Announcing The National History Bee & Bowl European Division

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Great Bustard
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Announcing The National History Bee & Bowl European Division

Post by Great Bustard »

The National History Bee & Bowl is delighted to announce the creation of its new European Division! Building upon our successful first year in the USA last year, we saw no reason why European schools couldn't begin to benefit from participating in The National History Bee and Bowl in 2011-2012. Nolwenn Léon, of Riedisheim, France, has been appointed International Director and will be responsible for recruiting teams and tournament organization. In her first three weeks of traveling throughout Europe as a roving ambassador for NHBB, Mlle Léon has enjoyed a warm welcome at schools throughout France, Belgium, and Italy. She and I will be visiting schools in Britain, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Austria, Portugal, and (if there's time) Luxembourg over the course of the next four months. The American School of Paris and St. Stephen's School in Rome have already offered to host, and we anticipate no unforeseen difficulties in finding our remaining host schools by the end of the calendar year.
The National History Bee & Bowl's European Division will consist this year of 6 tournaments in France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, and Britain. Expansion to additional countries is anticipated for 2012-2013. Teams and students who finish in the top half of the draw at their 6 qualifying tournaments will be invited to the European Championships on the weekend of 18-20 May on the French Riviera. They will additionally be eligible to compete at NHBB Nationals, should they choose to cross the Atlantic.
Furthermore, we are pleased to announce that the winner of this year's Varsity Division of The National History Bee High School Competition in the USA will receive a stipend of $2000 to be used for travel purposes to take part in our European Championships. This will consist of an exhibition match against the winning team of the Bowl and a match against the winner of the European Division of the Bee to determine the first ever National History Bee World Champion.
In addition to our European Division, we will also be inaugurating our Asian Division this year, with three tournaments in Shanghai, Tokyo, and Bangkok (the latter in conjunction with the finals of the World Scholar's Cup). For 2012-2013, this will expand to a full-fledged Asian Division, along the lines of our European Division with a separate Asian Championships. Full details on the Asian Division will be posted by the end of November once our website is up.
For more information on all aspects of NHBB's European Division, please see our website at http://www.nhbbeurope.com The site needs some fine tuning (notably, the registration function got accidentally deleted yesterday, but will be up again by Monday) but this will largely wait until our Middle School Division's website is finalized. The basics are all there though.
Finally, please note that as Nolwenn, Greg Bossick, and I travel throughout Europe, Asia, and the USA to promote The National History Bee and Bowl, we are always eager to help promote and spread the gospel of quiz bowl as well. By sharing knowledge of the quiz bowl community in the USA, along with standard best practices, such as the use of well-written pyramidal tossups, we hope to lay a foundation for the future spread of the game we love to all who might benefit from it. We're always looking for new contacts and if you yourself or anyone you know abroad or in the USA might be able to help us in our mission, please let us know!
Please contact me with any questions and to all who would aspire to join us for "Riviera Bee," better go study your history! The Torrey Pines Database is back up - what are you waiting for...?
David Madden
Ridgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03
Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.
Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad
Great Bustard
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Re: Announcing The National History Bee & Bowl European Division

Post by Great Bustard »

NHBB Paris (aka Napoleon Bowl) happened yesterday with 6 teams from 3 schools, the American School of Paris, the International School of Paris, and the Lycee Robert du Lazarches of Amiens. ASP A dominated the prelim competition, going 5-0 with 1490 points, but Lycee Robert du Lazarches A came back to win the Varsity division with a 180-150 win that came down to the last question. In the JV, the International School of Paris won over American School of Paris 220-150 in the final - both teams had gone 2-3 in the prelims. Meanwhile, Sam from American School of Paris became the first eighth grader ever to win an NHBB Varsity Bee, going 5-2 in the final. Pearson from International School of Paris won the JV Bee. Having all schools win at least 1 of the 4 titles was great to see.
So what did we learn here?
1. 3 schools in Europe now have played a buzzer-based competition. Eventually, we'll help put 4 zeroes behind that number.
2. Anyone running a tournament overseas needs to look into buying converters (not just adapters) for power outlets. We nearly had to play all slap bowl, but were able to get 2 rooms to work. The third room, for slap bowl, made for an interesting change of pace rather than frustration.
3. A foreign school (as in, not an American school or International school) can compete and win. This is a huge precedent and one we hope will encourage other teams to take part.
4. Organizing overseas takes WORK. Big thanks to Nolwenn for handling the recruiting here - 6 teams and 3 schools may not seem like much, but she visited literally 15 other schools in France, and now we can take a great tournament experience (along with photos, soon to be posted), and use that to recruit these schools for next year.
5. European schools are as enthused about qualifying for our European Championships as US schools are for Nationals. And we may get 1 or 2 foreign schools in for our US Nationals this year.
6. Watching the sun rise over the Eiffel Tower from the train en route to the tournament was the pièce de résistance. Next stop: The Julius Caesar Memorial History Bee and Bowl of Italy in Rome on Feb. 4.
David Madden
Ridgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03
Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.
Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad
Great Bustard
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Re: Announcing The National History Bee & Bowl European Division

