HSNCT

The High School National Championship Tournament (HSNCT) is a premier national tournament run by NAQT every May, typically over Memorial Day weekend. The tournament is a two-day affair, with preliminary rounds Saturday and playoff rounds Sunday. There are also optional scrimmage rounds on the Friday before.

The HSNCT currently draws the largest field of any national tournament. In 2017 it attracted 304 high school teams from 235 different schools. The most common way to qualify for the HSNCT is to finish in the top 15% at a tournament using NAQT questions during the season, though there are some other ways.

Match Format

Recent HSNCT tournament sets have contained 26 or 27 packets, each of 24 tossups and 24 bonuses. The first two HSNCTs used NAQT's second-generation format of 28 tossups and 26 bonuses, with the possibility of tossups being read for tossup points only and no bonus potential if the end of the packet was reached. From 2001 to 2010, the packets had 26 tossups and 26 bonuses each.

Its distribution can be found here. Matches use NAQT rules, including nine-minute halves.

The 2009 HSNCT was the last to use math calculation tossups; since 2010, these have been removed from the distribution. Most HSNCT packets now contain exactly one computation bonus (and never more than one). Packets also contain non-computational math questions.

Tournament Format

In 2018 a new tournament format was introduced in which teams played seven power-matched preliminary games Saturday morning or seven power-matched preliminary games Saturday afternoon (with no byes), then played three more preliminary games in six rounds (and thus had three byes) on Sunday morning, followed by double-elimination playoffs on Sunday afternoon and evening, with 6-4 teams starting in the losers' bracket and a cross-bracketed match near the end of the playoffs to accelerate the double-elimination.

From 2003 to 2017, the format was essentially ten power-matched preliminary games over more than ten rounds on Saturday (so teams had several byes), followed by double-elimination playoffs on Sunday, sometimes with 6-4 teams starting in the losers' bracket, and a cross-bracketed match near the end of the playoffs to accelerate the double-elimination.

The 1999 and 2002 tournaments used swiss-pair prelims followed by a round-robin playoff bracket. The 2000 and 2001 tournaments used pre-scheduled prelims followed by the double-elim playoffs.

From 2001 to 2013, the HSNCT also recognized a Small School Champion. Schools fitting the criteria played as part of the regular tournament Saturday and Sunday. After they were eliminated from the regular tournament, they played in a separate set of playoff rounds that determined the Small School Champion. Since 2014 NAQT's Small School championship has instead been decided at a separate event.

Most years, select matches from the HSNCT are audio-recorded. In 2011 and 2012 some rounds were video-recorded by iHigh. Since about 2017 one match in each of the last few playoff rounds has been livestreamed.

