Tournament By Laws

Triangle Restaurant Tournament Council

Bylaws

The tournament council will be made up of four members: Libby L., Elio E., Marie S., and Mike S. Each member holds an office with certain responsibilities.

Elio E. – Vice President of Numbers and Stuff (also known as Tournament Statistician) – maintains all records of scores in a detailed Excel spreadsheet, constructs bracket.

Marie S. – Secretary of Secretarial Stuff – writes stuff down, maintains binder of Extraneous participant scorecards in a location protected from local canines

Libby L. – Director of Extraneous Participation and Enforcement and Risk Factors – directs extraneous participants to adhere to bylaws (use of fun noodle force permitted if necessary), ensure minimal random factors

Mike S. – Manager of Secrecy Shrouding and Masterisk – we don’t know what he does because he is shrouded in secrecy.

Matt S. – Chief Extraneous Participant Consultant – is consulted on all matters of extraneous participant stuff

Council members must be present of all super-important, high-priority meetings. Failure to attend the meetings may result in ridicule on the weekly blog.

All counting votes shall be cast by these members. If a member is absent for a vote, a suitable proxy may be designated, if agreed upon by the other three members of the council. Voting is defined as decision making involving structuring rules and regulations of the tournament. It is not to be confused with scoring, in which restaurants are rated on various aspects of the dining experience.

The season shall begin on August 4. A winter break will be taken in December and January between the Sweet 16 and the Elite 8. The tournament will start back up in February.

Prior to the beginning of the tournament, a draft will take place. To this draft, each member of the council will bring 4 restaurant choices from each of 4 Regions: Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Cary/Apex. In addition, each council member will bring 2 alternates from each region in the case of someone else entering one of their primary selections.

Only one national chain restaurant may be chosen per person per region. However, a national chain restaurant in not required from each region. A national chain is defined as a chain of restaurants with the same name that are located across the country. All fast food restaurants are disqualified.

All restaurants from one region will be placed in a 16-restaurant bracket. Each bracket will be narrowed down to the top 4 by vote for match-ups. Each member of the council will be Emperor or Empress of one region. Should there be a tie, the Emperor or Empress of that region is the tie breaker. Ruler of the region is determined by ------

Once the top 4 restaurants from each region are determined, a final bracket will be constructed with 4 regions, each with 4 restaurants. Each week, the members of the council will participate in a council dinner at one of the restaurants in the bracket. After dining, each member will score the restaurant on the Official Triangle Restaurant Tournament Scorecard (See addendum A). All scorecards must be kept in an Official Tournament Binder.

Scoring is open to other participants of the Tournament, however, voting on official Tournament business is restricted to Council members. When an extraneous participant scores a restaurant, their scorecard is to be placed in an envelope, and sealed with a signature over the seal. The envelope will then be placed in the Extraneous Participant Binder.

Once all 16 restaurants have been scored, the council will convene to determine which move on to the Elite 8. Each council member must keep his or her scores secret until the council meeting. At that time, all binders must be turned in to the Tournament Statistician, who will tally the scores and present a final report to the full council at the end of the council meeting.

For each restaurant, the scores for each subcategory of the scorecard will be averaged. The total will be determined and recorded, along with subcategory scores. Total scores will be compared and restaurants with the highest 2 scores in each region will proceed.

The Final Four, Championship 2, and Supreme Restaurant Ruler of the Triangle will be determined in the same way.

During the challenge, council members are required to blog about their dining experience each week. Smack talk is expected. Council members with inadequate smack talk will be disciplined by the Enforcer. Failure to blog will result in beating with a fun noodle by Enforcer

RESTAURANT QUALIFICATIONS

Certain restaurants will require extraneous participants. These restaurants will be agreed upon by the Council and labeled as Asterisk Restaurants and will be under the jurisdiction of the Masterisk. However, the Enforcer has the right to beat the Masterisk with the fun noodle if he is out of line.

Any restaurant that is excessively expensive (all entrees over $20) will be excluded.