Sep 24

California Cup Announcement

The announcement for the 2014-2015 California Cup is now on the forums and is reproduced below:

The Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance and Quiz Bowl Club at UC Berkeley are pleased to announce that we will be holding the third annual California Cup. The California Cup consists of four quiz bowl tournaments held throughout the year, and it is widely considered the premier academic competition event in Northern California. The first two tournaments in the series will be held on Saturday, November 1 and Saturday, November 22. The dates for the two events in the Spring are yet to be confirmed and will be announced during the winter.

We hope to attract many teams from across the state and elsewhere. We have previously attracted teams from as far away as Southern California and Mississippi. As we have in the past, we will guarantee teams a high number of games (8 or more) per tournament and ensure that teams are able to play others of the same skill level after preliminary placement rounds.

The top teams at each tournament will qualify for the 2015 PACE National Scholastics Championship (NSC; http://www.pace-nsc.org/nsc-2015/), which will be held June 6-7 at the Reston Hyatt in Reston, Virginia. Additionally, teams that perform well on NAQT sets during the California Cup will qualify for the 2015 High School National Championship Tournament (HSNCT;https://www.naqt.com/hsnct/2015/details.html), held May 29-31 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare hotel in Rosemont, Illinois (near Chicago). California Cup tournaments have historically held the highest possible certification from PACE (platinum). Teams that do well at the non-NAQT California Cup competitions can also apply for wildcards to HSNCT, and many have received them. The likelihood is that, for California Cup #1, we will use the Maryland Spring Set for varsity and the Fall Kickoff Tournament set for JV, while California Cup #2 will use NAQT sets appropriate for the varsity and junior varsity divisions. California Cup #3 and #4, while not scheduled yet, will likely use the Brookwood Invitational Scholars Bowl (BISB) and Yale’s Bulldog High School Academic Tournament (BHSAT), respectively, for both divisions.

Registration

Teams may choose to register separately for each tournament within the series, though we recommend registering for all four tournaments at once (the “package”), which ensures a significant discount. We will split the field into junior varsity and varsity divisions and evaluate each separately. After the cup results are tallied, we will crown a California Cup (NorCal) state champion! There will be book prizes and gift cards for the highest-performing teams and individual scorers at each tournament, and other prizes are in store for the top California Cup teams. When calculating final Cup standings, we will count the top three performances by each team, allowing teams to account for extenuating circumstances at one tournament (either a lower-than-expected performance or non-attendance). Only teams that register for the entire series of tournaments will be eligible for the title as well as prizes at the end. With four guaranteed tournaments and plenty of gameplay, this series will offer the best prizes, greatest value, and most national qualification opportunities available anywhere in the country!

Entry Fees:
Base fee per team for package of all four tournaments (paying by cash or check): $270
Base fee per team for package of all four tournaments (paying via Square–how to do this will be explained later): $260
If your school played zero Cal Cup events last year (i.e. new team discount): -$70
Referral discount: An established team can pay the new team price if they refer a previously non quiz bowl-playing school to the California Cup and that school ends up purchasing the package. This will be -$25 if that new school only ends up purchasing a single tournament.
Buzzer discount: -$10 per tournament (We will test buzzers and NOT accept them if they do not have four fully functioning units on each “side,” so do not try to claim discounts on buzzers that are not in full working order. Also, PLEASE LABEL your buzzers with your school/team name so that you can promptly pick them up at the tournament’s conclusion. We will require that the buzzer boxes be labeled for this purpose. Lastly, we will no longer accept buzzers that require a laptop to operate unless we really need them.)
Staff discount: -$10 per tournament for experienced, competent moderator (if needed)
-$5 per tournament for scorekeeper
Travel discount: -$20 per 75 miles one-way (determined by Google Maps)
Registering for a single tournament: $90
New school registering for a single tournament: $65
Minimum entry fee: $20 per tournament

*Buzzers and staff discounts apply on an as-needed, first-come, first-serve basis. When registering, please detail how many staff and/or buzzers you may be able to bring. As the tournament approaches, we will let you know whether they are needed or not. Payment will be taken either online via Square or at registration; please make checks payable to “Quiz Bowl Club”. Note that discounts for future tournaments will NOT be given at any particular tournament. What this means is that if, for example, at the first tournament you claim a buzzer discount for all four tournaments, you must still pay as if you only claimed it for one tournament. Then, for each subsequent tournament in which you actually bring the buzzer, we will refund you $10 in cash. The same goes for the staffer discount. The entire distance discount may be claimed at the first tournament, though (that is, teams more than 75 miles away from UC Berkeley will pay $80 less).

