Early Fall at Youngstown State :: 8 Oct 2016

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Early Fall at Youngstown State :: 8 Oct 2016

Post by MahoningQuizBowler »

Parts of this announcement were copied from Duke's with permission.

Youngstown State University's new quizbowl team is happy to announce that it will be hosting a mirror of the 2016 Early Fall Tournament (2016 EFT) set on October 8, 2016. I will be the tournament director.

Location and Time:
This tournament will be held in DeBartolo Hall, located just off of Fifth Avenue in downtown Youngstown, Ohio. The opening meeting will be at 8:30 AM in the first floor lecture hall. Rounds will start as close to 9 AM as possible. See “Parking Information” below for parking recommendations.

Field Size:
The field cap is 24, though it seems we will hit 18 and be happy with that.

Eligibility:
This tournament is open to all college and high school teams that are interested. Open teams will be allowed in the field only at my discretion.

Cost:
The cost of this tournament will be $120 per team.

Discounts:
Buzzer systems: $10 per buzzer system. Limit: number of registered teams plus one.
Qualified Moderator with laptop: $20 per, or $15 without a laptop. No limit.
Travel: $10 per 150 miles traveled 1 way (per Google Maps - 1 University Plaza is the official YSU address).
Minimum Total Cost: $60 per team.

If I deem your moderator is not capable or you bring a buzzer system that isn’t working properly (at least 4 lighted buzzers on each side), we reserve the right to remove those respective discounts.

Payment:
If paying by check, make the check out to YSU Quiz Bowl. If paying by some other method, please let me know.

Registration & my Contact Information:
To register, please complete the following Google form: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1eSAw_ ... Dm3Ur8VmPk
Questions may be directed to me by emailing quizboss at att dot net.

Parking Information:
The best option is the M-2 deck, located adjacent to DeBartolo Hall. You will want to enter via Fifth Avenue; the other entrance, off Lincoln Avenue, is keycard only. Parking is, usually, $5 for the day. YSU football is not at home that weekend, but there will be a high school game happening in the stadium that evening (Cardinal Mooney v Canisius of Buffalo, if you're curious.) While this won't affect you coming to the tournament, it may make for some additional traffic as you leave.

Lunch/Food Options:
I advise teams to stay within walking distance for lunch; driving out might mean losing your spot, scrambling for another one which will almost certainly be further away, and possibly missing the beginning of the round following lunch. There are a number of options available, both on campus and within a block of DeBartolo Hall.

On campus: Chick-fil-A (open 10 am to 6 pm), Kilcawley Student Center Candy Counter (8am to 2 pm)
Off campus, Lincoln Avenue: Hot Head Burritos, Inner Circle Pizza, Subway, Jimmy John's, Pressed [coffee/eatery]
Off campus, Fifth Avenue: Taco Bell, McDonald's
Off campus, further afield/dinner options after the tournament: Charlie Staples' Bar-B-QUE, Cassesse's MVR, Golden Dawn [cash only!!]

Questions:
If anyone has any questions about this tournament, feel free to either post them here or email them to me, and I will respond as soon as possible.

We look forward to welcoming you to the Steel Valley this fall!
Last edited by MahoningQuizBowler on Sat Oct 01, 2016 10:39 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Early Fall at Youngstown State :: 8 Oct 2016

Post by MahoningQuizBowler »

Field update (5 Oct)

Michigan State, 1
Kenyon, 1
Carnegie Mellon, 3
Case Western, 2
Wright State, 1
Miami, 2
Penn State, 2
DCC, 1
Ohio State, 2
Pittsburgh, 1
Last edited by MahoningQuizBowler on Wed Oct 05, 2016 7:51 am, edited 11 times in total.
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Re: Early Fall at Youngstown State :: 8 Oct 2016

Post by DumbJaques »

Could we get a more recent field up? Thanks!
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Re: Early Fall at Youngstown State :: 8 Oct 2016

Post by MahoningQuizBowler »

Thanks to CWRU and Wright State for registering this weekend. Looking forward to seeing OSU confirm its teams soon.
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Re: Early Fall at Youngstown State :: 8 Oct 2016

Post by MahoningQuizBowler »

Construction started today on Wick Avenue, one of the main roads in town and near campus. Like in the original announcement, this shouldn't affect teams as they come in (unless your directions route you to Wick or Lincoln, which they shouldn't), but might make for some difficulty on the way out, particularly with football traffic. More information is here: http://cms.ysu.edu/administrative-offic ... provements.

As far as I know, the eateries on Lincoln will all still be open, but I'll update if that changes.
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Re: Early Fall at Youngstown State :: 8 Oct 2016

Post by DumbJaques »

OSU will be sending 2-3 teams.
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Re: Early Fall at Youngstown State :: 8 Oct 2016

Post by Victor Prieto »

Penn State will be sending 1-2 teams.
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Re: Early Fall at Youngstown State :: 8 Oct 2016

Post by MahoningQuizBowler »

Initial post updated with more specific lunch/dinner options.
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Re: Early Fall at Youngstown State :: 8 Oct 2016

Post by MahoningQuizBowler »

Post updated with information regarding payment. Checks are made payable to YSU Quiz Bowl.
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Re: Early Fall at Youngstown State :: 8 Oct 2016

Post by MahoningQuizBowler »

Post updated to confirm DeBartolo Hall as the venue. The rooms are the same as they were for the last SCT.

