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First Ever Knowledge Bowl Nationals Held
The first Knowledge Bowl Nationals was held on May 1, 2021. It featured 39 teams from 36 schools from across Colorado, Minnesota, and Washington. With tournaments moved online due to the pandemic, coordinators from the three states realized that distance and travel costs were no longer a barrier to interstate competition: teams can compete across the country just as easily as across town. These three states all play Knowledge Bowl with similar, though not identical rules, and Knowledge Bowl Nationals was played with a combination of rules from the three states. The tournament took place over Discord, a voice and text communication platform, with some teams playing co-located from their schools and others playing individually from their homes. The readers, scorekeepers, and other tournament officials were likewise spread out across the country.
Knowledge Bowl Nationals was played as a power-matched tournament consisting of a written round and five oral rounds. After the fifth oral round, schools were sorted into size classifications based on their enrollment numbers. Four classifications with an approximately equal number of schools were created based on the schools attending the tournament: small, medium-small, medium-large, and large. The teams with the top three scores in each size classification then played each other in a championship oral round. Total scores after the written and six oral rounds determined first, second and third place in each size classification.
In the small school classification, The Colorado Springs School were the national champions with a score of 79 points. Caprock Academy from Grand Junction, CO took second with 72 points, and Chisholm High School from Chisholm, MN took third with 71 points.
In the medium-small school classification, The Vanguard School from Colorado Springs, CO were the national champions with 87 points. Stargate Charter School from Thornton, CO took second with 85 points, and Ridgefield High School from Ridgefield, WA took third with 76 points.
In the medium-large school classification, Tartan High School from Oakdale, MN were the national champions with 97 points. Berthoud High School from Berthoud, CO took second with 85 points, and William J Palmer High School from Colorado Springs took third with 82 points.
In the large school classification, Fossil Ridge High School from Fort Collins, CO were the national champions with 116 points. Prior Lake High School from Savage, MN took second with 92 points, and Liberty High School from Colorado Springs, CO took third with 85 points.
Thank you to all the teams from across the three states for joining us for this first ever Knowledge Bowl Nationals!
The Academy of Holy Angels, MN Knowledge Bowl team showing off their tournament stickers: Maria, Grace, Thomas, Braden and Luke
Question Authorities to provide questions for Regionals and State
Question Authorities is a new enterprise owned by Lorena Thompson and Lyndsay Marquardt Thompson. We provide top notch questions for academic competitions in any state. Our questions are written by 27 different writers from all over the state and country.
Our goal is to provide questions that are relevant, interesting, correct, clean, and answerable. We hope that our wide range of writers will inspire competitors to expand their knowledge base and seek new knowledge and new passions.
Question Authorities is honored to be providing questions for the Colorado state and regional tournaments this year. In addition, question sets will be available for other tournaments throughout the season. At the end of the season, questions can be purchased for practice for next year. Please visit www.questionauthorities.com for more information!
Academic Hallmarks to continue under new management
After nearly 40 years, the original Academic Hallmarks' shepherds of the Great Auk have become too long in the beak to continue. Happily, a search throughout the land yielded offers from outstanding people resulting in one with a combination of wherewithal, experience, commitment, and passion to carry things on. So, as of 1 June 2020, Pat Jewell will become the new Wrangler in Chief of Academic Hallmarks.
The web site address and the phone number for Academic Hallmarks will not change. Please be looking for a new updated web presence in the next few months. Academic Hallmarks remains a potentially viable question vendor with a long history with Colorado Knowledge Bowl.
2020 State Tournament Cancelled
It is with regret that Colorado Knowledge Bowl has concluded that the myriad challenges surrounding community responses to COVID-19 posed insurmountable obstacles to the tournament. Thus, we are cancelling the 2020 tournament in its entirety and are planning for 2021.
Stargate's team arrives at NAQT's Small School National Championship Tournament
Stargate places 17th at NAQT's Small School National Championship Tournament
Congratulations to Stargate for their 17th place finish at NAQT's Small School National Championship Tournament in May!
Stargate qualified for the tournament by winning the Colorado Knowledge Bowl State Tournament and traveled to Chicago for their first ever NAQT tournament.
There were 152 teams at the tournament, a tournament specifically for schools with 500 or fewer students across three grades, e.g. grades 10-12.