ACF Regionals West (2/20/10) at Irvine

[cvdwightw]

UC Irvine will host the West Regional for ACF Regionals 2010. Everything you need to know about ACF Regionals is either here or here, but to recap, if anyone on your team played college quizbowl before September 1, 2008, you need to send a packet to acfregionals.2010@gmail.com sometime before February 14 if you want to play, and the fees are as follows:

Base fee: $120
Buzzer system: -$5 each
Staffers: -$10 each
Laptops: -$5 each, max 1 per team
Travel: -$10 for traveling over 200 miles one way, -$20 for over 400, etc.
International: -$20
New ACF teams: -$25
New quizbowl teams: -$75
High School teams: -$50
Minimum: $0

Travel back in time to send in a packet by December 27 and receive $50 off the base fee, or get a packet in by Sunday for -$25 (-$50 if you're nice and write us a packet though you didn't have to). January 24, January 31, and February 14 are the -$0, +$25, and +$50 dates.

Questions such as "What is the target difficulty of this tournament?" or "Should I submit my awesome question on trout tickling?" should go to acf.regionals.2010@gmail.com. Questions like "Where and when do we show up for this tournament?" or "What is there to do in Irvine on a Saturday night, anyway?" should go to dpwynne@gmail.com. If you can't figure out where your question goes, send it to me at dpwynne@gmail.com and I'll forward it to the Regionals account if I can't answer it.

Registrations should also go to me at dpwynne@gmail.com and should include the names of the packet authors associated with that team and whether your team is Division 1, Division 1 Undergrad (all undergrads, at least one of which has attended ACF Nationals before), or Division 2 (all undergrads, none of whom has attended ACF Nationals before). Even if you sign up in this thread, confirm it via e-mail to me.

More information (like a field update and a meeting location/time) to come later. Expect this tournament to start a little bit on the late side, because I'm going to try to put in a buffer for the inevitable problems that the Irvine Scheduling Department causes, but that also means that we're going to be starting when it's time to start regardless of what time you think you ought to show up.

[every time i refresh i have a new name]

UCSD is sending one team to this. We'll bring one buzzer system.

[Sun Devil Student]

Sorry for not telling you earlier, I was under the impression that it was too early to declare teams, and now the two-week deadline has snuck up on me.

ASU's delegation will consist of most likely 3 (possibly 4) teams, all but one of which are baby seals. As their mother seal, I hereby request all other teams at this tournament to club my baby seals as hard as you can. Club the mother seal, too.

Seriously, the ASU D2 players who were able to attend ACF Winter benefited tremendously from being mercilessly crushed, so you guys won't be doing us any favors by playing conservatively when you're up by 300. Keep laying it on! :)

[cvdwightw]

Tentative Field Update:

UCSD x1
Stanford x?
ASU x3-4

If we get the rooms I'm hoping for, expect to show up in Humanities Hall 178 at around 9:00. We will begin play at 9:30 or whenever we end up getting into the rooms, whichever is earlier.

I've also had a request to shorten the lunch break so that people can get in more quizbowl before they have to leave. My tentative solution to this is to explore options for getting food delivered to campus, thus allowing the tournament to continue after a ~30 minute lunch break. Discussions of what kind of food options I should look into should go in this thread.

[rylltraka]

If someone hasn't let you know, UCLA submitted a packet and should send at least one team.

[cvdwightw]

Apparently sending a reminder to qb-westcoast awakens teams from their slumber!

Field update:
UCSD x1 D1
Stanford x?
Arizona State x3-4 D2
Claremont x1 D2
UCLA x1 D1 and possibly 1 D2
BYU x1 D2

[Sun Devil Student]

Apparently sending a reminder to qb-westcoast awakens teams from their slumber!

Field update:
UCSD x1 D1
Stanford x?
Arizona State x3-4 D2
Claremont x1 D2
UCLA x1 D1 and possibly 1 D2
BYU x1 D2

Wait, BYU has a team!?

Where were you guys when ACUI was frantically looking for teams to fill the Region 13 SCT?!

If there's some miracle whereby you guys can come down to Tempe this weekend, you are welcome at our SCT, but I'm realistic enough to expect otherwise. If BYU is a newly formed club, I definitely look forward to meeting them. Maybe we'll have some common experiences with slow bureaucracy and long journeys and all that.

Also, one of ASU's teams is a D1 team (1 grad student), although the others are as D2 as you can possibly get.

[Alejandro]

I misread the ACF eligibility rules; we're actually a DI team. Sorry about that.

[cvdwightw]

I misread the ACF eligibility rules; we're actually a DI team. Sorry about that.

I'm assuming D1 Undergrad, or do you have random people from Claremont grad schools too?

[Alejandro]

DI undergrad.

[Sun Devil Student]

We will begin play at 9:30 or whenever we end up getting into the rooms, whichever is earlier.

Wait, so if we don't get into the rooms by 9:30, we'll start playing in the hallway? That could be interesting.

Also:

1) ASU is down to three teams (1 D1, 2 D2), and if we can't get a third driver, will have to either shrink down to 2 teams or rent a car (and we're already under financial duress, but I will not leave anyone behind if I can help it)

2) Would anyone here (in the Irvine/LA area) be able to accommodate some ASU team members for that Friday and Saturday night? Our student government won't even decide if they're giving us any money until this Friday and it may be too late to get (affordable) hotel rooms by then. We would only do this as a very last resort, not many of us appear to have friends in the Irvine area (that can take us in, anyway) so I'm now reduced to asking strangers for help in case we have nowhere else to go.

Thanks very much!

[idrayer]

I can fit like 2, maybe 3 people in my dorm room at UCLA if you want, just bring a sleeping bag or something to sleep on. I'll ask around at practice tomorrow if anyone has space if you want.

