Logistics

Registration for the 2021 MIT Science Bowl High School Invitational is now closed.

See below for more information on the team selection and lottery process.

This invitational will follow a different format than the Official National Science Bowl Regionals (in the spring). Please read carefully for more information.

This webpage gives a complete overview of how the MIT Science Bowl Invitational will work. While we aim to keep the core of science bowl identical in the virtual format, some aspects must be altered. Some of these changes are major, such as buzzing platforms, while some are minor, such as how you’ll answer bonus questions. Altogether, they slightly modify the way that the invitational will operate on Saturday. Please read this page in its entirety, and email us at sciencebowl@mit.edu if you have questions.

Changelog:

• 2020-11-06, 7:45 PM : Clarified that competitors cannot mute themselves, and that they must be in different rooms.

• 2020-11-04, 9:10 AM : Specified separate rules for DE tiebreaker (now, head-to-head 5 tossups).

Competition Structure

• The schedule of the day is as follows:

  • 9:15 AM – 9:30 AM: An opening ceremony and a review of logistics.

  • 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM: Round-robin group stage.

  • 1:15 PM – 1:30 PM: Tiebreakers and afternoon remarks.

  • 1:30 PM – 5:30 PM: Double elimination bracket and scrimmages.

  • 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM: Livestreamed finals.

  • Immediately following the finals: a closing ceremony and presentation of awards.

• In the round-robin stage, there will be 8 groups of 6 teams each, so each team will play 4 round-robin matches. A win will be awarded 2 points, a tie 1 point, and a loss 0 points.

• The first-place team from each group will enter into double-elimination with zero losses, while the second-place team from each group will enter with one loss.

• From 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM, students can sign up for “scrimmage” rooms with other teams. There, teams can compete against other teams which have been eliminated from the invitational in a friendly match using the same question sets as used in the DE. We have fewer volunteers in the afternoon, so may not be able to create scrimmage rooms for all teams.

• Links to Zoom rooms for the round-robin matches will be sent on Friday. Links to Zoom rooms for each double-elimination match will be sent as soon as all matches from the previous round have ended.

• Final matches will be viewable by all participants on a YouTube livestream. The link will be sent out on Friday. Do not share this link with people not participating in the science bowl for the privacy of those competing.

• We expect all students to play fairly, without cheating or abusing any of the listed rules on this page. This is an invitational tournament with no real stakes; it is run entirely by volunteers who wish to organize a fun science bowl tournament and to provide an opportunity for schools to practice science bowl. If the organizing team becomes aware of cheating, unfair gameplay, or any other inappropriate behavior, we will disqualify your entire team.

Tiebreaks

• Tiebreaks will be resolved in the following way:

  • RR tiebreak to advance to DE

    • First: head-to-head record [see below]

    • Second: RR Tiebreaker Round(s) [see below]

  • DE tiebreak to win a match

    • DE Tiebreaker Round(s) [see below]

• Within a group of tied teams, if the head-to-head record separates a group of two or more teams from the rest, then that group will be separated and head-to-head records will be recomputed within that group, and so on, until head-to-head records cannot break any more ties.

• The RR Tiebreaker Round will take the following format: each team will be placed in its own Zoom room and be given the same set of 5 toss-up questions (no bonus questions)

  • Each toss-up will have the usual rules for play:

    • Competitors have 7 seconds after the question has been fully read to answer the question [see Round format / rules modifications]

    • No collaboration among teammates is allowed

  • However, scoring will work as follows:

    • A correct answer will receive +1 point

    • No answer (i.e. the team members do not buzz and allow the time to expire) receives 0 points

    • A wrong answer will receive -1 point (even if there is no penalty!)

    • A penalty (wrong interrupt or blurt) will also receive -1 point

  • At the end of the RR Tiebreaker Round, the teams' scores will be compared, and winners and losers will be determined accordingly

    • If teams are still tied, they will play another RR Tiebreaker Round, and repeat until the tie is broken

• The DE Tiebreaker Round will take the following format: the two teams will be given the same set of 5 toss-up questions (no bonus questions)

  • Each toss-up will have the usual rules for play:

    • Competitors have 7 seconds after the question has been fully read to answer the question [see Round format / rules modifications]

    • No collaboration among teammates is allowed

  • However, scoring will work as follows:

    • A correct answer will receive +4 point

    • A wrong answer without penalty or no answer (i.e. the team members do not buzz and allow the time to expire) receives 0 points

    • A penalty (wrong interrupt or blurt) will result in +4 points for the other team

  • At the end of the DE Tiebreaker Round, the teams' scores will be compared, and the winner and loser will be determined accordingly

    • If the two teams are still tied, they will play another DE Tiebreaker Round, and repeat until the tie is broken

Playing a Science Bowl Match

Online Platforms

• Zoom

  • Each team can only have 4 competing members, 1 substitute, and up to 2 coaches in the Zoom room.

