2011 NAQT SCT

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2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Important Bird Area »

naqt.com wrote:NAQT and ACUI are pleased to announce the sites for the 2011 Sectional Championship Tournaments.
Region 1 (Europe): Oxford
Region 1 (New England): Harvard
Region 2 (Canada): Ottawa
Region 2: SUNY-New Paltz
Region 4: Moravian College
Region 5: East Carolina
Region 6: Alabama
Region 7: Ohio State
Region 8: Wisconsin-Green Bay
Region 9: Illinois
Region 10: St. Thomas
Region 11: Missouri State
Region 12: Rice
Region 13: Arizona
Region 14: Portland State
Region 15: Caltech

Field updates can be found on naqt.com.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Maxwell Sniffingwell »

bt_green_warbler wrote: Region 8: Wisconsin-Green Bay
Interesting choice there - 2.5 hours from Madison and 3+ from every other active school in the region except mine. How strong of a consideration does geography get in deciding a host?
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Important Bird Area »

It's easier for geography to come into play when there is more than one bid in a given region.

Also, we expect to see a number of newly-active programs in Wisconsin this year.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by grapesmoker »

bt_green_warbler wrote:Region 2: SUNY-New Paltz
New Paltz? This seems convenient for literally no one. New York schools are going to have a pain in the ass getting out there. Also, where are Ohio and western PA supposed to go? Or is that a region that hasn't had a bid submitted yet? And what has been done about the staffing issue due to clocks?
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by MicroEStudent »

grapesmoker wrote:
bt_green_warbler wrote:Region 2: SUNY-New Paltz
New Paltz? This seems convenient for literally no one. New York schools are going to have a pain in the ass getting out there. Also, where are Ohio and western PA supposed to go? Or is that a region that hasn't had a bid submitted yet? And what has been done about the staffing issue due to clocks?
RPI may think it's convenient...

Both Ottawa and Moravian College are closer for us and should there be a Region 7 host in Southern Ontario, that would be even closer and we'd seek a waiver to play there. The same would hold true for Cornell and Rochester.

EDIT: Yes, I realize that the mileage is similar, but I'd rather be on the 81/476 than US 17 in the winter. Squaring it off to the 87 would mean another half hour at least. Also, my experience with ACUI Region 2 staff has not been good ever since our infamous 75 minute College Bowl round against Syracuse.
Last edited by MicroEStudent on Thu Aug 12, 2010 10:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Important Bird Area »

grapesmoker wrote:Also, where are Ohio and western PA supposed to go? Or is that a region that hasn't had a bid submitted yet?
naqt.com wrote:NAQT has extended the deadline for bidding to host Sectional Championship Tournaments to August 15, 2010, for Regions 1, 3, 7, 9, 10, and 14.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by DumbJaques »

Region 4: Moravian College
I'm sorry guys, but what's up with this? Does Moravian College even have a team? I've never seen them. Cursory googling yields no results unrelated to Ben Schenkel and their website displays zero info about anything related to quizbowl even using the search function. They do seem to have a Harry Potter club. Never mind the fact that this location is sort of (slightly) out of the way; I don't care about that.

What I do care about is the fact that, as far as I know, nobody connected to my region's sectional host has any experience whatsoever with actual quizbowl. Since Sectionals is hands down the most difficult tournament to run and correspondingly the easiest to fuck up, this raises some red flags for me. While I am really glad NAQT has Jeff to respond to our concerns, I'd really like to know why people thought choosing this site would be a good idea. Hey, maybe there are a bunch of ex-quizbowlers hanging out in Bethlehem, and it's actually got a great staff already locked in? This would be outstanding and I'll happily admit my concerns are unfounded and begin planning my trip to scenic Bethlehem. Unfortunately I don't feel super confident about this, because the contact listed on the website is "Gretchen Symons." Here's the rundown on what the internet has to say about Ms. Symons:

-She seems to run some kind of yearbook-creating program called "The Kaldron." It does not appear to use timers.
-She very likely is pro-dog.
-She seems to work, oddly enough, for Allegheny College. I admit to not knowing much about small PA colleges, but ACUI has her listed with Allegheny. My current hypothesis revolves around Anschluss.


