Fall Novice Tournament

Fall Novice Tournament was a novice-difficulty high school tournament written and edited entirely by high schoolers and/or rising freshmen in fall of 2009, 2010, and 2011, with logistical supervision from interested collegiate players who do not write for the event. Its goal was to provide an extremely answerable set for new players and novices in every region and expose interested contributing high schoolers to question writing in a controlled environment for the first time.

Because it was a volunteer outreach effort, no fees were charged to hosts that use the packet set. However, this meant that all potential host sites must bid to use the set. Bids were used to ensure that the hosts comply with the principles of "good quizbowl", including the use of playoff structures that keep all teams engaged, eligibility restrictions to prevent obviously non-novice players from competing, and prompt reporting of statistics. It is believed that no bid has ever been denied unless it was in direct competition for teams with another already-approved bid.

2009

Inspired by online discussions of the inadequacies of A-sets at the time, the 2009 Fall Novice Tournament was a project aimed to create an accessible, pyramidal, and canonical tournament specifically designed for novice teams. Edited by Sarah Angelo, Charlie Rosenthal, and Zhao Zhang, the tossups were written in 12-point Times New Roman and rarely exceeded five lines, with few bonus parts exceeding two lines. It was overseen by George Berry, Charlie Dees, Donald Taylor, Andy Watkins and Dwight Wynne.

Several mirrors of the set were hosted across the country from September to December 2009, with individual hosts setting different eligibility restrictions. Overall, the set was well-received, with scattered complaints about difficulty outliers.

Results

Location	Champion	Second Place	Third Place	Fourth Place	Stats	Forum Link
Alpharetta	Dorman A	Hoover A	Chattahoochee A	Brookwood A	[1]	[2]
Brandeis	Concord-Carlisle	Bromfield	Needham	Scab	[3]	[4]
Illinois	Carbondale	Centennial	Bloomington	Scab	[5]	[6]
LASA	LASA B	Cistercian A	St. John's Red	Seven Lakes	[7]	[8]
Maggie Walker	St. Anselm's	Georgetown Day	Cave Spring A	Collegiate	[9]	[10]
Saint Viator	Barrington A	New Trier A	Loyola A	Loyola B	[11]	[12]
Walt Whitman	Richard Montgomery A	Quince Orchard	Thomas Jefferson A	Blake	[13]	[14]

2010

George Berry oversaw the second iteration of Fall Novice, which was edited by Stephen Eltinge, Douglas Graebner, and Matt Jackson. Although eighteen bids were accepted from fourteen states and Ontario, Canada, only twelve of those sites were able to run actual tournaments.

Results

Location	Champion	Second Place	Third Place	Fourth Place	Stats	Forum Link
Alpharetta	Dorman A	Norcross A	Chattahoochee A	Walton A	[15]	[16]
Detroit Catholic Central	Detroit Catholic Central A	Detroit Catholic Central C	Detroit Catholic Central B	International Academy East	[17]	[18]
Dorman	Riverside	Pikeville A	Southside Christian	Dawkins A	[19]	[20]
Hoover	Altamont A	Hoover B	Altamont B	Hume-Fogg B	[21]	[22]
LASA	LASA Blue	Cistercian C	Cistercian A	LASA White	[23]	[24]
Lisgar	Lisgar B	Merivale A	Lisgar D	Lisgar A	[25]	[26]
Lyndon State	South Burlington A	Hanover	Fair Haven A	South Burlington C	[27]	[28]
Northwestern	Loyola A	IMSA A	IMSA B	Latin A	[29]	[30]
Rock Bridge	Rock Bridge	Helias A	Hickman	St. Pius X	[31]	[32]
Thomas Jefferson (VA)	Richard Montgomery A	Thomas Jefferson A	Maggie Walker A	Woodson	[33]	[34]
Washington	Lakeside	Bellevue	"Hogwarts 1"	RA Long	[35]	[36]

2011

George Berry returned to oversee the 2011 tournament with further oversight and difficulty-reduction by Charlie Dees. Its editors are James Bradbury, Lily Chen, Diana Gerr, Tanay Kothari, Aidan Mehigan, and Max Schindler. As of September 2011, twenty-one host sites in sixteen states, Ontario, and the District of Columbia were approved.

Results

Location	Champion	Second Place	Third Place	Fourth Place	Stats	Forum Link
Arizona State	Brophy A	Desert Vista A	Desert Vista B	Brophy D	[37]	[38]
Bellarmine	Harker A	Escobar	Crystal Springs	Bellarmine B	[39]	[40]
Boise State	Treasure Valley pi	Treasure Valley e	Canyon Ridge	Kuna B	[41]	[42]
Dorman	Spartanburg A	Thomas Jefferson A	SCGSSM	Beaufort B	[43]	[44]
Frenchtown	Frenchtown A	Loyola	Sentinel A	Skyview B	[45]
Lisgar	Lisgar B	Lisgar A	Earl of March	Lisgar C	[46]	[47]
Hunter	Tournament was ended early due to inclement weather				[48]	[49]
Ladue	SLUH	Clayton A	Clayton B	CBC	[50]	[51]
Lyndon State	Phillips Exeter A	Phillips Exeter B	Hanover	Fair Haven A	[52]	[53]
Macomb	Mercer County	Macomb	Glenwood A	Moline	[54]	[55]
Minnesota	Wayzata A	Roseville B	Roseville A	Orono B	[56]	[57]
North Kansas City	Smithville	Lawrence	Holden A	Notre Dame de Sion	[58]	[59]
Northwestern	Loyola A	Belvidere North	Stevenson A	IMSA A	[60]	[61]
Ohio State	South Range	Fisher Catholic A	Fisher Catholic B	St. Charles	[62]	[63]
Rock Bridge	Hickman A	Rock Bridge A	Helias A	Columbia Independent	[64]	[65]
St. Anselm's	Thomas Jefferson A	Longfellow A	Richard Montgomery A	Centennial A	[66]	[67]
UCSD	Torrey Pines A	La Jolla	San Dieguito A	Bishop C	[68]	[69]
Virginia Tech	Cave Spring A	Christiansburg B	Blacksburg A	Christiansburg A	[70]	[71]
Waterloo	Centennial	St. Joseph's A	St. Joseph's B	Waterloo Collegiate	[72]	[73]

2012 and beyond

Fall Novice Tournament did not happen in 2012, with a lack of dedicated editorship among the cited reasons [74]. As such, SCOP Novice got a much larger mirroring audience. Fall Novice Tournament was discontinued in future years .