We are pleased to announce that the
Third Annual BrainBusters Fall Quizbowl Tournament will take place at
Ithaca High School in Ithaca, New York, on Saturday, November 1st, 2014.
Final tournament registration will take place from 7:30 to 8:30 am on the day of the tournament, with simultaneous staff and team meetings to start at 8:30 and the first round of play to begin at 9 am. Exact format will be determined by the number of registered teams (there were 29 last year, although only 21 competed due to severe bad weather on the weekend of the tournament, which is the main reason that we've moved the tournament up a month to early November this year), but all teams will be guaranteed to play a minimum of
9 matches. Trophies will be awarded to the
top 4 teams overall and the Small School champion.
TO REGISTER FOR BRAINBUSTERS FALL 2014: Much simpler than the last two years. Just fill out the Google Form linked
here, and you're registered!
The format of the tournament will be -
timed- NAQT (due to the large number of expected registrations and the need to keep things running on time), but with 10-minute halves rather than 9-minute. There will be
no computational math questions (either tossup or bonus) in the tournament, so games will end when the 10 minutes are up in the second half, or the 23rd tossup-bonus cycle is completed (whichever comes first). All stats will be prorated per 20 tossups heard to compensate for different moderator reading speeds.
BrainBusters Fall will use NAQT question set
IS-140. As such, the top 15% of overall finishers (rounded up) will qualify for the
2015 NAQT High School National Championship Tournament in Rosemont, IL, and the top 15% of finishers among -small public schools- (using the NAQT definition of a public school with fewer than 500 students grades 10-12 and a non-competitive admissions policy) will qualify for the
2015 NAQT Small School National Championship Tournament (site and date to be determined soon). For the second straight year, BrainBusters Fall has received the highest possible certification, Platinum, from the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence, meaning the top 25% of the field qualify for the
2015 PACE National Scholastic Championship in Reston, VA.
In addition,
any team that plays BrainBusters Fall is encouraged and welcome to register for the first edition of the revived
American Academic Challenge (created by Brooks Sanders and I), an open 5-period format quizbowl tournament with a national field, to take place at the
Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel in Chattanooga, TN over Memorial Day Weekend of 2015. I'll be sending out info about our website for the AAC within the next couple of weeks, which will be integrated into the new BrainBusters Tournaments site.
REGISTRATION:
Registration will be open through the Wednesday before the tournament, October 29, 2014. There is a cap of
64 teams for this tournament, which may be a soft cap adjusted upward in the unlikely event we reach the cap. Schools may initially register as many teams as they like for BrainBusters Fall, but we reserve the right (again, unlikely to be used) to restrict school(s) to 2 teams should the need arise. Middle school players and teams are welcome to participate, with the caveat that they will be playing against high schoolers on high school questions. Teams with fewer than 4 players (all the way down to solo players) are also welcome to participate, since teams are always allowed to play short.
Once again, teams will register for BrainBusters Fall 2014 by using
this Google Form, which will be kept open until 12:01 am on October 30.
FEE SCHEDULE:
$75 per team base fee (note that this is per TEAM, not per school)
-$10 for each moderator or scorekeeper, no limit
-$5 for each working buzzer system, no limit, but we reserve the right to cut this discount off once we feel we have enough buzzers to properly run the tournament. In other words, it's first come, first served.
-$10 PER TEAM if your school has
not previously competed at BrainBusters Fall (in other words, if you're a new school wanting to bring 3 teams to compete, you get the $10 discount for each team you bring. The moderator and buzzer discounts are per school.)
There is
no minimum fee per school, meaning that it is theoretically possible to completely eliminate your fee by bringing enough people to read or score and enough buzzers, especially if you're a new school. No negative fees, however. :)
You'll notice that the staffer discount this year is larger than the buzzer discount. That's because, with timed games, it is absolutely
mandatory that we have 2 staffers for every game room in the tournament, so that readers don't waste clock time trying to score simultaneously. Therefore, if there is ANY way you can possibly take this discount (by bringing parents, teachers or non-playing students along), please do so. Buzzers, of course, are always helpful as well. :)
METHOD OF PAYMENT:
Once I receive your registration via the
Google Form , I will e-mail you with the amount that your school owes. Payment can be by cash, check or credit card/Paypal on the day of the tournament, or by check in advance. We prefer advance payment if at all possible, but will accept payment on the day of the tournament. Please make all checks out to "Scott Blish", and, if paying by check, please mail the check to:
Scott Blish
93 Newfield Depot Road
Newfield, NY 14867
FOOD:
There will be bagels, donuts and juice available for teams during the registration period and team meeting on November 1. For lunch, we would prefer if teams stayed on-site at the school to prevent delays, as the nearest restaurants to IHS are 2+ miles away in sometimes heavy and unpredictable Ithaca traffic. Although we will certainly be offering lunch packages and beverages for sale on-site again this year, the exact arrangements as to vendor have yet to be made; once they are, we will communicate that information to you and take your team's orders so that we can get all of that relatively squared away before 11/1.
We look forward to seeing all of you on November 1 for a great day of quizbowl!
--Scott and Becky Blish, co-Tournament Directors, BrainBusters Fall 2014