ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015)

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ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015)

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

This is the official global announcement for ACF Regionals 2015, which will take place on January 24, 2015two weeks before the prospective date of NAQT Sectionals. New stuff is in green.


Qualification system
Starting this year, participation in ACF Regionals in January will be the major component of the qualification procedure for ACF Nationals in April. Teams will be ranked based on their performance at Regionals according to a publicly-available "A-value", with some provisions for host bids granted at ACF's discretion and autobids for being the overall winner or Undergraduate champion of a sufficiently large ACF Regionals site. See the post below from ACF Communications Officer Stephen Eltinge for further details.


Editors:
Head Editor: Matthew Jackson
Co-Editors: Sarah Angelo (VCU), Tommy Casalaspi (UVA), Trevor Davis (Alberta), Stephen Liu (Stanford), Sriram Pendyala (Harvard)

Hosts:
Note that we are now actively seeking hosts in most regions - please contact us at [email protected] if you're interested. Sarah Angelo will be handling this year's host requests from the above email address. Bidding will be open until November 2nd. Editors have preference here, so their schools may be granted mirrors before the bidding deadline if their school wants to host for their region. The regions listed below are rough guidelines; bid if you're interested and we'll try to make the most practical distribution of mirrors possible even if the eventual set of sites is different from the one listed.

The registration form for ACF Regionals 2015 is available at this link (it's the same for all sites, and is also available in host threads).

Canada/Niagara: McMaster
Northeast: Harvard
Mid-Atlantic: UVA
Southeast: Vanderbilt
Texas/Gulf Coast: Rice
Lower Midwest: Mizzou cancelled
Great Lakes: Northern Illinois
Ohio/Michigan: Michigan State
California: Stanford
Florida: University of Florida

Other uses
Team Virginia NASAT tryouts, 2/5
Team Illinois NASAT tryouts, 2/15
Team Maryland NASAT tryouts, 2/15

Packet Submission:
Every team with at least one person on it who played a regular, collegiate, academic quizbowl tournament prior to September 1, 2013 is required to submit a packet in order to play in Regionals. Please note that, like last year, this requirement also applies to eligible high school teams. Further information can be found at the ACF Packet Submission Guidelines. Unlike this year's ACF Fall, 2015 ACF Regionals will not allow teams to submit half-packets or partial packets.

The submission schedule for this tournament is as follows. In order to meet any particular deadline, your packet must be in our inbox by 11:59 pm PST on the stated day. (Note that these dates are Saturdays, not Sundays.)

No packets before November 1, please.

November 29: -$50
December 13: -$25 (-$50 for optional packets)
December 27: no penalty (-$25 for optional packets)
January 3: +$25 (optional packets do not receive penalties)
January 10: +$50
After that: +$10 for each additional day you're late. Teams that are required to submit a packet and do not submit one by January 17, 2015 will not be allowed to play ACF Regionals.

Note: Though these deadlines are earlier overall due to the shift of ACF Regionals' place in the schedule, participating teams should take note that this year's earliest submission deadline corresponds to Thanksgiving break and the no-penalty deadline corresponds to Christmas break.

Please submit your packet to [email protected]; the actual email with attached packet should include the phrase "[name of school + A/B/etc. if applicable) PACKET" in the subject line.

Distribution:

The distribution for this tournament will be the same as last year's ACF Regionals, which varies slightly from the required 24/24 distribution on the ACF website.

Literature 5/5 (Note that ACF only requires 1 world literature question in this whole 5/5)
History 5/5
Science 5/5
Religion, Mythology and Philosophy 3/3
Fine Arts 3/3
Social Science 1/1
Geography/Current Events: 1/1
Pop Culture: 1/0 or 0/1
Your Choice / Any Academic Category: 1/0 or 0/1

Teams who clearly fail to fill out the distribution properly will have their packets returned to them and be instructed to resubmit a properly-distributed packet.

Packet Penalties

We have clear guidelines posted on the ACF website on what your submissions can or cannot be, with information on penalties for flouting the guidelines. Please follow them. Cases of incorrect formatting, or prohibited question types will result in fees; in particular, plagiarism will be penalized with hefty fees and possible sanctions. The editors also reserve the right to send back any egregious cases to be fixed by the team in question rather than charging fees, so be sure to do it right the first time.

