Academic Competition Newsletter Vol. VI issue 3 editors: Eric Owens and Gaius Stern Nov. 1999 Welcome to the third issue of the sixth year of the Academic Competition Newsletter. The primary mission of the newsletter is to spread information about QB to new players and schools. To get a free subscription (or drop it), just write the editors and ask to be (un)subscribed. When posting questions or gripes, however, please write only to the editors and not to the entire subscription list. The newsletter will endeavor to report fully on all QB events for teams West of the Mississippi or of interest to those teams, continuing the earlier policy to extend coverage towards the Midwest. As always, subscribers are encouraged to write the newsletter editors with columns, tournament invitations, opinions, corrections, and especially tournament results. Eric Owens Gaius Stern etowens@feist.com gaius@uclink4.berkeley.edu Contents: Calendar Results: Rollapolooza Oklahoma Route 66 USC TremorBowl Iowa Theme Tournament Wichita State Junior Turkey Quiz-Fest Berkeley WIT 7 Minnesota Deep Bench Invites: St. Louis Open Washington-St. Louis Gateway NAQT Changes Division II Eligibility ACF Regionals Information Creative Electronics Continues to Discount Buzzers --------------------------------------------------- Nov 12-13 NAQT Conference Tournaments at following sites: Cal-Tech Contact: Chris Nolte Illinois Contact: Mike Angel Iowa State Contact: Joel Uckelman Nov 20 Washington-St Louis Contact: Roger Bhan Texas-Austin (NAQT Conference Tournament) Contact: Jeff Ford Dec 4 Washington-St Louis Contact: Jason Paik Feb 11-12 NAQT Sectionals at following sites: Berkeley Contact: Jason Hong Northwestern Contact: Tyler Johnson Oklahoma Contact: Stephen Gill Texas-Austin Contact: Jeff Ford Washington Contact: Jason Brown February 18-19 CBI Regionals at various sites For more info, visit www.collegebowl.com February 25-26 ACF Regionals at following sites: Cal Tech Contact: Richard Mason Chicago Contact: ?? Oklahoma Contact: pending These are the only 2000 tournaments which the editors are aware of at this time. Those who typically host spring-semester tournaments are encouraged to let the editors know the date as soon as those decisions are finalized. ILLINOIS WINS ROLLAPOLOOZA Teams were divided into 2 pools, with the top 2 from each pool advancing to the semifinals, followed by a single-elimination knockout to determine the champion. McNutt Bracket: Illinois A 10-0 Illinois B 8-2* Won head-to-head Others: Bonzai Potato, 8-2; Oklahoma Tito, 6-4; Iowa St, 6-4; Arkansas B, 6-4; Oklahoma LaToya, 5-5; Missouri A, 3-7; Wash U B, 2-8; Oklahoma Michael, 1-9; Wash U C, 0-10. E-Man Bracket: Arkansas A 10-1* Won head-to-head Squirrel Society 10-1 Others: Oklahoma Jackie, 9-2; Wash U A, 8-3; Wichita St. A, 7-4; Oklahoma Jermaine, 7-4; Rhodes, 5-6; Wash U E, 4-7; Missouri B, 2-9; Wash U F, 2-9; Wash U D, 1-10; Wichita St. B, 1-10. Semifinals -- Arkansas A beats Illinois B, Illinois A beats Squirrel Society. Finals -- Illinois A beats Arkansas A. Top 4 scorers were Mike Wehrman, Arkansas A; Adam Kemezis, Squirrel Society; Andy Wehrman, Arkansas B; and Henry Herron, Wichita St. A. ARKANSAS WINS OKLAHOMA ROUTE 66 Arkansas won the annual Oklahoma Route 66 Classic on October 9. Tournament format was a full round-robin, with a best 2 of 3 final between the top two teams, with the round-robin game being game 1. Standings after the round robin was as follows: Arkansas 10-1 (lost to Oklahoma Em & 3 Daves) Oklahoma Em & 3 Daves 10-1 (lost to A&M) Texas A&M 10-1 (lost to Arkansas) Others: Wichita St Marshall, 7-4; Texas I, 6-5; Washington U St. Louis, 6-5; OU Tosca Follies, 6-5; OU Policy of Appeasement, 5-6; Wichita State Will, 2-9; Texas II, 2-9; Missouri-Columbia, 2-9; Wichita State Holly, 0-11. Oklahoma removed itself from the final, setting up an Arkansas-Texas A&M final, with Arkansas winning the first game due to the round-robin result. Arkansas then won