• High School
• MOQBA Fall Championship
• 2024

2024 MOQBA Fall Championship Announcement

The Missouri Quizbowl Alliance is pleased to announce that we will host the MOQBA Fall Championship on Saturday, November 23, 2024. As MOQBA's flagship fall tournament, we look forward to hosting another highly competitive and geographically diverse field and encourage high school teams from every area of the state to attend.

Location

Columbia College (Main Campus)
1001 Rogers Street
Columbia, MO 65216

Participants

This tournament is open to all high school teams eligible to participate in MSHSAA-sanctioned Scholar Bowl events. Team rosters may have up to eight players for the day, with no more than four starters and two substitutes playing in each game.

The Missouri Quizbowl Alliance is committed to ensuring a safe and welcoming atmosphere for all competitors, coaches, tournament staff, and spectators at this tournament. In addition to all applicable MSHSAA and school policies regarding sportsmanship and personal conduct, participants are expected to abide by Section I (Ethics and Conduct) of the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence ruleset.

Question Set

The MOQBA Fall Championship will use the 2024-25 LOOT question set. While we expect to be the only tournament in Missouri using this set, it is your responsibility to ensure that your team has not previously heard this question set and will not compete in any other tournaments using this set.

Format

Games consist of twenty tossups worth ten points each followed by non-rebounding bonuses worth up to thirty points. Tossups will feature 15 point "powers" and -5 point "negs".

The top four teams will receive trophies, and an all-tournament team will be recognized based on individual performances in the preliminary rounds. Teams will not be divided into separate divisions based on school size, but the top small school team (by NAQT's definition of a "Traditional Public" small school) will be recognized as the small school champion.

Schedule

Registered teams should arrive between 7:45 and 8:20 AM for check in. We will have a brief introductory meeting at 8:30 and are hoping to start the first round of tournament play as early as 8:45. A lunch break will follow the preliminary rounds, with all teams returning from lunch for championship or consolation games in the afternoon. All teams will be guaranteed 9-10 rounds and most teams should be done by 5:00.

Based on each team's record in games within the final championship pool, a finals series of one or two full games will be played until no more than one team has fewer than two losses and any ties for first place are broken. Ties for other trophies will be played off on half packets. We aim to conclude the tournament by 7:00.

A full game small school final will be played between the top two small school teams only if they are tied in overall placement. Otherwise, the highest placing small school team will be named the small school champion outright.

Qualifying for National Tournaments

The top 20% of the field will qualify for the 2025 PACE National Scholastic Championship, scheduled for June 7-8 in the Chicago area.

Pricing

• Base entry fee: $75 per team.
• Buzzer discount: $5 discount per system (limit 2). Each system must be fully functional for eight players to receive the discount.
• Scorekeeper discount: $10 discount per competent scorekeeper.
• Moderator discount: $20 discount per experienced moderator. We will reserve the right to choose our moderators; see the registration form for more details.
• The minimum fee after all discounts is $0.

Registration and Waitlist

Please complete this form to register for the tournament. Registrations will not be accepted via any other method. Our tournaments traditionally fill very quickly and have large waitlists, so we strongly recommend that you register as soon as possible.

The field will initially be limited to 24 teams. We expect to expand the field to at least 30-36 teams once we confirm enough staffers to run a larger tournament in a timely manner.

Registrations and the waitlist will be handled in this manner:

• First teams: Each school's first team will be admitted in the order that their registrations are received through the registration form. Once the field fills, the first waitlist group will include the first team from each additional school that registers on or before Saturday, October 26, ordered by registration timestamp.
• Second teams: The second waitlist group will include the second team from each school that registers multiple teams. Because not all coaches will be able to register right when registration opens, and coaches who are able to register early are already advantaged in securing a confirmed spot for their first team, registrations for second teams received before 8:00 PM on Tuesday, October 1 will be randomly ordered in this waitlist group. After that time, all subsequent registrations of second teams will be added to this group in the order they are received.
• Third and subsequent teams: The third waitlist group will include all teams beyond the second from each school, ordered by registration timestamp.

At midnight on Sunday, October 27, the waitlist will be combined into a single group, any remaining openings will be filled from the top of the combined list, and any subsequent registrations will be added to the end of the full waitlist.

Tournament information, including a list of registered teams and current staff counts, will be updated regularly on the Missouri Quizbowl Message Board.

We hope to see you and your team in Columbia in November and wish you the best of luck as you compete this season. If you have any questions about the tournament, don't hesitate to ask us at fall@moqba.org.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey Hill and Michael Menkhus
2024 MOQBA Fall Championship Co-Directors