The 14th annual Vancouver Estival Trivia Open (VETO) was held on Saturday, July 28, 2012, at the University of British Columbia.

This was a guerrilla-style tournament, meaning that all questions were written by members of the participating teams, and there was no central editing. Question packets were shared with a mirror tournament (VETO's Eastern Trivia Open: full stats available) being held the same day at the University of Toronto.

All of the question packets are available for free download! (saved on the Collegiate Quizbowl Packet Archive)

All staff were drawn from the participating teams during their bye round. Thanks to Mischa for getting us space at UBC.

We had seven teams, with a total of 25 players. Team rosters were as follows. If a team is named after an institution of higher education, it does not necessarily mean that all of its members are affiliated with that institution.

• [FrSd] FARSIDE — Peter
• [Oreg] University of Oregon — Amy, Phil, Hanson, Laurie
• [UBC.] University of British Columbia — Mike, Adam, Rob, Steph, Lindsey
• [Blvu] Bellevue College — Mike, Brittany, Chris, Alejandro
• [B2B.] B2B — Brock, Mischa, Fred, Greg
• [Wash] University of Washington — Carolyn, Peter, Joelle, Greyson
• [SFQB] Simon Fraser University — Geoff, Ross, Brittany

Round-Robin Results

We used the following schedule. Every team except FARSIDE had at least three members who could run a game room by themselves. The FARSIDE team had only one member, so its packet was played in two rounds: the first round was moderated by the sole team member, and then the two teams that played in that round helped run the second round. The FARSIDE rounds were scheduled immediately after lunch, so that four teams got a longer lunch break.

 time Room 156  Room 158  Room 191    pack
 ==== ========  ========  ========    ====  
 9:30 SFU.-UBC. Blvu-Oreg Wash-FrSd | B2B.
10:00 B2B.-Blvu Wash-UBC. FrSd-Oreg | SFU.
10:30 SFU.-Wash B2B.-FrSd Oreg-UBC. | Blvu
11:00 FrSd-Blvu SFU.-Oreg B2B.-UBC. | Wash
---------------------------------------------
      Lunch break
---------------------------------------------
 1:00 B2B.-SFU.                     | FrSd (Wash, Oreg, Blvu, UBC. still lunch)
 1:30 Wash-Oreg Blvu-UBC.           | FrSd (B2B. and SFU. also reading)
 2:00 FrSd-UBC. B2B.-Wash SFU.-Blvu | Oreg
 2:30 B2B.-Oreg SFU.-FrSd Blvu-Wash | UBC.

Here are the standings for the round-robin (full SQBS tables are available).
Teams were ranked by win-loss record, with average points per game as tie-breaker.

Rank	Team	W	L	T	Pct	PPG	PAPG	Mrg	10	-5	TUH	PPTH	P/N	G/N	BHrd	BPts	P/B
1	Bellevue	5	1	0	0.833	222.5	163.3	59.2	55	20	123	10.85	0.00	2.75	52	885	17.02
2	B2B	5	1	0	0.833	216.7	154.2	62.5	54	15	120	10.83	0.00	3.60	54	835	15.46
3	UBC	4	2	0	0.667	216.7	148.3	68.3	55	10	123	10.57	0.00	5.50	55	800	14.55
4	FARSIDE	4	2	0	0.667	208.3	173.3	35.0	53	6	120	10.42	0.00	8.83	53	750	14.15
5	Oregon	2	4	0	0.333	185.8	197.5	-11.7	46	9	120	9.29	0.00	5.11	46	700	15.22
6	Washington	1	5	0	0.167	84.2	170.0	-85.8	29	4	120	4.21	0.00	7.25	29	235	8.10
7	SFU	0	6	0	0.000	132.5	260.0	-127.5	43	10	120	6.62	0.00	4.30	43	415	9.65

