Metro-Richmond Invitational 2 (1/11/14; New Kent, VA)

[MDUCK]

This is the general announcement for the 2014 Metro Richmond Invitational Tournament 2. This is a high school academic quizbowl tournament, to be held at New Kent High School on Saturday, January 11th from 8:30 AM until shortly after 4:30 PM.

LOCATION, DIRECTIONS, PARKING: The tournament will take place at New Kent High School, in New Kent County, Virginia located at 7365 Egypt Rd New Kent, Virginia 23124.

QUESTIONS: This year the tournament will be a mirror for the Brookwood Invitational Scholars Bowl, written by Adam Silverman, Mostafa Bhuiyan, Brady Weiler, and Kunal Naik. The structure of the question sets is:

4/4 Literature (1/1 American, 1/1 European, 1/1 British, and 1/1 World/Miscellaneous/more of the other three)
4/4 History (1/1 American, 1/1 European, 1/1 World, 1/1 More of the other three)
4/4 Science (1/1 Biology, 1/1 Chemistry, 1/1 Physics, 1/1 Other Science, including Non-computational Math, Computer Science, Earth Science, Astronomy, and History of Science)
3/3 Arts (1/1 Painting, 1/1 Compositional Music, 1/1 Other Arts, including Jazz, Opera, Art Film, Musical Theater, Sculpture, Photography, and Architecture)
1/1 Mythology
1/1 Religion and Philosophy (with a focus on Abrahamic religion)
1/1 Geography (with a focus on cultural clues)
1/1 Current Events (this will also include events from the last ten to fifteen years, not just last year)
1/1 Social Science and Mixture--This category will include a few cross-category common links as well as normal social sciences such as anthropology, psychology, and economics. We are also stressing civics, as we believe political science is an under-asked but very convertable and important topic that people learn in high school.

+ Tiebreakers from either Literature, History, or Science
There will be no power marks. All rounds will be 20 questions with 20 bonus sets.

AFFILIATION: This tournament will seek affiliation with the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence and and as such we expect it will be an opportunity to qualify for the National Scholastics Championship (pace-nsc.org), which will occur in June 2014.

FORMAT: This tournament will use the traditional tossup/bonus format. A round will consist of 20 tossups with correct tossup answers earning a team a bonus in which it can earn up to 30 additional points, usually broken into three questions each worth 10 points. Teams will be seeded to preliminary groupings before being reseeded based on record. All teams will be offered a minimum of 9 games. Trophies will be awarded to the top teams, and book prizes will be awarded to the top individual scorers. We reserve the right to cap the field based on availability of space and staff.

REGISTRATION AND FEES:
-The fee structure is as follows:
Base fee: $70 per team. There is no limit to the number of teams who can attend from one school.
Buzzer discount: $5 off school's total fee for each fully functional system (control box and eight activators all work)-no limit to # of systems you can bring
Early Registration Discount- Teams that register by December 13th will receive $5 off each team registered.
Staff discount: $10 off school's total fee. This could be a coach, parent, student who is not playing, etc. Team-provided staffers will keep score for various games not involving the team with which they are affiliated. Volunteer staffers must stay through all the games (except finals) in order to receive credit for their school. There is no limit to the number of staffers you can bring.
Travel: $10 off the school's fee for every 150 one-way miles traveled to New Kent High school between your school's address and New Kent High School according to Google Maps.
Minimum fee: The minimum fee is $0 (you can bring enough buzzers and staffers to eliminate your entire fee via discounts, but you cannot have a "negative fee.")

-To register, e- mail me at [email protected] with the number of teams, buzzers, and staffers you want to bring, and an email address where you can be contacted with details. We are also requiring a cell phone contact number belonging to someone who will be attending the tournament, so that we can track you down if you are running late. Feel free to share this announcement with any schools that you think would be interested in attending. There is no further registration form or other action needed on your part in order to be officially registered; you only need to e-mail me at that address with the information requested. Posts made in this thread will not be considered official registrations; you must e-mail me.

