OQT 2015 Recap Letter

Moderators clearly impressed
by everyone's cool knowledge.

I'm sending a version of this letter to the clubs that played in the 2015 Ottawa Quizbowl Tournament.

Hello all --

I want to thank you and your teams for playing in the 11th OQT yesterday. The Ottawa Quizbowl Tournament is played every November at U of Ottawa, and I was very pleased with yesterday's edition. We played "elevator bowl" for nine rounds, and it all went quick and friendly thanks to the players and moderators.

Final stats are here. There were high-scoring teams from all four schools (Lisgar, Merivale, Colonel By, and Glebe). Lisgar A dominated with an 8-0 record and 47 powers. Lisgar B and Merivale both went 6-2, which qualifies them for a US Nationals in the spring, should either of those teams wish to buy flights to Dallas. (They might rather go to Provincials in Toronto.) Most players stayed for "mock finals," which was a tenth round of friendly scrimmages including both players and staff. Every school was given paper copies of the unplayed questions for "round 11 and 12."

Rodrigo Morante and I directed the tournament and wrote the Canada questions for the set. We had a full staff of 5 UOttawa students (Rodrigo, Shervin, Shelby, Dennis, and Ian), 3 ONQBA people (Ben, Patrick, and me), and a Lisgar coach (Ruth Crabtree). Staff said their highlights included a [Canadian TV question], an overtime game between two teams seeking their first win, and a request from players to read the questions in Chinese.

Players are encouraged to complete this feedback form for us. We're committed to growing our game, and we're still learning how to tinker with our events to make something that more people want to play.

I also want to advertise our next tournament, which is Stegosaurus Bowl on December 5 at Lisgar. This is planned as a ladder format tournament, so instead of a fixed round schedule, it will be "win and move up a room, lose and move down a room." It is in only two weeks, but I am excited for it -- I think the ladder structure will lead to more close matches and rivalries. You can find details on our forum announcement or our ONQBA blog announcement, and you can register teams with me or Ms. Crabtree.

Thanks again and congratulations to all participants in yesterday's Ottawa Quizbowl Tournament.

Brendan

2016 Provincials Pre-Announcement

The 2014 and 2015 provincial champions from Colonel By.

The Ontario Provincial Championship for the 2015-16 quizbowl season will take place at University of Toronto on Saturday, March 26, 2016. Patrick Liao will probably direct the tournament.

The Championship is open to all high-school teams from Ontario, with steep discounts for teams that have won tournaments or otherwise excelled throughout the season. We may give wildcard invitations and discounts to top teams at Reach or History Bowl, or to top teams from other provinces. We'll play the tournament on a Canadian edition of an NAQT question set.

We've held a provincial championship since 2010. So far, teams from Ottawa have won all six editions. We'll see if that streak can hold or if the powerful Lisgar A team can win again this time.

ONQBA Awards for 2014-15

These awards are for the 2014-15 season -- most of our winners have now graduated out of the categories they won for. We voted on all these a long time ago. Ted and I wrote the blurbs.

A Lisgar player accepting some sort of award.

Best Player -- Cameron Amini (Colonel By)

Cameron was the strongest high school player in Canada for at least two years. He went from being the history player on a great team to being a player who could power questions on any subject. Other players got stronger in 2014-15 because they had to compete with Cameron.

Most Improved Player -- Nicholas Sunderland (Lisgar)

Nicholas won Canadian History Bowl and almost won Ontario Provincials with Lisgar. He was the second-leading scorer on his Lisgar team at HSNCT. Lisgar A improved massively through the year, breaking into the HSQBRank top 100.

Best Junior -- Sheena Li (Lisgar) 

Sheena was the top scorer on Lisgar B at HSNCT. She played Ottawa History Bowl with seniors on the Lisgar A team, and she nearly won the JV section of Canada History Bee.

Best Junior -- Jonathan Liu (Colonel By)

Jonathan was a threat to score on almost any category. He got 47 PPG at the Ottawa Quizbowl Tournament -- a commendable achievement for a player who was just starting quizbowl.

Community Leader -- Ruth Crabtree (Lisgar)

Ms. Crabtree has led and supported countless quizbowl projects over the last 15 years. Her work as a coach, organizer, trip supervisor, and mentor has made her a cornerstone of good tournaments in Ottawa and beyond, both during her teaching career and in her retirement. We are lucky for every year of Ms. Crabtree's leadership.

Recap: Lisgar Novice (October 2015)

Lisgar Novice was the first tournament of the 2015-16 season. Aidan Ryan directed, and a lot of (ineligible) senior players showed up to staff. I went so I could insist that the staff all wear nametags, and I did some coverage -- here is what I saw from every team.

Merivale C was Daniel, Claire, and Hao Hao when I saw them. They took a bad loss to Colin (Lisgar C), but they still got a nice power on an opera clue.

Lisgar B enjoying themselves.

Lisgar B was Nadia, Olive, Katriona, and Patrick. They went 5-3 with strong stats. Nadia seemed very strong on lit questions, and Patrick got some nice buzzes on history. Olive had an early buzz on my Cape Breton tossup, and she caught that it was asking "Cape Breton" instead of just "Nova Scotia."

