Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

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Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

Hi all. This is the announcement of ACF Nationals 2018, to take place on April 21-22 at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

I'll be head editor for this tournament; Jordan Brownstein, Stephen Liu, Andrew Wang, Aaron Rosenberg, and Ryan Westbrook are also editing. Cody Voight and Sarah Angelo will be the tournament directors.

Eligibility

Information on who is eligible to play ACF tournaments and details regarding packet submission can be found at the ACF Packet Submission Guidelines.

Qualification

This tournament will use the A-value qualification system, an explanation of which can be found here.

Packet submission

To ensure a fair format and adequate tiebreakers, the editors are committing to writing 14 packets this year. We will produce an additional 10 packets based on submissions that will be used in the preliminary phase of the tournament.

In response to general ACF feedback regarding frustration with submitted packets not being used, I'm hoping that I can coordinate with teams on their packets so that we get somewhere around 15 quality submissions. I have set up a second thread for packet coordination here.

Under this arrangement, packet submission will not be mandatory, but we're counting on teams capable of writing quality packets to work with us to ensure that we have enough submissions to edit the tournament. If we can't be sure that we'll have enough packets to make this work, we'll consider other options.

Fee schedule

Base fee: $320
-$100 discount: Monday, January 22
-$50 discount: Monday, February 19
Buzzer discount: -$10 per working system
Staffer discount: -$100 for each staffer capable of reading a round in under a half hour

I will work with teams to coordinate their submissions. We will continue to offer an additional $50 dollar discount to any team that writes at least 20/20 that doesn’t need any major editing (packets requiring relatively few changes to clues, answer lines, or grammar will qualify).

In the unlikely event that a team submits a packet but does not qualify for ACF Nationals, their school will receive whatever discount they earn as a discount at a future ACF tournament.

Field size

The initial field cap will be 42 teams. Expansion up to 48 teams is very possible once we confirm staffers. Expansion beyond 48 teams may not be possible because of format, but if demand is high, we will explore our options.

If every team that played ACF Regionals, and thus has an A-value, is offered a spot in the Nationals field and there are still spots remaining, they will be filled first come, first served.

Please stay in touch with me or other ACF members if we are trying to verify your attendance at this event. We may be forced to drop teams from the field if they do not confirm their attendance in a timely manner.

Distribution

We've made minor changes to the distribution for this tournament; please see below for specifics.

5/5 literature: this includes 1/1 American, 1/1 British, 1/1 European, 1/1 world, and 1/1 other (which can include any of the preceding categories). Vary your questions by time, place, and genre, and please make sure that drama and poetry are represented.

5/5 history: this includes 1/1 American, 2/2 European, 1/1 world, and 1/1 other (which can include any of the preceding categories or questions spanning multiple places). Please make sure that your questions aren’t all from the same time period or place and aren’t all one type of history (for instance, try not to submit 5/5 political history or 5/5 military history).

5/5 science: this includes 1/1 biology, 1/1 chemistry, 1/1 physics, 1 math or computer science, 1 astronomy, earth science, or other science, and 1/1 other science.

3/3 Arts: 1.5/1.5 visual arts (at least 1 question, but no more than 1/1, on painting), 1/1 classical music, and the remaining question in other auditory arts (jazz, ballet, opera, etc.). Vary by genre, place, and time period.

1.5/1.5 belief: this includes 1 religion question, 1 myth question, and a third question that is either a religion question of a different kind (i.e. if you focused on religious practice for your first question, focus on religious text or scholarship for the second), a question on "thought about belief" (a question on religious philosophy that is more religious than philosophical, for instance, or a question about mythography), or a question on "legends" (myths that are more cultural than classical, such as American lore, European folktales, or similar stories that are less likely to show up in the canonical "mythology" category).

2.5/2.5 thought: this includes 1/1 philosophy, 1/1 "hard social science" (i.e. economics, linguistics, psychology, anthropology, political science, or other social science that is rooted mainly in empirical, scientific methods, ideally topics that are still relevant in their fields today), and 1 question on "soft thought" (this category encompasses cultural criticism, theory, and texts or people of interest primarily for historical reasons rather than current relevance).

1/1 geography/current events: these questions should be about different parts of the world. Geography questions that incorporate cultural and environmental clues instead of purely discussing physical features, and current events questions that describe interesting and relevant contemporary issues without devolving into a list of politicians and political parties or focusing on flavor-of-the-day stories, are particularly welcome.

