LASA A, from Austin, Texas is your 2013 HSNCT champion!
May 26, 2013
May 27, 2012
May 26, 2012
Totally Serious Predictions for Sunday
- Santa Monica misreads the schedule and assume they’re supposed to play Centennial instead of playing in the Centennial Ballroom. Unfortunately for them, Centennial doesn’t have to arrive until Round 18, so Santa Monica ends up forefitting their first two playoff rounds waiting for them to arrive.
- Thomas Jefferson (VA) arrive at their Round 17 game, only to find Thomas Jefferson (MO) there. NAQT, realising that they didn’t actually specify which TJ was supposed to make the playoffs, settles the issue with one sudden-death tossup, which Missouri’s team win thanks to their inexplicable knowledge of the lyman alpha forest.
- High Tech and Ladue play in an intense game where all but one question is either powered or power-vulched the entire game. Moderator Rob Carson sets a new record when he manages to finish all 24 tossups right as time expires for the first half.
- Nikhil’s flight to Atlanta gets cancelled, but he is able to get permission to play via Skype. Bellarmine are down 10 to DCC with one tossup to go, when Nikhil makes an extremely early buzz. Unfortunately his power goes out right as he’s about to get the correct answer, costing them the game.
- Kealing become a surprise entrant in the small school playoffs after it is noted that as they are a middle school, they most certainly have less than 500 students enrolled in grades 10-12.
- After teams come back from lunch, it is discovered that NAQT forgot to reserve the rooms for Sunday afternoon, and so all the game rooms are instead being used for a forensics tournament. All remaining games are moved to the food court.
- In the finals, State College becomes the first team since 2005 to successfully defend their title and the first 6-4 team to ever win HSNCT, thanks to the efforts of their previously unknown substitute player, Scram Scroyer.
And now you know why I shouldn’t post anything at 12:30 AM.
Sunday Playoff Brackets
Here they are! They will be updated throughout the day tomorrow.
Streaming the HSNCT
Like last year, iHigh will be streaming matches all day today and tomorrow, which you can find here.
May 25, 2012
Guest Post: Saturday’s Format
For this post, David Reinstein gives us an overview of how the card system will work tomorrow.
On Saturday, HSNCT will feature 1200 matches: 240 teams each playing 10 matches, and 80 rooms each hosting 15 rounds. Each team will play in two of the first three rounds, two of the next three rounds, etc. There will be a lunch break after six rounds, when each team has played four matches. There are 44 conference rooms and 36 suites used by the tournament.
The tournament uses a card system. There are 240 cards which have schedules on them. At the beginning of each match, the teams give their cards to the moderator. At the end of the match, the moderator gives the winning team the card with a number closer to 1 and the losing team with a number closer to 240. There is some randomness in the card assignments, so teams should not assume that the best team starts the day with Card 1 and the worst team starts with Card 240, because that is not what happens. There is also some seeding in the assignments, so teams that have demonstrated during the year that they are among the top few in the nation will not play each other in the first few matches.
As much as possible, teams will play opponents with identical records. This will work out perfectly in the morning, after which there will be 15 4-0 teams, 60 3-1 teams, 90 2-2 teams, 60 1-3 teams, and 15 0-4 teams. Because there are odd numbers, there will be some matches in the afternoon that feature teams with unequal records. All such matches will feature teams with records that differ by one win. To do this, one 4-0 team will play a 3-1 team, one 3-1 team will play a 2-2 team, etc.
By the end of the day, here are the numbers of teams there will be with each record:
10-0: 0 or 1 team
9-1: 0 to 4 teams
8-2: 6 to 14 teams
7-3: 23 to 34 teams
6-4: 43 to 56 teams
5-5: 52 to 66 teams
4-6: 43 to 56 teams
3-7: 23 to 34 teams
2-8: 6 to 14 teams
1-9: 0 to 4 teams
0-10: 0 or 1 team
Here are the numbers of teams with each record or better:
10-0 or better: 0 or 1 team
9-1 or better: 1 to 4 teams
8-2 or better: 10 to 15 teams
7-3 or better: 38 to 44 teams
6-4 or better: 87 to 94 teams
5-5 or better: 146 to 153 teams
4-6 or better: 196 to 202 teams
3-7 or better: 225 to 230 teams
2-8 or better: 236 to 239 teams
1-9 or better: 239 or 240 teams
The most likely scenario has 41 teams in the top bracket (7-3 or better) and 50 teams in the bottom bracket (6-4) starting on Sunday, but don’t be surprised when the actual numbers are slightly different. On Sunday, teams in the top bracket get knocked down to the bottom bracket when they lose, and teams in the bottom bracket get eliminated when they lose.
Friday Scrimmage Liveblog
This is mainly just me testing out the system, so don’t be surprised if there’s a hiccup or two.
HSNCT Gameplan
In a few hours, I will be leaving for Atlanta. Once there, I will be covering a couple scrimmage matches, mainly to test the system out. I might also get a couple interviews with players and coaches in. Saturday, Chris will be arriving in Atlanta and he will be reading matches for most of the day, while I will most likely alternate between liveblogging games and posting interesting results from the statroom. On Sunday, we will both be covering the playoffs, and we should have a bracket similar to last year up and running.
I will be paying close attention to the Twitter hashtag #hsnct, so please use it to post scores, records, or other amusing anecdotes. I will be giving updates on @goldenkumquat throughout the tournament, in addition to the liveblog.
And with that, safe travels to all of you!
The Official Blog of the 2013 NAQT HSNCT 