game 2 to win the tournament. Top 4 scorers were Mike Wehrman of Arkansas, K Michael Wilcox of Texas II, Andrew McKenzie of OU P of A, and Eric Smith of Texas I. Wehrman, McKenzie, and Smith finished 1-2-3 in the individual Slugfest. BERKELEY WINS USC TREMORBOWL The University of Southern California hosted a West Coast mirror of Vanderbilt's tournament on Saturday, October 16th with TRASH after the tournament. Questions were provided by Oz of UCLA. The tournament was entitled TremorBowl in honor of the 7.1 Hector Mine Earthquake experienced at 2:46 the morning of the tournament. It certainly got things rolling. The tournament, except for a few minor delays at the beginning ran very smoothly and everyone seemed to have a good time. There were at least enough good comments to insure a repeat tournament next fall, tentatively entitled AfterShock! 15 teams attended and played a full round robin. Congratulations to the west coast powerhouse that is Berkeley. Their A team ran the field going a perfect 14-0. It is also worth noting that Berkeley's B team came in a respectable 6th, pacing the division II field. Also congrats to Richard Mason from Caltech who led all scorers with an impressive 88 points per game! Full Results: Team Wins | Losses | Points Berkeley A 14 | 0 | 4840 UCLA 12 | 2 | 2815 Cal Tech B 12 | 2 | 3345 UCR B 11 | 3 | 1840 Cal Tech A 11 | 3 | 2460 Others: Berkeley B, 8-6, 1720; Edison HS, 6-8, 1205; ASU, 5-9, 1105; UCI C, 5-9, 1005; Hart HS, 5-9, 975; UCI A, 4-10, 1005; UCSB, 4-10, 1345; Occidental, 4-10, 930; UCR A, 4-10, 755; UCI B, 0-14, 515. OKLAHOMA WINS IOWA THEME TOURNAMENT 14 teams participated in a full round robin. Due to a scheduling quirk, there were 15 rounds of play; each team had two byes. Themed minipackets of 5/5 were written. Each round consisted of five such minipackets, with 1 history, 1 science, 1 lit, 1 pop culture/trash, and 1 misc (for things like fine arts, etc.). Teams held a coin toss at the beginning of each round and the winner selected two minipackets based on its topic and decided when in the round the packets would be read. The other team then selected two other packets. The fifth packet was not read. After round-robin play, the standings were as follows: The results of the round robin are as follows: Oklahoma 12-1 Illinois Sharks with Frickin’ Lasers 12-1 Illinois Sea Bass 11-2 WUSTL A 10-3 Others: Minnesota A, 9-4; Wichita St., 7-6; Carleton, 7-6; Northwestern Clavin, 6-7; Minnesota B, 5-8; Iowa State, 5-8; WUSTL B, 3-10; Northwestern Peterson, 3-10; Buena Vista B, 1-12; Buena Vista A, 0-13. Due to their winning the round-robin game, Oklahoma entered the best of 3 final with a 1 game lead. Illinois won game 2, 200-190, but Oklahoma won the final game, 235-175, to win the tournament. Top four scorers were Henry Herron of Wichita State, Andy Felton of Carleton, Jeremiah Thompson of Illinois Sea Bass, and Dom Ricci of Illinois Sharks with Freakin’ Lasers. OKLAHOMA WINS WSU JUNIOR TURKEY QUIZ-FEST The format was as follows: 8 teams were entered, of which 2 (WSU A and WUSTL) were in Division I. It was decided that the tournament champion would automatically win the Division I championship, while, if a Division II team won (which they did), the next best Division II team would win the Division II championship. Division II teams consisted of all-JUCO players, or all-1st year players, or players who had never averaged 15 PPG at a tournament prior to this semester. Division I teams had at least one player who did not meet that criteria but who are now eligible under NAQT’s new Division II eligibility. Teams played a full round robin, after which they played a modified version of ladder play, in which 4 rounds were played, and the bottom team was eliminated after each round, while the top team would only have to win once to advance to the championship game. Upon the completion of ladder play, the standings were as follows (teams were ranked according to final seed, so it