The Quizbowl Resource Center

I am pleased to announce the first annual Regularly Occurring Brown Open Tournament: The Tournament of Infinite Justice. It is slated to take place on a yet-to-be-determined date in the spring of 2009. I have been looking at the last weekend of March as a possible time to run this event and would like to hear what people would prefer. I've added April 11 as another option, although that is Passover so that might be inconvenient for some people, and also an April 18 and "after ACF Nationals" options. Earlier than that would not work because of spring breaks and such. Anyway, please vote in the poll so I can figure out how fast I have to write stuff.

With that in mind, here are the details:

What it is?

ROBOT will be a masters' tournament written by me. I will be assisted on chemistry and biology by Susan Ferrari, Gautam Kandlikar, and Arnav Moudgil. The difficulty of the tournament will range from hard to quite hard to "I can't believe that's seriously a tossup answer." I am not kidding about this, so take that into account when you decide to attend. Obviously, there will be no packet submission requirements for this event, though if you feel like writing a freelance packet, I would certainly not turn you down.

I plan to have 15 rounds of tossups and bonuses, using the standard ACF distribution. Entry is open to everyone and anyone.

Where it be?

The current plan is to run the event at Brown. However, if the field would be substantially better somewhere else, I am open to relocating the tournament. I would prefer not to do this, but if people just flat out don't want to come to Providence in the spring (Providence is beautiful in March!) then I guess it might take place somewhere else.

How many monies?

It'll cost your team $120 to play. There will be buzzer and staff discounts.

Can I mirror it?

Sure, why not? Get in touch with me.

Again, if you are interested in this event, please vote for a date in the poll.

I understand that this would reasonably attract a slightly different field from, say, HI, since it's exclusively post-Nationals difficulty, whereas HI will only get that hard in playoffs, if I guess at all, but I'd rather this tournament not be held on the 11th if only so I can play it and get destroyed on it.

EDIT: substantive reason, so that other people who want to play HI at Harvard can too

everyday847 wrote:I understand that this would reasonably attract a slightly different field from, say, HI, since it's exclusively post-Nationals difficulty, whereas HI will only get that hard in playoffs, if I guess at all, but I'd rather this tournament not be held on the 11th if only so I can play it and get destroyed on it.

EDIT: substantive reason, so that other people who want to play HI at Harvard can too

Ok, I didn't realize that HI was going to be on that date. Looks like April 11 is off the table then.

Jerry wrote:ROBOT will be a masters' tournament written by me. I will be assisted on chemistry and biology by Susan Ferrari, Gautam Kandlikar, and Arnav Moudgil.

?

myamphigory wrote:

Jerry wrote:ROBOT will be a masters' tournament written by me. I will be assisted on chemistry and biology by Susan Ferrari, Gautam Kandlikar, and Arnav Moudgil.

?

He probably got you to agree to it while you weren't paying attention.

BuzzerZen wrote:

myamphigory wrote:

Jerry wrote:ROBOT will be a masters' tournament written by me. I will be assisted on chemistry and biology by Susan Ferrari, Gautam Kandlikar, and Arnav Moudgil.

?

He probably got you to agree to it while you weren't paying attention.

Entirely possible.

myamphigory wrote:

Jerry wrote:ROBOT will be a masters' tournament written by me. I will be assisted on chemistry and biology by Susan Ferrari, Gautam Kandlikar, and Arnav Moudgil.

?

Sorry if I'm wrong about this; I thought I had an email from you offering to help. If this is wrong, I will of course remove your name.

It's quite possible; I'm very forgetful. Anyway, I am provisionally still down for this barring any sort of work-related disaster that prevents me from doing any frivolous things, and providing that my being abroad for some part of March doesn't pose a huge problem.

Hey, so, I would also like to say that April 11 is now back in consideration. The idea is that the tournament would be part of a weekend extravaganza of quizbowl that would take place at Harvard. HI would be on Saturday and ROBOT would be on Sunday, so if you vote for April 11, that's what you'd be voting for.

/me revotes

everyday847 wrote:/me revotes

This poll allows you to change your vote if you want.

So it does.

Note that I am supporting ROBOT being held with HI as a TD for the latter, too. We'd love this.

grapesmoker wrote:Hey, so, I would also like to say that April 11 is now back in consideration. The idea is that the tournament would be part of a weekend extravaganza of quizbowl that would take place at Harvard. HI would be on Saturday and ROBOT would be on Sunday, so if you vote for April 11, that's what you'd be voting for.

Are there side-events planned for HI aside from Fine Arts?

No, the arts is the only side event as of now. I'd be interested to hear from teams/individuals who would be flying if they would prefer both events to be amalgamated.

In general, we like hearing from teams because it makes us feel good, and also because it's nice to know how many rooms we need to reserve. That was a problem when apparently our biggest ever field for HFT was not big enough, and we'd long ago made room reservations we couldn't successfully expand. So the earlier we hear a peep from you, the better, so we know that we'll have four teams/twelve teams/two hundred teams.

