West Coast Invitational 2011

[cvdwightw]

Despite organizational and staff-wrangling lapses on my part, the 2010 West Coast Invitational received largely positive reviews. The West Coast Invitational will once again occur in 2011 with significantly earlier and better planning. An official announcement will likely come out in September or so, but we would like to get this very preliminary announcement out now so that teams have as much time as possible to consider whether they would like to drive/fly out to this event.

The West Coast Invitational will take place on April 2-3, 2011, unless one of the major collegiate national tournaments claims that weekend, in which case it will move up or back a week to avoid those conflicts.

Barring unexpected problems, the tournament will once again be held at UCLA. We anticipate staffers from UCLA, UC Irvine, UCSD, Claremont, and possibly Caltech.

On Saturday we will run a tournament using as close to the exact 2011 PACE NSC rules as possible. We have not committed to a packet set at this time, nor have we decided whether we should make this a "regular difficulty" or "nationals prep" event.

There will be some sort of event on Saturday night. This year we held California NASAT tryouts in a somewhat disorganized fashion and improving the planning of the Saturday night event is something that I personally will be looking to improve on. We will be exploring other alternatives for a Saturday night event, especially if we hold California NASAT tryouts earlier in the year next year. If you are planning to come and you have a great idea for what to do on Saturday night post here.

On Sunday we will run a timed tournament using official NAQT rules. We will likely attempt to reserve the NAQT Division 2 SCT set again. With any appreciable amount of luck we will end this tournament before 5:00 as happened this year.

We have not settled on a fee structure yet but we anticipate it being similar to last year ($70 for one tournament or $120 for both, with buzzer, staffer, clock, and travel discounts; minimum fee $35 for one tournament or $60 for two).

Post in this thread to indicate interest in attending or to ask questions that we may or may not yet have answers to.

EDIT: updated information

[Alejandro]

We would be interested in helping out.

[LucasBrown]

RB will probably attend, and we will be able to contribute at least two buzzer sets and possibly a moderator.

And why do it with clocks?

[Golran]

We choose to use the clocks to give teams preparation for the timed HSNCT, as (to my knowledge) this is the only timed tournament in Southern California.

[Flash Bomba]

University will probably attend, with one buzzer.

[i never see pigeons in wheeling]

I anticipate that Bellarmine will aim to attend this tournament and contribute our buzzer system.

About NASAT tryouts, Bellarmine and MSJ would like a location more convenient to Northern California, preferably a location at an invitational in mid-California.

[Carambola!]

MSJ is interested in attending but whether or not we can get drivers is another matter.
Also, I second Ankit's statement.

[Tanay]

About NASAT tryouts, Bellarmine and MSJ would like a location more convenient to Northern California, preferably a location at an invitational in mid-California.

This would be nice but for the fact that I don't think they even have any quiz bowl in mid-California.

[i never see pigeons in wheeling]

About NASAT tryouts, Bellarmine and MSJ would like a location more convenient to Northern California, preferably a location at an invitational in mid-California.

This would be nice but for the fact that I don't think they even have any quiz bowl in mid-California.

I didn't mean that literally. What I was talking about is a location closer to Northern California, especially because it needs to be in some sort of driving distance from MSJ.

[nadph]

Will this tournament aim to bring teams mainly from California, or will teams from other states be encouraged to attend too? I know Brophy (from Arizona) was heralded as a rising program, so they might be interested in coming here. Teams from other western states (Frenchtown from Montana comes to mind) might also be interested, although the drive would probably be long. Dedicated Texas programs (LASA, Seven Lakes, and Cistercian come to mind) might also be interested in driving or flying out, I would think, like LASA did for Prison Bowl last year. (This post is obviously not commanding said teams to come, but is just giving examples of teams this tournament might be able to attract.)

[cchiego]

Will this tournament aim to bring teams mainly from California, or will teams from other states be encouraged to attend too? I know Brophy (from Arizona) was heralded as a rising program, so they might be interested in coming here. Teams from other western states (Frenchtown from Montana comes to mind) might also be interested, although the drive would probably be long. Dedicated Texas programs (LASA, Seven Lakes, and Cistercian come to mind) might also be interested in driving or flying out, I would think, like LASA did for Prison Bowl last year. (This post is obviously not commanding said teams to come, but is just giving examples of teams this tournament might be able to attract.)

Precisely why we're announcing it so early. We've got big hopes for this tournament and will have the best readers in all of Southern California driving up to staff. So consider this early announcement a welcome to teams who'd like to fly or drive in from around the country- this will be good.

[cvdwightw]

As the TD of this event by virtue of claiming to be the TD of this event, I think that there are two things making WCI a difficult place to hold the tryouts for NASAT Team California, even if all the best players in California make it to WCI.

1) We're going to be hosting the tournament even further after what I anticipate the NASAT initial bid deadline to be, which could potentially present organizational problems with getting a team to NASAT.

2) We really want to try to get teams from outside California to attend this year. Hosting an NASAT tryout on Saturday night would be less inclusive than pretty much any other event (side event or social event) we could put on.

[cvdwightw]

As NAQT ICT is on April 9, we will obviously not be holding WCI on this date. We are likely to move it up a weekend to April 2-3 but will have to see when ACF Nationals is (and check the academic calendars) before finalizing the date.

[cvdwightw]

An announcement containing everything but official packet sets and meeting rooms is now up. We will also be updating on the West Coast Invitational page on socalquizbowl.org.

[Sun Devil Student]

There's an unfortunate conflict here: A group of Arizona high school coaches (largely organized by Brophy) had agreed to schedule the NAQT Arizona Championship on April 2, in complete ignorance of this event that would undoubtedly be quite appealing for any Brophy A-team and indeed even for the ASU D2 ICT team if such a team were allowed to compete (probably not, it sounds like).

I don't know if anything can be done about this conflict, and I'm not necessarily the person to speak for Brophy, but if I was them I'd certainly wish to compete at both this event and the NAQT State event. Speaking for ASU, I would feel some obligation to put the NAQT State event on whichever date works for the largest number of Arizona teams, and at the moment that might just be this same weekend, though I will make some inquiries about it. Obviously I shouldn't and won't ask you to move your California tournament to accomodate Arizonans.

[cvdwightw]

1. This is a high school tournament only.
2. The way the schedule works for just about every school down here, finals are in mid-March, and Spring Break is the week after finals. This makes it difficult for us to wrangle staff in March.
3. The originally announced date was April 9, which is now ICT weekend. Our other option was to schedule it against ACF Nationals and use whatever players would not be at that tournament, but when we discussed dates on Sunday, this seemed the better weekend to host SoCal State Champs.
4. You're not the only person who's asked me to move the tournament on behalf of some teams that might plausibly come. It just so happens that there is literally no other week between mid-March and mid-April that works for us.