Merivale A was Amiya, Zarak, and Ivan when I saw them. They seemed very good at at science (with a power and a 30), and they 20'ed a tricky bonus on U.S. sports.

Lisgar A was Justin, Kieran, Matthew, and Felipe. They went 6-2 and led the tournament in PPB. Felipe was the second-highest scorer in the tournament, and I saw him power two science questions. I was also impressed with Justin powering current events.

Colonel By B was Kevin, Victor, and David. They seemed very good at lit and classics. I saw them lose a close, high-scoring match, largely because they got -5 on a scrambly pop music tossup.

Colonel By C was Sam, Kevin, Conor, and Farid. They looked like a team of senior students, and they were definitely the rowdiest team in the tournament -- they cracked a lot of jokes. Conor knew some lit and Farid knew some U.S. politics. At one point they buzzed "Edmonton" for a city in Manitoba, but they still won their round when Kevin got a chemistry tossup at the end.

Merivale B was Alan, Megharaj, and Wahaj. I saw them lose to a strong team, but they seemed to know current events, and they 30'ed a physics bonus. They made a heartbreaking bad buzz by naming a book title on a tossup that asked for the author.

Colonel By A with important moderators.

Colonel By A was Denis, Jon, Emily, and Kevin. They came second in the tournament, going 1-2 against Colin and 7-0 against all other teams. They led the field in powers -- Emily got a lot of lit, and Kevin got a lot of history.

Lisgar C was one player -- Colin -- and he won the tournament! He swept 8-0 in the round robin, and then he split the finals 1-1 with Colonel By A, which clinched first place.

Lisgar C (artist's rendering).

The finals was Lisgar Colin (8-0) against Colonel By A (7-1). Colin had a one-game advantage, so he would take the tournament with a win. If Colonel By won the finals, it would just force a second game of the finals.

Finals game 1 was very close -- Colonel By got more powers, but it looked like Colin would win 280-225.

However, there was a protest to resolve. In mid-game, Denis had buzzed a tossup and changed his guess mid-word. Moderator Ben had called -5, but after the game, we checked the rules and it turned out that Dennis's buzz was allowed. That caused a 60-point swing and changed the game to a win for Colonel By.

Finals game 2 was less close. Colin beat the Colonel By team 13-7 on tossups. The one-player team, Lisgar C, won the tournament, 390-235.

A grade 10 Lisgar student won today's tournament playing solo. A surprise start to the Ottawa season.

— Ben Smith (@smith_ben) 17 Octobre 2015

Throughout the day, Colin had scored early buzzes and 30s on a ton of history, geography, and art questions. He seemed generally to just be a curious learner and to be aware of the world. In an early round, he had a funny exchange with a moderator over pronouncing a weird European name.

Here's my category breakdown for the two finals games:

Colonel By D was four more Kevins. They were unable to compete in this tournament.

Other things:
- Complete stats
- Canada questions (early draft)
- Tournament thread on HSQB
- Facebook album

Announced: 11th Ottawa Quizbowl Tournament -- Nov. 21

The 11th Ottawa Quizbowl Tournament will be on November 21, 2015 at the University of Ottawa. It will use a Canadian edition of the NAQT IS-149A question set.

Details from Rodrigo's HSQB announcement:

University of Ottawa is happy to announce we will host the Ottawa Quizbowl Tournament XI (these all go up to 11!), we will be playing the NAQT-set 149A. We are working on making a Canadian edition with NAQT and ONQBA. 

Fees for the tournament/ discounts:
$50 for the first team from a school
$40 for each additional team
-$10 discount for a functional 8-person conventional buzzer set
-$5 for Buzzbox (only applied if we need them)--- 

The tournament will also most likely have a 1/1 Canadian content.
Time and date: November 21,2015 . Please arrive at 9am so we can start by 9:30
Building: TBD
Please email Vanessa- president@uotrivia.ca and myself- rmora080@uottawa.ca to tell us the number of teams you will bring and the discounts you will have.

Colonel By has won the last two editions of OQT, but Lisgar is ambitious about is winning this year so they can qualify for some US nationals. I'm looking forward to this event, and I will be sure to have someone doing coverage.

Our Old Website

For a long time, the ONQBA had a nice website at onqba.ca. We have now switched to using this blog because it is easier to update. The URL onqba.ca now redirects to this blog.

The original ONQBA website can still be accessed at onqba.ca/index2.html. It should be intact except for a few links I broke.

Patrick Liao should always get credit for building a nice yellow website, and Joe Su should get credit for maintaining a good Results page for several years. Ben Smith and a few others deserve credit for writing good pages. Much of our original site will still be of interest to many people.

We are still working on fixing up the look of this blog and migrating a lot of the old content.

Checklist for Tournament Directors

I wrote this checklist for my own use. You may might it helpful or you may find it excessive.

The tasks in (brackets) are inessential -- many successful tournaments are run without those measures. Use your own judgment.

