11 July 2021 - SuMO Trash: Accepting Witty Subtitle Proposals (in person, Greeneville TN)

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TusculumPearson
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11 July 2021 - SuMO Trash: Accepting Witty Subtitle Proposals (in person, Greeneville TN)

Post by TusculumPearson »

This is the formal announcement of and invitation of registrations for SuMO Trash: Accepting Witty Subtitle Proposals.

We’re pleased to return the mixed partnerships game to East Tennessee, on the campus of Tusculum University in Greeneville and return in-person quizbowl to the Mid-South. (We would say “to the South”, but Richards beat us to the punch with the Munson, advertised elsewhere outside thesehere boards.)

Details below, or you can just go ahead and bypass the details and sign your partnership up.
https://forms.gle/hSRruCh58NqAXUbq8

FORMAT
You register as a partnership of two, not as a team of four. On the morning of the tournament, you and your teammate will be paired with another partnership, roughly based on your experience and skill level. You will play the tournament with that other partnership, two partnerships paired as a four-player team. We do this to try to build the most evenly-paired field possible; we want every game to be as competitive as possible.

We’ll establish a schedule when it’s clear how many partnerships will register. We're unfortunately only planning to promise seven rounds before playoffs, because...

SET
SuMO VI is a mirror of Ohio Trash, the regularly awesome high school-level trash set from Bob Kilner and his compatriots on the Ohio circuit. Unfortunately, that's a limited-rounds set this year - hence our limitation on rounds. (That, and after a full weekend, we'll be tired.)

FEE
The registration fee is $40 per partnership. If at all possible, we need the registration fee in cash, because…

PRIZES
…SuMO remains a cash game, and the prizes for the top teams are cash. There’s roughly a 50/30/20 split of the tournament prize pool among the top three teams. Again, the final prize pool will be established when we get picture of the field.

The initial field cap is 20 partnerships. We can expand the field with additional readers and staff.



ACADEMIC
You know you want to prove your worth in the serious game before you goof off on Sunday. Find out more about SuMO VI: The Rise of Franklin.

COVID-19
CDC guidance or no CDC guidance, there is still concern about the pandemic, and you should be aware that Tusculum University is still under a ruleset associated with the reopening of the campus under COVID. While that ruleset might be formally relaxed before July, as of right now that ruleset still asks us to make sure everybody is masked and everybody signs a waiver as they come onto campus. The current edition of the “Pioneer Pathway” ruleset is at this website, and your’e most interested in Pages 14 and 15:
https://tuemail.s3.amazonaws.com/Tuscul ... l+2021.pdf

STAFF, BUZZERS
We benefit from the good quizbowl community in this region to help make this tournament work! We historically haven’t given a staff or buzzer discount for the tournament to keep the division of the funds clean, but we do want the best staff possible, and we’re hopeful that there are a fleet of you who have just missed reading or logistics-wrangling (like I have).
We’ve got a short registration for staffers to make sure you’re placed where you need to be <https://forms.gle/4P41ek3R4WZkgwGq7>.

CONTACT
All questions and concerns should be shuttled through the East Tennessee Quizbowl email address ([email protected]). Your tournament director, logistics director, stats-book wrangler and all-around nerd on the day will be Chuck Pearson.

REGISTER NOW
https://forms.gle/hSRruCh58NqAXUbq8

DISCLAIMERS
Some information is subject to change; if changes occur, they will be posted on this thread.

And, as always, in the words of the genial quizmaster, all decisions of the tournament director are arbitrary, capricious, and final.

Come join us as we reunite in Greeneville on July 11th.
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Chuck Pearson, Tusculum University, general purpose East TN/SWVA quiz flunky, [email protected].
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Re: 11 July 2021 - SuMO Trash: Accepting Witty Subtitle Proposals (in person, Greeneville TN)

Post by TusculumPearson »

Formally announced and underway. Register now!
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Chuck Pearson, Tusculum University, general purpose East TN/SWVA quiz flunky, [email protected].
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Re: 11 July 2021 - SuMO Trash: Accepting Witty Subtitle Proposals (in person, Greeneville TN)

Post by TusculumPearson »

Field update as of July 3. Still not too late!

