The Quizbowl Resource Center

The University of Delaware will be hosting NAQT SCT for region 3, which will take place on Saturday, February 9th at the UD campus in Newark, Delaware. More information will be posted as the tournament date approaches.

Fees:

First Team: $120
Subsequent Teams: $100
Buzzer System -$10/ each
Clock: -$5/each
Experienced Moderator: -$30/ each
Scorekeeper: -$10/each
New School: -$20/team

NAQT will invoice teams directly for the cost of SCT.


Location and Timing: Registration will begin at 8:00 AM and end at 8:45. We will then hold an opening meeting and start rounds by 9. Lunch will take place at some point around noon and we hope to finish at some reasonable point in the afternoon. Below is a rough outline of the schedule:

Registration: 8:00 - 8:45
Opening Meeting: 8:45 - 9:00
Rounds 1-6: 9:00 - 12:00
Lunch: 12:00 - 1:00
Rounds 7-9: 1:00-2:30
Rebracketing, then rounds 10-14: 2:30-5:00
Advantaged final: 5:00-6:00

The opening meeting will take place in Smith Hall 130 and all games will take place in Purnell Hall, which is right next door. Below is a map of campus:

http://maps.rdms.udel.edu/map/index.php

In terms of parking, the best option would be the Visitor's Center lot on S. College Avenue, which can be found on the map. Parking is supposedly $12 for the day, but in past experience the lot has been unattended on weekends. Another option is the Trabant Garage, which assuredly costs $12 for the day.

For lunch, the best option is Main St., which is a few blocks away from the tournament site. For those feeling particularly lazy, the Trabant Student Center is a block away from the site, but the food is mediocre and expensive.

Registration is now open on naqt.com. Hope to see you there!

Edited for registration details --JTH

Current field

Stony Brook is definitely bringing one team, and hopefully more. All of them would have to be DII.

NYU MIGHT attend this site depending on the location of the New England site. How easy is it to travel to Newark via public transportation?

Ondes Martenot wrote:How easy is it to travel to Newark via public transportation?

It does not appear to be very easy at all, unfortunately. The only train seems to be Scamtrak at $90 per person. That's really annoying NAQT: maybe this was the only bid in the region, but surely you realize that the 3-5 active and fledgling teams in the city (and maybe suburbanish teams like Stony Brook or Princeton) don't have ready access to cars and there's a ton of value in having sites that are along LIRR, NJ Transit, or the MTA.

EDIT: Actually nevermind, I guess you can transfer to SEPTA in Philly and go through Wilmington apparently? And there's Megabus, but it's then an overnight trip.

EDIT: Nevermind again, the SEPTA Regional Rail looks like it will only get you there Friday evening and is more expensive than Megabus.

I wouldn't recommend taking Amtrak either. As previously noted, your best options would be to take Megabus (which goes directly to Newark) or take the train to Philly and transfer to SEPTA. However, both of these options require an overnight stay. There are plenty of hotels in the area (I found one for $83) and there is a university shuttle which provides easy access to and from campus.

marnold wrote:That's really annoying NAQT: maybe this was the only bid in the region, but surely you realize that the 3-5 active and fledgling teams in the city (and maybe suburbanish teams like Stony Brook or Princeton) don't have ready access to cars and there's a ton of value in having sites that are along LIRR, NJ Transit, or the MTA.

Delaware's was the only bid in the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast, and we would welcome an additional bid from a site easily accessible by rail in the Northeast Corridor.

marnold wrote:That's really annoying NAQT: maybe this was the only bid in the region, but surely you realize that the 3-5 active and fledgling teams in the city (and maybe suburbanish teams like Stony Brook or Princeton) don't have ready access to cars and there's a ton of value in having sites that are along LIRR, NJ Transit, or the MTA.

How many teams at colleges fitting this description could actually host this tournament if they wanted to? I know my school can't, and apparently NYU can't either.

Like I said, if Delaware was the only bid, so be it: it's hardly the end of the world since it just means it has to be an overnight trip to a rather inconvenient location, which is probably standard for a decent number teams going to SCTs. But that said, clearly the hosting capacity exists: we're hosting quite a bit next semester including Nats so we had and have no plans to bid, but we certainly could; Princeton obviously could since they hosted successfully last year; Penn is in this region and we frequently do that as a morning trip; there are some quizbowl vets and there seem to be quite a few eager high schoolers running around NYC who could be staffers to help supplement for other schools, etc.

marnold wrote:Like I said, if Delaware was the only bid, so be it: it's hardly the end of the world since it just means it has to be an overnight trip to a rather inconvenient location, which is probably standard for a decent number teams going to SCTs. But that said, clearly the hosting capacity exists: we're hosting quite a bit next semester including Nats so we had and have no plans to bid, but we certainly could; Princeton obviously could since they hosted successfully last year; Penn is in this region and we frequently do that as a morning trip; there are some quizbowl vets and there seem to be quite a few eager high schoolers running around NYC who could be staffers to help supplement for other schools, etc.

It'd be nice if we could compare the travel costs to Delaware with those of a Northeast bid...

