PHAT XVII (Dec. 1 at Essex Junction, VT)

[kcommo]

The Vermont-NEA Scholars’ Bowl is pleased to announce it will hold its 17th annual Pre-Holiday Academic Tournament (PHAT) on Friday, December 1st, at Essex High School. This tournament has historically been one of the largest in New England, often attracting more than 50 teams, and we hope your school will join us as we seek to return to those kind of numbers.

The tournament will be played on NAQT question set IS-225A and our tournament format will follow official NAQT rules (http://www.naqt.com/rules.html), including timed rounds. The schedule will include seven rounds of matches and, if the number of teams allows it, all teams will play in every round.

We plan to run a separate novice bracket for less-experienced players. Teams in this bracket will be ineligible for the overall championship but will play all their games against other teams of newcomers, including separate playoffs. The novice bracket is primarily intended for students in Grade 10 or younger, though older students may participate if they are not part of your school's regular varsity lineup and they have not played in a tossup-bonus tournament prior to this school year.

The entry fee is $40 per team for out-of-state schools and schools will be initially limited to a maximum of two teams, varsity and/or novice. Additional teams will be accepted if the number of rooms and readers allows it, with preference given to schools that can bring extra volunteers to help read matches and/or keep score.

To simplify the registration process we are taking sign-ups via Google Form. Visit the following link to submit your information: https://forms.gle/mSGxzAnoCpqxHjMu8

The registration deadline is 4 pm on November 28th.

Interested teams should note that participation will likely require them to leave school early. Check-in will be held from 3:30 to 3:45 pm and matches will begin as close to 4 pm as possible. The competition will end at approximately 8:45 pm.

A dinner break will be included in the schedule and the host team from Essex will be organizing a pizza pre-order, with details to be provided soon. Schools not participating in the pre-order will be responsible for bringing their own food or visiting one of the several nearby restaurants. Teams leaving campus for dinner must return on time or risk forfeiting their first playoff match.

Because we are unable to hire readers for this tournament, the coaches of all participating teams will be expected to moderate matches so that we can keep all teams playing in all rounds. We also ask teams that have buzzer systems to bring them along to help us make sure we have buzzers for every room.

Finally, please note that all payment is due on the date of the tournament and that we do not accept purchase orders. Checks should be made out to the Vermont-NEA Scholars' Bowl.

If you have any questions or you cannot register using the Google form, please contact me at kcommo (at) yahoo (dot) com.