The Quizbowl Resource Center

naqt.com wrote:NAQT and ACUI are pleased to announce the sites of the 2010 Sectional Championship Tournaments for the ACUI-NAQT Quiz Bowl program.

As previously announced, programs may either attend their "home" SCT (according to the ACUI divisions) or the SCT that is geographically closest to them. Teams that want to attend a different SCT need to request an explicit exception by e-mailing [email protected] by January 15, 2010.

Unlike in past years, NAQT will be providing a centralized registration system for the SCT tournaments; NAQT will invoice schools, collect their money, and disburse payments to the SCT hosts.

Full announcement

Hosts:

Oxford
McMaster
MIT
George Mason
Indiana
Illinois-Chicago
Minnesota
Missouri State
Tennessee-Knoxville
North Georgia
Rice
Arizona State
UCLA
Washington

CC SCTs:

Tallahassee (FL)
Valencia (FL)
Jefferson State (AL)
Cloud County (KS)
Additional site(s) TBA

Expect additional host announcements; in particular, we are finalizing the details for the New England site and expect to announce it shortly.

We'd like to have an additional host in the mid-Atlantic (New York/New Jersey/eastern Pennsylvania); please contact us if your school would be interested in hosting. In addition, please feel free to get in touch with us if you believe there is demand for an SCT site outside the regions listed above.

Edit: add Valencia, announcements about additional sites
Edit: add MIT

Unlike in past years, NAQT will be providing a centralized registration system for the SCT tournaments; NAQT will invoice schools, collect their money, and disburse payments to the SCT hosts.

So, this doesn't mean that NAQT will be formally invoicing specific schools, rather than the specific teams, does it? That is, will attending an SCT require jumping through any hoops other than just writing a check?

bt_green_warbler wrote:Indiana

This is news to the team there.

jonah wrote:

bt_green_warbler wrote:Indiana

This is news to the team there.

The contact email is for a guy at Ball State, so I'd guess that's the actual site

bt_green_warbler wrote:Indiana

This is false. I hope?

bt_green_warbler wrote: Full announcement

Hosts:

Minnesota

To clarify, my conversation with R. indicates that we're only providing the space, and that R. will be running the tournament.

gkandlikar wrote:my conversation with R. indicates that we're only providing the space, and that R. will be running the tournament.

This is the plan.

DumbJaques wrote:So, this doesn't mean that NAQT will be formally invoicing specific schools, rather than the specific teams, does it? That is, will attending an SCT require jumping through any hoops other than just writing a check?

I've sent this question to R. (I don't know anything about the details of this myself.)

cmessner wrote:

jonah wrote:

bt_green_warbler wrote:Indiana

This is news to the team there.

The contact email is for a guy at Ball State, so I'd guess that's the actual site

The listed information on naqt.com is correct: it's a combined bid from the ACUI schools of Region 9. The contact is from Ball State, but the SCT will be held at Indiana. Carlo, is there a reason for your concern beyond "we didn't know ACUI people were reserving rooms on our campus"?

bt_green_warbler wrote:The listed information on naqt.com is correct: it's a combined bid from the ACUI schools of Region 9. The contact is from Ball State, but the SCT will be held at Indiana. Carlo, is there a reason for your concern beyond "we didn't know ACUI people were reserving rooms on our campus"?

Well, no, my concern was "Nobody on my team was ever contacted about this, so I hope you weren't expecting our team to do anything about this." So, what exactly does this entail, again?

Something that concerns me here: One of the arguments that NAQT folk made on these boards back when I was more antagonistic towards NAQT because I was young and hot-headed had to do with question length. To wit, while NAQT acknowledges that the buzz resolution from a 450 character (or whatever) tossup is perhaps suboptimal, because the tossups are shorter, there can be more of them per match--and that having more tossups per match compensates, maybe more than compensates, for the lost resolution per tossup. This argument is completely voided at sectionals where all but one or two moderators have no training (or at best they used to read CBI), which could well happen if Indiana is (and pretty rightfully) surprised that they're maybe supposed to do anything about this (and will certainly happen unless all the participating schools bring staffers to the UIC sectional, unless Rom can staff many rooms at once).

I don't get Indiana. There aren't too many schools that have IU as their closest site (except for parts of Indiana, parts of Kentucky, and parts of Ohio). Which schools other than say Louisville and Ohio State are they trying to attract? Also what does Bloomington have that Muncie doesn't?

nalin wrote:Also what does Bloomington have that Muncie doesn't?

An SCT.

Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:Something that concerns me here: One of the arguments that NAQT folk made on these boards back when I was more antagonistic towards NAQT because I was young and hot-headed had to do with question length. To wit, while NAQT acknowledges that the buzz resolution from a 450 character (or whatever) tossup is perhaps suboptimal, because the tossups are shorter, there can be more of them per match--and that having more tossups per match compensates, maybe more than compensates, for the lost resolution per tossup. This argument is completely voided at sectionals where all but one or two moderators have no training (or at best they used to read CBI), which could well happen if Indiana is (and pretty rightfully) surprised that they're maybe supposed to do anything about this (and will certainly happen unless all the participating schools bring staffers to the UIC sectional, unless Rom can staff many rooms at once).

