The 16th annual Vancouver Estival Trivia Open (VETO) was held on Saturday, July 12, 2014, 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.

Some of the question packets will be 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 23 players. Team rosters were as follows.

• [CA69] Canada 69 — Jordan, David, Brittany Z., Geoff Z.
• [CA.I] Canada I — Mike W., Adam, Lindsey, Hanson
• [FrSd] FARSIDE — Peter
• [SAFT] Something About Fur Trapping — Mike B., Brittany B., Andrew, Michael L.
• [Seat] Seattle — Chris, Alejandro, Joelle, Evan
• [SFU.] Simon Fraser University Alumni — Jo, Ross
• [UBCR] University of British Columbia Revisited — Zarya, Fred, Luka, Alex

Round-Robin Results

We used the following schedule. Every team except FARSIDE and SFU Alumni had at least three members who could run a game room by themselves. The games run by those two teams were split over two rounds: during the first round, only one game was played, while the other four teams were sequestered; and during the second round, there were two games played by those other four teams, while the teams that already played the packet helped out.

The packet read in each round was written by the team listed with the first bye shown here, with the exception that in the rounds shown with SFUA as first bye, the packet read was the one by B2ER in Toronto.

       Room 205   Room 209   Room 214      bye
       =========  =========  =========     ====
 9:30  FrSd-SFUA  CA.I-UBCR  SAFT-Seat  |  CA69
10:00  SFUA-CA.I  FrSd-UBCR  CA69-Seat  |  SAFT
10:30  FrSd-CA.I  SFUA-UBCR  CA69-SAFT  |  Seat
11:00  Seat-FrSd  CA69-CA.I  SAFT-SFUA  |  UBCR
-------------------------------------------------
      Lunch at the Student Union Building
-------------------------------------------------
 1:30             SAFT-CA.I             |  FrSd (sequester: CA69 UBCR Seat SFUA)
 2:00  CA69-UBCR             Seat-SFUA  |  FrSd SAFT CA.I
 2:30  Seat-UBCR  CA69-SFUA  SAFT-FrSd  |  CA.I
 3:00  SAFT-UBCR                        |  SFUA (sequester: Seat CA.I CA69 FrSd)
 3:30             Seat-CA.I  CA69-FrSd  |  SFUA SAFT UBCR

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	P/TU	P/N	G/N	BHrd	BPts	P/B
1	UBC Revisited	5	1	0	0.833	290.0	161.7	128.3	66	15	120	14.50	0.00	4.40	66	1155	17.50
2	Canada 69	5	1	0	0.833	240.8	171.7	69.2	57	14	120	12.04	0.00	4.07	57	945	16.58
3	Canada I	4	2	0	0.667	199.2	170.0	29.2	50	7	120	9.96	0.00	7.14	50	730	14.60
4	Something About Fur Trapping	3	3	0	0.500	221.7	155.0	66.7	52	12	120	11.08	0.00	4.33	52	870	16.73
5	Seattle	3	3	0	0.500	184.2	180.8	3.3	45	16	120	9.21	0.00	2.81	45	735	16.33
6	FARSIDE	1	5	0	0.167	164.2	239.2	-75.0	44	8	120	8.21	0.00	5.50	44	585	13.30
7	SFU Alumni	0	6	0	0.000	77.5	299.2	-221.7	22	0	120	3.88	0.00	inf	22	245	11.14

