ACF Fall 2012 Global Announcement

[Vernon Lee Bad Marriage, Jr.]

I am pleased to announce the continued existence of ACF Fall, which, this year, will take place on November 3, 2012.

Editors
Editor-in-Chief: Matt Bollinger (UVA)
Assistant Editors: Daniel Hothem (UVA), Diana Gerr (Wellesley), Jarret Greene (OSU), Jasper Lee (OSU), and Stephen Liu (Harvard)

Hosting
New England: Harvard
Mid-Atlantic: Virginia
South: Vanderbilt
Texas-Area: TBD
Great Lakes: Carnegie Mellon
Eastern Canada: Waterloo
North: Minnesota
Midwest: Wisconsin
California: Claremont
Northwest: Boise State
United Kingdom: Warwick

We are currently soliciting hosts for all the above regions. Hosting is a good way to cut down on travel costs, raise money, and get newer members of your club exposed to well-written, accessible quizbowl questions. If you have any interest in hosting or questions about it, please refer first to the official ACF Hosting Guidelines, and then e-mail me at mlb7vb@virginia.edu.

The deadline for bids is September 15, 2012. Bids will not be accepted after that point, and earlier bids will receive priority over later bids, all else being equal.

Packet Submission
As per the ACF submission rules, any team with at least one person on it who played a regular, collegiate, academic quizbowl tournament prior to September 1, 2011 is required to submit a packet in order to participate in an ACF tournament in 2012-2013. This includes ACF Fall. As of a recent rule change, high school players are now included in this definition and are subject to the same discounts and penalties as college teams. Teams required to submit packets who do not submit one by the final deadline will be dropped from the tournament.

Please submit packets to mlb7vb@virginia.edu and use “ACF Fall 2012: [Team Name]” in the subject line.

Fees:

Base fee: $120 for one team from a school, $240 for two teams from a school, etc.
Buzzer systems: -$5 each No discount for broken buzzers; no maximum.
Staffers: -$10 each No maximum.
Laptop: -$5 each Maximum 1 per team.
Travel: -$10 per 200 miles traveled one way
International: -$20
For teams representing schools located in a different country than the tournament host.
New ACF teams: -$25
For schools who did not send a team to ACF Fall, Regionals, or Nationals between September 2010 and August 2012, and have no one on the team(s) claiming this discount who played those tournaments for another school.
New quizbowl teams: -$75
For schools who did not send a team to any regular collegiate academic tournament since September 2010, and have no one on the team(s) claiming this discount who played those tournaments for another school. May be combined with new ACF team discount for a total new-team discount of $100.

This year’s submission schedule is:

Packet submitted before 11:59 PM eastern time on:
September 9, 2012: -$50
September 23, 2012: -$25 (-$50 for teams not required to submit packets)
October 7, 2012: No penalty (-$25 for teams not required to submit packets)
October 14, 2012: +$25
October 21, 2012: +$50
After Oct. 21, 2012: The editors may grant one or more 24-hour extensions at an additional penalty of $10 per day.

Packet Penalties
Teams will incur penalties for the following offenses:
*Incorrect formatting: Please take a moment to review the ACF Packet Guidelines on formatting to make sure you format your packet correctly.
*Plagiarism: Please do not attempt to plagiarize. It is often very easy to catch. People caught plagiarizing will be subject to large fines and public shaming.
*Writing specific types of forbidden questions: Types of questions prohibited at ACF events include spelling questions, binary matching bonuses, and 5-10-15 bonuses.
Please see the additional packet penalties section for more info.

Friendly Reminders
Please refer to the ACF Packet Guidelines document for more detailed explanations of packet submission and fee-related information.

If you are sending multiple packet writing teams, PLEASE make sure you don’t collaborate on your packets or talk about their contents.

The difficulty level of ACF Fall 2012 is the same as it has been for the past four years, such as can be seen in ACF Fall 2009 and ACF Fall 2010. These tournaments can be found on collegiate.quizbowlpackets.com. Remember above all that the tournament is supposed to be accessible to new teams who have never played quizbowl before, in both your answerlines and your selection of clues. If you suspect one of your answer choices may be too hard, it probably is.

If you have any other questions, please let me know at mlb7vb@virginia.edu

[Vernon Lee Bad Marriage, Jr.]

I haven't gotten any packets yet--the earlier we have material to edit, the better the tournament will be, so please get those in as soon as you can.

I still haven't received bids for the South, California, Canada, the Great Lakes, and Texas. If you're a school from one of those areas and you're interested in hosting, please send me a bid!

[Vernon Lee Bad Marriage, Jr.]

