Texas Quiz Bowl Alliance

Only a few people have gotten to see Sameer Rai play as a junior. We in Texas were fortunate to have Rai’s Bellarmine squad, and many other elite players and teams, at Texas Invitational. It is with that appearance in mind that we are predicting a Bellarmine victory at HSNCT. Just as last year’s Bellarmine squad followed up a TI-ACF title with a national title, so it could be again in 2013.

Still, there’s an obvious counter to this idea: Is Bellarmine too imbalanced to win a national title? Their stats at this HSNCT might be more one-sided than those of Chris Ray’s 2006 Richard Montgomery team (57.0% of tossup points scored by Ray) or Henry Gorman’s 2009 Wilmington Charter team (53.9%). Last year, with Nikhil Desai absent on Saturday, Rai scored 63.9% of Bellarmine’s tossup points in the prelims. In the playoffs, with Desai involved, Rai still tallied 41.9% of their playoff points.

With Desai and Ankit Aggarwal gone, how large is Rai’s responsibility? For reassurance that it’s at least a somewhat shared load, we turn to Bellarmine’s performance at TI-NAQT, without both Rai and the No. 4 player from last year’s champions, John Cherian: Bellarmine went 5-10, beating a three-man LASA A squad (Cain/Weiser/Goodman), Harmony and Bellaire, but losing soundly to St. Mark’s.

The senior Cherian begins to look like the key. With Rai sitting out, he was Bellarmine A’s leader at Northern California state (56.5 PPG) and at a small October event (75.8). Cherian had a solid performance in helping Bellarmine put away DCC in last year’s second final; his contribution alongside Rai — the strongest player in the nation and among the best we’ve ever seen — should be enough to put Bellarmine over the top.

It has been 11 years since St. John’s School won Texas’ only HSNCT title, way back in 2002.  In recent years, LASA has often been a bridesmaid; it has an active streak of three consecutive top-three HSNCT finishes, but has not yet managed to break through in the biggest games. Could this be Texas’ year?

We have predicted that of the 22 TQBA teams playing this weekend, 10 will make it to Sunday’s playoffs (with at least a 6-4 preliminary record). Of those 10, we believe that five have some non-zero probability of being champion. Here are sets of pro-and-con arguments for each of those five.

LASA C (7-3 predicted preliminary record)

Why could they win? This squad includes the core of 2012 Middle School National Champion. Patty Hill has trained them well, they are young, and destined for great things perhaps sooner rather than later.

Why won’t they win? They are too young. They are solid players, but they lack extensive big-time experience. None of the four has played into the final rounds at HSNCT, and going through the pressure-cooker once or twice does help. They won’t win in 2013, but watch this crew carefully. This squad is capable of winning an HSNCT in 2014, 2015, or 2016.

Prediction: tie-13th

Cistercian A (8-2 predicted preliminary record)

Why could they win? Most of them (3 of 4) have been here before. They are all seniors. This is an unpredictable year with no prohibitive favorite and someone has to win. Vimal Konduri generates a lot of points, and Collin Nadarajah has grown into a primary supporting role.

Why won’t they win? They lack top-flight practice. Cistercian was unavailable to participate in Texas Invitational or Bluebonnet. They have not had the opportunity to face the elite squads (e.g., Loyola, Northmont, Hunter, Dorman, Detroit Catholic Central, Bellarmine) that LASA and St. John’s have played (and beaten). That lack of experience is a significant disadvantage.

Prediction: tie-8th

LASA A (8-2 predicted preliminary record)

Why could they win? On paper, this is the best unit in the whole field. Judging by 2012, they should win the tournament. They have the best balance of any national contender; all four can provide solid contributions. They have been here before, placing third last year. Allan Sadun can be dominant, and Nathan Weiser has significantly improved since last year.

Why won’t they win? This crew has very seldom played alongside each other, and have never won a tournament of consequence together. They have a knack for losing to their B team; this happened at Texas Invitational (twice) and Harvard Fall. They can beat anyone, but they also have a tendency to lose to underdogs, including Dorman, High Tech, and Chattahoochee at the 2012 HSNCT.

Prediction: tie-8th

St. John’s (8-2 predicted preliminary record)

Why could they win? They won the NAQT part of Texas Invitational defeating Dorman, Northmont, Bellarmine (without Sameer Rai), DCC, LASA A, LASA B, and Max Schindler in the process. They have shown the ability to win the tough game — against LASA at the Texas Quiz Bowl Championship, they answered the last four tossups to pull out a close win, erasing a late 100-point deficit.

