National Championships
Individual Player National Championship Tournament (IPNCT)
Current: 2018 Logistics Information

2018 Individual Player National Championship Tournament Logistics Information

The first-ever Individual Player National Championship Tournament (IPNCT) will be held at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare Chicago hotel in Rosemont, IL, on April 15, 2018.

The IPNCT is NAQT’s new championship for individual high school (and middle school) players. NAQT also runs team-based national championships for high schools in general (the HSNCT) and small high schools (the SSNCT).

The IPNCT will recognize an overall champion and will also honor the top players in individual subject areas.

Date

April 15, 2018 (Sunday). This is the same weekend (and site) as NAQT’s 2018 Intercollegiate Championship Tournament, but the IPNCT is a completely separate event.

Participants will check in on Saturday, April 14.

All gameplay will occur on Sunday, April 15.

Location

The Hyatt Regency O'Hare Chicago hotel in Rosemont, Illinois (near Chicago). This is the official hotel, and it contains all of the competition rooms. A floor plan (PDF) is available.

Schedule

All of the competition will take place on Sunday. The primary check-in time will be Saturday evening, but players may also check in Sunday morning.

This schedule is final.

This schedule is tentative.

All times are listed in Central time.

Saturday Evening

Time	Event	Location	Area
7:00 – 9:30 p.m.	Player check-in	Conference Center foyer, Lobby Level

Sunday

Time	Event	Location	Area
7:00 – 7:55 a.m.	Secondary player check-in	International Ballroom foyer	International Level
8:00 – 8:15 a.m.	Player meeting	International Ballroom ABC	International Level
8:30 – 11:15 a.m.	Group matches (rounds 1–3)	Meeting rooms	International Level
11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.	Lunch	On your own
12:15 – 2:15 p.m.	Elimination group matches (rounds 4–5)	Meeting rooms	International Level
2:15 – 3:55 p.m.	Head-to-head matches (rounds 6–10)	Meeting rooms	International Level
3:55 – 4:15 p.m.	Finals (round 11)	International Ballroom ABC	International Level
After finals	Awards	International Ballroom ABC	International Level

NAQT will start the finals (and awards) as soon as possible; 3:55 p.m. is an estimate of when they will begin (but it might be earlier or later).

During the tournament, participants may text 213‑279‑6278 (“NAQT”) with questions; tournament staff will answer incoming messages as quickly as they can. Standard messaging rates apply.

Gameplay Rules

Essentially, the tournament will use NAQT’s standard rules with these modifications:

There are only tossups, no bonuses
Matches are untimed
There are no notions of teammates or captains
Some matches (“group matches”) will have more than two players at once
In group matches, an interrupt penalty will be assessed for every incorrect answer given before the question is over
In group matches, players may be removed from the game before it is over, depending on their performance
In group matches, a question only “goes dead” when time expires or every active player has answered incorrectly
There are no timeouts in group matches, but there will be periodic score checks

The complete IPNCT rules (PDF) are available.

Eligibility

All players eligible to compete for their school (or home-school team) according to NAQT’s High School Eligibility Rules are eligible to enter the 2018 IPNCT. In general terms, this tournament is open to all students in twelfth grade or below from any kind of school anywhere in the world. Players with special eligibility circumstances write to eligibility@naqt.com for a ruling on their situations.

Qualification

There is no qualification procedure for the first Individual Player National Championship Tournament. NAQT welcomes all players who want to see how their knowledge, anticipation, and buzzer speed stack up against the very best. NAQT encourages players unfamiliar with its college-level questions to review the sample packet of Division II ICT questions so they have an idea of the likely difficulty level of the tournament.

Field

The field is limited to 100 competitors. The current field can be viewed online. (The field was originally limited to 32 competitors, but it was expanded to 40 on December 22, to 48 on January 7, to 56 on January 17, to 64 on January 18, to 80 on January 19, to 96 on January 29, and to 112 on February 28, then changed to 100 on March 30 due to cancellations.)

Format

The championship will begin with three group matches rounds of 48 or 72 tossups each in which ten players will compete to be the first to buzz out by hitting a given point threshold (60 or 90 points). The order in which players buzz out determines their seeding for the next group match (players that don't buzz out are ranked by points scored).

After lunch there will be two elimination group matches of 72 questions each. Following the elimination group matches, the final 32 competitors will play head-to-head matches on 24-tossup packets to determine the champion. (These matches will be single elimination with some placement games). No competitor will be eliminated from contention prior to the end of the first elimination group match.

A detailed description of the format is available.

The IPNCT format is based on the Hillemann Singles Format pioneered by NAQT Member Emeritus Eric Hillemann in 1997.

Registration & Fees

The registration fee for the championship is $160 per competitor provided that payment is postmarked or received no later than Friday, March 23, 2018. Competitors paying after this date, including at the championship itself, will be charged an additional $20.

