Sword Bowl: collegiate academic QB at UTC 1/27/07

[Your Genial Quizmaster]

As promised, the UTC Academic Trivia Association will host our 9th annual Sword Bowl on Sat., Jan. 27, 2007. This will be a one-day academic quizbowl tournament, held on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Here are the basics:
1) Sword Bowl is geared toward less experienced teams with relatively easy questions, though we will have a senior division.
2) Packet submission is optional with discounts for junior division teams, but is expected for all senior division teams.
3) Base fee is $100 per team, but discounts can be earned to bring that as low as $40.
4) If UTC is too far afield, there are mirror events the same day in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.

Full details follow below..

SCHEDULE: Registration will begin at 9 AM 1/27/07, with announcements and schedule adjustments at 9:45 and tournament play beginning at 10 AM. Tournament HQ will be Grote Hall on the UTC campus; see directions below. We hope to be into playoffs by 7:30 PM and finished by 8:30, but experience has taught us never to make any promises on when we finish.

REGISTRATION: Our only pre-registration requirements are that you tell us:
- How many teams to expect
- In which division each team will compete
- Whether or not each team plans to submit a packet
- How many buzzers and officials (if any) you expect to bring
Please mail this information to utcquizbowl [at] gmail [dot] com. Also, if your team includes players with disabilities or access issues, it will simplify things if you let us know in advance. That way we can take it into account when scheduling (building changes, etc.)

Payment, rosters, etc., can be handled on the day of the tournament. Payment is expected on tournament day unless arranged otherwise in advance. If you need an invoice or other official paperwork in advance, let us know and we'll be happy to oblige.

MIRROR EVENTS: Sword Bowl will be mirrored on the same day at the following sites:
Drake University
University of Oklahoma
University of Louisiana-Lafayette
Details of their respective events will be announced separately. We are also seeking hosts for mirror events on the West Coast and in the Northeast. Please contact us at utcquizbowl [at] gmail [dot] com if interested.

ELIGIBILITY: Teams may be composed of up to four current students from the same college or university; alternates are allowed, with substitutions between matches only. Schools may bring more than one team. The main division will be "junior bird," or what we usually call Division II. To avoid confusion, we'll call it the junior division below. To be eligible for the junior division, a team must be composed entirely of players must be in their first or second year of intercollegiate play. Players for two-year community colleges are allowed a third year of eligibility. [Note: experience in CBCI or HCASC does not count against the eligibility requirement.] Teams with players having more than two years' intercollegiate experience will compete in the senior division.

FEES: As noted above, junior division teams are not required to submit a packet, but we do encourage it and offer big financial incentives for doing so. Senior division teams are expected to submit a packet, with financial penalties if they don't. Packets must be unique to each *team*, and blind to all other teams, with one exception. If a school has teams in each division and those teams wish to collaborate on one packet, they may do so, provided that (a) only one team in each division is involved and (b) the packets are clearly labeled to make sure we schedule accordingly. Those joint submissions and any discounts/penalties will apply toward the senior division requirement only.

Teams can earn further substantial discounts by writing rounds of high school and/or trash questions for UTC's future use.

Base fee: $100 per team
Minimum fee: $40

Packet discounts:
[Note that junior (or senior) division packet refers to the team submitting it. The same packets will be used for both divisions, written to the same specifications below.]
-$30 for packet received by midnight Sun., Jan. 7, 2007 (regardless of team's division)
-$15 for junior division packet received after 1/7/07, but by midnight Mon., Jan. 15, 2007
Senior division teams are expected to submit a packet, with no discount or penalty if received by midnight Mon., Jan. 15, 2007.
-$15 for each original high school academic packet submitted by midnight Thurs., Jan. 25, 2007 [see note in specs below]
-$15 for each original trash packet submitted by midnight Thurs., Jan. 25, 2007 [e-mail us for specs if needed]

Other discounts:
-$5 for working lockout buzzer system (one discount per team unless we're short of buzzers)
-$10 for competent full-time official [plus dinner at Provino's Sat. night if you can join us]
-$30 for teams making their first appearance at UTC

