https://www.qbwiki.com/w/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=Ben+Smith&feedformat=atomQBWiki - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T10:12:40ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.35.1https://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Reach_for_the_Top&diff=28065Reach for the Top2016-05-30T16:39:15Z<p>Ben Smith: /* National Champions */ 2016</p>
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<div>'''Reach for the Top''' is the dominant high school quiz competition in Canada. Technically a form of [[quizbowl]], it has a larger sports distribution than other academic quizbowl formats, contains more hoses, and is composed almost entirely of speed-check questions which are often [[pyramidal|non-pyramidal]]. It is also more expensive than alternatives like [[NAQT]]. <br />
<br />
French students usually play [[Genies en herbe]], while university students play in the [[quizbowl]] format.<br />
<br />
==Gameplay==<br />
<br />
The majority of questions in Reach for the Top are approximately the length of quizbowl bonus questions (1-2 sentences), and are worth, for the most part, 10 points each. Interruption of the questions for early guesses are not only allowed but also encouraged, as the game is based heavily on speed. If a team buzzes in and answer a question incorrectly, the opposing team has approximately 3-5 seconds to consult and form an answer. Consultation is permitted at almost all times in Reach for the Top (see "Shootouts" and "Assigned" for exceptions). There are no [[negs]] or [[powers]] in Reach, although negs (-5) appeared in the 2007 Nationals for the first time.<br />
<br />
==Categories==<br />
<br />
===Snapstart/Snapout/Open===<br />
Forming the bulk of Reach for the Top questions, these consist of 1-2 sentence questions open to both teams and are worth ten points each. Snapout/Snapstart categories take place at the beginning and end of each round respectively, and the subject of each question varies (i.e. none are linked by a category). "Open" categories are, mostly, worth 40 points in total, and consist of 4 questions all linked by one similar category (e.g. "40 point open on architects"); it is open to both teams. <br />
<br />
==="20 Point Special"===<br />
Like an open question (see last category), but the answer often requires 2 answers in one (e.g. Q: Name both years in which a player's strike or owner's lockout was responsible for the cancellation of some or all of the games in an NHL season. A: 1994-95 and 2004-05 [sic] and 2012-13) In other cases, the 20 point special can require one very long answer, for example, the provincial motto of Newfoundland, ''Quaerite primum regnum Dei''<br />
<br />
===Shootout===<br />
A maximum of 12 questions are posed in this category. Once one player has answered a question correctly, they may no longer answer any questions. This player is now "out". Once one team has every one of its 4 players "out", they gain 40 points, and the other team gains 0. Consultation is forbidden at all times in this category. Concerns that have arisen with this category include A) 12 questions are needed to generate 40 points and B) Both teams can have 3 players out with one question left, which one team may barely answer correctly on speed, giving them all 40 points, and thus a very important swing on a very little difference between teams.<br />
<br />
===Chain Snappers===<br />
Similar to a snapstart/snapout, chain snappers involve the answer to one question forming the topic of the succeeding question. As a result, the best and fastest teams can often answer the next question with only 3-4 words read.<br />
<br />
===Who am I/What am I===<br />
Who am I/What am I questions consist of four clues with decreasing point value, beginning with a (usually vague) opening question. If answered correctly on this question, that team gains 40 points. If neither team guesses correctly, the answer is not read, and a slightly less ambiguous clue worth 30 points is read. This continues for two more questions (worth 20 and 10 points respectively), until, if no team is able to give the correct answer, the answer is read. Unlike [[Good Quizbowl]], the first clue does not provide only one possible answer. The 40-point question is often described as being written as though "an expert in that field" would be unable to be absolutely sure of the correct answer, and as a result, can often trigger highly inaccurate guesses, or in the case of non-competitive teams, non-sensical answers which are made to incite laughs and in doing so, delay the game. The 40-point clue can vary in difficulty from completely, improbably difficult, (almost to the a point where one questions the point of it; e.g. "This country is located in Europe." or "He was born in 1685.") to reasonably difficult. <br />
<br />
===Assigned===<br />
Worth 80 points in total, this category consists of questions posed to specific individuals. One team, designated "Team A", will have each of its team members asked one question. If answered incorrectly, the player sitting directly across from that player will have an opportunity to answer that question. Once team A has had all of its players asked a question, team B's players are then asked questions one-by-one in a similar fashion. All of the questions relate to one category (e.g. European national capitals). Consultation is forbidden.<br />
<br />
===Team Questions===<br />
These questions work similarly to tossup/bonus questions. One question is posed to both teams. The team that correctly answers the question has an opportunity to answer three more questions. The only differences between that and quizbowl are that the "tossup" question is usually very short and very easy and the bonus questions (actually called bonus) are related in topic to the "tossup" question.<br />
<br />
===List===<br />
Worth 50 points, this category involves teams alternating in turns to complete a list. Both teams have an opportunity to buzzz in for the first answer. After each question is answered correctly the other team has an opportunity to give an answer. Once a team gets a question wrong, they may no longer answer.<br />
e.g. List all of the professional teams that Wayne Gretzky played for.<br />
Team A (buzzes in): "Edmonton Oilers" - Correct<br />
Team B: "New York Rangers" - Correct<br />
Team A: "St. Louis Blues" - Correct<br />
Team B: "Philadelphia Flyers" - Incorrect<br />
Team A: "Los Angeles Kings & Indianapolis Racers" - Correct x 2<br />
<br />
==Canadian Tournament Play==<br />
<br />
The modern Reach for the Top season begins with SchoolReach - regional leagues playing in classrooms. For most provinces, a "region" encompasses the entire province, while BC and Ontario are divided into smaller regions either for league play (in BC) or to serve as qualifiers for a provincial tournament (in Ontario). A few provinces have their playoff matches televised. The territories, Saskatchewan, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador do not currently have provincial tournaments; any schools from those regions may participate in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, respectively.<br />
<br />
Depending on participation levels, provincial tournaments will qualify either one or two teams to the national tournament, held for the past several years in Edmonton. The national tournament consists of an in-classroom round-robin, followed by televised playoffs.<br />
<br />
Most regions offer an "Intermediate" division tournament open to freshmen and sophomores, but there is no framework for an Intermediate national tournament. "Intermediate" would likely be higher than a "Junior" division (presumably for middle school), but a middle school tournament does not exist. Reach attempted to start a university tournament in the early 2000s, but some [[NAQT]] tournaments had already taken root at the time.<br />
<br />
There are a few Reach (or Reach-style) tournaments held during the year that are independent of the qualification process to Nationals. New Brunswick has 5-6 per year around the province, Toronto has had a few in recent years, and [[Lisgar]] CI held a tournament in Ottawa in 2007. Nevertheless, the number of tournaments is much smaller than availability in several US regions.<br />
<!--taking out unsubstantiated complaints until they can be verified: schools are "obliged" to play Reach??? --><br />
<!-- Active Canadian trivia teams are plagued and frustrated by the lack of Reach tournaments in Canada. In fact, in Ontario and the rest of Canada, the Reach for the Top season does not officially start until the end of February, when the first round of regional qualifiers begin. After that, there is in the bigger "leagues" (although this term is loose-fitting) a regional round #2, followed by provincials, followed by nationals.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately for most, only a fraction of teams gain entrance to provincials, and an even smaller fraction gain entrance into nationals (16 teams out of over 500). To put this in perspective, out of over 210 teams in the province of Ontario, only 2 are sent to the national tournament, hence the reason that [[Lisgar]] Collegiate, despite winning every Canadian quizbowl event and finishing in 18th place after the preliminaries at the [[2007 NAQT HSNCT]], had not qualified for nationals until 2008.<br />
<br />
Despite this lack of competition, there have been little or no winds of change regarding that fact. Few schools have made an effort to host tournaments, and the Reach for the Top organization has shown little motivation to take on any hosting before February. What makes this problem worse is that the organization does not advertise or provide readily-available information for hosting tournaments. As a result, few schools are even aware that they can host tournaments, which means that, to many schools, this lack of competition does not seem out of the ordinary.<br />
<br />
Part of this fact can be contributed to the "Canadiana" aspect of Reach for the Top. Because of the history and cultural engrainment of Reach for the Top in Canadian culture (the show has been around for decades, it was parodied on SCTV by future star Eugene Levy, and the majority of Canadian adults either played or knew someone who played Reach in high school), many schools seem comfortable with the fact that the season starts and ends after 1-2 tournaments in the spring, as they cling to the mostly fruitless hope that they may, someday, win a national title or at least appear on television. This acceptance is partially responsible for most schools feeling 1-2 tournaments is not out of the ordinary. Additionally, because of this Canadian cultural engrainment, some pro-Reach individuals actively oppose any deviation from the current system, including participation in quizbowl, again, hindering an increase in the amount of competition.<br />
<br />
Perhaps an advantage of the cultural engrainment, however, is that the majority of secondary schools in Canada feel obliged to field a Reach team of some sort, thereby increasing the size of the regional qualifier tournaments. Unfortunately, this does not apply to all areas of the country, as some provinces do not participate in Reach for the Top at all. In Quebec, as a result of the few anglophone schools, there are only 8 Reach for the Top teams in that province. The francophone schools play a similar format called "Genies en Herbes" (young geniuses).<br />
<br />
Because of this, the more active teams in Canada must often find additional competition. Recently, activity has increased in the Ottawa area, as a result of the [[University of Ottawa]], as well as [[Merivale|Merivale High Schoool]], [[Gananoque Secondary School]] and Lisgar Collegiate, the latter of which hosted one of the only "pre-season" Reach for the Top tournaments in Canada on December 1st, when it <br />
organized the 07 [[Lisgar Open]]. --><br />
<br />
==Rule 1 Issues==<br />
<br />
Rule #1 of Reach for the Top states:<br />
<br />
"Any student who is 19 or under at the ''beginning'' of the school year and has been continuously enrolled in a Secondary School is eligible to play both SCHOOLREACH and REACH FOR THE TOP."<br />
<br />
This rule originally accommodated the 5-year high school system in Ontario, which ended with students entering in 1999. This rule has since not changed, even with Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador having 3-year high schools. As such, some players and teams have exploited this loophole to various degrees of success:<br />
<br />
* Quebec's league was established in the 2001-02 season. CEGEPs, which have high school graduates, are allowed to compete under the rule, and a CEGEP represents Quebec at Nationals nearly every year. Royal West Academy, a high school, broke this trend by qualifying for Nationals in 2008.<br />
<br />
* [[Andy Saunders]] played Reach For The Top for six seasons in high school due to Rule #1.<br />
<br />
* A player from [[Leaside]] celebrated his 19th birthday at the Ontario provincial tournament his team ended up winning in 2005. They failed to win Nationals, however.<br />
<br />
* The captain of [[2004 St. George's]] was in his fifth year of Reach, and won the national championship. What was particularly ironic was the fact that the coach was quite vocal about fifth-year Ontario teams winning Nationals throughout the 1990s.<br />
<br />
It should be noted that several Ontario teams have managed to win the national championships in the 4-year system.<br />
<br />
==Championship Disputes==<br />
<br />
Since the conversion from a CBC program to SchoolReach, there have been incidents that have left a national title in dispute by some parties:<br />
<br />
*[[1989 Tagwi]]: Tagwi won an early match because of a (possibly) incorrect ruling over the ingredients of borscht. The team got screwed over in the end, though. They never got a trophy because of a dispute between Reach and the old CBC champions, and their scheduled exhibition match with the [[NAC]] champions was cancelled because a party in the US (the team? the TV crew? Chip Beall?) didn't want to travel to Canada.<br />
<br />
*[[1995 Fredericton]]: In the aftermath of issues surrounding the [[1995 Bell]] team, a team from [[Lisgar]] that won the zone match to earn a berth in provincials never got the opportunity to play. How well the Lisgar team would have fared is now only speculative.<br />
<br />
*[[2008 Lisgar]]: Down by 5 points, the runner-up team from [[UTS]] claimed they buzzed in at the end of the game before the time alarm went off. It had to go to a video review, and Reach judged in favour of Lisgar. A small edit war erupted on Wikipedia between anonymous Toronto IPs and quizbowlers apparently "sympathetic" to Lisgar over how the championship should be listed in the article.<br />
<br />
*[[2009 London Central]]: London Central's opponents in the finals from Kennebecasis were not informed by either Reach For The Top or TVO that there would be a change in format for the final game until minutes before the game began. The team from Kennebecasis had also never played using TVOs format (which eliminates the shootout and includes relatively easy questions among other changes) before. The London Central team had played using TVOs format two weeks earlier for the Ontario Provincials, giving them an advantage for the finals. The national tournament was also notable for the recycling of several questions during the round robin portion which could have also affected the outcome of the tournament in terms of seeding the teams for the playoffs.<br />
<br />
==Notable Participants==<br />
<br />
As a long-standing and highly-regarded establishment in Canada, several people have participated during their high school years and gone on to great success. A list of notable former players, coaches, and Reach personnel follows (names in '''bold''' won the national championship):<br />
<br />
===Politics===<br />
* Kim Campbell - Prime Minister of Canada (1993)<br />
* Mark Carney - Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008- )<br />
* Grant Devine - Premier of Saskatchewan (1982-91)<br />
* [[Stephen Harper]] - Prime Minister of Canada (2006- )<br />
* '''[[Ken Kowalski]]''' - Speaker of the Legislature of Alberta (1997- )<br />
* [[Bernard Lord]] - Premier of New Brunswick (1999-2006)<br />
* Stuart Smith - Leader of the Opposition of Ontario (1977-81)<br />
<br />
===Media===<br />
* '''Howard Green''' - Business News Network host, former CBC documentarian<br />
*'''Tom Harrington''' - CBC Sports reporter<br />
* Shelagh Rogers - CBC Radio and TVO personality<br />
* Jan Tennant - Anchor of CBC's ''The National'' and ''Saturday Evening News'' (1970s)<br />
* Alex Trebek - Host of [[Jeopardy!]] ( [http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/television/clips/15279/ A video of an exhibition match between Reach and Genies players] )<br />
<br />
===Other===<br />
* Malcolm Gladwell - Author of the bestsellers ''The Tipping Point'', ''Blink'', and ''Outliers''<br />
* '''Bernard Hibbitts''' - Law professor at the University of Pittsburgh [http://faculty.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/profile.htm]; founder of JURIST news service<br />
* Dr. '''Sethu Reddy''' - Former professor of medicine at Dalhousie & Harvard; chairman at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio<br />
<br />
==National Champions==<br />
<br />
''Reach for the Top had televised matches as early as 1961, but no national champions were declared until 1966. There were no national champions from 1986-88.''<br />
<br />
{| border="1" cellspacing="0"<br />
! Year<br />
! Champion<br />
! Prov<br />
! Runner-up<br />
! Prov<br />
! Location<br />
! Notes<br />
|- <br />
| 1966<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1967<br />
| [[Rideau]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1968<br />
| [[Oak Bay]]<br />
| BC<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1969<br />
| [[Neil McNeil]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| St. John's, NL<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1970<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1971<br />
| [[River East]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Halifax, NS<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1972<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1973<br />
| [[1973 Lorne Jenkins|Lorne Jenkins]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1974<br />
| [[Gonzaga (St. John's)|Gonzaga]]<br />
| NL<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| St. John's, NL<br />
| Only NL champion<br />
|-<br />
| 1975<br />
| [[Queen Elizabeth]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1976<br />
| [[Central Peel]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Windsor, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1977<br />
| [[Glenlawn]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Calgary, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[1978 Reach for the Top Nationals|1978]]<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Charlottetown, PE<br />
| First two-time champions; defeated [[1978 Richview]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1979<br />
| [[Banting Memorial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[1980 Reach for the Top Nationals|1980]]<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Sir Winston Churchill]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1981<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Corner Brook, NL<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1982<br />
| [[Dakota]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1983<br />
| [[Roland Michener]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1984<br />
| [[Deloraine]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Moncton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Regina, SK<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| 1985<br />
| [[1985 Kate Andrews|Kate Andrews]]<br />
| AB<br />
| [[Wagar]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Moncton, NB<br />
| Last year on CBC<br />
|-<br />
| 1989<br />
| [[1989 Tagwi|Tagwi]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Mount Douglas]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| Revival as "Schoolreach"<br />
|-<br />
| 1990<br />
| [[Memorial]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1991<br />
| [[St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| [[St. Albert]]<br />
| AB<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1992<br />
| [[1992 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Ancaster]]<br />
| ON<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1993<br />
| [[1993 St. Joseph's|St. Joseph's]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1993 Hay|William E. Hay]]<br />
| AB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1994<br />
| [[1994 Bell|Bell]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1994 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1995<br />
| [[1995 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| [[1995 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1996<br />
| [[1996 Saunders|Saunders]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1996 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| First two-time champion player: [[Dave Thorsley]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1997<br />
| [[1997 Earl Haig|Earl Haig]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1997 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1998<br />
| [[1998 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1998 Kingston|Kingston CVI]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Halifax, NS<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1999<br />
| [[1999 Frontenac|Frontenac]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1999 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| Frontenac's 600-410 win is highest-ever score in final match<br />
|-<br />
| 2000<br />
| [[2000 Merivale|Merivale]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2000 Ridley|Ridley]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| National finals return to TV<br />
|-<br />
| 2001<br />
| [[2001 Gloucester|Gloucester]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2001 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2002<br />
| [[2002 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2002 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2003<br />
| [[2003 UTS|UTS]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2003 Dawson|Dawson]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First back-to-back championships<br />
|-<br />
| 2004<br />
| [[2004 St. George's|St. George's]] (2)<br />
| BC<br />
| [[2004 Leaside|Leaside]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2005<br />
| [[2005 Cobequid|Cobequid]] (2)<br />
| NS<br />
| [[2005 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First champion of both CBC and SchoolReach eras<br />
|-<br />
| 2006<br />
| [[2006 Woburn|Woburn]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2006 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2007 Reach for the Top Nationals|2007]]<br />
| [[2007 London Central|London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2007 Kennebecasis|Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2008 Reach for the Top Nationals|2008]]<br />
| [[2008 Lisgar|Lisgar]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2008 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2009 Reach for the Top Nationals|2009]]<br />
| [[London Central]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| Excluding the final game, the National Finals left TV.<br />
|-<br />
| [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised<br />
|-<br />
| [[2011 Reach for the Top Nationals|2011]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]] (2)<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Centennial (Ontario high school)|Centennial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised. Semifinals and Finals were played at Canada's Wonderland <br />
|-<br />
| [[2012 Reach for the Top Nationals|2012]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (3)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2013 Reach for the Top Nationals|2013]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (4)<br />
| ON<br />
|[[Bellerose]]<br />
|AB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2014 Reach for the Top Nationals|2014]]<br />
| [[Martingrove]]<br />
| ON<br />
|[[London Central]]<br />
|ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2015 Reach for the Top Nationals|2015]]<br />
| [[2015 Lisgar|Lisgar]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
|[[Kennebecasis]]<br />
|NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2016 Reach for the Top Nationals|2016]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]] (3)<br />
| NB<br />
|[[Eric Hamber]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
=== National Final Appearances ===<br />
''Not all runners-up are confirmed''<br />
* '''Seven finals:''' [[UTS]]<br />
* '''Six finals:''' [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
* '''Four finals:''' [[London Central]], [[St. George's]], [[Saunders]]<br />
* '''Three finals:''' [[Cobequid]], [[Dryden]], [[Fredericton]], [[Gloucester]]<br />
* '''Two finals:''' [[Hillcrest]], [[Kelvin]], [[Lisgar]], [[O'Leary]], [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[Top of the Form]], the British predecessor to Reach<br />
* [[List of Ontario Reach for the Top qualifying leagues]]<br />
* [[Criticisms of Reach for the Top]] <br />
<br />
[[Category:Canada]]<br />
[[Category:Quizbowl TV shows]] <br />
[[Category:Bad quizbowl]] <br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top]] <br />
[[Category:High school formats]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Reach_for_the_Top&diff=27827Reach for the Top2016-05-08T07:00:07Z<p>Ben Smith: /* National Champions */ 90s runners-up</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Reach for the Top''' is the dominant high school quiz competition in Canada. Technically a form of [[quizbowl]], it has a larger sports distribution than other academic quizbowl formats, contains more hoses, and is composed almost entirely of speed-check questions which are often [[pyramidal|non-pyramidal]]. It is also more expensive than alternatives like [[NAQT]]. <br />
<br />
French students usually play [[Genies en herbe]], while university students play in the [[quizbowl]] format.<br />
<br />
==Gameplay==<br />
<br />
The majority of questions in Reach for the Top are approximately the length of quizbowl bonus questions (1-2 sentences), and are worth, for the most part, 10 points each. Interruption of the questions for early guesses are not only allowed but also encouraged, as the game is based heavily on speed. If a team buzzes in and answer a question incorrectly, the opposing team has approximately 3-5 seconds to consult and form an answer. Consultation is permitted at almost all times in Reach for the Top (see "Shootouts" and "Assigned" for exceptions). There are no [[negs]] or [[powers]] in Reach, although negs (-5) appeared in the 2007 Nationals for the first time.<br />
<br />
==Categories==<br />
<br />
===Snapstart/Snapout/Open===<br />
Forming the bulk of Reach for the Top questions, these consist of 1-2 sentence questions open to both teams and are worth ten points each. Snapout/Snapstart categories take place at the beginning and end of each round respectively, and the subject of each question varies (i.e. none are linked by a category). "Open" categories are, mostly, worth 40 points in total, and consist of 4 questions all linked by one similar category (e.g. "40 point open on architects"); it is open to both teams. <br />
<br />
==="20 Point Special"===<br />
Like an open question (see last category), but the answer often requires 2 answers in one (e.g. Q: Name both years in which a player's strike or owner's lockout was responsible for the cancellation of some or all of the games in an NHL season. A: 1994-95 and 2004-05 [sic] and 2012-13) In other cases, the 20 point special can require one very long answer, for example, the provincial motto of Newfoundland, ''Quaerite primum regnum Dei''<br />
<br />
===Shootout===<br />
A maximum of 12 questions are posed in this category. Once one player has answered a question correctly, they may no longer answer any questions. This player is now "out". Once one team has every one of its 4 players "out", they gain 40 points, and the other team gains 0. Consultation is forbidden at all times in this category. Concerns that have arisen with this category include A) 12 questions are needed to generate 40 points and B) Both teams can have 3 players out with one question left, which one team may barely answer correctly on speed, giving them all 40 points, and thus a very important swing on a very little difference between teams.<br />
<br />
===Chain Snappers===<br />
Similar to a snapstart/snapout, chain snappers involve the answer to one question forming the topic of the succeeding question. As a result, the best and fastest teams can often answer the next question with only 3-4 words read.<br />
<br />
===Who am I/What am I===<br />
Who am I/What am I questions consist of four clues with decreasing point value, beginning with a (usually vague) opening question. If answered correctly on this question, that team gains 40 points. If neither team guesses correctly, the answer is not read, and a slightly less ambiguous clue worth 30 points is read. This continues for two more questions (worth 20 and 10 points respectively), until, if no team is able to give the correct answer, the answer is read. Unlike [[Good Quizbowl]], the first clue does not provide only one possible answer. The 40-point question is often described as being written as though "an expert in that field" would be unable to be absolutely sure of the correct answer, and as a result, can often trigger highly inaccurate guesses, or in the case of non-competitive teams, non-sensical answers which are made to incite laughs and in doing so, delay the game. The 40-point clue can vary in difficulty from completely, improbably difficult, (almost to the a point where one questions the point of it; e.g. "This country is located in Europe." or "He was born in 1685.") to reasonably difficult. <br />
<br />
===Assigned===<br />
Worth 80 points in total, this category consists of questions posed to specific individuals. One team, designated "Team A", will have each of its team members asked one question. If answered incorrectly, the player sitting directly across from that player will have an opportunity to answer that question. Once team A has had all of its players asked a question, team B's players are then asked questions one-by-one in a similar fashion. All of the questions relate to one category (e.g. European national capitals). Consultation is forbidden.<br />
<br />
===Team Questions===<br />
These questions work similarly to tossup/bonus questions. One question is posed to both teams. The team that correctly answers the question has an opportunity to answer three more questions. The only differences between that and quizbowl are that the "tossup" question is usually very short and very easy and the bonus questions (actually called bonus) are related in topic to the "tossup" question.<br />
<br />
===List===<br />
Worth 50 points, this category involves teams alternating in turns to complete a list. Both teams have an opportunity to buzzz in for the first answer. After each question is answered correctly the other team has an opportunity to give an answer. Once a team gets a question wrong, they may no longer answer.<br />
e.g. List all of the professional teams that Wayne Gretzky played for.<br />
Team A (buzzes in): "Edmonton Oilers" - Correct<br />
Team B: "New York Rangers" - Correct<br />
Team A: "St. Louis Blues" - Correct<br />
Team B: "Philadelphia Flyers" - Incorrect<br />
Team A: "Los Angeles Kings & Indianapolis Racers" - Correct x 2<br />
<br />
==Canadian Tournament Play==<br />
<br />
The modern Reach for the Top season begins with SchoolReach - regional leagues playing in classrooms. For most provinces, a "region" encompasses the entire province, while BC and Ontario are divided into smaller regions either for league play (in BC) or to serve as qualifiers for a provincial tournament (in Ontario). A few provinces have their playoff matches televised. The territories, Saskatchewan, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador do not currently have provincial tournaments; any schools from those regions may participate in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, respectively.<br />
<br />
Depending on participation levels, provincial tournaments will qualify either one or two teams to the national tournament, held for the past several years in Edmonton. The national tournament consists of an in-classroom round-robin, followed by televised playoffs.<br />
<br />
Most regions offer an "Intermediate" division tournament open to freshmen and sophomores, but there is no framework for an Intermediate national tournament. "Intermediate" would likely be higher than a "Junior" division (presumably for middle school), but a middle school tournament does not exist. Reach attempted to start a university tournament in the early 2000s, but some [[NAQT]] tournaments had already taken root at the time.<br />
<br />
There are a few Reach (or Reach-style) tournaments held during the year that are independent of the qualification process to Nationals. New Brunswick has 5-6 per year around the province, Toronto has had a few in recent years, and [[Lisgar]] CI held a tournament in Ottawa in 2007. Nevertheless, the number of tournaments is much smaller than availability in several US regions.<br />
<!--taking out unsubstantiated complaints until they can be verified: schools are "obliged" to play Reach??? --><br />
<!-- Active Canadian trivia teams are plagued and frustrated by the lack of Reach tournaments in Canada. In fact, in Ontario and the rest of Canada, the Reach for the Top season does not officially start until the end of February, when the first round of regional qualifiers begin. After that, there is in the bigger "leagues" (although this term is loose-fitting) a regional round #2, followed by provincials, followed by nationals.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately for most, only a fraction of teams gain entrance to provincials, and an even smaller fraction gain entrance into nationals (16 teams out of over 500). To put this in perspective, out of over 210 teams in the province of Ontario, only 2 are sent to the national tournament, hence the reason that [[Lisgar]] Collegiate, despite winning every Canadian quizbowl event and finishing in 18th place after the preliminaries at the [[2007 NAQT HSNCT]], had not qualified for nationals until 2008.<br />
<br />
Despite this lack of competition, there have been little or no winds of change regarding that fact. Few schools have made an effort to host tournaments, and the Reach for the Top organization has shown little motivation to take on any hosting before February. What makes this problem worse is that the organization does not advertise or provide readily-available information for hosting tournaments. As a result, few schools are even aware that they can host tournaments, which means that, to many schools, this lack of competition does not seem out of the ordinary.<br />
<br />
Part of this fact can be contributed to the "Canadiana" aspect of Reach for the Top. Because of the history and cultural engrainment of Reach for the Top in Canadian culture (the show has been around for decades, it was parodied on SCTV by future star Eugene Levy, and the majority of Canadian adults either played or knew someone who played Reach in high school), many schools seem comfortable with the fact that the season starts and ends after 1-2 tournaments in the spring, as they cling to the mostly fruitless hope that they may, someday, win a national title or at least appear on television. This acceptance is partially responsible for most schools feeling 1-2 tournaments is not out of the ordinary. Additionally, because of this Canadian cultural engrainment, some pro-Reach individuals actively oppose any deviation from the current system, including participation in quizbowl, again, hindering an increase in the amount of competition.<br />
<br />
Perhaps an advantage of the cultural engrainment, however, is that the majority of secondary schools in Canada feel obliged to field a Reach team of some sort, thereby increasing the size of the regional qualifier tournaments. Unfortunately, this does not apply to all areas of the country, as some provinces do not participate in Reach for the Top at all. In Quebec, as a result of the few anglophone schools, there are only 8 Reach for the Top teams in that province. The francophone schools play a similar format called "Genies en Herbes" (young geniuses).<br />
<br />
Because of this, the more active teams in Canada must often find additional competition. Recently, activity has increased in the Ottawa area, as a result of the [[University of Ottawa]], as well as [[Merivale|Merivale High Schoool]], [[Gananoque Secondary School]] and Lisgar Collegiate, the latter of which hosted one of the only "pre-season" Reach for the Top tournaments in Canada on December 1st, when it <br />
organized the 07 [[Lisgar Open]]. --><br />
<br />
==Rule 1 Issues==<br />
<br />
Rule #1 of Reach for the Top states:<br />
<br />
"Any student who is 19 or under at the ''beginning'' of the school year and has been continuously enrolled in a Secondary School is eligible to play both SCHOOLREACH and REACH FOR THE TOP."<br />
<br />
This rule originally accommodated the 5-year high school system in Ontario, which ended with students entering in 1999. This rule has since not changed, even with Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador having 3-year high schools. As such, some players and teams have exploited this loophole to various degrees of success:<br />
<br />
* Quebec's league was established in the 2001-02 season. CEGEPs, which have high school graduates, are allowed to compete under the rule, and a CEGEP represents Quebec at Nationals nearly every year. Royal West Academy, a high school, broke this trend by qualifying for Nationals in 2008.<br />
<br />
* [[Andy Saunders]] played Reach For The Top for six seasons in high school due to Rule #1.<br />
<br />
* A player from [[Leaside]] celebrated his 19th birthday at the Ontario provincial tournament his team ended up winning in 2005. They failed to win Nationals, however.<br />
<br />
* The captain of [[2004 St. George's]] was in his fifth year of Reach, and won the national championship. What was particularly ironic was the fact that the coach was quite vocal about fifth-year Ontario teams winning Nationals throughout the 1990s.<br />
<br />
It should be noted that several Ontario teams have managed to win the national championships in the 4-year system.<br />
<br />
==Championship Disputes==<br />
<br />
Since the conversion from a CBC program to SchoolReach, there have been incidents that have left a national title in dispute by some parties:<br />
<br />
*[[1989 Tagwi]]: Tagwi won an early match because of a (possibly) incorrect ruling over the ingredients of borscht. The team got screwed over in the end, though. They never got a trophy because of a dispute between Reach and the old CBC champions, and their scheduled exhibition match with the [[NAC]] champions was cancelled because a party in the US (the team? the TV crew? Chip Beall?) didn't want to travel to Canada.<br />
<br />
*[[1995 Fredericton]]: In the aftermath of issues surrounding the [[1995 Bell]] team, a team from [[Lisgar]] that won the zone match to earn a berth in provincials never got the opportunity to play. How well the Lisgar team would have fared is now only speculative.<br />
<br />
*[[2008 Lisgar]]: Down by 5 points, the runner-up team from [[UTS]] claimed they buzzed in at the end of the game before the time alarm went off. It had to go to a video review, and Reach judged in favour of Lisgar. A small edit war erupted on Wikipedia between anonymous Toronto IPs and quizbowlers apparently "sympathetic" to Lisgar over how the championship should be listed in the article.<br />
<br />
*[[2009 London Central]]: London Central's opponents in the finals from Kennebecasis were not informed by either Reach For The Top or TVO that there would be a change in format for the final game until minutes before the game began. The team from Kennebecasis had also never played using TVOs format (which eliminates the shootout and includes relatively easy questions among other changes) before. The London Central team had played using TVOs format two weeks earlier for the Ontario Provincials, giving them an advantage for the finals. The national tournament was also notable for the recycling of several questions during the round robin portion which could have also affected the outcome of the tournament in terms of seeding the teams for the playoffs.<br />
<br />
==Notable Participants==<br />
<br />
As a long-standing and highly-regarded establishment in Canada, several people have participated during their high school years and gone on to great success. A list of notable former players, coaches, and Reach personnel follows (names in '''bold''' won the national championship):<br />
<br />
===Politics===<br />
* Kim Campbell - Prime Minister of Canada (1993)<br />
* Mark Carney - Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008- )<br />
* Grant Devine - Premier of Saskatchewan (1982-91)<br />
* [[Stephen Harper]] - Prime Minister of Canada (2006- )<br />
* '''[[Ken Kowalski]]''' - Speaker of the Legislature of Alberta (1997- )<br />
* [[Bernard Lord]] - Premier of New Brunswick (1999-2006)<br />
* Stuart Smith - Leader of the Opposition of Ontario (1977-81)<br />
<br />
===Media===<br />
* '''Howard Green''' - Business News Network host, former CBC documentarian<br />
*'''Tom Harrington''' - CBC Sports reporter<br />
* Shelagh Rogers - CBC Radio and TVO personality<br />
* Jan Tennant - Anchor of CBC's ''The National'' and ''Saturday Evening News'' (1970s)<br />
* Alex Trebek - Host of [[Jeopardy!]] ( [http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/television/clips/15279/ A video of an exhibition match between Reach and Genies players] )<br />
<br />
===Other===<br />
* Malcolm Gladwell - Author of the bestsellers ''The Tipping Point'', ''Blink'', and ''Outliers''<br />
* '''Bernard Hibbitts''' - Law professor at the University of Pittsburgh [http://faculty.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/profile.htm]; founder of JURIST news service<br />
* Dr. '''Sethu Reddy''' - Former professor of medicine at Dalhousie & Harvard; chairman at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio<br />
<br />
==National Champions==<br />
<br />
''Reach for the Top had televised matches as early as 1961, but no national champions were declared until 1966. There were no national champions from 1986-88.''<br />
<br />
{| border="1" cellspacing="0"<br />
! Year<br />
! Champion<br />
! Prov<br />
! Runner-up<br />
! Prov<br />
! Location<br />
! Notes<br />
|- <br />
| 1966<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1967<br />
| [[Rideau]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1968<br />
| [[Oak Bay]]<br />
| BC<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1969<br />
| [[Neil McNeil]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| St. John's, NL<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1970<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1971<br />
| [[River East]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Halifax, NS<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1972<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1973<br />
| [[1973 Lorne Jenkins|Lorne Jenkins]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1974<br />
| [[Gonzaga (St. John's)|Gonzaga]]<br />
| NL<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| St. John's, NL<br />
| Only NL champion<br />
|-<br />
| 1975<br />
| [[Queen Elizabeth]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1976<br />
| [[Central Peel]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Windsor, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1977<br />
| [[Glenlawn]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Calgary, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[1978 Reach for the Top Nationals|1978]]<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Charlottetown, PE<br />
| First two-time champions; defeated [[1978 Richview]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1979<br />
| [[Banting Memorial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[1980 Reach for the Top Nationals|1980]]<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Sir Winston Churchill]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1981<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Corner Brook, NL<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1982<br />
| [[Dakota]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1983<br />
| [[Roland Michener]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1984<br />
| [[Deloraine]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Moncton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Regina, SK<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| 1985<br />
| [[1985 Kate Andrews|Kate Andrews]]<br />
| AB<br />
| [[Wagar]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Moncton, NB<br />
| Last year on CBC<br />
|-<br />
| 1989<br />
| [[1989 Tagwi|Tagwi]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Mount Douglas]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| Revival as "Schoolreach"<br />
|-<br />
| 1990<br />
| [[Memorial]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1991<br />
| [[St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| [[St. Albert]]<br />
| AB<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1992<br />
| [[1992 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Ancaster]]<br />
| ON<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1993<br />
| [[1993 St. Joseph's|St. Joseph's]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1993 Hay|William E. Hay]]<br />
| AB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1994<br />
| [[1994 Bell|Bell]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1994 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1995<br />
| [[1995 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| [[1995 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1996<br />
| [[1996 Saunders|Saunders]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1996 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| First two-time champion player: [[Dave Thorsley]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1997<br />
| [[1997 Earl Haig|Earl Haig]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1997 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1998<br />
| [[1998 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1998 Kingston|Kingston CVI]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Halifax, NS<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1999<br />
| [[1999 Frontenac|Frontenac]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1999 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| Frontenac's 600-410 win is highest-ever score in final match<br />
|-<br />
| 2000<br />
| [[2000 Merivale|Merivale]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2000 Ridley|Ridley]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| National finals return to TV<br />
|-<br />
| 2001<br />
| [[2001 Gloucester|Gloucester]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2001 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2002<br />
| [[2002 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2002 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2003<br />
| [[2003 UTS|UTS]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2003 Dawson|Dawson]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First back-to-back championships<br />
|-<br />
| 2004<br />
| [[2004 St. George's|St. George's]] (2)<br />
| BC<br />
| [[2004 Leaside|Leaside]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2005<br />
| [[2005 Cobequid|Cobequid]] (2)<br />
| NS<br />
| [[2005 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First champion of both CBC and SchoolReach eras<br />
|-<br />
| 2006<br />
| [[2006 Woburn|Woburn]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2006 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2007 Reach for the Top Nationals|2007]]<br />
| [[2007 London Central|London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2007 Kennebecasis|Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2008 Reach for the Top Nationals|2008]]<br />
| [[2008 Lisgar|Lisgar]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2008 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2009 Reach for the Top Nationals|2009]]<br />
| [[London Central]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| Excluding the final game, the National Finals left TV.<br />
|-<br />
| [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised<br />
|-<br />
| [[2011 Reach for the Top Nationals|2011]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]] (2)<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Centennial (Ontario high school)|Centennial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised. Semifinals and Finals were played at Canada's Wonderland <br />
|-<br />
| [[2012 Reach for the Top Nationals|2012]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (3)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2013 Reach for the Top Nationals|2013]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (4)<br />
| ON<br />
|[[Bellerose]]<br />
|AB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2014 Reach for the Top Nationals|2014]]<br />
| [[Martingrove]]<br />
| ON<br />
|[[London Central]]<br />
|ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2015 Reach for the Top Nationals|2015]]<br />
| [[2015 Lisgar|Lisgar]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
|[[Kennebecasis]]<br />
|NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
=== National Final Appearances ===<br />
''Not all runners-up are confirmed''<br />
* '''Seven finals:''' [[UTS]]<br />
* '''Five finals:''' [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
* '''Four finals:''' [[London Central]], [[St. George's]], [[Saunders]]<br />
* '''Three finals:''' [[Cobequid]], [[Dryden]], [[Fredericton]], [[Gloucester]]<br />
* '''Two finals:''' [[Hillcrest]], [[Kelvin]], [[Lisgar]], [[O'Leary]], [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[Top of the Form]], the British predecessor to Reach<br />
* [[List of Ontario Reach for the Top qualifying leagues]]<br />
* [[Criticisms of Reach for the Top]] <br />
<br />
[[Category:Canada]]<br />
[[Category:Quizbowl TV shows]] <br />
[[Category:Bad quizbowl]] <br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top]] <br />
[[Category:High school formats]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Reach_for_the_Top&diff=25043Reach for the Top2015-11-22T16:26:03Z<p>Ben Smith: /* National Champions */ 1966-76 locations</p>
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<div>'''Reach for the Top''' is the dominant high school quiz competition in Canada. Technically a form of [[quizbowl]], it has a larger sports distribution than other academic quizbowl formats, contains more hoses, and is composed almost entirely of speed-check questions which are often [[pyramidal|non-pyramidal]]. It is also more expensive than alternatives like [[NAQT]]. <br />
