ACF Northeast Regional Tournament

Tournament results are available.

Who's coming?

The tournament will have eight teams of students from the following schools:

• 2 Boston University
• 1 Dartmouth College
• 1 Williams College
• 1 University of Massachusetts Lowell
• 2 Harvard University
• 1 Columbia University

This list was last updated on February 25.

Format

We will be using ACF's rules, which are not available on-line. Basically, rounds are untimed and consist of 20 tossups (each worth 10 points) with appropriate number of bonus questions (each worth 30 points).

There will be:

1. A full round-robin among the eight participating teams (seven games);
2. A split round-robin with the top four teams from the first stage playing each other again, and the the other four teams also playing each other again (three games);
3. A championship series between the two teams from the top four with the best overall records from the first two stages.

The criteria for ranking will be as follows, in order of priority:

1. Number of games won.
2. Record in head-to-head competition.
3. Record against all higher-ranked opponents than the tied position.
4. Record against 1st place team...nth place team(s) where n is the lowest number required for the resolution of the tie.
5. Head-to-head point differential.
6. Head-to-head tossups answered correctly.
7. Longest flight of a paper airplane down the hall of the Tang Center.

Question packets

The questions have been written by participating students from across the United States, and have been edited by ACF staff (not by us at MIT). They all follow the ACF question guidelines.

Except for the warm-up round, the questions read at the Northeast tournament will be the same ones read at all the other ACF regional tournaments.

Other regional tournaments

• University of Maryland at College Park
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• Texas A & M University

• University of California at Berkeley

Costs

The costs for each team will be:

Base rate, first team from a school            $70
Base rate, second & other teams                $60
Working buzzer system for our use            - $ 5
Qualified moderator for our use              - $ 5
If school's first time in ACF regional       - $10

Minimum charge per team                        $50

Buzzer systems must have at least eight working hand units. Guest moderators should be able to work in any room assigned by the tournament staff, in every round before the playoff rounds.

In addition, ACF imposes fines on teams from schools that have previously played in an ACF regional tournament but have sent their questions in late:

Packets received after Feb. 14               + $10
Packets received after Feb. 21               + $20
No packet submitted                          + $50

At the end of the tournament, we will be selling the question packets to participating teams for $20. For $30, you may purchase both the ACF regional question packets and our question packets from Beaver Bonspiel III.

Prizes

The top two teams will receive prizes. These teams, as well as some of the other top teams, will also be invited to play in ACF's National tournament in April at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Accommodations

If you have taken up our offer of free overnight accommodations at Julie's dorm, you'll be in MacGregor House, about a 10-minute walk from the tournament location. You'll be given temporary ID cards.

Where is MIT?

MIT is located in our fair city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the Charles River. The nearby Harvard and Longfellow Bridges connect us with Boston. Boston is a major road, rail and air transportation hub, and indeed one of its nicknames is "the hub of the universe".

By car, we're about:
4 hours from New York City;
6 hours from Philadelphia or Montréal;
9 hours from Buffalo or Washington, DC.

Our web server has more detailed directions to MIT and a campus map.

We also have a link to local weather forecasts.

Where is the tournament?

Registration will take place at 9:00 a.m. in room 6-120.

If you're coming by car, the most convenient place to park (for free) is on Memorial Drive.

To get to room 6-120:

• If you were at Beaver Bonspiel III in October, 1996, you may recall that all games were held on one hallway in building 2. If you continue down this same hallway, you'll enter building 6. Pass by several large dewars containing (nontoxic and nonflammable) liquid nitrogen, and then pass by a shrine to George Eastman (inventor, industrialist, benefactor). The next room is 6-120.
• If you have parked on Memorial Drive, the easiest way to room 6-120 is through building 2. This is in the main cluster of MIT buildings, between the large courtyard and Hayden Library. Enter at the eastern corner and walk down the hallway past the dewars and the Eastman shrine until you reach 6-120.
• If you are coming from the Kendall Square T station:
  • Walk up Main Street (away from the Charles River) past the MIT Coop, and turn left at the first intersection, which is Ames Street.
  • Walk down Ames Street, past the new biology building (note the pictures of double helices on the interior walls), until you reach the triangular Ralph Landau Building, which is next to the biology building.
  • Here you'll see the Green Building, the one with the golfball on top, the tallest building in Cambridge. Walk under this building.
  • Facing the Charles River from the Green Building, you'll see Alexander Calder's "The Big Sail". Turn right and walk under an overhang of a 5-story building.
  • Keep walking straight and you'll see a prominent-looking entrance to the main cluster of MIT buildings. Enter here and you'll be at the George Eastman shrine. Room 6-120 is to your right.
  This walk takes about 7 or 8 minutes.
• If you enter through the main entrance to MIT at 77 Massachusetts Avenue, continue walking straight along the "infinite corridor" for about 1/4 mile until you reach the other end of the building. But instead of going outside, turn to your right down another hallway. Room 6-120 will be on your right.

• 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.: 4-167
• 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.: E51-075

Schedule

• 9:00 a.m.: Registration and meeting in 6-120.
• 9:30 - 10:00: Warm-up round
• 10:00 - 12:30: 5 rounds of a full round-robin (no "byes")
• 12:30 - 2:00: LUNCH, available at Kendall Square
• 2:00 - 3:00: 2 more rounds of full round-robin (no "byes")
• 3:30 - 5:00: 3 rounds of split round-robin (no "byes")
• 5:30: Start of championship matches in the Wong Auditorium, room E51-115.