2021 MSHSAA State Championship
The 2021 MSHSAA State Championship was held on May 6-8, 2021. It was the first state championship held after the 2021 MSHSAA Realignment, with schools split into six enrollment-based classes instead of four. Classes 1 and 2 competed on Thursday, classes 3 and 4 played on Friday, and classes 5 and 6 played on Saturday.
Questions and format
As NAQT was not licensing its questions for in-person use due to the ongoing pandemic, MSHSAA instead opted for questions from Academic Hallmarks. Though the questions were meant to be "pyramidal," in practice they were filled with obscure biographical clues, hoses, and other bad quizbowl features that frustrated many participants. Content overlap between packets was also rampant, with some answerlines being asked about three times in the space of a few rounds.
A particularly notorious bonus that became memetic on the Missouri Quizbowl Circuit Student Discord Server simply asked players to answer the question "When you go to the store to buy mussels, what should you look for?" The set also featured a number of very bad common links, including multiple tossups on two unrelated cities that happen to have the same name, as well as consistently poor difficulty control. The Stanislaw Lem novel Solaris was tossed up at sectionals after never having previously been tossed up below hard college difficulty.
According to Clever coach and MSHSAA committee member Scott Walker, the subject distribution was "4/4/4/4/4. 4 math, 4 English, 4 History, 4 Science. The last 4 [were] a Miscellaneous catch-all of everything else."
With a limited number of questions available and the finals spread over three days instead of two, the format was shortened from 26 to 20 tossup/bonus cycles, and overtime was decided by only one correctly answered tossup instead of three. Like in previous years, all questions were worth 10 points each with no powers or negs, and bonuses were played with bouncebacks.
Districts
Eight district tournaments in each of the six classes were held on April 17. District matchups are available on MSHSAA's website.
Sectionals
Sectionals were the first round of the state championship and took place on April 27. Due to a lack of available packets from Academic Hallmarks, Sectionals was reduced from the usual best of three format to a single game between the two adjacent Districts winners. The winner of each sectional advanced to the state finals.
Class 1
- Hume 150, Leopold 80
- Lutheran 230, St. Elizabeth 70
- North Shelby 260, Southwest 50
- Tarkio 170, St. Joseph Christian 110
Class 2
None of the district winners in Class 2 had previously won a state championship.
- Summersville 220, Valley 50
- Greenwood 210, Osceola 160
- Van-Far 260, Westran 140
- North Platte 220, Rock Port 170
Class 3
None of the district winners in Class 3 had previously won a state championship.
- Houston 300, South Callaway 180
- Fair Grove 280, Clever 80
- Palmyra 300, Father Tolton 180
- Cole Camp 220, Lathrop 90
Class 4
- St. James 350, Central (New Madrid County) 80
- Cor Jesu Academy 180, St. Francis Borgia 150
- College Heights Christian 390, Calvary Lutheran 150
- Savannah 290, Hallsville 190
Class 5
- Ladue 280, Notre Dame (Cape Girardeau) 240
- Kirksville 420, Springfield Catholic 180
- Warrensburg 110, McDonald County 100
- Smithville 400, St. Pius X (Kansas City) 120
Class 6
- Washington 300, Oakville 140
- Fort Zumwalt North 350, Rock Bridge 230
- Raymore-Peculiar 360, Kickapoo 200
- Central (St. Joseph) 370, North Kansas City 230
State finals
Again, a lack of packets meant the state finals could not offer preliminary rounds. Instead, teams were placed directly into a single-elimination playoff bracket, with seeding predetermined based on which sectional teams were from. This led to several lopsided championship matches, as the two best teams in a class often played each other in the semifinals.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the state finals were held at the MSHSAA office in Columbia. The limited number of game rooms required spreading the competition over three days instead of two. Games were streamed online on MSHSAA.TV.
Class 1
Semifinals:
- Lutheran 220, Hume 60
- North Shelby 130, Tarkio 60
Consolation:
- Hume 130, Tarkio 90
Championship game:
- North Shelby 250, Lutheran 200
Class 2
Semifinals:
- Greenwood 270, Summersville 100
- North Platte 300, Van-Far 120
Consolation:
- Van-Far 310, Summersville 110
Championship game:
- North Platte 250, Greenwood 170
Class 3
Semifinals:
- Fair Grove 440, Houston 170
- Palmyra 280, Cole Camp 200
Consolation:
- Houston 340, Cole Camp 130
Championship game:
- Fair Grove 340, Palmyra 230
Class 4
Semifinals:
- St. James 260, Cor Jesu Academy 230
- College Heights Christian 410, Savannah 230
Consolation:
- Savannah 270, Cor Jesu Academy 120
Championship game:
- College Heights Christian 360, St. James 190
Class 5
Semifinals:
- Ladue 380, Kirksville 350
- Smithville 300, Warrensburg 210
Consolation:
- Kirksville 610, Warrensburg 60
Championship game:
- Ladue 490, Smithville 190
Class 6
Semifinals:
- Washington 410, Fort Zumwalt North 170
- Raymore-Peculiar 371, Central (St. Joseph) 370
Consolation:
- Central (St. Joseph) 410, Fort Zumwalt North 230
Championship game:
- Raymore-Peculiar 440, Washington 210
Notes
- As a result of MSHSAA rules disqualifying teams with fewer than 4 players present, and the state championship taking place during a pandemic, many schools were unable to participate at Districts.
- Due to the nonexistent seeding at State, both Class 5 and Class 6 had semifinal matchups between two teams that were ranked top 5 in the state by community poll.
- In Class 1, North Shelby won their first state championship after seventeen previous appearances at MSHSAA State, the most times a school has advanced to MSHSAA State without winning any championships. Classes 2, 3, and 6 also had first time champions.
External References
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