1/1 other academic: please try to use this category to write questions that don't fit other categories or blend clues from varying categories, as opposed to submitting "extra" questions from the preceding categories. Clues that place academic topics in a popular-culture context are welcome in this category, if done sparingly and well.

Keep in mind that ACF Nationals does not have question on purely popular culture.

As overriding principles, please vary your questions by time, place, and subject matter, so that there aren't strange clusters of related questions in your packets; please think twice before submitting tossups on very difficult answer lines; and please try to write your questions on simple answers, using interesting clues, rather than writing on complex answer lines that may confuse readers or players and lead to protests.

How to submit your packet

All packets should be sent to [email protected]. If you have any questions about packet writing, you can send them to that email address as well.

This announcement will be edited as the logistics are finalized.

Packets submitted by 1/22

Oxford
Johns Hopkins A
Minnesota A
Michigan A
Duke A
McGill A
Florida A
Maryland A
Chicago A

Packet submitted by 2/19

Ohio State A
Michigan B
Johns Hopkins B
Oklahoma
Virginia
NYU
WUSTL
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22, site TBD)

Post by Lagotto Romagnolo »

As an addendum to the above, I have a request for the science distribution: please remember to vary the types of answer line. In particular, please do not fill the 5 tossups with answer lines on individual scientists. One per packet is fine (as is zero!), but often those questions are just elaborated lists of accomplishments in paragraph form. I've been guilty of writing those too, but they get dull fast and there are often far better ways to engage with the material anyway. I'm not against scientist tossups in principle, and I won't turn down an interesting, well-executed one that's balanced by the rest of the packet. But there is no way to balance when all the answerlines (in any category, really) are individual people. So please, use those scientist tossups sparingly.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22, site TBD)

Post by theMoMA »

ACF is now accepting applications for automatic bids to attend ACF Nationals. At this time, the only schools that are planning to host ACF Regionals, or schools with players editing ACF Regionals, may submit applications, but we will open applications up to teams more than 400 miles away from the nearest Regionals site once the sites are announced. Any club that hosts a Regionals site will be granted no more than one automatic bid; if those clubs wish to send more teams, they must qualify as house teams "at the buzzer." All bids for Regionals hosts are contingent on that school actually hosting.

To apply, please send an email to [email protected] with "automatic bid" in the subject line, containing the following information:

* A proposed roster of up to four players.
* Links to results for tournaments at which your team competed this semester (or last year, if it's with a substantially similar roster).
* Any other information that may be relevant.

Applications will be evaluated by ACF Nationals tournament directors Sarah Angelo and Cody Voight and the head editor (me). We will try to rule on your application as quickly as possible so you can make your hosting plans with full information.

Clubs that are hosting ACF Regionals may attempt to qualify additional teams for Nationals by playing house teams. Any such team trying to qualify for Nationals (i.e., as the club’s B team or lower) may not contain any of the members of the roster submitted for automatic bid consideration. (Teams also may not submit "proposed rosters" of fewer than four players in an attempt to game the system; if we suspect this is happening, we will investigate, and we reserve the right to cancel an automatic bid once a team has also qualified at the buzzer if we conclude that the "proposed roster" was in any way intended to game the system.) ACF expects that experienced team members will be staffing the tournament rather than playing.

If you have any questions, please contact me at [email protected] or post them in this thread.

We have granted autobids to the following teams (I will update this as needed):

Virginia (Regionals host): Eric Xu, Vasa Clarke, Nick Collins, Lawrence Simon, Jack Mehr
Michigan (Kenji is editing Regionals): Saul Hankin, Kenji Shimizu, Noah Chen, Austin Foos
Illinois (Regionals host): Mike Etzkorn, Cole Timmerwilke, Brad McLain, Steven Vo
MIT (Nationals host): Bryce Hwang, Julian Fuchs, Saumil Bandyopadhyay, Oliver Ren
Toronto (Regionals host): Rein Otsason, Aayush Rajasekaran, Patrick Liao, Christopher Sims
Penn State (Regionals host): Bruce McAninch, Victor Prieto, Colton Sanden, Saimun Shahee
Rice (Regionals host): Burke Garza, Vi Nguyen, Ben Jones, Matthew Frizzell
Yale (Stephen is editing Regionals): Jacob Reed, Stephen Eltinge, Isaac Kirk-Davidoff, Adam Fine
UCF (Regionals host): Daniel Golisch, Peter Torres, Hannah Sage, Donny Lisle
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22, site TBD)

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Hi all. I'm pleased to announce that ACF Nationals will take place at MIT. We will update the initial post with additional logistical information once we have our room reservations confirmed.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by Bosa of York »

To be clear, will Regionals champions and Undergraduate champions receive automatic bids?
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

Here is the full explanation for how qualification for the 2018 ACF Nationals will work.