Individual Statistics

Rank	Player	Team	GP	10	-5	TUH	P/TU	P/N	G/N	Pts	PPG	'99	'00	'01	'02	'03	'04	'05	'06	'07	'08	'09	'10	'11	'12	'13
1	Peter	FARSIDE	6.00	44	8	120	3.33	0.00	5.50	400	66.67	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
2	Jordan	Canada 69	6.00	40	7	120	3.04	0.00	5.71	365	60.83	-	-	-	-	-	-	M	M	-	-	M	M	M	-	M
3	Luka	UBC Revisited	6.00	27	3	120	2.12	0.00	9.00	255	42.50	-	-	-	Y	Y	Y	Y	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Mike	Canada I	6.00	21	1	120	1.71	0.00	21.00	205	34.17	-	-	-	-	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	-	Y	Y	Y	Y
5	Andrew	SAFT	6.00	20	2	120	1.58	0.00	10.00	190	31.67	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y
6	Zarya	UBC Revisited	6.00	17	2	120	1.33	0.00	8.50	160	26.67	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y	M	Y	Y	-	Y	-	-	-
7	Mike B.	SAFT	6.00	20	9	120	1.29	0.00	2.22	155	25.83	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
8	Alejandro	Seattle	6.00	18	5	120	1.29	0.00	3.60	155	25.83	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y	-	Y	Y
9	Adam	Canada I	6.00	17	3	120	1.29	0.00	5.67	155	25.83	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y	Y	-
10	Chris	Seattle	6.00	19	8	120	1.25	0.00	2.38	150	25.00	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
11	Fred	UBC Revisited	6.00	15	4	120	1.08	0.00	3.75	130	21.67	-	-	-	-	-	Y	Y	Y	-	-	-	Y	-	Y	-
12	Ross	SFU Alumni	6.00	12	0	120	1.00	0.00	inf	120	20.00	-	-	-	Y	Y	M	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
13	Jo	SFU Alumni	6.00	10	0	120	0.83	0.00	inf	100	16.67	-	-	-	-	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	-	Y	Y	-	-	Y
14	Michael L.	SAFT	6.00	10	0	120	0.83	0.00	inf	100	16.67	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y
15	Hanson	Canada I	6.00	9	2	120	0.67	0.00	4.50	80	13.33	-	-	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	-
16	Geoff	Canada 69	6.00	8	3	120	0.54	0.00	2.67	65	10.83	-	-	-	-	-	Y	Y	Y	-	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
17	Joelle	Seattle	6.00	7	1	120	0.54	0.00	7.00	65	10.83	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y	Y
18	Brittany	Canada 69	6.00	7	3	120	0.46	0.00	2.33	55	9.17	-	-	-	-	-	Y	-	Y	-	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
19	Alex	UBC Revisited	6.00	7	6	120	0.33	0.00	1.17	40	6.67	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
20	Lindsey	Canada I	6.00	3	1	120	0.21	0.00	3.00	25	4.17	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y	-
21	Brittany	SAFT	6.00	2	1	120	0.12	0.00	2.00	15	2.50	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y	-	Y	Y
22	David	Canada 69	6.00	2	1	120	0.12	0.00	2.00	15	2.50	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
23	Evan	Seattle	6.00	1	2	120	0.00	0.00	0.50	0	0.00	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Y

For leading in the individual stats, Peter wins back the title of West Coast Dominatrix of Relevant Knowledge, after Phil from Oregon won it from him the previous year.

Playoffs

1. Quarterfinal:   #1 vs. #2
2. Semifinal:   Quarterfinal loser vs. #3
3. Final:   Quarterfinal winner vs. Semifinal winner

Quarterfinal (Packet: Old Waterloo)
UBC Revisited 295, Canada 69 245
UBC Revisited: Zarya 5 0 50, Fred 3 0 30, Luka 2 0 20, Alex 0 1 -5
Canada 69: Jordan 5 1 45, David 1 0 10, Brittany 0 0 0, Geoff 3 0 30
Bonuses: UBC Revisited 10 200 20.00, Canada 69 9 160 17.78
  UBC Revisited to final; Canada 69 to semifinal

Semifinal (Packet: Waterloo A)
Canada 69 280, Canada I 170
Canada 69: Jordan 7 5 45, David 1 0 10, Brittany 0 0 0, Geoff 3 0 30
Canada I: Mike 4 0 40, Hanson 1 0 10, Lindsey 0 0 0, Adam 2 0 20
Bonuses: Canada 69 11 195 17.73, Canada I 7 100 14.29
  Canada 69 to final; Canada I out

Final (Packet: Masked Canadian Victory Bandits)
Canada 69 340, UBC Revisited 85
Canada 69: Jordan 6 2 50, David 2 0 20, Brittany 2 0 20, Geoff 3 0 30
UBC Revisited: Zarya 2 0 20, Fred 1 2 0, Luka 0 0 0, Alex 2 1 15
Bonuses: Canada 69 13 220 16.92, UBC Revisited 5 50 10.00

Congratulations to Canada 69 for winning the 16th Vancouver Estival Trivia Open!

