Incidentally, I just did a little bit of research and here's what I found:
18 teams attended Caltech's Technophobia VIII, of which only the top 4
teams scored over 200 points in a round (for the bracket seeding
rounds). On the other hand, only 8 teams went to ACF Fall, of which
5(!) were Berkeley teams, comprising various freshmen with minimal QB
experience. Every team at ACF Fall, including the bottom team, scored
over 200 PPG in the bracket rounds. Now, I know team composition can
vary, but the Berkeley teams at ACF Fall were roughly comparable to
the teams at Technophobia; if anything they may have been stronger.
And yet, and yet!
The links:
http://quizbowl.caltech.edu/T8/Rounds_up_to_five_standings.html
http://quizbowl.stanford.edu/tournaments/2003_acf_fall/acffall03_standings.html