Difference between revisions of "Reach for the Top"

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'''Reach for the Top''' is the dominant high school quiz competition in Canada. Technically a form of [[quizbowl]], it has a larger sports distribution than other academic quizbowl formats, contains more hoses, and is composed almost entirely of speed-check questions which are often [[pyramidal|non-pyramidal]]. It is also more expensive than alternatives like [[NAQT]].  
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'''Reach for the Top''' is the dominant high school quiz competition in Canada. It is composed largely of speed-check questions, has no explicit academic focus, and is usually considered to be a separate game from [[quizbowl]].
  
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French students usually play [[Genies en herbe]], while university students play in the [[quizbowl]] format.
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Francophone high school students usually play [[Genies en herbe]], while university students play in the [[quizbowl]] format.
  
 
==Gameplay==
 
==Gameplay==
  
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The majority of questions in Reach for the Top are approximately the length of quizbowl bonus questions (1-2 sentences), and are worth, for the most part, 10 points each. Interruption of the questions for early guesses are not only allowed but also encouraged, as the game is based heavily on speed. If a team buzzes in and answer a question incorrectly, the opposing team has approximately 3-5 seconds to consult and form an answer. Consultation is permitted at almost all times in Reach for the Top (see "Shootouts" and "Assigned" for exceptions). There are no [[negs]] or [[powers]] in Reach, although negs (-5) appeared in the 2007 Nationals for the first time.
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The majority of questions in Reach for the Top are approximately the length of quizbowl bonus questions (1-2 sentences), and are worth, for the most part, 10 points each. Interruption of the questions for early guesses are not only allowed but also encouraged, as the game is based heavily on speed. Consultation is permitted at almost all times in Reach for the Top (see "Shootouts" and "Assigned" for exceptions). There are no [[negs]] or [[powers]] in Reach, although negs (-5) appeared in the 2007 Nationals for the first time.
  
 
==Categories==
 
==Categories==
  
 
===Snapstart/Snapout/Open===
 
===Snapstart/Snapout/Open===
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Forming the bulk of Reach for the Top questions, these consist of 1-2 sentence questions open to both teams and are worth ten points each. Snapout/Snapstart categories take place at the beginning and end of each round respectively, and the subject of each question varies (i.e. none are linked by a category). "Open" categories are, mostly, worth 40 points in total, and consist of 4 questions all linked by one similar category (e.g. "40 point open on architects"); it is open to both teams.  
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Forming the bulk of Reach for the Top questions, these consist of 1-2 sentence questions open to both teams and are worth ten points each. Snapout/Snapstart categories take place at the beginning and end of each round, respectively, and the subject of each question varies (i.e. none are linked by a category). "Open" questions are 2-4 questions (20-40 points) that are linked by a similar category (e.g. "40 point open on architects") and are open to both teams.  
  
 
==="20 Point Special"===
 
==="20 Point Special"===
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Like an open question (see last category), but the answer often requires 2 answers in one (e.g. Q: Name both years in which a player's strike or owner's lockout was responsible for the cancellation of some or all of the games in an NHL season. A: 1994-95 and 2004-05 [sic] and 2012-13) In other cases, the 20 point special can require one very long answer, for example, the provincial motto of Newfoundland, ''Quaerite primum regnum Dei''
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Like an open question (see last category), but the answer often requires 2 answers in one (e.g. Q: Name both years in which a player's strike or owner's lockout was responsible for the cancellation of some or all of the games in an NHL season. A: 1994-95 and 2004-05 [sic] and 2012-13). Rarely, the 20 point special can require one very long answer, for example, the provincial motto of Newfoundland, ''Quaerite primum regnum Dei''.
  
 
===Shootout===
 
===Shootout===
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A maximum of 12 questions are posed in this category. Once one player has answered a question correctly, they may no longer answer any questions. This player is now "out". Once one team has every one of its 4 players "out", they gain 40 points, and the other team gains 0. Consultation is forbidden at all times in this category. Concerns that have arisen with this category include A) 12 questions are needed to generate 40 points and B) Both teams can have 3 players out with one question left, which one team may barely answer correctly on speed, giving them all 40 points, and thus a very important swing on a very little difference between teams.
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A maximum of 12 questions are posed in this category. Once one player has answered a question correctly, they may no longer answer any questions. This player is now "out". Once one team has every one of its 4 players "out", they gain 40 points, and the other team gains 0. Consultation is forbidden at all times in this category. Shootouts are typically placed near the end of a match just before the final set of snappers.
  
 
===Chain Snappers===
 
===Chain Snappers===
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===Who am I/What am I===
 
===Who am I/What am I===
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Who am I/What am I questions consist of four clues with decreasing point value, beginning with a (usually vague) opening question. If answered correctly on this question, that team gains 40 points. If neither team guesses correctly, the answer is not read, and a slightly less ambiguous clue worth 30 points is read. This continues for two more questions (worth 20 and 10 points respectively), until, if no team is able to give the correct answer, the answer is read. Unlike [[Good Quizbowl]], the first clue does not provide only one possible answer. The 40-point question is often described as being written as though "an expert in that field" would be unable to be absolutely sure of the correct answer, and as a result, can often trigger highly inaccurate guesses, or in the case of non-competitive teams, non-sensical answers which are made to incite laughs and in doing so, delay the game. The 40-point clue can vary in difficulty from completely, improbably difficult, (almost to the a point where one questions the point of it; e.g. "This country is located in Europe." or "He was born in 1685.") to reasonably difficult.  
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Who am I/What am I (WAI) questions consist of four clues that refer to a single answer where the clues are intended to be [[pyramidal]]. A correct answer on the first clue gives a team 40 points, a correct answer on the second clue gives a team 30 points, and so on. Teams are allowed to guess on each of the four clues. WAIs often used to feature non-unique clues and non-pyramidal clue ordering, although this has substantially diminished in recent years. However, the ability of teams to guess on each clue can still lead to transparency issues even on well-written questions.
  
