2011 North Kansas City Varsity Invitational Tournament

[Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)]

Hello coaches,

My name is Charles Dees, and I am pleased to be able to announce that I will be directing North Kansas City High School’s annual varsity invitational quizbowl tournament on Saturday, February 26th. I am an alumnus of North Kansas City, and I, along with the Missouri Quizbowl Alliance, have worked out an agreement to run the tournament with the NKC team, because our longtime coach and tournament director Larry Allen has retired. It looked for a while like there would be no NKC tournament this year, so I am especially excited to be able to keep our longstanding tradition running.

This event will be similar to the last 2 years of NKC tournaments. We will be using pyramidal questions, which we are buying from the company High School Academic Pyramid Questions. We will be using a slightly modified version of the official format used at NAQT’s National Championship, so games will be 20 tossups long, and each tossup will have a non-rebounding 30-point bonus attached. Every tossup will be worth 10 points, unless players buzz in early, before a specific mark in the question, in which case they will earn 15 points for a “power.” We will also be using -5 point penalties for incorrect interrupts on tossups. This format is rarely used in Kansas City despite being the most common format nationwide, and a popular one in other parts of the state, so I am hopeful this will add some variety to the local circuit. Also, this year more of the questions in the MSHSAA state series will be similarly pyramidal than before, so this will help your team be able to prepare for that.

We will be running a slightly smaller event this year, because we are planning this on somewhat short notice, so we will institute an 18 team cap on the field. Another change from last year will be that we are going to increase the number of games offered to teams, because we are changing the playoffs from a single elimination bracket to a system where teams advance to different playoff pools depending on how well they do in the preliminary rounds. If we reach our cap, we will be able to guarantee 10 rounds to all teams, which is more than twice the number of games guaranteed to teams at most local events. If this sounds like it will take too long, bear in mind that the matches are 20 tossups long, so we are planning on beginning a round every half hour. I have directed tournaments using this same format and got 10 rounds in before 4 PM, so it should not take any longer than an average tournament.

Our entry fees are as follows:

$65 for the first team a school enters into the field.
$55 for every additional team a school enters into the field.
-$5 for every buzzer a team brings (maximum of 3)
-$5 for every 100 miles a team travels.

We will also be instituting a 6-player cap on teams. Be aware that, even though we call this a “varsity” tournament, schools are encouraged to sign up multiple teams, including those with JV-level players on them, if you have interested players who want to get more experience.

The top teams at this event will qualify for the PACE National Scholastics Championship on June 4th and 5th at Northwestern University near Chicago.

If your team is interested in attending this event, please email me at [email protected] to register. I am very excited to be able to keep this event, long one of the fixtures of the local circuit, on the calendar this season, and I hope teams are interested in the chance to play all of these rounds.

Have a nice day,
-Charles Dees, member of the Missouri Quizbowl Alliance

[Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)]

Field (8 teams):
Liberty
Liberty North
Notre Dame de Sion
Park Hill (2)
Platte County
Rock Bridge (2)

[Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)]

Here are statistics - http://results.scobo.net/SQBS.aspx?org= ... =standings

We had a lot of teams drop because of weather, and then I was forced into not going so Jeff Hill really stepped up to the plate, came up with a new schedule to cover for me, and they ran the tournament as a single round robin. The final game is not included in these statistics, but Park Hill South defeated Truman 205-140 to take the title.

[AKKOLADE]

Was this tournament 16?

[Flutist Wren]

Yeah, it was.