[Joe Romersa]

2) Would anyone here (in the Irvine/LA area) be able to accommodate some ASU team members for that Friday and Saturday night? Our student government won't even decide if they're giving us any money until this Friday and it may be too late to get (affordable) hotel rooms by then. We would only do this as a very last resort, not many of us appear to have friends in the Irvine area (that can take us in, anyway) so I'm now reduced to asking strangers for help in case we have nowhere else to go.
Thanks very much!

Have you tried bidding for hotels on websites like Priceline? Its cheaper, and you kind of have to bid last minute to get rooms.

[cvdwightw]

We will begin play at 9:30 or whenever we end up getting into the rooms, whichever is earlier.

Wait, so if we don't get into the rooms by 9:30, we'll start playing in the hallway? That could be interesting.

Worst case scenario the place that screws up our room reservations opens at 10:00 and we can fix things then (assuming, of course, that we don't lose our room reservation sheet, which has happened at least once before).

[Sun Devil Student]

I am saddened to inform you that ASU has dropped to two teams for this tournament, neither of which is ASU A. Several members had schedule conflicts (including two A-team members), and our unquestioned best D2 player is only willing to attend if the cost is below $30 (we'll find out about this tomorrow from our student government). This means 9-10 players, and 2 vehicles (one, for sure, is my own).

If one of our members can't get permission to use his parents' car, we will have to rent a car, at substantial expense. But sometimes, that's how it goes.

[Sun Devil Student]

To Ian from UCLA (and any other kind souls who were planning to offer help): We got hotel rooms near the airport, so I don't think we need to beg floor space from you guys anymore, but thanks very much for offering anyway.

Confirmed: 2 teams from ASU, all D2 because our graduate student couldn't come. We'll be broke or nearly so, and would appreciate any food provided, but will understand if this is not possible.

Looking forward to the tournament.

[cvdwightw]

Field update:
UCSD x1 D1
Stanford x1 D1
Arizona State x2 D2
Claremont x1 D1 Undergrad
UCLA x1 D1
BYU x1 D2

7 is a really good number to have (we'd do our best to run as much of a double RR as possible in a reasonable time), and 8 is a really poor number to have, so unless I get a flurry of two teams that both want to come I'm declaring registration closed.

[tkpatel]

UCLA is bringing a D2 team as well.

[Sun Devil Student]

7 is a really good number to have (we'd do our best to run as much of a double RR as possible in a reasonable time), and 8 is a really poor number to have

Wait, why is 7 better than 8? Don't both take the same number of rounds/packets, and with 7 teams there would have to be bye rounds?

Not that the ASU baby seals wouldn't appreciate the break, but I thought it was standard practice to avoid byes when possible. Either way, the double RR would be 14 rounds plus finals...right?

[myamphigory]

7 is a really good number to have (we'd do our best to run as much of a double RR as possible in a reasonable time), and 8 is a really poor number to have

Wait, why is 7 better than 8? Don't both take the same number of rounds/packets, and with 7 teams there would have to be bye rounds?

Not that the ASU baby seals wouldn't appreciate the break, but I thought it was standard practice to avoid byes when possible. Either way, the double RR would be 14 rounds plus finals...right?

Some teams attending this tournament have submitted packets. Avoiding byes will not be possible, and single byes are preferable to double byes.

[Sun Devil Student]

7 is a really good number to have (we'd do our best to run as much of a double RR as possible in a reasonable time), and 8 is a really poor number to have

Wait, why is 7 better than 8? Don't both take the same number of rounds/packets, and with 7 teams there would have to be bye rounds?

Not that the ASU baby seals wouldn't appreciate the break, but I thought it was standard practice to avoid byes when possible. Either way, the double RR would be 14 rounds plus finals...right?

Some teams attending this tournament have submitted packets. Avoiding byes will not be possible, and single byes are preferable to double byes.

Ok, that makes sense.

[Ukonvasara]

baby seals

Having never seen the ASU team in person, I am forced to conclude that it is made up of actual seals.

[idrayer]

Yes, UCLA will have a single DII team consisting of me and Henry and possibly one of our freshman recruits that hasn't shown up to anything yet in addition to the DI team (Ray, Mik, Tirth, someone else I think, not sure who).

[cvdwightw]

After a full round robin followed by a four-four split and a bracketed round robin, Stanford (Andrew, Kristiaan, Brian, Tony) emerged undefeated to win ACF Regionals West. UCLA A and UCSD split their games with each other and tied for second. ASU A was the D2 champion, finishing in fourth.

Prelim statistics can be found here and overall statistics can be found here.

A brief note on the stats: due to one of our staffers accidentally reading the Brown/VCU/Oklahoma packet in Round 1 instead of the Yale A/Miami B packet, two rooms were read the Stanford packet instead of the Brown/VCU/Oklahoma packet in Round 7, and the other two were read Brown/VCU/Oklahoma as scheduled. The three games played on the Brown et al packet are listed as "Round 11," even though they occurred in two different rounds. Since Round Report doesn't seem to handle non-consecutive round numbers well, Round Report doesn't exist for the Prelims, but you can find Prelims Round Report on the Overall stats.

[Charbroil]

Prelim statistics can be found here and overall statistics can be found here.

Those links appear to be the same?

[cvdwightw]

Prelim statistics can be found here and overall statistics can be found here.

Those links appear to be the same?

Should be fixed now.

[Swank diet]

Great hosting job by Irvine. Enjoyable to not have to drive too far for good quizbowl and nice to see teams from fairly far away making the trek. Major props too for BYU for coming all the way out to play on legit questions and for having an excellent attitude of "how can we get better?" in addition to being easygoing and friendly. Hope they continue to improve and can make their way to more tournaments in the future.