The Quizbowl Resource Center

The 2010 New Trier Varsity: ADVANTAGE (A Daring VirginiA-New Trier Academic Games Endeavor) will take place on December 18 on the GSAC set, written and edited by the quizbowl team at the Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies (Richmond, Virginia), led by JR Roach and Tommy Casalaspi. More information about the set is available here.

Teams from out of state are welcomed: we typically attract a very strong field. In the past we have had teams from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana (I think?), and there was this one time we almost got one from Mississippi.

Registration/Contact. Contact <[email protected]> to register, apply to moderate or otherwise staff, or for anything else. (This address directs to both me and my co-TD, New Trier coach David Reinstein. We can be individually contacted at <[email protected]> and <[email protected]>, but please use <[email protected]> for anything tournament-related.)

Tournament Format. The format will be dictated by the field size. It will be announced here and by email to registered teams when it is decided. We will make every effort to use bracketed round robins. Under no circumstances will single-elimination be used. Lunch, consisting of Lou Malnati’s pizza and other delectable delights, will be served at an appropriate point. Individual awards and team trophies will be given; the numbers thereof will be dictated by the field size.

Rules. We will use ACF rules except that teams of five are permitted (per Illinois norms). (Note that there will be no powers, because the GSAC set is not power-marked.)

Fees. $70 per team; teams traveling long distances or who are in financial hardship should inquire for a discount. Illinois teams are expected to bring functional buzzer systems able to accommodate five players on each of two sides unless otherwise arranged. Staff discounts are arranged by having your staffer apply to be a staffer as above; we can credit the $40 to your entry fee if you want.

New Trier Varsity: ADVANTAGE will have two divisions, designated über-competitive and standard. Teams choose which division they enter into, although we reserve the right to deny a team's request to enter the standard division. The über-competitive division will be limited to 24 teams (though we anticipate fewer being interested) and will certainly use round robins (bracketed assuming we get too many to do a full RR), while the standard division will accommodate as many teams as desire to enter, and may use power-matching, though we hope to avoid it. Programs may enter (for example) an A team in the über-competitive division and a B team in the standard division. When you email [email protected] to register, please indicate which division you wish to enter.

Field update:
Über-Competitive Division:
Auburn A
Auburn B
Barrington A
Buffalo Grove A
Carbondale
Culver (Indiana)
Detroit Catholic Central A (Michigan)
Detroit Catholic Central B (Michigan)
Fenwick A
Hamilton (Ohio)
IMSA
Latin School
Libertyville
Lisle A
Loyola Academy A
Loyola Academy B
New Trier
Northmont (Ohio)
Oak Park-River Forest
St. Ignatius College Prep A
Stevenson A
Stevenson B
Wheaton North A
Wheaton Warrenville South A
Total: 24

Standard Division:
Auburn C
Auburn D
Barrington B
Buffalo Grove B
Byron
Crete-Monee A
Crete-Monee B
Fenton
Fenwick B
Keith Country Day A
Keith Country Day B
Leyden
Lisle B
Loyola Academy C
Maine South
McHenry
Niles West
PORTA
Springfield
St. Ignatius College Prep B
Sterling A
Sterling B
Stevenson B
Wheaton North B
Wheaton Warrenville South B
Total: 24

We already have three states represented in our über-competitive division's field. I'd love to increase that, not to mention just increasing the number of teams.

I should probably know this...with the tourney being ACF rules, does that mean we don't have to count it as one of our 18 IHSA dates? Just trying to make sure we don't cross the line.

(User was warned for lacking a signature.)

jkulesza wrote:I should probably know this...with the tourney being ACF rules, does that mean we don't have to count it as one of our 18 IHSA dates? Just trying to make sure we don't cross the line.

You do have to count it toward the 18 dates for IHSA, but that isn't because it's ACF-format. The only relevant consideration for the date limitation is how many people play at a time (5, as is the case here, and it counts; any other number, and it doesn't), along with maybe some trivial things like "use of buzzers" that I'm not sure about. Hope this helps.

Joe--welcome to the boards! Hope to see you and your team at a lot of tournaments this year!

We have now posted an invitation letter and entry form, so now is a good time to start sending us checks. Let us know if you want us to reserve spaces beyond those already listed upthread.

IMSA would tentatively like to put one team in each division.

This tournament is the weekend before finals for us, so I might drop the standard division team if my sophomores decide they'd rather study. My juniors and seniors don't study anyway, so the uber-competitive team should be safe.

