MSNCT

The Middle School National Championship Tournament, or MSNCT, is a championship tournament run by NAQT to determine the best middle school quizbowl team in the country. It debuted in 2011, with the first winners being Kealing Middle School.

This is a two-day tournament, though there are some scrimmages held the evening before the first day. On the first day of the tournament, a Saturday, each team plays eight matches. Teams that win at least five of their eight matches advance to the Sunday matches, which are double-elimination.

The Saturday matches used pools in 2011 and 2012, but the tournament switched to power-matching in 2013. The tournament format is now almost identical to that of HSNCT, but teams are guaranteed only eight matches instead of ten. The questions used are more difficult than regular NAQT Middle School Series sets but easier than Introductory Invitational Series sets. Following the 2018 MSNCT, a belief that the questions had been too easy relative to the field led NAQT to begin using harder questions similar to those of Invitational Series sets for playoff games.

NAQT also gives out individual awards for players who have heard at least 100 tossups after the eight preliminary rounds based on PPG. In 2015, the top 20 8th grade players were awarded the "All-Star" award and the top 5 seventh graders were awarded the "Rising Star" award.

A trend of a MSNCT's runner-up winning the next MSNCT's championship emerged starting in 2019 when Churchill A lost to Hunter A, and then won in 2021. As of 2024, this has continued for four MSNCTs in a row.

Year Champion Second Third Fourth Location Field Size Full Results 2011 Kealing A Barrington Station Longfellow Kealing B Hyatt Regency O'Hare, Rosemont, Illinois 35 [1] 2012 Kealing A Longfellow A Westminster A Longfellow B Hyatt Regency O'Hare 72 [2] 2013 Barrington Station A Kealing A Mesa Verde St. John's Hyatt Regency O'Hare 96 [3] 2014 Harmony Excellence-Houston St. Mark's Trickum Middle Winburn Hilton Atlanta, Georgia 128 [4] 2015 Kealing A T.H. Rogers A River Trail A Middlesex A Hyatt Regency DFW, Dallas, Texas 128 [5] 2016 Middlesex A Longfellow A Challenger-Ardenwood Chamblee A Hilton Atlanta 160 [6] 2017 Aptakisic Mounds Park Middlesex A Miami Valley Hyatt Regency DFW 160 [7] 2018 Pi-oneers BASIS Silicon Valley A Longfellow A Challenger-Berryessa A Hyatt Regency O'Hare 192 [8] 2019 Hunter A Churchill A Hopkins Liberty Hyatt Regency O'Hare 176 [9] cancelled due to COVID-19 2021 Churchill A Longfellow A Burleigh Manor A Stanford Online Online via Zoom 112 [10] 2022 Longfellow A Chenery Greenhill A Burleigh Manor B Hyatt Regency O'Hare 141 [11] 2023 Chenery River Trail A Cooper A Middlesex A Hyatt Regency O'Hare 160 [12] 2024 River Trail A Sycamore (IN) Hopkins A Churchill A Hyatt Regency O'Hare 160 [13] 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