HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

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HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

Hello, everybody! :D I'm sorry it took a while, but I'm very excited to announce the main site for the 10th annual Harvard Fall Tournament. In a similar date to last year, HFT X will be happening on November 14th, 2015.

To register, please email me at "raynorkuang AT college DOT harvard DOT edu". You can post in this thread or PM me as well, but your registration is NOT officially complete until I respond in some fashion saying so. Please indicate how many teams you will be bringing and what discounts will apply to you, as well as include "HFT Registration" in the email subject so I can easily find your email.

Logistics

The tournament will start in historic Sever Hall, which is in Tercentary Theater, the yard adjacent to Harvard Yard. I highly recommend accessing the Yard by the T, the public metro in Boston; the T is 30 seconds outside the College and parking is sparse and expensive. Registration will open at 8:30 AM in Sever Hall Room 113, and games will begin soon after 9:00 AM. Supplementary and reminder information will be sent to registered and attending teams. Teams will be guaranteed at least 10 games, as well as preliminary and playoff games. A break for lunch will take place when convenient. Most games should be done by 6; teams expecting to be here for finals or in placement tie-breakers at the end of day may need to budget until 6:40.

Registration and Fees

We will be initially capping the field at 24 teams. This number will almost certainly go up, but I'd like to set the initial cap here. A waitlist will be maintained. Historically, a 36 team cap has been filled every year, so get your registrations in earlier if you'd like a guaranteed spot. As a side addendum, teams will be restricted to 6-player rosters--that is, no more than 6 different players can play for a single team during the day.

As stated above, you need to email me, with all necessary information, and receive a confirmation, before your registration is complete. Additionally, a significant amount of details will be provided to attending teams, and I strongly advise everyone to read them.

The base fee will be $90 per attending team. In addition, the following discounts will apply (with caveats):
- $5 per functioning buzzer system (i.e. power cord and eight working buzzers; maximum of three systems per organization).
- $5 per experienced scorekeeper (i.e. familiar with rules and scoring of pyramidal quizbowl).
- $10 per experienced moderator (i.e. familiar with rules and scoring of pyramidal quizbowl; good pronunciation and reading skills).
- $10 for teams traveling at least 200 miles one way (by direct line using this tool).

All discounts are applied per organization; the minimum average fee for any team is $60. I reserve the right to revoke these discounts if any of the caveats provided in good faith were found not to be so, and to incur additional fees in the case of the staff discounts. Additionally, with the exception of informed medical, weather, or other emergencies at my judgment, teams dropping after 9 PM, November 13th will be responsible for the entirety of their fee, even if no longer attending. To loosely quote Jacob Reed of Yale: I will try to be understanding, and this policy is not meant to punish teams uncertain of their initial field, but it is unfair to our program and other teams attending if you drop without any fair warning.

Either cash or check is acceptable; checks should be made out to "Harvard College Bowl". If you'd like an invoice, let me know ahead of time.

The Set

Set details can be found here. I (Raynor Kuang), will be head editing.

Closing Comments

As mentioned in the mirror thread, I'm personally very excited to be head editing the set and leading much of the tournament's coordination. In addition to this year being the 10th anniversary :party: of HFT, I've always had good memories of HFT since personally attending in high school, and I want to provide as enjoyable an experience to everyone attending. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about registration, payment, logistics, ambiguities, or whatever; new teams and players in particular should feel free to ask me anything. I hope to see you in November!
Last edited by UlyssesInvictus on Mon Nov 09, 2015 8:58 pm, edited 7 times in total.
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

This post reserved for field list.

Registered Teams (If you're not on here in 24 hours, but should be, let me know!)
School/Number of Teams
Wilmington Charter/3
Bishop Guertin HS/1
Lexington HS/4
Bethlehem Central/1
Hunter HS/2
Acton Boxborough/2
"Team Andy Huff"/1
AMSA/2
Paul Laurence Dunbar/1
Philips Andover/2
"Four Idiots"/1
Walnut Hill School for the Arts/1
Needham/1
Hingham/1
Ridgewood/3
------------------
Total/26

Wait List
Last edited by UlyssesInvictus on Mon Nov 09, 2015 7:27 pm, edited 36 times in total.
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

If you tried emailing me and it didn't work, it was because I was a dum-dum and switched harvard and college. It's fixed now.
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

50% of available spots have been taken! Though I anticipate increasing the cap size, this is still by no means guaranteed and any staff you can bring (especially coaches willing to moderate) will assist greatly. Get your registrations in while you still can!
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

I'm pleased to announce that HFT X has been awarded platinum certification, which means that the top 25% of teams (rounded to the nearest integer) will qualify for the PACE NSC championship in June! Contact me or PACE if you have any questions. Full details can be found here.
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by KnicksRule »

AMSA would like to bring a team and two buzzers.
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

I've explicitly added a rule about the size of rosters allowed (6 players). If this is a problem for any of the teams who've already registered, please let me know.

Furthermore, as we hit 2/3 registration, I want to reiterate that staffers are crucial to how much we can extend our team cap. I understand that many coaches would like to stay with their teams for the day, but having additional readers and scorekeepers increases the quality of the field we can provide for teams, and even the number of games we can guarantee.
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by SHM »

Paul Laurence Dunbar would like to bring two teams again this year!
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

The team cap has now been filled, at 24 teams. Please continue registering, as I'll maintain a waitlist, and I do expect that we'll be able to increase the cap size.

