VCU Fall Tournament XI (Richmond, VA - October 29, 2022)

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Matt Weiner
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VCU Fall Tournament XI (Richmond, VA - October 29, 2022)

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This is the general announcement for the 2022 Virginia Commonwealth University Fall Tournament, which is a high school academic quizbowl tournament to be hosted at VCU in Richmond, Virginia, on Saturday, October 29, 2022. The tournament will begin at 8:30 AM and aims to conclude for all participants except teams involved in the championship finals game by 4:30 PM. See the end of this announcement for information about covid safety.

The registration link is here. Please read the entire announcement before registering.

Location
The tournament will take place in Grace E. Harris Hall, which is located at the intersection of Main Street and Harrison Street, in Richmond, Virginia. For GPS use, the address of the building is 900 W Main St, Richmond VA. The initial team meeting room will be room 2115.

A campus map is accessible here. Parking information is near the bottom of this announcement.

Questions:
This tournament will use the IQBT #1 question set. Teams that have played IQBT #1 at other tournaments are not eligible. Any person who has encountered the content of the IQBT #1 set, in any context including as a player or staffer at another tournament, is not eligible to play and is expected to disclose the fact that they have knowledge of set content if they are in touch with teams playing this tournament, e.g. as a coach or peer in a quizbowl club.

The question set will be of comparable difficulty to the Regionals level of VHSL Scholastic Bowl. The general style and subject distribution of the questions will be similar to Scholastic Bowl. The game format will be tossup/bonus, rather than Scholastic Bowl style, as described below.

This publicly available set, while not directly affiliated with VCU or our question provider, is a good approximation of what to expect in terms of the style and difficulty of the questions we will be using: https://quizbowlpackets.com/2512/

Format:
This tournament will use the tossup/bonus format. A round will consist of 20 tossups with correct tossup answers earning a team a bonus in which it can earn up to 30 additional points, broken into three parts each worth 10 points. There will be no math calculation tossups or bonuses; this does not preclude tossups or bonuses on mathematical concepts. Specific scenarios will be handled according to the ACF rules. All teams will be offered a minimum of 8 games, and we hope to increase that number once the final field size is determined. Trophies will be awarded to the top teams, and book prizes will be awarded to the top individual scorers.

Eligibility:
This tournament is for teams of eligible players representing a single high school. Other than those schools which are disqualified due to exposure to the question set, all public, private, religious, magnet, charter, etc. schools are eligible regardless of experience level or location. Eligibility to participate for a given school will generally reflect the practices of national quizbowl organizations such as PACE and NAQT. For homeschool co-ops and collectives, VCU's high school tournaments will follow the eligibility guidelines published by NAQT here. If you believe that you should be granted an eligibility exception, please contact us at [email protected].

"Playing up" policy: Students below the 9th grade may play for high school teams under the following circumstances:
*If their school, including a homeschool collective that is otherwise eligible, includes those grades (i.e., any student at a K-12 or 6-12 school is eligible to play for the high school team)
OR
*If they are attending a public, non-magnet middle school which feeds into a public, non-magnet high school and they are playing for the high school that they are zoned for

*Students who are not yet enrolled in 9th grade cannot "play up" for magnet programs outside of their geographically zoned high school, nor for private high schools that begin at grade 9. The fact that someone has been "accepted to" or "plans to attend" a school has no bearing on eligibility.

Whether to allow participation from younger students who are eligible under the above rule is entirely at the discretion of the high school's policies and the quizbowl coach's decisions - students should not expect that all high school teams offer this option.

Affiliation:
This tournament will be submitted to the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence for appropriate certification and may be a qualification opportunity for the 2023 National Scholastics Championship, which will occur in June 2023 at a date and location to be announced. More information will be available at this link.

