Subject: ACF Newsletter V.6 (long) Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 17:12:38 -0800 From: gaius To: acf-newsletter@uclink4.berkeley.edu Welcome to V.6 of the newsletter. This issue is really large. In fact, this year may have to run 9 issues because there is a lot to cover in the next few months. I welcome several new subscribers around the country. I am finally returned from Italy, and I hope that I can make a meaningful contribution to the rest of the year. CA has certainly changed since my departure two seasons ago. In particular I ask readers to read the Request from Jason Hong who is trying to organize a complete list of tournament results on the Cal-Berkeley Webpage. Any requests for info (such as a run down on buzzer companies, etc.) can be sent to me or Eric at the regular addresses. This issue contains: ACF Regional results ACF National tournament information/update Other tournament results Stanford, Quincy, Wisconsin, Carleton, BYU Standardizing records on the "Tournaments Results Webpage" Invitations to upcoming events WSU Freeze your Buzz, UC-Riverside, Notification for Texas A&M, U-Washington Husky Bowl, Iowa Hawkfest, UC Irvine Gaius and Eric ----------------------------------- ACF Newsletter V.6 15 March 99 Editors: Eric Owens and Gaius Stern CONGRATS TO 1999 ACF REGIONAL CHAMPS UT-Austin, Stanford, Chicago, South Carolina, Maryland, and Harvard are the 1998-99 ACF Regional champions. This year 69 teams participated in ACF Regionals in six regions. Very brief results from the SoWest, Midwest and West follow. SW Regionals were played in College Station at Texas A&M. UT-Austin A (10-0) led the field and topped #2 Central Oklahoma (9-1) -- Eric Bell playing solo - to win the SW title in College Station. Other teams came from OU, Wichita St., Arkansas, Rice, and a house team from Texas A&M. The all-stars were: Eric Bell, UCO Eric Smith, UT Austin Mike Wehrman, Arkansas David Smith, Oklahoma Berkeley again hosted WC Regionals. BYU has had one of their strongest teams in recent years and broke back into the top two, knocking Berkeley out of the top two for the first time. After the round robin, Stanford Asmodeus, BYU Albigenses, and Berkeley Asimov were all tied 6-1 but in the second mini-RR BYU beat Berk. to go to the finals against Stanford, who, aided by the return of Roger Lee, won the playoffs 425-80, and thus the 1999 West Coast ACF title. Congratulations to Eliot, Jesse, Roger, and Adam, as well as BYU's Earl, Ken, Dave, and Nephi. The top five all-stars were 1 Patrick UCLA 51-7 2 Adam Stanford Asmod 39-6 3 Kenny Stanford Beelz 44-20 4 Jesse Stanford Asmod 36- 5 5 Mike UCB Asimov 34- 2 and the next five were Ken (BYU), Nick (UCB), Jessie (BYU), Roger (Stanf) and Nephi (BYU). In the Midwest/Plains Regional Chicago A (Andrew Yaffee) overcame a prelim loss to beat Illinois Malignant in the 2/3 finals 360-60 & 235-230 to retain the title. This is Chicago's sixth ACF Regional title. The MW/Plains Reg. was consolidated (often it is split into two sites) at the University of Chicago. Each division of 8 played a round robin, and the top 4 from each moving on to a playoff RR. The tournament ran very well with regular stat updates, ample food, and even ran an hour ahead of the planned schedule thanks to moderators Alice Chou, John Edwards, Mitchell Szczepanczyk, Lorin Burte, Eric Hillemann, John Tangren, and Mike Altman. Other teams came from Michigan, Carleton, Quincy, Marquette, Bowling Green, Northwestern, and Case Western RU. The MVPs were Name Team TU -5 PPG Andrew Yaphe CHIA 162 30 105.0 Anthony de Jesus CWRU 87 19 55.3 Vishnu Jejjala ILLM 79 11 52.5 Subash Mattipodi QUIN 78 19 48.9 Dave Goodman MICH 77 21 47.5 The next five were Samuel Bennett (CHI$) Jason Arvey (CHIB), Ryan Thom (MARQ), Andy Felton (CARL A), and Jeremiah Thomp. (ILL A) ACF NATIONALS UPDATE ACF Nationals will be held the weekend of 23-24 April 1999 at the University of Chicago. As always, all participating teams need to send a clean ACF packet RIGHT AWAY if they have not done so to Alice Chou in order to ensure their slot and that the tournament runs smoothly. As ACF is virtually a volunteer organization of skilled amateurs (albeit highly skilled), everyone needs to do their part to ensure that the Nationals staff can run the event in an orderly fashion. This includes bringing buzzers or volunteer staff if pledged, sending in packets on time, etc. A block hotel reservation at the Ramada Lake Shore expires on March 23, one month before the tournament. If you're planning to stay there, please reserve soon. The rate is $85 + tax. There are not many cheaper hotels in the city; staying in the suburbs can save you a bundle though. I have been told there is a Courtyard by Marriott in Hammond, IN, which is cheap and about 20-30 min away. The Ramada is really the only hotel within 15 min of campus. To reserve there call 1-800-237-4933 from 9-5 mon.