2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Dormant threads from the high school sections are preserved here.
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2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by First Chairman »

Don't forget to submit your rosters online! Please don't mess up other peoples' rosters.

Saturday morning meeting: Johnson Center Cinema ("basement" floor), Gold Room for staff. Beginning 8am with on-site. Please get breakfast and don't arrive before 8am unless you're key staff. Key staff: don't arrive before 7:30 am.
Parking in Lot K (free) or Mason Pond garage (up to $8.00)
Text me if there are issues at (703) 598-7195. My reception isn't great at the JC basement.
Sixteen internet terminals at the JC Info Desk, others in the JC library. Please be respectful.

Game buildings on Saturday: Robinson A and B, Krug (north of the JC)
Saturday evening awards ceremony: Enterprise Hall 80 (south of the JC)

Sunday morning: no meeting scheduled
Sunday game buildings: Enterprise for championship flight, Robinson A&B for consolation groups.
Sunday afternoon games: Enterprise, with championship and all-star game in Enterprise 80.

Everyone is welcome to bring cameras. Audio recording is allowed provided you get permission from the staff, chaperones, and the players prior to the start of the game. Ideally, this should be documented including parent's signatures for those under 18. Please no video recording of matches. You are encouraged to post your selected pictures onto the Facebook group for this event.

EDIT: And you can read some of Fred's thoughts.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

Is anyone else staying at the Comfort Inn in Fairfax? We're probably gonna go across the street to Ruby Tuesdays in a couple hours for dinner, so if anyone wants to join us look for us there between 7 and 8.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by AndyShootsAndyScores »

Brindlee Mountain is at the Holiday Inn Express. We also have COD 4 and GTA 4. Guests welcome.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by BobGHHS »

I believe I booked the Marriott Fairfax for GH. If anyone is there and wants Dan's cell phone to scrimmage or hang out, hit me up here or via email and I'll put you in touch with him.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by ClemsonQB »

Deesy Does It wrote:Is anyone else staying at the Comfort Inn in Fairfax? We're probably gonna go across the street to Ruby Tuesdays in a couple hours for dinner, so if anyone wants to join us look for us there between 7 and 8.
I think you already saw Nick, but Dorman is at the Comfort Inn
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

If anyone at the Comfort Inn is interested in scrimmaging I'd be down, email me your room number and I'll be there (we don't have buzzers so we can't really host such a thing.) My email is charlie16 [at] gmail [dot] com.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by pretzeldude92 »

BobGHHS wrote:I believe I booked the Marriott Fairfax for GH. If anyone is there and wants Dan's cell phone to scrimmage or hang out, hit me up here or via email and I'll put you in touch with him.
We'll be there tomorrow night, since staying overnight tonight would be silly, as it is only a 1.5 hour drive. I'm sure our team (Rappahannock Co) would enjoy hanging out with another team, so we'd love his cell number.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by cdcarter »

Carsten and I are over in the Hampton Inn. Right now we are hanging out with all sorts of PACE readers and members. See you all at games tomorrow. I intend to blagh a bit from my room
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by BuzzerZen »

You will be able to get live updates of game results via Taft tomorrow at the PACE NSC 2008 page. There will be a different link for playoffs.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by cdcarter »

I will be live blaghing the event at http://pacensc.tumblr.com/
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Byko »

First score of the tournament is in!

Dorman 530
Hunter 235
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Byko »

Daichi Ueda of Walter Johnson has set a new individual scoring record, going 3/19 for 250 points. His teammates combined to go 0/3 for 30.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Byko »

Apparently Fred is bleeding in the other stat room. First aid, courtesy of Evan, is en route.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by AKKOLADE »

Byko wrote:Apparently Fred is bleeding in the other stat room. First aid, courtesy of Evan, is en route.
the first aid was a sticker nametag
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Byko »

Charlie Dees in R3 vs. TJ B posts 2 powers + 21 tossups = 250.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by theattachment »

Alright, I know that all of these teams are really good and that the points structure in PACE is different...

