National Scholastic Championship

The National Scholastic Championship, or NSC, is a high school national quizbowl tournament run by PACE.

The tournament began in 1998 and was the first high school national to use pyramidal tossups (by the standards of the time) and be largely written and run by people versed in the normal practices of collegiate-level quizbowl. From 1998 to 2009, the event used the Old PACE format, which retained the basic concept of "exclusively pyramidal tossup leading to a bonus" gameplay but added many non-ACF variations designed to incorporate elements of regional high school formats. From 2010 through 2019, matches consisted of 20 tossups and 20 three-part bonuses per round, with 20 point powers but no negs on tossups; each bonus was worth a total of 30 points, with bouncebacks on the bonus parts. Bouncebacks were eliminated to faciliate the NSC hosted online in 2021 [1], and were discontinued at the in-person NSC in 2023 [2].

Archived results can be found at https://www.pace-nsc.org/nsc/past-nscs/.

Winners

Year Champion Runner-Up Third Place Fourth Place Location Field size 1998 State College Henry Ford II Copley & Gonzaga Cleveland, OH 29 1999 State College† Rockville Detroit Catholic Central & Eleanor Roosevelt Philadelphia, PA 22 2000 State College† Eisenhower Dorman & Riverdale Greenville, SC 16 2001 State College Georgetown Day School Detroit Catholic Central & Detroit Country Day Bowling Green, OH 22 2002 Richard Montgomery† Detroit Catholic Central Detroit Country Day & Eleanor Roosevelt Washington, DC 40 2003 Dorman† Thomas Jefferson Detroit Catholic Central & Dunbar Cleveland, OH 27 2004 Maggie Walker Thomas Jefferson Richard Montgomery & St. John's College Park, MD 40 2005 Thomas Jefferson A† State College Mission San Jose & Thomas Jefferson B Orlando, FL 31 2006 Raleigh Charter Richard Montgomery Maggie Walker & State College Durham, NC 29 2007 Maggie Walker Martin Luther King Dorman & Thomas Jefferson Ann Arbor, MI 36 2008 Walt Whitman† Thomas Jefferson Dorman & Wilmington Charter Fairfax, VA 48 2009 Wilmington Charter State College Georgetown Day School Maggie Walker Fairfax, VA 64 2010 State College† Maggie Walker LASA St. Anselm's Fairfax, VA 64 2011 State College Hunter LASA Stevenson Evanston, IL 60 2012 Hunter A Bellarmine Centennial IMSA A St. Louis, MO 60 2013 Ladue LASA A Loyola Dorman A College Park, MD 72 2014 LASA A Western Albemarle St. John's Ladue Reston, VA 96 2015 DCC A LASA A Maggie Walker High Tech A Reston, VA 96 2016 LASA A Stevenson A Thomas Jefferson A Hinsdale Central A Rosemont, IL 96 2017 DCC A† Westview Barrington Thomas Jefferson A Rosemont, IL 96 2018 Thomas Jefferson A Dublin Scioto Wayzata James E. Taylor Reston, VA 96 2019 Thomas Jefferson A James E. Taylor University of Illinois Lab Montgomery Blair A Reston, VA 96 2020 cancelled due to COVID-19 2021 Thomas Jefferson A Hunter A St. Mark's Richard Montgomery A Online 80 2022 Lambert Thomas Jefferson A Kinkaid Strake Jesuit Rosemont, IL 72 2023 Barrington Thomas Jefferson A Hunter A Belmont Rosemont, IL 72 2024 Barrington Richard Montgomery St. Mark's Hastings High School Reston, VA 72 2025 Strake Jesuit A Lexington Audrain County Academic Team Hunter A Rosemont, IL 84 † Undefeated Notes Third and fourth place were not distinguished before 2009; for 1998 to 2008, both teams listed should be considered semifinalists of equal standing and are listed in the table above by purely alphabetical order. The 2010 second place spot was originally awarded to Southside until Amit Bilgi was found to have cheated. Southside's wins were all forfeited, and all lower finishers were subsequently moved up one spot. Medal count Team Championships Finals Appearances (Top 2) Trophies (Top 3) Leaderboards (Top 4) Barrington 2 2 3 3 Bellarmine 0 1 1 1 Belmont 0 0 0 1 Centennial 0 0 1 1 Copley 0 0 1 1 Detroit Catholic Central 2 3 6 6 Detroit Country Day 0 0 2 2 Dorman 1 1 4 5 Dublin Scioto 0 1 0 0 Dunbar 0 0 1 1 Eisenhower 0 1 1 1 Eleanor Roosevelt 0 0 2 2 Georgetown Day 0 1 2 2 Gonzaga 0 0 1 1 Hastings 0 0 0 1 Henry Ford II 0 1 1 1 Hinsdale Central 0 0 0 1 Hunter 1 3 4 5 IMSA 0 0 0 1 James E. Taylor 0 1 0 2 Kinkaid 0 0 1 1 Ladue 1 1 1 2 Lambert 1 1 1 1 LASA 2 4 5 5 Lexington (MA) 0 1 1 1 Loyola 0 0 1 1 Maggie Walker 2 3 5 5 Mexico 0 0 1 1 Mission San Jose 0 0 1 1 MLK 0 1 1 1 Montgomery Blair 0 0 0 1 Raleigh Charter 1 1 1 1 Richard Montgomery 1 3 4 5 Riverdale 0 0 1 1 Rockville 0 1 1 1 St. Anselm's 0 0 0 1 State College 6 8 9 9 Stevenson 0 1 1 2 Strake Jesuit 1 1 1 2 St. John's 0 0 2 2 St. Mark's 0 0 2 2 Thomas Jefferson 4 9 12 13 University of Illinois Lab 0 0 1 1 Walt Whitman 1 1 1 1 Wayzata 0 0 1 1 Western Albemarle 0 1 1 1 Westview 0 1 1 1 Wilmington Charter 1 1 2 2 All-Star Game The NSC All-Star game is played between two teams of the 8 best individual performers from the prelims of the tournament, usually with a charity donation dedicated by the winning team. In 2017, the All-Star game switched from a traditional NSC packet to a sillier tossup-only format with a variety of different formats. Some notable question formats used in the All-Star game are 'mashup' questions, action questions, and computational math questions. PACE National Scholastic Championship Tournaments 1998 · 1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008 · 2009 · 2010 · 2011 · 2012 · 2013 · 2014 · 2015 · 2016 · 2017 · 2018 · 2019 · 2021 · 2022 · 2023  · 2024