Welcome to the new school year! We hope everyone has had a pleasant summer. Please let us know if anyone would like to be added or removed from our email list.

(1) We have started a waitlist for the Sacramento Fall Middle School tournament, to be held on Sat, Sep 26 at Churchill in Carmichael. Bay Area teams are permitted to play but Sacramento-area teams will receive priority in case of a waitlist.

(2) Registration is now open for the Bay Area Fall Novice tournament, to be held online (Discord) on Sunday, October 4. As in previous years, this event will feature two divisions: HS Novice and MS (non-Novice) – both divisions will use NAQT IS-248A. Please recall that the MS division is designed for experienced MS teams; MS teams that are new to quiz bowl may find this event challenging. The initial field caps are HS=12 and MS=7.

Participants in the HS division who have previously competed at MSNCT, HSNCT, or PACE NSC are required to receive permission to compete – please email us at californiacupquizbowl@gmail.com for eligibility questions. Middle school players can compete in the MS division without restriction.

Participants who are ineligible to compete are encouraged to help staff.

Register via the NAQT website here

(3) Cal Cup #1 (Cal Classic) will take place on Saturday, October 10 at Dougherty Valley HS in San Ramon. As in previous years, the Cal Cup tournaments feature three divisions: Competitive, Standard, and Novice. This will likely be the only Cal Cup event that uses NAQT questions – please stay tuned for confirmation on which packets we will be using. Registration for Cal Cup #1 will likely open this upcoming Monday.

Please note: due to increased expenses, it is likely that we will raise the Cal Cup base entry fee for this school year – sorry about that.

(4) The Sacramento Fall High School tournament is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, October 24 – we expect to have confirmation from the host school next week. Stay tuned for more details.

(5) The Bay Area Fall Middle School tournament is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, November 15 – we expect to have confirmation from the host school in the coming days. This event will use NAQT MS #60 (we do not plan to use NAQT MS #59 in the Bay Area this school year). Stay tuned for more details.

(6) We are still looking for hosts for future Cal Cup / middle school tournaments; please let us know if your school is potentially interested in hosting.

(7) We would like to remind the quiz bowl community (including coaches/chaperones) about NAQT’s honor code; in particular, please recall part A3a: “…a prohibition on recording or streaming games for any reason without the express written permission of NAQT, regardless of the purpose of the recording or streaming”

(1) Cal Cup #3 is taking place on Saturday, February 14 at Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose. We are using house-write sets this time: PLANETFALL III for Competitive, MINI Dart for Standard, and RQBco for Novice; thus, teams cannot qualify for HSNCT from this event.

Register here (we are using the NAQT registration system even though we are not using NAQT questions).

(2) We currently have room for one more team in each division at the Jan 24 Sacramento Winter online tournament (this competition is an HSNCT qualifier).

(3) We are tentatively planning to run two in-person Bay Area Middle School competitions this semester – Sat, Feb 28 and Sat, Mar 21 (pending room reservations). Stay tuned for more details.

Registration is now open for the Sac Winter HS tournament, to be held online (Discord) on Saturday, January 24. Middle school, Bay Area, and out-of-state teams are welcome to compete but Sacramento-area schools will receive priority in case of a waitlist.

This competition will feature NAQT IS-244 for Varsity and NAQT IS-245A for JV; teams hoping to qualify for HSNCT should compete in the Varsity division.

Register via the NAQT website here. Tuesday, January 20 is the last date to register. Teams that drop after 12pm (noon) Pacific time on Friday, January 23 will receive a cancellation fee (please try to avoid this!)

All teams in the field are required to have a roster posted by the end of Tuesday, October 28 – that is also the last day teams can register. Rosters can be updated after that time but we want to see that progress is being made before then. The field can be found here.

Please make sure to also indicate on your team’s registration how many buzzers/staff you can provide.

Please let us know ASAP if you need to drop! Thursday, October 30 at 12pm (noon) Pacific time is the no-penalty drop deadline for teams in the field.

Registration is now open for Cal Cup #2 (“Cal Classic”), to be held on Saturday, November 1 at Dougherty Valley HS in San Ramon. Registration takes place via the NAQT website here. Package teams have been placed in the field first. Tuesday, October 28 is the last date to register. The initial field caps are 12/12/16. High school teams wishing to qualify for HSNCT should play in the Competitive division.  Thursday, October 30 at 12pm (noon) Pacific time is the “no-penalty” drop deadline.