Looking to increase our competitiveness

[Invisible Rail]

Hi All!

My QB team has been competing with some success from District to state levels in the past few years. We recently beat Thomas Jefferson to the VHSL North Regional Championship, and we're very optimistic about our chances at States. But the younger starters of our team (our two juniors and myself, a sophomore) are looking to go beyond what we regard as the "bare minimum" of VHSL contests, and begin participating in more challenging, higher-level competitions. I was hoping someone could give me some advice regarding how to get started in this regard - what tournaments we can participate in, what we can do to get ourselves to the next level so that we can really compete with the best teams in the nation (specifically Western Albemarle: our dear, dear neighbors). We feel our biggest weakness is going to be an unfamiliarity with the format of the questions - VHSL doesn't have bonus questions, so we've never practiced with them before. If there's a good way to quickly improve on bonus conversion, that would be great.

If there's any advice anyone can give me, that would be fantastic! Thanks so much!

[Beevor Feevor]

Hey Luke,

Speaking of Western Albemarle :) Welcome to the forums, and hello, though I guess you didn't think I'd be the person to welcome you here. The way to get started with tournaments is basically just to register for more of them; there are plenty of tournaments in the region that you can find by going here.

viewtopic.php?f=48&t=14476

The more tournaments, the more bonus questions you all are going to experience, which will lead to better bonus conversion overall! There is no magic solution, though there are many guides out here on the forums that you can peruse for more information. Here's hoping you guys'll show up to some non-VHSL stuff!

[High Dependency Unit]

I think this thread would be a good reference: http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewto ... =3&t=13710. It was started by Eric Xu, and I hope you know who he is. For improving bonus conversion, I would say read only the bonuses in a packet, but also to make sure that there aren't any gaping holes you need to fill in, if there are, have one of your players cover them.

[Invisible Rail]

Thanks Michael and Eric!

I think we're going to try to make the NAQT VA State Championship in March, though our focus for now remains on VHSL states. Over the summer, we'll study a lot and learn about the other various formats and tournaments we can participate in, and do a lot in the Fall and Spring of next year. I'm excited to get started!