The Quizbowl Resource Center

by **SunWukong** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 10:31 pm

The GDS Quizbowl Team is pleased to announce the 2012 Ben Cooper Memorial Tournament will be held on May 19, 2012 at Georgetown Day School, 4200 Davenport, Washington, DC. Please note that this is our HIGH SCHOOL CAMPUS as we have a separate location for our middle school and would hate for teams to end up there.

QUESTIONS: The 2012 Ben Cooper Memorial Tournament will be run on NAQT's DII SCT set. Designed with inexperienced college players in mind, DII SCT will hopefully prepare high school teams to compete in national tournaments, while still being sufficiently accessible for all teams. Instead of using timed rounds of 24/24, we will be using untimed 20/20 rounds. We will be using 15 point powers and 5 point negs. Unlike high school NAQT sets, there is no computational math in this set.

Schedule: Registration will open at 8:15 and go to 8:45, at which point the opening meeting will begin. Round 1 starts at 9:00. Any team that does not arrive by 8:45 risks forfeiting its first round match. We hope to finish by 5:00.

FEES AND REGISTRATION:

Base Fee: $70

Experienced Moderator Discount: -$10

Fully Functioning Buzzer Discount: -$5

Each 100 Miles Traveled (calculated using google maps): -$5

Minimum Fee: $40

To register post your school name with the number of teams, moderators,and buzzers you will be bringing and a contact E-mail and Emergency cell-phone number in this thread. You can also register by E-mailing me that information at dbrachneufeld12@gds.org. Payment is required on or before the day of the tournament. Any schools that fail to pay on the day of the tournament will be subject to a $25 penalty.

TEAM RESTRICTIONS: All teams must be in accordance with NAQT High School Eligibility Guidelines. No player may play one more than one team, nor may a team consist of more than eight players. Teams of players affiliated with multiple schools are not permitted, unless express permission is granted ahead of time by the TD, and will be deemed exhibition teams and be ineligible for trophies.

FOOD: GDS will provide a light breakfast (orange juice, bagels, muffins, and the like) but will not provide lunch. Teams will receive a list of dozens of excellent lunch spots within a five minute walk of GDS when they arrive.

by **SunWukong** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 10:36 pm

The field will go here and be updated as more teams register:

Registered: (12)
School (# teams, # buzzers, # moderators)
Aidan Mehigan (1, 0, 0)
Blair (1, 1, 0)
Caesar Rodney (1, 1, 1)
Gonzaga (1, 0 ,0)
Richard Montgomery (1, 2, 1)
Thomas Jefferson (3, 2, 1)
Walter Johnson (1, 2, 0)
Whitman (2, 2, 0)
Will Alston... and the Boys (1, 0, 0)

Expressed Interest:(0)

If there is any incorrect information here (eg. I have your team down for 3 teams and you're only bringing one) please post a correction and I'll fix it here.

by **ian.ozeroff13** » Mon Apr 16, 2012 9:58 pm

Blair is interested in attending, we just need to do some checking with everyone.

by **Willmune Sof Burrghtenstein** » Mon Apr 16, 2012 10:07 pm

We will most likely not be able to make this :cry:

by **jonathanmarx** » Tue Apr 17, 2012 6:29 am

It's the day after our prom, but I really don't know how many of our team members will be there (and I'm sure the rest of us will be willing to try quizbowl on no sleep).

So RM is interested, with 1-2 teams.

by **gamegeek2** » Wed Apr 18, 2012 7:01 pm

I'm going to try my best to have us go to this tournament, I want to do one more before the year is out.

by **Down and out in Quintana Roo** » Thu Apr 19, 2012 6:15 pm

Okay, we can definitely go. I'll e-mail shortly. Thanks for hosting this tournament on what will be an excellent warm-up for Atlanta.

by **mohanmal** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 2:47 pm

My team has an interest in attending this tournament. We would like to know if it is too late to sign up and when we need to give a definite yes or not by?

by **SunWukong** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:42 pm

You have plenty of time to register for Ben Cooper. The final deadline will probably be sometime during the week leading up to tournament, but we'd love to have you registered before that. I apologize if I'm confusing myself over the very obvious, but your signature doesn't make it clear to me the name of your school; what school is your team associated with?

