Author Archives: Mike Bentley

2019 NSC Field Now Full

As of April 23rd, the field for the 2019 NSC is now full at 96 teams. Teams not yet registered can sign up for the waitlist by following the normal registration process (filling out the registration form and submitting a deposit). If spots open up, teams will be removed from the waitlist based on the order that they got their deposit in. Historically, a few waitlist spots have opened up each year, but there’s no guarantee that will happen again this year. We will refund the fees for any teams that do not get off the waitlist. See the registered teams page for details on the waitlist.

Teams that have already registered but have not yet submitted their full payments must do so before May 6, 2019. See the fee structure page for more information.

2019 NSC Registration

Registration for the 2019 PACE National Scholastic Championship opened for all qualified teams on November 1, 2018. See below for details.

The tournament field has historically filled up to the field cap, so we encourage teams to start the registration process as early as possible.

More information about the 2019 NSC itself can be found at the main 2019 NSC page.

The current field, waitlist, and standby list can be found at the registered teams page.

If you have any questions regarding the registration process, you may contact Tournament Director Sarah Angelo at tournament.director@pace-nsc.org.

Registration for qualified teams
Qualified teams may register by completing the following two steps:
1. Filling out the NSC registration form. Please note that solely filling out this form does not guarantee a spot in the NSC field.
2. Making a $100 deposit, or alternatively, full payment of their registration costs. Teams are guaranteed a spot in the NSC field once this payment is received. Spots in the field will be reserved based on the deposit receipt date, and in the event of the tie, on postmark date.

Note: The above process must be completed for every team that seeks to register, even teams from the same school. For an example, if a school seeks to register two teams, the school should fill out the registration form twice (once for each team), and make two $100 deposits (can be combined into a single $200 payment; please make a note in the payment that the payment is to cover two teams’ deposit) or full payment.

Payment
The fee structure for the tournament can be found here. After filling out the registration form, teams will receive an invoice with what they owe.

Payment may be made securely online via Paypal, or in the form of a check made out to “Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence” sent to:
PACE
c/o Michael Bentley
5603 125th Ave SE
Bellevue, WA 98006

2019 PACE NSC Venue Information
Location: The 2019 PACE NSC will be held at the Hyatt Regency Reston in Reston, VA.
Address: 1800 Presidents Street, Reston, Virginia, United States, 20190
Phone Number: 703 709 1234. When calling the hotel with questions or to reserve rooms, please refer to the PACE group.
Room Rate: $134 + tax, per double bed room, per night, which can be booked over the phone or at https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/group-booking/RESTO/G-PAC9.

Parking: Self-Parking is available on-site for a fee. Current parking rates for standard vehicles can be found here. If you would like to park an oversize vehicle such as a school bus, please contact Bernadette Spencer at bspencer@pace-nsc.org to make arrangements with the hotel. There is also free daily parking at the Reston Town Center, but cars cannot be left there overnight.

Transportation: The Hyatt Regency Reston offers a complimentary shuttle from Washington Dulles Airport (IAD) to the hotel between 6:00am – 10:00pm Monday – Friday and 7:00am – 10:00pm Saturday and Sunday. Shuttle service should be requested by texting the keyword “SHUTTLE” to 703-991-2117 when you arrive at the airport. Please call the front desk at 703-709-1234 with any questions about the shuttle service. The closest Metro station to the hotel is the Wiehle-Reston East Station, which is approximately 1.5 miles away from the hotel. The station is served by numerous suburban bus routes that will occasionally travel within close proximity to the hotel. We recommend using Google Maps transit option to explore potential transfers from Wiehle-Reston East.

Competition Spaces: Games will be held in the second floor meeting space, which is accessible by both staircase and elevator, a floorplan of which can be found here. Games will also be played in converted hotel rooms, floors to be determined closer to the date of the tournament. Team’s schedules will be designed to minimize, if not completely eliminate, travel between the meeting spaces floors and the hotel rooms. Please reach out to Bernadette Spencer at bspencer@pace-nsc.org to discuss any location requests or accommodations.

Area Attractions: The Hyatt Regency Reston contains two hotel bars and restaurants, a gift shop, and a Panera Bread, all located on the lobby level (first floor) of the hotel. There is an exit from the the lobby level out to the Reston Town Center, home to many restaurants and shops, a movie theater, and walking paths.

