Last year, Fools Fest was not just large, but extra large! And what do you do with an extra large tournament? Well you take it to the state fair of course! That’s right. Fools Fest 41 is heading to the state fair! For 2018, Fools Fest will replace flipping for pull and side with spirit games. Each team will play a short (less than 5 min) spirit game with their opponent to begin each round. The spirit game must be state fair themed and not be dependent on alcohol. The “home team” (aka the team listed first in the program) will play their game to decide who will start on offense/defense. The “away team” (aka the team listed second in the program) will play their game to decide which side of the field each team starts on. Color selection will be up to captains.

Of course no state fair is complete without its very own poetry reading. And that’s where you come in. Each team must send us a poem that describes their team, their theme, and their spirit game. There are no rules as to the format of the poem or the length. But keep in mind that all attending teams will have their poem posted on the Fools Fest facebook page.

As always, Fools Fest will feature 3 divisions of play – open, mixed, and women’s. You may submit a bid to any division but you may not submit a bid to more than one division. Our goal for 2018 is to have 32 mixed teams, 8 women’s teams, and 8 open teams.

We will have two bid windows for 2018. All bids submitted by 11:59 PM on January 28th will be considered early. This means three things – 1) your bid is cheaper (only $599), 2) you cannot get rejected in the early bid selection, only accepted or waitlisted for the 2nd round, and 3) if you so choose, you may adjust your bid or switch your bid from one division to another. For any teams that don’t submit their bid during the first window, the bid will be $650 and due by 11:59 PM on February 18th.

Please keep in mind that no active club or pro teams are ever accepted for this tournament. Bids are accepted based on a mix of the following criteria: geographic diversity, school/origin variation, strength of bid gimmick response, competitiveness of your team, and how willing your team is to help out at the tournament (such as helping staff with tourney set-up and clean up, parking duty in the AM, cleaning up the beer garden at the end of the day, checking IDs at the beer garden, etc… Volunteering for less fun tasks is viewed more favorably by the staff volunteers than volunteering for the beer garden only, but if you volunteer for something, be ready to do it.)

All teams will be notified by Monday, February 26th. Those teams will need to confirm their acceptance of the bid by Friday, March 2nd.