But two players dropping 250 POINTS?!?
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Down and out in Quintana Roo »

Highest team score so far: Carbondale 90, Charter A 720 (Round 1)
http://www.taftqb.com/t/pacensc08/games/view/565
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by mujason »

Well, Charlie just tied the single-game scoring record, reclaiming North Kansas City's spot there, as I believe Andy Wehrman had the single-game scoring record at one point.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by OctagonJoe »

This lunch break is lasting forever.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by AKKOLADE »

OctagonJoe wrote:This lunch break is lasting forever.
We start in 15.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Byko »

Round 5 started around 2:30. Tyson Division ran about 30 minutes later than the others, but I think they'll catch up.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by BobGHHS »

Ugh, GH lost to TJ B and State College on the last question.... and Dan said that Rexy knew the answer against TJ B but he buzzed in and guessed something else before the Rexicutioner could buzz... against SC they were up with 2 questions left and he made a bonehead mistake allowing them to pick it up and then he knew the answer to the last question on the first clue and waited to make sure, and got beat to the buzz... ugh
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Awehrman »

Well, Charlie just tied the single-game scoring record, reclaiming North Kansas City's spot there, as I believe Andy Wehrman had the single-game scoring record at one point.
Yeah, that record (of 200 points in a game) stood for five years. It's interesting that Charlie has been able to top it in 3 of 5 games so far, and that several players are nearly averaging that mark this year.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by BobGHHS »

Are they still doing the all-star game the same way? Because if so, the top 4 (and the next 3) all for sure deserve to be in it... I know it is done by vote, but I think that Henry, Dan and Guy along with Naren (would be my vote) should be in there.

We'll see what happens when the votes are tallied.

Good job to everyone today, and especially a good job to those players who are putting up monster numbers (Dees, Dallas, Daichi, Shantanu)
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by OctagonJoe »

The Hunter-Walter Johnson game was apparently won by Hunter through a failed WJ protest.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Stained Diviner »

If that's true, then 11 of the finalists are MLK, TJ A, Dorman A, Hunter, Charter A, MW A, RM A, Whitman, Chattahoochee A, NKC, and SC A. The last spot will go to DCC, Brookwood, or State College B after a playoff. I think.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

This tiebreaker is some drama!
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Byko »

Playoff brackets are almost set. One tiebreaker is going on right now among Detroit Catholic Central, Brookwood, and State College B for the last playoff spot:

Guitar Hero Division:
1. Dorman A
2. Charter A
3. MLK Magnet
4. Chattahoochee A
5. State College A
6. Brookwood

Rock Band Division:
1. Walt Whitman
2. North Kansas City
3. Richard Montgomery A
4. Hunter
5. Thomas Jeffferson A
6. Maggie Walker Governor's School A

Also, the initial card settings for nearly all of the consolation bracket teams are set:
13. Walter Johnson
14. Detroit Catholic Central
15. Dorman B
16. Rockford Auburn
17. State College B
18. Brindlee Mountain A
19. Maggie Walker Governor's School B
20. Carbondale
21. Stuyvesant
22. Chattahoochee B
23. Wheaton North
24. Brindlee Mountain B
25. Thomas Jefferson B
26. Raleigh Charter
27. Garfield Heights
28. North Allegheny A
29. Charter B
30. Centennial A
31. Richard Montgomery B
32. James Monroe
33. Hoggard
34. Rappahannock County
35. Thomas Jefferson C
36. Weddington
37. Robinson
38. Collegiate
39. Douglas Freeman
40. Cave Spring
41. Parkersburg Catholic
42. Centennial B
43. Northmont
44. North Allegheny B
45. Brindlee Mountain C
46. Riner Auburn
47. Porter
48. T.W. Andrews

Also, four of the tournament all-stars are already set based on points per game in the prelims:

Charlie Dees, North Kansas City, 210.0 PPG
Daichi Ueda, Walter Johnson, 185.71 PPG
Dallas Simons, MLK Magnet, 184.29 PPG
Shantanu Jha, Walt Whitman, 155.71 PPG

Note that three other players did not make the all-star team but had over 100 PPG:

Henry Gorman, Charter A
Guy Tabachnick, Hunter
Dan Humphrey, Garfield Heights


And this, ladies and gentlemen, is how you do stats!
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

Brookwood just beat State College B in a tiebreaker match and now Brookwood is playing DCC, with whoever winning this match taking the last playoff spot.
EDIT - score was 280-90
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Down and out in Quintana Roo »

I love the website you're hosting the tourney on. It's so easy to check, fast(!), and so much stuff to see. You guys seem to be doing a wonderful job with this tournament. We'd love to come next year (either this or HSNCT, depending in our qualification status).