A few friendly reminders:
  • Please follow the processes and guidelines laid out by the editors and ACF.
  • Don't talk about your submitted questions with anyone else until the editors tell you it's okay. If your school is sending multiple teams (A, B, etc.), each team must keep the contents of its own packet confidential within itself. If sites of ACF Regionals 2015 are run on a date other than January 24, 2015, we will set up a private subforum for discussion and expect teams to hold off on public discussion until the last site is completed.
  • Please follow recent past iterations of ACF Regionals, particularly the 2011, 2012, and 2014 versions, for an idea of what your submissions should look like.
  • If you think a particular topic you want to write on is too hard, it probably is. In general, err on the side of writing something easier. Take a look at Andrew Hart's regular difficulty primer on the ACF website for more guidance.
  • I will be maintaining a 7-line cap on tossup length and a 2-line cap on bonus part length in the final set (using 10-point Times New Roman font and 1-inch margins). While it is okay to submit questions which are somewhat longer than the expected final length, with the idea that editors will cut them down, don't go overboard. If you're submitting tossups that are longer than nine lines or so for this tournament, you're doing it wrong.
Fees

Base fee: $120 for one team from a school, $240 for two teams from a school, etc.
Buzzer systems*: -$5 each
Staffers: -$10 each No maximum.
Travel: -$10 per 200 miles traveled one way
International**: -$20
New to ACF teams***: -$25
New quizbowl teams****: -$75

* No discount for broken buzzers; no maximum.
** For teams representing schools located in a different country than the tournament host.
*** For schools which haven't played an ACF tournament between September 2012 and August 2014; having anyone on your team(s) who has played an ACF tournament prior to the 2014-15 competition year invalidates this discount.
**** For schools which did not send a team to any regular collegiate academic tournament since September 2012; having anyone on your team(s) who has played a regular collegiate quizbowl tournament prior to the 2014-15 competition year invalidates this discount. May be combined with new ACF team discount for a total new-team discount of $100.

[The laptop discount has been eliminated. Staffers are expected either to bring a device with them which is capable of displaying Word documents and PDFs, unless they get explicit confirmation from hosts that the site they are attending will be using printed paper packets.]

As with other ACF tournaments, payment will be centralized. Teams will pay their entry fee directly to ACF prior to playing the tournament, and ACF will pay host fees out thereafter. For more questions about payment, contact ACF treasurer Jerry Vinokurov.



Further questions?

Please submit all questions/comments/etc. regarding this event to [email protected], or post them in this thread (i.e. do not send to personal email addresses). A running packet list (with deadlines/penalties) will appear below as soon as packets begin to come in.

Running Packet List (last updated 1/16 11:45 AM):

Received by or on the -$50 deadline
Ottawa A
VCU A
Ohio State
Dorman HS B
An Unaffiliated High School Contribution
Dorman HS A
Illinois A
Penn B
UGA
Johns Hopkins B

Received on or by -$25 deadline
Johns Hopkins A
RIT
Louisiana Tech (-$50)

Received on or by no-penalty deadline
Georgia Tech
Liberty A
Liberty B
Chattahoochee HS
Dartmouth A
Columbia B
Brown A
Maggie Walker HS
Bellarmine HS
Michigan A
University of Washington
UCF A
UCF B
Toronto B
Harvard [house packet]
Louisiana-Lafayette
MIT A
MIT B
LASA HS A
Waterloo A
WUSTL
UCSD A
Notre Dame A
Berkeley A
Columbia A
Stanford [house packet]
Texas A&M A
Minnesota
Clemson

Received on or by +$25 deadline
Yale A
LASA HS B
Berkeley B
Cornell A
Detroit Catholic Central HS A
Detroit Catholic Central HS B
Detroit Catholic Central HS C
Louisville
William and Mary
Tulane
Kenyon
Berkeley C
Kentucky B
Kentucky A
Maryland A
Waterloo B
Wright State
Chicago A

Received on or by +$50 deadline
Penn A
Princeton
Amherst A
Rutgers
Carleton University (Canada)
Berkeley D
McGill A

Thereafter
Northwestern (+$60)
South Carolina (+$80)
Texas A&M B (+$90)
NYU A (+$100)
Chicago B (+$120)
Last edited by Adventure Temple Trail on Tue Feb 10, 2015 10:46 pm, edited 56 times in total.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

Editors have claimed the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and California sites. So far, the only other bid I've received is for the Canada/Niagara site. Southeast, Gulf Coast/Texas, Lower Midwest, Great Lakes, and Pacific Northwest, I'd love to hear from you!

