National Academic Quiz Tournaments

National Academic Quiz Tournaments
Company typeLimited liability company
IndustryQuiz bowl
Headquarters,
U.S.
Key people
  • Seth Teitler
    (President)
  • Jonah Greenthal
    (Vice President for Operations)
  • Jeff Hoppes
    (Vice President for Communication)
  • Chad Kubicek
    (Chief Financial Officer)
  • Jason Thompson
    (Chief Editor)[1]
ServicesQuestion writing, tournament organizing
Websitenaqt.com/

National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC is a question-writing and quiz bowl tournament-organizing company founded by former players in 1996. It is unique among U.S. quiz organizations for supplying questions and hosting championships at the middle school, high school, and college levels. NAQT operates out of Shawnee, Kansas and Minneapolis–Saint Paul.

The company mostly writes practice questions and questions for high school and middle school invitational tournaments, as well as for some game shows. Its involvement in college quiz bowl is mostly restricted to sectional tournaments and the Intercollegiate Championship Tournament.

Rules

NAQT's rules are quite similar to other quiz bowl tournament's rules. These are about qualification, packets, and gameplay.

Qualification

To qualify for the MSNCT or HSNCT, a team from a school must get certain place depending on pool size, or teams playing. A school can get more teams also depending on pool size. The events which you must qualify at must be organized and accepted and using NAQT packets.

Packets

NAQT creates their own packets for tournaments along for studying, such as specific subject, lightning rounds, Thumbs Up! and more. They consist of 24 tossups and 24 bonuses. For certain packets, tossups and bonuses are on the same page, but for HSNCT, MSNCT, and SSNCT, the tossups and bonuses are on separate pages. They consist of clues that become easier and end in 'For 10 points'. They will also provide pronunciation on certain words and provide what to accept, prompt, or say is incorrect.

Gameplay

The rules about negs and powers are that negs give -5, but if another team interrupts and gets it wrong, it is a 0. Correct answers before the power mark, or (*), give 15 points. Protests can be made at timeouts, halftime, or the end of the game. If a player answers incorrectly, their team is locked for the tossup. Bounce-backs are not allowed. Timeouts can be called at the very beginning of any tossup, but a team is limited to 1 tossup per match. A score-check is allowed during the timeouts and halftime.

At the college level

The ICT is divided into divisions, unlike ACF Nationals, so that a clear undergraduate champion is determined (all formats allow graduate students to compete in some form).

Collegiate divisions

Division I Overall

NAQT's eligibility rules state that any student taking at least three credit hours towards a degree at a university may compete on that university's team, and indeed may not compete independently if such a team exists. If no program exists at their university's campus, they may compete on the team for another campus of the same university, with the provision that they must leave that team should their home campus organize a program.

If any member of the team has an undergraduate degree, the team competes in the Division I competition, and is only eligible for the open championship (i.e. the overall championship).

Division I Undergraduate

At Sectional Championship Tournaments (SCTs) and the Intercollegiate Championship Tournament (ICT), teams that do not meet the Division II requirements play together. However, awards are given, including bids to the ICT, for the top undergraduate team. A team is eligible for the undergraduate championship if all members of the team are undergraduate students, and none of them have played in four years of NAQT collegiate competition prior to the current year. The undergraduate championship was first awarded in 1998.[2]

Division II

Also introduced in 1998, Division II is intended to give first- and second-year students an opportunity to compete against other players and teams of the same level of experience. The rules of Division II eligibility are that one must be eligible for DI Undergraduate (i.e. no degree, and less than four years of experience), and in no year prior qualified for or participated in ICT.[3]

Exceptions to the eligibility rules have been granted to deal with special circumstances in past years; however, as they are controversial when they occur, they do not occur often.

Community colleges

Two-year colleges usually compete in separate SCTs each February (it is permitted, but rare, for teams from these schools to compete in DI). Eight teams qualify for the Division II ICT, where they compete alongside other DII teams in a manner analogous to that of DI Undergraduate teams. However, students at two-year colleges are exempt from the DII eligibility restrictions. In fact, they have three years of eligibility at the DII level.[4]

Winners of NAQT Intercollegiate Championship Tournament [5]

