The UTC Academic Trivia Association will host its 6th annual "junior bird" tournament, Sword Bowl 2004, on Sat., Jan. 25, 2004. Once again this is the same weekend as Penn Bowl, one of the nation's premier quizbowl tournaments for 4-year schools. So Sword Bowl is designed as an alternative for less experienced teams. ELIGIBILITY: The tournament is open to the following: * Teams from 4-year colleges/universities composed entirely of freshmen and/or sophomores and/or upperclassmen in their first or second year of intercollegiate quizbowl competition. (Important note: since the untimed game and ACF-style format differs so greatly from the CBI style, participation in CBI and HCASC tournaments will not be counted as previous intercollegiate experience.) * Junior college teams, even if they include players with two or more years' intercollegiate experience * High school teams willing to take their chances with the above Multiple teams may participate from the same school. However, players on any given team must be enrolled in the same school; open or mixed-affiliation schools are not accepted. FORMAT: This will be modified ACF style, with untimed rounds of 20 tossups (worth 10 pts. each) and up to 20 bonuses (worth a possible 30 pts. each.) Packet submission is *optional but strongly encouraged.* FIELD SIZE: Owing to the number of readers expected, we have tentatively capped the field at 44 teams. If we get more readers we may be able to expand this, but I think it's unlikely we'll need to (Sword Bowl has yet to break the 30-team mark thus far.) SCHEDULE: By popular demand, again this year we're making this a Saturday-only tournament. Registration will begin at 9:00 EST with announcements at 9:45 and the tournament beginning at 10. I'll have a better idea of when it will end when I have a better idea of the size of the field, but the last four years it's ended around 8 PM. LOCATION: We may have a change from our usual location in Grote and Holt Halls on the UT-Chattanooga campus. But until that's confirmed, we'll assume tournament headquarters is once again in 129 Grote Hall. FEES: Again, we do not require packets but offer generous discounts for packet submission. Fees therefore can range from $50 to $100 for a team. Here's the fee structure: Base fee $80 per team Minimum fee $50 per team, with further discounts possible for service at TrashMasters Discounts (other than packet): - $5 for working lockout buzzer system [Bring spares if you have 'em; if we need to use 'em we'll knock off another $5.] - $5 for full-time official for Sword Bowl - $10 for each team after the first from the same school [Note: each team will need to submit its own packet, blind to all other teams from the same school, to get the packet discount.] - $10 for any school making its first appearance at a UTC-sponsored tournament. - $25 for each full-time official provided for TrashMasters Dec. 6-7, or $15 for Dec. 6 only, or $10 for Dec. 7 only [e-mail me for details if interested] Packet discounts/penalties: - $20 for packet (25 tossups, 25 boni, meeting the guidelines below) submitted by Sun., Dec. 21 - $10 for packet submitted by Sun., Jan. 4 Zero discount/penalty for packet submitted between Sun., Jan. 4, and midnight Sun., Jan. 11 [No packets will be accepted after midnight Jan. 11 except by prior arrangement.] Zero discount/penalty for a packet, even if submitted early, if it duplicates one being submitted for Penn Bowl. (Why? Because we have a pre-tournament question swap with Penn Bowl, so we'd get those questions anyway, and we want to encourage B teams from schools whose A teams are Penn Bowl-bound to write their own rounds.) + $20 for no packet submission [please let me know in advance] PACKET EDITING NOTES: We can send a sample round if you're not familiar with the modified ACF style. Also, after Sword Bowl 1999 we compiled editing notes to help future packet writers. If you'd like a copy of those editing notes to get a better feel for what we're looking for, e-mail me and I'll send 'em along. PACKET SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: First, a caveat. Once again, courtesy of Penn Bowl director Samer Ismail, we have a pre-tournament question swap with Penn Bowl. For the handful of schools that may be sending teams to both tournaments, we want to encourage the less experienced Sword Bowl-bound teams to write their own rounds, at the less difficult Sword Bowl level. We will therefore only offer packet discounts for original packets submitted for Sword Bowl. However, we will accept without discount or penalty the same packet being submitted for Penn Bowl, provided (a) it is submitted by Sun., Jan. 11, and (b) it is blind to all but the one Sword Bowl team submitting it. As for the packets themselves, we want questions at a degree of difficulty appropriate for less experienced collegiate teams, but still structured in the style of ACF questions (pyramidal tossups, all bonuses worth 30 possible points, etc.) To make editing easier, we ask for 25 tossups and 25 bonuses per packet, distributed as follows: Literature 5 Recommended: at least 2 20th century, at least 2 pre-20th century at least 2 U.S./Canadian, at least 2 non-U.S./Canadian Sciences 5 Required: at least 1 each of biology, physics, and chemistry History 5 Recommended: at least 2 20th century, at least 2 pre-20th century at least 2 U.S./Canadian, at least 2 non-U.S./Canadian The remaining 10 should include at least 1 each and no more than 3 of: Philosophy/religion/myth Fine arts Social sciences incl. geography Popular culture General knowledge/interdisciplinary As for the style: Tossups -- average length 3 sentences. We want questions that begin with lesser-known but uniquely identifying details and gradually get easier. And please don't violate the pronoun rule -- e.g.,, if your first pronoun is "He..." the answer should be the person, not a title. Bonuses -- all bonuses worth a possible 30 pts.; no single-part all-or-nothing bonuses. Bonuses should be such that a novice team stands a good chance of getting at least 10 pts., a good team 20, and the best teams all 30 pts. We prefer not to use 6-part, 5 pts. per part boni unless they're *real* short and quick to read. Submission format: I prefer MS Word or RTF, with the answers in boldface and preceded by the word "Answer:". Also, to hold down copying costs, I use 11 point Times New Roman and expand all margins to .5". It's not essential, but it makes my life easier, so I thought I'd mention it. LODGINGS: We have not confirmed a hotel discount but will do so as soon as possible. E-mail me if interested and I'll get you the details. DIRECTIONS: ***Note changes*** (they've rerouted a parking lot entrance) From Atlanta and points south -- take I-75 to Chattanooga, then I-24 west towards downtown, then follow the freeway splitoff for U.S. 27 North, downtown Chattanooga. From 27 North take the 4th Street exit, within sight of the Tennessee Aquarium. Go right on 4th St. (you have no choice) and follow it for ca. 1 mile. When you reach the UTC Arena, turn right on Mabel St. Mabel St. goes around a curve and becomes E. 5th St. You'll pass a cemetery on the left and Holt Hall on the right. Continue to the next cross street, Palmetto. Turn right on Palmetto, then right again on Vine St. Vine St. dead-ends soon thereafter; where it ends, there's a parking lot on the right. Grote is the closer of the two buildings adjoining the same parking lot. * From Knoxville and points north -- take I-75 to Chattanooga, then I-24 West; directions from there same as above. * From Nashville and points west/north: Take I-24 east to Chattanooga. As you round Moccasin Bend (freeway goes alongside river) watch for two exit lanes on the right; take the less rightward of the two, which will have signs above it for U.S. 27 N. Rest of directions are the same as above. * From Birmingham and points southwest: Take I-59 to the outskirts of Chattanooga, where it dead-ends into I-24. Get on I-24 East and follow the Nashville directions from there. WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE?: Who would have guessed? The tournament director is...
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