Kentucky Quiz Bowl Alliance MS State - 4/18/15, Louisville

[Valefor]

The Kentucky Quiz Bowl Alliance is pleased to announce our First Annual Middle School State Quiz Bowl Championship!

When: April 18, 2015 / Registration @ 9:00am EST :: Play begins @ 10:00am EST
Where: Noe Middle School :: 121 W Lee Street / Louisville KY 40208
Question Set: NAQT MS-13 *

I, Jason Thompson, will be serving as tournament director.

Who may participate: ANYONE may participate, provided you are a team from a Kentucky middle school. In particular, you do NOT need to have qualified for KAAC State in order to register for and play this tournament. No matter whether your quick recall team makes it to state, or to regionals, or only plays at districts, you are eligible to sign up and play!

In another difference from KAAC, your school may send *multiple* teams to this tournament (see Field and Fees sections below).

Field: We are currently placing a field cap of 24 teams on this tournament; if there is sufficient interest and we have enough staff, we will raise this cap. To ensure that every school who wishes to play can do so, we are initially limiting schools to an A and a B team. As the date approaches, if room remains in the field, we will open up registration for C (and possibly D) teams.

Each team may have up to 6 players on its roster (so a school with 2 teams may bring up to 12 players, split up into two teams of 6 each), though only 4 may play at a time. In a difference from KAAC, teams are NOT required to have 4 players at all times; teams of 3 (or even 2 or 1) may also compete. All teams must have at least one adult coach/chaperone to accompany them throughout the day.

Format and Rules: Games will consist of 20 tossups and the associated bonuses, split into two untimed halves. The general format will consist of small preliminary round robins, followed by regrouping into another round robin based on performance in the prelims. While we cannot guarantee a specific number of games at this time, we *can* guarantee that we will do our best to provide all teams with at least 6 games.

We will be playing with NAQT's standard rules/scoring/timing, with the exception of untimed halves.

Awards: The top 4 teams will receive trophies or plaques recognizing their performance. We will also recognize the 5 top scoring individual players, as well as the 3 top scoring individual 7th graders and 3 top scoring individual 6th graders, should they not be part of the overall top 5. Teams that finish in the top 15% of the field (including ties) will qualify for NAQT's Middle School National Championship Tournament.

Fees:
First team: $70 / Subsequent teams: $60 each
Bringing a buzzer system: -$10 each (up to 2) **
Teams traveling over 150 miles (one way): -$10
Teams bringing a staffer: -$10 each ***
Minimum fee (per team): $40

New to quiz bowl discount -- Any school that has not participated in a pyramidal quiz bowl tournament (e.g., a tournament run on NAQT questions, or any tournament using pyramidal tossups and three-part bonuses) between September 1, 2011 and January 1, 2015 automatically qualifies for the minimum fee of $40 per team.

Specific details about payment will be distributed as the date of the tournament approaches. Please bring payment on the day of the tournament if at all possible. We can accept early payments if need be, but it is easier for everyone involved if you bring your payment to the tournament. Schools from which we have not received payment by one week following the tournament will be assessed a +$20 late payment fee (per team) in addition to what they owe.

Registration / Questions: To register for this tournament, please email jason_thompson (at) twc (dot) com and confirm if you will be bringing 1 or 2 teams (at least initially). If you have any questions, feel free to email me, or to post in this thread.

We look forward to a great day of quiz bowl!

* - Please note that this date and set differ from the ones originally posted on NAQT's schedule (which has now changed to reflect the current date and set); we pushed the tournament back from its original date in order to avoid a conflict with state Mathcounts.

** - For the purposes of this discount, the buzzer system must conform to NAQT's guidelines for its national tournaments. In particular, systems must be wired, and must be able to operate independently of a computer. This means that Inquisitor systems are *not* eligible for this discount. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

*** - All team-provided staff should assume that they will be working as score/stat keepers unless you hear otherwise from us. If you are able to bring a moderator who has experience reading quiz bowl under NAQT/ACF rules, PLEASE CONTACT US ASAP!! :)

[Valefor]

FINAL FIELD

Barrett A
Barrett B
Danville Bate
Edmonson County
Meyzeek A
Meyzeek B
Meyzeek C
Meyzeek D
Noe A
Noe B
North Laurel
Saint Paul
Saint Joseph
Winburn B
Winburn C
Winburn D

WAITING FOR RECONFIRMATION
Tates Creek A
Tates Creek B

EXPRESSED INTEREST
West Jessamine

DROPPED
Glasgow
Johnson County
North Oldham A/B
Olmstead North
Shelby County West
Raceland
Rockcastle County A
Rockcastle County B


WAITLIST
Winburn C (D)
Meyzeek C / D (+?)

