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Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence

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The Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence ( PACE ) is a United States –based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that promotes high school quiz bowl and runs the National Scholastic Championship (NSC), an end-of-year national tournament for high school quiz bowl teams. PACE was founded in 1996 by a group of quiz bowl players and coaches who were dissatisfied with the quality of high school quiz bowl at the time. The NSC has been run in the June of every year since 1998. Beyond running the NSC, PACE offers advice and staff assistance to high schools and colleges who run high school quiz bowl tournaments. PACE does not currently supply questions for regular season tournaments or offer a collegiate competition program, unlike NAQT or Questions Unlimited.

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38-546: In addition to running a national tournament, PACE awards the Benjamin Cooper Academic Ambassador Award each year at the opening ceremony of the NSC. The award is chosen by PACE members to honor "a high school academic competition team member, advisor, or organization whose character best promotes the spirit and honor of quiz bowl competition". It is named for Ben Cooper, who, as the captain of

76-405: A round robin within that group, then are regrouped for playoff rounds based on their win–loss record in their preliminary group. On Sunday, teams are again regrouped into "superplayoff" brackets. Usually, a final will be played between the top two teams, though specific circumstances can make a final match unnecessary. Following the final rounds, an All-Star game featuring the top individual scorers

114-560: A local It's Academic from October 13, 1963 to May 30, 1982. The Cincinnati hosts included Dave Manning, Lloyd Baldwin, Steve Douglas and Claire Slemmer. A version of It's Academic aired on CBS affiliate WBEN-TV in Buffalo from January 27, 1968 through 1986. Initially hosted by National Football League Hall of Fame radio broadcaster of the Buffalo Bills , Van Miller , the first season concluded on April 20, 1968. The show

152-460: A local version titled It's Academic Hawaii hosted by Billy V (from Hawaii News Now-Sunrise). It was previously hosted by Rick Hamada and Keahi Tucker. WEWS in Cleveland has had a version of the series since 1964. It was originally titled It's Academic and hosted by Don Cameron. In 1972, the series changed its name to Academic Challenge with host Don Webster , later replaced by Lou Maglio;

190-436: A packet within a time limit. In one form, at the beginning of the game, teams get one minute to answer questions for 20 points each. In this form, teams are not penalized for wrong answers, in order to help the teams in "building score". In another form, teams have one and a half minutes to answer questions for 20 points each. However, 20 points are deducted for a wrong answer. Teams may pass a question, losing 10 points; however,

228-591: A slightly different gameplay format that was distinct from most other quiz bowl tournaments. The old format had three rounds with varying gameplay, the Related Tossup-Bonus round, the Category Quiz round, and the Stretch round. In March 2009, PACE organized the second annual "The Weekend of Quizbowl", a regular season invitational tournament at George Mason University that drew teams from across

266-413: A state, name either senator from that state ). In other cases, all the answers in the category round shared an announced characteristic in common (e.g., geographical locations whose names begin and end with "A" ). Teams used their buzzers in this round, earning 10 points for a correct answer, but losing 10 points (later 20 points ) for wrong answers. In all forms, a team individually answers questions from

304-603: A team of three Democratic senators ( Patrick Moynihan , Lloyd Bentsen , and Alan Cranston ), three Republican senators ( Lowell Weicker , John Danforth , and John Heinz ), and three members of the press ( Jessica Savitch , Art Buchwald , and David Broder ). The special was handily won by the press team. (Note: bold denotes Super Bowl Champions (since 1972).) Buffalo: West Seneca West Senior High School Cleveland: Cleveland Heights High School Cleveland: Solon High School Mac McGarry Maurice James "Mac" McGarry (June 15, 1926 – December 12, 2013)

342-476: A wild card bid. There is no limit to the number of teams from a single school that can qualify or attend. In order to qualify multiple teams from one school, multiple teams must concurrently qualify at the same tournament. On March 18, 2020, PACE announced that the 2020 NSC would be cancelled due to the 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic . The tournament takes place over two days during the weekend. On Saturday, teams are grouped into pools for preliminary rounds and play

380-465: Is University Challenge , which has been on air since 1962, making it only slightly younger than It's Academic . It was featured in the British sitcom The Young Ones where one of the characters, Adrian, used a Stielhandgranate against another university team. Notable people who have competed on It's Academic include: Other notable participants: In 1979, a charity special was held between

418-471: Is individually asked five questions and receive 20 points each for a correct answer, but do not lose points for an incorrect answer. Round 3 is a toss-up visual round. The monitor displays an image and the host provides a question accompanying the image. Teams receive 20 points for each correct answer and lose 20 for each incorrect answer (10 until April 19, 2014 in Washington, Baltimore, and starting with

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456-407: Is played and the closing ceremony is held. Each round consists of two halves of ten tossups and ten bonuses. Tossups are worth 10 points for a correct answer, though 20 points may be awarded if they are answered early. Teams are not penalized for incorrect answers. Bouncebacks were allowed for bonuses until 2023. In the event of a tie, a sudden death tossup is read. From 1998 to 2009, the NSC used

