The University of Chicago is pleased to announce the first annual Fabulous
Unnamed Chicago Tournament (name possibly pending) which will take place
on Saturday, May 4, 2001. This tournament will be an untimed juniorbird (see
eligibility requirements below) with ACF-style rules most likely featuring
some audio and visual boni (which will be written by the Chicago
team). Tournament format, while somewhat dependent on interest, will be
of the round-robin, playoff variety.
Eligibility: First- and second-year students and other students in
their first two years of intercollegiate play will be eligible to
participate.
Field (updated 28 April):
| School | # Teams |
|---|
| Carleton | 2 |
| Chicago State | 1 |
| UIUC | 1 |
| IIT | 1 |
| Illinois Wesleyan | 1 |
| Indiana | 1 |
| Iowa State | 1 |
| Michigan | 1 |
| Northwestern | 1 |
| Pitt | 1 |
| St. Olaf | 1 |
| UTC | 1 |
| House teams | 2 |
Fee structure:
Base Fee: $70
Minimum Fee: $20
Discounts:
Working buzzer: -$5
Game official: -$5
Subsequent teams: -$5 (progressive)
Packet in by April 20: No discount/no penalty
Packet in by April 13: -$10
Packet in by April 6: -$20
Packet in by March 30: -$30 (and our eternal goodwill)
Talk to us about a long-distance travel discount if you're from far away
and you're worried about the cost.
Penalties:
Packets in after April 20: +$20
No packet (if we let you play): +$35
Any team that drops out less than 24 hours before the tournament will
incur a $40 penalty, barring emergency circumstances.
To register, please send an email to Susan Ferrari with your
school's name, a contact's name and email address, and the number of
teams, buzzer systems, and moderators you expect to bring.
Packet Guidelines
General guidelines:
Question difficulty should be slightly lower than at NAQT Sectionals: the
hardest questions from the SCT are probably too hard for a junior bird,
but overall question difficulty shouldn't be radically different from an
easy-to-average invitational. Matches between two teams in the top half
of the field should routinely result in combined scores of 450 points or
more. This is an untimed tournament, but you should still try to write
concisely. Tossups should be 4-6 lines long, using 12-point Times New
Roman with one-inch margins. (No, we don't care about fonts and type
sizes; these are meant to serve solely as length guidelines.) Bonus
questions should require at most four team consultations
(and should usually require fewer), and no one part of a bonus (including
the lead-in) should be more than 2 lines long.
No more than 1/3 of your tossups should have a person as the answer. No
more than 1/2 of your tossups in any category may be about people--and
keep in mind that certain categories (science and social science) have
more stringent requirements. Similarly, no more than 1/3 of your bonuses
should be primarily about people. (A bonus asking you to name Gabriel
Garcia Marquez works is not "primarily about a person;" a bonus asking you
to name Latin American authors from works is. Use common sense and you'll
be fine.)
The following types of questions are not allowed: FAQTP tossups, spelling
questions, multiple-choice/ordering/binary bonuses, non-30-point bonuses,
all-or-nothing bonuses, etc.
Please vary your questions by area/time across categories as well as
within them--that is, please don't send us a geography tossup on Mongolia,
a current events question on Mongolian President Natsagiyn Bagabandi, a
fine arts question on Mongolian throat singing, a general knowledge
question on yurts, and an RPM question on the Mongolian Death Worm
(charming as that would be.)
We reserve the right to reject packets that ignore our guidelines or are
of extremely low quality.
Brief distribution:
| Subject |
Tossups/Boni |
| Literature |
4/4 |
| Science |
4/4 |
| History |
4/4 |
| Pop Culture and Sports |
2/2 |
| Current Events |
2/2 |
| Fine Arts |
3/3 |
| Religion/Myth/Philosophy |
2/2 |
| Social Science |
2/2 |
| Geography |
2/2 |
| Total |
25/25 |
Lengthier distribution:
History (4/4):
Please vary your questions by time and geography; write at least 1/1 on
American
history, 1/1 on European history, and 1/1 on non-American/non-European
history. Write no more than 1 question on any one non-U.S. country; write
no more than 1/1 on military/diplomatic history.
Science (4/4):
Write at least 1/1 on each of physics, chemistry, and biology. Write a
maximum of one question on the history of science--which includes all
questions primarily about a person. Write at least one question from
among the sub-categories of math, astronomy, computer science, and earth
science.
Literature (4/4):
Authors, novels, short stories, plays, poems, characters, and literary
movements are all acceptable classes of answer; please try to cover a
variety of different answer types. Vary your questions by time and
geography: at least one question should be non-American and
non-European. No more than 1 tossup should have a real person as its
answer.
Fine Arts (3/3):
Write 1/1 on painting/sculpture, 1/1 on classical music, and 1/1 from
other artistic sub-categories (like architecture, film of artistic merit,
music theory, dance, and photography.)
Geography (2/2):
You are limited to 1 question on the U.S. and one question on
Europe. Avoid flag questions, country-from-capital questions,
capital-from-country questions, and tossups that sound like they were
written by someone looking at a map ("It is bordered on the east by [x]
and on the west by [y], with the [z] river separating it from [q] on the
south and with the [r] ocean on the north. FTP, name this African
country.")
Current events (2/2):
No crime-of-the-week questions: if the answer won't be gettable at least
six months from now, please don't write it. If you think multiple people
will be
writing on the same subject, please either write about something else or
make sure your question is really good. Remember that a good current
events question doesn't have to describe events that are in the news at
the moment you're writing--it can, say, describe the overall career of a
figure now in the news.
Social Sciences (2/2):
Psychology, economics, linguistics, law, anthropology, sociology, and
archaeology are all acceptable topics. Include no more than one question
from each sub-category. Bear in mind that the category is social science,
not social scientists, and make sure that no more than one of your
questions is primarily about a person.
Religion, Philosophy, and Mythology (2/2):
Include one question from each of the three main divisions of this
category, with a maximum of one question from any one specific
tradition. (This applies across sub-categories: don't send us a bonus on
pre-Socratic philosophers and a tossup on Greek mythology.)
Pop Culture, general knowledge, and sports (2/2):
No more than 1/1 on sports; if you write more than 1 sports question, you
must write about 2 different sports.
Please submit all questions to Ed Cohn. Queries and comments
may be directed to Susan
Ferrari.
