Possible Summer Novice Tournament at Irvine (6/21 or 6/28)

[cvdwightw]

UC Irvine is considering hosting a packet-submission tournament to take place on either June 21 or June 28. I, Dwight Wynne, will serve as head editor. The target difficulty would be similar to HSNCT, since the primary goals of this tournament would be to introduce high school players/graduating high school seniors to the college game and to develop packet writing skills among the younger players on the West Coast circuit. For college players who have never heard HSNCT questions, the target difficulty is slightly higher than ACF Fall and roughly comparable to something like EFT.

This tournament will be open to high school players, graduating high school seniors, and college players exiting their first or second academic year of competition. Team members need not all be affiliated with the same school. If there is sufficient interest and staff, a likely separate open division would be added.

A full announcement will come if and when we receive sufficient interest and decide on a date, but for now, if you are interested in a packet swap (preferred) or a mirror, please contact me at dpwynne at gmail dot com.

[stevengfeldman]

This sounds really cool ... hopefully you guys can get yourselves an East Coast mirror

[Mike Bentley]

I don't know how much overlap there would be, but we're hosting a Sun 'n Fun mirror and a trash tournament on the weekend of the 21st and hope to achieve at least a few out of town teams. California is way on the other side of the country, but teams like Chicago have expressed some interest in attending our tournaments and with their infinite budget maybe they're also interested in sending some novices to your tournament. So, although it may not end up mattering, I'd like to see that tournament happen on the 28th if it doesn't make a big difference to you guys.

And yeah, it would be cool if someone on the east coast mirrored this tournament. Hopefully we'd be able to get some of the many freshmen from our team that didn't get a chance to go to many tournaments during the year to such a tournament.

[Maxwell Sniffingwell]

...or in the Midwest. Or both. If Chicago mirrored such a tournament (or heck, Illinois or Notre Dame,) I would play solo.

[aestheteboy]

I will play/write a packet if east coast mirror occurs on a convenient date (like 6/14).

[ihavenoidea]

In case you didn't get my email Dwight, Rancho Bernardo is interested in coming to/writing for the tournament.

[cvdwightw]

Assuming we do have enough interest for a West Coast tournament (I'll try to talk to Stanford and UCLA at ACF Nats to see if there's a date they'd prefer), I'll probably have a distribution up sometime next Wednesday.

[The Atom Strikes!]

If there's an East Coast mirror, and it doesn't overlap with Sun'N'Fun, I would be willing to play/write a packet.

[Auroni]

Dwight, I would definitely be interested in writing for the tournament but I'm not sure if I can attend (I definitely won't with my team, but I may go with zhao and some other RB players if they are interested)

[ntan]

I'm pretty interested in this as well, but is it too late to be interested in writing/attending? if so what are the writing requirements?

[cvdwightw]

A full announcement (date, packet requirements, fees, etc.) will be up sometime late Tuesday night PST once I consult with the team about date and fee structure. It looks like we're shooting for June 28.

[Maxwell Sniffingwell]

eh...

[Mike Bentley]

A full announcement (date, packet requirements, fees, etc.) will be up sometime late Tuesday night PST once I consult with the team about date and fee structure. It looks like we're shooting for June 28.

Hey someone on the east coast please mirror this tournament.

[cvdwightw]

Zot Bowl I will take place on Saturday, June 28, on the campus of UC-Irvine. I, Dwight Wynne, will serve as head editor, and will be assisted by whatever Irvine people I can rope into helping.

ELIGIBILITY
We will be using modified CUT-style eligibility rules. High school players, graduating high school seniors, and college players with less than two competition years' experience are allowed to play on teams of up to four players. For the purposes of this tournament, a "competition year" begins with the traditional West Coast kickoff tournament of TWAIN at UCLA; mirror tournaments are encouraged to use their local EFT mirror to define the start of a competition year. Undergraduate players are allowed to play on teams of up to two players. For the purposes of this tournament, "Undergraduate" is defined as a player who began the competition year without a bachelor's degree. Graduate students and other players with bachelors' degrees are asked not to play; however, if there is sufficient demand, then we will open up a separate division for graduate/open play.

**NEW ELIGIBILITY EXCEPTION**
Coaches, parents, and other individuals who do not meet the eligibility rules for this tournament will be allowed to play on a team with otherwise high school players/graduating seniors provided a pre-existing relationship with at least one team member exists and I approve the exception.

