Next I personally would like to apologize for having to cancel Syracuse University Quizbowl Invitational Tournament (SUQIT) last April, we just did not receive enough interest to run the tournament. We hope to be able to successfully run this event in spring 2025.
Set Used
We will be using NAQT Introductory Invitational Series Packet 234A, a novice-difficulty set for high school teams. We suggest reviewing NAQT’s list of tournaments organized by packet to check for possible conflicts with this tournament.
Eligibility
This tournament is for students from any high school or foreign equivalent. We will NOT be allowing chimera or open teams at this tournament. Additionally, this is a novice tournament, so any player meeting the following criteria must receive permission of the tournament director to play:
- Played in any sort of national championship quizbowl tournament at any level including elementary, middle, and high school, as well as any dual enrollees who played in a collegiate national championship tournament on any subject area including multi-subject quizbowl and single subject quizbowl including but not limited to history bowl and science bowl.
- The tournament director will likely make exceptions for farm quizbowl and business quizbowl due to the lack of overlap with the set and the major format differences but there will be no automatic or categorical exceptions, everyone who would require an exception must request one from the tournament director.
We are using NAQT’s registration system to manage registrations for this tournament. You will need to log in to the NAQT site in order to register; if you do not already have an account, you can quickly create one on that site. On initial registration, please provide your school name, number of teams intended (this can be changed later), your name/contact information, the number of buzzer systems and staffers you are bringing (if any), and any other information we should know. You can complete registration without listing a roster; that step can come later. Due to Syracuse University regulations each team must be accompanied by a competent adult chaperone, this may be a teacher, a staff member, or a parent but they must be responsible for the care and well-being of the team. Registration will close on Tuesday, October 22nd.
Fee Structure
The base price is $85 for the first team and $75 for each additional team. We are also offering the following discounts (applied to a school’s overall registration cost):
-$10 per staffer provided by the school (all staffers assigned to be a reader will be required to create a free account at http://www.naqt.com in order to access the online question delivery system)
-$5 per functioning lock-out buzzer system provided by schools
-$10 per 100-miles traveled to get to Syracuse University (as determined by Google Maps)
-$15 for any new school/program (a school that has never played at a past tournament hosted at Bishop Ludden, Geneva, or Ithaca High Schools (CNYQuA-affiliated schools))
The minimum fee per team is $50.
The Quiz Bowl Association, Syracuse University (QBA, SU) will be handling all financial aspects of this tournament. The QBA, SU has made it a mission of theirs to try to run their club in a more financially prudent manner this year and so asks that each team either bring a check with them to the tournament or bring proof that it has already been mailed unless prior consent has been granted for the team to pay after October 26th.
Checks should be written to "Syracuse University" with "Quiz Bowl Association" in the memo and can be turned in on October 26th or mailed ahead of time to:
Syracuse University
200 Wavely Ave Suite 230
Syracuse, NY 13244
On-site Contact Information
I, Daniel Kolodny, will be co-directing the tournament. I can be reached at [email protected]. I will be joined as co-director by CNYQuA founder Ben Kirk who can be reached at [email protected]. Please include the both of us on all questions and inquiries related to the tournament. Please direct any queries related to fees or how to pay them, including a desire to pay after October 26th, to QBA, SU President Aksel Malatak, [email protected], and QBA, SU Treasurer Gregory Stone, [email protected]. Please also include Ben and I on this communication so we stay informed about this aspect of the tournament but QBA, SU will be handling the financial aspect of this tournament. A phone number for myself will be provided closer to the tournament.
Lunch
Lunch will not be provided but there are multitude of restaurants within walking distance from the site of the tournament. A Syracuse University staffer would be more than happy to direct you towards a restaurant of your choice. We are hoping to allow for a little over an hour for lunch in order to allow teams to walk up and down the hill.
Misconduct Information
All players, spectators, and coaches must adhere to the PACE Code of Conduct. Players, spectators, and coaches should report misconduct either directly to staff or via the misconduct form found at the bottom of the PACE Code of Conduct. Every instance of misconduct will be dealt with seriously by tournament staff. Similarly, the staff will investigate every allegation of cheating and reserves the right to report confirmed cheaters to local and national Quizbowl organizations.
Tournament Format
Games will consist of 20 tossup/bonus pairs, read in untimed matches. During play, we use NAQT’s Standard Rules with the exception that we will use five-second timing: five seconds to buzz in after tossup completion, five seconds to start answer to tossup after buzz, five seconds to start answer to bonus after bonus completion. The exact bracketing format used will depend on the final number of registered teams, but we expect to run a quasi-seeded round robin format in the morning, followed by a rebracketing and another round robin after lunch, with a single final match to determine tournament champion if needed.
Due to this being a novice tournament with an entrance restriction top finishers will NOT qualify for the 2025 NAQT High School and/or Small School National Championships, as well as the 2025 PACE National Scholastic Championship. We recommend you check out other CNYQuA tournaments if you would like to qualify for one of these tournaments.
We welcome all teams to the first-ever novice event to be formally sponsored by the Central NY Quizbowl Alliance! Check out our website for more quizbowl resources and information about upcoming tournaments!
The language of this post has been adapted from Ben Kirk's post announcing the Central New York Fall Kickoff.