Again, [email protected] is the address to contact, and you have until 11/2. In the next few weeks I'll start sending emails to schools with hosting histories, but you need not wait for me to find you!
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

We still have not received any bids from the Great Lakes, Lower Midwest, Texas/Gulf Coast, and Pacific Northwest regions. I'll be sending out some targeted emails to schools with hosting histories tonight, but I'm posting this in hopes of some interested parties seeing this before then or catching some people I may not think to email. Competing Canadian and Southeast bids are of course also still welcome.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by t-bar »

Hello everyone! Here is the full explanation for how qualification for the 2015 ACF Nationals will work.

1) Clubs who are hosting ACF Regionals: Each host may apply for one host bid, which will be evaluated by an ACF committee after the fall semester of tournaments has concluded. In their bid, teams must specify a roster of up to four players. The task of the committee will be to determine if this roster would be likely to qualify for Nationals based on the below criteria, using its performance at fall tournaments as the primary factor. If the team’s host bid is accepted, then they must submit a packet for ACF Nationals by the no penalty deadline on March 1, 2015 in order to maintain their bid. If it is denied, then the club must play a house team to qualify. Clubs are responsible for making necessary arrangements to properly staff their ACF Regionals events in the event that they play house teams for any reason, including but not limited to host bids being denied or seeking to qualify a second team. Playing or qualifying additional teams at Regionals has no impact on the host bid decision or status. However, the team members listed in the bid roster may not play Regionals; experienced players should be used as tournament staffers.

1a) Teams with an ACF Regionals editor who do not host a tournament site and teams that are more than 400 miles from the nearest Regionals site may apply for bids through the same process as host teams.

2) Any team that wins an ACF Regionals tournament at which at least four total teams from at least two total schools are present will receive an automatic bid.

3) Any team that wins the Undergraduate title at an ACF Regionals tournament at which at least four total Undergraduate teams from at least two total schools are present will receive an automatic bid.

4) All remaining teams are ranked on their “A-value.” The A-value will be computed in a substantially similar way to the NAQT D-value (explanation here). Since there is currently no separation of Division I and Division II fields or questions in ACF, there will be no division-based correction factors in the A-value; there may be other small changes that will be announced before ACF Regionals takes place. Teams will then be invited to join the ACF Nationals field in descending order of A-value, until the field fills or the bid acceptance deadline passes (see below).

5) All teams that qualify by one of the above procedures must inform ACF of the acceptance of their bid by March 1, 2015. Note that “bid acceptance” is a completely separate process from actually submitting your packet—you may submit a packet before you have been officially offered a spot in the field in order to secure a larger discount, but you will only enter the field once you have accepted your bid. Furthermore, if you submit a packet before registering for the tournament and subsequently do not attend ACF Nationals, whether because you do not qualify or because you choose not to attend, that packet will be treated as a freelance submission; you may not use those questions for another future packet-submission tournament

6) If the field does not fill once the bid acceptance deadline is reached, or new spots open based on the packet-submission rules, then any team eligible to play ACF tournaments may attend ACF Nationals on a first-come, first-served basis for the available spots. Packet submission rules will not be waived in any case. Teams who are not packet-exempt are advised to begin writing packets on a contingency basis so that they may claim spots as soon as they become available, if this occurs near a packet deadline. Spots which open up in the two weeks before the tournament may only be filled by teams who have submitted packets on contingency or are not required to write packets.

There are no restrictions on what Regionals site a school may attend. There are no special considerations or penalties given to B teams, with the exception of the host roster rule explained above.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Ewan MacAulay »

Sorry if this isn't the right place to ask, but will there be an online mirror of Regionals this year? I don't think there'll be sufficient interest for a physical mirror in the UK, especially with Oxford Open the next weekend, and it'd be nice to have a go at this set.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

Out of curiosity, who will edit which categories for this tournament?
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

I'll try to send out more nagging emails tomorrow, but we've still yet to receive any bids from the Lower Midwest.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by sonny »

Will there be an online mirror of this tournament?
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

sonny wrote:Will there be an online mirror of this tournament?
That question is currently under internal discussion.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

Our bid deadline has passed. We are awaiting confirmation from a probable host in the Lower Midwest that I will add to this list as soon as possible, but otherwise our sites are as follows: McMaster, Harvard, UVA, Vanderbilt, Rice, Northern Illinois, and Stanford. It is possible that we will add another physical site or two besides the Lower Midwest, but there will not be an online mirror of this tournament.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by a bird »