Year Host / Location Division I Overall Division I Undergraduate Division II Overall Division II Community College
1997 Penn Chicago
1998 Vanderbilt Stanford Swarthmore Harvard
1999 Michigan Chicago Carleton Princeton
2000 Boston U Illinois Princeton Harvard
2001 WUSTL Chicago Princeton Pittsburgh
2002 North Carolina Michigan Princeton Yale Valencia CC
2003 UCLA and Caltech Chicago Harvard California Valencia CC
2004 WUSTL California Illinois UCLA Valencia CC
2005 Tulane Michigan VCU Chicago Faulkner St CC
2006 Maryland California Williams College Stanford Broward CC
2007 Minnesota Chicago Carleton Maryland Valencia CC
2008 WUSTL Maryland Harvard Carleton Valencia CC
2009 Dallas, Texas Chicago Minnesota[Note 1] Chicago Northeast Alabama CC
2010 Chicago, Illinois Chicago[Note 1] Minnesota Brown St. Charles CC
2011 Chicago, Illinois Minnesota[Note 1] VCU[Note 1] Yale Chipola
2012 [6] Chicago, Illinois Virginia Ohio State[Note 2] Harvard Chipola
2013 Chicago, Illinois Yale Ohio State Stanford Chipola
2014 Chicago, Illinois Virginia Yale Harvard Valencia CC
2015 Atlanta, Georgia Virginia Maryland Texas State College-Manatee
2016 Chicago, Illinois Chicago California Chicago Jefferson
2017 Chicago, Illinois Michigan Oklahoma California Chipola
2018 Chicago, Illinois Yale California Chicago Chipola
2019 Chicago, Illinois Yale Michigan State Maryland De Anza
2020 Canceled N/A N/A N/A N/A
2021 Online Columbia Brown Vanderbilt Jefferson
2022 Chicago, Illinois Stanford Georgia Tech Yale Inver Hills CC
2023 Chicago, Illinois Cornell Brown Waterloo Tallahassee CC
2024 Chicago, Illinois Chicago WUSTL Waterloo Chipola
Notes
  1. ^ a b c d Though Harvard had initially won these titles, NAQT vacated their wins in 2013 after Harvard player Andy Watkins was found to have had unauthorized access to the questions prior to the tournaments.
  2. ^ MIT had initially won the 2012 ICT DI Undergraduate title, but their win was vacated after MIT player Joshua Alman was found to have had unauthorized access to the questions prior to the tournament.

At the high school level

Teams qualify to the High School National Championship Tournament through a variety of methods. Most commonly, a team qualifies by finishing in the top 15% of the field at a tournament that uses NAQT questions. If a school wants to send more than one team to nationals, the school must qualify all said teams at the same time during a single tournament.

The small school award is given to a public school with a non-selective admissions policy and less than 500 students in grades 10 through 12. Up until and including 2013, the small school champion was decided on a playoff between top finishing teams at the High School National Championship Tournament. Since 2014, a separate national championship tournament has been held for small schools.

Winners of NAQT High School National Championship Tournament

The winners of the NAQT High School National Championship Tournament:[7]

Year Location Champion 2nd 3rd Small school
1999 Norman, Oklahoma Detroit Catholic Central Walton Brookwood A
2000 Atlanta, Georgia State College A Maggie Walker A Eleanor Roosevelt
2001 Ann Arbor, Michigan Detroit Catholic Central Detroit Country Day State College A
2002 Austin, Texas St. John's School Irmo Detroit Catholic Central Kent City
2003 Myrtle Beach, South Carolina Thomas Jefferson A Dorman A St. John's Cutter–Morning Star
2004 Houston, Texas Thomas Jefferson A Maggie Walker St. John's A Cutter–Morning Star
2005 Chicago, Illinois Thomas Jefferson A Lakeside State College A Danville
2006 Chicago, Illinois Richard Montgomery State College A Maggie Walker A Danville
2007 Chicago, Illinois Maggie Walker A State College A Thomas Jefferson A Danville
2008 Chicago, Illinois Thomas Jefferson A Charter School of Wilmington A Walt Whitman A Russell
2009 Chicago, Illinois Charter School of Wilmington A Dorman A State College A Ottawa Hills
2010 Chicago, Illinois Maggie Walker State College A LASA A South Range
2011 Atlanta, Georgia State College A LASA A Bellarmine George Mason
2012 Atlanta, Georgia Bellarmine A Detroit Catholic Central A LASA A Beachwood
2013 Atlanta, Georgia LASA A Ladue A Loyola Macomb
2014 Chicago, Illinois LASA A St. John's A LASA B Hallsville
2015 Chicago, Illinois Arcadia A LASA A Detroit Catholic Central A Harmony Science North Austin
2016 Dallas, Texas Hunter A Thomas Jefferson A Detroit Catholic Central A Advanced Math & Science
2017 Atlanta, Georgia Hunter A Detroit Catholic Central A Naperville North Glasgow and St. Mark's
2018 Atlanta, Georgia Plano West A Hunter A LASA A Glasgow and Early College at Guilford
2019 Atlanta, Georgia Beavercreek University Lab Chattahoochee A Glasgow and Miami Valley
2020 Canceled N/A N/A N/A N/A
2021 Online Barrington University Lab Detroit Country Day Westmont and St. Mark's
2022 Atlanta, Georgia Detroit Catholic Central A Hunter A East Chapel Hill A Glasgow and St. Mark's
2023 Atlanta, Georgia Barrington A Buffalo Grove Detroit Country Day A Fair Grove and BASIS McLean
2024 Atlanta, Georgia Barrington A St. Mark's Livingston A Hastings and St. Mark's

