HSNCT

The High School National Championship Tournament (HSNCT) is a premier national tournament run by NAQT every May, typically over Memorial Day weekend. The tournament is a two-day affair, with preliminary rounds Saturday and playoff rounds Sunday. There are also optional scrimmage rounds on the Friday before.

The HSNCT currently draws the largest field of any national tournament. In 2017 it attracted 304 high school teams from 235 different schools. The most common way to qualify for the HSNCT is to finish in the top 15% at a tournament using NAQT questions during the season, though there are some other ways.

Match Format

Recent HSNCT tournament sets have contained 26 or 27 packets, each of 24 tossups and 24 bonuses. The first two HSNCTs used NAQT's second-generation format of 28 tossups and 26 bonuses, with the possibility of tossups being read for tossup points only and no bonus potential if the end of the packet was reached. From 2001 to 2010, the packets had 26 tossups and 26 bonuses each.

Its distribution can be found here. Matches use NAQT rules, including ten-minute halves.

The 2009 HSNCT was the last to use math calculation tossups; since 2010, these have been removed from the distribution. Most HSNCT packets now contain exactly one computation bonus (and never more than one). Packets also contain non-computational math questions.

Tournament Format

In 2018 a new tournament format was introduced in which teams played seven power-matched preliminary games Saturday morning or seven power-matched preliminary games Saturday afternoon (with no byes), then played three more preliminary games in six rounds (and thus had three byes) on Sunday morning, followed by double-elimination playoffs on Sunday afternoon and evening, with 6-4 teams starting in the losers' bracket and a cross-bracketed match near the end of the playoffs to accelerate the double-elimination.

From 2003 to 2017, the format was essentially ten power-matched preliminary games over more than ten rounds on Saturday (so teams had several byes), followed by double-elimination playoffs on Sunday, sometimes with 6-4 teams starting in the losers' bracket, and a cross-bracketed match near the end of the playoffs to accelerate the double-elimination.

The 1999 and 2002 tournaments used swiss-pair prelims followed by a round-robin playoff bracket. The 2000 and 2001 tournaments used pre-scheduled prelims followed by the double-elim playoffs.

From 2001 to 2013, the HSNCT also recognized a Small School Champion. Schools fitting the criteria played as part of the regular tournament Saturday and Sunday. After they were eliminated from the regular tournament, they played in a separate set of playoff rounds that determined the Small School Champion. Since 2014 NAQT's Small School championship has instead been decided at a separate event.

Most years, select matches from the HSNCT are audio-recorded. In 2011 and 2012 some rounds were video-recorded by iHigh. Since about 2017 one match in each of the last few playoff rounds has been livestreamed.

Results

Year	Champion	Second	Third	Fourth	Small School Champion	Location	Field Size
1999	Detroit Catholic Central	Walton	Brookwood	Edmond Memorial, North Kansas City, & Edmond Santa Fe	not awarded	Norman, OK	26
2000	State College	Maggie Walker	Eleanor Roosevelt	Eisenhower	not awarded	Atlanta, GA	52
2001	Detroit Catholic Central	Detroit Country Day	State College	Riverdale	not awarded	Ann Arbor, MI	40
2002	St. John's	Irmo	Detroit Catholic Central	Detroit Country Day	Kent City	Austin, TX	54
2003	Thomas Jefferson	Dorman	St. John's	Walton	Cutter Morning Star	Myrtle Beach, SC	62
2004	Thomas Jefferson†	Maggie Walker	St. John's	Detroit Catholic Central	Cutter Morning Star	Houston, TX	64
2005	Thomas Jefferson†	Lakeside	State College	Solon	Danville	Chicago, IL	96
2006	Richard Montgomery	State College	Maggie Walker	Detroit Catholic Central	Danville	Chicago, IL	128
2007	Maggie Walker	State College	Thomas Jefferson	Dorman	Danville	Chicago, IL	160
2008	Thomas Jefferson	Wilmington Charter	Walt Whitman	Dorman B	Russell	Chicago, IL	176
2009	Wilmington Charter	Dorman	State College	Detroit Catholic Central	Ottawa Hills	Chicago, IL	192
2010	Maggie Walker	State College	LASA	Bellarmine	South Range	Chicago, IL	200
2011	State College	LASA	Bellarmine	Stevenson	Meridian	Atlanta, GA	224
2012	Bellarmine	Detroit Catholic Central	LASA	Centennial	Beachwood	Atlanta, GA	240
2013	LASA	Ladue	Loyola	St. John's	Macomb	Atlanta, GA	256
2014	LASA A	St. John's	LASA B	Ladue	(see SSNCT 2014)	Chicago, IL	272
2015	Arcadia	LASA	Detroit Catholic Central	IMSA	(see SSNCT 2015)	Chicago, IL	272
2016	Hunter	Thomas Jefferson	Detroit Catholic Central	LASA	(see SSNCT 2016)	Dallas, TX	272
2017	Hunter	Detroit Catholic Central	Naperville North	Thomas Jefferson	(see SSNCT 2017)	Atlanta, GA	304
2018	Plano West	Hunter	LASA	Thomas Jefferson	(see SSNCT 2018)	Atlanta, GA	352
2019	Beavercreek	University Lab	Chattahoochee	Stevenson	(see SSNCT 2019)	Atlanta, GA	336
2020	cancelled due to COVID-19
2021	Barrington	University Lab	Detroit Country Day	Thomas Jefferson	(see SSNCT 2021)	Online	224
2022	Detroit Catholic Central	Hunter	East Chapel Hill	Kinkaid	(see SSNCT 2022)	Atlanta, GA	274
2023	Barrington	Buffalo Grove	Detroit Country Day	Hunter	(see SSNCT 2023)	Atlanta, GA	304
2024	Barrington	St. Mark's	Livingston	Buffalo Grove	(see SSNCT 2024)	Atlanta, GA	320
2025	Livingston	Northview	Wade Hampton	Henderson	(see SSNCT 2025)	Atlanta, GA	336
2026	Stevenson	Lexington (MA)	Strake Jesuit	Park Tudor	(see SSNCT 2026)	Atlanta, GA	320