 
===Assigned===
 
===Assigned===
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Worth 80 points in total, this category consists of questions posed to specific individuals. One team, designated "Team A", will have each of its team members asked one question. If answered incorrectly, the player sitting directly across from that player will have an opportunity to answer that question. Once team A has had all of its players asked a question, team B's players are then asked questions one-by-one in a similar fashion. All of the questions relate to one category (e.g. European national capitals). Consultation is forbidden.
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Worth 80 points in total, assigned questions are posed to specific individuals. One team, designated "Team A", will have each of its team members asked one question. If answered incorrectly, the player sitting directly across from that player will have an opportunity to answer that question. Once team A has had all of its players asked a question, team B's players are then asked questions one-by-one in a similar fashion. All of the questions relate to one category (e.g. European national capitals). Consultation is forbidden.
  
 
===Team Questions===
 
===Team Questions===
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These questions work similarly to tossup/bonus questions. One question is posed to both teams. The team that correctly answers the question has an opportunity to answer three more questions. The only differences between that and quizbowl are that the "tossup" question is usually very short and very easy and the bonus questions (actually called bonus) are related in topic to the "tossup" question.
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Team questions work similarly to quizbowl tossup/bonus questions. One "scramble" question is posed to both teams. The team that correctly answers the scramble has an opportunity to answer three more questions on a related topic.
 +
 
 +
===Relay===
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Relay questions are four questions on a specific topic, intended to be increasing in difficulty, that are posed to only one team. If a team answers a question incorrectly, they forfeit the ability to answer any remaining questions. The first three questions are worth 10 points each and the fourth question is worth 20 points.
  
 
===List===
 
===List===
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Worth 50 points, this category involves teams alternating in turns to complete a list.  Both teams have an opportunity to buzzz in for the first answer. After each question is answered correctly the other team has an opportunity to give an answer. Once a team gets a question wrong, they may no longer answer.
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Worth 50 points, this category involves teams alternating in turns to complete a list.  Both teams have an opportunity to buzz in for the first answer. After each question is answered correctly the other team has an opportunity to give an answer. Once a team gets a question wrong, they may no longer answer any further questions. This question format has largely been discontinued.
 
e.g. List all of the professional teams that Wayne Gretzky played for.
 
e.g. List all of the professional teams that Wayne Gretzky played for.
 
Team A (buzzes in): "Edmonton Oilers" - Correct
 
Team A (buzzes in): "Edmonton Oilers" - Correct
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==Canadian Tournament Play==
 
==Canadian Tournament Play==
  
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The modern Reach for the Top season begins with SchoolReach - regional leagues playing in classrooms. For most provinces, a "region" encompasses the entire province, while BC and Ontario are divided into smaller regions either for league play (in BC) or to serve as qualifiers for a provincial tournament (in Ontario).  A few provinces have their playoff matches televised.  The territories, Saskatchewan, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador do not currently have provincial tournaments; any schools from those regions may participate in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, respectively.
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The modern Reach for the Top season begins with SchoolReach - regional leagues playing in classrooms. Teams much purchase a subscription to participate in events during the school year, and the subscription fee is generally considered to be high for the number of questions a team hears. For most provinces, a "region" encompasses the entire province, while BC and Ontario are divided into smaller regions either for league play (in BC) or to serve as qualifiers for a provincial tournament (in Ontario).  A few provinces have their playoff matches televised.  The territories, Saskatchewan, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador do not currently have provincial tournaments; any schools from those regions may participate in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, respectively.
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Depending on participation levels, provincial tournaments will qualify either one or two teams to the national tournament, held for the past several years in Edmonton.  The national tournament consists of an in-classroom round-robin, followed by televised playoffs.
 
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Most regions offer an "Intermediate" division tournament open to freshmen and sophomores, but there is no framework for an Intermediate national tournament.  "Intermediate" would likely be higher than a "Junior" division (presumably for middle school), but a middle school tournament does not exist.  Reach attempted to start a university tournament in the early 2000s, but some [[NAQT]] tournaments had already taken root at the time.
 
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There are a few Reach (or Reach-style) tournaments held during the year that are independent of the qualification process to Nationals.  New Brunswick has 5-6 per year around the province, Toronto has had a few in recent years, and [[Lisgar]] CI held a tournament in Ottawa in 2007.  Nevertheless, the number of tournaments is much smaller than availability in several US regions.
 
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<!--taking out unsubstantiated complaints until they can be verified:  schools are "obliged" to play Reach??? -->
 
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<!-- Active Canadian trivia teams are plagued and frustrated by the lack of Reach tournaments in Canada. In fact, in Ontario and the rest of Canada, the Reach for the Top season does not officially start until the end of February, when the first round of regional qualifiers begin. After that, there is in the bigger "leagues" (although this term is loose-fitting) a regional round #2, followed by provincials, followed by nationals.
 