[Valefor]

Due to an unavoidable conflict at Eastern HS, we have a location change to announce. MS state will now be held at...

Noe Middle School
121 W Lee Street
Louisville KY 40208

The original post has been updated to reflect this. Coaches should have received an email with this information. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email me, or to post in this thread.

[Valefor]

The field for this tournament is officially FULL. We have begun a waitlist.

Teams should have received an email from me today confirming their fees for the tournament. Please let me know if you did not.

Below is a cross-post of the general logistical email that went out to coaches last week:

Greetings! I hope you all are doing well. Now that KAAC MS Regionals is out of the way, I wanted to get in touch with you all and let you know some preliminary logistical information for the upcoming KQBA quiz bowl tournament.

Because this is a relatively long email, I have highlighted the absolute most important pieces of information below *** with asterisks. ***

First off, I am happy to announce that we are shaping up to have a full tournament! In addition, many of the teams who will be competing at MS state will be playing their first ever quiz bowl event! Depending on levels of interest going forward, we *may* look at expanding the field, but we will only do this if we have both enough confirmed staff and available facility space to do so.

In order to ensure a full field on the day of the tournament, we will be beginning a standby/wait list (which may include C teams). Should a registered team not be able to compete on the morning of the tournament, teams from the wait list will be added to the field to ensure that the field is full.

*** If you would like to add a team to the wait list, please respond to this email and let me know. ***

-SCHEDULE-
Registration for the tournament will open at 9 AM in the Noe MS cafeteria (this is slightly earlier than originally announced, to allow teams a bit more flexibility in their schedules). The time of the first scheduled *game*--10 AM--has not changed.

*** The first round of play will begin at 10 AM. Teams who have not yet arrived by 10 minutes after the first round of play begins will forfeit the first round. ***

We will break for lunch at noon, and resume play at 1 PM. Following the preliminary rounds, there will be a brief break while we rebracket teams for the playoffs. After the playoff round robin, we will present individual high scorer awards as well as the awards for 3rd and 4th place teams. Finals between the teams contending for 1st and 2nd place will follow the awards. Teams are welcome to stay and watch the finals, or begin the trip home, at their discretion (we understand many of you will have long drives ahead of you).

This schedule is of course subject to change as the needs of the day dictate, but we hope to stick to it as closely as possible.

-FORMAT-
Teams will be pre-sorted into preliminary pools in the morning. These pools will play a full internal round robin.

Based on the win-loss records from the preliminary pools, teams will be resorted into smaller, second pools, which will again play a full internal round robin. The results from this second round robin will be used to determine the final rankings, with the exception of the top two teams from the championship pool, who will play an (advantaged, if necessary) final to determine the champion.

With a 24-team tournament, we anticipate that all teams will play 8 games (with the top 2 teams playing a 1-2 game final).

-FOOD-
The Noe team and parents will be running a concession stand throughout the day, with both breakfast and lunch. Breakfast options will include coffee, fruit, and donuts. For lunch, they will be selling pizza by the slice, chili, tomato soup, salads, desserts, and drinks.

*** In addition to the pizza by the slice sales, teams may also pre-order large Papa John's pizzas (pepperoni, sausage, or cheese) for $10 each, which may then be picked up from the concession stand at lunchtime. If you wish to pre-order pizzas for your team, please respond to this email and let me know how many--and what kind--you want by WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18. Money for pizza pre-orders will be collected the morning of the tournament at the concession stand (i.e., separately from tournament registration fees). ***

Both Meyzeek and Noe have used pizza pre-orders at tournaments in the past, and we have found it to be an efficient and easy way to make sure the lunch break goes smoothly.

For teams who wish to go out for lunch, there are many close options available around the UofL campus.

-RULES-
Many coaches have asked me about any modifications to standard quiz bowl rules we will be using for this tournament.