PORTA joins our field's standard division, bringing it to 14 teams. Our über-competitive division has 13 so far. We would love to see more registrations, especially from out-of-state and south of the Illinois Mason-Dixon line. I'm especially looking at you, Carbondale.

As a varsity tournament, are there limits to grade-levels per each team (if we decide to field the frosh-soph team, could they compete separately from our varsity?)

Armitando wrote:As a varsity tournament, are there limits to grade-levels per each team (if we decide to field the frosh-soph team, could they compete separately from our varsity?)

I can't speak for Jonah or David, but in general, teams from the same school are usually separated for the prelims. No guarantees are made for the playoffs.

dtaylor4 wrote:

Armitando wrote:As a varsity tournament, are there limits to grade-levels per each team (if we decide to field the frosh-soph team, could they compete separately from our varsity?)

I can't speak for Jonah or David, but in general, teams from the same school are usually separated for the prelims. No guarantees are made for the playoffs.

There are no limits as to what grade levels the players on any given team may be; the only rule about team composition is that teams must be comprised of high school students from the same high school and that no more than 7 people may be on a team (if you want more than that, enter additional team).

We have two divisions, designated über-competitive and standard. The divisions will be run as completely separate tournaments, so if you enter one team in each division, they are guaranteed never to play each other. If you enter two teams in the über-competitive division, as Donald says, we can guarantee they won't play each other in the 5 preliminary rounds, but they might play in the playoffs if they both do similarly in the prelims. If you enter two teams in the standard division, we can make it either very unlikely or certain that they won't play each other in the preliminary rounds (depending on whether we use power-matching or bracketed round-robins—the latter are preferred).

Feel free to contact me here or by email if you have more questions.

We now have 16 teams and 19 teams in the über-competitive division and standard division, respectively, as detailed in this thread's second post. Having 18 or 24 in the former would be very helpful with respect to tournament structuring, and we are happy to accommodate many more in the latter. Please register!

DCC has entered our über-competitive division (with the possibility of a second team), meaning that we now have four states represented. Keep the registrations coming!

I really, really, really want to come to this and add a 5th state.
I have to convince everyone else (this is the day after break begins)

I have applied for MSHSAA sanctioning so that Missouri teams may attend. I'll post here if and when it is approved.

A suggestion to all future hosts applying for MSHSAA sanctioning: You really should do it over a month before the tournament, there are people who've slipped by without it being a problem, but they really don't like it when people apply for sanctioning with less than a month's time to process it.

Jeremy Gibbs Freesy Does It wrote:A suggestion to all future hosts applying for MSHSAA sanctioning: You really should do it over a month before the tournament, there are people who've slipped by without it being a problem, but they really don't like it when people apply for sanctioning with less than a month's time to process it.

Yeah—I should've done it earlier. I didn't even think about it until Garb suggested it to me a couple of days ago. Fortunately, the woman I spoke to on the phone was very nice and indicated it wouldn't be a problem.

We have been approved by the MSHSAA, and would love to have any Missouri teams that wish to make the trip to Chicagoland. Because they use the same set, teams cannot enter both this tournament and Mizzou's Mort Walker tournament in February.

After the first use of the set we will be using, I'm thrilled to say the set has been very well-received. But don't take it from me:

"This was probably my favorite high school set of this year so far: it was really very good." —Aidan Mehigan, St. Anselm's

"This set was really well-written, with all sorts of interesting ideas and answers.…This was one of the best-edited tournaments I've read in a really really long time." —Andrew Chrzanowski, Caesar Rodney (coach)

"This is the best set I've ever seen produced exclusively by high schoolers." —George Berry, VCU

We would, of course, love for more teams to have the chance to play this awesome set. (I am told that it is somewhat more difficult than the average high school set, just as this tournament has historically been.) We have five spots left in the über-competitive division, and arbitrarily many in the standard division.

duPont Manual (aka the dirty duPont) will most probably be sending at least one team. Uber. We will be shorthanded.

Edit: Division
Edit x2: Decisiveness

Awesome. I emailed you for details.

SoLegit12 wrote:duPont Manual (aka the dirty duPont) will most probably be sending at least one team. Uber. We will be shorthanded.

Edit: Division
Edit x2: Decisiveness

I take it that you won't be attending our tournament.

Latin just entered the über-competitive division, so there are only three spots left. If you are even considering attending but have not told us so, it would probably be a good idea to email us now so we can hold a spot for you.

Hilltopper22 wrote:

SoLegit12 wrote:duPont Manual (aka the dirty duPont) will most probably be sending at least one team. Uber. We will be shorthanded.

Edit: Division
Edit x2: Decisiveness

I take it that you won't be attending our tournament.

