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At the moment, there are two tournaments scheduled in the southeast for fall of 2006. CotKU at UTC and ACF Fall at FSU. I want some more! Who wants to mirror the Early Fall Tournament? Or PARFAIT? Georgia Tech? USF? Anyone?

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Here's a list of scheduled tournaments--

College:
UTC CotKU: Oct 21
FSU ACF Fall: Nov 5 (Sunday) [Vandy will be hosting on Nov. 4]

CC / Juniorbird:
UGA: Sept 30
Valencia: Nov 10-11

High School:
FSU: Oct 28
UF: Dec 1-2

Bad. Real bad:
Berry: Sept 16

UGA is hosting our Juniorbird tournament on Sept. 30th. It's open to first and second year players as well as newcomers to the college circuit.

Berry College is apparently planning to host a tournament of some kind on September 16 ... http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quizbowl/ ... /16296?l=1 .

Yes, it would be great for someone in Florida to mirror PARFAIT! Talk to me or Dan ... jbg [curlyA thing] princeton.edu

-Jordan

Nick Bendler at Georgia Tech has expressed interest in mirroring EFT on October 8th (I gather there's a football conflict on the 7th). I think he's waiting to hear back from other club members, but hopefully it'll work out for them to host a mirror.

-Seth

I put the idea of mirroring PARFAIT up on the Florida message board to see what the rest of the team thought of the idea earlier this morning. As of yet, there has been no response, but I think it would be beneficial to UF and to the region for us to host it.

We are going to try to have a college tourney here at Alabama sometime in the upcoming academic year. Nothing is clear at the moments, but you guys could indicate to me the best times.

setht wrote:Nick Bendler at Georgia Tech has expressed interest in mirroring EFT on October 8th (I gather there's a football conflict on the 7th). I think he's waiting to hear back from other club members, but hopefully it'll work out for them to host a mirror.

-Seth

It probably should, though I'm not ready to make anything official at the moment.

However, I would like to hear how many teams might come to the tournament if it's on Saturday to make sure it's feasible to have it. (Just reply to this topic if you have an opinion.)

wd4gdz wrote:At the moment, there are two tournaments scheduled in the southeast for fall of 2006. CotKU at UTC and ACF Fall at FSU. I want some more! Who wants to mirror the Early Fall Tournament? Or PARFAIT? Georgia Tech? USF? Anyone?

We had actually discussed the possibility of USF mirroring EFT at our meeting this week but we haven't gotten around to emailing whoever we're supposed to email yet. We'll also be announcing our regular fall novice tournament soon. It will probably be the 25th of November barring some sort of conflict we haven't thought of yet.

ASimPerson wrote: It probably should, though I'm not ready to make anything official at the moment.

However, I would like to hear how many teams might come to the tournament if it's on Saturday to make sure it's feasible to have it. (Just reply to this topic if you have an opinion.)

Great. Florida State would definitely send one team, and hopefully two, depending on how recruiting in the fall goes. The stories I have of staying at a ghetto Travelodge in Atlanta will surely convince the newbies to go. UF's Travis claimed to have seen some hooker va-jay-jay upon entering the wrong room. Good times.

Bender Bending Fernandez wrote: We had actually discussed the possibility of USF mirroring EFT at our meeting this week but we haven't gotten around to emailing whoever we're supposed to email yet. We'll also be announcing our regular fall novice tournament soon. It will probably be the 25th of November barring some sort of conflict we haven't thought of yet.

I am glad to hear the interest in mirroring. However, if GT mirros the tournament, that might be too much geographical overlap. Perhaps you can mirror PARFAIT if plans for the UF mirror fall through?

Thanks to everyone in the southeast for stepping up. This isn't meant as a slight to UTC, but it'd be nice to have some good mACF tournaments outside Chattanooga.

NotBhan wrote:Berry College is apparently planning to host a tournament of some kind on September 16 ... http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quizbowl/ ... /16296?l=1 .

"This tournament is for undergraduate teams, and the style of questions will be "College Bowl Plus."

What elder wants to explain "College Bowl Plus" to me?

Although I can't speak for the UF team, I know I would do the same things I've done for the past three years to go to any GTech tournament. So in other words, we (meaning myself and whoever wants to go with me) would bring at least one team.

I think we could get at least one UGA team to a GA Tech tournament if it doesn't conflict with football. Unfortunately with 7 home games this fall (and a JV high school tournament in Nov.), there aren't many Saturdays that work for us. Sundays would be preferred.

wd4gdz wrote:

NotBhan wrote:Berry College is apparently planning to host a tournament of some kind on September 16 ... http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quizbowl/ ... /16296?l=1 .

"This tournament is for undergraduate teams, and the style of questions will be "College Bowl Plus."