by **Down and out in Quintana Roo** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 11:16 pm

Independence Charter School. A middle school in/around Wilmington, DE.

by **SunWukong** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 12:07 am

I was afraid it was actually a middle school... While I certainly wouldn't prevent a middle school team from competing at this tournament, I would reiterate that this tournament is being played on college level questions and is thus less accessible to less experienced players than most high school sets. I'm not familiar with Independence Charter and its record (they may have an absolutely phenomenal team capable of blowing away the vast majority of high school teams) but I would be remiss in my duty as a TD if I let a middle school team play a college set without fair warning. Warning: these questions will be hard for inexperienced players.

by **bt_green_warbler** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 12:13 am

Independence A just went 11-2 to finish tied for seventh at MSNCT (for which Independence qualified four teams). I suspect they will be just fine.

by **SunWukong** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 12:30 am

Then we'd love to have them at Ben Cooper. I just wanted to make sure that this wasn't a new team, excited by pyramidal quizbowl and eager to play tournaments, that might show up and come to the realization that Aphra Behn, Kobo Abe, and Halldor Laxness are all things, causing a miserable day and an abandonment of pyramidal quizbowl.

by **Down and out in Quintana Roo** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:52 am

Yeah, i read to them at Charter's tournament back in February and they were actually pretty awesome. I have no doubt that they will play teams just as well as Longfellow has over this year in the D.C. area.

by **mohanmal** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 9:14 pm

We were the Independence A Team who have now become an independent team. Our school quiz bowl season is over...but we would like to compete against high school teams to see how we stand. For lack of a better name we put down Independence Middle School Graduates (even though technically we haven't graduated yet...only graduated from the quiz bowl team). We definitely would like to attend this, but first we have to make sure we can drive down there on May 19th. I will get back to you with whether or not we will attend ASAP.

by **Down and out in Quintana Roo** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 10:16 am

Is there any update to the field here? I want to make sure this tournament is actually happening, since we did commit to attending.

by **JamesIV** » Thu May 03, 2012 10:43 am

If you guys need staffers, I'm probably going to be around that weekend & I'd be up for helping out.

by **SunWukong** » Thu May 03, 2012 1:36 pm

We love staffers! Shoot me an E-mail when you know if you'll be around, it'd be great to have you. As far as the field goes, no, there have been no updates (I will update as registrations come in). I'm convinced the tournament will still run, although I'm not predicting a huge field, given the difficulty of the set. I think the teams that have expressed interest will indeed come to this tournament (as they should, it'll be great preparation for nationals). CR, Blair, RM, BCC, TJ, Independence Charter School will hopefully be joined by some other nearby teams capable of playing at this level (Gonzaga, Maggie Walker, Saint Anselm's, etc.). If we have very few teams (eg. 5-7) we'll just play a double round robin. 10-12 teams will probably be a full round robin. More than that we'll use some sort of bracketing system to be determined when we know the number of teams. In short, while I a concerned about the field and encourage teams to register sooner rather than later, I am confident this tournament will happen.

by **Grams's Go-Go Boots** » Thu May 03, 2012 8:11 pm

Could you all use another moderator for this tournament? I know someone who's interested and possibly available.

by **mohanmal** » Thu May 03, 2012 10:17 pm

Unfortunately we will not be able to make it to this tournament as most of our team members are unavailable that weekend.

by **SunWukong** » Fri May 04, 2012 6:03 pm

We always love experienced staffers, so if your friend is available and would like to come, we'd be honored. In other news, we've decided to run an optional 50 tossup trash round during lunch for interested teams. The writers are all high school students and will hopefully have a good idea of what high schoolers care about, thus avoiding some accessibility issues that emerged at Blue Hen (Of course, careful editing will also do this). We'll have a sign up sheet at the tournament, but you'll sign up (note, your trash team need not correspond with your tournament team, or even your school) and be assigned rooms to play during the second half of lunch (we'll make sure that there's enough time for trash contestants to get lunch and make it back). These questions will obviously have no bearing on the tournament stats, though players will earn fame and glory for their efforts.

