How to Host a Quizbowl Tournament

Make sure to give yourself a few months in preparation and try to avoid any holidays/breaks. 

Estimate how many teams you would like to host and a field cap can be set accordingly. There might be other events (debate/FPS/swim meets etc.) going on at the same time, so it's best to do this early on as well.

It is best to do this through NAQT to allow for qualification to nationals. All you have to do is create an account and send them and email. Here is their hosting webpage, which details the process for registering with NAQT and provides some useful resources and systems.

Email the FAQTS email at floridaquizbowl@gmail.com and upload your tournament to the NAQT website. Make sure you have a way of getting coach emails and/or phone numbers. Often, tournament names are X Invitational or a humorous initia

There are a few types of staff necessary for running a tournament: readers, scorekeepers, and statisticians/results compilers. Usually, asking local universities for volunteers and adding a moderator discount to the tournament fee are usually the best ways to find staff. If more volunteers are needed, asking teachers and others is an option, but it is necessary to train them properly. 

Cash and checks work the best. Often, invoices are necessary for teams to pay (https://invoice-generator.com/?locale=en). A fee of around $70 is the average. A $30 discount per moderator and a $10 discount for B/C/D/E teams and buzzer systems are standard as they help provide necessary resources to running the tournament. The cost of the tournament will be $50 for the packets + ~$20 per team playing from the packet perspective. Payment should be lenient.

Trophies and (better yet) used books are the most common prizes. The latter are more useful and cost-effective while the former are more applicable to larger, more established tournaments. The tournament is also a prize in itself, so it’s not the most important thing to get prizes.

Scorekeeping can either be done on paper with NAQT score sheets or online with TJSheets. It is important to have someone in charge of scoring with some experience on the matter. Make sure to give an adequate lunch period for staff to run through the scoring if using paper scoresheets. TJSheets is more convenient, but make sure there is someone present who has a solid grasp of the software. 

Approximately 15 days before the tournament, confirm with each team their attendance, if they're bringing a moderator, and if they’re bringing buzzer systems. Confirm there are an adequate number of staffers and rooms available.

About a week out, finalize your rosters and rooms and make brackets. Usually, the seeded round-robin is the best option, but of course, it’s up to you. Here’s a majestic PACE article on round-robin bracketing. Make sure you have back-up schedules in-case teams drop-out or split into 2. A good rule of thumb is ±3 teams. Listen to some music while doing it, it’s nice.

Hosts may want to provide teams and/or staff with copies of some or all of the following documents in a folder:

• The NAQT Rules, and/or a brief summary of the rules

• The NAQT Correctness Guidelines

• The NAQT scoresheet, with a filled-out sample available for staff training

• A few copies of the scoresheet electronic version (Microsoft Excel/XLSX) of the scoresheet

• A map of the school with labelled rooms if necessary

• Tournament schedules

Credit: NAQT

Print out enough copies (and extras) of packets for the readers as well. Often, it’s nice to give each school that came a copy of the packet sets, but it’s not required.

Unlock those doors, set up a table, and kick it off! Make sure to have staffers come early, and order them some lunch when it comes time, they’ll appreciate it.

Here is a beautiful article by Colorado QB about hosting which has many contingencies.