Packet penalties:
+$15 for senior division packet submitted after 1/15/07, but by midnight Sun., Jan. 21, 2007 -- allowed only if we are notified by 1/15 so we know how to plan
+$40 for senior division team submitting no packet
+$60 for clear evidence of plagiarism

PACKET SPECIFICATIONS:

DESTINATION: Your genial quizmaster Charlie Steinhice will serve as editor-in-chief, with assistance from our mirror event partners. Since UTC hopes to field a house team, please send packets to steinhice [at] gmail [dot] com, rather than the UTC team e-mail address listed above for registration.

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: While we have opened a senior division, ***Sword Bowl is still aimed at the junior bird level.*** This means we intend to have easier questions than the current circuit standard for four-year schools. While not beginning with giveaway clues, most tossups should be answerable by most teams by the end of the question. Bonuses should be such that a novice team stands a good chance of getting at least 10 pts., a good team 20, and the best teams all 30 pts. If you’re just dying to ask something that’s pretty obscure, at least confine it to one bonus part. Anyone who would like sample questions, please let me know and I'll e-mail you some.

EXCLUSIVITY: We can't stress this enough: Packets must be unique to each *team*, and blind to all other teams including the others from your school. The only exception: If a school has teams in each division and those teams wish to collaborate on one packet, they may do so, provided that (a) only one team in each division is involved and (b) the packets are clearly labeled to make sure we schedule accordingly. Those joint submissions and any discounts/penalties will apply toward the senior division requirement only. Since we have multiple mirrors scheduled, questions must be original and blind to teams elsewhere in the country. Please do not play-test them online in advance.

FORMAT:
-- Please arrange questions separately by category. If you want to make life easier for us, separate tossups and bonuses, and use the order of categories below.
-- Please e-mail the packet as either an MS Word or RTF file, with the essential parts of the answer in bold and underlined.
-- Make sure the words “for ten pointsâ€

[Your Genial Quizmaster]

As you probably know, UTC is hosting Sword Bowl on Sat. 1/27/07. Below is the field as I have it. Teams marked (*) have submitted their packets. You'll notice that there are almost no asterisks. In order to make this a quality tournament, I need time to edit the questions, so PLEASE get your packets to me as soon as possible.

We still have room to add teams, in both divisions. Right now, not counting Florida and with several of the usual suspects yet to be heard from, we expect a field of 14 teams, with five teams in Division I and nine in Division II:

Bevill State 1 (Div II)
Furman 1 (Div I)
*Georgetown College 1 (Div II)
Georgia Tech 1 (Div II)
Kentucky 2 (both Div I)
Knoxville College 1 (Div II)
Louisville 1 (Div II)
Mississippi State 2 (both Div II)
North Greenville College 1 (Div II)
UTC 1 (Div. I)
*Vanderbilt 1 (Div I)
Wofford 1 (Div II)
Florida (# of teams & divisions unknown)

If I'm missing anything, please let us know (utcquizbowl [at] gmail [dot]com). Thanks.

[Bender Bending Fernandez]

Has info about the University of Louisiana-Lafayette mirror been posted anywhere yet?

Will there be a trash tournament following SB or any of the mirrors?

[Your Genial Quizmaster]

If I understand correctly, Matt Hayes of ULL (who was slated to run the mirror) is not in school this semester after all, and while I never got a final confirmation, I'm assuming the ULL mirror is off.

As for trash tournaments, we aren't having one at UTC; I can't speak to the issue for Oklahoma or Drake. Barring any major surprises, we don't plan any more trash tournaments at UTC till the RC Cola in late April.[/quote]

[Your Genial Quizmaster]

We can still accommodate a few more teams for Sword Bowl at UT-Chattanooga this coming Saturday (1/27/07), so e-mail us ASAP at utcquizbowl [at] gmail [dot] com if you're interested.

