To qualify for USQ Cup bids, teams must fulfill season play requirements by March 17, 2024. The season play requirements mandate a minimum number of opponents played during the season, a minimum number of games, and competing at a national qualifier.
All teams will be required to:
Teams that do not earn bids for the USQ Cup at a national qualifier must complete expanded season play requirements to earn at-large bids. At-large bid requirements for all teams are listed below. This must be completed by March 3, 2024.
Teams going for at-large bids will be required to:
Alternatively, teams going for at-large bids can do the following if they compete against at least one opponent who attended a different national qualifier:
An important change for the 2023-24 season is that games played at national qualifiers will count towards all above season play requirements for all teams.
*Club teams will only be able to fulfill this requirement by competing against other club teams. College teams may use games against club teams to count for these requirements. Cross-division games (college vs. club) will not count for standings.
Teams interested in the open division will not have season play requirements but are encouraged to attend official events before the USQ Cup. Unofficial teams that wish to compete in the open division can contact membership@usquadball.org.
All teams must play a minimum number of official games before their national qualifier, as indicated below, in order to be seeded. For national qualifiers, the official USQ standings will be used to seed teams as needed. All teams that have not yet played the required number of official games will be counted as unseeded.
2 weeks before attending a fall national qualifier, official teams wishing to be seeded at that qualifier will be required to:
2 weeks before attending a spring national qualifier, official teams wishing to be seeded at that qualifier will be required to:
If a team believes they will have issues meeting season play or gameplay requirements, they can fill out a waiver here to have the gameplay team review their season record, and expected tournament attendance for the rest of the season, and if approved, will waive requirements based on team need.
USQ will not cap the number of teams allowed to compete at the US Quadball Cup 2024 (USQ Cup) but instead will divide the tournament into the following divisions, each with its own caps:
*These divisions will have their own schedule and will only be capped if absolutely necessary.
USQ Cup bids by division will be given out as follows:
Again this season, USQ will use the Huntington-Hill method of apportionment in determining collegiate bid allocation. Of the 32 collegiate competitive division bids, 26 will be awarded at national qualifiers. These 26 bids will be distributed to the regions using the Huntington-Hill method. The remaining bids will be distributed at large.
In order to allocate each division’s bids to D1 and D2, each region’s quota will be multiplied by 0.46 and 0.54, respectively, to generate the divisional quota for D1 and D2. If the divisional quotas do not add up to the total number of bids in each division, a modified multiplier is used in place of the standard multiplier so that the modified divisional quotas sum correctly, and those modified divisional quotas are then used.
At least 1 bid to the club's competitive division will be awarded at each national qualifier with 4 or more attending teams. Any qualifier with 8 or more teams will receive 2 bids. Teams that receive a bid to nationals at a qualifier will also be given seeding priority at the USQ Cup when drawing pots. If a club team that has already received a bid for the US Quadball Cup 2024 is attending another national qualifier, and that team places high enough to earn a bid, the additional bid they would have earned becomes an at-large bid. It does not go to the next highest-placing team at that event.
In the spring, at-large bids will be awarded based on season rankings until a 20-team competitive division is reached. If the number of teams with seeding priority is not divided evenly into pots, the highest-ranked at-large team(s) will fill the remaining spots in the highest available pot. Note that teams in the club competitive division for USQ Cup 2024 will be competing with the 3 max policy in place.
For the 2023-24 season, all teams must attend at least one national qualifier to qualify for the US Quadball Cup 2024.
Teams will be assigned to a national qualifier by USQ. To facilitate this process and ensure bids are distributed fairly, college teams will rank their top 3 choices upon team registration. College teams will only be assigned to one national qualifier*.
Club teams will rank up their top 3 choices upon team registration. Club teams can also note if they have an interest in attending more than one qualifier when registering - with USQ confirming this prior to finalizing national qualifier attendance.
Qualifier bids will be calculated and publicly announced on September 28, along with the list of teams attending each national qualifier. National qualifiers will be allocated bids based on the number of registrants by 11:59 pm PST on September 27. The remaining at-large bids will be awarded in March.
For qualifiers, the official USQ standings will be used to seed teams as needed. All teams that have not yet played sufficient official games will be counted as unseeded (see Season Play Requirements).
USQ requires a minimum qualifier size for the collegiate division. In the 2023-24 season, the minimum will be five teams. If a national qualifier does not have five college teams able to attend by the September 27 deadline, or if the number of collegiate teams drops below five after that point, USQ Gameplay and Events Departments will determine whether a qualifier for that collegiate division will happen. If the college division at a qualifier cannot occur, dedicated at-large bids will be established based on the number of teams registered for that qualifier that indicated an interest in that event by the September 27 deadline.
You can find additional information about national qualifier dates and locations here.
*In cases where a national qualifier does not have enough collegiate teams, a team may be allowed to attend that national qualifier in addition to their assigned qualifier. If a college team that has already received a bid for the US Quadball Cup 2024 is attending another national qualifier in order for that national qualifier to meet the minimum number of teams requirement to happen, and that team places high enough to earn a bid, the additional bid they would have earned becomes an at-large bid. It does not go to the next highest-placing team at that event.
Again this season, USQ will use the Huntington-Hill method of apportionment in determining collegiate bid allocation. Of the 32 collegiate competitive division bids, 26 will be awarded at national qualifiers. These 26 bids will be distributed to the regions using the Huntington-Hill method. The remaining bids will be distributed at large. The Huntington-Hill method ensures each region is represented at the US Quadball Cup according to the size of the region.
Using this method, we first determine a standard divisor by dividing the number of registered teams by the number of available event bids (30). We then calculate a standard quota for each region, representing the number of bids each region would receive if the bids accurately represented the region’s size. Unfortunately, ¼ of a team cannot receive a bid to represent their region at the event, so some rounding must occur, which is why using this mathematical method is necessary.
Suppose a region’s standard quota is less than the geometric mean of the integers between which it is located. In that case, a region is allocated to the lower of those integers. Suppose the region’s standard quota is greater than the geometric mean of the integers. In that case, it is allocated to the higher integers.
If the total sum of those initial quotas adds to the total number of bids, the initial quotas are used. Otherwise, a modified divisor is used in place of the standard divisor so that the modified quotas sum correctly, and those modified quotas are then used.
In order to allocate each division’s bids to D1 and D2, each region’s quota will be multiplied by 0.46 and 0.54, respectively, to generate the divisional quota for D1 and D2. If the divisional quotas do not add up to the total number of bids in each division, a modified multiplier is used in place of the standard multiplier so that the modified divisional quotas sum correctly, and those modified divisional quotas are then used.
You can find further reading on the Huntington-Hill method in the Mathematical Association of America.