Question security issue at the 2012 ICT

[Important Bird Area]

During the 2012 Intercollegiate Championship Tournament it was brought to NAQT's attention that one of its editors (who had privileges on NAQT's online packet-production system) had reviewed a significant fraction of the Division I ICT packet set while directing the preparation of other members of his school's club who would be competing at the tournament. This took place over a period of approximately two weeks, with the last online viewing occurring at 6:00 a.m. on the day of the tournament.

After interviewing the people involved, NAQT was unable to determine that intentional cheating had occurred or that any game results were definitively affected, though we are confident that the players involved did not seek inappropriate help from the editor.

Nevertheless, an editor obtaining advance knowledge of the questions while helping friends or teammates prepare for a tournament undermines the integrity of the competition, even if no answers were communicated in advance. As a result, NAQT has terminated that editor's access to its systems and declared him persona non grata at future tournaments (at all levels, in all capacities).

We regret that our trust was misplaced and that the affected tournament was our most prestigious collegiate event of the year.

Because we are taking these steps as security measures (rather than punitive measures), we are opting not to name the editor and school involved.

[setht]

I have to say that this whole episode was far and away the worst part of my ICT experience, and I hope this sort of thing never happens again.

-Seth

[Notably Not Pierre]

During the ICT, Chicago players noticed that some material referenced by a Chicago club member during the car ride to the tournament was coming up in questions. Chicago promptly notified NAQT, described the incidents and during the tournament fully cooperated with NAQT in answering their questions. After internal investigation, we feel confident that no one playing the tournament conspired with the cheating club member, and it appears that the number of questions affected was on the order of 12. As best we can tell, the relevant questions did not decide the outcome of any match. Some of the affected questions did not appear in rounds played by the Chicago team and the others appeared in rounds that were decided by large margins.

Nevertheless, these are serious allegations. The person responsible was notified this morning that he is indefinitely banned from participating in Chicago quizbowl. The Chicago quizbowl team regrets this incident and the embarrassment it caused our club and NAQT.

Sincerely,
Matthew Menard
Jimmy Ready
Tracy Lee
Connie Prater

[Jeremy Gibbs Paradox]

Wow. I commend the integrity of the University of Chicago team for realizing the inapporpriateness of this and for reporting it to the proper authorities. It speaks highly of one's character to do what is right when no one else is looking.

Further, I would like to commend NAQT for making this public. A decade ago, I made several critical comments of them for events that were somewhat sidestepped in the interest of saving face. This is no longer the case and I am pleased to see that that is so.

[Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)]

Hint: It's Shantanu. Shame away, hsquizbowl.org.

[Gonzagapuma1]

Can people please stop doing sketchy shit at quizbowl nationals? Thanks in advance if this stops!

[jonpin]

Can people please stop doing sketchy shit at quizbowl nationals tournaments in general? Thanks in advance if this stops!

Fixed that for you.