Waitlist
If the field is full, qualified teams may reserve a spot on the waitlist by completing registration. The order of the waitlist will be determined by the order in which registration is completed. If a team on the waitlist is unable to enter the field, their deposit will be refunded.

Standby teams
Teams with standby status must commit to showing up to the tournament and being ready to play if a registered team fails to appear on Saturday morning for any reason. Standby teams play on an as-needed basis for no charge. Standby teams are responsible for arranging and paying for all of their own costs associated with attending the tournament, including travel and lodging, just as if they were regular teams in the field. The recompense for being a standby team is the possibility of playing the tournament for free, and does not entitle any team to any reimbursement from PACE for its attendance expenses. There is no guarantee that any spots will open for standby teams to play.

Teams applying for standby status need not have qualified for the 2019 NSC, and may be B-teams, C-teams, etc. of teams already in the field. However, all members of any such standby team must plan to be in Reston on the morning of June 8th regardless of whether they get to play.

Teams may register for standby status by e-mailing 2019 NSC Tournament Director Sarah Angelo Luongo (tournament.director@pace-nsc.org).

In the event that spots do open up, PACE reserves discretion in selecting which standby teams fill the vacancies, though barring extreme circumstances it will do so in a first-come, first-served order based on the time at which teams filled out the form.

The list of teams with standby status is not the same as the official waitlist for entry into the tournament. Teams on the official waitlist may also apply to be standby teams.

2019 NSC Registered Teams

This page contains the list of teams who have registered for the 2019 NSC by qualifying, submitting the registration form, and sending in their deposit. It was last updated on 6/2/2019.

There are currently 96 teams registered. The field cap is 96. 9 have started the registration process but not gotten their deposits in yet.

Registered Teams

Adlai E. Stevenson A (Lincolnshire, IL)
Auburn High School (Rockford, IL)
BASIS McLean A (aka BASIS Independent McLean A) (McLean, VA)
Beavercreek High School (Beavercreek, OH)
Canyon Crest A (San Diego, CA)
Canyon Crest Academy B (San Diego, CA)
Carbondale High School A (Carbondale, IL)
Carbondale High School B (Carbondale IL)
Carl Sandburg A (Orland Park, IL)
Carl Sandburg B (Orland Park, IL)
Carnegie Vanguard High School (Houston, TX)
Castlewood High School (Castlewood, VA)
Centennial High School (Ellicott City, MD)
Chattahoochee A (Johns Creek, GA)
Chattahoochee B (Johns Creek GA)
Cupertino Scholars (Cupertino, CA)
Detroit Catholic Central A (Novi, MI)
Detroit Catholic Central B (Novi, MI)
Divine Child High School (Dearborn, MI)
Dorman A (Roebuck, SC)
Eastside High School (Taylors, SC)
Ed W Clark High School (Las Vegas, NV)
Eldon High School A (Eldon, MO)
Enloe High School A (Raleigh, NC)
Exeter (Exeter, MO)
Fulton High School (Middleton, MI)
George Washington High School (Charleston, WV)
Georgetown Day School (Washington, DC)
Great Neck South (Great Neck, NY)
Great Valley A (Malvern, PA)
Great Valley B (Malvern, PA)
Grosse Pointe South High School (Grosse Pointe Farms, MI)
High Tech A (Lincroft, NJ)
High Tech B (Lincroft, NJ)
Homewood-Flossmoor High School (Flossmoor, IL)
Hotchkiss School (Lakeville, CT)
Hunter College High School A (New York, NY)
Hunter College High School B (New York, NY)
Illinois Math and Science Academy A (Aurora, IL)
Illinois Math and Science Academy B (Aurora, IL)
Ithaca B (Ithaca, NY)
Ithaca High School A (Ithaca, NY)
James E. Taylor High School (Katy, TX)
Jamestown A (Williamsburg, VA)
Johns Creek High School (Johns Creek, GA)
Kellenberg Memorial High School A (Uniondale, NY)
La Jolla High School (La Jolla, CA)
Ladue Horton Watkins High School A (St. Louis, MO)
Langley A (McLean, VA)
Langley B (McLean, VA)
LASA (Austin, TX)
Lebanon High School A (Lebanon, VA)
Lexington High School (Lexington, MA)
Lisgar Collegiate Institute (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)
Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School A (Richmond, VA)
Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School B (Richmond,VA)
Miami Valley (Dayton, OH)
Montgomery Blair A (Silver Spring, MD)
Montgomery Blair B (Silver Spring, MD)
Montgomery Blair C (Silver Spring, MD)
Naperville North High School (Naperville, IL)
NKA Homeschool Collective (Norfolk, VA)
Norfolk Academic Guild (Norfolk, VA)
Northmont High School A (Clayton, OH)
Oakland College Prep. (Oakland, CA)
Paul Laurence Dunbar High School A (Lexington, KY)
Penn Manor High School (Millersville, PA)
Richard Montgomery A (Rockville, MD)
Richard Montgomery B (Rockville, MD)
Rogers Academy (Chicago, IL)
Saint Joseph High School (South Bend, IN)
Saratoga (Saratoga, CA)
Saratoga Springs High School (Saratoga Springs, NY)
Solon High School (Solon, OH)
Southside (Greenville, SC)
St. John’s (Houston, TX)
Strake Jesuit A (Houston TX)
Strake Jesuit B (Houston, TX)
T.C. Williams High School A (Alexandria, VA)
Thomas Jefferson Independent Day School A (Joplin, MO)
Thomas S. Wootton High School (Rockville, MD)
TJHSST A (Alexandria, VA)
TJHSST B (Alexandria, VA)
TJHSST C (Alexandria, VA)
TJHSST D (Alexandria, VA)
TJHSST E (Alexandria, VA)
TJHSST F (Alexandria, VA)
University Lab (Urbana, IL)
Washington A (Washington, MO)
Wayzata A (Plymouth, MN)
Wayzata B (Plymouth, MN)
Wilmington Charter (Wilmington, DE)
Winston Churchill High School (Potomac, MD)
Woodford County A (Versailles, KY)
Woodford County B (Versailles, KY)
Woodland (Beacon Falls, CT)