1) Clubs that are hosting ACF Regionals: Each host may apply for one host bid, which will be evaluated by an ACF committee consisting of the tournament directors and me. This will be done according to the process set forth in my post above.

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 set forth above.

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.

5) Upon the conclusion of Regionals, all teams receiving an A-value will be sent a form asking "if you qualify, will you accept your bid?" This form will be sent to the email your team used to register, and will include a deadline for response.

6) Teams that have not received an automatic bid will be invited to join the ACF Nationals field in descending order of A-value until the field is full.

7) If a spot in the field opens up for any reasons, the next team that has said "yes" to the question "if you qualify, will you accept your bid?" will be invited to play Nationals. If the next team is now unable to attend, teams will be invited in descending order of A-value until the spot is filled.

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: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by Fado Alexandrino »

Neither January 22nd nor February 17th are Sundays.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

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Aaron Manby (ironmaster) wrote:Neither January 22nd nor February 17th are Sundays.
Changed to Monday.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

Hi all. Thanks to everyone who came out to ACF Regionals yesterday! Two short announcements regarding Nationals:

First, today is the first packet submission deadline for teams that have chosen to submit packets. Please have your packet in my inbox when I wake up tomorrow morning to receive the full discount.

Second, Stephen Eltinge, Cody Voight, Sarah Angelo, and I are hard at work computing the A values for qualification (and tending to various related tasks), but bids won't be ready for release until early this coming week, as we will need the results of the British site (this coming weekend) before we can make the final tabulations. At some point, either before or after the British site concludes, all teams will receive an email from me asking if they will provisionally accept or decline a bid to Nationals, if they were to receive one. That email will have a due date; please abide by it so we can announce Nationals qualifiers quickly! In conjunction with the A value/bid spreadsheet being posted, we will announce the initial field cap for Nationals, and let you know whether there is a possibility of expansion.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

Further announcement: Any remaining autobid requests (whether based on hosting, editing, or being in far-flung proximity to the nearest Regionals site) must be submitted to me by Wednesday at 6pm central time.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

I have just sent out a provisional bid acceptance form for ACF Nationals to every team that played Regionals and all teams that have requested autobids. Note: Receiving this form does not mean that your team has qualified for ACF Nationals! It is merely a form asking if you would attend if you accept. If you decline the bid, you will not be invited or placed on the waitlist or list of standby teams.

If your team has not received this form (I had emails to McGill and New College of Florida bounce), please email me at [email protected].
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by jonpin »

theMoMA wrote:
Aaron Manby (ironmaster) wrote:Neither January 22nd nor February 17th are Sundays.
Changed to Monday.
OK, but February 17 isn't a Monday either...
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

I've changed the second submission date to the 19th, which is a Monday.

Also, I've edited packet submission confirmations into the bottom of the first post; if you submitted but don't see your team listed, email me at [email protected].
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

The initial field cap will be 42 teams, with expansion up to 48 very possible once we confirm staffers. Expansion beyond 48 may not be possible because of format, but if demand is high, we will explore our options.

Thank you to the teams who have accepted or declined their provisional bid status via the form. If you've not yet done so, this is a reminder that you have until Saturday. I'll send out a final reminder email on Friday.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

Hi everyone. Thank you to all the teams that have filled out the provisional bid form. I'm still waiting on responses from these teams (and haven't heard back with an indication that they plan to respond today):

Georgia B

If you are the contact for one of these teams and haven't received my emails with a link to the form, please email me at [email protected]. Teams that have not responded by the end of the day will be marked as declining their provisional bids unless I hear from you in the intervening time with a reasonable request for an extension (to no later than 9am central Monday).
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

We anticipate releasing the bid spreadsheet this evening. (Please drop a line to Stephen Eltinge thanking him for his outstanding work calculating A values and overseeing the qualification process!)

