2021 HSNCT
| 2021 NAQT HSNCT | |
|---|---|
| Edited by | NAQT |
| Champion | Barrington |
| Runner-up | University Lab |
| Third | Detroit Country Day |
| Fourth | TJHSST |
| High scorer | William Groger, Miami Valley |
| Site | online |
| Field | 224 |
| Stats | [1] |
The 2021 NAQT HSNCT was held on May 29–30. It was hosted virtually through Zoom, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Barrington High School won the tournament, winning both games of an advantaged final against University Lab. Detroit Country Day won a third-place match against TJHSST. William Groger of Miami Valley was the top individual scorer, followed by Will McCurley of Baker and Karsten Rynearson of Phillips Academy.
Due to the logistics of the online format, there were only 8 preliminary rounds instead of the usual 10.
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Advantaged Finals Unbeaten team has advantage | ||||||||||||
| 28 | Greenhill | 270 | ||||||||||||
| 18 | Detroit Country Day | 340 | 13 | University Lab | 340 | |||||||||
| 18 | Detroit Country Day | 230 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | Barrington | 305 | 13 | University Lab | 220 | 170 | ||||||||
| 10 | Arcadia | 295 | 5 | Barrington | 375 | 445 | ||||||||
| 5 | Barrington | 315 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Thomas Jefferson | 310 | Third place | |||||||||||
| 3 | Thomas Jefferson | 490 | 18 | Detroit Country Day | 325 | |||||||||
| 7 | Buffalo Grove | 170 | 3 | Thomas Jefferson | 245 | |||||||||
NOTE: Seeds represent seeds at the start of bracket play.
Issues
For 2021, HSNCT's registration fee was $650, which was criticized by some for being much more expensive than the PACE NSC ($450) and the AQBL ONCT ($250). Others pointed out that the financial demands of running large quizbowl events (particularly attracting and fairly compensating qualified moderators) remained high and that most teams would likely pay less by not having to buy plane tickets or hotel rooms.[1]
A tossup in round 7 did not contain instructions to accept an answer that would have been correct early in the question,[2] leading to protests in several rooms. One such protest decided a preliminary match between Adlai E. Stevenson and Carmel A.[3] Though the protest committee ruled that Stevenson's answer was correct, the decision was not communicated properly to the game officials, resulting in an erroneous 5-point loss for Stevenson.[3] This was corrected on NAQT's website several days later; fortunately, both teams would have advanced to the playoffs either way, but the issue did affect playoff seeds.[3]
Due to the unique online setting of the 2021 HSNCT, instances of alleged cheating by certain competitors rose throughout the duration of the tournament. One confirmed instance of cheating was Dan Rajaratnam of Raleigh Charter, who privately admitted to cheating at the 2021 HSNCT after being recorded cheating at a trash side-event the day before the 2021 ONCT.
Trivia
- Barrington's championship was the first-ever HSNCT title won by an Illinois high school.
- The Barrington–Uni Lab final was the first-ever HSNCT final between two Illinois high schools.
- Belmont (ranked #8 in the GrogerRanks pre-nationals poll[4] and finished 5th at the 2021 NSC) was perhaps the highest-polling team ever to miss playoffs at a good quizbowl nationals.
References
- ↑ https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=384696#p384696
- ↑ https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=384772&sid=297f2abda1ee37d94c7af95bf2079d14#p384714
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=384772&sid=297f2abda1ee37d94c7af95bf2079d14#p384772
- ↑ https://grogerranks.com/2021/05/29/2020-21-hsqb-pre-nationals-poll-results/
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