What elder wants to explain "College Bowl Plus" to me?

Bad. Real bad.

MaS

We would probably go to Atlanta sometime in the first couple weekends of October - if the tourney is held, I know we'd prefer Saturday to Sunday. I doubt we'd make it to Florida at any point until after we get some more money from fall ABC in November. Also, not sure if Eric has officially posted the hosts or not, but we'll be another location for ACF Fall, prob. hosting on the Saturday.

I'm enthused by the response so far, and the prospect of a UGA team visiting Atlanta for the first time in awhile is interesting.

Again, the move is being considered due to our home game against Maryland - there is just no way we can have an on-campus event that day. Hopefully it's an afternoon game so people will leave afterwards and also clear out the hotels. (Of cousre, since everyone is probably driving I imagine it's entirely feasible to stay out in the 'burbs and drive in the rest of the way the day-of - Tech games aren't that popular, they just take all our on-campus parking. And there's no shortage of 'burbs here, being Atlanta and all.)

As for Tech's plans, well, we'll go to ACF Fall and COTKU, with a chance of also going down to UF/FSU if we have any money...

[quote="ImmaculateDeception"][quote="wd4gdz"][quote="NotBhan"]Berry College is apparently planning to host a tournament of some kind on September 16 ... http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quizbowl/ ... /16296?l=1 .[/quote]

"This tournament is for undergraduate teams, and the style of questions will be "College Bowl Plus."

What elder wants to explain "College Bowl Plus" to me?[/quote]
Bad. Real bad.

MaS[/quote]


FYI..... "The tournament of some kind" happens to be the Berry College Early Bird/Southeastern. It is the longest running annual "undergrad only" tournament in the country, having been started in the mid 1970's. It was one of the very few Quizbowl competitions (if not the only one) in the country at the time. It's not just "some kind of" tournament. It's a definite possibility that we wouldn't be having these discussions if Gordon Carper and his colleagues from other schools (UAH, Armstrong St., etal) hadn't started it. The game wouldn't be nearly what it is today without the Southeastern. That's one of the many reasons why ACF (which, incidentally, was founded by two Berry Graduates) named it's Lifetime Achievement award after Dr. Carper. So before you automatically stick your noses in the air at the mention of a Berry tournament, at least try to learn something about the history behind it before you summarily write it off.

That being said, "Quizbowl Plus" is actually a bad description. The questions for the Southeastern have always been ACF-Style questions that are geared toward Undergraduates. That format allows for schools who play ACF to send their Undergrads to get some playing time and be competitve, while attracting a lot of teams who don't play ACF (i.e. UGA).
It creates a relatively level playing field. At the moment it is non-packet submission, and the quality of material is quite good. If you guys have any constructive ideas that could improve things, then please by all means let us know. For those who will be coming, see you in September.

-- Dren

drollins wrote: FYI..... "The tournament of some kind" happens to be the Berry College Early Bird/Southeastern. It is the longest running annual "undergrad only" tournament in the country, having been started in the mid 1970's. It was one of the very few Quizbowl competitions (if not the only one) in the country at the time. It's not just "some kind of" tournament. It's a definite possibility that we wouldn't be having these discussions if Gordon Carper and his colleagues from other schools (UAH, Armstrong St., etal) hadn't started it. The game wouldn't be nearly what it is today without the Southeastern. That's one of the many reasons why ACF (which, incidentally, was founded by two Berry Graduates) named it's Lifetime Achievement award after Dr. Carper. So before you automatically stick your noses in the air at the mention of a Berry tournament, at least try to learn something about the history behind it before you summarily write it off.

That being said, "Quizbowl Plus" is actually a bad description. The questions for the Southeastern have always been ACF-Style questions that are geared toward Undergraduates. That format allows for schools who play ACF to send their Undergrads to get some playing time and be competitve, while attracting a lot of teams who don't play ACF (i.e. UGA).
It creates a relatively level playing field. At the moment it is non-packet submission, and the quality of material is quite good. If you guys have any constructive ideas that could improve things, then please by all means let us know. For those who will be coming, see you in September.

-- Dren

I don't think anyone was trying to insult Berry or the tournament. Circuit veterans generally recognize that Berry has historically had an active and competitive team and contributed to making ACF/mACF mainstream with its tournaments. I think the confusion arises in that many of us here aren't geographically able to attend Southeastern tournaments and are going more by either who we see posting regularly on the boards or who we see playing at national tournaments as far as determining the status of programs, and Berry's lack of activity on those ends (at least relative to that of the late 90's) had brought about the general conclusion that the program was defunct. That and the "College Bowl Plus" wording likely prompted the responses we saw here.

