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.