Pacific Northwest Bible Quizzing Rules
The following are the Bible Quizzing Rules, hereinafter referred to as Rules, of Pacific Northwest Bible Quizzing, hereinafter referred to as PNW.
These rules are managed by the PNW Rules Subcommittee as per the PNW Bylaws and Standard Operating Policies (SOPs). Rules codificiation begins with the IBQ rule book, accepted as the base set of rules. The following rules provide overrides and adjustments to the IBQ rules as deemed necessary and appropriate by the Rules Subcommittee.
Questions
The following are rules about questions, questions types, distribution, and related topics.
Key Verses
Prior to each season, the Rules Committee or a person or group they appoint for this purpose will define and publish two versions of the upcoming season's Key Verses List (KVL), a public and private version. The public version will be published widely to all quizzing participants. The private version will be made available only to official question writers.
The public KVL will not specify which FTV or Quote sub-types will be used for any given verse; only the private KVL will include this information. For example, the public list will not indicate whether two consecutive verses will be asked as an F2V/Q2V pair or whether they will be two separate FTVs/Quotes.
Every FTV or Quote question must come only from the verses defined in the KVL. Any deviation from this is open to challenge.
The C&MA rulebook prohibits FTVs on verses that start with the same 5 words as any other verse in the whole material. Within PNW, however, FTV questions cannot be asked on verses that start with the same 5 words as any other verse in the KVL. F2V questions cannot be asked if the first verse in the pair starts with the same 5 words as any other verse in the KVL. FT and FTN questions must be unique within the first 5 words when compared to every other sentence-start or quotation-start in verses that are part of the KVL. There are no such restrictions on Quote or Q2V questions, which can be asked on any verse in the KVL.
The sub-types specified in the private KVL will be based on the C&MA rulebook guidelines quoted below, with additional PNW-specific clarifications provided. These guidelines are not open to challenge or protest but are meant to guide the Rules Committee in creating the private KVL and are explained here to inform quizzers on what to expect:
- F2V, Q2V, and FTN questions are "used when a verse is not strong enough on its own and needs another verse to explain it, or when two verses combined form an even stronger thought." There is large room for interpretation on what forms "an even stronger thought," so quizzers should accordingly be prepared for both the single verse and the paired verses for many of the areas in the material where there are two consecutive key verses.
- FT and FTN questions must start "in the middle of the verse," either "at the beginning of a sentence or the beginning of a quotation." FT and FTN are used for verses that are not well-suited for an ordinary FTV or F2V. For example, the C&MA rulebook identifies verses with "insignificant introductions" such as "He replied" as good candidates for FT questions. Likewise, if a verse starts in the middle of a sentence and would be awkward to start an FTV with, an FT may be chosen instead.
- "A pair of verses being used as a F2V (or FTN) does not preclude them from being used as a FTV (or FT) if they meet the remaining criteria." This means that the same verse may be asked as multiple different subtypes. Typically, there is one "best" way to include a verse in the private KVL, but there are uncommon instances where the private KVL may take advantage of this rule.
Question Type Requirements
For the purposes of question type requirements:
- FTV, F2V, FT, and FTN count as finish questions
- Q and Q2V count as quote questions
- Multiple-answer reference questions will be considered reference questions only, not also multiple-answers
Question Distribution
Quizmasters will strive to select question for each quiz of a given meet such that 50% of the questions come from the new material for the given meet and 50% from previous material. This is not challengeable or protestable.
There are no requirements regarding material distribution within question types. There are no requirements regarding repeated questions during a district meet.
Bonus Questions
Bonus questions will be jumping team bonus questions.
Scoring, Rankings, and Averages
The following are rules related to scoring, team and individual positions, and averages.
Meet Cancelation due to Inclement Weather
The Board of Directors will decide if a quiz meet needs to be canceled due to inclement weather. If individual quizzers or whole teams of quizzers are unable to attend a meet due to inclement weather, the Board of Directors will determine if such absenses are justified, and such determination will not be unreasonably withheld.
For individuals missing a meet due to weather:
- If missing one of the first 3 meets or District Championships, the individual will receive a 0 average for that meet
- If missing District Meet 4, the individual will receive a 0 for 10% of that meet and 10% weight applied to District Meet 5
- If missing District Meet 5, the individual will receive a 0 for 10% of that meet and 15% weight applied to District Championships
For teams missing a meet due to weather:
- If missing District Meet 3, the team will receive Last Place for 15% of that meet and 10% weight applied to District Meet 4
- If missing District Meet 4, the team will receive Last Place for 25% of that meet and 10% weight applied to District Meet 5
- If missing District Meets 1, 2, 5, or District Championships, the team will receive Last Place for that meet
Team Ties
Team ties during prelims will not be broken, which is to say, there will be no overtime during prelims.
If teams are tied for any placement after the preliminary quizzes, these criteria will break the tie:
- Placement if they faced each other
- Number of 1st placements
- Number of 2nd placements
- Number of 3rd placements
- Total errors
Individual Averages
Quizzer individual averages are computed as follows:
- Within a given quiz meet:
- 6 prelim quizzes (the number of which may change without notice) + any Bracket quizzes through Quiz I
- Tiebreakers and Finals do not count towards individual averages
- Final 9 Bracket scores are weighted at 100%
- Consolation A Bracket scores are weighted at 70%
- Consolation B Bracket scores are weighted at 50%
- Within a given quiz season:
- Meets 1-3: drop the lowest, the remaining 2 count 10% each
- Meet 4: 20%
- Meet 5: 25%
- District Championships: 35%
- For GWI qualification:
- Meets 1-5, weightings as listed above, denominator will be 0.65
The top 5 yearly rookies are determined by year-to-date average post District Meet 5.
Team Placements
Team placements are computed as follows:
- Within a given quiz meet:
- 6 prelim quizzes (the number of which may change without notice) are summed to determine post-prelim placement
- Top 9 teams qualify for Final 9 Bracket
- Teams 10-18 qualify for Consolation A bracket
- Teams 19 and beyond qualify for Consolation B bracket
- There is no weighting of team placements in Consolations
- Within a given quiz season:
- Only meets 3, 4, and 5 count for team District Championships qualification
- District Meet 3 is weighted at 25%
- District Meet 4 is weighted at 35%
- District Meet 5 is weighted at 40%
- Teams are locked once the registration deadline for District Meet 3 has passed
- The 18 teams with the lowest weighted placement qualify for District Championships
- If there is a tie for 18th, the team that placed higher at District Meet 5 will qualify
- Only meets 3, 4, and 5 count for team District Championships qualification
Final team placements are calculated as follows:
- The team placements at District Championships are the final year placements for teams 1-18
- The year-to-date team placements after District Meet 5 are the final year team placements for teams 19 and beyond
Team On-Time Bonus
For the purposes of awarding the starting 20-point team bonus, the officials will consider a quiz's scheduled start time to be 3 minutes after the close of any previous quiz in which any team in the upcoming quiz participates.
Eligablity
A ministry organization (typically but not always a church) is eligable to sponsor teams of quizzers to participate in PNW Quizzing provided that organization be theologically traditional Christian. (See our bylaws for more information.)
Any youth who will be 18 or younger at any point during the quiz season and has adequately to their local ministry organization's head coach demonstrated maturity sufficient to be a quizzer may participate. (See our quizzer behavioral expectations document for more information.)