• High School
• NAQT Missouri Qualifier
• 2020

2020 NAQT Missouri Qualifier Announcement

The Missouri Quizbowl Alliance invites all MSHSAA-registered high school Scholar Bowl teams to participate in the thirteenth annual NAQT Missouri Qualifier on February 29, 2020. This tournament has been sanctioned by MSHSAA.

As one of MOQBA's flagship events, this tournament regularly features a diverse field of teams from throughout Missouri, recognizing the state's top teams for national tournament qualification in a fast-paced championship atmosphere.

Location

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

Question Set

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 tournament will use the 2020 NAQT Division II Collegiate Sectionals question set, which is more challenging than NAQT's regular season Invitational Series questions but a step below the difficulty of NAQT's High School National Championship Tournament questions.

As of December 2, this set was not assigned to any other high school tournament in Missouri. It is your responsibility to ensure that your entire team has not previously heard any part of NAQT's 2020 Collegiate Sectionals question sets and will not compete in any other tournaments using this set. In particular, any students wishing to participate in this tournament must not staff or otherwise observe any of NAQT's Sectional Championship Tournaments for collegiate teams. Question set assignments are subject to change at any time; a list of tournaments known to be using this set is available on NAQT's website.

Each school in attendance will receive a printed copy of the questions after the tournament.

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 games and most teams should be done by 4:30. The top few teams overall and top 2 small school teams should anticipate the possibility of additional games, which are expected to end by 6:00.

Awards

The top four teams will receive plaques and the top small school team (by NAQT's definition of a "Traditional Public" small school) will be recognized with a plaque as the small school champion. We will also award a plaque to the top team from a "Very Small School", which we will define as a "traditional public" school in MSHSAA Classes 1 or 2 for Scholar Bowl. We will use NAQT's most recent determinations for which schools are eligible for the small school title, or publicly available enrollment data if a determination from NAQT is unavailable.

An all-tournament team will be recognized based on individual performances in the preliminary rounds. Individuals must play at least 60% of the tossups scheduled to be read to their team in the preliminary rounds to be eligible for individual recognition.

This year, we are also introducing "Rising Star" awards to recognize the top individual performances by ninth and tenth graders who do not receive overall all-star honors.

Qualifying for National Tournaments

The top 15% of the field will qualify for the NAQT High School National Championship Tournament (HSNCT) in Atlanta on May 22-24, 2020.

The top 30% of teams eligible for the small school title will qualify for the NAQT Small School National Championship Tournament on April 24-26, 2020 in Chicago. While not eligible for this tournament's small school title, the top 30% of schools meeting NAQT's eligibility criteria for the "Open" division of SSNCT will also qualify. Additionally, any small school team that qualifies for HSNCT will automatically qualify for SSNCT.

This tournament has received platinum certification from the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence. The top 25% of the field will qualify for the PACE National Scholastic Championship in Chicago on June 6-7, 2020.

Pricing

• Base entry fee: $75.
• Additional teams from a school: $70 per team.
• Buzzer discount: $5 discount per system (limit 2). Each system must be fully functional for eight players to receive the discount.
• Travel discount: $5 discount for every 75 miles your school travels to the tournament (one-way, as determined by Google Maps).
• Scorekeeper discount: $15 discount per competent scorekeeper.
• Moderator discount: $25 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

After registration opens on Wednesday, December 4 at 6:00 AM, please complete this form to register for the tournament. Registrations will be processed in the order they are received through this form, and will not be accepted via any other method. Our tournaments traditionally fill very quickly, so we strongly recommend that you register as soon as possible.

The field will initially be limited to 24 teams. We are aiming to expand the field to at least 30-36 teams if we are able to secure enough staff and rooms to run a larger tournament in a timely manner.

To allow more interested schools to secure a spot earlier, before January 15, only one team from each school will be admitted to the field. Schools that would like to bring more than one team should indicate the number of teams they intend to bring, but any teams after the first will initially be placed on the waitlist. At midnight on January 15, any openings in the field will be offered to teams at the top of the waitlist.

The waitlist will have three groups, each ordered by registration timestamp:

1. If the field fills before January 15, the first team from each additional school registering before January 15 that did not secure a spot in the initial 24 team field.
2. The second team from each school that registers multiple teams before January 15.
3. All remaining teams, including all teams from schools that register on January 15 or later.

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 February 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 qualifier@moqba.org.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey Hill and Matt Chadbourne
2020 NAQT Missouri Qualifier Co-Directors