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MOQBA Online Spring Tournament Announcement

The MOQBA Online Spring Tournament was held on March 6, 2021. This is an archive of the original tournament announcement. Read the recap.

The Missouri Quizbowl Alliance is pleased to announce that we are hosting a second virtual high school quizbowl tournament, the MOQBA Online Spring Tournament (MOST), on March 6, 2021. With the cancellation of NAQT's collegiate sectional championships, we will not have an NAQT set to use for the NAQT Missouri Qualifier usually hosted on the first Saturday in March, so MOST is taking its place this year. We expect to host a geographically diverse field and encourage high school teams from every area of the state to join.

Participants

This tournament is open to all Missouri high school teams eligible to participate in MSHSAA-sanctioned Scholar Bowl events. Teams from other states are welcome to participate; however, Missouri teams will receive priority for the first 48 hours of registration. Due to MSHSAA sanctioning requirements, out-of-state teams must register by January 31.

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 the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence (PACE) Honor Pledge and Section I (Ethics and Conduct) of the PACE ruleset.

Online Meeting Services

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament will be held online. Following the success of our Winter Kickoff, we will be running separate divisions using Google Meet and Zoom. The meeting platform used is the only formal difference between the two divisions; all teams are welcome to select their preferred platform (assuming that space is available).

All students will be required to use a webcam. Please let us know as soon as possible if this will be a problem so we can discuss alternate arrangements.

Question Set

The MOQBA Online Spring Tournament will use the 2020-21 Detroit Country Day Academic Regular Tournament (DART) question set. As of January 13, this set was not assigned to any other tournament hosted by a Missouri school or organization. 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. Question set assignments are subject to change at any time; a list of tournaments known to be using this set is available in the forum thread linked above.

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 few teams in each division will receive trophies or plaques, and an all-tournament team will be recognized based on individual performances in the preliminary rounds. If enough eligible teams participate, we will also present an award to the top small school team (by NAQT's definition of a "Traditional Public" small school). For this tournament, we will use "Building Enrollment" figures for grades 10-12 from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, obtained from a spreadsheet available on the DESE website. The exact awards to be presented will be determined later based on the field size in each division. Awards will be mailed to schools after the event.

Schedule

We intend to begin round 1 no later than 8:15 AM. Please join your round 1 game room by 8:00 AM so that any technical issues can be resolved promptly. 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 play 8-10 games, which we anticipate ending around 5 PM.

Qualifying for National Tournaments

We expect this tournament to receive certification from the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence, in which case the top few teams will qualify for the PACE National Scholastic Championship, to be held online on June 5-6, 2021.

Pricing

Base entry fee: $70 per team.
Scorekeeper discount: $20 discount per competent scorekeeper.
Moderator discount: $30 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 see the list below for details regarding the order that registrations will be processed within each waitlist group; in particular, the randomization of second teams registered within the first 24 hours.

Registration will open on Tuesday, January 19 at 6:00 AM. After that time, please complete this form to register for the tournament. Registrations will not be accepted via any other method.

The field will initially be limited to 18 teams in each division, but we intend to expand each division in groups of six teams as we confirm more volunteer moderators and scorekeepers. Any staff your school can offer would be greatly appreciated to allow us to host as many interested teams as possible.

We have received significant interest from schools for March 6 and expect that the initial 36 team field will fill extremely quickly, so we strongly recommend that you register as soon as possible. To give more schools a chance to participate, we are initially limiting each school to one team through midnight on Tuesday, February 9. Schools that would like to bring additional teams may indicate the number of desired teams on their registration, but additional teams will initially be placed on the waitlist.

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 Tuesday, February 9, 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 within the first 24 hours 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.
Teams from outside Missouri: Missouri teams will receive priority for the first 48 hours of registration. Any out-of-state team that registers within the first 48 hours will be considered to have registered at 6:00:00 AM (Central) on January 21, then added to the field or waitlisted accordingly.

At midnight on Tuesday, February 9, 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 your teams virtually on March 6 and wish you the best of luck as you compete during this unprecedented season. If you have any questions about the tournament, don't hesitate to ask us at spring@moqba.org.