This tournament is open to anyone who meets the eligibility rules, regardless of former/current/future school affiliation. So, a team of two high school seniors and two college sophomores would be an acceptable team.

FEES
Base fee: $80*
Buzzer discount: $10 (maximum of 2, unless we tell you we need more)
Competent moderator discount: $10

Packet in by 11:59 PM Pacific time on the following Fridays:
May 16: -$40
May 30: -$20
June 7: $0
June 14: +$20
After June 14: +$20 + $2/day, up to a maximum of +$40**
No packet: +$60****

New High School Packet Deadlines:
Since high schoolers in this area generally have no experience writing questions and we'd like to change that, a revised fee structure for teams designated "high school teams" has been developed:
May 16: -$40
May 30: -$20
June 7: -$10
June 14: $0
After June 14: +$1/day, up to a maximum of +$20***
No packet: +$20****

*This is the base fee for a standard four-person team. If you are trying to compete solo or as a two-person team, talk to me and we can try to work out a fair fee.
**This means that on top of the +$20 for a late packet I charge you an extra $2 for every day after June 14 that I check my email and don't find your packet.
***This means that I charge you $1 for every day after June 14 that I check my email and don't find your packet.
****If you have a compelling reason for not submitting a packet, let me know by June 7 and we can reduce or waive the no-packet fee.

PACKET REQUIREMENTS
Packets should be sent to me at dpwynne at gmail dot com. A good subject line would be "Packet Submission from (your team here)", and the file name for your packet should contain the name of your team. Packets should be sent in .doc format; if this is not possible then please send it in some other format readable by Microsoft Word. DO NOT send me a .docx file. If you can save your packet as a .docx then you can save it as a .doc and save me the hassle of converting it.

The first line of the packet should contain the name of the tournament (either Zot Bowl or whatever mirror you are attending). The second line of your packet should contain the name of your team as well as the authors of the packet.

We are enforcing a hard six-line cap for this tournament. This means that your tossups should not be longer than six lines in 10 point Times New Roman with one inch margins. Bonus parts should not be longer than two lines each.

PACKET DIFFICULTY
This is a novice tournament. The target difficulty is that of recent HSNCTs. For those of you unfamiliar with what this means, aim for a difficulty somewhere between ACF Fall and ACF Regionals but closer to Fall. For tossups, please ask about things that are not only important in the quizbowl world but also important in real life.

DISTRIBUTION
A total of 24/24, to be divided among the following categories:

4/4 Literature
1/1 American, 1/1 British, 1/1 Continental European, and 1/1 World is preferred. You are allowed to deviate from this subdistribution by a maximum of 1 question (e.g. you can have 3 British questions and only 1 World question, but not 0 Continental European questions). Please vary your tossup answer selection and bonus topics among works of prose, poetry, and drama, and their authors.

4/4 History
1/1 American, 1/1 European, 1/1 World/Ancient, 1/1 Your Choice. Please vary time periods and countries.

4/4 Science
1/1 Biology, 1/1 Chemistry, 1/1 Physics, 1/1 Minor Science. Minor science includes Astronomy, Earth Science, non-computational Mathematics, Computer Science, and Engineering. Please do not write on uninteresting things like VSEPR theory, oxidation states, keywords in computer languages, etc. Element questions are fine so long as they aren't a rehash of the physical and/or chemical properties of the element.

3/3 Fine Arts
Three of your six questions should be on the visual arts (painting, sculpture, architecture, mixed-media, photography, film) and three on auditory arts (classical music, music theory, opera, jazz). Please include at least one question each on painting and non-opera classical music.

2/2 Religion, Mythology, and Philosophy
At least one question each on mythology and philosophy. The remaining two questions can be additional mythology or philosophy, religion, or something like Hinduism/Indian myth or Shinto/Japanese myth that doesn't easily fit into one category.

1/1 Social Science
Choose two different disciplines from psychology, economics, sociology, anthropology, archaeology, or linguistics. Questions on Supreme Court cases do not belong here unless they specifically focus on the legal reasoning or implications of the case.

1/1 Geography
Your questions should come from two different continents and should not be about the same political or natural entity. Please make your questions on things that are actually relevant; this means don't write on stuff like the Caprivi Strip that has no value in either natural or human geography.

