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BATTLE OF THE BOOKS RULES AND PROCEDURES
SELECTION OF TEAMS:
1. Each school will determine their own method of selecting teams. A team has four members.
2. Teams will get together and practice as determined by each individual school.
3. In the event of an absence of a team member on a battle day, the team may compete with three members. Other teams will not be penalized and will compete with four members. No team may compete with less than three members.
SCHEDULE OF BATTLES;
1. The first event will be one battle at each school. No teams will be eliminated. This battle is a practice
and may also serve as a demonstration for the fourth grade.
2. Most schools will choose to participate in an additional District battle between teams from schools
within that district. Judge(s) will be school staff or other media professionals brought in from outside.
No teams will be eliminated.
3. All teams will compete with teams from other districts at the El Paso County Battle of the Books
Festival.
GAME RULES FOR BATTLES:
1. The order in which questions will be asked of teams has been randomly determined by computer.
2. Each question will be read as written, twice. If a team needs to have the question read a third time, it must be during their thirty seconds of conferring time.
3. Timing will begin at the end of the second reading. The team has thirty seconds to confer before an answer is required. Teams should not begin to confer until the question has been read twice.
4. Conferring: the answering team must confer on two items: 1) what the answer is, and 2) who will answer the question. Only one person may answer; only one answer may be given. Once a team member has begun to give an answer, there will be no more conferring permitted. If the judge(s) determine that the answer given is ambiguous, they may ask for expansion and clarification. The judge(s) will then decide if the answer is correct.
5. Scoring: correctly answered questions earn 10 points.
6. Tiebreaker rules:
1) A new set of questions will be used. Each team involved in the tie will draw an equal number of questions.
2) The moderator will read all the questions through once and then will mix them up before beginning to read them again.
3) Teams will then write the answers.
4) If there is still a tie at the end of one round, another set of questions will be selected and the process repeated.
7. Miscellaneous rules:
1) Questions for all battles have been selected by representatives from each of the schools
participating, with an attempt to provide increasing difficulty as the battles progress.
2) If an answer is ambiguous, a judge may ask for expansion or clarification.
3) The decision of the judge(s) is FINAL.
4) The audience should not cheer or applaud until the battle is over.
5) Each class may make one poster to display at the battles for their team.
8. Battle of the Books Festival Rules:
1) Festival battles will be conducted according to the rules stated above.
2) There will be 3 rounds with all teams participating in the first two rounds. The teams will be randomly mixed. The third round will be composed of the six teams with the highest cumulative scores from the first two rounds. If a tiebreaker is needed to determine the six high scoring teams, only the lowest scoring of the qualifying teams will participate in a special battle to fill the remaining spots. Each of these teams will have the opportunity to answer at least three questions. If a tie still exists at the end of this special round, tiebreaker rule 6.4 will be used to determine the teams needed for the final round.
3) All team members not participating in the final round should be quietly watching..
4) Within each round, the same set of questions will be used in the separate battles. Since the scores of the first two rounds will be cumulative, each team will be asked the same number of questions. Only in the final round will teams have an opportunity to answer those questions missed by another team. The question will be read again and all other teams will have 15 seconds to write the answer. A correct answer earns 5 points.
5) Tie scores will only be resolved if necessary to determine which teams will go on to the final round. Only the teams with the tie scores will participate in a tiebreaker.
6) Scores for each team in the first two rounds are cumulative. Round three is the final round to determine the winner of the Battle of the Books Festival. Scores for this round will start at zero. The highest scoring team will be awarded the traveling Festival plaque. All team members will be recognized at the conclusion of the Festival.