The Quizbowl Resource Center

The Maryland Academic Quiz Team will be hosting our annual Fall Tournament on Saturday, September 25, 2010. We have no yet finalized our question set yet; we expect to use an NAQT question set, details of which will be announced shortly. I expect it to be pretty accessible, and I hope we continue to get some of the local teams who are just starting to get more heavily involved in the circuit - this event is certainly meant to be a good place to start a new year of competition. Traditionally, we've often attracted a high number of national contenders as well (even when we used the local It's Ac format, bizarrely), and we expect the same this year.

*EDIT*
We will be using IS Set #96 for this tournament.

REGISTRATION:

To register, please email me, SteveJon Guth, at [email protected]. Let us know if you're interested/confirmed and how many teams you'll be sending - we'll try to keep a very current field on this page.

PRICING:

Base team fee: $70
Additional teams: -$10
Buzzer system: -$5/system
Dedicated staffer/moderator: -$10
Minimum fee per team: $50

FORMAT:
Like last year, we plan on giving teams the chance to play a lot of quizbowl. There will likely be bracketed prelims followed by playoff brackets of some size and configuration depending on field size. As with last year, we will be running these brackets for anyone who enters this tournament, regardless of prelim performance - consolation rounds will run and be fully recorded (and placement fully resolved) for all teams who choose to stay. Teams will have the chance to leave after prelims, but are heavily encourage to take advantage of the extra games, which by definition will be the most competitively appropriate for all teams. The exact number of rounds won't be set until the field size is confirmed, but last year teams got around 10-12, so we'll be shooting for around that.

EDIT

The tournament will be held at the College Park Armory. Parking suggestions from Chris Ray can be found farther down in this thread. Registration will run from 8:15 - 8:45, with the first round starting as close to 9:00 AM as possible.


Please email me ([email protected]) or Chris Ray ([email protected]) with any general questions/comments. We hope to see soon!


EDIT 2:

Running field:

Quince Orchard
Howard
Caesar Rodney
Whitman
Walter Johnson
Richard Montgomery x2
Longfellow
St. Anselm's
George Mason
Gunston
Gonzaga
Blake
GDS
Thomas Jefferson x3

Excellent. I hope i can find a group of kids to come to this.

Whitman is interested.

Consider Quince Orchard officially interested.

WJ will have one team for this.

We'll be bringing at least one team to this.

Longfellow is interested.

Any idea which question set you guys have decided on using yet?

According to naqt.com, IS #96.

Sounds good!

A quick look at the Terps' schedule reveals that there is a home football game on the day this tournament is to be held. Last time UMD hosted a quizbowl tournament I attended and a football game on the same day, Bollinger and I ended up driving around campus for more than half an hour before eventually having to pay for parking. What, if any, steps are being taken to ensure this doesn't happen again? Can anyone from UMD make a specific recommendation of a parking lot that may not be so crowded and also might be free of charge?

quick look at the Terps' schedule reveals that there is a home football game on the day this tournament is to be held. Last time UMD hosted a quizbowl tournament I attended and a football game on the same day, Bollinger and I ended up driving around campus for more than half an hour before eventually having to pay for parking. What, if any, steps are being taken to ensure this doesn't happen again? Can anyone from UMD make a specific recommendation of a parking lot that may not be so crowded and also might be free of charge?

That's a very good point - thanks for bringing it up. Yes, football parking shenanigans can sure ruin your quizbowl experience, so I'll do my best to outline how to dodge any potential hiccups:

Short version: Pay attention to the first bullet point below and try to park in lots L and C2 (in that order) which surround the Armory. You can reach them by driving up Campus Drive from the main entrance off Route 1 and making a left at the circle around the big M. The Armory will be your second left (and your first, but that's a one-way exit). If the "gate" is down, just drive up to it and it will open. Parking here is free, but can fill up quickly on game days. Backup options include CC1 and FF2, found by making a right at the M onto Regents Drive (they're on the right just after the cows and before you reach the giant parking lots) and I suppose Lot Q, though I've never tried to park there.

Explained, and secondary options:

*Show up early. Since I believe the event will start at 9:00 and registration will run from something like 8:00 - 8:45 (someone will post this officially, though), you're already going to be getting there early enough to grab some of the free, close parking. If you show up at 8 and follow these steps, you should be fine. If you're rolling in at 8:50, you're taking your chances.

