The 2018 Community College Championship Tournament (CCCT) was held at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare Chicago in Rosemont, Illinois (near Chicago), on March 2–3, 2018.

Date

March 2–3, 2018 (Friday–Saturday).

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

This schedule is final.

This schedule is tentative.

All times are listed in Central time.

The round-6 tiebreaker will only be played by some teams; most teams will start play on Saturday at 9:45 a.m. game. Even if there are no round-6 tiebreakers to be played, the playoff round robin will not start until 9:45 a.m.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

NAQT has prepared answers to frequently asked questions about its national championships.

Rules and Eligibility

Gameplay will follow the Official NAQT Rules. Player eligibility is governed by the Community College Eligibility Rules.

Qualification

Schools qualified to send teams to the CCCT through their performances at Community College Sectional Championship Tournaments (CC SCTs) held in January.

NAQT has computed D-Values to compare the performance of teams across CC SCTs. After inviting CC SCT champions, invitations are issued strictly in order of decreasing D-Values.

Schools also had a chance to qualify through a wildcard process; the deadline for submitting such requests was Tuesday, January 23, 2018 at 11:59 p.m. Central Time, and all submitted requests have been processed.

The results of this year’s CC SCTs are now available (at the bottom, below the four-year SCTs). So are the D-Values used to determine the invitations and waitlist order.

Field

These teams attended the tournament.

Format

The tournament will use the same format as in 2017:

Teams will be initially divided into four pools of six teams, each of which will play a round-robin (rounds 1–5) on Friday night. These teams will be repooled into three new groups of eight (the top two advance to the top pool, numbers three and four advance to the second pool, and so forth) for a second round-robin (rounds 7–12) on Saturday morning and afternoon. Advancement will be determined by overall record with any tiebreaker games required by NAQT’s tiebreaker policy being played during round 6.

Teams will need to remain at the tournament site on Friday night until it has been determined whether or not they will be in a tiebreaker during round 6. This is anticipated to be about 15 minutes past the end of the last game. Teams should come to the Results Confirmation Meeting after their fifth game (around 9:40 p.m.) to learn whether they are in a tiebreaker (and receive their Saturday schedule). If a team cannot stay, it has the option of providing a phone number or email address that can be used to convey the information to them.

Teams who have a round-6 tiebreaker must be back, ready to play, at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday. Those without a tiebreaker game will have their first game at 9:45 a.m.

In the second round-robin, teams will play the six teams they haven’t yet faced (rounds 7–12). At the conclusion of round 12, the top two teams will advance to the finals. This will be determined based on overall record (i.e., teams’ records from the first round-robin carry over). Ties for the top two spots will be broken during round 13, if necessary. Tiebreaker games do not count in final records.

If the top two teams have identical records, they will play a one-game final for the championship. If one team has an advantage, it will need to win one game while the other team will need to win two.

Tiebreaker games will also be played during round 13 if necessary to decide third through sixth places (as these are the final ranks that earn trophies).

Here is NAQT’s official format document for the championship.

Registration and Fees

The registration fee and discounts for the tournament are as follows:

• Base fee: $375 per team
• Buzzer System Discount: $30 each. Maximum 3 per team.
• Team-Provided Staff Discount: $100 each. Must be approved by NAQT.

Team-provided staff members are subject to NAQT’s approval, and NAQT does not reimburse travel, lodging, or any other expenses for them. Staff-member discounts are only automatically available to teams who notify NAQT on or before February 10, that they will be bringing a staff member. Teams indicating their interest in doing so after that date may be extended the discount at NAQT’s discretion. Teams who promise to bring a staff member but who cancel that staff member on or after February 11, will be charged a $50 penalty (in addition to forfeiting the discount).

Important: This fee assumes that payment is postmarked (or a purchase order is supplied) no later than Wednesday, February 21. Teams paying after this date, including at the tournament itself, will be charged an additional $25.

Invitation acceptances will be considered final on February 19. Should a team cancel on or after February 19, it will still be liable for one-half of its base registration fee. Teams who cancel on or after February 28, including tournament no-shows, will be liable for the entire base registration fee.

Teams should register online to guarantee their spot at the championship. After NAQT receives that registration information, an electronic invoice will be generated. Teams who need paper (or faxed) invoices may request them in the “additional information” box on the registration form. Please note that team rosters may be changed at any time before the start of the CCCT so it is neither necessary nor desirable to wait to register until a team’s composition has been definitively decided. Register as soon as possible and update the registration if the composition of the team changes.