was possible for a team to finish ahead of a team with a better win-loss percentage): TEAM W-L Oklahoma 8-0 Wichita State A 8-3 Washington-St Louis 7-3 Others: Cloud County CC, 5-6; Independence CC A, 5-6; Wichita State B, 4-6; Independence CC B, 1-8; Missouri-Kansas City, 1-7. Oklahoma then defeated Wichita State A, 650-370, in a 2-game, total-score final. Top 4 scorers were Jonathan Tanner of Oklahoma, Marc Einstein and Jonathan Frick, both of WUSTL, and Delano Barnes of WSU B. CALTECH WINS Berkeley's WIT 7 DIVISION 1 AND 2 UC Berkeley's Quizbowl Club hosted the largest tournament ever on the West Coast, tying the record set one year ago at WIT 6 with 18 teams in attendance, including Penn and Whitman College (Wash State). There were 7 teams in the open division and 11 in the Jr Varsity/new teams division. A few changes marked this year's event. The TD, Mike Usher, decided that ties were to stand, thus accounting for the Stanford A team's 10-1-1 record. With this record, Stanford A (plus Rory Molinari) was the outright "open team" winner, though Caltech A was the college team champion in the Experienced division. Another novelty was the canned chicken product given to the player with the highest number of TUs without any -5s. Caltech also won the lower division after running 10-3 in prelims and winning a play-off. Occidental College and USC II were tied for 2nd place by record, but USC's departure left Oxy to play Caltech for a 2 out of 3 series which Caltech won. Teams participating were Berkeley x4, Stanford x3, USC x2, Penn, UCSB, Occidental College, Whitman College x2, UC-Irvine, Caltech x2, and Silicon Age. Special kudos to Wesley from Oxy who drove up and borrowed 3 UCSB players for a very successful tournament and a #1 MVP spot in the JV division. Again Richard (Caltech) and R. Hentzel topped the Division 1 players list. Division 2 MVPs Ranked by Adjusted Tossup Average after Round 14 Player Team TO INT RD AVG T AVG I ADJ AV TO/INT ------ ---- -- --- -- ----- ----- ------ ------ 1 Wesley Matthews Occidental 76 5 13 5.85 0.38 5.65 15.20 2 Jay Catherwood Caltech II 75 11 13 5.77 0.85 5.35 6.82 3 Willie Chen UC Irvine 53 1 13 4.08 0.08 4.04 53.00 4 Tom Zamora USC II 28 0 7 4.00 0.00 4.00 --- 5 Zach Teitler UCSB 42 1 12 3.50 0.08 3.46 42.00 1 The Hentzel Silicon Age 59 14 8 7.38 1.75 6.50 4.21 2 Richard Mason Caltech I 76 13 12 6.33 1.08 5.79 5.85 Congratulations to all who came. ILLINOIS WINS DEEP BENCH Results from the 1999 Rob Pilatus Memorial (Century of Death) Deep Bench tournament at the University of Minnesota: 1. Illinois 200 points 2. Iowa 163 3. Carleton 146 4. Michigan 131 5. Chicago 125 6. Minnesota 106 7. Wisconsin 94 8. Iowa State 55 9. Confederation of Independent Scholars 36 Division winners #1 singles Illinois 7-1 (tie-breaker with Wisconsin and Chicago) #2 singles Illinois 8-0 #1 doubles Carleton 8-0 #2 doubles Michigan 7-1 (won on head to head with Iowa, also 7-1) #3 doubles Illinois 7-1 #1 quads Carleton 6-2 (won on head to head with Chicago, also 6-2) #2 quads Illinois 8-0 ST LOUIS OPEN INVITATION (Courtesy Roger Bhan) There's still time to register for this year's ST. LOUIS OPEN to be held on November 20, 1999 on the campus of Washington University. This will be a modified ACF-style tournament with question-difficulty falling somewhere between ACF Regionals and ACF Nationals (mostly closer to Regionals). No packet submission is required as I have written all the questions. Masters, bastard, and all collegiate teams are welcome to participate in this tournament. I am willing to play match-maker for this tourney, so let me know if you'd like to play and you need a team. There is currently a cap at 16 teams for the St. Louis Open, so remember to get your registration in quickly! (I may expand the field if there is sufficient interest.) The top overall team and the top two collegiate teams will be recognized, as well as a yet undetermined number of all-stars. For more info, contact