WKU Hilltopper Invitational VI (11/21/15, Bowling Green, KY)

[mriggle]

The WKU Academic Competition Club will be hosting the sixth annual WKU Hilltopper Invitational on November 21, 2015. In past years, this tournament has attracted a quality field with teams across the commonwealth of Kentucky, as well as from the neighboring states of Tennessee and Ohio. We'd love to see familiar faces again this year, as well as some new ones!

Location: Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY (building TBD)

Questions: We will be mirroring CALI, a set produced by several writers mostly based in California. Details about CALI can be found here.

Fee: $70 per team
$15 moderator discount
$10 new to good quizbowl discount (Kentucky teams only)
$10 out-of-state discount (non-Kentucky teams only)
Minimum fee: $40

We ask that every school in attendance bring a working buzzer system.

Payment: It's much easier for all parties if you pay on the day of the tournament, rather than mailing payment ahead of time. We can work with you to provide invoices, tax forms, etc., depending on administrative policy at your school, and we hope to make things as easy on everyone as possible!

Format: Rounds will consist of 20 tossups and 20 bonuses (non-bounceback). Powers and negs will both be used. Other details will be determined closer to the date of the tournament once we have a better idea of the field size, but it will likely be very similar to that from past years.

For now, I'm going to cap the field at 20 teams, but expect that to potentially rise if necessary as long as we can find enough staffers.

To register, or if you have any questions, send us an email at [email protected].

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Field (14 teams):
Adair County HS (2 teams)
Battle Ground Academy (1 team)
Daviess County HS (1 team)
Dunbar HS (1 team)
Gatton Academy (1 team)
Glasgow HS (1 team)
Graves County HS (1 team)
Henderson County HS (2 teams)
Madisonville-North Hopkins HS (1 team)
Merrol Hyde Magnet School (2 teams)
University School of Nashville (1 team)

[RHolt32]

I just sent you an email; let me know if there are any problems.

[mriggle]

The field is already half full, so be sure to get those registrations in to [email protected]!

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This tournament is exactly two months away, and our field has hit the 20-team cap. Unfortunately, it's going to be very difficult for me to expand the field further unless I get an unexpected influx of moderators. If anyone who's in the vicinity of Bowling Green is willing to help staff, then please let me know!

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I am pleased to announce that this tournament has been certified platinum by PACE, which means that the top 25% of teams (rounded up to the nearest integer) will qualify for the 2016 PACE NSC.

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Preliminary round stats: here

Playoff round stats (including matches carried over from the prelims): here

Combined stats from all rounds: here

[mriggle]

Wow. What a tournament. As I mentioned to the teams in the final awards ceremony, I feel like we could've run this tournament ten times and had ten different outcomes. I feel honored to have been able to witness such high-quality, competitive quizbowl today.

Congratulations to Battle Ground Academy, who took 1st by virtue of their 5-2 record in the championship bracket. University School of Nashville, Merrol Hyde A, and Gatton had a 4-3 playoff record and finished 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, respectively. Henderson County A rounded out the top 5 at 3-4, taking 5th by a mere 4.2 PPG margin.

Also, congratulations to the top 11 individuals:
1. Jack Lewis, Battle Ground, 120.83 PPG
2. Zach Wesley, Gatton, 82.50 PPG
3. Zsombor Gal, Dunbar, 70.83 PPG
4. Isaac Oettle, Henderson County A, 64.17 PPG
5. Hannah Wang, Dunbar, 62.50 PPG
6. Jonathan Caldwell, Merrol Hyde A, 56.67 PPG
7. Anish Patel, Glasgow, 55.83 PPG
8. Aidan Rowan, USN, 50.00 PPG
9. David Wallace, Madisonville-North Hopkins, 49.09 PPG
10 (tie). Michael Ponce, Merrol Hyde A; Hunter Lindsey, Glasgow, 44.17 PPG

Links to the stats are posted in the previous post.

Finally, I would like to publicly acknowledge all of the generous individuals who donated some non-zero amount of their time today to make this event such a success: Alex Malone, Michael Riggle, Kevin Owens, Eva Llamas, Olivia Gearner, Jared Thompson, Ella Shipp, Lauren Bailes, Mallory Schnell, Tommy Graven, Cortney Stewart, Chuck Pearson, Rohan Nag, Nathan Lasley, and Todd Garrison. Each of you came through for me in some way or another, and I cannot thank you enough. I feel privileged to call all of you friends.

Thanks again to all the teams that came today, and I hope we'll see you all in Bowling Green again!

[Scottietodd]

Great tournament Matthew! My guys all had a great time. The tournament was run very well! We look forward to the next one!