The Quizbowl Resource Center

Maryland 79

What

DumbJaques wrote:

Maryland 79

What

I will say this: I saw it with my own two eyes and twenty years from now will still not believe I saw what I saw. I know they are a really good team, and this performance does not change that.

I really give Florida a ton of credit for putting pressure on everyne in a tough room. They had 5 negs in their consolation round in the ten point round, and negged thrice more in the 15 point round..... they totally turned it around in this match: 4 5's; 5 10's; 6 15's; NO NEGS!


On a side note: I am proud that Team Illinois managed to recover from a horrendous demise last year, learn from their mistake, and play a great couple of games to win.

Congratulations, Team Illinois! I am so proud of you!

Congrats to Illinois and Missouri, the two states I currently live in.

Hooray for Illinois, and congrats to Missouri and others as well.

Bravo Illinois, and a hearty "Well done!" to Missouri and Florida, and, really every team there, because y'all got there in the first place.

I must say, Illinois's PAC title has been a long time coming. Congratulations!

Congratulations, Illinois! Tremendous work from the players and coaches. This really crowns an outstanding year of quizbowl in our state.

CoachJET wrote:Good job Team Florida! 4th, 2nd, and 3rd place over the last three years of PAC...perhaps next year will be the year we bring the title back home!

And congrats to Illinois and Missouri!

First off, congrats to team Illinois for the championship, and to all 6 teams for making the finals. It's hard enough at CAC (as a player my teams were 4th and 2nd in D1), so I'm sure it's crazy at PAC.

Now, from everything I see on this board, it seems like we (Florida) are generally absent from the world of quizbowl outside of PAC. Am I seeing things wrong? If I'm not, why is that?

charlieDfromNKC wrote:I must say, Illinois's PAC title has been a long time coming. Congratulations!

My great honor to make your and the rest of Big Mo's acquaintance .... besides showing a lot of class, you guys got the two biggest laughs of the weekend:

"Greg, that's the lamest joke ever!"

and

...let's just be grateful that Kansas wasn't there!

Congrats to Illinois.

Some observations:

(1) The trip was awesome, the format was whack. As much as I, or anyone else want to diss the format, the trip to the Disney Parks, and all the other goodies that came with the tournament were definitely worth it. If we only had a few more days to visit.

(2) Nobody told us we were supposed to be humorous in our team statement... they told us just to list the players... and the spotlight didn't even shine on us it was so bad.

(3) Montana cleaned up the raffle prizes.

(4) California's coach was by far the most attractive, followed closely by Dave Bykowski.

(5) I was here 4 days, and spent about 6 hours in the pool and didn't even remotely get rid of my Ohio hillbilly tan.

All kidding aside, I want to congratulate Illinois, Missouri, Florida, California, DC and Kentucky for a great performance. We fell 9 points short of joining that group.

Everyone have a great summer.

Hello, this is Emily from Florida. I am trying to find Charlie Dees from Missouri to ask him a question. So, Charlie Dees, if you read this, please send me an email at [email protected] . Thanks!

Hello, this is Emily from Florida. I am trying to find Charlie Dees from Missouri to ask him a question.

Ruh Roh!

I heard some stuff went on between Dees and Emily in the hot tub.

embily718 wrote:Hello, this is Emily from Florida. I am trying to find Charlie Dees from Missouri to ask him a question. So, Charlie Dees, if you read this, please send me an email at [email protected] . Thanks!

There's a Charlie Dees on this board?

ohhhh dang chuq

embily718 wrote:Hello, this is Emily from Florida. I am trying to find Charlie Dees from Missouri to ask him a question. So, Charlie Dees, if you read this, please send me an email at [email protected] . Thanks!

charlieDfromNKC *might* be the person you're looking for. Or he could be a /b/tard imposter posing as him, we'll never know.

BobGHHS wrote: (1) The trip was awesome, the format was whack. As much as I, or anyone else want to diss the format, the trip to the Disney Parks, and all the other goodies that came with the tournament were definitely worth it. If we only had a few more days to visit.

