The Quizbowl Resource Center

Hi everybody,

This is a preliminary announcement for The University of Maryland's Spring Classic High School Tournament 2009 at the University of Maryland, College Park. It is scheduled for May 2nd, 2009. I realize that this date is smack in the middle of the AP testing period but this is the only date we are able to reserve rooms with the university in the month of May, so I hope this setup does not severely impact attendance.

The base cost for this tournament will be $70 per team and $60 for each subsequent team per school.

The following discounts are also available:
-$5/buzzer system
-$10/moderator
-$5 for early registration (by April 19th)

Currently, the rooms and meeting times (as well as specifics in the format) are TBA but I will be sure to post these as soon as humanely possible.

For more information or registration, please e-mail Jeremy Eaton at [email protected].

Thanks and we hope to see you in May,
Jeremy Eaton
President
Maryland Academic Quiz Team

What format will be used at this tournament? House-written questions?

The tournament will be played on housewritten questions. The specifics on number of rounds and bracketing will be announced as we get a better gauge on the number of teams attending.

ACF rules, i assume?

We would be interested in attending, but we'd have to decide this week to have an out-of-state "trip" approved by our school.

Board index ‹ High School Quizbowl ‹ Regular Season Tournament Announcements

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Jamie L. wrote:Board index ‹ High School Quizbowl ‹ Regular Season Tournament Announcements

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Jeremy Eaton wrote:The University of Maryland's Spring Classic High School Tournament 2009

Er, I have trouble seeing how it is problematic to post the announcement for a tournament targeted at high schoolers in the high school section of the forums.

This thread is now confusing because I made a terrible hash of things by deleting a post accidentally. Please carry on as if nothing ever happened.

Anti-Climacus wrote:

Jamie L. wrote:Board index ‹ High School Quizbowl ‹ Regular Season Tournament Announcements

Taken from the top of the page of this topic

Jeremy Eaton wrote:The University of Maryland's Spring Classic High School Tournament 2009

Er, I have trouble seeing how it is problematic to post the announcement for a tournament targeted at high schoolers in the high school section of the forums.

I was explaining to the guy above me that he should read the page before asking questions like, "is this a high school tournament?"

That is the aforementioned deleted post, sorry for adding one more post about something that never happened.

ACF-format rules (20/20 untimed tossups/bonuses, etc.) don't necessarily imply an ACF tournament, if that's the confusion here.

ACF-format rules (20/20 untimed tossups/bonuses, etc.) don't necessarily imply an ACF tournament, if that's the confusion here.

I suspect that is the case, altough the source of the confusion could also have been the fact that it is a housewrite by a college team. I suspect the former is more likely.
Now to be topical: What will the distribution be?

The distribution will be more or less the standard ACF distribution; that is to say:

4/4 Science
4/4 Literature
4/4 History
2/3 or 3/2 Fine Arts
3/2 or 2/3 Religion, Myth, Philosophy
1/1 Social Science/Psychology
1/1 Geography
1/1 Trash/Other

And yes for the record, this tournament will be aimed at high school level difficulty.

Maryland likes to host things on Sundays, apparently?

This is also Mother's Day, so it may be a problem for some people. Regardless, i think we'd like to come. We'll see.

This is also Mother's Day, so it may be a problem for some people.

Drat, I didn't even think of that. I will talk to scheduling to see if it is feasible to change the date to the previous Saturday (May 9th) -- but until then this date stands.

Jeaton1 wrote:

This is also Mother's Day, so it may be a problem for some people.

Drat, I didn't even think of that. I will talk to scheduling to see if it is feasible to change the date to the previous Saturday (May 9th) -- but until then this date stands.

Well, you're male college student. It's somehow injected into your DNA to ignore/forget Mother's Day for those 4 (or more) years. I was once there...

Jeaton1 wrote:Drat, I didn't even think of that. I will talk to scheduling to see if it is feasible to change the date to the previous Saturday (May 9th) -- but until then this date stands.

That would conflict with Virginia NAQT States though.

Sorry to confuse everybody, but since our our scheduling department is more impossible than ACF, this tournament will most likely be held on May 2nd. This is the week before AP exams start so there may be conflict there, but this way there is less conflict with the VCU tournament as well as it gives everyone the opportunity to spend time with dear old mom.

Again, I apologize for the disorganization of this announcement and hope this date works better for everybody.

I'm pretty sure we would want to come to this now, bringing one team, one buzzer set, and myself to moderate.

You should edit the thread title so teams aren't confused about the date. But this one works better for us at the moment. I hope other teams will attend as well.

