2010 Intercollegiate Championship Tournament
Detailed Announcement
National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC, is pleased to provide additional logistical information about its 14th Intercollegiate Championship Tournament.
Date:
April 9-10, 2010 (Friday/Saturday; the actual competition will take place on Saturday)
Location:
Hyatt Regency O'Hare in Rosemont, Illinois (a western suburb of Chicago near O'Hare International Airport).
Schedule:
Unlike in past years, all of the competition at the 2010 ICT will take place on Saturday. The primary check-in time will be Friday evening, but teams will be able to check in Saturday morning as well.
| Friday (evening) | ||
| 7:00-10:00 | Team and Staff Check-in (Logan) | |
| Saturday | ||
| 7:30-8:00 | Secondary Team Check-in (Grand Ballroom D) | |
| 7:30-8:00 | Secondary Staff Check-in (LAX A) | |
| 8:00-8:30 | Player meeting (Grand Ballroom D) | |
| 8:00-8:30 | Staff meeting (LAX A) | |
| 8:30-12:00 | Preliminary Rounds (1-7) | |
| 12:00-1:30 | Lunch (not provided) | |
| 1:00-1:30 | Tiebreaker Round (8) | |
| 1:30-4:30 | Playoff Rounds (9-14) | |
| 4:30-4:45 | Break | |
| 4:45-6:15 | Finals (various) | |
| 6:15-7:00 | Awards (Grand Ballroom D) | |
Note that the tiebreaker round overlaps half an hour of lunch; most teams will have 90 minutes for lunch, but those involved in tiebreaker games will need to be back early.
Check In:
Teams (including standby teams) should arrive sometime on Friday and check in between 7:00 and 10:00 p.m. They should then be at the player's meeting at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, with games beginning at 8:30. If teams cannot check in on Friday night, they should do so on Saturday morning between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m.
Staff members should check in on Friday night as well. If they cannot do that, they should do so between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. They should then attend the staff meeting from 8:00 to 8:30.
After checking in on Friday night, standby teams should go to the staff meeting on Saturday morning unless they are told on Friday night that a spot has been found for them in the tournament.
Qualification:
Schools qualify to send teams to the ICT through the performance of their teams at the 2010 Sectional Championship Tournaments (SCTs) in February and at the 2010 Community College Championship Tournament (CCCT). Details about the way in which schools qualify for ICT and which players may represent a school at the ICT may be found on the ICT Qualification Page. This page also details the effects on players' Division II eligibility of playing in an SCT or qualifying for or playing at an ICT. NAQT has answers for some frequently asked questions about eligibility online.
Field Size:
The field will consist of 32 Division I teams and 32 Division II teams, with 6 of the Division II slots reserved for teams from the CCCT.
Invitations:
All invitations, waitlists, and standby lists for the ICT for Division I teams and Division II teams are available online. After accounting for automatic bids for SCT champions and hosts, the remainder of the bids were allocated according to the Division I D-values and Division II D-values.
Schools will have one week from their reception of an invitation to accept or decline, though they may request an extension from NAQT if additional time is required. The initial bids must therefore be accepted or declined by 23:59:59 ET Wednesday, March 3, 2010. The acceptance period may be shortened if invitations are awarded nearer to the actual tournament.
To decline an invitation, send e-mail to ict@naqt.com. To accept an invitation, see the section below on Registration.
Format:
In both divisions teams will be initially divided into four pools of eight teams, each of which will play a round-robin (rounds 1-7). These teams will be repooled into four new groups of eight (the top two advance to the top pool, numbers three and four advance to the second pool, and so forth) for a second round-robin. Advancement will be determined by overall record with tie-breaker games or partial-games during round 8 as required by NAQT's tie-breaker policy.
In the second round-robin teams will play the six teams they haven't yet faced (rounds 9-14). At the conclusion of round 14, the top two teams will advance to the finals. This will be determined based on overall record (i.e., teams' records from the first round-robin carry over). Ties for the top two spots will be broken during round 15, if necessary. Tie-breaker games do not count in final records.
If the top two teams have identical records, they will play a one-game final for the championship. If one team has an advantage, it will need to win one game while the other team will need to win two.
In Division I, if the top two undergraduate teams are eight or fewer spots apart in the rankings after round 14, they will play a similar one- or two-game final. If either of the top undergraduate teams is involved in the overall division final, it will be declared the undergraduate champion outright. If both are involved, one final will be played for both crowns.
The top (Division II) community college team (ranked by bracket and then by overall record) will be named the Top Community College. If there is a tie, it will be played off. Note that this is not a national championship title; that championship is awarded at the CCCT.
Tie-breaker games will also be played during round 15 if necessary to decide third place in either division or the undergraduate subdivision.
Registration:
The registration fee and discounts for the tournament are as follows:- Base fee: $350
- Staff member: $100 discount (per dedicated staff member; a team may claim this discount by bringing five members and having one assigned to scorekeep each round. This staffer will not, in general, scorekeep for his own team's matches.)