In addition, as of Friday, March 9, registration will be considered final. Should a competitor cancel on or after March 10, but before March 23, they will still be liable for 50% of the registration fee. Players that cancel on or after March 23 (including no-shows) will be liable for the entire registration fee.

Registration is now open. The current field can be viewed online.

Payment

Payment is due by the beginning of the tournament. NAQT strongly prefers payment prior to tournament check-in but also accepts payments at check-in. Schools that will be unable to pay by this time (typically for reasons related to school bureaucracies) should discuss their situation with NAQT well in advance.

NAQT may specify earlier payment deadlines for specific teams, especially those for which the school is not paying.

NAQT will send invoices well in advance of the tournament. If you would like to pay or request an invoice earlier, once you have entered all the information that can affect costs (but not necessarily entered your roster), at the bottom of your registration page, click “View Cost.” Verify that the listed information is correct, and if so, follow the instructions to request an invoice so that we have the proper billing information. You will also be offered the opportunity to pay by credit card.

Checks, payable to “NAQT,” should be sent to

National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC
11521 W 69th St
Shawnee, KS 66203–3749

Please send questions about billing to billing@naqt.com.

Questions

The tournament will use the tossups from the Division II ICT set. (Bonuses will not be used.)

All participating competitors will receive copies of all the questions used at this championship, regardless of when they are eliminated. (This is the full Division II set, including bonuses.) These questions must be picked up at the championship itself, after the finals. Competitors who leave early or who forget to pick up their questions will be charged a shipping-and-handling fee of $10 to have them mailed. In addition, each competitor may also pick up a separate copy of the questions for the use of their school’s quiz bowl program.

Chaperones

Each player who is not yet 18 years of age (as of April 15, 2018) must be accompanied by an adult chaperone. Multiple players may share the same chaperone.

Checking In

Competitors (including standby players) should arrive on Saturday and check in between 7:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. If competitors cannot check in on Saturday night, they should do so on Sunday morning between 7:00 a.m. and 7:55 a.m.

The 2018 Individual Player National Championship Tournament will use the Division II packet set from the 2018 Intercollegiate Championship Tournament (ICT), which is being held Saturday at the same site. Competitors should be aware that ICT gameplay may run as late as 8:00 p.m. on Saturday. No competitor (or coach or spectator with ties to a competitor) in the 2018 IPNCT championship may watch any part of the ICT except the awards ceremony. (This includes the Division I matches, since the Division I and Division II question sets will share question content.)

Standby players should make sure to attend the morning player meeting (unless they have been previously told that all competitors have checked in and there is no spot for them in the tournament).

Standby List

Players who can be at the tournament site even without a guaranteed spot may sign up for the standby list by writing to ipnct@naqt.com. Such players will only play if a spot opens up, and if they play, they will play for free.

Awards

All players who survive the elimination group matches and qualify for the head-to-head rounds will receive plaques. In addition, the top players in each subject area (history, literature, etc.) will also receive plaques.

Each plaque will be personalized with the name of the competitor and have a list of their overall finish and top subject performances. These plaques will be ordered by NAQT following the tournament and shipped to the players who earned them.

Consolation Group Matches

Starting in Round 5, once some players have been eliminated, NAQT will make surplus rooms, staff, and buzzer systems available for consolation group matches for interested players. These will be organized informally, and there may not be enough spaces to accommodate all interested players in each round.

Transportation

Flights

Participants are strongly encouraged to fly into Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), which is extremely close to the hotel. They may also fly into Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW), but it is much less convenient.

Ground Transportation

The hotel runs a free shuttle every 15 or 30 minutes (depending on time of day) to transport people from O’Hare to the hotel (and vice versa). As of 2024, the shuttle pickup location has changed; it is now outside of Door 2A on the Arrivals Level of Terminal 2. There is also a pickup location by Door 5E in Terminal 5, but that is much less convenient for most domestic arrivals.

There is no such shuttle for Midway. A taxi between Midway and the hotel will cost $35 or more, or you can take the CTA’s Orange and Blue Lines for $3 per person (getting on at the Midway Orange Line station, transferring to the Blue Line downtown, and getting off at the Rosemont Blue Line station, which is about one block from the hotel).

Driving Directions

The hotel’s address is 9300 Bryn Mawr Avenue, Rosemont, Illinois.

Parking

Parking standard vehicles at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare costs $15/day, including in-and-out privileges. Participants traveling to the tournament in buses should contact the hotel in advance to discuss parking options.

To receive the discounted parking rate, participants staying at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare should mention when checking into their guest rooms (not the tournament) that they have parked at the hotel and validate their ticket. Participants not staying at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare should use the manual validator box at the Information Desk to validate their parking ticket. (Do not use the manual validator box if you are staying overnight at the hotel.)

Hotel

The Hyatt Regency O’Hare (9300 Bryn Mawr Avenue, Rosemont, Illinois) is both the official hotel and the competition site for the tournament.

