Edmontago

Edmontago is the term used to describe the predicament faced by Lisgar's quizbowl team in the spring of 2008. The word is a hybridization of the cities "Edmonton", the site of the 2008 Reach for the Top Nationals, and "Chicago", where the 2008 HSNCT was held. These two national tournaments were held on the same May weekend, meaning that Lisgar was forced to reject the opportunity to participate in one of them. The debate was influenced by several factors, including the team's success in quizbowl, the attraction of the large-scale HSNCT and the city of Chicago, and, perhaps most importantly, the fact that Lisgar had never qualified for the Reach for the Top National Finals.

Quizbowl

Having lost James Cooper, their captain and leading scorer from the year before, Lisgar expected less success than 2007, when they won the city championship and tied for fifth provincially. Nonetheless, the team were the favourites for the 2008 Ottawa Quizbowl Tournament, a tournament they had won handily in each of the years of the tournament's existence (2006 and 2007). This belief held true, and the team demolished Gananoque in the final, thus qualifying the team for the 2008 HSNCT.

The team also participated in the Ottawa Hybrid Tournament in early March, a primarily university-centred tournament, where both Lisgar teams finished in the top 5. More notably, the tournament's top scorer was Lisgar A captain Nevin Hotson, and the tournament's second leading scorer was Lisgar B captain Jeff Gao (Lisgar's next best player). This fuelled the team's hopes for success in Chicago and added proof of their quizbowl dominance, a bright side to losing in Reach for the Top all these years.

Reach for the Top

With very little expectations of success at the provincial level in Reach for the Top, the team registered for the HSNCT in early February. Although they had finished in the top 10 in the province in each of the past 9 years, the 5th-place in 2007 was the team's best ever. Thus, after tying for the Ottawa city championship with Merivale in Match, the team trekked to Toronto for the provincial finals in early May. They shocked themselves by garnering the first seed after the round robin, a position they scarcely believed they could live up to. In the playoff stage, the team made it to the provincial final, where they would lose to University of Toronto Schools (yet again), but the second place finished qualified them for the national finals to be held in Edmonton in May.

The Debate

This placed the team in a pleasant but highly unexpected predicament. Having already registered for the HSNCT, the team was now faced with the consequences of this very surprising result.

Pros of Chicago

There were several factors which weighed in favour of a trip to Chicago. First of all, the team had had immense succes in quizbowl, proven by the results at the 2007 OQT and the 2008 OHT. The team truly believed they could shock many if they competed at the HSNCT, and both Hotson and Gao could expect individual success. Additionally, the grandiosity of the HSNCT and Chicago itself was alluring. Only Hotson and Chris Greenwood had previously competed in Chicago, and the experience of such a large-scale tournament in such a major city could not be denied. Another factor that weighed against Edmonton was the presence of UTS. Lisgar had never, ever, ever won a game against these perrenial powerhouses, and the 2008 team was particularly strong. It was believed that going to a tournament that UTS was going to meant that Lisgar would have no chance of winning. Thus, the experience of Chicago would outweigh the potential results in Edmonton.

Pros of Edmonton

However, Edmonton had its pros as well. Aside from a sense of patriotic duty in going to the Canadian National Finals, it should be noted that if Lisgar did indeed decide to withdraw from the tournament, perhaps opening the door for Ontario third-place team Mayfield or fourth-place Vincent Massey, it would be the first time in the tournament's fabled history that a team decided to pull out. This fabled history also proved to be a selling point. Reach for the Top holds a sort of mythical presence in Canada, with much of the populace able to relate to something they watched, played or experience when they were in secondary school. Current Prime Minister Stephen Harper played, and Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek once hosted Reach for the Top. This history could hardly be denied, and the ability to say that your team competed at the national finals proved attractive. Also, the national finals, like the provincial finals, were to be televised, another minor selling point, however the team had appeared on TV in each of the previous nine years. The tipping point was the fact that Lisgar had never, in the team's decorated lengthy history, qualified for the Canadian national finals. Lisgar had always been viewed as a provincial and city-wide powerhouse, and many of the Reach for the Top brass were taken aback at the realization that the team had never participated in the national finals. The curse of initial success only to fail in the TV rounds at the provincials had finally been lifted. So, despite the factors in favour of Chicago, the team decided to embrace the "try what you haven't" attitude and voted 5-2 in favour of participating in Edmonton.

The Result

What makes the debate even more shocking is the team's championship win. With little expectations for success, little to no knowledge of the other competing teams, and the fact that UTS would be competing at the tournament (the previous 3 Ontario champions have gone on to win the Canadian championship), meant Lisgar was expecting to simply be content with the knowledge that they participated. After finishing third in the in-classroom seeding tournament, the team won their quarterfinal against West Island College from Calgary, won their semifinal against Kennebecasis from Quispamsis, NB (a team that beat Lisgar by 5 points in the seeding tournament), and faced UTS in the final. Reassured by the knowledge that "second (was) pretty good too", the team was comfortable as they were led to the gallows against their rivals. But calmer heads prevailed. After many lead changes in throughout the game, Lisgar found themselves down by 55 points going into the timed 90-second snapout round. In the provincial finals, the team had found themselves down by 10 going into this round against UTS and eventually lost by 90. Needless to say, UTS was indeed talented in this category, and Lisgar, a quizbowl-oriented team, had never found speed to be their strong point. However, this round defined the 2008 Lisgar team. Throwing all caution to the wind, the team buzzed early on every question, and gained back 60 points as time ticked down. Ahead by 5, with one question remaining, Lisgar incorrectly answered the next question, allowing UTS to buzz in with the correct answer. However, debate ensued as to when the 90-second clock ran out. If it ran out before UTS' buzz, the question would not count for UTS, and Lisgar would win the championship. After tournament officials retired from the set for many minutes to review the tape, it was determined that the clock had indeed run out, and Lisgar had won their first national championship in as many appearances. Having finally garnered the decoration that truly mattered in Reach for the Top circles (after all, 5 other Ottawa-area teams had previously won - Merivale, Gloucester, Bell, Hillcrest and Rideau), the team left Edmonton overjoyed with the decision they made regarding Edmontago.

See Also

• 2008 Ontario Reach for the Top Championships
• Ottawa Schoolreach League
• Reach for the Top