Jason Russell/John Riddle
Noah Lyons/Ciarán Drinnon
Zach Knecht/Tracy Merkin
Chris Hale/Caleb Bales
Kallie Berry/Andrew Helton
Jonce Culbertson/Joey Simmons
Connor Teevens/Joe Nutter
William Barnes/Chris Wright
Steven Brown/Max Chewning
Sharath Narayan/Jonathan Caldwell
Dren Rollins/Jake Sundberg
Lee Holden/Madhav Kumar
Caitlin Dotson/Ethan Billips
Seth Kendall/Kevin Kendall
Sam Matson/David Branson
Anthony Delgado (fa)/Mark Morris (fa)
Oishee Shemontee/Nicholas Karas
Morgan Keen/Nat Sadler
Sydney Vaughn/Conor Ketron
Luke Quesenberry/Spencer Brown

Ramapriya Rangaraju is a free agent and is actively looking for a partner.
Last edited by TusculumPearson on Sat Jul 03, 2021 10:43 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Chuck Pearson, Tusculum University, general purpose East TN/SWVA quiz flunky, [email protected].
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Re: 11 July 2021 - SuMO Trash: Accepting Witty Subtitle Proposals (in person, Greeneville TN)

Post by TusculumPearson »

Bump for field update. We hit a brief soft cap on June 25th for want of staff. Staff has materialized and we're still growing. Thank your local staffer today.
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Chuck Pearson, Tusculum University, general purpose East TN/SWVA quiz flunky, [email protected].
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Re: 11 July 2021 - SuMO Trash: Accepting Witty Subtitle Proposals (in person, Greeneville TN)

Post by TusculumPearson »

Week-of updates for both days' worth of SuMO:

COVID-19
We have gotten word of an update to our local COVID-19 protocols, and they are mask-optional for vaccinated individuals. We still are asking unvaccinated individuals to be masked when they are indoors. The institution is also still asking all attendees to sign a waiver holding Tusculum University free from liability for individual participation in the events of the weekend. (We’ll share the text of the waiver as soon as possible.)

There is obvious nationwide concern over the Delta variant of the virus. The local virus dashboards, however, show limited transmission of the virus in East Tennessee, and low positivity rates. The risk is going to come largely from people traveling from afar and the presence of virus in their regions. Keep this in mind as you make your decisions for the weekend.

But also keep in mind that an in-person event ran in Commerce, Georgia two weekends ago, with no word of ill effects. This will be a larger event, but precedents are being established and we’re optimistic that we’ll have a positive weekend.

PARKING
On both tournament days, we expect the building to be open and available for us from 800 AM. Our mass meeting room will be Meen Center 007. Google Maps responds well to a mapping of 35 Shiloh Road, Greeneville for the location of the parking lot you should be aiming for to place yourself in the proximity of the Meen Center; you might fare well also searching for Pioneer Park, the baseball stadium next door to the Meen Center.

The Meen Center is surrounded by parking on the west and south sides. Signs will direct you to the primary ground floor entrance, although the secondary entrance will put you directly in 007.

SCHEDULE AND REGISTRATION
We will be registering teams between 815 and 900 AM, and we will plan for our general meeting and draft of teams at 900 AM, with first games at 930 AM. Please plan to be present by 900 AM. Please remember to bring cash to register; SuMO is a cash game, and prize money is more easily divided when we have funds in cash.

Current schedule models for SuMO Academic plan five rounds before lunch with lunch break roughly at 1200-1230 PM and ten rounds (not counting group tiebreakers if necessary) of gameplay overall. We have sufficient packets for a full advantaged final if one team doesn’t manage to clear the field by two games.

We expect a full schedule release and tournament structure by Thursday.

WELCOME
As the founders of East Tennessee Quiz Bowl, we have always believed that the sport of Quiz Bowl is all inclusive. We welcome competitors of all races, religions, sexual orientations, and gender identities. On July 1, 2021, a state law went into effect which directly targets members of the LGBTQ+ community, especially those who are Trans. 