We are setting a field cap of 40 teams (overall, not per division). Schools may register multiple teams–there is no limit. We might be able to expand if there is enough interest, but until that point, we will accept teams on a first-come, first-serve basis. Fields can fill fast, so sign up soon to reserve your slot! To register, please fill out this Google Form:
https://docs.google.com/a/berkeley.edu/ … A/viewform
The registration deadline for Cal Cup #1 is Wednesday, October 29. Please bring the cash or check for full payment of the series of tournaments to the first tournament unless you are paying via Square. You can still pay the base fee for three tournaments if you register by the second tournament.

Scoring and Gameplay

The California Cup assigns points to schools based on their performance at the tournaments that take place throughout the year. We have decided to adopt the following scoring system: 10 points for 1st place, 8 points for 2nd place, 6 points for 3rd place, 4 points for 4th place, 3 points for 5th place, 2 points for 6th place, and 1 point for 7th place. Since the scoring automatically drops the lowest result of a team, only three of the tournaments will end up counting in the final evaluation of a team’s standing. Of course, attending all four tournaments will ensure that your team’s worst performance is disregarded. This means, for example, if a team wins the first three California Cup tournaments, they will be declared the California Cup champion for that division. If a team that does not purchase the full package ends up placing high enough on the scoring system, then we will simply skip them in the California Cup overall ranking (but they will still retain their ranking for that individual tournament). At the end of the year, we will break ties by evaluating (1) the performance in the 4th tournament and (2) statistics from each team’s performances throughout the year. We will maintain separate standings for JV and Varsity teams.

We will enforce all the gameplay rules as they are written in Sections D-H of the official rules of the Academic Competition Federation (http://acf-quizbowl.com/documents/official-acf-rules/), so all players must fully familiarize themselves with these rules before playing these tournaments. If you are having trouble remember them, we recommend you print out a copy and refresh your memory immediately prior to the tournament. Pay special attention to timing, pronunciation, and protest guidelines, as players often lose out on points by not knowing these. You can find out more about what quiz bowl is here: (https://www.norcalquizbowl.org/?page_id=18) and you can find more quiz bowl-pertinent resources here (https://www.norcalquizbowl.org/?page_id=51). Teams that owe the Berkeley club money from last year must reimburse us before paying for this tournament.

Contact Information

Thank you for your interest, and please spread the word to other high schools that are interested in quiz bowl or are heavily involved in other academic events like debate, AcaDeca, or Science Bowl. We look forward to another exciting year of academic competition!

Please contact us at californiacupquizbowl@gmail.com with any questions that you have or to register. There will be a section on the NCQBA website (https://www.norcalquizbowl.org/) specifically devoted to the California Cup as well.

Field (Nov 1):
Varsity:

JV:

The UC Berkeley Quiz Bowl Club is a student group acting independently of the University of California. The student organization is the host of the California Cup and takes full responsibility for the guests.

Sep 14

Sacramento Fall 2014 Results and Analysis

Statistics from Sacramento Fall 2014 can be found here.

This write-up only focuses on teams that placed 1st-9th out of the 14 that attended.

1st place – Davis A (HSNCT and NSC qualification)

Junior Anthony DiCarlo (54.38 ppg) leads a team of ex-B players, following Davis’s graduation of their entire A team. He has strong support, with his teammates Jayanth Sundaresan (senior), Teddy Knox (junior), and Alex Chen (senior) scoring 43.75, 34.38, and 22.5 ppg, respectively. With a PPB of 23.02, they led the field, with the closest competitor sitting at 19.46 (Valley Christian A), and the same goes for powers (54 to Chinese Christian’s 34). They shut down Chinese Christian both times they played, winning first 445-75 and again 440-170. Overall, Davis A put on a strong opening performance that should be a launching point for the rest of the season.

 

2nd place – Chinese Christian (HSNCT and NSC qualification)

Sophomore Benson Yi makes his expected big entrance for the circuit, leading both his team and the tournament in scoring (106.1 ppg), although that alone isn’t good enough to carry him to victory against major competitor Davis A. As he expands his knowledge (especially science), he has potential to go the way of Hidehiro Anto, but he’ll need to work on his bonus conversion (16.7) and would do well to find some teammates to support him.