I certainly have no inherent concern over the identity of our Sectional TD; I bet she's a really cool person, and maybe even really supports quizbowl. But hear me right now, oh NAQT: If the kind of shit that happened at that midwestern (Indiana, I think?) sectional from last year goes down where I am, I will NOT be taking it as well as those people evidently did. If a reader in my room doesn't know essential rules, can't get through 15 tossups, or decides to skip the science questions because they're too hard to pronounce (you guys know that actually happened, right?), I will produce Adam Fine from my backpack and the Region 4 SCT staff will be deposed faster than a dual monarchy led by Zach Foster and General Butt Naked.

Seriously, there's no excuse for anything but the highest standards of hosting for the SCTs. To put this more bluntly, I will charge that people unfamiliar with quizbowl should not be reading for sectionals, ever. People inexperienced with reading real quizbowl should probably also not be reading sectionals, unless the timing rules add a few extra minutes (incidentally: please, please do this regardless). People who do not understand that you need a certain number of games, and need to have certain standards of playoff structuring and whatnot, should not be running sectionals. Now granted, lots of teams still screw this stuff up and we end up with games that don't really get counted or get double-counted, but since NAQT actually chose these sites, I expect none of that nonsense to be an issue.

I'd really legitimately like to hear about what kind of staffing/organizational support will exist for our SCT site. I wish I also had the option of driving even an extra 3-4 hours to reach another SCT whose host I had more confidence in, but by my reading of the current rules we're precluded from doing that.

EDIT: Never mind, apparently even if we could do that, our second option would be East Carolina. Unless the host contact listed is Chris Johnson, there's not really an upside involved here.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Rococo A Go Go »

I'm glad that we can go to another SCT site closer than the one for our region, because East Carolina is 11 hours away. Luckily, Alabama (which actually has some history of going to and hosting tournaments) is much closer to us.

Edit: To clarify, I don't have any problem with NAQT, I just think that the ACUI regions are a bit oddly divided up.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

Jeff, it might help people to know how many hosts NAQT was deciding between for some regions. For example, was Moravian's bid selected over a Penn bid, or was Moravian the only school that actually offered anything, or were all the alternatives worse?

I agree that it'd be nice if SCT were easier to host so that the hot potato I'm playing with Guy right now over what combination of Harvard, Brown, or both must host could end, and I guess that that--such as keeping the timer, etc.--is NAQT's responsibility.But ultimately we have to get mad at the reason that NAQT's best choice was, for example, Moravian, and that's that more experienced teams didn't bid.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by grapesmoker »

MicroEStudent wrote:RPI may think it's convenient...
Well, in light of your second point this already seems dubious, but anyway: RPI will have to drive wherever it goes and presumably can do so. Whereas teams based in the city are very likely to have a tough time of it since no student keeps a car in NYC and renting can be prohibitively expensive or even plain prohibited for those under 25. I'm guessing it's still doable, but it's going to be harder for city teams to come to New Paltz than for teams like RPI to come to NYC. I thought perhaps the Metro North might run there, but it doesn't.
Both Ottawa and Moravian College are closer for us and should there be a Region 7 host in Southern Ontario, that would be even closer and we'd seek a waiver to play there. The same would hold true for Cornell and Rochester.
So now this site makes even less sense because you have two(!) other sites that are closer to any team that would actually want to come to New Paltz anyway. Not that city teams would even go there because they're just going to go to Moravian (and Chris has already said everything that needs to be said about that).

I just don't see how this site selection makes any sense from a purely geographical perspective. Are you just going to force teams to go to their region site without regard for transportational convenience? That's a bad idea, but if you're not, you're going to end up with a site that no team will want to go to. And I still haven't had an answer to my question about what decision has been made regarding clock use at SCT.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by grapesmoker »

Just as a general aside, it occurs to me that soliciting bids in the summer when almost no teams are assembled to discuss their hosting options seems like a poor plan. Would things be so much worse if bid decisions were made in late September than early August?
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by MicroEStudent »

grapesmoker wrote:
MicroEStudent wrote:RPI may think it's convenient...
Well, in light of your second point this already seems dubious, but anyway: RPI will have to drive wherever it goes and presumably can do so. Whereas teams based in the city are very likely to have a tough time of it since no student keeps a car in NYC and renting can be prohibitively expensive or even plain prohibited for those under 25. I'm guessing it's still doable, but it's going to be harder for city teams to come to New Paltz than for teams like RPI to come to NYC. I thought perhaps the Metro North might run there, but it doesn't.
This is a good point. I didn't consider New York City, likely due to my interpretation of "New York" that you mentioned. I agree that it would be difficult for a NYC team to make it to New Paltz. Also, New York City and Philadelphia are in Region 3, not Region 2, so from an ACUI Region standpoint, they wouldn't be considered.

