Dec 12

Bellarmine Novice: January 16, 2016

Bellarmine’s quiz bowl team will be running our annual novice tournament on Saturday, January 16, 2016 at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, California. We will be using NAQT’s Introductory Invitational Set #153A. This particular set of questions is intentionally geared towards newer teams.

The initial field cap will be 36 teams, with possible expansion, dependent on the number of staffers and buzzers we have available. Teams are restricted to six players each; please break up any larger teams into two or more teams. There is no limit to the number of teams that can come from any single school. We heavily urge all teams attending to bring buzzers and staffers.

All teams of high schoolers from the same school are eligible to play in this event, although players who have competed at the NAQT High School National Championship Tournament, the PACE National Scholastic Championship or the HSAPQ National All-Star Academic Tournament in the past two years must receive special permission from the tournament director to play.

We anticipate that rounds will go from 9:00 until approximately 4:30, followed by an awards ceremony. The exact round timings and other logistical information will be emailed to teams in the week before the tournament. Please do not plan to leave early without telling us beforehand.

Fees
base fee: $70 per team
–$5 for second or subsequent team from the same school
–$10 for teams composed entirely of students that have not competed at a pyramidal quiz bowl tournament prior to the 2015–16 school year
–$10 per working buzzer (please do not bring buzzers that are not in good working condition)
–$10 per staffer
–$10 travel discount per 75 miles driving one way, as determined by Google Maps from your school to Bellarmine
We will also give a discount of $5 for half-day staffers (those who can staff from Round 1 until lunch or from lunch until the conclusion of the day). All staffers, including half-day staffers, will receive lunch.
The minimum fee after all discounts have been added is $20 per team.

To register: please fill out this form by Wednesday, January 13:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ebVOrKzp7C4sUTPv9RmkG8fmiTKUVcGn_X5p5-XsAf0/viewform

Registered teams will be provided with more detailed information before the tournament. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me (Jonchee Kao, jonchee.kao@berkeley.edu) or Chris Fleitas (cfleitas@bcp.org). Any volunteer staffers not affiliated with a registered team are warmly welcome and should contact us as well. We hope to see your team there!

Dec 12

Sacramento Winter: January 9, 2016

NCQBA and Rio Americano HS are pleased to announce that the Sacramento Winter HS Tournament will be held on Saturday, January 9, 2016. We will have separate JV and Varsity divisions for this tournament.

Location: This tournament will take place at Rio Americano HS, Sacramento, California. Registration will begin at 9:00AM and we hope to start round 1 at 9:30AM.

Questions: We will be using NAQT IS-152 for Varsity and NAQT IS-151A for JV.

Eligibility: All high schools (public, private, charter, religious, homeschool, etc.) are eligible to play in this event.

Schools are encouraged to enter multiple teams, but please note that participants must play for the same team throughout the tournament.

Fees:

Base fee: $65 per team

-$10 second and subsequent team(s) from the same school

-$35 for schools that played zero quiz bowl tournaments during the 2014-2015 school year (per school)

-$10 per working buzzer system (must accommodate at least eight players)

-$10 per scorekeeper (We will hold a brief training session during check-in for volunteers who have never kept score before.)

-$15 per experienced moderator

Minimum Entry Fee: $10 per team

Payment (cash or check) will be taken at check-in on January 9. Please make checks out to Rio Americano HS.

How to register: Please fill out this google form, on or before Wednesday, January 6, 2016, indicating how many teams, buzzers, and staff your school plans to bring:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zfJkOCGIvZAfXEyJwa_J7sm6en0fKpIT-amTBpCowbc/viewform

Sep 27

Results: Bay Area Elementary School Tournament

Congratulations to Challenger-Ardenwood, who defeated the Pi-oneers 345-215 in the first game of an advantaged final to win the first Bay Area Elementary School Tournament!

Complete team and individual statistics are now available.

My thanks to:

-our hosts from the Embassy Suites Santa Clara
-Alex Dzurick of the Missouri Quizbowl Alliance for providing the questions
-Sean Lin of San Jose State

I hope all five teams will be able to join us this winter for our series of NAQT middle school events.

