VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

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VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by Matt Weiner »

This is the general announcement for the third annual VCU Season Finale Tournament. This is a high school academic quizbowl tournament to be hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University on Saturday, April 18 from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM. The tournament is open to any high school team that wishes to attend.

The entire tournament will take place in the Hibbs Building on our Monroe Park campus (aka "Academic Campus"). Please meet in Hibbs, room 303, by 8:30 AM.
-The nominal address of the building is "900 Park Ave, Richmond VA" if you need to put something into your map software of choice, but be aware that Hibbs does not actually face the street, so you will have to park and then walk to the area where the building is in order to find it. I suggest printing out the appropriate campus maps and bringing them along--note that Hibbs is directly across from the Cabell Library, which will probably be easier for you to find if you have not been to the VCU campus before.
-On Saturdays, parking on the street is free and available in most places around the campus; the best place to park for access to Hibbs is on one of the residential streets such as Park Avenue, Floyd Avenue, or West Avenue that branch off Harrison Street to the west near the Hibbs/library area. If you cannot find a space in that area, then you should use the parking deck at Harrison and Broad, which is about three blocks north of the tournament building and will charge you somewhere between $0 and $5 to park all day on a Saturday.

AFFILIATION: This tournament will seek affiliation with the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence and will be an opportunity to qualify for the National Scholastics Championship (pace-nsc.org), which is run by PACE and will occur at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA on May 23 & 24, 2009.

QUESTIONS: The questions will be provided by High School Academic Pyramid Questions (hsapq.com). The question format will be modified PACE NSC style. This is a variation on the tossup/bonus format in which the match is divided into three phases, one with twenty-point related bonuses, one with fifteen-point bonuses whose category is chosen by the team that gets the tossup, and one with thirty-point bonuses.

FORMAT: We expect to hit our field cap of 24 teams. If that happens, the teams will be divided into four brackets of six teams each and play five-game round robins in rounds 1-5. The teams will then be ranked. Over rounds 6-11, each first and second place team will play its counterparts in the other three brackets, each third and fourth place team will do the same, and each fifth and sixth place team likewise, to produce a final ranking. The tournament championship will be decided by a final of up to two games if necessary. In the event that fewer than 24 teams register, or that we are able to expand the field and host more than 24 teams, the format will change, but we will strive to offer all teams at least 10 games. Trophies will be awarded to the top four teams, and book prizes will be awarded to the top eight individual scorers.

REGISTRATION AND FEES:
-The fee structure is as follows:
Base fee: $70 per team. There is no limit to the number of teams who can attend from one school.
Buzzer discount: $5 off school's total fee for each fully functional system (control box and eight activators all work)—no limit to # of systems you can bring
Staff discount: $15 off school's total fee. This could be a coach, parent, student who is not playing, etc. Team-provided staffers will keep score for various games not involving the team with which they are affiliated. Volunteer staffers must stay through all the games (except finals) in order to receive credit for their school. There is no limit to the number of staffers you can bring.
Minimum fee: The minimum fee is $0 (you can bring enough buzzers and staffers to eliminate your entire fee via discounts, but you cannot have a "negative fee.")
-To register, e- mail me at [email protected] with the number of teams, buzzers, and staffers you want to bring, and an email address where you can be contacted with details. Feel free to share this announcement with any schools that you think would be interested in attending.

METHOD OF PAYMENT: To pay your registration fees for this tournament, please bring either cash, or a check (institutional or personal) made out to Andrew Alexander, who is the Quizbowl at VCU treasurer. Do not bring checks made out to Matt Weiner, to VCU, to "quizbowl," etc. We cannot use them. We strongly prefer not to deal with purchase orders, but if your school absolutely requires it, then you need to send us the paperwork no later than March 1 so that we can get it back in time for you to have a check written before the tournament. Contact me for details if you need to physically mail something to me or to Andrew.

DELINQUENT PAYMENT: Teams who do not pay on the morning of the tournament will be charged a $25 penalty and will have two weeks to pay their total amount before we start mailing letters to your school administration about it.

TEAM & ROSTER SIZE: There may be a maximum of six players on one team's roster, though only four may play at one time. There are two substitution opportunities in each game. Each player may appear on only one team's roster throughout the day—no switching from the B team to the A team, etc. Teams may also play shorthanded with only three players. Teams consisting of fewer than three players may not play without my express prior permission.

FOOD: Neither breakfast nor lunch will be provided by the tournament. There are several eateries within walking distance of campus buildings and a vast cornucopia within a ten minutes' drive; maps and suggestions will be provided at the tournament.

Please e-mail me if you have any further questions. I'm looking forward to seeing a wide variety of teams from Virginia and surrounding states on April 18.

Matt Weiner
Tournament Director, VCU Season Finale Tournament
[email protected]

List of registered teams (updated 4/16):

Cosby
Dorman A
Dorman B
Dunbar
GDS
Gonzaga
James River
JR Tucker
Maggie Walker A
Maggie Walker B
State College A
State College B
Thomas Jefferson A
Thomas Jefferson B
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by WhitesideNick »

Have there been any team registrations for this tournament yet?
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by Down and out in Quintana Roo »

This is on the second Saturday of our Spring Break at CR. We can't possibly get enough kids to come. This is the confirmed date, yes? I would think that many other schools would be in our predicament, as well.

