VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:20 pm
This is the general announcement for the third annual VCU Season Finale Tournament. This is a high school academic quizbowl tournament to be hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University on Saturday, April 18 from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM. The tournament is open to any high school team that wishes to attend.
The entire tournament will take place in the Hibbs Building on our Monroe Park campus (aka "Academic Campus"). Please meet in Hibbs, room 303, by 8:30 AM.
-The nominal address of the building is "900 Park Ave, Richmond VA" if you need to put something into your map software of choice, but be aware that Hibbs does not actually face the street, so you will have to park and then walk to the area where the building is in order to find it. I suggest printing out the appropriate campus maps and bringing them along--note that Hibbs is directly across from the Cabell Library, which will probably be easier for you to find if you have not been to the VCU campus before.
-On Saturdays, parking on the street is free and available in most places around the campus; the best place to park for access to Hibbs is on one of the residential streets such as Park Avenue, Floyd Avenue, or West Avenue that branch off Harrison Street to the west near the Hibbs/library area. If you cannot find a space in that area, then you should use the parking deck at Harrison and Broad, which is about three blocks north of the tournament building and will charge you somewhere between $0 and $5 to park all day on a Saturday.
AFFILIATION: This tournament will seek affiliation with the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence and will be an opportunity to qualify for the National Scholastics Championship (pace-nsc.org), which is run by PACE and will occur at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA on May 23 & 24, 2009.
QUESTIONS: The questions will be provided by High School Academic Pyramid Questions (hsapq.com). The question format will be modified PACE NSC style. This is a variation on the tossup/bonus format in which the match is divided into three phases, one with twenty-point related bonuses, one with fifteen-point bonuses whose category is chosen by the team that gets the tossup, and one with thirty-point bonuses.
FORMAT: We expect to hit our field cap of 24 teams. If that happens, the teams will be divided into four brackets of six teams each and play five-game round robins in rounds 1-5. The teams will then be ranked. Over rounds 6-11, each first and second place team will play its counterparts in the other three brackets, each third and fourth place team will do the same, and each fifth and sixth place team likewise, to produce a final ranking. The tournament championship will be decided by a final of up to two games if necessary. In the event that fewer than 24 teams register, or that we are able to expand the field and host more than 24 teams, the format will change, but we will strive to offer all teams at least 10 games. Trophies will be awarded to the top four teams, and book prizes will be awarded to the top eight individual scorers.
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
Staff discount: $15 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.
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. Feel free to share this announcement with any schools that you think would be interested in attending.
METHOD OF PAYMENT: To pay your registration fees for this tournament, please bring either cash, or a check (institutional or personal) made out to Andrew Alexander, who is the Quizbowl at VCU treasurer. Do not bring checks made out to Matt Weiner, to VCU, to "quizbowl," etc. We cannot use them. We strongly prefer not to deal with purchase orders, but if your school absolutely requires it, then you need to send us the paperwork no later than March 1 so that we can get it back in time for you to have a check written before the tournament. Contact me for details if you need to physically mail something to me or to Andrew.
DELINQUENT PAYMENT: Teams who do not pay on the morning 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.
TEAM & ROSTER SIZE: There may be a maximum of six players on one team's roster, though only four may play at one time. There are two substitution opportunities 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: Neither breakfast nor lunch will be provided by the tournament. There are several eateries within walking distance of campus buildings and a vast cornucopia within a ten minutes' drive; maps and suggestions will be provided at the tournament.
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 April 18.
Matt Weiner
Tournament Director, VCU Season Finale Tournament
[email protected]
List of registered teams (updated 4/16):
Cosby
Dorman A
Dorman B
Dunbar
GDS
Gonzaga
James River
JR Tucker
Maggie Walker A
Maggie Walker B
State College A
State College B
Thomas Jefferson A
Thomas Jefferson B
The entire tournament will take place in the Hibbs Building on our Monroe Park campus (aka "Academic Campus"). Please meet in Hibbs, room 303, by 8:30 AM.
-The nominal address of the building is "900 Park Ave, Richmond VA" if you need to put something into your map software of choice, but be aware that Hibbs does not actually face the street, so you will have to park and then walk to the area where the building is in order to find it. I suggest printing out the appropriate campus maps and bringing them along--note that Hibbs is directly across from the Cabell Library, which will probably be easier for you to find if you have not been to the VCU campus before.
-On Saturdays, parking on the street is free and available in most places around the campus; the best place to park for access to Hibbs is on one of the residential streets such as Park Avenue, Floyd Avenue, or West Avenue that branch off Harrison Street to the west near the Hibbs/library area. If you cannot find a space in that area, then you should use the parking deck at Harrison and Broad, which is about three blocks north of the tournament building and will charge you somewhere between $0 and $5 to park all day on a Saturday.
AFFILIATION: This tournament will seek affiliation with the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence and will be an opportunity to qualify for the National Scholastics Championship (pace-nsc.org), which is run by PACE and will occur at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA on May 23 & 24, 2009.
QUESTIONS: The questions will be provided by High School Academic Pyramid Questions (hsapq.com). The question format will be modified PACE NSC style. This is a variation on the tossup/bonus format in which the match is divided into three phases, one with twenty-point related bonuses, one with fifteen-point bonuses whose category is chosen by the team that gets the tossup, and one with thirty-point bonuses.
FORMAT: We expect to hit our field cap of 24 teams. If that happens, the teams will be divided into four brackets of six teams each and play five-game round robins in rounds 1-5. The teams will then be ranked. Over rounds 6-11, each first and second place team will play its counterparts in the other three brackets, each third and fourth place team will do the same, and each fifth and sixth place team likewise, to produce a final ranking. The tournament championship will be decided by a final of up to two games if necessary. In the event that fewer than 24 teams register, or that we are able to expand the field and host more than 24 teams, the format will change, but we will strive to offer all teams at least 10 games. Trophies will be awarded to the top four teams, and book prizes will be awarded to the top eight individual scorers.
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
Staff discount: $15 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.
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. Feel free to share this announcement with any schools that you think would be interested in attending.
METHOD OF PAYMENT: To pay your registration fees for this tournament, please bring either cash, or a check (institutional or personal) made out to Andrew Alexander, who is the Quizbowl at VCU treasurer. Do not bring checks made out to Matt Weiner, to VCU, to "quizbowl," etc. We cannot use them. We strongly prefer not to deal with purchase orders, but if your school absolutely requires it, then you need to send us the paperwork no later than March 1 so that we can get it back in time for you to have a check written before the tournament. Contact me for details if you need to physically mail something to me or to Andrew.
DELINQUENT PAYMENT: Teams who do not pay on the morning 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.
TEAM & ROSTER SIZE: There may be a maximum of six players on one team's roster, though only four may play at one time. There are two substitution opportunities 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: Neither breakfast nor lunch will be provided by the tournament. There are several eateries within walking distance of campus buildings and a vast cornucopia within a ten minutes' drive; maps and suggestions will be provided at the tournament.
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 April 18.
Matt Weiner
Tournament Director, VCU Season Finale Tournament
[email protected]
List of registered teams (updated 4/16):
Cosby
Dorman A
Dorman B
Dunbar
GDS
Gonzaga
James River
JR Tucker
Maggie Walker A
Maggie Walker B
State College A
State College B
Thomas Jefferson A
Thomas Jefferson B