My guess is that New Paltz was chosen because I have heard that is the location of the annual ACUI Region 2 "Recreation Tournament" which includes other events.
Both Ottawa and Moravian College are closer for us and should there be a Region 7 host in Southern Ontario, that would be even closer and we'd seek a waiver to play there. The same would hold true for Cornell and Rochester.
So now this site makes even less sense because you have two(!) other sites that are closer to any team that would actually want to come to New Paltz anyway. Not that city teams would even go there because they're just going to go to Moravian (and Chris has already said everything that needs to be said about that).
Exactly. If this ends up being our scenario, I imagine we'd be going to Ottawa.
I just don't see how this site selection makes any sense from a purely geographical perspective. Are you just going to force teams to go to their region site without regard for transportational convenience? That's a bad idea, but if you're not, you're going to end up with a site that no team will want to go to.
I guess we're "lucky" in that we have the option to go to Ottawa and still be within our region, but when you're literally forcing people to leave the country in order to be more secure in terms of tournament quality, there's an issue. I've already stated how ACUI Region 2 bungled CBI tournaments and with the same staff running it, I don't trust them.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

grapesmoker wrote:Just as a general aside, it occurs to me that soliciting bids in the summer when almost no teams are assembled to discuss their hosting options seems like a poor plan. Would things be so much worse if bid decisions were made in late September than early August?
That's actually a point that I meant to make; it's the second thing that NAQT should be doing otherwise. We're doing just fine on our side because I can declare that we'll host and beg, grovel, and plead staffers into existence once it comes time. Most teams--even competent, frequently hosting teams--don't have that luxury.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

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Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:Jeff, it might help people to know how many hosts NAQT was deciding between for some regions. For example, was Moravian's bid selected over a Penn bid, or was Moravian the only school that actually offered anything, or were all the alternatives worse?
I think that every bid that was submitted (listed here) won hosting duties.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Senator_Jay »

I'm also intrigued by these apparently random site choices, and how it seems that the ACUI region system kinda forces exceptions to be made. For example, although most of the Canadian teams are in Region 7, I feel as though it's way easier for us to get to Ottawa (Region 2) than it is to go all the way around Lake Erie, across the border, and down to Columbus. I also feel as though Canadian teams may be more willing to attend a Canadian SCT site, which is why I'm concerned that there appear to be no bids from SW Ontario as of yet...I mean, I would bid for UofT, but I don't think I have the authority to go ahead and do that, seeing as I haven't even started up there yet.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Important Bird Area »

Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:Jeff, it might help people to know how many hosts NAQT was deciding between for some regions. For example, was Moravian's bid selected over a Penn bid, or was Moravian the only school that actually offered anything, or were all the alternatives worse?
The full list of bids has always been available to read on naqt.com. (Note the newly-received bids from Ohio State and Illinois, and that Moravian was the only bid in Region 4.)
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Important Bird Area »

grapesmoker wrote:And I still haven't had an answer to my question about what decision has been made regarding clock use at SCT.
We will be keeping the clock for the 2011 SCT.
naqt.com wrote:SCTs must be run according to NAQT rules; in particular, they must be timed.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by bsmith »

Senator_Jay wrote:For example, although most of the Canadian teams are in Region 7, I feel as though it's way easier for us to get to Ottawa (Region 2) than it is to go all the way around Lake Erie, across the border, and down to Columbus.
Since all the active SW Ontario teams are, by travel distance, closer to Ottawa than Columbus, you would be allowed to attend the Ottawa site without even needing to get permission.
I also feel as though Canadian teams may be more willing to attend a Canadian SCT site, which is why I'm concerned that there appear to be no bids from SW Ontario as of yet...
Ottawa isn't a "Canadian SCT site"...?
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Kyle »

