Quizbowl

Quizbowl (also known as Quiz-bowl, Quiz Bowl, or Academic Bowl) is a family of games of questions and answers on all topics of human knowledge, commonly played in high school and college. In brief, the game is played with buzzers between (usually) 2 teams of (usually) 4 players each. Each match has (usually) 15 to 20 tossup questions which are read to all players. The first player to buzz-in correctly gets 10 points and the opportunity for his team to hear a bonus worth up to 30 points. An incorrect buzz loses 5 points and the question is completed for the other team. Some formats make use of other types of questions. The game is commonly referred to by several names as College Bowl or "Academic Competition," or variants thereof. "Quiz Bowl/QB" will be the generic term used here.

Subject areas

At the college and high school level, most questions are on subjects generally covered in a liberal arts education, or the liberal arts component of a degree. These include literature; history; science and math; social sciences; fine arts; geography; religion, mythology, and philosophy; and general knowledge. The choice of subjects and number of questions on each is called question distribution. To a lesser extent, questions are asked on engineering topics (including computer science), and popular culture, referred to as "Trash."

"Trash" subjects are generally considered to be current events, sports, pop culture, and some parts of the "general knowledge" catch-all. Much of traditional non-academic trivia falls under this heading. The use of the word "trash" in reference to these subjects was originally derogatory, but "trash-lovers" have reclaimed the word, and many label themselves "trash-meisters" or similarly with pride.

Question styles

Between the college and high school level, there are several styles of writing questions. While some are frowned upon, and other styles more generally favored, each style "tests" for a particular skill or type of recall.

Buzzer Beaters (toss-up)

Buzzer beater questions have virtually disappeared at the college level, and are frowned upon by most high school players that compete at higher levels (such as at national tournaments). They tend to be quite short, and relatively simple. An example:

QUESTION: "Which company makes Macintosh computers?"

ANSWER: Apple (Computers)

This type of question is written specifically to test the speed of players, and in no way discriminates the different levels of knowledge that the players possess. As such, these questions are frowned upon by players with a stronger knowledge base because smarter players lose their advantage. It is the player with higher confidence and faster reflexes who will answer first. Players who answer quickly are often said to have a "trigger finger."

These questions are also called "fast buzz", but may have alternative names in different parts of the country.

Pyramid Style (toss-up)

Pyramid style toss-up questions are the standard toss-up style written in college tournaments, as well as the high school tournaments which tend to attract stronger teams. Compare this example to the "buzzer beater" above:

QUESTION: In 1977, this Silicon Valley garage startup sold its computers for $666.66. In late 1997, it became a Fortune 500 company led by one of its two founding Steves, hoping that the public would "Think different" and buy more of "The computer for the rest of us.". Name this company which in 1984 introduced the Macintosh.

ANSWER: Apple (Computers)

While essentially the same question as the "buzzer beater", quizbowl players see them as two drastically different questions. In the pyramid style, there are more clues, generally starting at a high level of difficulty ("In 1977, this Silicon Valley garage startup sold its computers for $666.66"). While to an average person, this might seem to be a completely worthless tidbit of information, people who have studied the history of computers, business, or both may recall reading about the origins of Apple Computers. Thus, they could ring in at this time to score points. As the clues progress (Fortune 500, two founders named Steve, a marketing slogan that includes "Think Different", etc) the players begin synthesizing more and more information to lead them to an answer. The final clue is often the easiest, and in some cases may all but give the answer away (this final clue is thus often called "the giveaway").

In any event, a well crafted question in this style will almost always give the player with the stronger background in that area the best opportunity to answer first. It is for this reason that pyramid style toss-ups are popular with stronger players, as it typically removes (or at least reduces) the element of a "race of reflexes" to answer questions, and rewards the more studied player.

These types of questions are what truly separate quizbowl from board games like Trivial Pursuit, and television quiz shows like Jeopardy! In quizbowl, players may answer at any time, and are not required to wait until the question is complete. It is these questions that drastically raises the level of play in quizbowl matches over these other games.