I also really like how you have every team playing the second day. Great job including everybody and giving teams a reason to stick around on Sunday.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

Brookwood just beat DCC.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Byko »

So the 14-17 spots in the consolation bracket are now set. The above has been edited.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by aestheteboy »

I'm going to edit in (or post another reply) my "critique" of the tournament and the questions later, but I wanted for the tournament directors to see this immediately, so:
What in the world is going on with the consolation swiss-pairing? Unless I'm reading something wrong, the better you did in the prelims, the harder schedule you have. This seems pretty silly.
There are three "cards" that could theoretically go undefeated: 13, 14, and 15.
13 card plays 31, 22, 18, 16, 14
14 card plays 32, 23, 17, 21, 13
15 card plays 33, 24, 20, 18, 16
So, for some reason, the top seed has by far the roughest schedule, while 15 card can go undefeated without playing the top 2 teams in the consolation round. I should also point out that the 13 card plays an undefeated team in each round, while the 15 card plays 3-1 and 4-1 team in rounds 11 and 12. I'm not sure what prompted the PACE staff to create this schedule, but frankly I'll be pretty upset if we have to play with this messed-up schedule. Particularly because the prelim brackets were kind of weird too (not nearly as bad as this).
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Auroni »

a few other people that i've talked to agree with me on this: the prelim bracket with dorman, hunter, and WJ in one place was fairly insane.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

Yeah WJ I think got screwed. However, this set is fantastic, its the most enjoyable high school set I've ever played on.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by The Atom Strikes! »

Deesy Does It wrote:Yeah WJ I think got screwed. However, this set is fantastic, its the most enjoyable high school set I've ever played on.
I have to say that I also have enjoyed it-- the only problem that our team has encountered is that certain subcategories (literature) seem considerably more difficult than other categories.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Mike Bentley »

How are you guys posting from GMU? It seemed like you had to register an account to access the internet.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by OctagonJoe »

If you had asked someone, we could have set you up with the username and password.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by intothenegs »

Is it okay to discuss question content in the Saturday rounds?
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by aestheteboy »

I enjoyed the questions very much. There were tons of interesting early clues that were new to the high school canon, and it definitely sparked my desire to learn more and get better. I think PACE writers can be proud that they produced a set that's both difficult (with the early clues) and accessible (by the give away). I'd imagine that far few toss ups went dead than at HSNCT. I'm more divided about the bonuses. They were hard . . . really hard. That's not necessarily a bad thing, obviously, but it often is because it usually leads to enormous difficulty fluctuation, which seemed to be the foresmost characteristic of the category round. The bonuses in the first round often were easy 10 but very difficult 20. We consistently 10-ed things we didn't know well and 10-ed things we knew fairly well. Not surprisingly, the strech round bonuses were better overall.
On a related note, can the participating teams have the questions earlier this year? As I mentioned earlier, there were many answers I had never heard of and am eager to read up on, but I couldn't jot down most of the names mainly because I didn't want to interrupt and ask "how do you spell that" like 10 times a game. I'm a lot happier about canon expansion when I can actually benefit from it (by, you know, learning from it).

As for the schedule, I'm not sure that 8 team brackets and 12 team playoffs were the best ideas. Because the questions were so good, I wish we could have played with more competitive teams. 8 team brackets essentially left 3 national-caliber teams in each bracket so 5 of the 7 games, for those teams, weren't as exciting as it could have been. The closest game other than the two we lost had 295 point margin. Some form of swiss-pairing probably would have been more fair, too. I'm not all that fond of the card-system, but with brackets, you have to be really sure that they are optimal, and that's hard to do with a national tournament.

With all this said, PACE NSC remains to be my most favorite tournament of the year. Thanks to the people who made it possible.

Also, there should a thread dedicated to Charlie's record breaking performance. The PPG of the top scorer went from 108? to 107? to 162 to 155 to 143 to 210. Nothing short of legendary.
Last edited by aestheteboy on Sat May 31, 2008 10:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Mike Bentley »

Hey if someone can tell me when and where moderators should meet tomorrow that would be awesome.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by sabine01 »

Bentley Like Beckham wrote:Hey if someone can tell me when and where moderators should meet tomorrow that would be awesome.
Sure thing: Staff should meet @ 8 am, Enterprise 278. Evan (S.) has not disbursed Sunday room assignments as of yet.

~T~
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by First Chairman »

Bentley Like Beckham wrote:Hey if someone can tell me when and where moderators should meet tomorrow that would be awesome.
Mods meet first around 8am at Enterprise 278 where the buzzers are. Then those of us doing consols take the buzzers to Robinson and set up all rooms for play so we can start on time around 8:30 am.