An email to the field will go out tomorrow.
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Re: Early Fall at Youngstown State :: 8 Oct 2016

Post by MahoningQuizBowler »

The email addressed to the team contacts as registered on the Google form has been sent.
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Re: Early Fall at Youngstown State :: 8 Oct 2016

Post by MahoningQuizBowler »

Stats are available. http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/3972/

We apologize for the long day for all the teams. All readers are going to have a chance to get more practice, both within the club and within the community (especially reading for the high school league in the area), and we will get better.

Thanks to everyone for coming out. Congratulations to Kenyon for winning, as well as Pitt and DCC for their joint runner-up finish. We agreed to end after round 11 due to the time, distance, and drives home for all involved.
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Re: Early Fall at Youngstown State :: 8 Oct 2016

Post by a bird »

Thanks to Greg and YSU for hosting. I know Greg is largely aware of the logistical issues, but I want to say a few things.

A tournament of this size just needs more experienced moderators to get through eleven rounds in a reasonable time. I recognize many were first time mods, and they did an admirable job considering that, but there were some serious issues. One moderator in particular had issues revealing answers after prompting and was often very difficult to understand. This delayed the tournament and made it harder to play well. (I think this actually impacted our, and probably some other team's performance in a few matches noticeably.) It was a little frustrating that we played some important matches (including in the playoff rounds) with this moderator; I recognize that many volunteer moderators will be inexperienced, but it would be great if potentially tournament deciding matches could get some of the more experienced mods whenever possible.

I hope the YSU moderators improve as Greg proposes, but I think it would be prudent to recruit more outside staff as well for tournaments in the near future.
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Re: Early Fall at Youngstown State :: 8 Oct 2016

Post by Ciorwrong »

a bird wrote:Thanks to Greg and YSU for hosting. I know Greg is largely aware of the logistical issues, but I want to say a few things.

A tournament of this size just needs more experienced moderators to get through eleven rounds in a reasonable time. I recognize many were first time mods, and they did an admirable job considering that, but there were some serious issues. One moderator in particular had issues revealing answers after prompting and was often very difficult to understand. This delayed the tournament and made it harder to play well. (I think this actually impacted our, and probably some other team's performance in a few matches noticeably.) It was a little frustrating that we played some important matches (including in the playoff rounds) with this moderator; I recognize that many volunteer moderators will be inexperienced, but it would be great if potentially tournament deciding matches could get some of the more experienced mods whenever possible.

I hope the YSU moderators improve as Greg proposes, but I think it would be prudent to recruit more outside staff as well for tournaments in the near future.
I would like to agree with everything Graham just said.

I obviously can't get into question specifics, but a moderator not prompting an answer I gave caused me to rhetorically ask something and then give the correct answer. That question was then thrown out and we lost that match against PSU A by 5 points. I wish another tossup had at least been read in that situation. What was even more strange about this situation was that a staffer told us that we had lost the game by 5 points and that the tossup was thrown out during our next game. I went to talk to this gentleman while the other team (I think CMU B) was hearing a bonus. It was an unfortunate situation and I feel for the staffer who had to tell us during a game because it wasn't his fault. It may have been avoided if protest and prompt procedure been clearly explained to moderators.

I also question the playing off of "circle of deaths" at this tournament. We started the playoffs at around 6 o'clock and we got back to East Lansing at 1 am after our opponent in the final round left early. Could ties within preliminary bracket simply been broken by PPG or PPB? This tournament was purely an invitational and there wasn't any hardware at stake to my knowledge. I understand running a tournament is logistically challenging, but I don't think hearing 11 rounds of quizbowl in approximately 12 hours (8:30 to 8) is ideal.

That all said, I can speak for the entire MSU team when saying that we are glad we made the treck to Youngstown to hear EFT. I learned a lot and got to hear a lot of players make some great buzzes.
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Re: Early Fall at Youngstown State :: 8 Oct 2016

Post by Silverman »

a bird wrote:This delayed the tournament and made it harder to play well. (I think this actually impacted our, and probably some other team's performance in a few matches noticeably.) It was a little frustrating that we played some important matches (including in the playoff rounds) with this moderator; I recognize that many volunteer moderators will be inexperienced, but it would be great if potentially tournament deciding matches could get some of the more experienced mods whenever possible.
I also agree with everything Graham said, but this in particular.

Like Michigan State, we had one round where a tossup was thrown out because the moderator accidentally revealed an answer (this time after a neg). I don't think it affected the game, but especially in a tournament with exactly 20 tossups per packet (which makes reading extras more complicated), that's a bad mistake to make.
Progcon wrote:I also question the playing off of "circle of deaths" at this tournament.
Same. Given that all teams in said circles were realistically out of title contention anyway, I think everyone would have been fine with points tiebreakers, especially since we didn't finish prelims until after 4:00.
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Re: Early Fall at Youngstown State :: 8 Oct 2016

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

There was a packet of tiebreakers available. Were those not used?
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Re: Early Fall at Youngstown State :: 8 Oct 2016

Post by Silverman »

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea wrote:packet of tiebreakers
I thought they were used to play off the circle of death, because all actual ties during games stood without being broken. I could be wrong, maybe we used a different packet for the circle.
Last edited by Silverman on Tue Oct 11, 2016 3:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Early Fall at Youngstown State :: 8 Oct 2016

Post by a bird »

The circle of death was played off on an actual packet (I don't know which one, but probably 12 or 13). I think Will is talking about the document with extra toss-ups and bonus for use as tie breakers/replacements.

I think the moderators weren't sure how/when to get a replacement toss-up and elected to only get a new toss-up if the outcome of the game could change, or something like that (this is what happened earlier in the day). They ended up getting a replacement toss-up when this happened later, so I guess this got sort of figured out, but it still slowed things down.
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