Masonic tournament
The Masonic tournament is a high school quiz bowl tournament in Illinois that some people think is a state championship. It used approximately the IHSA format through 2009, then switched to a weird new format for 2010.
It is often criticized for subpar questions. 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, and then went to Questions Galore beginning in 2010.
Structure
Entry is free for all teams, and the tournament remains popular largely because there are significant cash prizes. The details vary from year to year, but teams first compete in 8 to 16 preliminary tournaments across the state (variously called "regionals" or "sectionals"), and the winners thereof (plus, in some years, a wildcard) advance to the "state championship". Formats have varied between double-elimination and bracketed round-robins at both levels. Beginning in 2010, the tournament was split into two classes along the same line as the IHSA's split.
Format and Distribution
The current format is based on one used in the now-defunct Richards tournament. It consists of 16 tossups worth 15 points each (no powers or negs), then 16 three-part questions in which team collaboration is permitted. The Masons call these latter ones "bonuses", but they are not actually bonuses, because each team gets 8 of them regardless of how many tossups it answered. The distribution is vaguely similar to the IHSA distribution, except that things like Twilight are categorized as fine arts, and obsolete categories like "artistic dance" are still represented.
Winners
- 2010: Litchfield (class A), St. Ignatius (class AA)
- 2009: Carbondale
- 2008: Auburn
- 2007: Maine South
- 2006: Fremd
- 2005: Fremd
- 2004: Wheaton North
- 2003: Wheaton North
- 2002: Springfield Southeast
- 2001: Salem
The Masonic tournament has been running at least since the early 1980s, but results for tournaments prior to 2001 could not be found.