Math Madness Team Event

                                                              FALL 2021 MATH MADNESS DETAILS

100% Online, beginning as a joint initiative between American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) and AreteLabs and entering its 8th season, Math Madness is emerging as the premiere online math competition event in the United States. In 2020, nearly 800 schools and 15,000 students from across the country competed in the online league, tournament and championship.

Math Madness takes place in the fall with one event held for high school teams (9th-12th), one for middle school teams (6th-8th), and one for elementary school teams (3rd-5th). A team may consist of students from multiple grade levels within the defined grade span. The event is divided as follows: 1 practice round, 4 scrimmage rounds, and 6 bracket tournament rounds. We also host a Mini-Madness event in the spring (Feb-Mar) which is Math Madness without the bracket tournament at the end, just 5 weeks of friendly scrimmaging. As was the case last year due to Covid 19 exigencies, we will be allowing teams/students to play from home where necessary subject to reasonable restrictions which will be communicated to teachers throughout the season. The structure and timeline of the Math Madness event is as follows:

Oct 3 - 9:               Practice Round

Oct 10 - 16:           Collaboration Round I (Fun round where kids work together in mini-teams)

Oct 17 - 23:           Collaboration Round II

Oct 24 - 30:           Qualifying Round I (Students play individually but as a team)

Oct 31 - Nov 6:      Qualifying Round II (Last week to register)

Nov 7 - 13:             Bracket Round I (Single Elimination - all teams are assigned to one of a series of brackets)

Nov 14 - 20:           Bracket Round II 

Nov 21 - 27:           Thanksgiving week is OFF

Nov 28 - Dec 4:      Bracket Round III (Teams that lost in Bracket Round I can resume playing in informal, "Opt-in" matches)

Dec 5 - 11:              Bracket Round IV 

Dec 12 - 18:            Bracket Round V

Dec 19 - 25:            Bracket Championship (Teams may play this match in the week prior if holiday scheduling requires)

* Teams are NOT required to play in all of the above rounds. Instead, they may opt in or out from week to week as they wish.

All teacher and student users are given their own online account on the aretelabs.com platform. The teacher activates his/her own account first and then creates a team, adding all student members to it. For the majority of the event, students compete individually (from inside their own account) but as part of a team.

The system arranges all matches for all rounds. Each match involves 2 teams and each round lasts 1 week. All matches are 30 minutes in length. A team can compete at any time during a given round, with all rounds commencing Sunday morning and concluding Saturday evening. All players on a team must play at the day/time selected by the teacher - a student cannot make up a missed match later in the round. Teachers can change the time for their team to play during the round and from round to round, as well as the team's composition. Teachers may also opt out of almost any round in which their team cannot play. Indeed, maximum scheduling flexibility and minimal teacher time/energy commitment are the hallmarks of this event. In fact, the only 2 responsibilities of a teacher throughout the entire season are to add students to the team and choose the time to play each round. 

If the day/time for a team to play is the same as its opponent's, the match is live with both team scores updating in real time on the student's scoreboard. If teams cannot find a common time to compete, then each team plays at the time convenient for it, with final results posting after both teams have played. The student's individual score always updates in real time as questions are answered correctly. This patented, live scoring framework thrills students and distinguishes this event from all other competition activities currently available.

Each match includes 7-8 multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank questions. Team score is calculated by summing the top 5 individual scores. Content at the high school level is primarily aligned with AMC 10/12, at the middle school level with AMC 8, and at the elementary level with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade Common Core State Standards (CCSS). As the season progresses, rankings of the top 50% of individuals and teams are published to highlight achievement and to help members of the greater community measure their own effort and progress.

The opening four rounds are divided into 2 Collaboration rounds and 2 Qualifying rounds. During the former, students can work together in mini-teams. During the latter (and for the remainder of the event), students play individually. Teams are matched first by skill level so that the competition is even and then by common time availability so that teams can play live where possible. Data from the 2 Qualifying rounds are used to determine bracket assignments. The top 64 teams are assigned to the Title bracket. Remaining teams are then evenly placed in additional brackets based on team size, with all teams competing in a bracket. Within each bracket, teams are sorted by skill and seeded accordingly, following NCAA March Madness protocol.

Those teams that are eliminated from a bracket can nonetheless extend their season by opting in to play against other similarly situated teams in weekly matches automatically arranged by the system. Thus, all teams can play a full 10-round season if they choose.In addition, a teacher can separately challenge another team to a match or divide his/her team into multiple teams that play against each other with our ClassMatch functionality (see heading at the top of this page). Content from past seasons is made available to fuel such additional competition activity.

To participate, a teacher must (1) activate a free account (click here), (2) create a team once inside the account by clicking the "+Team" button, and then (3) register that team on the Events page, selecting "High", "Middle" or "Elementary" depending on the team's level. A teacher may register multiple teams for Math Madness from the same account. However, the same team cannot compete in two separate levels of Math Madness. Upon request, Math Madness content from years prior can be placed in a newly activated account so that a teacher can both review content appropriateness as well as create a match for students to better determine potential interest in the experience. Students or parents may NOT register a team for Math Madness. Occasionally an exception to this rule is merited but approval must be granted first.

Register by October 1st to be included in a practice round, by October 8th to be included in the opening round. Late registration will remain open until November 5th. Teams that register by this date, while missing the intervening rounds, are nonetheless guaranteed at least 5 rounds of competition. Once registered, teachers should review the Rules/Instructions for Math Madness in more detail by clicking "Math Madness" in the dropdown at the top/right of their account and then selecting the "About" tab on that page, or visit https://www.aretelabs.com/math_madness directly. 

Payment by check is politely requested although a credit card purchase can be arranged if there is no alternative. Payment in advance is NOT required so teachers need not be concerned about lengthy school/district payment processes. In the pricing area below, a player is defined as an individual student who competes at least once during the event. Prices listed are for the entire team to play for the entire season (Mini-Madness is a flat fee of $145 regardless of team size). A team should consist only of students from the same school (exceptions to this may be made upon request, limitations apply), but it may include students from multiple grade levels corresponding to the grade levels of the event. Price accommodation is available upon request and as needed. Please do not hesitate to send an email to timothy@aretelabs.com with any questions or call 312-952-0436. Make sure to click the "Video Tutorial" button at the top/right of this page to review registration steps!

Thank you and welcome to Math Madness! . . .