Sep 16

2015-2016 Season Preview

Note: Varsity [V] or junior varsity [JV] denotations next to player names show what level they will compete at for the 2015-2016 season (ie teams with [V] players on the roster may not compete in JV divisions, but [JV] players may compete in either division). This is preliminarily based off of a two years’ experience cutoff. If you feel like any of these are incorrectly classified, please get ahold of me through Facebook or email and let me know.

 

Albany – graduates Sean Lin (San Jose State) but retains top scorers junior Andrew Liu [V] and senior Madeline Zhang [V]. The team has a little bit of a negging problem (possibly decreased with Sean’s graduation) and needs to raise their PPB, but they were able to close out last season with a 7th place finish at (an admittedly emaciated) NorCal State. The A team can probably expect lower-top 10 finishes.

 

Amador Valley – relatively inactive team that retains top scorers senior Jason Chen [V] and junior Manan Khattar [JV], who both show potential but need teammates’ support and to clean up their negging.

 

Archbishop Mitty – retains top scorer senior Siddharth Kulkarni [V] but didn’t manage to develop past a one-man team over the last season and will likely remain the same unless there was major expansion this summer.

 

Bellarmine – graduates the entirety of their HSNCT t-13 and PACE 11th A team (Jonchee Kao [UC Berkeley], Abhishek Aditham [UC Berkeley], Alejandro Buendia [Columbia], Jarek Jankowski [Notre Dame]) + more (Gavin Pereira [University of Arizona], Namit Mishra [UC San Diego]) and sees growing rates of inactivity among its best remaining players. Retains sophomore standout Atul Saha [JV] and a relatively balanced group of lowerclassmen but will definitely not field a team of 2014-2015 calibre for at least this season.

 

Chinese Christian – retains junior Benson Yi [V] but graduates main support Calvin Chiu (UC Santa Barbara). Benson took the JV circuit by storm in the beginning of the last season but saw a huge increase in competition towards the end of the year, as well as a drop in activity. If Benson has been studying and found a replacement for Calvin, they could do decently in their new division.

 

College Preparatory School – graduates top scorer Andrew Vaughn (Cornell) from an extremely inactive program. Retains senior Nikhil Pandit [JV] who showed potential but definitely needs to rebuild anything resembling a team.

 

Crystal Springs Uplands – retains top scorer senior Shasta Ramachandran [JV] from an extremely inactive program.

 

Cupertino – retains top scorer junior Mihir Khambete [V] and essentially all other players of note. Should see decent to good finishes in their new division.

 

Davis – graduates Jayanth Sundaresan (UC Berkeley), Alex Chen (MIT), and Zach Hertz (Tufts) but retains all of their other best players from last year (seniors Anthony DiCarlo [V], Teddy Knox [V], Henry Zhang [V]; junior Eliot Williams [V], sophomore Ethan Skinner [JV]), which includes the majority of their PACE 22nd team. Each team in their incredibly deep bench periodically has its problems with negging and bonus conversion, but the A team will almost definitely dominate the circuit for this season and the program as a whole will remain strong for several years to come.

 

Dougherty Valley – graduates lead scorer Eric Chen (UC Berkeley) and teammates Cody Zeng (UC Berkeley), Samuel Zhang (UC Berkeley), Sui Feng Xiu (UC Irvine), but retains seniors Larry Liang [JV], Bibhav Poudel [V], Effie Jia [JV], Yash Sharma [V], and sophomore Simon Han [JV]. While they won’t reach the same level the 2014-2015 team was able to compete at, they should still hold their own in varsity.

 

“Escobar” – graduates top scorer Kelvin Lu (MIT) but retains seniors Karthik Bharathala [V], Dhruv Muley[V]; juniors Anup Hiremath [V], Trevor Wu [JV]; and sophomore Prasana Gutti [JV]. Faces a challenge with Kelvin’s graduation but with Dhruv’s 46ppg at HSNCT, they could perform quite well at a varsity level.

 

Evergreen Valley – graduates top scorer Charlie Tian (UC Berkeley) and retains senior Ashwinee Panda [JV]. Will likely be decent in junior varsity.

 

Folsom – played their first tournament last year, unfortunately a pretty inactive and lower-level JV team and will probably remain as such.