<br />
French students usually play [[Genies en herbe]], while university students play in the [[quizbowl]] format.<br />
<br />
==Gameplay==<br />
<br />
The majority of questions in Reach for the Top are approximately the length of quizbowl bonus questions (1-2 sentences), and are worth, for the most part, 10 points each. Interruption of the questions for early guesses are not only allowed but also encouraged, as the game is based heavily on speed. If a team buzzes in and answer a question incorrectly, the opposing team has approximately 3-5 seconds to consult and form an answer. Consultation is permitted at almost all times in Reach for the Top (see "Shootouts" and "Assigned" for exceptions). There are no [[negs]] or [[powers]] in Reach, although negs (-5) appeared in the 2007 Nationals for the first time.<br />
<br />
==Categories==<br />
<br />
===Snapstart/Snapout/Open===<br />
Forming the bulk of Reach for the Top questions, these consist of 1-2 sentence questions open to both teams and are worth ten points each. Snapout/Snapstart categories take place at the beginning and end of each round respectively, and the subject of each question varies (i.e. none are linked by a category). "Open" categories are, mostly, worth 40 points in total, and consist of 4 questions all linked by one similar category (e.g. "40 point open on architects"); it is open to both teams. <br />
<br />
==="20 Point Special"===<br />
Like an open question (see last category), but the answer often requires 2 answers in one (e.g. Q: Name both years in which a player's strike or owner's lockout was responsible for the cancellation of some or all of the games in an NHL season. A: 1994-95 and 2004-05 [sic] and 2012-13) In other cases, the 20 point special can require one very long answer, for example, the provincial motto of Newfoundland, ''Quaerite primum regnum Dei''<br />
<br />
===Shootout===<br />
A maximum of 12 questions are posed in this category. Once one player has answered a question correctly, they may no longer answer any questions. This player is now "out". Once one team has every one of its 4 players "out", they gain 40 points, and the other team gains 0. Consultation is forbidden at all times in this category. Concerns that have arisen with this category include A) 12 questions are needed to generate 40 points and B) Both teams can have 3 players out with one question left, which one team may barely answer correctly on speed, giving them all 40 points, and thus a very important swing on a very little difference between teams.<br />
<br />
===Chain Snappers===<br />
Similar to a snapstart/snapout, chain snappers involve the answer to one question forming the topic of the succeeding question. As a result, the best and fastest teams can often answer the next question with only 3-4 words read.<br />
<br />
===Who am I/What am I===<br />
Who am I/What am I questions consist of four clues with decreasing point value, beginning with a (usually vague) opening question. If answered correctly on this question, that team gains 40 points. If neither team guesses correctly, the answer is not read, and a slightly less ambiguous clue worth 30 points is read. This continues for two more questions (worth 20 and 10 points respectively), until, if no team is able to give the correct answer, the answer is read. Unlike [[Good Quizbowl]], the first clue does not provide only one possible answer. The 40-point question is often described as being written as though "an expert in that field" would be unable to be absolutely sure of the correct answer, and as a result, can often trigger highly inaccurate guesses, or in the case of non-competitive teams, non-sensical answers which are made to incite laughs and in doing so, delay the game. The 40-point clue can vary in difficulty from completely, improbably difficult, (almost to the a point where one questions the point of it; e.g. "This country is located in Europe." or "He was born in 1685.") to reasonably difficult. <br />
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===Assigned===<br />
Worth 80 points in total, this category consists of questions posed to specific individuals. One team, designated "Team A", will have each of its team members asked one question. If answered incorrectly, the player sitting directly across from that player will have an opportunity to answer that question. Once team A has had all of its players asked a question, team B's players are then asked questions one-by-one in a similar fashion. All of the questions relate to one category (e.g. European national capitals). Consultation is forbidden.<br />
<br />
===Team Questions===<br />
These questions work similarly to tossup/bonus questions. One question is posed to both teams. The team that correctly answers the question has an opportunity to answer three more questions. The only differences between that and quizbowl are that the "tossup" question is usually very short and very easy and the bonus questions (actually called bonus) are related in topic to the "tossup" question.<br />
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===List===<br />
Worth 50 points, this category involves teams alternating in turns to complete a list. Both teams have an opportunity to buzzz in for the first answer. After each question is answered correctly the other team has an opportunity to give an answer. Once a team gets a question wrong, they may no longer answer.<br />
e.g. List all of the professional teams that Wayne Gretzky played for.<br />
Team A (buzzes in): "Edmonton Oilers" - Correct<br />
Team B: "New York Rangers" - Correct<br />
Team A: "St. Louis Blues" - Correct<br />
Team B: "Philadelphia Flyers" - Incorrect<br />
Team A: "Los Angeles Kings & Indianapolis Racers" - Correct x 2<br />
<br />
==Canadian Tournament Play==<br />
<br />
The modern Reach for the Top season begins with SchoolReach - regional leagues playing in classrooms. For most provinces, a "region" encompasses the entire province, while BC and Ontario are divided into smaller regions either for league play (in BC) or to serve as qualifiers for a provincial tournament (in Ontario). A few provinces have their playoff matches televised. The territories, Saskatchewan, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador do not currently have provincial tournaments; any schools from those regions may participate in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, respectively.<br />
<br />
Depending on participation levels, provincial tournaments will qualify either one or two teams to the national tournament, held for the past several years in Edmonton. The national tournament consists of an in-classroom round-robin, followed by televised playoffs.<br />
<br />
Most regions offer an "Intermediate" division tournament open to freshmen and sophomores, but there is no framework for an Intermediate national tournament. "Intermediate" would likely be higher than a "Junior" division (presumably for middle school), but a middle school tournament does not exist. Reach attempted to start a university tournament in the early 2000s, but some [[NAQT]] tournaments had already taken root at the time.<br />
<br />
There are a few Reach (or Reach-style) tournaments held during the year that are independent of the qualification process to Nationals. New Brunswick has 5-6 per year around the province, Toronto has had a few in recent years, and [[Lisgar]] CI held a tournament in Ottawa in 2007. Nevertheless, the number of tournaments is much smaller than availability in several US regions.<br />
<!--taking out unsubstantiated complaints until they can be verified: schools are "obliged" to play Reach??? --><br />
<!-- Active Canadian trivia teams are plagued and frustrated by the lack of Reach tournaments in Canada. In fact, in Ontario and the rest of Canada, the Reach for the Top season does not officially start until the end of February, when the first round of regional qualifiers begin. After that, there is in the bigger "leagues" (although this term is loose-fitting) a regional round #2, followed by provincials, followed by nationals.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately for most, only a fraction of teams gain entrance to provincials, and an even smaller fraction gain entrance into nationals (16 teams out of over 500). To put this in perspective, out of over 210 teams in the province of Ontario, only 2 are sent to the national tournament, hence the reason that [[Lisgar]] Collegiate, despite winning every Canadian quizbowl event and finishing in 18th place after the preliminaries at the [[2007 NAQT HSNCT]], had not qualified for nationals until 2008.<br />
<br />
Despite this lack of competition, there have been little or no winds of change regarding that fact. Few schools have made an effort to host tournaments, and the Reach for the Top organization has shown little motivation to take on any hosting before February. What makes this problem worse is that the organization does not advertise or provide readily-available information for hosting tournaments. As a result, few schools are even aware that they can host tournaments, which means that, to many schools, this lack of competition does not seem out of the ordinary.<br />
<br />
Part of this fact can be contributed to the "Canadiana" aspect of Reach for the Top. Because of the history and cultural engrainment of Reach for the Top in Canadian culture (the show has been around for decades, it was parodied on SCTV by future star Eugene Levy, and the majority of Canadian adults either played or knew someone who played Reach in high school), many schools seem comfortable with the fact that the season starts and ends after 1-2 tournaments in the spring, as they cling to the mostly fruitless hope that they may, someday, win a national title or at least appear on television. This acceptance is partially responsible for most schools feeling 1-2 tournaments is not out of the ordinary. Additionally, because of this Canadian cultural engrainment, some pro-Reach individuals actively oppose any deviation from the current system, including participation in quizbowl, again, hindering an increase in the amount of competition.<br />
<br />
Perhaps an advantage of the cultural engrainment, however, is that the majority of secondary schools in Canada feel obliged to field a Reach team of some sort, thereby increasing the size of the regional qualifier tournaments. Unfortunately, this does not apply to all areas of the country, as some provinces do not participate in Reach for the Top at all. In Quebec, as a result of the few anglophone schools, there are only 8 Reach for the Top teams in that province. The francophone schools play a similar format called "Genies en Herbes" (young geniuses).<br />
<br />
Because of this, the more active teams in Canada must often find additional competition. Recently, activity has increased in the Ottawa area, as a result of the [[University of Ottawa]], as well as [[Merivale|Merivale High Schoool]], [[Gananoque Secondary School]] and Lisgar Collegiate, the latter of which hosted one of the only "pre-season" Reach for the Top tournaments in Canada on December 1st, when it <br />
organized the 07 [[Lisgar Open]]. --><br />
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==Rule 1 Issues==<br />
<br />
Rule #1 of Reach for the Top states:<br />
<br />
"Any student who is 19 or under at the ''beginning'' of the school year and has been continuously enrolled in a Secondary School is eligible to play both SCHOOLREACH and REACH FOR THE TOP."<br />
<br />
This rule originally accommodated the 5-year high school system in Ontario, which ended with students entering in 1999. This rule has since not changed, even with Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador having 3-year high schools. As such, some players and teams have exploited this loophole to various degrees of success:<br />
<br />
* Quebec's league was established in the 2001-02 season. CEGEPs, which have high school graduates, are allowed to compete under the rule, and a CEGEP represents Quebec at Nationals nearly every year. Royal West Academy, a high school, broke this trend by qualifying for Nationals in 2008.<br />
<br />
* [[Andy Saunders]] played Reach For The Top for six seasons in high school due to Rule #1.<br />
<br />
* A player from [[Leaside]] celebrated his 19th birthday at the Ontario provincial tournament his team ended up winning in 2005. They failed to win Nationals, however.<br />
<br />
* The captain of [[2004 St. George's]] was in his fifth year of Reach, and won the national championship. What was particularly ironic was the fact that the coach was quite vocal about fifth-year Ontario teams winning Nationals throughout the 1990s.<br />
<br />
It should be noted that several Ontario teams have managed to win the national championships in the 4-year system.<br />
<br />
==Championship Disputes==<br />
<br />
Since the conversion from a CBC program to SchoolReach, there have been incidents that have left a national title in dispute by some parties:<br />
<br />
*[[1989 Tagwi]]: Tagwi won an early match because of a (possibly) incorrect ruling over the ingredients of borscht. The team got screwed over in the end, though. They never got a trophy because of a dispute between Reach and the old CBC champions, and their scheduled exhibition match with the [[NAC]] champions was cancelled because a party in the US (the team? the TV crew? Chip Beall?) didn't want to travel to Canada.<br />
<br />
*[[1995 Fredericton]]: In the aftermath of issues surrounding the [[1995 Bell]] team, a team from [[Lisgar]] that won the zone match to earn a berth in provincials never got the opportunity to play. How well the Lisgar team would have fared is now only speculative.<br />
<br />
*[[2008 Lisgar]]: Down by 5 points, the runner-up team from [[UTS]] claimed they buzzed in at the end of the game before the time alarm went off. It had to go to a video review, and Reach judged in favour of Lisgar. A small edit war erupted on Wikipedia between anonymous Toronto IPs and quizbowlers apparently "sympathetic" to Lisgar over how the championship should be listed in the article.<br />
<br />
*[[2009 London Central]]: London Central's opponents in the finals from Kennebecasis were not informed by either Reach For The Top or TVO that there would be a change in format for the final game until minutes before the game began. The team from Kennebecasis had also never played using TVOs format (which eliminates the shootout and includes relatively easy questions among other changes) before. The London Central team had played using TVOs format two weeks earlier for the Ontario Provincials, giving them an advantage for the finals. The national tournament was also notable for the recycling of several questions during the round robin portion which could have also affected the outcome of the tournament in terms of seeding the teams for the playoffs.<br />
<br />
==Notable Participants==<br />
<br />
As a long-standing and highly-regarded establishment in Canada, several people have participated during their high school years and gone on to great success. A list of notable former players, coaches, and Reach personnel follows (names in '''bold''' won the national championship):<br />
<br />
===Politics===<br />
* Kim Campbell - Prime Minister of Canada (1993)<br />
* Mark Carney - Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008- )<br />
* Grant Devine - Premier of Saskatchewan (1982-91)<br />
* [[Stephen Harper]] - Prime Minister of Canada (2006- )<br />
* '''[[Ken Kowalski]]''' - Speaker of the Legislature of Alberta (1997- )<br />
* [[Bernard Lord]] - Premier of New Brunswick (1999-2006)<br />
* Stuart Smith - Leader of the Opposition of Ontario (1977-81)<br />
<br />
===Media===<br />
* '''Howard Green''' - Business News Network host, former CBC documentarian<br />
*'''Tom Harrington''' - CBC Sports reporter<br />
* Shelagh Rogers - CBC Radio and TVO personality<br />
* Jan Tennant - Anchor of CBC's ''The National'' and ''Saturday Evening News'' (1970s)<br />
* Alex Trebek - Host of [[Jeopardy!]] ( [http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/television/clips/15279/ A video of an exhibition match between Reach and Genies players] )<br />
<br />
===Other===<br />
* Malcolm Gladwell - Author of the bestsellers ''The Tipping Point'', ''Blink'', and ''Outliers''<br />
* '''Bernard Hibbitts''' - Law professor at the University of Pittsburgh [http://faculty.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/profile.htm]; founder of JURIST news service<br />
* Dr. '''Sethu Reddy''' - Former professor of medicine at Dalhousie & Harvard; chairman at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio<br />
<br />
==National Champions==<br />
<br />
''Reach for the Top had televised matches as early as 1961, but no national champions were declared until 1966. There were no national champions from 1986-88.''<br />
<br />
{| border="1" cellspacing="0"<br />
! Year<br />
! Champion<br />
! Prov<br />
! Runner-up<br />
! Prov<br />
! Location<br />
! Notes<br />
|- <br />
| 1966<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1967<br />
| [[Rideau]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1968<br />
| [[Oak Bay]]<br />
| BC<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1969<br />
| [[Neil McNeil]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| St. John's, NL<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1970<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1971<br />
| [[River East]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Halifax, NS<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1972<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1973<br />
| [[1973 Lorne Jenkins|Lorne Jenkins]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1974<br />
| [[Gonzaga (St. John's)|Gonzaga]]<br />
| NL<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| St. John's, NL<br />
| Only NL champion<br />
|-<br />
| 1975<br />
| [[Queen Elizabeth]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1976<br />
| [[Central Peel]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Windsor, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1977<br />
| [[Glenlawn]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Calgary, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[1978 Reach for the Top Nationals|1978]]<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Charlottetown, PE<br />
| First two-time champions; defeated [[1978 Richview]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1979<br />
| [[Banting Memorial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[1980 Reach for the Top Nationals|1980]]<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Sir Winston Churchill]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1981<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Corner Brook, NL<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1982<br />
| [[Dakota]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1983<br />
| [[Roland Michener]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1984<br />
| [[Deloraine]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Moncton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Regina, SK<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| 1985<br />
| [[1985 Kate Andrews|Kate Andrews]]<br />
| AB<br />
| [[Wagar]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Moncton, NB<br />
| Last year on CBC<br />
|-<br />
| 1989<br />
| [[1989 Tagwi|Tagwi]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Mount Douglas]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| Revival as "Schoolreach"<br />
|-<br />
| 1990<br />
| [[Memorial]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1991<br />
| [[St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| [[St. Albert]]<br />
| AB<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1992<br />
| [[1992 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Ancaster]]<br />
| ON<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1993<br />
| [[1993 St. Joseph's|St. Joseph's]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1993 Hay|William E. Hay]]<br />
| AB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1994<br />
| [[1994 Bell|Bell]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1994 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1995<br />
| [[1995 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1996<br />
| [[1996 Saunders|Saunders]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| First two-time champion player: [[Dave Thorsley]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1997<br />
| [[1997 Earl Haig|Earl Haig]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1997 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1998<br />
| [[1998 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1998 Kingston|Kingston CVI]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Halifax, NS<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1999<br />
| [[1999 Frontenac|Frontenac]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2000<br />
| [[2000 Merivale|Merivale]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2000 Ridley|Ridley]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| National finals return to TV<br />
|-<br />
| 2001<br />
| [[2001 Gloucester|Gloucester]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2001 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2002<br />
| [[2002 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2002 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2003<br />
| [[2003 UTS|UTS]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2003 Dawson|Dawson]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First back-to-back championships<br />
|-<br />
| 2004<br />
| [[2004 St. George's|St. George's]] (2)<br />
| BC<br />
| [[2004 Leaside|Leaside]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2005<br />
| [[2005 Cobequid|Cobequid]] (2)<br />
| NS<br />
| [[2005 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First champion of both CBC and SchoolReach eras<br />
|-<br />
| 2006<br />
| [[2006 Woburn|Woburn]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2006 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2007 Reach for the Top Nationals|2007]]<br />
| [[2007 London Central|London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2007 Kennebecasis|Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2008 Reach for the Top Nationals|2008]]<br />
| [[2008 Lisgar|Lisgar]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2008 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2009 Reach for the Top Nationals|2009]]<br />
| [[London Central]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| Excluding the final game, the National Finals left TV.<br />
|-<br />
| [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised<br />
|-<br />
| [[2011 Reach for the Top Nationals|2011]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]] (2)<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Centennial (Ontario high school)|Centennial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised. Semifinals and Finals were played at Canada's Wonderland <br />
|-<br />
| [[2012 Reach for the Top Nationals|2012]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (3)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2013 Reach for the Top Nationals|2013]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (4)<br />
| ON<br />
|[[Bellerose]]<br />
|AB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2014 Reach for the Top Nationals|2014]]<br />
| [[Martingrove]]<br />
| ON<br />
|[[London Central]]<br />
|ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2015 Reach for the Top Nationals|2015]]<br />
| [[2015 Lisgar|Lisgar]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
|[[Kennebecasis]]<br />
|NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
=== National Final Appearances ===<br />
''Not all runners-up are confirmed''<br />
* '''Seven finals:''' [[UTS]]<br />
* '''Five finals:''' [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
* '''Four finals:''' [[London Central]], [[St. George's]]<br />
* '''Three finals:''' [[Cobequid]], [[Dryden]], [[Gloucester]]<br />
* '''Two finals:''' [[Fredericton]], [[Hillcrest]], [[Kelvin]], [[Lisgar]], [[O'Leary]], [[Saunders]], [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[Top of the Form]], the British predecessor to Reach<br />
* [[List of Ontario Reach for the Top qualifying leagues]]<br />
* [[Criticisms of Reach for the Top]] <br />
<br />
[[Category:Canada]]<br />
[[Category:Quizbowl TV shows]] <br />
[[Category:Bad quizbowl]] <br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top]] <br />
[[Category:High school formats]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Oak_Bay&diff=25036Oak Bay2015-11-19T15:17:10Z<p>Ben Smith: won 1977 provs</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Oak Bay High School''' is a school in Victoria, British Columbia. In 1968, a team from the school won the [[Reach for the Top]] national championship.<br />
<br />
Oak Bay was amongst the schools that participated in the pre-nationals Reach for the Top shows from 1961 to 1965. In the early years of the CBC era, Oak Bay, coached by Glenn Atkinson, was very successful, winning the provincial championships in 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, and 1977. In 1969, their title defense run ended early when fellow Vancouver Island school Alberni District defeated them in the regional championships.<br />
<br />
The 1968 championship team had Jim Dempsey, Bruce Iszard, Robert McDougall, and Chris Odgers. Their prize for winning was a trip to Asia and $12,000 to the school. Despite lobbying with letters from team members and the community, these champions were not selected to represent Canada in the [[Trans-World Top Team]] competition against British teams.<br />
<br />
In 1970, McDougall, now student president of the University of Victoria, ran and participated in a [[College Bowl]] style tournament at the university. It was done to form a team to play in the American TV show, but McDougall later found out that College Bowl quietly chose McGill and Queen's to face off against Oxford and New York teams in a special international edition.<br />
<br />
1979 Reach alumnus Andrew Weaver is a member of the BC legislative assembly for the Green Party.<br />
<br />
Oak Bay does not currently play SchoolReach. They do have a "Reach for the Top" scholarship fund originating from all the tournament winnings in the 1960s and 1970s, but it is awarded to the top geography students.<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1968<br />
|previous = [[Rideau]]<br />
|next = [[Neil McNeil]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top championship teams]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=1978_Reach_for_the_Top_Nationals&diff=248341978 Reach for the Top Nationals2015-09-02T18:56:06Z<p>Ben Smith: /* Results */ all scores accounted for</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Tourneybox|Tournament Name = 1978 Reach for the Top Nationals<br />
|champion = [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
|second = [[Dryden]]<br />
|third = [[Glenboro]]<br />
|fourth = [[Lorne Jenkins]]<br />
|scorer = individual scores not kept<br />
|editors = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|site = Charlottetown<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
The 1978 national finals of [[Reach for the Top]], held in Charlottetown, resulted in the first two-time champion: [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]] of Etobicoke, Ontario. [[Lorne Jenkins]] of Alberta, under their new name of Barrhead HS, participated for their sixth straight year.<br />
<br />
==Participants==<br />
<br />
===Alberta===<br />
<br />
* Barrhead (formerly known as Lorne Jenkins)<br />
<br />
This was Barrhead/Lorne Jenkins' sixth straight appearance at nationals in the 1970s; they would make their last appearance in the following year.<br />
<br />
===British Columbia===<br />
<br />
* St. George's<br />
<br />
===Manitoba===<br />
<br />
* Glenboro<br />
<br />
===Newfoundland===<br />
<br />
* Inglis Memorial<br />
<br />
===Nova Scotia===<br />
<br />
* Halifax West<br />
<br />
===Ontario===<br />
<br />
* [[1978 Vincent Massey|Vincent Massey]] (representing southern Ontario)<br />
* Dryden (northern Ontario)<br />
<br />
Vincent Massey defeated [[Stephen Harper]]-led [[1978 Richview|Richview]] in their city matches.<br />
<br />
===PEI===<br />
<br />
* Charlottetown Rural<br />
<br />
===Quebec===<br />
<br />
* Loyola<br />
<br />
===Saskatchewan===<br />
<br />
* Aden Bowman<br />
<br />
==Results==<br />
<br />
Matches moderated by Bill Guest were aired on CBC, and clips of Vincent Massey's games have surfaced on video-sharing websites. There were preliminary rounds followed by single-elimination playoffs.<br />
<br />
===Preliminary Round===<br />
* Vincent Massey 270, Inglis Memorial 175<br />
* Glenboro 260, Halifax West 220<br />
* Barrhead 405, Loyola 120<br />
* Aden Bowman 290, Charlottetown Rural 270<br />
* Dryden 280, St. George's 225<br />
<br />
The two teams defeated by the largest margins of victory were eliminated (Inglis Memorial and Loyola)<br />
<br />
===Quarterfinals===<br />
* Barrhead 300, St. George's 230<br />
* Vincent Massey 305, Charlottetown Rural 235<br />
* Dryden 305, Aden Bowman 275<br />
* Glenboro 410 d. Halifax West 290<br />
<br />
===Semifinals===<br />
* Vincent Massey 300, Glenboro 225<br />
* Dryden 300, Barrhead 270<br />
<br />
===Finals===<br />
* Vincent Massey 300, Dryden 255<br />
<br />
[[Category:Canada]][[Category:Reach for the Top]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Hillcrest&diff=24829Hillcrest2015-09-02T01:36:12Z<p>Ben Smith: link to 1980 nationals</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Hillcrest High School''' is a high school in Ottawa, Ontario. The school was probably the most successful [[Reach for the Top]] program from Ottawa during the CBC era.<br />
<br />
Hillcrest regularly participated in Reach for the Top since the early national broadcasts. Under coach Roger Taguchi starting in the late 1970s, Hillcrest was at its peak. In 1979, they lost the Ontario final to [[Banting Memorial]], who would go on to win the national title. In [[1980 Reach for the Top Nationals|1980]], a team of John Farant, John Haggerty, Ling Hong-Hung, and Lisa Murray won the Reach national title, defeating Halifax West, Renfrew, and Sir Winston Churchill. In 1982, they lost to [[Dakota]] 320-270 in the title match after beating them 370-355 in a preliminary game.<br />
<br />
Hillcrest collected five regional titles between 1979 and 1985. The team was active in the local Reach revivals after the CBC cancellation, and played SchoolReach through the 1990s. Hillcrest no longer plays SchoolReach.<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1980<br />
|previous = [[Banting Memorial]]<br />
|next = [[Cobequid]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top championship teams]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Reach_for_the_Top&diff=24828Reach for the Top2015-09-02T01:33:53Z<p>Ben Smith: /* National Champions */ link to 1980 nationals</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Reach for the Top''' is the dominant high school quiz competition in Canada. Technically a form of [[quizbowl]], it has a larger sports distribution than other academic quizbowl formats, contains more hoses, and is composed almost entirely of speed-check questions which are often [[pyramidal|non-pyramidal]]. It is also more expensive than alternatives like [[NAQT]]. <br />
<br />
French students usually play [[Genies en herbe]], while university students play in the [[quizbowl]] format.<br />
<br />
==Gameplay==<br />
<br />
The majority of questions in Reach for the Top are approximately the length of quizbowl bonus questions (1-2 sentences), and are worth, for the most part, 10 points each. Interruption of the questions for early guesses are not only allowed but also encouraged, as the game is based heavily on speed. If a team buzzes in and answer a question incorrectly, the opposing team has approximately 3-5 seconds to consult and form an answer. Consultation is permitted at almost all times in Reach for the Top (see "Shootouts" and "Assigned" for exceptions). There are no [[negs]] or [[powers]] in Reach, although negs (-5) appeared in the 2007 Nationals for the first time.<br />
<br />
==Categories==<br />
<br />
===Snapstart/Snapout/Open===<br />
Forming the bulk of Reach for the Top questions, these consist of 1-2 sentence questions open to both teams and are worth ten points each. Snapout/Snapstart categories take place at the beginning and end of each round respectively, and the subject of each question varies (i.e. none are linked by a category). "Open" categories are, mostly, worth 40 points in total, and consist of 4 questions all linked by one similar category (e.g. "40 point open on architects"); it is open to both teams. <br />
<br />
==="20 Point Special"===<br />
Like an open question (see last category), but the answer often requires 2 answers in one (e.g. Q: Name both years in which a player's strike or owner's lockout was responsible for the cancellation of some or all of the games in an NHL season. A: 1994-95 and 2004-05 [sic] and 2012-13) In other cases, the 20 point special can require one very long answer, for example, the provincial motto of Newfoundland, ''Quaerite primum regnum Dei''<br />
<br />
===Shootout===<br />
A maximum of 12 questions are posed in this category. Once one player has answered a question correctly, they may no longer answer any questions. This player is now "out". Once one team has every one of its 4 players "out", they gain 40 points, and the other team gains 0. Consultation is forbidden at all times in this category. Concerns that have arisen with this category include A) 12 questions are needed to generate 40 points and B) Both teams can have 3 players out with one question left, which one team may barely answer correctly on speed, giving them all 40 points, and thus a very important swing on a very little difference between teams.<br />
<br />
===Chain Snappers===<br />
Similar to a snapstart/snapout, chain snappers involve the answer to one question forming the topic of the succeeding question. As a result, the best and fastest teams can often answer the next question with only 3-4 words read.<br />
<br />
===Who am I/What am I===<br />
Who am I/What am I questions consist of four clues with decreasing point value, beginning with a (usually vague) opening question. If answered correctly on this question, that team gains 40 points. If neither team guesses correctly, the answer is not read, and a slightly less ambiguous clue worth 30 points is read. This continues for two more questions (worth 20 and 10 points respectively), until, if no team is able to give the correct answer, the answer is read. Unlike [[Good Quizbowl]], the first clue does not provide only one possible answer. The 40-point question is often described as being written as though "an expert in that field" would be unable to be absolutely sure of the correct answer, and as a result, can often trigger highly inaccurate guesses, or in the case of non-competitive teams, non-sensical answers which are made to incite laughs and in doing so, delay the game. The 40-point clue can vary in difficulty from completely, improbably difficult, (almost to the a point where one questions the point of it; e.g. "This country is located in Europe." or "He was born in 1685.") to reasonably difficult. <br />
<br />
===Assigned===<br />
Worth 80 points in total, this category consists of questions posed to specific individuals. One team, designated "Team A", will have each of its team members asked one question. If answered incorrectly, the player sitting directly across from that player will have an opportunity to answer that question. Once team A has had all of its players asked a question, team B's players are then asked questions one-by-one in a similar fashion. All of the questions relate to one category (e.g. European national capitals). Consultation is forbidden.<br />
<br />
===Team Questions===<br />
These questions work similarly to tossup/bonus questions. One question is posed to both teams. The team that correctly answers the question has an opportunity to answer three more questions. The only differences between that and quizbowl are that the "tossup" question is usually very short and very easy and the bonus questions (actually called bonus) are related in topic to the "tossup" question.<br />
<br />
===List===<br />
Worth 50 points, this category involves teams alternating in turns to complete a list. Both teams have an opportunity to buzzz in for the first answer. After each question is answered correctly the other team has an opportunity to give an answer. Once a team gets a question wrong, they may no longer answer.<br />
e.g. List all of the professional teams that Wayne Gretzky played for.<br />
Team A (buzzes in): "Edmonton Oilers" - Correct<br />
Team B: "New York Rangers" - Correct<br />
Team A: "St. Louis Blues" - Correct<br />
Team B: "Philadelphia Flyers" - Incorrect<br />
Team A: "Los Angeles Kings & Indianapolis Racers" - Correct x 2<br />
<br />
==Canadian Tournament Play==<br />
<br />
The modern Reach for the Top season begins with SchoolReach - regional leagues playing in classrooms. For most provinces, a "region" encompasses the entire province, while BC and Ontario are divided into smaller regions either for league play (in BC) or to serve as qualifiers for a provincial tournament (in Ontario). A few provinces have their playoff matches televised. The territories, Saskatchewan, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador do not currently have provincial tournaments; any schools from those regions may participate in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, respectively.<br />
<br />
Depending on participation levels, provincial tournaments will qualify either one or two teams to the national tournament, held for the past several years in Edmonton. The national tournament consists of an in-classroom round-robin, followed by televised playoffs.<br />
<br />
Most regions offer an "Intermediate" division tournament open to freshmen and sophomores, but there is no framework for an Intermediate national tournament. "Intermediate" would likely be higher than a "Junior" division (presumably for middle school), but a middle school tournament does not exist. Reach attempted to start a university tournament in the early 2000s, but some [[NAQT]] tournaments had already taken root at the time.<br />
<br />
There are a few Reach (or Reach-style) tournaments held during the year that are independent of the qualification process to Nationals. New Brunswick has 5-6 per year around the province, Toronto has had a few in recent years, and [[Lisgar]] CI held a tournament in Ottawa in 2007. Nevertheless, the number of tournaments is much smaller than availability in several US regions.<br />
<!--taking out unsubstantiated complaints until they can be verified: schools are "obliged" to play Reach??? --><br />
<!-- Active Canadian trivia teams are plagued and frustrated by the lack of Reach tournaments in Canada. In fact, in Ontario and the rest of Canada, the Reach for the Top season does not officially start until the end of February, when the first round of regional qualifiers begin. After that, there is in the bigger "leagues" (although this term is loose-fitting) a regional round #2, followed by provincials, followed by nationals.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately for most, only a fraction of teams gain entrance to provincials, and an even smaller fraction gain entrance into nationals (16 teams out of over 500). To put this in perspective, out of over 210 teams in the province of Ontario, only 2 are sent to the national tournament, hence the reason that [[Lisgar]] Collegiate, despite winning every Canadian quizbowl event and finishing in 18th place after the preliminaries at the [[2007 NAQT HSNCT]], had not qualified for nationals until 2008.<br />
<br />
Despite this lack of competition, there have been little or no winds of change regarding that fact. Few schools have made an effort to host tournaments, and the Reach for the Top organization has shown little motivation to take on any hosting before February. What makes this problem worse is that the organization does not advertise or provide readily-available information for hosting tournaments. As a result, few schools are even aware that they can host tournaments, which means that, to many schools, this lack of competition does not seem out of the ordinary.<br />
<br />
Part of this fact can be contributed to the "Canadiana" aspect of Reach for the Top. Because of the history and cultural engrainment of Reach for the Top in Canadian culture (the show has been around for decades, it was parodied on SCTV by future star Eugene Levy, and the majority of Canadian adults either played or knew someone who played Reach in high school), many schools seem comfortable with the fact that the season starts and ends after 1-2 tournaments in the spring, as they cling to the mostly fruitless hope that they may, someday, win a national title or at least appear on television. This acceptance is partially responsible for most schools feeling 1-2 tournaments is not out of the ordinary. Additionally, because of this Canadian cultural engrainment, some pro-Reach individuals actively oppose any deviation from the current system, including participation in quizbowl, again, hindering an increase in the amount of competition.<br />
<br />
Perhaps an advantage of the cultural engrainment, however, is that the majority of secondary schools in Canada feel obliged to field a Reach team of some sort, thereby increasing the size of the regional qualifier tournaments. Unfortunately, this does not apply to all areas of the country, as some provinces do not participate in Reach for the Top at all. In Quebec, as a result of the few anglophone schools, there are only 8 Reach for the Top teams in that province. The francophone schools play a similar format called "Genies en Herbes" (young geniuses).<br />
<br />
Because of this, the more active teams in Canada must often find additional competition. Recently, activity has increased in the Ottawa area, as a result of the [[University of Ottawa]], as well as [[Merivale|Merivale High Schoool]], [[Gananoque Secondary School]] and Lisgar Collegiate, the latter of which hosted one of the only "pre-season" Reach for the Top tournaments in Canada on December 1st, when it <br />
organized the 07 [[Lisgar Open]]. --><br />
<br />
==Rule 1 Issues==<br />
<br />
Rule #1 of Reach for the Top states:<br />
<br />
"Any student who is 19 or under at the ''beginning'' of the school year and has been continuously enrolled in a Secondary School is eligible to play both SCHOOLREACH and REACH FOR THE TOP."<br />
<br />
This rule originally accommodated the 5-year high school system in Ontario, which ended with students entering in 1999. This rule has since not changed, even with Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador having 3-year high schools. As such, some players and teams have exploited this loophole to various degrees of success:<br />
<br />
* Quebec's league was established in the 2001-02 season. CEGEPs, which have high school graduates, are allowed to compete under the rule, and a CEGEP represents Quebec at Nationals nearly every year. Royal West Academy, a high school, broke this trend by qualifying for Nationals in 2008.<br />
<br />
* [[Andy Saunders]] played Reach For The Top for six seasons in high school due to Rule #1.<br />
<br />
* A player from [[Leaside]] celebrated his 19th birthday at the Ontario provincial tournament his team ended up winning in 2005. They failed to win Nationals, however.<br />
<br />
* The captain of [[2004 St. George's]] was in his fifth year of Reach, and won the national championship. What was particularly ironic was the fact that the coach was quite vocal about fifth-year Ontario teams winning Nationals throughout the 1990s.<br />
<br />
It should be noted that several Ontario teams have managed to win the national championships in the 4-year system.<br />
<br />
==Championship Disputes==<br />
<br />
Since the conversion from a CBC program to SchoolReach, there have been incidents that have left a national title in dispute by some parties:<br />
<br />
*[[1989 Tagwi]]: Tagwi won an early match because of a (possibly) incorrect ruling over the ingredients of borscht. The team got screwed over in the end, though. They never got a trophy because of a dispute between Reach and the old CBC champions, and their scheduled exhibition match with the [[NAC]] champions was cancelled because a party in the US (the team? the TV crew? Chip Beall?) didn't want to travel to Canada.<br />
<br />
*[[1995 Fredericton]]: In the aftermath of issues surrounding the [[1995 Bell]] team, a team from [[Lisgar]] that won the zone match to earn a berth in provincials never got the opportunity to play. How well the Lisgar team would have fared is now only speculative.<br />
<br />
*[[2008 Lisgar]]: Down by 5 points, the runner-up team from [[UTS]] claimed they buzzed in at the end of the game before the time alarm went off. It had to go to a video review, and Reach judged in favour of Lisgar. A small edit war erupted on Wikipedia between anonymous Toronto IPs and quizbowlers apparently "sympathetic" to Lisgar over how the championship should be listed in the article.<br />
<br />
*[[2009 London Central]]: London Central's opponents in the finals from Kennebecasis were not informed by either Reach For The Top or TVO that there would be a change in format for the final game until minutes before the game began. The team from Kennebecasis had also never played using TVOs format (which eliminates the shootout and includes relatively easy questions among other changes) before. The London Central team had played using TVOs format two weeks earlier for the Ontario Provincials, giving them an advantage for the finals. The national tournament was also notable for the recycling of several questions during the round robin portion which could have also affected the outcome of the tournament in terms of seeding the teams for the playoffs.<br />
<br />
==Notable Participants==<br />
<br />
As a long-standing and highly-regarded establishment in Canada, several people have participated during their high school years and gone on to great success. A list of notable former players, coaches, and Reach personnel follows (names in '''bold''' won the national championship):<br />
<br />
===Politics===<br />
* Kim Campbell - Prime Minister of Canada (1993)<br />
* Mark Carney - Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008- )<br />
* Grant Devine - Premier of Saskatchewan (1982-91)<br />
* [[Stephen Harper]] - Prime Minister of Canada (2006- )<br />
* '''[[Ken Kowalski]]''' - Speaker of the Legislature of Alberta (1997- )<br />
* [[Bernard Lord]] - Premier of New Brunswick (1999-2006)<br />
* Stuart Smith - Leader of the Opposition of Ontario (1977-81)<br />
<br />
===Media===<br />
* '''Howard Green''' - Business News Network host, former CBC documentarian<br />
*'''Tom Harrington''' - CBC Sports reporter<br />
* Shelagh Rogers - CBC Radio and TVO personality<br />
* Jan Tennant - Anchor of CBC's ''The National'' and ''Saturday Evening News'' (1970s)<br />
* Alex Trebek - Host of [[Jeopardy!]] ( [http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/television/clips/15279/ A video of an exhibition match between Reach and Genies players] )<br />
<br />
===Other===<br />
* Malcolm Gladwell - Author of the bestsellers ''The Tipping Point'', ''Blink'', and ''Outliers''<br />
* '''Bernard Hibbitts''' - Law professor at the University of Pittsburgh [http://faculty.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/profile.htm]; founder of JURIST news service<br />
* Dr. '''Sethu Reddy''' - Former professor of medicine at Dalhousie & Harvard; chairman at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio<br />
<br />
==National Champions==<br />
<br />
''Reach for the Top had televised matches as early as 1961, but no national champions were declared until 1966. There were no national champions from 1986-88.''<br />
<br />
{| border="1" cellspacing="0"<br />
! Year<br />
! Champion<br />
! Prov<br />
! Runner-up<br />
! Prov<br />
! Location<br />
! Notes<br />
|- <br />
| 1966<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1967<br />
| [[Rideau]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1968<br />
| [[Oak Bay]]<br />
| BC<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1969<br />
| [[Neil McNeil]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1970<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1971<br />
| [[River East]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1972<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1973<br />
| [[1973 Lorne Jenkins|Lorne Jenkins]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1974<br />
| [[Gonzaga (St. John's)|Gonzaga]]<br />
| NL<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| St. John's, NL<br />
| Only NL champion<br />
|-<br />
| 1975<br />
| [[Queen Elizabeth]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1976<br />
| [[Central Peel]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Thunder Bay, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1977<br />
| [[Glenlawn]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Calgary, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[1978 Reach for the Top Nationals|1978]]<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Charlottetown, PE<br />
| First two-time champions; defeated [[1978 Richview]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1979<br />
| [[Banting Memorial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[1980 Reach for the Top Nationals|1980]]<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Sir Winston Churchill]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1981<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Corner Brook, NL<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1982<br />
| [[Dakota]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1983<br />
| [[Roland Michener]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1984<br />
| [[Deloraine]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Moncton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Regina, SK<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| 1985<br />
| [[1985 Kate Andrews|Kate Andrews]]<br />
| AB<br />
| [[Wagar]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Moncton, NB<br />
| Last year on CBC<br />
|-<br />
| 1989<br />
| [[1989 Tagwi|Tagwi]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Mount Douglas]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| Revival as "Schoolreach"<br />
|-<br />
| 1990<br />
| [[Memorial]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1991<br />
| [[St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| [[St. Albert]]<br />
| AB<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1992<br />
| [[1992 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Ancaster]]<br />
| ON<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1993<br />
| [[1993 St. Joseph's|St. Joseph's]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1993 Hay|William E. Hay]]<br />
| AB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1994<br />
| [[1994 Bell|Bell]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1994 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1995<br />
| [[1995 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1996<br />
