Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09) -- Platinum Certified!

Dormant threads from the high school sections are preserved here.
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Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09) -- Platinum Certified!

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Harvard College Bowl will host the fourth annual Harvard Fall Tournament on Saturday, November 14, 2009.

I, Andrew Watkins, will be reprising my role of tournament director. However, Dallas Simons will be taking over full editing responsibilities for the set.

Register through me, by email: I can be reached at [email protected]. In order for me to put you down as having registered, I need to receive an email with "HFT Registration" in the subject line from you. "School X will be bringing five teams" will count for you having registered five teams. "We are thinking of maybe bringing 1-7 teams" will certainly let me know of your interest, which will be noted in this post, but we won't consider that a registration of any number of teams.

Questions

As in previous years, the questions will be house-written. They are longer than the typical NAQT or state-format tossup. Unlike last year, there will be no bifurcation into more challenging playoff rounds, though the finals can be expected to be harder than the rest of the tournament, and the questions overall will be slightly harder than the average regular-season tournament--but dramatically easier from the harder set of questions from last year.

Last year's set is hosted at Chris Carter's archive.

Tournament format

Rounds will be untimed and consist of packets of 20 tossups and 20 bonuses. Assuming we hit our projected field of 36 teams, teams will be assigned to six brackets of six teams, play a full round robin, and then, after any necessary tiebreakers, get rebracketed into six brackets of six teams, followed by a playoff round robin and subsequent finals (if necessary). This means that every team is guaranteed ten rounds of play, plus the possibility of tiebreakers and finals.

Fee structure

$70 base fee
-$10 buzzer discount

Field (28) (15 buzzers)
State College (5)
Kellenberg (3) (4 buzzers, 1 mod)
Dunbar (2)
HHH West (2, 2 buzzers)
St Joe's (2, 2 buzzers)
Newtown (2)
Simsbury (2)
Hunter (1, 2 buzzers)
Bromfield (1)
Emma Willard (1)
Concord Carlisle (1) (3 buzzers)
MLK (1)
St. Andrew's (1, 1 buzzers)
Exeter (1, 1 buzzers)
Needham (1)
Needham + others scab
Hunter + Ranney scab
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Hey, I would like to note that this set is open to mirrors. I've heard some inquiries from Rockford Auburn and from Notre Dame.

We're still looking for mirrors in the south, the west, the mid-Atlantic, and various other regions as long as you can convince me that teams from the above don't reasonably come in. (For example, we had mirrors in NC and GA last year with neither field substantially diminished due to the presence of the other.) Please email me at [email protected] with any questions.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Field update posted; we have two teams from Andover coming. Yay! If you don't want to be left behind, regulars, you better step up!
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by lagazzaladra »

TJ will definitely try to make this, probably at the main site, rather than any mirrors (would a long-distance discount apply for us? TJ's address is 6560 Braddock Road, Alexandria VA 22312). We'll probably only bring two teams and two buzzer sets.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by johnsona »

Andy,
I sent an email earlier this week, but never got a response. St. Andrew's (Mississippi) would like to bring our A team to this tournament. Could you email me the registration form and any additional information? As we are flying, is the Nov. 14th date set firm?

Thank you,

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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Sorry I didn't reply to your email; I'm not sure why I didn't see it the first time around. In any event, there's no registration form. My treasurer or I will email you an invoice, if that's okay. 11/14 is set in stone.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Hey, I'd like to take this opportunity to announce that we'll be mirroring IO/TIT on Sunday the 15th. If anyone playing HFT wants to play this tournament they're welcome to!