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Unfortunately for most, only a fraction of teams gain entrance to provincials, and an even smaller fraction gain entrance into nationals (16 teams out of over 500). To put this in perspective, out of over 210 teams in the province of Ontario, only 2 are sent to the national tournament, hence the reason that [[Lisgar]] Collegiate, despite winning every Canadian quizbowl event and finishing in 18th place after the preliminaries at the [[2007 NAQT HSNCT]], had not qualified for nationals until 2008.
 
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Despite this lack of competition, there have been little or no winds of change regarding that fact. Few schools have made an effort to host tournaments, and the Reach for the Top organization has shown little motivation to take on any hosting before February. What makes this problem worse is that the organization does not advertise or provide readily-available information for hosting tournaments. As a result, few schools are even aware that they can host tournaments, which means that, to many schools, this lack of competition does not seem out of the ordinary.
 
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Part of this fact can be contributed to the "Canadiana" aspect of Reach for the Top. Because of the history and cultural engrainment of Reach for the Top in Canadian culture (the show has been around for decades, it was parodied on SCTV by future star Eugene Levy, and the majority of Canadian adults either played or knew someone who played Reach in high school), many schools seem comfortable with the fact that the season starts and ends after 1-2 tournaments in the spring, as they cling to the mostly fruitless hope that they may, someday, win a national title or at least appear on television. This acceptance is partially responsible for most schools feeling 1-2 tournaments is not out of the ordinary. Additionally, because of this Canadian cultural engrainment, some pro-Reach individuals actively oppose any deviation from the current system, including participation in quizbowl, again, hindering an increase in the amount of competition.
 
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Perhaps an advantage of the cultural engrainment, however, is that the majority of secondary schools in Canada feel obliged to field a Reach team of some sort, thereby increasing the size of the regional qualifier tournaments. Unfortunately, this does not apply to all areas of the country, as some provinces do not participate in Reach for the Top at all. In Quebec, as a result of the few anglophone schools, there are only 8 Reach for the Top teams in that province. The francophone schools play a similar format called "Genies en Herbes" (young geniuses).
 
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Because of this, the more active teams in Canada must often find additional competition. Recently, activity has increased in the Ottawa area, as a result of the [[University of Ottawa]], as well as [[Merivale|Merivale High Schoool]], [[Gananoque Secondary School]] and Lisgar Collegiate, the latter of which hosted one of the only "pre-season" Reach for the Top tournaments in Canada on December 1st, when it
 
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organized the 07 [[Lisgar Open]]. -->
 
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==Rule 1 Issues==
 
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Rule #1 of Reach for the Top states:
 
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"Any student who is 19 or under at the ''beginning'' of the school year and has been continuously enrolled in a Secondary School is eligible to play both SCHOOLREACH and REACH FOR THE TOP."
 
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This rule originally accommodated the 5-year high school system in Ontario, which ended with students entering in 1999.  This rule has since not changed, even with Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador having 3-year high schools.  As such, some players and teams have exploited this loophole to various degrees of success:
 
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* Quebec's league was established in the 2001-02 season.  CEGEPs, which have high school graduates, are allowed to compete under the rule, and a CEGEP represents Quebec at Nationals nearly every year.  Royal West Academy, a high school, broke this trend by qualifying for Nationals in 2008.
 
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−
* [[Andy Saunders]] played Reach For The Top for six seasons in high school due to Rule #1.
 
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−
* A player from [[Leaside]] celebrated his 19th birthday at the Ontario provincial tournament his team ended up winning in 2005.  They failed to win Nationals, however.
 
−
 
 
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* The captain of [[2004 St. George's]] was in his fifth year of Reach, and won the national championship.  What was particularly ironic was the fact that the coach was quite vocal about fifth-year Ontario teams winning Nationals throughout the 1990s.
 
−
 
 
−
It should be noted that several Ontario teams have managed to win the national championships in the 4-year system.
 
−
 
 
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==Championship Disputes==
 
  
−
Since the conversion from a CBC program to SchoolReach, there have been incidents that have left a national title in dispute by some parties:
+
Provincial tournaments will qualify either one, two, or three teams to the national tournament, held for the past several years in Toronto. The national tournament typically consists of a full round-robin between 16 teams, followed by single-elimination playoffs. There is some controversy over the fact that only three teams have qualified from Ontario in recent years (the same as from BC and Alberta) despite Ontario having many more good teams than any other province. This has led to the unusual situation where the Ontario provincial championships is arguably a more difficult tournament to place well at than the national championship.
  
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*[[1989 Tagwi]]:  Tagwi won an early match because of a (possibly) incorrect ruling over the ingredients of borscht.  The team got screwed over in the end, though.  They never got a trophy because of a dispute between Reach and the old CBC champions, and their scheduled exhibition match with the [[NAC]] champions was cancelled because a party in the US (the team? the TV crew? Chip Beall?) didn't want to travel to Canada.
+
Most regions offer an "Intermediate" division tournament open to students in grades 8-10, but there is no Intermediate national tournament (although BC has an Intermediate provincial championship). Reach attempted to start a university tournament in the early 2000s, but some [[NAQT]] tournaments had already taken root at the time.
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*[[1995 Fredericton]]:  In the aftermath of issues surrounding the [[1995 Bell]] team, a team from [[Lisgar]] that won the zone match to earn a berth in provincials never got the opportunity to play.  How well the Lisgar team would have fared is now only speculative.
 
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*[[2008 Lisgar]]:  Down by 5 points, the runner-up team from [[UTS]] claimed they buzzed in at the end of the game before the time alarm went off.  It had to go to a video review, and Reach judged in favour of Lisgar.  A small edit war erupted on Wikipedia between anonymous Toronto IPs and quizbowlers apparently "sympathetic" to Lisgar over how the championship should be listed in the article.
 
