2011 National History Bowl National Finals - Sat. 4/16 in DC

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Great Bustard
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2011 National History Bowl National Finals - Sat. 4/16 in DC

Post by Great Bustard »

The National History Bee and Bowl is proud to announce the inaugural National Championships of the National History Bowl, to be held on Saturday, April 16 in and around Washington, DC. We will offer both Varsity and Junior Varsity Divisions; Junior Varsity teams may contain middle school students (this is a rule change)- but they may not have any 11th or 12th graders. Teams are guaranteed ten preliminary round matches to be held in two blocks of five games during the morning and afternoon. The playoffs will, due to constraints of time and space, be single elimination format; featuring the top 16 Varsity level teams and top 8 JV teams. Registration is now up at: http://www.historybowl.com/nationals

COMPETITION SITES (Update 4/6)
The matches will be held as much as possible at sites of historic importance (or otherwise unique locations). The following venues have been secured:

-Anderson House, a Gilded Age mansion that is the headquarters of the Society of the Cincinnati
-Embassy of Slovenia
-Embassy of Malawi
-Embassy of Uruguay
-General Federation of Women's Clubs Headquarters
-Goethe Institut, Washington, DC
-Hirshhorn Museum
-International Spy Museum
-Kosciuszko Foundation, Museum of Polish Art and Culture
-Mount Vernon
-Middle East Institute and the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center
-The Newseum
-Phillips Collection
-Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
-Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian
-National Musuem of Crime and Punishment (in the studio where America’s Most Wanted is taped)
-Woodrow Wilson House

Expressed Interest
-Embassy of South Africa
-Hillwood Estate Museum and Gardens
-Library of Congress
-National Archives
-Tudor Place, Historic House and Gardens

The finals in the evening will be at The Newseum.

We are working on securing more interesting sites. Due to the fact that this is the first year we are up and running, it is hard for us to estimate the number of teams that will be coming to Nationals. Right now, about 80-110 seems most likely. There is no limit on the number of teams; however we can only guarantee five matches in a historic/unique location (if our numbers are really high, this becomes more likely in which case the additional five games would be at a hotel or high school). Games will be played in two blocks of five games each, with enough time (over an hour) to get to your next block. Only teams with car access will play at Mt. Vernon and they will have a minimum of 2 hours to get to and from there.

PRIZES - Update 4/5
The following cash/scholarship prizes will be on offer at the NHBB (all will be cash, unless we get sponsors, who give us the $ on condition of it being scholarships)
$1000 - Bowl Winning Team
$400 - Bowl 2nd Place
$400 - JV Bowl Winning Team
$200 - JV Bowl 2nd Place
$500 - Bee winner
$200 - Bee 2nd Place
$200 - JV Bee winner
$100 - JV Bee 2nd Place
Additionally, the members of the winning teams in the Varsity and JV divisions will each get a $2500 scholarship exclusively for AFS Intercultural Programs (exchange student programs and language study) as well. And of course, the winning teams will receive the Varsity and Junior Varsity National History Bowls, to be presented both at Nationals, and then after the engraving of team members’ and coaches’ names (a la the Stanley Cup), in a ceremony at the schools of the winning teams. There will also likely be book prizes from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as well.

