The Quizbowl Resource Center

The Seton Hall Preparatory School Quiz Bowl Team is proud to announce the return of the Pirate Open! The 2012 iteration will be held on the campus of Seton Hall Prep (120 Northfield Avenue, West Orange, NJ 07052) on Saturday, September 29. The tournament will be played on NAQT 119-A.

Seton Hall Preparatory School is conveniently located off Route 280 in West Orange, NJ, easily accessible from the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway, Route 80, and Route 78. The school is approximately 20-25 minutes west of Manhattan.

The initial field-cap will be set at 24. As space permits, that cap may be increased. The format of the tournament will be 20-20 untimed with bracketed round-robin preliminary play and re-bracketed round-robin playoffs.

The fee structure for the tournament is as follows:

$55 for the first team
$45 for each additional team
-$5 per working buzzer system
-$10 per experienced moderators (if needed - we hope to run this tournament without needing coaches to read)

A full set of the questions will be distributed at the conclusion of the tournament to each registered school. As per NAQT, the top 15% of teams will qualify for HSNCT next May in Atlanta. Also, as the field develops, PACE certification will also be sought.

As this will be the first tournament for many teams in the NJ/NY area, this will be a great opportunity to "get your teams in shape" for the upcoming season. Also, because this tournament is so early in the year, please do not worry about sending payment in advance or bringing a check with you - payment can be arranged at your convenience.

To register, please e-mail tournament director Michael T. Zinsmeister at [email protected]. Please include "Pirate Open" in the subject heading. (Formal registration forms will be sent upon request.)

We look forward to seeing you at The Prep on September 29!

- MTZ

Registered: 32

MAST (NJ) x2 (1 moderator)
St. Joe's (NJ) x3 (2 buzzers, 1 moderator)
Ridgewood (NJ) X3 (multiple buzzers, 2moderators)
Phoenixville (PA) X2
North Babylon (NY) X1 (2 buzzers, 1 moderator)
Pingry (NJ) X2 (1 buzzer)
Mountain Lakes (NJ) X2 (1 moderator)
Livingston (NJ) X2 (2 buzzers)
Kellenberg (NY) X2 (3 buzzers, 1 moderator)
High Tech (NJ) X4 (2 buzzers)
Northmont (OH) X1 (1 moderator)
Ranney (NJ) X2 (1 moderator)
Hunter (NY) X2 (2 buzzers, 2 moderators)
East Brunswick (NJ) X1 (1 buzzers)
Bronx Science (NY) X1
St. Peter's Prep (NJ) X1

Pending: Irvington (NY)


(Edited for field updates.)

Saint Joe's will bring 2 teams, 2 buzzers and 1 moderator. I will send a formal registration ASAP.

Ridgewood will bring two teams and one buzzer system.

Hi Michael:

I'm not 100% sure what my schedule is for that weekend yet (I have 5 adopted children, ages 13 to 3, and don't know if my wife has planned anything for them that weekend), but if you're in need of an extra experienced moderator for the Sept. 29 tournament, I might be able to come down for the day and help you out. I moderated at last year's HSNCT in Atlanta and will do so this year for MasterMinds in upstate New York, and have extensive experience in moderating in both the NAQT and modified ACF formats. Drop me a line in the next few days if you're interested; my family and I are on a vacation in Northern Canada at the moment so my net usage is very limited, but we should be home by Sunday night so I can answer you then.

--Regards. Scott Blish

At what time do you expect the tournament to end?

Ending time entirely depends upon field size and thus, final structure. If we can give each team @ 10 rounds, we should be done by 5:00 or 5:30.

Bump.

Ranney will be coming, likely with 1 team and no buzzers or moderators, but I do not think we have received registration yet.

karav0 wrote:Ridgewood will bring two teams and one buzzer system.

Make that however many buzzers you need/we can get a discount for. I'll be there to help out however you need it - and Ridgewood very well might get more teams to come to this too, depending on signups.

Michael,
Is there still room for the tournament on the 29th? I have just returned from medical leave of absence and saw that your tournament is on Sept. 29.
Our kids just came back yesterday and it was the first time I was able to let them now the scheduled tournaments for this year. If we can get enough of our team together, we would be bringing at least one team and one buzzer system. I will know on Friday for sure.
Please note that at our BATE Tournament last year, I informed all who participated and also sent out a save the date for 2013 of March 2. There was some confusion when I was out with putting our activities calendar together for 2012-2013, and our VP put down March 16 for us. I tried all summer to get it fixed back to March 2, but wasn't able to do so until this past Tuesday, so our BATE tournament is where it was supposed to be in the first place for 2013.

Caryn

User was reminded to enable a signature. --Mgmt

Irvington (NY) would like to express interest for 1-3 teams.

The "formal" registration document is now available. Please e-mail me at [email protected] to request.

