Pricing Explanation

Quizbowl tournaments of such a caliber as ours require quite a bit of capital to run. As such, we charge registration fees to cover all our expenses and, of course, to compensate us for our time and grow our business; we are not a charity. We regularly pay thousands of dollars for dozens of expenses: from buildings to trophies, statkeepers to photographers, and everything and everyone in between.

We realize that our prices tend to be higher than that for other tournaments, but the rates are quite low in an absolute sense and are packed with value: for $90, or $22.50 a player, or $9 a game, you get 10 games guaranteed, all-day entertainment, and all the extras that come with our events, such as better staff, finals on stage, top-notch ceremonies, true programs, the best awards in the business, and a professionalism that is rarely found in our game.

We would also like to announce in advance that, due to continually increasing costs of buildings, questions, and staff, we are forced to raise our prices for the 2024-25 season. For our regular-season events, prices will rise to $100 per team, with a $50 per-team no-reader fee. Prices for our Regional Championships will rise to $300 per team with a $100 no-reader fee. We would also like you to know that we do not intend to increase our rates for the foreseeable future after this. 

Discounts

Should you have an issue paying the full rate, you have options. 

First, you can always bring more readers. Bringing an extra reader is worth a significant discount.

Next, if you are a Title I school, you are entitled to a 50% discount on your base cost. Note that this does not include no-reader fees; you are still required to bring the usual number of readers.

If neither of those options work for you, you can petition us for a discount by emailing Joe@liqba.com. Do not feel any shame in doing so. We do not turn away teams due to an inability to pay.

No other discounts are available. We do not offer any discounts for bringing buzzers (nor do we usually allow you to do so unless we specifically request it). We do not have discounts for solo teams or for traveling long distances. Our expenses are the same regardless of those factors, so we do not discount them.

Free Teams

If you are the host of one of our tournaments, you are entitled to four free teams with no staff requirements. Any teams over four will be charged the normal rate and have the usual staff requirements. 

Occasionally, we may ask a team to play on very short notice as a standby team, with a spot not guaranteed until the morning of a tournament. If this is the case, we will reach out to you and set this up; requests to be a standby team are not usually accepted. If you are accepted into the field, you will play for free.

If you bring a very large number of readers to an event, and they are all capable of reading and scorekeeping a room solo, we may waive your fee at our discretion. In general, this requires four readers over the minimum required; however, this is not a hard and fast rule, and granting this discount is completely up to us.

No other team may play for free at our tournaments. No requests for free teams will be granted. Even if you cannot pay our full fee and are granted a special discount, you will still be required to pay at least a nominal fee to attend our events.

Payments Due

All payments are technically due the morning of the tournament for billing and, occasionally, collections purposes. If you don’t have payment the morning of, and we haven’t yet received it in the mail, you will still be allowed to play, but you must pay off the balance prior to attending another of our tournaments. 

Payments are best made by cash or check, but we also accept Venmo payments (to @QUIZBOWL) and, only if absolutely necessary, we can punch in a credit card payment, but this will incur processing fees for you and is very strongly discouraged. Mailing or handing in a check is in all cases the best way to pay us. We do not accept PayPal, Zelle, money orders, or any other form of payment or payment in kind.

If you still have an outstanding balance with us at the end of a season, we will collect on the balance. We really dislike doing this, though! So work with us and pay promptly.

Drops and Refunds

About a week prior to any given tournament, we send out a logistics email to all registered teams. The day after that email goes out is the Drop Deadline. Prior to that date, you can drop without penalty, and you will receive a full refund if you prepaid.

After that date, you will be charged in full regardless of whether you actually attend the tournament or not, unless there is inclement weather, as per that section below. Alternatively, you can claim a credit of the full amount and use it to sign up for another event. Credits expire at the end of any competition year on July 1. 

If you repeatedly drop after the drop deadline, you may be required to pay in advance in the future.

If you are registered for a tournament, have confirmed your attendance, and do not show up to a tournament without any notice to us, you will be charged the full price plus 25% of your fee, and you may be restricted from participating at future competitions with us. You also may be required to pay in advance in the future.

Once you play one full game of a tournament, you can no longer claim a refund or credit. Should there be an emergency, you may be able to claim a credit at our discretion. In particular, if you are ejected from a tournament for any reason, or if you leave early for any reason, you are ineligible to claim a refund of any kind.

If we cancel a tournament, or if we must remove you from a field for any reason, you will be refunded the full amount you paid or may claim a full credit.

Inclement Weather

Unless the building we are hosting a given tournament in is closed on the day of a tournament, we will be hosting that tournament, unless weather conditions make it impossible for the tournament directors to travel to an event. 

If inclement weather strikes during an event, the tournament directors of that event have wide discretion on what to do. This could be anything from doing nothing, to shortening the closing ceremony, to cutting games, to calling off the event. In no event, however, will refunds be issued.