Results

Year Champion Second Third Fourth Small School Champion Location Field Size 1999 Detroit Catholic Central Walton Brookwood A Edmond Memorial, North Kansas City, & Edmond Santa Fe not awarded Norman, OK 26 2000 State College A Governor's School A Eleanor Roosevelt Eisenhower not awarded Atlanta, GA 52 2001 Detroit Catholic Central Detroit Country Day State College A Riverdale not awarded Ann Arbor, MI 40 2002 St. John's Irmo Detroit Catholic Central Detroit Country Day Kent City Austin, TX 54 2003 Thomas Jefferson Dorman St. John's Walton Cutter Morning Star Myrtle Beach, SC 62 2004 Thomas Jefferson† Maggie Walker St. John's Detroit Catholic Central Cutter Morning Star Houston, TX 64 2005 Thomas Jefferson† Lakeside State College Solon Danville Chicago, IL 96 2006 Richard Montgomery State College Maggie Walker Detroit Catholic Central Danville Chicago, IL 128 2007 Maggie Walker State College Thomas Jefferson Dorman Danville Chicago, IL 160 2008 Thomas Jefferson Wilmington Charter Walt Whitman Dorman B Russell Chicago, IL 176 2009 Wilmington Charter Dorman A State College A Detroit Catholic Central Ottawa Hills Chicago, IL 192 2010 Maggie Walker State College A LASA A Bellarmine A South Range Chicago, IL 200 2011 State College A LASA A Bellarmine A Stevenson George Mason Atlanta, GA 224 2012 Bellarmine A Detroit Catholic Central A LASA A Centennial Beachwood Atlanta, GA 240 2013 LASA A Ladue A Loyola St. John's Macomb Atlanta, GA 256 2014 LASA A St. John's LASA B Ladue A not awarded Chicago, IL 272 2015 Arcadia A LASA A Detroit Catholic Central A IMSA not awarded Chicago, IL 272 2016 Hunter A Thomas Jefferson A Detroit Catholic Central A LASA A not awarded Dallas, TX 272 2017 Hunter A Detroit Catholic Central A Naperville North Thomas Jefferson A not awarded Atlanta, GA 304 2018 Plano West A Hunter A LASA A Thomas Jefferson A not awarded Atlanta, GA 352 2019 Beavercreek University Lab A Chattahoochee A Stevenson A not awarded Atlanta, GA 336 2020 cancelled due to COVID-19 2021 Barrington University Lab A Detroit Country Day A Thomas Jefferson A not awarded Online 224 2022 Detroit Catholic Central A Hunter A East Chapel Hill A Kinkaid A not awarded Atlanta, GA 274 2023 Barrington A Buffalo Grove Detroit Country Day A Hunter A not awarded Atlanta, GA 304 2024 Barrington A St. Mark's School of Texas Livingston A Buffalo Grove not awarded Atlanta, GA 320 †undefeated Notes The formats used between 2000 and 2016, inclusive, did not allow for fourth-place ties. The 1999 format produced a three-way tie noted above. The 2017 format could have produced a two-way tie for fourth, but didn't. The small school champion was named beginning in 2002, through a process of tangent playoffs at the HSNCT that lasted until 2013. Beginning in 2014, the NAQT Small School winner is named at the SSNCT. The HSNCT and the SSNCT were not held in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Medal count Team Championships Finals Appearances (Top 2) Top 3 Top 4 Arcadia 1 1 1 1 Barrington 3 3 3 3 Beavercreek 1 1 1 1 Bellarmine 1 1 2 3 Brookwood 0 0 1 1 Buffalo Grove 0 1 1 2 Centennial 0 0 0 1 Chattahoochee 0 0 1 1 Detroit Catholic Central 3 5 8 11 Detroit Country Day 0 1 4 3 Dorman 0 2 2 4 East Chapel Hill 0 0 1 1 Edmond Memorial 0 0 0 1 Edmond Santa Fe 0 0 0 1 Eisenhower 0 0 0 1 Eleanor Roosevelt 0 0 1 1 Hunter 2 4 4 5 IMSA 0 0 0 1 Irmo 0 1 1 1 Kinkaid 0 0 0 1 Ladue 0 1 1 2 Lakeside (WA) 0 1 1 1 LASA 2 4 8 9 Livingston 0 0 1 1 Loyola 0 0 1 1 Maggie Walker 2 4 5 5 Naperville North 0 0 1 1 North Kansas City 0 0 0 1 Plano West 1 1 1 1 Richard Montgomery 1 1 1 1 Riverdale 0 0 0 1 Solon 0 0 0 1 State College 2 5 8 8 Stevenson 0 0 0 2 St. John's 1 2 4 5 St. Mark's School of Texas 0 1 1 1 Thomas Jefferson 4 5 6 9 University Lab 0 2 2 2 Walton 0 1 1 2 Walt Whitman 0 0 1 1 Wilmington Charter 1 2 2 2 Links NAQT HSNCT website See also HSNCT Record Book PACE NSC, another high school national tournament National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC Tournaments Intercollegiate Championship Tournament · Community College Championship Tournament · Sectional Championship Tournaments (college)  · High School National Championship Tournament · Small School National Championship Tournament · Middle School National Championship Tournament · Individual Player National Championship Tournament Awards HS Team of the Week  · MS Team of the Week  · HS Player of the Week  · MS Player of the Week Members Seth Teitler (president) · Jonah Greenthal (operations) · Jeff Hoppes (communications) · Dwight Kidder (marketing) · Chad Kubicek (finances) · Nathan Murphy (logistics) · Jason Thompson (chief editor) · Emily Pike · Andrew Hart · Eric Bell · Joel Gluskin · Larissa Kelly · Andrew Yaphe · Bernadette Spencer · R. Robert Hentzel (retired) Members Emeriti Craig Barker · Eric Hillemann · Ken Jennings · Patrick Matthews · Kevin Olmstead · Julie Stahlhut Other Invitational Series · Middle School Series · Collegiate Novice Series · NAQT State Qualifiers · Buzzword