Clague Practices During State Tournament Season

As you're reading this blog, you probably know the State Tournaments are almost here.  Clague sixth graders (the "elementary" teams) will be competing in Grand Rapids March 2-4 and the seventh and eighth graders (the "middle" teams) will be competing in the same place March 9-11.  This is a great time of year for Academic Games but means that our practice schedule is of course changed: 

• The remaining February practices (Friday the 26th and Monday the 29th) proceed at their normal times. 
• Due to the state tournaments, there will be no practices Friday March 4 or Friday March 11.  
• Monday March 7 is a practice for the middle teams only -- 6th graders do not have practice that night.
• The whole team will be back together and back to our usual schedule starting on Monday, March 14.  

We will be posting results as they happen (well, not too long after they happen) from the state tournament on our twitter account @clagueag .   Depending on your browser, you might see that twitter feed to the right of this blog post. 

Last Saturday Tournament of 2015/16 Held In Northville

19 Clague students participated in the final Saturday tournament of the 2015/16 year.  The tournament was held at Amerman Elementary in Northville.

Clague's 93 was good for the best Top Five score.  Congratulations both to that impressive new team from Fenton who took the Team Average title, and hosts Amerman who won Total Points and Most Competitors.  

Top Clague scores (18 or higher) included Jasmine X., Zach N., Aarnav U., Jerry L., and John C.

Clague was missing a number of our multi-talented players participating in the Solo & Ensemble festival in Ann Arbor that day, so the Cube Ripken award for participating in all six tournaments this year is not only unreal, but also unclaimed.  Clague did have 18 students attend five of the six tournaments this year, so congratulations to those winners of the Five-Sided Cube Award.

Those 18 players are part of the 66 Clague players who attended at least three tournaments this year and have prepared for the State Super Tournaments in Grand Rapids coming up in early March. 

January Tournament in Ypsilanti

54 Clague players were amongst competitors from 17 schools at the fifth Saturday Tournament this weekend at Ypsilanti Community Middle School.  Clague led the way in team average, total points, top five, and number of competitors.

Clague players with top scores (18 or higher) included Elizabeth L., Matthew R., Gerald K., Rhea C., Candace J., Phoebe Y., Rafid F., Avani G., Benjamin R., James X., Raayan B., Derek Z., Daniel M., Alexandra V., Bhaavna Y., and Jonathan K.

The award is fictional, but the achievement is real.

59 Clague students have now attended at least 3 Saturday Tournaments to prepare for the State Tournaments in March.

Eleven Clague students have attended all 5 Saturday Tournaments so far this year.  How many will attend all six tournaments for the year and therefore qualify for the Cube Ripken award?  Find out on February 6, when the last tournament of the 2015/16 year is held at Amerman Elementary school in Northville.

Clague at the Super Tournaments in March

If you are reading this blog, you hopefully know that the Clague teams will be competing at the Michigan Super Tournaments (“States”) in Grand Rapids in March. You might not, however, know how the tournament works.

The State Tournament is something the team looks forward to all year. The team members have a lot of fun but also are working very hard. Hundreds of students from around the state come to demonstrate the academic skills that they have developed all year.

The “Elementary” teams (this group includes 5th and 6th grades) will compete March 2-4 and the “Middle” teams (7th and 8th grades) will compete March 9-11. Both tournaments are similar in structure.

• We take a bus to Grand Rapids and then the entire tournament takes place in the hotel. Competition and meals all take place in the hotel’s meeting rooms.
• Players compete in teams of five. We form these teams in January. Last year, we had four Elementary teams and eight Middle teams.
• We compete in two types of games. First, “cube” games include Equations, On-Sets, Linguishtik, and Wff ‘n’ Proof. Each of these competitions consist of four “rounds”. We play two rounds of each game on Wednesday and two on Thursday. Results are posted each day, so if you follow our Twitter @clagueag you will see first the scores after the first two rounds and then the final standings. Teams that do extraordinarily well go to playoffs either Thursday evening or Friday morning to determine champions.
• Second, “reading” games we compete in are Presidents and Propaganda (there is also World Card). We play Propaganda on Wednesday and then Presidents is either Thursday (Middle) or Friday (Elementary).
• We will try to keep our twitter page @clagueag updated with results.
• No matter the results, we are all proud of every member of the Clague team for their hard work and the integrity they show in competition. 

 Families will be getting more information on the technicalities of signing up soon. 

December Saturday Tournament at Jackson Northeast

This Saturday 45 members of the Clague team were part of over 200 players at the Saturday Tournament in Jackson.  Clague once again led the way in Top Five and Total Points but came in second in Team Average to that impressive new team down the road at Thurston.  Congratulations to all who participated with Clague and with other teams, and thanks to our Jackson hosts for telling us where to find the good donut shop after the competition.

Top Clague scores (18 or higher) include James X., Ben Z., Derek H., Elizabeth L, Daniel H., Kristian P., Eli S., Zihao W., Jin L., Amy X., Daniel M., Avani H., Candace J., and Darius A.

This was the 4th Saturday Tournament of the 6 held during the school year.  A special salute to the 17 Clague team members who have competed in all four.  We expect players to participate in at least three of the Saturday Tournaments if they intend to compete at the State Tournaments in March in Grand Rapids. 

The fifth Saturday Tournament is at Ypsilanti Community Middle School on January 9.

Saturday Tournament at Gompers: Halfway to States

42 Clague students were part of about 200 students competing last Saturday at Detroit’s Gompers Elementary-Middle School.   Clague led the way with a 16.71 average.  A salute to the new team down the road from Clague – Thurston Elementary’s new Academic Games team placed third in team average!  Congratulations to all who competed.

Top Clague scores (18 or higher) include Matthew R., Dan W., Scott B., Gerald K., Eli S., Angie Z., Derek Z., Young Seo L., Max M., Elizabeth L., Darius A., Brian W., Joey O., Jerry L., Jerry C., Kristian P., Zach N., Karinne T., and Eric Z.  

This is the third of the six monthly Saturday Tournaments which lead up to “States” – the Super Tournaments in March.  Clague expects those who want to compete at States to prepare by competing in at least three Saturday tournaments.   24 Clague students have competed in all three Saturday tournaments so far.  

The next Saturday tournament is at Jackson Northeast on December 12.

2015-16 Captains

The team has spoken and captains for 2015-16 have been chosen.  This years Clague captains are (not in any particular order) Elizabeth, Benjamin, Eli, Rhea, and James.

Clague captains put in a lot of work leading their teams, so both congratulations and thanks are both in order.  This week was captaincy at its most aerobic, as we held a Challenge Match, wherein the captains move around the room answering questions for their teams.