I also want to reiterate that team brought staff are crucial to expanding the cap size. Right now not a single team is bringing a staffer of any sort: if any team already registered, or any team hoping to sign up, would like to bring a staffer, then the size and diversity of field we can afford to provide would directly prove. Please bring staffers! (I would be extremely grateful :D)
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by needhamquizteam »

Needham would like to bring a team and a buzzer
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by SHM »

Paul Laurence Dunbar will be able to bring only ONE team this year. Please give the top team on the waitlist our 2nd spot. Thanks!
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

Thanks to more staff, I've upped the team cap to 27. We're currently sitting at 26, so get those registrations in!

I know I'm starting to sound like a skipped record at this point...but we still have no team staff! So please, sign those staffers up.
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

A few teams have dropped, so we have plenty of space. There's only a month left, so get those registrations in!
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

Bump for under two weeks left! We are sitting at 25 teams right now. A multiple of 3 would be optimal, so let's see if we can get up to 27 or 30! Writing is 99% done, final editing is taking place, and they look to be very enjoyable :D
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

6 days left! We're now at 27, so I'm solidifying the team cap there. Any still interested teams will appear on the wait-list.

For those teams who've already registered, please check the field list above to make sure that everything is square. Full tournament details will be emailed out later today or tomorrow.
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

I've just emailed all teams currently expected to attend. If you didn't receive an email, please let me know.

Drops have reduced our number to 26. If you're interested in bringing a team, or dropped but can now send a team after all, we still have one or two more spots!
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

Prelims are up. http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... s/prelims/

Missing teams/buzzers caused a late start, but we're still on track to finish by 5:30.
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

Bethlehem Central defeated Lexington A in a one-game final to take the tournament.

Stats will unfortunately not be up for a few hours, as I have to catch a flight, but I'll try and find time afterward to upload the rest.

Thanks to all teams for attending! I think we ran a lot more smoothly than in previous years, and teams seemed pleased with the set. If you'd like to discuss the set further, a private discussion forum has been created--you'll have to go to User Groups and request access.

Edit: Woke up from my nap and managed to get WiFi on my flight. Wanted to add thanks for my many staff, without whom this tournament would have been impossible. If teams did enjoy the set, I hope they'll post about it here, as it'll help us get more mirrors. :P And, well, if they didn't like the set, I'd also like to hear that feedback, though as a reminder, question specific details should go in the private subforum.
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by luke1865 »

I really enjoyed the set and the tournament. Great job, Harvard! Just a quick question, when will playoff stats be up?
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

Stats for playoffs are up now. Some issues:

1. I was unable to figure out how to manually have SQBS set standings, so to find standings you should go to the Playoff stats and compare round 11 head-to-head games in the Berdych and K . The top standings are manually reproduced below:
- Bethlehem Central
- Lexington A
- Hunter A
- AMSA A
- Charter A
- Bishop Guertin
2. I have no recorded game between Dunbar and Hingham for Round 11. Word from my moderators implies that Hingham forfeited this match, but I've been unable to solidly confirm this. Dunbar and Hingham have been emailed; this game slightly matters, since the top 25% for NSC qualification cuts off at 7, and either Dunbar or Hingham will take the spot based on this game. I'm assuming some of the higher standings will have already qualified for the NSC elsewhere, but for completeness, I'd like to see this resolved.
3. In a similar vein, many forfeits occurred in Round 11 without a distinct record. Many teams have imbalanced number of games played because of this.
4. Many of my scorekeepers failed to note substitutions, and I've had to make educated guesses for certain games. If you recognize an error, please let me know.

There may be other minor issues as well; regardless, let me know, so I can correct them.
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by t-bar »

UlyssesInvictus wrote:1. I was unable to figure out how to manually have SQBS set standings,
I don't believe there's a way to do this in SQBS, but if you know how to edit HTML tables, you can just modify the web report files by hand. This is how Jon Pinyan produces his fantastic stat reports for the NSC every year.
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by Maury Island incident »

Andy Huff is a great player and all, but I somehow doubt he had 15 powers round 3.

Also, my v's look like r's and vice versa, so "Pranar" on Lexington C is actually Pranav.

EDIT: Lexington C also probably didn't get 21 tossups against AMSA C.
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by Jeremy Gibbs Paradox »

Your prelims also don't really make any sense since they aren't in brackets. One team looks like it had one prelim game vs. others that had five? Also, that's not how Petra Kvitova spells it.
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

Oh, that is definitely not what it used to look like--I must have broken the prelim stats after trying to fix the mistakes noted above.

EDIT: Should be fixed by now.
Last edited by UlyssesInvictus on Fri Nov 20, 2015 1:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by Halved Xenon Stinging »

My teammates and I really enjoyed the set. This year's logistixs were also great; I think the tournament wrapped up an hour ahead of schedule? Creds to the Harvard team for putting out the best HFT yet.
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Re: HFT X at Harvard (11/14/15)

Post by joyous »

This was actually my team's first HFT, and we really enjoyed the set and it's clear that you guys were very well-prepared (despite late arrivals)! We'll definitely be back next year :)
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