THE MITTEN CUP RETURNS
The LIQBA All-Class Michigan State Championships
Registration is Now Open
How it Works
Last season, we brought the Garden Cup model to Michigan, with six local tournaments feeding into a State Championship. This season, we’re bringing it back, but with four tournaments feeding into States!
For teams in Michigan, you can qualify for the State Championships, better known as the Mitten Cup, through one of four regional events: in the North, Southeast, and Southwest and in the Upper Peninsula. Out of state teams can participate at the State Championships as well, by finishing in the top 25% of any event or tournament other than the four local qualifiers.
The top 48 teams from throughout Michigan and top teams from out of state will all compete at the State Championships.
Regions for the local qualifiers are based on county. That said, if you are from the Lower Peninsula, you can play South or North, but not UP (with the exception of Emmet and Cheboygan Counties), and if you’re from the Upper Peninsula, you can play any, but we highly recommend the UP tournament in Marquette. The regional divides can be seen on the map below, but we will not be enforcing regional boundaries per site this season.
The LIQBA State Championship is class-agnostic, unlike the Michigan Quiz Bowl Association (MIQBA) State Championship which takes place in the spring at MSU and UM. Both are considered state championships, and you can be the Michigan Class B Quiz Bowl State Champion, and the LIQBA State Champion of Michigan, without those conflicting. If your team is strong enough to qualify for Mitten: States, we recommend you look into the Michigan State Championship run by our friends at MIQBA (www.miqba.org) as well.
Click the map to enable scroll zoom, or use the + and − buttons. Drag to pan.
Locations and Dates
The Mitten Cup Regional Tournaments will take place at the following dates and locations:
| Region | Date | Location |
| North | December 12, 2026 | Mt. Pleasant HS |
| Southeast | December 19, 2026 | Detroit Country Day School |
| Southwest | December 19, 2026 | Constantine HS |
| Upper Peninsula | December 20, 2026 (SUNDAY) | NMU |
The Mitten Cup State Championships will take place at Mt Pleasant High School, Mt Pleasant, Michigan, on March 20, 2027.
All tournaments will take place from 9 AM to 5 PM, with registration opening at 8:15 AM.
Out-of-state teams may not play at any Regional Tournament, with the exception of South Bend/St Joseph Valley area teams at Southwest, due to the regions being heavily intertwined.
Questions/Format
The Mitten Cup Regionals will all use LIQBA Standard Set #4, a set of Moderate difficulty. The State Championships will use LIQBA State Championship Set #2, a set of Hard difficulty. We will be using the twenty tossups/twenty bonus format and LIQBA rules, but there will be no game clock.
Teams will be fairly placed into preliminary brackets before being re-seeded for playoffs. Teams will be guaranteed a minimum of 10 games; teams will be expected to play all 10 rounds, even if you are not in contention for the championship.
Teams
There are a maximum of 6 players per team, four of whom may play at once. If you wish to bring more players than that, please register additional teams. There are no exceptions to this rule. Teams may play short, with one player as a minimum. Nobody may switch teams during the tournament, such as from “A” to “B” or otherwise.
The field for each regional is capped at 24 teams, and 48 for the State Championships. You will be placed onto a waitlist if you miss the cutoff and will enter the field as teams drop or the field expands (if there is enough interest, we guarantee that the field will expand).
We are happy to allow pseudonymous teams and teams not directly sponsored by their district to register. However, we do have certain requirements for these teams, so please contact us via phone or email prior to registration and we will be happy to work with you.
It is not mandatory for a coach, parent, or adult to attend with their team; our team provides adequate supervision for all.
Readers
READERS ARE NO LONGER MANDATORY, AND THE NO-READER FEES HAVE BEEN REMOVED.
You are no longer penalized in any way for not bringing a reader. In lieu of this: if you bring a reader, your team will receive lunch vouchers for every player on a single team.
So: If you bring no reader, your team will not get a free lunch.
If you bring, say, one reader and one team, both the reader and every player on that team will receive a free lunch.
If you bring, say, one reader and two teams, the reader and every player on one of the teams will receive a free lunch.
There are similar arrangements for all other combinations. If you don’t know, just ask us.
We are now offering lunch for purchase. See the food section below for details.
Buzzer discounts and paper question sets are still not being offered.
Prizes
Trophies will be awarded to the top 3 teams after each tournament and the very best individual with the highest average Points per Game overall at each tournament. The eight or so high scorers at each tournament will be awarded small prizes. We may add additional prizes at our discretion.
Fees
The entry fee is $100 per team per tournament.
We can process cash, checks, and purchase orders. We are happy to provide a W9, an NJ BRC, and an invoice on request. Please make out checks to “Long Island Quiz Bowl Alliance”. You can mail checks, POs, and any other paperwork to 16 Gilbert Avenue, Smithtown, NY, 11787.
NEW: You can now pay by credit card on the registration form. However, note that this will incur processing fees. Venmo payments are no longer accepted.
Payment is due the morning of each event.
Registration:
In order to register, fill out this form. Once you receive a confirmation from us, you are officially registered.
Out-of-state teams may not play at any Regional Tournament, with the exception of teams in the South Bend/St Joseph Valley area of Indiana at the Southwest site.
Please ensure that you register prior to the day of the tournament! Registration closes one week prior to the event.
Food:
We do not serve breakfast, but we now serve lunch. We will provide, at every LIQBA tournament, a buffet luncheon. You must buy a meal ticket for each person who wants the lunch in advance, regardless of if this is a player, coach, or any kind of parent or spectator. At every location in which it is available, the luncheon is Italian-American cuisine, and will always include a vegetarian option; however, if you require kosher or halal food, are vegan, or are concerned about allergens, you should bring your own lunch. A meal ticket is $10. Options generally include various kinds of sandwiches, side salads, and fruit. We do not usually provide drinks. Lunch generally lasts an hour. Teams should eat breakfast prior to arrival.
As noted in the Readers section above, all readers and those mentioned in that section have their meal tickets comped.
We will send out an order form to all registered teams for meal tickets about 2-3 weeks prior to the event. Teams that sign up less than a week before the event will be required to purchase meal tickets right away if they want them.
Once you purchase a meal ticket, it cannot be cancelled under any circumstance, and is transferrable between people, but not between events. This is due to needing to know the number of people we need to order for well in advance of the event. Even if you drop, you can never cancel a meal ticket.
Stats:
Full and complete team and individual statistics will be posted within 48 hours after the completion of each event.