  • Each team must have at least one coach present. In the case that a coach cannot attend, an adult supervisor with no affiliation with the student body will suffice (e.g. a parent).

  • Students should not use the Zoom chat to communicate with their team members (particularly on bonuses); rather, in order to confer during bonuses, they should confer verbally.

  • Students must have a microphone and video camera; these are the same rules which will apply to the official regional competitions in the spring.

  • Students are not allowed to respond to a question by typing their answer.

  • Each competing student should set their Zoom name to “A1 - [name]”, “A2 - [name]”, “A3 - [name]”, and “A4 - [name]” (and likewise if they are designated as team B). People who are not playing (i.e., substitute and coaches) should also label themselves appropriately.

  • Each match is being recorded to secure servers from the US Department of Energy to resolve disputes. These recordings will be deleted within 48 hours of the competition ending.

• COBA

  • We will be using an identical site to https://coba.slapbowl.com/ to facilitate buzzing in.

  • Students should join the COBA room with an identical name to their Zoom name (“A1 - name”, as described above).

  • To avoid overloading the server, we ask that coaches and substitutes not join the COBA room. The substitute can join the COBA room if they are substituted in at the half. Further, each student should leave the previous COBA room once their round is over.

  • If you would like to practice with COBA, do not use the server that we are using for this competition. Instead, please use the main COBA site (https://coba.slapbowl.com/).

  • In the event of technical difficulties, we will use the website BuzzIn.live (https://buzzin.live/). Rule 3-6 of t1e 2020 rules will apply in such a situation.

• Scorekeeping / Timekeeping

  • Score and time will be kept using a website similar to this. The scorekeeper/timekeeper will share their screen so that all can view the score and time.

Round format / rules modifications

• The moderator will be reading questions. The science judge will be recognizing and resetting the buzzer. The science judge/timekeeper will share their screen to keep score and time.

• Students will have 7 seconds to buzz in on tossups, and 22 seconds to answer on bonuses (instead of 5s / 20s). This increased time is to account for latency, and should not be treated as extra time; rather, try to buzz in or begin your bonus answer after 5 or 20 seconds have passed, respectively.

• Any member of a team may answer a bonus; to answer a bonus, precede your statement with “final answer” (e.g., “Final Answer W”). No buzzing is required to answer.

• Each half will be 9 minutes (instead of 8) to account for latency and the increase in tossup and bonus time.

• Should technical difficulties occur for one student in the middle of a round, the officials will finish the current tossup or bonus before pausing play. Each team will have up to 2 minutes (per match) to resolve the issue before officials will continue with the round so that we do not fall behind schedule. If a team has a substitute, they can substitute for the player with technical difficulties, but must participate for the remainder of that half.

• Team members and coaches are not allowed to access the internet, textbooks, social media, or other resources while in a round.

• During the match, the 4 players from each team who are competing may not mute their microphones. In addition, they must each be in a different room.

• We’ve learned from a few teams that there is an SAT test date occurring the morning of the invitational. If someone is taking the SAT on the morning of 11/6, they are allowed to skip rounds that conflict and join later rounds; however, their team will not be allowed an “additional” substitute while the team member is taking the test.

Selecting Teams for Competition

Update: Email notifications have been sent to all accepted teams. Thank you for registering for our invitational!

Unfortunately, due to limited resources and volunteers, we will most likely not be able to host every school that fills out the registration form. Please read the following to learn about our team selection and lottery process:

• The priority registration deadline is 11:59pm ET, October 20th. All teams that register by this date will have priority over teams registering afterwards.

• If the number of unique schools in priority registration exceeds the number we are able to host, we will run a random lottery for the schools in priority registration and inform teams who have been selected by October 24th of their acceptance.

• The final deadline for team registration is 11:59pm ET, October 30th.

• Note: in all cases, the first team from a school will have priority over a second team from another school (i.e. if Team1 and Team2 from School A register during priority registration, Team1 from a school not in priority registration will be selected over School A Team2).