Evan gave me the playoff assignments, but I have to get Derek and co. Car apparently broke down... :aaa:
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by First Chairman »

aestheteboy wrote:I'm going to edit in (or post another reply) my "critique" of the tournament and the questions later, but I wanted for the tournament directors to see this immediately, so:
What in the world is going on with the consolation swiss-pairing? Unless I'm reading something wrong, the better you did in the prelims, the harder schedule you have. This seems pretty silly.
There are three "cards" that could theoretically go undefeated: 13, 14, and 15.
13 card plays 31, 22, 18, 16, 14
14 card plays 32, 23, 17, 21, 13
15 card plays 33, 24, 20, 18, 16
So, for some reason, the top seed has by far the roughest schedule, while 15 card can go undefeated without playing the top 2 teams in the consolation round. I should also point out that the 13 card plays an undefeated team in each round, while the 15 card plays 3-1 and 4-1 team in rounds 11 and 12. I'm not sure what prompted the PACE staff to create this schedule, but frankly I'll be pretty upset if we have to play with this messed-up schedule. Particularly because the prelim brackets were kind of weird too (not nearly as bad as this).
Hey Daichi,
The thing is that the schedule is the way swiss pairing is traditionally done with 36 teams that we have in the pool as bracketed. While I understand why one would want to start completely 13-48, that's not the way proper swissing is done (at least according to what I have learned from people who are actually certified to do this for chess comps). A copy of that consolation bracket is also found on a page in the Googlegroups document where rosters could be filled out. On the original excel sheet, I had color coded the individual teams who had 0, 1, 2, etc. losses.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by Kechara »

jpn wrote:a few other people that i've talked to agree with me on this: the prelim bracket with dorman, hunter, and WJ in one place was fairly insane.
Bear in mind that with, out of 48 teams, we have 29 teams from the top 100 in Byko's rating. That's 55-60% of the field. At that point, there is no good way to make it not insane. Byko went through the math/logic for several ways to try and use swiss pairs, but we couldn't find a way to get the right number of playoff teams after 7-8 (or even 9) prelim rounds without some really ugle tiebreaker situations. Yes, NAQT gets through 14 rounds on Saturday, but our games take twice as long as theirs.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by aestheteboy »

ILoveReeses wrote:
aestheteboy wrote:I'm going to edit in (or post another reply) my "critique" of the tournament and the questions later, but I wanted for the tournament directors to see this immediately, so:
What in the world is going on with the consolation swiss-pairing? Unless I'm reading something wrong, the better you did in the prelims, the harder schedule you have. This seems pretty silly.
There are three "cards" that could theoretically go undefeated: 13, 14, and 15.
13 card plays 31, 22, 18, 16, 14
14 card plays 32, 23, 17, 21, 13
15 card plays 33, 24, 20, 18, 16
So, for some reason, the top seed has by far the roughest schedule, while 15 card can go undefeated without playing the top 2 teams in the consolation round. I should also point out that the 13 card plays an undefeated team in each round, while the 15 card plays 3-1 and 4-1 team in rounds 11 and 12. I'm not sure what prompted the PACE staff to create this schedule, but frankly I'll be pretty upset if we have to play with this messed-up schedule. Particularly because the prelim brackets were kind of weird too (not nearly as bad as this).
Hey Daichi,
The thing is that the schedule is the way swiss pairing is traditionally done with 36 teams that we have in the pool as bracketed. While I understand why one would want to start completely 13-48, that's not the way proper swissing is done (at least according to what I have learned from people who are actually certified to do this for chess comps). A copy of that consolation bracket is also found on a page in the Googlegroups document where rosters could be filled out. On the original excel sheet, I had color coded the individual teams who had 0, 1, 2, etc. losses.
Well, if that's your final decision, ok. It wouldn't be the first time people get treated unfairly, and it's not the end of the world if the consolation rounds of a quizbowl tournament aren't played out as ideally as possible. But let me say this: I listen to common sense, logic, and reason; I could care less for tradition or certification. And, what logic and reason I have tell me that punishing teams for playing better is wrong. If you, or anyone, really, has a defense/explanation for this swiss-pair system, please let me know. I'd rather be happy than unhappy.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by First Chairman »

Understood... and we'll consider it for discussion for next year. We are limited in finding an equitable solution given the constraints of time and packets. There had not been objections for this year, but again, I'm always willing to know what could be a better suited alternative... again given constraints.

