The Ohio Quizbowl Forum

Hello! I am pleased to announce that the Academic Team at THE Ohio State University will be hosting THE Buckeye Fall Novice Invitational on 30 September 2023. This tournament will use NAQT IS-221A.

The tournament will take place in McPherson Chemical Laboratory (140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210). There will be a brief opening meeting at 8:40 AM EDT, and gameplay will begin at 9 AM EDT. Luke Miceli will be the tournament director. Please direct any questions about this site to him at miceli.46@osu.edu.

Registration
To register for this tournament, use the NAQT online registration system. Please let me know how many teams you’re bringing, the rosters for those teams, and if you intend to bring any staffers and/or buzzers. I’ll try to invoice teams as soon as possible after they register. For now, I’m putting a cap of 16 teams for registration, though I’m flexible to change that if demand is high enough and we have enough staffers/rooms.

Rules and Eligibility
This tournament will use NAQT rules for gameplay and eligibility. Additionally, to keep this tournament competitive for novices, a player is ineligible if, prior to the current competition year, any of the following applies:
- You have ever scored 50 ppg or more at any high school tournament
- You have ever averaged 2 p/g or more at any high school tournament
- You have ever scored 50 ppg or more on a team that has played in the top 25 of any year of MSNCT
- You were the top scorer on a team that made it to the playoffs in any year of HSNCT
Exceptions may be granted on a case-by-case basis.

Fees and Payment
You can participate in this tournament for as low as $55 by sending one staffer and two buzzer sets. The full cost breakdown is below.
Base fee: $85
Subsequent team base fee: $75
Staffers: −$10/staffer with laptop
Buzzer discount: −$10/functioning buzzer system
Minimum fee: $55

We can accept payment via credit/debit card or checks made out to “The Academic Team at The Ohio State University”. Please email Luke Miceli if you have any questions or concerns regarding payment.

Code of Conduct
All of this tournament’s players and staff will be required to abide by the 2021 WORKSHOP Code of Conduct (with online-specific protocols adjusted for being in-person).

If there’s any info you need that I’ve missed, please let me know. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you at OSU on 30 September!

This is the same day as Tiffin Columbian's tournament.

In defense of OSUAT, the date they chose appears to be the only one that they could fit and have the staffing for.

They’re hosting college tournaments on 9/23 (CREEK+ mirror) and 10/14 (ACF Fall.) The other away date on tOSU’s football schedule is 10/28, which is a Penn Bowl mirror that they aren’t hosting but presumably is on their schedule to attend. So, they landed on the bye week Saturday that is 9/30.

I understand the point Greg is making that it’s not ideal for Tiffin Columbian, how it is unfortunate, but at the same time I look at what appears to be a tough situation for OSUAT to make heads-or-tails of.

If we don’t want them having date conflicts with other events inside the state, are they supposed to host on home game weekends? Because that doesn’t work for anyone. Are they supposed to cut their college tourney hosting schedule? Because that just erodes at their ability long-term to host high school events regularly (because fewer college tourneys mean less money they have to pay for things like tournaments that their folks want to play, which means less club engagement, which means less ability to host an event.)

And, to be pretty clear, unfortunately right now it appears that OSUAT may be the only non-Greg institution remaining to host circuit events in Central Ohio. That doesn’t mean they’re immune from general criticism, certainly not. But due to some changes in circumstances recently with the local high school programs that were once ‘anchors’ of hosting and regular participation (the program at St Charles may go defunct; Fisher has some legitimate issues that are beyond Mike and Lynn’s grasp), the fact In the Know has scaled down and overhauled its structure in a quizbowl unfriendly way, and with OCC momentum stalling due to COVID, there is fortune in that OSUAT has returned to the HS scene and ostensibly wants to be a good actor for not just the Columbus metro but the state.

All of that considered, let’s give OSUAT some rope on this and attribute the date conflict to circumstance… and not to ignorance/malevolence. Ideally the teams at Tiffin will honor their registrations; ideally the ones closer to Tiffin that aren’t registered for Ohio State will sign up for Columbian; and ideally OSUAT can host the tournament that they’re trying to put on to serve the students.

The times that Tom and I have disagreed are written all over this forum. I say that to say, I agree with Tom on this completely. I would rather this be a State with multiple tournaments happening in a weekend rather than just one. The fact that we have only one viable weekend circuit most years is a problem.

Thanks, Josh.

While we’re here… is OSUAT committed to hosting the event if there are still only four teams registered? I don’t write that to cast an aspersion if they choose not to host it. But if it’s a little uncertain, my general advice would be to let the teams know soon if it’s still on with four teams. With it being two schools from Cincinnati and at least one from NW Ohio (two if this is the Crestview up near Ft Wayne, IN), it would be a useful courtesy to keep them apprised of the tournament’s viability and give them an update sooner rather than later. The standard on communicating with high school coaches on tournament is a little higher than talking to other college clubs.

Looks like it ran, but they lost the two NW teams at the end (see stats link in the results forum).

QuizBoss wrote:Looks like it ran, but they lost the two NW teams at the end (see stats link in the results forum).

I noticed that last night. Curious if it had some time overruns.

I admit this is some Monday morning quarterbacking on my part, but I don’t know if a Round Robin + rebracket is necessarily an appropriate schedule for a tournament like this. I understand (and appreciate) the idea of trying to create value, but it’s probably just better to just do the round robin and finals for the top two teams. IDK if the round robin was broken into {5 pre-lunch, 2 post-lunch} or {4 pre-lunch, 3 post-lunch} but anytime when the format of drawing the championship/consolation pods can’t be done (or drafted) during lunch should probably just be avoided in the future.

Just some constructive criticism; said not to pillory the OSUAT. Glad that Ohio State is hosting things again!