by **Down and out in Quintana Roo** » Fri May 04, 2012 6:14 pm

Okay. Cool... but, maybe more teams should sign up first? Hopefully you recruit some this weekend.

by **SunWukong** » Fri May 04, 2012 7:34 pm

We'll definitely announce it this weekend at Maryland and see if we can't convince St. Anselm's, Whitman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gonzaga, and others to come. That said, we'd really like to expand the field as soon as possible, so teams that are interested, if you'd please officially register, you'd go a long way towards putting Mr. C and myself at rest and ensuring that this tournament happens. Thanks in advance for your registrations!

by **gamegeek2** » Tue May 08, 2012 11:23 pm

If my teammates are once again too soft for a tournament...I will gladly hitch onto somebody else's team. Or staff, or something.

by **Down and out in Quintana Roo** » Tue May 08, 2012 11:31 pm

I think this is a tournament, Will, where preserving actual teams is probably a good idea.

That being said, we kind of need more teams to show up. CR would rather not play an octuple round robin against Whitman.

by **SunWukong** » Wed May 09, 2012 7:45 am

We would prefer that you register a BCC team and compete in some fashion (we'd like more teams), but I understand if you feel that you are unable to play as a one man team in a field like this (though you put up nice stats doing it last weekend). While it is preferable that there is no mixing of teams, I would rather mix teams than prevent you playing good quizbowl if fielding a BCC team is impossible. If you can find another team willing to forfeit it's shot at a trophy by letting you play with them (exhibition teams are ineligible for that sort of thing), I'll consider letting you play with them. Note, Oakland Mills is fielding a team with the knowledge that they will have to leave around 1:00. Playing with them for half the day then taking over when they leave might be an idea worth looking at. Fortunately, some more teams have registered, but there are still lots of teams in the "interested" category that I have spoken with in the last few weeks and expressed interest in attending. RM, TJ, sign up please!

by **SunWukong** » Thu May 10, 2012 10:21 pm

It is with mixed happiness that I celebrate the registration of three more teams and scrap plans to have Whitman, Caesar Rodney, Blair, and Saint Anselm's play an epic triple round robin (ie. each team would play a best of three series against every other team). As the tournament draws closer, I need a better count on the exact number of staffers that will be in attendance; Fred, is your friend willing and able to lend us his services for the afternoon? Also, teams that are interested but haven't registered *cough* RM *cough* please do so.

by **Gonzagapuma1** » Thu May 10, 2012 10:41 pm

If you guys need staff I can be there by about 1:30.

by **Smuttynose Island** » Thu May 10, 2012 10:53 pm

Hey I'm in town on the 19th and would be more than willing to help staff (be it as a moderator or scorekeeper). I believe that TJ might claim me for the staff discount, but that's up to them.

by **SunWukong** » Thu May 10, 2012 11:05 pm

We'd love to have you guys help staff this! I'll put TJ down for 3, 2, 1 (unless they'd like to give us free money...). Given the small number of teams (I expect the final field size to be around 10) and the large number of very experienced moderators we have staffing, I'd say we're on the right path of running a very fast and efficient tournament (or at least being ahead of schedule enough to have a nice long lunch break).

by **Grams's Go-Go Boots** » Thu May 10, 2012 11:50 pm

I'm checking with my friend; it's no guarantee he can do it, but if he can, he'd be great help.

by **Down and out in Quintana Roo** » Fri May 11, 2012 12:27 am

Is this tournament going to have more world-class staffers than teams? Thrilling.

by **SunWukong** » Fri May 11, 2012 1:03 am

Ideally this tournament would have equal parts world-class staffers and world-class teams, allowing for moderator/scorekeeper pairings that ensure that everything goes very smoothly (as I’m sure you've experienced, reading for too many games without respite can do terrible things to your throat). While I think we will have more teams than moderators, I’m very pleased with the present situation: the best teams in the area will be competing on a set chosen to prepare those very competitive teams for national championships, read by very experienced moderators, capable of ensuring that everything runs well. If this were a regularly difficulty set in the middle of the year, I would indeed be dismayed over the lack of teams. I believe that the case is that there are really only 10-12 teams in the DC area that should be playing on a set of this difficulty, which would simply be inappropriate for less experienced teams. Regular difficulty sets are designed to appeal to the vast majority of teams, being accessible to the less experienced teams while still differentiating the top teams. We chose to use a more difficult set, trading widespread accessibility for the excellent pre-nationals preparation it gives the top teams in the area. I don’t believe the field size should be any larger than it is, a circumstance that would signal to me that some team was playing a set of inappropriate difficulty. In short, I’m very happy to have so many world-class moderators on board to help staff a tournament of the best teams in the area on a set that will go the farthest towards preparing those teams for their future trials.