Individual Statistics

Rank	Player	Team	GP	10	-5	TUH	P/TU	G/N	Pts	PPG	'99	'00	'01	'02	'03	'04	'05	'06	'07	'08	'09	'10	'11
1	Peter	FARSIDE	6.0	53	6	120	4.17	8.83	500	83.33	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
2	Phil	Oregon	6.0	36	4	120	2.83	9.00	340	56.67	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y	Y	-	Y
3	Adam	UBC	5.0	20	3	103	1.80	6.67	185	37.00	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y
4	Mike	UBC	6.0	25	6	123	1.79	4.17	220	36.67	-	-	-	-	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	-	Y	Y
5	Fred	B2B	6.0	24	10	120	1.58	2.40	190	31.67	-	-	-	-	-	Y	Y	Y	-	-	-	Y	-
6	Joelle	Washington	6.0	18	2	120	1.42	9.00	170	28.33	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	Geoff	SFU	6.0	18	3	120	1.38	6.00	165	27.50	-	-	-	-	-	Y	Y	Y	-	Y	Y	Y	Y
8	Mike	Bellevue	6.0	18	3	123	1.34	6.00	165	27.50	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y	Y	Y
9	Brock	B2B	6.0	15	0	120	1.25	inf	150	25.00	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	M	Y	Y	Y	Y
10	Alejandro	Bellevue	6.0	16	3	123	1.18	5.33	145	24.17	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y	-
11	Chris	Bellevue	6.0	20	14	123	1.06	1.43	130	21.67	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y	Y	Y
12	Ross	SFU	6.0	14	5	120	0.96	2.80	115	19.17	-	-	-	Y	Y	M	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
13	Brittany	SFU	6.0	11	2	120	0.83	5.50	100	16.67	-	-	-	-	-	Y	-	Y	-	Y	Y	Y	Y
14	Greg	B2B	6.0	10	3	120	0.71	3.33	85	14.17	-	Y	Y	-	Y	Y	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15	Lindsey	UBC	4.0	4	0	80	0.50	inf	40	10.00	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
16	Hanson	Oregon	6.0	6	3	120	0.38	2.00	45	7.50	-	-	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
17	Steph	UBC	5.0	4	1	103	0.34	4.00	35	7.00	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y
18	Mischa	B2B	6.0	5	2	120	0.33	2.50	40	6.67	-	-	-	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	-	Y
19	Peter	Washington	6.0	4	0	120	0.33	inf	40	6.67	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y
20	Carolyn	Washington	6.0	4	1	120	0.29	4.00	35	5.83	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y
21	Amy	Oregon	6.0	4	2	120	0.25	2.00	30	5.00	-	-	Y	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y	Y	Y	Y
22	Rob	UBC	4.0	2	0	83	0.24	inf	20	5.00	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y
23	Greyson	Washington	6.0	3	1	120	0.21	3.00	25	4.17	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
24	Brittany	Bellevue	6.0	1	0	123	0.08	inf	10	1.67	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y	-
25	Laurie	Oregon	6.0	0	0	120	0.00	0.00	0	0.00	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

For leading in the individual stats, Peter retains the title of West Coast Dominatrix of Relevant Knowledge.

Playoffs

Bellevue 160, B2B 145
Bellevue: Chris 2 3 5, Mike 3 2 20, Alejandro 1 1 5, Brittany 1 0 10
B2B: Brock 2 0 20, Fred 3 1 25, Mischa 1 0 10, Greg 2 0 20
Bonuses: Bellevue 7 120 17.14, B2B 8 70 8.75

FARSIDE 135, UBC 125
UBC: Mike 2 0 20, Adam 4 1 35, Rob 0 0 0, Lindsey 0 0 0
FARSIDE: Peter 8 5 55
Bonuses: UBC 6 70 11.67, FARSIDE 8 80 10.00

B2B 210, FARSIDE 100
B2B: Brock 2 0 20, Fred 7 2 60, Mischa 0 0 0, Greg 1 0 10
FARSIDE: Peter 4 2 30
Bonuses: B2B 10 120 12.00, FARSIDE 4 70 17.50

Bellevue 290, B2B 180
Bellevue: Chris 4 2 30, Mike 2 1 15, Alejandro 4 1 35, Brittany 1 0 10
B2B: Brock 0 0 0, Fred 6 0 60, Mischa 0 0 0, Greg 2 0 20
Bonuses: Bellevue 11 200 18.18, B2B 8 100 12.50

End of the finals. From left to right:
Second-place team B2B — Greg, Mischa, Fred, Brock.
Moderator Joelle and scorekeeper Greyson, both of Washington.
VETO champion team Bellevue — Alejandro, Mike, Chris, Brittany.