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*[[2009 London Central]]: London Central's opponents in the finals from Kennebecasis were not informed by either Reach For The Top or TVO that there would be a change in format for the final game until minutes before the game began. The team from Kennebecasis had also never played using TVOs format (which eliminates the shootout and includes relatively easy questions among other changes) before. The London Central team had played using TVOs format two weeks earlier for the Ontario Provincials, giving them an advantage for the finals. The national tournament was also notable for the recycling of several questions during the round robin portion which could have also affected the outcome of the tournament in terms of seeding the teams for the playoffs.
 
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==Notable Participants==
 
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As a long-standing and highly-regarded establishment in Canada, several people have participated during their high school years and gone on to great success.  A list of notable former players, coaches, and Reach personnel follows (names in '''bold''' won the national championship):
 
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===Politics===
 
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* Kim Campbell - Prime Minister of Canada (1993)
 
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* Mark Carney - Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008- )
 
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* Grant Devine - Premier of Saskatchewan (1982-91)
 
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* [[Stephen Harper]] - Prime Minister of Canada (2006- )
 
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* '''[[Ken Kowalski]]''' - Speaker of the Legislature of Alberta (1997- )
 
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* [[Bernard Lord]] - Premier of New Brunswick (1999-2006)
 
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* Stuart Smith - Leader of the Opposition of Ontario (1977-81)
 
  
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===Media===
+
There is a growing number of Reach (or Reach-style) tournaments held during the year that are independent of the Reach for the Top organization. In recent years, [[Lisgar]], [[UTS]], Martingrove, and [[UBC]] have all produced housewrites which have been mirrored across Canada. However, until recently few of these tournaments existed and formal tournaments in many regions were largely confined to provincial championships. The lack of a tradition of playing tournaments outside of provincial championships has also resulted in low attendance at some of these housewrites.
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* '''Howard Green''' - Business News Network host, former CBC documentarian
 
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*'''Tom Harrington''' - CBC Sports reporter
 
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* Shelagh Rogers - CBC Radio and TVO personality
 
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* Jan Tennant - Anchor of CBC's ''The National'' and ''Saturday Evening News'' (1970s)
 
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* Alex Trebek - Host of [[Jeopardy!]] ( [http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/television/clips/15279/ A video of an exhibition match between Reach and Genies players] )
 
  
−
===Other===
+
More so than many similar competitions, Reach for the Top is a fairly famous cultural institution in Canada due to its longtime status as a major television show, although it has been many years since it was regularly broadcast. This history may make some schools more willing to provide resources to create a Reach for the Top team, although there are many parts of the country with no teams whatsoever.
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* Malcolm Gladwell - Author of the bestsellers ''The Tipping Point'', ''Blink'', and ''Outliers''
 
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* '''Bernard Hibbitts''' - Law professor at the University of Pittsburgh [http://faculty.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/profile.htm]; founder of JURIST news service
 
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* Dr. '''Sethu Reddy''' - Former professor of medicine at Dalhousie & Harvard; chairman at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio
 
  
 
==National Champions==
 
==National Champions==
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| Montreal, QC
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| Winnipeg, MB
 
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| Montreal, QC
 
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| Vancouver, BC
 
|  
 
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| [[Kelvin]]
 
| [[Kelvin]]
 
| MB
 
| MB
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|
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| St. John's, NL
 
|  
 
|  
 
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|-
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| Edmonton, AB
 
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| Halifax, NS
 
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|-
 
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| Winnipeg, MB
 
|  
 
|  
 
|-
 
|-
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|  
 
|  
 
|  
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|
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| Vancouver, BC
 
|  
 
|  
 
|-
 
|-
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| [[Central Peel]]
 
| [[Central Peel]]
 
| ON
 
| ON
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|  
+
| [[O'Leary]]
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|  
+
| AB
−
| Thunder Bay, ON
+
| Windsor, ON
 
|  
 
|  
 
|-
 
|-
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| [[1995 Fredericton|Fredericton]]
 
| [[1995 Fredericton|Fredericton]]
 
| NB
 
| NB
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|  
+
| [[1995 Saunders|Saunders]]
−
|
+
| ON
 
| Toronto, ON
 
| Toronto, ON
 
|  
 
|  
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| [[1996 Saunders|Saunders]] (2)
 
| [[1996 Saunders|Saunders]] (2)
 
| ON
 
| ON
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|  
+
| [[1996 Fredericton|Fredericton]]
−
|
+
| NB
 
| Toronto, ON
 
| Toronto, ON
 
| First two-time champion player:  [[Dave Thorsley]]
 
| First two-time champion player:  [[Dave Thorsley]]
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| [[1999 Frontenac|Frontenac]]
 
| [[1999 Frontenac|Frontenac]]
 
| ON
 
| ON
−
|  
+
| [[1999 Saunders|Saunders]]
−
|  
+
| ON
 
| Toronto, ON
 
| Toronto, ON
−
|  
+
| Frontenac's 600-410 win is highest-ever score in final match
 
|-
 
|-
 
| 2000
 
| 2000
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| NS
 
| NS
 
| Toronto, ON
 
| Toronto, ON
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| No games televised
+
|  
 
|-
 
|-
 
| [[2011 Reach for the Top Nationals|2011]]
 
| [[2011 Reach for the Top Nationals|2011]]
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| ON
 
