This is to inform you that we had a major error awarding teams that qualified for the Platinum Round.
Black Forest Chapel finished in 5th place, but due to an error in the spreadsheet we were using, they did not get recognized as finishing in the Top 5 in their room, and thus, did not get to compete in the Platinum Round. I apologize for denying them their justly earned position to compete in the Platinum Round. We are awarding them with the Platinum awards that they earned, but unfortunately, cannot re-create the Platinum Round Quizzing experience.
I have been asked to explain how the error occurred. The spreadsheet file that we used was set up to advance the Top 20 teams from the Participation Round to the Gold Round, but not the 22 teams that we were using for 2025. So we had to manually adjust the spreadsheet to assign what would be the 11th team in the Worship Center and the Family Life Center. The teams got added correctly to our scoresheets for the Gold Round and their scores were recorded properly during the Gold Round. In the spreadsheet, there is a tab for Teams 1-6 and a separate tab for Teams 7-11. We then combine these scores in a separate tab to determine the order of all 11 teams. This is where the error occurred. In the Worship Center, we linked Team #11 to the tab that had Team #5. Team #5 ended up with the top score in the Worship Center, so that meant Team #11 showed the same score as Team #5. Team #11 had a much lower score than Black Forest Chapel, but Team #11 was announced as advancing to the Platinum Round instead of Black Forest Chapel.
Some have raised the issue of how 7 teams from the Family Life Center made it to the Platinum Round. There was a tie for 5th place, so an extra team advanced because of the rule that ties would advance. Another team was advanced due to an error by me in the questions file that we used. I was using my questions file from 8 years ago (we virtual quizzed 4 years ago). When the Old Testament Summaries files were issued in 2016-2017, the verses were not included in the summary files. I copied the memory verses into my questions file, but obviously used current NIV instead of NIV84. I did not double-check and triple-check those verses for this current Summit. There were 3 or 4 verses that were different in NIV84 than the current NIV. In the Gold Round, a quizzer recited the verse properly in NIV84, but the answer listed in my questions file was different, and so we counted it as incorrect. We continued with the quizzing. After we had asked another question, the coach came and mentioned our error. At the moment, we said the coach couldn’t challenge because we had moved on. After the quizzing was completed, I realized that my error had cost the team the chance to advance to the Platinum Round, and so I made the decision to correct my error then and allowed the team to participate in the Platinum Round.
I apologize for my errors and that quizzing did not go as smoothly as it should have gone. I will be much more diligent in making sure there are no errors in my file. We are looking at ways to improve response time in the computerized files that we are using for scoring. But scores were properly recorded in the files, with the exception of the manual adjustment we tried to make between the Participation Round and Gold Round. In the previous year, these files allowed us to more quickly transfer people to their new rooms than in the manual method we had used in previous years.
I appreciate the effort of all the quizzers and coaches. I am terribly sorry that my errors penalized Black Forest Chapel.
Rick Hayes
Summit Bible Quizzing Coordinator