EDIT (etc)! I also state that in the rules (L.7), if there are enough people who would like to change the tournament format in this situation, a vote of the team captains affected needs to take place. Since this is consolation, and to me the theory should work no matter what card you get (though the schedule of a random draw for cards may put in any unfairness to the situation for a given team), I am certainly willing to consider changing how cards are assigned if there is a majority of captains that want to do that. I'll have the team captains meet to discuss this around 8:20 for a vote on the matter before we give out cards to be sure we know what's going on and that everyone could accept the consequences. The schedule itself will remain the same, but card-swapping occurs. If there is a tie, it is not sufficient to make a change.
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by AKKOLADE »

aestheteboy wrote:Well, if that's your final decision, ok. It wouldn't be the first time people get treated unfairly, and it's not the end of the world if the consolation rounds of a quizbowl tournament aren't played out as ideally as possible. But let me say this: I listen to common sense, logic, and reason; I could care less for tradition or certification. And, what logic and reason I have tell me that punishing teams for playing better is wrong. If you, or anyone, really, has a defense/explanation for this swiss-pair system, please let me know. I'd rather be happy than unhappy.
viewtopic.php?p=49019#p49019

viewtopic.php?p=49217#p49217
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Broken records

Post by First Chairman »

At least on a preliminary glance, here are the records that should be included into the record book.

Average points per game (team, prelims): 8 schools had 500 or more ppg
616 Dorman A (2nd all-time)
596 Walt Whitman (4th)
581 North Kansas City (5th)
576 Wilmington Charter A (8th)
545 MLK Magnet (13th, I think)

Most Points by Two Teams in a Game (prelims)
875 MLK Magnet d. TJ A round 7 (tied 1st)
860 Walt Whitman d. Chattahoochee A round 6 (tied 5th)
860 Dorman A d. Rappahannock County round 5 (tied 5th)

Most Points by One Team (Winning) in a Game (prelims)
720 Wilmington Charter A d. Carbondale round 1 (tied 3rd)
715 Dorman A d. Brindlee Mountain B round 7 (tied 6th)
715 Dorman A d. Rappahannock County round 5 (tied 6th)
700 Wilmington Charter A d. Porter Consolidated round 7 (tied 9th)

Most Points by One Team (Losing) in a Game (prelims)
425 Thomas Jefferson A l.t. MLK Magnet (450) round 7 (new record)
400 Walter Johnson l.t. Hunter (415) round 6 (tied 4th)
375 Brookwood l.t. State College B (420) round 5 (tied 7th)
375 Garfield Heights l.t. State College A (405) round 3 (tied 7th)
375 Walter Johnson l.t. Dorman A (440) round 3 (tied 7th)

Most Bonus Point Earned by One Team (prelims)
430 Wilmington Charter d. Porter round 7 (new record)
405 Dorman A d. Brindlee Mountain B round 7
405 Dorman A d. Rappahannock County round 5
400 Wilmington Charter d. Carbondale round 1
390 NKC d. Thomas Jefferson B round 3

Steal points will take much more time.

Individual performances (HOLY COW!)
Charlie Dees
250 R3 v. Thomas Jefferson B (new record tied)
240 R7 v. Brindlee Mountain A (3rd tied)
240 R7 v. Robinson (3rd tied)
230 R6 v. Riner Auburn (6th tied)
220 R1 v. Parkersburg Catholic (8th tied)

Daichi Ueda
250 R1 v. T.W. Andrews (new record tied)

Dallas Simons
240 R4 v. Northmont (3rd tied)
220 R6 v. Wheaton North (8th tied)
200 R1 v. Collegiate (14th tied)

Individual prelim PPG
210 Charlie Dees / NKC (new record)
185.7 Daichi Ueda / Walter Johnson (2nd)
184.3 Dallas Simons / MLK Magnet (3rd)
155.7 Shantanu Jha / Walt Whitman (5th)
140.0 Henry Gorman / Wilm Charter A (11th)
138.6 Guy Tabachnick / Hunter (12th)
117.1 Dan Humphrey / Garfield Heights (23rd tied)
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Re: 2008 PACE NSC Live Comments and Discussion

Post by First Chairman »

Somehow the post where I thought I disclosed the individuals who were staffing according to Evan S disappeared.

Championship flight crew
David Bykowski, pilot
Jessie Bykowski & Chris Ray
Matt Weiner
Tricia Southard & Dan Greenstein
Charles Meigs & Katy Peters
Evan Nagler & Jonathan Magin
Brian Saxton

All others will be in Robinson.
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