| ON
 
| Toronto, ON
 
| Toronto, ON
−
| No games televised. Semifinals and Finals were played at Canada's Wonderland  
+
| Semifinals and Finals were played at Canada's Wonderland  
 
|-
 
|-
 
| [[2012 Reach for the Top Nationals|2012]]
 
| [[2012 Reach for the Top Nationals|2012]]
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| Toronto, ON
 
| Toronto, ON
 
|  
 
|  
 +
|-
 +
| [[2016 Reach for the Top Nationals|2016]]
 +
| [[Kennebecasis]] (3)
 +
| NB
 +
|[[Eric Hamber]]
 +
| BC
 +
| Toronto, ON
 +
|
 +
|-
 +
| [[2017 Reach for the Top Nationals|2017]]
 +
| [[Lisgar]] (3)
 +
| ON
 +
|[[UTS]]
 +
| ON
 +
| Toronto, ON
 +
|
 +
|-
 +
| [[2018 Reach for the Top Nationals|2018]]
 +
| [[UTS]] (5)
 +
| ON
 +
| [[London Central]]
 +
| ON
 +
| Toronto, ON 
 +
|
 +
|-
 +
| [[2019 Reach for the Top Nationals|2019]]
 +
| [[Westmount]]
 +
| ON
 +
| [[Lisgar]]
 +
| ON
 +
| Toronto, ON 
 +
|
 +
|-
 +
| 2021
 +
| [[Glebe]]
 +
| ON
 +
| [[UTS]]
 +
| ON
 +
| Online 
 +
| Tournament held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic
 +
|-
 +
| 2022
 +
| [[Glebe]]
 +
| ON
 +
| [[Lisgar]]
 +
| ON
 +
| Online 
 +
| Tournament held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic
 +
|-
 +
|2023
 +
| [[University of Toronto Schools]]
 +
| ON
 +
| [[The Renert School]]
 +
| AB
 +
| Online 
 +
| Tournament held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic
 +
|-
 +
|2024
 +
| [[University of Toronto Schools]]
 +
| ON
 +
| [[The Renert School]]
 +
| AB
 +
| Ottawa, ON
 +
| Tournament held in Ottawa for the first time at Glebe Collegiate Institute
 
|}
 
|}
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=== National Final Appearances ===
 
=== National Final Appearances ===
 
''Not all runners-up are confirmed''
 
''Not all runners-up are confirmed''
−
* '''Seven finals:''' [[UTS]]
+
* '''Ten finals:''' [[UTS]]
−
* '''Five finals:''' [[Kennebecasis]]
+
* '''Six finals:''' [[Kennebecasis]]
−
* '''Four finals:''' [[London Central]], [[St. George's]]
+
* '''Five finals:''' [[Lisgar]], [[London Central]]
−
* '''Three finals:''' [[Cobequid]], [[Dryden]], [[Gloucester]]
+
* '''Four finals:''' [[St. George's]], [[Saunders]]
−
* '''Two finals:''' [[Fredericton]], [[Hillcrest]], [[Kelvin]], [[Lisgar]], [[O'Leary]], [[Saunders]], [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]
+
* '''Three finals:''' [[Cobequid]], [[Dryden]], [[Fredericton]], [[Gloucester]], [[O'Leary]]
 +
* '''Two finals:''' [[Glebe]], [[Hillcrest]], [[Kelvin]], [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]
 +
 
 +
==Notable Participants==
 +
 
 +
As a long-standing and highly-regarded establishment in Canada, several people have participated during their high school years and gone on to great success.  A list of notable former players, coaches, and Reach personnel follows (names in '''bold''' won the national championship):
 +
 
 +
===Politics===
 +
* Kim Campbell - Prime Minister of Canada (1993)
 +
* Mark Carney - Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008- )
 +
* Grant Devine - Premier of Saskatchewan (1982-91)
 +
* [[Stephen Harper]] - Prime Minister of Canada (2006- )
 +
* '''[[Ken Kowalski]]''' - Speaker of the Legislature of Alberta (1997- )
 +
* [[Bernard Lord]] - Premier of New Brunswick (1999-2006)
 +
* Stuart Smith - Leader of the Opposition of Ontario (1977-81)
 +
 
 +
===Media===
 +
* '''Howard Green''' - Business News Network host, former CBC documentarian
 +
*'''Tom Harrington''' - CBC Sports reporter
 +
* Shelagh Rogers - CBC Radio and TVO personality
 +
* Jan Tennant - Anchor of CBC's ''The National'' and ''Saturday Evening News'' (1970s)
 +
* Alex Trebek - Host of [[Jeopardy!]] ( [http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/television/clips/15279/ A video of an exhibition match between Reach and Genies players] )
 +
 
 +
===Other===
 +
* Malcolm Gladwell - Author of the bestsellers ''The Tipping Point'', ''Blink'', and ''Outliers''
 +
* '''Bernard Hibbitts''' - Law professor at the University of Pittsburgh [http://faculty.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/profile.htm]; founder of JURIST news service
 +
* Dr. '''Sethu Reddy''' - Former professor of medicine at Dalhousie & Harvard; chairman at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio
 +
 
 +
==Historical Controversies==
 +
 
 +
===Championship Disputes===
 +
 
 +
Since the conversion from a CBC program to SchoolReach, there have been incidents that have left a national title in dispute by some parties:
 +
 
 +
*[[1989 Tagwi]]:  Tagwi won an early match because of a (possibly) incorrect ruling over the ingredients of borscht.  The team got screwed over in the end, though.  They never got a trophy because of a dispute between Reach and the old CBC champions, and their scheduled exhibition match with the [[NAC]] champions was cancelled because a party in the US (the team? the TV crew? Chip Beall?) didn't want to travel to Canada.
 +
 
