December 5th: Quizbowl Night in Ontario

For the first time this season, we saw two high-school tournaments placed on the same weekend. After the awards were handed out and buzzers packed up, I created the following general summary of the events.

University of Toronto Novice Tournament

There was a sense of novelty and uniqueness felt by this tournament, given that it was the first one Toronto hosted this season, and the fact that three schools were playing their first ever quizbowl tournament. However, if you thought that this resulted in a lack of competition, you would be strongly mistaken! White Oaks and Bayview A both won the majority of their games, earning a place in the upper bracket. After facing off against each other, it was determined that East Scarborough A would play in an advantage final against White Oaks. Despite losing the first game, East Scarborough A won the second 410-295 to win the tournament. Both experienced players (such as Jacky Li and George Lu), and talented newer players (such as Kelly Yu and Aleem Damji) alike put in impressive performances.

Stegosaurus Bowl at Lisgar

This tournament also followed a unique new format from most quizbowl tournaments, as it utilized a ladder format. Under this format, teams played two pre-games for ranking purposes before they were sent to their respective seeded rooms. After this took place, teams would move up or down the 'ladder' to play teams more suited to their skill level. The Lisgar Dragons managed to stave off defeat despite notable efforts by Merivale A and the Lisgar Shamrocks. While Sheena Li and Colin Veevers had great performances, it should be noted that Eric from Cairine Wilson showed a remarkable first time performance by receiving 70 points per game.

An exciting diagram of Stegosaurus Bowl

Stats for both these tournaments can be found here and here.

2016 ONQBA Provincials Annoucement

The Ontario Quizbowl Association, in collaboration with the University of Toronto quizbowl team, is pleased to host the 2016 ONQBA Provincial Championship. It will be held at the University of Toronto, St. George Campus on Saturday March 26, 2016. This tournament will be the premier high school quizbowl event in Ontario, serving as an opportunity to bring competition from all active regions in the province. This tournament is also an opportunity for teams to qualify for the NAQT High School National Championship Tournament (HSNCT) and the PACE National Scholastic Championship (NSC). More information on this can be found here. It will take place in Sidney Smith Hall (100 St. George Street, Toronto, ON) and will run from the morning to mid-late afternoon.

The tournament director, Patrick Liao, can be reached by email at patrick.s.liao – AT – gmail.com. Registration emails should be sent to him at the above address and contain the number of teams registered, and what discounts will be claimed. Invoices will be sent to teams via email. Posts in the comments or messaging him on Facebook do not count as official registrations, though he is available for questions through both of those mediums. He will be assisted in tournament direction by Meghan Torchia, the President of the University of Toronto quizbowl team, especially on issues concerning logistics, transportation, and food.

We have applied to NAQT to be the "state" championship for Ontario and use the accompanying question set. In the unlikely event that the ONQBA bid fails, we will obtain an alternate source of regular difficulty questions. Assuming the use of NAQT questions, the games will be timed and calculation questions will be removed. We also expect to be able to include approximately one tossup and bonus per game of Canadian content. Games will follow NAQT rules.

We tentatively have a field cap of 20 teams, though we can likely find resources to handle more teams given enough notice. For a field of 12 teams or fewer, there will be a full round-robin plus additional playoff rounds to get all teams to at least 8 or 9 games. For fields greater than 12 teams, there will be preliminary pools followed by playoff tiers.

The tournament fees are as follows:
* $90 for the first team from a school
* $70 for the second team from a school
* $50 for each additional team from a school beyond the second
* $5 discount for fully working buzzer systems (to be tested day of)
* $5 discount for trained staff
* $10 discount for travel over 200 km
* Other discounts for activity on the Ontario circuit (see below)
* Other discounts at the discretion of the ONQBA board for exceptional circumstances (e.g. travel over 400 km, single person teams, etc.)
Minimum total fee: $20 (per team)

To encourage more activity in the high school circuit during the year, the ONQBA is also offering participation discounts. A school that participated in an ONQBA-certified event can claim up to ONE of the following:

* $40 for hosting an ONQBA-certified event
* $10 for attending at least two non-provincials certified events
* $10 for winning a certified event
* $5 for attending one non-provincial certified event

To promote healthy communications practices, any team that from this post onwards changes the number of teams registered attending any high school quizbowl tournament in Ontario with less than 24 hours notice to the tournament director(s) will not be eligible for any discounts (including for additional teams) and will be given the lowest priority if they end up on a waitlist.

At this stage, all academic quizbowl events intended for high school teams with at least one Ontario team in attendance will count as certified. History Bowl events in Canada count; "Reach-style" events or SchoolReach regionals do not.

All teams from Ontario are welcome and encouraged to attend. No prior qualification or experience is necessary, although it is recommended that you become familiar with NAQT rules and try practicing on a few quizbowl packets, of which many similar non-NAQT formats are available online.

