Ohio Academic Competition

The Ohio Academic Competition (OAC) is the format that is used in most Ohio High School quizbowl tournaments. It is the most common format in the state, second to NAQT and television-show formats. Every year, the OAC Committee hosts two tournaments at the end of the season, the Regional Tournaments that are hosted at 6 sites across the state and the State Championship Tournament. The format is most beloved for its allowing of conferral that is teams are able to talk to each other at any time.

Format

Like most formats, two teams compete in a match. The rules state that the sides are chosen by a coin flip, although more recently moderators simply used the side the team picks to be "Team A" and "Team B". Therefore, the team that sits to the moderator's left will generally be "Team A" and the team on the moderator's right will be "Team B".

While some tournaments may slightly deviate from the official rules, there are generally three parts to an OAC match. They are the category round, the alphabet round, and the lightning round. Teams are permitted to substitute between rounds.

Category Round

In this round, teams are asked questions in ten categories. They are (in order) American Literature, Mathematics, World History, Fine Arts, Life Science, English/World Literature, U.S. Government/Economics, Physical Science, World Geography, and U.S. History.

In each category, the two teams will each receive their own team question. In American Literature, Team A is the first team to receive their question. They will have two opportunities to answer their question within ten seconds. Teams do not need to buzz for this part. If their first response is correct, the team will earn two (2) points. If their second response is correct, they will earn one (1) points If, however, neither of their responses is correct or their ten seconds run out, the opposing team will get an opportunity to "steal" the question for one (1) point. The same process is then reversed, with Team B receiving the first two opportunities to answer the question. After both sides are complete, a pyramidal toss-up question is read to both teams, and teams only get one opportunity each to answer. A correct answer is worth two (2) points.

In the next category (Mathematics), the order the teams hear the questions are reversed. Team B will get the first math question, and then Team A will get the second question. The third is still a tossup for both teams. This process is repeated throughout all ten categories.

Alphabet Round

After the category round is complete, teams (after substitution) will receive two sheets of questions, and one "official" answer sheet (aka a blank sheet of paper) to write down their answers to the questions. Both teams receive the exact same set of questions, and all of the answers will begin with the same letter. Usually the letter will either be announced or printed at the top of the question sheet. Teams will have four minutes to answer all questions, with each answer being worth two (2) points.

Final Round

The third and final part of the match is called the Final Round. In the final round, twenty questions are read to both teams and each correct answer is worth two points each. The questions in the final round are pyramidal and resemble a house-written tossup/bonus set in quality and length. The questions come from the categories listed above, as well as Mythology, Religion, Philosophy, and Social Science. Some forms also include an additional 10 tossup theme round at the end of these 20. These are generally non-pyramidal and do not follow a distribution. They were mostly been left behind when OAC began pursuing becoming "good quizbowl."

OAC Committee

Currently, the OAC Committee has nineteen members, with representation from each region of the state. The Committee has the power to change any of the rules to the OAC format and also approves and places each school into sites for the Regional Tournaments. The members are:

Member Name	Affiliation	Region
Bing Bingham	None	Executive Director
Bob Kilner	Eastlake North High School	North Coast
Peter Bergman	Solon High School	North Coast
Joshua Eck	Copley High School	Northeast
Vacant	Vacant	Northeast
Vacant	Vacant	Northwest
Vacant	Vacant	Northwest
Lynn Stevenson	Fisher Catholic High School	Southeast
Mike Sedlack	Fisher Catholic High School	Southeast
Brian Meeron	Walnut Hills High School	Southwest
Ron Maupin	Little Miami High School	Southwest
Tommy Segi	Springboro High School	West Central
Vacant	Vacant	West Central
Simon Zimmerman	The Ohio State University	College Representative
Sue Korosa	Copley High School	At-Large
Joshua Queen	Chillicothe High School	At-Large
Thomas Moore	unaffiliated	At-Large
David Jones	Northmont High School	At-Large
	Vacant	Vacant	At-Large

Regional Tournaments

Currently, tournaments are held at six different regions throughout the state. This was an expansion from the early 2000s when there were only four regions. There has been dialogue, arising as recently as May 2015, that the regional tournament could see another expansion to the size of eight regional tournaments, however this will likely not come to fruition until there is a guarantee it can be feasibly done and ran effectively.

When teams arrive they will take a Seeding Quiz that consists of 50 questions on paper. The questions get harder as the numbers increase, and The teams will be seeded based on the highest number of correct answers. The tiebreaker is the highest number question that is correctly answered.