I am looking into organizing some kind of individual side competition to go along with this event (similar to what ran at Weekend of Quizbowl this year). I'm not sure yet what questions would be used, but I'm trying to figure out when people would like to see this run. The options are pretty much after the tournament, during a slightly extended lunch, or beginning during normal lunch and concluding after the tournament. If people have thoughts on this, please let me know.

Oh yeah, if for some reason this wasn't clear, this would be for high school players, of course.

A slightly extended lunch would be preferable, since not many people will want to stay late during AP week.

Anti-Climacus wrote:A slightly extended lunch would be preferable, since not many people will want to stay late during AP week.

While I wouldn't mind staying late, I also think the extended lunch option would be best. That or the split option.

Kellenberg is considering sending 1 or 2 teams to this.

Tentative Field thus far:

Caesar Rodney
Gonzaga (2)
Kellenberg (1-2)
Georgetown Day School (1-2)
Churchill (1-2)
Pikesville
Whitman-Blake
St. Anselm's
Charter A
Hunter
Mount Vernon
Howard
Walter Johnson
Centennial

Caesar Rodney HS wrote:I'm pretty sure we would want to come to this now, bringing one team, one buzzer set, and myself to moderate.

I can confirm that we're definitely coming, by the way, in case it wasn't clear enough before this. This'll be our last tournament of the year before Nationals, so we hope it's a successful one with a good/tough field.

I will have to confirm whether Whitman will be able to send a team tomorrow, but this should not be a problem.

Any word on the official starting and unofficial ending times for this tournament? I'd like to know how early we need to start our drive.

Registration will begin at 8:15am and we hope to begin rounds promptly at 9:00am. The end of the tournament will most likely be around between 5 and 6pm.

Awesome, thanks. We'll try to be there early.

I think we're going to talk about this during practice this week. I'll have our coach let you know.

Got another field update? Looking strong so far, albeit small.

I can say we're interested in coming to this and should have a definite answer by Monday.

While Blake cannot attend, I have been given permission to attend alone. I will cover the full registration fee; that said, if any team has extra players or something, I would hope for "scab team" status. A one-man team I am not.

Whitman will be somewhere between "shorthanded" and "1-man team". If UMD and whoever from Whitman is playing approves, you're welcome to form a Whitman-Blake hybrid.

This tournament is just getting harder and harder! At least it'll be good practice for late May.

EDIT: Jeremy, how many rounds do you think we'll fit into the day? Lots and lots i hope, including consolations rounds, since i see the teams that are attending this as ones that will not mind staying "later" than many other schools would normally enjoy. We do have a 90-120 minute drive, but it's worth it for our last tournament before Nationals.

Isaac and Whitman person: I would like to make this hybrid team. we just need to split the cost three ways

We'll almost certainly be there. I'll email you when we have a mode of transportation and whatnot set.

Right now we are looking at 10-11 rounds. The exact schedule is TBA at this moment (will be decided later this week as the number of attending teams becomes concrete) but consolation rounds will be available to anyone who wishes to stay after the prelims.

P.S. -- I have no qualms with a Whitman/Blake hybrid team.

I know it's unrealistic and selfish to ask for the accommodation of one particular team over another, but is there any way for whoever is in charge of schedules to give St. Anselm's a first or second round bye if byes must be used? I have my little brother's First Communion that morning and will be hurrying over to UMD afterwards, and I would like to miss as few games as possible. If there aren't any byes, or it just isn't feasible to do so, I understand. Just thought I'd ask.

Jeaton1 wrote:Right now we are looking at 10-11 rounds. The exact schedule is TBA at this moment (will be decided later this week as the number of attending teams becomes concrete) but consolation rounds will be available to anyone who wishes to stay after the prelims.

P.S. -- I have no qualms with a Whitman/Blake hybrid team.

Since I can't play an event on the same day as 2 mock AP tests, let me know if you want some aid finishing up with the writing (especially since 10 packets will present difficulties when faced with ties). I'm pretty much spending tomorrow and Thursday writing various levels of quizbowl in preparation for APs and NSC, so just send an email with answers needing questions to outhwest AT gmail DOT com .

Prof.Whoopie wrote:I have my little brother's First Communion that morning...

On a Saturday?

Prof.Whoopie wrote:I know it's unrealistic and selfish to ask for the accommodation of one particular team over another, but is there any way for whoever is in charge of schedules to give St. Anselm's a first or second round bye if byes must be used? I have my little brother's First Communion that morning and will be hurrying over to UMD afterwards, and I would like to miss as few games as possible. If there aren't any byes, or it just isn't feasible to do so, I understand. Just thought I'd ask.