Updated: Toronto Novice -- Dec. 5

Note: The date of the tournament has been moved back a week to December 5. We hope everyone can still attend.

Sidney Smith Hall at the University of Toronto.

Re-posting Meghan's HSQB announcement:

Hello Canada!

The University of Toronto Academic Trivia Club is very excited to announce the U of T Novice Tournament, happening on [December 5 now]. The tournament will be a mirror of NAQT set IS-149A.

Logistics

The tournament will be held in Sidney Smith Hall (100 St. George Street) here on the U of T St. George campus. Rooms will be announced once a field is established. Due to exorbitant fees required by the university, this tournament will have a hard field cap of 7 teams. The tournament will begin at 9 am, please try to arrive at 8:30 for registration. We will not be providing lunch, but there are numerous options for food on and around campus.

Fees

The base fee for this tournament will be $50 per team. We will offer a $5 discount per working buzzer set (one per team). Please note that a "working buzzer set" must include 8 functioning buzzers and a power cord. We will also offer a $10 travel discount if your team traveled more than 200 km one way.

We would prefer fees to be paid in cash, but if necessary, a cheque made out to "University of Toronto Academic Trivia Club" will be accepted. Fees should be paid before the start of the tournament.

Registration

To register for this tournament, please email me at [meghan DOT torchia AT mail DOT utoronto DOT ca] with the number of teams you are bringing and any discounts you would like to claim. I will send you a confirmation email back.

If you have any questions or comments about this tournament, feel free to post them here or email me. This promises to be a great event, and I hope to see you in November!

Our note: This tournament will probably be played on a Canadian edition of the IS-149A questions. ONQBA will obtain NAQT's permission to modify the set for a Canadian audience.

OQT 2015 Recap Letter

Moderators clearly impressed
by everyone's cool knowledge.

I'm sending a version of this letter to the clubs that played in the 2015 Ottawa Quizbowl Tournament.

Hello all --

I want to thank you and your teams for playing in the 11th OQT yesterday. The Ottawa Quizbowl Tournament is played every November at U of Ottawa, and I was very pleased with yesterday's edition. We played "elevator bowl" for nine rounds, and it all went quick and friendly thanks to the players and moderators.

Final stats are here. There were high-scoring teams from all four schools (Lisgar, Merivale, Colonel By, and Glebe). Lisgar A dominated with an 8-0 record and 47 powers. Lisgar B and Merivale both went 6-2, which qualifies them for a US Nationals in the spring, should either of those teams wish to buy flights to Dallas. (They might rather go to Provincials in Toronto.) Most players stayed for "mock finals," which was a tenth round of friendly scrimmages including both players and staff. Every school was given paper copies of the unplayed questions for "round 11 and 12."

Rodrigo Morante and I directed the tournament and wrote the Canada questions for the set. We had a full staff of 5 UOttawa students (Rodrigo, Shervin, Shelby, Dennis, and Ian), 3 ONQBA people (Ben, Patrick, and me), and a Lisgar coach (Ruth Crabtree). Staff said their highlights included a [Canadian TV question], an overtime game between two teams seeking their first win, and a request from players to read the questions in Chinese.

Players are encouraged to complete this feedback form for us. We're committed to growing our game, and we're still learning how to tinker with our events to make something that more people want to play.

I also want to advertise our next tournament, which is Stegosaurus Bowl on December 5 at Lisgar. This is planned as a ladder format tournament, so instead of a fixed round schedule, it will be "win and move up a room, lose and move down a room." It is in only two weeks, but I am excited for it -- I think the ladder structure will lead to more close matches and rivalries. You can find details on our forum announcement or our ONQBA blog announcement, and you can register teams with me or Ms. Crabtree.

Thanks again and congratulations to all participants in yesterday's Ottawa Quizbowl Tournament.

Brendan

2016 Provincials Pre-Announcement

The 2014 and 2015 provincial champions from Colonel By.

The Ontario Provincial Championship for the 2015-16 quizbowl season will take place at University of Toronto on Saturday, March 26, 2016. Patrick Liao will probably direct the tournament.

The Championship is open to all high-school teams from Ontario, with steep discounts for teams that have won tournaments or otherwise excelled throughout the season. We may give wildcard invitations and discounts to top teams at Reach or History Bowl, or to top teams from other provinces. We'll play the tournament on a Canadian edition of an NAQT question set.

We've held a provincial championship since 2010. So far, teams from Ottawa have won all six editions. We'll see if that streak can hold or if the powerful Lisgar A team can win again this time.

ONQBA Awards for 2014-15

These awards are for the 2014-15 season -- most of our winners have now graduated out of the categories they won for. We voted on all these a long time ago. Ted and I wrote the blurbs.

A Lisgar player accepting some sort of award.

Best Player -- Cameron Amini (Colonel By)

Cameron was the strongest high school player in Canada for at least two years. He went from being the history player on a great team to being a player who could power questions on any subject. Other players got stronger in 2014-15 because they had to compete with Cameron.

