2019 MSNCT
| 2019 NAQT MSNCT | |
|---|---|
| Edited by | NAQT |
| Champion | Hunter A |
| Runner-up | Churchill A |
| Third | Hopkins |
| Fourth | Liberty |
| High scorer | Arin Parsa |
| Site | Chicago, Illinois |
| Field | 176 teams |
| Stats | [1] |
The 2019 NAQT MSNCT was held at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare on May 10-12, 2019. Hunter A (New York City, New York) beat Churchill A (Carmichael, California) to win the MSNCT title and make Hunter the first school to have won all three of the main high school and middle school nationals: PACE, HSNCT, and MSNCT. Hunter A's top scorers were Jacob Hardin-Bernhardt with 60.26 PPG and Ian Lu with 58.96 PPG. Hopkins (Fremont, California) placed third, while Liberty (Madison, Alabama) came in 4th place. The highest scorer was Arin Parsa with 124.05 PPG
Summary
Each team at the 2019 MSNCT played eight preliminary rounds. Hunter A took the first playoff seed after going 8-0. Teams had to have at least a 5-3 record to advance to the double-elimination playoff, which, for the first time, would be held on questions more similar to NAQT IS sets.
Hunter A was defeated by Liberty 355-275 in the second round of playoffs, and went on to fight their way through the lower bracket, eliminating Midtown Classical, Burleigh Manor, Daniel Wright, and Aptakisic to climb back to the top 4. Meanwhile, Churchill A defeated Liberty 305-210 to claim a spot in the finals.
Churchill A and Hunter A then played, in a game in which if Churchill A won they would advance to the finals with advantage, while if Hunter A won they would play the winner of the game between 2 card Liberty and 3 card Hopkins for a spot in a one-game final against Churchill A. Hunter A won 415-225, then defeated Hopkins 435-130 to advance to the final against Churchill A.
The finals were chaotic, with multiple protests. The game ended on tossup 21 when Moxie Strom powered on Oliver Twist and the clock ran out during the bonus, resulting in a 280-250 Hunter A victory.
NAQT gave out All-Star awards to the top 30 players in the tournament, and Rising Star awards to the top eight non-eighth grade players. The top All-Star was Arin Parsa with 138.02 PPG, who was followed by Pareekshith Krishna with 110.99 PPG and Lukas Koutsoukos with 106.99 PPG, respectively.
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Super Semifinal Loser is 3rd place |
One-Game Final | |||||||||||||||||||
| 13 | Aptakisic | 245 | 3 | Churchill | 225 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Hunter | 425 | 1 | Hunter | 415 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Hopkins | 470 | 1 | Hunter | 435 | 3 | Churchill | 250 | ||||||||||||||
| 31 | Cooper | 170 | 2 | Hopkins | 130 | 1 | Hunter | 280 | ||||||||||||||
| 2 | Hopkins | 320 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 16 | Liberty | 245 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 16 | Liberty | 380 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Longfellow | 305 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
NOTE: Numbers represent seeds at the start of bracket play.
| ||||||||