Unome wrote:Per the website, the tournament date has been changed to January 12th. (yay for site monitoring tools!)
Unome wrote:The Centerville conflict may or may not draw away Solon and/or Mason - Mason may choose MIT if they think that going there last year had a significant impact on their success (notably, that was the only invitational at which their teams weren't split), and Solon may do so just because they have so many invitationals planned that the loss of Centerville isn't going to matter too much (the original MIT date would have conflicted with Kenston). Either might choose Centerville if they think it might be more beneficial to compete against Centerville and Mentor in preparation for Ohio state.
nicholasmaurer wrote:Unome wrote:The Centerville conflict may or may not draw away Solon and/or Mason - Mason may choose MIT if they think that going there last year had a significant impact on their success (notably, that was the only invitational at which their teams weren't split), and Solon may do so just because they have so many invitationals planned that the loss of Centerville isn't going to matter too much (the original MIT date would have conflicted with Kenston). Either might choose Centerville if they think it might be more beneficial to compete against Centerville and Mentor in preparation for Ohio state.
I can tell you that Solon HS is closely examining all of our options and that my personal goal is to ensure we are well prepared for the state tournament. If Mason and/or Mentor opt to stay in Ohio and compete at Centerville, that would be a hard opportunity to pass up. We shall see how things play out...
nicholasmaurer wrote:nicholasmaurer wrote:Unome wrote:The Centerville conflict may or may not draw away Solon and/or Mason - Mason may choose MIT if they think that going there last year had a significant impact on their success (notably, that was the only invitational at which their teams weren't split), and Solon may do so just because they have so many invitationals planned that the loss of Centerville isn't going to matter too much (the original MIT date would have conflicted with Kenston). Either might choose Centerville if they think it might be more beneficial to compete against Centerville and Mentor in preparation for Ohio state.
I can tell you that Solon HS is closely examining all of our options and that my personal goal is to ensure we are well prepared for the state tournament. If Mason and/or Mentor opt to stay in Ohio and compete at Centerville, that would be a hard opportunity to pass up. We shall see how things play out...
Update: Solon HS will be going to Centerville.
Alex-RCHS wrote:Was there any reason given for the change?
Alex-RCHS wrote:Do you know if Mason and/or Mentor will be competing at Centerville?
Science Olympiad at MIT wrote:In light of the rapidly decreasing registration times we have seen in the past few years, we have decided to transition towards a tiered lottery system to allow a diverse pool of competitors while still maintaining the rigor of our tournament. Schools will be lotteried according to the highest ranked tier they are in. If a school is not selected by lottery from the highest tier they are initially placed in, they will be dropped to the next tier that they qualify for and will be lotteried once more. The tiers are listed below:
1. Top 10 teams at the MIT Invitational in the previous year: all ten teams will be automatically accepted if they submit an application
2. Schools qualifying for Nationals in the previous year: out of the teams that submit an application, 15 teams will be chosen by lottery. Teams that qualify for Tier 2 but do not make it as a Tier 2 team are added Tier 4.
3. Massachusetts Schools: 20 teams will be selected from this pool ensuring that at least 20 Massachusetts teams are able to come to our competition. Teams that qualify for Tier 3 but do not make it as a Tier 3 team are added Tier 4.
4. General pool: depending on how many spots are remaining, schools will be selected by a lottery process
Schools that would like to bring two teams can fill out a brief application regarding why they need to bring two teams— the applications will be reviewed to make sure as many people are satisfied as possible. Tier 2, 3, and 4 are randomly selected from the applicants at the end of every week until the all the slots are full. The cutoff for the first selection is 11:59PM Friday, September 21st. If there are any spots still available after the first selection, the next selection will be held approximately one week later. Please apply as early as you can.
EastStroudsburg13 wrote:That's a very interesting policy. I like the emphasis on Massachusetts teams; I do think they could think about expanding that policy to apply to all of New England, but it's definitely a nice move from such an in-demand tournament.
Unome wrote:EastStroudsburg13 wrote:That's a very interesting policy. I like the emphasis on Massachusetts teams; I do think they could think about expanding that policy to apply to all of New England, but it's definitely a nice move from such an in-demand tournament.
Personally, I'm of the opinion that for the majority of local or semi-local teams, going to MIT isn't worth it (especially with Harvard and Brown right there, and Yale somewhat close by). Based on my experience, very few teams finishing in the bottom half overall get anything useful out of most MIT tests.
Interesting thought - Harvard is clearly intending to focus on local teams. If MIT and Harvard were on the same day, that may help alleviate some of the stress on MIT's capacity.
Unome wrote:After a day to chew on the policy in more depth, I'm beginning to think that increased difficulty in getting a second team combined with a lot of the 11th-20th finishing teams being in tier 4 for the lottery may be a driver in pushing some teams away from MIT. Lack of a good way to handle extremely high demand may be what eventually removes their status as the most competitive invitational (although it's certainly very early to speculate on that, when we haven't even seen how registration is going this year yet).
Unome wrote:After a day to chew on the policy in more depth, I'm beginning to think that increased difficulty in getting a second team combined with a lot of the 11th-20th finishing teams being in tier 4 for the lottery may be a driver in pushing some teams away from MIT. Lack of a good way to handle extremely high demand may be what eventually removes their status as the most competitive invitational (although it's certainly very early to speculate on that, when we haven't even seen how registration is going this year yet).
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