 

Harker – retains top scorers junior Nikhil Manglik [V] and sophomore Edgar Lin [JV]. Has historically had pretty strong players but are unfortunately usually inactive.

 

Homestead – graduates lead scorer Karthik Srivatsan (Michigan), Alex Lei (UC Davis), and Richard Chen (UC Berkeley), but retains three-quarters of their HSNCT dark horse t-8 team and more, including senior Jessica Chen [V] and juniors William Scott [V], Brandon Herren [V], and Tom Gabrielson [V]. If they’ve been studying hard this summer and found someone to fill Karthik’s spot, they stand a good chance at giving Davis a run for their money and will probably sit at a safe second in the circuit if not.

 

Leland – new team that retains top scorers seniors Sathvik Nair [JV], Kyle Cui [JV] and junior Hari Krishna [JV]. They made the trip to PACE and seem to have a healthy club, but will likely remain at a JV level unless they’ve put in lots of work this summer.

 

Lynbrook – graduates top scorer Oliver Dong (UC Berkeley), but will hopefully develop and perhaps be decent in the JV circuit.

 

Menlo-Atherton – low-activity team that typically only attends novice tournaments, although they did win Bellarmine Novice and retain their top scorers seniors Mason Seymour [JV] and Griffin Kardos [JV]. Likely will stay the same this season.

 

Monta Vista – new team that retains top scorer sophomore Anjini Venugopal [JV], will likely be decent in JV if they’re more active, especially if Anjini gets support.

 

Moreau Catholic – graduates Omkar Salpekar (UC Berkeley), otherwise retains some decent JV players.

 

Northgate – new team that retains juniors (?) David Leynov [JV] and Josh Quiambao [JV] that could be decent in their division with development, but are unfortunately pretty inactive.

 

Palo Alto – retains one lead scorer senior Trevor Filseth [V], graduates other lead scorer Max Krawcyzk (Columbia) and fixes most of their neg problem with that. Unclear for now if Trevor will have enough support, but will likely maintain top 5 finishes this season.

 

Rio Americano – loses lead scorer senior Jonathan Gutmann (studying abroad) and will probably remain a relatively inactive JV-level team this season.

 

Saratoga – graduates solo PACE 27th lead scorer Bruce Lou (UC Berkeley) and other occasional A team members Ethan Ngai (Washington University) and Nitya Sampath (University of Washington). Senior Nate Ney [JV] and juniors Bryant Chang [JV] and Mason Tian [JV] could help Saratoga reach decent JV finishes.

 

Valley Christian – retains their core A team of juniors Omeed Askary [V], Andrew Rao [V], Dhilip Raman [V]. If they’ve been studying and refining their playing strategy (especially in terms of aggression), they could probably finish in the top 5 at the varsity level.

 

Looking forward to another great season!

Sep 10

Bay Area elementary school tournament

We are very pleased to announce that our 2015-16 season will include northern California’s first quizbowl tournament for elementary school students! Details are below; if you know fourth-, fifth-, or sixth-grade students interested in playing quizbowl this fall, please contact us.

 

The Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance is pleased to announce that the first Bay Area elementary school tournament will take place on Sunday, September 27, 2015.

Location: This tournament will take place at the Embasssy Suites Santa Clara, 2885 Lakeside Drive in Santa Clara.

Questions: We will be using the SAGES set produced by Alex Dzurick of the Missouri Quizbowl Alliance.

Qualifiers: This tournament will be excellent practice for upcoming middle school tournaments. Teams are encouraged to participate even though this tournament is not a qualifier for any national championships (because there is currently no national championship of elementary school quizbowl).

Eligibility: This tournament is open to any players who have not yet completed sixth grade. All schools with applicable grade/age levels (public, private, charter, religious, homeschool, etc.) are eligible to play in this event.

Schools are encouraged to enter multiple teams, but please note that players must play for the same team throughout the tournament.

Fees:

Base fee: $50 per team

$10 discount: second or subsequent team from the same school

$10 discount: per working buzzer system (must accommodate at least eight players)

$20 discount: per experienced moderator

$10 discount: per scorekeeper (We will hold a brief training session during check-in for those volunteers who have never kept score before.)

Payment will be taken at check-in on September 27th. Please make checks out to “Jeff Hoppes.”

