GLRAC returns to CWRU! (3/10/2018)

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GLRAC returns to CWRU! (3/10/2018)

Postby tmcmaken » Mon Jan 08, 2018 4:14 pm

The Case Western Reserve University Quizbowl Team is pleased to announce the 2018 Great Lakes Regional Academic Championship (GLRAC) on Saturday, March 10, 2018 on the campus of CWRU in Cleveland, Ohio.

The GLRAC is a regular academic spring tournament using the PACE format, and hosting it has been a part of the CWRU tradition since the 90s, regularly drawing teams from out-of-state. We haven’t hosted it in the past few years since Steven Wellstead’s graduation, but now we are once again able to offer a quality tournament for students who want to prepare for PACE NSC or simply to enjoy playing quizbowl!

FORMAT
The structure will involve a bracketed round robin for the preliminary rounds, followed by a rebracketing into playoff brackets of similarly skilled teams. Each team will be guaranteed 7 games, although this number will likely increase if it is logistically feasible while still finishing by around 4 PM. There will be no separate division for JV players.
There will be an initial cap of 16 teams because that day a data science competition also happening on campus limits room availability, but we will certainly try our best to find space and increase the cap if there is enough demand.

QUESTION SET
The questions will use the PACE-style format (bonus bouncebacks, 20-point powers, and no negs). The distribution is the same as that used by PACE NSC (http://www.pace-nsc.org/nsc-question-set-distribution/), and the questions are housewritten and edited by members of the CWRU Quizbowl Team. A sample half-packet, so you know what to expect, can be found here: https://www.scribd.com/document/368696912/Half-packet-2018-GLRAC-CWRU
This set, GLRAC XVI, will be available to mirror starting in March; please contact me if you’d like more details.
This tournament is anticipated to be a qualifier for the PACE NSC.

FEE STRUCTURE:
Base team fee: $60
Additional teams discount: -$10 for each extra team
Buzzer discount: -$5 per working set (max of 1 per team)
Travel discount: -$15 per 100 miles traveled one-way (via Google Maps)
New to CWRU discount: -$5 if your team hasn’t attended a CWRU tournament in the past 5 years
Early registration discount: -$15 for each team you register by Monday, January 29th.

Registration will close on Saturday, March 3rd at 11:59 PM, with an early entry deadline of January 29th.
To register, send an email to our President (me) at tcm49@case.edu with the number of teams your school will be bringing and all discounts of which you intend to take advantage.
Please bring your payment with you the morning of the tournament, either cash or check (made out to “CWRU College Trivia Club”).

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE:

*note: parking is available at Lot 54 or Lot 84.
8-8:30am Registration in Guilford House lobby
8:45am - General Meeting
9am - Round 1 starts (play will be in Clark Hall and Guilford House, on the Mather quad)
noon-1pm - Lunch – There are places to eat on Euclid Avenue, the Tinkham Veale University Center, or the University Hospital cafeteria.
12:45-4:00pm - Remaining Rounds
4:00pm - Winning announcements in Clark Hall room 309


If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or wish to register, please email me (tcm49@case.edu) - we look forward to seeing you at CWRU on March 10th!
Last edited by tmcmaken on Sun Jan 28, 2018 8:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Tyler McMaken
tcm49@case.edu
St. Charles '14
CWRU '18 (B.A. Physics, B.A. Music)
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Re: GLRAC returns to CWRU! (3/10/2018)

Postby tmcmaken » Mon Jan 08, 2018 4:17 pm

FIELD UPDATE:

Total: 18 teams

School / # teams / # buzzers
Copley / 2 / 1
Solon / 2 / 2
Miami Valley / 1 / 0
Boardman 1 / 1
DCC / 2 / 1
Westlake / 1 / 1
Allderdice / 1 / 1
Olentangy Liberty / 3 / 3
Saint Ignatius / 2 / 1
Monroeville / 1 / 0
North Olmsted / 2 / 0
Last edited by tmcmaken on Sat Mar 10, 2018 11:46 pm, edited 13 times in total.
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Re: GLRAC returns to CWRU! (3/10/2018)

Postby tmcmaken » Sun Feb 11, 2018 9:52 pm

Update: this tournament is now confirmed as a gold qualifier for the PACE NSC (top 20% of teams will qualify for the nationals tournament in D.C.). We're 1 month away from the tournament, so be sure to sign up soon if you haven't already!
Tyler McMaken
tcm49@case.edu
St. Charles '14
CWRU '18 (B.A. Physics, B.A. Music)
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Re: GLRAC returns to CWRU! (3/10/2018)

Postby tmcmaken » Sat Mar 10, 2018 11:53 pm

Thanks once again to everyone who came out, and congratulations to DCC A for clearing the field outright. Stats are now posted here.
Tyler McMaken
tcm49@case.edu
St. Charles '14
CWRU '18 (B.A. Physics, B.A. Music)
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Re: GLRAC returns to CWRU! (3/10/2018)

Postby TwoHeaded_Beast » Mon Mar 12, 2018 8:59 am

I want to share my thoughts about this tournament. I hope I am not overstepping, but I want to address legitimate concerns that I have.

