Making a Buzz at Reach for the Top Playoffs

On 12 April 2017, the MGCI Quiz League team took part in the Reach for the Top Playoffs at North Toronto CI. In this trivia competition, the top eight teams in the region competed against each other to qualify for the provincial tournament. MGCI’s junior and senior Quiz League merged to take part in the playoffs as one team, and came home with a third place finish.

Prior to the tournament, various teams in the region played against each other in a round robin. MGCI’s junior and senior teams competed individually in the preliminary rounds and finished ranking eighth and fourth respectively. The junior and senior teams entered the Reach for the Top Playoffs as one team, which consisted of Lawrence Pang, Bruce He, James Robins, Khari Thomas, Rae Berhe, Esmat Sahak, Lauren Chang, Adil Haider, and Charmaine Chang.

At the playoffs, the teams competed in an elimination style tournament. Every game consisted of three rounds of questions, with each question being worth at least ten points. A buzzer system was used—the first to hit their buzzer had the privilege to answer first. If an incorrect answer was given, the other team had a chance to steal the point. If neither team answered correctly, no points were awarded. Four players from each team played at a time and points were awarded for correctly answering questions of a variety of subjects.

MGCI’s Quiz League team had a strong start to the tournament, winning their first round match against Northern CI by a large margin. The team then moved on to the semifinals of the tournament to face Upper Canada College (UCC). The match was very intense, with both teams having opportunities to win. It came down to the last question and UCC just barely managed to edge out MGCI for a spot in the finals with a score of 390-380.

Although the semifinal loss to UCC prevented MGCI from qualifying for the provincial tournament, co-president of MGCI Quiz League, Rae Berhe, said, “We surpassed our expectations considering how many new faces joined this year. As far as progression, despite not reaching provincials, our team became more than a one man team as it was last year.”

James Robins, a Grade 11 team member also said, “The team performed very well overall and it was a great learning experience. We have some truly talented individuals on the team, and simply taking part in the tournament was fun on its own.”