Academic Competition Newsletter Volume VIII Issue 3 Editor in chief: Gaius Stern As you can see, things have been inconsistent this year. I will try to be more reliable in 2003 by sending out issues by the 10th of each month. This issue has a calendar for announced events in 2003, a bit on buzzer history, and a piece on the top-heavy state of West Coast competition. If you wish to add or remove from the subscriber list, just send me your e-mail and a request to be added or dropped. -Gaius ------------------ CALENDAR for 2003 January 18 UT Dallas contact Doug Martin 25 UC-Riverside, USC 25 Truman State Univ (Mo) February 1 Elvis at U-Wisc-Madison Brian 1 Cardinal Classic 13, Stanford Joon 3* DePauw Duck Bowl II 8 NAQT Sectionals (various sites) 15 ACF Regionals at Witcheta, Chicago, Berkeley, UT Austin 22 Collegebowl Regionals *announced as 2/3/2003 - but I think this is a Monday. Nationals: NAQT is Apr. 5, TRASH is Apr. 12 CBI is Apr. 26. ACF ?? April 19 , but at this date no announcement for their national date. Some abbreviated tournament announcements are listed at the end of the issue. WHEN DID BUZZERS BECOME PART of QUIZBOWL? Edmund S. and Tom M. did a lot of research into this question. Their findings are summarized. In the late 60s and early 70s, quiz competition in the SE necessitated the construction of a portable buzzer system. Dr. Gordon Carper (Berry College) created a homemade portable system ca. 1971, but did not get a patent on it. Playing with a buzzer caught on immediately over the system of hand raising. At almost the same time David R. Goodson of Goleta, CA (the town where Univ of CA Santa Barbara is located) applied for a patent for his portable buzzer system which included sound (App. Jan. 26, 1972, US Pat. #3,763,577). Goodson's system was not the first lockout system (light goes on for the first player in & cuts off responses for subsequent players), but it was more portable and is more akin to what quizteams now use than its predecessors. [The first invention that we'd recognize as a lockout buzzer was invented by John P. Reynolds of Dayton, OH. (Application filed May 24th, 1950, US patent #2,654,163). Followers include Raymond W. Van Hemel of Allen Park, MI (App. Nov. 15th 1961, US Pat. #3,118,236) and Ralph M. Pincus of Paramus, NJ (App. Mar 16, 1970, US Pat #3,666,873). Van Hemel's disclosure specifies Bible Bowl.] Tom says the Purdue Alumni publication from 1962 discusses a homemade lockout system used for practice, but it does not seem to be portable. He also says Bible Bowl books from the 1964-5 show how to build a lockout system that is certainly not portable. Today there are 30 buzzer manufacturers in the US for a variety of slightly different quizbowl games. Some are designed only to show which team signalled first (conferral on all questions), some specify who signalled first, second, and third. Most are built so the first-player locks out the rest. Previous issues of the ACN review almost all of these systems. Incidentally, Gaius has helped Steve Kirkman design a new buzzer system which can play up to 20 players. It is light, portable, and has detachable cords which link the player's thumb button to the moniter (no more Gordian knot problems!). The system can be set to teams of 4 or individual mode. Small lights on top of the console indicate who signalled first. A model is now being designed with lights in front of each player. The price is affordable compared to competitors. For more information, write Steve Kirkman directly at www.QuizEquipment.com The STATE of the CALIFORNIA CIRCUIT The oddity of the CA circuit is that the Fall term has become packed with college events, while Spring term is almost empty. For HS competition the reverse is the case. In Fall UCLA, Berkeley, ACF, NAQT, and Caltech all ran contests. Whereas in Spring UCR/USC, Stanford Cardinal Classic, NAQT, and ACF Regionals will be the only events. AT first you think a ratio of 5 - 4 is not a big problem, until you realize that those five Fall events usually run in the six weeks immediately before Thanksgiving, while the Spring term has three and a half months for four events. The other problem is that few Southern CA teams (and today most teams are closer to LA) come up to the Bay Area for Berkeley and Stanford events. One hopes to see this change with Stanford CC 13. WIT 9 was up to double-digit turnout, but more teams came from out of state than from So. CA. The Berkeley club justifyably asserts that they regularly drive down to Southern CA for tournaments, but see few come up in return. Perhaps some CA schools who currently run Fall contests ought to consider running a Spring contest. One possibility is to run a mirror-contest of some school in another region (East Coast, Texas ...) to lengthen the season. In the meanwhile, North CA teams ought to address the reasons why teams from So CA rarely drive up and try to fix those problems. Distance can not be solved, but expense could be negotiated. If the issue is that WIT is not fun then Berkeley (in particular) ought to ask what they need to change. Otherwise the transformation of CA into two distinct circuits may become a reality. Announcements: UCR and USC are jointly holding a timed, NAQT tournament on January 25, 2003 on the UCR campus for colleges and high schools. This is an all day Saturday contest, 9:30 am to around 6 pm. Exact location to be fixed. There will be separate college and high school divisions. If we get enough teams, we'll consider having a HS JV division. If necessary, we will cap the field and take first teams from a school over second and third teams from other schools. - scottcal@usc.edu Truman State University in Kirksville MO will be hosting an invitational, NAQT-format tournament on January 25 of next year, for those of you not attending Penn Bowl on that date. We have questions ready to go, but the tournament happens if and only if enough organizations express interest. - CCXIII: The Legend of Zwarte Piet will be held on Sat. Feb. 1, 2003 at Stanford. Since Raj is doing ACF Nationals, Joon is in charge of editing the packets. In the past CC has attracted many strong out of state teams. Duck Bowl II, 2/3/2003 Hey everybody. This is James again reminding you all about Duck Bowl II, the most fabulous trash tournament ever! The time has not passed for registration, and you can even still get massive amounts of discounts if you send a packet and a letter of intent my way at Duck Bowl II --