Packets Received:

Kansas State (-$50)
Georgia Tech A (-$50)
Georgia Tech B (-$50)
UCSD A (-$50)
UCSD B (-$50)
Treasure Valley (-$50)
Northwestern (-$50)
VCU (-$50)
Ottawa B (-$50)
Buffalo A (-$50)
Auburn (-$50)
RPI A (-$50)
University of Washington (-$50)

Liberty A (-$25)
Liberty B (-$25)
Dartmouth A (-$25)
Columbia B (-$25)
Truman State (-$25)
Rutgers (-$25)
Columbia A (-$25)
Illinois B (-$25)
Illinois A (-$25)
MIT A (-$25)
Yale A (-$25)
Dorman A (-$25)
Dorman B (-$25)
Metea Valley A (-$25)
Hunter (-$25)

Yale B (no penalty)
North Carolina A (no penalty)
Florida (no penalty)
Centre College (no penalty)
WUSTL (no penalty)
UConn (no penalty)

Oxford A (+ $25)
USC A (+ $25)
MIT B (+ $25)
Cornell A (+ $25)
Machiavelli Academy (+ $25)
Alabama (+ $25)
Carleton (+ $25)

Oxford B (+ $50)
Open University (+ $50)
Harding University (+ $50)
WKU (+ $50)
Stanford University (+ $50)
Lawrence A (+ $50)
Chicago A (+ $50)
Ottawa A (+ $50)
Brown (+ $50)
DCC (+ $50)
Manchester (+ $50)
VTech (+ $50)
North Greenville (+ $50)
Caltech A (+ $50)
Chicago B (+ $70)
Miami A (+ $90)

[minusfive]

It's my understanding that the ACF Fall Canada host has been informally determined (ie., one school has asked to host it and all others have deferred). I suppose we shall soon see.

[Vernon Lee Bad Marriage, Jr.]

Updates:
First off, the -50 deadline for teams required to submit a packet is TOMORROW. Please get these in! I only have 2 packets so far.

Second, the following hosts have been approved so far:

Harvard
UVA
CMU
Waterloo
Warwick
Wisconsin
Boise State
Minnesota

NIU has also been cleared to host a mirror of Fall for high school participants due to IHSA restrictions on mixed-field tournaments.

[Vernon Lee Bad Marriage, Jr.]

Reminder: today is the -25 deadline.

[Grams's Go-Go Boots]

Does (one player) playing in this year's Early College Novice mean that a packet must be submitted?

Edit: Erp, misread this, nevermind. The answer's no.

[Ethnic history of the Vilnius region]

With the new central payment system, I was wondering if there is anything for a distance discount. I didn't notice it filling out the invoice form thing, and haven't seen anything otherwise about that. Thanks!

[grapesmoker]

With the new central payment system, I was wondering if there is anything for a distance discount. I didn't notice it filling out the invoice form thing, and haven't seen anything otherwise about that. Thanks!

That appears to be an oversight on our part; thanks for bringing it to our attention and expect a clarification in the next day or two.

[Vernon Lee Bad Marriage, Jr.]

A reminder that if you want to register, you need to both email your hosts and sign up at this form for our centralized payment system. Also, please keep sending packets!

[grapesmoker]

With the new central payment system, I was wondering if there is anything for a distance discount. I didn't notice it filling out the invoice form thing, and haven't seen anything otherwise about that. Thanks!

Ok, so I neglected to add that field when I was making the registration form, but I should be able to easily compute that information from your address and that of the site you're attending. Future forms will include this field.

[The Tourist]

Am I to infer from the lack of an announcement regarding the Claremont mirror that there will not be a California ACF Fall?

[Susan]

Am I to infer from the lack of an announcement regarding the Claremont mirror that there will not be a California ACF Fall?

We'll have more information on this for a day or two. Sorry about this.

[Susan]

Am I to infer from the lack of an announcement regarding the Claremont mirror that there will not be a California ACF Fall?

The announcement is now up.

[Eyjafjallajökull]

Caltech's packet doesn't appear to be included in the +$50 list. Has the packet been received?

[armitage]

Caltech's packet doesn't appear to be included in the +$50 list. Has the packet been received?

I'd like to echo this concern.

[eldermaas]

Caltech's packet doesn't appear to be included in the +$50 list. Has the packet been received?

I'd like to echo this concern.

Ditto for North Greenville

[Vernon Lee Bad Marriage, Jr.]

I received North Greenville's packet and WUStL's* and they're up; sorry, I missed them in the flurry of emails. However, I have not received any packet from Caltech. Please send your packet to mlb7vb at virginia dot edu.

*WUStL received no penalty because they asked for an extension due to the sudden appearance of the Illinois ACF Fall site.

[grapesmoker]

Inexplicably, a number of teams which are listed above as having submitted packets have likewise failed to register for the tournament. Those teams should do so as soon as possible.