Tournament Updates
For tournament updates in a Google Doc format, click here.
For Event Logistics Document, click here.
Update #4 January 31, 2021
Hello coaches. We are about a week out from the Sierra Vista Invitational tournament! We have a number of important updates for you and your students to consider. We have some good news, and some “official” news. First, the good news. Sierra Vista has been lucky enough to obtain a number of public and private sponsorships for our tournament. Because of this we are able to award $25 gift cards to the team that comes in first place in many of the slated events in the AA track. Each sponsor will be recognized during the awards ceremony!
Now for the “official” news.
Self Scheduling: At last check, there are still several teams who have not self scheduled. Remember that Helicopters and Digital Structures must be self scheduled. See below for Mission and Mousetrap updates!
Team Name Changes: Last chance for team name changes. All name changes need to be in by Tuesday 2.2.21, at 3pm pst. If you need to make a name change, please email me at shaunevola@iusd.org
Track Changes: Last chance to change any of your team track placements. All change requests need to be entered by Tuesday 2.2.21 at 3pm pst. Current tracking assignments are located here.
Event Changes: Last week, the National Science Olympiad Office updated their 2021 National Tournament Event Slate to run all the Technology and Engineering Design events as optional “medal only “events. See National event slate.
Based on the updated national tournament event slate and in effort to reduce risk for students testing outside, the Southern California Regional and State Directors decided to follow suit and made Mousetrap Vehicle and Mission Possible “Medal-only” events.
After much consideration and in effort to keep our tournament as consistent to our state tournament as possible, we have decided to follow our state guidelines. Both Mousetrap Vehicle and Mission Possible will be “Medal-only” events at the Sierra Vista Invitational.
Please see the updated Tournament schedule and the updated 2021 Events and Modifications document.
Mousetrap Vehicle Update:
The format of the event is now changed. This event is officially “Medal Only” Your students will be able to compete in the event at any time throughout the day (8am - 3pm pst.) They will record and submit their videos through a google form.
This event will be run by submitting a video, pictures, and other documents to the event supervisor
Students are welcome to film their runs at any location in which they can safely do so. Please abide by local and state public health guidelines
Teams must submit pictures of their vehicle with appropriate measurement tools included to verify all measurements required in the rules. It is the responsibility of the student participant(s) to ensure that their vehicle complies with all required measurements and construction parameters as evidenced by the pictures submitted to the event supervisor. This submission can be done prior to the tournament or at the same time that the video(s) is/are submitted.
Tournament officials may need to contact the participant(s) the day of the tournament to address any issues or concerns.
1 hour prior to the start of the event, tournament officials will announce the target distance to the participating teams. Participating teams are responsible for setting up the track to the correct distance.
The participant(s) is/are responsible for pointing their recording device(s) so that the Event Supervisors are able to see the Mousetrap Vehicle during the setup time and all completed runs.
An adult must be present at all times during the recording so that we can ensure the safety of the student. The form for submitting their recording is located here, and will be located on Scilympiad and our handbook.
Mission Possible Update:
The format of the event is now changed. This event is officially “Medal Only” Your students will be able to compete in the event at any time throughout the day (8am - 3pm pst.) They will record and submit their videos through a google form.
This event will be run by submitting a video, pictures, and other documents to the event supervisor
As stated in the rules, the target operation time for regionals/invitationals will be 60 seconds.
Teams must submit pictures of their device with appropriate measurement tools included to verify all measurements required in the rules. It is the responsibility of the student participant(s) to ensure that their device complies with all required measurements and construction parameters as evidenced by the pictures submitted to the event supervisor. This submission can be done prior to the tournament or at the same time that the video(s) is/are submitted.
Tournament officials may need to contact the participant(s) the day of the tournament to address any issues or concerns.
The participant(s) is/are responsible for pointing their recording device(s) so that the Event Supervisors are able to see the running of the Mission Possible device while the video is being made. Event Supervisors will use their discretion to determine the success of an action in the case that it is not visible through the video and/or may contact the participant(s).
An Action Sequence List (ASL) must be submitted with their completed event checklist and video for full credit.