The Laughing Cavalier wrote:It is possible that we will add another physical site or two besides the Lower Midwest, but there will not be an online mirror of this tournament.
Do you anticipate adding a site in the Ohio/Michigan area, or should teams in that region plan to attend one of the other sites? Thanks.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

a bird wrote:
The Laughing Cavalier wrote:It is possible that we will add another physical site or two besides the Lower Midwest, but there will not be an online mirror of this tournament.
Do you anticipate adding a site in the Ohio/Michigan area, or should teams in that region plan to attend one of the other sites? Thanks.
For now at least we've got that area lumped in with "Great Lakes." I emailed a number of schools with hosting histories in Ohio and Michigan; all of those who responded to my inquiry said they were not interested.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

We have added a site at MSU. I'm still awaiting confirmation of our Lower Midwest site, and I'm hoping to contact some people in Florida and the UK over the weekend about those currently under-served regions.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

I can now confirm that Mizzou is our Lower Midwest site.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

This post is a reminder, now that we've gotten our first packet in ( :party: ), that the first packet deadline for ACF Regionals 2015 is November 29, the Saturday immediately following Thanksgiving. We hope to receive many good early packets.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

The -$50 deadline is this Saturday, November 29, at 11:59 PM (NOT a Sunday, a Saturday). At my discretion, I'm willing to accept packets which come in at most an hour or two late for the -$50, provided I have time to acknowledge receipt of the packet that night. Excessive trying of that patience and/or writing a packet all night with the hopes that I see it "when I wake up" will put you on the -$25 side of the deadline.
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea wrote:Out of curiosity, who will edit which categories for this tournament?
Hmm, I overlooked this. Usually this info isn't laid out until post-tournament discussion, but I don't see any particular reason to withhold it:

Matt J: American history, World history, Religion, Philosophy
Sarah: all Literature
Tommy: Biology, Music, Other Arts
Trevor: Mythology, Social Science, Geography/Current Events, Trash/Your Choice
Stephen: Physics, European History, Painting
Sriram: Chemistry, Other Science
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

We have added a site at the University of Florida.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

The Laughing Cavalier wrote:We have added a site at the University of Florida.
The Florida site will take place on Sunday, January 25, in the hopes that interested CC teams will be able to attend.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by ValenciaQBowl »

Expecting Florida CC teams to play on Sunday (Jan. 25) after they play the CC SCTs on Saturday is probably wildly optimistic. CC teams have faculty coaches (required to go with, officially) who are unlikely to make a second 4-6 hour round trip for a tournament the day after making such a trip. Sorry, but it's true. I'll spread the word, though.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by no ice »

If the Your Choice slot was used to write like a mythology bonus or something, would that mean that one of either the Your Choice bonus or the other mythology bonus would have no chance of being used, or could you possibly have two questions in a packet both be mythology (or a similarly minor part of the distribution)?
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

I do not mean to speak for the editors, but I think the idea for Your Choice is that you submit questions that do not neatly slot in any of the other categories, so submitting a second mythology question is kind of missing the point. Generally this category is for submitting things like mixed academic, academic disciplines that dont go neatly into the other categories or more current events, trash and geography.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

no ice wrote:If the Your Choice slot was used to write like a mythology bonus or something, would that mean that one of either the Your Choice bonus or the other mythology bonus would have no chance of being used, or could you possibly have two questions in a packet both be mythology (or a similarly minor part of the distribution)?
As stated in the ACF packet submission guidelines, Your Choice questions can be on anything "except for topics included in the other broad categories above." You can also "write questions which mix categories" (i.e. in a similar vein to the Mixed_Pure_Academic category in NAQT tournaments) to fill the Your Choice slot. As such, we do not advise just submitting a second mythology bonus or adding an extra question from any other pre-existing category to fill that spot.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

ValenciaQBowl wrote:Expecting Florida CC teams to play on Sunday (Jan. 25) after they play the CC SCTs on Saturday is probably wildly optimistic. CC teams have faculty coaches (required to go with, officially) who are unlikely to make a second 4-6 hour round trip for a tournament the day after making such a trip. Sorry, but it's true. I'll spread the word, though.
That may well be, but as we're trying to contain the tournament to a single weekend this year for qualification purposes, this seemed a better alternative to making it physically impossible for anyone who might be interested to play. Thanks for spreading the word, Chris.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Cody »

