Big Lots?

[vandyhawk]

Has anyone heard what the status of Big Lots is? I know it was supposed to be a FOGHAT mirror, but when I tried to register for some of my teammates, Charlie said FOGHAT had been postponed, and asked whether my teammates would be able to write a packet. I haven't heard, though, whether this means Big Lots is definitely happening as a packet submission event, or whether it's up in the air. I know Charlie is pretty busy, so if anyone has info, I'd appreciate it.

[Kilby]

Because there are no other trash tournaments in the vicinity of the 21st and because everyone involved with the UTC team is busy writing or editing for another tournament, the only feasible options seem to be either canceling Big Lots this year or running it as a guerrilla edited packet submission event.

The last time I talked to Charlie, he seemed to indicate there may be enough interest for the latter option. I know I'd be interested in getting a team together... not because I look forward to playing on unedited questions, but because of how sparse the trash tournament landscape is this fall.

He also said that the entry fee would be substantially lower for such an event. I'll see if I can find out more about what's planned.

[vandyhawk]

Any word yet?

[Your Genial Quizmaster]

Yes, Virginia, there is a Big Lots. (Or maybe I should say Little Lots.)

In past years the Big Lots trash tournament has been a mirror of the excellent FOGHAT tournament. As you may know, FOGHAT was postponed indefinitely. We were on the verge of canceling due to a lack of questions, but Michael Kearney came galloping to the rescue. So there will be a Big Lots Clearance Open trash tournament at UT-Chattanooga on Sun., Oct. 21. 2007.

There will be some house packets written mostly by Michael with a little help from your genial quizmaster. But Big Lots this year will essentially be a guerrilla tournament, meaning the questions will get little or no editing beforehand. Therefore, we are dramatically altering the fee structure:

If you submit a full packet to SteinhiceC [at] comcast [dot] net for our review by Wed., Oct. 17. your team's fee will be $10.

If you don't submit the packet by Oct. 17 but bring a full packet (with seven copies) with you on Sun. 10/21, your team's fee will be $25.

If you provide no packet, your team's fees will be $50.

Packet specification details are below.

Tournament registration will begin at 8:30 AM EDT on 10/21 in Holt Hall, room 124. At 9 AM we will release a schedule, based on who actually shows up, and then begin tournament play. The tournament length depends on how many teams and how many packets we get, but I'd guess a length of 7-9 rounds and a finishing time between 4 and 6 PM.

If you plan to attend, please send the following information:
* How many teams you'll bring
* Whether and when we can expect packets
* The relative experience level of your team
Please send this information to BOTH SteinhiceC [at] comcast [dot] net AND utcquizbowl [at] gmail [dot] com.

DIRECTIONS:
* From Atlanta and points south -- take I-75 to Chattanooga, then I-24 west towards downtown, then follow the freeway splitoff for U.S. 27 North, downtown Chattanooga. From 27 North take the 4th Street exit, within sight of the Tennessee Aquarium. Go right on 4th St. (you have no choice) and follow it for ca. 1 mile. Go past the UTC Arena, after which E. 4th St. becomes part of E. 3rd St. After that, take the second right onto Palmetto St. Go two blocks and turn right onto Vine St. (just past the EMCS Building.) Just before the place where Vine St. is blocked off, the parking lot for Holt is on the right.
* From Knoxville and points north -- take I-75 to Chattanooga, then I- 24 West; directions from there same as above.
* From Nashville and points west/north: Take I-24 east to Chattanooga. As you round Moccasin Bend (freeway goes alongside river) watch for two exit lanes on the right; take the less rightward of the two, which will have signs above it for U.S. 27 N. Rest of directions are the same as above.
* From Birmingham and points southwest: Take I-59 to the outskirts of Chattanooga, where it dead-ends into I-24. Get on I-24 East and follow the Nashville directions from there.

PACKET SPECIFICATIONS: First, some format preferences: If at all possible, please send me packets in MS Word or RTF. Please place the required parts of each answer in bold, please put answers on a separate line from the question, and please precede them with the word "Answer:". If you want to save me some more time, make the font 11 pt Times New Roman and the margins 1/2" all around.
To allow for bonus laming and to simplify editing of the inevitable numerous duplicates, each packet submitted needs to contain at least 25 tossup and 25 bonuses. Visual, tactile, and even gustatory bonuses will be accepted if possible; due to equipment issues, audio questions won't. We will consider physical challenge questions, provided they do not conflict with giving every team a fair shot regardless of individual members' physical limitations. Keep in mind when you are preparing packets and considering unorthodox bonuses that these questions will be used at mirror events elsewhere in the country, and whatever we do here needs to be replicable there.
General distribution guidelines (in each case, we need that many tossups and that many bonuses):
3 - 4 Movies
3 - 4 TV
3 - 4 Sports
3 - 4 Music
[Note: for the four categories listed above, please make sure you have at least one pre-1990 and at least one post-2000 of each.]
At least 1 each, but no more than 2 each, of:
Food & beverages
Trashy "literature"
No minimum requirement, but no more than 2 each:
Videogames & computer games
Other games
Other computer stuff
Trashy current events
Comics
Gadgets
Road trip effluvium
Consumerama
Anything else you think of is fine as long as there are no more than two questions per as-yet-unnamed category.