If this list is overwhelming, then ignore the items in brackets, and make other experienced people work on the tournament with you. Most quizbowlers should have some enthusiasm for helping with tournaments.

We recommend that you print this list out and work with a physical copy of it.


                    Early

• ❑ Talk to whoever coordinates quizbowl in your area.
• ❑ Set the date.
• ❑ Book the venue.
• ❑ Find a question set. Secure permission to mirror the question set.
• ❑ Figure out the pricing.
• ❑ Add your tournament to the HSQB database.
• ❑ Announce the tournament -- post to HSQB.
• ❑ Announce the tournament -- post to relevant Facebook groups.
• ❑ Announce the tournament -- email schools around.
• ❑ Plan your staff. Minimum of 1 reader for every 2 teams, plus yourself in HQ all day.
• ❑ Make sure there's a treasury.

                    Two Weeks Before

• ❑ (Send reminder email to target schools.)
• ❑ Plan some kind of prizes.
• ❑ Confirm that you'll have enough staff.
• ❑ Verify your room bookings.
• ❑ Send reminder email to any teams that only half-registered.
• ❑ Check on the official rules for your tournament.
• ❑ Confirm that you have a question set.
• ❑ Check that you have enough buzzers.
• 
  

                    Week Before

• ❑ Draw up staff assignments -- readers, statkeeper if the field is big, scorekeepers if possible. Try to have the TD in HQ all day.
• ❑ Staff email: Send assignments, question packets, and the rules. Get their phone numbers. Tell them to bring laptops. (If you have extra volunteers, invite them to attend on standby.)
• ❑ Teams email: Field, logistics, parking info. Ask for rosters and phone numbers.
• ❑ Get your prizes.

                    Day Before

• ❑ (Get some nametags.)
• ❑ (Purchase candy for the tournament.)
• ❑ (Print the questions for any readers who insisted on printed questions.)
• ❑ Make a round-by-round schedule and print many copies.
• ❑ Make backup schedules for -2, -1, and +1 teams.
• ❑ Make and print blank receipts and invoices.
• ❑ Print scoresheets and copies of the rules
• ❑ (Make and print feedback surveys, and flyers for the next tournament after yours.)
• ❑ Check that a stats computer has SQBS on it.

                    Night Before

• ❑ Put the questions on a USB drive.
• ❑ Pack masking tape, prizes, schedules, receipts, invoices, scoresheets, rules sheets, scrap paper, USB drive, and any buzzers you're bringing.
• ❑ (Pack printed questions, nametags, pens, candy, surveys, flyers, staff gifts, and a printer.)

                    Pre-Tournament

• ❑ Arrive very early.
• ❑ Make sure the rooms are unlocked.
• ❑ Set up tournament HQ and registration.
• ❑ (Print signs and tape up signs around the building.)
• ❑ (Make the staff wear nametags.)
• ❑ Assign a staffer to collect money. Make sure that person keeps a record of money received.
• ❑ (Assign a staffer to do check-in with every team. Have them hand out rules sheets to teams.)
• ❑ Assign a staffer to ensure buzzers and scoresheets in every room. That person must keep a record of whose buzzers are in which rooms.
• ❑ (Assign extra staff to set up signs and buzzers and move furniture, or to visit any new teams.)
• ❑ Assign staff their rooms for the day.
• ❑ Morning meeting: Yell to the teams about schedule and any rules reminders.
• ❑ Hand out schedules to teams.
• ❑ Send teams to their rooms.

                    During Tournament

• ❑ Keep TD or statkeeper at HQ.
• ❑ (Dismiss your standby volunteers or invite them to do photos and coverage.)
• ❑ (If the TD is reading, put them in the room next to HQ.)
• ❑ (Have HQ track how long the rounds take.)
• ❑ (Sub out whichever reader is the slowest. Have them switch jobs with a scorekeeper.)
• ❑ (Keep a simple tally of teams' records so you can re-bracket them quickly when it is time for that.)

                    At Lunch

• ❑ Clearly announce to all rooms when lunch begins and ends.
• ❑ (Assign a staffer to lead teams to nearby food.)
• ❑ (Make sure no idiots left laptops unattended.)
• ❑ (Print standings and top scorers and tape those up in the halls.)
• ❑ (Drop feedback surveys and next-tournament flyers in the rooms.)
• ❑ (Distribute candy to the rooms.)

                    After the Tournament

• ❑ (Invite teams to watch the final.)
• ❑ Have awards and clapping.
• ❑ Make the staff clean up their own rooms and put furniture back.
• ❑ (Give the staff their gifts.)
• ❑ Survey the rooms for messes or lost items.
• ❑ Post the stats to your database page.
• ❑ Send a wrap-up / recap email to the teams.
• ❑ Make sure the money goes where it's supposed to.
• ❑ Ask the club to pay back any expenses you incurred.

This checklist steals ideas from Chris Chiego's hosting guide, this HSQB thread, Bryn Reinecke's TD checklist, the Berkeley TD guide, and the QBWiki's "How to Run a Tournament." It is intended to be useful, complete, and concise. I welcome suggestions in the comments about improving this checklist.