High School Celebrity Shootout

The High School Celebrity Shootout, also known as Celeb Shoot, is an annual tournament hosted every fall at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Organized by Emil Thomas Chuck, who also invented the format while at Case in c.1995, the tournament is usually mirrored around the same time by Duke.

The format is unique in that there are no buzzers used at any time. As the name alludes to, all answers require players/teams to identify a person. Gameplay consists of four sperate rounds: Written Test, Foursome Round, Category Relay, and the Shootout.

Gameplay

Preliminary Written Test

Players begin with an individual written test lasting 30 minutes. The test contains 70 questions worth either 2, 3, or 4 points apiece for a grand total of 200 possible points in this round. Individual players are ranked according to their score and seeded accordingly for the Shootout Round.

Foursome Round

Players for this round form teams of four and answer questions in several different topics, such as "Native Americans," the "Beijing Olympics," and "Composers" (categories seen in the 2008 tournament). There are 44 questions in this round worth either 10, 20, or 30 points for a grand total of 800 possible points in this round. Teams work together and all four players may confer at all times during the round.

Category Relay

This round is similar to the foursome round, except that teams must designate only one of their four players to answer questions in each category. This round contains a total of 40 questions, five in each of the eight categories (which are different from the categories in the foursome round), meaning each of the four players on a team will answer questions in only two categories, one in the first found categories and one in the last four categories. In the first four categories all questions are worth 10 points each, while for the last four categories point values increase by ten within each respective category (i.e. the first question in each category is 10 points, the second is 20 points, etc.). As with the foursome round, 800 total points are possible in this round.

Shootout

As stated, individuals are seeded into a 64 player bracket based on their preliminary test scores and a single elimination playoff ensues. Matches are between only two players, and each match consists of 10 questions worth either 2, 3, or 5 points for a total of 30 possible points in each match. The player with the highest score after 10 questions is declared the winner and proceeds to the next round of the playoffs. Matches continue like this until a champion is crowned. In the case of a tie, sudden-death tiebreaker questions are read until one player answers a question correctly while the other player misses. In the 2008 incarnation at Case Western one macth saw upwards of 15 tiebreaker questions asked before a winner was declared.

Case Western Results

Year	Highest Written Test (Score)	2nd Highest Written Test (Score)	Team Champion	Team Runner-Up	Shootout Champion	Shootout Runner-Up
2008	Bryan - DCC A (124)	Kayvon - DCC A (109)	DCC A	Solon	Kayvon - DCC A	Bryan - DCC A
2007	Dan Humphrey - Garfield Hgts (139)	Brett Harrison - DCC A (123)	DCC A	Garfield Hgts A	Dan Humphrey - Garfield Hgts	Brett Harrison - DCC A
2006	Chris Mayer - Copley A (146)	Joulia Shuk - Copley A (142)	Copley A	DCC A	Carl Thompson - DCC A	Tom Mathew - DCC A