Most Improved Player -- Nicholas Sunderland (Lisgar)

Nicholas won Canadian History Bowl and almost won Ontario Provincials with Lisgar. He was the second-leading scorer on his Lisgar team at HSNCT. Lisgar A improved massively through the year, breaking into the HSQBRank top 100.

Best Junior -- Sheena Li (Lisgar) 

Sheena was the top scorer on Lisgar B at HSNCT. She played Ottawa History Bowl with seniors on the Lisgar A team, and she nearly won the JV section of Canada History Bee.

Best Junior -- Jonathan Liu (Colonel By)

Jonathan was a threat to score on almost any category. He got 47 PPG at the Ottawa Quizbowl Tournament -- a commendable achievement for a player who was just starting quizbowl.

Community Leader -- Ruth Crabtree (Lisgar)

Ms. Crabtree has led and supported countless quizbowl projects over the last 15 years. Her work as a coach, organizer, trip supervisor, and mentor has made her a cornerstone of good tournaments in Ottawa and beyond, both during her teaching career and in her retirement. We are lucky for every year of Ms. Crabtree's leadership.

Recap: Lisgar Novice (October 2015)

Lisgar Novice was the first tournament of the 2015-16 season. Aidan Ryan directed, and a lot of (ineligible) senior players showed up to staff. I went so I could insist that the staff all wear nametags, and I did some coverage -- here is what I saw from every team.

Merivale C was Daniel, Claire, and Hao Hao when I saw them. They took a bad loss to Colin (Lisgar C), but they still got a nice power on an opera clue.

Lisgar B enjoying themselves.

Lisgar B was Nadia, Olive, Katriona, and Patrick. They went 5-3 with strong stats. Nadia seemed very strong on lit questions, and Patrick got some nice buzzes on history. Olive had an early buzz on my Cape Breton tossup, and she caught that it was asking "Cape Breton" instead of just "Nova Scotia."

Merivale A was Amiya, Zarak, and Ivan when I saw them. They seemed very good at at science (with a power and a 30), and they 20'ed a tricky bonus on U.S. sports.

Lisgar A was Justin, Kieran, Matthew, and Felipe. They went 6-2 and led the tournament in PPB. Felipe was the second-highest scorer in the tournament, and I saw him power two science questions. I was also impressed with Justin powering current events.

Colonel By B was Kevin, Victor, and David. They seemed very good at lit and classics. I saw them lose a close, high-scoring match, largely because they got -5 on a scrambly pop music tossup.

Colonel By C was Sam, Kevin, Conor, and Farid. They looked like a team of senior students, and they were definitely the rowdiest team in the tournament -- they cracked a lot of jokes. Conor knew some lit and Farid knew some U.S. politics. At one point they buzzed "Edmonton" for a city in Manitoba, but they still won their round when Kevin got a chemistry tossup at the end.

Merivale B was Alan, Megharaj, and Wahaj. I saw them lose to a strong team, but they seemed to know current events, and they 30'ed a physics bonus. They made a heartbreaking bad buzz by naming a book title on a tossup that asked for the author.

Colonel By A with important moderators.

Colonel By A was Denis, Jon, Emily, and Kevin. They came second in the tournament, going 1-2 against Colin and 7-0 against all other teams. They led the field in powers -- Emily got a lot of lit, and Kevin got a lot of history.

Lisgar C was one player -- Colin -- and he won the tournament! He swept 8-0 in the round robin, and then he split the finals 1-1 with Colonel By A, which clinched first place.

Lisgar C (artist's rendering).

The finals was Lisgar Colin (8-0) against Colonel By A (7-1). Colin had a one-game advantage, so he would take the tournament with a win. If Colonel By won the finals, it would just force a second game of the finals.

Finals game 1 was very close -- Colonel By got more powers, but it looked like Colin would win 280-225.

However, there was a protest to resolve. In mid-game, Denis had buzzed a tossup and changed his guess mid-word. Moderator Ben had called -5, but after the game, we checked the rules and it turned out that Dennis's buzz was allowed. That caused a 60-point swing and changed the game to a win for Colonel By.

Finals game 2 was less close. Colin beat the Colonel By team 13-7 on tossups. The one-player team, Lisgar C, won the tournament, 390-235.

A grade 10 Lisgar student won today's tournament playing solo. A surprise start to the Ottawa season.

— Ben Smith (@smith_ben) 17 Octobre 2015

Throughout the day, Colin had scored early buzzes and 30s on a ton of history, geography, and art questions. He seemed generally to just be a curious learner and to be aware of the world. In an early round, he had a funny exchange with a moderator over pronouncing a weird European name.

Here's my category breakdown for the two finals games:

Colonel By D was four more Kevins. They were unable to compete in this tournament.

Other things:
- Complete stats
- Canada questions (early draft)
- Tournament thread on HSQB
- Facebook album