 +
*[[1995 Fredericton]]:  In the aftermath of issues surrounding the [[1995 Bell]] team, a team from [[Lisgar]] that won the zone match to earn a berth in provincials never got the opportunity to play.  How well the Lisgar team would have fared is now only speculative.
 +
 
 +
*[[2008 Lisgar]]:  Down by 5 points, the runner-up team from [[UTS]] claimed they buzzed in at the end of the game before the time alarm went off.  It had to go to a video review, and Reach judged in favour of Lisgar.  A small edit war erupted on Wikipedia between anonymous Toronto IPs and quizbowlers apparently "sympathetic" to Lisgar over how the championship should be listed in the article.
 +
 
 +
*[[2009 London Central]]: London Central's opponents in the finals from Kennebecasis were not informed by either Reach For The Top or TVO that there would be a change in format for the final game until minutes before the game began. The team from Kennebecasis had also never played using TVOs format (which eliminates the shootout and includes relatively easy questions among other changes) before. The London Central team had played using TVOs format two weeks earlier for the Ontario Provincials, giving them an advantage for the finals. The national tournament was also notable for the recycling of several questions during the round robin portion which could have also affected the outcome of the tournament in terms of seeding the teams for the playoffs.
 +
 
 +
===Rule 1 Issues===
 +
 
 +
Rule #1 of Reach for the Top states:
 +
 
 +
"Any student who is 19 or under at the ''beginning'' of the school year and has been continuously enrolled in a Secondary School is eligible to play both SCHOOLREACH and REACH FOR THE TOP."
 +
 
 +
This rule originally accommodated the 5-year high school system in Ontario, which ended with students entering in 1999.  This rule has since not changed, even with Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador having 3-year high schools.  As such, some players and teams have exploited this loophole to various degrees of success:
 +
 
 +
* Quebec's league was established in the 2001-02 season.  CEGEPs, which have high school graduates, are allowed to compete under the rule (although only students who are in their first year, which corresponds to grade 12, have played in recent years).  Royal West Academy, a high school, broke this trend by qualifying for Nationals in 2008.
 +
 
 +
* [[Andy Saunders]] played Reach For The Top for six seasons in high school due to Rule #1.
 +
 
 +
* A player from [[Leaside]] celebrated his 19th birthday at the Ontario provincial tournament his team ended up winning in 2005.  They failed to win Nationals, however.
 +
 
 +
It should be noted that several Ontario teams have managed to win the national championships in the 4-year system. It does not appear that any successful teams have benefited from this rule in recent years.
  
 
==See Also==
 
==See Also==

Latest revision as of 15:40, 17 June 2024

Reach for the Top is the dominant high school quiz competition in Canada. It is composed largely of speed-check questions, has no explicit academic focus, and is usually considered to be a separate game from quizbowl.

Francophone high school students usually play Genies en herbe, while university students play in the quizbowl format.

Gameplay

The majority of questions in Reach for the Top are approximately the length of quizbowl bonus questions (1-2 sentences), and are worth, for the most part, 10 points each. Interruption of the questions for early guesses are not only allowed but also encouraged, as the game is based heavily on speed. Consultation is permitted at almost all times in Reach for the Top (see "Shootouts" and "Assigned" for exceptions). There are no negs or powers in Reach, although negs (-5) appeared in the 2007 Nationals for the first time.

Categories

Snapstart/Snapout/Open

Forming the bulk of Reach for the Top questions, these consist of 1-2 sentence questions open to both teams and are worth ten points each. Snapout/Snapstart categories take place at the beginning and end of each round, respectively, and the subject of each question varies (i.e. none are linked by a category). "Open" questions are 2-4 questions (20-40 points) that are linked by a similar category (e.g. "40 point open on architects") and are open to both teams.

"20 Point Special"

Like an open question (see last category), but the answer often requires 2 answers in one (e.g. Q: Name both years in which a player's strike or owner's lockout was responsible for the cancellation of some or all of the games in an NHL season. A: 1994-95 and 2004-05 [sic] and 2012-13). Rarely, the 20 point special can require one very long answer, for example, the provincial motto of Newfoundland, Quaerite primum regnum Dei.

Shootout

A maximum of 12 questions are posed in this category. Once one player has answered a question correctly, they may no longer answer any questions. This player is now "out". Once one team has every one of its 4 players "out", they gain 40 points, and the other team gains 0. Consultation is forbidden at all times in this category. Shootouts are typically placed near the end of a match just before the final set of snappers.

Chain Snappers

Similar to a snapstart/snapout, chain snappers involve the answer to one question forming the topic of the succeeding question. As a result, the best and fastest teams can often answer the next question with only 3-4 words read.

Who am I/What am I

Who am I/What am I (WAI) questions consist of four clues that refer to a single answer where the clues are intended to be pyramidal. A correct answer on the first clue gives a team 40 points, a correct answer on the second clue gives a team 30 points, and so on. Teams are allowed to guess on each of the four clues. WAIs often used to feature non-unique clues and non-pyramidal clue ordering, although this has substantially diminished in recent years. However, the ability of teams to guess on each clue can still lead to transparency issues even on well-written questions.

