Academic Competition Newsletter Volume IX Issue 5 Editor in chief: Gaius Stern 10 March 2003 To start with, I labeled both the December and the January issue IX.3. Since the January issue was really IX.4, this issue is IX.5. Secondly, since I lost track of the Stanford Cardinal Classic results, those will be in the next issue. As will ACF results or at least links and comments. If you wish to add or remove a subscription, merely contact me at and I can add/drop you from the list. The ACN is a free, e-mail serial with updates and other info for quizbowl players on quizbowl related issues. This issue has: Spring calendar Recent results Dos and don'ts in running a tournament Book review by Jay miscellany ------------- Spring Calendar 2003 Upcoming Events: Mar. 15 Wash U St Louis TRash Tournament (?) Mar. 22 Wash Univ. SLUTT (Trash) Apr. 4-5 NAQT ICT at UCLA Apr. 12 TRASH Nats Apr. 19 ACF Nats at GA Tech Apr. 26 Princeton Buzzerfest mirror at UC-Berk Recent Events: IOWA STATE WINS FIFTH ANNUAL CARLETON UNDERGRADUATE TOURNAMENT from Eric Hillemann, Tournament Director. This year 22 teams played at Carleton. CUT limits the field to undergraduate players only, playing on one or two-person teams, except for first-year players or teams from schools which earned no NAQT ICT invitation either of the two years before the present one. Participants included multiple teams from the same school: Northwestern x4, Carleton x5 (all with Norse myth names), St. Olaf x2, Loyola, Iowa State x3, Minnesota, St. Thomas, Wisconsin x2, Illinois, Drake, and one player from Grinnell. Not every team had 4 players. The winning team, Iowa State B had only two: Matt Cvijanovich, Tim Kearns. Congratulations to the undefeated Iowa State duo of Matt Cvijanovich and Tim Kearns, who won the championship by defeating a trio from Minnesota in the finals, 300-220. U-ARK WINS N.U.T.S. at WITCHITA STATE from Vic D'Amico Congratulations to the University of Arkansas for their win over the University of Tulsa in the best-2-out-of-3 finals to win the N.U.T.S. event hosted at Wichita State University on Saturday, March 8th. Participants included Tulsa (10-1), Arkansas (8-3), WSU A and B, Buena Vista A and B, and Cloud County Community. Here's how it all broke down: The teams initially played a single round robin and the result was a perfect distribution. The field was then divided into a top bracket of four teams and a bottom bracket of three. This would have been accomplished neatly except for that fact that we didn't allow WSU B to qualify for the top bracket due to it consisting of a solo "bastard" player that has not yet enrolled at WSU. Each team then played a single round robin within its new bracket. Arkansas and Tulsa were both 8-1 at that point, but in the best 2/3 finals Arkansas won the first two matches. Here are the top players, listed by TUs -5s, and Points per game. Josh Hill Arkansas 9 49 13 181 2.35 425 47.22 Granite Grant Tulsa 9 41 2 181 2.21 400 44.44 Frodo 4 Drunk Hobbits 9 37 3 181 1.96 355 39.44 Phillip Reason Arkansas 9 31 2 181 1.66 300 33.33 Agile Angelo Tulsa 9 30 5 181 1.52 275 30.56 Complete final stats will soon be available at: http://webs.wichita.edu/quizbowl/tournaments/nutsresults.html BERKELEY WINS STANFORD WILDCAT MIRROR from Waynn Berkeley A defeated teams from Stanford, Berkeley, Riverside, and a masters team to win the Stanf. mirror of Kelly McKenzie's Wildcat. The acronym WIT was already taken by Berk many years ago, so maybe Kelly can alter his acronym. The tournament was a double RR. Stanford took 2nd. The top players were R. Hentzel, Jerry V (Berk), Raj (Stanf) and Joon (Stanf). Stanford compiled the stats using Chris Sewall's SQBS program. Full statistics are available at http://quizbowl.stanford.edu/stats/wildcat03/wildcatmirror_standings.html HS QUESTION WRITING OFFER U-Tenn-Chat is running its 6th annual Dennis Haskins Open High School Quizbowl on Sat., March 22. The contact is Charlie Steinhice, . Charlie may still be looking for contributions and might be willing to give contributors all of the other submitted packets. If you can assemble a good HS round fast, drop him a line. TOURNAMENT DO's and DON'Ts Some of this may seem obvious, but in light of the near disaster at West Coast ACF when the TD forgot to reserve rooms and then discovered the campus was already booked, it seems prudent to circulate a small checklist for running tournaments. * Send out invitations with 4 weeks notice * Reserve rooms as early in advance as possible (?4 weeks) * Ensure that staff = 2/room. * Pull out your house team if you do not have enough staff. * Xerox scoresheets in advance (questions packets too). * Schedule the editing for WEDs before the tourney, not Thurs. and DEFINATELY not Friday morning! * Plan your prizes 12 days in advance, not at last minute. * Plan food (if any) 5 days in advance. The RETURN OF THE BOOK REVIEW by Jay While writing a science question I wanted a source to provide me with the oh so necessary historical information for my question on Newton. Which is why I found Great Feuds in Science by Hellman a comfort to read. In a light, easy style he gives flesh to disputes and disputants of controversies such as, Johansen vs. the Leakeys or Newton vs. Leibniz. It is an introductory book without the baggage of excessive detail but does provide a decent bibliography. It would serve as a good source for question writing for high schools and junior bird level questions. Unfortunately, there was no information to be had about famous knife wielding physicists (one cant have everything). >From squabbling scientists and philosophers we march towards the medical community with yes, Great Feuds in Medicine. By the same author it provides the same type of information that the previous book did easy to digest explanations of complex theories and fleshing out of the human participants. It has one of the more balanced examinations of the Roslyn Franklin vs. John Watson controversy though some would argue that the author lets the gender bias issue slide too easily. Both books are worthwhile and for those quizbowlers who need a story framework to properly place certain people and events they both serve well. Would I spend the 36+ dollars let us say that a remainder copy would be nice, and a library version even nicer. Do not fear, trash aficionados I have a book for you too. The As Seen on TV book by Harry and Stall was worth every ill-gotten dollar. As someone who does not sleep for days on end, reading this book was a pleasure because now you can know the behind the scene stories of such inventions as the Flobee and ThighMaster. Fifty products were covered but it is the items not covered greatly like Zamfir, Lord of the Pan-Flute, which made their absence felt. As a person who was about to write the 1-800 number for Yablo, God of the Bulgarian Ocarina, I felt let down in a certain way. But it was a pleasure to read anyway and with the availability of this book trash-writers have a reasonable expectation that people would be able to answer questions about Chi-Chi-Chia, pets! Finally ... BERKELEY CHANGES WEBSITE URL The Berkeley Quizbowl Club webpage can now be found at www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~quizbowl The resources page of the website has important items such as tournament round-robin scheduling, old issues of the ACN, and links to important other pages. Jerry and Kathryn designed most of the lexicon page, the design of which was shamelessly thieved from the Michigan web page. that is all ... --------------------