Waitlisted Teams

1 – Parkway Central High Shool (St. Louis, MO)
2 – The Altamont School (Birmingham, Alabama)

Teams With Deposits Pending

These teams have started the registration process but have not yet submitted their deposit. Until they do, they are not yet officially registered for the tournament.

Calumet High School A (Calumet, MI)
Community School of Naples (Naples, FL)
Davis (Davis, CA)
Harker (San Jose, California)
Naperville North High School (Naperville, IL)
Parkway Central High School (St. Louis, Mo)
Tenafly (Tenafly, NJ)
Texas Math and Science A (Denton, TX)
Troy High (Troy, NY)

Standby Teams

1 – Robinson Secondary A (Fairfax, VA)
2 – Hempfield (Landisville, PA)
3 – McLean (McLean, VA)
4 – Mather (Darien, CT)
5 – Eldon High School B (Eldon, MO)

2019 NSC Fee Structure

The fee structure for the 2019 PACE NSC is as follows:

Base fee: $745 per team (note that this is per team, not per school)
Buzzer systems*: –$10 each per school, max 1 per team
Staffers: –$50 each per school, max 2 per school
Hosting a gold-certified tournament: –$10 each per tournament, no limit
Hosting a platinum-certified tournament: –$20 each per tournament, no limit
Early payment discount: –$15 from total fee for full payment by March 1

*In order to claim a buzzer discount, teams must provide a system with at least eight fully working buzzers (defined as having lockout capabilities and functional identifying lights). Buzzer systems will be tested at buzzer check-in and teams who provide non-working systems will be required to refund the discount. Please note that buzzer discounts will be limited to one per team.

Teams may choose to pay the full registration fee as soon as they register, or to pay a $100 down payment at registration. PACE will count the $100 down payment towards the registration fee. If your team is being paid for in full by the team’s school or school district and another group, such as the students and/or coach, fronted the down payment, PACE will reimburse your team $100.

If a registered team withdraws from the tournament:
– The down payment is fully refundable (minus $5 processing fee) until March 13, 2019.
– The down payment is half-refundable (minus $5 processing fee) until March 27, 2019.
– After March 29, 2018, the down payment is non-refundable.
– After May 6, 2019, the full payment is non-refundable.

All registration payments, online or by mailed check, must be received by May 6, 2019. For each day your payment is not received after May 6, a $15 fee will be added to your entry fee. If your payment is not received by May 17, PACE reserves the right to drop your team from the tournament.

NSC entry fees primarily go towards writers and editors of the NSC question set, travel and lodging for NSC staffers, organization operating costs, and maintenance costs for this website and the hsquizbowl.org forums.