-fri. and ask for Marilyn. Mention the "College Bowl Team" to get the discount. Teams also need to e-mail Mike Zarren with "ACF REG" in the subject line in order to register officially for ACF nationals. There are a total of 27 slots (if rooms can be found on campus, this can be raised higher). ACF plans to run three pools of 9 for a preliminary RR and then a semi-finals division for the top nine while the other teams play for final ranking. Teams are encouraged to contact Mike Zarren almost up to the last minute in case the size can be increased or cancellations allow a "stand-by" team to play. Registered schools as of 15 March 1999: (25 of 27 available slots.) NoEast SoEast Mid-Atlant Midwest/plains SoWest West Cornell Maryland A Quincy Berkeley South Carolina Michigan BYU Georgia Tech Iowa Furman Texas (Austin) Harvard Maryland B Wichita State Oklahoma Vanderbilt Carleton Kentucky Wash. U in St Louis A U-Tenn, Chat Wash. U in St. Louis B BU Berry Illinois Arkansas ACF has many prizes already here, including an actual Jeopardy! Challenger parting gift from the show, and a CBI All-star trophy, among others. There will be a bunch of good free stuff at the end for a number of people. Volunteers are needed and will be rewarded for their help. U-CHICAGO WINS Stanford CARDINAL CLASSIC IX (by Josh Soloman) Stanford's Cardinal Classic IX took place over the weekend of February 5-6, with teams coming from as far away as Vanderbilt University and the Univ. of Chicago. Other participants included UCLA, Caltech, BYU, Berkeley, and USC. They played a full round robin with 12 teams, after which Chicago Louise (led by top scorer Andrew Yaphe) came out on top, with a 10-1 record. They were followed by Berkeley Australopithecus and BYU at 9-2, and Stanford at 8-3. So, in the best 2/3 playoffs, Chicago Louise played Berkeley A (who had the points-differential tiebreaker over BYU); the result was that Chicago defeated Berkeley 2-0 to take the title. The top 4 MVPs were Andrew Yaphe, Chicago Louise, 97.7 avg (115-15 over 11 games) Jesse Molesworth, Stanford, 56.3 avg (71-18 over 11 games) Richard Mason, Caltech, 50.9 avg (66-20 over 11 games) Ken Jennings, BYU, 49.1 avg (59-10 over 11 games) ILLINOIS WINS Quincy QUACK VII Teams from Arkansas, Illinois, U-Mo-Rolla, Marquette, Missouri, Iowa, Washington in St Louis, Wichita St., and UMKC attended. The tournament used NAQT game rules, but a split round robin with the top four and bottom four teams in each bracket playing each other in four interbracket matches. The top two teams from each round robin then made the single elimination play-offs (Missouri format). Arkansas beat Wash. St.L 310-275, and Illinois beat Iowa 310-230. In the finals Illinois squeaked by Arkansas 285-280. Illinois had overcome many negs to pull within 20 on the last question. They then powered the toss-up, and got one part of a cheesy soap opera bonus to win by 5. The high scorer during the day was Mike Wehrman of Arkansas, with 110.45 ppg Quincy cites special praise for the two strong Marquette teams in their first non-CBI event. CARLETON WINS Wisconsin ELVIS A new king of the Elvis was crowned Saturday afternoon February 6, 1999, when Carleton A finally unseated defending champ (of several years) the University of Chicago. Play was 24 TUs per round in a double round robin. Carleton A (12-3) finished the prelims on top; Chicago (11-4) was second, the two teams having split their prelim matches. In a single elim semi, Carleton managed to pull a come-from-behind win over Minnesota on the last question, 260-240. Meanwhile, Chicago beat Illinois 290-150. In the finals, Carleton closed the Chicago lead to 190-160 on the ante-penultimate. When Chicago -5 the last two, Carleton picked up both rebounds to win 240-180. Bowling Green won the lower pool (the Lisa Marie pool) by going undefeated in it and also received a trophy for that achievement. Awards were as follows: Best Moderator: Eric Hillemann Best Packet: Carleton A All-Stars: 1. Emily Pike, Carleton 2. Steve Watchorn, Wisconsin 3. Dan Lee, Minnesota 4. (three-way tie) Jeremiah of Ill, Jason Arvey of Chic. A, Andy Felton of Carl. A QUINCY WINS CARLETON UNDERGRAD TOURNEY (by Eric Hilleman) Congratulations to the Quincy duo of Brian Ulrich and Subash Maddipoti for winning the First Annual(?) Carleton Undergraduate Tournament Saturday in Northfield, MN! The Quincy University duo of Brian Ulrich and