Rooms with one king bed are available for $114 per night; rooms with two double beds are available for $122 per night.

Rooms may be booked online or reserved by calling the hotel at 847-696-1234. Note that the hotel has only a single room block for both the ICT and the IPNCT; you should not be concerned by the fact that you are booking as part of a guest-room block named for the ICT.)

Participants that book rooms at the as part of NAQT’s official block are guaranteed to have free wireless Internet access in their guest rooms and in the public areas (but not in the meeting rooms).

Food

The hotel’s O’H American Grill serves most meals, often with an all-you-can-eat buffet.

There is a food court with a variety of typical food-court-style restaurants at the Fashion Outlets of Chicago mall at 5220 Fashion Outlets Way. To get to the Fashion Outlets from the hotel, walk west on Bryn Mawr, turn left onto River Road, then turn right onto Balmoral Avenue until you get to Fashion Outlets Way. The food court is a 15-minute walk from the hotel.

There are also several restaurants offering more formal dining at the Parkway Bank Park Entertainment District. These are more suited for evening meals and are a twelve-minute walk away.

Participants can also order carry-out or delivery from local restaurants.

Advocate Program

Because NAQT believes that quiz bowl is an activity for everybody, and in which all participants should feel welcome and respected, we have established the Advocate Program to make sure select tournament staff are available to hear reports about problematic behavior and comments by anyone at the tournament.

Staff wearing blue ribbons that say “Advocate” have been specifically selected to receive reports about inappropriate behavior (as opposed to run-of-the-mill questions about the quiz bowl aspects of the tournament). At least one such staff member will generally be available at the Information Desk during tournament hours; if no such person is available (e.g., due to being on a break), the other Information Desk staff can be asked to have a senior tournament official come to the Information Desk to hear the report. Additional Advocate Program staff will be available in many places around the tournament site.

Feedback about problematic behavior can, of course, always be sent to NAQT by email (advocate@naqt.com) or other channels such as the Misconduct Reporting Form, but the Advocate Program is intended to allow for in-person reporting of sensitive complaints on-site so they can be handled immediately.

Reports are confidential to the extent permitted by law and NAQT’s agreements to share critical information with other quiz bowl organizations.

Practice Material

Participants may be interested in practicing on questions from previous years to prepare for the event. All of NAQT’s past regular-season sets are available, as are the sets from previous championships.

Participants may also want to study frequency lists, Power Up study guides, and/or Thumbs Up! question anthologies. These are also available on our practice materials page.

Finally, participants may want to look at the information contained in NAQT’s free You Gotta Know articles before the tournament. These detail the most frequently asked-about question topics in a wide variety of areas.

Spectators

Spectators are welcome to attend any part of the tournament (though some areas may have limited capacity).

No registration or tickets are required for spectators.

Sightseeing

Chicago has a variety of world-class attractions that should appeal to anybody, especially to quiz bowlers!

The easiest way to reach most of Chicago’s downtown attractions is to ride the Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA’s) ‘L’ trains, for which there is a stop within easy walking distance of the hotel: Exit the hotel and walk west on Bryn Mawr; turn right on River Road and pass under I-190 and the CTA tracks. The entrance to Rosemont station on the CTA Blue Line will be on your right. Board trains bound for “Loop” or “Forest Park” (not for O’Hare!) for the 35-minute ride into downtown Chicago.

Once you’re downtown, the Art Institute of Chicago (Blue Line to Monroe, walk 1 block south to Adams and 3 blocks east) features dozens of tossup-worthy works, including Nighthawks and American Gothic, and adjoins both Millennium Park and Grant Park, home to Cloud Gate (“The Bean”) and Buckingham Fountain, respectively. Just a bit further south is the Museum Campus (Blue Line to Jackson, walk 1 block east to State Street and Jackson and catch bus 146 toward Museum Campus), which is home to three major institutions: the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum of Natural History, and the historic Adler Planetarium, which was the first planetarium in the Americas.

The Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower; Blue Line to Jackson, walk 4 blocks west) offers stunning views of the Chicago skyline; so does 875 North Michigan Avenue (formerly the John Hancock Center; Blue Line to Chicago station, bus 66 toward Navy Pier), located on Michigan Avenue in the heart of famed Magnificent Mile. Further afield are the Lincoln Park Zoo (Blue Line to Western, bus 73 to Clark/North), the Chicago History Museum (5 minutes walk from the zoo), and the Museum of Science and Industry (Blue Line to Jackson, walk 1 block east to State Street and Jackson and catch bus 6 toward 79th/South Shore), which is housed in a structure originally built for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.

Further Questions

To ask specific questions about the IPNCT, write to ipnct@naqt.com.

We look forward to answering any and all questions, no matter how expansive or trivial, in the hopes of eliminating any possible confusion or mistakes in participants’ plans. If something’s not clear, let us know!