2024 NASAT: June 15-16 - Online

[AKKOLADE]

This post needs to be updated.

International Quiz Bowl Tournaments, LLC (IQBT) is pleased to announce the 2024 National All-Star Academic Tournament (NASAT). This will be the fourteenth NASAT.

NASAT will be hosted on Saturday, June 15 and Sunday, June 16. It will be held at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. We're estimating that our hours for the tournament will be from 10:00 AM Eastern on Saturday to 7 PM. On Sunday, it will run from 9 AM to about 6:00 PM. These teams are subject change.

This tournament will once again be open to all-star teams representing all states, the District of Columbia, all US territories, and all Canadian provinces and equivalents (as well as state or province-equivalent divisions of any other countries). Each state or equivalent may enter multiple teams, with up to six players on its roster, up to four of whom may be playing at any one time. Any player who was enrolled in the 12th grade or below in a school physically located in that state during the 2023-2024 academic year is eligible to play on his or her state's team. Generally speaking, home school students are also eligible; any questions about eligibility will be answered by IQBT as needed.

This tournament is intended for states seeking an all-star event. We encourage single-school teams interested in competing to reach out to other teams in their state to partner together.

As always, we will use a normal format comparable to regular-season events: games will consist of twenty tossups, with a thirty-point bonus being played after each correct tossup answer. Teams will play head-to-head, two at a time. "Performance-based," multimedia, calculation, and pop culture questions will not be used. Teams will play a number of games in line with other national championship events over the two days of the tournament; over the last four NASATs, teams played at least 14 games and as many as 17. Because this event will be played by highly skilled all-star teams, the question difficulty will be higher than that used at existing national championships such as the NSC and HSNCT. The style and subject distribution of the questions will be quite similar to existing “modified ACF” sets.

Noah Sheidlower will be the NASAT set’s head editor.

The entry fee is $840 plus Kentucky's 6% sales tax. Payments that come directly from a tax-exempt organization have the sales tax waived.

Each state is welcome and encouraged to register additional (B and on) teams for NASAT.

If 16 teams do not register and pay for this event by May 31, 2024, it will be canceled and rescheduled for 2025.

All teams must submit an application to IQBT for entry into the tournament. In the vast majority of these cases, applications will be accepted outright. However, if more than one contingent from a state seeks to enter this tournament, IQBT will evaluate applications from each potential team and determine who may represent their state at the National All-Star Academic Tournament. The only criterion that will be used in this decision is our assessment, based on a review of the players' achievements in the 2023-24 competition year, of which team is likely to perform the best at the tournament.

IQBT will once again use a rolling application procedure: teams who submit applications to IQBT will normally be notified of IQBT's decision no later than one week later. Team applications and recruitment will be handled by me, Fred Morlan; you can email me at [email protected].

The tournament will be directed by Fred Morlan.

I’m very excited for this tournament and am looking forward to another wonderful competition!

More details will be announced soon.

[AKKOLADE]

Field

Registered:

Illinois
Indiana

Interested:

Alabama
Kentucky
Virginia

[The Favourite]

Has a registration fee been determined? We are trying to put together a team, but without costs associated with the event, it's hard to tell students how much they need to raise.

[AKKOLADE]

Has a registration fee been determined? We are trying to put together a team, but without costs associated with the event, it's hard to tell students how much they need to raise.

Note: an update on April 18 made some of this information out of date

My apologies - I thought I had edited that in but I had not.

The entry fee is $930 per team plus 6% sales tax. Payments that come directly from a tax-exempt organization have the sales tax waived.

A limited number of buzzer discounts are available at $25 per system. If you're interested in claiming a buzzer discount, please let me know ASAP - these are available on a first come, first serve basis.

IQBT pays staffers $75 per day. You can get staffer discount(s) if your approved staffer(s) agreed to have their pay go towards the team's entry fees.

[L.H.O.O.Q.]

The entry fee is $930 per team plus 6% sales tax.

I was committed to coach a team for Indiana at NASAT, but this has pushed me firmly back onto the fence.

The entry fee is $560 per team, plus a 6% state sales tax.

I guess I understand charging less for an online event vs. an in-person one, since online quiz bowl is generally unpleasant, but a 66% price increase from last year to this one is astronomical to me, especially since we're also paying hundreds of dollars more to buy plane tickets and hotel rooms.