Roger at . WUSTL GATEWAY INVITATION (Courtesy Jason Paik) The Washington University Academic Team is pleased to announce that it will be hosting the SIXTH ANNUAL GATEWAY INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT: The Kool-Aid Man Cometh on December 4, 1999 C.E. on the lovely campus of Washington University in St. Louis. The GIT will be a timed NAQT-style tournament with questions purchased from NAQT, LLC. Rounds will consist of two 9-minute halves. There is currently a cap at 24 teams for the GIT. We are aiming to have two 12-team brackets with play-offs following. Additional information is now posted on the website, and is found at www.rescomp.wustl.edu/~collbowl/tour.html. For more information, contact Jason at or Roger Bhan at . NAQT CHANGES DIVISION II ELIGIBILITY (Courtesy R. Robert Hentzel) National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC has decided to alter its definition of Division II eligibility. Under the new policy, students qualify to play in Division II if they meet the following requirements: 1. They do not possess degrees from any post-secondary educational institution, 2. They have competed in four or fewer distinct years of intercollegiate competition (not counting College Bowl RCTs and NCTs), 3. They have never played on a Sectionals team that qualified for the Intercollegiate Championship Tournament nor played at the Intercollegiate Championship Tournament at either the Division II or Division I levels. In short, the policy is that a student may continue to play Division II until he or she is on a team that qualifies for the ICT or four years pass, whichever comes first. For more information, visit www.naqt.com. ACF REGIONALS INFORMATION (Courtesy Andrew Yaphe) ACF regionals will be held on the weekend of February 26 at Harvard, Maryland, Tennessee-Chattanooga, Chicago, Oklahoma, and Cal Tech. To register teams for one of these tournaments, please contact the host school, not Andrew. All packets for ACF regionals, however, should be sent to Andrew at . Please indicate which team the packet is by. Questions should be formatted in accordance with the guidelines posted on the ACF website (accessible from the University of Maryland's web page). Note that each packet should contain 30 tossups and 30 boni. If you do not follow these guidelines, the packet will be returned to you, so you might as well save the hassle and do it right the first time. Please note that teams that have not attended ACF regionals within the last three years are not required to write packets (though they may if they want to), and will be charged a reduced fee. Also, only the A and B teams from a school have to write packets. Base fee ... $75 Packet discounts and penalties: Packet received by December 12 ... -$30 Packet received by January 9 ... -$15 Packet received by January 23 ... No penalty Packet received by January 30 ... +$10 Packet received by February 6 ... +$15 Packet received by February 13 ... +$25 For more information, contact Andrew Yaphe at . CREATIVE ELECTRONICS CONTINUES TO DISCOUNT BUZZERS The Creative Electronics company in Ohio manufactures the Quiz-Wizard II buzzer which is a 12 or 16 player unit for quizbowl. Actually the unit is designed for certamen (Latin bowl) and tells who signals first, second and third. Through a special deal arranged with Gaius Stern, they will sell this unit at a discounted rate to any Quizteam that needs a system. The price for a 12 player unit is about $490 and for 16 players it is $540. This price includes shipping. So far two or three college teams and about 4 high Schools have bought a system, so the company has extended the offer (deadline not specified). If you want to order a system, either call the company to say you read about the unit in the newsletter, or contact Gaius to have him call them for you. ----------------------------------------------- A combined December/January issue will go out in mid-December. Until then, Gaius & Eric