North Kansas City Varsity Invitational

The North Kansas City Varsity Invitational is an annual tournament held by North Kansas City.

History

The tournament was initially run in a four-quarter format. Because coach Larry Allen was the sponsor of Missouri's Panasonic team, some earlier iterations of the NKC tournament included elements inspired by that tournament. Earlier NKC tournaments also included elements like worksheets and give-and-takes.

On December 8th, 2007, in an attempt to expand pyramidal questions in Missouri, NKC tried hosting an NAQT tournament on IS-69A. After a large number of dropouts within the month before the tournament, 3 teams did not show up. With only 4 teams there was a round robin, and then Lexington decided to leave after the third game, so everyone decided to just play an advantaged final and end early. Liberty, going undefeated in the prelims, won the final against Savannah. The normal annual Varsity tournament the next month was also run in the twenty tossup/bonus format, and all subsequent tournament have continued to use the twenty tossup/bonus format. Single-elimination playoffs were used until Allen's retirement after the 2010 season.

The 2011 iteration was held on February 26 using HSAPQ Tournament 16, and was the first NKC tournament to be certified by the Missouri Quizbowl Alliance. The field significantly shrunk the morning of the tournament due to icy weather, which also precluded tournament director Charlie Dees' attendance, so MOQBA president Jeffrey Hill assisted coach Randy Jackson with the eight team tournament. Park Hill South went undefeated in the round robin to win the tournament.

The 2012 iteration used another HSAPQ set and featured pooled preliminary and playoff rounds. North Kansas City has used a similar schedule ever since, meaning this tournament has consistently offered 8-9 rounds to all teams using good questions and a fair schedule longer than any other Kansas City area varsity tournament. The tournament has used an NAQT IS set each year since 2013.

The 2012 tournament had 9 preliminary rounds followed by a four team crossover championship pool. The 2013 tournament used power matching in the five preliminary rounds after an unexpected 25th team was admitted by the tournament director. Subsequent iterations of the tournament generally have preliminary pools of 5 or 6 teams followed by rebracketing into championship and consolation pools. Consolation rounds were announced as optional in 2014-2016. After Pat O'Keefe took over as head coach in fall 2016, participating teams are now expected to compete in scheduled consolation rounds to ensure all teams are guaranteed 8-9 rounds of competition and to keep afternoon scheduling predictable, bringing the tournament in line with other MOQBA tournaments.

Known Results

Dates and results from 2001-2003 were reconstructed from participating teams' self-reported results listed in the MSHSAA Championships Official Programs from those seasons.

Year	Champion	Second	Field Size	Set
Dec 2001	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Dec 2002	Parkway Central	Savannah	Unknown	based on NAQT IS-31?
Dec 2003	Savannah	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Dec 2004	Savannah	Lexington	Unknown	Unknown
Jan 2006	Savannah	Liberty	32	Unknown
Jan 2007	Savannah	Liberty	22	Unknown
Dec 2007	Liberty	Savannah	4	NAQT IS-69A
Jan 2008	Savannah	Blue Springs	unknown	NAQT IS-71A
Jan 2009	Truman	Lee's Summit North	22	NAQT IS-82A
Jan 2010	Savannah	Cameron	18	written by Mike Wehrman
Feb 2011	Park Hill South	Truman	8	HSAPQ Tournament 16
Jan 2012	Savannah	Liberty	19	HSAPQ Tournament 23
Jan 2013	Savannah	Park Hill South	26	NAQT IS-122
Jan 2014	Savannah	Park Hill South A	26	NAQT IS-132
Jan 2015	Savannah	Park Hill South A	28	NAQT IS-142
Jan 2016	St. Joseph Central A	Lee's Summit North	26	NAQT IS-152
Apr 2017	St. Joseph Central A	Lee's Summit North A	22	NAQT IS-162
Apr 2018	St. Joseph Central A	Park Hill South A	22	NAQT IS-172