Changes for 2021–2022

NAQT has made a number of changes to its rules and policies for the 2021–2022 season:

Gameplay Rules

We made the following changes to the NAQT Gameplay Rules (highlighted on the page):

Allowed tournament-director discretion in addressing players who do not want to use a buzzer system.
Generalized a procedure for replacement bonuses (Rule H.8) and applied it to additional situations.
Adjusted the rule (Rule J.13.d.i) about protests on buzzes during the first sentence of a question. Previously, the rule stated that if the clues read at the time of the buzz did not uniquely specify an answer, the player would be ruled wrong. The updated rule states that for the purpose of determining uniqueness of clues, the buzz will be treated as if it had occurred at the end of the first sentence. Therefore, if the entire first sentence still does not identify a unique answer, the player may be ruled correct.
Clarified rules (Rules J.13.e and J.13.g) for bonus parts with no correct answer or multiple correct answers.

We made the following changes to the NAQT Gameplay Rules (highlighted on the page):

Adjusted the guideline (Correctness Guideline B.9) about generic words to indicate that generic words can be omitted from answers when they have occurred in the question only if they are used in the question to refer to the answer (not if they appear in the question in another context).
Essentially reversed the guideline (Correctness Guideline C.9) about postal abbreviations. Now, postal abbreviations are acceptable for the names of states provided that the question has specified the answer is a state.

To establish an affiliation with a school, players now must enroll in that school in at least one class in a single traditional core curriculum subject (such as science, mathematics, language arts, literature, history, or social studies).
Players may not be considered homeschooled if they are enrolled half-time or more in any school.

In the qualification rules for the Intercollegiate Championship Tournament, we addressed an issue in the interaction of tiers: Tier 4 invitations now cannot dissolve other Tier 4 invitations.