*** We will be playing under the rules NAQT uses at its middle school national championship (with the sole exception that games will consist of 20 untimed tossups, rather than being played on the clock). ***

In particular, this means that students will have 2 seconds to answer after buzzing and being recognized, and there will be no penalties for students who answer before being recognized (so long as they are actually the person who buzzed!).

We will not be using bounce-backs on bonuses.

New teams/coaches, please be aware that under NAQT rules teams have 5 seconds to confer and respond to each bonus part, rather than 10.

You can find a full copy of NAQT's rules @ http://www.naqt.com/rules.html

[Valefor]

Cross-posting email sent to coaches this morning for reference.

--

As I imagine that most--if not all--of you are facing the same kind of weather situation that we are facing in Louisville right now, we need to talk about that possibility that none of us *really* wants to talk about.

Obviously, the safety of your teams is our absolute, foremost concern. However, we also know that the further we go into the school year, the more difficult it gets to find a weekend that is open for everyone.

Our goal is--if at all possible--to host the tournament this Saturday, the 21st.

Right now, the Saturday forecast for Louisville shows the possibility of a wintry mix. However, since this is five days out, we would like to take a few days and see if any further developments clarify the forecast (hopefully in a better direction). In addition, Noe's parents need a few days' notice to take care of concession preparations and the other issues involved with hosting, and you all also obviously need at least a few days' notice to make plans with your teams.

We will make a firm decision by Thursday, February 19th as to whether the tournament will go ahead as planned, or whether we will postpone and look at an alternate date.

If we are forced to postpone, here are our possible alternate dates:
March 21 (the Saturday after KAAC State) ** -- see note below
April 18 (this is our preferred alternate date)

These dates may or may not be available; we are not sure at this point if the facilities at Noe will be available on either of them. However, they are the days when we do not run into conflicts with high school or college tournaments that would make it nearly impossible for us to get the number of staffing volunteers we need to run the tournament efficiently.

** -- Glasgow originally had a tournament scheduled for March 21st, and this was also (way back in the late summer) our first choice of date to host the KQBA tournament. However, this date creates conflicts with both Science Olympiad and state Mathcounts. This is our last resort choice of date.

If a postponement is necessary, we would prefer if at all possible to use April 18.

Again, I want to emphasize, if at all possible we ARE running the tournament this weekend on the 21st, as planned.

[Valefor]

Middle school state is POSTPONED. More information on an alternate date once we are able to confirm it.

[Valefor]

KQBA MS State has been rescheduled for 4/18. The tournament will still be held at Noe Middle School.

The first post has been updated to reflect this; the field has also been correspondingly updated to show which schools have reconfirmed, which have dropped, and the ones on which I am still waiting for reconfirmation.

[Valefor]

Coaches should have received a reminder email about reconfirmation this morning. Thank you to all teams who have gotten in touch with me so far; the second post has been updated to reflect the current field status.

* = This notation is due to the fact that Winburn's coach has informed me that the two teams she currently is planning to bring to the tournament are usually her B and C teams. This is here more so I don't forget than anything else.

[Valefor]

Crossposting the final email that went out to teams; we look forward to seeing all of you tomorrow morning!

Good afternoon, everyone! I am happy to report that the forecast for Louisville this Saturday includes absolutely 0% chance of snow. (In fact, it's supposed to be sunny with a high of 81!)

This is the final information update for the quiz bowl tournament this Saturday. ***PLEASE reply to let me know that you have received this email.***

--NUT ALLERGY--
I was informed this morning by a coach that one player competing this weekend has a severe airborne nut allergy. While this player will have a parent in attendance and has numerous safety measures at hand (and has fortunately never experienced a serious incident at an academic competition in the past), PLEASE help us keep ALL of our players safe this weekend by not bringing any peanut or tree nut products into Noe Middle School this Saturday.