I think part of the problem is that NAQT (and ACUI) take a much more formal attitude toward the SCT than do all of the teams that are large enough and experienced enough to be successful hosts. A formal "bid" process is nice enough, but the reality is that we would have better tournaments if Jeff simply emailed the leaders of big teams and said, "Hey, it's your turn to host this year, how about it?" I think that the very detailed division of the United States (and beyond) into precise regions can also be chalked up to NAQT hoping that the SCT will become a much more formal thing than the present reality allows for.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by grapesmoker »

bt_green_warbler wrote:We will be keeping the clock for the 2011 SCT.
It's almost as though... no one really listened to what I was saying last year. I don't even have the energy to make a monocle joke.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Important Bird Area »

Added sites at Ohio State, Illinois, and St. Thomas.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Zip Zap Rap Pants »

I echo Chris' sentiments on Moravia regarding East Carolina...do they even have a team?! I notice the contact there actually has a Tennessee-Knoxville email and she helped run the ACUI leisure program weekend last year...which ain't the same thing as quizbowl. Maybe she does have experience hosting, but if ECU doesn't have a team or anybody to run this internally, well then I guess their staffers are pretty much coming off the street, or (potentially worse), from the professors' lounge. Oh well, perhaps this is just motivation for people to get more staffer discounts :roll: I really don't see the logic in not waiting till late September to acquire hosts that actually, you know, have experience hosting. Perhaps something on the order of NAQT's old fall tournaments of days long gone would be more appropriate for these newfangled hosts to get more experience before jumping into the sole qualifier for a national tournament.

Edit: Actually, why can't NAQT simply make a hard and fast rule that if a school has no record of ever hosting pyramidal quizbowl, they can't bid unless no one else does by some later date?
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

Have you been following anything that's happened in the last year with NAQT's college program?
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

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Zip Zap Rap Pants wrote:I echo Chris' sentiments on Moravia regarding East Carolina...do they even have a team?! I notice the contact there actually has a Tennessee-Knoxville email and she helped run the ACUI leisure program weekend last year...which ain't the same thing as quizbowl. Maybe she does have experience hosting ...
Please note that Amy was the TD for last year's SCT at Knoxville, which by all accounts ran smoothly.
Zip Zap Rap Pants wrote:why can't NAQT simply make a hard and fast rule that if a school has no record of ever hosting pyramidal quizbowl, they can't bid unless no one else does by some later date?
A rule of this form would have changed nothing about this year's list of SCT hosts.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Charbroil »

bt_green_warbler wrote:
Zip Zap Rap Pants wrote:why can't NAQT simply make a hard and fast rule that if a school has no record of ever hosting pyramidal quizbowl, they can't bid unless no one else does by some later date?
A rule of this form would have changed nothing about this year's list of SCT hosts.
Is that because some of these schools do have experience hosting pyramidal tournaments, or because no other schools would have bid, even by a later date? If the latter, how do you know that?
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Important Bird Area »

I suppose some of that is unknowable for late values of "later". But in no case did we have multiple bids for the same region (except Region 2, where we accepted two bids because of the international boundary cutting across the region).
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by DumbJaques »

Hey, it's kind of bumming me out that Matt Morrison's mutant stepchild version of my post got a response from NAQT within 24 hours but none of the very reasonable concerns I laid out over a month ago have drawn any kind of official response whatsoever. That's rather uncool and I hope NAQT will address it soon (through Jeff or through email, as I'm also a club representative of a team very unsure if we want to even participate in Sectionals at this point, rather than some random crazy person on the internet).
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Important Bird Area »

