The Colorado Invitational has been one of the fastest growing tournaments over the past several years. It has even grown to the point that it has been dubbed by this website as won of the four “majors.” When asked what their favorite besides nationals is, quizzers overwhelmingly respond that it is the CI.
This year, the CI is introducing an innovative new way of running a tournament. They have divided the competition into an “Elite Divison” and “Division II.” The Elite Division is made up primarily of teams that travel nationwide, while Division II contains younger teams and local teams. Also, the quizzing will start on Friday night with the preliminary rounds.
For the sake of this article, we will focus our attention on the Elite Division.
Of the 13 teams currently registered, 9 of them were participants at the New Year’s Classic (Calvary FL, Faith SC, FBCCF, Heritage Mission, Old Paths, Pleasant View KY, Spring City, Valley, and Woodside). The newcomers are Capitol City, Faith MI, Park Avenue, and Tri-City.
Here’s what’s going to happen
8-12
Let me preface this part by saying that this year’s CI isn’t going to be your normal tournament. You finish 8-12 out of 30 at NYC and things aren’t so bad, but that’s as low as you can go here. I don’t think that there has ever been another tournament where it has been as hard to get middles and highs for solid teams as this one. There are probably going to be a lot of teams that are used to winning a lot who aren’t going to be doing much of it this weekend. Note – this list is in alphabetical order
Calvary FL – I’ve read on the message board that they aren’t going to have their full arsenal of quizzers. David Tyrell is great, but I don’t think he can carry a team on his back all day. They’ll be good enough to beat some of the top 7 multiple times but will finish just outside of it.
Heritage Mission – These guys always do better than I think they will. I look at this team and don’t know a whole lot of their quizzers and don’t come away amazed by any of them in particular, but they will quiz intelligently and work the team concept to perfection. They just don’t have quite enough firepower to crack the top 7 at the CI.
Park Avenue – Most of you looking at the Elite Division are probably thinking that Park Avenue is the one pushover on the list. Although they don’t get a lot of national pub, they always put on a pretty good show at nationals. I just think that they lack the experience to crack the top 7, but they’ll put up a good fight.
Spring City – Spring City still hasn’t been able to get back to where they were during the Jesse Campbell era, but I’d put them in the same boat with most of this category of teams – they’re strong enough to beat the top 7 occasionally, just not more than they are beaten by them.
Woodside – Woodside’s in a bit of a rebuilding year also. It’s their home tournament so that should help them out some, but there’s just too much strength at the top of the field for them to make the top 7.
4-7
Capitol City – I’m very interested in seeing what Capitol City is going to bring to the table this year. Last year, Felicia Burdette was the tournament’s best quizzer, and if she can match that, they could jump into the top 3. I’m betting they’ll fall just short.
Faith MI – Faith MI won the not very well covered Michigan Invitational this year. Their fans get on to me when I don’t put them in the top 3, but I’m really just giving them another opportunity to prove me wrong.
Faith SC – I like this Faith SC team a lot. Having 6 of the top 10 teams at PQA is goes a long way in my book. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this is the first major tournament that they’ve attended outside of the southeast ever. Not quite in my top 3 for this tournament, but they’ll probably be there for SCQANIT.
Valley – I think of Valley in much the same way that I think of Faith SC. They quiz smart, they squeak out of close quizzes without getting a loss, and all five quizzers can get questions.
1-3
3. Old Paths – Despite all the quizzers they lost last year, Old Paths has once again put together a very tough team. I don’t think that they’ll go into any tournament this year as the favorite as they have been for basically every tournament they’ve participated in the last couple of years, but they’re still very much in that group of teams that has a chance of winning every time they quiz.
2. FBCCF – FBCCF will do better than they did here last year or at NYC this year. I still think that Abby Carbonell single handedly makes this the second best team in the country. Also, she gets to answer six questions per quiz which will get her team all the way to the finals where they just won’t quite have enough to beat…
1. Pleasant View KY – Their best quizzer is the 2nd best quizzer in the country. Their 2nd quizzer might be the 3rd, and their 3rd would probably be the strongest quizzer on any team outside of the top 6-7 teams in the country. The only way that these guys should lose is by beating themselves. I’ve been around Bible Quiz for a long time now and seen it happen a lot, but there’s nobody else that you can pick over PVKY.