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
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Nov 12-13 NAQT Conference Tournaments at following sites:
Cal-Tech
Contact: Chris Nolte
<nolte@caltech.edu>
Illinois
Contact: Mike Angel
<angel@students.uiuc.edu>
Iowa State
Contact: Joel Uckelman
<uckelman@iastate.edu>
Nov 20 Washington-St Louis
Contact: Roger Bhan
<rsbhan@artsci.wustl.edu>
Texas-Austin (NAQT Conference Tournament)
Contact: Jeff Ford
<jeffford@cs.utexas.edu>
Dec 4 Washington-St Louis
Contact: Jason Paik
<jcpaik@artsci.wustl.edu>
Feb 11-12 NAQT Sectionals at following sites:
Berkeley
Contact: Jason Hong
<jasonh@cs.berkeley.edu>
Northwestern
Contact: Tyler Johnson
<t-johnson4@nwu.edu>
Oklahoma
Contact: Stephen Gill
<sgill@ou.edu>
Texas-Austin
Contact: Jeff Ford
<jeffford@cs.utexas.edu>
Washington
Contact: Jason Brown
<ringostr@u.washington.edu>
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
<mason@robotics.caltech.edu>
Chicago
Contact: ??
<jetangre@midway.uchicago.edu>
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 <rsbhan@artsci.wustl.edu>.
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 <jcpaik@artsci.wustl.edu> or Roger Bhan at
<rsbhan@artsci.wustl.edu>.
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 <adyaphe@midway.uchicago.edu>. 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
<adyaphe@midway.uchicago.edu>.
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
<gaius@socrates.berkeley.edu> to have him call them for you.
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A combined December/January issue will go out in mid-December.
Until then,
Gaius & Eric