by **Kouign Amann** » Fri May 11, 2012 1:36 am

SunWukong wrote:Given the small number of teams (I expect the final field size to be around 10) and the large number of very experienced moderators we have staffing, I'd say we're on the right path of running a very fast and efficient tournament (or at least being ahead of schedule enough to have a nice long lunch break).

Rather than having an extra-long lunch break, I'll put my vote in for playing as many rounds as possible with this excellent cadre of readers. We have sixteen packets, right? If we could get up to twelve teams, we could do two brackets of six in the morning and then split into three brackets of four who play triple round-robins. If they were needed after that point, that leaves two packets for finals. I, for one, would love to get as many games as possible against top competition the week before nationals start.

This sounds ambitious (I'm willing to admit it might be overly so), but VCU ran this set last year with a field of similar size and quality and finished fourteen rounds plus lunch by 3:50. If these readers are all they're cracked up to be, we could do it.

by **huff paste** » Fri May 11, 2012 2:38 am

Prof.Whoopie wrote:Rather than having an extra-long lunch break, I'll put my vote in for playing as many rounds as possible with this excellent cadre of readers. We have sixteen packets, right? If we could get up to twelve teams, we could do two brackets of six in the morning and then split into three brackets of four who play triple round-robins. If they were needed after that point, that leaves two packets for finals. I, for one, would love to get as many games as possible against top competition the week before nationals start.

Why not do a 12-team round-robin followed by three brackets of four?

by **SunWukong** » Fri May 11, 2012 8:03 am

Point taken, we will come up with a schedule that maximizes the number of games played. I'm inclined to go with Harry's idea, if only because it circumvents the issue of having to create two fair, even brackets in this field. Of course, that plan relies on the assumption that we will get twelve teams, when I think ten is more likely at this point. A ten team schedule that maximizes games, (ideally everyone would get 13-14), might look like a round robin followed by a rebracket into two brackets of five which play a round robin (13 games in 14 rounds) or a round robin with a rebracket into a top bracket of six and a bottom bracket of four each of which plays a round robin for 14 games in 14 rounds (the bracket of four can play a double round robin for 15 games). Neither of these is ideal because of the bye rounds in the first and uneven bracketing and number of games in the second. Does anyone have a good proposed schedule in the event of a ten team tournament (or know a couple of good teams that would like to come to this).

by **Grams's Go-Go Boots** » Fri May 11, 2012 8:04 am

Unfortunately, my friend can't make it to this one. He will be at Maggie Walker tomorrow, though, so feel free to mock him incessantly!

by **Down and out in Quintana Roo** » Fri May 11, 2012 8:17 am

I really think trying to create a schedule right now is a little silly because you know the field is going to change day by day. It would be cool to have it all set right now, i just don't think it's going to happen quite yet.

With that said, by about Wednesday or certainly Thursday of next week, we can decide on what schedule works best. I personally think that anything over 12 rounds might be a little too ambitious... that's really draining to play that many tough rounds in a day against great teams, especially those schools who have a 90-mile drive home.

by **Down and out in Quintana Roo** » Fri May 11, 2012 5:29 pm

If there is any bracketing done in this tournament, consider that CR will be missing two members of its team on this day unfortunately, including Pratyusha, one of our two seniors.

by **gamegeek2** » Tue May 15, 2012 7:45 pm

Once again, I do not have a team. And I refuse to play alone against teams of this caliber. If anyone who doesn't think they have a chance at winning wants a mercenary (a no-cost mercenary!), feel free to ask. But I don't want to stop anyone from taking home a trophy.

by **Down and out in Quintana Roo** » Tue May 15, 2012 8:25 pm

gamegeek2 wrote:Once again, I do not have a team. And I refuse to play alone against teams of this caliber. If anyone who doesn't think they have a chance at winning wants a mercenary (a no-cost mercenary!), feel free to ask. But I don't want to stop anyone from taking home a trophy.

