2014 NAQT Missouri Qualifier
| 2014 NAQT Missouri Qualifier | |
|---|---|
| Edited by | NAQT IS-134 |
| Champion | Hallsville A |
| Runner-up | Richland A |
| Third | Savannah |
| Fourth | Thomas Jefferson |
| High scorer | Jared Lockwood, Hallsville A |
| Site | Missouri-Columbia |
| Field | |
| Stats | Stats |
The Missouri Quizbowl Alliance hosted the 2014 NAQT Missouri Qualifier on March 1, 2014 at the University of Missouri-Columbia under the direction of Jeffrey Hill and Alex Dzurick. Twenty-two teams from fifteen schools participated, including a tournament-record eleven schools eligible for the small school title. Hallsville A defeated Richland A 395-215 in what effectively became a one-game overall and small school championship game to take home both titles, marking the first time a small school eligible team has won the overall tournament.
A winter storm forecasted to hit much of the state Saturday evening threatened to cancel the tournament and caused a few teams to drop (most notably 4 teams from top 10 ranked Ladue), but it was ultimately held as scheduled after most teams were still able to attend. Coaches were surveyed about potential changes to the schedule and nearly all responding schools indicated that they were fine with the originally planned 10 round schedule. Thanks to the efforts of all teams and staff in attendance to minimize delays, the tournament successfully started early and completed by 3:00 so that everyone could make it home safely.
Teams
Teams marked with * were eligible for the small school title
- Brookfield*
- Centralia* (2 teams)
- De Smet (2 teams)
- Fatima* (2 teams)
- Hallsville* (2 teams)
- Helias (2 teams)
- Hickman (2 teams)
- Lutheran (St. Charles County)
- Marquette
- New Haven*
- Pilot Grove*
- Raytown South
- Richland* (2 teams)
- Savannah
- Thomas Jefferson
Format
The tournament used NAQT IS-134 with untimed NAQT rules. Due to an ongoing MSHSAA requirement, some gameplay rules were modified to match MSHSAA rules, most notably that players had to be recognized by name before providing an answer to a tossup.
The twenty-two teams were divided into two pools of 6 teams and two pools of 5 teams, and each played a round robin for the preliminary rounds. The top 2 teams in each pool remained in contention for the championship, and were divided into 2 equal pools of 4, which each played a round robin. After round 8, the top 2 teams in each championship pool played crossover games for rounds 9-10 to determine 1st-4th, and the remaining teams similarly crossed over for 5th-8th. The remaining 14 teams were ranked by position in pool, then record, then points per bonus; teams 9-14 advanced to consolation pool 1, which played a full round robin; teams 15-22 advanced to consolation tier 2, were divided into 2 equal pools of 4, and were rebracketed like the championship tier after round 8 into pools for 15th-18th and 19th-22nd place. All ties for rebracketing were broken by points per game due to the incoming weather.
While an 8-8-6 split would have been simpler for rebracketing (since it would have been 1st/2nd, 3rd/4th, and 5th/6th tiers), the 8-6-8 split was selected because it would allow teams in the lowest tier to easily leave after the round 8 rebracketing if they wanted to get home sooner because of the weather. This decision worked out perfectly, since Raytown South decided to leave to get home before the weather hit the Kansas City area (with their buzzers coincidentally being used in a room in what would have been their round 9-10 pool, allowing for minimal disruption), and all Consolation 1 teams stayed to complete the full round robin.
Results
Following round 8, the championship tier results were:
Maximus
- 1. Hallsville A*, 3-0, 396.7 ppg
- 2. Thomas Jefferson, 1-2, 173.3 ppg
- 3. Helias A, 1-2, 166.7 ppg (including a 10 point win over Thomas Jefferson)
- 4. Helias B, 1-2, 146.7 ppg (including a 5 point win over Helias A after a protest was denied)
Titan
- 1. Richland A*, 3-0, 345.0 ppg (including a 275-245 win over Savannah on the last tossup/bonus cycle)
- 2. Savannah, 2-1, 350.0 ppg
- 3. Pilot Grove*, 1-2, 160.0 ppg
- 4. New Haven*, 0-3, 53.3 ppg
In Round 10, Richland A and Hallsville A were both undefeated, effectively beginning a best of three final. Since both were small schools, this guaranteed that 2014 would be the first time a small school would finish higher than Richland's 3rd place finish in the inaugural Qualifier in 2008, and the first time a small school would win the overall championship.
After Hallsville won the game 395-215, the final championship standings were:
- 1. Hallsville A*, 3-0, 398.3 ppg
- 2. Richland A*, 2-1, 268.3 ppg
- 3. Savannah, 1-2, 295.0 ppg
- 4. Thomas Jefferson, 0-3, 133.3 ppg
An advantaged final was planned, but Richland decided to concede the championships to Hallsville so that they could get home sooner before any inclement weather hit, making Hallsville A both the overall and small school champion of the 2014 NAQT Missouri Qualifier!
Jared Lockwood of Hallsville A was the top scorer with an average of 103.75 points per game in the preliminary rounds and 107.22 points per game overall.
Exactly half of the teams in attendance (11 of 22) met NAQT's definition for a small school. Coincidentally, each of the five final pools consisted of an equal number of small and non-small school teams.
This was also the first NAQT Missouri Qualifier to feature themed pool names.
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