Dear quizbowl / academic challenge / In the Know advisors,
Erin Stanton, the Olmsted Falls Academic Team and I would like to invite your teams to the annual TRASH, all-pop culture tournament at Olmsted Falls High School on Saturday, December 16, 2017.
**PLEASE NOTE - THE TOURNAMENT IS ONE WEEK LATER THIS YEAR TO AVOID THE ACT DATE AND AT THE HIGH SCHOOL, NOT THE MIDDLE SCHOOL!**
TRASH questions are taken from the areas of movies, tv, music, sports, games, computers, video games, etc., anything not really considered "academic."
**This tournament will be mirrored in the Dayton area at Tippecanoe High School in Tipp City (Dayton area) one week earlier on December 9. The contact for that tournament is Joe Bellas (jrbellas@tippcity.k12.oh.us).
**This tournament will also be mirrored in northwest Ohio at Swanton High School one week earlier on December 9. The contact for that tournament is Greg Bossick (quizboss@att.net).
**This tournament will also be mirrored in the Youngstown area at East Palestine High School on December 16. The contact for that tournament is Zack While (zackwhile@outlook.com)
**I am always looking for additional mirror sites - If you are interested, please let me know**
Last year, we attracted 48 teams, and previous years have had no less than 40 teams, so early registration is always wise. Please do not register a certain number of teams and bring less than you have registered or not show up at all. That’s extremely frustrating to tournament planners.
Our plan, just like previous years, is to have 8-team brackets, so that every team is guaranteed seven rounds. At that point, all bracket winners and a set number of wild cards (if less than 64 teams) will be seeded into an 8-team single elimination bracket until a winner is crowned. Therefore, all teams are guaranteed 7 games. The matches will be tossup/bonus (NAQT/HSAPQ) format, 20 questions per round.
We will NOT be keeping individual stats. We eliminated them last year in an attempt to minimize the delay between the end of the preliminary rounds and the playoff announcements (it saved about an hour worth of time). The champion and runner-up teams will receive trashy prizes for their trophy cases.
The cost for this year's tournament is $60 per team with a $5 discount per buzzer set (no limit). There is no JV division, all teams will play in the varsity division. That said, many times teams that are dynamite at regular quizbowl are awful at TRASH and vice versa, so it really can't be predicted how a team will do that hasn't played in the past. All registrations come with a copy of the questions, emailed out once all mirrors are complete. Remember, nobody wants to play slap bowl, so bringing buzzers and receiving your discount is also a wise idea. IF YOU BRING MORE THAN 1 TEAM, YOU ARE REQUIRED TO BRING AN EXPERIENCED READER TO HELP MODERATE MATCHES. If you are a coach and do not have a reader available, then you will have to list yourself as the reader. We will have several of our own readers available, but we do not have the staff to cover all of the rooms necessary.
****MIDDLE SCHOOL TEAMS ARE WELCOME, BUT THEY WILL PLAY IN THE SAME DIVISIONS WITH THE HIGH SCHOOL TEAMS (we've had them before and they've done well at times too!)
*If you haven’t participated before or not in awhile, you can email me for a set of old questions for practice at theamazingbobbo@aol.com
The general schedule will be:
8-8:30 Registration
8:45- General Meeting
9am - Round 1 starts
11:30-12:15 - Lunch - ON SITE – Lunch will be provided on-site for a low cost. You DO NOT have time to leave, so please bring money to purchase lunch or feel free to pack a lunch.
12:30-1:30PM - Rounds 6 and 7
1:45ish - Playoff announcement
2pm - quarterfinals
2:30pm - semifinals
3pm - finals
**Please note: schedule is tentative. This is a best-case scenario schedule. We've solved some of the issues that have plagued us in the past, but usually the finals tend to finish around 4pm with delays during the day.
As you can see from the schedule above -- registration runs until 8:30 with the meeting shortly thereafter. WE WILL NOT WAIT FOR YOU! Unless there's some unforeseen disaster (a blizzard the night before, a fender bender, etc), we will be starting play at 9am, so plan accordingly to be at Olmsted Falls HIGH School by 8:30 at the latest.
The championship and runner-up teams will receive awards, as will the best neg (wrong answer) of the day. Please remember however, this is a TRASH tournament, so prizes are generally trashy.
Please note: You CANNOT use this tournament as a qualifier for OAC regionals.
Please make the check out to "Olmsted Falls Academic Team" and mail to:
Erin Stanton
c/o Olmsted Falls High School
26939 Bagley Road
Olmsted Falls, OH 44138.
If you need a phone number for your PO, 440-427-6400. Checks should be mailed ahead of time or brought the day of the tournament. Also, I might personally note that payment via check or cash on the day of the tournament is acceptable, and that invoices can be provided for those that take this option.
Please email me with your # of teams, # of buzzers and name of an experienced reader or reader(s) you can bring. [students who do not want to play but have experience reading will gladly be used as readers]
WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING EVERYONE IN BEAUTIFUL OLMSTED FALLS!
Bob Kilner, Erin Stanton and the Olmsted Falls Academic Team