Teams finishing in the top 25% at this tournament will qualify for the National Scholastic Championship sponsored by the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence, which will be held in Chicago on June 4th and 5th, 2016.
Questions: The Columbia Winter Tournament will use a set of questions written by members of the Georgia Tech quiz bowl team. More information about the set is available here. Previous iterations of the set, as well as other high school question sets, are available at this site for your teams to practice on.
Tournament format: Morning check-in for this tournament will run from 7:45 to 8:20 AM. The introductory meeting will then follow, and the first round will start as soon as possible afterwards. All teams will be guaranteed 9 or 10 matches, depending on the final number of teams attending. Most teams should be done at around 4:00 to 4:30 PM. The maximum number of teams we can accommodate is 36, and if we hit that number, all teams will play five preliminary matches and five playoff or consolation matches.
Teams: Each team's roster may contain no more than six players, four of which will be playing at any given time during a game. You are encouraged to bring novice and JV teams as well, as the questions will be very accessible and they will be, for the most part, playing against opponents of similar strength during the day. In addition, we encourage schools to register additional teams instead of putting alternates on existing teams.
Registration:
- School name.
- The contact number of a coach or team member who will be present at the tournament.
- Number of teams you are registering for this tournament.
- Any discounts you will be claiming, such for providing buzzers and staff, or the New to Columbia discount (more information below).
Important note: Schools that have registered one or more teams for the Columbia Cup series of tournaments do not need to re-register those teams for this tournament. However, if you are bringing additional teams, they will need to be registered via the normal methods (e.g. if you have 2 teams signed up for the Columbia Cup series but would like to bring 3 teams to this tournament, email [email protected] to register one additional team for this tournament).
If you have previously registered one or more teams for the entire Columbia Cup series of tournaments, but were waitlisted and did not end up competing at our October 17 tournament, please let us know if you would like to receive a discount for registering teams for the two remaining Columbia Cup tournaments.
Tournament fees and discounts:
If your school has competed at a Columbia-hosted quiz bowl tournament in the past 3 years, each team you register for this tournament will cost $70.
For New York and New Jersey schools that have not competed at Columbia tournaments before the 2015-2016 school year, each team registered for this tournament only will cost $45.
All schools are eligible for a $5 discount for each buzzer system, and a $10 discount for each reader or scorekeeper they bring (this can be a coach or alternate).
All registration fees must be paid either in advance or during morning check-in, unless you email me regarding extenuating circumstances. If you are paying by check, please make it payable to "Columbia University," with "Quiz Bowl" on the memo line. We will also accept cash on the day of the tournament. If you are mailing a check in advance, we recommend that it be no later than two weeks before the tournament, and the check should be sent to:
Columbia University Quiz Bowl
5559 Lerner Hall
2920 Broadway
New York, NY 10027
We wish you the best of luck this upcoming season, and hope to see you at our Morningside Heights campus on February 14! If you would like to register or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact [email protected].