The thread where you should sign up for IO/TIT is here.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by TheKingInYellow »

State College is probably coming, whether or not we bring a bus remains to be seen
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Field has been updated with Dupont Manual's somewhat tentative registration and with a list of teams that have expressed some distinct interest. We hope it grows!
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

On either Saturday or Sunday, I will be directing the Harvard mirror of RMP Fest 2. RMP Fest is a tournament where all of the questions are about religion, mythology, or philosophy. You can read more about RMP Fest 2 here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8454

Harvard RMP Fest 2 will be an open tournament. Anyone can play, including:

(1) college players in town for IO/TIT
(2) high school players in town for HFT
(3) high school coaches in town for HFT
(4) random people off the street

The tournament format will be doubles/triples. High schoolers can play in teams of three players (teams of two players and a coach will also be allowed), while everyone else can play in teams of either two or one.

The fee to play will be $10 per person, regardless of what kind of team you are playing on.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Joshua Rutsky »

Hoover is trying to crunch the numbers and make this work. We should know something more within the next week or two, but we're excited about coming to play some of the best.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by t-bar »

Norman the Lunatic wrote: Field (15 teams; 7 buzzers)
2 Thomas Jefferson (2 buzzers)
Change of plans, actually: we will be attending the VCU Fall mirror instead. Hope this doesn't mess up anything.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

t-bar wrote:
Norman the Lunatic wrote: Field (15 teams; 7 buzzers)
2 Thomas Jefferson (2 buzzers)
Change of plans, actually: we will be attending the VCU Fall mirror instead. Hope this doesn't mess up anything.
Only the buzzer:team ratio and my faith in humanity.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Frater Taciturnus »

Norman the Lunatic wrote:
t-bar wrote:
Norman the Lunatic wrote: Field (15 teams; 7 buzzers)
2 Thomas Jefferson (2 buzzers)
Change of plans, actually: we will be attending the VCU Fall mirror instead. Hope this doesn't mess up anything.
Only [...] my faith in humanity.
You just lost that and you've been in quizbowl how long?
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by shsquizbowl »

Simsbury High School is interested in attending this tournament.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

With how many teams?
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Edward Powers »

When you say you are willing to start the tournament at a "decent hour" to encourage day trips for long distance teams, how are you defining "decent hour"? Your answer could help us determine if we might have a reasonable chance of arriving in a timely fashion with two teams and one buzzer---at least---and possibly with an additional buzzer as well. So for now, color us interested, and we'll let you know more clearly once we know your definition of a decent starting time.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

In all likelihood--now that the room reservations person has moved on and we have a new one who won't open up the building until 9:00am--we'll have registration starting before 9:00am outside the building, but between later registrations and an opening meeting to explain basics to the (probably few) totally green teams--we'll start the first round around 10:00am, though we will probably try strenuously to start before then.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by TheKingInYellow »

Just to confirm, you'd be okay if we showed up with like 6 teams? I still have to finalize details, but it looks like that might be the case, if it's cool
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

TheKingInYellow wrote:Just to confirm, you'd be okay if we showed up with like 6 teams? I still have to finalize details, but it looks like that might be the case, if it's cool
For values of "okay" that equal "quite happy"
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by shsquizbowl »

Norman the Lunatic wrote:With how many teams?
We plan on bringing one or two teams. We will not be able to bring our buzzer though.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Field has been updated a couple of times. Note that this tournament is approaching a truly glorious size (23-29 teams!) but not a truly glorious number of buzzers (10 sets!). We'd like help in both departments.

Hoover, you'd been considering coming--any word?
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Nine-Tenths Ideas »

Mark the hybrid team you okayed as interested- we're ironing out details.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Edward Powers »

Andy,

Saint Joe's of Metuchen, NJ will bring 2 teams and 2 buzzers. See you on the 14th.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by at your pleasure »

Isaac-did you get my message?
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

MLK has now registered for the tournament! Awesome.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

I'd like to note, as our field is approaching its tentative cap of thirty-six teams, that we are writing enough packets to accommodate eight brackets of six teams, and so--staff permitting, and this is the issue that would need some working out--we can accommodate up to forty-eight teams. That said, intermediate numbers are generally terrible to deal with (unless people have a hankering for nine brackets of five or eleven brackets of four or some such nonsense) and so we'll probably form a waiting list after we hit 36--both as insurance against teams dropping and so that with every additional six teams that register, we can add a group of six all at once.

