The Quizbowl Resource Center

This is the official announcement for the Early Fall Tournament (EFT), to be held on October 7th, 2006. The tournament set will be written by Jerry Vinokurov, Ryan Westbrook, myself, and possibly some other people. The questions will be similar in length, difficulty and distribution to ACF Fall (i.e., somewhat shorter and easier than the typical invitational).

We have hosts lined up on the west coast, northeast, midwest and Texas. We'd love to have more hosts, particularly in the mid-Atlantic and the south. If you're interested in hosting a mirror site, please let us know ([email protected], [email protected], [email protected]). The base fee per team will be $80. Hosts can set buzzer, travel and moderator discounts at their own discretion. Hosts send us $40 per team and keep the rest. If your costs of hosting amount to more than you take in, let us know and we'll work something out.

This tournament is open to anyone who wants to play. We're hoping that having some easy, non-packet-submission tournaments early in the year will provide a boost to retention rates for new players, and that this tournament will delight players at all levels, much like its amphibious namesake.

Please let us know if you have any questions about the tournament, or if you want to host. Host sites will be announced soon, along with contacts in case you have questions about your local mirror site.

-Seth

It says 14th in the title, but 7th in the message. Which? And where?

It's the 7th. I've changed the original post title. Thanks for pointing that out.

-Seth

So far, EFT has mirror sites at UCLA, UT-Austin, Chicago, Brown, Georgia Tech, and USF. Contacts for the various sites are:

UCLA—Dwight Wynne (dpwynne AT ucla DOT edu)
UT-Austin—Eric Kwartler (ekwartler AT gmail DOT com)
Chicago—Seth Teitler (setht AT uchicago DOT edu)
Brown—Jerry Vinokurov (jerry_v AT brown DOT edu)
Georgia Tech—Nick Bendler (asimperson AT gmail DOT com)
USF—Aaron Layton (aplviper AT yahoo DOT com)

Feel free to contact the appropriate person on this list with questions about your local site. Feel free to contact me (setht AT uchicago DOT edu), Jerry Vinokurov (jerry_v AT brown DOT edu), and/or Ryan Westbrook (CryoBristow AT aol DOT com) if you have questions about the question set.

-Seth

On the Yahoogroup, it's said that Chicago is hosting this tournament one week later, on the 14th. Is that true?

The plan for now is that Chicago is hosting its mirror on the 14th. I'm waiting to hear back from some people to make sure that that date will work. If that date needs to change, I will post announcements to that effect.

While we're at it, my understanding is that Georgia Tech is planning on hosting its mirror on Sunday the 8th, due to a large sports event on the 7th. I assume Nick will post something about this at some point.

As far as I know, UCLA, UT-Austin, Brown, and USF are all planning to run their mirrors on the 7th.

-Seth

hip swivels wrote:On the Yahoogroup, it's said that Chicago is hosting this tournament one week later, on the 14th. Is that true?

setht wrote:While we're at it, my understanding is that Georgia Tech is planning on hosting its mirror on Sunday the 8th, due to a large sports event on the 7th. I assume Nick will post something about this at some point.

I'd just like to confirm this. We have a home game versus Maryland on the 7th, so we will have our tourney on the 8th.

Expect an official announcement soonish, though if you're interested feel free to go ahead and e-mail me at [email protected].

Here's a long-overdue update on EFT at Chicago.

Chicago will run EFT on October 14th. The current field is as follows: UIUC--3 teams, Michigan--2 teams, Bowling Green--2 teams, UIC--1 team, Tim Hartmann & friends--1 team, Chicago--around 4 teams

If any of these numbers have changed, please let me know. There's also still room for more teams, so if you're interested, let me know.

This tournament will be lots of fun and quite cheap (max. price of $80, and we throw in free pizza and soda). Specifically, the base fee is $80; there's a $10 discount on all teams after the first from any school, a $10 for traveling over 200 miles as determined by Mapquest, and a $10 discount for each functional buzzer set. The minimum fee is $60.

Please let me know if you have any questions, or if you want to sign up some teams.

Hope to see you all on the 14th!
-Seth

Here's another update on EFT at Chicago.

The field is: UIUC (4 teams), Michigan (2 teams), Bowling Green (2 teams), UIC+Pericles (1 team), Timothy Hartman & friends (1 team), Chicago (about 4 teams).

If anyone else wants to register, I'll keep things open until 11:59 pm on Thursday. $80 per team gets you at least 13 rounds of play, free donuts in the morning and free pizza and soda at lunch. If that's not enough enticement, perhaps the prospect of Rom and Pericles together at last will whet your appetite for the tournament.

If you want to register, or if you have any questions, please let me know at setht AT uchicago DOT edu.

Thanks,
-Seth

The EFT mirror at Chicago happened earlier today. Brief results: Chicago A beat Michigan A in the effective final in the last round to win the tournament. Illinois A took 3rd. Congratulations to Chicago A on their win.

Full stats should be up soon. Note that we started the day with 15 teams, which we split into brackets of 8 and 7, so some teams played 7 games in initial round-robin while others played 6. Also note that we had 12 teams continue into the second round-robin, and that several Chicago teams had players who only played part of the tournament. Hopefully this will explain any irregularities in the stats.

Thanks to all the players who came out to play, all the staff who came out to staff, and my co-writers Jerry, Ryan and Selene.

-Seth

EFT @ Chicago stats:

Initial Round Robin

Playoffs

This was a wonderful tournament. The staff was wonderful, the players were wonderful, the final game was wonderfully played on both sides, etc. Hats-off to all involved. I hope there's another EFT next year.