The spreadsheet will be released with a preliminary field cap of 42 teams. I hope to have an announcement about the final field size very soon. As I mentioned in a previous post, expansion to 48 is very possible once we line up staffers, but given the enthusiasm for attending the tournament (over 100 teams accepted their provisional bids!), we're exploring the potential for larger field sizes before we give the final word on expansion.
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ACF Nationals qualifiers and registration information

Post by theMoMA »

Hi,

I'm pleased to announce the qualifying teams for ACF Nationals. The qualifiers are currently based on a 42-team field; as previously mentioned, we are exploring our options for field expansion, and will update the qualifiers (and post in this thread) when we have something to announce, which I hope to do soon.

The qualification spreadsheet can be found here.

Teams that are currently in white (and have accepted their preliminary bids) are on the waitlist. In the event of field expansion or cancellations, teams will be invited from the waitlist in order of A value.

If you spot something amiss with the spreadsheet (for instance, if your provisional bid status was recorded incorrectly), please contact me immediately at [email protected].

Later this week, all teams that have qualified will receive a registration form. Once your team is registered, you will reserve your spot in the field. We will accept cancellations up to the registration deadline (we'll announce this deadline soon), after which cancellations will be in case of emergency only. Teams that do not register by the deadline (and do not respond to reminder emails) will be dropped.
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Re: ACF Nationals qualifiers and registration information

Post by Bosa of York »

What is the adjustment from raw to final A-value?
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Re: ACF Nationals qualifiers and registration information

Post by theMoMA »

Tornrak wrote:What is the adjustment from raw to final A-value?
Final A values incorporate order of finish. For an explanation (in the analogous NAQT D values):
After the raw values are computed, they are listed in order for each SCT and a correction is applied to ensure that invitations do not break the order-of-finish at an SCT. Starting at the top of each SCT, each team is checked to see if it finished above one or more teams with higher D-Values. If it did, then that team and every team between it and the lowest team with a higher D-Value are given the mean D-Value of that group and ranked in order by their finish (and, if still tied, by raw D-value).
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Re: ACF Nationals qualifiers and registration information

Post by t-bar »

Tornrak wrote:What is the adjustment from raw to final A-value?
The raw A-value is determined by using the strength of schedule (SOS) factor to adjust each team's actual points per game. Then, at a particular tournament site, if team A places higher than team B but has a lower A-value, then they are both assigned an A-value equal to the average of their raw A-values.

For example, at the Penn State site, Delaware finished with a raw A-value of 366.348237, but placed behind Johns Hopkins B, who had a raw A-value of 296.432639. They are both assigned the average of those two numbers--331.390438--and Johns Hopkins B is ranked higher.

This is a simplification of what happens if, for example, a team places ahead of many other teams with higher raw A-values. However, the basic principle is that A-values at each site are adjusted so that the ordering by A-value matches the order of finish, while conserving the total number of A-value points awarded to that site.

EDIT: Andrew beat me to posting.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by Coach Jim »

The above message is now a week old. Any update when the rankings will be posted for ACF Nationals?
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

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Coach Jim wrote:The above message is now a week old. Any update when the rankings will be posted for ACF Nationals?
Are you referring to this? (Released a week ago)
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

Coach Jim wrote:The above message is now a week old. Any update when the rankings will be posted for ACF Nationals?
As John mentioned, we've posted the A value spreadsheet in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=20916

We will send the registration form to qualifying teams and announce the final field size soon. We're still discussing the logistics of possible formats and aren't ready to announce that information just yet.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

For your browsing and posting convenience, I've merged the registration thread into this announcement thread.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

I'm pleased to announce that the field for ACF Nationals has been expanded to 48 teams.

Thanks to the high number of teams that have accepted their provisional bids, we're keeping open the option of further expansion. If we can confirm adequate rooms and staff, we'll invite 56-64 teams (the next range of teams that make for workable schedules). We'll make a final announcement on field size in the next few weeks.

On that note, if you're interested in staffing ACF Nationals, we could really use your help! Please email Cody Voight or me ([email protected]) if you're interested.

Teams that have qualified will receive a registration form from me later today. I will update this post with more information about registration and cancellation deadlines when the form goes out.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

Qualifying teams should have just received a link to the registration form (emailed to the person listed as the team contact from Regionals). If you think you should have received this email, but haven't, please email me at [email protected].

Teams will have until Monday, March 5 to register. Teams that have not registered by that date (and don't respond to follow-up emails) will be dropped.