Stop whining and bid, you bellyachers.

GW is interested, assuming we can secure transportation.

UVA will be attending this site. Number of teams to come once we've been back to practice and can discuss.

So it looks like UVA, UMD, Yale, and Penn will all be going to one site. Lets hope that D-value algorithm is good enough.

To be the man, Eric, you have to beat the man.

For the record, we do hope to announce a New England site in the near future.

The Quest for the Historical Mukherjesus wrote:So it looks like UVA, UMD, Yale, and Penn will all be going to one site. Lets hope that D-value algorithm is good enough.

UMD B is looking forward to going 0-whatever again this year!

Original post updated with location information and other details.

So who all from Georgetwon and Maryland is going? Due to this being announced toward the end of the semester/beginning of break, there wasn't enough time for paperwork to get through for GW to actually send a team, so I'll be going solo and would like to be able to get a ride if possible.

I'm playing solo from Georgetown. If my other possible rides fall through, we can look into splitting the cost of me renting a car.

Courvoisier Winetavius Richardson wrote:

The Quest for the Historical Mukherjesus wrote:So it looks like UVA, UMD, Yale, and Penn will all be going to one site. Lets hope that D-value algorithm is good enough.

UMD B is looking forward to going 0-whatever again this year!

You guys should register before registration closes on the 5th, then.

Now that the field has closed, the schedules are as follows: Division I will play a full round robin (with one bye per team) for a total of 10 games, and we will hold an advantaged final if necessary. We're waiting for an eighth team to register, but if they do, Division II will play a full round robin and rebracket into top four and bottom four for a total of 10 games. These scheduling changes have been updated in the original post.

mastaloo wrote:We're waiting for an eighth [Division II] team to register, but if they do, Division II will play a full round robin and rebracket into top four and bottom four for a total of 10 games.

This Division II position has been claimed.

Is there any chance of scaring up a 12th DI team, to avoid byes at an NAQT event and allow a schedule with more than 10 games? Neither of those things seem desirable to me, though of course you can't get around certain scheduling necessities. I'm assuming Delaware lacks the staffing capacity to run a house team?

mastaloo wrote:In terms of parking, the best option would be the Visitor's Center lot on S. College Avenue, which can be found on the map. Parking is supposedly $12 for the day, but in past experience the lot has been unattended on weekends. Another option is the Trabant Garage, which assuredly costs $12 for the day.

When I was on campus for the October tournament, I paid 50 cents to park in that visitors lot. I'm hoping the same will be true on Saturday. (Formerly, the cost to park in the garages wasn't this ridiculous.)

DumbJaques wrote:I'm assuming Delaware lacks the staffing capacity to run a house team?

Since like 20 people are needed to run the tournament, this is definitely the case. And even if the team did throw some people together, you would just beat them by 600 anyway, since all the people who could handle D1 material are staffing.

If someone can scrape up another D1 team, we have enough staff to run a 12 team round robin. As Bill noted, we can't.

DumbJaques wrote:Is there any chance of scaring up a 12th DI team, to avoid byes at an NAQT event and allow a schedule with more than 10 games?

Teams interested in this option (GW?) should contact me to register.

Is it possible to make a schedule with more than 10 games even without a 12th team? Rounds are capped at 20 minutes, and some teams are travelling from pretty far away to play just a little over three hours of quizbowl.

You could do a round robin followed by a 4/4/3 split for 12 or 13 games in 14 rounds, but the downside would be you won't have any extra packets after finals.

vcuEvan wrote:Is it possible to make a schedule with more than 10 games even without a 12th team? Rounds are capped at 20 minutes, and some teams are travelling from pretty far away to play just a little over three hours of quizbowl.

I might be able to suggest something, but I need a reminder on a few points:

- In cases where 2nd and 3rd are both 1 game behind 1st, is it expected that 2nd and 3rd play a full round (or half?) followed by an advantaged final? If so, that means up to 3 packets have to be held back for this.

- Since there are 4, do the undergrad teams also get a final (and is it still played if the highest undergrad team has a 2 or more game advantage)?

Depending on the answers to these questions, it seems to me that up to 14 of the 16 packets are already spoken for.

Bad Boy Bill wrote: - In cases where 2nd and 3rd are both 1 game behind 1st, is it expected that 2nd and 3rd play a full round followed by an advantaged final? If so, that means up to 3 packets have to be held back for this.

If there are three packets available, then this is certainly the optimal solution. It is possible to have a situation in which there are not enough remaining packets (due to some combination of large field sizes/tiebreakers/moderator error).

Bad Boy Bill wrote:Since there are 4, do the undergrad teams also get a final (and is it still played if the highest undergrad team has a 2 or more game advantage)?

There is no Undergraduate final unless two or more UG-eligible teams have identical records at the end of play.

vcuEvan wrote:Is it possible to make a schedule with more than 10 games even without a 12th team? Rounds are capped at 20 minutes, and some teams are travelling from pretty far away to play just a little over three hours of quizbowl.