 

3rd place – Valley Christian (HSNCT and NSC qualification)

Sophomore Omeed Askary doesn’t disappoint, taking 2nd place scorer at 61.8 ppg and leading his team to a commendable finish, mainly supported by Andrew Rao (43.1 ppg). They need some work on their bonus conversion (19.46), but it was still second-best in the field. They also very narrowly lost to both Chinese Christian (220-290) and Davis A (285-215), indicating potential for an upset at some point in the season, especially if Omeed and Andrew improve.

 

4th place – Rio Americano

Rio Americano competed in just a few tournaments last year, with no remarkable performances, but they appear to have brought an almost entirely new team this year led by Jonathan Gutmann (47.5 ppg). They have good history/geography knowledge from the part of the round I saw, but also need to work on their bonuses (18.62). They look like they might have potential to finally give Davis some healthy competition in the Sacramento area, although there doesn’t appear to be any possibility of upset.

 

5th place – Davis B

Led by junior Henry Zhang (56.25 ppg), they have a PPB just under that of Rio Americano (18.25) and lost only 200-295 to them. If Kap Pandey (15 ppg) and Bijan Varjavand (20.62 ppg) improve, they could displace Rio Americano as 4th best in the Sacramento area.

 

6th place – Northgate

Northgate went a commendable 5-3 in their first ever quiz bowl tournament. Josh Quiambao (45.7 ppg) leads a team with great history/current events knowledge, but almost no science. With a PPB of 17.4, they could be a formidable team with some development.

 

7th place – Davis C

Commendable as a C team with a 17.2 PPB, they also claim the tournament’s 3rd-best scorer, sophomore Eliot Williams (60.6 ppg), who has potential to lead the B and eventually A teams during the next few seasons.

 

8th place – “Haarlem”

Sent a team of entirely freshmen who went a decent 3-5. Lead scorer Simon Han (45.6 ppg) shows potential in the JV circuit this year, and definitely in varsity over the next few seasons.

 

9th place – Folsom

Another team that made their quiz bowl debut and went a respectable 4-4. They had a decent PPB of 17.29 and lead scorer Ryan Lu (51.8 ppg) is supported by Danny Yang (35.6 ppg) and two 13 ppg teammates. They showed some strong base knowledge and could become quite good with development.

 

From all of us at NCQBA, thanks for helping make this one of the largest tournaments in Sacramento quiz bowl history. We look forward to seeing you at future events!

Sep 10

2014-2015 Season Preview and Cal Cup #1 Predictions

TEAMS EXPECTED TO BE GOOD:

Saratoga – dark horse that finished 4th in the top bracket of their last quiz bowl tournament (BELLOCO) with Bruce Lou leading both his team and the tournament in scoring (78ppg). Bruce also led his team to a second-place finish at the National History Bowl tournament this year and has been studying since leading Team California at NASAT this summer (30ppg) and is expected to carry the team to first in the circuit.

 

Bellarmine – loses Sameer Rai but shouldn’t see too much of an impact on their performance due to his lack of activity in the high school circuit last year. Retains a strong A team capable of winning NorCal State 2014. Last recorded at 51ppg (NorCal State), Jarek Jankowski is expected to lead a well-balanced team to second in the circuit. Expect strong performance from their B team if Bryant Cong (47.5 ppg, Cal Cup #4) isn’t moved to A.

 

Palo Alto – retains a strong A team capable of achieving third in the circuit, dependent not only on how much they’ve improved but also on how much “Guilder” has improved.

 

“Guilder” – graduated all of their A team but last had strong new player Karthik Srivatsan leading the non-senior team at the last JV Cal Cup (69.5 ppg) and putting up decent points (35 ppg) while playing with now-graduated lead player Niki Peters at Napoleon.  Depending on how much studying the A team has done this summer, they could displace Palo Alto as third best, but will likely sit at a comfortable fourth.

 

TEAMS EXPECTED TO BE DECENT:

Davis – graduated their A team but should not be left too undeveloped. B team managed to beat the A team once (NorCal State) but may or may not have been a fluke. Should have solid performance for this season, with a large program and a good chance of getting stronger next year.

 

Amador Valley – graduated top scorer Jerry Li, but retains a team of solid now-juniors who should be able to keep their team afloat.

 

“Haarlem” – retains top scorer Eric Chen (53.5 ppg, NorCal State 2014), if he and a teammate or two have improved over the summer, expect some solid finishes through this season and the next.