* These two maps will be useful:
http://www.transportation.umd.edu/parki ... _color.pdf
http://www.transportation.umd.edu/image ... ap_low.jpg

The first shows all campus parking - anything in green or yellow is free parking on the weekends. The second map shows football parking. You can pay to park in certain areas of the large yellow garage by comcast center (Terrapin Trail garage, labeled TTG), Mowatt Lane (MLG, black, northwestern edge of map), and smaller areas of the Regents Drive garage (White).

I do not actually recommend parking in any of these garages. If you need to, you should try Regents and Mowatt (in that order); TTG is really far away from anything you'd ever want to find yourself doing.

What these maps don't explicitly point out is that any parking lot left gray on the football map operates under default conditions - that means that any lot that's green or yellow on the first map and isn't red, black, white, or yellow on the football map is open and free. As mentioned above, the L and C2 lots by the armory are absolutely the way to go. If those are all full when you arrive, you can try the other lots like CC1, FF2, or Q, or the pay lots outlined above.

*Fortunately, this is a game against FIU - I believe the tournament Aidan referenced occurred during a Virginia Tech game, which in addition to drawing substantially more interest from Maryland fans also led to the campus being overrun by Hokies who despite presumably having received parking passes along with their tickets chose to park in the non-football lots anyway. I anticipate that substantially fewer Florida International fans will be driving to this game.


Note that you can also park at the College Park metro (or in one of the free, usually unoccupied lots across the street) and take one of the free quickbuses to campus - they run every 20 minutes. Of course, you can also just take the metro and skip the whole car thing altogether. If you've got any questions about this stuff or other parking/logistics concerns, please email me or give me a call. We'll email this and any other relevant info out to registered teams this week as well.

Thanks for the help, Chris.

I'll be sending an e-mail shortly to officially register one team, one buzzer, and one moderator (me) if needed.

In addition, i wanted to make this clear, our far-and-away best player and team captain Alexa won't be making this trip this day, so if there is any bracketing (although with the small field it looks like a full round robin now i guess), basically you can pretend that we're like a CR B instead of our real A Team. Just throwing that out there.

With just over a week to go, there's still plenty of room and a number of teams who I know are planning to come but haven't registered yet. Please be sure to contact SteveJon or myself if you don't see your school's info on the "running field" list in the first post of this thread.

We wish we could have been there but we had registered for a highly competitive Pirate Invitational up here being held on the same day, and we are certainly looking forward to it, but we will miss the hospitality of the University of Maryland and the excellent competition your field possesses. Naturally, we wish everyone well and we hope to see everyone sometime later in the year.

Field bump - right now we're up to 15 teams, which means spots are definitely still available.

I/The team will send periodic tweets about our experiences at this tournament (I know, no question content) at http://twitter.com/RMQuizbowl

Carangoides ciliarius wrote:In addition, i wanted to make this clear, our far-and-away best player and team captain Alexa won't be making this trip this day, so if there is any bracketing (although with the small field it looks like a full round robin now i guess), basically you can pretend that we're like a CR B instead of our real A Team. Just throwing that out there.

I just want to reiterate this point, for Maryland guys who are trying to make good brackets, now that we have enough teams to do that. The CR team will be vastly undermanned considering we're very heavily weighing on one player this year who won't be there. So, position a team in these brackets that you anticipate getting like 10-12ppb and that'll be us on Saturday. It will be a humbling day.

Hey, what's the room number for that one auditorium we usually meet in at the Armory? Or will we be meeting elsewhere?

We'll be meeting in Armory 0135. Registration will run from 8:15 - 8:45, with rounds starting as close to 9:00 am as possible.

Batsteve wrote:Registration will run from 8:30 - 9:00, with the first round starting as soon after as feasible.

DumbJacques wrote:Registration will run from 8:15 - 8:45, with rounds starting as close to 9:00 am as possible.

Thanks for pointing that out, John - the first post has now been updated. We decided we'd show up and let teams register a bit earlier due to the parking situation. The tournament's start time is unaffected.

The field has now settled at 18, though if you really want to rush in a very very very last minute registration I'll try to make it work. We're looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow.

A helpful email from Coach Schuman from Quince Orchard reminds me to share the ancient art of grabbing lunch in College Park:

First and foremost, everyone is inexpressibly encouraged NOT TO DRIVE to lunch, as you would thus be giving up your parking space during a football Saturday. The two places you'd go for food anyway (explained below) can be reached by a very short walk from the Armory anyway. If walking to lunch presents a serious logistical problem for your team, please contact me immediately and we'll make sure we can work something out.