- Buzzer System: $10 discount (per fully-functional system)
Staff member discounts are only automatically available to teams who notify NAQT on or before March 10, 2010, that they will be bringing a staff member. Teams indicating an interest after that date may be extended the discount at NAQT's discretion. Teams are responsible for the travel and housing costs of staff members for which they receive discounts. In addition, after March 10, 2010, commitments to bring staff members will be considered final. Teams that promise to bring a staff member, but who cancel that staffer after March 10, will be charged a $50 penalty (in addition to forfeiting the $100 discount).
Payments should be sent to:
National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC
Chad Kubicek, CFO
11521 W 69th Street
Shawnee, KS 66203
Teams should register online to ensure that NAQT has their information. After NAQT receives that registration information, an invoice will be generated. Please note that team rosters may be changed at any time before the start of the ICT so it is neither necessary (or desirable) to wait to register until a team's composition has been definitively decided. Register as soon as possible and, if necessary, update that registration when the composition of a team changes.
All participating schools will receive copies of the questions for the division(s) in which they have entered teams. If a school only qualified teams in one division, copies of the questions used in the other division will be available for $10. There will be 18 rounds of 26 tossups and 26 bonuses each in Division I, and 18 rounds of 24 tossups and 24 bonuses each in Division II.
These may be purchased at the time of registration or immediately after the completion of the tournament. Please note that these questions must be picked up at the tournament itself, after the finals. Teams that leave early or which forget to pick up their questions will be charged a shipping and handling fee of $10 (one set) or $15 (both sets) to have them mailed.
IMPORTANT: This fee assumes that payment is postmarked (or a purchase order is supplied) no later than Friday, April 2, 2010. Teams paying after this date, including at the tournament itself, will be charged an additional $20.
In addition, on or after March 10, 2010, invitation acceptances will be considered final. Should a team cancel on or before March 26, 2010, it will still be liable for one-half of its base registration fee. Teams that cancel after March 26, 2010, (including tournament no-shows) will be liable for the entire base registration fee.
Prizes:
The top three teams in Division I (Overall), Division I (Undergraduate), and Division II (Overall) will each receive team trophies and their members (and coaches) will receive individual awards. The Top Community College team will receive a trophy and its members will receive individual awards. In addition, the top eight individual scorers in Division I, the top eight individual scorers in Division II, and the top four undergraduate scorers in Division I will be given All-Star awards.
Individual All-Star awards will be based solely on the preliminary rounds (rounds 1-7), not the playoff rounds.
Flights:
The most convenient airport for attending the ICT is O'Hare International Airport, from which a free hotel shuttle can take you to the tournament site. Teams may also fly to Midway International Airport, but they will need to take a relatively long El ride to the hotel.
Driving Directions:
Parking:
Parking with in-and-out privileges is available for $10/night.
Hotel:
The Hyatt Regency O'Hare is both the official hotel and the competition site for the 2010 ICT.
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Hyatt Regency O'Hare
9300 Bryn Mawr Avenue
Rosemont, Illinois, USA 60018
Phone: 847.696.1234
Fax: 847.698.0139
Quadruple occupancy (double/double) rooms are available for $109 per night. To book a room, call the hotel on or before March 19 or book online. You must follow the immediately previous link to the registration page to receive the discounted rate.
Transportation:
Specific information about the hotel shuttle will be provided shortly.
Lunch Options:
The hotel has several restaurants offering different types of food at different prices; none of these restaurants is particularly cheap, but some are more affordable than others. The hotel will also be offering cash sales of sandwiches, burgers, and side-dishes during the day. NAQT recommends that cost-conscious teams consider ordering pizza.
Spectators:
Spectators are welcome to attend all games at the ICT. No registration or tickets are required; feel free to just show up and watch as many of the games as you would like. If you are interested in starting a quiz bowl team at your college or high school, NAQT and ACUI personnel will be on hand to talk about the process.
Preparation:
Teams that have been invited to compete at the 2010 Intercollegiate Championship Tournament may be interested in purchasing the questions from previous years to prepare for the event. Division I sets are available from the 13 previous ICTs, with separate Division II sets available from every year except 1997 and 2000. Teams should be aware that ICT Division I questions are typically as much harder compared to (four-year) Sectionals questions as Sectionals questions are to Invitational Series and that ICT Division II questions are approximately equal in difficulty to the Division I Sectionals questions.
NAQT is offering a special deal on its previous ICT sets, with any five sets available for just $175 (including shipping) and each additional set for just $25 each. This represents approximately a 25% discount over our standard rates. To take advantage of either offer, e-mail orders@naqt.com as they cannot be accessed through our normal online ordering form.
Further Questions:
To ask specific questions about the ICT, e-mail ict@naqt.com.