The UTC Academic Trivia Association will host the 7th annual Center of the Known Universe Open in scenic Chattanooga, TN (center of the known universe.) This academic quizbowl tournament will be a one-day event Sat., Oct. 16, 2004. The format is modified ACF. Packet submission is not required, but strongly encouraged and financially prudent (see below.) Our objective once again is to make this tournament accessible for novice or inexperienced teams, yet still meaty enough to satisfy more experienced teams. Schools participating in their first independent invitational at UTC will receive substantial discounts (see Fees below.) So will additional teams from the same school, so you can bring the whole crew. And since it'll be the first tournament of the year for most teams, we will honor an All-Rookie team as well as All- Star awards in each division. As has become our custom, we will follow COTKU with the 5th annual Big Lots Clearance Open, a trash tournament mirroring FOGHAT, on Sunday, Oct. 17, with no packet submission required (more info to follow.) FORMAT: This will be "softcore ACF," untimed rounds of 20 questions. Since this is an early season tournament, we'll be aiming for a somewhat milder degree of difficulty than most ACF-style tournaments. Assuming a similar field size to past years, we will have a bracketed round robin followed by playoffs. ELIGIBILITY: COTKU is open to all teams of current collegiate students from a single institution, with no restrictions on grad students. We will award trophies in two divisions, with the second division for teams composed exclusively of players in their first or second year of independent, NAQT, or ACF intercollegiate quizbowl competition. (CBCI and HCASC experience are not counted for the experience limits.) Note: Teams from two-year schools which have players with two or more years' experience may still be ruled eligible for Division II. If your team is in such a situation, contact me with the details (how many players, how much experience, etc.) Division II eligibility for such schools will be considered on a case-by-case basis. FEES: Base fee per team: $95 Minimum fee after discounts: $50 Discounts -- Working buzzer: $5 (1 per team; if you bring a 2nd buzzer and we actually need to use it we'll knock off another $5) Experienced reader: will be given their choice of $10 off the fee, or the same bribe we offer our house readers, dinner at Provino's. (Guess which one they'll take.) Additional teams from same school: $15 Distance >400 miles (one way): $10 Packet meeting guidelines below, submitted by Sun. 9/26: $20 Packet meeting guidelines below, submitted after Sun. 9/26 but by Sun., Oct. 3: $10 Packet meeting guidelines below, submitted after Sun. 10/3 but by Sun. 10/12: $0 No packet submitted: $15 penalty (waived for schools participating in their first independent UTC tournament and/or composed entirely of first-year players; also waived for 3rd, 4th, and subsequent teams from a given school.) And here's another way to earn an extra discount: Original high school-level packet (for our Oct. 9 HS tournament) meeting guidelines below, submitted by Fri., Oct. 1: $15 IMPORTANT: Entry fee is only $75 for any school participating in their first independent UTC tournament; additional teams from the same school are $50. SCHEDULE: Registration will begin at 9 AM EDT, announcements at 9:45, play starts at 10. We can't say exactly when it'll end till we know the size of the field, but we'll be aiming for around 8:30 PM. We will definitely finish by 10:15 in time to get to Provino's before it closes. As for the location, paperwork from UTC is still pending. Tournament HQ will hopefully be room 201 (Card Family Auditorium) in the new Engineering, Math, and Computer Sciences Bldg.) We will confirm this once we know for sure. PACKET GUIDELINES: It's not mandatory, but it'll make life easier on me if you can e-mail the packet as either an MS Word or RTF file, if the essential parts of the answer are in bold, and if you insert the word "Answer:" before each answer. To encourage participation by Division II teams, we prefer a degree of difficulty considered easy to moderate by current invitational standards. While not beginning with giveaway clues, most tossups should be answerable by most teams by the end of the question. Bonuses should be such that a novice team stands a good chance of getting at least 10 pts., a good team 20, and the best teams all 30 pts. DISTRIBUTION: To make editing easier, we ask for 25 tossups and 25 bonuses per packet, distributed as follows: Literature 5 Recommended: at least 2 20th century, at least 2 pre-20th century at least 2 U.S./Canadian, at least 2 non-U.S./Canadian Sciences 5 Required: at least 1 each of biology, physics, and chemistry History 5 Recommended: at least 2 20th century, at least 2 pre-20th century at least 2 U.S./Canadian, at least 2 non-U.S./Canadian The remaining 10 should contain at least 1 each and no more than 3 of: Philosophy/religion/myth Fine arts Social sciences incl. geography Popular culture General knowledge/interdisciplinary [Note -- if submitting a high school round as part of a discount, please include at least one math/computer science question and one geography question.] STYLE: Tossups -- average length 3 sentences. We want questions that begin with lesser-known details and gradually get easier. And please don't violate the pronoun rule -- e.g.,, if your first pronoun is "He..." the answer should be a person, not a title. Bonuses -- all bonuses worth a possible 30 pts.; no single- part all-or-nothing bonuses. We don't want 6-part boni unless they're very, very short, and even then use sparingly. Also use the 30-20-10 format sparingly. ACCOMMODATIONS: The good news is, the Clarion Hotel is willing to give us a discount rate ($66/night) downtown for Friday 10/15 and/or Sat.10/16. This is a great deal for a fine facility within 5 minutes of the University, and within walking distance of the major Chattanooga tourist sites as well as the Bijou (downtown movie complex with midnight shows on the weekends.) The bad news is, they have few rooms left available and couldn't set aside a block for us this time, so we recommend you book early. The Clarion number is (423) 756-5150; tell them you're with the UTC quizbowl tournament. DIRECTIONS: Come towards downtown Chattanooga on I-24. Take the freeway splitoff labeled US 27 North - Downtown Chattanooga. Follow US 27 North to Exit 1A, 4th St. (Don't worry about which way to turn on 4th St. - it only goes one way.) Follow 4th St.about ½ mile. Shortly after you see the McKenzie (UTC) Arena on your right, 4th St. will bear slightly left and merge with 3rd St. Once you pass the cemetery on your right, turn at the 2nd street to the right, Palmetto St. Assuming we get the EMCS building: In the second block on your right, you'll see the EMCS Building. Go to the breezeway and take the door on its right side. Card Famiy Auditorium is just inside that door on your left. If we go to Grote Hall instead: Go past the EMCS Bldg. and turn right on Vine St. Follow it to the last available parking lot on your right before the road is closed. Grote is the building closest to that parking lot. Enter at the back door by the dumpster; tournament HQ would be Grote 129. WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE: To no one's surprise, the tournament director is Charlie Steinhice. If you have any questions, I can be reached at (423) 877-2706 or 763-7147, or by e-mail at steinhic [at] bellsouth [dot] net.
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