We will have at least one NAQT member on site at Moravian to ensure minimum standards of tournament quality, and encourage teams attending all sites to bring along experienced moderators.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Zip Zap Rap Pants »

bt_green_warbler wrote:
Zip Zap Rap Pants wrote:I echo Chris' sentiments on Moravia regarding East Carolina...do they even have a team?! I notice the contact there actually has a Tennessee-Knoxville email and she helped run the ACUI leisure program weekend last year...which ain't the same thing as quizbowl. Maybe she does have experience hosting ...
Please note that Amy was the TD for last year's SCT at Knoxville, which by all accounts ran smoothly.
Zip Zap Rap Pants wrote:why can't NAQT simply make a hard and fast rule that if a school has no record of ever hosting pyramidal quizbowl, they can't bid unless no one else does by some later date?
A rule of this form would have changed nothing about this year's list of SCT hosts.
See you missed most of the point...I'm not especially knocking on her as a TD, she's probably great if she hosted SCT, but please note that Knoxville actually has a team. The disturbing thing is that there's no one from ECU who's capable of TD'ing, so what kind of support can that school actually give her? Maybe there's some old CBI staff from the region 5 tournament a couple years ago there that are still available...but c'mon man! That's really the best you can do? You really can say with a straight face that waiting till teams actually assemble and (in some cases) get their financial houses in order "would have changed nothing"? Something on the order of October 1st doesn't seem like a late value for later considering SCT bids used to get announced in November or December. Is there really a need to have SCT hosts known in time for all IM tournaments (especially considering their organizers sometimes don't know if they can pay for an SCT entry fee until winter)?
Last edited by Zip Zap Rap Pants on Thu Sep 23, 2010 11:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by DumbJaques »

We will have at least one NAQT member on site at Moravian to ensure minimum standards of tournament quality, and encourage teams attending all sites to bring along experienced moderators.
I'm glad to hear that, but do you honestly have a reasonable expectation that this tournament will be properly staffed? It's not that I'm certain it won't be, but I'm not seeing any indication that staffers are likely to materialize, nor that NAQT considers this a problem/has a plan to correct it. I'm pretty sure there's not a bunch of seasoned moderators who hang their hats in Bethlehem, PA, and it seems far enough away from anywhere where there's actually a team that expecting large amounts of staffers to come out just to staff seems unrealistic.

Also, I don't really think this is how you meant it, but the second part of your sentence essentially sounds like your answering some pretty reasonable concerns about staffer availability with "BYOModerator." The implication sure seems to be that this tournament would be in serious trouble if teams failed to bring experienced moderators in sufficient quantity and really, that's exactly what I'd expect the case to be. Obviously relying on huge attendee-generated staffer turnout is a bad idea to begin with, but maybe - MAYBE - this is something that one could swing if this tournament were being held right around the DC area. Enough random people live around there, teams would only need to get staffers to hop on the metro or drive half an hour to join them as a moderator, etc. But that's not where this tournament is - this tournament is a solid 4 hour (or more) drive for most people in the DC area. I'd like to know if NAQT is actually counting on that kind of moderator support and if so, why it expects that we'll be able to get experience moderators capable of knocking down 20 tossups on a clock to cram into car space we might not even have, drive four hours into steel country, and staff a tournament under an unknown NAQT representative/person who knows nothing about quizbowl (all so we can enjoy a $10 moderator discount).

Really, what I'd like the most is for that someone who is actually going to be at the Moravian site on behalf of NAQT to show up here but quick and assuage some not at all irrational concerns about what kind of event this could degenerate into. If that person is still unknown, surely whoever has the responsibility of finding him/her could post here in the meantime.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Important Bird Area »

NAQT recognizes that this year's bid deadline was too early, and we expect to have a later bid deadline (probably late September) in 2011.
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2011 SCT posts

Post by Mike Bentley »

Any updates on the Region 14 bid? I heard that Portland State University put in a bid a few months ago, and I tried following up with R., but I haven't heard any response.
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Re: NAQT's agreement with ACUI

Post by Sun Devil Student »

Ok, if this thread's alive again, I will also put in an inquiry about the Region 13 SCT. I e-mailed last year's ACUI Region 13 person at the University of Arizona sometime last month to ask if they were still on for the tournament, but haven't heard back.

Region 13 will be interesting because I'm not aware that anyone other than ASU and U of A will actually have a team, and if the tournament is going to be 3-4 ASU teams and 1 U of A team then hosting at U of A doesn't seem to make much sense, unless the purpose is to have the SCT in the same location as the other ACUI Region 13 events (like nine-ball, ping-pong etc). I was hoping other schools had/have signed up (Brigham Young, anyone? :), but I've heard no news.

