Michigan High School Quizbowl State Championship

All rule changes can be found here.

The full rules can be downloaded here.

General Rules

       

1. Each match will be played between two teams, each of which consists of any number of students from the high school represented by the team. Each team may also be accompanied by a number of coaches.
2. Only four players from a team may be active at any time, and only active players may signal to answer a tossup, or confer on a bonus.
3. Unlimited player substitutions are allowed in a match, but they may only be made during a called timeout, at halftime, or before any tiebreaking questions.
4. Each team will designate one player to be a team captain. The captain is responsible for providing the team's answer to bonus questions, as below, and will sit in the second chair in from the middle aisle.
5. Each match will be overseen by a moderator, who is responsible for reading questions to the participating teams, and who may be assisted by a scorekeeper.
6. Matches will be played using a functional lockout buzzer system. In the event that a fully functional system is not available, players may signal their intent to answer using other methods – including, but not limited to, saying “buzz” or slapping the table. In such instances, the moderator will be the final judge of who signaled first.
7. An official clock will be kept which must be visible to all active players for both teams. The clock will preferably have an audible alarm which sounds when the timer finishes.
8. Players will be provided with paper and writing utensils for personal use during the match.
9. All players, coaches, and spectators are expected to behave responsibly and respectfully towards tournament officials and all other individuals present.
10. If a tournament official finds that an individual has behaved inappropriately, that individual will receive a warning. Repeated instances will result in expulsion from the match, unless the tournament director deems some other sanction appropriate.
11. Any decisions made by the tournament director or any designated assistants thereof are final.

 

Time Question Rules

1. Each match will consist of two 15-minute halves, or until all of the tossups in the packet and any subsequent bonuses have been read, whichever comes first.
2. At the end of the first half, there will be a 3-minute intermission for halftime.Each team is allowed one timeout per half. Timeouts will be at most 1 minute long. A captain or coach may call a timeout for their team prior to the beginning of a tossup question.The timer for each half will start as the moderator reads the first syllable of the first tossup question of the half.When the official clock signals the end of time, the current tossup-bonus cycle will be finished, following which the current half will end. In particular:
   • If the moderator has begun to read a tossup, the moderator will finish reading the tossup, giving teams the normally allotted time to answer the question. A bonus question is awarded, if appropriate, after which the half will end.If the moderator has finished a tossup, but a team has earned a bonus question, that question will be read as normal, after which the half will end.If the moderator has begun reading a bonus, the moderator will finish reading the bonus, giving the appropriate team time to answer as normal, after which the half will end.
   • If the moderator has finished reading a bonus, or a tossup which was not correctly answered, but has not yet started the next tossup, the half will end immediately. For these purposes, only the text of the question as written counts; preliminary statements – including, but not limited to, “next question,” “tossup 20,” etc. – do not count as having begun a tossup.
3. The team with the most points at the end of the match wins. If the score is tied, tossup questions will be read off the clock until the tie is broken by any change in the score, whether positive or negative.

 

Tossups Question Rules

1. Active players from both teams may signal to answer a tossup once the moderator has begun reading it. Each team is allowed at most one attempt to signal to answer a tossup; any subsequent attempts will be ignored.
2. When a player signals, the moderator will recognize the player by whatever method they specify before the match, after which the player may attempt to answer. If a player answers without being recognized, the answer is treated as incorrect.If a player signals before a tossup is finished, the moderator will stop reading and receive the player's answer. If the player is incorrect, and the other team has not also signaled to answer, the moderator will resume reading the question for the other team, beginning at a natural point at or shortly before the point at which the player signaled to answer.A player who signals has 3 seconds after being recognized to begin answering a tossup. If the player does not begin answering in time, their response is treated as incorrect.Players have 5 seconds to signal after the moderator finishes reading a tossup question. Any attempts to signal after time has been called will be ignored.A correct answer to a tossup question earns 15 points for the signaling player's team. The first incorrect answer given before a tossup question is finished results in a 5-point penalty for the signaling player's team. Any other incorrect answer results in no point penalty.
3. Players may not confer, whether through verbal, nonverbal, or written methods, about the content of a tossup question or its answer. Any such conferral is treated as an incorrect answer at the time it occurs. However, players may gesture to communicate other things without penalty, as long as no substantive information about the content of the tossup is exchanged.

 

Bounes Question Rule

1. A team will be awarded a bonus question for any tossup question which its players answer correctly, except in tiebreaking situations. Only that team will have an opportunity to answer the bonus question.
2. Teams may confer on bonus questions, both verbally and nonverbally, and are encouraged to do so. The team captain is expected to provide the team's answer to the moderator, though the captain may verbally defer to another teammate, who will then provide the answer instead.Teams will have 5 seconds to answer after the moderator finishes reading the bonus, unless otherwise stated in the question. Any answer to a bonus question provided after the moderator calls time is treated as incorrect.If a bonus question requires multiple answers, the team must begin its answer within 5 seconds, and pauses between answers must be no longer than 1 second.
3. Each bonus question earns 10 points if a correct response is given. An incorrect response is worth no points.                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Correct Answer Question Rule

                                      

1. A response is deemed correct if it demonstrates clear and unambiguous knowledge of the answer given in the moderator's question packet. In most circumstances, the necessary elements of an answer will be underlined.
2. If a player provides a partial answer, or correct and relevant information that is ambiguous as to the actual answer, the moderator will prompt the player for more information without specifying what additional information is required.
3. A player who is prompted on a bonus may quickly confer with teammates before providing extra information
4. The moderator will only accept the first given response, unless the question calls for multiple answers.
5. If neither team correctly answers a question in the allotted time, the moderator will state the correct answer for both teams before moving on to the next question.
6. If the moderator accidentally reveals any part of the correct answer to a question before it has been answered, the question will be thrown out and replaced with another question of the same type. If a tossup answer was revealed after one team answered incorrectly, the replacement will be read for the other team only.

 

Protest Question Rule

1. Only the acceptance, non-acceptance, or non-prompting of a given answer to any question, or an error in the official clock or score, is protestable.
2. An active player or coach must quickly and verbally announce their intent to lodge a protest after the question in dispute is finished. The moderator will verbally acknowledge the protest, and the scorekeeper will record which question is being protested, and how many points are potentially at stake in the protest. If necessary, this may be calculated off the clock.If the total points at stake in protests are enough to potentially change the winner of a match, or if the match goes to overtime, the moderator and scorekeeper will collectively resolve all protests off the clock after the conclusion of the second half. Any protests which cannot affect the outcome of the match will revert to the moderator’s initial rulings.Any easily resolvable protest, such as an error in the official clock or score, will be resolved immediately instead of following the above procedure.
3. If a protest is upheld, the moderator will attempt to rectify each effect of the error made. Any incorrectly awarded points will be removed, and any points which should have been awarded will be added. If a team was not appropriately given a chance to answer a tossup, the moderator will read a tossup for that team only, and any additional bonus questions will be read for the appropriate te

 

 

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