At the middle school level

For the 2010–2011 academic year, NAQT has introduced a program for middle school. A corresponding middle school national championship, called the MSNCT, was held in 2011 in Chicago.[8]

Winners of NAQT Middle School National Championship Tournament [9]

Year Location Champion 2nd 3rd
2011 Chicago, Illinois Kealing A Barrington-Station A Longfellow
2012 Chicago, Illinois Kealing A Longfellow A Westminster A
2013 Chicago, Illinois Barrington-Station A Kealing A Mesa Verde
2014 Atlanta, Georgia Harmony Excellence-Houston St. Mark's Trickum
2015 Dallas, Texas Kealing A T. H. Rogers A River Trail A
2016 Atlanta, Georgia Middlesex A Longfellow A Challenger-Ardenwood
2017 Dallas, Texas Aptakisic Mounds Park Middlesex A
2018 Chicago, Illinois Pi-oneers[Note 1] BASIS Silicon Valley A Longfellow A
2019 Chicago, Illinois Hunter A Churchill A Hopkins
2020 Canceled N/A N/A N/A
2021 Online Churchill A Longfellow A Burleigh Manor A
2022 Chicago, Illinois Longfellow A Chenery Greenhill A
2023 Chicago, Illinois Chenery River Trail A Cooper A
2024 Chicago, Illinois River Trail A Sycamore A Hopkins A
Notes
  1. ^ Home-school collective from Cupertino, California

Jeopardy!

Various NAQT employees and former NAQT players have appeared on the game show Jeopardy![10] Over 30 NAQT players or employees have participated on the show, including 17 who qualified for the Ultimate Tournament of Champions, including two finalists, Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings. Jennings writes questions and edits the literature and mythology categories for NAQT. Due to the success of these players, adults trying out must now declare any affiliation to NAQT or quizbowl on their information sheet.[citation needed] (See Jeopardy! audition process for further discussion.)

In 2006, competitors in the High School National Championship Tournament were given the opportunity to audition for the Jeopardy! Teen Tournament and the Jeopardy! College Championship. Ben Schenkel of Moravian Academy (Allentown, Pennsylvania) qualified for the Teen Tournament at this tryout, and finished as the tournament's first runner-up.[11] Meryl Federman of Livingston High School (Livingston, New Jersey) qualified for the second edition of the teen tournament, called the Jeopardy! Teen Tournament Summer Games, and won.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ "NAQT | You Gotta Know…These NAQT Members". Archived from the original on 2022-05-09. Retrieved 2022-05-09.
  2. ^ "NAQT | Qualifying for the ICT". www.naqt.com. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  3. ^ "NAQT | Qualifying for the ICT". www.naqt.com. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  4. ^ "NAQT | Community College Championship Tournament". www.naqt.com. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  5. ^ "NAQT | Past ICT Winners". www.naqt.com. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  6. ^ "NAQT | 2012 Intercollegiate Championship Tournament | Team Standings".
  7. ^ "NAQT | Past HSNCT Winners". www.naqt.com. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  8. ^ "NAQT | Middle School National Championship Tournament". www.naqt.com. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
  9. ^ "NAQT | Past MSNCT Winners". www.naqt.com. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
  10. ^ "NAQT | Game Show Appearances".
  11. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2012-06-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. ^ "Viacom CBS Press Express".