Your two best options for lunch are:

Route 1: From the Armory, Route 1 is extremely walkable (3-5 minutes) - the best place for food is the shopping center with the CVS, located just past campus (assuming you're driving down towards the university from the route 1 495 exit). There are places on both the near and far side of the street - Potbelly's, Chipotle, Noodles Co., Jason's Deli, 7-11 if you're feeling masochistic, Subway, a smoothie place, etc. etc. Walking form the Armory, it's swiftest to make a left on Regents (the road Armory is closest to) and follow it right to that shopping plaza. I'd definitely recommend this option, but but also quite doable is

Stamp Student Union: Stamp can be reached by walking up campus drive away from the main entrance - if you've been to a tournament in Jimenez Hall before, it's right across the street from that building and very findable on the university map. Like Route 1, it's just a few minutes of walking from Armory. You can reach it by heading towards the M, making a left at the M and heading up Campus Drive (a road up a slight hill; you can't miss it), and passing a huge courtyard to reach a large, dorically-assertive building with "Stamp Student Union Building" plastered on the front of it. Highlights of Stamp include Panda Express, Chick-fil-A, McDonald's, Taco Bell, a *very* questionable sushi place (do you need help studying for those salmonella questions????), Sbarro's, Salad Works, and a deli-ish outfit. There's also the dirty hippie co-op on the bottom floor of Stamp, which has good sandwiches but is filled with dirty hippies. The bottom floor of Stamp also includes a hippie-free Subway (not to mention bowling and an arcade featuring NBA Jam 2000).


As far as the tournament goes, I'm playing around with the exact format as we speak - as in all years in recent memory, we'll be using tiered playoff brackets with full consolation rounds run for the entire field (as noted in SteveJon's initial post). While the SGA has once again denied our budget request for large gentlemen of Eastern European descent to stand around and prevent teams from leaving early, we definitely encourage everyone to stay for their playoff rounds - they'll be the most competitive for all teams, and are essentially free quizbowl since you'll have already paid the entry fee.

I have eaten at the questionable sushi place many times and have not yet contracted salmonella. That said, because it is not a weekday, the sushi place, the Taco Bell, the cheesesteak place that may or may not exist, the Saladworks, and maybe the Sbarro's will be closed. [Your choices at Stamp are Panda Express, the McDonald's, and the Chick Fil-A.]

DumbJaques wrote: As far as the tournament goes, I'm playing around with the exact format as we speak

Three brackets of six with crossovers of two?

A hilariously late (~16 hours before the tournament) drop has opened up a field spot in our schedule - if any teams are able to bring extra players for a scab team/would be interested in donating backup players to such an effort (or, I suppose, could somehow generate an entire additional team at 9:30 on Friday night), you are very welcome to do so free of charge.

Ha, unbelievable. Hope things still go well tomorrow.

The tournament is still wrapping up, but here are the pre-lunch stats:

http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org= ... =standings

RM beat St. Anselm's in the final, TJ got third and GDS finished 4th. After that I think it was like WJ, TJ B, RM B, Gonzaga but I'm not too sure.

It was a pretty epic finale with some intense protesting in the RM-TJ game and the triangle of death.

The playoffs of this tournament provided some of the most close, exciting quizbowl I've ever played. I'm greatly looking forward to the rest of the year in the DC area. Many thanks to Maryland for getting this thing run smoothly and quickly so I could get to that wedding.

I have a feeling that RM, TJ, and St. Anselm's are going to be beating the crap out of each other all season this year.

Prof.Whoopie wrote:The playoffs of this tournament provided some of the most close, exciting quizbowl I've ever played. I'm greatly looking forward to the rest of the year in the DC area. Many thanks to Maryland for getting this thing run smoothly and quickly so I could get to that wedding.

I could go for more tournaments that include games that come down to the last few tossups like the games we had.

Self-incompatibility in plants wrote:I have a feeling that RM, TJ, and St. Anselm's are going to be beating the crap out of each other all season this year.

And then Gov's gonna show up and beat all of us haha

Wurzel-Flummery wrote:

Self-incompatibility in plants wrote:I have a feeling that RM, TJ, and St. Anselm's are going to be beating the crap out of each other all season this year.

And then Gov's gonna show up and beat all of us haha

Some things never change...

When will the rest of the stats be posted?

Congratulations to Richard Montgomery A, who emerged form a circle of death with St. Anselm's and Thomas Jefferson A to win the 2010 Maryland Fall Invitational. Full stats, including playoff brackets, are available at
http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org= ... =standings - the stats should display the correct final placement for this tournament, though let me know if that's not correct somewhere.