 

TEAMS TO WATCH OUT FOR:

Valley Christian – retains all notable players and stands a good chance of finishing solidly led by sophomore Omeed Askary who rapidly improved throughout the last season (finishing with 49 ppg, NorCal State) and is expected to continue on that path.

 

Chinese Christian High School – new team gaining Benson Yi formerly of Albany, who put up decent points at last month’s VCU Open (8.5 ppg) and led his team at NorCal State 2014 (47.5 ppg). Expect decent performance under Benson while they develop.

 

TEAMS THAT NEED TO REBUILD:

Menlo – graduated 138 ppg (NorCal State) player Hidehiro Anto, nothing remarkable expected for a season or two.

 

Mira Loma – loses seniors and top scorers Yash Farooqui (37.5 ppg, NorCal State 2014), Hoon Min (47.5 ppg Cal Cup #4), Matt Kempster (32.5 ppg, Cal Cup #4), and Jared Sun (32.5 ppg, Sacramento Winter). Retains Yoon Min as expected lead scorer (53.33 ppg at Sacramento Fall 2013 and 10 ppg at Cal Cup #4).

 

Foothill – loses NASAT Team California player Bryce Hwang from a purportedly dead program, will need time to rebuild if they will be able to at all.

 

Albany – loses top scorer Benson Yi to CCHS and graduates second- and third-best Lucas Kampmann (43 ppg, NorCal State 2014) and Catheryn Li (14 ppg at NorCal State 2014).

 

Cal Cup #1 Predictions:

Varsity – (1) Saratoga, (2) Bellarmine A, (3) Palo Alto

Junior Varsity – (1) Davis, (2) Chinese Christian, (3) Valley Christian

Sep 09

Stratford Santa Clara Invitational: December 13, 2014

The Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance and the Stratford School are pleased to announce that Stratford will host its third annual middle school quizbowl tournament on Saturday, December 13, 2014.

Location: This tournament will take place at Stratford Schools Santa Clara, 890 Pomeroy Avenue, Santa Clara, California.

Questions: We will be using NAQT Middle School Series #11. (For practice material similar to the questions we will use at the tournament, please consider the NAQT New Middle School Package and the 2013 Collaborative Middle School Tournament.)

The top 15% of teams will qualify for the 2015 NAQT Middle School National Championship Tournament, to be held in Dallas, Texas on May 9-10, 2015.

Eligibility: All middle schools (public, private, charter, religious, homeschool, etc.) are eligible to play in this event. This tournament is open to any players who have not yet completed 8th grade, though the questions are targeted at 7th and 8th graders.

Schools are encouraged to enter multiple teams, but please note that players must play for the same team throughout the tournament.

Fees:

Base fee: $60 per team

-$10 second or subsequent team from the same school

-$10 working buzzer system (must accommodate at least eight players)

-$20 experienced moderator

-$10 scorekeeper (We will hold a brief training session during check-in for those volunteers who have never kept score before.)

Payment will be taken at check-in on December 13th. Please make checks out to Stratford School.

How to register: please contact the tournament director, Jeff Hoppes (jeff.hoppes@gmail.com), on or before Monday, December 8th, indicating how many teams, buzzers, and staff your school plans to bring.

Sep 05

East Bay novice tournament: October 4, 2014

The Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance is pleased to announce that our Bay Area season for 2014-15 will begin with two new kickoff tournaments specifically intended for players new to quizbowl. Both UC Berkeley and Palo Alto will be hosting on Saturday, October 4, using NAQT’s Invitational Series #139A; please sign up for the site most convenient to your school.

(Bellarmine College Prep’s long-running novice event will take place later this year; expect a mid-January date for that tournament.)

Here’s East Bay’s announcement (cross-posted on behalf of Varun Govil from Amador Valley):

AVHS Quizbowl and DVHS Quizbowl are proud to announce that we will be hosting a Novice Tournament on October 4, 2014 at UC Berkeley! The purpose of this tournament is to encourage new teams from around the Bay Area to come and experience the feel of a trivia competition that is among the most enriching and fun activities that high schools can offer. The tournament will be run in order to provide an introduction for newcomers. 

The tournament set will be National Academic Quiz Tournaments’ (NAQT) Invitational Series 139-A, which is aimed at teams with little to no experience. We have rented out space for a field cap of 30 teams (15 rooms) and strongly encourage all eligible teams to sign up! All players/teams will be eligible, except for those who have played at any national quiz bowl tournaments (HSNCT/PACE NSC). Please be aware that the majority of teams will be teams with new players.