(4) California's coach was by far the most attractive, followed closely by Dave Bykowski.

re: #1, I think Dave puts it best when he says that this is not quizbowl. If you expect quizbowl, you'll be disappointed. If you expect a competition and fun and Disney, you won't be (unless you're losing).

re: the first part of #4, is this coach male or female?

re: the second part of #4, mine! All mine! (and Bob, I like you, but why are you commenting on my husband's attractiveness?)

Some observations:
1. That girl from Indiana was by FAR the most beautiful quizbowl (or should I say academic challenge) player I've ever seen.
2. PAC was a lot of fun despite what people say about it. I'm looking forward to coming back next year to salvage our stained reputation.
3. I had $ 60,000 at the very end. Has anyone ever beat that?

Congrats to Illinois. They were good.

MrSchnippert wrote: Now, from everything I see on this board, it seems like we (Florida) are generally absent from the world of quizbowl outside of PAC. Am I seeing things wrong? If I'm not, why is that?

No, you're right. I'm not sure why...maybe teams that know about outside tournaments don't go because they're not used to a different format and then continue to be unfamiliar and not go, and the cycle continues? A lot of them don't seem to know what's out there. We tried to get more Florida teams to come to the PACE national championship when we had it in Orlando in 2005, but they just didn't seem interested for the most part.

Kechara wrote:

MrSchnippert wrote: Now, from everything I see on this board, it seems like we (Florida) are generally absent from the world of quizbowl outside of PAC. Am I seeing things wrong? If I'm not, why is that?

No, you're right. I'm not sure why...maybe teams that know about outside tournaments don't go because they're not used to a different format and then continue to be unfamiliar and not go, and the cycle continues? A lot of them don't seem to know what's out there. We tried to get more Florida teams to come to the PACE national championship when we had it in Orlando in 2005, but they just didn't seem interested for the most part.

Here are a couple of small observations:

1. Team Florida's PAC trip is totally paid for by private sponsors. It was State Farm for the five years before this year, and this year they had a new sponsor(s). So that's a big incentive for Florida to go to PAC (aside from the fact that we host the darn thing). And we typically do well there because we are so used to the format and very prepared for it.

2. Team Florida is an all-star team, selected at the CAC state tournament. But unlike PAC, most other tournaments--state and national--are for individual high schools. I guess most FL high schools just don't feel inclined to travel far during the season. I've always felt that FL quiz bowl is very insular; most FL teams go to nearby FL tournaments, or maybe to events in Georgia or Alabama. I don't really know why that is.

To be honest though, I feel that ultimately quiz bowl in FL just isn't as big as it is in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states. I hope that changes.

CoachJET wrote: I guess most FL high schools just don't feel inclined to travel far during the season. I've always felt that FL quiz bowl is very insular; most FL teams go to nearby FL tournaments, or maybe to events in Georgia or Alabama. I don't really know why that is.

To be honest though, I feel that ultimately quiz bowl in FL just isn't as big as it is in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states. I hope that changes.

That's the key here is the insular-ness. I can see a team from Miami not wanting to go to a tournament in South Carolina, but the northern Florida teams can fairly easily go outside FL, GA, and AL and still keep it to the same kind of distance that non-FL teams regularly travel. They just don't seem to care about doing so.

ecks wrote:

embily718 wrote:Hello, this is Emily from Florida. I am trying to find Charlie Dees from Missouri to ask him a question. So, Charlie Dees, if you read this, please send me an email at [email protected] . Thanks!

charlieDfromNKC *might* be the person you're looking for. Or he could be a /b/tard imposter posing as him, we'll never know.

None shall ever know.
And why would I want to give out my email? It's infinitely more amusing when people say what they have to on the board.

Billy Beyer, we ride 2gether, we die 2 gether homie.

Kechara wrote:

MrSchnippert wrote: Now, from everything I see on this board, it seems like we (Florida) are generally absent from the world of quizbowl outside of PAC. Am I seeing things wrong? If I'm not, why is that?

No, you're right. I'm not sure why...maybe teams that know about outside tournaments don't go because they're not used to a different format and then continue to be unfamiliar and not go, and the cycle continues? A lot of them don't seem to know what's out there. We tried to get more Florida teams to come to the PACE national championship when we had it in Orlando in 2005, but they just didn't seem interested for the most part.