How to register: please contact the tournament director, Jeff Hoppes (jeff.hoppes@gmail.com), on or before Wednesday, September 23rd, indicating how many teams, buzzers, and staff your school plans to bring.

Sep 10

Sacramento middle school: September 20, 2015

The Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance and Rio Americano High School are pleased to announce that Rio will host the first Sacramento middle school tournament on Sunday, September 20.

Location: This tournament will take place at Rio Americano High School, Sacramento, California. Registration will begin at 9:30AM and we hope to start round 1 at 10:00AM. We will have a field cap of 12 teams.

Questions: We will be using NAQT Middle School Series #15. (For practice material similar to the questions we will use at the tournament, please consider the NAQT New Middle School Package and the 2013 Collaborative Middle School Tournament.)

The top 15% of teams will qualify for the 2016 NAQT Middle School National Championship Tournament, to be held in Atlanta, Georgia on May 7-8, 2016.

Eligibility: All middle schools (public, private, charter, religious, homeschool, etc.) are eligible to play in this event. This tournament is open to any players who have not yet completed 8th grade, though the questions are targeted at 7th and 8th graders.

Schools are encouraged to enter multiple teams, but please note that players must play for the same team throughout the tournament.

Fees:

Base fee: $60 per team

-$10 working buzzer system (must accommodate at least eight players)

-$10 staffer (We will hold a brief training session during check-in for those volunteers who have never kept score before.)

Minimum entry fee: $15 per team

Payment will be taken at check-in on Sept 20. Please make checks out to Rio Americano HS.

How to register: please contact the tournament director, Nicholas Karas (njsking (at) hotmail (dot) com), on or before Wednesday, September 16, indicating how many teams, buzzers, and staff your school plans to bring.

Sep 10

Sacramento Fall: September 19, 2015

The Northern California Quizbowl Alliance and Rio Americano High School are pleased to announce that the Sacramento Fall HS Tournament will be held on Saturday, September 19, 2015.

Location: This tournament will take place at Rio Americano High School, Sacramento, California. Registration will begin at 9:00AM and we hope to start round 1 at 9:30AM. We will have a field cap of 18 teams.

Questions: We will be using NAQT IS-147A.

Eligibility: All high schools (public, private, charter, religious, homeschool, etc.) are eligible to play in this event.

Schools are encouraged to enter multiple teams, but please note that players must play for the same team throughout the tournament.

Fees:

Base fee: $65 per team

-$10 second or subsequent team from the same school

-$15 schools playing their first quizbowl tournament

-$10 working buzzer system (must accommodate at least eight players)

-$10 scorekeeper (We will hold a brief training session during check-in for volunteers who have never kept score before.)

Minimum Entry Fee: $15 per team

Payment (cash or check) will be taken at check-in on September 19. Please make checks out to Rio Americano HS.

How to register: fill out this google form, on or before Wednesday, September 16, 2015, indicating how many teams, buzzers, and staff your school plans to bring.

Sep 10

Welcome back!

Welcome back to a new season of northern California quizbowl!

Here’s what we’ve got in store for 2015-16:

-Our first event of the year will be Sacramento Fall, Saturday, September 19th, at Rio Americano HS in Sacramento.

-Our Bay Area novice tournaments return for October this year. Berkeley High and Valley Christian (San Jose) will host these events on Saturday, October 10th.

-Bellarmine will be hosting ACF Fall on Sunday, November 8th.

-We’re very pleased to announce that the Bay Area’s first elementary school tournament will take place in Santa Clara on Sunday, September 27th.

Stay tuned for more announcements, including the schedule for 2015-16 California Cup, our winter middle school tournaments, and the spring 2016 NAQT Northern California Championship!

Aug 20

ACF Fall High School Mirror at Bellarmine: November 08, 2015

We are pleased to announce the Northern California high school site of ACF Fall 2015, to be held at Bellarmine College Preparatory on Sunday, 8 November 2015. ACF Fall is the year’s premier introductory-level collegiate quizbowl tournament, suited for advanced high school teams looking for a more challenging tournament. We do hope that you join us at this event, as high school teams are no longer allowed to compete in collegiate ACF tournaments.

