Friday, November 24, 2017

November Saturday Tournament

The November Saturday Tournament was held in Oxford.  28 Clague players playing Equations and On-Sets came in third in Average and Top Five.

Congratulations to Simon and Ethan for scoring 18 or higher out of a possible 20!

Clague expects those planning to participate in the State Tournament to be prepared, including by participating in at least three of the Saturday Tournaments.  Since this was the third Saturday Tournament of the year, it was the first chance for players to complete this qualification -- and 21 players have indeed competed in the first three tournaments.  

The December tournament is coming up soon -- December 9, at  Jackson Northeast Elementary


Sunday, November 12, 2017

The Academic Games Year: Competitions

The year in Academic Games is a combination of learning and competing.   Particularly for new families and those considering joining, it might be useful to have an outline of how the year fits together.  Some of these details are specific to Clague. 

Clague practices twice a week in the school cafeteria.  Generally, Mondays are devoted to learning new things and Fridays are mostly about competition.  (Of course, competition is a good way to learn as well).  Our "Friday Tournaments" give players a chance to compete with their teammates.  When the rules are different for 6th graders, then the 6th graders compete against other 6th graders while the 7th and 8th graders have a separate competition.

We also compete once a month (September through February) on Saturday mornings with other schools in the area.  These "Saturday Tournaments" are hosted by schools around Southeast Michigan. 

The big event in Michigan Academic Games is the "Super Tournament", also known as "States", held in Grand Rapids in early March.  This is a three day tournament with a lot of great competition open to schools across Michigan.   Competition at States is in five-player teams, which means Clague generally has a number of teams at States.   At Clague, we expect any student who wants to go to States will prepare including by going to at least three of the six Saturday Tournaments.  There is a cost to going to States -- last year it was $365 -- which includes the bus, the hotel, the food, tournament registration.  We will need chaperones (parents) to join us on the trip.  Chaperones do not pay themselves (although they still pay for their children).  Making sure that students who work hard all year do not miss out on the tournaments for financial reasons is important to us so we do raise funds during the year to provide some scholarship aid to families in financial need. 

Families make the decision whether to go to States in January and coaches then put the players on teams. 

Those who do particularly well at the State Tournament may also be given the chance to compete at the Academic Games National Tournament in late April.  The location of this tournament varies but is generally somewhere in the eastern United States.  In 2018 it will be in Knoxville. 

Clague Academic Games is proud of our record including winning many State and National Championships and we are also proud of having so many players compete with integrity at the tournaments.  At the same time, we welcome players who do not wish to travel for the major tournaments but who are dedicated to working on the games to join us on Mondays and Fridays developing skills and enjoying the competition. 

Friday, November 10, 2017

October Saturday Tournament Results

The second Saturday Tournament of the 2017/18 year was held at Pioneer High in Ann Arbor, with over 250 students competing in the Region B tournament.  Most players were playing Equations with a few playing OnSets as well.

Clague's average score of 15.60 was strong but Northville Hillside and Meads Mill finished even higher.  Our top nine players each had a perfect score of 20, adding up to a top five score of 100, which left Clague in a two-way tie for first.

Congratulations to the team.  Players scoring 18 or higher included Nana, Claire, Jerry, Henry, Hassan, Sonya, Nathan, Qaurtney, Tony, Kevin, Karinne, Kaan, Amy, Arav, Aarnav, Alex K., and Alex Z. 






What's Going On At Clague Academic Games?

We are now a couple months into the Academic Games season and are already playing four of the six games that we play during the year.

The first game we started was Equations, which is a game in which our players demonstrate their amazing mathematical skills.  For a slightly outdated version of the basics of this game and a cat, check out this youtube video by Clague alumna Claire Fishman.

We have also added On-Sets, a game of set theory that is explained earlier in this blog at this link. We have been playing On-Sets and Equations at our Friday Tournaments and will be playing them at this month's Saturday Tournament on the 18th.

We have also started playing our U.S. History game, Presidents.  To learn about this game, there is also a blog post from earlier. This year we learn about the terms of the first 24 presidents (Washington through Cleveland).

Finally, we have started learning WFF 'n' Proof, a formal logic game.

The two other games Clague competes in -- Propaganda and Linguishtik -- will be started in the coming months.  


First Saturday Tournament Results

Alright, time to catch up on some blog entries...

The first Saturday tournament of the 2017/18 year was held ... a while ago ... at Clague with over 200 students playing Equations in the warm-but-we're-thankful-for-the-ceiling-fan cafeteria. 

Clague posted a strong average score of 15.10 and our top five scores added to 98 out of a  possible 100 both of which were good for second place to Northville Hillside. 

Congratulations to all the Clague players -- players scoring 18 or higher (out of a possible 20) included Jackson, Amber, Nico, Peter, David, Jason, Alexandra, Evan, Alfredo, Brian, and Daniel H., Daniel L., and Daniel T.  

What has already happened at the October tournament?  Find out on a future blog post about the past.