18 rounds of UVA vs Penn vs Maryland on the Knot go go go

The Quest for the Historical Mukherjesus wrote:

vcuEvan wrote:Is it possible to make a schedule with more than 10 games even without a 12th team? Rounds are capped at 20 minutes, and some teams are travelling from pretty far away to play just a little over three hours of quizbowl.

18 rounds of UVA vs Penn vs Maryland on the Knot go go go

Yeah you guys go be Division Zero.

Underestimate Cornell, NYU, Princeton, and VCU at your own peril. (underestimate Evan Nagler all you like)

I have word from George Mason that they're planning to play but haven't registered yet, we'll see what happens.

The Quest for the Historical Mukherjesus wrote:18 rounds of UVA vs Penn vs Maryland on the Knot go go go

I volunteer to read for this.

Did somebody drop? I'm only seeing 10 D1 teams today, which would simplify matters. Both Alex and I think we can do extra rounds. What exactly that will look like can get finalized after the field size settles.

Bad Boy Bill wrote:

The Quest for the Historical Mukherjesus wrote:18 rounds of UVA vs Penn vs Maryland on the Knot go go go

I volunteer to read for this.

Did somebody drop? I'm only seeing 10 D1 teams today, which would simplify matters. Both Alex and I think we can do extra rounds. What exactly that will look like can get finalized after the field size settles.

It looks like Penn B dropped?

So there apparently is a major snowstorm hitting the northeast Friday night/Saturday morning. The forecast could obviously change but this could potentially screw around with the Delaware site (and possibly the MIT and Cornell sites as well).

Penn B has dropped, so the Division I field is closed at 10.

Ondes Martenot wrote:So there apparently is a major snowstorm hitting the northeast Friday night/Saturday morning. The forecast could obviously change but this could potentially screw around with the Delaware site (and possibly the MIT and Cornell sites as well).

What I'm seeing at this present second is a "winter mix" here but snow north of us. This wouldn't be the first time when everyone north of us had travel challenges but everyone south of us got rain. We'll keep an eye on this.

As for the schedule, Alex and I came up with two ideas. Which do you like better?

- A top 6/bottom 4 second phase, with the stipulation that if a team has a 2 game lead no final is needed. The downside to this could be that a tiebreaker or packet mistake might leave less than two packets for a final.

- A top 4/bottom 6, with 1-2 playing an advantaged final and 3-4 playing for third.

Cornell, NYU, Penn, Princeton: Which of you guys are coming down on Friday and which of you are trying to make it Saturday morning? That is, what kind of drops are we looking at if the snowstorm hits?

We are driving to Delaware on Saturday morning

We are also supposed to drive down Saturday morning...

Ras superfamily wrote:We are driving to Delaware on Saturday morning

Come rain or shine.

The Quest for the Historical Mukherjesus wrote:

Ras superfamily wrote:We are driving to Delaware on Saturday morning

Come rain or shine.

Snow is no problem.

Ugh, Canadians.

We're coming up Saturday morning, but Delaware is really quite close to us and pretty much a straight shot up the highway, so unless the roads are utterly undriveable (in which case I expect the tournament would be postponed), we'll be there.

To clarify on Bill's DI schedule ideas, are we looking at prelim RR + playoff RR (in brackets of either 6/4 or 4/6)? That is, a total of 14 and 12 games for top bracket teams, respectively? If so, I'd vote for 6/4 (more games, which at SCT everyone generally wants) and more teams in the top bracket. It seems perfectly reasonable to use ppg if we have to break a tie to see who the second team in an advantaged final is.

(Does NAQT still use the rule that a final has to occur regardless of whether a team has cleared the field? Either way, I don't see an issue with the above plan).

DumbJaques wrote: To clarify on Bill's DI schedule ideas, are we looking at prelim RR + playoff RR (in brackets of either 6/4 or 4/6)? That is, a total of 14 and 12 games for top bracket teams, respectively? If so, I'd vote for 6/4 (more games, which at SCT everyone generally wants) and more teams in the top bracket. It seems perfectly reasonable to use ppg if we have to break a tie to see who the second team in an advantaged final is.

(Does NAQT still use the rule that a final has to occur regardless of whether a team has cleared the field? Either way, I don't see an issue with the above plan).

SCT uses standard advantaged-final policy, so it is possible for a team to win the tournament by clearing the field.

For a 10-team field in which the teams wish to play more than a full round-robin, we would recommend prelim RR + 6/4 playoff split.

If everyone is alright with breaking a tie by PPG for the advantaged final, I'm fine with running a 6/4 playoff bracket. If not, then we'll run 4/6.

Ondes Martenot wrote:We are also supposed to drive down Saturday morning...

As are we.

mastaloo wrote:If everyone is alright with breaking a tie by PPG for the advantaged final, I'm fine with running a 6/4 playoff bracket. If not, then we'll run 4/6.

I'd be fine with that.

mastaloo wrote:If everyone is alright with breaking a tie by PPG for the advantaged final

This is fine by NAQT. (In general, we oppose statistical tiebreakers, but they are slightly preferable when the only alternative is "there are no more packets, sorry.")