Tournament Logistics: The tournament will be held at UC Berkeley 

We project that the tournament will run from 9 until about 4:30pm, with a break for lunch in between. Depending on the number of teams who register, we will change the format of our brackets and further decisions for number of rounds played will be determined within a week or so (we hope to get 8 rounds or so). Registration opens at 8 30 and includes an introduction for novices covering basic rules and guidelines, and we hope to begin by 9 am. For lunch, we will be ordering pizza. 

Fees
base fee: $50 per team
–$5 for all additional teams from the same school
–$20 for teams from new schools 
–$10 per working buzzer 
–$10 per staffer (must stay whole day)
For payment, please bring cash or checks made out to the Quiz Bowl Club at UC Berkeley.

We urge teams attending to bring buzzers and staffers if available. We will enforce all the gameplay rules as they are written in Sections D-H of the official rules of the Academic Competition Federation, so all players must fully familiarize themselves with these rules before proceeding. Pay special attention to timing, pronunciation, and protest guidelines.

Registration: email me (Varun Govil, varun28.govil@gmail.com) before Tuesday, September 30th, 2014 with the proper information (team name, roster, how many teams, number of buzzers/staffers to be brought, the amount to be paid, and contact info). 

We look forward to seeing you there!

Sep 05

Palo Alto novice tournament: October 4, 2014

Cross-posting on behalf of Max Krawczyk from Palo Alto quizbowl:

 

The Palo Alto Quiz Bowl Team will be hosting a novice quiz bowl tournament on October 4th, 2014 at Palo Alto High School, in Palo Alto, CA! The tournament will be run in order to provide an introduction into quiz bowl without any prior experience necessary and to demonstrate what a truly fun activity quiz bowl is! We highly encourage teams from around the Bay Area to come. 

The tournament set will be National Academic Quiz Tournaments’ (NAQT) Invitational Series 139-A, which is aimed at teams with little to no experience. We have rented out space for a field cap of 30 teams (15 rooms) and strongly encourage all eligible teams to sign up! All players/teams will be eligible, except for those who have played at any national quiz bowl tournaments (HSNCT/PACE NSC). Teams will be restricted to at most 6 players, with 4 players playing at any given time and 2 on the bench. Please be aware that the majority of teams will be teams with new players.

Tournament Logistics: The tournament will be held at Palo Alto High School at 50 Embarcadero Rd, Palo Alto, CA, 94303 in the second floor of the 800 building, in rooms 850-864, located at the northeast of the campus near the train tracks. The control room will be in 850. Here’s a printable map of the Palo Alto campus.

We project that the tournament will run from 9 until about 4:30pm, with a break for lunch in between. Depending on the number of teams who register, we will change the format of our brackets; however, we will try to get all teams to be able to play at least 8 rounds of quiz bowl throughout the day, either in a round robin or some other format. During lunch, there are many wonderful locations across the street from Paly at the Town and Country Village for food options.

On the day of the tournament, please report to the control room (850) by 8:30am. We will have a brief introduction to quiz bowl for novices, and we plan to begin the first round by 9:00.

Fees
base fee: $50 per team
–$5 for all additional teams from the same school
–$20 for teams composed entirely of students that have not competed at a pyramidal quiz bowl tournament before the 2014-15 school year: “pyramidal quiz bowl” does not encompass other academic/trivia competitions like Science Bowl or Quiz Kids
–$10 per working buzzer 
–$10 per staffer (must stay whole day)
For payment, please bring cash or checks made out to Palo Alto High School.


We urge teams attending to bring buzzers and staffers if available. Though we do not expect that teams have played tournaments previously, we will enforce all the gameplay rules as they are written in Sections D-H of the official rules of the Academic Competition Federation, so all players must fully familiarize themselves with these rules before proceeding. Pay special attention to timing, pronunciation, and protest guidelines.

Registration: email me (Max Krawczyk, max.j.krawczyk@gmail.com) before Tuesday, September 30th, 2014 with the proper information (team name, roster, how many teams, number of buzzers/staffers to be brought, the amount to be paid, and contact info). 

We look forward to seeing you there!

Sep 05

Sacramento Fall Tournament: September 13, 2014

NCQBA and Rio Americano HS are pleased to announce that the Sacramento Fall Tournament will be held on Saturday, September 13, 2014.

