NYC Middle School Quiz Bowl Championship (1/4/2020)

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Greetings to all New York City-area coaches and teams! Hunter College High School’s Quiz Bowl team is excited to announce the first pyramidal middle school quiz bowl tournament ever held in New York City. The NYC Middle School Quiz Bowl Championship will be held on Saturday, January 4, 2020 at Hunter College High School, which is located at 71 E 94th Street, New York, NY, 10128, between Park and Madison Avenues. This tournament will be run on NAQT’s MS-31 set.

Eligibility
This tournament is open to students in grades 8 or below and is limited to schools in New York State. Middle schools from other states are encouraged to attend the Charter Oak Scholastic Open at Middlesex Middle School, which will be held on November 23, 2019 on the same set. If you have any questions about this policy, feel free to contact us at the emails linked below. (EDIT: Because Charter Oak reached capacity and some out-of-state teams have informed me that they would like to attend, and in the interest of expanding our field, we will be opening the field to non-NY teams from December 1, 2019 onwards, assuming there is still space.)

Registration and Fee Structure
To register for this tournament, fill out this form with how many teams, buzzers, and moderators you are bringing: https://forms.gle/CrC4WkDYkY3heGkW7. We will try to email you back with a confirmation and an invoice as soon as possible. Our initial field cap will be 18, with the possibility of expansion given enough moderators and buzzers. The field will initially be limited to three teams per school, with further teams on a waitlist.

Registration fees are:
$70 for the first team from an experienced school
$55 for the first team from a school new to quizbowl*
-$10 for each additional team
-$5 for each working buzzer system
-$10 for each experienced moderator
Minimum fee for schools bringing n teams: $40 x n
*“New to quizbowl” refers to any school which has not played any NAQT quiz bowl tournaments.
Further discounts (such as for travel) can be negotiated on a case-by-case basis with the tournament director.

We prefer payment through a check made out to HCHS Quiz Bowl on the day of the tournament. If this is absolutely impossible for any reason, we will also accept cash.

Additionally, if you are a high school or college student who is able to moderate or bring a buzzer set, email us to let us know!

Tournament Format
This tournament will follow standard NAQT rules, with the following changes:
Rounds will be 20/20 (20 tossups and 20 three-part bonuses) and untimed.
ACF-style timing rules will be in effect, namely: 5 seconds after the end of a tossup before it goes dead, 5 seconds after buzzing in to give an answer, and 5 seconds on every part of a bonus.

There will be 15-point powers, 10-point gets, and negs worth -5 points. There will be no bouncebacks on bonuses. We will be including computational math questions.

The tournament itself will consist of bracketed round-robin prelims and rebracketed round-robin playoffs, the details of which will be decided and announced after the field is determined. All teams should expect to play 7 to 10 rounds.

Transportation and Parking
Our school is located at 71 East 94th Street, New York, NY, 10128, between Park and Madison Avenues. It is very close to the 96th Street stop on the 6 train line, and is also accessible via the new 96th Street stop on the Q line, located on 2nd Avenue. We can also be reached by the m1-4 buses along Madison and the crosstown m96 bus along 96th. Look for the large, red castle. There is a bus drop-off area at our school on Park, and cars can park at Majestic Car Park on 94th between Park and Lexington.

Please note that Hunter is located in the center of the incredibly dense urban jungle that is Manhattan. In the past, a few teams have encountered parking troubles during tournaments with especially large fields. We hope that such inconveniences do not detract from teams' overall experiences, so here is a list of other nearby car parks in case the curb around our school or Majestic Car Park is crowded:

Gallery Garage Corporation (>1 block away, 94th and Madison)
Icon Parking Systems (~2 blocks away, 94th and 3rd)
Icon Parking Systems (~3 blocks away, 95th between 2nd and 3rd)
Garage Management Company (~3 blocks away, 94th between 2nd and 3rd)

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me (Cerulean Ozarow, the Tournament Director) at ceruleanozarow AT hunterschools.org, or email Hunter Quiz Bowl at hchsqubo AT gmail.com. Our coach, Ms. Caitlin Samuel, can be reached at cs35 AT hccs.hunter.cuny.edu.

We look forward to having you!

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Registered Teams (Teams/Buzzers/Moderators):

NEST+M (3/0/0)
Q300 the 30th Avenue School (3/0/1)
"Foxcroft" (NJ) (1/0*/0)
PS 334 Anderson (3/0*/1)
Benjamin Franklin (NJ) (2/1/1)
Total: 12/1*/2
*Subject to Change

[Vembanad]

14 teams from 6 schools, 5 of whom were new to pyramidal Quiz Bowl, came to Hunter yesterday for New York City's first middle school Quiz Bowl tournament. Foxcroft from Livingston, New Jersey, went undefeated to win the tournament, beating Ben Franklin A 285-150 in the de facto final game. Anderson B beat Anderson A 175-160 to claim third place and the final MSNCT qualification, as well as the title of top New York City team. Robert Wang of Foxcroft was the top scorer, with 97.50 PPG in prelims. Preliminary stats are up on the database, and playoff and final stats will be posted within the next few days.

Getting a circuit started, however small it may be so far, is no small task, and so I must thank those who have made this tournament happen. I'd like to thank Hunter's faculty advisor, Ms. Caitlin Samuel; my assistant, Jacob Hardin-Bernhardt; and Kimberly Bernhardt and many others who helped invaluably with outreach, as well as NAQT and all my other teammates who helped me along the way. I'd also like to thank the parents and faculty members who were willing to try out a new extracurricular; the kids seemed to have a lot of fun and we hope that they'll stick with Quiz Bowl. Good luck to any 6th graders who may be taking the Hunter test next week, and we hope to see everyone at other tournaments around the region and at our tournament next year!