ANNOUNCEMENT: 2004 Maryland High School Fall Invitational

[The Goffman Prophecies]

The University of Maryland Academic Quiz Team is pleased to announce its annual Maryland Invitational tournament. This year, it will be held at the University of Maryland - College Park on Sunday, October 3rd. Every team is guaranteed to play five games in a bracketed round-robin format, and the top 16 teams advance to a seeded single elimination playoff. In addition, the top four teams will automatically qualify for the PACE National Scholastics Championship to be held at Valencia Community College in Orlando, Florida on June 11-12, 2005. The games will be played in a variation on the It's Academic format, with each game consisting of five rounds, similar to the television show.

The field will be divided into multiple brackets. Each bracket will play a round-robin format, with up to 10 teams in each bracket, though the actual distribution will depend on the number of teams registered. You may have four players playing at any one time (not just three, although you may play shorthanded).

The format of each game will follow closely to the It's Academic game show, with noted changes as follows:
· Round 1 will consist of a 10 question category round -- all the answers in this round will begin with a common letter
· Round 2 will be untimed, with 6 directed questions for each team to answer
· Round 3 features another 10-question category round, though wish a separate theme -- for example, Supreme Court Justices; this is in lieu of the visual round on the TV show
· Round 4 will be more directed questions – this time each team has 90 seconds to answer 8
· Round 5 will feature 15 'grab bag' tossup questions

Registration will start at 8 am. There will be a rules meeting at 9 am and play will begin shortly thereafter. Please note that it is imperative that all teams arrive no later than 8:45 so that play can begin on schedule. There will be a break for lunch, and the preliminary rounds should end at approximately 3 pm, with the top 16 teams advancing to the seeded playoff. Trophies will be given to the first and second place teams.

The cost is $45 for the first team you send, $40 for each additional team, and a $10 discount per working buzzer system you bring (bring as many as you like). A question set that will be emailed shortly after the tournament can be purchased for $10. Please make checks payable to the Maryland Academic Quiz Team.

The registration deadline will be September 24, 2004. Registrations before this date will be accepted on a first come, first serve basis. All registrations after September 24th will be placed on a waitlist, and will be allowed to play depending on space and schedule availability.

Please contact me at dgoff at umd dot edu with any questions, or to register your team. I will also be sending out an announcement via snail mail with a registration form that can be returned.

Sincerely,
Dan Goff
Tournament Director, 2004 Maryland High School Fall Invitational

Edited to clarify the number of questions in each round.

[Pistachio]

Is there any way you could move the date? I was just about to make a post announcing that TJ was moving its NAQT tournament date to October 2nd, as we had not received any responses for our original date (September 11th). It would be best if we had our tournaments on separate weekends...I doubt many teams would agree to come to two tournaments on one weekend. I apologize for not posting about our date change earlier, but we only just received confirmation from the higher-ups.

[Howard]

What's your desire, Pistachio? While both tournaments will likely have less local participation while on adjacent Sat/Sun, they are now more attractive to out of town teams who can get two tournaments in one weekend of travel. The last time U of M held their tournament on the Sunday immediately after another tournament, I believe there were two or three well known schools who showed up because they could play in both. I think it may have even been a TJ tournament.

[The Goffman Prophecies]

Just so there is no confusion, the tournament is still scheduled for October 3rd. I've begun sending out invitations, and will send the rest once I return from vacation.

If your school is outside of the Metro DC/Baltimore area and would like an invitation, please email me at dgoff at umd dot edu and I'll make sure your school receives the registration information.

[The Goffman Prophecies]

Just a reminder that the registration deadline is this coming Friday.

Here's the field as it stands now:
ER (2)
Gonzaga
Gilman-Bryn Mawr
Southern (Harwood, MD) (2)
Resevoir
Baltimore Polytechnic
Howard
Blake
Pikesville
Quince Orchard (2)
Herndon
Hayfield (2)
Hammond (2)
Seton Hall Prep
Patapsco

We still have plenty of room, so please contact me if your school is interested.

[Howard]

I e-mailed last Thursday to enter and haven't received a reply, and we don't seem to be on the list. I'm looking to enter one team from Howard High School. We'll bring one buzzer. Please confirm here or mail to jglibboatyahoodotcom. Please also email details about when/where to arrive, etc.

[The Goffman Prophecies]

I apologize that you haven't received a confirmation email, though I thought I sent you one last week (and I sent another a few minutes ago, just to be sure).

You're on the list, and we'll see you on the 3rd. Details to follow as soon as we shore up room arrangements.

[Howard]

Thanks, Dan. Got your reply.

[The Goffman Prophecies]

I apologize for the extremely late notice, however due to site scheduling issues we are rescheduling the Maryland High School Invitational tournament to Sunday, October 10.

As such, I am extending the registration deadline an additional week, to Friday, October 1.

Again, I apologize for the late notice, but we were just able to get everything straightened out this afternoon, and make sure we have a place to play.

We hope to still be able to see everyone in College Park on the 10th!

[Marcel Duchamp]

got an updated list of who is coming?

[The Goffman Prophecies]

got an updated list of who is coming?

Sure do.

Eleanor Roosevelt 2
Gonzaga
Gilman - Bryn Mawr
Southern (Harwood, MD) 2
Resevoir
Baltimore Polytechnic
Howard
Blake
Pikesville
Quince Orchard 2
Herndon
Hayfield 2
Seton Hall Prep (NJ)
Hammond 2
Dulaney 2
Friendly 2
Boonsboro
Catonsville 2
Atholton 2
Calvert Hall 2
Episcopal
Einstein
CH Flowers 2
Walt Whitman 2
Wilde Lake
Walter Johnson 2
DeMatha 2
Mongtomery Blair 2
Centennial 2
Kellenberg (NY) 2
Churchill
Total: 48

Amazingly, I never heard from either TJ or Richard Montgomery one way or the other. There's still room if either of the schools would like to send teams. :)

Edit: Atholton has added a 2nd team, so we're up to 48.