Why won’t they win?
This squad lacks Sunday HSNCT experience. A St. John’s team hasn’t had multiple HSNCT playoff wins since 2005. Carlos DeGuzman played, as a freshman, on an eighth-place Seven Lakes team in 2011; no other member has played in the HSNCT playoffs. This St. John’s team is young. They will return all players next year and have to be an early favorite for 2014.

Prediction: tie-5th

LASA B (8-2 predicted preliminary record)

Why could they win? They almost won the NAQT part of Texas Invitational as a three-man team, defeating Dorman, Northmont, Bellarmine (without Sameer Rai), DCC, LASA A, and Max Schindler in the process. They have beaten LASA A three different times in the past year.

Why won’t they win? They lack experience, including playing together as a unit. There’s also not a real 50 PPG guy on this team. Jones and Sastry played on playoffs teams the past two years, but both exited early. Li and Freed have never played at HSNCT. Like St. John’s, this squad will all return in 2014 and should be an early favorite for next year.

Prediction: 4th

To wrap-up our HSNCT preview series, we will reveal our pick for 2013 HSNCT Champion later Thursday.

We conclude our Texas HSNCT previews with the Houston teams.

Bellaire A
Without much fanfare, the Cardinals field a solid (but unspectacular) team year after year. For the last two years, the Bellaire team has come to HSNCT, gone 6-4 on Day 1, and lost its first playoff game on Day 2. Kevin Chen and Ridge Liu provide the team with some scoring punch that allowed the Cardinals to tie Detroit Catholic Central at Texas Invitational. Typically, however, this crew seems to struggle against high-powered competition. At the Texas Quiz Bowl Championship, Bellaire lost games to every other member of the top 7, though their losses to the top three teams came by a total of 100 points. They managed only 3 wins at Texas Invitational. The Cardinals are in a good position to continue their string of playoff appearances, but won’t last too long on Sunday.
Record Prediction: 6-4

Bellaire B
The second Cardinals squad earned its spot to HSNCT with an upset victory in October’s Kickoff Classic VIII at Westside. That squad had a 14.47 bonus conversion and found only 2 wins combined by HoHoHo and Winter Rodeo. Though this team will likely find the sledding very tough at HSNCT, it will be a great learning experience. That experience might be invaluable as members of this team will try to keep alive the Cardinals’ playoff streak in 2014.
Record Prediction: 3-7

Clements A&B
The school from Fort Bend ISD is the most mysterious of our group of 22. They showed up in force during the fall and picked up a pair of HSNCT invitations with a quality double performance at Bayou City Challenge in November. The A-bunch averaged 3.7 powers per game and 20.37 BC on IS-119 while the B-bunch tallied 3.5 and 19.62. These numbers are comparable to those put up by Kealing or Bellaire B, but not quite as good as Reagan (6.2 & 20.35) on the same set. Have no doubt that the Clements students have potential. They just need more seasoning. Chalk up 2013 as a learning opportunity for these juniors and sophomores, and watch out for a Rangers playoff berth in 2014.
A Record Prediction: 4-6
B Record Prediction: 3-7

Debakey
The other HISD HSNCT representative hails from the district’s school for Health Professions. Debakey stormed the TQBA scene this year with juniors Vi Nguyen and Chris Wong improving all year; they earned a surprise victory at the Bexar Bowl in February. Since then, the team has found challenges at Bluebonnet (2-10) and the TQBA Championship (5-8), so they will be battle-tested heading into the HSNCT. Yes, this team could use more experience and is probably a year away from attaining its potential. But I wouldn’t rule out a surprise playoff berth.
Record Prediction: 5-5

St. John’s
Last fall, the arrival of Carlo DeGuzman changed the dynamic of a squad that went 5-5 during the 2012 HSNCT, missing Sunday’s playoffs. Adding DeGuzman to the lineup of Claire Jones, Deven Lahoti, George Davies, and Jeffrey Fastow has paid dividends; St..John’s won HoHoHo Black, Texas Invitational NAQT, and the Texas Quiz Bowl Championship. The most serious blemishes to their record — losses to St. Mark’s at HoHoHo and Harmony and Loyola at Bluebonnet — have come when they have been at less than full strength. St. John’s is a strong team and should still be competing after lunch on Sunday. They are one of  a quartet of TQBA squads with realistic title aspirations.
Record Prediction: 8-2

