• High School
• NAQT Missouri Qualifier
• 2022

2022 NAQT Missouri Qualifier Announcement

The Missouri Quizbowl Alliance invites all MSHSAA-registered high school Scholar Bowl teams to participate in the fourteenth NAQT Missouri Qualifier on March 5, 2022.

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

All attendees will be expected to follow Columbia College's health and safety protocols in effect during the tournament.

Participants

This tournament is open to all Missouri 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

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 2022 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 13, 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 2022 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.

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.

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 trophy spots will be played off on either half or full packets depending on the number of teams involved. These games should conclude no later than 6:00.

Depending on where they place in the overall field, the top two small school teams should anticipate the possibility of a one or two game final to determine the small school champion, which should finish before 6:00.

Awards

The top four teams will receive trophies and the top small school team (by NAQT's definition of a "Traditional Public" small school) will be recognized with a trophy as the small school champion. 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. With MSHSAA's change to six classes, we will re-evaluate our definition of a "Very Small School" and determine if we will also award that title this year.

An all-tournament team will be recognized based on individual performances in the preliminary rounds. We will also present "Rising Star" awards to recognize the top individual performances by ninth and tenth graders who do not receive overall all-star honors. 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.

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 27-29, 2022.

The top 30% of teams eligible for the small school title will qualify for the NAQT Small School National Championship Tournament on April 22-24, 2022 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, scheduled to be hosted in Chicago on June 11-12, 2022.

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 15 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 once we have secured enough staff 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 before midnight on Saturday, January 15, 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 in the first 24 hours of registration will be randomly ordered in this waitlist group. After the first 24 hours, 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 Saturday, January 15, 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 March 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
2022 NAQT Missouri Qualifier Co-Directors