Following a double round-robin in the playoff brackets, RM A, St. Anselm's, and TJ A found themselves in a three-way tie. A ranking of the teams based on ppg advanced RM to the finals while St. Anselm's defeated TJ in the play-in game. Numerous close games between all three teams then culminated with RM claiming the title over St. Anselm's, 355-225.

I had the pleasure of reading a number of outstanding games at this tournament, which was probably the most entertaining of my moderating career. My only regret, expressed mostly to TJ, was that the final playoff round ended up being decided so contentiously in the wake of the several poorly (POORLY) conceived and protest-inducing tossups and my own failure to promptly adjudicate a rules question. I'm pretty confident the procedurally correct outcome was reached, but it was an unfortunate way for the game to end. Rest assured I'll be emailing NAQT about the tossup(s) in question.


Lastly, I want to say how happy I was that every single team stayed for the duration of the tournament. It made me happy, on the inside.

Actually, one more thing, everyone:

The next time you get the urge to register a team for a tournament only to drop out approximately 12-16 hours before the event is scheduled to start, please reconsider the life choices that have led you to this road. Take a walk, go for some ice cream, maybe do a little power yoga - anything you need to do to clear your head of whatever it was that made nonsense like that seem like a reasonable idea at the time. Then, rather than registering for a tournament and dropping out Friday evening, choose not to do that.

DumbJaques wrote:the several poorly (POORLY) conceived and protest-inducing tossups

Please do email me about this; we'll make appropriate fixes before the set is used again.

bt_green_warbler wrote:

DumbJaques wrote:the several poorly (POORLY) conceived and protest-inducing tossups

Please do email me about this; we'll make appropriate fixes before the set is used again.

What should I do with my copy of this set that was bafflingly mailed to me earlier this week for our tournament in mid-October?

Wow. Despite the close finals, RM had an average margin of victory 60 points higher than any other team. But that was probably due to the fact that their preliminary opponents totaled a combined 65 points against RM.

This tournament was very humbling, but overall very fun.

This was a really well-run tournament. I wish we would not have sucked so badly, but that says something about the caliber of the region here i guess as well.

DumbJaques wrote:Lastly, I want to say how happy I was that every single team stayed for the duration of the tournament. It made me happy, on the inside.

This is in direct contrast to last year's tournament where nearly every team-- I can think of only one exception-- that did poorly in the prelims left at rebracketing. The result was that the bottom tier of teams actually got to play others with similar abilities and perhaps increase their ability to learn things throughout the tournament.

I attribute this directly to the initial scheduling scheme-- four brackets of four teams for a 3-round single round robin followed by four (re-)brackets of four teams for a double round robin. Although we could argue this may have perhaps not been sufficient enough to determine the top bracket, the benefit was that teams got to spend the majority of the day playing teams near to their own strengths.

This is in direct contrast to last year's tournament where nearly every team-- I can think of only one exception-- that did poorly in the prelims left at rebracketing. The result was that the bottom tier of teams actually got to play others with similar abilities and perhaps increase their ability to learn things throughout the tournament.

I attribute this directly to the initial scheduling scheme-- four brackets of four teams for a 3-round single round robin followed by four (re-)brackets of four teams for a double round robin. Although we could argue this may have perhaps not been sufficient enough to determine the top bracket, the benefit was that teams got to spend the majority of the day playing teams near to their own strengths.

Yeah, I'm sure that was a factor, although I think I've seen a team leave after three games once before. Really, I don't think that three rounds is ideal to sort teams for playoffs, and certainly not when it's the beginning of the year and making super-accurate predictions from 1-16 is nigh impossible when drawing up prelim brackets. It was simply the best possible schedule available to us with 16 squads - all others maximized games of no particular importance and minimized the tournament-deciding games to a couple of rounds. I'll always err on the side of giving teams a higher percentage of games against like opponents - I'm glad teams seemed to be happy with that opportunity on Saturday.

I was a bit disappointed at the sparse attendance of this event - it sort of seems like the teams who would show up and leave early at tournaments a few years ago are now just not coming at all. Maryland's planning on hosting a second high school event sometime in November/December, so if anyone has suggestions for reaching out to teams (either specific squads, or in general) who weren't able to make it to this event, I'd really like to hear from you via post/email.

Was/will this event be certified by PACE?

I have just been informed that this tournament has received Platinum certification from PACE, meaning our top 6 teams (RM A, St. Anselm's, TJ A, GDS, Walter Johnson, TJ B) have qualified as such for the NSC. Congratulations, guys.