ANNOUNCEMENT: ACF Fall Tournaments

mac4731 · Fri, 27 Apr 2001 11:55:40 -0700

Before teams disband for the summer, I wanted to
take the opportunity to make the official announcement
for the inaugural ACF Fall Tournaments, to be held at
various regional sites around the country on the weekend
of November 3, 2001. Since this is a new set of
tournaments, I'd like to take a moment to explain the
motivation for this event (other than to provide quizbowl
teams with a high-quality set of tournaments). In
recent years, ACF has gained the reputation for using
extremely difficult questions which are not readily
accessible to younger players, and this reputation is not
entirely undeserved. Because of this, my main goal as
chief editor will be to provide a set of high-quality
questions in tune with the philosophy of ACF which are
readily accessible to younger, less-experiences players,
while at the same time challenging to grizzled quizbowl
veterans. Based on the great success Subash Maddipoti had
with this season's Regionals questions, I am convinced
that this is a goal well within
reach.

Concerning fees, here is how that will break
down:

Base fee: $75

Packet Discounts and
Penalties:

Packet received by:
August 12: -$35
Sept. 7:
-$20
Sept. 21: -$15
Sept. 28: -$10
Oct. 12: no
penalty
Oct. 19: +$15
Oct 24: +$25
(Note that no packets
will be accepted after October 24 unless prior
arrangements have been made with me.)

Equipment
discounts:
Buzzers: -$5 per buzzer, maximum of two
Competent
officials: -$10 each
Multiple teams: -$5 for B teams,
-$10 for each subsequent team
"New" teams: If your
school did not compete at ACF Regionals or Nationals in
the last two years, you will not be required to write
a packet, and will pay a base fee of $55, with the
non-packet discounts still available)

Minimum fee:
$40

Divisions: Like ACF tournaments in previous years, there
will be no separate section for Div II teams. However,
in keeping with the theme of making this tournament
friendly to new players, awards will be given to the top
two Div II teams, and the top individual Div II
scorers will also be recognized. For the purposes of this
tournament, Div II teams must consist entirely of players who
are in their first or second year of intercollegiate
quizbowl competition.

Packets: As far as I am
concerned, this is the most important part of this
announcement. In order to achieve the goals stated above, we at
ACF will need your help. It is vitally important that
the packets you submit be written at an appropriate
difficulty level; there is only so much that editors can do
with packets which are written at an inappropriate
difficulty level. Specifically, be sure to take advantage of
the pyramid structure of ACF questions. In this way,
one can write questions about topics of basic
importance to their fields which are both readily accessible
to inexperienced players and which will reward deep
knowledge of the subject (if you are unsure whether a
certain answer is acceptable, feel free to ask me at the
email address listed below). As always, packets should
consist of 30 tossups and 30 bonuses. Be sure to consult
the ACF Question Writing Supplement at
<a href=http://www.inform.umd.edu/StudentOrg/maqt/acf/documents.html target=new>http://www.inform.umd.edu/StudentOrg/maqt/acf/documents.html</a> and the ACF Formatting Guidelines at
<a href=http://www.inform.umd.edu/StudentOrg/maqt/acf/formatting.html target=new>http://www.inform.umd.edu/StudentOrg/maqt/acf/formatting.html</a> for other packet writing details.

Specific
information about regional hosts for these Fall Tournaments
will be provided by the hosts after these have been
determined (information concerning the process for selection
of hosts will be forthcoming). In the meantime, if
you have any questions or concerns, please email me
at ksmcke0_at_....

Thanks,
Kelly
McKenzie
Chief editor, ACF Fall Tournaments