Here's the field of 16 teams as we have it:

Athens City-State 1 (Div. II)
Bevill State 1 (Div II)
Furman 1 (Div I)
Georgetown College 1 (Div II)
Georgia Tech 1 (Div II)
Kentucky 2 (both Div I)
Knoxville College 1 (Div II)
Louisville 1 (Div II)
Mississippi 1 (Div. II)
Mississippi State 2 (both Div II)
North Greenville College 1 (Div II)
UTC 1 (Div. I)
*Vanderbilt 1 (Div I)
Wofford 1 (Div II)

[Strongside]

There will NOT be a Trash Tournament following the Sword Bowl Mirror at Drake.

[Kilby]

Quick Results:

In the main division, Georgetown College swept the field to win this year's edition of Sword Bowl. Second went to Athens State, third went to Furman B, and fourth to Louisville. Nathan James of Furman B was the Main Division MVP.

In the senior division, Vanderbilt swept the field to take first place. Kentucky A took second, Kentucky B came in third, and UTC finished fourth. Seth Kendall of Kentucky A was the Senior Division MVP.

I would assume full details and stats are to follow soon.

[Your Genial Quizmaster]

Congratulations to Georgetown College and Vanderbilt, winners
respectively of the main and senior divisions of Sword Bowl 2007,
held at UT-Chattanooga on Sat. 1/27/07. Full results and stats
follow, but first these words...

The Sword Bowl set only came together thanks to many contributors.
Special thanks go to the folks at Oklahoma. Jeremy Hixson, Emily
Duda, and Jessica Sagona provided about 1/4 of the questions --
almost as much as the actual Sword Bowl teams combined -- and
provided substantial and valuable editing assistance. Quentin Roper,
Stephen Wise, et al. at Drake also contributed multiple rounds.
Jonathan Magin and Casey Retterer of Maryland were also kind enough
to swap three of their Terrapin Invitational rounds with us. Thanks go to freelance contributors Carol Guthrie and Scotti Whitmire (Tennessee), Travis Vitello (Florida), Ray Luo et al. (joint effort from UCLA and Cal-Berkeley), and Jeremy Rasmussen et al. (South Florida).

(Which reminds me: the Sword Bowl set is available for sale or trade -
- e-mail us at utcquizbowl [at] gmail [dot] com.)

Thanks also go to our tournament staff: full-time moderators David
Amis, Glenn Allen Bobo, John Kilby, Eileen Steinhice, Toni Van
Winkle, and James Washick; the stats tag-team of Nikki Poarch, Ruth
Jackson, and Eileen Steinhice; and pinch-hit helpers Mark Byrnes,
Shannon Edmondson, Dren Rollins, and guest readers from the Senior
Division bye teams.

Also, welcome to Knoxville College and Ole Miss, each making their
first appearance at a UTC tournament.

RESULTS: The main division played a full round robin, producing a
clear winner without going to a playoff:

MAIN DIVISION ("junior bird")
Georgetown Coll. 11 - 0 3015 985 184.55
Athens State 10 - 1 2835 960 170.45
Furman B 8 - 3 2450 1245 109.55
Louisville 7 - 4 1860 1770 8.18
Miss. State A 6 - 5 1755 1490 24.09
Ole Miss 6 - 5 1540 1645 -9.55
North Greenville 5 - 6 1090 1775 -62.27
Georgia Tech 5 - 6 1130 1605 -43.18
Miss. State B 4 - 7 1135 1620 -44.09
Wofford 3 - 8 1120 1855 -66.82
Bevill State 1 - 10 700 1730 -93.64
Knoxville Coll. 0 - 11 285 2235 -177.27

The senior division played a double round robin, also producing a
clear winner outright:

SENIOR DIVISION
Team Name W-L Points Opp Pts Diff/GM
Vanderbilt 8 - 0 2970 870 262.5
Kentucky A 6 - 2 2240 1420 102.5
Kentucky B 4 - 4 1305 1940 -79.38
UTC 2 - 7* 1415 2255 -93.33
Furman A 1 - 8* 1050 2495 -160.56
* UTC def. Furman A in a one-game playoff for the 4th place trophy.