Seven Lakes
St. John’s good fortune was Seven Lakes’ misfortune; the loss of DeGuzman left the Spartans with only 1 remaining component (Andi Qi) of their 2012 Texas Quiz Bowl Championship squad. At times Qi has dominated and showed promise as a #1 capable of leading the Spartans to success. Sameer Suresh’s development over the past year has helped the team finished fourth at the Texas Quiz Bowl Championship and beat Detroit Catholic Central at the NAQT portion of Texas Invitational. Unfortunately, there have also been some bumps along the way, including losses to Debakey (TQBC) and Kealing (TI: NAQT). The HSNCT field is stacked. A team susceptible to bumps might find itself struggling at HSNCT on Saturday.
Record Prediction: 6-4

We will wrap up our HSNCT Preview on Thursday with a discussion of the national title hopes of four Texas squads, and give you our pick for which team will win the 2013 title.

We continue today with the HSNCT previews for the seven area Austin teams!

Harmony
The Harmony Science Academy of North Austin has its sights set on a run at the small school title, but first, they’ll see if they get a chance to play in the main playoff bracket. Harmony has posted some great results this season: They beat St. Mark’s at HoHoHo; they went 9-1 at Winter Rodeo, nearly beating Cistercian in the final; and most impressively, they topped St. John’s at Bluebonnet. But entering nationals, momentum is slowing; they lost twice to Reagan to finish third at Fiesta, then lost to St. Thomas and Village at state, escaping Taylor by five points and placing seventh. The most encouraging trend this season has been the increasing role of sophomore Ali Barreh, whose PPG output has tripled over the course of the season. Having a third component supporting sophomore Henry Hawthorn and senior Merrick Espinosa should mean the difference in Harmony reaching the playoff bracket for the first time.
Record Prediction: 6-4

LASA Overview

To say anything authoritatively about LASA at this point just doesn’t make much sense. Their rosters have been unstable; their A team players have missed a lot of events; their HSNCT rosters are a mystery even today. So before we try to examine them team-by-team, here’s the only assertive prediction I have for you: In 2011 and 2012, LASA C went 7-5, finishing in the top quarter of the field each time. These are the top C-team performances ever at HSNCT. The third-ranking LASA team in this tournament will break that record easily.

Here are our guesses at records — and lineups — for five LASA squads:

LASA A (Roger Cain, Allan Sadun, Nathan Weiser, Arthur Lee)
This exact squad finished third at HSNCT 2012. That’s very nearly their most recent statistics playing together. On the basis of that showing alone — a 7-3 Saturday and a 14-5 finish — a fifth-consecutive top-three finish for LASA would seem in order. In seven games together at TI ACF, LASA A went 5-2, beating Schindler, St. John’s and DCC… and losing twice to LASA B. It’s difficult to be immensely confident, and with Bellarmine and Ladue waiting, it will be quite an achievement if this LASA quartet improves on its third-place showing in 2012.
Record Prediction: 8-2

LASA B (Alex Freed, Ben Jones, Arnav Sastry, Ying Liu)
For much of the season, including Texas Invitational, LASA’s juniors were recording better results than LASA’s seniors. Jones, Sastry and Freed as a three-man team went 15-1 in the NAQT portion of TI, splitting two matches with St. John’s and beating DCC, Dorman and Schindler. Freed had 80 total points in two wins over the full LASA A squad at TI ACF. In 2008, Dorman placed two teams in the top 6. LASA will be aiming for the same in 2013 — and who’s to say which might be the straggler?
Record Prediction: 8-2

LASA C (Forrest Hammel, Ethan Russo, Alex Denko, Corin Wagen)
The duo that took Kealing to back-to-back middle school national titles — and then to the 2012 HSNCT playoffs — has considerably more help these days. Denko averaged nearly 39 points (on top of Russo’s 31 and Wagen’s 30) in LASA’s third-place finish at state, a performance that nearly saw them force a three-way tie atop the standings. At Bluebonnet, this exact squad beat Loyola Academy and finished 10-2, with losses to St. John’s and mixed LASA A/B team. In all likelihood, they will be the first C team to win 7 Saturday games. The sky’s the limit in the coming years, but for this season, a long Sunday run isn’t out of reach.
Record Prediction: 7-3