| [[1996 Saunders|Saunders]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| First two-time champion player: [[Dave Thorsley]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1997<br />
| [[1997 Earl Haig|Earl Haig]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1997 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1998<br />
| [[1998 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1998 Kingston|Kingston CVI]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Halifax, NS<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1999<br />
| [[1999 Frontenac|Frontenac]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2000<br />
| [[2000 Merivale|Merivale]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2000 Ridley|Ridley]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| National finals return to TV<br />
|-<br />
| 2001<br />
| [[2001 Gloucester|Gloucester]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2001 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2002<br />
| [[2002 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2002 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2003<br />
| [[2003 UTS|UTS]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2003 Dawson|Dawson]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First back-to-back championships<br />
|-<br />
| 2004<br />
| [[2004 St. George's|St. George's]] (2)<br />
| BC<br />
| [[2004 Leaside|Leaside]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2005<br />
| [[2005 Cobequid|Cobequid]] (2)<br />
| NS<br />
| [[2005 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First champion of both CBC and SchoolReach eras<br />
|-<br />
| 2006<br />
| [[2006 Woburn|Woburn]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2006 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2007 Reach for the Top Nationals|2007]]<br />
| [[2007 London Central|London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2007 Kennebecasis|Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2008 Reach for the Top Nationals|2008]]<br />
| [[2008 Lisgar|Lisgar]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2008 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2009 Reach for the Top Nationals|2009]]<br />
| [[London Central]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| Excluding the final game, the National Finals left TV.<br />
|-<br />
| [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised<br />
|-<br />
| [[2011 Reach for the Top Nationals|2011]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]] (2)<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Centennial (Ontario high school)|Centennial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised. Semifinals and Finals were played at Canada's Wonderland <br />
|-<br />
| [[2012 Reach for the Top Nationals|2012]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (3)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2013 Reach for the Top Nationals|2013]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (4)<br />
| ON<br />
|[[Bellerose]]<br />
|AB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2014 Reach for the Top Nationals|2014]]<br />
| [[Martingrove]]<br />
| ON<br />
|[[London Central]]<br />
|ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2015 Reach for the Top Nationals|2015]]<br />
| [[2015 Lisgar|Lisgar]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
|[[Kennebecasis]]<br />
|NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
=== National Final Appearances ===<br />
''Not all runners-up are confirmed''<br />
* '''Seven finals:''' [[UTS]]<br />
* '''Five finals:''' [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
* '''Four finals:''' [[London Central]], [[St. George's]]<br />
* '''Three finals:''' [[Cobequid]], [[Dryden]], [[Gloucester]]<br />
* '''Two finals:''' [[Fredericton]], [[Hillcrest]], [[Kelvin]], [[Lisgar]], [[O'Leary]], [[Saunders]], [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[Top of the Form]], the British predecessor to Reach<br />
* [[List of Ontario Reach for the Top qualifying leagues]]<br />
* [[Criticisms of Reach for the Top]] <br />
<br />
[[Category:Canada]]<br />
[[Category:Quizbowl TV shows]] <br />
[[Category:Bad quizbowl]] <br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top]] <br />
[[Category:High school formats]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=1980_Reach_for_the_Top_Nationals&diff=248271980 Reach for the Top Nationals2015-09-02T01:32:03Z<p>Ben Smith: I found enough results to justify a page</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Tourneybox|Tournament Name = 1980 Reach for the Top Nationals<br />
|champion = [[Hillcrest]]<br />
|second = Sir Winston Churchill (QC)<br />
|third = [[Lorne Jenkins|Lorne Jenken]]<br />
|fourth = Renfrew<br />
|scorer = individual scores not kept<br />
|editors = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|site = Ottawa<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
The 1980 national finals of [[Reach for the Top]] were held in Ottawa. Bill Guest moderated the matches on CBC.<br />
<br />
==Participants==<br />
<br />
===Alberta===<br />
<br />
* [[Lorne Jenkins|Lorne Jenken]]<br />
<br />
This was Lorne Jenken's seventh nationals appearance in 8 years (missed 1974).<br />
<br />
===British Columbia===<br />
<br />
* [[Eric Hamber]]<br />
<br />
===Manitoba===<br />
<br />
* Vincent Massey<br />
<br />
===Newfoundland===<br />
<br />
* [[Gonzaga (St. John's)|Gonzaga]]<br />
<br />
This was Gonzaga's sixth nationals appearance in 7 years (missed 1978).<br />
<br />
===Nova Scotia===<br />
<br />
* [[Halifax West]]<br />
<br />
===Ontario===<br />
<br />
* [[Hillcrest]] (representing southern Ontario)<br />
* Renfrew CI (northern Ontario)<br />
<br />
Interestingly, parts of modern Ottawa are further north than Renfrew<br />
<br />
===PEI===<br />
<br />
* Morell<br />
<br />
===Quebec===<br />
<br />
* Sir Winston Churchill<br />
<br />
===Saskatchewan===<br />
<br />
* Campbell CI<br />
<br />
==Results==<br />
<br />
Some matches are available on video-sharing websites. There were preliminary rounds followed by single-elimination playoffs.<br />
<br />
===Preliminary Round===<br />
* Halifax West 280, Gonzaga 250<br />
* Sir Winston Churchill 305, Hillcrest 295<br />
* Renfrew 290, Campbell 225<br />
* Vincent Massey 430, Morell 140<br />
* Lorne Jenken def. Eric Hamber<br />
<br />
The two losers defeated by the largest margin were eliminated (Morell and Campbell)<br />
<br />
===Quarterfinals===<br />
* Lorne Jenken 315, Gonzaga 210<br />
* Sir Winston Churchill 315, Vincent Massey 285<br />
* Renfrew 360, Eric Hamber 290<br />
* Hillcrest 340, Halifax West 225<br />
<br />
===Semifinals===<br />
* Sir Winston Churchill 315, Lorne Jenken 260<br />
* Hillcrest 285, Renfrew 185<br />
<br />
===Finals===<br />
* Hillcrest def. Sir Winston Churchill<br />
<br />
This was the only championship by Hillcrest, though they lost the 1982 final to [[Dakota]]. Hillcrest faced their opposing finalist in the first round, which they also did in 1982.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Canada]][[Category:Reach for the Top]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Reach_for_the_Top&diff=24825Reach for the Top2015-08-29T01:24:06Z<p>Ben Smith: /* National Champions */ 1992 runner-up</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Reach for the Top''' is the dominant high school quiz competition in Canada. Technically a form of [[quizbowl]], it has a larger sports distribution than other academic quizbowl formats, contains more hoses, and is composed almost entirely of speed-check questions which are often [[pyramidal|non-pyramidal]]. It is also more expensive than alternatives like [[NAQT]]. <br />
<br />
French students usually play [[Genies en herbe]], while university students play in the [[quizbowl]] format.<br />
<br />
==Gameplay==<br />
<br />
The majority of questions in Reach for the Top are approximately the length of quizbowl bonus questions (1-2 sentences), and are worth, for the most part, 10 points each. Interruption of the questions for early guesses are not only allowed but also encouraged, as the game is based heavily on speed. If a team buzzes in and answer a question incorrectly, the opposing team has approximately 3-5 seconds to consult and form an answer. Consultation is permitted at almost all times in Reach for the Top (see "Shootouts" and "Assigned" for exceptions). There are no [[negs]] or [[powers]] in Reach, although negs (-5) appeared in the 2007 Nationals for the first time.<br />
<br />
==Categories==<br />
<br />
===Snapstart/Snapout/Open===<br />
Forming the bulk of Reach for the Top questions, these consist of 1-2 sentence questions open to both teams and are worth ten points each. Snapout/Snapstart categories take place at the beginning and end of each round respectively, and the subject of each question varies (i.e. none are linked by a category). "Open" categories are, mostly, worth 40 points in total, and consist of 4 questions all linked by one similar category (e.g. "40 point open on architects"); it is open to both teams. <br />
<br />
==="20 Point Special"===<br />
Like an open question (see last category), but the answer often requires 2 answers in one (e.g. Q: Name both years in which a player's strike or owner's lockout was responsible for the cancellation of some or all of the games in an NHL season. A: 1994-95 and 2004-05 [sic] and 2012-13) In other cases, the 20 point special can require one very long answer, for example, the provincial motto of Newfoundland, ''Quaerite primum regnum Dei''<br />
<br />
===Shootout===<br />
A maximum of 12 questions are posed in this category. Once one player has answered a question correctly, they may no longer answer any questions. This player is now "out". Once one team has every one of its 4 players "out", they gain 40 points, and the other team gains 0. Consultation is forbidden at all times in this category. Concerns that have arisen with this category include A) 12 questions are needed to generate 40 points and B) Both teams can have 3 players out with one question left, which one team may barely answer correctly on speed, giving them all 40 points, and thus a very important swing on a very little difference between teams.<br />
<br />
===Chain Snappers===<br />
Similar to a snapstart/snapout, chain snappers involve the answer to one question forming the topic of the succeeding question. As a result, the best and fastest teams can often answer the next question with only 3-4 words read.<br />
<br />
===Who am I/What am I===<br />
Who am I/What am I questions consist of four clues with decreasing point value, beginning with a (usually vague) opening question. If answered correctly on this question, that team gains 40 points. If neither team guesses correctly, the answer is not read, and a slightly less ambiguous clue worth 30 points is read. This continues for two more questions (worth 20 and 10 points respectively), until, if no team is able to give the correct answer, the answer is read. Unlike [[Good Quizbowl]], the first clue does not provide only one possible answer. The 40-point question is often described as being written as though "an expert in that field" would be unable to be absolutely sure of the correct answer, and as a result, can often trigger highly inaccurate guesses, or in the case of non-competitive teams, non-sensical answers which are made to incite laughs and in doing so, delay the game. The 40-point clue can vary in difficulty from completely, improbably difficult, (almost to the a point where one questions the point of it; e.g. "This country is located in Europe." or "He was born in 1685.") to reasonably difficult. <br />
<br />
===Assigned===<br />
Worth 80 points in total, this category consists of questions posed to specific individuals. One team, designated "Team A", will have each of its team members asked one question. If answered incorrectly, the player sitting directly across from that player will have an opportunity to answer that question. Once team A has had all of its players asked a question, team B's players are then asked questions one-by-one in a similar fashion. All of the questions relate to one category (e.g. European national capitals). Consultation is forbidden.<br />
<br />
===Team Questions===<br />
These questions work similarly to tossup/bonus questions. One question is posed to both teams. The team that correctly answers the question has an opportunity to answer three more questions. The only differences between that and quizbowl are that the "tossup" question is usually very short and very easy and the bonus questions (actually called bonus) are related in topic to the "tossup" question.<br />
<br />
===List===<br />
Worth 50 points, this category involves teams alternating in turns to complete a list. Both teams have an opportunity to buzzz in for the first answer. After each question is answered correctly the other team has an opportunity to give an answer. Once a team gets a question wrong, they may no longer answer.<br />
e.g. List all of the professional teams that Wayne Gretzky played for.<br />
Team A (buzzes in): "Edmonton Oilers" - Correct<br />
Team B: "New York Rangers" - Correct<br />
Team A: "St. Louis Blues" - Correct<br />
Team B: "Philadelphia Flyers" - Incorrect<br />
Team A: "Los Angeles Kings & Indianapolis Racers" - Correct x 2<br />
<br />
==Canadian Tournament Play==<br />
<br />
The modern Reach for the Top season begins with SchoolReach - regional leagues playing in classrooms. For most provinces, a "region" encompasses the entire province, while BC and Ontario are divided into smaller regions either for league play (in BC) or to serve as qualifiers for a provincial tournament (in Ontario). A few provinces have their playoff matches televised. The territories, Saskatchewan, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador do not currently have provincial tournaments; any schools from those regions may participate in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, respectively.<br />
<br />
Depending on participation levels, provincial tournaments will qualify either one or two teams to the national tournament, held for the past several years in Edmonton. The national tournament consists of an in-classroom round-robin, followed by televised playoffs.<br />
<br />
Most regions offer an "Intermediate" division tournament open to freshmen and sophomores, but there is no framework for an Intermediate national tournament. "Intermediate" would likely be higher than a "Junior" division (presumably for middle school), but a middle school tournament does not exist. Reach attempted to start a university tournament in the early 2000s, but some [[NAQT]] tournaments had already taken root at the time.<br />
<br />
There are a few Reach (or Reach-style) tournaments held during the year that are independent of the qualification process to Nationals. New Brunswick has 5-6 per year around the province, Toronto has had a few in recent years, and [[Lisgar]] CI held a tournament in Ottawa in 2007. Nevertheless, the number of tournaments is much smaller than availability in several US regions.<br />
<!--taking out unsubstantiated complaints until they can be verified: schools are "obliged" to play Reach??? --><br />
<!-- Active Canadian trivia teams are plagued and frustrated by the lack of Reach tournaments in Canada. In fact, in Ontario and the rest of Canada, the Reach for the Top season does not officially start until the end of February, when the first round of regional qualifiers begin. After that, there is in the bigger "leagues" (although this term is loose-fitting) a regional round #2, followed by provincials, followed by nationals.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately for most, only a fraction of teams gain entrance to provincials, and an even smaller fraction gain entrance into nationals (16 teams out of over 500). To put this in perspective, out of over 210 teams in the province of Ontario, only 2 are sent to the national tournament, hence the reason that [[Lisgar]] Collegiate, despite winning every Canadian quizbowl event and finishing in 18th place after the preliminaries at the [[2007 NAQT HSNCT]], had not qualified for nationals until 2008.<br />
<br />
Despite this lack of competition, there have been little or no winds of change regarding that fact. Few schools have made an effort to host tournaments, and the Reach for the Top organization has shown little motivation to take on any hosting before February. What makes this problem worse is that the organization does not advertise or provide readily-available information for hosting tournaments. As a result, few schools are even aware that they can host tournaments, which means that, to many schools, this lack of competition does not seem out of the ordinary.<br />
<br />
Part of this fact can be contributed to the "Canadiana" aspect of Reach for the Top. Because of the history and cultural engrainment of Reach for the Top in Canadian culture (the show has been around for decades, it was parodied on SCTV by future star Eugene Levy, and the majority of Canadian adults either played or knew someone who played Reach in high school), many schools seem comfortable with the fact that the season starts and ends after 1-2 tournaments in the spring, as they cling to the mostly fruitless hope that they may, someday, win a national title or at least appear on television. This acceptance is partially responsible for most schools feeling 1-2 tournaments is not out of the ordinary. Additionally, because of this Canadian cultural engrainment, some pro-Reach individuals actively oppose any deviation from the current system, including participation in quizbowl, again, hindering an increase in the amount of competition.<br />
<br />
Perhaps an advantage of the cultural engrainment, however, is that the majority of secondary schools in Canada feel obliged to field a Reach team of some sort, thereby increasing the size of the regional qualifier tournaments. Unfortunately, this does not apply to all areas of the country, as some provinces do not participate in Reach for the Top at all. In Quebec, as a result of the few anglophone schools, there are only 8 Reach for the Top teams in that province. The francophone schools play a similar format called "Genies en Herbes" (young geniuses).<br />
<br />
Because of this, the more active teams in Canada must often find additional competition. Recently, activity has increased in the Ottawa area, as a result of the [[University of Ottawa]], as well as [[Merivale|Merivale High Schoool]], [[Gananoque Secondary School]] and Lisgar Collegiate, the latter of which hosted one of the only "pre-season" Reach for the Top tournaments in Canada on December 1st, when it <br />
organized the 07 [[Lisgar Open]]. --><br />
<br />
==Rule 1 Issues==<br />
<br />
Rule #1 of Reach for the Top states:<br />
<br />
"Any student who is 19 or under at the ''beginning'' of the school year and has been continuously enrolled in a Secondary School is eligible to play both SCHOOLREACH and REACH FOR THE TOP."<br />
<br />
This rule originally accommodated the 5-year high school system in Ontario, which ended with students entering in 1999. This rule has since not changed, even with Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador having 3-year high schools. As such, some players and teams have exploited this loophole to various degrees of success:<br />
<br />
* Quebec's league was established in the 2001-02 season. CEGEPs, which have high school graduates, are allowed to compete under the rule, and a CEGEP represents Quebec at Nationals nearly every year. Royal West Academy, a high school, broke this trend by qualifying for Nationals in 2008.<br />
<br />
* [[Andy Saunders]] played Reach For The Top for six seasons in high school due to Rule #1.<br />
<br />
* A player from [[Leaside]] celebrated his 19th birthday at the Ontario provincial tournament his team ended up winning in 2005. They failed to win Nationals, however.<br />
<br />
* The captain of [[2004 St. George's]] was in his fifth year of Reach, and won the national championship. What was particularly ironic was the fact that the coach was quite vocal about fifth-year Ontario teams winning Nationals throughout the 1990s.<br />
<br />
It should be noted that several Ontario teams have managed to win the national championships in the 4-year system.<br />
<br />
==Championship Disputes==<br />
<br />
Since the conversion from a CBC program to SchoolReach, there have been incidents that have left a national title in dispute by some parties:<br />
<br />
*[[1989 Tagwi]]: Tagwi won an early match because of a (possibly) incorrect ruling over the ingredients of borscht. The team got screwed over in the end, though. They never got a trophy because of a dispute between Reach and the old CBC champions, and their scheduled exhibition match with the [[NAC]] champions was cancelled because a party in the US (the team? the TV crew? Chip Beall?) didn't want to travel to Canada.<br />
<br />
*[[1995 Fredericton]]: In the aftermath of issues surrounding the [[1995 Bell]] team, a team from [[Lisgar]] that won the zone match to earn a berth in provincials never got the opportunity to play. How well the Lisgar team would have fared is now only speculative.<br />
<br />
*[[2008 Lisgar]]: Down by 5 points, the runner-up team from [[UTS]] claimed they buzzed in at the end of the game before the time alarm went off. It had to go to a video review, and Reach judged in favour of Lisgar. A small edit war erupted on Wikipedia between anonymous Toronto IPs and quizbowlers apparently "sympathetic" to Lisgar over how the championship should be listed in the article.<br />
<br />
*[[2009 London Central]]: London Central's opponents in the finals from Kennebecasis were not informed by either Reach For The Top or TVO that there would be a change in format for the final game until minutes before the game began. The team from Kennebecasis had also never played using TVOs format (which eliminates the shootout and includes relatively easy questions among other changes) before. The London Central team had played using TVOs format two weeks earlier for the Ontario Provincials, giving them an advantage for the finals. The national tournament was also notable for the recycling of several questions during the round robin portion which could have also affected the outcome of the tournament in terms of seeding the teams for the playoffs.<br />
<br />
==Notable Participants==<br />
<br />
As a long-standing and highly-regarded establishment in Canada, several people have participated during their high school years and gone on to great success. A list of notable former players, coaches, and Reach personnel follows (names in '''bold''' won the national championship):<br />
<br />
===Politics===<br />
* Kim Campbell - Prime Minister of Canada (1993)<br />
* Mark Carney - Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008- )<br />
* Grant Devine - Premier of Saskatchewan (1982-91)<br />
* [[Stephen Harper]] - Prime Minister of Canada (2006- )<br />
* '''[[Ken Kowalski]]''' - Speaker of the Legislature of Alberta (1997- )<br />
* [[Bernard Lord]] - Premier of New Brunswick (1999-2006)<br />
* Stuart Smith - Leader of the Opposition of Ontario (1977-81)<br />
<br />
===Media===<br />
* '''Howard Green''' - Business News Network host, former CBC documentarian<br />
*'''Tom Harrington''' - CBC Sports reporter<br />
* Shelagh Rogers - CBC Radio and TVO personality<br />
* Jan Tennant - Anchor of CBC's ''The National'' and ''Saturday Evening News'' (1970s)<br />
* Alex Trebek - Host of [[Jeopardy!]] ( [http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/television/clips/15279/ A video of an exhibition match between Reach and Genies players] )<br />
<br />
===Other===<br />
* Malcolm Gladwell - Author of the bestsellers ''The Tipping Point'', ''Blink'', and ''Outliers''<br />
* '''Bernard Hibbitts''' - Law professor at the University of Pittsburgh [http://faculty.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/profile.htm]; founder of JURIST news service<br />
* Dr. '''Sethu Reddy''' - Former professor of medicine at Dalhousie & Harvard; chairman at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio<br />
<br />
==National Champions==<br />
<br />
''Reach for the Top had televised matches as early as 1961, but no national champions were declared until 1966. There were no national champions from 1986-88.''<br />
<br />
{| border="1" cellspacing="0"<br />
! Year<br />
! Champion<br />
! Prov<br />
! Runner-up<br />
! Prov<br />
! Location<br />
! Notes<br />
|- <br />
| 1966<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1967<br />
| [[Rideau]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1968<br />
| [[Oak Bay]]<br />
| BC<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1969<br />
| [[Neil McNeil]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1970<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1971<br />
| [[River East]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1972<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1973<br />
| [[1973 Lorne Jenkins|Lorne Jenkins]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1974<br />
| [[Gonzaga (St. John's)|Gonzaga]]<br />
| NL<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| St. John's, NL<br />
| Only NL champion<br />
|-<br />
| 1975<br />
| [[Queen Elizabeth]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1976<br />
| [[Central Peel]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Thunder Bay, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1977<br />
| [[Glenlawn]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Calgary, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[1978 Reach for the Top Nationals|1978]]<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Charlottetown, PE<br />
| First two-time champions; defeated [[1978 Richview]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1979<br />
| [[Banting Memorial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1980<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Sir Winston Churchill]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1981<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Corner Brook, NL<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1982<br />
| [[Dakota]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1983<br />
| [[Roland Michener]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1984<br />
| [[Deloraine]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Moncton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Regina, SK<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| 1985<br />
| [[1985 Kate Andrews|Kate Andrews]]<br />
| AB<br />
| [[Wagar]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Moncton, NB<br />
| Last year on CBC<br />
|-<br />
| 1989<br />
| [[1989 Tagwi|Tagwi]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Mount Douglas]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| Revival as "Schoolreach"<br />
|-<br />
| 1990<br />
| [[Memorial]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1991<br />
| [[St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| [[St. Albert]]<br />
| AB<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1992<br />
| [[1992 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Ancaster]]<br />
| ON<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1993<br />
| [[1993 St. Joseph's|St. Joseph's]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1993 Hay|William E. Hay]]<br />
| AB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1994<br />
| [[1994 Bell|Bell]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1994 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1995<br />
| [[1995 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1996<br />
| [[1996 Saunders|Saunders]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| First two-time champion player: [[Dave Thorsley]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1997<br />
| [[1997 Earl Haig|Earl Haig]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1997 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1998<br />
| [[1998 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1998 Kingston|Kingston CVI]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Halifax, NS<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1999<br />
| [[1999 Frontenac|Frontenac]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2000<br />
| [[2000 Merivale|Merivale]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2000 Ridley|Ridley]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| National finals return to TV<br />
|-<br />
| 2001<br />
| [[2001 Gloucester|Gloucester]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2001 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2002<br />
| [[2002 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2002 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2003<br />
| [[2003 UTS|UTS]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2003 Dawson|Dawson]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First back-to-back championships<br />
|-<br />
| 2004<br />
| [[2004 St. George's|St. George's]] (2)<br />
| BC<br />
| [[2004 Leaside|Leaside]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2005<br />
| [[2005 Cobequid|Cobequid]] (2)<br />
| NS<br />
| [[2005 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First champion of both CBC and SchoolReach eras<br />
|-<br />
| 2006<br />
| [[2006 Woburn|Woburn]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2006 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2007 Reach for the Top Nationals|2007]]<br />
| [[2007 London Central|London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2007 Kennebecasis|Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2008 Reach for the Top Nationals|2008]]<br />
| [[2008 Lisgar|Lisgar]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2008 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2009 Reach for the Top Nationals|2009]]<br />
| [[London Central]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| Excluding the final game, the National Finals left TV.<br />
|-<br />
| [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised<br />
|-<br />
| [[2011 Reach for the Top Nationals|2011]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]] (2)<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Centennial (Ontario high school)|Centennial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised. Semifinals and Finals were played at Canada's Wonderland <br />
|-<br />
| [[2012 Reach for the Top Nationals|2012]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (3)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2013 Reach for the Top Nationals|2013]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (4)<br />
| ON<br />
|[[Bellerose]]<br />
|AB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2014 Reach for the Top Nationals|2014]]<br />
| [[Martingrove]]<br />
| ON<br />
|[[London Central]]<br />
|ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2015 Reach for the Top Nationals|2015]]<br />
| [[2015 Lisgar|Lisgar]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
|[[Kennebecasis]]<br />
|NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
=== National Final Appearances ===<br />
''Not all runners-up are confirmed''<br />
* '''Seven finals:''' [[UTS]]<br />
* '''Five finals:''' [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
* '''Four finals:''' [[London Central]], [[St. George's]]<br />
* '''Three finals:''' [[Cobequid]], [[Dryden]], [[Gloucester]]<br />
* '''Two finals:''' [[Fredericton]], [[Hillcrest]], [[Kelvin]], [[Lisgar]], [[O'Leary]], [[Saunders]], [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[Top of the Form]], the British predecessor to Reach<br />
* [[List of Ontario Reach for the Top qualifying leagues]]<br />
* [[Criticisms of Reach for the Top]] <br />
<br />
[[Category:Canada]]<br />
[[Category:Quizbowl TV shows]] <br />
[[Category:Bad quizbowl]] <br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top]] <br />
[[Category:High school formats]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Reach_for_the_Top&diff=24134Reach for the Top2015-05-25T15:54:51Z<p>Ben Smith: /* National Champions */</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Reach for the Top''' is the dominant high school quiz competition in Canada. Technically a form of [[quizbowl]], it has a larger sports distribution than other academic quizbowl formats, contains more hoses, and is composed almost entirely of speed-check questions which are often [[pyramidal|non-pyramidal]]. It is also more expensive than alternatives like [[NAQT]]. <br />
<br />
French students usually play [[Genies en herbe]], while university students play in the [[quizbowl]] format.<br />
<br />
==Gameplay==<br />
<br />
The majority of questions in Reach for the Top are approximately the length of quizbowl bonus questions (1-2 sentences), and are worth, for the most part, 10 points each. Interruption of the questions for early guesses are not only allowed but also encouraged, as the game is based heavily on speed. If a team buzzes in and answer a question incorrectly, the opposing team has approximately 3-5 seconds to consult and form an answer. Consultation is permitted at almost all times in Reach for the Top (see "Shootouts" and "Assigned" for exceptions). There are no [[negs]] or [[powers]] in Reach, although negs (-5) appeared in the 2007 Nationals for the first time.<br />
<br />
==Categories==<br />
<br />
===Snapstart/Snapout/Open===<br />
Forming the bulk of Reach for the Top questions, these consist of 1-2 sentence questions open to both teams and are worth ten points each. Snapout/Snapstart categories take place at the beginning and end of each round respectively, and the subject of each question varies (i.e. none are linked by a category). "Open" categories are, mostly, worth 40 points in total, and consist of 4 questions all linked by one similar category (e.g. "40 point open on architects"); it is open to both teams. <br />
<br />
==="20 Point Special"===<br />
Like an open question (see last category), but the answer often requires 2 answers in one (e.g. Q: Name both years in which a player's strike or owner's lockout was responsible for the cancellation of some or all of the games in an NHL season. A: 1994-95 and 2004-05 [sic] and 2012-13) In other cases, the 20 point special can require one very long answer, for example, the provincial motto of Newfoundland, ''Quaerite primum regnum Dei''<br />
<br />
===Shootout===<br />
A maximum of 12 questions are posed in this category. Once one player has answered a question correctly, they may no longer answer any questions. This player is now "out". Once one team has every one of its 4 players "out", they gain 40 points, and the other team gains 0. Consultation is forbidden at all times in this category. Concerns that have arisen with this category include A) 12 questions are needed to generate 40 points and B) Both teams can have 3 players out with one question left, which one team may barely answer correctly on speed, giving them all 40 points, and thus a very important swing on a very little difference between teams.<br />
<br />
===Chain Snappers===<br />
Similar to a snapstart/snapout, chain snappers involve the answer to one question forming the topic of the succeeding question. As a result, the best and fastest teams can often answer the next question with only 3-4 words read.<br />
<br />
===Who am I/What am I===<br />
Who am I/What am I questions consist of four clues with decreasing point value, beginning with a (usually vague) opening question. If answered correctly on this question, that team gains 40 points. If neither team guesses correctly, the answer is not read, and a slightly less ambiguous clue worth 30 points is read. This continues for two more questions (worth 20 and 10 points respectively), until, if no team is able to give the correct answer, the answer is read. Unlike [[Good Quizbowl]], the first clue does not provide only one possible answer. The 40-point question is often described as being written as though "an expert in that field" would be unable to be absolutely sure of the correct answer, and as a result, can often trigger highly inaccurate guesses, or in the case of non-competitive teams, non-sensical answers which are made to incite laughs and in doing so, delay the game. The 40-point clue can vary in difficulty from completely, improbably difficult, (almost to the a point where one questions the point of it; e.g. "This country is located in Europe." or "He was born in 1685.") to reasonably difficult. <br />
<br />
===Assigned===<br />
Worth 80 points in total, this category consists of questions posed to specific individuals. One team, designated "Team A", will have each of its team members asked one question. If answered incorrectly, the player sitting directly across from that player will have an opportunity to answer that question. Once team A has had all of its players asked a question, team B's players are then asked questions one-by-one in a similar fashion. All of the questions relate to one category (e.g. European national capitals). Consultation is forbidden.<br />
<br />
===Team Questions===<br />
These questions work similarly to tossup/bonus questions. One question is posed to both teams. The team that correctly answers the question has an opportunity to answer three more questions. The only differences between that and quizbowl are that the "tossup" question is usually very short and very easy and the bonus questions (actually called bonus) are related in topic to the "tossup" question.<br />
<br />
===List===<br />
Worth 50 points, this category involves teams alternating in turns to complete a list. Both teams have an opportunity to buzzz in for the first answer. After each question is answered correctly the other team has an opportunity to give an answer. Once a team gets a question wrong, they may no longer answer.<br />
e.g. List all of the professional teams that Wayne Gretzky played for.<br />
Team A (buzzes in): "Edmonton Oilers" - Correct<br />
Team B: "New York Rangers" - Correct<br />
Team A: "St. Louis Blues" - Correct<br />
Team B: "Philadelphia Flyers" - Incorrect<br />
Team A: "Los Angeles Kings & Indianapolis Racers" - Correct x 2<br />
<br />
==Canadian Tournament Play==<br />
<br />
The modern Reach for the Top season begins with SchoolReach - regional leagues playing in classrooms. For most provinces, a "region" encompasses the entire province, while BC and Ontario are divided into smaller regions either for league play (in BC) or to serve as qualifiers for a provincial tournament (in Ontario). A few provinces have their playoff matches televised. The territories, Saskatchewan, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador do not currently have provincial tournaments; any schools from those regions may participate in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, respectively.<br />
<br />
Depending on participation levels, provincial tournaments will qualify either one or two teams to the national tournament, held for the past several years in Edmonton. The national tournament consists of an in-classroom round-robin, followed by televised playoffs.<br />
<br />
Most regions offer an "Intermediate" division tournament open to freshmen and sophomores, but there is no framework for an Intermediate national tournament. "Intermediate" would likely be higher than a "Junior" division (presumably for middle school), but a middle school tournament does not exist. Reach attempted to start a university tournament in the early 2000s, but some [[NAQT]] tournaments had already taken root at the time.<br />
<br />
There are a few Reach (or Reach-style) tournaments held during the year that are independent of the qualification process to Nationals. New Brunswick has 5-6 per year around the province, Toronto has had a few in recent years, and [[Lisgar]] CI held a tournament in Ottawa in 2007. Nevertheless, the number of tournaments is much smaller than availability in several US regions.<br />
<!--taking out unsubstantiated complaints until they can be verified: schools are "obliged" to play Reach??? --><br />
<!-- Active Canadian trivia teams are plagued and frustrated by the lack of Reach tournaments in Canada. In fact, in Ontario and the rest of Canada, the Reach for the Top season does not officially start until the end of February, when the first round of regional qualifiers begin. After that, there is in the bigger "leagues" (although this term is loose-fitting) a regional round #2, followed by provincials, followed by nationals.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately for most, only a fraction of teams gain entrance to provincials, and an even smaller fraction gain entrance into nationals (16 teams out of over 500). To put this in perspective, out of over 210 teams in the province of Ontario, only 2 are sent to the national tournament, hence the reason that [[Lisgar]] Collegiate, despite winning every Canadian quizbowl event and finishing in 18th place after the preliminaries at the [[2007 NAQT HSNCT]], had not qualified for nationals until 2008.<br />
<br />
Despite this lack of competition, there have been little or no winds of change regarding that fact. Few schools have made an effort to host tournaments, and the Reach for the Top organization has shown little motivation to take on any hosting before February. What makes this problem worse is that the organization does not advertise or provide readily-available information for hosting tournaments. As a result, few schools are even aware that they can host tournaments, which means that, to many schools, this lack of competition does not seem out of the ordinary.<br />
<br />
Part of this fact can be contributed to the "Canadiana" aspect of Reach for the Top. Because of the history and cultural engrainment of Reach for the Top in Canadian culture (the show has been around for decades, it was parodied on SCTV by future star Eugene Levy, and the majority of Canadian adults either played or knew someone who played Reach in high school), many schools seem comfortable with the fact that the season starts and ends after 1-2 tournaments in the spring, as they cling to the mostly fruitless hope that they may, someday, win a national title or at least appear on television. This acceptance is partially responsible for most schools feeling 1-2 tournaments is not out of the ordinary. Additionally, because of this Canadian cultural engrainment, some pro-Reach individuals actively oppose any deviation from the current system, including participation in quizbowl, again, hindering an increase in the amount of competition.<br />
<br />
Perhaps an advantage of the cultural engrainment, however, is that the majority of secondary schools in Canada feel obliged to field a Reach team of some sort, thereby increasing the size of the regional qualifier tournaments. Unfortunately, this does not apply to all areas of the country, as some provinces do not participate in Reach for the Top at all. In Quebec, as a result of the few anglophone schools, there are only 8 Reach for the Top teams in that province. The francophone schools play a similar format called "Genies en Herbes" (young geniuses).<br />
<br />
Because of this, the more active teams in Canada must often find additional competition. Recently, activity has increased in the Ottawa area, as a result of the [[University of Ottawa]], as well as [[Merivale|Merivale High Schoool]], [[Gananoque Secondary School]] and Lisgar Collegiate, the latter of which hosted one of the only "pre-season" Reach for the Top tournaments in Canada on December 1st, when it <br />
organized the 07 [[Lisgar Open]]. --><br />
<br />
==Rule 1 Issues==<br />
<br />
Rule #1 of Reach for the Top states:<br />
<br />
"Any student who is 19 or under at the ''beginning'' of the school year and has been continuously enrolled in a Secondary School is eligible to play both SCHOOLREACH and REACH FOR THE TOP."<br />
<br />
This rule originally accommodated the 5-year high school system in Ontario, which ended with students entering in 1999. This rule has since not changed, even with Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador having 3-year high schools. As such, some players and teams have exploited this loophole to various degrees of success:<br />
<br />
* Quebec's league was established in the 2001-02 season. CEGEPs, which have high school graduates, are allowed to compete under the rule, and a CEGEP represents Quebec at Nationals nearly every year. Royal West Academy, a high school, broke this trend by qualifying for Nationals in 2008.<br />
<br />
* [[Andy Saunders]] played Reach For The Top for six seasons in high school due to Rule #1.<br />
<br />
* A player from [[Leaside]] celebrated his 19th birthday at the Ontario provincial tournament his team ended up winning in 2005. They failed to win Nationals, however.<br />
<br />
* The captain of [[2004 St. George's]] was in his fifth year of Reach, and won the national championship. What was particularly ironic was the fact that the coach was quite vocal about fifth-year Ontario teams winning Nationals throughout the 1990s.<br />
<br />
It should be noted that several Ontario teams have managed to win the national championships in the 4-year system.<br />
<br />
==Championship Disputes==<br />
<br />
Since the conversion from a CBC program to SchoolReach, there have been incidents that have left a national title in dispute by some parties:<br />
<br />
*[[1989 Tagwi]]: Tagwi won an early match because of a (possibly) incorrect ruling over the ingredients of borscht. The team got screwed over in the end, though. They never got a trophy because of a dispute between Reach and the old CBC champions, and their scheduled exhibition match with the [[NAC]] champions was cancelled because a party in the US (the team? the TV crew? Chip Beall?) didn't want to travel to Canada.<br />
<br />
*[[1995 Fredericton]]: In the aftermath of issues surrounding the [[1995 Bell]] team, a team from [[Lisgar]] that won the zone match to earn a berth in provincials never got the opportunity to play. How well the Lisgar team would have fared is now only speculative.<br />
<br />
*[[2008 Lisgar]]: Down by 5 points, the runner-up team from [[UTS]] claimed they buzzed in at the end of the game before the time alarm went off. It had to go to a video review, and Reach judged in favour of Lisgar. A small edit war erupted on Wikipedia between anonymous Toronto IPs and quizbowlers apparently "sympathetic" to Lisgar over how the championship should be listed in the article.<br />
<br />
*[[2009 London Central]]: London Central's opponents in the finals from Kennebecasis were not informed by either Reach For The Top or TVO that there would be a change in format for the final game until minutes before the game began. The team from Kennebecasis had also never played using TVOs format (which eliminates the shootout and includes relatively easy questions among other changes) before. The London Central team had played using TVOs format two weeks earlier for the Ontario Provincials, giving them an advantage for the finals. The national tournament was also notable for the recycling of several questions during the round robin portion which could have also affected the outcome of the tournament in terms of seeding the teams for the playoffs.<br />
<br />
==Notable Participants==<br />
<br />
As a long-standing and highly-regarded establishment in Canada, several people have participated during their high school years and gone on to great success. A list of notable former players, coaches, and Reach personnel follows (names in '''bold''' won the national championship):<br />
<br />
===Politics===<br />
* Kim Campbell - Prime Minister of Canada (1993)<br />
* Mark Carney - Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008- )<br />
* Grant Devine - Premier of Saskatchewan (1982-91)<br />
* [[Stephen Harper]] - Prime Minister of Canada (2006- )<br />
* '''[[Ken Kowalski]]''' - Speaker of the Legislature of Alberta (1997- )<br />
* [[Bernard Lord]] - Premier of New Brunswick (1999-2006)<br />
* Stuart Smith - Leader of the Opposition of Ontario (1977-81)<br />
<br />
===Media===<br />
* '''Howard Green''' - Business News Network host, former CBC documentarian<br />
*'''Tom Harrington''' - CBC Sports reporter<br />
* Shelagh Rogers - CBC Radio and TVO personality<br />
* Jan Tennant - Anchor of CBC's ''The National'' and ''Saturday Evening News'' (1970s)<br />
* Alex Trebek - Host of [[Jeopardy!]] ( [http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/television/clips/15279/ A video of an exhibition match between Reach and Genies players] )<br />
<br />
===Other===<br />
* Malcolm Gladwell - Author of the bestsellers ''The Tipping Point'', ''Blink'', and ''Outliers''<br />
* '''Bernard Hibbitts''' - Law professor at the University of Pittsburgh [http://faculty.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/profile.htm]; founder of JURIST news service<br />
* Dr. '''Sethu Reddy''' - Former professor of medicine at Dalhousie & Harvard; chairman at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio<br />
<br />
==National Champions==<br />
<br />
''Reach for the Top had televised matches as early as 1961, but no national champions were declared until 1966. There were no national champions from 1986-88.''<br />
<br />
{| border="1" cellspacing="0"<br />
! Year<br />
! Champion<br />
! Prov<br />
! Runner-up<br />
! Prov<br />
! Location<br />
! Notes<br />
|- <br />
| 1966<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1967<br />
| [[Rideau]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1968<br />
| [[Oak Bay]]<br />
| BC<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1969<br />
| [[Neil McNeil]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1970<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1971<br />
| [[River East]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1972<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1973<br />
| [[1973 Lorne Jenkins|Lorne Jenkins]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1974<br />
| [[Gonzaga (St. John's)|Gonzaga]]<br />
| NL<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| St. John's, NL<br />
| Only NL champion<br />
|-<br />
| 1975<br />
| [[Queen Elizabeth]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1976<br />
| [[Central Peel]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Thunder Bay, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1977<br />
| [[Glenlawn]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Calgary, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[1978 Reach for the Top Nationals|1978]]<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Charlottetown, PE<br />
| First two-time champions; defeated [[1978 Richview]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1979<br />
| [[Banting Memorial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1980<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Sir Winston Churchill]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1981<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Corner Brook, NL<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1982<br />
| [[Dakota]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1983<br />
| [[Roland Michener]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1984<br />
| [[Deloraine]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Moncton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Regina, SK<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| 1985<br />
| [[1985 Kate Andrews|Kate Andrews]]<br />
| AB<br />
| [[Wagar]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Moncton, NB<br />
| Last year on CBC<br />
|-<br />
