2024 Presidents Tournament

All Greater New Orleans area students are invited to participate in the 2024 Presidents Tournament sponsored by the New Orleans Academic Games League.

What is a Presidents Tournament?

Presidents is a question-and-response game (individuals playing trivia rather than a team-style, buzzing-in quiz bowl competition) that tests students’ knowledge of American History and the Presidents of the United States. Players have a limited range of presidents that they may consider for their answers from the group of presidents. For each question in a round, a central reader gives three clues of varying difficulty about one of the presidents, pausing after each clue to allow players to guess the correct president. After hearing all of the clues, players reveal their answers to the other competitors at their table hoping they have selected the correct president.

The New Orleans Academic Games League (NOAGL) brings together numerous schools from the Greater New Orleans area, and beyond, to compete in an annual Presidents Tournament in January.

Who may compete in the tournament?

The competition is held across four divisions: Elementary Division (Grades 6 and below), Middle Division (Grades 7 & 8), Junior Division (Grades 9 & 10), and Senior Division (Grades 11 & 12). Students may play up a division but not down. Questions contain vocabulary and topics leveled to the different divisions.

Which Presidents are covered?

Each year, different groups of presidents are covered. For 2024, students in the Elementary and Middle Divisions must only know about Presidents #16-33. Junior and Senior Division competitors must know Presidents #16-46.

When is the tournament?

Students compete after school beginning at 4:00 p.m. Over the two tournament days, the clues in a round pertain to different groups of U.S. Presidents. Each day’s round lasts about 1 hour. The tournament dates and groups of presidents are as follows:

  • Elementary and Middle Divisions
    • Wednesday, January 10 (Presidents #16-24)
    • Wednesday, January 17 (Presidents #16-33)
  • Junior and Senior Divisions
    • Tuesday, January 9 (Presidents #16-33)
    • Tuesday, January 16 (Presidents #28-46)

The Elementary and Middle Divisions compete at Brother Martin High School while the Junior and Senior Divisions compete at Jesuit High School.

What awards are given?

Students can earn individual or team awards in their division. Every player who wishes to play will play—schools may enter any number of players in a division.

How much does it cost?

Each school that competes in the Presidents Tournament pays an entry fee of $50 plus $7 per registered student.

A school can enter as many students/teams as desired. Players’ names and desired groupings will be completed on the entry forms emailed to all moderators. Typically, there are teams of five students, but the size of teams will be based on the number of registered players in a division.

Students can participate on only one day if they cannot attend both tournament dates. Notify in advance the tournament administrators if you know a student will not be present for a day. The cost of competing for one or two days is the same.

How can we get more information?

If your school is interested in participating, contact Mr. Craig Zeller at czeller@noagl.org or 504-283-1561.

 

We plan to have another beneficial event for all participants involved. I hope that you and your players can be a part of this event.

 

Yours in Gaming,

Craig Zeller (czeller@noagl.org)
NOAGL Board Member

 

The New Orleans Academic Games League inspires students to become critical thinkers through friendly competition in challenging mathematics, language arts, and social studies games.