I think it would be possible for Clemson to budget both tournaments if it was held at one location.

Magister Ludi wrote:No, the arts is the only side event as of now. I'd be interested to hear from teams/individuals who would be flying if they would prefer both events to be amalgamated.

I would be more likely to come if this was a combined event rather than events on different weekends.

Depending on how many rounds HI ends up having, I'm a little concerned about the timing of the fine arts tournament. As MO and the past two CO's have demonstrated, running a long main tournament and then running a side tournament makes things go really late. Maybe the fine arts tournament could be split up over the two days? It's also possible to run the tournament on Friday night, which might work out a little better than at CO if it's possible to get affordable lodging closer to Harvard than to the University of Chicago. This solves people staying up late and having to leave early on Sunday to catch flights, but raises the additional problem of making people more tired for Saturday's tournament, mandating that people driving to the event leave very early on Friday, and causing problems for people whose flights get in late or are delayed.

Bentley Like Beckham wrote:affordable lodging close to Harvard

hahahahahaha

So yeah, there's lodging. There's cheap stuff two dollars (and twenty minutes) away on the T, and maybe stuff in range of the MIT shuttles, but I don't know much about that--I'll do some research. For the moment I refuse to touch group rate stuff, since the hotels in the area are run by some kind of devils. That said, my common room has a high enough ceiling that if I built perfect shelves I could provide thirty quizbowlers a place to stay. Note: this would be unpleasant. Also require zero gravity.

On a more serious note, I'll think about travel logistics later; you're right about the potential for fuckups with timing. Preliminarily, I'd say either of two things would work. First, running arts Friday night, HI / first half of ROBOT Saturday, second half Sunday, or HI / arts Saturday-latelatenight, ROBOT Sunday. This would depend on whether people want to fly out Sunday late night or fly in Friday afternoon. That'll require a separate poll, and a later one.

There are a number of significant differences between UChicago and Harvard when it comes to lodging and transportation:

First, there are multiple hotels on the Harvard campus. I wouldn't categorize any of them as "affordable" in the sense that a Super 8 Motel is affordable, but richer teams like Chicago could certainly afford to stay in a hotel that's closer to Sever Hall than most Harvard dorms are.

Second, the Harvard campus is directly served by Boston's light-rail system (the "T"). UChicago is notably not directly served by the L, making transportation from other parts of Boston to Harvard far easier, faster, and less dependent on traffic than transportation to UChicago from other parts of Chicago.

Third, Boston is a much smaller city than Chicago in terms of both physical size and population. There are fewer people to get in your way during the transit process and distances between Harvard, downtown Boston, the airport, and areas of Boston where lodging is cheap are far less than equivalent distances in Chicago.

So in comparison to CO Weekend, transit and lodging issues for April 11 HI/ROBOT super weekend of quizbowl insanity should be far lesser.

It'd be wonderful to assemble a super field for these tournaments, particularly midwestern teams that might otherwise choose to come to a mirror in said region. ROBOT will ideally run, after all, on a great field.

I would love to show up for HI, read arts, then play ROBOT the next day.

I don't think I'll be able to convince my team to come with me to both this and ACF nats. Any takers for a freelance team? Although I guess we don't need to decide this early.

EDIT: I'll be gunning for 5 PPB.

I'd prefer March 28th myself, since that's still Spring Break for me and I'd love to actually fly out and staff this thing.

As Jerry noted, April 11 is Passover, but what hasn't been noted is that April 12 is Easter too. Perhaps a weekend featuring major religious holidays for two different groups well-represented in quizbowl isn't the greatest idea. Then again, there are certainly a decent number of qb people in "other" categories or who likely don't care enough to still play. If I were planing to come, I'd vote for a different weekend though.

vandyhawk wrote:As Jerry noted, April 11 is Passover, but what hasn't been noted is that April 12 is Easter too. Perhaps a weekend featuring major religious holidays for two different groups well-represented in quizbowl isn't the greatest idea. Then again, there are certainly a decent number of qb people in "other" categories or who likely don't care enough to still play. If I were planing to come, I'd vote for a different weekend though.

Good point, Matt. Let me ask this: is there a sizable population that would come on one of the dates prior to ACF Nationals that would not come afterwards? Chicago's JS Mill tournament got a nice field despite being after Nats, so I'm wondering if there are great objections to this plan. The post-Nats votes still outnumber the others, so unless something changes dramatically I find myself leaning towards a post-Nats date.

Silly me for not thinking about holidays with respect to HI, either. Post-Nats would be fine with me, certainly.

grapesmoker wrote:Good point, Matt. Let me ask this: is there a sizable population that would come on one of the dates prior to ACF Nationals that would not come afterwards? Chicago's JS Mill tournament got a nice field despite being after Nats, so I'm wondering if there are great objections to this plan. The post-Nats votes still outnumber the others, so unless something changes dramatically I find myself leaning towards a post-Nats date.