Bring your buzzers! You get a discount and you prevent slap-bowl. If we get into a real buzzers or staff situation, then college players who staff or provide buzzers for HFT will get a staff/buzzer discount for our mirror of IO the next day. (And if you let us have your buzzers for IO, too, then that discount would stack.) That offer will only activate once the date approaches nearer and our buzzer supply reaches crisis.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Hey, so we currently have four mirrors: one at UCSD, one at VCU, one at Central Gwinnett, and one at Rockford Auburn. If you are one of those mirrors and you have not announced your tournament on the forums, do so! If you are from a state that is not California, Virginia, Georgia, or Illinois, contact me about mirroring this fine, fine set.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by BroNi »

Kellenberg will bring a 4th buzzer. Should I bring my laptop?
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Wonderful. And yeah, it can't hurt to bring your laptop in case we'd need you to staff/ you'd be willing to.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Edward Powers »

Andy---I do not know if I missed this somewhere, so I'll ask here: To whom should checks be made out for HFT IV?
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Edward Powers wrote:Andy---I do not know if I missed this somewhere, so I'll ask here: To whom should checks be made out for HFT IV?
To "Harvard College Bowl."
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Edward Powers »

Thanks.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Nine-Tenths Ideas »

Andy, hate to do this but it looks like Blitman is going to have to cancel [I don't think we ever officially registered, anyway.]
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Hey-- I want to mention that several teams have dropped. We now stand at 26-28 teams. Please, pile on, people! We can run a 32 team tournament quite well, just as we can a 36 team event. Sign up!
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by TheKingInYellow »

Hey Andy, could we get payment information for the Tournament? We'll have 5 teams, if that's cool. Drop me an email, and send one to Mrs. Gandhi at [email protected] as well. Thanks!
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Note that E. O. Smith and Dupont Manual have both dropped. Please, New Jersey schools, send your teams! We'd love to have you. Teams that are already attending, bring more teams! We enjoy putting on a big tournament.

More importantly, this set will be open to mirrors from now until 12/5; if you are interested in mirroring the set, particularly if you're not from near UCSD, Central Gwinnett, Rockford Auburn, or VCU, please let me know.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Matt Guiness »

Needham is interested in attending with one or possibly more teams, depending on how much interest we can drum up before the event. Just so I know, what is the cost for the first team and for each extra team? Send an email if you can about this at [email protected]. Thank you,
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Hey--

The field is currently locked. This means that if you want to register, you can (and you'd replace a scab team). If you want to drop, you will still owe Harvard your registration fee.

Field (28) (15 buzzers)
State College (5)
Kellenberg (3) (4 buzzers, 1 mod)
Dunbar (2)
HHH West (2, 2 buzzers)
St Joe's (2, 2 buzzers)
Newtown (2)
Simsbury (2)
Hunter (1, 2 buzzers)
Bromfield (1)
Emma Willard (1)
Concord Carlisle (1) (3 buzzers)
MLK (1)
St. Andrew's (1, 1 buzzers)
Exeter (1, 1 buzzers)
Needham (1)
Needham + others scab
Hunter + Ranney scab

We will be running four brackets of seven. From there, we will take three groups of eight and one group of four. Each team in the groups of eight will play the six teams that are neither it nor the team from its prelim bracket. The group of four will play a double round-robin during these rounds. Since this requires thirteen packets plus two finals, we will have to resolve ties in the standings by points per bonus.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Matt Weiner »

Hey, I just want to say that Harvard gave me the opportunity to look at and comment on their revised questions, and they have taken to heart many of the criticisms that I and the other people present at VCU expressed. The length and readability problems have been fixed, and many questions have been rewritten to be less difficult. While it was unfortunate that VCU had to play the pre-edited version of the set, I think the main site and the remaining mirrors will benefit from these changes, and I want to thank Harvard for being responsive to constructive criticism.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by centralhs »

As the host of one of the mirror sites (December 5), I would also like to thank the Harvard team. They have been extremely receptive to my concerns as well.

