ANNOUNCEMENT: 2005 Terrapin Invitational Tournament

[Dan Greenstein]

As the editor of this year’s tournament, it is my pleasure to remind you about…

The 19th annual Terrapin Invitational Tournament will be held at the University of Maryland (in College Park) Saturday, October 22. This modified ACF tournament is open to all collegiate teams. Bastard and master teams may play with the consent of the tournament directors, but they will not be eligible for prizes and/or playoffs.

To register for this tournament, contact both Brittany Clark ([email protected]) and Ali Daniels ([email protected]).

Some basics:
Base Fee: $90
Working Buzzer: -$10 (maximum of 2 per team)
Experienced Moderator: -$10
Travel: -$10 per school for every 300 miles traveled (one-way, via mapquest)
Novice: -$10 per school if you have not attended a TIT within the past 3 years
Minimum fee: $50

Packet discounts/penalties (all times EDT):
Packet in by Sunday, September 25 at 11:59 pm: -$25
Note: I have extended the earliest deadline by two days so you have a weekend to finish your packet.
Packet in by Friday, September 30 at 11:59 pm: -$10
Packet in by Friday, October 7 at 11:59 pm: $0
Packet in by Friday, October 14 at 11:59 pm: +$20
Packet after Friday, October 14 at 11:59 pm: +$40

If your packet is not in by Sunday, October 16 at 11:59pm, you must have my permission to play in the tournament.

If you wish to ask for an exemption from regular packet writing, you must contact me before the no-penalty deadline, October 7. Depending on your team and club’s experience, you may not have to write a packet, or I will ask you to write some fraction of a packet.

Cancellation fees:
Any team that cancels within 2 days prior to the tournament or fails to show and for non-emergency reasons without notifying the tournament director will be charged $30.

This tournament will be participating in a packet swap with MIT’s Beaver Bonspiel tournament the same day.

Packets are subject to approval by the question editor and/or tournament directors, who have the right to reject packets/questions and request rewrites. You will have 24 hours to resubmit your packet from the time I return it to you and receive the same discount/penalty as for the time you submitted it.

Science (5/5)
No more than 1/1 should be written in each major science (biology, chemistry, physics). At least two of the other sciences should be represented.
No more than 2/2 should be science biography.
Computer programs (Windows, AIM and even Matlab) are not acceptable subjects for mathematics and computer science questions. They belong in Your Choice or Trash.

History (5/5)
Please write at least 1/1 on history before 500 AD, and limit questions to 2 per century. Also please write at least 1/1 on non-North American or European history.

Literature (5/5)
At least 1/1 should be about non-American and non-European literature.
Limit 2/2 for literature biography and 2/2 for each of the major genres of literature (novels, poetry, plays, etc.).

Fine Arts (2/2)
No more than 1/1 should be about any major field of Fine Arts.

Religion, Philosophy and Mythology (2/2)
Write a maximum of 1/1 and minimum of one question about each of the three disciplines (and try to vary within each category).

Social Science (2/2)
Write a maximum of 1/1 about each major discipline.

Geography (1/1)
Do not write both questions about similar landforms like bodies of water or mountain ranges. Questions about countries should not include historical information unless it relates directly to its geography.

Trash, General Knowledge and Current Events (2/2)
No more than 1/1 Current Events should be written.

Your Choice (1/1)
Anything goes, within reason. Interdisciplinary questions are
encouraged :)

You are limited to writing one question (tossup or bonus) about anything having to do with the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season if you wish to write Current Events. However, it is highly discouraged. If anything about the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season comes up in any other category, I will return your packet.

Formatting the Document:
Packets should be submitted as one of the following, in order of decreasing preference: MS Word (.doc); Rich Text File (.rtf); and text (.txt). The following applies to the first two formats.

All text should be in 12 point Times New Roman font, or the closest available equivalent. The tossup and bonus sections should be separated with a page break.

Tossups:
Do not number or otherwise indent tossups. Do not use tabs. Tossups should generally be between five and seven lines in length. Tossups outside of that range but close are acceptable sparingly, but do not write two-line quickies or ten-line novels.