Though there are relatively few complaints at the high school level, they tend to come from question writers who note the increased difficulty of writing a good question in the pyramid style, or players and coaches who complain that matches last too long (as the questions are longer). Typically, teams who tend to win rarely complain about the pyramid nature of the questions.

Related (bonus questions)

Multipart bonus questions are often seen in a patterned format; that is the individual parts of a bonus question are often related by some common thread. This common thread is often revealed (though not always) in the opening part of the bonus question (called the "lead-in"). For example:

BONUS: Given the title of an Irving Stone biography, identify the subject.

  1. Lust for Life
  2. The Passions of the Mind
  3. Greek Treasure
  4. Origin
  5. The Agony and the Ecstasy

ANSWERS:

  1. (Vincent) VAN GOGH
  2. (Sigmund) FREUD
  3. (Heinrich) SCHLIEMANN
  4. (Charles) DARWIN
  5. MICHELANGELO (di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni) [alt: Buonarroti]

These bonus questions are usually the simplest to write, and this style is the most commonly encountered at virtually all levels of play.

Patterned (bonus question)

Just like "buzzer beater" questions, patterned bonus questions are held in lower regard by most of the better players, as it is the type of question that removes the advantage of working as a team to answer the questions. These questions are more commonly encountered in areas involving mathematics. For example:

BONUS: Given a pair of resistors, give their equivalent resistance if they were connected in parallel with each other."

  1. 2 ohms and 2 ohms
  2. 3 ohms and 5 ohms
  3. 10 ohms and 20 ohms
  4. 8 ohms and 16 ohms

ANSWERS:

  1. 1 ohm
  2. 1 and 7/8 ohms
  3. 6 and 2/3 ohms
  4. 5 and 1/3 ohms

This bonus question tests only a single skill, thus if only one player has memorized the skill, the question is reduced to one question, repeated four times.

List (bonus questions)

Some bonus questions are not broken into specific parts. Instead, players must be able to give their answers from a requested list. For example:

BONUS: In any order, identify any five of the six nations which border India.

ANSWERS:

  1. (People's Republic of) China
  2. (Kingdom of) Nepal
  3. (People's Republic of) Bangladesh
  4. (Islamic republic of) Pakistan
  5. (Kingdom of) Bhutan
  6. (Union of) Myanmar [alt: Burma]

This is another very popular style of writing for bonus questions. This style of question writing typically gives less information and forces teams to recall larger chunks of information all at once, and critically consider multiple options that the team may come up with; some of which may be wrong.

Gameplay

There are several different variants (or formats) of Quiz Bowl, but they generally share the following rules for playing.

Two teams of (typically) 4 players each sit at a buzzer set, which is like a set of TV game show buzzers. Anyone who 'rings' or 'buzzes' in prevents anyone else from doing so. If a round is timed, a countdown timer is used. Each game is played with a packet of questions, which a moderator reads.

There are two basic types of questions asked: tossups (typically worth 10 points) and bonuses (worth a maximum of 20-30 points). Other types of questions include written or worksheet rounds (in which each team writes its answers down on separate pieces of paper) or "lightning" or "rapid-fire" rounds, which usually consist of ten questions and sixty seconds, with only one team given the chance to respond. The other team may have the chance to answer the questions the first team missed; then the second team gets its own set of questions, and the first team may get to answer any missed questions.

Tossup questions

Tossup questions (or tossups) can be answered by any player from either team. Tossups must be answered individually, without the aid of teammates or the audience (Just like Jeopardy!). Aid by teammates is known as conferring and is generally not allowed. The first person from either side to buzz in may attempt to answer the question. Unlike the current version of Jeopardy!, one may interrupt the moderator and give an answer. If the answer given is incorrect, then no other member of their team may attempt to answer and only players from the other team may ring in (by use of a lockout system). Only one player per team may try to answer a given question.