As I noted in the DEES thread:
Cody wrote:Could all of these submission dates be pushed back by 1 day to Sunday? In general, it'd be nice to have an entire weekend to finish a packet, and tournaments fall on Saturdays, so it's common courtesy to give a day's leeway in submission.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

Cody wrote:As I noted in the DEES thread:
Cody wrote:Could all of these submission dates be pushed back by 1 day to Sunday? In general, it'd be nice to have an entire weekend to finish a packet, and tournaments fall on Saturdays, so it's common courtesy to give a day's leeway in submission.
The submission schedule will not be changed. (For the sake of transparency, the direct tradeoff in this case is between teams' ability to finish packets over the weekend and editors' ability to use Sundays to start working on the new packets as they come in. Given that the editing schedule for this tournament is already a week shorter than usual, effectively giving teams six extra days to submit packets for discounts or no penalty as is, I do not regret setting things up so my editing team has that extra 24 hours of jump time each week.)
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Cody »

Matthew Jackson wrote:(For the sake of transparency, the direct tradeoff in this case is between teams' ability to finish packets over the weekend and editors' ability to use Sundays to start working on the new packets as they come in. Given that the editing schedule for this tournament is already a week shorter than usual, effectively giving teams six extra days to submit packets for discounts or no penalty, I do not regret setting things up so my editing team has that extra 24 hours of jump time each week.)
This is untrue; editors get exactly 1 extra day (tomorrow) to edit. Unless the packet editing schedule is arranged such that all packets submitted for {discount date X} are edited {discount X + 2 weeks [or 1, later]}, then no additional days are gained. I can't see how you would feasibly set up a packet editing schedule like that, though, so there would be no reason to do it that way (as it would disregard the quality / repeat-free-ness / geographic exclusivity of earlier submitted packets in favor of later-submitted packets due to the number of packets you can edit being relatively constant over that timespan).
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

Cody wrote:
Matthew Jackson wrote:(For the sake of transparency, the direct tradeoff in this case is between teams' ability to finish packets over the weekend and editors' ability to use Sundays to start working on the new packets as they come in. Given that the editing schedule for this tournament is already a week shorter than usual, effectively giving teams six extra days to submit packets for discounts or no penalty, I do not regret setting things up so my editing team has that extra 24 hours of jump time each week.)
This is untrue; editors get exactly 1 extra day (tomorrow) to edit. Unless the packet editing schedule is arranged such that all packets submitted for {discount date X} are edited {discount X + 2 weeks [or 1, later]}, then no additional days are gained. I can't see how you would feasibly set up a packet editing schedule like that, though, so there would be no reason to do it that way (as it would disregard the quality / repeat-free-ness / geographic exclusivity of earlier submitted packets in favor of later-submitted packets due to the number of packets you can edit being relatively constant over that timespan).
Cody, in real terms the way things have been set up for this tournament is just going to work better for my schedule and that of my co-editors, and is just not going to change. Several teams, including VCU, have already submitted packets for the existing earliest deadline without incident, and there's plenty of time to go for the earliest deadline as it is actually set.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Cody »

Matthew Jackson wrote:Cody, in real terms the way things have been set up for this tournament is just going to work better for my schedule and that of my co-editors, and is just not going to change. Several teams, including VCU, have already submitted packets for the existing earliest deadline without incident, and there's plenty of time to go for the earliest deadline as it is actually set.
You can change or not-change ACF Regionals, but I don't want a bad justification to stand when, year-after-year, people set packet deadlines for Saturdays, and someone from the community has to ask for them to be changed.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

Reminder that the -$25 deadline is tonight.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

Due to a relative lack of submissions thus far for this deadline, I'm willing to expand the -$25 deadline to 11:59 PM or so tomorrow, Sunday, December 14. Those teams which have a packet partly ready and could complete it are encouraged to do so!
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

We've received a few submitted packets thus far containing some very short tossups (as in 5 lines or below). Please keep your submitted tossups at or slightly above the length of final tossups in the past six or seven ACF Regionals sets. More concretely, as stated in the guidelines within the first post, we are looking to work with submitted tossups which are at minimum 6 lines long and at maximum about 9 lines long.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

The no-penalty deadline is today, December 27, at 11:59 PM. There are 18 packets submitted right now. For a fun challenge, let's see if we can't double that by the end of the day.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by t-bar »

Information on how Regionals performance will be used to evaluate ACF Nationals qualification is now posted in the ACF Nationals information thread.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

The no-penalty deadline is 11:59 PM PST (i.e. 2:59 AM EST). As of now, we have 29 packets in; there's still time to submit if your team is on the fence.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

The complete list of submissions by the no-penalty deadline is up. If your packet was received without incident and did not both receive an email acknowledging your submission and see your name above, please contact me ASAP.