An adult must be present at all times during the recording so that we can ensure the safety of the student. The form for submitting their recording is located here, and will be located on Scilympiad and our handbook.
Write it Cad it Update:
At this time, Southern California still recognizes WICI as an official event. No changes have been made in this event for our tournament. Please see the tournament handbook for guidelines and specifications.
Helicopter Update:
At this time, Southern California still recognizes Helicopter as an official self scheduled event. No changes have been made in this event for our tournament. Please see the tournament handbook for guidelines and specifications.
Tournament Logistics: We have updated this information in our tournament logistics handbook located here. It breaks down how the tournament and events will be run, including student event resources, event specific information, and official/trial events. This is the best source to find detailed information about our tournament. If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know.
We’re getting close, maybe one or two more updates late in the week! Enjoy the rest of your weekend and we look forward to seeing you virtually next weekend!
Shaun Evola - shaunevola@iusd.org
Tim Elnitiarta - timothy@elnitiarta.net
Joshua Hockman - jhockman03@outlook.com
Minesh Patel - mineshcpatel@gmail.com
Update #3: January 8, 2021
Hello coaches, quick update. We are going to open up the self scheduling time slots for our engineering events on Tuesday 1.12.21 at 3:00pm PST. Teams will need to pick specific time slots for the following events:
Mission Possible
Helicopters
Mousetrap
Digital structures
We Have a detailed set of instructions in our handbook which can be found at the following link.
In an effort to stay consistent with Official Science Olympiad terminology, we will now call our subdivisions “Tracks.” Track AA will be the “National/States” bracket and Track A will be the “Local Level” bracket. To see a current list of which Bracket each registered team has been entered, please click here. If you would like to change the placement of one or more of your teams, please email Joshua Hockman (jhockman03@outlook.com).
Update #2 December 23, 2020
Hello coaches. Happy holidays to you and your families! The 2021 invitational season is underway and we've been working hard here at Sierra Vista to prepare for an amazing 2021 tournament.
Updates: There have been several updates to the scilympiad website. Registration has closed and each team has now been assigned a number. Teams still looking to register must fill out the late registration form linked on the site to be placed on a waitlist. We will notify teams if we are able to expand our tournament.
Payment: Payments have begun trickling in. We have been checking them off as they arrive. Coaches can find payment information on the bottom of our registration page. If you need a W-9 or other information for this, Judy Jones is fantastic and is graciously handling our finances. She can be contacted at JudiJones@iusd.org. You can see the list of paid teams here. If we have already received your check, your school will be marked under the paid teams column. We would like to take care of all finances by the second week of January.
Tournament Logistics: You can find a document describing the tournament logistics here. It breaks down how the tournament and events will be run, including student event resources, event specific information, and official/trial events. If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know.
Event Schedule: Coaches can find our event schedule on the event logistics document. The event schedule follows the Southern California Division B schedule, which has the same time conflicts as the Nationals schedule. The first time block will begin at 9am pst to accommodate Hawaiian teams. Again, if you have any questions or concerns, please let us know.
Student Registration: You should be able to submit rosters for this tournament now. You will be able to find the function under Head Coach > Head Coach Dashboard. Once you have a roster done, you should be able to assign students to events. For help with these two steps please see the following link.
Proctoring: We know that coaches have a ton of things on their mind this year. In order to improve the efficiency of the tournament and reduce the hassle for attending teams, we have sought out former National level competitors and coaches from around the country to captain most of our events. We will need a few volunteers to help supervise and ensure the engineering events run smoothly. If you are interested in helping supervise any of the engineering events, please send me an email.
Trial/Official Events: Unless there is a team that is interested in running a trial event, we have decided to forgo running them this year. Most coaches are brand new to the scilympiad virtual format and we feel that they have enough on their plates. That being said, we will be running the Southern California event schedule which will include Game On, Codebusters, Digital Structures, and WICI. We do not anticipate dropping any scores. All events will be official.
More updates to come throughout January! Enjoy your holidays and we will talk to you soon!