Checking In

The check-in period will be from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. in the Conference Center (Lobby Level) on Friday, March 2. During this period NAQT will distribute information folders, answer questions, process payments, verify rosters, and take care of other administrative matters.

To check in, each team should send only one coach to the check-in area. That person will be given the team’s information folder. Others should not enter the check-in area.

In past years there has been a long line just after check-in opens, so we encourage teams to keep an eye on the line and send one person to check in when the line is short. There is no need to check in immediately.

Questions

This tournament will use the 2018 NAQT Division II SCT set (16 packets of 24/24). This is the same set that will be used for the Division II competitions at the 2018 four-year Sectional Championship Tournaments (SCTs), so community college teams who choose to participate in that tournament will not be allowed to compete in the CCCT (even with different players).

Each school in attendance will receive a copy of the entire packet set. Please note that these questions must be picked up at the tournament itself, after the finals. Teams who leave early or forget to pick up their questions will be charged a shipping and handling fee of $10 to have them mailed.

Awards

The top six teams will receive team trophies, and their members and coaches will receive individual awards.

In addition, the top twelve individual scorers will be given All-Star awards. Individual awards will be based on the preliminary rounds only, not the playoff rounds. Players must have at least 70 tossups heard (in the preliminary rounds) to be eligible for individual prizes.

Qualifying for the ICT

The top four teams from this tournament will qualify to compete for the overall Division II collegiate championship at the 2018 Intercollegiate Championship Tournament, powered by LetterOne, on April 13, 2018 in Rosemont, IL.

These are guaranteed Tier-4 invitations under NAQT’s new (as of 2018) qualification system for the ICT.

CCCT teams that don’t finish in the top 4 will have their D-Values computed as if the CCCT were a (four-year) Sectional Championship Tournament, and they will be inserted into the waitlist for Tier-7 invitations. It is thus possible for more than four CCCT participants to earn invitations to the ICT. Note that if one of the top four CCCT teams declines its ICT invitation, the spot will go to the next team in the overall (SCT-plus-CCCT) invitation order, not necessarily the fifth-place team at the CCCT.

Popular Culture Side Event (ACRONYM)

NAQT has arranged with Erik Nelson of Play Quiz Bowl to host a mirror of its ACRONYM popular culture tournament as a “side event” on Saturday evening. This event is not part of the official championship and is entirely optional.

The mirror is open to the general public (including current players at any level). In particular, all people at the national championship (including players, coaches, and staff) are encouraged to play. People affiliated with different schools may play together.

There is a separate registration fee ($90) for the ACRONYM mirror. Most side events have a lenient registration policy that allows teams to sign up immediately prior to an event’s start, but NAQT suspects that the ACRONYM field will fill (and thus encourages teams to register as soon as they can commit).

There will be short breaks in the ACRONYM schedule, but teams planning to compete in it should eat as quickly as possible between the end of the national championship at the opening meeting of ACRONYM. This will be tight, but it will not be possible to get more than a quick snack once ACRONYM has begun.

Registration for ACRONYM is now open. If you are registering a mixed team or a team that wants to play under a nonstandard name, you may need to create a new organization, affiliate yourself with it, and then register under its name.

Transportation

Hotel

The official hotel for the tournament is the Hyatt Regency O'Hare Chicago (9300 Bryn Mawr Avenue, Rosemont, Illinois). Rooms with one king bed are available for $114 per night, and rooms with two double beds are available for $122 per night. Those rates assume that the rooms are booked as part of the NAQT block no later than February 16. To receive that rate, teams may either book their stay online or mention “NAQT” when calling the hotel directly (847-696-1234).

Teams who book rooms at the official hotel (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 game 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). 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.

Social Media

The official hashtag for the tournament is ccct; please use this tag for all posts about the tournament.

Remember that question content for the championship cannot be posted online (or shared through other channels)! This means that players, coaches, spectators, and moderators should not discuss clues, answers, or even overall themes (e.g., “Lots of opera”) with people on other teams (even those from the same school).

We will post highlights from the tournament on NAQT’s social media.

Further Questions

To ask specific questions about the CCCT, write to ccct@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!