Also, I think ASU has the only D1 team in the entire mountain range, so if that team has to qualify by D-value on D2 questions against a truly D2 field, it'll look pretty bad (and even at that cost, there's no guarantee of success). I would volunteer to staff the tournament (regardless of the location) in exchange for a D1 ICT bid but if NAQT and ACUI prefer using the D-value system then I suppose we'll make the sacrifice.
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Re: NAQT's agreement with ACUI

Post by Important Bird Area »

It's still the middle of November; we expect many more schools to register that we have not yet heard from.
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Re: NAQT's agreement with ACUI

Post by tiwonge »

I can give you BYU's contact information if you want it. I invited them up here for the ACF Fall, but they weren't able to come. You'll need to remind them early enough that they can get the paperwork done to travel. (It looks like they're about equidistant from Phoenix/Tucson as from the Bay area, but I don't know where the California SCT will be held (or if it is split into two regions).

Edit: I forgot that with the ACUI partnership, it's not necessarily about distance, but about region. Utah is in your region.
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Re: NAQT's agreement with ACUI

Post by Important Bird Area »

tiwonge wrote:Edit: I forgot that with the ACUI partnership, it's not necessarily about distance, but about region. Utah is in your region.
Teams are always free to attend the nearest SCT, even if it is across a regional boundary. For BYU, this would be the Region 15 SCT at Caltech.
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Re: NAQT's agreement with ACUI

Post by Susan »

Sun Devil Student wrote: Also, I think ASU has the only D1 team in the entire mountain range, so if that team has to qualify by D-value on D2 questions against a truly D2 field, it'll look pretty bad (and even at that cost, there's no guarantee of success). I would volunteer to staff the tournament (regardless of the location) in exchange for a D1 ICT bid but if NAQT and ACUI prefer using the D-value system then I suppose we'll make the sacrifice.
Are you proposing that NAQT give your team a DI ICT bid for providing one staffer for an SCT? Or even four (assuming your whole DI team staffs)? I hope they don't take you up on that.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Important Bird Area »

For clarity: no, it is not possible to earn an autobid to ICT by providing a single staffer. Teams that plan to provide large numbers of staff to SCTs they are not themselves hosting should contact us.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Sun Devil Student »

I'm not speaking for my team just yet, as I wanted to check that my D1 teammates would actually be allowed to get an autobid with only 4 staffers first (as it is not a particularly attractive offer by itself, to be sure). We would of course provide more than 4 staffers if the tournament was located at ASU. But if it's at another school, then we can't really tap volunteers from the ASU community at large and stuff.

I do agree that normally, an autobid is probably worth more than 4 staffers, since a host would certainly need more than 4 staffers in order to host a good tournament. However, speaking for myself only and as a player only, I don't feel comfortable stomping on a field of completely novice D2 teams in an attempt to get a sufficient D-value to qualify my D1 team. I would feel like an impostor blowing out the new Region 13 D2 teams by 300 or 400 points every game not because my D1 team is actually that good but because the other teams simply don't know what they're doing yet, and I don't think this would be very fun for the new teams either. That's why I suggest letting my D1 team staff, they really belong in a separate Division 1 except that there's not enough other D1 teams in the area.

If I have just 3 members of my D1 team play while I staff, it would also work since then the field won't be mismatched quite so badly and the margin wouldn't be so outrageous. This is why I kind of hinted at the idea of just me staffing, but on the other hand I can also see why 1 staffer getting an ICT autobid would be unacceptable for the whole system of hosting autobids, so I apologize for floating that idea. Consider it withdrawn.

So I'll let NAQT and the quizbowl world decide which option is better:
1) My D1 team provides 4 staff in exchange for an autobid.
2) My D1 team attempts to qualify, and is forced to club baby seals in the attempt. Whether we actually do qualify or not is irrelevant here.

My personal feelings aside, I am duty-bound as a Sun Devil quizbowl player to do everything I can to help my team, so if you guys say that you prefer option #2, then I will defer to your judgment. I can see an argument for either one. I'm merely creating an alternative option here, and maybe starting a discussion about whether large mismatches are good or fun to have.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Important Bird Area »

SCT will remain at the University of Arizona, barring unforeseen circumstances in terms of either teams or staff.