[Your Genial Quizmaster]

To the amazement of everyone, including us, the Big Lots Clearance open was held on Sunday 10/21/07 at UTC. We wound up with nine teams, up from only three expected earlier that week. Even more amazingly, we wound up with eight packets.

Special thanks to the amazing Michael Kearney. Michael stepped in with two weeks' notice to become Editor-in-Chief, wrote four packets (filled out with sports questions by me), and did some high-speed editing on two of the four team-written rounds (the other two were purely guerrilla.) Thanks also to the question writers from Georgia, Shorter, UTC, and Virginia Tech, and to Jeremy White for offering a backup round at the eleventh hour. Further thanks to Virginia Tech's Emily Neal, Mike Hundley, and Levi May, who served as full-time officials; to Wally Edmondson for quarterbacking tournament setup; and to Rachel Moore for spelling me on stats & logistics for the afternoon.

Congratulations to the winners. Records include playoffs & consolation rounds:
1st -- Building a Bridge to the 21st Century, Minnesota Style (Georgia + alums -- Alex Rice, Mike Staley, Mark Franklin, and Jed "The New Guy") 6-1
2nd -- The Oneders (Dave & September Leach and Shane Sawyer) 5-3
3rd -- The Unbearable Likeness of Being Bobby Brown (Dren Rollins, Megan Clancy, Candice Lynch) 6-1
4th -- Red Squadron (Virginia Tech -- Adam Chin, Sarah Mahood, Bryan Roper, Skyler Kea) 4-2

Other teams:
You Say Goodbye, I Say Halo (UTC) 4-2
John Rambo Jangles Chicken Biscuit (Shorter) 3-4
Get a Garmin (Virginia Tech) 1-6
Flying Circus (Northeast AL CC) 1-6
Extreme Math Posse (M.L. King Magnet HS) 1-6


SEMIFINALS
Building a Bridge 350, Unbearable 215
Oneders 275, Red Squadron 230
FINALS
Building a Bridge 380, Oneders 165
Unbearable Bobby Brown 275, Red Squadron 255

All-Star awards went to the top ten players. Individual stats were:

Rank Player Team Division GP 10 -5 P/N Pts PPG
1 Dren Megan+ (Unbear. B. Brown) Slack It 7.0 60 16 0.00 520 74.29
2 David Kilby+ (Goodbye/Halo) Packet 6.0 30 4 0.00 280 46.67
3 Dave Sept.+ (Oneders) Slack It 8.0 36 5 0.00 335 41.88
4 Mike UGA (Building Bridges) Packet 7.0 30 3 0.00 285 40.71
5 Chuck (Bojangles) Shorter (J Rambo) Packet 7.0 29 4 0.00 270 38.57
6 Adam (Red Buttons) VTA (Red Squadron) Packet 6.0 25 6 0.00 220 36.67
7 John Kilby+ (Goodbye/Halo) Packet 6.0 25 8 0.00 210 35.00
8 Alex UGA (Building Bridges) Packet 7.0 25 7 0.00 215 30.71
9 Tom VTB (Garmin) Slack It 7.0 22 2 0.00 210 30.00
10 James (Rambo) Shorter (J Rambo) Packet 7.0 23 5 0.00 205 29.29
11 Mark UGA (Building Bridges) Packet 7.0 21 2 0.00 200 28.57
12 September Sept.+ (Oneders) Slack It 8.0 23 1 0.00 225 28.12
13 Sarah (Helen Reddy) VTA (Red Squadron) Packet 6.0 17 4 0.00 150 25.00
14 Bryan (Red October) VTA (Red Squadron) Packet 6.0 14 4 0.00 120 20.00
15 Dallas (Big D) MLK (EMP) Slack It 7.0 13 2 0.00 120 17.14
16 Mack NE AL (Flying Circus) Packet 7.0 13 4 0.00 110 15.71
17 Jake NE AL (Flying Circus) Packet 7.0 12 3 0.00 105 15.00
18 Megan Megan+ (Unbear. B. Brown) Slack It 7.0 11 1 0.00 105 15.00
19 Shane Sept.+ (Oneders) Slack It 8.0 12 3 0.00 105 13.12
20 Stephen (Coach D) MLK (EMP) Slack It 7.0 11 5 0.00 85 12.14
21 the new guy UGA (Building Bridges) Packet 4.0 4 0 0.00 40 10.00
22 Jeff NE AL (Flying Circus) Packet 7.0 9 6 0.00 60 8.57
23 Cody (Camo) MLK (EMP) Slack It 7.0 9 6 0.00 60 8.57
24 Stacy NE AL (Flying Circus) Packet 7.0 8 4 0.00 60 8.57
25 Jack VTB (Garmin) Slack It 7.0 5 0 0.00 50 7.14
26 Sian VTB (Garmin) Slack It 7.0 4 0 0.00 40 5.71
27 Wally Kilby+ (Goodbye/Halo) Packet 6.0 3 0 0.00 30 5.00
28 Skyler (Simply Red) VTA (Red Squadron) Packet 6.0 2 0 0.00 20 3.33
29 Nick VTB (Garmin) Slack It 7.0 3 2 0.00 20 2.86
30 Shannon Kilby+ (Goodbye/Halo) Packet 6.0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00
31 Candice Megan+ (Unbear. B. Brown) Slack It 7.0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00
32 Janet (Mom) MLK (EMP) Slack It 7.0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00

A good time was had by all.