| 1989<br />
| [[1989 Tagwi|Tagwi]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Mount Douglas]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| Revival as "Schoolreach"<br />
|-<br />
| 1990<br />
| [[Memorial]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1991<br />
| [[St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| [[St. Albert]]<br />
| AB<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1992<br />
| [[1992 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1993<br />
| [[1993 St. Joseph's|St. Joseph's]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1993 Hay|William E. Hay]]<br />
| AB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1994<br />
| [[1994 Bell|Bell]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1994 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1995<br />
| [[1995 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1996<br />
| [[1996 Saunders|Saunders]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| First two-time champion player: [[Dave Thorsley]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1997<br />
| [[1997 Earl Haig|Earl Haig]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1997 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1998<br />
| [[1998 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1998 Kingston|Kingston CVI]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Halifax, NS<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1999<br />
| [[1999 Frontenac|Frontenac]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2000<br />
| [[2000 Merivale|Merivale]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2000 Ridley|Ridley]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| National finals return to TV<br />
|-<br />
| 2001<br />
| [[2001 Gloucester|Gloucester]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2001 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2002<br />
| [[2002 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2002 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2003<br />
| [[2003 UTS|UTS]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2003 Dawson|Dawson]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First back-to-back championships<br />
|-<br />
| 2004<br />
| [[2004 St. George's|St. George's]] (2)<br />
| BC<br />
| [[2004 Leaside|Leaside]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2005<br />
| [[2005 Cobequid|Cobequid]] (2)<br />
| NS<br />
| [[2005 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First champion of both CBC and SchoolReach eras<br />
|-<br />
| 2006<br />
| [[2006 Woburn|Woburn]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2006 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2007 Reach for the Top Nationals|2007]]<br />
| [[2007 London Central|London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2007 Kennebecasis|Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2008 Reach for the Top Nationals|2008]]<br />
| [[2008 Lisgar|Lisgar]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2008 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2009 Reach for the Top Nationals|2009]]<br />
| [[London Central]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| Excluding the final game, the National Finals left TV.<br />
|-<br />
| [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised<br />
|-<br />
| [[2011 Reach for the Top Nationals|2011]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]] (2)<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Centennial (Ontario high school)|Centennial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised. Semifinals and Finals were played at Canada's Wonderland <br />
|-<br />
| [[2012 Reach for the Top Nationals|2012]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (3)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2013 Reach for the Top Nationals|2013]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (4)<br />
| ON<br />
|[[Bellerose]]<br />
|AB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2014 Reach for the Top Nationals|2014]]<br />
| [[Martingrove]]<br />
| ON<br />
|[[London Central]]<br />
|ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2015 Reach for the Top Nationals|2015]]<br />
| [[Lisgar]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
|[[Kennebecasis]]<br />
|NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
=== National Final Appearances ===<br />
''Not all runners-up are confirmed''<br />
* '''Seven finals:''' [[UTS]]<br />
* '''Five finals:''' [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
* '''Four finals:''' [[London Central]], [[St. George's]]<br />
* '''Three finals:''' [[Cobequid]], [[Dryden]], [[Gloucester]]<br />
* '''Two finals:''' [[Fredericton]], [[Hillcrest]], [[Kelvin]], [[Lisgar]], [[O'Leary]], [[Saunders]], [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[Top of the Form]], the British predecessor to Reach<br />
* [[List of Ontario Reach for the Top qualifying leagues]]<br />
* [[Criticisms of Reach for the Top]] <br />
<br />
[[Category:Canada]]<br />
[[Category:Quizbowl TV shows]] <br />
[[Category:Bad quizbowl]] <br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top]] <br />
[[Category:High school formats]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Reach_for_the_Top&diff=24133Reach for the Top2015-05-25T15:52:13Z<p>Ben Smith: /* National Champions */</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Reach for the Top''' is the dominant high school quiz competition in Canada. Technically a form of [[quizbowl]], it has a larger sports distribution than other academic quizbowl formats, contains more hoses, and is composed almost entirely of speed-check questions which are often [[pyramidal|non-pyramidal]]. It is also more expensive than alternatives like [[NAQT]]. <br />
<br />
French students usually play [[Genies en herbe]], while university students play in the [[quizbowl]] format.<br />
<br />
==Gameplay==<br />
<br />
The majority of questions in Reach for the Top are approximately the length of quizbowl bonus questions (1-2 sentences), and are worth, for the most part, 10 points each. Interruption of the questions for early guesses are not only allowed but also encouraged, as the game is based heavily on speed. If a team buzzes in and answer a question incorrectly, the opposing team has approximately 3-5 seconds to consult and form an answer. Consultation is permitted at almost all times in Reach for the Top (see "Shootouts" and "Assigned" for exceptions). There are no [[negs]] or [[powers]] in Reach, although negs (-5) appeared in the 2007 Nationals for the first time.<br />
<br />
==Categories==<br />
<br />
===Snapstart/Snapout/Open===<br />
Forming the bulk of Reach for the Top questions, these consist of 1-2 sentence questions open to both teams and are worth ten points each. Snapout/Snapstart categories take place at the beginning and end of each round respectively, and the subject of each question varies (i.e. none are linked by a category). "Open" categories are, mostly, worth 40 points in total, and consist of 4 questions all linked by one similar category (e.g. "40 point open on architects"); it is open to both teams. <br />
<br />
==="20 Point Special"===<br />
Like an open question (see last category), but the answer often requires 2 answers in one (e.g. Q: Name both years in which a player's strike or owner's lockout was responsible for the cancellation of some or all of the games in an NHL season. A: 1994-95 and 2004-05 [sic] and 2012-13) In other cases, the 20 point special can require one very long answer, for example, the provincial motto of Newfoundland, ''Quaerite primum regnum Dei''<br />
<br />
===Shootout===<br />
A maximum of 12 questions are posed in this category. Once one player has answered a question correctly, they may no longer answer any questions. This player is now "out". Once one team has every one of its 4 players "out", they gain 40 points, and the other team gains 0. Consultation is forbidden at all times in this category. Concerns that have arisen with this category include A) 12 questions are needed to generate 40 points and B) Both teams can have 3 players out with one question left, which one team may barely answer correctly on speed, giving them all 40 points, and thus a very important swing on a very little difference between teams.<br />
<br />
===Chain Snappers===<br />
Similar to a snapstart/snapout, chain snappers involve the answer to one question forming the topic of the succeeding question. As a result, the best and fastest teams can often answer the next question with only 3-4 words read.<br />
<br />
===Who am I/What am I===<br />
Who am I/What am I questions consist of four clues with decreasing point value, beginning with a (usually vague) opening question. If answered correctly on this question, that team gains 40 points. If neither team guesses correctly, the answer is not read, and a slightly less ambiguous clue worth 30 points is read. This continues for two more questions (worth 20 and 10 points respectively), until, if no team is able to give the correct answer, the answer is read. Unlike [[Good Quizbowl]], the first clue does not provide only one possible answer. The 40-point question is often described as being written as though "an expert in that field" would be unable to be absolutely sure of the correct answer, and as a result, can often trigger highly inaccurate guesses, or in the case of non-competitive teams, non-sensical answers which are made to incite laughs and in doing so, delay the game. The 40-point clue can vary in difficulty from completely, improbably difficult, (almost to the a point where one questions the point of it; e.g. "This country is located in Europe." or "He was born in 1685.") to reasonably difficult. <br />
<br />
===Assigned===<br />
Worth 80 points in total, this category consists of questions posed to specific individuals. One team, designated "Team A", will have each of its team members asked one question. If answered incorrectly, the player sitting directly across from that player will have an opportunity to answer that question. Once team A has had all of its players asked a question, team B's players are then asked questions one-by-one in a similar fashion. All of the questions relate to one category (e.g. European national capitals). Consultation is forbidden.<br />
<br />
===Team Questions===<br />
These questions work similarly to tossup/bonus questions. One question is posed to both teams. The team that correctly answers the question has an opportunity to answer three more questions. The only differences between that and quizbowl are that the "tossup" question is usually very short and very easy and the bonus questions (actually called bonus) are related in topic to the "tossup" question.<br />
<br />
===List===<br />
Worth 50 points, this category involves teams alternating in turns to complete a list. Both teams have an opportunity to buzzz in for the first answer. After each question is answered correctly the other team has an opportunity to give an answer. Once a team gets a question wrong, they may no longer answer.<br />
e.g. List all of the professional teams that Wayne Gretzky played for.<br />
Team A (buzzes in): "Edmonton Oilers" - Correct<br />
Team B: "New York Rangers" - Correct<br />
Team A: "St. Louis Blues" - Correct<br />
Team B: "Philadelphia Flyers" - Incorrect<br />
Team A: "Los Angeles Kings & Indianapolis Racers" - Correct x 2<br />
<br />
==Canadian Tournament Play==<br />
<br />
The modern Reach for the Top season begins with SchoolReach - regional leagues playing in classrooms. For most provinces, a "region" encompasses the entire province, while BC and Ontario are divided into smaller regions either for league play (in BC) or to serve as qualifiers for a provincial tournament (in Ontario). A few provinces have their playoff matches televised. The territories, Saskatchewan, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador do not currently have provincial tournaments; any schools from those regions may participate in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, respectively.<br />
<br />
Depending on participation levels, provincial tournaments will qualify either one or two teams to the national tournament, held for the past several years in Edmonton. The national tournament consists of an in-classroom round-robin, followed by televised playoffs.<br />
<br />
Most regions offer an "Intermediate" division tournament open to freshmen and sophomores, but there is no framework for an Intermediate national tournament. "Intermediate" would likely be higher than a "Junior" division (presumably for middle school), but a middle school tournament does not exist. Reach attempted to start a university tournament in the early 2000s, but some [[NAQT]] tournaments had already taken root at the time.<br />
<br />
There are a few Reach (or Reach-style) tournaments held during the year that are independent of the qualification process to Nationals. New Brunswick has 5-6 per year around the province, Toronto has had a few in recent years, and [[Lisgar]] CI held a tournament in Ottawa in 2007. Nevertheless, the number of tournaments is much smaller than availability in several US regions.<br />
<!--taking out unsubstantiated complaints until they can be verified: schools are "obliged" to play Reach??? --><br />
<!-- Active Canadian trivia teams are plagued and frustrated by the lack of Reach tournaments in Canada. In fact, in Ontario and the rest of Canada, the Reach for the Top season does not officially start until the end of February, when the first round of regional qualifiers begin. After that, there is in the bigger "leagues" (although this term is loose-fitting) a regional round #2, followed by provincials, followed by nationals.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately for most, only a fraction of teams gain entrance to provincials, and an even smaller fraction gain entrance into nationals (16 teams out of over 500). To put this in perspective, out of over 210 teams in the province of Ontario, only 2 are sent to the national tournament, hence the reason that [[Lisgar]] Collegiate, despite winning every Canadian quizbowl event and finishing in 18th place after the preliminaries at the [[2007 NAQT HSNCT]], had not qualified for nationals until 2008.<br />
<br />
Despite this lack of competition, there have been little or no winds of change regarding that fact. Few schools have made an effort to host tournaments, and the Reach for the Top organization has shown little motivation to take on any hosting before February. What makes this problem worse is that the organization does not advertise or provide readily-available information for hosting tournaments. As a result, few schools are even aware that they can host tournaments, which means that, to many schools, this lack of competition does not seem out of the ordinary.<br />
<br />
Part of this fact can be contributed to the "Canadiana" aspect of Reach for the Top. Because of the history and cultural engrainment of Reach for the Top in Canadian culture (the show has been around for decades, it was parodied on SCTV by future star Eugene Levy, and the majority of Canadian adults either played or knew someone who played Reach in high school), many schools seem comfortable with the fact that the season starts and ends after 1-2 tournaments in the spring, as they cling to the mostly fruitless hope that they may, someday, win a national title or at least appear on television. This acceptance is partially responsible for most schools feeling 1-2 tournaments is not out of the ordinary. Additionally, because of this Canadian cultural engrainment, some pro-Reach individuals actively oppose any deviation from the current system, including participation in quizbowl, again, hindering an increase in the amount of competition.<br />
<br />
Perhaps an advantage of the cultural engrainment, however, is that the majority of secondary schools in Canada feel obliged to field a Reach team of some sort, thereby increasing the size of the regional qualifier tournaments. Unfortunately, this does not apply to all areas of the country, as some provinces do not participate in Reach for the Top at all. In Quebec, as a result of the few anglophone schools, there are only 8 Reach for the Top teams in that province. The francophone schools play a similar format called "Genies en Herbes" (young geniuses).<br />
<br />
Because of this, the more active teams in Canada must often find additional competition. Recently, activity has increased in the Ottawa area, as a result of the [[University of Ottawa]], as well as [[Merivale|Merivale High Schoool]], [[Gananoque Secondary School]] and Lisgar Collegiate, the latter of which hosted one of the only "pre-season" Reach for the Top tournaments in Canada on December 1st, when it <br />
organized the 07 [[Lisgar Open]]. --><br />
<br />
==Rule 1 Issues==<br />
<br />
Rule #1 of Reach for the Top states:<br />
<br />
"Any student who is 19 or under at the ''beginning'' of the school year and has been continuously enrolled in a Secondary School is eligible to play both SCHOOLREACH and REACH FOR THE TOP."<br />
<br />
This rule originally accommodated the 5-year high school system in Ontario, which ended with students entering in 1999. This rule has since not changed, even with Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador having 3-year high schools. As such, some players and teams have exploited this loophole to various degrees of success:<br />
<br />
* Quebec's league was established in the 2001-02 season. CEGEPs, which have high school graduates, are allowed to compete under the rule, and a CEGEP represents Quebec at Nationals nearly every year. Royal West Academy, a high school, broke this trend by qualifying for Nationals in 2008.<br />
<br />
* [[Andy Saunders]] played Reach For The Top for six seasons in high school due to Rule #1.<br />
<br />
* A player from [[Leaside]] celebrated his 19th birthday at the Ontario provincial tournament his team ended up winning in 2005. They failed to win Nationals, however.<br />
<br />
* The captain of [[2004 St. George's]] was in his fifth year of Reach, and won the national championship. What was particularly ironic was the fact that the coach was quite vocal about fifth-year Ontario teams winning Nationals throughout the 1990s.<br />
<br />
It should be noted that several Ontario teams have managed to win the national championships in the 4-year system.<br />
<br />
==Championship Disputes==<br />
<br />
Since the conversion from a CBC program to SchoolReach, there have been incidents that have left a national title in dispute by some parties:<br />
<br />
*[[1989 Tagwi]]: Tagwi won an early match because of a (possibly) incorrect ruling over the ingredients of borscht. The team got screwed over in the end, though. They never got a trophy because of a dispute between Reach and the old CBC champions, and their scheduled exhibition match with the [[NAC]] champions was cancelled because a party in the US (the team? the TV crew? Chip Beall?) didn't want to travel to Canada.<br />
<br />
*[[1995 Fredericton]]: In the aftermath of issues surrounding the [[1995 Bell]] team, a team from [[Lisgar]] that won the zone match to earn a berth in provincials never got the opportunity to play. How well the Lisgar team would have fared is now only speculative.<br />
<br />
*[[2008 Lisgar]]: Down by 5 points, the runner-up team from [[UTS]] claimed they buzzed in at the end of the game before the time alarm went off. It had to go to a video review, and Reach judged in favour of Lisgar. A small edit war erupted on Wikipedia between anonymous Toronto IPs and quizbowlers apparently "sympathetic" to Lisgar over how the championship should be listed in the article.<br />
<br />
*[[2009 London Central]]: London Central's opponents in the finals from Kennebecasis were not informed by either Reach For The Top or TVO that there would be a change in format for the final game until minutes before the game began. The team from Kennebecasis had also never played using TVOs format (which eliminates the shootout and includes relatively easy questions among other changes) before. The London Central team had played using TVOs format two weeks earlier for the Ontario Provincials, giving them an advantage for the finals. The national tournament was also notable for the recycling of several questions during the round robin portion which could have also affected the outcome of the tournament in terms of seeding the teams for the playoffs.<br />
<br />
==Notable Participants==<br />
<br />
As a long-standing and highly-regarded establishment in Canada, several people have participated during their high school years and gone on to great success. A list of notable former players, coaches, and Reach personnel follows (names in '''bold''' won the national championship):<br />
<br />
===Politics===<br />
* Kim Campbell - Prime Minister of Canada (1993)<br />
* Mark Carney - Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008- )<br />
* Grant Devine - Premier of Saskatchewan (1982-91)<br />
* [[Stephen Harper]] - Prime Minister of Canada (2006- )<br />
* '''[[Ken Kowalski]]''' - Speaker of the Legislature of Alberta (1997- )<br />
* [[Bernard Lord]] - Premier of New Brunswick (1999-2006)<br />
* Stuart Smith - Leader of the Opposition of Ontario (1977-81)<br />
<br />
===Media===<br />
* '''Howard Green''' - Business News Network host, former CBC documentarian<br />
*'''Tom Harrington''' - CBC Sports reporter<br />
* Shelagh Rogers - CBC Radio and TVO personality<br />
* Jan Tennant - Anchor of CBC's ''The National'' and ''Saturday Evening News'' (1970s)<br />
* Alex Trebek - Host of [[Jeopardy!]] ( [http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/television/clips/15279/ A video of an exhibition match between Reach and Genies players] )<br />
<br />
===Other===<br />
* Malcolm Gladwell - Author of the bestsellers ''The Tipping Point'', ''Blink'', and ''Outliers''<br />
* '''Bernard Hibbitts''' - Law professor at the University of Pittsburgh [http://faculty.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/profile.htm]; founder of JURIST news service<br />
* Dr. '''Sethu Reddy''' - Former professor of medicine at Dalhousie & Harvard; chairman at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio<br />
<br />
==National Champions==<br />
<br />
''Reach for the Top had televised matches as early as 1961, but no national champions were declared until 1966. There were no national champions from 1986-88.''<br />
<br />
{| border="1" cellspacing="0"<br />
! Year<br />
! Champion<br />
! Prov<br />
! Runner-up<br />
! Prov<br />
! Location<br />
! Notes<br />
|- <br />
| 1966<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1967<br />
| [[Rideau]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1968<br />
| [[Oak Bay]]<br />
| BC<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1969<br />
| [[Neil McNeil]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1970<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1971<br />
| [[River East]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1972<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1973<br />
| [[1973 Lorne Jenkins|Lorne Jenkins]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1974<br />
| [[Gonzaga (St. John's)|Gonzaga]]<br />
| NL<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| St. John's, NL<br />
| Only NL champion<br />
|-<br />
| 1975<br />
| [[Queen Elizabeth]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1976<br />
| [[Central Peel]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Thunder Bay, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1977<br />
| [[Glenlawn]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Calgary, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[1978 Reach for the Top Nationals|1978]]<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Charlottetown, PE<br />
| First two-time champions; defeated [[1978 Richview]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1979<br />
| [[Banting Memorial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1980<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Sir Winston Churchill]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1981<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Corner Brook, NL<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1982<br />
| [[Dakota]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1983<br />
| [[Roland Michener]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1984<br />
| [[Deloraine]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Moncton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Regina, SK<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| 1985<br />
| [[1985 Kate Andrews|Kate Andrews]]<br />
| AB<br />
| [[Wagar]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Moncton, NB<br />
| Last year on CBC<br />
|-<br />
| 1989<br />
| [[1989 Tagwi|Tagwi]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Mount Douglas]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| Revival as "Schoolreach"<br />
|-<br />
| 1990<br />
| [[Memorial]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1991<br />
| [[St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| [[St. Albert]]<br />
| AB<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1992<br />
| [[1992 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1993<br />
| [[1993 St. Joseph's|St. Joseph's]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1993 Hay|William E. Hay]]<br />
| AB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1994<br />
| [[1994 Bell|Bell]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1994 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1995<br />
| [[1995 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1996<br />
| [[1996 Saunders|Saunders]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| First two-time champion player: [[Dave Thorsley]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1997<br />
| [[1997 Earl Haig|Earl Haig]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1997 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1998<br />
| [[1998 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1998 Kingston|Kingston CVI]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Halifax, NS<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1999<br />
| [[1999 Frontenac|Frontenac]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2000<br />
| [[2000 Merivale|Merivale]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2000 Ridley|Ridley]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| National finals return to TV<br />
|-<br />
| 2001<br />
| [[2001 Gloucester|Gloucester]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2001 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2002<br />
| [[2002 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2002 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2003<br />
| [[2003 UTS|UTS]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2003 Dawson|Dawson]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First back-to-back championships<br />
|-<br />
| 2004<br />
| [[2004 St. George's|St. George's]] (2)<br />
| BC<br />
| [[2004 Leaside|Leaside]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2005<br />
| [[2005 Cobequid|Cobequid]] (2)<br />
| NS<br />
| [[2005 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First champion of both CBC and SchoolReach eras<br />
|-<br />
| 2006<br />
| [[2006 Woburn|Woburn]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2006 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2007 Reach for the Top Nationals|2007]]<br />
| [[2007 London Central|London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2007 Kennebecasis|Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2008 Reach for the Top Nationals|2008]]<br />
| [[2008 Lisgar|Lisgar]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2008 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2009 Reach for the Top Nationals|2009]]<br />
| [[London Central]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| Excluding the final game, the National Finals left TV.<br />
|-<br />
| [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised<br />
|-<br />
| [[2011 Reach for the Top Nationals|2011]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]] (2)<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Centennial (Ontario high school)|Centennial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised. Semifinals and Finals were played at Canada's Wonderland <br />
|-<br />
| [[2012 Reach for the Top Nationals|2012]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (3)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2013 Reach for the Top Nationals|2013]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (4)<br />
| ON<br />
|[[Bellerose]]<br />
|AB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2014 Reach for the Top Nationals|2014]]<br />
| [[Martingrove]]<br />
| ON<br />
|[[London Central]]<br />
|ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2015 Reach for the Top Nationals|2015]]<br />
| [[Lisgar]]<br />
| ON<br />
|[[Kennebecasis]]<br />
|NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
=== National Final Appearances ===<br />
''Not all runners-up are confirmed''<br />
* '''Seven finals:''' [[UTS]]<br />
* '''Five finals:''' [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
* '''Four finals:''' [[London Central]], [[St. George's]]<br />
* '''Three finals:''' [[Cobequid]], [[Dryden]], [[Gloucester]]<br />
* '''Two finals:''' [[Fredericton]], [[Hillcrest]], [[Kelvin]], [[Lisgar]], [[O'Leary]], [[Saunders]], [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[Top of the Form]], the British predecessor to Reach<br />
* [[List of Ontario Reach for the Top qualifying leagues]]<br />
* [[Criticisms of Reach for the Top]] <br />
<br />
[[Category:Canada]]<br />
[[Category:Quizbowl TV shows]] <br />
[[Category:Bad quizbowl]] <br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top]] <br />
[[Category:High school formats]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Memorial&diff=22465Memorial2014-06-25T00:43:18Z<p>Ben Smith: Memorial</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Memorial Composite High School''' is a high school in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia.<br />
<br />
Memorial won the 1990 [[Reach for the Top]] title, when the SchoolReach program was still in its infancy. The team participated in an exhibition match at the [[1990 NAC]] and defeated the champions, [[1990 Collegiate (VA)|Collegiate]], 305-280.<br />
<br />
There is no evidence of Memorial competing during the CBC era or after the 1990s.<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1990<br />
|previous = [[1989 Tagwi|Tagwi]]<br />
|next = [[St. George's]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top championship teams]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=1985_Kate_Andrews&diff=224641985 Kate Andrews2014-06-25T00:19:05Z<p>Ben Smith: fixed Deloraine link</p>
<hr />
<div>The 1985 team from [[Kate Andrews]] High School won the last CBC-produced [[Reach for the Top]] championship. Unfortunately, what happened ''after'' their championship became more newsworthy than the victory itself.<br />
<br />
Going into the 1985 tournament, the producers and schools knew that the show would be canceled after the previous bailout in 1982 failed to increase Reach's audience. Upon Kate Andrew's victory, coach Ed Ryan was told the annually-circulating trophy was "[yours] to keep" as technicians disassembled the studio sets. Reach for the Top's national program was suspended after the tournament, and it is very likely that it will not return to the CBC.<br />
<br />
Local "SchoolReach" events occurred in the following years, and in 1989, the national format returned under the direction of Sandy Stewart, crowning [[1989 Tagwi|Tagwi]] as the first champion under the revived format. Stewart requested that Kate Andrews return the trophy so that it could be presented to the new champions. The school, which had been keeping the trophy in a display case in the lobby in the interim, refused. The 1989 tournament proceeded, and Tagwi did not receive the trophy upon their victory. Stewart did not order a new trophy, claiming that he had legal rights to the old one and was going to hold out to get it back.<br />
<br />
By February 1990, eight months after Tagwi's championship, news of the Reach "trophy tussle" had spread across the nation, with camps split between the "village idiots" holding on to an old trophy and Sandy Stewart, who apparently relished the publicity the revived Reach was getting, saying the controversy was the "most fun I've had since the cow kicked the lamp" (indeed, this event appears to be the only time Reach for the Top was featured on the front page of a major big-city newspaper). Stewart would later get enjoyment out of harassing teams with the [[1995 Bell]] events.<br />
<br />
In the end, Stewart didn't win, Tagwi never got any form of trophy, a new trophy was prepared for the 1990 championship (which survived until it broke during the [[2007 Reach for the Top Nationals]]), and Kate Andrews kept their old trophy. The school still has their trophy, holding it for a longer time than either Reach incarnation was in existence, and mentions their accomplishment on the school's website despite no longer having a Reach team.<br />
<br />
==Members==<br />
<br />
Audrey Cudrak, Stephen Pahl, David Kozbial, BJ Sailer, Ian McAnderin<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1985<br />
|previous = [[Deloraine]]<br />
|next = [[1989 Tagwi|Tagwi]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<br />
* "A testy trophy tussle" by Mike Lamb in ''The Calgary Herald'', February 9, 1990, page A1<br />
<br />
[[Category: Reach for the Top championship teams]]<br />
[[Category: Original QBWiki Page]]<br />
[[Category: Historical High school teams]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Deloraine&diff=22463Deloraine2014-06-25T00:18:34Z<p>Ben Smith: Deloraine</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Deloraine School''' is a K-12 school in Deloraine, Manitoba, near Brandon. Despite the small size, the school has participated in [[Reach for the Top]] throughout its history.<br />
<br />
Deloraine had some success in Manitoba competition, and broke through with the 1984 title in Regina, winning 315-280 over [[Moncton]]. That final featured inappropriately useless and silly questions for a title decision, such as "I have a friend who can't do anything right. He even failed as a street cleaner. He couldn't keep his mind in the BLANK" ("gutter").<br />
<br />
Deloraine continues to play SchoolReach. They have not had much success at the senior level, but the school's K-12 structure allows them to groom strong intermediate teams (Manitoba and Alberta recognize an intermediate provincial champion).<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1984<br />
|previous = [[Roland Michener]]<br />
|next = [[1985 Kate Andrews|Kate Andrews]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top championship teams]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Roland_Michener&diff=22462Roland Michener2014-06-24T23:54:49Z<p>Ben Smith: Roland Michener</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Roland Michener Secondary School''' is a high school in South Porcupine, Ontario, near Timmins. They were known as South Porcupine High School until 1968.<br />
<br />
RMSS spent most of the 1970s and 1980s competing with [[Dryden]] to be the Northern Ontario representative at the [[Reach for the Top]] national championships. They won the title in 1983 in Toronto, though the only scores available show that they lost their opening game 365-295 to [[Cobequid]] (the CBC format allowed the three best first-round losers to continue).<br />
<br />
Roland Michener still plays SchoolReach, though the consolidation of Ontario into a single qualifying region makes travel even just to provincials difficult, and they have not attended Nationals in the modern era.<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1983<br />
|previous = [[Dakota]]<br />
|next = [[Deloraine]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top championship teams]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Dakota&diff=22461Dakota2014-06-24T23:30:54Z<p>Ben Smith: Dakota</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Dakota Collegiate Institute''' is a high school in Winnipeg, Manitoba.<br />
<br />
After moderate success at the provincial level, Dakota Collegiate won the [[Reach for the Top]] title in 1982, defeating the 1980 champions [[Hillcrest]] in the final, 320-270. A video of their match claims that the exact same four players competed in two national finals (1981 and 1982), which was apparently a first-ever achievement (since matched by a few teams in the SchoolReach era, such as [[Leaside]])<br />
<br />
Dakota Collegiate still participates in SchoolReach, but has not been to Nationals since the CBC era.<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1982<br />
|previous = [[Cobequid]]<br />
|next = [[Roland Michener]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top championship teams]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Cobequid&diff=22460Cobequid2014-06-24T23:09:14Z<p>Ben Smith: Cobequid</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Cobequid Educational Centre''' is a high school in Truro, Nova Scotia. They have a long history of playing [[Reach for the Top]], and have the distinction of being the only school so far to have won the title in both the CBC era and the SchoolReach era.<br />
<br />
Cobequid made a few appearances as the Nova Scotia representative since the school's founding in the mid 1970s. In 1981, they won the national championship held in Corner Brook. One player on that team, Hans Budgey, went on to be a teacher at Cobequid, and was instrumental in getting Nova Scotia on board during the SchoolReach revival in the late 1980s. Budgey continues today as Cobequid's coach and Nova Scotia's provincial coordinator.<br />
<br />
The [[2005 Cobequid]] team won the title again, in somewhat of an upset over favoured teams like [[Leaside]] and [[St. George's]]. They beat both teams in the playoffs, the latter 480-420 in the final. Cobequid was a perennial Nova Scotia representative at Nationals for most of the 2000s, and made another final appearance, losing to [[Kennebecasis]] in 2010.<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1981<br />
|previous = [[Hillcrest]]<br />
|next = [[Dakota]]<br />
| }}<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 2005<br />
|previous = [[2004 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
|next = [[2006 Woburn|Woburn]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top championship teams]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Hillcrest&diff=22415Hillcrest2014-06-19T19:03:36Z<p>Ben Smith: Hillcrest</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Hillcrest High School''' is a high school in Ottawa, Ontario. The school was probably the most successful [[Reach for the Top]] program from Ottawa during the CBC era.<br />
<br />
Hillcrest regularly participated in Reach for the Top since the early national broadcasts. Under coach Roger Taguchi starting in the late 1970s, Hillcrest was at its peak. In 1979, they lost the Ontario final to [[Banting Memorial]], who would go on to win the national title. In 1980, a team of John Farant, John Haggerty, Ling Hong-Hung, and Lisa Murray won the Reach national title, defeating Halifax West, Renfrew, and Sir Winston Churchill. In 1982, they lost to [[Dakota]] 320-270 in the title match after beating them 370-355 in a preliminary game.<br />
<br />
Hillcrest collected five regional titles between 1979 and 1984. The team was active in the local Reach revivals after the CBC cancellation, and played SchoolReach through the 1990s. Hillcrest no longer plays SchoolReach.<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1980<br />
|previous = [[Banting Memorial]]<br />
|next = [[Cobequid]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top championship teams]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Reach_for_the_Top&diff=22405Reach for the Top2014-06-19T16:02:14Z<p>Ben Smith: /* National Champions */ Clarifying Banting</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Reach for the Top''' is the dominant high school quiz competition in Canada. Technically a form of [[quizbowl]], it has a larger sports distribution than other academic quizbowl formats, contains more hoses, and is composed almost entirely of speed-check questions which are often [[pyramidal|non-pyramidal]]. It is also more expensive than alternatives like [[NAQT]]. <br />
<br />
French students usually play [[Genies en herbe]], while university students play in the [[quizbowl]] format.<br />
<br />
==Gameplay==<br />
<br />
The majority of questions in Reach for the Top are approximately the length of quizbowl bonus questions (1-2 sentences), and are worth, for the most part, 10 points each. Interruption of the questions for early guesses are not only allowed but also encouraged, as the game is based heavily on speed. If a team buzzes in and answer a question incorrectly, the opposing team has approximately 3-5 seconds to consult and form an answer. Consultation is permitted at almost all times in Reach for the Top (see "Shootouts" and "Assigned" for exceptions). There are no [[negs]] or [[powers]] in Reach, although negs (-5) appeared in the 2007 Nationals for the first time.<br />
<br />
==Categories==<br />
<br />
===Snapstart/Snapout/Open===<br />
Forming the bulk of Reach for the Top questions, these consist of 1-2 sentence questions open to both teams and are worth ten points each. Snapout/Snapstart categories take place at the beginning and end of each round respectively, and the subject of each question varies (i.e. none are linked by a category). "Open" categories are, mostly, worth 40 points in total, and consist of 4 questions all linked by one similar category (e.g. "40 point open on architects"); it is open to both teams. <br />
<br />
==="20 Point Special"===<br />
Like an open question (see last category), but the answer often requires 2 answers in one (e.g. Q: Name both years in which a player's strike or owner's lockout was responsible for the cancellation of some or all of the games in an NHL season. A: 1994-95 and 2004-05 [sic] and 2012-13) In other cases, the 20 point special can require one very long answer, for example, the provincial motto of Newfoundland, ''Quaerite primum regnum Dei''<br />
<br />
===Shootout===<br />
A maximum of 12 questions are posed in this category. Once one player has answered a question correctly, they may no longer answer any questions. This player is now "out". Once one team has every one of its 4 players "out", they gain 40 points, and the other team gains 0. Consultation is forbidden at all times in this category. Concerns that have arisen with this category include A) 12 questions are needed to generate 40 points and B) Both teams can have 3 players out with one question left, which one team may barely answer correctly on speed, giving them all 40 points, and thus a very important swing on a very little difference between teams.<br />
<br />
===Chain Snappers===<br />
Similar to a snapstart/snapout, chain snappers involve the answer to one question forming the topic of the succeeding question. As a result, the best and fastest teams can often answer the next question with only 3-4 words read.<br />
<br />
===Who am I/What am I===<br />
Who am I/What am I questions consist of four clues with decreasing point value, beginning with a (usually vague) opening question. If answered correctly on this question, that team gains 40 points. If neither team guesses correctly, the answer is not read, and a slightly less ambiguous clue worth 30 points is read. This continues for two more questions (worth 20 and 10 points respectively), until, if no team is able to give the correct answer, the answer is read. Unlike [[Good Quizbowl]], the first clue does not provide only one possible answer. The 40-point question is often described as being written as though "an expert in that field" would be unable to be absolutely sure of the correct answer, and as a result, can often trigger highly inaccurate guesses, or in the case of non-competitive teams, non-sensical answers which are made to incite laughs and in doing so, delay the game. The 40-point clue can vary in difficulty from completely, improbably difficult, (almost to the a point where one questions the point of it; e.g. "This country is located in Europe." or "He was born in 1685.") to reasonably difficult. <br />
<br />
===Assigned===<br />
Worth 80 points in total, this category consists of questions posed to specific individuals. One team, designated "Team A", will have each of its team members asked one question. If answered incorrectly, the player sitting directly across from that player will have an opportunity to answer that question. Once team A has had all of its players asked a question, team B's players are then asked questions one-by-one in a similar fashion. All of the questions relate to one category (e.g. European national capitals). Consultation is forbidden.<br />
<br />
===Team Questions===<br />
These questions work similarly to tossup/bonus questions. One question is posed to both teams. The team that correctly answers the question has an opportunity to answer three more questions. The only differences between that and quizbowl are that the "tossup" question is usually very short and very easy and the bonus questions (actually called bonus) are related in topic to the "tossup" question.<br />
<br />
===List===<br />
Worth 50 points, this category involves teams alternating in turns to complete a list. Both teams have an opportunity to buzzz in for the first answer. After each question is answered correctly the other team has an opportunity to give an answer. Once a team gets a question wrong, they may no longer answer.<br />
e.g. List all of the professional teams that Wayne Gretzky played for.<br />
Team A (buzzes in): "Edmonton Oilers" - Correct<br />
Team B: "New York Rangers" - Correct<br />
Team A: "St. Louis Blues" - Correct<br />
Team B: "Philadelphia Flyers" - Incorrect<br />
Team A: "Los Angeles Kings & Indianapolis Racers" - Correct x 2<br />
<br />
==Canadian Tournament Play==<br />
<br />
The modern Reach for the Top season begins with SchoolReach - regional leagues playing in classrooms. For most provinces, a "region" encompasses the entire province, while BC and Ontario are divided into smaller regions either for league play (in BC) or to serve as qualifiers for a provincial tournament (in Ontario). A few provinces have their playoff matches televised. The territories, Saskatchewan, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador do not currently have provincial tournaments; any schools from those regions may participate in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, respectively.<br />
<br />
Depending on participation levels, provincial tournaments will qualify either one or two teams to the national tournament, held for the past several years in Edmonton. The national tournament consists of an in-classroom round-robin, followed by televised playoffs.<br />
<br />
Most regions offer an "Intermediate" division tournament open to freshmen and sophomores, but there is no framework for an Intermediate national tournament. "Intermediate" would likely be higher than a "Junior" division (presumably for middle school), but a middle school tournament does not exist. Reach attempted to start a university tournament in the early 2000s, but some [[NAQT]] tournaments had already taken root at the time.<br />
<br />
There are a few Reach (or Reach-style) tournaments held during the year that are independent of the qualification process to Nationals. New Brunswick has 5-6 per year around the province, Toronto has had a few in recent years, and [[Lisgar]] CI held a tournament in Ottawa in 2007. Nevertheless, the number of tournaments is much smaller than availability in several US regions.<br />
<!--taking out unsubstantiated complaints until they can be verified: schools are "obliged" to play Reach??? --><br />
<!-- Active Canadian trivia teams are plagued and frustrated by the lack of Reach tournaments in Canada. In fact, in Ontario and the rest of Canada, the Reach for the Top season does not officially start until the end of February, when the first round of regional qualifiers begin. After that, there is in the bigger "leagues" (although this term is loose-fitting) a regional round #2, followed by provincials, followed by nationals.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately for most, only a fraction of teams gain entrance to provincials, and an even smaller fraction gain entrance into nationals (16 teams out of over 500). To put this in perspective, out of over 210 teams in the province of Ontario, only 2 are sent to the national tournament, hence the reason that [[Lisgar]] Collegiate, despite winning every Canadian quizbowl event and finishing in 18th place after the preliminaries at the [[2007 NAQT HSNCT]], had not qualified for nationals until 2008.<br />
<br />
Despite this lack of competition, there have been little or no winds of change regarding that fact. Few schools have made an effort to host tournaments, and the Reach for the Top organization has shown little motivation to take on any hosting before February. What makes this problem worse is that the organization does not advertise or provide readily-available information for hosting tournaments. As a result, few schools are even aware that they can host tournaments, which means that, to many schools, this lack of competition does not seem out of the ordinary.<br />
<br />
Part of this fact can be contributed to the "Canadiana" aspect of Reach for the Top. Because of the history and cultural engrainment of Reach for the Top in Canadian culture (the show has been around for decades, it was parodied on SCTV by future star Eugene Levy, and the majority of Canadian adults either played or knew someone who played Reach in high school), many schools seem comfortable with the fact that the season starts and ends after 1-2 tournaments in the spring, as they cling to the mostly fruitless hope that they may, someday, win a national title or at least appear on television. This acceptance is partially responsible for most schools feeling 1-2 tournaments is not out of the ordinary. Additionally, because of this Canadian cultural engrainment, some pro-Reach individuals actively oppose any deviation from the current system, including participation in quizbowl, again, hindering an increase in the amount of competition.<br />
<br />
Perhaps an advantage of the cultural engrainment, however, is that the majority of secondary schools in Canada feel obliged to field a Reach team of some sort, thereby increasing the size of the regional qualifier tournaments. Unfortunately, this does not apply to all areas of the country, as some provinces do not participate in Reach for the Top at all. In Quebec, as a result of the few anglophone schools, there are only 8 Reach for the Top teams in that province. The francophone schools play a similar format called "Genies en Herbes" (young geniuses).<br />
<br />
Because of this, the more active teams in Canada must often find additional competition. Recently, activity has increased in the Ottawa area, as a result of the [[University of Ottawa]], as well as [[Merivale|Merivale High Schoool]], [[Gananoque Secondary School]] and Lisgar Collegiate, the latter of which hosted one of the only "pre-season" Reach for the Top tournaments in Canada on December 1st, when it <br />