Location: This tournament will take place at Rio Americano HS, Sacramento, California. Registration will begin at 9:30AM and we hope to start round 1 at 10:00AM. We will have a field cap of 12 teams.

Questions: We will be using NAQT IS-137A.

Eligibility: All high schools (public, private, charter, religious, homeschool, etc.) are eligible to play in this event.

Schools are encouraged to enter multiple teams, but please note that players must play for the same team throughout the tournament.

Fees:

Base fee: $65 per team

-$10 second or subsequent team from the same school

-$15 schools playing their first quizbowl tournament

-$10 working buzzer system (must accommodate at least eight players)

-$10 scorekeeper (We will hold a brief training session during check-in for those volunteers who have never kept score before.)

Payment will be taken at check-in on September 13. Please make checks out to Rio Americano HS.

How to register: fill out this form, on or before Wednesday, September 10, 2014, indicating how many teams, buzzers, and staff your school plans to bring.

Sep 05

Welcome to the 2014-15 quizbowl season!

Welcome to a new season of quizbowl in northern California! We’re planning a full calendar of tournaments for fall 2014. Preliminary dates are as follows:

Saturday, September 13th: Sacramento Fall Tournament (contact Nicholas Karas)

Saturday, October 4th: Novice tournaments at Palo Alto (contact Max Krawczyk) and Amador Valley (contact Varun Govil)

Saturday, November 1st: California Cup #1 at UC Berkeley (contact Nicholas Karas and Ankit Aggarwal)

Saturday, November 22nd: California Cup #2 at UC Berkeley (contact Nicholas Karas and Ankit Aggarwal)

Please stay tuned for winter and spring tournament announcements, including a full slate of five middle school events.

Feb 16

Results: Bellarmine’s middle school tournament, February 15, 2014

Congratulations to Stratford-Santa Clara A, which went 8-1 to win the 2014 Bellarmine middle school tournament! Challenger-Sunnyvale A was second with a 7-2 record; Challenger-Sunnyvale B and Diablo Vista also qualified for MSNCT in Atlanta.

Complete team and individual statistics are here.

Thanks to our host, coach Chris Fleitas of Bellarmine, and our staff team:

from Bellarmine: Abhishek Aditham, Alejandro Buendia, Tolentino Buzo, Julian Cabrera, Bryant Cong, Jarek Jankowski, Jonchee Kao, Sejal Midha, Namit Mishra, Hieu Nguyen, Ved Paranjpe, Gavin Pereira, and David Tomlinson

from Davis High: Alex Chen, Michael Zhao, and Peter Zhu

from Berkeley: Ankit Aggarwal and Tanay Kothari

I hope all 18 teams will be able to join us for our next middle school tournaments: at Stratford-San Jose on March 16th and at Berkeley on April 27th!

Jan 21

Bellarmine’s middle school tournament: February 15, 2014

The Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance and Bellarmine College Prep are pleased to announce that Bellarmine will host its second annual middle school quizbowl tournament on Saturday, February 15, 2014.

Location: This tournament will take place in the Lokey Academic Center at Bellarmine College Prep, San Jose, California.

Questions: We will be using NAQT Middle School Series #8. (For practice material similar to the questions we will use at the tournament, please consider the NAQT New Middle School Package and the 2013 Collaborative Middle School Tournament.)

The top 15% of teams will qualify for the 2014 NAQT Middle School National Championship Tournament, to be held in Atlanta on May 10-11, 2014.

Eligibility: All middle schools (public, private, charter, religious, homeschool, etc.) are eligible to play in this event. This tournament is open to any players who have not yet completed 8th grade, though the questions are targeted at 7th and 8th graders.

Schools are encouraged to enter multiple teams, but please note that players must play for the same team throughout the tournament.

Fees:

Base fee: $60 per team

$10 discount for second or subsequent team from the same school

$10 discount per working buzzer system (must accommodate at least eight players)

$20 discount per experienced moderator

$10 discount per scorekeeper (We will hold a brief training session during check-in for those volunteers who have never kept score before.)

Payment will be taken at check-in on February 15th. Please make checks out to Bellarmine College Prep.

How to register: please contact the tournament director, Jeff Hoppes (jeff.hoppes@gmail.com), on or before Tuesday, February 11th, indicating how many teams, buzzers, and staff your school plans to bring.