Subash Maddipoti topped 21 other teams in Northfield, Minnesota March 6 in the first annual Carleton Undergraduate Tournament (CUT 1). This was an undergrad-only tournament using NAQT questions aimed at novice collegiate players. First year quizbowlers, as well as schools not earning invitations to last year's NAQT ICT, were permitted to form four person teams, while other undergrads were restricted to playing on one or two person teams only. Such restrictions, along with low cost and the promise of a very full day of play for each team, attracted participation by several schools not often seen on the quizbowl circuit. The participants included Quincy x2, Illinois, Carleton x 4, Marquette, Iowa x2, Minnesota x2, St. Olaf x2, Macalester, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa State x2, Buena Vista x2, and Eureka UCLA/CALTECH DEFENDS BYU PERP. MOTION VI CROWN (courtesy of Earl Cahill) Due to scheduling conflicts, BYU moved Perpetual Motion V to March. Teams from Berkeley, Stanford, R. Hentzel University, and USC flew in, as well as local BYU teams. Last year's defending co-champ also attended, a mixed team from Los Angelos composed of UCLA and Caltech players. They emerged victorious and undefeated (12-0). As always the tournament was in perpetual motion because all the teams played a double round robin without byes. This tournament may long be remembered because R. went 19-0 in one match. The final stats and standings, in easy to read format are at http://www.math.byu.edu/~cahille/collegebowl/pmvi.html The top players were Player Team Toss Ups -5s R. 125 23 Roger Stanford 72 11 Richard TechLa 56 15 David L. Berkeley 52 8 Dave BYU A 43 2 The other top ten were Maribeth and Patrick from TechLa, Dan (BYU B), Mike U (Berk), and Nephi (BYU A). Congratulations to TechLa (Richard Mason, Patrick Friel, Maribeth Swiatech and Asmin Pathare) for defending their championship (ok, tied with Berkeley) of last year. WSU FREEZE YOUR BUZZ The Wichita State University Academic Quiz Team will host Freeze Your Buzz Off III and the Thumbs On Ice Buzzer Revue on Saturday, March 20, 1999. Please note that this is a different date than what was originally posted. Entry fees, as listed below, will cover entries for all teams (up to 5 players) in both tournaments. Teams from junior colleges, as well as teams that have only competed in CBI competition this year, are exempt from question writing duties. The team tournament (i.e., Freeze Your Buzz Off III) will have a rules meeting at 8:30 am and will begin promptly at 8:45 am. We are trying to get an early start since we have two tournaments to get through. The format is full RR, though if more than 9 teams enter we will split into pools with crossover play for each respective half of both pools, like last year's ACF Nationals. There will, regardless, be a 1-game final between the teams with the top two records. After breaking for a late lunch, we will proceed with the singles tournament (i.e., Thumbs On Ice Buzzer Revue). All players will be randomly drawn into an initial room, and be ranked 1-8 based on performance on a set of 50 questions. Then players will change rooms (1 stays, 2 advances 1 room, 3 advances 2 rooms, etc.), and players will be ranked 1-8 on another set of 50 questions. The two rankings will be averaged, and the top 8 will play on a third set of 50 questions, and ranked 1-8 accordingly for the head-to-head matches, with the same procedure for 9-16, 17-24, etc. Those seeded 13-20 will play a single head to head match (13 v. 20, 14v. 19, 15 v. 18, 16 v. 17), with the winner advancing into the championship bracket, and the loser into the consolation bracket. From that point head-to-head matches will be played in both brackets to determine a champion. The championship bracket will be double elimination, the consolation bracket will be single elimination. Please note that the consolation bracket may include 8 players, it may include 80 players -- we'll just have to wait and see. We anticipate both events being completed by about 7 pm. UC-RIVERSIDE HIGHLANDER CLAN INVITATIONAL UC Riverside is holding the Highlander Clan College Bowl Invitational on 16-17 April. The tournament is for all interested novice schools, including high schools and colleges (Division II and III). Format will be NAQT-style, 4 players on a team w/substitutions. Standard discounts are available. Slots are quickly filling up and we are sending out this reminder to everyone that is still interested in attending to please confirm as soon as possible to reserve a space at this tournament. A quick summary and other updates regarding the tournament: Where: UC- Riverside at the 