My coaches just didn't care. They never mentioned anything to us, so we didn't know of anything. I actually would have gotten a third year at CAC if my coaches had just mentioned the tryouts to me my sophomore year. The format thing is the kicker. Other than the I-4 corridor teams (Daytona, Orlando, Lakeland, Tampa), no one else plays on their crappy format the rest of the year. Most districts are on much more traditional formats.

CoachJET wrote:

Kechara wrote:

MrSchnippert wrote: Now, from everything I see on this board, it seems like we (Florida) are generally absent from the world of quizbowl outside of PAC. Am I seeing things wrong? If I'm not, why is that?

No, you're right. I'm not sure why...maybe teams that know about outside tournaments don't go because they're not used to a different format and then continue to be unfamiliar and not go, and the cycle continues? A lot of them don't seem to know what's out there. We tried to get more Florida teams to come to the PACE national championship when we had it in Orlando in 2005, but they just didn't seem interested for the most part.

Here are a couple of small observations:

1. Team Florida's PAC trip is totally paid for by private sponsors. It was State Farm for the five years before this year, and this year they had a new sponsor(s). So that's a big incentive for Florida to go to PAC (aside from the fact that we host the darn thing). And we typically do well there because we are so used to the format and very prepared for it.

2. Team Florida is an all-star team, selected at the CAC state tournament. But unlike PAC, most other tournaments--state and national--are for individual high schools. I guess most FL high schools just don't feel inclined to travel far during the season. I've always felt that FL quiz bowl is very insular; most FL teams go to nearby FL tournaments, or maybe to events in Georgia or Alabama. I don't really know why that is.

To be honest though, I feel that ultimately quiz bowl in FL just isn't as big as it is in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states. I hope that changes.

While Team FL's trip is paid for, every district that pays for CAC shells out a TON of money. Our group had 5 rooms for 4 nights at 229 a night, plus 9 registrations at 375. That's $7955 before transportation and other meals. Not exactly chump change. Most of the D3 schools are single school teams, and a good number of other districts seem to be too (I know Broward has been all 4 years I was there, as one example). CAC has both the Disney factor and the fact that it is the 'official' event.

Kechara wrote:

CoachJET wrote: I guess most FL high schools just don't feel inclined to travel far during the season. I've always felt that FL quiz bowl is very insular; most FL teams go to nearby FL tournaments, or maybe to events in Georgia or Alabama. I don't really know why that is.

To be honest though, I feel that ultimately quiz bowl in FL just isn't as big as it is in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states. I hope that changes.

That's the key here is the insular-ness. I can see a team from Miami not wanting to go to a tournament in South Carolina, but the northern Florida teams can fairly easily go outside FL, GA, and AL and still keep it to the same kind of distance that non-FL teams regularly travel. They just don't seem to care about doing so.

This is a big factor. A team in Chicago that can travel 6 hours can get to 7 states and Ontario. A team in Miami can probably get to the GA border, if they don't hit a lot of traffic. From Jax, even 6 hours doesn't get to NC or to much of AL. We probably just need to do more to develop quiz bowl in Florida, so that teams can tune-up for national events on tournaments they can reach.

charlieDfromNKC wrote:

ecks wrote:

embily718 wrote:Hello, this is Emily from Florida. I am trying to find Charlie Dees from Missouri to ask him a question. So, Charlie Dees, if you read this, please send me an email at [email protected] . Thanks!

charlieDfromNKC *might* be the person you're looking for. Or he could be a /b/tard imposter posing as him, we'll never know.

None shall ever know.
And why would I want to give out my email? It's infinitely more amusing when people say what they have to on the board.

Billy Beyer, we ride 2gether, we die 2 gether homie.

Ok, what I'm trying to find out is if there is any way I can possibly latch onto a team for the Fun'N'Sun tournament. I tried to put my own team together, but nobody from my area wanted to drive 8 hours to go to a tournament, so I wasn't able to. I guess what I'm trying to ask is if you ahve an available space on your team because I noticed on the message board for that that you planned on attending. I could contribute financially to the registration and all that stuff. Thank you for your speedy reply!

I'm throwin' props to all the teams for making this a fun-filled time for myself (and hopefully for others on team MO as well).

