1996/10/27

         Beltway Bandits II- Squeeze The Hippo has just concluded (well, I
watched "The Simpsons" Halloween show, made some noodles for dinner,
and started this report just into "The X-Files," which I am watching
right now as I type.  So I lied.  Sue me.  :) and, anyway, here be
some preliminary-type information and stuff.

   The tournament was much fun.  I had a wonderful time, and I think
everyone else did too.  Question quality was pretty good.  Every pack
was readable, most were good, and a few were things of beauty and a
joy forever.  Loyola, in particular, deserves kudos.  GWU was a class
act as hosts, and gets extra credit for the home-made cookies.

   Quick results:

	At the end of the round-robin:

	1)	New Quiz Bowl Order	10-1	(l. to Maryland)
		(James Dinan, John Edwards, Fred Bush, Jason Block)

	2)	A Very Gerbil Sequel	9-2	(l. to NQBO, Delaware)
		(BU people, not sure which)

	3)	Maryland		9-2	(l. to AVGS, Loyola)

	4)	"Kevin Elster"		8-3	(l. to the above 3)
		(Dwight Kidder and Joe Wright)

	5)	Delaware		8-3	(l. to NQBO, AVGS, Kevin)


   The rest of the field: UMBC Slurpee, UMBC Big Gulp, Georgetown A,
Georgetown B, Loyola, Dickinson, and Randolph-Macon.  I'm not sure who
was next, I think Georgetown B and then maybe Loyola.  I believe that
Dwight Kidder was the top individual scorer, as, um, unlikely as that
may sound.  :)

   There was a single game playoff, between the top two teams.  The
expectations were high, as the round-robin match between New Quiz Bowl
Order and A Very Gerbil Sequel was a real slam-bang buzzfest on a very
good packet which I was privileged enough to watch since we had a bye
since it was our packet.  Not that I had anything to do with it, since
I was out of the writing loop.  The featured attractions lived up to
the hype, but when the dust had cleared, A Very Gerbil Sequel won the
rematch.  The final round included a number of "physical challenge"
questions, at least one of which was captured on film by Jon Lazar and
some other guy, who I think was from the GWU newspaper.  Jon, as we
don't have the new newsgroup with the charter prohibiting binary files,
when can we expect to see the GIF, eh?  :)

---
David Vacca