QUALIFICATION
Schools that compete in a state History Bowl event before March 12 need to have a winning record in the prelims or make the semifinals to qualify for Nationals. This is also true for schools located closer to a state bowl site hosting before March 12 than any other site.
Because we have had to push back quite a few tournaments in order to deal with a major league snafu on the part of the mailinghouse we had contracted with (basically, the geniuses there sent out 4000 information packets went out with addresses and cities misaligned - think 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, New York City, NY...) we have had to push quite a few tournaments back to late March or early April. Since we know that teams need some time to prepare for Nationals, for schools competing on March 12 or later, we will accept NSC or HSNCT qualification as a substitute, or 1st or 2nd place in a tournament with at least 5 teams, or top fifth of a tournament with at least ten teams. Certainly teams competing on March 12 or later can also qualify by the usual NHB rules. All teams competing at Nationals must have played in a state-level History Bowl, though.
Update 3/15
We are now accepting wild card bids. These however will only be accepted from the following teams:
-Teams of any sort that were 2-2-1
-For Varsity you have to have played in a State Bowl, had at least 2 wins, and 1000 total points, or 200 average if you played less than 5 matches.
-For JV you have to have managed at least 2 wins and 900 total points.
Other teams may be added on a standby basis to fill up the draw. Standby teams, if they didn't qualify, are not eligible for the playoffs at Nationals, though matches against them otherwise count. The fee for a standby team is $100. A maximum of 5 standby teams will be taken, possibly none. Teams expressing an interest in being standby teams should contact director at historybowl dot com
We are accepting wild card bids as we know that sometimes teams had unavoidable conflicts and that teams only had 1 chance to qualify. Next year, our A and B sets will be entirely different. The rules regarding qualification for Nationals next year have not yet been determined, but we are unambiguously saying that there will be no wild card teams next year at all and that all teams at Nationals next year will need at a minimum of a winning prelims record, possibly more.

QUESTIONS AND GAME FORMAT
All Nationals games for the National History Bowl will be written by HSAPQ. The game format is four quarter, with the first quarter being 8 10 pt. pyramidal tossups, the second quarter being 8 10 pt. pyramidal tossups with 5 pt. power, and a 10 pt bonus (no bounceback) that somehow relates back to the tossup. Some of the bonuses will be visual in nature - none will be matching or ordering as in the B sets at the state level. The third quarter is a 60 seconds round with 8 10 pt questions, a 20 pt bonus for a sweep, and bouncebacks. The fourth quarter features the longest questions, with two levels of power. The power breakdown will be 20-15-10. There will be no negative points for incorrect answers on tossups.
In the playoffs, to compensate slightly for single elim, the games will be slightly longer, with likely 10 questions in each ¼ in round 1, 12 questions in each quarter in round 2, and 15 in the semis and finals. Questions in the playoffs will be noticeably harder too.

LODGING AND COSTS
The Hamilton Crowne Plaza, a nice 4 star hotel in downtown DC, is the official hotel though teams are welcome to stay elsewhere. The Crowne Plaza is now sold out. Please make arrangements on your own, though go to http://www.historybowl.com and click on "Nationals Information" to see a list of recommended other hotels.
The entry cost is a base fee of $325, though there are discounts for having hosted, having won, having finished second, or coming from over a certain distance. See more at: http://www.historybowl.com/national-championships/ This amount does not include entry into the Finals on Sunday April 17 of the National History Bee. That costs $40, $50, or $60, with the two cheaper amounts for students who won or finished second respectively, in either the Varsity or JV State History Bees.

TEAMS (Update: 4/7)
The following teams have officially registered for the National Championships of the National History Bowl:

VARSITY - 73 Teams as of 4/8 (Final Draw will have either 74 or 76 teams)
Altamont (AL)
Holy Spirit Catholic (AL)
Jefferson County Intl. Baccalaureate (AL)
Greens Farms (CT)
Georgetown Day (DC)
St. Anselm's Abbey School (DC)
Wilmington Charter (DE)
Wilmington Friends (DE)
Archimedean Upper Conservatory (FL)
Chaminade Madonna (FL)
Coral Springs (FL)
Pembroke Pines (FL)
Ransom Everglades (FL)
Jonesboro (GA)
Starr's Mill (GA)
Ware County (GA)
Dowling Catholic (IA)
Culver Academies (IN)
Adair County (KY)
Menifee County (KY)
Oldham County (KY)
Piarist School (KY)
Archbishop Shaw (LA)
North Quincy (MA)
Richard Montgomery (MD)
Walt Whitman (MD)
Blake (MN)
Oakville (MO)
Rock Bridge (MO)
Webster Groves (MO)
Blair Academy (NJ)
Monsignor Donovan (NJ)
Moorestown Friends (NJ)
Ridgewood (NJ)
St. Joseph's (NJ)
Amherst A (NY)
Amherst B (NY)
Ardsley (NY)
Broadalbin-Perth (NY)
Division Avenue (NY)
Eastchester (NY)
Great Neck South (NY)
Half Hollow Hills West (NY)
Hoosick Falls (NY)
Irvington A (NY)
Irvington B (NY)
Lindenhurst (NY)
Nichols (NY)
Scarsdale (NY)
Victor (NY)
White Plains (NY)
Delaware Valley (PA)
Henderson (PA)
Lower Dauphin A (PA)
Lower Dauphin B (PA)
Manheim Township (PA)
Wyoming Area A (PA)
Wyoming Area B (PA)
Wyomissing (PA)
York Suburban (PA)
Southside (SC)
University School of Nashville (TN)
Clover Hill (VA)
Eastern View (VA)
George Marshall (VA)
Maggie Walker (VA)
Klahowya (WA)
Bridgeport (WV)
Charleston Catholic (WV)
Hurricane (WV)
Parkersburg (WV)
Parkersburg Catholic (WV)
St. Albans (WV)

