Penn Bowl the 13th
23-24 January 2004
Announcement

Registration Form | Packet Guidelines







The University of Pennsylvania Academic Demolition Team is proud to announce Penn Bowl the 13th: Nightmare on Spruce Street, the nation's largest packet-submission tournament. PB13 will be an untimed tournament, held on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA, on Friday and Saturday, 23-24 January 2004.

Exact times and locations will be announced later, but we expect game play to start around 7 PM on Friday and end around 7 PM on Saturday.

Major changes from last year's announcement are highlighted in yellow.






Updates





Who Can Play?

PB13 is open to teams of college students currently enrolled in degree-granting programs. "Chimera" and other "non-traditional" teams may be allowed to compete with permission of the tournament director, but, in general, will not be eligible to win the tournament.






Packets

Schools sending one team are required to submit a packet of 24 tossups and 24 boni.

For schools sending two or more teams, the A and B teams are jointly responsible for sending a packet of 42 tossups and 42 boni, which must be blind to any other teams from that school.

This year, we will be offering a discount of $1 for each question used. Since questions submitted can theoretically be used in two different rounds, it is possible to earn a discount for every question submitted. [Please note, however, that no discount will be given for questions that contain significant factual errors or that require significant rewriting.]

Schools planning to send more than two teams should contact the tournament director for instructions before writing their questions.

The regular deadline for packet submission is 22 December 2003. There will be no late fees on packets submitted by 2 January 2004, but the per-question discount will be reduced. Failure to submit a packet by 9 January 2004 may result in teams being dropped from the field if there are teams on a waiting list.






Game Format

Penn Bowl 13 will be untimed. We expect to have power tossups, though a final decision will be announced in January.






Tournament Format

We guarantee all teams the opportunity to play 14 games.

The format is subject to revision, but the playoff structure we plan to use is as follows:

Teams will be divided into four, five, or six preliminary brackets, depending on the number of teams that register. After a full round-robin within each bracket, the top teams will advance to a championship pool, while there will be consolation pools for lower teams. The exact details of this will be announced in January, but will be generally similar to PB12; if interest exists, for example, consolation pools may be split into varsity and JV divisions.

The top teams from the championship pool will advance to playoffs, which will most likely--though not definitely--be single elimination.

The field will be capped at an absolute maximum of 60 to 66 teams (depending on the final format). Moreover, we are starting registration at 54 teams; as we confirm the availabilty of staff and equipment, we will raise that limit appropriately.






Fees
 
Base fees
First team
Second team
Third and subsequent teams
Registration before 8 November 2003

$145
$120
$100
-$5 (per school)
 
Packet discounts
Very early (25 November 2003)
Early (8 December 2003)

-$30 (full)/-$15 (half)
-$20/-$10
In addition, there will be an additional $20/$10 discount for the first three acceptable packets submitted.
 
Equipment/Staff
First working buzzer system
Each additional buzzer system
First full-time moderator
Each additional full-time moderator

-$10
-$15
-$30
-$35
 
Other discounts (per team)
One-way travel >500 miles
One-way travel >700 miles
One-way travel >1000 miles
One-way travel >2000 miles

Missed Penn Bowl 12
Missed Penn Bowls 10, 11, and 12

Canadian teams


-$10
-$30
-$55
-$75

-$10
-$40

-$50

A school that qualifies for both a new school discount and a travel discount will receive the larger of the two discounts automatically. If an acceptable packet is submitted on time, 50% of the additional discount will also be awarded.
 
Minimum fee per team $30

Penalties
Gross negligence of packet guidelines

+$15 and/or packet rejection





Registration

Schools may register as many teams as they want, and are urged to register as soon as possible. Registration will begin Friday, 17 October 2003.

Until 8 November 2003, we will only accept two teams per school into the field. After that date, we will accept teams on a first-come, first-serve basis, with the caveat that the PADT reserves the right to give priority in registration for schools bringing equipment and/or moderators. Should the field be filled, a wait-list will be created, with teams admitted into the field in the order they appear on the wait list.






Teams Registered
Updated: Saturday, 22 November 2003


Note: Teams listed in yellow did not compete at Penn Bowl 12.

SCHOOL

TEAMS

B/M

PACKET

ROSTER


Armstrong Atlantic State University

1

1/0

Boston University

1

2/2

Brandeis University

2

1/0

Bryn Mawr College

1

1/0

Bucknell University

1

1/1?

Case Western Reserve University

3?

1/?

University of Chicago

3

1/0

Dartmouth College

2

1/0

Duke University

2

1/1

Emory University

1

0/0

University of Louisiana/Lafayette

1?

0/0

University of Maryland

2

2/1?

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2

1/1

University of Michigan

3

3/?

University of North Carolina

2

0/0

University of Pittsburgh

1

1/1?

Princeton University

3

1/0

University of Rochester

1

1/0

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey/New Brunswick

2

1/0

Swarthmore College

2

1/1

Tulane University

1

1/0

Vanderbilt University

1

1/0

University of Virginia

3

2/0

Washington University in St. Louis

2

1/1

Williams College

1

2/0

Yale University

4

2/0






Travel and Housing Information

Hotel Information There are reservations made for the nights of January 23rd and 24th at the Penn Tower Hotel. Confirm these reservations at the hotel. Right now, the rooms are reserved under the name Oliver Entine. Teams need to know this name in order for the rooms to be transferred from his credit card to theirs.

Discounts:

From All Points on US Airways’ Route System:

First/Envoy Class or Lowest Applicable Published Fares:
  5% off following all rules and restrictions.
  10% off with 60 day advance reservations/ticketing required. All other rules and restrictions apply.

Unrestricted Applicable “Y” Published Fare Types or B8US / B4AUS Fares:
  10% off with 7 day advance reservations/ticketing required.
  15% off with 60 day advance reservations/ticketing required. All other rules and restrictions apply.

Reservations:

To obtain this discount, call US Airways' Group and Meeting Reservation Office toll free at (877) 874-7687; 8:00 AM - 9:30 PM Eastern Time
Refer to Gold File Number 71672939.




Freelancing/Mirrors

PADT is willing to provide a free set of questions to individuals or teams who are not competing at Penn Bowl who provide a set of questions for use at Penn Bowl.

In addition, we are always looking for freelance moderators; this year, we are able to pay freelance moderators $25, or provide housing overnight Friday.

Teams interested in hosting a mirror of Penn Bowl should contact the PADT.

Please contact the Penn Bowl staff for more information on any of the above.






Questions?

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to e-mail the Penn Bowl staff.




I look forward to seeing all of you in January. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me by clicking on the link below.

Samer T. Ismail
Editor-in-Chief
Penn Bowl 13