Assigned

Worth 80 points in total, assigned questions are posed to specific individuals. One team, designated "Team A", will have each of its team members asked one question. If answered incorrectly, the player sitting directly across from that player will have an opportunity to answer that question. Once team A has had all of its players asked a question, team B's players are then asked questions one-by-one in a similar fashion. All of the questions relate to one category (e.g. European national capitals). Consultation is forbidden.

Team Questions

Team questions work similarly to quizbowl tossup/bonus questions. One "scramble" question is posed to both teams. The team that correctly answers the scramble has an opportunity to answer three more questions on a related topic.

Relay

Relay questions are four questions on a specific topic, intended to be increasing in difficulty, that are posed to only one team. If a team answers a question incorrectly, they forfeit the ability to answer any remaining questions. The first three questions are worth 10 points each and the fourth question is worth 20 points.

List

Worth 50 points, this category involves teams alternating in turns to complete a list. Both teams have an opportunity to buzz in for the first answer. After each question is answered correctly the other team has an opportunity to give an answer. Once a team gets a question wrong, they may no longer answer any further questions. This question format has largely been discontinued. e.g. List all of the professional teams that Wayne Gretzky played for. Team A (buzzes in): "Edmonton Oilers" - Correct Team B: "New York Rangers" - Correct Team A: "St. Louis Blues" - Correct Team B: "Philadelphia Flyers" - Incorrect Team A: "Los Angeles Kings & Indianapolis Racers" - Correct x 2

Canadian Tournament Play

The modern Reach for the Top season begins with SchoolReach - regional leagues playing in classrooms. Teams much purchase a subscription to participate in events during the school year, and the subscription fee is generally considered to be high for the number of questions a team hears. For most provinces, a "region" encompasses the entire province, while BC and Ontario are divided into smaller regions either for league play (in BC) or to serve as qualifiers for a provincial tournament (in Ontario). A few provinces have their playoff matches televised. The territories, Saskatchewan, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador do not currently have provincial tournaments; any schools from those regions may participate in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, respectively.

Provincial tournaments will qualify either one, two, or three teams to the national tournament, held for the past several years in Toronto. The national tournament typically consists of a full round-robin between 16 teams, followed by single-elimination playoffs. There is some controversy over the fact that only three teams have qualified from Ontario in recent years (the same as from BC and Alberta) despite Ontario having many more good teams than any other province. This has led to the unusual situation where the Ontario provincial championships is arguably a more difficult tournament to place well at than the national championship.

Most regions offer an "Intermediate" division tournament open to students in grades 8-10, but there is no Intermediate national tournament (although BC has an Intermediate provincial championship). Reach attempted to start a university tournament in the early 2000s, but some NAQT tournaments had already taken root at the time.

There is a growing number of Reach (or Reach-style) tournaments held during the year that are independent of the Reach for the Top organization. In recent years, Lisgar, UTS, Martingrove, and UBC have all produced housewrites which have been mirrored across Canada. However, until recently few of these tournaments existed and formal tournaments in many regions were largely confined to provincial championships. The lack of a tradition of playing tournaments outside of provincial championships has also resulted in low attendance at some of these housewrites.

More so than many similar competitions, Reach for the Top is a fairly famous cultural institution in Canada due to its longtime status as a major television show, although it has been many years since it was regularly broadcast. This history may make some schools more willing to provide resources to create a Reach for the Top team, although there are many parts of the country with no teams whatsoever.

National Champions

Reach for the Top had televised matches as early as 1961, but no national champions were declared until 1966. There were no national champions from 1986-88.

Year Champion Prov Runner-up Prov Location Notes
1966 Vincent Massey ON Winnipeg, MB
1967 Rideau ON Montreal, QC
1968 Oak Bay BC Vancouver, BC
1969 Neil McNeil ON Kelvin MB St. John's, NL
1970 Kelvin MB Edmonton, AB
1971 River East MB Halifax, NS
1972 O'Leary AB Winnipeg, MB
1973 Lorne Jenkins AB QC Ottawa, ON
1974 Gonzaga NL O'Leary AB St. John's, NL Only NL champion
1975 Queen Elizabeth NS Vancouver, BC
1976 Central Peel ON O'Leary AB Windsor, ON
1977 Glenlawn MB Dryden ON Calgary, AB
1978 Vincent Massey (2) ON Dryden ON Charlottetown, PE First two-time champions; defeated 1978 Richview
1979 Banting Memorial ON Dryden ON Montreal, QC
1980 Hillcrest ON Sir Winston Churchill QC Ottawa, ON
1981 Cobequid NS Corner Brook, NL
1982 Dakota MB Hillcrest ON Winnipeg, MB
1983 Roland Michener ON Toronto, ON
1984 Deloraine MB Moncton NB Regina, SK
1985 Kate Andrews AB Wagar QC Moncton, NB Last year on CBC
1989 Tagwi ON Mount Douglas BC Winnipeg, MB Revival as "Schoolreach"
1990 Memorial NS
1991 St. George's BC St. Albert AB
1992 Saunders ON Ancaster ON London, ON
1993 St. Joseph's ON William E. Hay AB London, ON
1994 Bell ON Fredericton NB London, ON
1995 Fredericton NB Saunders ON Toronto, ON
1996 Saunders (2) ON Fredericton NB Toronto, ON First two-time champion player: Dave Thorsley
1997 Earl Haig ON Gloucester ON Vancouver, BC
1998 Gloucester ON Kingston CVI ON Halifax, NS
1999 Frontenac ON Saunders ON Toronto, ON Frontenac's 600-410 win is highest-ever score in final match
2000 Merivale ON Ridley ON Edmonton, AB National finals return to TV
2001 Gloucester (2) ON UTS ON Edmonton, AB
2002 UTS ON St. George's BC Edmonton, AB
2003 UTS (2) ON Dawson QC Edmonton, AB First back-to-back championships
2004 St. George's (2) BC Leaside ON Edmonton, AB
2005 Cobequid (2) NS St. George's BC Edmonton, AB First champion of both CBC and SchoolReach eras
2006 Woburn ON UTS ON Edmonton, AB
2007 London Central ON Kennebecasis NB Edmonton, AB
2008 Lisgar ON UTS ON Edmonton, AB
2009 London Central (2) ON Kennebecasis NB Toronto, ON Excluding the final game, the National Finals left TV.
2010 Kennebecasis NB Cobequid NS Toronto, ON
2011 Kennebecasis (2) NB Centennial ON Toronto, ON Semifinals and Finals were played at Canada's Wonderland
2012 UTS (3) ON London Central ON Toronto, ON
2013 UTS (4) ON Bellerose AB Toronto, ON
2014 Martingrove ON London Central ON Toronto, ON
2015 Lisgar (2) ON Kennebecasis NB Toronto, ON
2016 Kennebecasis (3) NB Eric Hamber BC Toronto, ON
2017 Lisgar (3) ON UTS ON Toronto, ON
2018 UTS (5) ON London Central ON Toronto, ON
2019 Westmount ON Lisgar ON Toronto, ON
2021 Glebe ON UTS ON Online Tournament held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2022 Glebe ON Lisgar ON Online Tournament held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2023 University of Toronto Schools ON The Renert School AB Online Tournament held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2024 University of Toronto Schools ON The Renert School AB Ottawa, ON Tournament held in Ottawa for the first time at Glebe Collegiate Institute

