Masonic tournament

The Masonic tournament is one of the state championships in Illinois, growing from 16 teams in its first few years to about 300 teams each year now. It is sponsored by Masonic lodges throughout Illinois and has the financial resources to offer free entry fees to all teams and cash awards for teams that do well.

It used approximately the IHSA format and distribution through 2009, including what was then all-at-once bonuses, then switched to a unique format for 2010. In the Masonic tournament, the match starts with 6 tossups, then alternates 8 team questions (which work like bonuses, but each team controls half of them no matter who answers the tossups), then 6 more tossups, then 8 more team questions, then 4 more tossups. The bonuses bounce back, and they became one part at a time starting in 2013.

For most of the tournament's history, it used what was called a double-elimination format at Sectionals and State, though it was actually a single-elimination tournament with a consolation bracket. Around 2010, they switched to a tournament format that has two pools of 6 teams each play round robin, followed by the top two teams in each pool moving on to a single-elimination two round playoff.

It used Answers Plus for a very long time, eventually switched to Academic Hallmarks for (at least) 2006 and 2007, used Aegis Questions questions in 2008 and 2009, used Questions Galore in 2010 and 2011, and hired David Reinstein (who has gotten help from Donald Taylor) to write the questions for 2012. For those of you who don't know, the Aegis and Reinstein questions were much better than the others.

Results

Year Host Champion Runner-up Third Place Fourth Place Consolation 1983 Winnebago Stillman Valley Winnebago unknown unknown 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 Illinois Wesleyan University Rockridge Sullivan unknown unknown unknown 1991 Eureka 1992 Eureka 1993 Eureka Maine East 1994 Eureka Winnebago 1995 Eureka College 4 May 1996 Eureka College MacArthur Belvidere Princeton Dixon Niantic-Harristown 10 May 1997 Woodruff Streator Princeton MacArthur Edwards County 4 Apr 1998 MacArthur Sterling Streator Centralia Auburn 8 May 1999 Moline New Trier Carlinville PORTA IMSA 18 Mar 2000 Stevenson Streator New Trier Eureka Auburn 2 Mar 2001 Salem Fenwick Moline Stillman Valley unknown 2 Mar 2002 Springfield Southeast Limestone Guilford Auburn Danville 8 Mar 2003 Springfield Southeast Wheaton North Sterling Stillman Valley Pleasant Plains Auburn 6 Mar 2004 Springfield Southeast Wheaton North Morton Auburn Galena Bradley-Bourbonnais 5 Mar 2005 Springfield Southeast Fremd Auburn Morton Pittsfield IMSA 4 Mar 2006 Springfield Southeast Fremd Peoria Heights Bloomington Elmwood Auburn 3 Mar 2007 Springfield Southeast Maine South New Trier Springfield Moline Auburn 1 Mar 2008 Glenwood Auburn Carbondale Sterling PORTA Springfield 28 Feb 2009 Glenwood Carbondale Auburn Peoria Christian Warrensburg-Latham New Trier 6 Mar 2010 Class A Riverton Litchfield The Latin School Macomb St. Joseph-Ogden Class AA St. Ignatius Stevenson Auburn IMSA 5 Mar 2011 Class A Riverton Lisle Macomb PORTA Peoria Christian Class AA Stevenson Carbondale IMSA Fremd 3 Mar 2012 Class A Springfield Peoria Christian Peoria Heights Carlinville Keith Country Day Class AA IMSA Auburn Carbondale The Latin School 2 Mar 2013 Class A Springfield Litchfield Peoria Christian Cumberland Elmwood Class AA Loyola Academy Macomb IMSA Carbondale 1 Mar 2014 Class A Springfield Newman Central Catholic Carterfield Litchfield Cumberland Class AA IMSA Fremd Stevenson Auburn Links official site questions