Otherwise, of course, we would have loved to come. But on this date, it will most certainly not happen.
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by Matt Weiner »

We chose this date because most school systems in the Richmond area have their spring break from April 4-12 this year. I don't think we can move the tournament, since we have to contend with collegiate tournaments, high school tournaments, and VCU refusing to give us rooms during our own exam period (which eliminates May 2, and after that, it's very difficult to run any high school events due to AP season). Anything in the spring is going to run into somebody's spring break; I'm sorry that it had to be yours this time, and hopefully next year it won't be.
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by Matt Weiner »

I'm bumping this thread so local teams can see the awesome out-of-town lineup that has registered for this event, and perhaps follow their lead.
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by Whiter Hydra »

It looks like TJ will be bringing two teams to this, though it might end up being three depending on what happens.
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

hwhite wrote:It looks like TJ will be bringing two teams to this, though it might end up being three depending on what happens.
Gov is registering 2 teams today or tomorrow.
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by Matt Weiner »

We're using TAFT for this, so you can follow the stats at http://www.taftqb.com/t/vcuseasonfinale ... standings/.
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by Down and out in Quintana Roo »

TAFT rocks. Looks like some really competitive games; wish we could have come to this. Interesting to see the good teams who are missing players get beat pretty badly today.

EDIT: Also, Dorman B beat Dan/Gonzaga? Wow...

EDIT2: Also also, Gonzaga has 215 out of a possible 210 steal points...?

EDIT3: Also also also, Dan's stats seem to be messed up. I don't remember ever seeing him 0, 0, 0, 10, and 40 points in 5 different games in any tournament... especially with a 120, 140, and 200 point games in there.
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by Matt Weiner »

State College A, Dorman A, and Maggie Walker A all ended up with 1 loss, so they were seeded on playoff PPG (1, 2, and 3 respectively). Dorman and MW are playing a one-game semifinal right now, with the winner to play State College in a one-game final.
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by Matt Weiner »

Dorman wins 455-325. State College now being seated.
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by Matt Weiner »

State College wins 410-325.
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by Tower Monarch »

Caesar Rodney HS wrote:EDIT3: Also also also, Dan's stats seem to be messed up. I don't remember ever seeing him 0, 0, 0, 10, and 40 points in 5 different games in any tournament... especially with a 120, 140, and 200 point games in there.
You forget that Gonzaga enjoys switching up their players' names each game. For example, Dan played as Shawn in the game I read for them (I believe round 10). However, Gonzaga's stats are messed up because their Round 2, 5, 9 and 10 bonus steals are all impossible.
Overall, today was a great chance to see 3 of the top 6 teams in the nation enter the finals in a circle of death. Very interesting things happened when any of those teams played, including Dorman beating Tommy from Gov to some stuff despite his knowledge base. I missed my only chance this year to see Dunbar's team play, but it was good to see State College B and a few others who don't often show in Richmond tournaments. The field was amazingly competitive even with less-than-full-strength TJ and GDS teams.
Last edited by Tower Monarch on Sat Apr 18, 2009 6:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by cvdwightw »

Hey, the NAQT "don't mention answers from sets until they're cleared for discussion" rule also applies to HSAPQ. General talk about the set is fine, specifics are not.
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by Tower Monarch »

For my own nationals predictions, could someone from State College tell me if today's B team is roughly equivalent to the likely NSC lineup?
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by Tower Monarch »

Re Dwight: Sorry, I didn't notice I typed that.
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by Matt Weiner »

We're working on getting the prelim and playoff standings to show up correctly, but the overall standings and the scoreboard should have correct data.

Edit: Everything appears to be working now. Let me know if there's anything amiss (other than spellings of player names, which I'm aware of and will fix shortly).
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by Whiter Hydra »

I'll have to say, that was the best-organized tournament I've been to this year, especially with us being out by 4 (traffic notwithstanding). Of course, it would have been interesting to see how we would do against teams like State College and Dorman with our full A team, but I still had a fun time.

In terms of the questions, they did seem to be slightly on the easy side. There were several games in which >700 out of a possible 790 points were scored, which seems like a lot to me. Also (and this is more of a complaint of the format, I guess), the powers run quite late. Just looking at my stats, I went 16/24, and I believe I powered all but one or two of the stretch round tossups. But other than that, the questions were very good.
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by TheKingInYellow »

Tower Monarch wrote:For my own nationals predictions, could someone from State College tell me if today's B team is roughly equivalent to the likely NSC lineup?
No. Our B team at PACE will be Christoph and Tom, the two high scorers, Monica, who played on the A team, and another kid who doesn't come to many tournaments.

EDIT: Just a few things I noticed, my last name is Moyer, not Ware, and I got 30 points in the last game against Dorman, rather than 10
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by Down and out in Quintana Roo »

hwhite wrote:I'll have to say, that was the best-organized tournament I've been to this year, especially with us being out by 4 (traffic notwithstanding).
I can vouch for our one trip to VCU in the winter, that Matt and Co. run exceptionally efficient and incredibly well-managed tournaments. This is why i was so disappointed that we couldn't come to this one. Glad to hear that they are keeping to their words of promising lots of games for a good price.

And congrats to State College on avenging their only loss on the day and winning it all. This once again shows how wide open the top 5-ish teams will be at HSNCT and NSC in May.

EDIT: typos
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by TheKingInYellow »

I think I've found some incorrect information in one of the questions, is there someone I should talk to about that?
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Re: VCU Season Finale Tournament III, 4/18/09

Post by Matt Weiner »

TheKingInYelliow wrote:I think I've found some incorrect information in one of the questions, is there someone I should talk to about that?
As this was an HSAPQ set, you should contact HSAPQ via Ted Gioia at [email protected].

BTW, if anyone notices further misspellings or whatnot in the stats, post them here or e-mail me ([email protected]) to have them fixed.
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