Shaun Evola - shaunevola@iusd.org
Tim Elnitiarta - timothy@elnitiarta.net
Joshua Hockman - jhockman03@outlook.com
Minesh Patel - mineshcpatel@gmail.com
Official Update #1 11.6
Hello coaches, I hope your Science Olympiad season is off to a great start. I wanted to reach out to welcome you all to the 1st Annual Sierra Vista Science Olympiad Invitational. We are all acclimating to a very different Science Olympiad season. While we all miss the energy and excitement of in-person tournaments for which there is no substitute, with trying times comes innovation. One early-season realization is that this year will offer an opportunity to ignore geographic limitations as we plan our invitational seasons. We are super excited to host teams from across the country in our Mini SO tournament. I'm sure your student competitors are also looking forward to competing with teams from various states and regions!
Here are a few early updates regarding our tournament on Saturday, Feb 6 2021. If you have not yet registered your team, please do so on our invitational website.
1) Our miniSO style tournament will be powered by Scilympiad. The link to our Scilympiad page is https://scilympiad.com/ca-svso. Some teams have filled out the Google Form, but have not registered on Scilympiad. I will need each head coach to register on our Scilympiad and create their school and teams. Checks have begun to trickle in. You will not be able to pay through our website, however, you can generate an invoice to send to your fiscal department. We are asking for a $85 dollar donation per registered team. We are updating the website as each check is received. Registration is set to close on December 1. At that time, each team will be assigned a number and coaches will be able to add students to their teams.
2) As of today, the plan is to follow the slate of events that was hosted at the BearSO tournament last month. We do realize that some of these event modifications are fluid as we learn what works and what needs improvement. There undoubtedly will be specific event updates and modifications as the invitational season continues. We intend to offer 23 events. We are monitoring this weekend's Country Wide Practice to learn the latest modifications and updates. For a list of the most current event modifications for div B, please see this document. In addition to what is on this document we will be running Digital Structures and Game On. There will be much more to come on this in the coming weeks.
3) We will have the tournament schedule by mid-December. It will be very close to the national schedule.
4) There will be two “flights” to create competitive opportunities for students on teams of all ability levels. The “flights” will be labeled A (local level) or AA (state/national level). Schools that meet one of the following requirements will be added to the AA flight:
1) Team qualified for the Southern California or Northern California State Tournaments in the past two seasons.
2) Team qualified for the National Tournament in the past five seasons.
If your team does not meet either of these requirements, you may choose whether to compete in the AA or A tier. All teams from the same school will compete in the same tier unless otherwise requested. After January 1st, if space permits, the coach of an AA tier team may request that their "JV" teams be placed in the A tier, which will be left to the discretion of the tournament directors. Additionally, if you originally decide to put your team in one tier but later on in the year want to switch tiers, please contact us and we can make that arrangement.
Please make sure to fill out the pre-registration Google Form linked on our Scilympiad website to let us know which flight your teams will compete in.
5) We have gathered several former national level competitors and coaches to captain our events. Attending teams will not have to run events for the tournament. Each test will be written and run by a team of test writers, including some writers from UT and BEARSO invitationals and writers from Division C National teams such as Troy, West Windsor-Plainsboro North, Solon, and Seven Lakes! However, if you would like to help out with a specific event please feel free to reach out to one of us and we will connect you with the event supervisor to get you set up!
6) Regional Registration: It is a National Science Olympiad rule that all teams competing in any invitational be registered with their local region. Teams and invitationals that violate this rule are subject to severe consequences including not being able to compete at any level, so we will be enforcing this rule. We will be checking with your regional/state director starting December 1st. Please try to ensure your team(s) is/are registered by then. Teams that we cannot confirm registrations for will not be able to compete.
Thank you for your patience as we navigate these uncharted waters. There will be bumps along the way and I appreciate everyone's hard work to make this tournament possible! As always don't hesitate to let me or any of the other co-directors know if you have any questions. You'll hear much more from us in December and January. Until then, good luck with your early invitational season, and let yourselves enjoy the rare opportunities of the remote tournament format.
Cheers!
Shaun Evola shaunevola@iusd.org
Co-directors
Tim Elnitiarta: timothy@elnitiarta.net
Minesh Patel: mineshcpatel@gmail.com
Josh Hockman: jhockman03@outlook.com