Kentucky MS State -- 4/21 @ Noe in Louisville

[Valefor]

The Kentucky Quiz Bowl Alliance is pleased to announce our FOURTH Annual Middle School State Championship!

When: April 21, 2018 / Registration @ 9:00am EST :: Play begins @ 10:00am EST (This is Thunder Over Louisville Saturday.)
Where: Noe Middle School :: 121 W Lee Street / Louisville KY 40208
Question Set: NAQT MS-26

NAQT Tournament Home Page: https://www.naqt.com/registration/field ... nt_id=8958

Register @ https://www.naqt.com/registration/regis ... nt_id=8958

I, Jason Thompson, will be serving as tournament director.

Who may participate: ANYONE may participate, provided you are a team from a Kentucky middle school. In particular, you do NOT need to have qualified for KAAC State in order to register for and play this tournament. No matter whether your quick recall team makes it to state, or to regionals, or only played at districts, you are eligible to register, come, and compete!

In another difference from KAAC, your school may send *multiple* teams to this tournament (see Field and Fees sections below).

Field: We are currently placing a field cap of 24 teams on this tournament; if there is sufficient interest and we have enough staff, we will raise this cap. To ensure that every school who wishes to play can do so, we are initially limiting schools to an A and a B team. After March 20, if room remains in the field, we will open up registration for C/D teams. (You can go ahead and sign up C/D teams as standby teams...see below.)

Each team may have up to 6 players on its roster (so a school with 2 teams may bring up to 12 players, split up into two teams of 6 each), though only 4 may play at a time. In a difference from KAAC, teams are NOT required to have 4 players at all times; teams of 3 (or even 2 or 1) may also compete. All teams must have at least one adult coach/chaperone to accompany them throughout the day.

Format and Rules: Games will consist of 20 tossups and the associated bonuses, split into two untimed halves. The general format will consist of preliminary round robins, followed by regrouping into another round robin based on performance in the prelims. While we cannot guarantee a specific number of games at this time, we *can* guarantee that we will do our best to provide all teams with at least 7 games. In our previous tournaments, all teams played 8-9 games.

We will be playing with NAQT's standard rules, scoring, and timing, with the sole exception of untimed halves. In particular, this means we will not be playing with bounce-back bonuses.

Awards: The top 4 teams will receive trophies recognizing their achievement. The top scoring individual players will receive All-Star certificates and book prizes. Teams that finish in the top 15% of the field (including ties) will qualify for NAQT's Middle School National Championship Tournament.

Fees:
First team: $70 / Subsequent teams: $60 each
Bringing a buzzer system: -$10 each (up to 2) *
Teams traveling over 150 miles (one way): -$10
Teams bringing a staffer: -$15 each
Minimum fee (per team): $40

New to quiz bowl discount -- Any school that has not participated in a pyramidal quiz bowl tournament (e.g., a tournament run on NAQT questions, or any tournament using pyramidal tossups and three-part bonuses) between September 1, 2013 and January 1, 2017 automatically qualifies for the minimum fee of $40 per team. (I am unsure why the online system says the minimum fee for new teams is $0; this is incorrect and I will fix it when I can. All new to quiz bowl teams register for $40.)

Staff Discount -- If your team can bring a moderator that has experience reading quiz bowl with NAQT timings, PLEASE let me know as soon as possible. :)

Specific details about payment will be distributed as the date of the tournament approaches. Please bring payment on the day of the tournament if at all possible. We can accept early payments if need be, but it is easier for everyone involved if you simply bring your payment to the tournament. Schools from which we have not received payment by one week following the tournament will be assessed a +$20 late payment fee (per team) in addition to what they owe.

Registration: This year, we are using NAQT's online registration system for our tournament. You can register for the tournament as well as see the current field and fee list, at https://www.naqt.com/registration/field ... nt_id=8958 (the registration link is below the field cap). You'll need to use your NAQT.com account to register for this event; if you don't have an NAQT.com account, creating one is free, easy, and takes about 2-3 minutes. If you encounter any difficulty or have any questions/concerns about this, please let me know.

If you don't know your rosters yet, that's perfectly fine; you can change those at any time up to and including the morning of the tournament. :)

If you already know you would be interested in bringing C/D teams should there be space, please feel free to go ahead and sign your C/D teams up as STANDBY TEAMS (the Standby team registration link is right below the regular registration link, where it says "Sign up a standby team"). If space remains in the field after March 20, I'll go ahead and move those teams into the normal field.

Questions: If you have any questions about any of this, please feel free to email me at jason_thompson (at) twc (dot) com and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

We look forward to a great day of quiz bowl!

* - For the purposes of this discount, the buzzer system must conform to NAQT's guidelines for its national tournaments. In particular, systems must be wired, and must be able to operate independently of a computer. This means that Inquisitor systems are *not* eligible for this discount. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

[Valefor]

(This post reserved for information and other updates)