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2018 NAQT Missouri Qualifier Recap

35 teams attended the 2018 NAQT Missouri Qualifier at Columbia College on March 3, 2018.

The teams were originally divided into 5 pools of 6 and 1 pool of 5 for preliminary rounds 1-5.

The top 2 teams in each pool advanced to the championship tier, remaining eligible to win the tournament. The third place teams advanced to Consolation 1, the fourth place teams to Consolation 2, the fifth place teams to Consolation 3, and the sixth place teams to Consolation 4. Each consolation pool played a round robin in rounds 6-10.

In the championship tier, two roughly equal pools were seeded based on the points per bonus of the top team from each preliminary pool, with the corresponding second place teams advancing to the same pool. This resulted in two parallel pools consisting of the first and second place teams from three of the six pools. Each of these pools played a crossover playoff, with games in rounds 6-9 and one preliminary game carrying over.

After round 9, Ladue A, Hallsville, Central (St. Joseph), and Hickman A advanced to the superplayoffs, while the remaining championship tier teams played round 10 placement games. Ladue A and Central were both undefeated going into their scheduled round 11 game, effectively setting up a best of three final. Ladue won the first two games 365-195 and 310-235 to earn their third NAQT Missouri Qualifier title!

For the small school title, Hallsville finished in third place overall and was awarded the small school title outright as the only eligible team to reach the superplayoffs. This is Hallsville's sixth consecutive NAQT Missouri Qualifier small school title!

We also introduced a "very small school" title this year, awarded to the top-ranked small school eligible team in MSHSAA Classes 1 or 2 for Scholar Bowl. Louisiana was declared the Very Small School Champion with an eighth place finish overall.

Links to schedules and statistics are available on the 2018 NAQT Missouri Qualifier index page.

The top 15% (6 teams) qualified for the NAQT High School National Championship Tournament on May 25-27 in Atlanta. Congratulations to Ladue A, Central, Hallsville, Hickman A, Helias A, and Centralia A for qualifying at this tournament.

Of our 35 teams, we had a tournament record 13 small school-eligible teams, continuing Missouri's tradition of strong quizbowl participation by smaller schools. The top 30% of small school teams (4 teams) have qualified for the NAQT Small School National Championship Tournament on April 27-29 in Chicago. Congratulations to Hallsville, Centralia A, Louisiana, and Fatima A for qualifying for SSNCT!

Since this tournament is platinum certified by PACE, the top 25% (9 teams) qualified for the PACE National Scholastic Championship in Washington D.C. on June 2-3. Congratulations to Ladue A, Central, Hallsville, Hickman A, Helias A, Centralia A, Washington A, Louisiana, and North Kansas City for earning bids to NSC!

During the awards ceremony, we presented the seventh MOQBA Award for Outstanding Student Involvement to Raj Paul and Moses Schindler of Ladue Horton Watkins High School for reviving the excellent Ladue Invitational Spring Tournament question set, which was used at several tournaments throughout the country last year. We also presented the first ever MOQBA Values Award to Emily Boyle of Hallsville High School for exemplifying the core values of sportsmanship, fairness, and integrity, most notably for her quick action at the 2017 MACA JV State tournament to alert staff about a fellow competitor in distress. We thank Raj, Moses, and Emily for their contributions to the quizbowl community and look forward to recognizing more outstanding students in the future.

Thanks to all of our wonderful staff who made this day of 170 quizbowl matches possible, getting everyone to lunch on time, having most teams done around 4:00, and completing the entire 12 round tournament before 5:00! The staff who did a fantastic job running this large tournament so efficiently include Mickala from Fort Osage; Emma from Hallsville; Myles Steffes from Oak Grove; Scott from St. Joseph Central; Rachel and Silas from Washington; Dr. Curtis Mason of Columbia College; NAQT member emerita Julie Stahlhut; Steven McClary and Michael Menkhus; coaches Andrew Darr, David Dennis, Shelly Kiesling, Jonah Krueger, Ginger Luetkemeyer, Josh Malecki, Andrew Reynolds, and Scott Walker; and fellow MOQBA members Jon Deering, Lisa McClary, Kevin Stockman, and Shelley Swoyer. Special thanks to Jason Loy, Jacob O'Rourke, and Sean Phillips for presenting the MOQBA awards, and to Jacob, Audrey Brandon, Kyle Hill, Stephanie Hull, and Alex Smith for additional assistance with various tasks before, during, and after the tournament.

In addition, we are always extremely grateful for the outstanding support we receive from Columbia College to help our events run smoothly. The tireless efforts and event planning expertise of Kimberly Craig, Tera Palozola, and the rest of the Columbia College team continue to make each tournament we host on their campus a great pleasure to run.

Thank you once again for attending the 2018 Qualifier, and we hope to see you all again next year!

Jeffrey Hill and Matt Chadbourne
2018 NAQT Missouri Qualifier co-directors