Prizes

Honour		Honouree	Prize	Reason	Sponsor
West Coast Dominatrix of Relevant Knowledge		Peter of FARSIDE	handcuffs	scoring 83.33 points per game	Peter of FARSIDE, but selection determined by stats alone
Best American player		Phil of Oregon	The All Canadian Trivia Board Game	scoring 56.67 points per game	Lindsey of UBC, but selection determined by stats alone
Most negs in one round		Chris of Bellevue	a cloth snowball	getting 6 negs playing against Washington on the UBC packet	Mike of Bellevue, but selection determined by stats alone
Best trash question		Hanson of Oregon	The World Treasury of Physics, Astronomy, and Mathematics	audio bonus on Canadian music	Lindsey of UBC
Best tech-related question		Mike of Bellevue	O'Reilly key chain	tossup on databases	Hanson of Oregon
Best religion question		Carolyn of Washington	Bibleopoly board game	bonus on Hawaiian mythology	Lindsey of UBC
Best college-related question		Phil of Oregon	Chomsky and Globalisation book	bonus about Ruth Benedict	Hanson of Oregon
Craziest question		Ross of SFU	a cloth strawberry	bonus about current controversies related to Toronto public transit	Mike of Bellevue
Worst repeat		SFU team	a broken record	bonus part asking for the name of the new Egyptian president, after the previous round had a tossup that asked for the same thing	Peter of FARSIDE

General observations and lessons learned

• Teams came together awfully slowly, and at first it wasn't clear if there would be enough teams in Toronto for a mirror there. But in Vancouver, we ended up with generally the same teams we've been getting lately: 17 of last year's 26 players returned this year. Toronto had four teams, supplying us with enough packets for playoffs.
• We were again at the convenient I. K. Barber Centre at UBC. The only problem was that there were no markers for the whiteboards in the rooms. We had to hunt around the building to find some that barely worked. This is noted here so that we won't forget to bring our own markers next time.
• VETO has been played with seven teams before, in 2001, 2002, and 2006, but those times, most of the rounds had three byes, rather than one, in order to provide more staff, at the cost of having more rounds and using more packets. This year, every team but one had at least three members who could run a game room alone, so we were able to play a seven-team round-robin with only one bye in each round, except for the FARSIDE round.
• Almost all teams printed out their packets, so we didn't have the delays we had last year when packets were transferred to laptops at the beginning of each round.
• But we still did have some delays, and one of the reasons was that some teams were late in returning from lunch. Even one of the teams that got an extended lunch break returned to the building late. You know who you are.
• At least one person had to miss VETO because of the late (mid-May) announcement of the tournament date, and because of that person's requirement to book time off work well in advance. Most people knew their own summer plans and special events before then, but we had been waiting for the announcement of the date of the Chicago Open, which some VETO players also like to attend. We also have to coordinate with the Ontario mirror. So it's a tough call to decide when to fix a date.
• We had planned to use Page playoffs at VETO in previous years, but we never did, because when it came time for playoffs, we realized that we wouldn't be able to play three rounds before the building closed. But this year, we actually had time to do Page playoffs, and it worked out well in sorting out the best teams. Most of the teams that did not make the playoffs went to another room and played on the same packets; as they said, "playing quiz bowl is a lot more fun than watching it."
• We forgot to have someone look over the quarterfinal packet to remove repeats. But having learned our lesson, we did check for repeats in the semifinal and final packets.
• The Washington team had actual current members of that university's quiz bowl team, who drove three hours each way just to play in VETO. But there were no players who were still students at UBC or SFU, which used to have teams that played regularly against each other and also travelled to regional and international tournaments in the previous decade. Prospects for local teams rejoining the university quiz bowl circuit depend on whether students themselves are interested in the game, but that's difficult when even the people who would be interested are unlikely even to know it exists. We continue to hope that the UBC and SFU teams will be revived so that more people can share the joys of this activity.

"Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it!" — famous last words

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