Individual stats were:

Player Team 10 -5 Rounds PPG
Seth Kendall Kentucky A 85 9 8 100.63
Paul Gauthier Vanderbilt 61 12 8 68.75
Nathan James Furman B 63 3 11 55.91
Eric Blair Georgetown Coll. 63 13 11 51.36
Chris Pace Athens State 63 19 11 48.64
Amar Shah Louisville 55 11 11 45.00
Jacob Vannucci UTC 34 5 8 39.38
Taylor Kulp Georgia Tech 51 21 11 36.82
Ryan Taber Kentucky B 31 7 8 34.38
Kivin Childers Athens State 34 1 11 30.45
Tony McCall Vanderbilt 25 2 8 30.00
Mike Larey Ole Miss 35 6 11 29.09
Michael Craft North Greenville 32 5 11 26.82
James Layman Furman B 29 3 11 25.00
Braden Blankenship Georgetown Coll. 28 7 11 22.27
Dave Munn Mississippi State B 25 2 11 21.82
Manan Gupta Wofford 28 10 11 20.91
Ruth Sills Furman A 20 7 8 20.63
Gerald Patton Kentucky B 19 5 8 20.63
Harry Nelson Mississippi State A 24 6 11 19.09
Paul Kimbrough Mississippi State A 27 16 10 19.00
Colleen McCormick Furman A 15 0 8 18.75
Daniel Turk Mississippi State B 20 7 11 15.00
Drew Wilkerson Ole Miss 18 3 11 15.00
William Werner Vanderbilt 9 2 6 13.33
David "Thunder" Mayo Louisville 18 7 11 13.18
Ruth Jackson UTC 11 1 8 13.13
Nathan Rhodes Mississippi State B 15 2 11 12.73
Jon Hufford Wofford 15 2 11 12.73
Tyler Frailie Georgetown Coll. 14 4 11 10.91
Michael Thompson Knoxville Coll. 14 7 10 10.50
Mason Portzer Bevill State 13 5 10 10.50
Brett Aaron Bevill State 20 17 11 10.45
Peter Lance North Greenville 6 2 5 10.00
Xan Henderson Furman B 11 0 11 10.00
Josh Moore Georgia Tech 15 9 11 9.55
Ryan Causey Mississippi State A 12 3 11 9.55
Matt Stephenson Ole Miss 12 3 11 9.55
Katie Widener Louisville 11 1 11 9.55
Stacy Long Georgetown Coll. 12 4 11 9.09
William Hendrix Furman A 9 4 8 8.75
Tavish Kelly Mississippi State A 13 7 11 8.64
Shay Ellison Wofford 10 1 11 8.64
Hunter Wight Kentucky B 8 3 8 8.13
Ashley Rousselle UTC 7 1 8 8.13
Jonathan Mitchell Bevill State 3 0 5 6.00
Tyler Ritchie Vanderbilt 3 0 5 6.00
Josh Clanton Athens State 9 6 11 5.45
Harvin Bedenbaugh North Greenville 3 0 6 5.00
Corey Landers Bevill State 2 1 4 3.75
Dickie Wright Mississippi State B 4 1 11 3.18
Tonami Playman Knoxville Coll. 6 7 10 2.50
Brandon Moon Bevill State 4 3 10 2.50
Ryanne Childers North Greenville 1 0 5 2.00
Max Altman Vanderbilt 1 0 5 2.00
Coslough Harrison Knoxville Coll. 4 4 10 2.00
John Darnell Ole Miss 2 0 11 1.82
Haley Gambrell North Greenville 1 0 6 1.67
Lizz Clanton Athens State 0 0 11 0.00
Daryl Phelps Bevill State 0 0 4 0.00
Amy Meadows Kentucky B 0 0 8 0.00
Samantha Steele Knoxville Coll. 0 0 9 0.00
Zac Deverling North Greenville 0 0 11 0.00
Ben Quick Wofford 0 0 11 0.00
Charetta Jones Knoxville Coll. 0 3 5 -3.00