1/1 Current Events
One question should be about a recent (<1 year) political event. The second question can be on a social/economic/cultural/scientific current event, or a second political event from a different country.

2/2 Popular Culture
At least 1 question, but no more than 2, on each of Sports and Visual Pop Culture (movies, TV, video games, Internet phenomena). Music, food/drink, card/board games, and other staples of a standard pop culture distribution are also acceptable; meta questions are not.

2/2 Academic Your Choice
One question should either be multidisciplinary or on something like business or literary criticism that doesn't easily pigeonhole itself into one of these categories. The remaining three questions should come from two or more categories; additional Big Three and/or RMP is encouraged.

HALF PACKETS
We recognize that 24/24 has the potential to be a lot for high schoolers and some college novices. We are offering teams the option of writing half-packets. The discount for a half packet will be the average of the discount you would have gotten if you submitted a full packet instead and the no-packet penalty (no-packet penalty will be slightly reduced from the $60 for college teams, as we would prefer you send us some questions rather than none at all). If you later decide to submit the second half of your packet, the discount will be the average of the two discounts/penalties.

Half packets should include:
2/2 Literature
2/2 History
2/2 Science
1/1 Arts
1/1 Religion/Mythology/Philosopy
1/1 Pop Culture
3/3 Academic and Current Events (if you submit the second half of your packet, make sure this is the 3/3 you didn't write on earlier. 2/2 geography is unacceptable unless 1/1 of it is in your "Misc. Academic" section)

FREE AGENTS
Individuals who meet eligibility requirements and would like to play but do not have a team are encouraged to register as a free agent. We will then either place you on a pre-existing team that does not have a full complement of players or place you on a team with other free agents. Please contact me if you are interested in doing this so we can discuss a fair question writing amount and entrance fee.

MIRRORS
Mirror tournaments should be held on the same weekend if at all possible. Currently discussions are underway for a Midwest mirror to be held somewhere in Missouri. Prospective mirror sites in other parts of the country should contact me.

FREELANCE PACKETS
Freelance packets are welcome, so long as you notify me by June 7 of your intention to do so and actually get me the packet by June 14. Freelance writers will be rewarded with the entire packet set for your summer practice pleasure; for those who miss out, the tournament set will likely be sent to the various question archives later in the summer.

MISCELLANEOUS
Interest and registration for Zot Bowl should be sent to me as well for the time being. If there is something in this announcement that is unclear or confusing, or something that I have omitted, please let me know.

[Auroni]

dwight,

I was planning on writing a packet freelance by myself, but playing with zhao and others in the RB team (who will also submit a packet). Is that alright?

[Golran]

But then wouldn't that force your team to have 2 bye rounds? You can't play on the questions you wrote, and they can't play on the ones they wrote.

[Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)]

Yeah, that's a bad idea. Save your packet for ACF Fall or something.

[cvdwightw]

If your team ends up having 5 players, then that's fine, because you'd just sit out the packet you wrote and let the other 4 play. I don't anticipate that being the case, so I'd try to just divvy up the packet between yourself and the RB people so you both have less writing to do.

Just to clarify something: all college freshmen and sophomores (as of the 2007-2008 academic year) are eligible to play on teams of 4 regardless of high school experience or any college tournaments they may have attended as a high school student.

[ihavenoidea]

Auroni, you don't have to write a packet to play on our team just so you know.

Dwight, could he play on our team without having to write a packet?

[cvdwightw]

The packet authors and the actual team need not be the same people. However, it's a general rule that if you show up and you wrote part of a packet that you play with your co-authors.

[Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)]

I just wanted to check in here and give a heads up to people that this set looks like it has a very good chance of being mirrored in central Missouri in early July, and if any high schoolers or undergrad students in the midwest are interested in coming to start writing their packets and assembling teams. I will not be the TD for this event, but I just wanted to get that up here so people know to look out for it. The TD will be making a full announcement when it looks like things are more certain (hopefully pretty soon).

[Mechanical Beasts]

Hey someone on the east coast please mirror this tournament.

[Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)]

It sounds to me like Matt Weiner is doing just that.

[cvdwightw]

Please note the revised announcement's new eligibility exception, new packet fee schedule for high school teams, half-packet submission option, and free agents.

