2023 MSPAINT (MS Individual Tournament, 7 May 2023, online)

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CPiGuy
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2023 MSPAINT (MS Individual Tournament, 7 May 2023, online)

Post by CPiGuy »

I am excited to announce the Middle School Players' Academic Individual National Tournament (MSPAINT), an individual middle school tournament to be held Sunday, 7 May, 2023. I will be directing.

Eligibility

This is an individual tournament. It is open to any player in eighth grade or below (or the equivalent in other countries, I suppose).

Logistics Information

The tournament will start at 10am Eastern / 9am Central / 7am Pacific on Sunday, May 7th. The format will depend on the number of players and staff availability. It will likely consist of some combination of group matches or 1v1 games.

Due to the difficulty of obtaining premier Zoom credentials, this tournament will take place through Discord, using buzzin.live to buzz.

Players should expect to be required to have their hands visible at all times while playing, whether by using multiple cameras or by using a mouse, phone, or external controller to buzz.

Because of the nature of this tournament, we will be using some adjustments to the gameplay rules to accommodate the individual format. These will be announced well in advance of the tournament.

This tournament will be using the IQBT Regular Season Set #1. This set is a "regular difficulty" high school set; it is comparable in difficulty to NAQT IS sets, MSNCT playoffs, and the MS IPNCT.

Players are also reminded that they may avail themselves of the quizbowl misconduct form and that they will be expected to abide by the PACE Code of Conduct. Players, coaches, and other tournament participants may also contact me directly if they have any concerns about their safety or comfort at the event.

Asynchronous Seeding Rounds (unique to this tournament!)

Past individual tournaments, such as the NAQT IPNCT, have used multiple non-elimination seeding rounds in order to fairly seed players for the elimination rounds. We will not have a sufficient number of packets to run full seeding rounds with no direct impact on tournament standings, but we still want to ensure that players are seeded fairly. As such, we will be running bonus-only seeding rounds in the weeks before the tournament.

Around three weeks before the tournament, all registered players will be contacted to choose a time slot for their seeding round. Seeding rounds will be played over Zoom, will likely take around a half hour, and will consist of the player being read some number of bonuses (probably 60). All players will be read the same bonuses for seeding. Players can have coaches/parents/etc. present for their seeding round, but otherwise spectators will not be permitted for question security reasons.

Seeding rounds will not be used to eliminate players or otherwise change players' ability to advance in the tournament. They will, however, affect what rooms/groups/brackets players are placed in, so a poor performance in the seeding round will likely result in a player receiving a more difficult schedule during the tournament.

Fees and registration

The registration fee for this tournament will be $50 per player.

To register, please fill out this form.

Staffing

Staffers will be paid $30 for staffing the tournament. Staffers will also be paid $2.50 per seeding round they read. If you are interested in staffing, please fill out this form.

Current field

Registrations as of May 3rd:
Vidyut Arvind (New York, NY)
Shaarav Bhatt (Quest Academy, Palatine, IL)
Jimmy Bratcher (Quest Academy, Palatine, IL)
Kovid Cerejo (River Trail MS, Johns Creek, GA)
Padraig Finan (Washington Connections Academy, Newcastle, WA)
Andrew Gao (Chenery MS, Belmont, MA)
Meher Garg (Franklin MS, Springfield, IL)
Vanshika Gunda (Franklin MS, Springfield, IL)
Sumaer Gupta (Quest Academy, Palatine, IL)
Amory Kaufman (Providence Academy, Plymouth, MI)
Joshua Li (Johns Creek, GA)
Haughton Neppl (Cooper MS, McLean, VA)
Grady Noble (North JHS, Boise, ID)
Evan Ting (Sycamore School, Indianapolis, IN)
Vedant Sedhurasan (Quest Academy, Palatine, IL)
Sreekar Vajjha (Classen SAS, Oklahoma City, OK)
Last edited by CPiGuy on Wed May 03, 2023 11:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Conor Thompson (he/it)
Bangor High School '16
University of Michigan '20
Iowa State University '25
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CPiGuy
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Re: 2023 MSPAINT (MS Individual Tournament, 7 May 2023, online)

Post by CPiGuy »

Signups are still open for this tournament, and will be until Thursday, May 4th!
Conor Thompson (he/it)
Bangor High School '16
University of Michigan '20
Iowa State University '25
Tournament Format Database
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CPiGuy
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Re: 2023 MSPAINT (MS Individual Tournament, 7 May 2023, online)

Post by CPiGuy »

This tournament happened!

Andrew Gao won the tournament without ever losing a room; Sreekar Vajjha took second and only ever finished behind Andrew. Haughton Neppl and Padraig Finan finished third and fourth in the championship match respectively, with Vidyut Arvind winning the 5th-8th placement game to round out the top 5.

The format used for this tournament does not permit a traditional stat report, but complete final standings and detailed stats can be seen on this spreadsheet.

Thanks to IQBT for allowing us to use their set (and rearrange the packets to fit our format). Thanks also to our excellent staffers - Khugan Chan, Cindy Gao, Sophia Guo, Sam Macchi, Joel Miles, and Sophia Wu - for helping make this tournament happen.
Conor Thompson (he/it)
Bangor High School '16
University of Michigan '20
Iowa State University '25
Tournament Format Database
Vainglorious yet Victorious
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Re: 2023 MSPAINT (MS Individual Tournament, 7 May 2023, online)

Post by Vainglorious yet Victorious »

I believe I speak for all the players and everyone affiliated with the tournament when I say that we are grateful for such an enjoyable experience and all the hard work done to make it work-and work well!
Amory Kaufman
Player, Providence Academy (2020- )
Yes, I have 266 career -5s. Go figure!
All-Star, 2023 MSNCT
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