Re: Jeremy's posting about possible formats for the Southeast SCT: First of all, you should note that every NAQT host is required to guarantee every team a *minimum* of 12 games. (The host requirements are at www.naqt.com/2002-sct-host-call.html). With six teams in a field and 20 packets available to you, I'd think you ought to play triple round robin. (Plus a possible tiebreaker game if needed to determine any of the titles at stake, another NAQT requirement.) Playing the same teams several times isn't as satisfying as round robin in a larger field, but with only six teams there isn't much else you can do and still give players an acceptable amount of games. The NAQT requirement is there to ensure that teams that invest time and money in attending a tournament are getting good value -- I know I'd feel kind of shortchanged to travel any significant distance to a tournament and be given fewer than a dozen games -- and it also helps NAQT to evaluate performance for ICT invitation purposes to have a healthy amount of data. 9 am to 6 pm doesn't seem like a long quizbowl day to me at all, but even so, I don't see why you'd expect only 11 rounds to last anywhere near that long. NAQT matches are timed, so staying on schedule is that much easier -- you aren't tied to the pace of your slowest reader. There are only 18 minutes of game time each round; most hosts find they can schedule them 30 minutes apart. 9 am to 6 pm is 9 hours, but 11 rounds should take only 5 and a half, maybe six with a little slippage. In the 9 to 6 time frame, you ought to be able to do 15 rounds (triple round robin for six teams), plus give teams an hour and a half for lunch. (If 30 minutes between rounds isn't quite enough, it still couldn't be too far wrong for 18 minute matches. If you actually needed 35 minutes per round, 12 rounds would add an hour.) Cal Tech's West Coast Penn Bowl mirror played last weekend with only six teams, and a one-day triple round robin is what they did; they were done plenty early, as I understand it. Personally, I'm sorry to see so many tournaments moving away from the two-day tournaments that used to be in the majority and toward Saturday only events. It does help cut down lodging expense, and simple overall time commitment, so I understand the appeal, but my favorite sort of tournament remains something like 18 rounds of full round robin, six Friday evening and twelve more on Saturday. In any case, if one-day events are chosen, at least expect that they will fill up the day with 12 to 15 rounds of play! Eric Hillemann (speaking for himself, not for NAQT - except about the policy that 12 rounds minimum is in fact required at SCTs.)
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