Since, as you suggest, that doesn't seem to be the case, I'm sure a lot of us here would either be interested in seeing some of the packets from the recent Berry tournaments or, even better, seeing some Berry teams hitting the tournament circuit full time this coming year.

I would also like to see some of the packets from previous years before deciding to travel 6 hours (one way) and pay for registration (which in previous years, has been very, very expensive, IMO).

Regarding the Berry Tournament, just because it's been around a while, doesn't mean it's great. Try comparing NAC and NAQT. Over the last couple of years, Berry hasn't had the greatest teams (1-9 at Heinrich Boll 2005 (leaving halfway through it, then coming back, WTF?), 1-9 at ACF Regionals 2006, etc.) Thus, I'm led to think that the questions will not be good, as a result. Berry apparently had great teams "back in the day", but I'm not sure how far removed from the game those players are. When Berry alums read for tournaments at UTC, many complain about the long length of 6-line tossups.

Have the results for recent Berry tournaments been posted? Who goes to these tournaments? I'm not trying to sound scathing, I'm just trying to find out more about this "tournament of some kind."

Hi, Dren -- I didn't mean to be pejorative in saying it was a "tournament of some kind" -- I just had no idea what "College Bowl Plus" might imply. (It could have been a tournament using CBI Intramural questions for all I knew.) I e-mailed Wade Carpenter on Thursday night to ask for more info on the format, and I was planning to post that information so that southeastern teams might better decide whether to make the trip to Berry.

wd4gdz wrote:Who goes to these tournaments?

If I remember what Saurabh told me correctly, Stephen Webb won it playing solo last year...so take that for what it's worth. I think part of the problem is that it's been poorly advertised recently - when I was actually eligible to go, I never knew anything about it. As for content, my buest guess would be like the early days of ACF when the alums who presumably do the writing were active - pyramidal or mostly so, but not nearly as long as they are these days. Hopefully Dren will give more insight there. As an added note, I've never heard Dren complain about length and always enjoy his reading.

I went to the Southeastern last year, and I didn't think it was a bad tournament. To the best of my recollection the tossups were not one-liners and I think most were basically pyramidal though there were a lot of speed checks. I remember asking Mr. Carpenter where the questions came from, and he as I recall he made it seem like one person wrote them all (maybe someone named Eric? It was a while ago). Anyway, the question quality was less than, say, a UTC tournament, but greater than what I've seen of CBI questions.

Stephen Webb did indeed take the tournament. The field was made up mostly (by my impression) first and second year players from teams that don't play much. I remember Morehouse, Stetson, GPC, Shorter, and Athens State being there.

Personally, I thought the tournament was enjoyable. Maybe it was because I happened to play pretty well on the questions, I don't know, but I plan on going again.

If I am not mistaken Eric Emmett writes all of the questions for Berry's tournaments, atleast for the CC tournaments. I believe he was a part of the Berry team that was consistently at the top of NAQT Undergrad. The questions at the CC tournaments were not exactly "great", as the toss-ups gave away things in the first five words like "he built the Labyrinth." Would I drive 6+ hours to participate, if you are expecting excellent questions, no, if you just want to have a good time with decent questions, then yes.

The reason you didn't hear about it in the past was because Wade has only recently started using e-mail...I remember us getting a physical letter from him two years ago that talked about how complicated e-mail was or something.

Anyway, I went two years ago...the tournament was, for some reason, split over two days (Friday-Saturday). (Which was also great because no one wanted to go to a tournament on Friday night, so it was my brother and I Friday night and then a full squad the next day.) Since we're in Atlanta, we weren't going to pay for a hotel in Rome, so we made the drive there-and-back 4 times. If I recall, no one really liked it all that much or hated it all that much. No one really wanted to go last year, so Stephen hatched a self-aggrandizing plan to see if he could win it by himself. And then he did.

So...who won that Berry tournament?

wd4gdz wrote:So...who won that Berry tournament?

According to sources, Southern Virginia won, Berry's A team came in second, and Berry B and UTC were third.

Although I was unable to attend due to health issues, I can cofirm that Matt is correct....

If you are talking about fall '04, I believe it was Wofford, Athens State, Ga. Tech.

I'm Comin' To Join Ya wrote:If you are talking about fall '04, I believe it was Wofford, Athens State, Ga. Tech.

... What?

I'm Comin' To Join Ya wrote:If you are talking about fall '04, I believe it was Wofford, Athens State, Ga. Tech.

As no one has mention 2004 prior to you, I guess the discussion was about this year's.

Oops. I thought the query was referring to the post directly above it. I didn't think Berry's tourn. was this early in the year, though.

The Southeastern isn't typically held until late October/Early November. I believe that Wade felt he had a chance to attract more teams if they moved it to an earlier date.