organized the 07 [[Lisgar Open]]. --><br />
<br />
==Rule 1 Issues==<br />
<br />
Rule #1 of Reach for the Top states:<br />
<br />
"Any student who is 19 or under at the ''beginning'' of the school year and has been continuously enrolled in a Secondary School is eligible to play both SCHOOLREACH and REACH FOR THE TOP."<br />
<br />
This rule originally accommodated the 5-year high school system in Ontario, which ended with students entering in 1999. This rule has since not changed, even with Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador having 3-year high schools. As such, some players and teams have exploited this loophole to various degrees of success:<br />
<br />
* Quebec's league was established in the 2001-02 season. CEGEPs, which have high school graduates, are allowed to compete under the rule, and a CEGEP represents Quebec at Nationals nearly every year. Royal West Academy, a high school, broke this trend by qualifying for Nationals in 2008.<br />
<br />
* [[Andy Saunders]] played Reach For The Top for six seasons in high school due to Rule #1.<br />
<br />
* A player from [[Leaside]] celebrated his 19th birthday at the Ontario provincial tournament his team ended up winning in 2005. They failed to win Nationals, however.<br />
<br />
* The captain of [[2004 St. George's]] was in his fifth year of Reach, and won the national championship. What was particularly ironic was the fact that the coach was quite vocal about fifth-year Ontario teams winning Nationals throughout the 1990s.<br />
<br />
It should be noted that several Ontario teams have managed to win the national championships in the 4-year system.<br />
<br />
==Championship Disputes==<br />
<br />
Since the conversion from a CBC program to SchoolReach, there have been incidents that have left a national title in dispute by some parties:<br />
<br />
*[[1989 Tagwi]]: Tagwi won an early match because of a (possibly) incorrect ruling over the ingredients of borscht. The team got screwed over in the end, though. They never got a trophy because of a dispute between Reach and the old CBC champions, and their scheduled exhibition match with the [[NAC]] champions was cancelled because a party in the US (the team? the TV crew? Chip Beall?) didn't want to travel to Canada.<br />
<br />
*[[1995 Fredericton]]: In the aftermath of issues surrounding the [[1995 Bell]] team, a team from [[Lisgar]] that won the zone match to earn a berth in provincials never got the opportunity to play. How well the Lisgar team would have fared is now only speculative.<br />
<br />
*[[2008 Lisgar]]: Down by 5 points, the runner-up team from [[UTS]] claimed they buzzed in at the end of the game before the time alarm went off. It had to go to a video review, and Reach judged in favour of Lisgar. A small edit war erupted on Wikipedia between anonymous Toronto IPs and quizbowlers apparently "sympathetic" to Lisgar over how the championship should be listed in the article.<br />
<br />
*[[2009 London Central]]: London Central's opponents in the finals from Kennebecasis were not informed by either Reach For The Top or TVO that there would be a change in format for the final game until minutes before the game began. The team from Kennebecasis had also never played using TVOs format (which eliminates the shootout and includes relatively easy questions among other changes) before. The London Central team had played using TVOs format two weeks earlier for the Ontario Provincials, giving them an advantage for the finals. The national tournament was also notable for the recycling of several questions during the round robin portion which could have also affected the outcome of the tournament in terms of seeding the teams for the playoffs.<br />
<br />
==Notable Participants==<br />
<br />
As a long-standing and highly-regarded establishment in Canada, several people have participated during their high school years and gone on to great success. A list of notable former players, coaches, and Reach personnel follows (names in '''bold''' won the national championship):<br />
<br />
===Politics===<br />
* Kim Campbell - Prime Minister of Canada (1993)<br />
* Mark Carney - Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008- )<br />
* Grant Devine - Premier of Saskatchewan (1982-91)<br />
* [[Stephen Harper]] - Prime Minister of Canada (2006- )<br />
* '''[[Ken Kowalski]]''' - Speaker of the Legislature of Alberta (1997- )<br />
* [[Bernard Lord]] - Premier of New Brunswick (1999-2006)<br />
* Stuart Smith - Leader of the Opposition of Ontario (1977-81)<br />
<br />
===Media===<br />
* '''Howard Green''' - Business News Network host, former CBC documentarian<br />
*'''Tom Harrington''' - CBC Sports reporter<br />
* Shelagh Rogers - CBC Radio and TVO personality<br />
* Jan Tennant - Anchor of CBC's ''The National'' and ''Saturday Evening News'' (1970s)<br />
* Alex Trebek - Host of [[Jeopardy!]] ( [http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/television/clips/15279/ A video of an exhibition match between Reach and Genies players] )<br />
<br />
===Other===<br />
* Malcolm Gladwell - Author of the bestsellers ''The Tipping Point'', ''Blink'', and ''Outliers''<br />
* '''Bernard Hibbitts''' - Law professor at the University of Pittsburgh [http://faculty.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/profile.htm]; founder of JURIST news service<br />
* Dr. '''Sethu Reddy''' - Former professor of medicine at Dalhousie & Harvard; chairman at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio<br />
<br />
==National Champions==<br />
<br />
''Reach for the Top had televised matches as early as 1961, but no national champions were declared until 1966. There were no national champions from 1986-88.''<br />
<br />
{| border="1" cellspacing="0"<br />
! Year<br />
! Champion<br />
! Prov<br />
! Runner-up<br />
! Prov<br />
! Location<br />
! Notes<br />
|- <br />
| 1966<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1967<br />
| [[Rideau]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1968<br />
| [[Oak Bay]]<br />
| BC<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1969<br />
| [[Neil McNeil]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1970<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1971<br />
| [[River East]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1972<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1973<br />
| [[1973 Lorne Jenkins|Lorne Jenkins]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1974<br />
| [[Gonzaga (St. John's)|Gonzaga]]<br />
| NL<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| St. John's, NL<br />
| Only NL champion<br />
|-<br />
| 1975<br />
| [[Queen Elizabeth]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1976<br />
| [[Central Peel]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Thunder Bay, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1977<br />
| [[Glenlawn]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Calgary, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[1978 Reach for the Top Nationals|1978]]<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Charlottetown, PE<br />
| First two-time champions; defeated [[1978 Richview]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1979<br />
| [[Banting Memorial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1980<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Sir Winston Churchill]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1981<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Corner Brook, NL<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1982<br />
| [[Dakota]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1983<br />
| [[Roland Michener]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1984<br />
| [[Deloraine]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Moncton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Regina, SK<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| 1985<br />
| [[1985 Kate Andrews|Kate Andrews]]<br />
| AB<br />
| [[Wagar]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Moncton, NB<br />
| Last year on CBC<br />
|-<br />
| 1989<br />
| [[1989 Tagwi|Tagwi]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Mount Douglas]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| Revival as "Schoolreach"<br />
|-<br />
| 1990<br />
| [[Memorial]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1991<br />
| [[St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| [[St. Albert]]<br />
| AB<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1992<br />
| [[1992 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1993<br />
| [[1993 St. Joseph's|St. Joseph's]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1993 Hay|William E. Hay]]<br />
| AB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1994<br />
| [[1994 Bell|Bell]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1994 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1995<br />
| [[1995 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1996<br />
| [[1996 Saunders|Saunders]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| First two-time champion player: [[Dave Thorsley]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1997<br />
| [[1997 Earl Haig|Earl Haig]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1997 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1998<br />
| [[1998 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1998 Kingston|Kingston CVI]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Halifax, NS<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1999<br />
| [[1999 Frontenac|Frontenac]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2000<br />
| [[2000 Merivale|Merivale]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2000 Ridley|Ridley]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| National finals return to TV<br />
|-<br />
| 2001<br />
| [[2001 Gloucester|Gloucester]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2001 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2002<br />
| [[2002 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2002 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2003<br />
| [[2003 UTS|UTS]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2003 Dawson|Dawson]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First back-to-back championships<br />
|-<br />
| 2004<br />
| [[2004 St. George's|St. George's]] (2)<br />
| BC<br />
| [[2004 Leaside|Leaside]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2005<br />
| [[2005 Cobequid|Cobequid]] (2)<br />
| NS<br />
| [[2005 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First champion of both CBC and SchoolReach eras<br />
|-<br />
| 2006<br />
| [[2006 Woburn|Woburn]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2006 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2007 Reach for the Top Nationals|2007]]<br />
| [[2007 London Central|London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2007 Kennebecasis|Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2008 Reach for the Top Nationals|2008]]<br />
| [[2008 Lisgar|Lisgar]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2008 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2009 Reach for the Top Nationals|2009]]<br />
| [[London Central]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| Excluding the final game, the National Finals left TV.<br />
|-<br />
| [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised<br />
|-<br />
| [[2011 Reach for the Top Nationals|2011]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]] (2)<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Centennial (Ontario high school)|Centennial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised. Semifinals and Finals were played at Canada's Wonderland <br />
|-<br />
| [[2012 Reach for the Top Nationals|2012]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (3)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2013 Reach for the Top Nationals|2013]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (4)<br />
| ON<br />
|[[Bellerose]]<br />
|AB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2014 Reach for the Top Nationals|2014]]<br />
| [[Martingrove]]<br />
| ON<br />
|[[London Central]]<br />
|ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
=== National Final Appearances ===<br />
''Not all runners-up are confirmed''<br />
* '''Seven finals:''' [[UTS]]<br />
* '''Four finals:''' [[Kennebecasis]], [[London Central]], [[St. George's]]<br />
* '''Three finals:''' [[Cobequid]], [[Dryden]], [[Gloucester]]<br />
* '''Two finals:''' [[Fredericton]], [[Hillcrest]], [[Kelvin]], [[O'Leary]], [[Saunders]], [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[Top of the Form]], the British predecessor to Reach<br />
* [[List of Ontario Reach for the Top qualifying leagues]]<br />
* [[Criticisms of Reach for the Top]] <br />
<br />
[[Category:Canada]]<br />
[[Category:Quizbowl TV shows]] <br />
[[Category:Bad Quizbowl]] <br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top]] <br />
[[Category:High school formats]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Banting_Memorial&diff=22404Banting Memorial2014-06-19T15:59:42Z<p>Ben Smith: Banting Memorial</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Banting Memorial High School''' is a high school in Alliston, Ontario.<br />
<br />
In 1979, a team of Brian Melmore, Eric Filseth, Paul Filseth, and Trent Mayers won the [[Reach for the Top]] national championship. At Nationals, they defeated [[Glenlawn]] from Manitoba, Colonel Gray from PEI, [[Gonzaga]] from Newfoundland, and [[Dryden]] from Northern Ontario.<br />
<br />
Banting Memorial is not active in SchoolReach, and should not be confused with Banting Secondary in London, Ontario, which is active.<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1979<br />
|previous = [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
|next = [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top championship teams]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Vincent_Massey_(Etobicoke)&diff=22403Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)2014-06-19T15:46:01Z<p>Ben Smith: /* Title Succession */ adjusting "Banting"</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Pic|Image = 1966VincentMassey.jpg<br />
| Caption = 1965-66 Vincent Massey Reach for the Top Team<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Vincent Massey''' Collegiate Institute was a high school in Etobicoke, Ontario from 1961 to 1985. In the 1990s, the building was occupied by a new school, Michael Power/St. Joseph, but it has a separate history from Vincent Massey CI. There is also a [[Vincent Massey]] Secondary School in Windsor, ON.<br />
<br />
==Reach for the Top==<br />
<br />
Vincent Massey participated in the inaugural season of televised [[Reach for the Top]] on CBC, winning in the first year. In [[1978 Vincent Massey|1978]], their first match was against [[Stephen Harper]]-led [[1978 Richview|Richview]]. The team won the Etobicoke finals (420-205 over Scarlett Heights), the Toronto-area championship (420-160 over West Hill), the southern Ontario championship (460-205 over Walkerton), and the [[1978 Reach for the Top Nationals]] tournament. A fan or alumnus of Vincent Massey uploaded several episodes of their 1978 matches to video-sharing sites like Veoh and Truveo in March 2009.<br />
<br />
With their 1978 victory, Vincent Massey became the first school to win the championship twice, and the only school to do so during the CBC era.<br />
<br />
==Title Succession==<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1966<br />
|previous = none<br />
|next = [[Rideau]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1978<br />
|previous = [[Glenlawn]]<br />
|next = [[Banting Memorial]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Vincent Massey CI]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Reach_for_the_Top&diff=22402Reach for the Top2014-06-19T13:46:59Z<p>Ben Smith: /* National Champions */ finals appearances</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Reach for the Top''' is the dominant high school quiz competition in Canada. Technically a form of [[quizbowl]], it has a larger sports distribution than other academic quizbowl formats, contains more hoses, and is composed almost entirely of speed-check questions which are often [[pyramidal|non-pyramidal]]. It is also more expensive than alternatives like [[NAQT]]. <br />
<br />
French students usually play [[Genies en herbe]], while university students play in the [[quizbowl]] format.<br />
<br />
==Gameplay==<br />
<br />
The majority of questions in Reach for the Top are approximately the length of quizbowl bonus questions (1-2 sentences), and are worth, for the most part, 10 points each. Interruption of the questions for early guesses are not only allowed but also encouraged, as the game is based heavily on speed. If a team buzzes in and answer a question incorrectly, the opposing team has approximately 3-5 seconds to consult and form an answer. Consultation is permitted at almost all times in Reach for the Top (see "Shootouts" and "Assigned" for exceptions). There are no [[negs]] or [[powers]] in Reach, although negs (-5) appeared in the 2007 Nationals for the first time.<br />
<br />
==Categories==<br />
<br />
===Snapstart/Snapout/Open===<br />
Forming the bulk of Reach for the Top questions, these consist of 1-2 sentence questions open to both teams and are worth ten points each. Snapout/Snapstart categories take place at the beginning and end of each round respectively, and the subject of each question varies (i.e. none are linked by a category). "Open" categories are, mostly, worth 40 points in total, and consist of 4 questions all linked by one similar category (e.g. "40 point open on architects"); it is open to both teams. <br />
<br />
==="20 Point Special"===<br />
Like an open question (see last category), but the answer often requires 2 answers in one (e.g. Q: Name both years in which a player's strike or owner's lockout was responsible for the cancellation of some or all of the games in an NHL season. A: 1994-95 and 2004-05 [sic] and 2012-13) In other cases, the 20 point special can require one very long answer, for example, the provincial motto of Newfoundland, ''Quaerite primum regnum Dei''<br />
<br />
===Shootout===<br />
A maximum of 12 questions are posed in this category. Once one player has answered a question correctly, they may no longer answer any questions. This player is now "out". Once one team has every one of its 4 players "out", they gain 40 points, and the other team gains 0. Consultation is forbidden at all times in this category. Concerns that have arisen with this category include A) 12 questions are needed to generate 40 points and B) Both teams can have 3 players out with one question left, which one team may barely answer correctly on speed, giving them all 40 points, and thus a very important swing on a very little difference between teams.<br />
<br />
===Chain Snappers===<br />
Similar to a snapstart/snapout, chain snappers involve the answer to one question forming the topic of the succeeding question. As a result, the best and fastest teams can often answer the next question with only 3-4 words read.<br />
<br />
===Who am I/What am I===<br />
Who am I/What am I questions consist of four clues with decreasing point value, beginning with a (usually vague) opening question. If answered correctly on this question, that team gains 40 points. If neither team guesses correctly, the answer is not read, and a slightly less ambiguous clue worth 30 points is read. This continues for two more questions (worth 20 and 10 points respectively), until, if no team is able to give the correct answer, the answer is read. Unlike [[Good Quizbowl]], the first clue does not provide only one possible answer. The 40-point question is often described as being written as though "an expert in that field" would be unable to be absolutely sure of the correct answer, and as a result, can often trigger highly inaccurate guesses, or in the case of non-competitive teams, non-sensical answers which are made to incite laughs and in doing so, delay the game. The 40-point clue can vary in difficulty from completely, improbably difficult, (almost to the a point where one questions the point of it; e.g. "This country is located in Europe." or "He was born in 1685.") to reasonably difficult. <br />
<br />
===Assigned===<br />
Worth 80 points in total, this category consists of questions posed to specific individuals. One team, designated "Team A", will have each of its team members asked one question. If answered incorrectly, the player sitting directly across from that player will have an opportunity to answer that question. Once team A has had all of its players asked a question, team B's players are then asked questions one-by-one in a similar fashion. All of the questions relate to one category (e.g. European national capitals). Consultation is forbidden.<br />
<br />
===Team Questions===<br />
These questions work similarly to tossup/bonus questions. One question is posed to both teams. The team that correctly answers the question has an opportunity to answer three more questions. The only differences between that and quizbowl are that the "tossup" question is usually very short and very easy and the bonus questions (actually called bonus) are related in topic to the "tossup" question.<br />
<br />
===List===<br />
Worth 50 points, this category involves teams alternating in turns to complete a list. Both teams have an opportunity to buzzz in for the first answer. After each question is answered correctly the other team has an opportunity to give an answer. Once a team gets a question wrong, they may no longer answer.<br />
e.g. List all of the professional teams that Wayne Gretzky played for.<br />
Team A (buzzes in): "Edmonton Oilers" - Correct<br />
Team B: "New York Rangers" - Correct<br />
Team A: "St. Louis Blues" - Correct<br />
Team B: "Philadelphia Flyers" - Incorrect<br />
Team A: "Los Angeles Kings & Indianapolis Racers" - Correct x 2<br />
<br />
==Canadian Tournament Play==<br />
<br />
The modern Reach for the Top season begins with SchoolReach - regional leagues playing in classrooms. For most provinces, a "region" encompasses the entire province, while BC and Ontario are divided into smaller regions either for league play (in BC) or to serve as qualifiers for a provincial tournament (in Ontario). A few provinces have their playoff matches televised. The territories, Saskatchewan, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador do not currently have provincial tournaments; any schools from those regions may participate in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, respectively.<br />
<br />
Depending on participation levels, provincial tournaments will qualify either one or two teams to the national tournament, held for the past several years in Edmonton. The national tournament consists of an in-classroom round-robin, followed by televised playoffs.<br />
<br />
Most regions offer an "Intermediate" division tournament open to freshmen and sophomores, but there is no framework for an Intermediate national tournament. "Intermediate" would likely be higher than a "Junior" division (presumably for middle school), but a middle school tournament does not exist. Reach attempted to start a university tournament in the early 2000s, but some [[NAQT]] tournaments had already taken root at the time.<br />
<br />
There are a few Reach (or Reach-style) tournaments held during the year that are independent of the qualification process to Nationals. New Brunswick has 5-6 per year around the province, Toronto has had a few in recent years, and [[Lisgar]] CI held a tournament in Ottawa in 2007. Nevertheless, the number of tournaments is much smaller than availability in several US regions.<br />
<!--taking out unsubstantiated complaints until they can be verified: schools are "obliged" to play Reach??? --><br />
<!-- Active Canadian trivia teams are plagued and frustrated by the lack of Reach tournaments in Canada. In fact, in Ontario and the rest of Canada, the Reach for the Top season does not officially start until the end of February, when the first round of regional qualifiers begin. After that, there is in the bigger "leagues" (although this term is loose-fitting) a regional round #2, followed by provincials, followed by nationals.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately for most, only a fraction of teams gain entrance to provincials, and an even smaller fraction gain entrance into nationals (16 teams out of over 500). To put this in perspective, out of over 210 teams in the province of Ontario, only 2 are sent to the national tournament, hence the reason that [[Lisgar]] Collegiate, despite winning every Canadian quizbowl event and finishing in 18th place after the preliminaries at the [[2007 NAQT HSNCT]], had not qualified for nationals until 2008.<br />
<br />
Despite this lack of competition, there have been little or no winds of change regarding that fact. Few schools have made an effort to host tournaments, and the Reach for the Top organization has shown little motivation to take on any hosting before February. What makes this problem worse is that the organization does not advertise or provide readily-available information for hosting tournaments. As a result, few schools are even aware that they can host tournaments, which means that, to many schools, this lack of competition does not seem out of the ordinary.<br />
<br />
Part of this fact can be contributed to the "Canadiana" aspect of Reach for the Top. Because of the history and cultural engrainment of Reach for the Top in Canadian culture (the show has been around for decades, it was parodied on SCTV by future star Eugene Levy, and the majority of Canadian adults either played or knew someone who played Reach in high school), many schools seem comfortable with the fact that the season starts and ends after 1-2 tournaments in the spring, as they cling to the mostly fruitless hope that they may, someday, win a national title or at least appear on television. This acceptance is partially responsible for most schools feeling 1-2 tournaments is not out of the ordinary. Additionally, because of this Canadian cultural engrainment, some pro-Reach individuals actively oppose any deviation from the current system, including participation in quizbowl, again, hindering an increase in the amount of competition.<br />
<br />
Perhaps an advantage of the cultural engrainment, however, is that the majority of secondary schools in Canada feel obliged to field a Reach team of some sort, thereby increasing the size of the regional qualifier tournaments. Unfortunately, this does not apply to all areas of the country, as some provinces do not participate in Reach for the Top at all. In Quebec, as a result of the few anglophone schools, there are only 8 Reach for the Top teams in that province. The francophone schools play a similar format called "Genies en Herbes" (young geniuses).<br />
<br />
Because of this, the more active teams in Canada must often find additional competition. Recently, activity has increased in the Ottawa area, as a result of the [[University of Ottawa]], as well as [[Merivale|Merivale High Schoool]], [[Gananoque Secondary School]] and Lisgar Collegiate, the latter of which hosted one of the only "pre-season" Reach for the Top tournaments in Canada on December 1st, when it <br />
organized the 07 [[Lisgar Open]]. --><br />
<br />
==Rule 1 Issues==<br />
<br />
Rule #1 of Reach for the Top states:<br />
<br />
"Any student who is 19 or under at the ''beginning'' of the school year and has been continuously enrolled in a Secondary School is eligible to play both SCHOOLREACH and REACH FOR THE TOP."<br />
<br />
This rule originally accommodated the 5-year high school system in Ontario, which ended with students entering in 1999. This rule has since not changed, even with Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador having 3-year high schools. As such, some players and teams have exploited this loophole to various degrees of success:<br />
<br />
* Quebec's league was established in the 2001-02 season. CEGEPs, which have high school graduates, are allowed to compete under the rule, and a CEGEP represents Quebec at Nationals nearly every year. Royal West Academy, a high school, broke this trend by qualifying for Nationals in 2008.<br />
<br />
* [[Andy Saunders]] played Reach For The Top for six seasons in high school due to Rule #1.<br />
<br />
* A player from [[Leaside]] celebrated his 19th birthday at the Ontario provincial tournament his team ended up winning in 2005. They failed to win Nationals, however.<br />
<br />
* The captain of [[2004 St. George's]] was in his fifth year of Reach, and won the national championship. What was particularly ironic was the fact that the coach was quite vocal about fifth-year Ontario teams winning Nationals throughout the 1990s.<br />
<br />
It should be noted that several Ontario teams have managed to win the national championships in the 4-year system.<br />
<br />
==Championship Disputes==<br />
<br />
Since the conversion from a CBC program to SchoolReach, there have been incidents that have left a national title in dispute by some parties:<br />
<br />
*[[1989 Tagwi]]: Tagwi won an early match because of a (possibly) incorrect ruling over the ingredients of borscht. The team got screwed over in the end, though. They never got a trophy because of a dispute between Reach and the old CBC champions, and their scheduled exhibition match with the [[NAC]] champions was cancelled because a party in the US (the team? the TV crew? Chip Beall?) didn't want to travel to Canada.<br />
<br />
*[[1995 Fredericton]]: In the aftermath of issues surrounding the [[1995 Bell]] team, a team from [[Lisgar]] that won the zone match to earn a berth in provincials never got the opportunity to play. How well the Lisgar team would have fared is now only speculative.<br />
<br />
*[[2008 Lisgar]]: Down by 5 points, the runner-up team from [[UTS]] claimed they buzzed in at the end of the game before the time alarm went off. It had to go to a video review, and Reach judged in favour of Lisgar. A small edit war erupted on Wikipedia between anonymous Toronto IPs and quizbowlers apparently "sympathetic" to Lisgar over how the championship should be listed in the article.<br />
<br />
*[[2009 London Central]]: London Central's opponents in the finals from Kennebecasis were not informed by either Reach For The Top or TVO that there would be a change in format for the final game until minutes before the game began. The team from Kennebecasis had also never played using TVOs format (which eliminates the shootout and includes relatively easy questions among other changes) before. The London Central team had played using TVOs format two weeks earlier for the Ontario Provincials, giving them an advantage for the finals. The national tournament was also notable for the recycling of several questions during the round robin portion which could have also affected the outcome of the tournament in terms of seeding the teams for the playoffs.<br />
<br />
==Notable Participants==<br />
<br />
As a long-standing and highly-regarded establishment in Canada, several people have participated during their high school years and gone on to great success. A list of notable former players, coaches, and Reach personnel follows (names in '''bold''' won the national championship):<br />
<br />
===Politics===<br />
* Kim Campbell - Prime Minister of Canada (1993)<br />
* Mark Carney - Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008- )<br />
* Grant Devine - Premier of Saskatchewan (1982-91)<br />
* [[Stephen Harper]] - Prime Minister of Canada (2006- )<br />
* '''[[Ken Kowalski]]''' - Speaker of the Legislature of Alberta (1997- )<br />
* [[Bernard Lord]] - Premier of New Brunswick (1999-2006)<br />
* Stuart Smith - Leader of the Opposition of Ontario (1977-81)<br />
<br />
===Media===<br />
* '''Howard Green''' - Business News Network host, former CBC documentarian<br />
*'''Tom Harrington''' - CBC Sports reporter<br />
* Shelagh Rogers - CBC Radio and TVO personality<br />
* Jan Tennant - Anchor of CBC's ''The National'' and ''Saturday Evening News'' (1970s)<br />
* Alex Trebek - Host of [[Jeopardy!]] ( [http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/television/clips/15279/ A video of an exhibition match between Reach and Genies players] )<br />
<br />
===Other===<br />
* Malcolm Gladwell - Author of the bestsellers ''The Tipping Point'', ''Blink'', and ''Outliers''<br />
* '''Bernard Hibbitts''' - Law professor at the University of Pittsburgh [http://faculty.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/profile.htm]; founder of JURIST news service<br />
* Dr. '''Sethu Reddy''' - Former professor of medicine at Dalhousie & Harvard; chairman at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio<br />
<br />
==National Champions==<br />
<br />
''Reach for the Top had televised matches as early as 1961, but no national champions were declared until 1966. There were no national champions from 1986-88.''<br />
<br />
{| border="1" cellspacing="0"<br />
! Year<br />
! Champion<br />
! Prov<br />
! Runner-up<br />
! Prov<br />
! Location<br />
! Notes<br />
|- <br />
| 1966<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1967<br />
| [[Rideau]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1968<br />
| [[Oak Bay]]<br />
| BC<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1969<br />
| [[Neil McNeil]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1970<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1971<br />
| [[River East]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1972<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1973<br />
| [[1973 Lorne Jenkins|Lorne Jenkins]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1974<br />
| [[Gonzaga (St. John's)|Gonzaga]]<br />
| NL<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| St. John's, NL<br />
| Only NL champion<br />
|-<br />
| 1975<br />
| [[Queen Elizabeth]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1976<br />
| [[Central Peel]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Thunder Bay, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1977<br />
| [[Glenlawn]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Calgary, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[1978 Reach for the Top Nationals|1978]]<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Charlottetown, PE<br />
| First two-time champions; defeated [[1978 Richview]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1979<br />
| [[Banting]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1980<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Sir Winston Churchill]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1981<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Corner Brook, NL<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1982<br />
| [[Dakota]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1983<br />
| [[Roland Michener]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1984<br />
| [[Deloraine]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Moncton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Regina, SK<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| 1985<br />
| [[1985 Kate Andrews|Kate Andrews]]<br />
| AB<br />
| [[Wagar]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Moncton, NB<br />
| Last year on CBC<br />
|-<br />
| 1989<br />
| [[1989 Tagwi|Tagwi]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Mount Douglas]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| Revival as "Schoolreach"<br />
|-<br />
| 1990<br />
| [[Memorial]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1991<br />
| [[St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| [[St. Albert]]<br />
| AB<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1992<br />
| [[1992 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1993<br />
| [[1993 St. Joseph's|St. Joseph's]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1993 Hay|William E. Hay]]<br />
| AB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1994<br />
| [[1994 Bell|Bell]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1994 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1995<br />
| [[1995 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1996<br />
| [[1996 Saunders|Saunders]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| First two-time champion player: [[Dave Thorsley]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1997<br />
| [[1997 Earl Haig|Earl Haig]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1997 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1998<br />
| [[1998 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1998 Kingston|Kingston CVI]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Halifax, NS<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1999<br />
| [[1999 Frontenac|Frontenac]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2000<br />
| [[2000 Merivale|Merivale]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2000 Ridley|Ridley]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| National finals return to TV<br />
|-<br />
| 2001<br />
| [[2001 Gloucester|Gloucester]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2001 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2002<br />
| [[2002 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2002 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2003<br />
| [[2003 UTS|UTS]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2003 Dawson|Dawson]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First back-to-back championships<br />
|-<br />
| 2004<br />
| [[2004 St. George's|St. George's]] (2)<br />
| BC<br />
| [[2004 Leaside|Leaside]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2005<br />
| [[2005 Cobequid|Cobequid]] (2)<br />
| NS<br />
| [[2005 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First champion of both CBC and SchoolReach eras<br />
|-<br />
| 2006<br />
| [[2006 Woburn|Woburn]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2006 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2007 Reach for the Top Nationals|2007]]<br />
| [[2007 London Central|London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2007 Kennebecasis|Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2008 Reach for the Top Nationals|2008]]<br />
| [[2008 Lisgar|Lisgar]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2008 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2009 Reach for the Top Nationals|2009]]<br />
| [[London Central]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| Excluding the final game, the National Finals left TV.<br />
|-<br />
| [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised<br />
|-<br />
| [[2011 Reach for the Top Nationals|2011]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]] (2)<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Centennial (Ontario high school)|Centennial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised. Semifinals and Finals were played at Canada's Wonderland <br />
|-<br />
| [[2012 Reach for the Top Nationals|2012]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (3)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2013 Reach for the Top Nationals|2013]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (4)<br />
| ON<br />
|[[Bellerose]]<br />
|AB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2014 Reach for the Top Nationals|2014]]<br />
| [[Martingrove]]<br />
| ON<br />
|[[London Central]]<br />
|ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
=== National Final Appearances ===<br />
''Not all runners-up are confirmed''<br />
* '''Seven finals:''' [[UTS]]<br />
* '''Four finals:''' [[Kennebecasis]], [[London Central]], [[St. George's]]<br />
* '''Three finals:''' [[Cobequid]], [[Dryden]], [[Gloucester]]<br />
* '''Two finals:''' [[Hillcrest]], [[Kelvin]], [[O'Leary]], [[Saunders]], [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[Top of the Form]], the British predecessor to Reach<br />
* [[List of Ontario Reach for the Top qualifying leagues]]<br />
* [[Criticisms of Reach for the Top]] <br />
<br />
[[Category:Canada]]<br />
[[Category:Quizbowl TV shows]] <br />
[[Category:Bad Quizbowl]] <br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top]] <br />
[[Category:High school formats]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Reach_for_the_Top&diff=22401Reach for the Top2014-06-19T13:32:57Z<p>Ben Smith: /* National Champions */ more info, some modern cleanup</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Reach for the Top''' is the dominant high school quiz competition in Canada. Technically a form of [[quizbowl]], it has a larger sports distribution than other academic quizbowl formats, contains more hoses, and is composed almost entirely of speed-check questions which are often [[pyramidal|non-pyramidal]]. It is also more expensive than alternatives like [[NAQT]]. <br />
<br />
French students usually play [[Genies en herbe]], while university students play in the [[quizbowl]] format.<br />
<br />
==Gameplay==<br />
<br />
The majority of questions in Reach for the Top are approximately the length of quizbowl bonus questions (1-2 sentences), and are worth, for the most part, 10 points each. Interruption of the questions for early guesses are not only allowed but also encouraged, as the game is based heavily on speed. If a team buzzes in and answer a question incorrectly, the opposing team has approximately 3-5 seconds to consult and form an answer. Consultation is permitted at almost all times in Reach for the Top (see "Shootouts" and "Assigned" for exceptions). There are no [[negs]] or [[powers]] in Reach, although negs (-5) appeared in the 2007 Nationals for the first time.<br />
<br />
==Categories==<br />
<br />
===Snapstart/Snapout/Open===<br />
Forming the bulk of Reach for the Top questions, these consist of 1-2 sentence questions open to both teams and are worth ten points each. Snapout/Snapstart categories take place at the beginning and end of each round respectively, and the subject of each question varies (i.e. none are linked by a category). "Open" categories are, mostly, worth 40 points in total, and consist of 4 questions all linked by one similar category (e.g. "40 point open on architects"); it is open to both teams. <br />
<br />
==="20 Point Special"===<br />
Like an open question (see last category), but the answer often requires 2 answers in one (e.g. Q: Name both years in which a player's strike or owner's lockout was responsible for the cancellation of some or all of the games in an NHL season. A: 1994-95 and 2004-05 [sic] and 2012-13) In other cases, the 20 point special can require one very long answer, for example, the provincial motto of Newfoundland, ''Quaerite primum regnum Dei''<br />
<br />
===Shootout===<br />
A maximum of 12 questions are posed in this category. Once one player has answered a question correctly, they may no longer answer any questions. This player is now "out". Once one team has every one of its 4 players "out", they gain 40 points, and the other team gains 0. Consultation is forbidden at all times in this category. Concerns that have arisen with this category include A) 12 questions are needed to generate 40 points and B) Both teams can have 3 players out with one question left, which one team may barely answer correctly on speed, giving them all 40 points, and thus a very important swing on a very little difference between teams.<br />
<br />
===Chain Snappers===<br />
Similar to a snapstart/snapout, chain snappers involve the answer to one question forming the topic of the succeeding question. As a result, the best and fastest teams can often answer the next question with only 3-4 words read.<br />
<br />
===Who am I/What am I===<br />
Who am I/What am I questions consist of four clues with decreasing point value, beginning with a (usually vague) opening question. If answered correctly on this question, that team gains 40 points. If neither team guesses correctly, the answer is not read, and a slightly less ambiguous clue worth 30 points is read. This continues for two more questions (worth 20 and 10 points respectively), until, if no team is able to give the correct answer, the answer is read. Unlike [[Good Quizbowl]], the first clue does not provide only one possible answer. The 40-point question is often described as being written as though "an expert in that field" would be unable to be absolutely sure of the correct answer, and as a result, can often trigger highly inaccurate guesses, or in the case of non-competitive teams, non-sensical answers which are made to incite laughs and in doing so, delay the game. The 40-point clue can vary in difficulty from completely, improbably difficult, (almost to the a point where one questions the point of it; e.g. "This country is located in Europe." or "He was born in 1685.") to reasonably difficult. <br />
<br />
===Assigned===<br />
Worth 80 points in total, this category consists of questions posed to specific individuals. One team, designated "Team A", will have each of its team members asked one question. If answered incorrectly, the player sitting directly across from that player will have an opportunity to answer that question. Once team A has had all of its players asked a question, team B's players are then asked questions one-by-one in a similar fashion. All of the questions relate to one category (e.g. European national capitals). Consultation is forbidden.<br />
<br />
===Team Questions===<br />
These questions work similarly to tossup/bonus questions. One question is posed to both teams. The team that correctly answers the question has an opportunity to answer three more questions. The only differences between that and quizbowl are that the "tossup" question is usually very short and very easy and the bonus questions (actually called bonus) are related in topic to the "tossup" question.<br />
<br />
===List===<br />
Worth 50 points, this category involves teams alternating in turns to complete a list. Both teams have an opportunity to buzzz in for the first answer. After each question is answered correctly the other team has an opportunity to give an answer. Once a team gets a question wrong, they may no longer answer.<br />
e.g. List all of the professional teams that Wayne Gretzky played for.<br />
Team A (buzzes in): "Edmonton Oilers" - Correct<br />
Team B: "New York Rangers" - Correct<br />
Team A: "St. Louis Blues" - Correct<br />
Team B: "Philadelphia Flyers" - Incorrect<br />
Team A: "Los Angeles Kings & Indianapolis Racers" - Correct x 2<br />
<br />
==Canadian Tournament Play==<br />
<br />
The modern Reach for the Top season begins with SchoolReach - regional leagues playing in classrooms. For most provinces, a "region" encompasses the entire province, while BC and Ontario are divided into smaller regions either for league play (in BC) or to serve as qualifiers for a provincial tournament (in Ontario). A few provinces have their playoff matches televised. The territories, Saskatchewan, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador do not currently have provincial tournaments; any schools from those regions may participate in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, respectively.<br />
<br />
Depending on participation levels, provincial tournaments will qualify either one or two teams to the national tournament, held for the past several years in Edmonton. The national tournament consists of an in-classroom round-robin, followed by televised playoffs.<br />
<br />
Most regions offer an "Intermediate" division tournament open to freshmen and sophomores, but there is no framework for an Intermediate national tournament. "Intermediate" would likely be higher than a "Junior" division (presumably for middle school), but a middle school tournament does not exist. Reach attempted to start a university tournament in the early 2000s, but some [[NAQT]] tournaments had already taken root at the time.<br />
<br />
There are a few Reach (or Reach-style) tournaments held during the year that are independent of the qualification process to Nationals. New Brunswick has 5-6 per year around the province, Toronto has had a few in recent years, and [[Lisgar]] CI held a tournament in Ottawa in 2007. Nevertheless, the number of tournaments is much smaller than availability in several US regions.<br />
<!--taking out unsubstantiated complaints until they can be verified: schools are "obliged" to play Reach??? --><br />
<!-- Active Canadian trivia teams are plagued and frustrated by the lack of Reach tournaments in Canada. In fact, in Ontario and the rest of Canada, the Reach for the Top season does not officially start until the end of February, when the first round of regional qualifiers begin. After that, there is in the bigger "leagues" (although this term is loose-fitting) a regional round #2, followed by provincials, followed by nationals.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately for most, only a fraction of teams gain entrance to provincials, and an even smaller fraction gain entrance into nationals (16 teams out of over 500). To put this in perspective, out of over 210 teams in the province of Ontario, only 2 are sent to the national tournament, hence the reason that [[Lisgar]] Collegiate, despite winning every Canadian quizbowl event and finishing in 18th place after the preliminaries at the [[2007 NAQT HSNCT]], had not qualified for nationals until 2008.<br />
<br />
Despite this lack of competition, there have been little or no winds of change regarding that fact. Few schools have made an effort to host tournaments, and the Reach for the Top organization has shown little motivation to take on any hosting before February. What makes this problem worse is that the organization does not advertise or provide readily-available information for hosting tournaments. As a result, few schools are even aware that they can host tournaments, which means that, to many schools, this lack of competition does not seem out of the ordinary.<br />
<br />
Part of this fact can be contributed to the "Canadiana" aspect of Reach for the Top. Because of the history and cultural engrainment of Reach for the Top in Canadian culture (the show has been around for decades, it was parodied on SCTV by future star Eugene Levy, and the majority of Canadian adults either played or knew someone who played Reach in high school), many schools seem comfortable with the fact that the season starts and ends after 1-2 tournaments in the spring, as they cling to the mostly fruitless hope that they may, someday, win a national title or at least appear on television. This acceptance is partially responsible for most schools feeling 1-2 tournaments is not out of the ordinary. Additionally, because of this Canadian cultural engrainment, some pro-Reach individuals actively oppose any deviation from the current system, including participation in quizbowl, again, hindering an increase in the amount of competition.<br />
<br />
Perhaps an advantage of the cultural engrainment, however, is that the majority of secondary schools in Canada feel obliged to field a Reach team of some sort, thereby increasing the size of the regional qualifier tournaments. Unfortunately, this does not apply to all areas of the country, as some provinces do not participate in Reach for the Top at all. In Quebec, as a result of the few anglophone schools, there are only 8 Reach for the Top teams in that province. The francophone schools play a similar format called "Genies en Herbes" (young geniuses).<br />
<br />