LASA D (Matt Goodman, Advaith Anand, Michael Zhou, Lily Xu, and surely some students I’ve left out)
Here’s the real mystery: Who is LASA D? Goodman played on the three-man LASA Alpher at TI’s NAQT portion, and on LASA C in the ACF portion. He’s been at a lot of events, but seems short of the top squads. Zhou played fourth fiddle on a LASA C team that went 6-2 at Winter Rodeo. Anand was on LASA B at 2012′s TI, but has faded from the picture. Anand and Xu both played on LASA C at Illinois Fall. Xu contributed 30 PPG on LASA 2 at St. Mark’s. There are a lot of quality spare pieces to construct LASA D. If this team has put in time together and become a solid unit, we could see a D team in the playoffs at HSNCT – which LASA accomplished two years ago. Wrap your brain around that.
Record Prediction: 5-5

LASA E (Some mix of John DiCarlo, John Sadun, Jonah Shaukat, Niels Kornerup, Isaac Cui and Michael Martinez)
This squad will consist of the LASA freshmen besides Wagen and Russo; they earned a nationals berth by winning the Capital City Challenge in October. LASA Yellow — a squad of Sadun, Shaukat, DiCarlo and Martinez — went 5-2-1 at Kickoff, tying Reagan and losing to Clements and another LASA team. Sadun, Shaukat, DiCarlo and Cui split games with Reagan at Capital City, and beat a Lauber-less Jay team and a Harmony B team. In the spring, Shaukat, DiCarlo, Kornerup and Martinez went 4-5 at St. Mark’s, narrowly losing to Cistercian B. This is clearly a better team than last year’s LASA E, which went 2-8, but the playoffs are probably beyond this group, especially if the best among them is pulled up to LASA D.
Record Prediction: 4-6

Kealing
Last year, Kealing went 6-4 led by Russo and Wagen, becoming the first middle-school team to make the playoffs at HSNCT. A new Kealing batch returns, this time as national middle-school runners-up, losing a disadvantaged final to Barrington-Station in two games. Kealing has the unique advantage of having played TI-NAQT against the best teams in the nation. They posted wins over Seven Lakes and Jay this season, but any comparison to last year’s remarkable team is probably unfair. This is a more-balanced team than last year’s, certainly, and only so many teams will outclass them — but a repeat playoff berth seems a lot to ask.
Record Prediction: 4-6

 We will continue our HSNCT previews tomorrow with the Houston area teams. On Thursday, we will post an overview of the national playoff field for Sunday and discuss the possibility that a Texas squad will emerge victorious.

We continue our HSNCT preview today with the four Dallas area teams competiting:

Cistercian A
The Hawks’ core trio (Konduri, Nadarajah, and Weldon) is the same as that which went 7-3 in the preliminaries of the last HSNCT and finished 8th overall. This team has posted a couple of TQBA XIV tournament victories (Winter Rodeo and St. Mark’s), but has missed competitions with deeper fields (Texas Invitational, Bluebonnet). Vimal Konduri is still one of the best individual scorers in the nation, and will pace a strong effort with his extraordinary NAQT proficiency. The team loses its fourth performer from last year’s group (Ian Hunley) and replaces him with the steady Lucas Skaras (8-13-1 during the somewhat surprising playoff run for Cistercian B at the 2012 HSNCT) to form a potent all-senior quartet. The key for Cistercian A will be maintaining balance. If Nadarajah, Weldon, and Skaras can average about 2 powers per game between them, I see a solid finish ahead for this Hawks crew.
Record Prediction: 8-2

Cistercian B
The Hawks’ second squad comes off a 6-4 preliminary record in the 2012 HSNCT, and will attempt to solidify the bona fides of the Cistercian quiz bowl program by having its B team reach the HSNCT playoffs for the third consecutive year. The team should return the trio of David Losson, Mitchell Sawtelle, and Jess Clay from last year’s squad, and is expected to replace Lucas Skaras (lost to A) with fellow senior Ben Horlick. Cistercian B has been a bit inconsistent this year with losses to Cistercian C and Plano West at St. Mark’s and to St. Thomas at HoHoHo, but they showed some strength at Winter Rodeo with a strong third-place finish. This team is the toughest Texas team to predict. The loss of the steely Skaras will hurt. I could imagine 7-3 or 3-7; I think they will continue the streak and get in once again.
Record Prediction: 6-4

Parish Episcopal
Parish Episcopal makes its first trip to HSNCT on Saturday. Parish is a relatively new quiz bowl program that hosted its first tournament (Panther) this past January. Though the crew fared well against local competition at that event and in the HoHoHo Red Division, they struggled at Bluebonnet in the Black Division. The realities of HSNCT lay somewhere between HoHoHo Red and the murderers’ row of HSNCT Top 10 contenders they found at Bluebonnet. If Sarah Champ, Cara Santucci, Jasmine Amerasekra and Abigail Dorward can find a balance of contributions as they did at HoHoHo, this crew could surprise a lot of people.
Record Prediction: 3-7