There will be a field cap of 12 teams for this tournament. We anticipate that rounds will go from 9:00 until approximately 4:30, followed by an awards ceremony. The exact round timings and other logistical information will be emailed to teams in the week before the tournament.

Registration
Registration for this event has two steps:
First, please write to us at jonchee.kao@berkeley.edu with your school name, number of teams, and buzzer/staffer information.
Second, fill out the central ACF Fall registration form at this site with all relevant information.

Fees
Base fee: $120 for one team from a school, $240 for two teams from a school, etc.
Buzzer systems*: -$5 each
Staffers: -$10 each; No maximum.
Laptop: -$5 each; Maximum 1 per team.
Travel: -$10 per 200 miles traveled one way
International**: -$20

* No discount for broken buzzers; no maximum.
** For teams representing schools located in a different country than the tournament host.
Note: the “New to ACF” and “New to quiz bowl” discounts available at collegiate mirrors of ACF Fall do not apply to high school teams and are therefore not applicable at this tournament.

If your team is interested in attending this tournament but is unable to do so because of financial constraints, please contact ACF directly at fall@acf-quizbowl.com to negotiate payment.

Packet Discounts/Penalties
Any team with at least one person on it who played a regular, collegiate, academic quizbowl tournament prior to September 1, 2014 is required to submit a packet. High school players attending high school-only sites are included in this definition and are subject to the same discounts and penalties as college teams.

Half-packet templates will be sent out to your team after you have submitted the registration form. If you have questions on the submission guidelines, email them to fall@acf-quizbowl.com and they’ll clarify.

Please submit packets to fall@acf-quizbowl.com and use “ACF Fall 2015: [Team Name]” in the subject line.

Submission schedule
11.59 PM PST September 13: -$30
11.59 PM PST September 27: -$15 (-$30 if optional)
11.59 PM PST October 11: no penalty (-$25 if optional)
11.59 PM PST October 18: +$25
11.59 PM PST October 25: +$50
After October 25: +$10/day until October 31; teams who are required to submit a packet and do not submit one by November 1 will not be allowed to play.

Payment
Payment for ACF Fall will be processed through the ACF treasurer, Gautam Kandlikar. He will get in touch with you about how much your team owes, how to pay for the tournament, etc. Please contact Gautam with any questions regarding payment.

For more information about ACF Fall, refer to the Global Announcement of ACF Fall 2015 or email the editors at fall@acf-quizbowl.com.

Registered teams will be provided with more detailed information before the tournament. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me (Jonchee Kao, jonchee.kao@berkeley.edu) or Chris Fleitas (cfleitas@bcp.org). We hope to see you in November!

 

(link to tournament announcement on the forums)

Apr 23

Bellarmine’s middle school tournament: May 24, 2015

Update: this tournament has been rescheduled for Sunday, May 24, 2015. If your team had registered for the previously announced April 18 date, please contact me to confirm your team’s status for May 24.

The Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance and Bellarmine College Prep are pleased to announce that Bellarmine will host its third annual middle school quizbowl tournament on Sunday, May 24, 2015.

Location: This tournament will take place at Bellarmine College Prep, San Jose, California. Details of the precise building will be posted closer to the date of the tournament.

Questions: We will be using NAQT Middle School Series #14. (For practice material similar to the questions we will use at the tournament, please consider the NAQT New Middle School Package and the 2013 Collaborative Middle School Tournament.)

Eligibility: All middle schools (public, private, charter, religious, homeschool, etc.) are eligible to play in this event. This tournament is open to any players who have not yet completed 8th grade, though the questions are targeted at 7th and 8th graders.

Schools are encouraged to enter multiple teams, but please note that players must play for the same team throughout the tournament.

Fees:

Base fee: $70 per team

-$10 second or subsequent team from the same school

-$10 working buzzer system (must accommodate at least eight players)

-$20 experienced moderator

-$10 scorekeeper (We will hold a brief training session during check-in for those volunteers who have never kept score before.)

Payment will be taken at check-in on May 24th. Please make checks out to Bellarmine College Prep.

How to register: please contact the tournament director, Jeff Hoppes (jeff.hoppes@gmail.com), on or before Monday, May 18th, indicating how many teams, buzzers, and staff your school plans to bring.