Packet Set Sharing Caution: IS #166 and the Division II SCT

[Important Bird Area]

NAQT’s Invitational Series #166 will be based, in part, on the Division II Sectional Championship question set. This set will be used for many 2017 state championships and some other tournaments in spring 2017 and possibly fall 2017.

In order to preserve question security, this means that high school teams and coaches will need to take the following steps:

No team and no player may play both a tournament using Invitational Series #166 and a tournament using either Sectional Championship set. (“Either” because the Division II Sectional Championship set is itself based in part on the Division I Sectional Championship set.)

High-school players and coaches may not staff NAQT’s Sectional Championship Tournaments (either division) or NAQT’s Community College Championship Tournament.

High-school players and coaches should avoid attending college practices where the 2017 Sectional Championship question sets will be read (from either division).

As a specific case of the first point, dual-enrolled students may not play Invitational Series #166 and a Sectional Championship, nor Invitational Series #166 and the CCCT, even if they would otherwise be eligible to do so.

Note that this is a departure from past years’ practice: for instance, Invitational Series #156 was not based on the 2016 Sectional Championship.

[ashwin99]

Why was this change made? It was pretty useful and a good preparation for nationals last year to use DII SCT for "IS+" level tournaments such as BMAD.

[Important Bird Area]

We felt that this change was the best balance between providing as many high-quality questions as our customers want to buy and placing reasonable demands on our writers and editors. (Note that some of the "nationals prep" events that formerly used the Division II SCT can be redirected to use the Division II ICT instead.)