The Quizbowl Resource Center

The University of Wisconsin will be hosting ACF Fall for the Midwest on November 3, 2012. The tournament will take place at Van Vleck Hall barring further notice

Registration
To register for our site, you must email me at [email protected] AND ALSO fill out this form. In your registration, please mention how many teams, staffers, and buzzers you will be bringing.

Packet Submission
All teams that have a member who played a regular, collegiate, academic quizbowl tournament prior to September 1, 2011 are required to submit a packet. If you are not sure if your team falls into this category, refer to this page.

All packets should follow ACF Guidelines, and they should be sent to [email protected] with subject line of "ACF Fall 2012: [Team Name]".

Fees:

Base fee: $120 for one team from a school, $240 for two teams from a school, etc.
Buzzer systems: -$5 each No discount for broken buzzers; no maximum.
Staffers: -$10 each No maximum.
Laptop: -$5 each Maximum 1 per team.
Travel: -$10 per 200 miles traveled one way
International: -$20
For teams representing schools located in a different country than the tournament host.
New ACF teams: -$25
For schools who did not send a team to ACF Fall, Regionals, or Nationals between September 2010 and August 2012, and have no one on the team(s) claiming this discount who played those tournaments for another school.
New quizbowl teams: -$75
For schools who did not send a team to any regular collegiate academic tournament since September 2010, and have no one on the team(s) claiming this discount who played those tournaments for another school. May be combined with new ACF team discount for a total new-team discount of $100.

The submission schedule for this tournament is:
October 7, 2012: No penalty (-$25 for teams not required to submit packets)
October 14, 2012: +$25
October 21, 2012: +$50
After Oct. 21, 2012: The editors may grant one or more 24-hour extensions at an additional penalty of $10 per day.

Field:
House (3)
Machiavelli Academy (1)
Northwestern (2)
Truman State (2)
Northern Michigan University (2)
Lawrence (2)
Chicago (6)

Parking information can be found here, and a campus map can be found here. I would recommend parking in lot 26 along Observatory Drive because it is free, and it is close to the tournament.

Hey Alex, we should actually have 2 teams now. Would you mind updating that whenever you get the chance?

The University of Chicago would like to bring 6 teams.

The start time for this tournament is 9:30.

Chicago B beat Chicago A in a two-game advantaged final. Chicago B also won the Undergrad title, and Truman State won the Division II title. I'll have stats up tomorrow.

This tournament was very fun. Thanks a ton to Alex and Wisconsin for hosting this.

However, moderators: if you're reading a bonus or tossup, don't mention anything related to the bonus or tossup until it's been converted or someone's answered. This happened at least twice yesterday. Also, Seth and Selene (I think those were your names? I apologize if that's wrong) are some of my favorite mods now.

The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi wrote:This tournament was very fun. Thanks a ton to Alex and Wisconsin for hosting this.

I second this and as leader of our organization speak for all of us when I say this end up being a great, very competitive day. The drive was hellacious, but that was our own doing.

The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi wrote: Also, Seth and Selene (I think those were your names? I apologize if that's wrong) are some of my favorite mods now.

Who the hell are they?

Tees-Exe Line wrote:

The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi wrote: Also, Seth and Selene (I think those were your names? I apologize if that's wrong) are some of my favorite mods now.

Who the hell are they?

I think Seth Teitler and Selene Koo.

EDIT: I'm still way too tired to process that you were a former teammate of theirs, Marshall. That's a little embarrassing.

The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi wrote: However, moderators: if you're reading a bonus or tossup, don't mention anything related to the bonus or tossup until it's been converted or someone's answered. This happened at least twice yesterday.

We saw this happen as well. There was a bit of unnecessary directing and talking during bonuses at times. However, Northern Michigan's coach proved yet again to be a great moderator, in addition to Seth, Selene, and Greg (among others).

One other thing I noticed which was that after the prelims finished around four or five pm (!), stats were still being hastily compiled forcing several teams to leave (at least NU and Truman) before the individual awards were announced. I'm also wondering why Wisconsin A (Alex) was playing while there were several moderators causing time delays for multiple rounds.