Yeah, sorry

Discussion of the format for the über-competitive division is hopefully going to go on here. Doing 4 brackets of 6, then rebracketing to another 4 brackets of 6 is certainly a possibility, but I have described an alternative proposal that eliminates paper tiebreakers and features more matches against the top teams. Feedback from people attending this tournament is especially sought in that thread.

I could use a few more staffers for this. If you want to help out, make $40, and eat some awesome pizza, let me know.

Also, registrations are still open in both divisions.

Let me know if you don't get enough staffers, awesome pizza is adeaquate enough reward.

jonah wrote:I could use a few more staffers for this. If you want to help out, make $40, and eat some awesome pizza, let me know.

If you're still looking for staffers, I would love to help out.

Aaron Goldfein wrote:

jonah wrote:I could use a few more staffers for this. If you want to help out, make $40, and eat some awesome pizza, let me know.

If you're still looking for staffers, I would love to help out.

Rockin'. Email me your cell phone number, please; I'll send you more info early next week.

duPont Manual is going to send a second team! Yeah!
Either division, which ever would be better for you.

SoLegit12 wrote:duPont Manual is going to send a second team! Yeah!
Either division, which ever would be better for you.

The B team will also be in über. I'm sending you an email about that now.

With the addition of Belvidere North A and B, and DuPont Manual B, we now have 24 teams in each division. The field is provisionally closed, and I will begin a waitlist for the standard division only. If the waitlist reaches 3 teams (since I assume we'll be able to scrape together a 28th from extra players) and we have sufficient staff available, we'll expand the field.

Grayslake North just cancelled, so we now have an opening in each division.

Westwon wrote:Grayslake North just cancelled, so we now have an opening in each division.

The standard division one just got claimed by St. Ignatius B.

One spot remains available in the über-competitive division. If it's not claimed soon (exact timeline unclear), it will go to a house team.

jonah wrote: Lunch, consisting of Lou Malnati’s pizza and other delectable delights, will be served at an appropriate point.

Will this (I'm hoping deep-dish) pizza be complimentary?

Edit: Parenthesis

SoLegit12 wrote:

jonah wrote: Lunch, consisting of Lou Malnati’s pizza and other delectable delights, will be served at an appropriate point.

Will this (I'm hoping deep-dish) pizza be complimentary?

It is included in your registration fee, deep-dish, and amazing.

(and sylleptic)

jonah wrote:

SoLegit12 wrote:

jonah wrote: Lunch, consisting of Lou Malnati’s pizza and other delectable delights, will be served at an appropriate point.

Will this (I'm hoping deep-dish) pizza be complimentary?

It is included in your registration fee, deep-dish, and amazing.

(and sylleptic)

Now I see what a UChicago education can do for me besides sophisticated line diagrams.

New Trier will claim the last spot at the end of the school day tomorrow (Monday) unless we hear from somebody else before then.

DuPont Manual just dropped its second team, so we're back to having two spots left in the über-competitive division, one of which will be taken by New Trier unless it is claimed by someone else before 3:30 PM CST tomorrow.

We're getting more openings. Maine East left the standard division, and another team in the über-competitive division is questionable.

Westwon wrote:New Trier will claim the last spot at the end of the school day tomorrow (Monday) unless we hear from somebody else before then.

This happened.

We still have one opening in each division.

Both Belvidere North teams dropped, Byron added in the Standard Division, Crete-Monee added a second team in Standard, and Loyola moved its B team from Standard to Über while adding a C team in Standard. The upshot is that we have one spot left in the Über-Competitive Division, and the Standard Division is full.

The next team to register for the über-competitive division plays and eats for free.

The next team to register chooses its division and gets to play and eat for free.

So, I have good news and bad news.
EDIT: I should have made it clear; we have a snow day.
Good news: No school for us (duPont Manual)
Bad News: District prevents us from going to extracurriculars. I'm sorry, but we're going to have to cancel.

We have rosters from Auburn, Barrington, Carbondale, Fenton, Keith, Loyola, Maine South, New Trier, Niles West, Northmont, PORTA, Springfield, Wheaton North, and WWS. If anybody else wants to aid our set-up by posting or emailing rosters, that would be appreciated. You can change your roster when you arrive if stuff happens.

EDIT: Or Facebook Chat them to me. Thanks Nolan!

"Hamilton", in the form of Joe Nutter playing solo, will be playing in the Über-Competitive Division.

Sterling B got added to Standard and we moved Stevenson B to Über-Competitive. We now have 24 teams in each division. Please, no one cancel!