BrainBusters Solo Tournament - Victor, NY (5/17/2014)

[Ithaca Cricket Ump]

Hi everyone:

BrainBusters Solo is officially a go! The first-ever all-subject quizbowl tournament in upstate New York/northern Pennsylvania designed specifically for solo players will take place at VICTOR HIGH SCHOOL in Victor, NY (suburban Rochester, located very conveniently just off the New York State Thruway) on SATURDAY, MAY 17, 2014.

Due to the nature of this tournament, we will NOT need to know the names of the participating players before the tournament, as official registration will take place at the site on the morning of the competition. In addition, we will be collecting the tournament entry fee ($20 per participant) on the day of the competition as well - if you need to prepay, e-mail me and we can make arrangements, but we would prefer payment to be on the morning of the 17th if at all possible - we can accept cash, check or credit card, and will provide receipts upon request.

The one bit of information that I DO ask that coaches who have interested students send me is an approximation of the MAXIMUM number of competing students who will attend, as this will help prevent us from being caught short on buzzers or staffers. Any school that provides a working buzzer system (at least 8 working buzzers) and/or an adult to serve as a reader for the tournament will receive ONE (1) free student entry for each lockout system/reader supplied. We reserve the right to cut off this discount at any point if we are overwhelmed with buzzers and prospective staffers, but I don't anticipate that happening. Students from the same school do -not- need to travl to Victor together on school transportation, but if they attend without their coach they will need to have another responsible adult (parent, etc.) present as a chaperone.

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR COACHES AND STUDENTS: Please do not assume that this tournament is only for your "best" players. The power-matching format we are using for BB Solo assures that, after the randomly-matched Round 1, players will always be competing against other players who have done about as well as them in the tournament to date. Newer and less-experienced players, for 7 of the 8 rounds, will not have to go up against championship contenders, and will have ample opportunity to answer their fair share of questions and win awards. Answer lines of questions will be comparable in difficulty to a NAQT A set (to make them accessible to all players), but the tossups will be between HSNCT and PACE NSC length on average, and the early clues will be -very- challenging in order to allow the top players to demonstrate deep knowledge, while allowing less-experienced players to get most questions by the end if there's no early buzz. In addition, if one player dominates a round, he/she is removed from the round when they've gotten their 8th point and given bonus points depending on how quickly they got to 8 (NH Bee format), allowing the remaining players to have more of a chance to score. This tournament is for everyone, and we urge underclassmen, middle schoolers, and non-A teamers to register as well as your top players. In fact, trophy and book awards will be given to the top sophomore, freshman and middle schooler who do not make the overall finals.

If you have interested players, please contact me ([email protected]) with the max number of players you think you'll be bringing, and please don't hesitate to contact me if you have -any- questions regarding this exciting new tournament and format. We hope to see all of you at Victor on May 17!

--Cordially, Scott Blish
BrainBusters Solo Tournament Director and Writer

[Mark Wolfsberg]

I've sent out a note to all the Bethlehem folks about this solo Brain Busters. I'll let you know what interest I get. I will probably bring Eric to it if I have to drag him .

[Ithaca Cricket Ump]

Good to hear, Mark. I'll be sending out a reminder e-mail within the week to my mailing list, and I'll add you to it if you can PM me your e-mail address.

--Scott

[Ithaca Cricket Ump]

This tournament happened today at Victor HS, with the following results:

OVERALL CHAMPION - Jensen Lo, Ithaca (sr.)
RUNNER UP - Ari Zax, Ithaca (sr.)
3rd PLACE - Eric Wolfsberg, Bethlehem (soph.)
4th PLACE - Daniel Xu, Ithaca (fr.)
5th PLACE - Casey Wetherbee, Ithaca (fr.)
6th PLACE - Andrey Shakhzdayan, Ithaca (fr.)
7th PLACE - Jason Zhou, Nichols School (sr.)
8th PLACE - Daniel Karlic, Pittsford Sutherland (jr.)

MINOR PREMIER (top scorer in preliminary rounds) - Eric Wolfsberg, Bethlehem
SOPHOMORE RISING STAR - Dylan Parker, Pittsford Sutherland
FRESHMAN RISING STAR - Ahan Patel, Manheim Township
MIDDLE SCHOOL RISING STAR - Benjamin Buyer, Siena Catholic (7th grade)
EARL WEAVER MEMORIAL AWARD (most ejection penalties) - Liam Schmitt, Geneva (soph.)

Since I have already received inquiries regarding possible mirrors for this tournament (a house-written set - 85% by me and 15% by Ben Kirk - Ben wrote the math and computer science and I wrote everything else), I would ask that players, coaches and staffers please NOT discuss the specific contents of this set in public forums (such as here, FB or Twitter) until the set is clear, which I anticipate being sometime this coming fall. Thanks to everyone who played, staffed, watched or participated in any way - it was a lot of fun, and we'll be repeating it again in the fall at Cooperstown - possibly in conjunction with the Otesaga Hotel, Fenimore Cooper Museum and/or National Baseball Hall of Fame. More info to come on that next season.

--Scott

[Chef Curry]

I just wanted to say that this was a well run tournament and I had a great time playing!