Because of this, the more active teams in Canada must often find additional competition. Recently, activity has increased in the Ottawa area, as a result of the [[University of Ottawa]], as well as [[Merivale|Merivale High Schoool]], [[Gananoque Secondary School]] and Lisgar Collegiate, the latter of which hosted one of the only "pre-season" Reach for the Top tournaments in Canada on December 1st, when it <br />
organized the 07 [[Lisgar Open]]. --><br />
<br />
==Rule 1 Issues==<br />
<br />
Rule #1 of Reach for the Top states:<br />
<br />
"Any student who is 19 or under at the ''beginning'' of the school year and has been continuously enrolled in a Secondary School is eligible to play both SCHOOLREACH and REACH FOR THE TOP."<br />
<br />
This rule originally accommodated the 5-year high school system in Ontario, which ended with students entering in 1999. This rule has since not changed, even with Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador having 3-year high schools. As such, some players and teams have exploited this loophole to various degrees of success:<br />
<br />
* Quebec's league was established in the 2001-02 season. CEGEPs, which have high school graduates, are allowed to compete under the rule, and a CEGEP represents Quebec at Nationals nearly every year. Royal West Academy, a high school, broke this trend by qualifying for Nationals in 2008.<br />
<br />
* [[Andy Saunders]] played Reach For The Top for six seasons in high school due to Rule #1.<br />
<br />
* A player from [[Leaside]] celebrated his 19th birthday at the Ontario provincial tournament his team ended up winning in 2005. They failed to win Nationals, however.<br />
<br />
* The captain of [[2004 St. George's]] was in his fifth year of Reach, and won the national championship. What was particularly ironic was the fact that the coach was quite vocal about fifth-year Ontario teams winning Nationals throughout the 1990s.<br />
<br />
It should be noted that several Ontario teams have managed to win the national championships in the 4-year system.<br />
<br />
==Championship Disputes==<br />
<br />
Since the conversion from a CBC program to SchoolReach, there have been incidents that have left a national title in dispute by some parties:<br />
<br />
*[[1989 Tagwi]]: Tagwi won an early match because of a (possibly) incorrect ruling over the ingredients of borscht. The team got screwed over in the end, though. They never got a trophy because of a dispute between Reach and the old CBC champions, and their scheduled exhibition match with the [[NAC]] champions was cancelled because a party in the US (the team? the TV crew? Chip Beall?) didn't want to travel to Canada.<br />
<br />
*[[1995 Fredericton]]: In the aftermath of issues surrounding the [[1995 Bell]] team, a team from [[Lisgar]] that won the zone match to earn a berth in provincials never got the opportunity to play. How well the Lisgar team would have fared is now only speculative.<br />
<br />
*[[2008 Lisgar]]: Down by 5 points, the runner-up team from [[UTS]] claimed they buzzed in at the end of the game before the time alarm went off. It had to go to a video review, and Reach judged in favour of Lisgar. A small edit war erupted on Wikipedia between anonymous Toronto IPs and quizbowlers apparently "sympathetic" to Lisgar over how the championship should be listed in the article.<br />
<br />
*[[2009 London Central]]: London Central's opponents in the finals from Kennebecasis were not informed by either Reach For The Top or TVO that there would be a change in format for the final game until minutes before the game began. The team from Kennebecasis had also never played using TVOs format (which eliminates the shootout and includes relatively easy questions among other changes) before. The London Central team had played using TVOs format two weeks earlier for the Ontario Provincials, giving them an advantage for the finals. The national tournament was also notable for the recycling of several questions during the round robin portion which could have also affected the outcome of the tournament in terms of seeding the teams for the playoffs.<br />
<br />
==Notable Participants==<br />
<br />
As a long-standing and highly-regarded establishment in Canada, several people have participated during their high school years and gone on to great success. A list of notable former players, coaches, and Reach personnel follows (names in '''bold''' won the national championship):<br />
<br />
===Politics===<br />
* Kim Campbell - Prime Minister of Canada (1993)<br />
* Mark Carney - Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008- )<br />
* Grant Devine - Premier of Saskatchewan (1982-91)<br />
* [[Stephen Harper]] - Prime Minister of Canada (2006- )<br />
* '''[[Ken Kowalski]]''' - Speaker of the Legislature of Alberta (1997- )<br />
* [[Bernard Lord]] - Premier of New Brunswick (1999-2006)<br />
* Stuart Smith - Leader of the Opposition of Ontario (1977-81)<br />
<br />
===Media===<br />
* '''Howard Green''' - Business News Network host, former CBC documentarian<br />
*'''Tom Harrington''' - CBC Sports reporter<br />
* Shelagh Rogers - CBC Radio and TVO personality<br />
* Jan Tennant - Anchor of CBC's ''The National'' and ''Saturday Evening News'' (1970s)<br />
* Alex Trebek - Host of [[Jeopardy!]] ( [http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/television/clips/15279/ A video of an exhibition match between Reach and Genies players] )<br />
<br />
===Other===<br />
* Malcolm Gladwell - Author of the bestsellers ''The Tipping Point'', ''Blink'', and ''Outliers''<br />
* '''Bernard Hibbitts''' - Law professor at the University of Pittsburgh [http://faculty.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/profile.htm]; founder of JURIST news service<br />
* Dr. '''Sethu Reddy''' - Former professor of medicine at Dalhousie & Harvard; chairman at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio<br />
<br />
==National Champions==<br />
<br />
''Reach for the Top had televised matches as early as 1961, but no national champions were declared until 1966. There were no national champions from 1986-88.''<br />
<br />
{| border="1" cellspacing="0"<br />
! Year<br />
! Champion<br />
! Prov<br />
! Runner-up<br />
! Prov<br />
! Location<br />
! Notes<br />
|- <br />
| 1966<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1967<br />
| [[Rideau]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1968<br />
| [[Oak Bay]]<br />
| BC<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1969<br />
| [[Neil McNeil]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1970<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1971<br />
| [[River East]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1972<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1973<br />
| [[1973 Lorne Jenkins|Lorne Jenkins]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1974<br />
| [[Gonzaga (St. John's)|Gonzaga]]<br />
| NL<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| St. John's, NL<br />
| Only NL champion<br />
|-<br />
| 1975<br />
| [[Queen Elizabeth]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1976<br />
| [[Central Peel]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Thunder Bay, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1977<br />
| [[Glenlawn]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Calgary, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[1978 Reach for the Top Nationals|1978]]<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Charlottetown, PE<br />
| First two-time champions; defeated [[1978 Richview]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1979<br />
| [[Banting]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1980<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Sir Winston Churchill]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1981<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Corner Brook, NL<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1982<br />
| [[Dakota]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1983<br />
| [[Roland Michener]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1984<br />
| [[Deloraine]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Moncton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Regina, SK<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| 1985<br />
| [[1985 Kate Andrews|Kate Andrews]]<br />
| AB<br />
| [[Wagar]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Moncton, NB<br />
| Last year on CBC<br />
|-<br />
| 1989<br />
| [[1989 Tagwi|Tagwi]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Mount Douglas]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| Revival as "Schoolreach"<br />
|-<br />
| 1990<br />
| [[Memorial]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1991<br />
| [[St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| [[St. Albert]]<br />
| AB<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1992<br />
| [[1992 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1993<br />
| [[1993 St. Joseph's|St. Joseph's]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1993 Hay|William E. Hay]]<br />
| AB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1994<br />
| [[1994 Bell|Bell]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1994 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1995<br />
| [[1995 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1996<br />
| [[1996 Saunders|Saunders]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| First two-time champion player: [[Dave Thorsley]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1997<br />
| [[1997 Earl Haig|Earl Haig]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1997 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1998<br />
| [[1998 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1998 Kingston|Kingston CVI]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Halifax, NS<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1999<br />
| [[1999 Frontenac|Frontenac]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2000<br />
| [[2000 Merivale|Merivale]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2000 Ridley|Ridley]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| National finals return to TV<br />
|-<br />
| 2001<br />
| [[2001 Gloucester|Gloucester]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2001 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2002<br />
| [[2002 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2002 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2003<br />
| [[2003 UTS|UTS]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2003 Dawson|Dawson]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First back-to-back championships<br />
|-<br />
| 2004<br />
| [[2004 St. George's|St. George's]] (2)<br />
| BC<br />
| [[2004 Leaside|Leaside]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2005<br />
| [[2005 Cobequid|Cobequid]] (2)<br />
| NS<br />
| [[2005 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First champion of both CBC and SchoolReach eras<br />
|-<br />
| 2006<br />
| [[2006 Woburn|Woburn]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2006 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2007 Reach for the Top Nationals|2007]]<br />
| [[2007 London Central|London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2007 Kennebecasis|Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2008 Reach for the Top Nationals|2008]]<br />
| [[2008 Lisgar|Lisgar]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2008 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2009 Reach for the Top Nationals|2009]]<br />
| [[London Central]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| Excluding the final game, the National Finals left TV.<br />
|-<br />
| [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised<br />
|-<br />
| [[2011 Reach for the Top Nationals|2011]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]] (2)<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Centennial (Ontario high school)|Centennial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised. Semifinals and Finals were played at Canada's Wonderland <br />
|-<br />
| [[2012 Reach for the Top Nationals|2012]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (3)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2013 Reach for the Top Nationals|2013]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (4)<br />
| ON<br />
|[[Bellerose]]<br />
|AB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2014 Reach for the Top Nationals|2014]]<br />
| [[Martingrove]]<br />
| ON<br />
|[[London Central]]<br />
|ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|}<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[Top of the Form]], the British predecessor to Reach<br />
* [[List of Ontario Reach for the Top qualifying leagues]]<br />
* [[Criticisms of Reach for the Top]] <br />
<br />
[[Category:Canada]]<br />
[[Category:Quizbowl TV shows]] <br />
[[Category:Bad Quizbowl]] <br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top]] <br />
[[Category:High school formats]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Glenlawn&diff=22400Glenlawn2014-06-19T13:22:05Z<p>Ben Smith: Glenlawn</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Glenlawn Collegiate Institute''' is a high school in Winnipeg, Manitoba.<br />
<br />
In 1977, a team of Cam Dempster, Russel Krasey, Bill Mooney, and Lorne Ryall won the [[Reach for the Top]] national championship. After a season of about 300 hours of practice and question-writing per member, the team beat Selkirk, [[Kelvin]], and [[Deloraine]] in the provincial championships. At the national final, they defeated [[Dryden]] from Northern Ontario with a score of 535 points- which was believed at the time to be the highest tally by a winning team in the title game.<br />
<br />
Glenlawn's coach since 1971, Wilf Entz, continued with Reach for the Top until his retirement, and the school made another Nationals appearance in 1979. Glenlawn currently plays SchoolReach.<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1977<br />
|previous = [[Central Peel]]<br />
|next = [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<br />
* "Reach for the Top champions a dynasty in the making?" by Robert Jankiewicz in ''The Winnipeg Free Press'', June 23, 1977, page 29.<br />
* "Glenlawn Collegiate trivia hounds take TV contest" by Debbie Lyon in ''The Winnipeg Free Press'', July 11, 1977, page 3.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top championship teams]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Central_Peel&diff=22399Central Peel2014-06-19T02:06:21Z<p>Ben Smith: Central Peel</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Central Peel Secondary School''' is a high school in Brampton, Ontario. In 1976, a team of Peter Galway, Diane MacLean, Vivian Miao, and Mike Stafford won the [[Reach for the Top]] national championship.<br />
<br />
Bruce Adlam, the coach, continued with Reach for the Top and SchoolReach until his retirement. Central Peel currently plays SchoolReach.<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1976<br />
|previous = [[Queen Elizabeth]]<br />
|next = [[Glenlawn]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top championship teams]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Queen_Elizabeth&diff=22398Queen Elizabeth2014-06-19T01:40:01Z<p>Ben Smith: Queen Elizabeth HS</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Queen Elizabeth High School''' is a former school in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was closed in 2007.<br />
<br />
In 1975, a team of Andrew Graham, Howard Green, Bernard Hibbits, and Kim Mohammed won the [[Reach for the Top]] national championship. They were the first champions from Nova Scotia.<br />
<br />
Queen Elizabeth HS did play SchoolReach, but their successor school, Citadel High, does not.<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1975<br />
|previous = [[Gonzaga (St. John's)|Gonzaga]]<br />
|next = [[Central Peel]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top championship teams]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Lorne_Jenkins&diff=22397Lorne Jenkins2014-06-19T01:24:03Z<p>Ben Smith: /* Title Succession */ fixing Gonzaga</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Highschoolteam|Name = Lorne Jenkins High School<br />
|image = <br />
|citystate = Barrhead, AB<br />
|currentcoach = <br />
|state = 1973-1980 [[Reach for the Top|Reach]]<br />
|nats = 1973 [[Reach for the Top|Reach]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
'''Lorne Jenkins''' High School is a former school in Barrhead, AB. In 1999, it was amalgamated into Barrhead Composite High School.<br />
<br />
==Reach for the Top==<br />
<br />
Lorne Jenkins had a brief but very successful tenure in [[Reach for the Top]] when it aired on CBC. The team came into existence in the early 1970s when new teacher [[Ken Kowalski]] made an announcement on the intercom and found the meeting room packed with students. Kowalski later converted a classroom to resemble a TV studio set, and offered a Reach credit course at the school where students studied, practiced, and wrote quiz questions.<br />
<br />
The [[1973 Lorne Jenkins|1973 team]] won the Reach national championship in Ottawa, defeating a Quebec team in the final. The school would qualify for nationals a further seven consecutive times, waning after coach Kowalski entered provincial politics. The strong run on Reach gave them the accolade of "the series' most successful competitors" in the ''Canadian Encyclopedia'' (however, the article incorrectly states that Lorne Jenkins won twice and that Reach was based on [[College Bowl]], among other things).<br />
<br />
Kowalski claims that the team's success in the 1970s propelled him to an election victory in 1979, which has led to him being the currently longest-sitting MLA in Alberta and Speaker of the legislature. The site of the nationals finals moved permanently to Edmonton under his term.<br />
<br />
The team from Lorne Jenkins did not reappear after Reach was re-introduced in 1989, and there is no indication of a team from Barrhead Composite.<br />
<br />
==Title Succession==<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1973<br />
|previous = [[O'Leary]]<br />
|next = [[Gonzaga (St. John's)|Gonzaga]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Lorne Jenkins]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=1973_Lorne_Jenkins&diff=223961973 Lorne Jenkins2014-06-19T01:23:09Z<p>Ben Smith: fixing Gonzaga</p>
<hr />
<div>The '''1972-73 Lorne Jenkins High School team''' from Barrhead, Alberta won the [[Reach for the Top]] national championship. [http://www.reachforthetop.com/champions1.cfm] They were coached by [[Ken Kowalski]], currently the Speaker of the Alberta legislature.<br />
<br />
While at the national championships in Ottawa, the team defeated teams from Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, and Quebec.<br />
<br />
The school would make it to nationals the following six years as well, which led to the 1985 edition of the Canadian Encyclopedia calling them "the series' most successful competitors". It is unknown how Lorne Jenkins would stack against teams from after the CBC era.<br />
<br />
Members: Shirley Beyers, David Hamilton, Brenda Marshall, Les Wallace.<br />
<br />
==External References==<br />
[http://www.reachforthetop.com/champions1.cfm Reach For the Top Champions, 1965-1975]<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1973<br />
|previous = [[O'Leary]]<br />
|next = [[Gonzaga (St. John's)|Gonzaga]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Lorne Jenkins]]<br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top championship teams]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Reach_for_the_Top&diff=22395Reach for the Top2014-06-19T01:22:01Z<p>Ben Smith: /* National Champions */ fixing Gonzaga</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Reach for the Top''' is the dominant high school quiz competition in Canada. Technically a form of [[quizbowl]], it has a larger sports distribution than other academic quizbowl formats, contains more hoses, and is composed almost entirely of speed-check questions which are often [[pyramidal|non-pyramidal]]. It is also more expensive than alternatives like [[NAQT]]. <br />
<br />
French students usually play [[Genies en herbe]], while university students play in the [[quizbowl]] format.<br />
<br />
==Gameplay==<br />
<br />
The majority of questions in Reach for the Top are approximately the length of quizbowl bonus questions (1-2 sentences), and are worth, for the most part, 10 points each. Interruption of the questions for early guesses are not only allowed but also encouraged, as the game is based heavily on speed. If a team buzzes in and answer a question incorrectly, the opposing team has approximately 3-5 seconds to consult and form an answer. Consultation is permitted at almost all times in Reach for the Top (see "Shootouts" and "Assigned" for exceptions). There are no [[negs]] or [[powers]] in Reach, although negs (-5) appeared in the 2007 Nationals for the first time.<br />
<br />
==Categories==<br />
<br />
===Snapstart/Snapout/Open===<br />
Forming the bulk of Reach for the Top questions, these consist of 1-2 sentence questions open to both teams and are worth ten points each. Snapout/Snapstart categories take place at the beginning and end of each round respectively, and the subject of each question varies (i.e. none are linked by a category). "Open" categories are, mostly, worth 40 points in total, and consist of 4 questions all linked by one similar category (e.g. "40 point open on architects"); it is open to both teams. <br />
<br />
==="20 Point Special"===<br />
Like an open question (see last category), but the answer often requires 2 answers in one (e.g. Q: Name both years in which a player's strike or owner's lockout was responsible for the cancellation of some or all of the games in an NHL season. A: 1994-95 and 2004-05 [sic] and 2012-13) In other cases, the 20 point special can require one very long answer, for example, the provincial motto of Newfoundland, ''Quaerite primum regnum Dei''<br />
<br />
===Shootout===<br />
A maximum of 12 questions are posed in this category. Once one player has answered a question correctly, they may no longer answer any questions. This player is now "out". Once one team has every one of its 4 players "out", they gain 40 points, and the other team gains 0. Consultation is forbidden at all times in this category. Concerns that have arisen with this category include A) 12 questions are needed to generate 40 points and B) Both teams can have 3 players out with one question left, which one team may barely answer correctly on speed, giving them all 40 points, and thus a very important swing on a very little difference between teams.<br />
<br />
===Chain Snappers===<br />
Similar to a snapstart/snapout, chain snappers involve the answer to one question forming the topic of the succeeding question. As a result, the best and fastest teams can often answer the next question with only 3-4 words read.<br />
<br />
===Who am I/What am I===<br />
Who am I/What am I questions consist of four clues with decreasing point value, beginning with a (usually vague) opening question. If answered correctly on this question, that team gains 40 points. If neither team guesses correctly, the answer is not read, and a slightly less ambiguous clue worth 30 points is read. This continues for two more questions (worth 20 and 10 points respectively), until, if no team is able to give the correct answer, the answer is read. Unlike [[Good Quizbowl]], the first clue does not provide only one possible answer. The 40-point question is often described as being written as though "an expert in that field" would be unable to be absolutely sure of the correct answer, and as a result, can often trigger highly inaccurate guesses, or in the case of non-competitive teams, non-sensical answers which are made to incite laughs and in doing so, delay the game. The 40-point clue can vary in difficulty from completely, improbably difficult, (almost to the a point where one questions the point of it; e.g. "This country is located in Europe." or "He was born in 1685.") to reasonably difficult. <br />
<br />
===Assigned===<br />
Worth 80 points in total, this category consists of questions posed to specific individuals. One team, designated "Team A", will have each of its team members asked one question. If answered incorrectly, the player sitting directly across from that player will have an opportunity to answer that question. Once team A has had all of its players asked a question, team B's players are then asked questions one-by-one in a similar fashion. All of the questions relate to one category (e.g. European national capitals). Consultation is forbidden.<br />
<br />
===Team Questions===<br />
These questions work similarly to tossup/bonus questions. One question is posed to both teams. The team that correctly answers the question has an opportunity to answer three more questions. The only differences between that and quizbowl are that the "tossup" question is usually very short and very easy and the bonus questions (actually called bonus) are related in topic to the "tossup" question.<br />
<br />
===List===<br />
Worth 50 points, this category involves teams alternating in turns to complete a list. Both teams have an opportunity to buzzz in for the first answer. After each question is answered correctly the other team has an opportunity to give an answer. Once a team gets a question wrong, they may no longer answer.<br />
e.g. List all of the professional teams that Wayne Gretzky played for.<br />
Team A (buzzes in): "Edmonton Oilers" - Correct<br />
Team B: "New York Rangers" - Correct<br />
Team A: "St. Louis Blues" - Correct<br />
Team B: "Philadelphia Flyers" - Incorrect<br />
Team A: "Los Angeles Kings & Indianapolis Racers" - Correct x 2<br />
<br />
==Canadian Tournament Play==<br />
<br />
The modern Reach for the Top season begins with SchoolReach - regional leagues playing in classrooms. For most provinces, a "region" encompasses the entire province, while BC and Ontario are divided into smaller regions either for league play (in BC) or to serve as qualifiers for a provincial tournament (in Ontario). A few provinces have their playoff matches televised. The territories, Saskatchewan, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador do not currently have provincial tournaments; any schools from those regions may participate in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, respectively.<br />
<br />
Depending on participation levels, provincial tournaments will qualify either one or two teams to the national tournament, held for the past several years in Edmonton. The national tournament consists of an in-classroom round-robin, followed by televised playoffs.<br />
<br />
Most regions offer an "Intermediate" division tournament open to freshmen and sophomores, but there is no framework for an Intermediate national tournament. "Intermediate" would likely be higher than a "Junior" division (presumably for middle school), but a middle school tournament does not exist. Reach attempted to start a university tournament in the early 2000s, but some [[NAQT]] tournaments had already taken root at the time.<br />
<br />
There are a few Reach (or Reach-style) tournaments held during the year that are independent of the qualification process to Nationals. New Brunswick has 5-6 per year around the province, Toronto has had a few in recent years, and [[Lisgar]] CI held a tournament in Ottawa in 2007. Nevertheless, the number of tournaments is much smaller than availability in several US regions.<br />
<!--taking out unsubstantiated complaints until they can be verified: schools are "obliged" to play Reach??? --><br />
<!-- Active Canadian trivia teams are plagued and frustrated by the lack of Reach tournaments in Canada. In fact, in Ontario and the rest of Canada, the Reach for the Top season does not officially start until the end of February, when the first round of regional qualifiers begin. After that, there is in the bigger "leagues" (although this term is loose-fitting) a regional round #2, followed by provincials, followed by nationals.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately for most, only a fraction of teams gain entrance to provincials, and an even smaller fraction gain entrance into nationals (16 teams out of over 500). To put this in perspective, out of over 210 teams in the province of Ontario, only 2 are sent to the national tournament, hence the reason that [[Lisgar]] Collegiate, despite winning every Canadian quizbowl event and finishing in 18th place after the preliminaries at the [[2007 NAQT HSNCT]], had not qualified for nationals until 2008.<br />
<br />
Despite this lack of competition, there have been little or no winds of change regarding that fact. Few schools have made an effort to host tournaments, and the Reach for the Top organization has shown little motivation to take on any hosting before February. What makes this problem worse is that the organization does not advertise or provide readily-available information for hosting tournaments. As a result, few schools are even aware that they can host tournaments, which means that, to many schools, this lack of competition does not seem out of the ordinary.<br />
<br />
Part of this fact can be contributed to the "Canadiana" aspect of Reach for the Top. Because of the history and cultural engrainment of Reach for the Top in Canadian culture (the show has been around for decades, it was parodied on SCTV by future star Eugene Levy, and the majority of Canadian adults either played or knew someone who played Reach in high school), many schools seem comfortable with the fact that the season starts and ends after 1-2 tournaments in the spring, as they cling to the mostly fruitless hope that they may, someday, win a national title or at least appear on television. This acceptance is partially responsible for most schools feeling 1-2 tournaments is not out of the ordinary. Additionally, because of this Canadian cultural engrainment, some pro-Reach individuals actively oppose any deviation from the current system, including participation in quizbowl, again, hindering an increase in the amount of competition.<br />
<br />
Perhaps an advantage of the cultural engrainment, however, is that the majority of secondary schools in Canada feel obliged to field a Reach team of some sort, thereby increasing the size of the regional qualifier tournaments. Unfortunately, this does not apply to all areas of the country, as some provinces do not participate in Reach for the Top at all. In Quebec, as a result of the few anglophone schools, there are only 8 Reach for the Top teams in that province. The francophone schools play a similar format called "Genies en Herbes" (young geniuses).<br />
<br />
Because of this, the more active teams in Canada must often find additional competition. Recently, activity has increased in the Ottawa area, as a result of the [[University of Ottawa]], as well as [[Merivale|Merivale High Schoool]], [[Gananoque Secondary School]] and Lisgar Collegiate, the latter of which hosted one of the only "pre-season" Reach for the Top tournaments in Canada on December 1st, when it <br />
organized the 07 [[Lisgar Open]]. --><br />
<br />
==Rule 1 Issues==<br />
<br />
Rule #1 of Reach for the Top states:<br />
<br />
"Any student who is 19 or under at the ''beginning'' of the school year and has been continuously enrolled in a Secondary School is eligible to play both SCHOOLREACH and REACH FOR THE TOP."<br />
<br />
This rule originally accommodated the 5-year high school system in Ontario, which ended with students entering in 1999. This rule has since not changed, even with Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador having 3-year high schools. As such, some players and teams have exploited this loophole to various degrees of success:<br />
<br />
* Quebec's league was established in the 2001-02 season. CEGEPs, which have high school graduates, are allowed to compete under the rule, and a CEGEP represents Quebec at Nationals nearly every year. Royal West Academy, a high school, broke this trend by qualifying for Nationals in 2008.<br />
<br />
* [[Andy Saunders]] played Reach For The Top for six seasons in high school due to Rule #1.<br />
<br />
* A player from [[Leaside]] celebrated his 19th birthday at the Ontario provincial tournament his team ended up winning in 2005. They failed to win Nationals, however.<br />
<br />
* The captain of [[2004 St. George's]] was in his fifth year of Reach, and won the national championship. What was particularly ironic was the fact that the coach was quite vocal about fifth-year Ontario teams winning Nationals throughout the 1990s.<br />
<br />
It should be noted that several Ontario teams have managed to win the national championships in the 4-year system.<br />
<br />
==Championship Disputes==<br />
<br />
Since the conversion from a CBC program to SchoolReach, there have been incidents that have left a national title in dispute by some parties:<br />
<br />
*[[1989 Tagwi]]: Tagwi won an early match because of a (possibly) incorrect ruling over the ingredients of borscht. The team got screwed over in the end, though. They never got a trophy because of a dispute between Reach and the old CBC champions, and their scheduled exhibition match with the [[NAC]] champions was cancelled because a party in the US (the team? the TV crew? Chip Beall?) didn't want to travel to Canada.<br />
<br />
*[[1995 Fredericton]]: In the aftermath of issues surrounding the [[1995 Bell]] team, a team from [[Lisgar]] that won the zone match to earn a berth in provincials never got the opportunity to play. How well the Lisgar team would have fared is now only speculative.<br />
<br />
*[[2008 Lisgar]]: Down by 5 points, the runner-up team from [[UTS]] claimed they buzzed in at the end of the game before the time alarm went off. It had to go to a video review, and Reach judged in favour of Lisgar. A small edit war erupted on Wikipedia between anonymous Toronto IPs and quizbowlers apparently "sympathetic" to Lisgar over how the championship should be listed in the article.<br />
<br />
*[[2009 London Central]]: London Central's opponents in the finals from Kennebecasis were not informed by either Reach For The Top or TVO that there would be a change in format for the final game until minutes before the game began. The team from Kennebecasis had also never played using TVOs format (which eliminates the shootout and includes relatively easy questions among other changes) before. The London Central team had played using TVOs format two weeks earlier for the Ontario Provincials, giving them an advantage for the finals. The national tournament was also notable for the recycling of several questions during the round robin portion which could have also affected the outcome of the tournament in terms of seeding the teams for the playoffs.<br />
<br />
==Notable Participants==<br />
<br />
As a long-standing and highly-regarded establishment in Canada, several people have participated during their high school years and gone on to great success. A list of notable former players, coaches, and Reach personnel follows (names in '''bold''' won the national championship):<br />
<br />
===Politics===<br />
* Kim Campbell - Prime Minister of Canada (1993)<br />
* Mark Carney - Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008- )<br />
* Grant Devine - Premier of Saskatchewan (1982-91)<br />
* [[Stephen Harper]] - Prime Minister of Canada (2006- )<br />
* '''[[Ken Kowalski]]''' - Speaker of the Legislature of Alberta (1997- )<br />
* [[Bernard Lord]] - Premier of New Brunswick (1999-2006)<br />
* Stuart Smith - Leader of the Opposition of Ontario (1977-81)<br />
<br />
===Media===<br />
* '''Howard Green''' - Business News Network host, former CBC documentarian<br />
*'''Tom Harrington''' - CBC Sports reporter<br />
* Shelagh Rogers - CBC Radio and TVO personality<br />
* Jan Tennant - Anchor of CBC's ''The National'' and ''Saturday Evening News'' (1970s)<br />
* Alex Trebek - Host of [[Jeopardy!]] ( [http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/television/clips/15279/ A video of an exhibition match between Reach and Genies players] )<br />
<br />
===Other===<br />
* Malcolm Gladwell - Author of the bestsellers ''The Tipping Point'', ''Blink'', and ''Outliers''<br />
* '''Bernard Hibbitts''' - Law professor at the University of Pittsburgh [http://faculty.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/profile.htm]; founder of JURIST news service<br />
* Dr. '''Sethu Reddy''' - Former professor of medicine at Dalhousie & Harvard; chairman at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio<br />
<br />
==National Champions==<br />
<br />
''Reach for the Top had televised matches as early as 1961, but no national champions were declared until 1966. There were no national champions from 1986-88.''<br />
<br />
{| border="1" cellspacing="0"<br />
! Year<br />
! Champion<br />
! Prov<br />
! Runner-up<br />
! Prov<br />
! Location<br />
! Notes<br />
|- <br />
| 1966<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1967<br />
| [[Rideau]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1968<br />
| [[Oak Bay]]<br />
| BC<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1969<br />
| [[Neil McNeil]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1970<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1971<br />
| [[River East]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1972<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1973<br />
| [[1973 Lorne Jenkins|Lorne Jenkins]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1974<br />
| [[Gonzaga (St. John's)|Gonzaga]]<br />
| NL<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| St. John's, NL<br />
| Only NL champion<br />
|-<br />
| 1975<br />
| [[Queen Elizabeth]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1976<br />
| [[Central Peel]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1977<br />
| [[Glenlawn]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[1978 Reach for the Top Nationals|1978]]<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Charlottetown, PE<br />
| First two-time champions; defeated [[1978 Richview]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1979<br />
| [[Banting]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1980<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Sir Winston Churchill]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1981<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Corner Brook, NL<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1982<br />
| [[Dakota]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1983<br />
| [[Roland Michener]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1984<br />
| [[Deloraine]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Moncton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Regina, SK<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| 1985<br />
| [[1985 Kate Andrews|Kate Andrews]]<br />
| AB<br />
| [[Wagar]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Moncton, NB<br />
| Last year on CBC<br />
|-<br />
| 1989<br />
| [[1989 Tagwi|Tagwi]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Mount Douglas]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| Revival as "Schoolreach"<br />
|-<br />
| 1990<br />
| [[Memorial]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1991<br />
| [[St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| [[St. Albert]]<br />
| AB<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1992<br />
| [[1992 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1993<br />
| [[1993 St. Joseph's|St. Joseph's]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1993 Hay|William E. Hay]]<br />
| AB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1994<br />
| [[1994 Bell|Bell]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1994 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1995<br />
| [[1995 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1996<br />
| [[1996 Saunders|Saunders]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| First two-time champion player: [[Dave Thorsley]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1997<br />
| [[1997 Earl Haig|Earl Haig]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1997 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1998<br />
| [[1998 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1998 Kingston|Kingston CVI]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Halifax, NS<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1999<br />
| [[1999 Frontenac|Frontenac]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2000<br />
| [[2000 Merivale|Merivale]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2000 Ridley|Ridley]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| National finals return to TV<br />
|-<br />
| 2001<br />
| [[2001 Gloucester|Gloucester]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2001 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| Second championship<br />
|-<br />
| 2002<br />
| [[2002 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2002 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2003<br />
| [[2003 UTS|UTS]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2003 Dawson|Dawson]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First back-to-back championships<br />
|-<br />
| 2004<br />
| [[2004 St. George's|St. George's]] (2)<br />
| BC<br />
| [[2004 Leaside|Leaside]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| Second championship<br />
|-<br />
| 2005<br />
| [[2005 Cobequid|Cobequid]] (2)<br />
| NS<br />
| [[2005 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| Second championship<br />
|-<br />
| 2006<br />
| [[2006 Woburn|Woburn]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2006 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2007 Reach for the Top Nationals|2007]]<br />
| [[2007 London Central|London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2007 Kennebecasis|Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2008 Reach for the Top Nationals|2008]]<br />
| [[2008 Lisgar|Lisgar]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2008 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2009 Reach for the Top Nationals|2009]]<br />
| [[London Central]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| Excluding the final game, the National Finals left TV.<br />
|-<br />
| [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised<br />
|-<br />
| [[2011 Reach for the Top Nationals|2011]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]] (2)<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Centennial (Ontario high school)|Centennial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised. Semifinals and Finals were played at Canada's Wonderland <br />
|-<br />
| [[2012 Reach for the Top Nationals|2012]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (3)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised. Semifinals and Finals were played at [https://www.canadaswonderland.com/‎ Canada's Wonderland]<br />
|-<br />
| [[2013 Reach for the Top Nationals|2013]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (4)<br />
| ON<br />
|Bellrose<br />
|AB<br />
| No games televised. <br />
|-<br />
| [[2014 Reach for the Top Nationals|2014]]<br />
| [[Martingrove]]<br />
| ON<br />
|[[London Central]]<br />
|ON<br />
| <br />
|}<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[Top of the Form]], the British predecessor to Reach<br />
* [[List of Ontario Reach for the Top qualifying leagues]]<br />
* [[Criticisms of Reach for the Top]] <br />
<br />
[[Category:Canada]]<br />
[[Category:Quizbowl TV shows]] <br />
[[Category:Bad Quizbowl]] <br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top]] <br />
[[Category:High school formats]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Gonzaga_(St._John%27s)&diff=22394Gonzaga (St. John's)2014-06-19T01:21:07Z<p>Ben Smith: A different Gonzaga</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Gonzaga High School''' is a school in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. In 1974, they became the first, and so far only, [[Reach for the Top]] champion from the province.<br />
<br />
Gonzaga participated in Reach for the Top for most of the CBC era, but their greatest success came from 1974 to 1979, where they made six consecutive nationals appearances as the Newfoundland representative.<br />
<br />
In 1974, a team of Gerry Beresford, Peter Chafem, Tom Harrington (now a host on CBC's ''Marketplace'') and Sethu Reddy got to enjoy a Reach national tournament held in their home town of St. John's to commemorate Newfoundland's 25th anniversary in Confederation. The Alberta representative, [[O'Leary]], was probably a favourite thanks to Alberta's fiercely competitive environment, but Gonzaga had the local audience support in the final. Gonzaga beat the flustered O'Leary team 300-265, earning a camping trip to Alberta as a prize (the Alberta team may not have found that too exotic). A YouTube video of that final is found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMergow-ELg<br />
<br />
Gonzaga would make it to nationals for the remainder of the decade. Today, the school, along with the rest of Newfoundland and Labrador, does not play SchoolReach.<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1974<br />
|previous = [[1973 Lorne Jenkins|Lorne Jenkins]]<br />
|next = [[Queen Elizabeth]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top championship teams]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=River_East&diff=22392River East2014-06-18T16:16:45Z<p>Ben Smith: River East</p>
<hr />
<div>'''River East Collegiate Institute''' is a school in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They won the 1971 [[Reach for the Top]] national championship.<br />
<br />
River East participated in nearly every season of Reach on CBC, getting coveted TV spots in the popular Manitoba edition. River East does not currently play SchoolReach.<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1971<br />
|previous = [[Kelvin]]<br />
|next = [[O'Leary]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top championship teams]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Kelvin&diff=22391Kelvin2014-06-18T16:04:04Z<p>Ben Smith: Kelvin High School</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Pic|Image = 1970Kelvin.png<br />
| Caption = 1970 Kelvin HS Reach for the Top Team, with host Bill Guest at rear<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
'''Kelvin High School''' is a school in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They won the 1970 [[Reach for the Top]] national championship.<br />
<br />
Kelvin has a long history of success in Reach for the Top. They were runners-up to [[Neil McNeil]] in 1969 and won the following year. In the SchoolReach era, Kelvin frequently attended nationals as a Manitoba representative. They finished fourth in 2002. In the 2014 national championships, they defeated eventual champion [[Martingrove]] during the round robin, but lost to [[UTS]] during the playoffs.<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1970<br />
|previous = [[Neil McNeil]]<br />
|next = [[River East]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top championship teams]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=File:1970Kelvin.png&diff=22390File:1970Kelvin.png2014-06-18T15:52:23Z<p>Ben Smith: 1970 Kelvin Reach for the Top team. From Kelvin HS' centennial website</p>
<hr />
<div>1970 Kelvin Reach for the Top team. From Kelvin HS' centennial website</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Neil_McNeil&diff=22389Neil McNeil2014-06-18T15:49:39Z<p>Ben Smith: Created page with "'''Neil McNeil High School''' is a school in Toronto, Ontario. They won the 1969 Reach for the Top national championship. An anecdote from a Queen's historian said Neil M..."</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Neil McNeil High School''' is a school in Toronto, Ontario. They won the 1969 [[Reach for the Top]] national championship.<br />
<br />
An anecdote from a Queen's historian said Neil McNeil were the "Montreal Canadiens of Reach for the Top", led by captain Ricky Courneyea.<br />
<br />
Neil McNeil still participates in SchoolReach, making them the oldest active champion school.<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1969<br />
|previous = [[Oak Bay]]<br />
|next = [[Kelvin]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<br />
* http://www.film.queensu.ca/CBC/R.html#reachforthetop<br />
<br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top championship teams]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Oak_Bay&diff=22388Oak Bay2014-06-18T15:38:24Z<p>Ben Smith: Created page with "'''Oak Bay High School''' is a school in Victoria, British Columbia. In 1968, a team from the school won the Reach for the Top national championship. Oak Bay was amongst ..."</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Oak Bay High School''' is a school in Victoria, British Columbia. In 1968, a team from the school won the [[Reach for the Top]] national championship.<br />
<br />
Oak Bay was amongst the schools that participated in the pre-nationals Reach for the Top shows from 1961 to 1965. In the early years of the CBC era, Oak Bay, coached by Glenn Atkinson, was very successful, winning the provincial championships in 1967, 1968, 1970, and 1971. In 1969, their title defense run ended early when fellow Vancouver Island school Alberni District defeated them in the regional championships.<br />
<br />
The 1968 championship team had Jim Dempsey, Bruce Iszard, Robert McDougall, and Chris Odgers. Their prize for winning was a trip to Asia and $12,000 to the school. Despite lobbying with letters from team members and the community, these champions were not selected to represent Canada in the [[Trans-World Top Team]] competition against British teams.<br />
<br />
In 1970, McDougall, now student president of the University of Victoria, ran and participated in a [[College Bowl]] style tournament at the university. It was done to form a team to play in the American TV show, but McDougall later found out that College Bowl quietly chose McGill and Queen's to face off against Oxford and New York teams in a special international edition.<br />
<br />
1979 Reach alumnus Andrew Weaver is a member of the BC legislative assembly for the Green Party.<br />
<br />
Oak Bay does not currently play SchoolReach. They do have a "Reach for the Top" scholarship fund originating from all the tournament winnings in the 1960s and 1970s, but it is awarded to the top geography students.<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1968<br />
|previous = [[Rideau]]<br />
|next = [[Neil McNeil]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top championship teams]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Rideau&diff=22386Rideau2014-06-18T15:04:10Z<p>Ben Smith: Created page with "'''Rideau High School''' is a school in Ottawa, Ontario. In 1967, a team from the school, at the time called Rideau Collegiate Institute, won the Reach for the Top nationa..."</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Rideau High School''' is a school in Ottawa, Ontario. In 1967, a team from the school, at the time called Rideau Collegiate Institute, won the [[Reach for the Top]] national championship.<br />
<br />
Rideau High School has only occasionally fielded teams in the SchoolReach era.<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1967<br />
|previous = [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
