Official Rules

Official Rules for the SHARP 24 CHALLENGE Championship Playoffs

REFEREES -- Ask for volunteers to act as referees. You will need one per table. Take all referees aside, about 20 minutes before the tournament begins, and review the rules.

REVIEW RULES -- Once a consensus is reached on the rules with the referees, review these rules with students at the start of play, so they understand how the tournament will be conducted.

SEATING -- Students will sit four or five to a table, by year level. Students will sit toward one side of the table with the referee on the opposite side.

PUTTING CARDS INTO PLAY -- A referee will put a card into play by "cupping" the card in the palm of one hand to reveal the numbers. Having the students seated toward one side insures that the referee's arm will not obscure the vision of students seated close to the referee.

STUDENTS' HAND POSITION -- During play, students' finger tips should be no closer than 20 cm from the centre of the table -- where the cards are placed. If a special Tournament Playing Board is used, students must keep their hands on the blue area and outside of the yellow circle.

MAKING A DECLARATION -- When a student has a solution in mind, s/he makes a declaration by touching the card. The student may touch anywhere on the card, yet with no more than three finger tips. This rule prevents students from slapping the card hard with the whole hand as a way of dominating play. The first student to make a valid declaration will be allowed to give the solution. If the answer is correct, the student takes the card she won and places it in front of them. The referee then puts the next card into play. At the end of the round (when all the cards have been claimed), referees will tally all the points on the cards each student has won.

GIVING THE SOLUTION -- Once a student touches the card, s/he must start giving the solution within 15 seconds, continuing from the first number spoken.

PENALTY FLAGS -- If a student cannot give the solution or gives an incorrect solution, she will earn a penalty flag (use "3M Post-It Note" or tokens). Students who earn three penalty flags during a round will be disqualified from further play during that round. Disqualified students may keep the points they scored up to the point of disqualification. They are eligible to play in any subsequent rounds and start without any penalty flags.

NOTE: In their eagerness to win, students sometimes touch the card first and then try to solve it. This may turn the play into a "slapping match". This penalty rule will disqualify students who continue this approach. A student who "jumps the gun" and slaps for a card before the referee withdraws his hand should be given one verbal warning, thereafter if that student touches the referee's hand before it is withdrawn, she gets a penalty flag.

The referee takes the card out of play when a student gets a penalty flag. Referees put that card into the middle of the deck they are dealing from to be played again later.

STUMPED CARDS -- If all students at the table agree that they are stumped on a card, the referee removes that card for later play. To move tournament play along, referees may declare a card "stumped" after 30 seconds.

NUMBER OF ROUNDS PLAYED -- Most tournaments are played with four rounds, each lasting 10 to 15 minutes. Students should be given a 5 to 10 minute break between each round.

If the players at a table finish early, they should sit and wait for the round to end at the other tables, so as not to disturb other students.

NUMBER OF CARDS PLAYED -- A fixed number of cards will be played in each round. This approach is preferred over a "timed round" because it is not dependent upon the speed with which referees put the cards into play and does not put a table with a "slow" referee at a disadvantage.

ROUND 1 -- Play for 48 cards. Take the first half of a 96 card deck and flip the cards so that all the red sides (colour of centre square on the cards) are facing up. (The first half of the deck will give you 12 one point, 24 two point and 12 three point cards). Shuffle the cards and you are ready to begin. Make sure that all tables are using the same cards. All students will play.

ROUND 2 -- Flip the above 48 cards over and play the white side. Students should change tables to get a chance to play with different players in their own year level. All students will play.

SCORING -- Points will be tallied by referees at the end of each round. Remember to count points and not just the number of cards, as a difficult card may be worth three points (look for the number of dots in the card's corner to determine the point value). Referees will enter each student's score on her score card. Scores from Round 1 and 2 will be added together. The four highest scores from each grade will qualify to compete in Round 3 to determine the year level champion.

ROUND 3 -- Play for another 48 cards (second half of the 96 card deck), red side. The highest score at each table will be declared the year level champion. This third round is a "face-off" round among the top four scores in each year level. Only the points earned in this round will be used to determine the champion, the scores from the previous rounds will be disregarded. The year level champion will now compete in the Final Round 4 to determine the overall SHARP 24 CHALLENGE Maths Champion.

ROUND 4 -- Flip over the above 48 cards and play the white side. The highest score in this final round will be the overall champion. As in round 3, all previous scores will be disregarded. This final round is the first time that students from different grades will be competing against each other.

MISCELLANEOUS -- In the case of a tie, tied players will play a 5-minute round.

In case of a protest, it will be up to the referee at each table to settle the protest.

To encourage mental maths, we suggest that pencil, paper and calculators not be used by students during play.

If Double Puzzle Sleeves are to be used in the Championship Play-off, these can be incorporated into the various rounds by reducing the number of Single Digits cards played to, say, 24 instead of the 48 cards and have the balance of the round include the new element of play.

Once a card is slipped into a Puzzle Sleeves, there is no longer a correlation between the point value and the difficulty level of that card. In tournament play, each card inside a single Puzzle Sleeves is worth two points. Therefore, a Double Puzzle Sleeves is worth four points, and so on.