Masonic tournament
The Masonic tournament is a high school quiz bowl tournament in Illinois that some people think is a state championship. It used approximately the IHSA format through 2009, then switched to an even weirder format for 2010.
It is often criticized for subpar questions. It used Answers Plus for a very long time, eventually switched to Academic Hallmarks for (at least) 2006 and 2007, used Aegis Questions questions in 2008 and 2009, used Questions Galore in 2010 and 2011, and hired David Reinstein to write the questions for 2012.
Format
This tournament basically used an IHSA format until 2009, then switched to a new format that is all its own. The current format consists of 16 tossups worth 15 points each (no powers or negs) and 16 three-part questions (10 points per part) in which team collaboration is permitted. The three-part questions are not bonuses because each team gets 8 of them regardless of how many tossups it answered. Team questions bounce back, and they are read all at once like IHSA bonuses. The distribution is vaguely similar to the IHSA distribution.
Winners
- 2012: Peoria Christian (class A), IMSA (class AA)
- 2011: Lisle (class A), Stevenson (class AA)
- 2010: Litchfield (class A), St. Ignatius (class AA)
- 2009: Carbondale
- 2008: Auburn
- 2007: Maine South
- 2006: Fremd
- 2005: Fremd
- 2004: Wheaton North
- 2003: Wheaton North
- 2002: Springfield Southeast
- 2001: Salem
- 2000: Stevenson
- 1999: Moline
- 1998: MacArthur
- 1997: Woodruff
- 1996: MacArthur
- results for intermediate years could not be found
- 1990: Rockridge
- results for intermediate years could not be found
- 1983: Stillman Valley