--FINAL FIELD/FORMAT--
We will have a 16-team tournament this Saturday. The final field is as follows:
Barrett A/B
Danville
Edmonson County
Meyzeek A/B/C/D
Noe A/B
North Laurel
Saint Paul
Saint Joseph
Winburn B/C/D (Winburn's coach has informed me her A team has decided to retire for the year after their fantastic run to the KAAC State Championship last month. )

All teams will play 9 games (this is the most-fair format for a 16-team field). Teams will be split into two preliminary pools of 8 teams each, and will a play a full 7-game internal round robin. Teams will then be rebracketed into 4 playoff pools of 4 teams each based on their win/loss prelims records. *If a tie between two teams with equal W/L records must be broken for rebracketing purposes, we will break the tie based on average total points per game over the 7 prelims games.*

Teams will play two further games against the other two teams in their playoff pool they have not yet played (there will be one other team from their prelims bracket in their playoff pool; the head-to-head result from that prelim game will carry over).

The W/L records following the 2 playoff pool games will give us our final standings. If two teams in the top, championship playoff pool finish with equal records, they will play 1 further game to determine final placements. If two teams in a lower pool finish with equal W/L records, they will be declared tied in the final standings.

Awards for individual high scorers will be based solely on performance in the 7 prelim games. Players must hear 80 tossups (4 full games) to be eligible for individual awards.

--SCHEDULE--
The final schedule for the day is as follows:

9:00-9:45: Registration
9:45: Brief (5 mins) team meeting
10:00: Prelims Round 1
10:30: Prelims Round 2
11:00: Prelims Round 3
11:30: Prelims Round 4
12:00: Prelims Round 5

12:30-1:30: Lunch (if we get behind in the morning, we will use this to catch back up )

1:30: Prelims Round 6
2:00: Prelims Round 7
(Rebracketing happens here. It will be a very quick process)
2:30 (or ASAP after): Playoff Round 1
3:00: Playoff Round 2

3:30: Awards
(3:45: Tiebreaker/Finals Round 10 for top 4 placements, if needed)

Because of the need to keep to this schedule as strictly as possible, please let me remind all teams once again that ***any team that has not arrived--and is not in their first room, ready to play--by 10 minutes after the first round begins will forfeit the first round.***

--DIRECTIONS TO NOE MIDDLE SCHOOL--
**In order to avoid the heavy traffic downtown due to Thunder Over Louisville, please use the following directions to get to Noe MS.**

If you are coming into Louisville from the south via I-65 N:
- Take I-65 NORTH to Exit 133 (Warnock St.)
- Take Exit 133 (Warnock St.) and turn LEFT at the stoplight at the bottom of the ramp (you'll pass under an overpass painted "University of Louisville")
- Turn RIGHT at the SECOND stoplight (Floyd St.)
- Turn LEFT at the SECOND stoplight (Brandeis Ave.) (you'll pass under a second overpass painted "University of Louisville")
- Turn RIGHT at the FIRST stoplight (Brook St.) (there will be a stone sign on the right reading "duPont Manual High School")
- Turn LEFT at the SECOND stoplight (Hill St.)
- Turn LEFT at the FIRST stoplight (1st St.)
- Take the FIRST RIGHT into the Noe Middle School parking lot.

If you are coming into Louisville via I-64 W (from the Lexington area):
- Take I-64 W to I-264 W (Watterson Expressway W) (Exit 12)
- Take I-264 W to I-65 N (Exit 12)
- Follow the above directions for I-65 N

If you are coming into Louisville via I-71 S (from the NKY/Cinci area):
- Take I-71 S to I-264 (Watterson Expressway) (Exit 5) (this is where the Watterson Expressway begins, so there is only one possible direction to go on it )
- Follow I-264 to I-65 N (Exit 12)
- Follow the above directions for I-65 N

We'll be meeting in the morning in the cafeteria, so please come in through the doors marked "Cafeteria Entrance." There will be Noe players there to greet you and direct you as you arrive (look for the red shirts with the bananas on them ). We'll take your registration money at the front table and give you an information folder; if you have pre-ordered pizzas for lunch, you can then pay for them (and pick up some breakfast, too!) at the concession stand.

I think that's just about everything. If you have any further questions or concerns, as always, please feel free to email me and I will do my best to address them.

Safe travels to all of you, and I look forward to seeing all of you on Saturday for a fantastic day of quiz bowl!

[Valefor]

Congratulations to Meyzeek A, who went undefeated 9-0 to win the tournament today! Noe A finished second with a record of 8-1. 3rd place went to Edmonson County, with Saint Joseph's taking 4th.

We hope everyone had a great time today, and hope to see you all back out at another event next year!