We at Groger Ranks are pleased to officially announce our Tournament Outreach fund for the 2021-22 season! Thanks to your support for our previous tournaments and donations on Patreon, we intend to direct a significant portion of profits to this fund. As we have stated in the past, we believe that making hosting accessible to more teams is crucial not only in helping teams pay for expenses but also for spreading pyramidal quizbowl to new circuits. We believe our grants will contribute to this mission.
Grant recipients will receive the full amount they request to run their tournament. We encourage any team to apply for a grant if they believe that hosting a tournament would help to cover costs or aid in the expansion of quizbowl. We hope to award as many grants as possible on a rolling basis.
How to apply
Schools may apply by filling out this form, which will allow them to explain how they plan to use the grant and how we should send the money we award.
Considerations
The tournament must use pyramidal questions and a standard tossup-bonus format. For at least the first semester of this season, all tournaments must be run online in order to adhere to social distancing guidelines during the pandemic. Beyond these requirements, we will evaluate your applications based on any information you provide. Factors we might consider include but are not limited to:
- Does your circuit currently have pyramidal quizbowl?
- How developed is your circuit/how many tournaments does it normally have?
- How many teams do you expect to attend your tournament?
- How much do you plan to charge teams to play?
- What question set will you be using and what difficulty does it target?
- How do you plan to attract teams that are new to quizbowl?
Groger Ranks members would be willing to provide logistical support for tournaments, including posting statistics and setting up the online platform for the tournament (we will use Discord as a default). Additionally, hosts may choose to have Groger Ranks direct the tournament at no additional cost, provided they work to implement the outreach goals described in their proposals.
Resources for hosts
Below are some links that may be helpful for first-time hosts.
Question Sets
Requesting house-written questions
Hosting on NAQT questions
Sample regular-difficulty NAQT questions
Eligibility for free NAQT questions
Hosting
Sample scoresheets
Online scoresheets
Software for recording statistics
Additional grants for purchasing buzzer systems
Make your tournament a qualifier for the PACE National Scholastic Championship
Schedule templates used by the IHSSBCA
NAQT online tournament guide
Tips for online tournaments
Groger Ranks has a zero-tolerance misconduct policy, and we will require hosts and players to abide by the Code of Conduct outlined by the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence. This includes promoting the Misconduct Reporting Form used by the major quizbowl organizations and using it in any instance of misconduct.
Don’t hesitate to contact us at grogerranks@gmail.com with any questions or concerns!
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