EDIT: We got up to 42 packets by close of the no-penalty submission window [which is now closed], which is grand. There are now 63 teams registered for ACF Regionals across all the sites, with 26 days to go. Several teams who submitted packets did not actually sign up using the registration form yet. Remember that every team needs to fill out the form in order to enter the field, and that submitting a packet does not count as actually registering -- only filling the form does.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

For those teams who need just a little more time to get their packet ready, I will leave the +$25 submission window open until noon EST (9 AM PST).

As of This Magic Moment, there are 56 57 packets submitted and 78 teams registered for ACF Regionals. Many of the teams who contribute to the former number have not yet contributed to the latter! Register! The form is in the original post.

EDIT: The complete list of +$25 packets is posted above.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by sephirothrr »

We (Louisville) got a confirmation that our packet was in by the +$25 deadline, but we're not in the list.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

sephirothrr wrote:We (Louisville) got a confirmation that our packet was in by the +$25 deadline, but we're not in the list.
A glaring omission! Fixed.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by sephirothrr »

Awesome, thanks!
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

This is your reminder that the final explicit packet deadline, for +$50, is tomorrow night, Saturday, January 10, 2015, at 11:59 PM PST and will be adhered to strictly. After that, teams which are required to submit a packet will be penalized every extra day they are over the limit, up to a theoretical maximum of +$120 on Saturday, January 17, 2015 at 11:59 PM. Teams which are required to submit a packet by January 17 and do not do so by then WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO PLAY ACF REGIONALS 2015, without exceptions. You have been warned. (Teams that are not required to submit a packet, and who do so anyway, may do so until January 17 without charges beyond the $120 base fee.)

This is also a notice that there are several teams who have submitted packets to Regionals but have not yet registered for any local sites of the tournament, and vice versa -- there are many teams who have registered but not submitted any packets. Submitting a packet to the acfregionals2015 email address DOES NOT count as a registration -- your team MUST fill out the official form to register for Regionals. Do TDs a favor and make sure you register this week. So far there are 89 teams registered across the sites -- can we break 100 by the end of this weekend? Register if your school isn't already, then badger other schools in your area if they haven't yet!
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by minusfive »

Matthew Jackson wrote: Received on or by +$50 deadline
Penn A
Princeton
Amherst A
Rutgers
Carleton University (Canada)
Berkeley D
It's my understanding that McGill University also got in for this deadline. Is that correct? And if so, are there any other additions to this list?
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Galadedrid Damodred »

I've noticed that some HS teams have self-reported as eligible for the UG and Division II titles, while others have not. Judging by this year's ACF Fall (see, for example, http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... _no_final/ and http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... all_games/, I was under the impression that HS teams are not UG or Division II eligible. It isn't spelled out explicitly in the official rules, but I feel like there was a post about it at some point last year. So I'd like public confirmation from someone at ACF that this is the case.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

minusfive wrote:
Matthew Jackson wrote: Received on or by +$50 deadline
Penn A
Princeton
Amherst A
Rutgers
Carleton University (Canada)
Berkeley D
It's my understanding that McGill University also got in for this deadline. Is that correct? And if so, are there any other additions to this list?
The list has been updated again this morning to account for a few packets that slipped through the cracks and/or were received this week. Your vigilance is duly noted.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by t-bar »

Galadedrid Damodred wrote:I've noticed that some HS teams have self-reported as eligible for the UG and Division II titles, while others have not. Judging by this year's ACF Fall (see, for example, http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... _no_final/ and http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... all_games/, I was under the impression that HS teams are not UG or Division II eligible. It isn't spelled out explicitly in the official rules, but I feel like there was a post about it at some point last year. So I'd like public confirmation from someone at ACF that this is the case.
Current practice is that high schoolers are eligible for Undergraduate titles, but not Division II titles.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Galadedrid Damodred »

t-bar wrote:
Galadedrid Damodred wrote:I've noticed that some HS teams have self-reported as eligible for the UG and Division II titles, while others have not. Judging by this year's ACF Fall (see, for example, http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... _no_final/ and http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... all_games/, I was under the impression that HS teams are not UG or Division II eligible. It isn't spelled out explicitly in the official rules, but I feel like there was a post about it at some point last year. So I'd like public confirmation from someone at ACF that this is the case.
Current practice is that high schoolers are eligible for Undergraduate titles, but not Division II titles.
Ah I see, thanks for the clarification.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