JUNIOR VARSITY - 26 Teams as of 4/8
Bellarmine (CA)
Mission San Jose (CA)
Wilmington Charter (DE)
Ransom Everglades A (FL)
Ransom Everglades B (FL)
Apalachee (GA)
Duluth (GA)
Culver Academies (IN)
Paintsville (KY)
Piarist School (KY)
Sayre (KY)
Everett (MA)
Bergen Academies (NJ)
Monsignor Donovan A (NJ)
Monsignor Donovan B (NJ)
West Windsor-Plainsboro North (NJ)
St. Joseph's (NJ)
Half Hollow Hills West (NY)
Delaware Valley (PA)
Manheim Township A (PA)
Manheim Township B (PA)
Eastern View (VA)
Klahowya (WA)
Pope John Paul II (WA)
Parkersburg A (WV)
Parkersburg B (WV)

Possible Additions to Varsity Draw via Executive Ruling
School Without Walls (DC)
Woodrow Wilson (DC)
Northridge (VA)



For more information about all aspects of the National History Bee and Bowl, see http://www.historybowl.com or just send me an email or message here. Good luck and hope to see you and your team in DC!
Last edited by Great Bustard on Fri Apr 08, 2011 12:17 am, edited 68 times in total.
David Madden
Ridgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03
Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.
Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad
Great Bustard
Auron
Posts: 1463
Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2010 9:23 pm
Location: DC, NJ, and everywhere else
Contact:

Re: 2011 National History Bowl National Finals - Sat. 4/16 in DC

Post by Great Bustard »

Hi Everyone,
Lately, registrations for Nationals have been coming in at a rate of about 5 a day. Keep them coming! I'm working basically nonstop to make this a fantastic tournament for all teams who attend, and I wanted to throw a couple of questions out there both to teams that have already registered and those who are interested in coming:
1. We're going to have power in both the 2nd and 4th quarters. Would people prefer a 20-10, 30-20-10 or a 15-10, 20-15-10 power structure? The 4th quarter is going to feature 2 levels of power no matter what, but I wanted to open the scoring for debate. I'm ambivalent here; I'll go with whatever people seem to prefer.
2. There are going to be lots of interesting new features to our Nationals (much of this will be a surprise!), but as I'm doing this for the first time and aim to please, are there any ideas/bits of advice from anyone regarding things that they'd like to see/wouldn't like to see at our Nationals? Obviously, much of the structure of the tournament is set (e.g. we have to have single elim playoffs due to time and space restrictions), but I'm eager to get advice from anyone who has a constructive word to say.
3. Have there been any aspects of the State Bees and Bowls so far (do NOT reference specific questions) that people have liked/disliked, would like to see changed, etc.? We're off to a great start and are poised for considerable growth next year; preliminary estimates on the number of state-level tournaments for next year are about 50-70, so let me know if you have any thoughts either regarding Nationals or States that would help. You can either post here or feel free to send me an email.
Hope to see as many teams as possible in DC - it's barely a month away!
Cheers,
David
David Madden
Ridgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03
Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.
Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad
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