What is the mission of this tournament?
This tournament is intended as an early introduction for collegiate novices to college quizbowl. It aims to be extremely accessible while remaining within a normal academic distribution. The target audience is college players who are very new to quizbowl. Every year, many of these new players come to first practices all around the country, but few stick with the game. This tournament aims to be an early-season introduction to competitive quizbowl in which novices can play against teams of their own strength on questions that reward the level of knowledge that they have. Our hope is that this will be the immediate positive competitive experience that new players need to get hooked on quizbowl.
Who is writing this tournament?
It will be centrally written, and I will be choosing a team of writers to work with me. If you're interested in working on the tournament, I'd like to know, so email me. I will be coordinating the production of this tournament over the summer, so I will require all contributors to make a significant commitment to writing over the summer months. My goal is to work with a talented group of newer writers to improve their question-writing skills. It's safe to say that contributors who do exemplary work will have an inside track to editing future ACF tournaments.
Update: The writing team currently consists of Matt Jackson, Bryan Berend, Huma Zafar, Brice Russ, Dallin Kelson, Ethan Hewett, Gaurav Kandlikar, Neil Fitzgerald, Tony Leng, Matt Hart, Charlie Rosenthal, Sandy Huang, Idrees Kahloon, and Tanay Kothari.
When will this take place?
The tournament will be available for hosting on any Saturday between September 4 and October 9 (some exceptions may be granted). Our aim is to provide a tournament that allows new players to play an event tailored to them within a week or two of the first practice. We will make sure that the tournament does not conflict with any EFT sites, and we will try to make sure that this tournament is hosted before EFT in all regions.
What will the packets be like?
There will only be ten packets, because we want to keep the day short to avoid quizbowl fatigue and to allow teams the chance to return to their campuses during the afternoon. The questions will be strictly length-limited to five lines of ten point Times New Roman (ten-line max for bonuses). The packets will probably be distributed in 12-point TNR for reading ease, so they may appear to be longer, but rest assured that all will be held to the five/ten line ten-point standards. Packets will follow the ACF distribution and will resemble normal quizbowl.
Who can play?
Clarification to rule 4.1: Time in a post-secondary high school program does not count.1. All ACF eligibility rules apply, except when they contradict the rules below.
2. This is a tournament for introducing collegiate novices to quizbowl. Consequently, no high school teams or players are eligible.
3. Anyone (who does not break Rules 1 or 2) who has never played quizbowl before is automatically eligible. Other academic competition does not count as quizbowl for this rule.
4. Players meeting one or more of the following criteria must apply to the head editor for special permission to play:
i. If you have already completed your second year of college (calculated from time in college, not credits).
ii. If you were ever on a playoff team at NAQT HSNCT or PACE NSC.
iii. If you have ever scored at least 30 points per game at any college tournament.
iv. If you have ever won any college tournament.
5. Anyone who does not fall into any of the four categories listed in Rule 4 is automatically eligible to play.
Procedure for applying for special permission to play: 1) Email me at [email protected]; 2) state which of the Rule 4 points would render you otherwise ineligible; 3) list when and how you came to achieve any of the accomplishments that lead to your being otherwise ineligible; 4) state succinctly why you want to play.
What is the cost?
The cost is $15 per player. Host sites will post their own discount tables.
How much of the tournament has been written?
It is 100% written. Five of the ten packets are finalized and proofread. 375 of the 430 total questions (each packet includes 2/1 tiebreakers/extras) are edited.
Who is hosting, and when?
Click on the university name to go to the announcement. Click on the contact name to go to that person's HSQB profile page (click "Email" from there to get in contact with them).
9/11:
New England: Harvard. Contact Andy Watkins.
9/18:
Eastern Great Lakes: Rochester Institute of Technology. Contact Nathaniel Kane.
Midwest (early mirror): Northern Illinois University. Contact Brad Fischer.
Mid-Atlantic: University of Delaware. Contact Michael Marra-Powers
North Carolina: Duke. Contact [email protected].
9/25:
Ontario: University of Waterloo. Contact Huma Zafar.
High Plains: Harding University. Contact Caleb Robbins.
Eastern Midwest: University of Michigan. Contact [email protected].
Missouri: Washington University. Contact Charles Hang.
Upper Midwest: University of Minnesota. Contact Gaurav Kandlikar (or Eliza Grames).
Bay Area: University of California, Berkeley. Contact Jeff Hoppes.
10/2
Southeast Seaboard: University of South Carolina. Contact Eric Douglass.
Texas (tentative). Contact Chris Romero.
Southeast: Shorter University. Announcement pending.
Eastern Ontario: University of Ottawa. Contact Brendan McKendy.
10/9
Midwest (late mirror): University of Chicago. Contact Jimmy Ready.
Southern California: University of California, San Diego. Contact Micah Manary.
Pacific Northwest: Washington. Contact Mike Bentley.
DC/VA/MD area: University of Maryland. Contact SteveJon Guth.
Florida: Chipola College. Contact Stan Young.