• VETO champion team, Canada 69 — David, Brittany, Geoff, Jordan.
• Moderator of the final — Mike of Canada I.
• Second-place team, UBC Revisited — Luka, Zarya, Fred, Alex.

An audio recording of the final game is saved on the Internet Archive for your listening pleasure.

Full SQBS tables are available covering all games including the round-robin, the playoffs among the top three teams, and a lower-bracket round-robin among the #4 through #6 teams (SAFT, Seattle, and FARSIDE), which took place at the same time as the playoffs among the top three teams.

Prizes

Honour		Honouree	Prize	Reason	Sponsor
Worst repeat		Jordan of Canada 69	a broken record	writing "nickel" as answer to first tossup in his round, and "Nickelback" as answer to last tossup in his round (and also because he really wanted this prize)	Peter of FARSIDE
Best literature tossup		Peter of FARSIDE	serialized version of Tess of the d'Urbervilles	question about the Forest of Arden	Jordan of Canada 69
Best Canadian tossup		Mike of Canada I	Jack London anthology	question about Prince Rupert of the Rhine	Jordan of Canada 69
Top scorer on losing team during crunch time		Zarya of UBC Revisited	Cadbury Crunchie bar	scoring 20 points on tossups in final	Jordan of Canada 69, but selection determined by stats alone
Top scorer on winning team during crunch time		Jordan of Canada 69	Nestlé Crunch bar	scoring 50 points on tossups in final	Jordan of Canada 69, but selection determined by stats alone
Bookworm award: Favourite literature bonus		Joelle of Seattle	candy	canary-themed bonus	Lindsey of Canada I
Discontinuity award: Most unrelated bonus parts		Alejandro of Seattle	second Shamara book	question about Dido, with picture	Brittany of SAFT
Least Canadian packet by a Canadian team		Canada 69	framed New Yorker cartoon	writing the packet with the least Canadian content among those by Canadian teams	Mike B. of SAFT

General observations and lessons learned

• We had six teams forming relatively early this year. Then Jo and Ross also wanted to play, and the other six teams decided that it would be best to include them as a separate team (SFU Alumni) so that there would be a seven-team round-robin with only one team having a bye in each round.
• We also experienced the disadvantages of having three simultaneous games with only one bye: the bye team's staffing resources can be stretched, and in the case of FARSIDE of SFU Alumni, they didn't even have three players, so those two teams had to run their rounds twice, with the teams playing the first game providing staff for the second game.
• Since the SFU Alumni team did not write a packet, it was excluded from games after the round-robin, which were played on packets written by teams playing in Toronto. Jo printed out all nine Toronto packets. Having printed packets meant that we didn't have to use laptops. Auditory questions were played on smartphones.
• Over a nine-hour day, we used only ten packets, including four of the nine we received from Toronto. The original plan was to have a 7-team round-robin (7 rounds), then have the top three teams play each other and the bottom three teams play each other (3 rounds), and finally Page playoffs among the top four teams (3 rounds). But this plan was too ambitious.
• It was a hot day in Vancouver. We discovered, or should have known already, that:
  • rooms facing south get warmer than rooms facing north;
  • smaller rooms get warmer than bigger rooms;
  • turning off the lights and lowering the shades also helps reduce the heat.
• There were some editing goofs in the questions, but overall, there weren't any real howlers as there had been in previous years. And I don't think there was a single bonus of the form "given the title, name the author, for 10 points each".
• After the tournament was over, about half of us went to a pub at UBC and played on some of the questions from unplayed packets, but we got through only the tossups of only one of the Toronto packets. VETO is the only quiz bowl tournament that takes place in B.C., and some participants expressed interest in having more!

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

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