|next = [[Oak Bay]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top championship teams]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Reach_for_the_Top&diff=22384Reach for the Top2014-06-18T14:51:23Z<p>Ben Smith: /* National Champions */ some CBC era stuff</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Reach for the Top''' is the dominant high school quiz competition in Canada. Technically a form of [[quizbowl]], it has a larger sports distribution than other academic quizbowl formats, contains more hoses, and is composed almost entirely of speed-check questions which are often [[pyramidal|non-pyramidal]]. It is also more expensive than alternatives like [[NAQT]]. <br />
<br />
French students usually play [[Genies en herbe]], while university students play in the [[quizbowl]] format.<br />
<br />
==Gameplay==<br />
<br />
The majority of questions in Reach for the Top are approximately the length of quizbowl bonus questions (1-2 sentences), and are worth, for the most part, 10 points each. Interruption of the questions for early guesses are not only allowed but also encouraged, as the game is based heavily on speed. If a team buzzes in and answer a question incorrectly, the opposing team has approximately 3-5 seconds to consult and form an answer. Consultation is permitted at almost all times in Reach for the Top (see "Shootouts" and "Assigned" for exceptions). There are no [[negs]] or [[powers]] in Reach, although negs (-5) appeared in the 2007 Nationals for the first time.<br />
<br />
==Categories==<br />
<br />
===Snapstart/Snapout/Open===<br />
Forming the bulk of Reach for the Top questions, these consist of 1-2 sentence questions open to both teams and are worth ten points each. Snapout/Snapstart categories take place at the beginning and end of each round respectively, and the subject of each question varies (i.e. none are linked by a category). "Open" categories are, mostly, worth 40 points in total, and consist of 4 questions all linked by one similar category (e.g. "40 point open on architects"); it is open to both teams. <br />
<br />
==="20 Point Special"===<br />
Like an open question (see last category), but the answer often requires 2 answers in one (e.g. Q: Name both years in which a player's strike or owner's lockout was responsible for the cancellation of some or all of the games in an NHL season. A: 1994-95 and 2004-05 [sic] and 2012-13) In other cases, the 20 point special can require one very long answer, for example, the provincial motto of Newfoundland, ''Quaerite primum regnum Dei''<br />
<br />
===Shootout===<br />
A maximum of 12 questions are posed in this category. Once one player has answered a question correctly, they may no longer answer any questions. This player is now "out". Once one team has every one of its 4 players "out", they gain 40 points, and the other team gains 0. Consultation is forbidden at all times in this category. Concerns that have arisen with this category include A) 12 questions are needed to generate 40 points and B) Both teams can have 3 players out with one question left, which one team may barely answer correctly on speed, giving them all 40 points, and thus a very important swing on a very little difference between teams.<br />
<br />
===Chain Snappers===<br />
Similar to a snapstart/snapout, chain snappers involve the answer to one question forming the topic of the succeeding question. As a result, the best and fastest teams can often answer the next question with only 3-4 words read.<br />
<br />
===Who am I/What am I===<br />
Who am I/What am I questions consist of four clues with decreasing point value, beginning with a (usually vague) opening question. If answered correctly on this question, that team gains 40 points. If neither team guesses correctly, the answer is not read, and a slightly less ambiguous clue worth 30 points is read. This continues for two more questions (worth 20 and 10 points respectively), until, if no team is able to give the correct answer, the answer is read. Unlike [[Good Quizbowl]], the first clue does not provide only one possible answer. The 40-point question is often described as being written as though "an expert in that field" would be unable to be absolutely sure of the correct answer, and as a result, can often trigger highly inaccurate guesses, or in the case of non-competitive teams, non-sensical answers which are made to incite laughs and in doing so, delay the game. The 40-point clue can vary in difficulty from completely, improbably difficult, (almost to the a point where one questions the point of it; e.g. "This country is located in Europe." or "He was born in 1685.") to reasonably difficult. <br />
<br />
===Assigned===<br />
Worth 80 points in total, this category consists of questions posed to specific individuals. One team, designated "Team A", will have each of its team members asked one question. If answered incorrectly, the player sitting directly across from that player will have an opportunity to answer that question. Once team A has had all of its players asked a question, team B's players are then asked questions one-by-one in a similar fashion. All of the questions relate to one category (e.g. European national capitals). Consultation is forbidden.<br />
<br />
===Team Questions===<br />
These questions work similarly to tossup/bonus questions. One question is posed to both teams. The team that correctly answers the question has an opportunity to answer three more questions. The only differences between that and quizbowl are that the "tossup" question is usually very short and very easy and the bonus questions (actually called bonus) are related in topic to the "tossup" question.<br />
<br />
===List===<br />
Worth 50 points, this category involves teams alternating in turns to complete a list. Both teams have an opportunity to buzzz in for the first answer. After each question is answered correctly the other team has an opportunity to give an answer. Once a team gets a question wrong, they may no longer answer.<br />
e.g. List all of the professional teams that Wayne Gretzky played for.<br />
Team A (buzzes in): "Edmonton Oilers" - Correct<br />
Team B: "New York Rangers" - Correct<br />
Team A: "St. Louis Blues" - Correct<br />
Team B: "Philadelphia Flyers" - Incorrect<br />
Team A: "Los Angeles Kings & Indianapolis Racers" - Correct x 2<br />
<br />
==Canadian Tournament Play==<br />
<br />
The modern Reach for the Top season begins with SchoolReach - regional leagues playing in classrooms. For most provinces, a "region" encompasses the entire province, while BC and Ontario are divided into smaller regions either for league play (in BC) or to serve as qualifiers for a provincial tournament (in Ontario). A few provinces have their playoff matches televised. The territories, Saskatchewan, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador do not currently have provincial tournaments; any schools from those regions may participate in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, respectively.<br />
<br />
Depending on participation levels, provincial tournaments will qualify either one or two teams to the national tournament, held for the past several years in Edmonton. The national tournament consists of an in-classroom round-robin, followed by televised playoffs.<br />
<br />
Most regions offer an "Intermediate" division tournament open to freshmen and sophomores, but there is no framework for an Intermediate national tournament. "Intermediate" would likely be higher than a "Junior" division (presumably for middle school), but a middle school tournament does not exist. Reach attempted to start a university tournament in the early 2000s, but some [[NAQT]] tournaments had already taken root at the time.<br />
<br />
There are a few Reach (or Reach-style) tournaments held during the year that are independent of the qualification process to Nationals. New Brunswick has 5-6 per year around the province, Toronto has had a few in recent years, and [[Lisgar]] CI held a tournament in Ottawa in 2007. Nevertheless, the number of tournaments is much smaller than availability in several US regions.<br />
<!--taking out unsubstantiated complaints until they can be verified: schools are "obliged" to play Reach??? --><br />
<!-- Active Canadian trivia teams are plagued and frustrated by the lack of Reach tournaments in Canada. In fact, in Ontario and the rest of Canada, the Reach for the Top season does not officially start until the end of February, when the first round of regional qualifiers begin. After that, there is in the bigger "leagues" (although this term is loose-fitting) a regional round #2, followed by provincials, followed by nationals.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately for most, only a fraction of teams gain entrance to provincials, and an even smaller fraction gain entrance into nationals (16 teams out of over 500). To put this in perspective, out of over 210 teams in the province of Ontario, only 2 are sent to the national tournament, hence the reason that [[Lisgar]] Collegiate, despite winning every Canadian quizbowl event and finishing in 18th place after the preliminaries at the [[2007 NAQT HSNCT]], had not qualified for nationals until 2008.<br />
<br />
Despite this lack of competition, there have been little or no winds of change regarding that fact. Few schools have made an effort to host tournaments, and the Reach for the Top organization has shown little motivation to take on any hosting before February. What makes this problem worse is that the organization does not advertise or provide readily-available information for hosting tournaments. As a result, few schools are even aware that they can host tournaments, which means that, to many schools, this lack of competition does not seem out of the ordinary.<br />
<br />
Part of this fact can be contributed to the "Canadiana" aspect of Reach for the Top. Because of the history and cultural engrainment of Reach for the Top in Canadian culture (the show has been around for decades, it was parodied on SCTV by future star Eugene Levy, and the majority of Canadian adults either played or knew someone who played Reach in high school), many schools seem comfortable with the fact that the season starts and ends after 1-2 tournaments in the spring, as they cling to the mostly fruitless hope that they may, someday, win a national title or at least appear on television. This acceptance is partially responsible for most schools feeling 1-2 tournaments is not out of the ordinary. Additionally, because of this Canadian cultural engrainment, some pro-Reach individuals actively oppose any deviation from the current system, including participation in quizbowl, again, hindering an increase in the amount of competition.<br />
<br />
Perhaps an advantage of the cultural engrainment, however, is that the majority of secondary schools in Canada feel obliged to field a Reach team of some sort, thereby increasing the size of the regional qualifier tournaments. Unfortunately, this does not apply to all areas of the country, as some provinces do not participate in Reach for the Top at all. In Quebec, as a result of the few anglophone schools, there are only 8 Reach for the Top teams in that province. The francophone schools play a similar format called "Genies en Herbes" (young geniuses).<br />
<br />
Because of this, the more active teams in Canada must often find additional competition. Recently, activity has increased in the Ottawa area, as a result of the [[University of Ottawa]], as well as [[Merivale|Merivale High Schoool]], [[Gananoque Secondary School]] and Lisgar Collegiate, the latter of which hosted one of the only "pre-season" Reach for the Top tournaments in Canada on December 1st, when it <br />
organized the 07 [[Lisgar Open]]. --><br />
<br />
==Rule 1 Issues==<br />
<br />
Rule #1 of Reach for the Top states:<br />
<br />
"Any student who is 19 or under at the ''beginning'' of the school year and has been continuously enrolled in a Secondary School is eligible to play both SCHOOLREACH and REACH FOR THE TOP."<br />
<br />
This rule originally accommodated the 5-year high school system in Ontario, which ended with students entering in 1999. This rule has since not changed, even with Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador having 3-year high schools. As such, some players and teams have exploited this loophole to various degrees of success:<br />
<br />
* Quebec's league was established in the 2001-02 season. CEGEPs, which have high school graduates, are allowed to compete under the rule, and a CEGEP represents Quebec at Nationals nearly every year. Royal West Academy, a high school, broke this trend by qualifying for Nationals in 2008.<br />
<br />
* [[Andy Saunders]] played Reach For The Top for six seasons in high school due to Rule #1.<br />
<br />
* A player from [[Leaside]] celebrated his 19th birthday at the Ontario provincial tournament his team ended up winning in 2005. They failed to win Nationals, however.<br />
<br />
* The captain of [[2004 St. George's]] was in his fifth year of Reach, and won the national championship. What was particularly ironic was the fact that the coach was quite vocal about fifth-year Ontario teams winning Nationals throughout the 1990s.<br />
<br />
It should be noted that several Ontario teams have managed to win the national championships in the 4-year system.<br />
<br />
==Championship Disputes==<br />
<br />
Since the conversion from a CBC program to SchoolReach, there have been incidents that have left a national title in dispute by some parties:<br />
<br />
*[[1989 Tagwi]]: Tagwi won an early match because of a (possibly) incorrect ruling over the ingredients of borscht. The team got screwed over in the end, though. They never got a trophy because of a dispute between Reach and the old CBC champions, and their scheduled exhibition match with the [[NAC]] champions was cancelled because a party in the US (the team? the TV crew? Chip Beall?) didn't want to travel to Canada.<br />
<br />
*[[1995 Fredericton]]: In the aftermath of issues surrounding the [[1995 Bell]] team, a team from [[Lisgar]] that won the zone match to earn a berth in provincials never got the opportunity to play. How well the Lisgar team would have fared is now only speculative.<br />
<br />
*[[2008 Lisgar]]: Down by 5 points, the runner-up team from [[UTS]] claimed they buzzed in at the end of the game before the time alarm went off. It had to go to a video review, and Reach judged in favour of Lisgar. A small edit war erupted on Wikipedia between anonymous Toronto IPs and quizbowlers apparently "sympathetic" to Lisgar over how the championship should be listed in the article.<br />
<br />
*[[2009 London Central]]: London Central's opponents in the finals from Kennebecasis were not informed by either Reach For The Top or TVO that there would be a change in format for the final game until minutes before the game began. The team from Kennebecasis had also never played using TVOs format (which eliminates the shootout and includes relatively easy questions among other changes) before. The London Central team had played using TVOs format two weeks earlier for the Ontario Provincials, giving them an advantage for the finals. The national tournament was also notable for the recycling of several questions during the round robin portion which could have also affected the outcome of the tournament in terms of seeding the teams for the playoffs.<br />
<br />
==Notable Participants==<br />
<br />
As a long-standing and highly-regarded establishment in Canada, several people have participated during their high school years and gone on to great success. A list of notable former players, coaches, and Reach personnel follows (names in '''bold''' won the national championship):<br />
<br />
===Politics===<br />
* Kim Campbell - Prime Minister of Canada (1993)<br />
* Mark Carney - Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008- )<br />
* Grant Devine - Premier of Saskatchewan (1982-91)<br />
* [[Stephen Harper]] - Prime Minister of Canada (2006- )<br />
* '''[[Ken Kowalski]]''' - Speaker of the Legislature of Alberta (1997- )<br />
* [[Bernard Lord]] - Premier of New Brunswick (1999-2006)<br />
* Stuart Smith - Leader of the Opposition of Ontario (1977-81)<br />
<br />
===Media===<br />
* '''Howard Green''' - Business News Network host, former CBC documentarian<br />
*'''Tom Harrington''' - CBC Sports reporter<br />
* Shelagh Rogers - CBC Radio and TVO personality<br />
* Jan Tennant - Anchor of CBC's ''The National'' and ''Saturday Evening News'' (1970s)<br />
* Alex Trebek - Host of [[Jeopardy!]] ( [http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/television/clips/15279/ A video of an exhibition match between Reach and Genies players] )<br />
<br />
===Other===<br />
* Malcolm Gladwell - Author of the bestsellers ''The Tipping Point'', ''Blink'', and ''Outliers''<br />
* '''Bernard Hibbitts''' - Law professor at the University of Pittsburgh [http://faculty.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/profile.htm]; founder of JURIST news service<br />
* Dr. '''Sethu Reddy''' - Former professor of medicine at Dalhousie & Harvard; chairman at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio<br />
<br />
==National Champions==<br />
<br />
''Reach for the Top had televised matches as early as 1961, but no national champions were declared until 1966. There were no national champions from 1986-88.''<br />
<br />
{| border="1" cellspacing="0"<br />
! Year<br />
! Champion<br />
! Prov<br />
! Runner-up<br />
! Prov<br />
! Location<br />
! Notes<br />
|- <br />
| 1966<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1967<br />
| [[Rideau]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1968<br />
| [[Oak Bay]]<br />
| BC<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1969<br />
| [[Neil McNeil]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1970<br />
| [[Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1971<br />
| [[River East]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1972<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1973<br />
| [[1973 Lorne Jenkins|Lorne Jenkins]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1974<br />
| [[Gonzaga]]<br />
| NL<br />
| [[O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| St. John's, NL<br />
| Only NL champion<br />
|-<br />
| 1975<br />
| [[Queen Elizabeth]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1976<br />
| [[Central Peel]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1977<br />
| [[Glenlawn]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[1978 Reach for the Top Nationals|1978]]<br />
| [[Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Charlottetown, PE<br />
| First two-time champions; defeated [[1978 Richview]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1979<br />
| [[Banting]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1980<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Sir Winston Churchill]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1981<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Corner Brook, NL<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1982<br />
| [[Dakota]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1983<br />
| [[Roland Michener]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1984<br />
| [[Deloraine]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[Moncton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Regina, SK<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| 1985<br />
| [[1985 Kate Andrews|Kate Andrews]]<br />
| AB<br />
| [[Wagar]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Moncton, NB<br />
| Last year on CBC<br />
|-<br />
| 1989<br />
| [[1989 Tagwi|Tagwi]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Mount Douglas]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| Revival as "Schoolreach"<br />
|-<br />
| 1990<br />
| [[Memorial]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1991<br />
| [[St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| [[St. Albert]]<br />
| AB<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1992<br />
| [[1992 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1993<br />
| [[1993 St. Joseph's|St. Joseph's]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1993 Hay|William E. Hay]]<br />
| AB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1994<br />
| [[1994 Bell|Bell]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1994 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1995<br />
| [[1995 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1996<br />
| [[1996 Saunders|Saunders]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| First two-time champion player: [[Dave Thorsley]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1997<br />
| [[1997 Earl Haig|Earl Haig]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1997 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1998<br />
| [[1998 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1998 Kingston|Kingston CVI]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Halifax, NS<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1999<br />
| [[1999 Frontenac|Frontenac]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2000<br />
| [[2000 Merivale|Merivale]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2000 Ridley|Ridley]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| National finals return to TV<br />
|-<br />
| 2001<br />
| [[2001 Gloucester|Gloucester]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2001 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| Second championship<br />
|-<br />
| 2002<br />
| [[2002 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2002 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2003<br />
| [[2003 UTS|UTS]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2003 Dawson|Dawson]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First back-to-back championships<br />
|-<br />
| 2004<br />
| [[2004 St. George's|St. George's]] (2)<br />
| BC<br />
| [[2004 Leaside|Leaside]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| Second championship<br />
|-<br />
| 2005<br />
| [[2005 Cobequid|Cobequid]] (2)<br />
| NS<br />
| [[2005 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| Second championship<br />
|-<br />
| 2006<br />
| [[2006 Woburn|Woburn]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2006 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2007 Reach for the Top Nationals|2007]]<br />
| [[2007 London Central|London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2007 Kennebecasis|Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2008 Reach for the Top Nationals|2008]]<br />
| [[2008 Lisgar|Lisgar]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2008 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2009 Reach for the Top Nationals|2009]]<br />
| [[London Central]] (2)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| Excluding the final game, the National Finals left TV.<br />
|-<br />
| [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised<br />
|-<br />
| [[2011 Reach for the Top Nationals|2011]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]] (2)<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Centennial (Ontario high school)|Centennial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised. Semifinals and Finals were played at Canada's Wonderland <br />
|-<br />
| [[2012 Reach for the Top Nationals|2012]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (3)<br />
| ON<br />
| [[London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised. Semifinals and Finals were played at [https://www.canadaswonderland.com/‎ Canada's Wonderland]<br />
|-<br />
| [[2013 Reach for the Top Nationals|2013]]<br />
| [[UTS]] (4)<br />
| ON<br />
|Bellrose<br />
|AB<br />
| No games televised. <br />
|-<br />
| [[2014 Reach for the Top Nationals|2014]]<br />
| [[Martingrove]]<br />
| ON<br />
|[[London Central]]<br />
|ON<br />
| <br />
|}<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[Top of the Form]], the British predecessor to Reach<br />
* [[List of Ontario Reach for the Top qualifying leagues]]<br />
* [[Criticisms of Reach for the Top]] <br />
<br />
[[Category:Canada]]<br />
[[Category:Quizbowl TV shows]] <br />
[[Category:Bad Quizbowl]] <br />
[[Category:Reach for the Top]] <br />
[[Category:High school formats]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Vincent_Massey_(Etobicoke)&diff=22382Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)2014-06-18T14:45:41Z<p>Ben Smith: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{Pic|Image = 1966VincentMassey.jpg<br />
| Caption = 1965-66 Vincent Massey Reach for the Top Team<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Vincent Massey''' Collegiate Institute was a high school in Etobicoke, Ontario from 1961 to 1985. In the 1990s, the building was occupied by a new school, Michael Power/St. Joseph, but it has a separate history from Vincent Massey CI. There is also a [[Vincent Massey]] Secondary School in Windsor, ON.<br />
<br />
==Reach for the Top==<br />
<br />
Vincent Massey participated in the inaugural season of televised [[Reach for the Top]] on CBC, winning in the first year. In [[1978 Vincent Massey|1978]], their first match was against [[Stephen Harper]]-led [[1978 Richview|Richview]]. The team won the Etobicoke finals (420-205 over Scarlett Heights), the Toronto-area championship (420-160 over West Hill), the southern Ontario championship (460-205 over Walkerton), and the [[1978 Reach for the Top Nationals]] tournament. A fan or alumnus of Vincent Massey uploaded several episodes of their 1978 matches to video-sharing sites like Veoh and Truveo in March 2009.<br />
<br />
With their 1978 victory, Vincent Massey became the first school to win the championship twice, and the only school to do so during the CBC era.<br />
<br />
==Title Succession==<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1966<br />
|previous = none<br />
|next = [[Rideau]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1978<br />
|previous = [[Glenlawn]]<br />
|next = [[Banting]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Vincent Massey CI]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=File:1966VincentMassey.jpg&diff=22381File:1966VincentMassey.jpg2014-06-18T14:41:53Z<p>Ben Smith: 1966 Vincent Massey Reach for the Top team. From www.reachforthetop.com</p>
<hr />
<div>1966 Vincent Massey Reach for the Top team. From www.reachforthetop.com</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=2011_Reach_for_the_Top_Nationals&diff=93492011 Reach for the Top Nationals2011-05-31T00:48:29Z<p>Ben Smith: 2011 results</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Tourneybox|Tournament Name = 2011 Reach for the Top Nationals<br />
|champion = [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
|second = [[Centennial (Ontario high school)|Centennial]]<br />
|third = [[Lisgar]]<br />
|fourth = [[UTS]]<br />
|scorer = individual scores not kept<br />
|editors = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|site = Toronto, Ontario<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
The 2011 national finals of [[Reach for the Top]] were held May 28-30 in Toronto.<br />
<br />
==Participants==<br />
<br />
===Alberta===<br />
<br />
* Bellerose Composite<br />
* Old Scona<br />
<br />
===British Columbia===<br />
<br />
* Burnaby North<br />
* St George's<br />
<br />
===Manitoba===<br />
<br />
* St. Paul's<br />
* Vincent Massey<br />
<br />
===New Brunswick===<br />
<br />
* [[Kennebecasis|Kennebecasis Valley]]<br />
<br />
KVHS has qualified for Nationals each year since 2004. Despite strong performance from other New Brunswick teams in the past, only one team was invited from the province.<br />
<br />
===Nova Scotia===<br />
<br />
* Cobequid<br />
<br />
===Ontario===<br />
<br />
* [[Centennial (Ontario high school)|Centennial]]<br />
* [[Lisgar]]<br />
* [[UTS]]<br />
<br />
Lisgar split their squad to attend both this tournament and the [[2011 HSNCT]], held concurrently. Lisgar was invited after the team from Saskatchewan dropped.<br />
<br />
===Quebec===<br />
<br />
* Royal West<br />
<br />
===Saskatchewan===<br />
<br />
* no representation<br />
<br />
A team was scheduled to attend, but dropped.<br />
<br />
==Tournament Results==<br />
<br />
A preliminary round-robin was held amongst all teams to determine seeds for the single-elimination playoffs. [[Kennebecasis]] Valley HS went undefeated through the round-robin.<br />
<br />
'''First Round'''<br />
<br />
* Old Scona (8) d. Vincent Massey (9) 340-230<br />
<br />
* Bellerose Composite (10) d. Cobequid (7) 360-300<br />
<br />
* St. Paul's (6) d. Royal West (11) 480-180<br />
<br />
* UTS (5) d. St. George's (12) 540-160<br />
<br />
'''Quarterfinals'''<br />
<br />
* Kennebecasis (1) d. Old Scona 370-360 <br />
<br />
* Lisgar (2) d. Bellerose Composite 360-310<br />
<br />
* Centennial (3) d. St. Paul's 460-290<br />
<br />
* UTS d. Burnaby North (4) 400-350<br />
<br />
'''Semifinals'''<br />
<br />
* Kennebecasis d. UTS 440-220<br />
<br />
* Centennial d. Lisgar 450-320<br />
<br />
'''Finals'''<br />
<br />
* Kennebecasis d. Centennial 380-360<br />
<br />
Kennebecasis Valley HS won their second consecutive National championship, the second team to do so (after UTS in 2002-03). KVHS' four final appearances in five years are unmatched, and the school has reached at least the national semifinals in half of their years of playing Reach.<br />
<br />
==Changes==<br />
<br />
The format was identical to last year, but the semifinals and finals were held at Canada's Wonderland.<br />
<br />
[[Category:High school national championships]]<br />
[[Category:High school tournaments]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Kennebecasis&diff=9348Kennebecasis2011-05-31T00:29:46Z<p>Ben Smith: 2011 champions</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Highschoolteam|Name = Kennebecasis Valley High School<br />
|image = KVHSlogo.jpg<br />
|citystate = Quispamsis, NB<br />
|currentcoach = Jason Thorne<br />
|state = 2004, 2006 - 2011 [[Reach for the Top|Reach]]<br />
|nats = 2002 [[SmartAsk!]], 2010 - 2011 [[Reach for the Top|Reach]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
'''Kennebecasis Valley High School''' is a public school in Quispamsis, New Brunswick, just east of Saint John. They have been a dominant team in New Brunswick in the 21st century.<br />
<br />
==Reach for the Top==<br />
<br />
KVHS has had a string of successes in [[Reach for the Top]]. From 2004 to the present, the school has won at the provincial level, attending the national tournament each time. They did not participate in 2005 because of a work-to-rule teacher's strike in the province. At Nationals, they placed 5th in 2004 and 2006, runners-up to the [[2007 London Central]] team in [[2007 Kennebecasis|2007]], third in 2008, and runners-up to London Central again in 2009. Morgan Gagnon, Nick Manuel and Mike Forestell have been on their Nationals team three times each, all becomming captain for at least one year (Morgan was unable to attend a fouth time - See 2005 above). In 2010, KV's sixth consecutive New Brunswick title broke the provincial record of five that [[Fredericton]] held in the early 1990s. The team also holds an undefeated streak at the provincial level since 2004.<br />
<br />
After four consecutive National semifinal appearances, KV won the Reach title in [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]]. The championship team was recognized and rewarded by Shawn Graham, the premier of New Brunswick, in a local ceremony after the tournament. In [[2011 Reach for the Top Nationals|2011]], KVHS successfully defended their title, making them only the second school to win back-to-back championships.<br />
<br />
==SmartAsk!==<br />
<br />
KVHS was also a strong team during the three seasons of [[SmartAsk!]] leading all schools in televised wins with 14. The [[2002 Kennebecasis]] team won the inaugural event. The following season, a younger team reached the finals, losing to the [[2003 Merivale]] team. In the final season, the team made it to the round of 8. Patrick Dunn (who later played at [[Carleton University]]) was on the team for all three years, captaining in 2003 and 2004.<br />
<br />
==Title Succession==<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[SmartAsk!]]<br />
|year = 2002<br />
|previous = tournament began<br />
|next = [[2003 Merivale|Merivale]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]], [[2011 Reach for the Top Nationals|2011]]<br />
|previous = [[2009 London Central|London Central]]<br />
|next = TBD<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
==External Links==<br />
<br />
*[http://www.kvhigh.com/clubs/reach/index.html Team website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:New Brunswick high school teams]]<br />
[[Category:High school teams]]<br />
[[Category:Kennebecasis]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Reach_for_the_Top&diff=9347Reach for the Top2011-05-31T00:25:30Z<p>Ben Smith: /* National Champions */ 2011</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Reach for the Top''' is the dominant high school quiz competition in Canada. Technically a form of [[quizbowl]], it has a larger sports distribution than other academic quizbowl formats, contains more hoses, and is composed almost entirely of speed-check questions which are often non-pyramidal. It is also more expensive than alternatives like [[NAQT]].<br />
<br />
French students usually play [[Genies en herbe]], while university students play in the [[quizbowl]] format.<br />
<br />
==Gameplay==<br />
<br />
The majority of questions in Reach for the Top are approximately the length of quizbowl bonus questions (1-2 sentences), and are worth, for the most part, 10 points each. Interruption of the questions for early guesses are not only allowed but also encouraged, as the game is based heavily on speed. If a team buzzes in and answer a question incorrectly, the opposing team has approximately 3-5 seconds to consult and form an answer. Consultation is permitted at almost all times in Reach for the Top (see "Shootouts" and "Assigned" for exceptions). There are no [[Negs]] or [[Powers]] in Reach, although negs (-5) appeared in the 2007 Nationals for the first time.<br />
<br />
==Categories==<br />
<br />
===Snapstart/Snapout/Open===<br />
Forming the bulk of Reach for the Top questions, these consist of 1-2 sentence questions open to both teams and are worth ten points each. Snapout/Snapstart categories take place at the beginning and end of each round respectively, and the subject of each question varies (i.e. none are linked by a category). "Open" categories are, mostly, worth 40 points in total, and consist of 4 questions all linked by one similar category (e.g. "40 point open on architects"); it is open to both teams. <br />
<br />
==="20 Point Special"===<br />
Like an open question (see last category), but the answer often requires 2 answers in one (e.g. Q: Name both years in which a player's strike or owner's lockout was responsible for the cancellation of some or all of the games in an NHL season. A: 1994-95 and 2004-05.) In other cases, the 20 point special can require one very long answer, for example, the provincial motto of Newfoundland, Quaerite primum regnum Dei<br />
<br />
===Shootout===<br />
A maximum of 12 questions are posed in this category. Once one player has answered a question correctly, they may no longer answer any questions. This player is now "out". Once one team has every one of its 4 players "out", they gain 40 points, and the other team gains 0. Consultation is forbidden at all times in this category. Concerns that have arisen with this category include A) 12 questions are needed to generate 40 points and B) Both teams can have 3 players out with one question left, which one team may barely answer correctly on speed, giving them all 40 points, and thus a very important swing on a very little difference between teams.<br />
<br />
===Chain Snappers===<br />
Similar to a snapstart/snapout, chain snappers involve the answer to one question forming the topic of the succeeding question. As a result, the best and fastest teams can often answer the next question with only 3-4 words read.<br />
<br />
===Who am I/What am I===<br />
Who am I/What am I questions consist of four clues with decreasing point value, beginning with a (usually vague) opening question. If answered correctly on this question, that team gains 40 points. If neither team guesses correctly, the answer is not read, and a slightly less ambiguous clue worth 30 points is read. This continues for two more questions (worth 20 and 10 points respectively), until, if no team is able to give the correct answer, the answer is read. Unlike [[Good Quizbowl]], the first clue does not provide only one possible answer. The 40-point question is often described as being written as though "an expert in that field" would be unable to be absolutely sure of the correct answer, and as a result, can often trigger highly inaccurate guesses, or in the case of non-competitive teams, non-sensical answers which are made to incite laughs and in doing so, delay the game. The 40-point clue can vary in difficulty from completely, improbably difficult, (almost to the a point where one questions the point of it; e.g. "This country is located in Europe." or "He was born in 1685.") to reasonably difficult. <br />
<br />
===Assigned===<br />
Worth 80 points in total, this category consists of questions posed to specific individuals. One team, designated "Team A", will have each of its team members asked one question. If answered incorrectly, the player sitting directly across from that player will have an opportunity to answer that question. Once team A has had all of its players asked a question, team B's players are then asked questions one-by-one in a similar fashion. All of the questions relate to one category (e.g. European national capitals). Consultation is forbidden.<br />
<br />
===Team Questions===<br />
These questions work similarly to tossup/bonus questions. One question is posed to both teams. The team that correctly answers the question has an opportunity to answer three more questions. The only differences between that and quizbowl are that the "tossup" question is usually very short and very easy and the bonus questions (actually called bonus) are related in topic to the "tossup" question.<br />
<br />
===List===<br />
Worth 50 points, this category involves teams alternating in turns to complete a list. Both teams have an opportunity to buzzz in for the first answer. After each question is answered correctly the other team has an opportunity to give an answer. Once a team gets a question wrong, they may no longer answer.<br />
e.g. List all of the professional teams that Wayne Gretzky played for.<br />
Team A (buzzes in): "Edmonton Oilers" - Correct<br />
Team B: "New York Rangers" - Correct<br />
Team A: "St. Louis Blues" - Correct<br />
Team B: "Philadelphia Flyers" - Incorrect<br />
Team A: "Los Angeles Kings & Indianapolis Racers" - Correct x 2<br />
<br />
==Canadian Tournament Play==<br />
<br />
The modern Reach for the Top season begins with SchoolReach - regional leagues playing in classrooms. For most provinces, a "region" encompasses the entire province, while BC and Ontario are divided into smaller regions either for league play (in BC) or to serve as qualifiers for a provincial tournament (in Ontario). A few provinces have their playoff matches televised. The territories, Saskatchewan, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador do not currently have provincial tournaments; any schools from those regions may participate in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, respectively.<br />
<br />
Depending on participation levels, provincial tournaments will qualify either one or two teams to the national tournament, held for the past several years in Edmonton. The national tournament consists of an in-classroom round-robin, followed by televised playoffs.<br />
<br />
Most regions offer an "Intermediate" division tournament open to freshmen and sophomores, but there is no framework for an Intermediate national tournament. "Intermediate" would likely be higher than a "Junior" division (presumably for middle school), but a middle school tournament does not exist. Reach attempted to start a university tournament in the early 2000s, but some [[NAQT]] tournaments had already taken root at the time.<br />
<br />
There are a few Reach (or Reach-style) tournaments held during the year that are independent of the qualification process to Nationals. New Brunswick has 5-6 per year around the province, Toronto has had a few in recent years, and [[Lisgar]] CI held a tournament in Ottawa in 2007. Nevertheless, the number of tournaments is much smaller than availability in several US regions.<br />
<!--taking out unsubstantiated complaints until they can be verified: schools are "obliged" to play Reach??? --><br />
<!-- Active Canadian trivia teams are plagued and frustrated by the lack of Reach tournaments in Canada. In fact, in Ontario and the rest of Canada, the Reach for the Top season does not officially start until the end of February, when the first round of regional qualifiers begin. After that, there is in the bigger "leagues" (although this term is loose-fitting) a regional round #2, followed by provincials, followed by nationals.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately for most, only a fraction of teams gain entrance to provincials, and an even smaller fraction gain entrance into nationals (16 teams out of over 500). To put this in perspective, out of over 210 teams in the province of Ontario, only 2 are sent to the national tournament, hence the reason that [[Lisgar]] Collegiate, despite winning every Canadian quizbowl event and finishing in 18th place after the preliminaries at the [[2007 NAQT HSNCT]], had not qualified for nationals until 2008.<br />
<br />
Despite this lack of competition, there have been little or no winds of change regarding that fact. Few schools have made an effort to host tournaments, and the Reach for the Top organization has shown little motivation to take on any hosting before February. What makes this problem worse is that the organization does not advertise or provide readily-available information for hosting tournaments. As a result, few schools are even aware that they can host tournaments, which means that, to many schools, this lack of competition does not seem out of the ordinary.<br />
<br />
Part of this fact can be contributed to the "Canadiana" aspect of Reach for the Top. Because of the history and cultural engrainment of Reach for the Top in Canadian culture (the show has been around for decades, it was parodied on SCTV by future star Eugene Levy, and the majority of Canadian adults either played or knew someone who played Reach in high school), many schools seem comfortable with the fact that the season starts and ends after 1-2 tournaments in the spring, as they cling to the mostly fruitless hope that they may, someday, win a national title or at least appear on television. This acceptance is partially responsible for most schools feeling 1-2 tournaments is not out of the ordinary. Additionally, because of this Canadian cultural engrainment, some pro-Reach individuals actively oppose any deviation from the current system, including participation in quizbowl, again, hindering an increase in the amount of competition.<br />
<br />
Perhaps an advantage of the cultural engrainment, however, is that the majority of secondary schools in Canada feel obliged to field a Reach team of some sort, thereby increasing the size of the regional qualifier tournaments. Unfortunately, this does not apply to all areas of the country, as some provinces (lsdkfsdlf) do not participate in Reach for the Top at all. In Quebec, as a result of the few anglophone schools, there are only 8 Reach for the Top teams in that province. The francophone schools play a simlar format called "Genies en Herbes" (young geniuses).<br />
<br />
Because of this, the more active teams in Canada must often find additional competition. Recently, activity has increased in the Ottawa area, as a result of the [[University of Ottawa]], as well as [[Merivale]] High Schoool, [[Gananoque]] Secondary School and Lisgar Collegiate, the latter of which hosted one of the only "pre-season" Reach for the Top tournaments in Canada on December 1st, when it <br />
organized the 07 [[Lisgar Open]]. --><br />
<br />
==Rule 1 Issues==<br />
<br />
Rule #1 of Reach for the Top states:<br />
<br />
"Any student who is 19 or under at the ''beginning'' of the school year and has been continuously enrolled in a Secondary School is eligible to play both SCHOOLREACH and REACH FOR THE TOP."<br />
<br />
This rule originally accommodated the 5-year high school system in Ontario, which ended with students entering in 1999. This rule has since not changed, even with Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador having 3-year high schools. As such, some players and teams have exploited this loophole to various degrees of success:<br />
<br />
* Quebec's league was established in the 2001-02 season. CEGEPs, which have high school graduates, are allowed to compete under the rule, and a CEGEP represents Quebec at Nationals nearly every year. Royal West Academy, a high school, broke this trend by qualifying for Nationals in 2008.<br />
<br />
* [[Andy Saunders]] played Reach For The Top for six seasons in high school due to Rule #1.<br />
<br />
* A player from [[Leaside]] celebrated his 19th birthday at the Ontario provincial tournament his team ended up winning in 2005. They failed to win Nationals, however.<br />
<br />
* The captain of [[2004 St. George's]] was in his fifth year of Reach, and won the national championship. What was particularly ironic was the fact that the coach was quite vocal about fifth-year Ontario teams winning Nationals throughout the 1990s.<br />
<br />
It should be noted that several Ontario teams have managed to win the national championships in the 4-year system.<br />
<br />
==Championship Disputes==<br />
<br />
Since the conversion from a CBC program to SchoolReach, there have been incidents that have left a national title in dispute by some parties:<br />
<br />
*[[1989 Tagwi]]: Tagwi won an early match because of a (possibly) incorrect ruling over the ingredients of borscht. The team got screwed over in the end, though. They never got a trophy because of a dispute between Reach and the old CBC champions, and their scheduled exhibition match with the [[NAC]] champions was cancelled because a party in the US (the team? the TV crew? Chip Beall?) didn't want to travel to Canada.<br />
<br />
*[[1995 Fredericton]]: In the aftermath of issues surrounding the [[1995 Bell]] team, a team from [[Lisgar]] that won the zone match to earn a berth in provincials never got the opportunity to play. How well the Lisgar team would have fared is now only speculative.<br />
<br />
*[[2008 Lisgar]]: Down by 5 points, the runner-up team from [[UTS]] claimed they buzzed in at the end of the game before the time alarm went off. It had to go to a video review, and Reach judged in favour of Lisgar. A small edit war erupted on Wikipedia between anonymous Toronto IPs and quizbowlers apparently "sympathetic" to Lisgar over how the championship should be listed in the article.<br />
<br />
*[[2009 London Central]]: London Central's opponents in the finals from Kennebecasis were not informed by either Reach For The Top or TVO that there would be a change in format for the final game until minutes before the game began. The team from Kennebecasis had also never played using TVOs format (which eliminates the shootout and includes relatively easy questions among other changes) before. The London Central team had played using TVOs format two weeks earlier for the Ontario Provincials, giving them an advantage for the finals. The national tournament was also notable for the recycling of several questions during the round robin portion which could have also affected the outcome of the tournament in terms of seeding the teams for the playoffs.<br />
<br />
==Notable Participants==<br />
<br />
As a long-standing and highly-regarded establishment in Canada, several people have participated during their high school years and gone on to great success. A list of notable former players, coaches, and Reach personnel follows (names in '''bold''' won the national championship):<br />
<br />
===Politics===<br />
* Kim Campbell - Prime Minister of Canada (1993)<br />
* Mark Carney - Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008- )<br />
* Grant Devine - Premier of Saskatchewan (1982-91)<br />
* [[Stephen Harper]] - Prime Minister of Canada (2006- )<br />
* '''[[Ken Kowalski]]''' - Speaker of the Legislature of Alberta (1997- )<br />
* [[Bernard Lord]] - Premier of New Brunswick (1999-2006)<br />
* Stuart Smith - Leader of the Opposition of Ontario (1977-81)<br />
<br />
===Media===<br />
* '''Howard Green''' - Business News Network host, former CBC documentarian<br />
*'''Tom Harrington''' - CBC Sports reporter<br />
* Shelagh Rogers - CBC Radio and TVO personality<br />
* Jan Tennant - Anchor of CBC's ''The National'' and ''Saturday Evening News'' (1970s)<br />
* Alex Trebek - Host of [[Jeopardy!]] ( [http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/television/clips/15279/ A video of an exhibition match between Reach and Genies players] )<br />
<br />
===Other===<br />
* Malcolm Gladwell - Author of the bestsellers ''The Tipping Point'', ''Blink'', and ''Outliers''<br />
* '''Bernard Hibbitts''' - Law professor at the University of Pittsburgh [http://faculty.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/profile.htm]; founder of JURIST news service<br />
* Dr. '''Sethu Reddy''' - Former professor of medicine at Dalhousie & Harvard; chairman at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio<br />
<br />
==National Champions==<br />
<br />
''Reach for the Top had televised matches as early as 1961, but no national champions were declared until 1966. There were no national champions from 1986-88.''<br />
<br />
{| border="1" cellspacing="0"<br />
! Year<br />
! Champion<br />
! Prov<br />
! Runner-up<br />
! Prov<br />
! Location<br />
! Notes<br />
|- <br />
| 1966<br />
| [[1966 Vincent Massey|Vincent Massey]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1967<br />
| [[1967 Rideau|Rideau]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1968<br />
| [[1968 Oak Bay|Oak Bay]]<br />
| BC<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1969<br />
| [[1969 Neil McNeil|Neil McNeil]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1970<br />
| [[1970 Kelvin|Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1971<br />
| [[1971 River East|River East]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1972<br />
| [[1972 O'Leary|O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1973<br />
| [[1973 Lorne Jenkins|Lorne Jenkins]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1974<br />
| [[1974 Gongaza|Gonzaga]]<br />
| NL<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
| Only NL champion<br />
|-<br />
| 1975<br />
| [[1975 Queen Elizabeth|Queen Elizabeth]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1976<br />
| [[1976 Central Peel|Central Peel]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1977<br />
| [[1977 Glenlawn|Glenlawn]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[1978 Reach for the Top Nationals|1978]]<br />
| [[1978 Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1978 Dryden|Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Charlottetown, PE<br />
| First two-time champions; defeated [[1978 Richview]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1979<br />
| [[1979 Banting|Banting]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1979 Dryden|Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1980<br />
