Newbie team asking for advice

[goirulz]

Hello everyone,

Our QB team has recently been invited to attend the two national tournaments in Chicago in June: the NAQT nationals and the Questions Unlimited NAC. This is the second year that QB has been running at our school and the first time that we've been invited to such tournaments. Thus, we were hoping that the enlightened and experienced players of this board could provide us with some insight into the breakdown and type of questions characteristic of both the NAQT and NAC tournaments, as well as any advice that a novice team such as ours can benefit from in the short and long run. Thanks all.

[solonqb]

NAQT has better question quality, guarantees 8-10 matches (vs. 6 for NAC)and a cheaper price. Also, better teams will be at NAQT than at NAC. And if you're looking to play in college, you can get a leg up in NAQT.

For NAQT question examples visit http://naqt.com/samples/index.html

If you enjoy identifying kitchen applicances based on their sounds, choose NAC.

Here's a decent approximation of NAC question style and content. [Note: I saw this elsewhere a while back, it's not my idea originally and it's not verbatim]

My name is Chip Beall. I have a golden retriever. I love to take him for walks in the park on green spring days so we can play catch in the sun. What's the capital of Morocco?

If you insist on seeing samples of NAC work, visit http://qunlimited.com/quiz.html or http://qunlimited.com/practice.html.

[No Sollositing On Premise]

Although I find NAQT superior to QU in virtually all aspects, your team might be better suited to the format depending on what questions you're used to playing. Exactly where is your school and what kind of questions do you typically play?

[Matt Weiner]

While I obviously have a horse in the race if you are also considering going to the PACE NSC, I just can't recommend Chip to anyone under any circumstances. Just financially, you're paying four times as much for, in the best case scenario, half as many games as at NAQT. The subject-distribution and academic relevance of the answers at Chip will vary in a seemingly arbitrary fashion, you will not play a representative sample of other regions, and you will waste a lot of time standing around waiting to play one or two matches in a day, going through mind-numbing faux-game show introductions, and other rigamarole, instead of simply getting down to business and playing the games as at NAQT (or NSC). Oh, and there's a good chance your opponent will have heard the questions before if they practice on collegiate packets.

[NoahMinkCHS]

This board is probably not where you'll get the most positive account of the NAC... but then, that's mostly because we've all played better stuff.

I can relate to your experience, as my high school went to its first national tournament in (something like) ten years when I was a sophomore. We went to NAC that year and NAQT the next two. I really enjoyed both experiences. That said...

While NAC (aka "Chip Beall" , its founder, president, CEO, chief justice [not kidding]) is a lot of fun (it's like being on TV), the only reason I usually think of to recommend it would be that it's in a good location. But since this year, NAQT is in Chicago (WHY did this never happen when I was in HS?!), even that's not a good reason.

At NAQT, the questions are far better (assuming you prefer pyramidality to hoses and "For a quick ten points..."), the tournament's more efficient, you play more matches (~10 vs. 4), make more connections to "real" quiz bowl teams (high school and college)... lots of reasons. And it's cheaper -- by a lot, I think.

An argument could be made that Chip gives you more free time--but when you consider that NAC lasts 4 days while NAQT only lasts like 2 and a half (so you could use the rest of the four days you would have been there to be touristy)... I don't think that's a major difference.

NAQT teams, to me, did seem to be a bit more ... intense ... about the game, and I've heard that from people at other schools, too. So if you'd rather take the time to relax, NAC might fit better. But if you're in it to play, NAQT is superior, unless...

As laszlow said, if you're more acclimated to NAC-type questions, you may like that better. But it seems to me the general trend is towards more pyramid-style questions... so NAQT would fit better for a lot of people. (For example, we played many kinds at my high school, but our state tournament and most major invitationals were on NAQT or NAQT-style questions; NAC was definitely an adjustment.)

But you know better than we do what kind of questions you play and like. You also know how much you can afford to spend on nationals this year.

Whatever you decide, congratulations on your quick progress, and best of luck. I'm sure you'll have a great time.

[steven-lamp]

Friends don't let friends go to

NAQT's a better tournament, NAC's a better trip (although if playing in a bad tournament would ruin the trip, then NAQT wins in all aspects).

[quiz4life]

Hey All,
I am the coach of the "newbie" team. Some of the information we are looking for is the type of questions. Such as what area of math and science questions are asked? What about current events? The team is real young. No seniors, heck we may even bring a freshman or two! We are not bad just inexperienced, thus any advice is greatly appreciated. When we play we use a variety of question styles. So the team has played pyrmiad style along with hose and even different formats than most teams play.
As for why we are going to Chip's tournament and NAQT. In a word, travel. It is easier and cheaper (the school is paying for the fees, the students for the airfare) for us to stay in Chicago during the five days break in between the tournaments. Plus Chip has been very helpful. We want to get as much experience as possible. It is difficult for us to play against many other teams. Many times we end up playing against an all-star team of faculty. We enjoy the KMO and have done well. I like that the players all get to work as a "TEAM".
As for the coach, I have been doing this for a while but have only been to one "National Championship" back in 1995 I brought a team to Lake Forest, IL. for the American Scholastic Competition. I have had the pleasure of meeting Coach Barry would that have been in GA?
Sorry for the long posting.
So PLEASE any help you can give us would be great!
Oh yes, the team well we are....

[cvdwightw]

When we play we use a variety of question styles. So the team has played pyrmiad style along with hose and even different formats than most teams play...It is difficult for us to play against many other teams. Many times we end up playing against an all-star team of faculty.

I find this difficult to understand. You don't play against many other teams, but somehow you've earned an HSNCT invitation.

The only explanation I can understand is if you're in an area that has various tournaments but no real league play. This was almost all of my entire high school experience; we attended maybe 4 or 5 non-national NAQT-style tournaments and maybe 2 non-NAQT tournaments a year, and that was our entire year.

Regarding nationals: I never played a single QU match, but I did attend NAQT HSNCT in 2000-2003. Essentially the math is all computational (I can't recall many questions on math that did not start with "Pencil and paper ready"); science questions are drawn mainly from biology, chemistry, and physics, with some astronomy and computer science thrown in. Current events, pop culture, and geography show up quite a bit. "General Knowledge" seems to be NAQT's favorite topic. There are all sorts of questions that have clues from several academic disciplines, combine academic clues with popular culture clues, and/or answers that don't easily fit into any category (e.g. "John," after clues about several people with that first name). I thought that "General Knowledge" questions were more common and pop culture questions less common in HSNCT sets than in IS (non-national) sets, and the difficulty was usually a step up from those sets.

I encourage you to bring freshmen; in fact, three of the four years I competed at HSNCT my school brought a freshman.

Regarding Advice for New Teams: The biggest thing to do is too get involved in as much as you think you can handle. Obviously, attending national tournaments is a great way to get better, since you can see what the top teams play like. Join a league if one exists near you. Practice in any and all formats of tournaments held near you, and attend tournaments when you can.

Since every area is somewhat different, I would find it easier for me or someone else to give you specific advice on a non-National level if we knew what area you're from.