Teams will have until Monday, April 2 to cancel. Teams that cancel after that date will be charged a $100 cancellation fee except in the case of emergency (subject to the approval of the tournament directors and me).
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

Hi all,

I've received the following packets today: Michigan B, Johns Hopkins B, Oklahoma, Virginia, and NYU.

If you're still planning to submit a packet tonight, great! As long as it's in my inbox when I wake up tomorrow, consider it good. If you're planning to submit but need more time, drop me a line at [email protected].
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

Hi,

I've received seven packets for the -$50 deadline; if your team isn't listed in the first post but think you submitted, please let me know.

I hope to make a final announcement on field size this coming week before Wednesday. We're in the process of assessing the rooms and staff situation, and we'll announce when we've come to a final decision.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

I'm still waiting to hear from Stanford and Texas A&M about their registration status (the deadline is today). If you represent the Stanford or TAMU teams, please reach out to me asap.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

Based on today's drops, we've extended invitations to UCSD A, Penn B, Rutgers A, and Gettysburg. Those teams will have two weeks (until the 19th) to register, and should've received emails from me with invitations.

I apologize for the fact that we haven't gotten information on possible further field expansion out just yet. I still have to hear back from the tournament directors to see whether this will be possible. Please bear with us; if we do expand, I'll make sure to get the invites out so teams have at least a week before the next registration deadline on the 19th.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

I'm now announcing that the Nationals field will close at 48 teams. Three remaining teams, Rutgers, UCSD, and Gettysburg, have until March 19 to register. The cancellation deadline for registered teams is April 2. I'll continue to send out reminder emails to teams and issue new bids if teams decline or cancel.

As perhaps you've noticed, we've had some issues ironing out tournament logistics. Because of this, if you've previously emailed Cody Voight about staffing, and are still interested in possibly staffing, please email Eliza Grames at [email protected]. (If you've already received an email from Eliza, there's no need to send a new one.) A big thanks to Eliza and Bernadette for stepping in, and for Sarah's continued work! They're all helping to ensure that Nationals will run smoothly and deserve our gratitude.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

Hey everyone, the field is now (pending one registration) full. I've sent out an email to the next ten teams on the waitlist about further waitlist and standby procedures. I've also sent out an inquiry to all Regionals teams about serving as a standby team in the case of very late cancellations (which I don't expect, but I do want to plan for so that we can avoid any bracket having unnecessary byes). If you didn't receive the latter email but are interested in hearing about becoming a standby team, please email me at [email protected].
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by Bosa of York »

Will this tournament’s field—preferably including what teams will be UG or D2 eligible—be publically stated?
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by Auger recombination »

Also does anyone have some advice on where/how close to campus teams should stay?
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

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Tornrak wrote:Will this tournament’s field—preferably including what teams will be UG or D2 eligible—be publically stated?
The field is visible on the A-value sheet (pending the outstanding invitation to Georgia A, which expires today). Here is the current field with eligibility.

Code: Select all

Team name	UG	DII
Amherst	Yes	No
Berkeley A	Yes	No
Berkeley B	No	No
Berkeley C	Yes	No
Caltech	Yes	No
Cambridge	No	No
Carnegie Mellon	Yes	No
Chicago A	No	No
Chicago B	No	No
Chicago C	No	No
Chicago D	Yes	No
Columbia	No	No
Delaware	Yes	No
Duke A	Yes	No
Florida	No	No
Harvard A	Yes	No
Harvard B	Yes	Yes
Illinois	Yes	No
Johns Hopkins 	No	No
Kentucky A	No	No
Maryland A	No	No
McGill A	No	No
Michigan A	No	No
Michigan State A	Yes	No
Minnesota A	No	No
Minnesota B	No	No
MIT A	No	No
MIT B	Yes	No
Mizzou	No	No
New College	Yes	No
Northwestern	No	No
NYU A	No	No
Ohio State	No	No
Oklahoma	Yes	No
Oxford	No	No
Penn A	No	No
Penn B	Yes	Yes
Penn State	No	No
Rice	Yes	No
Rutgers	No	No
Toronto A	No	No
UC San Diego (UCSD) 	No	No
UCF	Yes	No
UCLA	Yes	No
UNC	No	No
Virginia A	No	No
Yale A No	No
Yale B Yes	No
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

With Georgia A declining its bid, and Yale B accepting and registering, the field is now full. The cancellation deadline is tomorrow. I look forward to seeing all of you in Cambridge in three short weeks!
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by naturalistic phallacy »

Tibetan literature wrote:Also does anyone have some advice on where/how close to campus teams should stay?
Anywhere off the Red Line is good.