Beyond that, I understand you've been slowed down by your back issues, but only announcing the entry fee 2 months before the tournament date is borderline unacceptable. Two months (really one and a half) is alarmingly short notice to raise something like $2,000 to send a team to Richmond and play questions that, based on historical precedent, may be completely raw and unedited since set production didn't start until March.

I guess I'd like to ask - why is this tournament so expensive? NAQT's high tournament fees are justified because they reserve dozens of hotel rooms, as well as covering the cost of transportation and food, for their staffers. They also announce these fees roughly 6 months in advance, giving teams almost a full academic semester to figure out funding. I guess you may be banking on having state quiz bowl organizations writing the checks, but I'm not at all sure that the IASP will agree to write me a $1,000 check on such short notice.

Again, I'm not backing out - I'm on the fence. I still want to coach a team for NASAT, and I'm sure my players want to play. I just take issue with this price hike, and I'd like to know your reasoning for it.

[zbennyy]

Yeah, what?

I don't think it's unfair to say that a $1000 registration fee is kind of absurd, especially when announced less than two months in advance. I share Sarah's curiosity about why this is the price, especially since even the last in-person NASAT had a registration cost of $650. Granted, I wouldn't be the one coaching it anyway, but to my knowledge, Oklahoma is now in the same boat Sarah is describing for Indiana: given these new costs, we're now significantly less likely to send a team.

I'd also like to interrogate something:

I guess you may be banking on having state quiz bowl organizations writing the checks

Of the teams that regularly compete at NASAT, how may of them are funded by state organizations like IASP? In my experience, for something like NASAT, which has no direct affiliation with any actual school, state funding is incredibly hard to get. In Oklahoma's case, every NASAT we've ever been to has been on the dime of the people going - players and coaches are entirely responsible for their own travel, hotel, and food costs, plus their share of the registration fees. To be honest, it would surprise me to learn that this was not the norm for most other states, and I think it's a dangerous assumption to bank on state organizations like that.

[AKKOLADE]

I've done some calculations and have updated the original post with this information:

The entry fee is $840 plus Kentucky's 6% sales tax. Payments that come directly from a tax-exempt organization have the sales tax waived.

Each state is welcome and encouraged to register additional (B and on) teams for NASAT.

If 16 teams do not register and pay for this event by May 31, 2024, it will be canceled and rescheduled for 2025.

Note that the entry fee is what NAQT is charging and $5 less than NSC. Also note that the number of required teams has increased by two. If we get 15, that doesn't mean the tournament will definitely be canceled.

To answer some questions:

This was announced later because I've been ill or injured three separate times this semester, which between that, the Undergraduate Championship, and Collegiate Novice, has put me well behind schedule. I also mistakenly thought I had posted the price two weeks ago, because my brain does that to me sometimes.

HSNCT draws in hundreds of teams each year. NSC draws 72-96 a year. NASAT has never surpassed 32. I hope it will land in the 20s this year. This has a direct impact on the entry fee.

[The Favourite]

We will likely not be able to send a team to this given the costs associated with traveling to/staying in Richmond in addition to a $900 registration fee.

I would be interested in hosting a mirror of NASAT this summer in Oklahoma, however.

[AKKOLADE]

We'll be moving this online. I'll post an updated OP over the next couple days - my Collegiate Novice mirror is tomorrow.

[Eagles22]

We'll be moving this online. I'll post an updated OP over the next couple days - my Collegiate Novice mirror is tomorrow.

This is excellent news, with other events taking place at the same time, and added travel expenses, it was looking like a much more difficult situation for teams to attend this year.

[SomeArkansan]

We'll be moving this online. I'll post an updated OP over the next couple days - my Collegiate Novice mirror is tomorrow.

This is excellent news, with other events taking place at the same time, and added travel expenses, it was looking like a much more difficult situation for teams to attend this year.

is UA playing in this?

[Eagles22]

We'll be moving this online. I'll post an updated OP over the next couple days - my Collegiate Novice mirror is tomorrow.

This is excellent news, with other events taking place at the same time, and added travel expenses, it was looking like a much more difficult situation for teams to attend this year.

is UA playing in this?

No this tournament is for high schoolers, however I was responsible for coordinating NASAT efforts in 2023 and if Arkansas forms a team this year I plan on being heavily involved with coaching and organizing