A
2) Manual A
3) Northmont
4) Danville A
5) Grayson A
6) Oldham A

We had 23 teams plus a hybrid team of extra players, and since this is a PACE Platinum-certified tournament, I think the Top 6 teams qualify for NSC if they haven't already. The Lexington team was from Lexington, KY, and was an "unofficial" group from a school that rhymes with Funbar. We will have stats up shortly, and I'll have a more elaborate recap sometime by Monday.

Thanks to everyone for coming and everybody that staffed. I hope you found this to be an enjoyable experience. Stats are here.
http://hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/16 ... all_games/

How well was the tournament set received?

Also, i'm wondering why each team has a different amount of TUH in the stats.

List of villages in West Virginia wrote:How well was the tournament set received?

Also, i'm wondering why each team has a different amount of TUH in the stats.

They used timed rounds.

Alliance in the Alps wrote:

List of villages in West Virginia wrote:How well was the tournament set received?

Also, i'm wondering why each team has a different amount of TUH in the stats.

They used timed rounds.

Oh, that's interesting. Thanks for answering that.

Yeah that's the reason. We used 13 minute halves for this tournament, although in retrospect maybe 15 would have been better (not a huge difference overall and our moderators should have all gotten done in that amount of time I feel) but personally the ideal world is having a good enough moderator pool that we can use straight up untimed rounds. When faced between the options of using slower moderators on timed rounds, letting those slow moderators run the tournament to a screeching halt, or drastically cutting the field size, I went with the lesser evil.

Hopefully this won't be a problem for next semester's tournaments. Two of our absolute best moderators could not be here today (one is in England for the semester actually) and we've had an uptick in club membership recently that could help increase the number of skilled readers we have.

Nick,
The individual stats for Sam Blizzard and Ryan Kirby are flipped in the Manual B game in the playoffs. Ryan didn't score in that game, while Sam had the 9 tu's.

djones wrote:Nick,
The individual stats for Sam Blizzard and Ryan Kirby are flipped in the Manual B game in the playoffs. Ryan didn't score in that game, while Sam had the 9 tu's.

We will get that fixed soon. Speaking of individual scoring and Sam Blizzard, he led the field with an impressive 128 PPG during the morning rounds.

The Hub (Gainesville, Florida) wrote:

djones wrote:Nick,
The individual stats for Sam Blizzard and Ryan Kirby are flipped in the Manual B game in the playoffs. Ryan didn't score in that game, while Sam had the 9 tu's.

We will get that fixed soon. Speaking of individual scoring and Sam Blizzard, he led the field with an impressive 128 PPG during the morning rounds.

...and he's only a freshman.

The stats have been edited to reflect Sam's actual point total. I apologize for the error I was made aware of it late last night and did not have time to correct it until today.

Full Order of Finish:

1) Lexington A
2) Manual A
3) Northmont
4) Danville A
5) Grayson County A
6) Oldham County A
7) Manual B
8) Woodford County B
9) Ballard
10) Lexington B
11) Barren County
12) Adair County A
13) Woodford County A
14) Oldham County B
15) Franklin Road
16) Owensboro
17) Danville B
18) Woodford County C
19) Grayson County B
20) Woodford County D
21) White House Heritage
22) Adair County C
23) Adair County B

I'd like to thank every team that attended the tournament. I apologize for any issues with below average moderators and for running behind throughout the day. We will attempt to fix those issues before our spring tournaments. I would especially like to thank Woodford County, Grayson County, Oldham County, and Ballard for providing moderators, as well as people who volunteered to keep score at various points throughout the day. More thanks go to Steven Powell, Keshia Shockley, Curtlyn Kramer, Jake Moore for moderating for us, and to Anna Helton for scorekeeping. I personally would like to thank Brian, Tommy, Chris, Terence, Fred, and Shannon as club members who staffed and helped this tournament in a lot of other ways as well. This tournament having somewhere to be hosted was largely due to the efforts of Dr. Guy Jordan and Jessica Steenbergen, who both deserve a lot of credit for that. Once again, thanks to everybody who attended, we hope to see you all return to WKU tournaments in the future.

EDIT: I would like to point out that the "Potter College" scab team was an unofficial team comprised of two players from Adair County, a player from Grayson County, and a player from Edmonson County who came to help staff that we let play on this team instead. Thank you to those players and teams for helping even out our schedule.

Ulster Clay Pigeon Shooting Association wrote:

The Hub (Gainesville, Florida) wrote:

djones wrote:Nick,
The individual stats for Sam Blizzard and Ryan Kirby are flipped in the Manual B game in the playoffs. Ryan didn't score in that game, while Sam had the 9 tu's.

We will get that fixed soon. Speaking of individual scoring and Sam Blizzard, he led the field with an impressive 128 PPG during the morning rounds.

...and he's only a freshman.

Are you sure about that? Because he went to NAQT nationals in 2010 and 2011. I guess you could go to nationals as a seventh grader, but did he?

Yes, Sam was talented enough in 7th grade that we moved him from our middle school feeder program to play with our high school JV team, knowing that we would graduate our entire varsity team last year and wanted someone with experience.

He has far exceeded expectations to this point, but yes, he is only a freshman. He subbed into 2 matches with our A team at HSNCT as a 7th grader and captained our B team at HSNCT and NSC last year as an 8th grader.

I don't know how often it happens in quizbowl, but very talented 7th and 8th graders playing for their district's high school sports teams is a fairly common occurence in a lot of places.

That's both amazing and humbling. Thank you bringing this to my attention.

Here is some more in-depth statistical information from this tournament:

Average PPB: 11.10
1st Quartile: 20.30
2nd Quartile: 12.22
3rd Quartile: 8.02
4th Quartile: 3.85

Best PPB: 23.70
Worst PPB: 1.58
Median PPB: 10.09

Average PPB of A Teams: 14.52
Average PPB of B-D Teams: 7.06