First of all, congratulations to DCC, Allderdice, and all of the teams that attended this tournament. The questions were very good, if a bit above the advertised difficulty, and moderators were excellent overall. I enjoyed playing this weekend, but a few things were disappointing to me.

The most serious of these concerns involves seeding and, therefore, bracketing. I would be interested to know the method of seeding that was used and the reason that a bracket composed mostly of B and C teams was given equal opportunity in the afternoon as brackets containing, among others, the reigning national champions in this distribution. This would be more understandable for a larger field, but at a tournament of this size, it makes much more sense to divide stronger teams equally among morning brackets. Because of the seeding, DCC A was in our bracket, putting us out of contention for second place even though they went on to win the tournament and we did not lose to any other teams. From the beginning of the tournament, it was already clear that we would have no way to place better than third, short of beating DCC A in two consecutive games. This is not to say that Allderdice is not a strong team (which they definitely are), but I think it is of interest to tournament quality that the second and third place teams play each other if said places have not otherwise been determined in a thorough way. Most tournaments ensure that such de facto ties are broken by guaranteeing that all playoff/superplayoff teams play each other. This cannot usually be accomplished in seven rounds. I understand time concerns, and finishing early is always desirable, but there is generally a good reason why Platinum certification by PACE requires a guarantee of nine games. I sincerely do not want to come across as a sore loser, but I maintain that these are significant issues that can easily be fixed by 1) using more conventional seeding and bracketing methods, 2) adding (in this case) one extra round so that all teams in the same afternoon bracket play each other, and 3) using one of any number of common practices for the afternoon such as disregarding prelim records or seeding by PPB.

I would love to attend this tournament in the future (and I encourage others to do so), but I am sure it would make me, as well as others, happier to know that these issues have been resolved. Congratulations again to all teams that played.
John John Groger
Miami Valley '20
Columbia '24
(Usually the one posting)

William Groger
Miami Valley '21
Columbia '25
2017 Middle School Player of the Year
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Re: GLRAC returns to CWRU! (3/10/2018)

Postby ppadmanabhan » Mon Mar 12, 2018 7:27 pm

Just chiming in to say I completely agree with and support John John's concerns about bracketing. Not sure if any seeding was done, but having the top two Morlan ranked teams in the field (both top 20) in one bracket is unfortunate. In addition, even though it would've resulted in a later finish time, I agree that one or two more rounds should've been played for the sake of including more teams in the championship bracket and allowing those teams to play each other to differentiate themselves.

Aside from this issue, I thoroughly enjoyed playing GLRAC; the readers were excellent, the questions were well-written, fun, and creative, and playing top-notch teams on a high difficulty (but still accessible) set is always a good time. Thanks to CWRU for writing and hosting, and congratulations to DCC A and all other teams who played!
Pranav Padmanabhan
Boardman 2018
Youngstown State 2018
Ohio State 2022
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Re: GLRAC returns to CWRU! (3/10/2018)

Postby tmcmaken » Tue Mar 13, 2018 10:58 pm

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback! I just want to say that in our discussions following the tournament, we as a team do agree with everything mentioned here. The unbalanced initial seeding was an oversight on my part (along with Solon B playing in the same room all morning!). With regards to the playoffs, I do want to note that with the originally-planned schedule I had, match assignments were intended to give the most diverse (across-bracket) games possible in 2 rounds (in the top, that would've been DCC-Westlake and Allderdice-Miami Valley in round 6, and judging from PPG, DCC-Miami Valley and Allderdice-Westlake in round 7). The only reason for the change was that some teams raised concerns that a more conventional final two rounds would involve giving the teams with higher seeds more of the advantage they deserve through their match assignments (though this again does rely too heavily on the assignments of the initial seeding/bracketing). Either way, I myself would have loved to have seen at least one more round to solidify the final standings, notwithstanding constraints on our packet writing/editing capabilities during our midterms week and setbacks concerning teams' long travel times home. We'll definitely be continuing these discussions in the future and are glad our first academic tournament in a half a dozen years ran smoothly despite the bracketing oversights.
Tyler McMaken
tcm49@case.edu
St. Charles '14
CWRU '18 (B.A. Physics, B.A. Music)
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Re: GLRAC returns to CWRU! (3/10/2018)

Postby harip » Sun Jun 24, 2018 4:20 pm

Will this set be posted to the question archive?
Hari Parameswaran
Beavercreek High School 2019
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