Huge props to IL...you guys can't tell a decent joke to save your life, but you have some 1337 skillz, to be sure.

Oh, and to those who read this and (possibly?) care, I'm John from team Missouri. Chances are you'll only remember me for calling out Greg/Carlo's terrible peanut joke, but that's okay. I'm glad I at least did SOMETHING at this tourney, eh? ^_^

Fllorida people: If I'm not mistaken, there are several Florida universities that host tournaments. Bug your coaches to check these out!

But budgets might be a factor; this is why many Illinois tams don't travel.

I'm not going to Sun n' Fun now that I moved to St. Louis. However, this now means CO 4 chuq. Sun n' Fun should be good though.

embily718 wrote: Ok, what I'm trying to find out is if there is any way I can possibly latch onto a team for the Fun'N'Sun tournament. I tried to put my own team together, but nobody from my area wanted to drive 8 hours to go to a tournament, so I wasn't able to. I guess what I'm trying to ask is if you ahve an available space on your team because I noticed on the message board for that that you planned on attending. I could contribute financially to the registration and all that stuff. Thank you for your speedy reply!

Last I heard, DumbJaques still had space on his team.

MrSchnippert wrote: We probably just need to do more to develop quiz bowl in Florida, so that teams can tune-up for national events on tournaments they can reach.

Academic Initiative would gladly provide questions for tournaments in FL, including a very inexpensive set in the PACE format. http://www.aiquizbowl.com </plug>

David Riley wrote:Fllorida people: If I'm not mistaken, there are several Florida universities that host tournaments. Bug your coaches to check these out!

But budgets might be a factor; this is why many Illinois tams don't travel.

Well, I know that quite a few teams in the Panhandle go to the FSU and UF tournaments, but the problem is that they really don't go outside of Florida. Maybe to Brookwood in GA, but that's about it.

And yes, to be fair, FL is a big, long state. It takes 8 hours to get to Orlando from Pensacola. Miami of course is way further. So that complicates things. But still, our state should be more active and travel more...no doubt about that.

Florida is not unusual in playing its matches in-state. Over 99% of matches played by Illinois teams each year are inside the state of Illinois. I know of only four teams that left the state this year, and that includes one team that had a total round trip driving time under an hour and another team that rode with us in our van.

What makes Florida unusual is that it has a format that is very different than the rest of the country, so it is difficult for its teams to adjust to regular quizbowl, and it is difficult for teams from other states to adjust to its format.

ReinsteinD wrote:Over 99% of matches played by Illinois teams each year are inside the state of Illinois. I know of only four teams that left the state this year, and that includes one team that had a total round trip driving time under an hour and another team that rode with us in our van.

This is at least partially due to IHSA restrictions though, isn't it?

There have been issues with teams playing outside our season, which ends in March, but no with us playing outside our state.

Congratulations to the finalist teams and thank you to Team D.C. for keeping an area presence in the finals.

Quote:
Maryland 79

It was roughly analogous to falling out of a tree and hitting every branch on the way down.

ReinsteinD wrote:Florida is not unusual in playing its matches in-state. Over 99% of matches played by Illinois teams each year are inside the state of Illinois. I know of only four teams that left the state this year, and that includes one team that had a total round trip driving time under an hour and another team that rode with us in our van.

What makes Florida unusual is that it has a format that is very different than the rest of the country, so it is difficult for its teams to adjust to regular quizbowl, and it is difficult for teams from other states to adjust to its format.

I think the format difference is overemphasized and it's much more a matter of time and money.

Many of the students are on academic teams that play other formats, I'm not even certain most FL high school "quiz bowl type" teams use the PAC format (CoachJet could address that question for schools in our area). This year alone, my high schooler (member of Team Florida) was on her high school academic team, the science bowl team, the National Ocean Science Bowl team, the community college BrainBowl team, the Cox Cable team, and the county academic team (the only ones who go to CAC, at least from here), and my middle schooler was on the MathCounts team, Mu Alpha Theta, KnowledgeMasters, a middle school academic team, and the FL Jr Beta Club academic team (with most of which my high schooler volunteered, as well as being a former member) - as far as I know, these are all different formats.