| [[1980 Hillcrest|Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1980 Sir Winston Churchill|Sir Winston Churchill]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1981<br />
| [[1981 Cobequid|Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Corner Brook, NL<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1982<br />
| [[1982 Dakota|Dakota]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[1982 Hillcrest|Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1983<br />
| [[1983 Roland Michener|Roland Michener]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1984<br />
| [[1984 Deloraine|Deloraine]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[1984 Moncton|Moncton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Regina, SK<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| 1985<br />
| [[1985 Kate Andrews|Kate Andrews]]<br />
| AB<br />
| [[1985 Wagar|Wagar]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Moncton, NB<br />
| Last year on CBC<br />
|-<br />
| 1989<br />
| [[1989 Tagwi|Tagwi]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1989 Mount Douglas|Mount Douglas]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| Revival as "Schoolreach"<br />
|-<br />
| 1990<br />
| [[1990 Memorial|Memorial]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1991<br />
| [[1991 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| [[1991 St. Albert|St. Albert]]<br />
| AB<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1992<br />
| [[1992 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1993<br />
| [[1993 St. Joseph's|St. Joseph's]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1993 Hay|William E. Hay]]<br />
| AB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1994<br />
| [[1994 Bell|Bell]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1994 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1995<br />
| [[1995 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1996<br />
| [[1996 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| First two-time champion player: [[Dave Thorsley]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1997<br />
| [[1997 Earl Haig|Earl Haig]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1997 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1998<br />
| [[1998 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1998 Kingston|Kingston CVI]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Halifax, NS<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1999<br />
| [[1999 Frontenac|Frontenac]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2000<br />
| [[2000 Merivale|Merivale]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2000 Ridley|Ridley]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| National finals return to TV<br />
|-<br />
| 2001<br />
| [[2001 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2001 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| Second championship<br />
|-<br />
| 2002<br />
| [[2002 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2002 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2003<br />
| [[2003 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2003 Dawson|Dawson]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First back-to-back championships<br />
|-<br />
| 2004<br />
| [[2004 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| [[2004 Leaside|Leaside]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| Second championship<br />
|-<br />
| 2005<br />
| [[2005 Cobequid|Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| [[2005 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| Second championship<br />
|-<br />
| 2006<br />
| [[2006 Woburn|Woburn]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2006 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2007 Reach for the Top Nationals|2007]]<br />
| [[2007 London Central|London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2007 Kennebecasis|Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2008 Reach for the Top Nationals|2008]]<br />
| [[2008 Lisgar|Lisgar]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2008 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2009 Reach for the Top Nationals|2009]]<br />
| [[London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| Excluding the final game, the National Finals left TV.<br />
|-<br />
| [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised<br />
|-<br />
| [[2011 Reach for the Top Nationals|2011]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Centennial (Ontario high school)|Centennial]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Canada]][[Category:Quizbowl TV shows]] [[Category:Reach for the Top]] [[Category:High school formats]]<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
[[List of Ontario Reach for the Top qualifying leagues]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Quizbowl&diff=7444Quizbowl2010-07-06T15:43:03Z<p>Ben Smith: /* History */ This section was blank, now it's not</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Quizbowl''', sometimes spelled '''Quiz Bowl''', is the most common name for a competition involving answering questions and attemping to provide the correct answer, usually with a [[buzzer]]. Quizbowl has many different names and is played in many different formats throughout the world, but the most common format on the national high school and college level involves two teams buzzing on [[tossup]] questions and then collaborating on [[bonus]] questions on [[NAQT]], [[ACF]], or [[mACF]] formats.<br />
<br />
==History==<br />
<br />
===United States===<br />
Don Reid developed a quizzing game for soldiers during WWII. He modified his game to produce ''[[College Bowl]]'' for radio in 1953, featuring teams of college students. ''College Bowl'' later moved to, then left, television, and its format was further modified to create the different quizbowl formats offered today.<br />
<br />
===Canada===<br />
[[I.Q.]] was a CBC radio quiz show for high school teams based on ''College Bowl'''s format. It was canceled at about the same time that CBC Television began airing ''[[Reach for the Top]]'', based on the UK's ''Top of the Form'' radio show. ''Reach for the Top'' left television in 1985, but continues within schools.<br />
<br />
===United Kingdom===<br />
BBC radio produced ''Top of the Form'' for high school students in 1948 and continued into the 1980s. At the university level, Don Reid brought ''College Bowl'''s format to British television with ''University Challenge'' in 1962, a program that still airs to this day.<br />
<br />
===World===<br />
<br />
==Formats==<br />
The college game is in general more uniform than the high school game. The main formats are [[ACF]] (and non-affiliated but similar style [[mACF]] tournaments) and [[NAQT]]. [[CBI]], which used to be the main college format, fell out of favor with most people that enjoy [[good quizbowl]] for numerous reasons (see [[bad quizbowl]], for instance), and in June 2008 the CBI program was suspended indefinitely.<br />
<br />
The high school game is very diverse, although national tournaments like NAQT's [[HSNCT]] and [[PACE|PACE's]] [[NSC]] help unify different regions of the country. Both of those tournaments feature formats that are relatively similar to the predominant college game, in that they feature pyramidal questions and generally focus on academic subjects. While nothing inherent to the [[four quarter format]] prevents tournaments using it from being just as good as the tossup/bonus format, many of the most prominent tournaments in four quarter, such as the [[NAC]], are terrible. Other tournaments such as the [[Brookwood Invitational Scholars Bowl]] use the four quarter format to a high degree of respect.<br />
<br />
Pop culture tournaments, usually called [[trash]] tournaments are typically in the [[mACF]] or [[NAQT]] style and are aimed for college level or general audiences.<br />
<br />
===What is and is not quizbowl===<br />
<br />
While some opine that [[College Bowl]], the [[National Academic Championship]], and bizarre state formats such as [[OAC]] are so aberrant that they should not be considered the same game as [[mainstream quizbowl]], this division is controversial and often exaggerated for rhetorical effect. What is clear to almost everyone is that the following things are not quizbowl, even though many of the same people who play quizbowl are interested in them. Editors of the [[Wikipedia article on quizbowl]] and people looking to crow about their own accomplishments should take note:<br />
<br />
*Written tests or competitions or anything that does not use a buzzer<br />
*Network game shows<br />
*Bar trivia/NTN<br />
*Trivial Pursuit and other board games<br />
*Subject-specific tournaments run by and largely for non-quizbowl people (Science Bowl, Entomology Bowl, Beef Bowl, and so on)<br />
<br />
Such activities may have plenty of merits, but they should be conceived of separately from what is meant by reference to the high school and collegiate quizbowl communities.<br />
<br />
==Tournaments==<br />
Quizbowl teams typically play each other at tournaments. Most tournaments are open tournaments, in that anyone who fits the eligibility requirements (such as having a team consisting entirely of students from one high school) can participate in the tournament. A few tournaments, usually national tournaments, restrict eligibility to teams that qualify by winning smaller, local tournaments.<br />
<br />
Most tournaments, especially at the college and elite high school levels, consist of two teams competing head to head in individual rounds on a packet of questions. Tournaments usually feature a number of preliminary rounds before teams are seeded into some sort of playoff structure. College tournaments tend to favor using a round robin playoff schedule so that more games are played by each team, while many high school tournaments use an elimination playoff system.<br />
<br />
In the high school game, tournament questions almost always come from an outside vendor or are written by the organization hosting the tournament. This is also true for college tournaments held on [[NAQT]] or [[CBI]] questions. [[mACF]] and [[ACF]] college tournaments, however, usually are [[packet submission]] (although there are noted exceptions to this, such as [[EFT]] or [[PARFAIT]]; there is nothing inherent in the mACF or ACF rules that require these tournaments to be packet submission). Each team attending a packet submission tournament writes a packet (somewhere around 20-26 tossups and bonuses) of questions which are then usually sent to an editor or team of editors who weed out any duplicates and change and replace questions that are problematic. Since individual teams have not told the other teams what they've written, packet submission tournaments are able to take place by having the team that wrote the packet sit out of one round while the other teams play the packet.<br />
<br />
==Questions==<br />
<br />
==Resources==<br />
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quizbowl Wikipedia Article on Quizbowl]<br />
*[http://www.hsquizbowl.org The World of High School Quiz Bowl] - Useful links, thriving message boards for college, high school and junior high school game.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Stubs]]<br />
[[Category:Quizbowl basics]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Merivale&diff=7382Merivale2010-06-21T14:42:08Z<p>Ben Smith: this page hasn't been updated since 2008...</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Highschoolteam|Name = Merivale High School<br />
|image = MHSlogo.jpg<br />
|citystate = Ottawa, ON<br />
|currentcoach = <br />
|state = 2000 [[Reach for the Top|Reach]]<br />
|nats = 2000 [[Reach for the Top|Reach]], 2003 [[SmartAsk!]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
'''Merivale High School''' is a public school in suburban Ottawa, Ontario. A [[Reach for the Top]] team was established in the 1999/2000 school year under the guidance of [[Richard Mageau]], who had previously assisted [[Bell]] and [[Gloucester]] in their Reach national championships.<br />
<br />
==Reach for the Top==<br />
<br />
Merivale's best result in Reach for the Top came in their first year, 2000. After losing the city title to Gloucester, Merivale beat [[Ridley]] College in the finals of both the provincial and national tournaments to claim the 2000 Reach for the Top championship. Excepting the years when Reach was established and re-established, no other school has won the title in their first year of competition. The [[2000 Merivale]] team was captained by Chris Demerse, had regulars Evan Annett, Kyla Ercit, and Matt Hogel, and had several alternates (Ottawa city competition allows only one team per school).<br />
<br />
After the championship, Mageau left during a work-to-rule teachers strike and Merivale struggled in provincials the following year. Merivale would later win their first two (and so far, only) city championships in 2002 and 2003, and has also qualified for provincials a few times since, including a run to the quarterfinals in the [[2009 Reach for the Top Nationals]].<br />
<br />
==SmartAsk!==<br />
<br />
The [[2003 Merivale]] team participated in the second season of [[SmartAsk!]], a quiz show that ran on CBC television and radio. Similar to the 2000 team in Reach, Merivale won the season in their debut year. In the final, the them defeated [[Kennebecasis]] in a final-round comeback. After Merivale only ever bet 10 points in it and [[Ben Smith]] pre-determined the designated players for each team in the later matches, the new "Dawg-eat-Dawg" format was scrapped. The champion team was captained by Sarah Kriger and included Jayson Johnson, Imran Karim, and Ben Smith.<br />
<br />
In the following season, Merivale failed to win the first radio match, thus missing the final SmartAsk season.<br />
<br />
==Quizbowl==<br />
<br />
Merivale participated in a NAQT-format tournament for the first time in November, 2007. They won the Ottawa Quizbowl Tournament the following year.<br />
<br />
==Alumni==<br />
<br />
Several former Merivale players have played quizbowl at the university level:<br />
* Dave Davis<br />
* Jeff Gordon<br />
* Ian Harten<br />
* Andrei Janus<br />
* Sarah Kriger<br />
* Adam Minelli<br />
* Edward Roue<br />
* Ben Smith<br />
<br />
==Title Succession==<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 2000<br />
|previous = [[1999 Frontenac|Frontenac]]<br />
|next = [[2001 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[SmartAsk!]]<br />
|year = 2003<br />
|previous = [[2002 Kennebecasis|Kennebecasis]]<br />
|next = [[2004 Templeton|Templeton]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Ontario high school teams]]<br />
[[Category:High school teams]]<br />
[[Category:Merivale]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Kennebecasis&diff=7310Kennebecasis2010-06-14T18:31:28Z<p>Ben Smith: /* Reach for the Top */ ceremony with premier</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Highschoolteam|Name = Kennebecasis Valley High School<br />
|image = KVHSlogo.jpg<br />
|citystate = Quispamsis, NB<br />
|currentcoach = Jason Thorne<br />
|state = 2004, 2006 - 2010 [[Reach for the Top|Reach]]<br />
|nats = 2002 [[SmartAsk!]], 2010 [[Reach for the Top|Reach]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
'''Kennebecasis Valley High School''' is a public school in Quispamsis, New Brunswick, just east of Saint John. They have been a dominant team in New Brunswick in the 21st century.<br />
<br />
==Reach for the Top==<br />
<br />
KVHS has had a string of successes in [[Reach for the Top]]. From 2004 to the present, the school has won at the provincial level, attending the national tournament each time. They did not participate in 2005 because of a work-to-rule teacher's strike in the province. At Nationals, they placed 5th in 2004 and 2006, runners-up to the [[2007 London Central]] team in [[2007 Kennebecasis|2007]], third in 2008, and runners-up to London Central again in 2009. Morgan Gagnon, Nick Manuel and Mike Forestell have been on their Nationals team three times each, all becomming captain for at least one year (Morgan was unable to attend a fouth time - See 2005 above). In 2010, KV's sixth consecutive New Brunswick title broke the provincial record of five that [[Fredericton]] held in the early 1990s. The team also boasts a 227-game undefeated streak at the provincial level since 2004.<br />
<br />
After four consecutive National semifinal appearances, KV won the Reach title in [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]]. The championship team was recognized and rewarded by Shawn Graham, the premier of New Brunswick, in a local ceremony after the tournament.<br />
<br />
==SmartAsk!==<br />
<br />
KVHS was also a strong team during the three seasons of [[SmartAsk!]] leading all schools in televised wins with 14. The [[2002 Kennebecasis]] team won the inaugural event. The following season, a younger team reached the finals, losing to the [[2003 Merivale]] team. In the final season, the team made it to the round of 8. Patrick Dunn (who later played at [[Carleton University]]) was on the team for all three years, captaining in 2003 and 2004.<br />
<br />
==Title Succession==<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[SmartAsk!]]<br />
|year = 2002<br />
|previous = tournament began<br />
|next = [[2003 Merivale|Merivale]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]]<br />
|previous = [[2009 London Central|London Central]]<br />
|next = TBD<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
==External Links==<br />
<br />
*[http://www.kvhigh.com/clubs/reach/index.html Team website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:New Brunswick high school teams]]<br />
[[Category:High school teams]]<br />
[[Category:Kennebecasis]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Kennebecasis&diff=7224Kennebecasis2010-05-31T17:36:46Z<p>Ben Smith: 2010 update</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Highschoolteam|Name = Kennebecasis Valley High School<br />
|image = KVHSlogo.jpg<br />
|citystate = Quispamsis, NB<br />
|currentcoach = Jason Thorne<br />
|state = 2004, 2006 - 2010 [[Reach for the Top|Reach]]<br />
|nats = 2002 [[SmartAsk!]], 2010 [[Reach for the Top|Reach]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
'''Kennebecasis Valley High School''' is a public school in Quispamsis, New Brunswick, just east of Saint John. They have been a dominant team in New Brunswick in the 21st century.<br />
<br />
==Reach for the Top==<br />
<br />
KVHS has had a string of successes in [[Reach for the Top]]. From 2004 to the present, the school has won at the provincial level, attending the national tournament each time. They did not participate in 2005 because of a work-to-rule teacher's strike in the province. At Nationals, they placed 5th in 2004 and 2006, runners-up to the [[2007 London Central]] team in [[2007 Kennebecasis|2007]], third in 2008, and runners-up to London Central again in 2009. Morgan Gagnon, Nick Manuel and Mike Forestell have been on their Nationals team three times each, all becomming captain for at least one year (Morgan was unable to attend a fouth time - See 2005 above). In 2010, KV's sixth consecutive New Brunswick title broke the provincial record of five that [[Fredericton]] held in the early 1990s. The team also boasts a 227-game undefeated streak at the provincial level since 2004.<br />
<br />
After four consecutive National semifinal appearances, KV won the Reach title in [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]].<br />
<br />
==SmartAsk!==<br />
<br />
KVHS was also a strong team during the three seasons of [[SmartAsk!]] leading all schools in televised wins with 14. The [[2002 Kennebecasis]] team won the inaugural event. The following season, a younger team reached the finals, losing to the [[2003 Merivale]] team. In the final season, the team made it to the round of 8. Patrick Dunn (who later played at [[Carleton University]]) was on the team for all three years, captaining in 2003 and 2004.<br />
<br />
==Title Succession==<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[SmartAsk!]]<br />
|year = 2002<br />
|previous = tournament began<br />
|next = [[2003 Merivale|Merivale]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]]<br />
|previous = [[2009 London Central|London Central]]<br />
|next = TBD<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
==External Links==<br />
<br />
*[http://www.kvhigh.com/clubs/reach/index.html Team website]<br />
<br />
[[Category:New Brunswick high school teams]]<br />
[[Category:High school teams]]<br />
[[Category:Kennebecasis]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Gloucester_(ON)&diff=7223Gloucester (ON)2010-05-31T17:28:41Z<p>Ben Smith: 2010 update</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Highschoolteam|Name = Gloucester High School<br />
|image = <br />
|citystate = Ottawa, ON<br />
|currentcoach =<br />
|state = 1998, 2010 [[Reach for the Top|Reach]]<br />
|nats = 1998, 2001 [[Reach for the Top|Reach]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
'''Gloucester High School''' is a public school in suburban Ottawa, Ontario. The school has regularly fielded strong teams in [[Reach for the Top]], winning the national title in [[1998 Gloucester|1998]] and [[2001 Gloucester|2001]].<br />
<br />
==Reach for the Top==<br />
<br />
Gloucester has had a team for several years, and the coach is the regional director. They had great success around the turn of the millennium, with two national titles (and a third national appearance in 1997), and have made a recent resurgence, qualifying for nationals in 2007 and 2010.<br />
<br />
==Title Succession==<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 1998<br />
|previous = [[Earl Haig|Earl Haig]]<br />
|next = [[1999 Frontenac|Frontenac]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
{{Succession_box|Tournament = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|year = 2001<br />
|previous = [[2000 Merivale|Merivale]]<br />
|next = [[2002 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Ontario high school teams]]<br />
[[Category:High school teams]]<br />
[[Category:Gloucester]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Reach_for_the_Top&diff=7222Reach for the Top2010-05-31T17:27:28Z<p>Ben Smith: /* National Champions */ 2010 result</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Reach for the Top''' is the dominant high school quiz competition in Canada. French students usually play [[Genies en herbe]], while university students play in the [[quizbowl]] format.<br />
<br />
==Gameplay==<br />
<br />
The majority of questions in Reach for the Top are approximately the length of quizbowl bonus questions (1-2 sentences), and are worth, for the most part, 10 points each. Interruption of the questions for early guesses are not only allowed but also encouraged, as the game is based heavily on speed. If a team buzzes in and answer a question incorrectly, the opposing team has approximately 3-5 seconds to consult and form an answer. Consultation is permitted at almost all times in Reach for the Top (see "Shootouts" and "Assigned" for exceptions). There are no [[Negs]] or [[Powers]] in Reach, although negs (-5) appeared in the 2007 Nationals for the first time.<br />
<br />
==Categories==<br />
<br />
===Snapstart/Snapout/Open===<br />
Forming the bulk of Reach for the Top questions, these consist of 1-2 sentence questions open to both teams and are worth ten points each. Snapout/Snapstart categories take place at the beginning and end of each round respectively, and the subject of each question varies (i.e. none are linked by a category). "Open" categories are, mostly, worth 40 points in total, and consist of 4 questions all linked by one similar category (e.g. "40 point open on architects"); it is open to both teams.<br />
<br />
==="20 Point Special"===<br />
Like an open question (see last category), but the answer often requires 2 answers in one (e.g. Q: Name both years in which a player's strike or owner's lockout was responsible for the cancellation of some or all of the games in an NHL season. A: 1994-95 and 2004-05.)<br />
<br />
===Shootout===<br />
A maximum of 12 questions are posed in this category. Once one player has answered a question correctly, they may no longer answer any questions. This player is now "out". Once one team has every one of its 4 players "out", they gain 40 points, and the other team gains 0. Consultation is forbidden at all times in this category. Concerns that have arisen with this category include A) 12 questions are needed to generate 40 points and B) Both teams can have 3 players out with one question left, which one team may barely answer correctly on speed, giving them all 40 points, and thus a very important swing on a very little difference between teams.<br />
<br />
===Chain Snappers===<br />
Similar to a snapstart/snapout, chain snappers involve the answer to one question forming the topic of the succeeding question. As a result, the best and fastest teams can often answer the next question with only 3-4 words read.<br />
<br />
===Who am I/What am I===<br />
Who am I/What am I questions consist of four clues with decreasing point value, beginning with a (usually vague) opening question. If answered correctly on this question, that team gains 40 points. If neither team guesses correctly, the answer is not read, and a slightly less ambiguous clue worth 30 points is read. This continues for two more questions (worth 20 and 10 points respectively), until, if no team is able to give the correct answer, the answer is read. The 40-point question is often described as being written as though "an expert in that field" would be unable to be absolutely sure of the correct answer, and as a result, can often trigger highly inaccurate guesses, or in the case of non-competitive teams, non-sensical answers which are made to incite laughs and in doing so, delay the game. The 40-point clue can vary in difficulty from completely, improbably difficult, (almost to the a point where one questions the point of it; e.g. This country is located in Europe.) to reasonably difficult.<br />
<br />
===Assigned===<br />
Worth 80 points in total, this category consists of questions posed to specific individuals. One team, designated "Team A", will have each of its team members asked one question. If answered incorrectly, the player sitting directly across from that player will have an opportunity to answer that question. Once team A has had all of its players asked a question, team B's players are then asked questions one-by-one in a similar fashion. All of the questions relate to one category (e.g. European national capitals). Consultation is forbidden.<br />
<br />
===Team Questions===<br />
These questions work similarly to tossup/bonus questions. One question is posed to both teams. The team that correctly answers the question has an opportunity to answer three more questions. The only differences between that and quizbowl are that the "tossup" question is usually very short and very easy and the bonus questions (actually called bonus) are related in topic to the "tossup" question.<br />
<br />
===List===<br />
Worth 50 points, this category involves teams alternating in turns to complete a list. Both teams have an opportunity to buzzz in for the first answer. After each question is answered correctly the other team has an opportunity to give an answer. Once a team gets a question wrong, they may no longer answer.<br />
e.g. List all of the professional teams that Wayne Gretzky played for.<br />
Team A (buzzes in): "Edmonton Oilers" - Correct<br />
Team B: "New York Rangers" - Correct<br />
Team A: "St. Louis Blues" - Correct<br />
Team B: "Philadelphia Flyers" - Incorrect<br />
Team A: "Los Angeles Kings & Indianapolis Racers" - Correct x 2<br />
<br />
==Canadian Tournament Play==<br />
<br />
The modern Reach for the Top season begins with SchoolReach - regional leagues playing in classrooms. For most provinces, a "region" encompasses the entire province, while BC and Ontario are divided into smaller regions either for league play (in BC) or to serve as qualifiers for a provincial tournament (in Ontario). A few provinces have their playoff matches televised. The territories, Saskatchewan, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador do not currently have provincial tournaments; any schools from those regions may participate in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, respectively.<br />
<br />
Depending on participation levels, provincial tournaments will qualify either one or two teams to the national tournament, held for the past several years in Edmonton. The national tournament consists of an in-classroom round-robin, followed by televised playoffs.<br />
<br />
Most regions offer an "Intermediate" division tournament open to freshmen and sophomores, but there is no framework for an Intermediate national tournament. "Intermediate" would likely be higher than a "Junior" division (presumably for middle school), but a middle school tournament does not exist. Reach attempted to start a university tournament in the early 2000s, but some [[NAQT]] tournaments had already taken root at the time.<br />
<br />
There are a few Reach (or Reach-style) tournaments held during the year that are independent of the qualification process to Nationals. New Brunswick has 5-6 per year around the province, Toronto has had a few in recent years, and [[Lisgar]] CI held a tournament in Ottawa in 2007. Nevertheless, the number of tournaments is much smaller than availability in several US regions.<br />
<!--taking out unsubstantiated complaints until they can be verified: schools are "obliged" to play Reach??? --><br />
<!-- Active Canadian trivia teams are plagued and frustrated by the lack of Reach tournaments in Canada. In fact, in Ontario and the rest of Canada, the Reach for the Top season does not officially start until the end of February, when the first round of regional qualifiers begin. After that, there is in the bigger "leagues" (although this term is loose-fitting) a regional round #2, followed by provincials, followed by nationals.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately for most, only a fraction of teams gain entrance to provincials, and an even smaller fraction gain entrance into nationals (16 teams out of over 500). To put this in perspective, out of over 210 teams in the province of Ontario, only 2 are sent to the national tournament, hence the reason that [[Lisgar]] Collegiate, despite winning every Canadian quizbowl event and finishing in 18th place after the preliminaries at the [[2007 NAQT HSNCT]], had not qualified for nationals until 2008.<br />
<br />
Despite this lack of competition, there have been little or no winds of change regarding that fact. Few schools have made an effort to host tournaments, and the Reach for the Top organization has shown little motivation to take on any hosting before February. What makes this problem worse is that the organization does not advertise or provide readily-available information for hosting tournaments. As a result, few schools are even aware that they can host tournaments, which means that, to many schools, this lack of competition does not seem out of the ordinary.<br />
<br />
Part of this fact can be contributed to the "Canadiana" aspect of Reach for the Top. Because of the history and cultural engrainment of Reach for the Top in Canadian culture (the show has been around for decades, it was parodied on SCTV by future star Eugene Levy, and the majority of Canadian adults either played or knew someone who played Reach in high school), many schools seem comfortable with the fact that the season starts and ends after 1-2 tournaments in the spring, as they cling to the mostly fruitless hope that they may, someday, win a national title or at least appear on television. This acceptance is partially responsible for most schools feeling 1-2 tournaments is not out of the ordinary. Additionally, because of this Canadian cultural engrainment, some pro-Reach individuals actively oppose any deviation from the current system, including participation in quizbowl, again, hindering an increase in the amount of competition.<br />
<br />
Perhaps an advantage of the cultural engrainment, however, is that the majority of secondary schools in Canada feel obliged to field a Reach team of some sort, thereby increasing the size of the regional qualifier tournaments. Unfortunately, this does not apply to all areas of the country, as some provinces (lsdkfsdlf) do not participate in Reach for the Top at all. In Quebec, as a result of the few anglophone schools, there are only 8 Reach for the Top teams in that province. The francophone schools play a simlar format called "Genies en Herbes" (young geniuses).<br />
<br />
Because of this, the more active teams in Canada must often find additional competition. Recently, activity has increased in the Ottawa area, as a result of the [[University of Ottawa]], as well as [[Merivale]] High Schoool, [[Gananoque]] Secondary School and Lisgar Collegiate, the latter of which hosted one of the only "pre-season" Reach for the Top tournaments in Canada on December 1st, when it <br />
organized the 07 [[Lisgar Open]]. --><br />
<br />
==Rule 1 Issues==<br />
<br />
Rule #1 of Reach for the Top states:<br />
<br />
"Any student who is 19 or under at the ''beginning'' of the school year and has been continuously enrolled in a Secondary School is eligible to play both SCHOOLREACH and REACH FOR THE TOP."<br />
<br />
This rule originally accommodated the 5-year high school system in Ontario, which ended with students entering in 1999. This rule has since not changed, even with Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador having 3-year high schools. As such, some players and teams have exploited this loophole to various degrees of success:<br />
<br />
* Quebec's league was established in the 2001-02 season. CEGEPs, which have high school graduates, are allowed to compete under the rule, and a CEGEP represents Quebec at Nationals nearly every year. Royal West Academy, a high school, broke this trend by qualifying for Nationals in 2008.<br />
<br />
* [[Andy Saunders]] played Reach For The Top for six seasons in high school due to Rule #1.<br />
<br />
* A player from [[Leaside]] celebrated his 19th birthday at the Ontario provincial tournament his team ended up winning in 2005. They failed to win Nationals, however.<br />
<br />
* The captain of [[2004 St. George's]] was in his fifth year of Reach, and won the national championship. What was particularly ironic was the fact that the coach was quite vocal about fifth-year Ontario teams winning Nationals throughout the 1990s.<br />
<br />
It should be noted that several Ontario teams have managed to win the national championships in the 4-year system.<br />
<br />
==Championship Disputes==<br />
<br />
Since the conversion from a CBC program to SchoolReach, there have been incidents that have left a national title in dispute by some parties:<br />
<br />
*[[1989 Tagwi]]: Tagwi won an early match because of a (possibly) incorrect ruling over the ingredients of borscht. The team got screwed over in the end, though. They never got a trophy because of a dispute between Reach and the old CBC champions, and their scheduled exhibition match with the [[NAC]] champions was cancelled because a party in the US (the team? the TV crew? Chip Beall?) didn't want to travel to Canada.<br />
<br />
*[[1995 Fredericton]]: In the aftermath of issues surrounding the [[1995 Bell]] team, a team from [[Lisgar]] that won the zone match to earn a berth in provincials never got the opportunity to play. How well the Lisgar team would have fared is now only speculative.<br />
<br />
*[[2008 Lisgar]]: Down by 5 points, the runner-up team from [[UTS]] claimed they buzzed in at the end of the game before the time alarm went off. It had to go to a video review, and Reach judged in favour of Lisgar. A small edit war erupted on Wikipedia between anonymous Toronto IPs and quizbowlers apparently "sympathetic" to Lisgar over how the championship should be listed in the article.<br />
<br />
*[[2009 London Central]]: London Central's opponents in the finals from Kennebecasis were not informed by either Reach For The Top or TVO that there would be a change in format for the final game until minutes before the game began. The team from Kennebecasis had also never played using TVOs format (which eliminates the shootout and includes relatively easy questions among other changes) before. The London Central team had played using TVOs format two weeks earlier for the Ontario Provincials, giving them an advantage for the finals. The national tournament was also notable for the recycling of several questions during the round robin portion which could have also affected the outcome of the tournament in terms of seeding the teams for the playoffs.<br />
<br />
==Notable Participants==<br />
<br />
As a long-standing and highly-regarded establishment in Canada, several people have participated during their high school years and gone on to great success. A list of notable former players, coaches, and Reach personnel follows (names in '''bold''' won the national championship):<br />
<br />
===Politics===<br />
* Kim Campbell - Prime Minister of Canada (1993)<br />
* Mark Carney - Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008- )<br />
* Grant Devine - Premier of Saskatchewan (1982-91)<br />
* [[Stephen Harper]] - Prime Minister of Canada (2006- )<br />
* '''[[Ken Kowalski]]''' - Speaker of the Legislature of Alberta (1997- )<br />
* [[Bernard Lord]] - Premier of New Brunswick (1999-2006)<br />
* Stuart Smith - Leader of the Opposition of Ontario (1977-81)<br />
<br />
===Media===<br />
* '''Howard Green''' - Business News Network host, former CBC documentarian<br />
*'''Tom Harrington''' - CBC Sports reporter<br />
* Shelagh Rogers - CBC Radio and TVO personality<br />
* Jan Tennant - Anchor of CBC's ''The National'' and ''Saturday Evening News'' (1970s)<br />
* Alex Trebek - Host of [[Jeopardy!]] ( [http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/television/clips/15279/ A video of an exhibition match between Reach and Genies players] )<br />
<br />
===Other===<br />
* Malcolm Gladwell - Author of the bestsellers ''The Tipping Point'', ''Blink'', and ''Outliers''<br />
* '''Bernard Hibbitts''' - Law professor at the University of Pittsburgh [http://faculty.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/profile.htm]; founder of JURIST news service<br />
* Dr. '''Sethu Reddy''' - Former professor of medicine at Dalhousie & Harvard; chairman at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio<br />
<br />
==National Champions==<br />
<br />
''Reach for the Top had televised matches as early as 1961, but no national champions were declared until 1966. There were no national champions from 1986-88.''<br />
<br />
{| border="1" cellspacing="0"<br />
! Year<br />
! Champion<br />
! Prov<br />
! Runner-up<br />
! Prov<br />
! Location<br />
! Notes<br />
|- <br />
| 1966<br />
| [[1966 Vincent Massey|Vincent Massey]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1967<br />
| [[1967 Rideau|Rideau]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1968<br />
| [[1968 Oak Bay|Oak Bay]]<br />
| BC<br />
| <br />
|<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1969<br />
| [[1969 Neil McNeil|Neil McNeil]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1970<br />
| [[1970 Kelvin|Kelvin]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1971<br />
| [[1971 River East|River East]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1972<br />
| [[1972 O'Leary|O'Leary]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1973<br />
| [[1973 Lorne Jenkins|Lorne Jenkins]]<br />
| AB<br />
| <br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1974<br />
| [[1974 Gongaza|Gonzaga]]<br />
| NL<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
| Only NL champion<br />
|-<br />
| 1975<br />
| [[1975 Queen Elizabeth|Queen Elizabeth]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1976<br />
| [[1976 Central Peel|Central Peel]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1977<br />
| [[1977 Glenlawn|Glenlawn]]<br />
| MB<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[1978 Reach for the Top Nationals|1978]]<br />
| [[1978 Vincent Massey (Etobicoke)|Vincent Massey]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1978 Dryden|Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Charlottetown, PE<br />
| First two-time champions; defeated [[1978 Richview]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1979<br />
| [[1979 Banting|Banting]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1979 Dryden|Dryden]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Montreal, QC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1980<br />
| [[1980 Hillcrest|Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1980 Sir Winston Churchill|Sir Winston Churchill]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Ottawa, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1981<br />
| [[1981 Cobequid|Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Corner Brook, NL<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1982<br />
| [[1982 Dakota|Dakota]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[1982 Hillcrest|Hillcrest]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1983<br />
| [[1983 Roland Michener|Roland Michener]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1984<br />
| [[1984 Deloraine|Deloraine]]<br />
| MB<br />
| [[1984 Moncton|Moncton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Regina, SK<br />
|<br />
|-<br />
| 1985<br />
| [[1985 Kate Andrews|Kate Andrews]]<br />
| AB<br />
| [[1985 Wagar|Wagar]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Moncton, NB<br />
| Last year on CBC<br />
|-<br />
| 1989<br />
| [[1989 Tagwi|Tagwi]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1989 Mount Douglas|Mount Douglas]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Winnipeg, MB<br />
| Revival as "Schoolreach"<br />
|-<br />
| 1990<br />
| [[1990 Memorial|Memorial]]<br />
| NS<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| <br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1991<br />
| [[1991 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| [[1991 St. Albert|St. Albert]]<br />
| AB<br />
|<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1992<br />
| [[1992 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1993<br />
| [[1993 St. Joseph's|St. Joseph's]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1993 Hay|William E. Hay]]<br />
| AB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1994<br />
| [[1994 Bell|Bell]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1994 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| London, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1995<br />
| [[1995 Fredericton|Fredericton]]<br />
| NB<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1996<br />
| [[1996 Saunders|Saunders]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
|<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| First two-time champion player: [[Dave Thorsley]]<br />
|-<br />
| 1997<br />
| [[1997 Earl Haig|Earl Haig]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1997 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Vancouver, BC<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1998<br />
| [[1998 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[1998 Kingston|Kingston CVI]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Halifax, NS<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 1999<br />
| [[1999 Frontenac|Frontenac]]<br />
| ON<br />
| <br />
| <br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2000<br />
| [[2000 Merivale|Merivale]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2000 Ridley|Ridley]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| National finals return to TV<br />
|-<br />
| 2001<br />
| [[2001 Gloucester|Gloucester]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2001 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| Second championship<br />
|-<br />
| 2002<br />
| [[2002 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2002 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 2003<br />
| [[2003 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2003 Dawson|Dawson]]<br />
| QC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| First back-to-back championships<br />
|-<br />
| 2004<br />
| [[2004 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| [[2004 Leaside|Leaside]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| Second championship<br />
|-<br />
| 2005<br />
| [[2005 Cobequid|Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| [[2005 St. George's|St. George's]]<br />
| BC<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| Second championship<br />
|-<br />
| 2006<br />
| [[2006 Woburn|Woburn]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2006 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2007 Reach for the Top Nationals|2007]]<br />
| [[2007 London Central|London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2007 Kennebecasis|Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2008 Reach for the Top Nationals|2008]]<br />
| [[2008 Lisgar|Lisgar]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[2008 UTS|UTS]]<br />
| ON<br />
| Edmonton, AB<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| [[2009 Reach for the Top Nationals|2009]]<br />
| [[London Central]]<br />
| ON<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| Excluding the final game, the National Finals left TV.<br />
|-<br />
| [[2010 Reach for the Top Nationals|2010]]<br />
| [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
| NB<br />
| [[Cobequid]]<br />
| NS<br />
| Toronto, ON<br />
| No games televised<br />
|-<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Canada]][[Category:Quizbowl TV shows]] [[Category:Reach for the Top]] [[Category:High school formats]]<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
[[List of Ontario Reach for the Top qualifying leagues]]<br />
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=2010_Reach_for_the_Top_Nationals&diff=72212010 Reach for the Top Nationals2010-05-31T17:24:40Z<p>Ben Smith: finals</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Tourneybox|Tournament Name = 2010 Reach for the Top Nationals<br />
|champion = [[Kennebecasis]]<br />
|second = [[Cobequid]]<br />
|third = [[St. Paul's]]<br />
|fourth = [[Gloucester]]<br />
|scorer = individual scores not kept<br />
|editors = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|site = Toronto, Ontario<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
The 2010 national finals of [[Reach for the Top]] were held May 29-31 in Toronto.<br />
<br />
==Participants==<br />
<br />
===Alberta===<br />
<br />
* Harry Ainlay<br />
* Old Scona<br />
<br />
===British Columbia===<br />
<br />
* St George's<br />
* Sir Winston Churchill<br />
<br />
Sir Winston Churchill made their fourth consecutive appearance at Nationals, three of those as provincial champion.<br />
<br />
===Manitoba===<br />
<br />
* St. Paul's<br />
* Vincent Massey<br />
<br />
===New Brunswick===<br />
<br />
* [[Kennebecasis|Kennebecasis Valley]]<br />
* Oromocto<br />
<br />
KVHS has qualified for Nationals each year since 2004.<br />
<br />
===Nova Scotia===<br />
<br />
* Cobequid<br />
<br />
===Ontario===<br />
<br />
* Assumption<br />
* [[Gloucester]]<br />
<br />
Gloucester will make their fifth appearance at Nationals. Assumption declined their spot in the [[2010 HSNCT]] after finishing as the Ontario runners-up in Provincials.<br />
<br />
===Quebec===<br />
<br />
* Dawson<br />
<br />
===Saskatchewan===<br />
<br />
* no representation<br />
<br />
==Tournament Results==<br />
<br />
A preliminary round-robin was held amongst all teams to determine seeds for the single-elimination playoffs. [[Kennebecasis]] Valley HS went undefeated through the round-robin.<br />
<br />
'''First Round'''<br />
<br />
* Sir Winston Churchill (8) d. Old Scona (9)<br />
<br />
* Vincent Massey (7) d. Dawson (10)<br />
<br />
* Assumption (6) d. Harry Ainlay (11)<br />
<br />
* St. George's (5) d. Oromocto (12)<br />
<br />
'''Quarterfinals'''<br />
<br />
* Kennebecasis (1) d. Sir Winston Churchill (8) <br />
<br />
* Cobequid (2) d. Vincent Massey (7)<br />
<br />
* St. Paul's (3) d. Assumption (6)<br />
<br />
* Gloucester (4) d. St. George's (5)<br />
<br />
'''Semifinals'''<br />
<br />
* Kennebecasis (1) d. Gloucester (4)<br />
<br />
* Cobequid (2) d. St. Paul's (3)<br />
<br />
'''Finals'''<br />
<br />
* Kennebecasis (1) d. Cobequid (2)<br />
<br />
Kennebecasis Valley HS won their first National championship, in their fourth consecutive top-3 finish. Cobequid improved on their 4th place finish from [[2009 Reach for the Top Nationals|last year]], and St. Paul's 3rd place was the best finish by a Manitoba team in the past decade.<br />
<br />
==Changes==<br />
<br />
Unlike previous years, no matches were televised for the national competition.</div>Ben Smithhttps://www.qbwiki.com/w/index.php?title=2010_Reach_for_the_Top_Nationals&diff=72182010 Reach for the Top Nationals2010-05-31T13:44:40Z<p>Ben Smith: /* Tournament Results */ results up to semifinals</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Tourneybox|Tournament Name = 2010 Reach for the Top Nationals<br />
|champion = <br />
|second = <br />
|third = <br />
|fourth = <br />
|scorer = individual scores not kept<br />
|editors = [[Reach for the Top]]<br />
|site = Toronto, Ontario<br />
| }}<br />
<br />
The 2010 national finals of [[Reach for the Top]] will be held May 29-31 in Toronto.<br />
<br />
==Participants==<br />
<br />
===Alberta===<br />
<br />
* Harry Ainlay<br />
* Old Scona<br />
<br />
===British Columbia===<br />
<br />
* St George's<br />
* Sir Winston Churchill<br />
<br />
Sir Winston Churchill will make their fourth consecutive appearance at Nationals, three of those as provincial champion.<br />
<br />
===Manitoba===<br />
<br />
* St. Paul's<br />
* Vincent Massey<br />
<br />
===New Brunswick===<br />
<br />
* [[Kennebecasis|Kennebecasis Valley]]<br />
* Oromocto<br />
<br />
KVHS has qualified for Nationals each year since 2004.<br />
<br />
===Nova Scotia===<br />
<br />
* Cobequid<br />
<br />
===Ontario===<br />
<br />
* Assumption<br />
* [[Gloucester]]<br />
<br />
Gloucester will make their fifth appearance at Nationals. Assumption declined their spot in the [[2010 HSNCT]] after finishing as the Ontario runners-up in Provincials.<br />
<br />
===Quebec===<br />
<br />
* Dawson<br />
<br />
===Saskatchewan===<br />
<br />
* no representation<br />
<br />
==Tournament Results==<br />
<br />
A preliminary round-robin was held amongst all teams to determine seeds for the single-elimination playoffs. [[Kennebecasis]] Valley HS went undefeated through the round-robin.<br />
<br />
'''First Round'''<br />
<br />
* Sir Winston Churchill (8) d. Old Scona (9)<br />
<br />
* Vincent Massey (7) d. Dawson (10)<br />
<br />
* Assumption (6) d. Harry Ainlay (11)<br />
<br />
* St. George's (5) d. Oromocto (12)<br />
<br />
'''Quarterfinals'''<br />
<br />
* Kennebecasis (1) d. Sir Winston Churchill (8) <br />
<br />
* Cobequid (2) d. Vincent Massey (7)<br />
<br />
* St. Paul's (3) d. Assumption (6)<br />
<br />
* Gloucester (4) d. St. George's (5)<br />
<br />
'''Semifinals'''<br />
<br />
* Kennebecasis (1) vs. Gloucester (4)<br />
<br />
* Cobequid (2) vs. St. Paul's (3)<br />
<br />
==Changes==<br />
<br />
Unlike previous years, no matches were televised for the national competition.</div>Ben Smith