The law requires businesses and government facilities open to the public to post a sign if they let transgender people use multi-person bathrooms, locker rooms or changing rooms associated with their gender identity. In our opinion, it is a gross violation of personal liberties and a massive overreach by a governmental body whose majority is determined to stigmatize a portion of society of which they have an irrational fear and hatred. 

We want to be unambiguous. Regardless of any penalties (ironically there are none), we will not support institutionalized hate. We want to know if anyone who attends our competitions feels that they are unwelcome or unwanted. Having both been raised Protestant, the founders of ETQB were always taught that, “...There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) 

All are welcome. We are one. We are East Tennessee Quiz Bowl.
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Chuck Pearson, Tusculum University, general purpose East TN/SWVA quiz flunky, [email protected].
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Re: 11 July 2021 - SuMO Trash: Accepting Witty Subtitle Proposals (in person, Greeneville TN)

Post by TusculumPearson »

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Chuck Pearson, Tusculum University, general purpose East TN/SWVA quiz flunky, [email protected].
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Re: 11 July 2021 - SuMO Trash: Accepting Witty Subtitle Proposals (in person, Greeneville TN)

Post by TusculumPearson »

Your congratulations and gratitude post from SuMO Trash:

Team 10 (Dren Rollins, Jake Sundberg, Sydney Vaughn, Connor Ketron) came back from a late group-phase loss and took two in a de-facto advantaged final against previously unbeaten Team 6 (Free Bird In Space; Connor Teevens, Joe Nutter, Luke Quesenberry, Spencer Brown) to emerge the winners of the tournament and take the top prize.

There was a three-way tie for third that was played off; Team 3 (Jonathan Caldwell, Sharath Narayan, Chris Walker, Ruth Jackson) emerged from that playoff "in the money."

Credit also to Team 9 (...From Outer Space; Jason Russell, John Riddle, William Barnes, and Chris Wright, paired together for the second day in a row); they may have just missed the prize, but they got the win over the eventual champs that threw the championship bracket into disarray. Team 8 (Ramapriya Rangaraju, Mark Morris, Jud Bailey, Rebecca Thomas) were the other team in the third-place circle of death.

Jonathan Caldwell was official top scorer from the group stages on 66 PPG, but I'm sure my fellow ETQB poobah Dren Rollins would want note made of his 105 PPG in the championship bracket, including a 10/3/0=180 point line in the first match back from lunch.

The stats book for the tournament should now be complete, save one minor error; contact me if there are any further issues.

In the music game (with thanks to Alex Tabor for his delivery of a quality product from Chicago), Ramapriya won the preliminary round, but Robin Richards won the buzzer-game finals going away in a fun end to the day.

Again: the tournament worked as well as it did because of an expert staff. We had Sarah Mauldin, Dylan Cox, Erskine Thompson, Robin Richards, Dargan Ware, Sarah Whisenhunt, Carey Wilson, and the ever-faithful Allison Keen, without whom I might not stay sane on tournament days. On both days of this weekend, staffers traveled from near and far to pitch in how they best could, and I can't express my appreciation nearly enough.

I had a ton of support from all over Tusculum to make the entire weekend work, from the dean level (my dean, Heather Henson-Ramsey, has been uncommonly supportive, and our Civic and Liberal Arts dean, Wayne Thomas, also sees the vision for this and things to come) through the PR and facilities level to the campus safety level (God bless the officer who came over just to unlock a door we accidentally locked). This won't be the last you hear or see from our campus.

And to the father of SuMO, Mitch Alday, I hope this little pop culture game we've added to your tournament concept makes the SuMO weekend more of an event, and keeps this going long into the future.

The next quizbowl tournament at Tusculum is the Tusculum Earlybird novice high school tournament on September 11th. Get your local high school to put that date on their calendar now. More info to come.

For now, in the words of Pete Abrams, "that's it; I'm going back to bed."
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Chuck Pearson, Tusculum University, general purpose East TN/SWVA quiz flunky, [email protected].
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