Geography Monstrosity 3 (May 27th, Atlanta)

[Important Bird Area]

This is the announcement for Geography Monstrosity 3: Reevaluate the life choices that led you to know the name of the commuter train serving western Suriname.

This third annual all-geography-tossup tournament will be held at 10 pm on Friday, May 27th, 2011, at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta. (This is, as usual, after the conclusion of HSNCT scrimmages.)

The packet deadline is midnight on Sunday, May 22; before that I will be busy editing HSNCT itself. Please don't use this as an excuse to put off packet-writing until the last minute.

Format: I will write an editor's packet. Depending on the level of interest, the following formats will take place:

-If four or more teams submit packets, we'll run a normal tournament format like last year's.
-If one to three teams submit packets, we'll run some kind of crazy anarcho-geography bowl.
-If zero teams submit packets, the tournament will be cancelled and the editor's packet will be disassembled to provide the hard parts of the geography bonuses for the 2012 ICT.

The distribution and style will be similar to the two previous sets. If you'd like to see something changed, post in this thread.

[Important Bird Area]

Distribution:

(This is the same as last year's.)

Note that there are two distributions listed below. Packets are expected to follow both of them to ensure both geographic and subject balance. There should be enough your choice/miscellaneous in both of these that you shouldn't be boxed into writing something crazy.

1. Geographic distribution.

-5 United States and Canada (preferably 1 Canadian, but no more than one)
-3 Latin America and the Caribbean (at least 2 South America)
-4 Europe
-4 Asia (at least 1 each Middle East, South/Southeast Asia, and East Asia)
-3 Africa
-2 Australia/Oceania
-3 Your Choice (more of the above, things not required above like Antarctica and minor islands, catchall home for non-specific things like common link tossups)

2. Subject distribution.

-10 physical geography
including:
-1 to 3 bodies of water
-1 to 3 islands
-1 to 3 mountains

-10 political/human geography
including:
-max 4 polities
-1 to 3 cities

-up to 4 parageography and metageography

-including but not limited to such topics as:

-earth science
-biogeography
-cartography
-historical geography

-up to 4 your choice

[Important Bird Area]

Field:

Teams:
Raynell Cooper/Nikhil Desai et al (packet ??? but if it's done they're welcome to read it guerrilla-style)
David Madden/Colin McNamara/Douglas Graebner (packet 5/26)
Dallas Simons et al (packet 5/25)
Charles Hang/Joshua Jacobs (packet 5/27)

Free agents:
Aaron Cohen

Staff:
Donald Taylor

(field updated 5/27)

[Ondes Martenot]

Assuming I staff HSNCT, I will play this and will collaborate on a packet

[Angry Babies in Love]

I AM TOTALLY THERE. Cannot wait.

[dtaylor4]

I'll help staff this.

[Charbroil]

I will play this as usual.

[Cheynem]

As usual I will write for this, play this if I am there, and suck.

I will also write another comedy geography packet if people are interested.

[cchiego]

I'm there. Will be writing a packet. Let me know if you want to collaborate.

[Important Bird Area]

I will also write another comedy geography packet if people are interested.

Yes, please.

[nadph]

Are teams going to be formed ad hoc when this starts, or can we team up beforehand? If the latter is permissible, a team of me, Raynell Cooper, and up to three other RM/Bellarmine people to be decided might form for this.

[Important Bird Area]

It's packet-submission, so teaming up beforehand is certainly a good idea.

[Cheynem]

I probably won't be at this--I will still write my comedy packet though.

[Great Bustard]

You can put me down as leader of an NHBB staff team. I'll make sure a packet comes together over the next month.

[tiwonge]

I plan to be there, and will play with anybody and help write, if there are any open teams or unfinished packets.

[minusfive]

University of Toronto is interested in mirroring this tournament on May 28th. If interested, please send me an e-mail at [email protected]

[at your pleasure]

Finding myself staffing HSNCT, I would like to offer free-agency.

[Cheynem]

I definitely won't be here now, and due to some other projects on the table, I doubt I'll write the comedy packet either. Apologies to my many followers.

[dsimons]

I'll play this and can write a packet myself in the interest of having more packets. I can pick up free agents who haven't written anything closer to the event.

[tiwonge]

Douglas, David and I have formed a team. We can still use a fourth, if anybody else is available.

Edit: Daniel Brezina has joined us.

[Angry Babies in Love]

Is this still on?

[Important Bird Area]

Maybe!

No one has yet submitted a packet. I hope that changes in the near future.

[tiwonge]

I hadn't realized we submit packets. I had assumed it was more guerrilla.

Our packet's about half written. I'll see if I can get everybody to finish it.

[Important Bird Area]

I'm fine with semi-guerrilla; it will just make everyone's lives easier if I have packets by Thursday morning so I can repeat-check and whatnot.

