EFT @ Carleton University (October 13th, 2018)

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Fado Alexandrino
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Location: Farhaven, Ontario

EFT @ Carleton University (October 13th, 2018)

Post by Fado Alexandrino »

Hello Canada!

I am pleased to announce a mirror of Early Fall Tournament on October 13th, 2018 at Carleton University. More information on the set can be found here. This tournament will take place in a yet unknown building because of Carleton's nerve-wracking last minute booking system. The tournament will begin at 9:00 AM sharp, so please be in the control room (TBD) at 8:30 AM.

Fees and Discounts
NB: All fees are in CAD.

Base fee: $130
Buzzer discount: $-10 per functioning system
Staffer discount: $-30 per functioning moderator*
Travel discount: $-10 for teams travelling more than 321 km (200 miles) one way.
Buzzer anti-discount: $+10 for buzzer systems promised but not delivered.
Payment anti-discount: $+20 for teams that fail to pay me before the start of round 1, unless discussed with me beforehand.

Minimum fee: $60

*Team staffers must have their own or be provided with a laptop and be comfortable with the use of advanced statistics. I will provide internet access for those needed. Tutorials for how to use the online packet and scorekeeping system will be provided closer to the tournament date.

*Unaffiliated staffers are welcome, also need to be comfortable with the online system, and will be provided with a $30 stipend for their services. Staffers will not be provided with lunch.

Eligibility and registration

Eligibility for this tournament will be the same as for the main site: "High schoolers may play, and can play on chimera teams with permission, but permission will only be granted if they are unable to play with their school team. Exceptions to these rules may possibly be granted with approval of the head editor". Please contact me with any eligibility exceptions and I will relay them to the head editor.

To register, please send me an email at joesu235 [AT] gmail [DOT] com with your school name, how many teams you're sending, and any discounts you want to claim.

As usual, I will accept cash, cheque, or e-transfer at the above address. Cheques should be made out to "Joe Su".

There will be a soft field cap of 11 teams for this tournament.

Field

Carleton 2
Toronto 3
McGill 1
McMaster 2
Queens 1


Staffers
Meghan
Joe
Rico
Christine
Brendan
Aaron
Paul
Adam

Side Events

Sunday, October 14th will be a mirror of CO Trash. The announcement will officially be up after a NAQT Collegiate Novice mirror is arranged. Please note, depending on the number of staff we can get, the proximity of the game rooms, and other factors that may affect how fast a tournament runs, this tournament may be abridged to end at a reasonable time, and will be reflected in the cost of the tournament.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, etc. please post them here. See you all in October!

(Post was modified with permission from last year's U of T announcement)
Last edited by Fado Alexandrino on Thu Oct 11, 2018 5:51 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Joe Su, OCT
Lisgar 2012, McGill 2015, McGill 2019, Queen's 2020
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Senator_Jay
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Re: EFT @ Carleton University (October 13th, 2018)

Post by Senator_Jay »

I can staff CO Trash since I've already played it :)
Jay Misuk
McMaster University, 2009, 2010, 2016
University of Toronto, 2011, 2017, 2022
MEd. (Educational Linguistics) MSc. (CogSciLing), Hon. BA (Linguistics), BA (History), BEd. (History, Geography, Music, Math, Soc. Sci, Law, Latin)

Tri-national competitor; tri-national neg champion.
To quote the ephemeral Jordan Palmer - "There is no shame, only points"
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Fado Alexandrino
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Location: Farhaven, Ontario

Re: EFT @ Carleton University (October 13th, 2018)

Post by Fado Alexandrino »

Tournament will be in Southam Hall 3rd and 4th floors (SA on the map), control room TBD. Recommended parking is P1, and this is located at the bottom left of the map. Please be ready to play for 9 AM!
Joe Su, OCT
Lisgar 2012, McGill 2015, McGill 2019, Queen's 2020
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bmcke
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Re: EFT @ Carleton University (October 13th, 2018)

Post by bmcke »

By the last few rounds, all the low-bracket teams talked about was how tired they were, how they "wished they could leave," how much they liked Reach better, and how they wanted to hear questions about their own dopey interests instead of about classical music.

This tournament had a huge blowout problem. There were 46 games in this tournament. In 25 of the games, the losing team had less than 100 points. And in 29 games, the losing team had less than half as many points as the winning team. So either 54% or 63% of the games were a waste of people's time.

I think 12 full rounds, round-robin + playoffs, was a miserable format for this tournament. I know RR + playoffs is the quizbowl standard, but I would like to tear down this standard. It is mathematically fair to do round robin, but it doesn't create meaningful competition, and it ruins a lot of people's days. I would try any zany odd-brackets format, swiss format, or ladder format before I would rerun EFT as a round robin.

I don't blame Joe very much for this, he is just doing things the way they are "supposed" to be done, and he is a saint for constantly holding tournaments in this area. I talked to him about all my issues, and his solution was that maybe EFT should have been split into two divisions, even though it was a nine-team field. I would also love if some real tournaments were played tossups-only, but I don't expect that to happen soon.

One problem is the personalities, that some of the players were hoping for a lighter trivia event and were not interested in a repetition-based pseudo-educational experience. I think the only players taking notes on Saturday were the two or three top scorers. We could blame players for being lame or blame their clubs for bringing them to EFT, but 90% of the people who join quiz clubs are looking for light fun in the first place. It seems wrong to say that easy quizbowl events "aren't for" new or casual players.

Another improvement could be for the moderators to speed up. We needed from 9:00 to 6:30 to get in 12 rounds, which reflects poorly on all the staff, including me. But I see some tradeoff between moderator efficiency and the friendliness of the event -- it's more fun if teams get their moments to banter and if they get to hear the clues in a clear speaking voice, instead of in a rushed auctioneer voice.
Brendan McKendy
University of Ottawa 2011
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