[Mechanical Beasts]

It sounds to me like Matt Weiner is doing just that.

Yeah, good point. I was forgetting that these are actually the same thing.

I probably should try to think occasionally.

[jhn31]

so is the Missouri mirror happening?

[cvdwightw]

To the best of my knowledge, I haven't heard anything specific from any of the Missouri people, although if someone other than Dees has sent me something and I haven't responded, please try again.

Current field update:
UCLA (+ most of a packet)
Rancho Bernardo (+ packet)
Caltech (+ packet)
UCI House

We're still looking for more teams to fill out the field, and more packets so that we don't have to write 7 packets ourselves like USC inevitably does.

[cvdwightw]

Assuming we have a UCI House team and that no one drops, we'll have enough teams to run some kind of format that doesn't suck. Also, please note that the no-penalty deadline for colleges (and the $10 discount deadline for high schoolers) is this Saturday. You should get me whatever questions you have finished by Saturday since I've been charging by (%completed*discount), i.e. if you get me half a packet by Saturday and the rest next Saturday your packet penalty will by $10 not $20.

[cvdwightw]

Can someone who knows what's going on with the Missouri mirror send me an email, preferably tomorrow, regarding exactly what the situation is over there? I haven't heard anything in about a month or seen an announcement on this board, and would like to know whether it's actually happening and if so how many packets I can reasonably expect from the site.

[Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)]

Like, I sent Matt emails ages ago telling him to contact the Rockbridge people, so I can't really comment. Unfortunately for me my school email account has been deactivated so I'm not sure if the Rock Bridge coach sent me anything since his last message.

[fleurdelivre]

Like, I sent Matt emails ages ago telling him to contact the Rockbridge people, so I can't really comment. Unfortunately for me my school email account has been deactivated so I'm not sure if the Rock Bridge coach sent me anything since his last message.

"his"? Is Marilyn Toalson not handling the academic team anymore? If you really want to work out a Midwestern mirror, I would try contacting mtoalson at columbia.k12.mo.us, though I'm still having a hard time believing this is going to work out somehow...

[Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)]

I think Greg Irwin, one of her assistants, was the one who responded to me with a very positive, helpful email.

[cvdwightw]

This is just a reminder to people who have promised me packets and haven't gotten them to me that you should get them in soon.

Also, we are looking for a 5th team so we can run a minimum 10-round 8-game tournament instead of something weird with 4 teams. Free agents welcome. Let me know and we can work out financial arrangements.

[cvdwightw]

The combined Rancho Bernardo/Torrey Pines team cleared the field by 4 games to win Zot Bowl I. Congratulations to Anurag, Auroni, Kevin and Zhao. Full stats will likely be available on our club website at some point this week.

Thank you to all teams and individuals who came to play for dealing with our rather unique situation and proving that you CAN run a 10 round tournament starting at 10 and ending before 5. And, while I'm sending out thanks, I'd like to single out the following individuals for their contributions:

Chris Chiego, for his freelance packet.
Seth Teitler, for providing last-minute questions, especially in physics.
Ted Gioia and Andy Watkins, for providing a packet even though their mirror site didn't require it.
Charlie Dees, Abdullah Schoaib, and Fred Morlan, for producing a packet even though the Missouri mirror has yet to be finalized.
UCI team members Ray Anderson, Jason Luna, Marcus Luna, Brendan Shapiro, and Jon Wong for helping write the house packets.
Most importantly, my co-editors, Ray Anderson and Ray Luo, for immeasurable editing help. There's no way I could have pulled off editing this set by myself.

Also, this is a reminder that the tournament will be played at VCU on August 17 and possibly at Truman State also on that date, so do not publicly discuss the questions. If there's something that you'd like to praise or criticize about the set, please do so via e-mail to me.

Objectively speaking, I probably overshot the difficulty level on the bonuses, given that 4 of our 5 teams averaged between 7 and 11 ppb. Though, a 75% tossup conversion rate despite a 30% neg rate(!) seems to imply that the tossups were probably at an okay difficulty level. I and my co-editors will be attempt to tone down some of the bonus difficulty, replace the few repeats that showed up, and edit some of the more heinously offensive tossups before sending it to the participating teams, the freelance writers, VCU and Truman State.