St. Mark’s
The Lions return two of their top three scorers (James Rowan, Luke Munson) from a 2012 squad that went 7-3 in the preliminaries and finished 31st overall. Rowan and Munson have led the team to great wins (e.g., Dorman at TI, St. John’s A at HoHoHo) and they will be very dangerous at HSNCT, though disappointing loses (e.g., Lone Stars at TI) hint at a trouble with consistency that can be disastrous against the multitude of quality teams they will find in Atlanta. Last year, St. Mark’s finished 2nd at the TQBA Championship; this year they fell to 5th. My gut tells me that this team is a bit down from last year, but they have shown the potential for great victories.
Record Prediction: 6-4

We continue our previews tomorrow with the Austin area teams.

In the week leading up to the 256-team High School National Championship Tournament run by NAQT, Texas Quiz Bowl staff will provide a short preview for each competing team. Each team will play 10 preliminary matches on Saturday, needing to win six to advance to playoff competition Sunday. The first region being covered is San Antonio; four teams from the new circuit’s second season are traveling to Atlanta next weekend. The teams are presented in alphabetical order:

Clark
One of two San Antonio teams to travel to HSNCT last year, Clark brings an all-senior lineup to this year’s tournament, looking to improve upon a 4-6 showing at last year’s event. They carry momentum from an eighth-place finish at TQBA State. The Clark A team only played together at one of the three local San Antonio events: an 8-2 showing at their home tournament, where they suffered two close losses to DeBakey. With Reagan A absent from that event, Clark had the best PPB of any of the San Antonio teams; Clark then finished one win better than Reagan at State despite an early-day defeat against them. Texas-bound Dylan Davidson leads an overall balanced team that should be in the running for a playoff spot late Saturday in Atlanta.
Record Prediction: 5-5

Jay
Going on recent form, Jay may have the best shot at reaching the playoffs of the four San Antonio teams. The late-season addition of Samuel Lauber has transformed what this all-senior team is capable of. Still led by Texas-bound Joseph Langas, who posted 122 PPG at Bexar Bowl before Lauber’s arrival, Jay surprised the field at Fiesta Bowl, taking two games out of three against Reagan to walk out as the champions. Langas and Lauber were both among that event’s top four scorers; Lauber had the most powers at the event. In recent weeks, Jay has looked increasingly dangerous; if they can stay focused through the long Saturday, a playoff berth is within their grasp.
Record Prediction: 6-4

O’Connor
With only Andy Walker back from O’Connor’s 2012 HSNCT squad, the Panthers started the year looking to fill in a lot of holes. As the year has progressed, some help has arrived, but Walker still carries the lion’s share of the load, as evidenced by his 109 PPG as O’Connor went 9-1 on their way to the Bexar Bowl final. O’Connor missed Fiesta Bowl, so we haven’t seen them against top-level tournament competition in a few months. Recent weeks have reinforced the idea that O’Connor can compete with their San Antonio peers. However, results are more erratic when teams are less balanced, and much will ride on how much the individual question packets favor Walker.
Record Prediction: 4-6

Reagan
At the start of the year, Reagan was the prohibitive favorite to lead the San Antonio area, and nothing in the fall suggested that would change: Behind juniors Canzhi Ye and Carson Casey — but with an abundance of support from three solid seniors — they strolled through the field at Trinity, averaging more than 130 points more than any other team there, and getting a tight match only from their B team. But things simply haven’t worked out as planned. Reagan looked strong at Fiesta Bowl in beating Harmony twice, but two losses to Jay kept them from claiming that title. The Rattlers then finished 12th out of 14 at state, losing eight of their last nine games after a 3-1 start. That might indicate the main issue for Reagan: Teams too prone to negative momentum can wind up slumping and dropping games they shouldn’t. Reagan probably still has the most raw ability of these four teams; if they can play with composure throughout a long Saturday, reaching Sunday is clearly possible.
Record Prediction: 5-5

Tomorrow we will preview teams from the Dallas area.

On Memorial Day Weekend 2013, 256 teams from across the nation will descend on Atlanta, Georgia for the 2013 NAQT High School National Championship Tournament. This group will include 22 Texas teams who qualified for the national at TQBA events during the 2012-13 season. In the coming days we will preview each of the 22 teams. Before we do that, we want to tell you more about the HSNCT.

