2007 History Bowl Tournament Rules

March 24, 2007

Hosted by Beta Pi Chapter, Phi Alpha Theta

Tournament Format, Rules, and Ranking Procedures

(Revised 2/2007)

Format

Team Composition

A team consists of one to four players with up to four alternates.
One player must be designated team captain at the beginning of each round.
Substitution of one or more players may be made between rounds, but substitutions are not permitted during a round.

Round Composition

Rounds will consist of 15 toss-ups and 15 possible bonuses.
Toss-up and bonus questions will be paired by broad subject matter.
Score checks should be made after the 8^th toss-up/bonus or as requested by coaches or team captains.

Schedule

A schedule listing team match-ups and room numbers will be provided at registration on the day of the tournament.

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Rules

Toss-Up Questions

A toss-up question may be answered by any player from either team.
After a toss-up has been read, players have five (5) seconds to buzz in. The first player to buzz in must begin his/her answer within three (3) seconds after being recognized by the reader.
If a player begins an answer before being recognized by the reader, or if the wrong player begins to answer, the answer is ruled incorrect and the opposing team and only the opposing team is given an opportunity to answer that specific question.
A toss-up question will be read in its entirety only once.
A player may interrupt the reading of a toss-up question to give an answer by hitting his buzzer.
If the interrupted toss-up is answered incorrectly or if no answer is given, the question will "roll over" to the opposing team, i.e., the opposing team will have the opportunity to hear the remainder of the toss-up question read and to buzz in to answer; the reader will resume reading the question at the point of interruption or at some other logical point before the point of interruption, but not at the beginning of the question.
There are no penalties for incorrectly answering an interrupted toss-up question.
No pauses or thinking breaks may be taken while answering a toss-up.
No conversation or consultation will be allowed on toss-up questions. If such occurs, in the judgment of the reader, the opposing team and only the opposing team may answer that specific question. Consultation includes, but is not limited to, speaking, looking, nodding, gesturing, suspicious coughing, and note-writing. The decision of the reader is final and cannot be appealed or protested in this situation.
If a reader inadvertently provides the correct answer to a toss-up question following an incorrect answer, that toss-up will be eliminated and the team which did not have an opportunity to answer will receive a replacement toss-up.
Giving multiple pieces of information related to the question, hoping to get the correct answer somewhere in the string, is considered an incorrect response; i.e., no "blitzing" or "spewing" is allowed. The player will give only one answer, and the reader will interpret the first piece of information given by the player as the player's answer.
If the answer to a question is a name or other muli-word item, all parts must be correct; e.g., "NATO" or "North Atlantic Treaty Organization" would be a correct answer to a question about trans-oceanic alliances but "Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization" would not.
In the event that the player's answer is "correct" but incomplete or ambiguous, the reader will prompt the player with "more information." The player must, without any pauses or thinking breaks, supply additional correct, clarifying information; e.g., if a player answered "Henry" to a question about Plantagenet ruler married to Eleanor of Aquitaine, the reader would prompt "more information" and the player must then respond "Henry II."
Each toss-up question has a value of ten (10) points. There are no penalties for incorrect answers.

Bonus Questions

By answering a toss-up question correctly, a player earns a bonus question for his/her team; for Toss-up 1, this will be Bonus 1; for Toss-up 2, this will be Bonus 2, and so forth.
Bonus questions with one part will have a twenty (20) second discussion/consultation time limit; those with two parts will have a ten (10) second time limit per part, and bonuses with four parts will have a five (5) second time limit per part. The reader will ask for the answer after "time" is called by the time keeper, although the team may begin answering before "time" has been called.
The team captain must deliver all answers for a bonus question, unless he/she designates another player for that bonus, and must begin his/her answer immediately after being called upon by the reader, with no pauses or further thinking breaks.
There will be no "bounce back" bonuses; only the team that correctly answers the toss-up will be eligible to answer the bonus.
Each bonus part will be read only once; each part will be read separately and answered before continuing to the next bonus part.
On multi-part bonuses, the reader will not give the correct answers until after team has provided its answers to all parts of the bonus.
The reader will announce the points earned on the bonus question after announcing the correct answers to any part answered incorrectly, if applicable.
Each bonus question has a combined twenty (20) point potential.

