Academic Competition Newletter Volume VII, issue 1 September 2000 Welcome to the 7th year of the ACN. The objective of the ACN is to provide new and established QB programs with information of all aspects on the sport of Quiz-bowl. 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. Topics and articles vary from game strategy and equipment to resources and announcements of upcoming events or results of recent tournaments. Because College Quiz-bowl now has three formats, each with its own national championship, the ACN has decided to take a non-partisan position and publishes announcements from subscribers at no cost. The ACN neither charges nor accepts payment for advertising tournaments, and strongly encourages the community to send in announcements. Guest columns are also welcome. In the both cases, the editors request that contributors send items to the editors, not to the entire subscriber list. Subscriptions are free and can be made for individuals or club mailing lists. Simply drop a note to the editors Gaius Stern or Eric Owens with the word "subscribe ACN" in the subject header. Likewise, to drop a subscription simply write the editors. This issue's contents: Tips for new players starting a club comments on QB in the media Invitations for: Iowa, UCLA, USC, and Cal-Berkeley tournaments Fall Calendar (Midwest, SW, and West) ------------------------------------------------- To New Players hoping to start a new club If you played in high school or are otherwise inspired to start a quizbowl team at your college, good luck! Several current and former players have written columns to help new programs. Two of these columns, by Tom Michael and Hayden Hurst, are available on the Maize Pages at http://www.umich.edu/~uac/mac/maize/. As a short recap here is some advice which might prove helpful. Your best bet at finding club members is by setting up a table in your schools main quad or route of foot traffic. Many schools run an Activity Day early in the year, so you will have to consult the Student Government as to how to get permission to set up a table. Actually having a buzzer system is a great ploy because everyone who has played will recognize it immediately. Another successful draw is a TV with a VCR playing a local quiz-game. If you have a televised high school quiz-game this is best, but Jeopardy! is just fine. Have the first meeting time and place already established so you can give out fliers with this info already available. Once you have a few members and you meet for the first time, simply play questions (downloaded for free from web) the first meeting or two. Put off elections so that the focus stays of the activity, not on power issues. Running a club like this takes a lot of time, so establishing co-presidents or consuls is a good idea and re-electable semester long terms are prudent. If you do not have a buzzer system, lobby the SGA to purchase one, focusing on the academic potential and drive of your club. Many clubs loan out their buzzers to other student groups for annual trivia events. It is wise to mention this if you know of potential events who could use your buzzer to back your request. Some schools have administrator-run annual QB competitions. In some cases the administrators will be helpful in organizing your club. However beware. Many administrators have a dim view of how this activity really works. Few are aware of the circuit of college teams who play one another monthly, and some have bizarre misconceptions about the circuit. If your administrator is wed to the idea of an annual quiz-competition and rejects the notion of participating in other events, simply stop including him/her in your plans. You will not be able to bring them around, because to them this is just one of 50 activities they do every year. Just proceed without them. Finally a very strong method of acquiring SGA support for your activity is to put on a high school competition. Point out how this activity will bring local potential students to the campus and demonstrate the schools vested interest in academic excellence. Sometimes admissions committees want to speak for five minutes at the start to "sell" your school. Encourage this because their support is useful and will legitimize your clubs mission even to an unreceptive SGA. MEDIA and QUIZBOWL With the recent success of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, quiz-games are suddenly much more popular. In the summer of 2000, three QB players won big money, Ron Triguero (Fresno St.), Nick Meyer (Cal), and David Hamilton (former Maryland and Michigan) who won $1 million. Jeopardy has also made wealthy many QBers including two $100,000 Champions of the Year Scott [last name lost] (U-VA) and Mike Dupee (Emory). A recent Berkeley PhD, Jill Schlessinger is now writing a book on the success of this gameshow and public perception of trivia contests. She invites contributions (send them to gaius@uclink4.berkeley.edu to be forwarded) Many QBers find the questions on Millionaire remain very simple until they reach a stopper. The questions do not always get incrementally harder, but jump from easy to impossible. Many questions are standard QB material. On the high value end, playing quizbowl only goes so far, since many of those questions do not fall within the realm of regular QB material. Iowa to host This Tournament Goes to Eleven The University of Iowa will be hosting "This Tournament Goes To Eleven: One Louder" will be held Friday, September 29th, and Saturday, September 30th. Tournament format consists of eight players, with each round offering two different theme or subject packets to play, with the team splitting into two smaller squads to play both packets. Tournament fees for eight players are $200, with discounts for buzzers, moderators, and early packet submission. For more information, contact Matt Larson at malarson75@hotmail.com or Mike Ose at michael-ose@uiowa.edu. UCLA to host TWAIN I The UCLA College Bowl Club will host TWAIN I (Tournament Without An Interesting Name, the First), on September 30th, on the UCLA campus. The format is untimed, with NAQT tour questions. Teams are guaranteed eleven rounds. Base fees are $85, with discounts for additional teams, buzzers, and moderators. For more information, contact Patrick Friel at pfriel@math.ucla.edu. Space is limited, so register soon. USC to host Tremor Bowl II USC Quiz Bowl announces the premiere fall event for West Coast Quiz Bowl (as far as we know): West Coast Live Aid AKA Tremor Bowl II: The Aftershock! The tournament will be held on October 14, 2000 at the University of Southern California. There is no question submission. All questions written by University of Tennessee--Chattanooga, University of Missouri--Rolla, and USC. Contact Tim Woodward for information. CAL Berkeley to host WIT 8 The Berkeley Quiz Bowl Club is pleased to announce WIT VIII: Tournament without an Usher, in honor of recent CAL graduate and now MIT Math Ph.D Candidate Michael Usher, a packet submission tournament Oct. 20-21, 2000. The tournament will consist of untimed rounds of 20 questions. The field will be divided into Open and JV divisions. We request (but do not require) that each team in the Open division submit one packet of questions. This request is backed up with incentives. In addition, Berkeley is eager to make a question swap for this contest with a university in another part of the country. For any questions please contact Ross Ritterman Fall Calendar Sep 29-30 Iowa Sep 30 UCLA Twain I Oct 7 Oklahoma Oct 13-14 Minnesota Deep Bench Oct 14 USC Tremor Bowl Oct 14-15 Missouri-Rolla Oct 20-21 Berkeley WIT 8 Oct 21 Illinois Novice Tournament Oct 28 Washington-St Louis Nov 4-5 TRASH Regionals sites TBA Nov 10-11 NAQT IFT at Washington NAQT IFT at Wisconsin Nov 11 Berkeley Bear Cub Classic (HS event) UC Irvine HS Nov 17-18 NAQT IFT at Stanford NAQT IFT at Texas A&M Nov 19 Berkeley Latin Certamen (HS event) Until next month, when we greet you with several more tournament announcements. Eric Owens Gaius Stern etowens@feist.com gaius@uclink4.berkeley.edu