Post by Great Bustard »

Congratulations to Maria Witteman of the American School of Madrid who won the inaugural European Championships of the National History Bee yesterday in Grasse, France. Daniel Nazarov of the British School of Geneva was the JV History Bee Champion. In the Bowl, Maria singlehandedly went 5-0 thus winning the Varsity division, while the Swiss International School of Basel took the Junior Varsity. Denis Carroll of the International School of Paris won the Open Division of the Sports History Bee, Alex Frey of St. Joseph won the Open Division of the Entertainment Bee, while Toby and Becky (last names pending) both of SIS Basel were the student winners of the Sports and Entertainment Bees respectively.
Alex defeated Maria 5-3 in the World Championship Bee Match, so congratulations to him for that, and thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for funding his trip. Next year's European Championships will likely be in Paris; we hope to be able to send the US Champion again, but this will depend on timing and funding. In any case, we're looking forward to adding tournaments in Britain and Germany for next year's European division. The Asian division will likely expand to Beijing, and possibly South Korea and Dubai, but we're going to hold off a year for expanding it beyond that, including a separate Asian Championships.
David Madden
Ridgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03
Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.
Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad
Edward Powers
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Re: Announcing The National History Bee & Bowl European Division

Post by Edward Powers »

I realize that you just stated that Alex Frey of SJHS in NJ won the World Championship by defeating Maria Witte of Spain, 5-3. Was this 5 matches to 3 matches, or was this comparable to a State Championship match here in the US, where you start with the 10 best players from 5 Preliminary Rounds, winnow it to 5 Semifinalists who answer 3 questions correctly first, then winnow it to 2 finalists who answer four questions correctly first, in order to create a Championship match where the first person to 5 wins? In short, what was the format leading to the one-on one competition between Alex & Maria?

And, before signing off, I would be remiss if I did not send a brief shout-out to my Captain, Alex: Congratulations! You have certainly worked hard to earn this, and everyone back home is extremely proud of you. Enjoy your next couple of days near the French Mediterranean! See you on Thursday.
Ed Powers
Coach
SJHS Academic Team
Metuchen, NJ
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Re: Announcing The National History Bee & Bowl European Division

Post by Great Bustard »

Maria won the European Bee - there were 11 qualifiers in the field from 5 schools. She then played Alex in a match, first to 5. She was actually up 3-1 at one point (Alex had negged a couple of times), but then Alex took the final four questions in quick succession. She's an excellent player, though, for someone who has otherwise never played quizbowl, and she is hoping to come to US Nationals next year, as she is just a junior. All in all, this tournament went great, and everyone is eager to help bring in more schools for both the various European qualifying tournaments and the Euro Championships next year.
David Madden
Ridgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03
Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.
Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad
QuizCanuck
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Re: Announcing The National History Bee & Bowl European Division

Post by QuizCanuck »

Hello,

I am wondering where I could get some information about tournaments in Europe. I am a teacher at the International School of Stuttgart and myself and a few students are keen to start a team and hopefully compete against other schools in the area. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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Matt Hubert
International School of Stuttgart
Great Bustard
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Re: Announcing The National History Bee & Bowl European Division

Post by Great Bustard »

QuizCanuck wrote:Hello,
I am wondering where I could get some information about tournaments in Europe. I am a teacher at the International School of Stuttgart and myself and a few students are keen to start a team and hopefully compete against other schools in the area. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
http://www.nhbbeurope.com has all the most up to date information on tournaments in Europe. Since many international schools only started last week, we are waiting until this Tuesday until we start contacting our hosts to line up dates. We expect all tournaments in Europe (and Asia - see http://www.nhbbasia.com) will be posted by the end of September for this coming school year.
David Madden
Ridgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03
Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.
Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad
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