Ties

In the event of a tied round, one or more of the tie-breaker toss-up questions printed at the end of each round will be read to break the tie.
The first team to answer a tie-breaker question correctly will be declared the winner of the round.

Protests

Protests may be lodged verbally by the coach or the team captain. Any protest must be lodged to the reader before the round progresses to the next toss-up question.
Protests will be adjudicated only if the points in dispute affect the final outcome of the round.
1. Example A: A player on Team 1 buzzes in first and gives an answer that is ruled incorrect (but feels the answer is acceptable, e.g., an alternate name or an error in the question). A player on Team 2 buzzes in and provides the correct answer. On the bonus, Team 2 earns 15 out of 20 points. In this case, the "points in dispute" are 55: the 10 points earned by Team B on the toss-up and the 15 points earned on the bonus that followed AND the 10 points Team 1 did not earn with their disputed answer as well as the 20 points Team 1 had the potential of earning with the subsequent bonus. If the difference in final scores is less than or equal to 55 points, the protest will be adjudicated.
2. Example B: A player on Team 1 buzzes in first and answers the toss-up correctly. On the bonus, the team correctly answers three parts of the bonus and protest that their answer to the fourth part was an acceptable alternative. In this example, the "points in dispute" are 5, the five points Team 1 did not receive for their disputed answer. If the difference in final scores is less than or equal to 5 points, the protest will be adjudicated.
3. Example C: A player on Team 1 buzzes in first and gives an incorrect answer. A player on Team 2 buzzes in and gives an answer that is ruled incorrect but feels the answer was an acceptable alternative. In this example, the "points in dispute" are 30, the 10 points Team 2 did not receive for their disputed answer as well as the 20 points they had the potential of earning with the subsequent bonus. If the difference in final scores is less than or equal to 30 points, the protest will be adjudicated.
When a protest is adjudicated and decided in favor of the team making the protest, points will be added (and subtracted) as appropriate and a replacement bonus may be given as necessary.
1. In Example A above, Team 2's score is reduced by 25 points (which they would not have earned had Team 1's answer to the toss-up been accepted initially). Team 1's score is increased by 10 points (for their player's answer to the toss-up that has been ruled correct), and Team 1 is given an opportunity to answer a replacement bonus question (which they would have earned had their player's answer been ruled correct initially). If these changes in score and the points earned by Team 1 on the replacement bonus create a tie, the rules for ties will be followed.
2. In Example B, the disputed 5 points are awarded. This change will result in a tie, so the rules for ties will be followed.
3. In Example C, Team 2's score is increased by 10 points for their now-correct toss-up answer, and they are given a chance to answer the bonus that belongs to the toss-up in question (e.g., Bonus 9 is read if the disputed question was Toss-up 9, since in this scenario the bonus had not been read originally for either team). If this change in score and the points earned by Team 2 on the bonus create a tie, the rules for ties will be followed.
Protests will be decided by the reader in the room; if the reader is unable to resolve the protest, the tournament director and/or the Georgetown History faculty member on site will resolve the protest. Decisions of these officials are final.

Byes

In the event there are an odd number of teams competing, each team will have a "bye" during one round. During a bye round, that team will not compete against another team.
During a team's bye round, the team is permitted to silently watch another pair of teams compete.
If there are enough volunteers and empty rooms available, the bye team will be permitted to "play itself" unofficially on that round's set of questions. A GU volunteer must serve as the reader during this round. Team and individual statistics from playing during the team's bye round are unofficial and are not included in the final tournament statistics and rankings.
In any case, a team with a bye must not disrupt any of the matches taking place during that round. The team will not be permitted to congregate in the hallways and must remain either in an empty room, if available, or in a room with a match, silently watching other teams compete.

Miscellaneous

Players may not have reference books or other aids, including calculators, student-made charts, electronic devices, etc., during rounds.
If teams wish to use pens or pencils and paper during rounds, they must provide their own pens or pencils and clean paper for each round.
Cell phones, beepers, alarms, etc., must be turned off or left outside the playing room during play.
Once the doors to the room have been closed for each round, no player, coach, or spectator may enter or exit the room until the door is opened at the end of the round.

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Ranking

The Georgetown University History Bowl employs the round-robin format. Team ranking will be decided by considering the factors in the order they are given below.