Otherwise, this was a great tournament and undoubtedly the most fun we've had in quite a while. Thanks for hosting.

The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi wrote:
EDIT: I'm still way too tired to process that you were a former teammate of theirs, Marshall. That's a little embarrassing.

Nothing to be embarrassed about--you don't have the pay attention to the vagaries of various teams' rosters. I just thought the way you phrased it was amusing given Seth and Selene's long record of prominence and success (to say the least) in quizbowl.

merv1618 wrote: One other thing I noticed which was that after the prelims finished around four or five pm (!), stats were still being hastily compiled forcing several teams to leave (at least NU and Truman) before the individual awards were announced. I'm also wondering why Wisconsin A (Alex) was playing while there were several moderators causing time delays for multiple rounds.

Otherwise, this was a great tournament and undoubtedly the most fun we've had in quite a while. Thanks for hosting.

I'll second these sentiments. The tournament ran pretty smoothly, really nothing beyond a few buzzer hiccups in the early rounds, but it could have been much faster if there were more experienced moderators in more rooms. Part of this could have been helped by Alex reading; another thing may be to simply ask attending schools to bring staffers. NIU did this last year for their Fall site, and were able to run a tournament even with a small number of actual house staffers.

The reason we were unable to have individual stats compiled by the end of prelims is that SQBS crashed multiple times. I apologize to the people who had to leave before we could hand out individual awards, and as I said before playoffs started, I'll ship books to anyone who earned a prize but was unable to receive it.

I played this tournament for a few reasons: 1) There were Wisconsin freshmen that wanted to play but were unable to make it to the tournament until after the tournament started, and I wanted to make sure that they would have a team to play on. 2) I thought we would need to have at least six byes since six teams wrote packets. For that reason, I printed a sixteen-team schedule with byes and an eighteen-team schedule (obviously with byes). Once I found out that only one of the six written packets was used to make the tournament, I figured that the amount of time it would take to come up with a new sixteen-team, no-bye schedule would be greater than the amount of time we would lose by playing a schedule with 18 teams. I probably turned out to be wrong on that account, but ex-ante, I don't think that my estimation was unreasonable. 3) Almost all of the slowness stemmed from one particularly bad moderator who really had no reason to be so slow. I told that moderator on multiple occasions to keep extra comments to a minimum, and I instructed at least one person to switch with that moderator, but I guess he/they didn't feel like it. I will make sure that that person does not moderate at the high school tournament Wisconsin is hosting later this year.

I'd like to thank Seth Teitler for the large amount of valuable advice and general help he provided that allowed Wisconsin to host its first collegiate tournament in a long time, and I'd like to thank Selene Koo, Greg Peterson, and Michael Joy for doing a great job moderating and for traveling quite a distance to do so.

Thanks for hosting this tournament! There were a couple of hiccups throughout the day, and it is my personal opinion that tournament directors should not ever split their time between TD-ing and playing, but I think you guys did a good job without that much experience. It was a fun time and your underground building is very cool, and I'm sure future tournaments here will be even better.

Special thanks to Seth and Selene for being the best.

Prelim stats can be found here:
http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... l_prelims/

I'll have playoff stats and combined stats posted soon.

edit: link that works was added

We don't have access to your desktop files...

My bad, I'll fix that.

All stats are here: http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/1159/

Who all earned book prizes yesterday, out of curiosity?

I think that all of the Chicago people who were among the top 12 scorers received prizes. I was told that some people were awarded prizes during the finals match as well. You, Adam from Northwestern, and Anton from "Machiavelli Academy" all qualified for prizes, but I don't know if any of you guys received them. If you (or Adam or Anton) didn't receive a prize, you can PM or email me, and I'll send you a list of books to choose from, and I'll mail them out this week.

The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man wrote:The reason we were unable to have individual stats compiled by the end of prelims is that SQBS crashed multiple times.

FIE!