VCU Season Finale Tournament II: 05/03/08 (Richmond, VA)

[Matt Weiner]

This is the general announcement for the second incarnation of the VCU Season Finale Tournament, a high school academic quizbowl tournament to be held at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond on Saturday, May 3 from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM.

This tournament will be affiliated with the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence, a national quizbowl organization which will provide the questions. This will be the last opportunity to qualify for the National Scholastics Championship, which is run by PACE and will occur at George Mason University on May 31 & June 1. The tournament is, however, open to everyone--teams who are not interested in attending nationals, and teams who have already qualified for nationals, are welcome to participate alongside those schools attempting to qualify. Questions will be of an appropriate difficulty level to provide an entertaining experience for all teams in attendance. All schools who participate in the tournament will receive a copy of the questions by e-mail, for no additional charge, after the event.

LOCATION, DIRECTIONS, PARKING: The tournament will take place on our Monroe Park campus (aka "Academic Campus"). The specific building will be announced shortly. Registration will begin at 8:30, and the first round will begin as soon as possible after that. Please arrive by 8:30 to guarantee that you do not miss the start of gameplay.

-You can use "900 Park Ave, Richmond VA" if you need to put something into your map software of choice. I will have more specific directions once the building is known.

-On most Saturdays, parking on the street is free and available in most places around the campus. I will include alternate parking instructions to use if there is a major event going on during the tournament, once I know the building.

FORMAT: We anticipate a field of between 24 and 32 teams. 32 is the limit on the field size for the moment. The ideal tournament format will involve seven bracketed preliminary games and three to four rounds of crossover playoffs, followed by a final. The specific format depends on the exact number of teams who register. However, any format used will guarantee all teams the opportunity to play a minimum of seven games. Rounds will proceed from shortly after 8:30 until the end of the tournament at about 3:30, and there will be a 60-minute lunch break midway through the day.

REGISTRATION AND FEES:
-The fee structure is as follows:
Base fee: $60 per team (i.e., $60 if you are bringing one team, $120 if you are bringing two teams, $180 if you are bringing three teams). Right now, there is no limit to the number of teams who can attend from one school.
Buzzer discount: $5 off school's total fee for each fully functional system (control box and eight activators all work)--no limit to # of systems you can bring
Staff discount: $15 off school's total fee. This could be a coach, parent, student who is not playing, etc. Team-provided staffers will keep score for various games not involving the team with which they are affiliated. Volunteer staffers must stay through all the preliminary games in order to receive credit for their school. There is no limit to the number of staffers you can bring.
Minimum fee: The minimum fee is $0 (you can bring enough buzzers and staffers to eliminate your entire fee via discounts, but you cannot have a "negative fee.")
-The registration deadline is April 25 or whenever the field cap is hit, whichever comes first.
-To register, post in this thread or mail me at weinerm @ vcu dot edu with the number of teams, buzzers, and staffers you want to bring, and an email address where you can be contacted with details. Feel free to forward this announcement to any schools that you think would be interested in attending. There will be a snail mail version of this announcement going out later this week, but follow-up communication will be via email only.

METHOD OF PAYMENT: To pay your registration fees for this tournament, please bring either cash, or a check (institutional or personal) made out to Andrew Alexander, who is the Quizbowl at VCU treasurer. Do not bring checks made out to Matt Weiner, to VCU, to "quizbowl," etc. We cannot use them and you may be asked to pay out of pocket if you bring an unusable check. We strongly prefer not to deal with purchase orders, but if your school absolutely requires it, then you need to send us the paperwork no later than April 1 so that we can get it back in time for you to have a check written before the tournament. Contact me for details if you need to physically mail something to me or to Andrew.

DELINQUENT PAYMENT: Teams who still owe us money from last year's tournament will need to mail a check by April 15 for the total amount owed, PLUS this year's entry fee, if they are to participate. Contact me for details if this applies to you. Other teams who do not pay on the morning of the tournament will be charged a $25 penalty and will have two weeks to pay their total amount before we start mailing letters to your school about it.

TEAM & ROSTER SIZE: There may be a maximum of six players on one team's roster, though only four may play at one time. There are two substitution opportunities in each game.
-Each player may appear on only one team's roster throughout the day--no switching from the B team to the A team, etc.
-Teams may also play shorthanded with only three players. Teams consisting of one or two players may not play without my express prior permission.

FOOD: Neither breakfast nor lunch will be provided by the tournament. There are several eateries within walking distance of campus buildings and a vast cornucopia within a ten minutes' drive; maps and suggestions will be provided at the tournament.

Post here or mail me if you have any further questions. I'm looking forward to seeing a wide variety of teams from Virginia and surrounding states on May 3.

Matt Weiner
Tournament Director, VCU Season Finale Tournament
[email protected]

Final field as of 5/1:

Auburn
Cosby
Dorman A
Dorman B
Gonzaga
Howard
King's Fork A
King's Fork B
Madison County
Maggie Walker A
Maggie Walker B
Thomas Jefferson A
Thomas Jefferson B
Thomas Jefferson C

[aprilspratley]

I would like to bring two teams. My school is King's Fork High School, Suffolk.

April Spratley

[ClemsonQB]

What is the field?

[mithokie]

Auburn High School will bring 1 team and 2 buzzers if there is still room.