It will be a learning experience, Will. And, yes, you can and will beat teams there this day, including perhaps us who will be missing our second best (and only legitimate "science") player.

That... and i don't want 11 teams here, forcing a bye. That's no fun.

by **SunWukong** » Tue May 15, 2012 9:46 pm

Due to unforeseen circumstances preventing Jacob Wasserman from playing, Saint Anselm's Abbey has officially withdrawn its team for this Saturday's event. On a totally unrelated note, a mysterious and unaffiliated Team Aidan Mehigan has registered. I have received word from Paul of Oakland Mills that he would be glad to recruit Will for OM, and a second registration from Whitman has brought the total to 12.

by **Off To See The Lizard** » Tue May 15, 2012 10:05 pm

SunWukong wrote: On a totally unrelated note, a mysterious and unaffiliated Team Aidan Mehigan has registered.

A wild Aidan has appeared!

by **gamegeek2** » Tue May 15, 2012 10:27 pm

some strange name irrelevant to quizbowl wrote:It will be a learning experience, Will. And, yes, you can and will beat teams there this day, including perhaps us who will be missing our second best (and only legitimate "science") player.

Going head-to-head with Alexa (and her cohort) does sound like a good challenge...

SunWukong wrote:Due to unforeseen circumstances preventing Jacob Wasserman from playing, Saint Anselm's Abbey has officially withdrawn its team for this Saturday's event. On a totally unrelated note, a mysterious and unaffiliated Team Aidan Mehigan has registered. I have received word from Paul of Oakland Mills that he would be glad to recruit Will for OM, and a second registration from Whitman has brought the total to 12.

Offer accepted. And yes, 12 teams!

by **Down and out in Quintana Roo** » Tue May 15, 2012 10:54 pm

gamegeek2 wrote:
some strange name irrelevant to quizbowl wrote:It will be a learning experience, Will. And, yes, you can and will beat teams there this day, including perhaps us who will be missing our second best (and only legitimate "science") player.

Going head-to-head with Alexa (and her cohort) does sound like a good challenge...

It may. I did find two more kids to come though: another senior (Rachel) who has been a replacement A Teamer before, and a freshman (Dhruv) just because he knows a few random things, is interested in improving, and is funny. Should make for an enjoyable day.

by **Down and out in Quintana Roo** » Thu May 17, 2012 9:33 pm

Am i assuming we'll just do a big round robin Saturday?

by **gamegeek2** » Thu May 17, 2012 10:00 pm

I just received word that Paul and Isaac won't be able to make it on Saturday. In which case...still up for hire!

by **SunWukong** » Fri May 18, 2012 12:01 am

I just got Paul's E-mail. This is indeed unfortunate. Unless Will still wants to play, we'll probably field a scab/house team (which Will could conceivably join if he wants to play) to round out our 12 teams. If teams can bring extra players, we can probably provide them with a fun day. Is the general consensus that teams would prefer to play fewer games (ie. 11) since playing such strong teams can be mentally draining, or would teams rather play as many games as possible (ie. 14 using Harry's schedule) to get in as much practice as possible before nationals (keep in mind that these questions are designed to be read with timing restrictions, and are thus quite short)? It's possible some sort of middle ground could be reached where the tournament officially ends after a round robin, but any interested teams can stick around and scrimmage on remaining packets.

by **Down and out in Quintana Roo** » Fri May 18, 2012 7:24 am

14 rounds is just too much. Having a scab team to bring it to 11 with a possible 12th for ties and such is just fine. If everyone else disagrees with this, then we can give it a shot, but only if we star games quickly and have a not-that-long lunchbreak.

by **Kouign Amann** » Fri May 18, 2012 9:56 am

Down and out in Quintana Roo wrote:14 rounds is just too much.

What is your reasoning here? The DII SCT set is super fast, as evidenced by the past two years' Mid-Atlantic Championships. It's perfectly possible to read these rounds in twenty minutes or less. Why not take advantage?

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