Registration & fees:
base fee: +$80 per team to your school's total fee.

buzzer discount: -$5 to your school's total fee for each fully functional system (fully functional = the control unit and at least 8 activators including the lights all work and any necessary power cords or other items needed to actually use the system for a normal quizbowl game are present). There is no limit to the number of systems you can bring.
staff discount: -$10 to your school's total fee. This can be a coach, parent, student, or other person who is not playing. Team-provided staffers will most likely keep score for various games, but if you are capable of performing another role such as reading or statskeeping, let us know. Volunteer staffers must stay through all the games (excepting finals) 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 fee, but you cannot have a negative fee.

To register for this tournament, fill out this form. Once you have submitted the form, there is no further action needed on your part in order to be officially registered. There will be periodic updates in this thread and by e-mail indicating who has registered, which will serve as confirmation that we have received your registration. Posts made in this thread will not be regarded as official registrations. If you need to modify your information after initially registering, then contact [email protected] - please don't fill out the form multiple times for the same school.

Please feel welcome to share this announcement with any schools that you think would be interested in attending!

Field size

There is an initial 24-team cap on field size at this tournament. There is no limit on the number of teams which may register from the same school. We hope to split this tournament into at least two experience-based divisions, and will have further information on this once we see who has registered. If there is interest from more than 24 teams then we will seek to expand the field size as we confirm staffers for the tournament.

Method of payment:
All teams must pay by the day of the tournament. We encourage either using electronic payment or mailing payment in advance, though day-of payment will also be accepted on site. Teams who do not pay by the day of the tournament will be charged a $25 penalty and will have two weeks to pay their total amount.

Venmo and Zelle information, as well as a mailing address for checks, will be shared with all registrants. In addition to the electronic payment methods, we can also accept checks in person or run physical credit/debit cards via Square at the tournament itself.

All checks must be made out to "Quizbowl at VCU". If you require an invoice or W-9 form in order to have a check cut, you must let us know by October 12, so that we can send you the paperwork in time. If you do not let us know about this requirement by October 12, and it causes you to come to the tournament without your payment, then you will be subject to the $25 late payment penalty.

Team & roster size:
There may be a maximum of six players on one team's roster, up to four of whom may play at one time. There will be no exceptions to this rule. If you bring more than six players, you must register a second team to have all of them play. There is a half-time substitution opportunity in each game. Each player may appear on only one team's roster throughout the day; there is no switching from the B team to the A team, etc. Teams may play shorthanded, with fewer than four players.

Code of conduct and chaperone policy:

All participants in the tournament are expected to be familiar with the code of conduct designed to provide a safe and inclusive environment at Quizbowl at VCU events.

All schools participating in this event are expected to have at least one coach or other designated adult (such as the parent of a team member) who is present for the duration of the tournament and actively takes responsibility for the conduct of the school's players. One coach may suffice for multiple teams from the same school. This is our club's policy for events involving high school students and exists alongside and independently of any policies your school or district may have about who is required to be present at school-sponsored activities.

Food:
Neither breakfast nor lunch will be provided by the tournament. We will provide a list of suggested eateries for the lunch break, which will be at some time after 12 PM. There are vending machines in the tournament building and several convenience stores and restaurants within 1-3 blocks, and the VCU campus is well-covered by various food delivery services. It will not be necessary to have access to a vehicle all day in order to purchase food and beverages.

Safety plan regarding covid & other concerns:

*General guidance on VCU campus closures may be accessed at VCU Alert. This is where official decisions on closing the campus due to weather emergencies and other concerns outside of covid may be found. In the event that there is an emergency situation near the date of the tournament, we will go by what is published on VCU Alert and will run the tournament if the campus is open.

*All participants in the tournament are expected to be vaccinated against COVID-19 through at least the fall 2021 booster. This applies to anyone who is physically attending the event (players, staffers, coaches, spectators, etc.)

*We will be following VCU's campus policy on masks as posted here: https://srm.vcu.edu/health-advisories/c ... dvisories/ . As of the date of the announcement, masks are not required in any of the facilities being used for this tournament. We will advise registrants if there is any change to this policy as the tournament approaches.