In general, teams do not earn autobids for providing any number of staff. However, we are open to alternative arrangements in areas that may feature a shortage of staff and/or an abundance of local teams. Please contact us at [email protected] if you believe your local SCT might fall into such a situation.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Broad-tailed Grassbird »

Sun Devil Student wrote:
So I'll let NAQT and the quizbowl world decide which option is better:
1) My D1 team provides 4 staff in exchange for an autobid.
2) My D1 team attempts to qualify, and is forced to club baby seals in the attempt. Whether we actually do qualify or not is irrelevant here.
I like how you are trying to not play quiz bowl in order to play quiz bowl. Considering, off the top of my head, there were at least 2 combined fields last year, and at least another 1 the year before that, you'll just have to club those baby seals. And if you don't then too bad.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by The Tourist »

Speaking on behalf of the baby seals in question, we're perfectly comfortable with the natural selection mechanism selecting against those with inferior bone density, camouflage, and/or bonus conversion rate.

Bring it.

Sincerely,

Image




On a serious note, I have some doubts U of A actually has a team, that they are in the process of developing one, or that they will have the capacity to host a tournament. We shall see.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Sun Devil Student »

Ian, I'm not worried about you or the rest of our second-year D2 players. You guys aren't baby seals anymore by this analogy (teenage seals, maybe?). And ASU's first-year players are already ahead of most of the region as SCT would be their second tournament, not their very first.

The ones I'm worried about are the non-ASU teams in Region 13 (assuming they exist), as those teams are truly novice (and are probably worse than novice teams elsewhere in the country because they not only have no previous experience, they don't even have any kind of exposure to highly academic or knowledge-heavy environments. The horribly underfunded education system in this region probably doesn't help.) I don't feel right beating up on so helpless a field and inflating my D1 team's stats by playing against strawmen. It would make us look better than we really deserve to and would not reflect our actual ability. I would rather play in the California SCT where, even if I don't do very well, I'll at least know that that's how good my D1 team really is when faced with any semblance of an opposition.

That said, I'm consulting the quizbowl community about this because I think this may be a precedent for the community's standard of sportsmanship and decency. If there is a consensus on the forum and at NAQT that you don't find anything wrong with a bottom-bracket ICT team masquerading as invincible gods in front of an audience that doesn't know any better, then I will close my eyes and participate in the charade for my team's sake.

If ASU's D1 team was actually a legitimate contender then I wouldn't be so ashamed to put up high stats, but if we end up playing in Region 13 this year, we'll be fakes. Even if the other novice teams don't mind being blown out. Again, I will defer to the quizbowl world's opinion, but if it was just up to me, I'd rather take my D1 team to California and win our rightful 4th place regional finish there. That would be an achievement we could actually be proud of.

(ASU's D1 team is unfortunately not quite so good as last year; I'm the only returning player and none of us have any spare time to actually do what it takes to be a good team. Also, I've noticed that in recent years California's D1 SCT is chronically short of teams. So, that would be a third option that would avoid the autobid issue.)
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Important Bird Area »

Sun Devil Student wrote:I would rather play in the California SCT where, even if I don't do very well, I'll at least know that that's how good my D1 team really is when faced with any semblance of an opposition.
Just noting that we have received Kenneth's request for the ASU DI team to travel to Caltech.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Important Bird Area »

The Region 14 (northwest) SCT will be at Portland State.
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Important Bird Area »

naqt.com wrote:Online registration for the 2011 Sectional Championship Tournaments has begun. Approximately half of the events are now open for teams to sign up; the others will be opened once their hosts finalize their list of discounts.
Register here
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Important Bird Area »

Online registration is now open for all of the announced North American SCT sites.

Register here
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by master15625 »

Is it known that New England doesn't have a host? If there is no host for New England, what is the date we will determine when no host exists?

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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Important Bird Area »

We expect to announce a New England site in the very near future (as soon as the host can confirm room reservations).
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Re: 2011 NAQT SCT

Post by Important Bird Area »

The New England SCT will be at Harvard.
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