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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by AKKOLADE »

Matt Weiner wrote:Hey, I just want to say that Harvard gave me the opportunity to look at and comment on their revised questions, and they have taken to heart many of the criticisms that I and the other people present at VCU expressed. The length and readability problems have been fixed, and many questions have been rewritten to be less difficult. While it was unfortunate that VCU had to play the pre-edited version of the set, I think the main site and the remaining mirrors will benefit from these changes, and I want to thank Harvard for being responsive to constructive criticism.
This is very good to hear.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by byoung »

Stats: Prelims, playoffs (and finals), combined.

If you see some issue with the stats, leave a message here and sooner or later someone will tell me about it, I expect.

Many thanks to all the teams who came out this year and to all the moderators, whose help I really appreciated.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by johnsona »

Long day, but well run tournament! Thank you for hosting this again, and a big thank you for getting stats out quickly!!!
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Edward Powers »

Thanks to Andy and his entire support staff. This was an extremely well run tournament, and I echo the gratitude for getting the stats out so quickly. And I would be remiss if I did not offer congratulations to State College for a MAGNIFICENT display of knowledge and skill. And thanks as well to all the teams who participated and competed.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Thanks go to everyone who came out both to play and staff. We're very sorry for the various logistical issues that cropped up. I gestured to the group of alternates in front of me as "Exeter alternates" and must have missed the Hunter alternate among them saying "what? I'm not an Exeter alternate!"--and thus Hybrid 1 did not exist for two rounds. I gestured to Papa John's and told them (well, through Dennis Loo) to bring the moderators pizza in half an hour; I guess I didn't clarify to them that two hours later represents a markedly greater period of time. These issues didn't stop us from starting at 9:40, finishing seven rounds before lunch (whose starting time varied based on bracket, but ended pretty much uniformly at two-forty), and finishing another six rounds before six. Thirteen rounds in a total of eight hours, not deducting for lunch, is pretty good work. It can be improved on, and rest assured it'll be better next year.

State College came in first, with Dunbar second, Hunter third, and Kellenberg fourth.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Rufous-capped Thornbill »

Nice showing by Cody Simons playing solo.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Judson Laipply »

At the end of the day, I found some sort of phone/laptop charging device in room 112 that accidentally got taken home with us. If anyone would like to claim it, please tell me.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Hey--

I just got an IM from someone as "dallassimons18" who tried to dupe me into sending him the HFT set, by making such claims (after I forwarded the set--to Dallas's actual accounts) as "i am trying to keep most of qb stuff in that one to be more organized." Of course, after I explained that "you can just forward the email i sent you from your gmail to this new account" this character claimed not to be able to access his or her gmail.

Let me be very, very clear right now. Whoever you are, I don't honestly know if you will succeed in this gambit with the editors of other sets. Maybe at some later date, you'll find yourself with the set in your hand the night before a tournament. How charming! Think very hard before deciding what to do then. Maybe you'll be able to do the honorable thing.

The point of quizbowl is to learn, man, to get in touch with this beautiful world we live in, to get a better idea of the context that surrounds everything we say and do. At the same time, the point of quizbowl is to compete with people you respect, to challenge yourself through others, to make treasured friends who will stay with you for years.

Cheating doesn't serve any of those aims. It leaves you with hollow accomplishments and thin understanding.

I want you to rethink what you almost did, dallassimons18, and I want you never to try this again.
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Re: Harvard Fall Tournament IV (11/14/09)

Post by AKKOLADE »

This is, seriously, one of the most insane things I've ever read of happening.
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