I will keep this in mind when making the schedule.

Caesar Rodney HS wrote:

Prof.Whoopie wrote:I have my little brother's First Communion that morning...

On a Saturday?

That's when they usually are, actually.

Jeaton1 wrote:

Prof.Whoopie wrote:I know it's unrealistic and selfish to ask for the accommodation of one particular team over another, but is there any way for whoever is in charge of schedules to give St. Anselm's a first or second round bye if byes must be used? I have my little brother's First Communion that morning and will be hurrying over to UMD afterwards, and I would like to miss as few games as possible. If there aren't any byes, or it just isn't feasible to do so, I understand. Just thought I'd ask.

I will keep this in mind when making the schedule.

Thank you very much.

Prof.Whoopie wrote:

Caesar Rodney HS wrote:

Prof.Whoopie wrote:I have my little brother's First Communion that morning...

On a Saturday?

That's when they usually are, actually.

Mine wasn't. But okay.

I think there actually might need to be a discussion about the whole hybrid team when it's going to see putting some of the top players from two NSC-attending teams together for a regular high school invitational. That seems like a silly idea to me, and I don't think it has much precedent in high school quizbowl (which is likely related to why it is not qualm-inducing to Jeremy, as his experience with actual quizbowl is pretty much exclusively collegiate, where such things are no big deal at all). So, don't count on it right now, but that doesn't mean scab teams can't be arranged to prevent people from playing solo or anything like that.

I wish that the MARYLAND SCHEDULING DEPARTMENT had allowed us to hold this event a bit later in May, so that we could produce more rounds for a tournament many teams are using for nationals prep. As previously posted, I am happy to organize a side event (doubles, or whatever) to run after the tournament itself concludes, which would be very early if we only run 10 rounds. Hopefully that will provide some more quizbowl for interested parties, so please let me know within the next few days if you'd like to sign up.

DumbJaques wrote:I think there actually might need to be a discussion about the whole hybrid team when it's going to see putting some of the top players from two NSC-attending teams together for a regular high school invitational. That seems like a silly idea to me, and I don't think it has much precedent in high school quizbowl (which is likely related to why it is not qualm-inducing to Jeremy, as his experience with actual quizbowl is pretty much exclusively collegiate, where such things are no big deal at all). So, don't count on it right now, but that doesn't mean scab teams can't be arranged to prevent people from playing solo or anything like that.

Blake isn't attending NSC, firstly.
Secondly, I can understand possible objections, but I'm not sure that there are many people attending this tournament who have objections to this. If there are, I guess we can address it, but I was wondering what everyone else thinks.

Quint Carr and Cameron Orth played on a team at the last tournament at WJ in February. They were quite awesome. We didn't have a problem with it, and they were fairly nice guys, but they pretty much beat the crap out of us. Again, as long as we are playing good quizbowl against good teams, we don't really mind if we have to play a scab team here and there, but only if they take things seriously. Blake and Doug, though, are good dudes who we'll definitely have no problem playing.

Wow, I didn't even realize that this event was on a Saturday. This is quite an awesome discovery, and WJ will attend with one team.

Johannes Climacus wrote:

DumbJaques wrote:I think there actually might need to be a discussion about the whole hybrid team when it's going to see putting some of the top players from two NSC-attending teams together for a regular high school invitational. That seems like a silly idea to me, and I don't think it has much precedent in high school quizbowl (which is likely related to why it is not qualm-inducing to Jeremy, as his experience with actual quizbowl is pretty much exclusively collegiate, where such things are no big deal at all). So, don't count on it right now, but that doesn't mean scab teams can't be arranged to prevent people from playing solo or anything like that.

Blake isn't attending NSC, firstly.
Secondly, I can understand possible objections, but I'm not sure that there are many people attending this tournament who have objections to this. If there are, I guess we can address it, but I was wondering what everyone else thinks.

Again, I pretty much echo Isaac.

DumbJaques wrote: As previously posted, I am happy to organize a side event (doubles, or whatever) to run after the tournament itself concludes, which would be very early if we only run 10 rounds. Hopefully that will provide some more quizbowl for interested parties, so please let me know within the next few days if you'd like to sign up.

Interest status = expressed.

As previously posted, I am happy to organize a side event (doubles, or whatever) to run after the tournament itself concludes, which would be very early if we only run 10 rounds. Hopefully that will provide some more quizbowl for interested parties, so please let me know within the next few days if you'd like to sign up.

As another interested party, I would enthusiastically sign up for this. I'll let my teammates know in the hope that they feel similarly.