METHOD OF PAYMENT: All teams must pay by the day of the tournament. We prefer to accept payment in person right before the tournament starts, but we will accept checks by mail ahead of time if your procedures require it. Teams who do not pay by the day of the tournament will be charged a $25 penalty and will have two weeks to pay their total amount before we start mailing letters to your school administration about it.
We can accept cash, personal checks, or checks from school, school district, or quizbowl club funds. We have no ability to process purchase orders, credit cards, Paypal, or any other forms of payment. Bringing forms of payment outside of the three listed will be considered nonpayment and subject you to the $25 late payment penalty.
We will contact registered teams with instructions on who to make the checks out to. If you require a pre-tournament invoice in order to have a check cut, let us know by December 20th so that we can send you the paperwork in time. If you do not let us know about this requirement by December 20th, and it causes you to come to the tournament without your payment, then you will be subject to the $25 late payment penalty.

TEAM & ROSTER SIZE: There may be a maximum of six players on one team's roster, up to four of whom may play at one time. There will be no exceptions to this rule. If you bring more than six players, you must register a second team to have all of them play. There is a halftime substitution opportunity in each game. Each player may appear on only one team's roster throughout the day-no switching from the B team to the A team, etc. Teams may also play shorthanded with only three players. Teams consisting of fewer than three players may not play without my express prior permission.

FOOD: Breakfast will not be provided by the tournament. For lunch, Pizza, Drinks and various other snacks will be available in our cafeteria for a small fee so teams are encouraged to bring some cash for lunch.

Please e-mail me if you have any further questions. I'm looking forward to seeing a wide variety of teams from Virginia and surrounding states on the 11th.

[MDUCK]

Current Field (Teams/Buzzers/Staffers):

Clover Hill (2/2/0)
Douglas Freeman (1/2/1)
Oakland Mills (1/1/0)
Richard Montgomery (2/2/1)
Western Albemarle (1/1/0)

House Team (1)

Total: (8/9/2)

[VishnuRachakonda]

Eleanor Roosevelt is interested in sending 2 teams, but will this tournament still be on? Registration seems a bit thin

[Off To See The Lizard]

Eleanor Roosevelt is interested in sending 2 teams, but will this tournament still be on? Registration seems a bit thin

It's more than a month away from the tournament and more teams will usually sign up as we get closer to the date. Don't worry about thin registration right now

[VishnuRachakonda]

Eleanor Roosevelt is interested in sending 2 teams, but will this tournament still be on? Registration seems a bit thin

It's more than a month away from the tournament and more teams will usually sign up as we get closer to the date. Don't worry about thin registration right now

Cool thanks. As stated earlier, ER may be interested in sending a team or two.

[MDUCK]

I'm pleased to announce that we received Platinum certification from PACE!

We still have plenty of room in the field so if you're interested in attend be sure to sign up soon!

[Beevor Feevor]

Can we get a field update if additional teams have signed up? Not that the field doesn't have stellar competition, but having only 9 teams in a Virginia tournament strikes me as kinda small.

[MDUCK]

Can we get a field update if additional teams have signed up? Not that the field doesn't have stellar competition, but having only 9 teams in a Virginia tournament strikes me as kinda small.

Everything is up to date. Teams should expect a logistics email from me by Wednesday. if you're still interested in attending and haven't registered yet please do so as we have plenty of room.

[MDUCK]

Congratulations to Western Albemarle for sweeping the field to finish 10-0 winning the tournament. Richard Montgomery A and Oakland Mills finished 2nd and 3rd. Major thanks to George Berry, Andrew Feist, Eric El-Dada, and Nathaniel Boughner for moderating the tournament.

Stats can be found here:
http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/1696/

[The Stately Rhododendron]

Thanks for hosting this! Finishing 11 games by 4 was really impressive.