National Charity QB Tournament

[Z_ODonnell]

Dear Academic Bowl Coach/Player,

Hope everyone's summer and Quarantine have been going well. As we are in these unprecedented times, I would like to announce the organization of a charity tournament run by members of the Walton Academic Bowl. While some final details are being worked out, we aim for the tournament to take place sometime in late July provided that there is enough interest. The event will take place online (most likely Discord) and is open to all (maximum 5 people to a team) regardless of affiliation or experience. All proceeds raised from this event will go to the Equal Justice Initiative (a nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to people who have been illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state jails and prisons and advocates for Criminal Justice reform).

This event is not affiliated with the Walton Academic Bowl or any other academic bowl program.

Interested teams can register their interest via this Google Doc Form.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIp ... sp=sf_link

Any questions regarding the tournament can be directed to myself (at [email protected]) or Nicholas Ge (at [email protected]).

Thanks, and we hope to be running this tournament with y'all

[db0wman]

Is this going to be held on an existing set, or will it be housewritten?

[Z_ODonnell]

The tournament will likely be held using a housewrite but if not viable we will use an NAQT IS set. More information to come on that.

[JA01]

"open to all"

so is this only HS or is it open?

[Nicholas.Ge]

This is going to be a High School Tournament, which is why we're using an International-Style Set. We're currently working out the logistics, but anyone High School and under is welcome to join.

User was reminded to enable a signature --Mgmt.

[i never see pigeons in wheeling]

This is going to be a High School Tournament, which is why we're using an International-Style Set. We're currently working out the logistics, but anyone High School and under is welcome to join.

What’s an “International-Style Set”? Do you mean your set is going to be in the style of an NAQT Invitational Series set?

[thederpyaxolotl]

Are there any preliminary ideas of what the field cap will be? And open to all means that chimera teams will be allowed, correct?

[Important Bird Area]

The tournament will likely be held using a housewrite but if not viable we will use an NAQT IS set. More information to come on that.

Quick clarification here about NAQT policy: we do not currently allow online hosting using NAQT sets. We're discussing potential changes that would allow for online tournaments in the fall, but have not yet reached a decision about that (the exact details may depend a lot on how safe it is to host in-person tournaments in the fall semester). (And please note in general that we would probably not have a set available for late-July use in any case- on our usual calendar, our first sets for fall-semester use are completed in mid-August.)

[Nicholas.Ge]

We're most likely going to be doing a house-write then, with a set that models an IS set. This means that chimera teams are probably going to be allowed, as long as the players are within high school and lower grades.

User reminded to add signature. -mgmt

[Z_ODonnell]

Update: The tournament will for sure take place online (via either Discord or Zoom) and take place using a housewritten set. The tournament will take place on July 20-21st and the field cap will be 48 teams (with preliminary rounds on July 20th and the 21st being for playoffs). All teams will have a chance at making the playoff with the bottom 16 teams playing into a playoff beth. No team will be eliminated but will only be relegated to a lower bracket and compete for a lower place should they lose a playoff matchup

[kidgib]

Do you have an idea in mind of what house-write you will use? This sounds like a cool idea, but to the best of my knowledge, most (if not all) house-writes have already been played or are non-existent.

[JA01]

48 teams a whole lot to have for an online tournament. Also, are you accepting outside staffers?

[Subotai the Valiant, Final Dog of War]

EDIT: Message reminding players about the date of the tournament no longer applies; feel free to delete

[vedul]

So... is this happening? Knowing what set you plan to use is pretty important in the logistics of the event

[Z_ODonnell]

Hi All! Sorry for the Late reply.

Here are all he updates as of now.

The Housewrite will be written by our own team for use in this this tournament. Question Sets are WIP.

The Dates of the tournament have been re-scheduled to July 17-18 to accommodate teams and staffers (July 20-July 21 is a Monday/Tuesday).

At this time we do not anticipate any outside staffers but this will be subject to change.

Thank you all for your interest.

[db0wman]

The Housewrite will be written by our own team for use in this this tournament. Question Sets are WIP.

Writing an entire set in a month will be quite an ordeal. I would recommend finding an existing set (perhaps partner up with one of the sets that got delayed this spring, like Prison Bowl or STASH? I'm not sure how willing these sets would be, but it's worth a shot).

[jonpin]

The notion that you're going to write a set in a month and then hold a 48-team Discord tournament over two days, without needing any outside staffers, seems like a series of choices that are each individually questionable and together seem extremely reckless, probably because of not realizing how much work these things truly entail. I encourage the organizers to take a step back and consider their resources and plans.

[Nicholas.Ge]

We concur with your uncertainties. We are likely going to be setting the team cap to around 20-25 teams. I assure you, we are not looking for outside volunteers because we have plenty of them already (aka not all of them are from our school/program, many are other quiz-bowlers/are familiar with the tournament set-up). This does not mean that we are planning on hosting a large tournament with like only four people. We're still going over the final logistics, but will let you know soon.

[JA01]

The notion of writing an entire tournament question set in a month brings a lot of skepticism. Many of the concerns is that the questions will not be of high quality given the amount of time spent writing and editing them. I recommend postponing the tournament until August at the earliest and possibly September to get a good quality set required for a decent turnout.

[Stained Diviner]

A lot of this is just a matter of transparency. Let people know who the writers and editors are, and give occasional progress updates. Perhaps somebody from the community who is not in the target audience can take an occasional look at the set to verify that it is getting written in an acceptable manner. Based on that information, teams can decide whether or not they want to play this tournament.

[neilbreen]

Did this happen?