Asian Circuit Activity

[Andre97]

I know its a little late to ask this, but how many active teams are there in Asia? So far I only know about 4 schools who actively practice pyramidal tournaments:

Shanghai American School Puxi: Has won all three Quiz Bowl tournaments they have attended, including their regional History Bowl/Bee, and will be attending PACE.

Singapore American School: Placed second to Puxi in both Invitational Series Events and placed first in their regional History Bowl/Bee. Will be attending PACE. Hosted an Invitational last November, and will be hosting an underclassmen only tournament in April.

Shanghai American School Pudong: Participated in the Shanghai Invitational and the Shanghai Regional Bee, placing 3rd in the latter.

Concordia International School Shanghai (CISS): Hosted an Invitational tournament in October. Lack of participation in the other events questions their recent activity.

A ton of other schools have recently participated in regional History Bowls/Bees, so hopefully more school will begin to compete within the Asian circuit. If anyone out there knows of schools that are interested in getting involved in our circuit, please drop a comment!

[Angry Babies in Love]

David Madden will almost certainly swing by this thread, but in case he doesn't, I will reiterate that there are now a ton of schools that do History Bowl in Asia. This has been a really successful season across the continent. I have no idea what, if any, sort of means exist to convert these teams to all-subject quizbowl tournaments, though.

[Andre97]

Yea, I know its great that many teams are doing History Bowl/Bee, but I would like to see more and more school cross over into the broader Quizbowl community. We have too few tournaments that we can attend every year, as well a distinct lack of participating schools. I know geographical barriers are a factor to consider, but I'm sure there is interest within other schools to make an effort to start a team and attend these events, especially with the recent success with all the Regional Bowls/Bees.

[Great Bustard]

^This will happen, but we need to build the IHBB circuit first. Next year we're looking to do two separate regionals question sets, and our Asian Championships will then almost certainly be in Singapore. Also, I should note that the success we have had overseas this year is due almost entirely to my wife, Nolwenn, who has made expanding IHBB around the world her mission every bit as much as it is mine. She has personally contacted over 5,000 teachers this year to make this happen. Next year we are considering expansions to the Philippines, while (looking a bit farther) we are in the process of booking flights for our first outreach trips to Australia and New Zealand this summer too.

[ryan_e67]

Hey, sorry for dredging up an old topic, but I couldn't help but to interject

Concordia's team was in quite a crisis through the end of last year due to lack of student interest. If they get some invitations next year I'm sure they'll be happy to compete again.

[Andre97]

Hi!
Cool! The date for the Concordia tournament has already been set, if I'm not wrong, and I'll try and keep the dates for future competitions on here. I know Concordia's had a strange year, only further complicated with the "each activity can only travel once" rule. I'm going to try and push for a bi-monthly circuit of some sort, so look out for that. If you need help with recruiting, putting together a circuit, or I any questions in general, drop me a PM!

[Great Bustard]

Greetings from Hong Kong - the largest quizbowl tournament in the history of Asia is taking place this weekend with the inaugural IHBB Asian Championships. See http://www.ihbbasia.com/tournament/asian-championships/ for the list of teams attending - 48 total. We've been recruiting in Taiwan last week, are in Vietnam next week, and have a new connection in the Philippines. Tintinnabulum ferre ad fines terrae.

[Great Bustard]

Our Asian Championships went great last weekend - see www.ihbbasia.com for the full list of champions. We're in Vietnam at the moment, and Nolwenn visited schools in Taiwan last week. We're seriously considering a three week trip to India this summer to start there as well (looking at Shimla, Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore to start). If anyone knows any people at schools in those countries (friends, cousins, former colleagues etc.), please pass the word about IHBB Asia along to them, and have them contact [email protected] to get a team started!

[quiz4life]

Here is an update of the Asian Quiz circuit. Starting where Andre finished off in April of 2014 Singapore American School (SAS) hosted a JV tournament using NAQT "A" series questions. SAS's A team won the tournament going undefeated beating Puxi in the finals 440-130. Also attending was Brent International School of Manila in their first NAQT tournament. In June Puxi and SAS both attended PACE-NSC. Both teams acquitted themselves rather well. SAS finished tied for 45th place with Puxi tied for 69th. Both teams were pleased with their performance. As coach of the SAS team I was very pleased given how incredibly inexperienced the team was, at the time. Previous to PACE-NSC the individual players, which included two sophomores, had only played in two tournaments! Overall 2013-2014 was a great year for quiz in East Asia as SAS and Brent starting playing, along with a renewed Puxi team in NAQT tournaments.

The academic year of 2014-2015 has shown the continued growth of quiz in the region. The year started off in October with the annual Concordia International School-Shanghai tournament. Along with the host school, Puxi, Brent, SAS, and SMIC a Shanghai school new to quiz also attended. Puxi took first, SAS 2nd and Concordia 3rd. This was the second time that SAS has lost to Puxi in a final match. In the preliminaries SAS defeated Puxi 430-130 but in the finals Puxi again proved their strength beating SAS 355-220. In November SAS hosted their second annual tournament. Along with the host school SAS, Puxi and St. Joseph's another school new to quiz attended. And once again and for the third time SAS beat Puxi in the preliminaries but lost to Puxi in the finals. Puxi played great winning the tournament on the last question.

David Madden's IHBB returned to Asia in late November as Puxi won the Varsity and JV division with good play in a rather small tournament. IHBB has been a success here in Asia. The tournament have grown in both the amount of teams playing along with the number of cities IHBB is played and in the the number of tournaments played as some cities are seeing IHBB playing twice in an academic year. But in many of the cities IHBB is still struggling to get many of the major American international schools and overall many tournaments tend to be rather limited in the number of schools and teams playing. http://www.ihbbasia.com/results/ The big exception to this is in Singapore as in late February IHBB was played with 13 schools and 28 teams! It was IHBB's largest regional tournament. SAS easily took the Varsity and Middle School (MS) divisions as both teams went undefeated. The JV division was won by NPS a local school. This young NPS team, their players were MS aged, was very strong and easily defeated the SAS team. Because of IHBB I had three teams come to me interested in playing more quiz! IHBB has a great future here in Asia.

In March SAS hosted a JV tournament again using NAQT A series questions. Teams from the host SAS, Puxi, Brent, the local NPS team and a school new to quiz the International School of Kuala Lumpur (ISKL) attended the tournament. The top two SAS's team took first and second and were dominate in the tournament. SAS A went undefeated crushing most teams. Their PP20TH was 456.7.

Both Puxi and SAS plan on sending two teams, a varsity and a JV, to this years PACE-NSC. There is a still an IHBB to be played in May but overall quiz has already shown great growth this year both in the number of teams playing and in the quality of play.

Michael Harvey
Coach
Singapore American School