High Tech (the one in southern NJ) will be coming with 3-4 teams and 2 buzzer systems.

Kevin - I just contacted Dr. Eng. As soon as I get confirmation from him, I will move High Tech from "interested" to "registered".

Kellenberg will attend with 2-3 teams, 3 buzzers and 1 moderator.

So ... as of this morning, the field has reached its initial cap of 24. (A waitlist has been started and numerous teams remain on the "interested" side of the fence.)

I am more than willing to increase the field size to 28 or even 32, but ony should there be sufficient qualified moderators. Several teams have offered their more experienced players (who prefer not to play an "A" packet) or even alumni as moderators. If any of these individuals are willing to commit to read, I will gladly open up more slots in the field.

If any team is still listed as "interested" and has a more definitive answer, please let me know as soon as possible!

Cheers!

- MTZ

Northmont is from Ohio- I am trying to see if I can find a moderator who can come with us if that could help us into the field. I will let you know ASAP if I am able to round someone up.

If we are able to get in, we would not be bringing Sam Blizzard, as we would be using this tournament to help solidify the rest of our varsity players. (I knew someone would ask at some point since we have played several of these teams in the past and know other players and coaches in the region quite well!)

David,

Sorry about that! (I think I remember a Northmont New York from yearsd past! I will fix it for you!)

I will e-mail you shortly.

- MTZ

We will definitely now open to 28. Please advise me if still interested and please let me know about moderators as well.

- MTZ

SInce spots are filling up quick I guess you can put down Irvington for 2 teams and 1-2 buzzer systems.

"I guess" does not exactly instill confidence ... When do you think that you might have a more concrete answer?

Ranney will be coming with two teams, no moderator, and no buzzers.

User was reminded to enable a signature.

I can say for sure that we will bring at least one team but we probably wont bring more than three. In terms of a concrete answer, I'll definitely have one by Tuesday if not earlier.

How many spots in the field are left?

Difficult to say at this point. Several schools are tentative with numbers at this point. It is looking to be a field of 30 or 32 at this point. I will update again tomorrow night. Now the key is securing enough readers!

Thanks.
We are definite with two teams and our registration letter has been sent.

Confirmation e-mail with details will be sent to all registered/interested teams this afternoon or evening. Field is still a bit fluid. I will be asking all coaches/teams to provide confirmation of number of teams/buzzers/moderators at that time.

Registration will be from 7:30-8:15 AM with Round 1 set to begin by 8:30 AM.

Cheers!

- MTZ

Wit the additional of St. Peter's Prep, the field is now both full and closed. (See above)

If anyone registered has not yet heard from me regarding tournament details, please contact me as soon as possible. One final e-mail will be sent out tomorrow evening.

We can't wait to see you at The Prep on Saturday!

- MTZ

VERY brief results ...

Thanks to all the teams, staff, and volunteers who came out today. Despite a catastrophic computer glitch during the playoff round robin which forced us to hand tabulate results, we still finished 10 rounds for all teams and 11 for the top eight. Please accept my heartfelt apologies for the delay at the end. A full analysis as to what happened will commence on Monday!

1st: St. Joe's A
2nd: Kellenberg A

Full results, prelim stats, and quick analysis to be posted tomorrow.

Gratias vobis ago!

- MTZ

Thanks to Mike and Seton Hall Prep for running this on several levels. First, it's always great to have a September date on the calendar in the NY/NJ area, and to see 32 teams was a great turnout for the first tournament of the year. Secondly, running a tournament two days after your wife gives birth sets a pretty high bar on the dedication level. Congratulations, and thanks for keeping this going when postponing would have been more than understandable! Ridgewood had a great time. Congratulations to St. Joe's for winning and the other top teams too - when everyone is at full strength it seems like the area is going to be very competitive among quite a few schools, which should mean for lots of great competition throughout the year.

Thanks Mr. Zinsmeister for the well run tournament and I hope the corrupt file didn't put your stats operation too far behind. Congratulations on your newborn child.

I would like to join Willie in publicly congratulating Coach Zinsmeister on the birth of his new daughter, Elizabeth Hope Zinsmeister, and, of course, thank him profusely for taking time out of his very busy life to run another excellent Pirate Invitational. Thanks also to all the SHP students who volunteered to help, whether as ambassadors, readers or scorers, and, finally thanks to all the moderators who volunteered their time to read. As a reader myself I was very impressed with the high quality of play throughout the day. I know stats are not yet up, but before the computer crashed we did have hard copies of the preliminary stats for all 7 prelim rounds and it seemed like at least 10 teams, if not more, exceeded 20PPB, which is an exceptional result, with as many as 5 or 6 even exceeding 22 PPB, if my memory is accurate here. It was thus also clear that this region has a significant number of high calibre teams, which suggests that we will have many very competitive tournaments in this region in the coming months, and I suspect all of these teams will be jockeying back & forth for pre-eminence throughout the year. So, thanks again, SHP, especially Coach Z., for allowing everyone who participated to have such a good time last Saturday and to gain a somewhat better sense of our region as a whole in the process.

