Frequently Asked Questions
During the Match
Do teams with 5 students have all 5 students on the call and competing, or only 4?
All five students can be on the call and participate.
Are you going to have the students raise their physical hand or raise their “Zoom” hand?
Students will raise their physical hand.
Are there 2 teams playing at the same time or is it just one team trying to score the best they can on the set of questions?
Can students use the Zoom Chat to confer?
They can do that or just talk out loud – either is fine. Talking is probably quicker.
Can coaches keep score during the competition?
Yes, we will provide coaches scoring spreadsheets in the team packet similar to the past. This must be written and not digital.
If the students have a question for the moderator, what is the best way of communicating that to the moderator?
The students should raise their hands or say, “excuse me” if it is at an appropriate time. Students should not interrupt a question being read.
How will the students be addressed when they are answering questions?
Can the students have scratch paper?
When will the scores from the matches be released?
No Preliminary Round scores will be released until after all competitions are complete. Please ask your students not to share their scores or any of the questions. There will be a group Zoom Friday evening to announce which teams continue to the elimination rounds on Saturday.
What about lag time? How does timing work during the match?
To accommodate lag time, we have changed our time limit from 5 seconds to 7 seconds. Remember that “7 seconds” to answer a toss-up isn’t “7 seconds” in “real life” – it is probably 5.5 seconds due to lag time. The same with the 22 seconds for bonus questions, please encourage your students to answer as soon as they hear the moderator say, “5 seconds.”
What if a student loses internet connection during the match?
They may join back in as soon as possible. We will not stop the competition mid-question. After the question is completed, we will wait for up to 2 minutes for the student to rejoin.
Will there be a half-time break?
We will not take any breaks during the game, unless something crazy happens.
Do we need to have at least 4 team members present to participate?
Technical Setup
Should siblings on the team participate through the same computer or on separate computers?
If they are in the same room together: Ideally they should each have their own screen (first device) to answer questions. They can share a second device to monitor their workspaces as long as both workspaces can be fully observed. One person needs to not join the audio.
Can students use a tablet instead of a computer?
Yes! They will need the Zoom app.
Hints to maximize the internet signal?
Students competing in their homes should ask their family members to turn off all internet-based items (games, movies, tv) during the competition to give the students and the watchers the greatest amount of bandwidth.
Can we test out our connection?
We encourage teams and volunteers to attend a scrimmage in January to test connections. Any team or volunteer not attending a scrimmage will be required to attend a technology and setup Zoom call the week of the competition.