Do not abbreviate "for ten points". The answer should be on the next line, preceded with "ANSWER:" Underline the required part of the answer; if you are using a .txt file, surround the required parts with underscores. If there are two or more equivalent answers (for example, an author's pen name and real name), include both separated with "or." If there are any alternative answers or moderator notes, include them in square brackets to the right.

Example:
Born in Tunisia, this son of a royal fly swatter traveled to Greece at an early age to study underwater basket weaving. After exploring the ruins at Sigma Nu City, he came to America and wrote Secondhand People. A major authority on industrial organization, for ten points, name this 20th century Chinese archaeologist and astronomer who in 1968 first postulated octahedral spatial symmetries.
ANSWER: Richard Wang

bonuses:
Do not number or otherwise indent bonuses. Do not use tabs. Keep each bonus part to a maximum of 2 lines in length. Place the number of points a bonus part is worth in square brackets before the part.

Discouraged bonus formats include anything with more than four prompts, ordering bonuses, list bonuses and 15-15. However, please use a variety of formats, as 25 10-10-10s are boring.

Please send your packet to the editor, Daniel Greenstein (email below), and CC to the tournament directors, Brittany Clark ([email protected]) and Ali Daniels ([email protected]).

Happy writing,

Daniel Greenstein
[email protected]

[Matt Weiner]

Chicago won. Hopefully someone from Maryland will be along with full stats (and maybe even stats from last year's edition of the tournament). 90% of the packets were very good, and the best part of the tournament was the top-to-bottom field strength that made just about every game exciting; I think 5 of my games were decided in the last two tossups. This should make for an interesting year in the region.

[ramlrasul]

The nineteenth annual Terrapin Invitational Tournament was held at the University of Maryland on Saturday, October 22. Congratulations to Chicago A (Seth T., Ed C., Susan F., and Selene K.) who won the tournament, defeating Michigan 340-80. Michigan (Ryan Westbrook, Adam K., Ryan McClarren, and Will Turner) was second and VCU was third. Michigan and VCU were tied for second place, but VCU lost the head to head and had the lower overall points and so Michigan was determined to hold second place. Andrew Yaphe won the neg prize with 21 negs and received a juicy romance novel, Too Wilde to Tame. Matt Weiner won the top scoring prize with 106.67 PPG and chose the Terrorist Survival Guide, Andrew Yaphe won second place with 92.92 PPG and received Andromache and Leo Wolpert from VA took third place with 65.42 PPG, receiving The Most Evil Women in History.

Here are the standings of the teams after the round robin:
Chicago A: 11-1
Michigan: 10-2
VCU: 10-2
Chicago B: 9-3
UNC-Chapel Hill: 8-4
Virginia: 6-6
Masters: 5-7
Princeton: 5-7
CMU: 5-7
Maryland: 5-7
Delaware: 2-10
Swarthmore A: 1-11
Swarthmore B: 1-11

Thank you to all teams that showed up. Stats will be posted later on the MAQT website. If there are any comments, please feel free to e-mail the TDs, Brittany Clark at bclark3 at umd dot edu and Ali Daniels at danielsa at umd dot edu.

Brittany Clark and Ali Daniels
Tournament Directors, Terrapin Invitational Tournament
Vice-President and Secretary, Maryland Academic Quiz Team

MAQT Website: http://www.studentorg.umd.edu/maqt/index.html

[Leo Wolpert]

I would like to thank everyone involved for this well-run tournament. The rounds were pretty much on time, and the packets, with 2 or 3 notable exceptions, were of excellent quality. It was great to hear pyramidal questions with interesting, important clues, as opposed to the trivial clues and anti-pyramidal tossups that can be found in all too many packets I've seen this fall.

It's almost criminal that nobody has thanked Ezequiel Berdichevsky, who edited the majority of the questions. I challenge anyone who reads this to take a look at the packets when they become available and guess which were edited by Zeke and which were not. Oh, wait, this challenge sucks, because it's patently obvious which is which. Here's a hint: if the letters "C" "B" and "I" come to mind while you're reading a packet, it wasn't edited by Zeke.

So, yeah, thanks again for editing the packets.

[mps4a_mps4a]

is dan from UNC the dan from TJ last year?

[wwellington]

Yes.