Andy do we have a good deal on airline tickets to Oxford yet?

DumbJaques wrote: So, this doesn't mean that NAQT will be formally invoicing specific schools, rather than the specific teams, does it? That is, will attending an SCT require jumping through any hoops other than just writing a check?

R. writes:

"We'll invoice clubs when clubs are sending teams and we'll also accept personal checks. If the Union or some other university organ is sponsoring the team, we'll invoice them."

I'd like to make a preliminary posting about the Oxford SCT.

Veteran quizbowl players may remember that several British universities sent teams to the ICT in its early years: Oxford in 1999, 2000 and 2002, Imperial College London in 1997 and 2002, Durham in 1999, and Cambridge in 2000. Back then, qualification was achieved through the (now defunct) British student quiz championships. Oxford's club has remained active in the intervening period, and we are very keen to revive NAQT-based inter-university quizzing in the UK and Europe - hence our bid to host an SCT in 2010. We're looking to recruit teams from British and European universities; any North American teams interested in coming to the Oxford SCT are also very welcome to get in touch, although unless you're in region 1 I think you'll have to get clearance from NAQT.

A formal announcement of the Oxford SCT will follow in the near future, once we've finalised the arrangements. For now, potential participants might like to note that the tournament will almost certainly take place in the East Midlands city of Derby, on Friday 5 and Saturday 6 February 2010. The planned venue is close to major transport links (including East Midlands airport) and has ample affordable accommodation; we think it's a much more convenient location than Oxford itself for most potential participants. Oxford University Quiz Society will be staffing the tournament, though we also hope to enter one or more teams if numbers permit.

I'm happy to deal with any enquiries or questions about the Oxford SCT. In the first instance, please drop me an email at [email protected].

nalin wrote:I don't get Indiana. There aren't too many schools that have IU as their closest site (except for parts of Indiana, parts of Kentucky, and parts of Ohio). Which schools other than say Louisville and Ohio State are they trying to attract? Also what does Bloomington have that Muncie doesn't?

My simple Internet search reveals that the Indiana SCT is just a side event in the IU recreation weekend. Euchre and Guitar Hero are available in the same building if you're bored and want to leave early!

It looks like teams will be there, but I can't see a circuit team taking it seriously. Also, the entrance fee is higher to cover meals for a whole weekend.

How many other SCTs are combined with a recreation tournament? Would this have been standard practice for a College Bowl event?

bsmith wrote:Would this have been standard practice for a College Bowl event?

In Region 2, yes. There were such activities as a poetry slam and billiards. A brief Region 1/Region 2 combined region tournament featured a breakdancing tournament that the ACUI people felt necessary to have in the same building as the CBI games, thus providing a nice level of background noise.

bsmith wrote:My simple Internet search reveals that the Indiana SCT is just a side event in the IU recreation weekend. Euchre and Guitar Hero are available in the same building if you're bored and want to leave early!

It looks like teams will be there, but I can't see a circuit team taking it seriously. Also, the entrance fee is higher to cover meals for a whole weekend.

How many other SCTs are combined with a recreation tournament? Would this have been standard practice for a College Bowl event?

Yes, it is ACUI’s standard practice to combine hosting with various other events; SCT is one component of ACUI’s program, not a “side event” as that term is usually used on this board. Certainly we expect that existing circuit teams will concentrate on playing SCT. I’ve asked R. about the entrance fee stuff.

MicroEStudent wrote:In Region 2, yes. There were such activities as a poetry slam and billiards. A brief Region 1/Region 2 combined region tournament featured a breakdancing tournament that the ACUI people felt necessary to have in the same building as the CBI games, thus providing a nice level of background noise.

Hmm. The region 2 recreation tournament is in Binghampton [sic]. As much as I would love to catch up on the Senators' farm team, I think I'll pass.

bt_green_warbler wrote:I’ve asked R. about the entrance fee stuff.

The entrance fee is listed as $150, so in hindsight $30 for four meals is a decent deal. My apologies.

bsmith wrote:Also, the entrance fee is higher to cover meals for a whole weekend.

We have contacted the host to clarify that the 2010 SCT entrance fee is the same as last year's. (Hosts are welcome to provide meals as an option at an additional cost, but it's not part of the base fee.)

Just updated the list above with some announcements (like the Valencia site). Also starting a new thread to standardize various announcement policies.

Updated to add the New England site (MIT; contact Andy Watkins). Like the Indiana setup, this is a combined bid with rooms from one school and staff from another (in this case a combination of the Boston-area circuit teams).