The Courtyard South Boston has pretty cheap rates and is a short walk to the T, which would take you to campus in less than 30 minutes.

The cheapest and closest options in Cambridge are going to be Airbnb and actual bed and breakfasts.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by Charbroil »

Is the spreadsheet fully updated to take into account all cancellations before the deadline?
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

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Yes. There haven't been any cancellations. I'll make sure to let teams on the standby list know right away if there are.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by Bosa of York »

Do you guys have a conception of what the tournament format is going to be (e.g. how many games each team will play)?
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

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Below is a rough outline of the format; a fuller description will be given at the tournament.

There will be 6 prelim pools of 8 teams each. This phase will use the limited single bye format, and will take place on submitted packets; thus, this phase will have 8 rounds, and each team will have 1 bye.

From that, we will split into 4 playoff pools of 12 teams each, with teams advancing in groups of two (i.e. teams 1 and 2 in each prelim pool will advance to the top playoff bracket, teams 3 and 4 will advance to the second playoff bracket, etc.). Tiebreakers will be played where it would be material to sorting teams from the prelims to the playoffs. In the playoffs, teams will not replay the game against the team they advanced with from the prelims; thus, this phase will have 10 rounds and 0 byes.

The finals procedure will kick in from there.

Teams will thus play 17 games in 18 rounds, plus any tiebreakers or finals they might be involved in.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

I just sent a logistics email to the team contact on each registration. If your team does not receive one shortly, let us know!
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by Charbroil »

We just replaced Yale B in the field.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by theMoMA »

Charbroil wrote:We just replaced Yale B in the field.
This is correct; Yale B emailed me last night letting me know that they couldn't play because of an emergency, and Wash U was the first team on the standby list.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

Teams and staff have both been emailed about this, but here's some super important and unfortunately inconvenient news from our sources at MIT:

Buses are replacing T service on the Red Line between Park St (downtown) and MIT on both Saturday and Sunday. Apparently these buses can be really, really slow, so plan some extra time for transit to MIT if you're taking the Red Line! Staff staying at the hotel shouldn't be affected, but if you're coming from elsewhere it could be an issue.

Please note this is also the way to/from the airport from MIT, so it could also affect travel time to the airport on Sunday if you're flying out then.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by Auks Ran Ova »

Please note that the team meeting has been moved from 10-250 to the nearby 26-100. Thanks, and apologies for the late notice.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by Auks Ran Ova »

Also, if you're driving, the Hayward lot is closed; MIT recommends parking along Memorial Drive instead.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

Round 1 stats are pending the resolution of a protest, but stats will be updated here throughout the day.
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

The following scoring prizes were awarded today based on prelim scores. In each case, players were treated as members of the largest eligibility group to which they belong. Great job, guys!

Overall

1. Itamar - Missouri - 72.86 PPG
2. Jacob - Yale - 68.57 PPG
3. Rafael - Columbia - 62.14 PPG
4. Caleb - Oklahoma - 60 PPG
5. Aseem - Berkeley A - 56.67 PPG
6. Kenji - Michigan - 55.83 PPG
7. Chris - Ohio State - 55 PPG
7. Charles - WUSTL - 55 PPG

Undergraduate

1. Jakob - Michigan State - 53.83 PPG
2. Hidehiro - UCLA - 46.43 PPG
3. Weijia - Maryland - 32.14 PPG
3. Clark - Ohio State - 32.14 PPG

Division II

1. Matt - Chicago B - 30 PPG
2. Rohin - Berkeley B - 27.86 PPG
3. Cole - Illinois - 26.43 PPG
4. Eric - Delaware - 25.71 PPG
4. James - Berkeley C - 25.71 PPG
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Re: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

Playoff stats will be updated here.

We know there are a few games missing - this is due to a combination of protests and when scoresheets came in. Affected games will be entered in the morning.

In the morning, we will also try to fix the display order of brackets, which should go Liderc, Minokawa, Nachtkrapp, Oozlum.

We will also be adding packet names to both stat reports to make round report more meaningful. Combined stats and stats for tiebreakers will also be posted.

If you have any stats questions or concerns not addressed by this post, you're welcome to get in touch with me or email stats wizard Andrew Feist at tabstopva@gmail.
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