Mellon Bowl - 10/28/17

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Mellon Bowl - 10/28/17

Postby ppadmanabhan » Sat Oct 28, 2017 5:32 pm

Boardman participated in the Mellon Bowl at Carnegie Mellon today as the only team from Ohio. We finished 6-1 in the morning with a loss to Allderdice A and a thrilling victory over eventual champions Alagar Homeschool, but poor seeding caused us to fall to the consolation bracket, where we easily went 4-0 and finished 7th.

While the questions and readers were great, there were some serious issues with the logistics of the tournament. First of all, seeding Alagar and Allderdice A, the #4 and #10 teams in PA according to the GPQB poll, along with us shows a lack of research into the teams participating. All three teams ended up with over 20 PPB in the morning rounds, and those were the three highest PPB's in the entire 24-team field. One of these three teams would have to go to consolation based on the way the brackets were organized, and that hurts both that team as well as everyone else in the consolation bracket.

In addition, the tournament directors originally wrote down the standings for the playoffs on the chalkboard with Allderdice A and Boardman the top two in bracket H based on PPG. However, they later erased the board and declared they were going to have a three-team tiebreaker of tossup-only half packets; this caused all three teams involved to plead their cases, leading to at least a 30 minute delay. The original seeding was blatantly incorrect, and along with that, there was no plan set in place for a potential tiebreaker. The playoff rounds ended around 5:30, at which time an advantaged final for Alagar was deemed necessary. However, Allderdice agreed to forfeit so everyone could go home.

We enjoyed playing a variety of teams we don't usually get to see, and the teams themselves, including Alagar and Allderdice, were fun to play against, friendly, and empathetic. However, it is unlikely we will come back to this tournament in the future.

I will post a more detailed explanation of our grievances on the national forums later. Congrats to Alagar on the win!
Pranav Padmanabhan
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Youngstown State 2018
Ohio State 2022
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Re: Mellon Bowl - 10/28/17

Postby trbenedict » Sat Oct 28, 2017 6:54 pm

Congrats to you and the Spartans on what sounds like a strong performance, Pranav. It’s too bad that the tournament itself was so wonky (this was the event last year that had the issue with the timed rounds, no?)...I certainly wouldn’t think one loss to a team of Allderdice’s caliber would disqualify your team from title contention, particularly if you also picked up a win against the eventual champions! Thanks for representing the Buckeye State well in “foreign territory!”
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Re: Mellon Bowl - 10/28/17

Postby ppadmanabhan » Sat Oct 28, 2017 7:07 pm

Thanks, Mr. Benedict! Yes, this tournament used timed rounds of 10 minutes per half; this wasn't as big a problem as last year, though, since every reader we had today was able to get through at least 19 questions. Hopefully we can continue to improve and come back stronger. Congrats to you and MVS on the win at Beavercreek!
Pranav Padmanabhan
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Ohio State 2022
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Re: Mellon Bowl - 10/28/17

Postby Get Lynned » Sun Oct 29, 2017 11:56 am

Congrats on a strong performance. Sorry to hear about the poor bracketing and outcome: I empathize as well to the unfortunate situation. I remember in WV, the events ran at Parkersburg Catholic would run a Swiss pair on a field that wasn't a power of 2 [^2], (36.) My sophomore year, despite a 7-1 record, we lost to a very strong WV team in round 1, and that resigned us to no higher than fifth at the end of the day (in spite of... LWWWWWWW and the fact that three teams who finished ahead of us went 7-1, 7-2, and 5-4.)

Never went to CMU's event (oft conflicted datewise with ours) but we've done Pitt before. Pitt puts on a very fine event when considering the venue, the awards given, and the geographic diversity of participating teams; the Cathedral of Learning is a special place to play, and the dining options are exceptional. My criticism would simply be their emphasis of playing an eight team preliminary with a one round bye. I understand why this is desirable, but any delays that occur pushes an already stacked schedule (nine rounds + lunch) longer... on top of the fact there's going to be a three round playoff. I like 11 games as much as the next guy, but it's also nice to be on the road before darkness falls and November weather picks up. That's my only gripe: I don't think it's bad tournament directing, just not the schedule I think that factors in finishing by, say, 4:30pm.

CMU may not have been familiar with Boardman this year, but I don't see what putting the two very good PGH teams in the same preliminary bracket accomplished. State College A did belong in their own, but the third one... GW/Thurston? Whoever it may be, Allderdice would've been appropriate in that bracket.
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Re: Mellon Bowl - 10/28/17

Postby ppadmanabhan » Sun Oct 29, 2017 1:48 pm

Thanks, Tom. We always enjoy the Pittsburgh setting and Battle of the Burgh has been a positive experience for us in the past as well. I also agree that seven rounds before lunch is a bit ambitious, and the timed rounds didn't seem to make much of a difference in keeping all three brackets on the same schedule. We finished around 1:15, while others didn't get lunch until almost 2.

I can understand how CMU might under-seed us, but I completely agree about the PA teams. In addition, stats are available for Boardman, GW, and Allderdice from this year and others from HSNCT, so they could have found better predictors for teams' performances. I also think that asking to submit rosters beforehand could help with seeding, especially for early season tournaments.
Pranav Padmanabhan
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Ohio State 2022
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Re: Mellon Bowl - 10/28/17

Postby Get Lynned » Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:37 pm

Battle of the Burgh is a great tradition for Ohio teams, oft fairing well. Hope you guys, or another Buckeye State compatriot, can attend and win.
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