National Final Appearances

Not all runners-up are confirmed

Notable Participants

As a long-standing and highly-regarded establishment in Canada, several people have participated during their high school years and gone on to great success. A list of notable former players, coaches, and Reach personnel follows (names in bold won the national championship):

Politics

  • Kim Campbell - Prime Minister of Canada (1993)
  • Mark Carney - Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008- )
  • Grant Devine - Premier of Saskatchewan (1982-91)
  • Stephen Harper - Prime Minister of Canada (2006- )
  • Ken Kowalski - Speaker of the Legislature of Alberta (1997- )
  • Bernard Lord - Premier of New Brunswick (1999-2006)
  • Stuart Smith - Leader of the Opposition of Ontario (1977-81)

Media

Other

  • Malcolm Gladwell - Author of the bestsellers The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers
  • Bernard Hibbitts - Law professor at the University of Pittsburgh [1]; founder of JURIST news service
  • Dr. Sethu Reddy - Former professor of medicine at Dalhousie & Harvard; chairman at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio

Historical Controversies

Championship Disputes

Since the conversion from a CBC program to SchoolReach, there have been incidents that have left a national title in dispute by some parties:

  • 1989 Tagwi: Tagwi won an early match because of a (possibly) incorrect ruling over the ingredients of borscht. The team got screwed over in the end, though. They never got a trophy because of a dispute between Reach and the old CBC champions, and their scheduled exhibition match with the NAC champions was cancelled because a party in the US (the team? the TV crew? Chip Beall?) didn't want to travel to Canada.
  • 1995 Fredericton: In the aftermath of issues surrounding the 1995 Bell team, a team from Lisgar that won the zone match to earn a berth in provincials never got the opportunity to play. How well the Lisgar team would have fared is now only speculative.
  • 2008 Lisgar: Down by 5 points, the runner-up team from UTS claimed they buzzed in at the end of the game before the time alarm went off. It had to go to a video review, and Reach judged in favour of Lisgar. A small edit war erupted on Wikipedia between anonymous Toronto IPs and quizbowlers apparently "sympathetic" to Lisgar over how the championship should be listed in the article.
  • 2009 London Central: London Central's opponents in the finals from Kennebecasis were not informed by either Reach For The Top or TVO that there would be a change in format for the final game until minutes before the game began. The team from Kennebecasis had also never played using TVOs format (which eliminates the shootout and includes relatively easy questions among other changes) before. The London Central team had played using TVOs format two weeks earlier for the Ontario Provincials, giving them an advantage for the finals. The national tournament was also notable for the recycling of several questions during the round robin portion which could have also affected the outcome of the tournament in terms of seeding the teams for the playoffs.

Rule 1 Issues

Rule #1 of Reach for the Top states:

"Any student who is 19 or under at the beginning of the school year and has been continuously enrolled in a Secondary School is eligible to play both SCHOOLREACH and REACH FOR THE TOP."

This rule originally accommodated the 5-year high school system in Ontario, which ended with students entering in 1999. This rule has since not changed, even with Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador having 3-year high schools. As such, some players and teams have exploited this loophole to various degrees of success:

  • Quebec's league was established in the 2001-02 season. CEGEPs, which have high school graduates, are allowed to compete under the rule (although only students who are in their first year, which corresponds to grade 12, have played in recent years). Royal West Academy, a high school, broke this trend by qualifying for Nationals in 2008.
  • Andy Saunders played Reach For The Top for six seasons in high school due to Rule #1.
  • A player from Leaside celebrated his 19th birthday at the Ontario provincial tournament his team ended up winning in 2005. They failed to win Nationals, however.

It should be noted that several Ontario teams have managed to win the national championships in the 4-year system. It does not appear that any successful teams have benefited from this rule in recent years.

See Also

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