Each regional tournament holds a maximum of 16 teams. These teams will all face-off in a double-elimination tournament, where the first and second place teams will be sent to the State Tournament in Columbus. To qualify for a regional tournament, a team must win a tournament (or a division of one) with at minimum six schools competing. The winner must be specifically identified. If there is a tie for first, somehow only one winner must be determined. Note that Ohio teams that win tournaments in other states can now automatically qualify for the OAC Regional tournament given that they meet the qualification requirements, such as winning a bracket comprising of six different schools.

State Tournament

The State Championship Tournament is generally held in Columbus, Ohio. A team is eligible for the State Tournament if the finish in the first or second place at their respective regional site, or if they earn one of the at large bids. Starting in 2018, teams are seeded based on their statistics from regionals. Each team is ranked based on are their alphabet round average plus their average team category points multiplied by two. Those stats are also what is used to determine who gets the 4 wild card bids. Sixteen teams compete in each years state championship tournament.

The format of the tournament itself is a double elimination bracket. For teams that lose their second game in the same round, there is pool play to determine precise placement.

Past Champions

Year	Champion	Region	Runner-Up	Region
2023	Solon	NC	Northmont	WC
2022	Solon	NC	Beavercreek	WC
2021	Beavercreek	WC	Solon	NC
2020	CANCELED	N/A	COVID-19	N/A
2019	Beavercreek	WC	Miami Valley	WC
2018	Beavercreek	WC	Miami Valley	WC
2017	Beavercreek	WC	Fisher Catholic	SE
2016	Solon	NC	Sidney	WC
2015	Northmont	WC	Sidney	WC
2014	Northmont	WC	Fisher Catholic	SE
2013	Northmont	WC	Solon	NC
2012	Olmsted Falls	NC	Northmont	WC
2011	Copley	NE	Northmont	WC
2010	Solon	NE	Copley	NE
2009	Green	NE	Walnut Hills	SW
2008	Garfield Heights	NE	Solon	NE
2007	Garfield Heights	NE	Fisher Catholic	SE
2006	Fisher Catholic	SE	Walnut Hills	SW
2005	Copley	NE	Tippecanoe	WC
2004	Fisher Catholic	SE	Moeller	SW
2003	St. Charles	SE	Moeller	SW
2002	Copley	NE	North Olmsted	NE
2001	Beavercreek	SW	St. Xavier	SW
2000	Beavercreek	SW	St. Charles	SE
1999	Copley	NE	Garfield Heights	NE
1998	Copley	NE	St. Xavier	SW
1997	St. Xavier	SW	Garfield Heights	NE
1996	Brecksville-Broadview Heights	NE	St. Xavier	SW
1995	Copley	NE	Archbishop Hoban	NE
1994	Beavercreek	SW	Norwalk	NW
1993	Elyria	NW	Copley	NE
1992	Beachwood	NW	Copley	NE
1991	Wellington Academy	SE	Defiance	NW
1990	Beavercreek	SW	Garfield Heights	NE
1989	Gilmour Academy	NE	Howland	NE
1988	Gilmour Academy	NE	Columbus Alternative	SE
1987	Norwalk	NW	Lancaster	SE
1986	Wheelersburg	SE	Wapakoneta	NW
1985	Wheelersburg	SE	Columbus Alternative	SE

Criticisms

• In the 2008 Regional Tournaments, many sites had different drawings of what the Double-Elimination brackets could look like, causing some teams to play different schedules than if they had been assigned to another region. One region in particular (EC) had confusing brackets that some teams had troubles understanding.

• The random-draw method previously used to assign teams at the regional and state tournaments was considered controversial. Prior to it's removal, at states the six regional champions draw red 1,2 or 3 or blue 1,2 or 3. The regional runners-up from the same region are then place in the opposite brackets. While this may seem fair, the fact that OAC format does not usually single out the best teams causes a draw as in 2007, where Fisher Catholic (NAQT-2nd), Tippecanoe (NAQT-1st), Copley (NAQT-3rd) and North Canton Hoover were all placed in the same half of the bracket, while Walnut Hills (generally considered the strongest NAQT team in Ohio) and Garfield Heights were in the other bracket.

• The distribution is affected by the format itself. The final round distribution is in live with modern standards, but as a whole the category and alphabet rounds change it. For example, RMPSS is only included in the final round, and in the category round half of the literature is American, while commonwealth, European and world only combines to half of the literature.

External Links

• Ohio Academic Competition website
• OAC on Facebook