Congrats on your quiz baby! I'm sure shell finish high in this year's hsquizbaby rankings.

I want to thank Coach Zinsmeister for an excellent tournament. We made the 10 hour trek to New Jersey to try and break in some new players and give some of our new kids a chance to travel, and were very happy with how we treated and how well things were organized. Readers were fantastic all day, and everything until the computer crash was very timely. And while it was an A-set tournament, I was thrilled to have one of our up and coming players in the top three scorers, and it really helped me identify who will round out our varsity team this year. For any teams looking for an early season tournament in this future, I would strongly recommend this tournament. I plan to bring our full varsity out next year so we can give it another go!

After several hours of rebuilding, stats are now complete and may be found at http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/1089/.

A more detailed post mortem tomorrow.

Cheers!

I want to join in the praise for this tournament, and to thank Mike and the guys from Seton Hall Prep for having me as a reader and commend them for putting on an excellent tournament that went off without a hitch (except for the technical issue at the end, which really had no effect on the tournament experience as a whole). While I attended this tournament partially because I also happened to be visiting family in the area that weekend, I had such a good time and was so impressed with how things ran that I will certainly be coming back in future years to help out if Mike will have me, and will be highly recommending this tournament to schools in my region of upstate New York that are willing to travel. The efficiency that it was run with, and the fact that it's a September tournament played on an A-set, makes this a perfect tournament, in my opinion, for newer players to get experience in competitive quizbowl, and I will be emulating many aspects of this tournament in our local tournaments this year in upstate New York.

I'd also like to once again congratulate Mike on the birth of his daughter, and express my admiration for the dedication of someone who ran a tournament this good on very little sleep at such a stressful (yet happy) juncture in his life. I'd also like to express my admiration for the patience of his wife, since if I had been in an analogous situation and went to run a quizbowl tournament two days after my daughter's birth, my wife would've constructed a gallows in my absence and placed my head in the noose when I sneaked in the door when I got home. :)

--Scott

I also wanted to say that any of the teams that played in this tournament that would be willing to come to upstate New York to play in our tournaments are welcome to do so.

From some of the discussion, I see that a bunch of teams were not at full strength. What letters should I be using for each of these teams in my rankings?

From some of the discussion, I see that a bunch of teams were not at full strength. What letters should I be using for each of these teams in my rankings?

Unless you plan on using A- and B+, pretty much all of the teams seemed close enough to full strength and not severely depleted. The sole exception being Hunter A and B which were probably closer to Hunter B and C if not C and D.

The Northmont team featured one varsity player- she is our second best player. The other three were JV players auditioning for varsity spots. Our best player and our other varsity players were not there.

ProfessorIanDuncan wrote:if not C and D.

Yeah this is right. Our A and B teams are all off to SHP and Science Bowl, so everyone who ended up coming to this was from our C/D teams.

The Northmont team featured one varsity player- she is our second best player. The other three were JV players auditioning for varsity spots. Our best player and our other varsity players were not there.

I was only thinking of it in a NY/NJ regional sense but yeah Northmont was about at a B team level

Hunter was at nowhere near full strength, as Marianna said. I didn't moderate a Northmont game all day, but apparently Sam wasn't there so it wasn't exactly Northmont A playing either. Mountain Lakes A looked extremely impressive in the morning bracket that I was working, but I didn't see them in the afternoon, and it looks like they fell off against top-bracket competition some. The best game I worked all day was High Tech C coming back from a 90-210 deficit at halftime to beat East Brunswick in overtime, 310-285, with High Tech being 35 points behind going into the final tossup. East Brunswick negged it early, High Tech let me complete it, and just as I was calling "time", Katherine from High Tech buzzed in, waited a couple seconds, and gave one of the most tentative answers I've ever heard in quizbowl...so much so that you could actually hear her voice rising at the end of the word. Fortunately for her and High Tech, it was also the -correct- answer. Needing to sweep the bonus to win, they got 20 to tie, with a close but not-quite-acceptable answer on the potential winning bonus part. They then got 10 and 15 on the overtime questions to win it. I also moderated the 5th place match between Ranney A and Ridgewood A, which was more important than it sounds because it decided an automatic HSNCT qualifier. Ranney took a slim early lead and managed to hold it all the way to the end to claim 5th and the berth in Atlanta.

--Scott

For the record, Ridgewood A was missing one of its top players (Kara), and our top science specialist (Justin), so we only had two of our starting four (though Matt is right up there and may contend for a starting A team slot).