[The Goffman Prophecies]

Hopefully this won't affect anybody coming from out of town, but it is worth noting that this coming Saturday is also the same date as the Spring NASCAR race in Richmond. The track is to the north and east of the city proper, so most of the traffic will be congregated in that area - but traffic may be a bit heavier than normal.

[Blackboard Monitor Vimes]

I know this is PACE affiliated, but will it be PACE format like last year?

[minor_character]

I know this is PACE affiliated, but will it be PACE format like last year?

Modified PACE format

8/8 Related Tossup/Bonus (20 point bonus)
6/6 Category Quiz (15 point bonus)
8/8 Stretch Phase (30 point bonus with powers)

[Howard]

Has a specific building/meeting place been selected?

[minor_character]

Has a specific building/meeting place been selected?

Sorry about not providing the tournament building sooner. We're still working things out with the room reservation people, but right now it's looking like the tournament will be held in Hibbs Hall on the Monroe Park Campus.

http://www.vcu.edu/maps/acmap/hibbs/hibbs.htm

Hopefully, when everything is finalized, Matt will send out an email to everyone that is attending.

[Matt Weiner]

Hey everyone: After much wrangling, we have finally been cleared to host the tournament in Hibbs. Here are the directions from last year's announcement. We will be starting in room 403 at 8:30:

LOCATION, DIRECTIONS, PARKING: The entire tournament will take place in the Hibbs Building on our Monroe Park campus (aka "Academic Campus"). Please meet in room 403 of Hibbs no later than 8:30 in order to register. Games may begin anytime after 8:30 so please do not be late.
-The nominal address of the building is "900 Park Ave, Richmond VA" if you need to put something into your map software of choice, but be aware that Hibbs does not actually face the street, so you will have to park and then walk to the area where the building is in order to find it. I suggest printing out the appropriate campus maps and bringing them along--note that Hibbs is directly across from the Cabell Library, which will probably be easier for you to find if you have not been to the VCU campus before.
-On Saturdays, parking on the street is free and available in most places around the campus. Each of the various VCU decal lots may be closed, decal-only, or free to all on Saturday; check the sign for an individual lot before parking in it. If for some reason you cannot find parking on the street or in a free-on-weekends lot, then there are several parking decks around campus, many of which are open on Saturdays and will charge you somewhere between $0 and $5 to park all day.

The update for teams and staff will go out now by e-mail.

[wowitsquinthaha]

Harold, Kumar, and Neil Patrick Harris will be attending this tournament.

[wowitsquinthaha]

Well, I dont think that the final is even over yet, but Dorman A went undefeated to play TJ A (1 loss) in an advantaged final. Gonzaga was 3rd, Maggie A was 4th. Dorman B and TJ B were 5th and 6th. Maggie Walker B (Quint and Cameron A) was 1st in the Consolation bracket.

Dan was the top prelim scorer with like 140ppg or something ridiculous like that.

[Matt Weiner]

Dorman won the first game of the final 480-190 to take the title. Stats are coming later tonight.

[Matt Weiner]

Team records + points and individual stats for prelims: http://www.hsquizbowl.org/sft2/sft2_pre ... dings.html

Same thing for crossover playoffs (with 1-2 games per team from the prelims counted again due to playoff format): http://www.hsquizbowl.org/sft2/sft2_pla ... dings.html

I'll have bonus conversion stats done soon.

[closesesame]

Congrats to Dorman! Wish I could have been there, but alas, I had to take the SAT. It's good to see that my good pal Harry White made for a worthy substitute.

[Matt Weiner]

Here are the bonus stats.



Earned = points scored on bonuses after own tossups
Earned Available = points possible on bonuses after own tossups
Steals = points scored on bonuses after opponents' tossups
Steals Available = points possible on bonuses after opponents' tossups (ie, bonus points not answered by other team on their tossups)
Earn Pct = percentage of "earned available" points converted
Earn Pct * 30 = the above number multiplied by 30, for comparison to ACF and NAQT format bonuses
Steal Pct = percentage of "steals available" points converted
Steal Pct * 30 = the above number multiplied by 30, for comparison to ACF and NAQT format bonuses

[wowitsquinthaha]

Whoa, what is up with the playoff stats?

[Gonzagapuma1]

I thought this was a very good set, with good, nats level stuff.

[Whiter Hydra]

Whoa, what is up with the playoff stats?

I assume it's the total record against teams in the playoff bracket.

[wowitsquinthaha]

yeah but we only played 2 games and thats totally not the number of tossups I got haha

[Matt Weiner]

Prelim games against other teams that made your same playoff bracket were counted again to create your final standing within the playoff bracket.

[jbarnes112358]

Congratulations to Matt Weiner, et al for another quality VCU tournament...an excellent warm up for PACE NSC. Like TJ, the date kept many of our players from attending. But, the young team we brought did an awesome job. I doubt our usual A team could have done any better. The upset of Dorman B was a quality win, and the narrow losses to TJ A and Gonzaga (by 5 points and 10 points, respectively) certainly could be classified as moral victories. I thought the questions played into our young team's strengths. There were a few repeats. But, for the most part the questions were well-written, and at an appropriate level for the NSC bound teams in attendance.

Congratulations to Dorman A who won this tournament in convincing manner.