Reach for the Top

Reach for the Top is the dominant high school quiz competition in Canada. Technically not a form of quizbowl, it has a higher trash distribution than NAC, contains more hoses, and is composed almost entirely of speed-check questions which are often non-pyramidal. It is also more expensive than alternatives like NAQT.

French students usually play Genies en herbe, while university students play in the quizbowl format.

Gameplay

The majority of questions in Reach for the Top are approximately the length of quizbowl bonus questions (1-2 sentences), and are worth, for the most part, 10 points each. Interruption of the questions for early guesses are not only allowed but also encouraged, as the game is based heavily on speed. If a team buzzes in and answer a question incorrectly, the opposing team has approximately 3-5 seconds to consult and form an answer. Consultation is permitted at almost all times in Reach for the Top (see "Shootouts" and "Assigned" for exceptions). There are no Negs or Powers in Reach, although negs (-5) appeared in the 2007 Nationals for the first time.

Categories

Snapstart/Snapout/Open

Forming the bulk of Reach for the Top questions, these consist of 1-2 sentence questions open to both teams and are worth ten points each. Snapout/Snapstart categories take place at the beginning and end of each round respectively, and the subject of each question varies (i.e. none are linked by a category). "Open" categories are, mostly, worth 40 points in total, and consist of 4 questions all linked by one similar category (e.g. "40 point open on architects"); it is open to both teams.

"20 Point Special"

Like an open question (see last category), but the answer often requires 2 answers in one (e.g. Q: Name both years in which a player's strike or owner's lockout was responsible for the cancellation of some or all of the games in an NHL season. A: 1994-95 and 2004-05.) In other cases, the 20 point special can require one very long answer, for example, the provincial motto of Newfoundland, Quaerite primum regnum Dei

Shootout

A maximum of 12 questions are posed in this category. Once one player has answered a question correctly, they may no longer answer any questions. This player is now "out". Once one team has every one of its 4 players "out", they gain 40 points, and the other team gains 0. Consultation is forbidden at all times in this category. Concerns that have arisen with this category include A) 12 questions are needed to generate 40 points and B) Both teams can have 3 players out with one question left, which one team may barely answer correctly on speed, giving them all 40 points, and thus a very important swing on a very little difference between teams.

Chain Snappers

Similar to a snapstart/snapout, chain snappers involve the answer to one question forming the topic of the succeeding question. As a result, the best and fastest teams can often answer the next question with only 3-4 words read.

Who am I/What am I

Who am I/What am I questions consist of four clues with decreasing point value, beginning with a (usually vague) opening question. If answered correctly on this question, that team gains 40 points. If neither team guesses correctly, the answer is not read, and a slightly less ambiguous clue worth 30 points is read. This continues for two more questions (worth 20 and 10 points respectively), until, if no team is able to give the correct answer, the answer is read. Unlike Good Quizbowl, the first clue does not provide only one possible answer. The 40-point question is often described as being written as though "an expert in that field" would be unable to be absolutely sure of the correct answer, and as a result, can often trigger highly inaccurate guesses, or in the case of non-competitive teams, non-sensical answers which are made to incite laughs and in doing so, delay the game. The 40-point clue can vary in difficulty from completely, improbably difficult, (almost to the a point where one questions the point of it; e.g. "This country is located in Europe." or "He was born in 1685.") to reasonably difficult. These are supposed to be pyramidal, but aren't. One utterly disgusting example is a first clue of "I am an element with symbol Hg and atomic number 81". Hg is not an obscure clue, and is much less obscure than knowing mercury is element 81.

Assigned

Worth 80 points in total, this category consists of questions posed to specific individuals. One team, designated "Team A", will have each of its team members asked one question. If answered incorrectly, the player sitting directly across from that player will have an opportunity to answer that question. Once team A has had all of its players asked a question, team B's players are then asked questions one-by-one in a similar fashion. All of the questions relate to one category (e.g. European national capitals). Consultation is forbidden.

Team Questions

These questions work similarly to tossup/bonus questions. One question is posed to both teams. The team that correctly answers the question has an opportunity to answer three more questions. The only differences between that and quizbowl are that the "tossup" question is usually very short and very easy and the bonus questions (actually called bonus) are related in topic to the "tossup" question.

List

Worth 50 points, this category involves teams alternating in turns to complete a list. Both teams have an opportunity to buzzz in for the first answer. After each question is answered correctly the other team has an opportunity to give an answer. Once a team gets a question wrong, they may no longer answer. e.g. List all of the professional teams that Wayne Gretzky played for. Team A (buzzes in): "Edmonton Oilers" - Correct Team B: "New York Rangers" - Correct Team A: "St. Louis Blues" - Correct Team B: "Philadelphia Flyers" - Incorrect Team A: "Los Angeles Kings & Indianapolis Racers" - Correct x 2

Canadian Tournament Play

The modern Reach for the Top season begins with SchoolReach - regional leagues playing in classrooms. For most provinces, a "region" encompasses the entire province, while BC and Ontario are divided into smaller regions either for league play (in BC) or to serve as qualifiers for a provincial tournament (in Ontario). A few provinces have their playoff matches televised. The territories, Saskatchewan, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador do not currently have provincial tournaments; any schools from those regions may participate in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, respectively.

Depending on participation levels, provincial tournaments will qualify either one or two teams to the national tournament, held for the past several years in Edmonton. The national tournament consists of an in-classroom round-robin, followed by televised playoffs.

Most regions offer an "Intermediate" division tournament open to freshmen and sophomores, but there is no framework for an Intermediate national tournament. "Intermediate" would likely be higher than a "Junior" division (presumably for middle school), but a middle school tournament does not exist. Reach attempted to start a university tournament in the early 2000s, but some NAQT tournaments had already taken root at the time.

There are a few Reach (or Reach-style) tournaments held during the year that are independent of the qualification process to Nationals. New Brunswick has 5-6 per year around the province, Toronto has had a few in recent years, and Lisgar CI held a tournament in Ottawa in 2007. Nevertheless, the number of tournaments is much smaller than availability in several US regions.