The current packet penalty is sitting at $90 and increasing every day by $10. This is a reminder that all packet-required teams must submit a packet by Saturday, January 17 at 11:59 PM or they will be dropped from the tournament immediately thereafter. There have been multiple warnings. There will be no exceptions.

The following teams have registered for ACF Regionals as packet-required teams but have neither submitted a packet nor contacted me about when they'll submit a packet: NYU A, Texas A&M B, Chicago B We're all good

Additionally, several teams have submitted packets but have not yet registered for ACF Regionals using the official ACF Regionals 2015 registration form. All teams MUST register using this official form for ALL sites; emailing the local TD is not sufficient. Please email [email protected] if for some reason you are having difficulties registering. I don't believe there is a drop-dead date by which teams must register, but as a nicety to TDs attempting to plan schedules, it's probably best if you get your registration in this weekend as well if your team hasn't already.
Last edited by Adventure Temple Trail on Sun Jan 18, 2015 2:34 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

The Missouri site of ACF Regionals has been canceled due to lack of interest.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

Any teams which must write a packet for ACF Regionals, but have yet to write a packet for ACF Regionals, have 84 minutes in which to submit a packet for a +$120 penalty; after that, the packet submission window will be closed and no new packet-required teams will be permitted to register. I have spoken with all teams who to the best of my knowledge were registered and packet-required and all such teams have now submitted packets. As such, the final list of submitted packets above should be closed and complete (barring any last-minute swoops). If you do not see your name listed above, or did not receive a confirmation message from The ACF Regionals 2015 Editing Team that your packet was received, please contact me ASAP so I can rectify that. (Thank you to everybody who noted the rather large set of teams that got left off after the +$25 submissions came in; just a minor snafu on my part.)

If you're reading this and you are on a team which has NOT submitted a packet or registered, but IS NOT required to write a packet (i.e. all players' first college tournament was after Sept. 1, 2013) and DOES have interest in attending Regionals, you can still register, though local TDs will be closing their fields somewhat soon and I encourage you to hurry!
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

I am pleased to announce that I will be offering use of the ACF Regionals set free of charge for state organizations that wish to conduct tryouts for HSAPQ's National All Star Academic Tournament (NASAT) between January 24 and (EDIT) March 14, when other college sets will be usable for the same purpose. The organizers of Team Illinois have scheduled one such usage of the set for February 15.

Due to this usage, the ACF Regionals set will NOT be publicly cleared upon running this Saturday, as was initially planned. Instead, all public discussion will be confined to a private subforum on these boards, as is standard procedure for most sets. In addition, Regionals hosts will be receiving additional instructions on maintaining question security. Requests to paste specific questions for discussion of wording, clue placement, etc. will be honored in the private subforum. Requests to ACF to send the set out in full, even to players who played the set and have been trustworthy in the past, will be denied until the 14th.

To inquire about using the ACF Regionals set for tryouts in your state, please contact me at [email protected] with the name of your organization, the date of the proposed tryout, and a brief explanation of the procedure the proposed tryouts will use. Replies as to whether the request is approved or denied will be returned within a few days.
Last edited by Adventure Temple Trail on Tue Jan 20, 2015 10:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: ACF Regionals 2015 Global Announcement (January 24, 2015

Post by Cody »

Why? No college set's discussion should be beholden to someone wanting to use it off-label, whether that be NASAT tryouts or some other wacky event. Given the lateness of this announcement, it's kind of self-defeating since a number of high schools have already signed up to play ACF Regionals. And, moreover, there are TWO college tournaments of appropriate difficulty for NASAT tryouts being mirrored in the time that NASAT tryouts would occur (STIMPY, MUT). You could even add Oxford Open to that -- there are plenty of possibilities.

So, why should public discussion of Regionals be embargo-d for over two months, and discussion over-all stifled as no one will have the set, for quite literally no reason at all?

Chris Ray got it right.
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