Parking information
Parking on Main Street directly in front of the building or on other nearby surface streets is, usually, free and available on Saturdays.
*Green signs indicating "one hour parking" and similar are not in effect on weekends on any streets closer than Belvidere Street to the tournament building. With very few exceptions, parking meters around the campus are also not in effect on Saturdays (the meters are electronic and will physically turn off if they are not in use on a given day, so you can easily check). Red signs indicating "no parking" at some or all times, or paper signs indicating temporary restrictions due to construction or special events, are applicable on all days and should be respected to avoid possible ticketing/towing.
*If the block immediately in front of the building is full, your best option is usually to go one block south and park on Cary St. You can then use the pedestrian walkway that cuts through the middle of the Cary/Main block to get back to the tournament building easily. This block of Cary Street has only VCU facilities on it and generally has much less parking demand on weekend mornings compared to the residential areas on the west side of the campus.
*In the event that the on-street parking is closed or full, options include
-The West Main Street Parking Deck one block east of the tournament building. The parking deck has entrances on Cherry Street and Laurel Street and is nominally located at 801 W Main St for GPS purposes. Officially, the cost to park all day here is $16, but oftentimes if there is not a major sporting event or a show at the Altria Theater, this deck will simply raise the gates and become free on weekends - we can't guarantee this for sure, so plan for the possibility of needing to pay if you park here.
-The Premier Parking surface lots located on both sides of W Main St just east of Morris St and just west of 7-11 (do NOT park in the 7-11 lot itself, you will be towed). If you continue on W Main St past the tournament building you will very quickly see these lots. These are privately operated surface lots that charge $5 to park all day and are a one block walk from the tournament building.
*School buses can often find parking on Main St or Cary St - as long as you are not occupying any part of a no-parking space it's perfectly fine to parallel park a bus along with the cars here. The other option for buses is the VCU-operated JL lot located at 200 W. Cary St (just north of the Cary and Jefferson intersection). This lot is metered 24/7 and costs $16 for all-day parking. It is about 8 blocks from the tournament building, so you may wish to drop off participants at the building before going to park here. The other decks and lots listed here cannot accommodate buses.

We look forward to seeing a diverse field on October 29! Please contact the e-mail below if you have any questions about the event.

CURRENT FIELD (Updated 10/25/22):
Cosby (1)
Dinwiddie (2)
Huguenot (3)
Maggie Walker (5)
Norfolk Academic Guild (2)
St. Catherine's (2)

Matt Weiner
Advisor and Tournament Director, Quizbowl at VCU
[email protected]
Last edited by Matt Weiner on Tue Oct 25, 2022 11:31 am, edited 3 times in total.
Matt Weiner
Advisor to Quizbowl at Virginia Commonwealth University / Founder of hsquizbowl.org
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Matt Weiner
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Re: VCU Fall Tournament XI (Richmond, VA - October 29, 2022)

Post by Matt Weiner »

We're adequately staffed at the present time and able to accommodate a few more teams, but we do need to make sure we don't go too far beyond our capacity and can plan a schedule, so I will probably close the field around Tuesday. If you're on the fence about registering please keep me updated on your plans and try to get things finalized in the next 3 days. Registered teams as of today will receive an e-mail update shortly.
Matt Weiner
Advisor to Quizbowl at Virginia Commonwealth University / Founder of hsquizbowl.org
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Matt Weiner
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Posts: 8145
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Re: VCU Fall Tournament XI (Richmond, VA - October 29, 2022)

Post by Matt Weiner »

We have 15 teams registered for this tournament and would like a 16th to make the field balance. Contact me any time through Friday afternoon if you would like to register 1 team. Otherwise, the field is now closed. All registered teams & staffers should have received the e-mail update.
Matt Weiner
Advisor to Quizbowl at Virginia Commonwealth University / Founder of hsquizbowl.org
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