[Great Bustard]

How many packets currently exist for this? Also: apparently there's no longer a commuter train in western Suriname anymore, unless I was looking in the wrong spot.

[Important Bird Area]

Right now there are three submitted packets and I'm assembling an editors' packet.

Meet at 10 pm outside Lenox.

[Important Bird Area]

We have four teams right now; volunteers for a fifth team should show up at Lenox in 20 minutes.

[Important Bird Area]

We ended up playing four rounds of shootout among nine players. Raynell Cooper of Richard Montgomery was the leading scorer with 102.5 ppg. Stats

The packets will be posted on the archive once tomorrow's Toronto mirror is complete.

Many thanks to Chris Chiego for contributing half of the editors' packet on very short notice.

[Great Bustard]

Jeff and I have talked about this while birding from Jekyll Island, Georgia to the Mesabi Iron Range over the last week (we saw Whooping Cranes, Jeff's current avatar in Wisconsin yesterday), but it would be great to see somewhat greater participation in GM next year from some of the better high school players. Granted, they're supposed to be sleeping and getting ready for HSNCT, but why do that when you can learn eight lines of everything you ever wanted to know about Rockall but were afraid to ask!
Seriously, though, maybe we geography monstrosity writers ought to take it down a notch and try and recruit some more students to come play this. I refuse to believe that the eight or so people who were there are the only 8 people out of 1000+ at HSNCT who would enjoy playing a geography tournament. I would think at a minimum 50 students at HSNCT would have won their schools' geo bees in middle school.
My suggestions: post this on the high school boards as well next year, and even make mention of it on whatever stuff NAQT sends out to teams coming to HSNCT. We happy few want a little company in Geomonstrostan.

[tiwonge]

I know some TVMS students had wanted to play, but it was too late for them.

[at your pleasure]

Jeff and I have talked about this while birding from Jekyll Island, Georgia to the Mesabi Iron Range over the last week (we saw Whooping Cranes, Jeff's current avatar in Wisconsin yesterday), but it would be great to see somewhat greater participation in GM next year from some of the better high school players. Granted, they're supposed to be sleeping and getting ready for HSNCT, but why do that when you can learn eight lines of everything you ever wanted to know about Rockall but were afraid to ask!
Seriously, though, maybe we geography monstrosity writers ought to take it down a notch and try and recruit some more students to come play this. I refuse to believe that the eight or so people who were there are the only 8 people out of 1000+ at HSNCT who would enjoy playing a geography tournament. I would think at a minimum 50 students at HSNCT would have won their schools' geo bees in middle school.
My suggestions: post this on the high school boards as well next year, and even make mention of it on whatever stuff NAQT sends out to teams coming to HSNCT. We happy few want a little company in Geomonstrostan.

I think that's a good idea, although any mention should also refer to the hsquizbowl thread. My other idea is to run GM Saturday around 8 or 8:30 (after people get dinner, but still reasonably early) unless there's another side event with broader appeal like a Spring Offensive revival. That said, the fact that you have to form teams and write a packet is going to be somewhat of a limiting condition. Maybe run a small non-writer's bracket open only to high schoolers who haven't been to packet-sub tournaments and allow that to run on an draft?

[Irreligion in Bangladesh]

I know some TVMS students had wanted to play, but it was too late for them.

Ditto on IMSA's resident geography buff.

[DrCongo]

I know some TVMS students had wanted to play, but it was too late for them.

Ditto on IMSA's resident geography buff.

Same for me and one of my teammates. We spent more time writing our round for last year's Geography Monstrosity than we did playing in last year's Geography Monstrosity because we needed to be back in our rooms at a certain time. I loved going and I got the opportunity to meet Nikhil et al from Bellarmine and some college players, but this tournament needs to start earlier.

[Angry Babies in Love]

Nikhil's plane didn't come in until late, Zach Blumenfeld from Stevenson didn't know about it I don't think, and I heard about others who couldn't make it because of lateness. Friday at 10 has its perks (not subject to the timeliness of the tournament, most people are in by then) but I like the idea of Saturday at 8.

[Important Bird Area]

Moving GM4 to Saturday night sounds like a great idea. It will happen unless there is a Saturday side event for 2012 that would attract significant numbers of geography players.

[DumbJaques]

I probably just missed it, but is this set available anywhere?

[Mike Bentley]

Moving GM4 to Saturday night sounds like a great idea. It will happen unless there is a Saturday side event for 2012 that would attract significant numbers of geography players.

It would be awesome if someone could write a more general interest event for Saturday night at the HSNCT. The two Gaddis tournaments were big successes and it would be cool if something like that could be brought back. Alternatively, a more serious guerilla tournament (e.g. more in the vein of The Emergency than GUERILLA) might be a possibility if no one wants to step up to edit.