494-651: Is recognized by the Guinness World Records as the longest-running quiz program in TV history. The program was created for WRC by Sophie Altman, who continued as executive producer until her death on May 24, 2008. Mac McGarry hosted the Washington shows from the beginning until June 25, 2011. Hillary Howard , formerly a news anchor for Washington radio station WTOP-FM , took over as host subsequent to McGarry's official retirement in November 2011. The program

532-713: Is sponsored by philanthropist investor David Rubenstein and by the McLean, Virginia-based Mitre Corporation . The single-elimination tournament features 81 schools in the Washington metropolitan area , 81 schools in the Baltimore metropolitan area (including Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore), and nine schools in the Central Virginia region. The winners in each region go on to battle each other in

570-565: The It's Academic quiz bowl team at Georgetown Day School , worked with the PACE founders to provide a player's perspective on the plans for the inaugural NSC. Ben Cooper died in an automobile accident just before the start of his senior year. In 2004, PACE expanded its recognition program to include a "Young Ambassador" Award to recognize individuals or recent alumni from high school or college quiz bowl programs for "valuable and significant contributions to

608-533: The WRC-TV version have included "guest questions" from notable persons in government, business, sports, and the arts. Among those seen in pre-recorded videos are: An Australian version of the show aired on Network 10 and the Seven Network from 1968 to 1975, and was revived by Seven's Perth affiliate in 2001. Seven took the show national in 2005. A New Zealand version was also screened by TVNZ in

646-711: The 1980s, with Lockwood Smith and John Hayden as hosts. WNBC in New York aired a local edition of It's Academic from September 15, 1963 through July 1, 1972, hosted most of the time by Art James , with Lee Leonard filling in for a year. WMAQ-TV in Chicago had a version in the 1960s and 1970s under the It's Academic name, hosted by Ed Grennan . The show debuted on September 29, 1962, with Arlington High School facing off against Homewood-Flossmoor High School . WLWT , WCPO-TV and WCET in Cincinnati aired

684-477: The 2014 season in Charlottesville; other cities' visual rounds are still 10 points up or down). Eight questions are used. The fourth question is always a math question. Before Round 4 the captain of each team introduces the sponsors and school administrators and coaches. Teams then select from three question packets. The team to the immediate left of the team that is supposed to answer chooses which packet

722-466: The Super Bowl. Each contest is composed of five rounds. Round 1 is a category round with eight themed questions (e.g. "the letter B" or "famous paintings"). Questions do not appear on the players' monitors but do appear for the home viewers. Each team is given 100 points before this round and teams receive 10 points for each correct answer and lose 10 for each incorrect answer. In Round 2, each team

760-567: The Top was modelled on Top of the Form and began on CBUT in Vancouver in 1961 with locally produced versions airing across Canada on CBC Television from 1966 to 1985. The Toronto edition of the show on CBLT was hosted for several years by Alex Trebek , who later went on to be the long-term host of Jeopardy! . Another similar British quiz show featuring competition by post-secondary teams

798-535: The United States and internationally. It's Academic programs have notably aired on NBC -owned WRC-TV (and, as of October 29, 2022, exclusively on PBS member station WETA-TV ) in Washington, D.C. , NBC affiliate WVIR-TV in Charlottesville, Virginia , and CBS -owned WJZ-TV in Baltimore , Maryland . The Washington, D.C. version of the show has been on the air since October 7, 1961, and

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836-449: The United States. Part of the tournament ran on a custom question packets set that was also sold to other invitational tournaments. PACE did not run the tournament the following year. In 2014, PACE created an outreach fund to give monetary grants of up to US$ 200 to high school quiz bowl teams. It%27s Academic It's Academic is the name for a number of televised academic student quiz shows for high school students through

874-580: The Wardman Park Hotel. There he worked as the announcer for the NBC radio show American Forum of the Air . During this time, he was also making his first forays into television covering Harry S. Truman 's presidential inauguration events for NBC-TV and appearing regularly on NBC's The Big Preview . From that time until the onset of illness in 2011, he hosted numerous talk shows, including In Our Town ,

912-577: The answering team will use. Eight questions are given to each team, with 20 points for a correct answer and no penalties. A 25-point bonus is given if a team correctly answers all eight questions, for a total of 185 points in this round. The fourth question is always a science question and the seventh question is always a math question (data from both those questions are displayed on the monitor or team's screen). Round 5 features quick-fire toss-up questions, each worth +/-20 points. Visual questions are worth +/-30 points. The number of questions varies depending on

950-524: The first weekly television program to be broadcast in color. Some of McGarry's first assignments included announcing news of the start of the Korean War and introducing President Truman from the White House. In the early 1950s, he was involved in early color television experiments. During the 1970s and 1980s, he was the announcer for NBC News Updates originating in Washington, D.C., and over