60/91/215 Interchange in Southern California. A map is located on the web at http://www.ucr.edu/SubPages/1WelcUCRFold/3VisInfoMap.html. The nearest airport is Ontario International Airport. STAFFING A TOURNAMENT: HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU NEED? A new club contemplating running a tournament can easily avoid some of the snafus which can give a host a bad reputation by planning in advance. It should go without saying that the rounds and schedule need to be xeroxed in advance. There is another problem which can be equally disastrous if not considered in advance: understaffing your event. Every room should have a competent moderator and scorekeeper. Only Very Experienced moderators can do both without slowing down play. New clubs rarely have moderators with this level of experience, so it is better for everyone to err on the side of underestimation. Those hosts who choose to enter a house team at the expense of providing scorekeepers are taking unfair advantage of the situation. When you host your tournament, your club reaps some form of profit (usually financial). The "service" you offer your guests is a good tournament, for which most are paying you money. If is perfectly fair to require BYE teams to help out, but it is wise to include this provision in the invitation as a condition of participation. Even then, BYE teams should not be called upon to moderate any packet other than their own, unless their skill as moderator(s) is known. How much staff do you need? One moderator for every room and one scorekeeper for every room. In an odd-number team tournament (single BYE) you can factor in the team with the fewest members to reduce the number of host volunteers needed. Remember, having extra staff is good: it means you can run stats continuously, people can sub in while others buy drinks, take breaks, etc. Once in a while a reader just disappears (e.g. 1995 WC ACF Regs, but we had N+1, luckily). For tournaments with double BYEs, you can hope all of the BYE players will help out, but often times the more BYE players you have, the more likely they will want to play each other or just hang out, rather than assist. If you do not have enough staff because the BYE players bail, the host will still take the blame. Remember that some people just can not add (oddly enough this affects a high percentage of Math majors)! The conservative formula for staff needed, (considering some BYE players will not be good scorekeepers, where N = number of teams playing) no BYEs N x 2 (count Very Exp. moderators twice) 1 BYE N x 2 - (smallest team) 2 BYEs, odd N N x 2 - (smallest team) 2 BYEs, even N N x 2 - 4 (or 2 smallest teams if all are reliable) triple BYE N x 2 - 8 (if 2 BYE teams do not play each other) Lastly, a comment from John Edwards: "If you have a bye and a moderator asks to to help keep score, don't say 'I have some work to do' and proceed to read your book for Monday's class. Next time, the moderator may fulfill his unspoken desire to take that book and throw it out the window." STANDARDIZING THE TOURNAMENT RESULTS PAGE (By Jason Hong) UC Berkeley's Tournament Records Archive has been updated, available at: http://guir.cs.berkeley.edu/quiz-bowl/resources/stats/ I do have a favor to ask of all future tournament directors. There are times when I have to edit the results because of various formatting problems. Also, I sometimes cannot tell when or where a tournament took place. Simply put, this is a waste of my time, and for others who want to read the stats. If you could follow the guidelines below, it will help a lot. 1. Please have the following information at the top: Tournament Name: Tournament Date: Tournament Host: Type: (Trash / ACF / mACF / NAQT / mNAQT / whatever) 1st place team: 2nd place team: This will make it possible to automate much of the work in the future. 2. Please do not use tabs, or remove them before posting stats. 3. Please don't exceed 80 characters per line. 4. Please align the stats by columns. For example, it is much easier to read: 1. Team A 11-1 2. Some other team B 9-3 3. Yet another team C 8-4 than 1. Team A 11-1 2. Some other team B 9-3 3. Yet another team C 8-4 5. Please put the results and stats in one message instead of multiple messages. I put them in one file anyway, and it takes a while to hunt down the right files. Thanks! Final upcoming announcements: 3 April Iowa Hawkfest (perhaps already filled?) Subash Maddipoti 24 April NEW Pac Northwest Husky Bowl at U-Washington Invitation next issue. Contact Jason 1 May Texas A&M Anarchy Bowel (trash) contact Chris Romero 20-21 May UC-Irvine Willie Chen ---------------------------------------------------