If a tournament is unable to go forward due to inclement weather, we will first attempt to find an alternate date. If you cannot make this alternate date, you will get a full refund or credit. If no alternate date can be found, the tournament will be canceled, and you will receive a full refund or credit. 

If the tournament will proceed as scheduled, but your team cannot attend due to poor weather conditions in your local area, your district has canceled travel, or you are otherwise unable to attend due to weather, you will be entitled to either a 50% cash refund or a full credit.

Registration Statuses

There are five registration status codes: 

• Confirmed
• Delayed
• On Hold
• Waitlisted
• Declined

After you submit a registration through our online form or via email, you will receive an email stating your registration has been received. In the subject line and body of that email, you will see one of the five status codes. The codes mean the following:

Confirmed

A registration that is Confirmed has been accepted. Your registration was processed exactly as you submitted it, and you are now in the field for a given tournament. This is what will happen about 95% of the time, so do not be concerned. The other cases are all what happens around the margins, which is almost certainly not you.

Delayed

A Delayed registration is one with a minor issue, generally due to incomplete, missing, or confusing provided information. You are not yet in the field, but a spot has been reserved for you until the information is corrected (though if you do not correct the information promptly, you will be changed to “On Hold” status). What information is missing and what you need to do to move your registration to Confirmed will be specified in the email you receive. 

Examples include: 

• You specified a non-cellular telephone number.
• You submitted a registration via email and not through the form, but you did not specify all the information we needed to process your registration (i.e. “Hi! I’d like to sign up for two teams! Thanks! Pedro”)
• You did not specify the number of readers you will bring.

On Hold

An On Hold registration has a serious error such that we cannot process it, a player on your team is ineligible and we need confirmation that player will not be in attendance, or has been placed on hold due to a lack of available staff. If your registration is On Hold, your spot has not been reserved and other teams who sign up may take it. If you do not correct the information promptly, your registration may be declined. Exactly what you need to do to move your registration to Confirmed will be in the email you receive.

On Hold status is most commonly encountered due to staffing shortages. If this is the case, you can immediately move your status to Confirmed by bringing the requisite number of readers your registration would require.

Waitlisted

If a tournament field fills to capacity, and you sign up for that tournament, you will be Waitlisted. If this is the case, you will move to Confirmed status as teams drop or the field expands. Waitlists are on a first-in, first-out basis. There is no guarantee that you will be in the field, but we will do everything to try and make it so. In particular, if you are waitlisted, look out for an email about a week before the tournament, as that’s when most waitlisted teams make it into the field (since a week out is the drop deadline).

Declined

We very seldom decline registrations; out of the thousand or so registrations we have received over the years, we have declined perhaps five. If your registration is declined, it means you cannot play at that particular event. Some common reasons why your registration might be declined are:

• You (or any member of your team) has already heard the set at another tournament. 
• You are trying to sign up for a tournament, but registration for that event is not yet open.
• For Regional Championships and other qualification-only events, you have not yet qualified.
• Your registration came in after the sign-up deadline, which generally is a week out from the tournament.
• You have repeatedly no-showed or repeatedly left early with no good excuse at our events.

If your registration is declined, the exact reason will be specified and we will make an attempt to find an alternative solution so that you can compete with us on a different day.

Pseudonyms

There are cases where you may not want to use the name of your school in order to compete. This is generally due to your club not being recognized by your school administration (or not existing at all), draconian policies relating to school field trips for clubs that do exist, or a desire for a group of friends who go to the same school to compete on their own, without any school interference.

All teams are accepted at our tournaments provided all players attend the same school. As such, regardless of the particulars of your situation, we will accommodate you. Teams not sponsored by their district or attending without administrative approvals for any reason are more than welcome to compete at all our events without any restrictions.

If you desire to use a pseudonym, here is what to know:

• Your pseudonym must be unique; it cannot be the name of another school in the Northeast, Maryland, or Michigan.
• Your pseudonym must be appropriate. Any hint of impropriety will get your pseudonym rejected at our discretion. Repeated attempts at inputting inappropriate pseudonyms will result in your registration being declined.
• Your pseudonym must be short enough to fit on our schedules. If it is not, we will inform you of this.
• You still must provide the name of your school and the names of all your players. 
• You must compete under your actual names. Pseudonyms are for team names only. If you desire, you can abbreviate your last name, but, at a minimum, each player’s first name and last initial must be known to the tournament staff and will be reflected in statistics reports.
• If your official, school-sponsored team signs up for an event that a pseudonymous team from the same school signs up for, the registration of the official school will carry, and the pseudonymous registration will be declined or removed from the field with a full refund.

At certain tournaments, you are not allowed to pick a pseudonym, and will be assigned one. If you are, it will follow the format “[town] Scholars”, such as “Smithtown Scholars”, “Livingston Scholars”, or “Hightstown Scholars”.