I personally will probably come to both HI and BrownR regardless of when they are. However, I would also like to take VCU people or other interested Richmonders with me. It's already looking unlikely that they can come to HI since it's in the middle of two heavy time-sucking trips to NAQT and ACF Nationals as well as the end-of-semester craziness, and Easter may be a dealbreaker as well. If the Brown tournament were a separate event run in mid-May after the early-schedule schools get out, or in early June after HS nationals, that would greatly improve the chances of you getting more participation from this area. Additionally, separating the tournaments would enable you to run side events on Sunday morning at a relaxed and well-rested pace, rather than engaging in the folly-laden practice of cramming them in on Saturday night or Sunday night because you're running two regular tournaments in the same weekend.

I know that we'd be much more likely to travel if these events were at the same time, and I'm inclined to think that we'd be most willing to do so if they were both after nationals. Despite the one of the biggest and best Chicago Opens ever, there was still high demand for another summer open at VCU in August. I'm thinking that having a late May/early June summer open might be the best plan, since a lot of people are already traveling towards the end of their school years.

theMoMA wrote:we'd be most willing to do so if they were both after nationals.

But that would make "Harvard International" make less sense! Simply can't be done.

Incidentally, as one of the contributors to the HI fine arts set, I'd be happier if that set were run during the daytime on Sunday after HI rather than squeezed into the evening. For whatever that's worth. I'm down on late-night side events.

If there was a post-ACF Nats weekend of Harvard International/ROBOT, I'd try to come. I especially want to play the fine arts, but family (and likely workload as well) takes precedence on Easter.

theMoMA wrote:I know that we'd be much more likely to travel if these events were at the same time, and I'm inclined to think that we'd be most willing to do so if they were both after nationals. Despite the one of the biggest and best Chicago Opens ever, there was still high demand for another summer open at VCU in August. I'm thinking that having a late May/early June summer open might be the best plan, since a lot of people are already traveling towards the end of their school years.

Yeah I'd kind of like this tournament to be in the May/June range as well.

Bentley Like Beckham wrote:

theMoMA wrote:I know that we'd be much more likely to travel if these events were at the same time, and I'm inclined to think that we'd be most willing to do so if they were both after nationals. Despite the one of the biggest and best Chicago Opens ever, there was still high demand for another summer open at VCU in August. I'm thinking that having a late May/early June summer open might be the best plan, since a lot of people are already traveling towards the end of their school years.

Yeah I'd kind of like this tournament to be in the May/June range as well.

this does sound much better...

Many people coming to a thing is better than few, so consider this an official notice that we'll be considering moving our date.

Issues will include convincing people to staff, particularly with finals / if June, campus being literally empty and me having nowhere to live, but we could surely work something out.

Pursuant to Andy's post, I'd like to also say that ROBOT will take place in the May/June timeslot. I'll work with Harvard to come up with a date that allows us to combine the two events.

If I may put a selfish word in, I think mid-June would work best for me. After APs and HS nationals, before my graduation in late June. But I'll come regardless, as long as it's not scheduled against PACE or (probably) HSNCT.

I second Guy's point. I'd prefer mid to late June (as opposed to May or early June), just because I want to be done with high school before I jaunt off for weekends of quiz bowl goodness.

i am extremely likely to have my presence outright required in Pittsburgh during the last week of June, and possibly the week before that, but we'll see how that goes. A date around the 13th or 20th could be pretty feasible, as long as I have somewhere to stay in Cambridge and, oh yeah, magical staffers.

After discussing the situation with Matt and others, I've been convinced that holding ROBOT in DC after PACE would be the right thing to do. So I would like to tentatively say that ROBOT will take place on May 24, 2009, after the completion of PACE NSC. I hope everyone takes advantage of this arrangement to come read at PACE and also play ROBOT. If a moderator could change the date to this, that would be great.

I think you can just edit your first post to do that, but yeah. If they'll have me at NSC to moderate, I'll play this even if I have to play it solo.

I'm so there.

BEST WEEKEND EVER

This is a good thing. I will play.

yeah, I've got plans to play this if they'll let me read at PACE.

I will play in this tournament.

Yeah I'll play, assuming I am indeed at PACE.

As miffed as I am that this is no longer linked with HI (and that, therefore, HI's field will likely significantly decrease), it's pretty easy and cheap for me to get to the DC area, so I will play this if there's no conflict with my summer job that weekend.

I'll probably be here and interested in playing.

Whig's Boson wrote:(and that, therefore, HI's field will likely significantly decrease)

Easy solution: still come to HI, lovers of hard quizbowl! We hope not to disappoint!

Of course I will play this, but I am wondering how teams are being decided? I know Jerry dislikes the draft system, so is there some other system we will be using to pick teams?

Jerry is going to design an eHarmony-style website to choose the ideal teams from the pool of players who will be attending.

myamphigory wrote:Jerry is going to design an eHarmony-style website to choose the ideal teams from the pool of players who will be attending.

Wouldn't this grant Jerry the power to also prevent people from playing?