†undefeated

Undefeated teams

Eleven teams have completed the HSNCT prelims undefeated:

The only teams to go undefeated for the entire HSNCT (and thus become undefeated champions) were 2004 Thomas Jefferson (VA) and 2005 Thomas Jefferson (VA).
2000 State College, 2019 Beavercreek, and 2024 Barrington went undefeated in the prelims, then won the championship after losing exactly one game in the playoffs.
2000 Maggie Walker A, 2003 Maggie Walker A, 2009 Georgetown Day, 2011 Dorman A, 2018 Wayzata A, and 2021 Hunter A went undefeated in the prelims, then were eliminated by losing two games in the playoffs.
2001 was the last year where multiple undefeated prelim teams were possible. In the power-matching format used in 2002 on, the prelims must end with either zero or one undefeated teams.

Losses by champions

Under the 2003-present format, the largest number of total losses that a team can have and still win the HSNCT is four (a team can enter the playoffs at 7-3 and lose exactly one game, or enter the playoffs at 6-4 and win all its games, and will win the tournament). Eight teams have won the tournament with exactly three losses, most recently Livingston in 2025. No four-loss team has actually won the tournament under the current format.
In 2002 St. John's won the tournament with five total losses, playing under an older tournament format. This record is now unbreakable unless the tournament format changes again.

Notes

The 1999 format produced a three-way tie noted above. The 2017 format could have produced a two-way tie for fourth, but didn't. Formats used in all other years guaranteed distinct first through fourth place finishers (in some cases prior to the present format, by including third- and/or fourth- place playoff games at the end of the tournament among already-eliminated teams).
The small school champion was named beginning in 2002, through a process of tangent playoffs at the HSNCT that lasted until 2013. Beginning in 2014, the NAQT Small School winner is named at the SSNCT.
The HSNCT and the SSNCT were not held in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tournament Rankings

Medal count

Team	Championships	Finals Appearances (Top 2)	Top 3	Top 4
Arcadia	1	1	1	1
Barrington	3	3	3	3
Beavercreek	1	1	1	1
Bellarmine	1	1	2	3
Brookwood	0	0	1	1
Buffalo Grove	0	1	1	2
Centennial	0	0	0	1
Chattahoochee	0	0	1	1
Detroit Catholic Central	3	5	8	11
Detroit Country Day	0	1	4	3
Dorman	0	2	2	4
East Chapel Hill	0	0	1	1
Edmond Memorial	0	0	0	1
Edmond Santa Fe	0	0	0	1
Eisenhower	0	0	0	1
Eleanor Roosevelt	0	0	1	1
Henderson	0	0	0	1
Hunter	2	4	4	5
IMSA	0	0	0	1
Irmo	0	1	1	1
Kinkaid	0	0	0	1
Ladue	0	1	1	2
Lakeside (WA)	0	1	1	1
LASA	2	4	8	9
Livingston	1	1	2	2
Loyola	0	0	1	1
Maggie Walker	2	4	5	5
Naperville North	0	0	1	1
North Kansas City	0	0	0	1
Northview	0	1	0	0
Plano West	1	1	1	1
Richard Montgomery	1	1	1	1
Riverdale	0	0	0	1
Solon	0	0	0	1
State College	2	5	8	8
Stevenson	1	1	1	2
St. John's	1	2	4	5
St. Mark's School of Texas	0	1	1	1
Thomas Jefferson	4	5	6	9
University Lab	0	2	2	2
Wade Hampton	0	0	1	0
Walton	0	1	1	2
Walt Whitman	0	0	1	1
Wilmington Charter	1	2	2	2

National Championships won by state

Rank	State	Overall Titles	Small School Titles†	Most Recent Year
1	Virginia	5	1	2011
T2	Ohio	1	4	2019
T2	Illinois	4	1	2026
T4	Texas	4	0	2018
T4	Michigan	3	1	2022
T4	Kentucky	0	4	2007
T7	Pennsylvania	2	0	2011
T7	Maryland	2	0	2010
T7	California	2	0	2015
T7	New York	2	0	2017
T7	Arkansas	0	2	2010
T12	Delaware	1	0	2009
T12	New Jersey	1	0	2025

† = Small school champion no longer awarded at HSNCT. Awarded between 2002-2013

Links

NAQT HSNCT website