988-642: The high school academic competition community". PACE runs the National Scholastic Championship, a tournament for high school quiz bowl teams. Teams that attend the PACE NSC are mainly from schools in the United States , with teams from Canada and Singapore having also attended. Teams qualify by placing well at a PACE-certified tournament. There are three levels of qualifier events, with higher levels allowing more teams to qualify from that event. A number of teams can also qualify via

1026-464: The other two teams may buzz-in to answer the passed questions (with a few exceptions) for plus or minus 20 points after the time runs out for the team's turn. Every question that is fully read must be answered or passed within a reasonable time. However, if a question is not finished when time expires, the team may reject it without penalty or answer the question at their own risk. In this form, getting all 10 questions (later eight) correct originally earned

1064-522: The series later reverted to its former title during the mid-1990s, at which time Webster also returned as emcee. After a 35 consecutive year run and a brief hiatus, Academic Challenge returned to the WEWS airwaves in 2003 with host Adam Shapiro . Danita Harris hosted the 2006 season; from 2007 to 2016, Jason Nicholas was the host, succeeded by Hakem Dermish in December 2016 after Nicholas left WEWS. Dermish

1102-400: The studio in late winter/early spring 2023. Prior to the adoption of the current format, there were several other formats of play. The "very fast" category round consisted of questions pertaining to the same category. In some cases, the question was the same throughout the round: teams were given different items, and had to answer the common question on the basis of each item (e.g., given

1140-434: The team a 50-point bonus, later reduced to 25. A "scrimmage round" was once used during the 1977–78 Buffalo season championship, as well as in Washington and Baltimore through much of the 1970s, and also in Cleveland at about that time. Teams were instructed to "use [their] lights and buzzers" for a "one-minute scrimmage round." 10 points were scored for a correct answer, with no penalties. Beginning in 2008, telecasts on

1178-438: The time left in the game. The game ends when the buzzer sounds, home viewers may realize that the game will come to a close while the countdown clock appears on the television screen. If a team has buzzed in prior the buzzer sounding, the team is required to answer the question before the game is considered over. If there is a tie in the knockout round (e.g. the final), the presenter may ask one last tie-breaker question to determine

Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence - Misplaced Pages Continue

1216-410: The winner. After the host has announced the teams' final scores, the studio audience is invited down from the stands to join the contestants on camera during the closing credit sequence. In the Washington version from about 1976 to June 2017, the song heard under the credit roll (if there are no musicians from any of the competing schools) was "T.L.C. (Tender Loving Care)" by the band MFSB (a new theme

1254-441: The years also did live booth announcing work for WRC-TV. In September 2011, McGarry temporarily took a leave of absence when he was suffering from a lingering cold. Hillary Howard, a news anchor for WTOP-FM , began filling in for him. Although McGarry's intentions were to continue hosting the 51st season of It's Academic , he announced his retirement in early November 2011 due to health issues. Howard subsequently continued on as

1292-653: Was also hosted by Mac McGarry and sponsored by Giant. That was replaced by Battle of the Brains . Battle of the Brains has also replaced a version of It's Academic that aired in Hampton Roads . The World Affairs Council, in conjunction with the United States Department of State , hosted an It's Academic International event in 2002, also hosted by Mac McGarry. KHII-TV in Honolulu aired

1330-527: Was introduced in Washington for the 2017–18 season, entitled "Just Let Go", by Marti Amado and Ron Bolton, music production by Network Music which is used throughout the show). As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Washington, D.C. , later episodes in the 2019–2020 season were played in a remote format, with teams in separate locations, and without buzzers. Teams were recorded separately, and were not aware of other teams' scores. The competition will return to

1368-609: Was later revived for a few months in 2008 by NBC affiliate WGRZ , with Kevin O'Neill as host. The show returned to the area starting January 12, 2013 and was hosted by O'Neill and produced by Full Circle Studios for broadcast on WGRZ. A show using the It's Academic name aired in Richmond, Virginia on the NBC affiliate, WWBT Channel 12, from November 22, 1975 to June 26, 1976 (the Richmond championship aired on May 16, 1976), which

1406-552: Was succeeded by WCPN host Rick Jackson on April 28, 2018 after Dermish left WEWS for CBS Sports in New York, while Jackson was subsequently replaced by Rob Powers for the 2019 season. A similar show predating It's Academic ran in the United Kingdom for many years featuring teams from British secondary schools . Top of the Form which ran on BBC Radio from 1948 to 1986 with a television version airing on BBC 1 from 1962 to 1975. A Canadian quiz show, Reach for

1444-551: Was the longtime host of the television quiz show It's Academic , which airs in Washington, D.C. , on NBC -owned WRC-TV . He hosted the show for five decades, from October 7, 1961, when it first aired, until June 25, 2011. Born in Atlanta, Georgia , in 1926, McGarry attended Regis High School in New York City and attended college at Fordham University . McGarry joined NBC in 1950, working for station WNBW, located in

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