HSNCT 2000 – 2011

Texas Quiz Bowl has a long standing connection with National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT). Before we were called TQBA members of the present TQBA staff were hosting Texas Quiz Bowl contests in association with NAQT. Through this association since 2000, Texas has sent representatives to the annual High School National Championship Tournament.

In 2002 and 2004 Texas hosted the HSNCT in Austin and Houston respectively. In 2002 Texas won its only HSNCT title when St. John’s School defeated Irmo (SC) in the Austin final. TQBA maintains a list of top national finishes here. In three of the last four years, LASA has finished 3rd overall at HSNCT. The exception was 2011 when LASA finished 2nd, losing in the final to State College (PA). That year a TQBA-record five teams placed in the top 25.

HSNCT 2012

Like at the 2012 HSNCT each team will play 10 preliminary matches across 16 rounds next Saturday. The preliminary matches are run on a card system. Teams always play another team with the same record. At the end of Saturday’s 1280 match schedule, teams with a 6-4 record or better make a double elimination playoff on Sunday.

Here were last year’s preliminary results and final playoff placing for the 21 participating TQBA Teams:

LASA A 7-3 (3rd)
Cistercian A 7-3 (8th)
St. Mark’s 7-3 (33rd)

LASA B 6-4 (21st)
Kealing 6-4 (49th)
LASA C 6-4 (49th)
Cistercian B 6-4 (71st)
Bellaire A 6-4 (71st)

St. John’s A 5-5
St. John’s B 5-5
Harmony 5-5
Kinkaid 5-5
Highland Park 5-5
Temple 4-6
Bellaire B 4-6
O’Connor 4-6
Clark 4-6
LASA D 3-7
St. John’s C 3-7
St. John’s D 3-7
LASA E 2-8

Here is our preview schedule for the week:

• Sunday: 4 San Antonio area teams
  
• Monday: 4 Dallas area teams
• Tuesday: 7 Austin area teams
• Wednesday: 7 Houston area teams
• Thursday: The hunt for the title

More than 500 pictures from Texas Quiz Bowl events in 2012-2013 were uploaded today the Texas Quiz Bowl Facebook Page. More will go up in the next few days. Please tag yourself (and your friends). Here is a quartet of samples featuring players from the Austin area: 

The St. John’s School (Houston) team of Carlo De Guzman, Claire Jones, George Davies, Jeffrey Fastow (all 2014) and Deven Lahoti (2015) won the 14th annual Texas Quiz Bowl Championship contested at Village this past weekend. The St. John’s team finished the day a perfect 14-0, defeating Cistercian Prep (Irving) 425-270 in the final. LASA (Austin), St. Mark’s, and Seven Lakes round out the top 5. Full Stats are available here. 

Among first time participants, Clark High School (San Antonio) finished highest in 8th place. Other first time participants include Houston-Debakey (9th), Houston-St. Thomas (10th), Katy-Taylor (13th), and Austin-St. Dominic Savio (14th).

The top individual performers at the event were Carlo De Guzman (St. John’s), Vimal Konduri (Cistercian), Kevin Chen (Bellaire), and James Rowan (St. Mark’s). All four were named as members of the 2012-2013 All-TQBA team for their respective classes.

This championship is the fifth TQBA title for St. John’s School and its first since 2007. St. John’s is the most successful program in TQBA history. This is St. John’s fifth TQBA championship win and its 17th tournament victory.

The 15th TQBA Season will get started with the TQBA Kickoff Classic IX at Seven Lakes High School in Katy on October 14, 2013. Next year’s TQBA Championship event will be held on April 26, 2014 at Southwestern University in Georgetown.

Texas Quiz Bowl is pleased to announce that its 15th annual championship event will be held at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas on April 26, 2014. The event will be a full round robin for up to 16 teams.

Squads can qualify either automatically by winning one of TQBA’s 13 designated 2013-2014 regular season events (Kickoff, Alamo, Bayou, Metroplex, Crescent City, HoHoHo, Rodeo, Bluebonnet, Fiesta, Bexar, Fiesta, St. Mark’s, Cajun) or be selected as a wild card based upon victory points earned at events throughout the competition season.

The 14th annual Texas Quiz Bowl Championship will be contested on May 4, 2013 at the Village School in Houston. Bellaire, Clark, Cistercian, Debakey, Harmony, LASA, Reagan, Seven Lakes, St. Dominic Savio, St. John’s, St. Mark’s, St. Thomas, Taylor, and Village are this year’s 14 qualifying schools.