As they didn't have a coach, my high schooler prepped the FL Jr Beta Club team for the national competition in 3 or 4 practices, she merely read the tournament rules at the first practice (there were supposed to be more practices, but circumstances prevented); the team placed 3rd at the national competition.

My point being that these kids are flexible and have little or no difficulty switching formats - they're bright kids, they can handle it, and it's probably good for them.

OTOH, we're a long way from the rest of FL (they sometimes leave us off state tourism maps) and significant time and money is required to travel.

F.H.
Destin, FL (6K residents, 200K condo units)

aestheteboy wrote:Some observations:
1. That girl from Indiana was by FAR the most beautiful quizbowl (or should I say academic challenge) player I've ever seen.

Pics?!

F Hooper wrote:Many of the students are on academic teams that play other formats, I'm not even certain most FL high school "quiz bowl type" teams use the PAC format (CoachJet could address that question for schools in our area).

Yeah, the schools here in the Panhandle do not use the CAC/PAC format in their own tournaments. It's mostly schools in central Florida (Polk County, etc.) that use it locally. We only practice with it to get ready for state.

I know that several tournaments in north Florida use NAQT, but I don't know of any PACE events. Others, such as my own yearly tournament and the Emerald Coast Academic Tournament, use a hodge-podge format; we tend to take elements that we like from all the different formats and mash them together into something "new." I dunno, perhaps our problem is that we don't have anything close to a standard format.

but I don't know of any PACE events.

There aren't really any besides nationals (although there will be a set produced for this coming year).

F Hooper wrote: My point being that these kids are flexible and have little or no difficulty switching formats - they're bright kids, they can handle it, and it's probably good for them.

If only more Missouri coaches would catch on to this observation.

CoachJET wrote: I know that several tournaments in north Florida use NAQT, but I don't know of any PACE events.

PACE as an organization only does the national championship set, and most teams are not familiar enough with the PACE format to write a tournament in it, even if they've played it and enjoyed it.

However, Academic Initiative will have a PACE-format tournament set available at the end of the year for use across the country. This tournament set is very inexpensive because the costs of producing it are spread out between several hosts. We would love for it to be used in FL, and you can get info about it on the website, which I posted farther up in this thread.

In addition, Matt Weiner is putting together a set in the PACE format intended for use close to the end of the school year as teams prepare for national tournaments and try to qualify if they have not already. I'm not sure about the details related to hosting this tournament, but I would imagine that he would love to have it hosted somewhere that FL teams would go to.

F Hooper wrote: my middle schooler was on the MathCounts team, Mu Alpha Theta, KnowledgeMasters, a middle school academic team, and the FL Jr Beta Club academic team

What all is going on at the middle school llevel in FL, and how widespread is it?

Although I still haven't figured out how we (Kentucky) managed to suck so badly in the finals, I wish to congratulate everyone who thrash our pathetic, floundering selves. Props, particularly to Illinois. To answer someone's question, I don't remember who's, we got in late on Friday and did not get a chance to play the practice rounds. Lame. But not nearly as lame as our final round.

or not as lame as .................. YOUR FACE

ohhhh dang .................... (just playin)

Congrats to Illinois for finally getting the win and to Missouri for another great finish!

Although I still haven't figured out how we (Kentucky) managed to suck so badly in the finals, I wish to congratulate everyone who thrash our pathetic, floundering selves. Props, particularly to Illinois. To answer someone's question, I don't remember who's, we got in late on Friday and did not get a chance to play the practice rounds. Lame. But not nearly as lame as our final round.

Well if all else fails... we know now that Papa could have a successful career as a boxer... he all kinds of decked his teammate during the semifinals in our room -- after his teammate shouted an answer when they weren't the team recognized.

BobGHHS wrote:(4) California's coach was by far the most attractive, followed closely by Dave Bykowski.

I believe the proper response from me is "thank you." Regardless, that's a little frightening to think about, so I went through every team and every coach I could think of, and then I was truly scared.

aestheteboy wrote:1. That girl from Indiana was by FAR the most beautiful quizbowl (or should I say academic challenge) player I've ever seen.

Now I know the real reason why you guys wanted to scrimmage with Indiana!