Scoring:

  • Question interrupted, wrong answer given: -5 points (In some tournaments and formats, there is no penalty for an interrupted question. However, this is uncommon.)
  • Wrong answer given after end of tossup: 0 points
  • Right answer given, any time during/after question: 10 points

Some formats add an additional possibility, known as a "power" tossup, that rewards a buzz made before the easier clues have been read:

  • Question interrupted early, right answer given: 15 points

If a tossup is successfully answered, the answerer's team is given a bonus question.

Bonus questions

Bonuses can only be answered by one team (at the high school level, some formats allow the other team to answer parts of the bonus question which the first team fails to answer; this is called "rebounding" or a "bounce-back"). The team may work together (confer) to answer the bonus question. Usually, bonus questions require multi-part answers, and tossups single-part answers.

Scoring:

  • Total of 20 to 30 points possible (ACF and NAQT formats currently set all bonuses at 30 points)
  • Often have multiple parts, each worth a small number of points (most typically, three parts, each worth 10 points)
  • No penalty for wrong answers
  • Scoring is only done in multiples of 5

Games are either played in timed halves, or until a set number of tossups are read. In the case of a tied score, a tiebreaker is used. The nature of the tiebreaker varies by tournament and format. If a player or team feels that a question is in error, a protest may be made. This causes the question to be held for reevaluation, at which time points are adjusted. Rules for protests vary.

Formats

For tournament purposes, a format covers rules of play and question structure/content. For questions, this includes question topics, clue difficulty, order of clues, and writing style. Most questions contain multiple clues. Rules of play include player eligibility, scoring of questions, acceptable answers, and procedures for protesting a question.

In particular, ACF, CBCI, HCASC, NAQT and UC each have distinctive formats. Also, certain college tournaments and programs have developed their own distinctive formats. A few of them include the University of Pennsylvania (Penn Bowl), University of Michigan MLK, Stanford University, and Deep Bench (University of Minnesota/Carleton College).

ACF format has a rigorous emphasis on academics, specifically Western Civ. There is no limit on graduate student participation. Questions are almost all on academic topics, and are more difficult than other formats. Toss-up questions are typically in pyramid style, with more difficult clues coming first, and a question should be answerable from any clue read. ACF is untimed; questions are generally much longer than CBCI questions. Games are usually played to a total of 20 tossups read.

CBCI or College Bowl format emphasizes comparatively short questions on academics, current events, pop culture, and general knowledge. The limits on participation are 6 years total in CBCI tournaments and only one graduate student per team. Questions tend to be structured so that most of the players know the answers to tossups read in their entirety. It is played in 8 minute halves, to a usual total of 22-24 tossups read, though there's no actual limit and 30-toss-up games, though quite rare, have occurred. Game play is relatively quick as a result. Related formats are HCASC (Honda Campus All Star Challenge) and UC (University Challenge).

NAQT format balances the diversity of subjects found in CB packets with question difficulty often seen in the ACF format. The limits on participation are complex; in a nutshell, as long as you're earning a degree, you can play. It is based on the Penn Bowl/MLK format. Game play is markedly different from ACF or CB. Timeouts and player substitution during timeouts are allowed. The NAQT also uses power tossups (extra points earned for a tossup answered early). Game length can vary a little, but a standard length for NAQT is 9 minute halves and a total of 28 tossups. National/Regional tournaments follow these formats very closely, while invitationals often modify these formats for their own use. NAQT also writes questions and helps organize tournaments at the high school level.

Other competitions evolved from these formats include competitions testing knowledge in the Bible, Latin, modern foreign languages, nursing, business ethics, Black History, athletic training, cooking, and literally hundreds of others. Many medical schools use quiz bowl-style competitions as part of their "grand rounds" specialty training for students and interns. In the 1990's, "Deaf College Bowl" for university teams with hearing-impaired students emerged.

In addition, other variants on the above quiz bowl formats are used at the high school level, including such formats as those of the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence (PACE) and the Panasonic Academic Challenge (PAC or simply "Panasonic").

Tournaments

Quiz Bowl is generally played at tournaments, though high schools will also commonly play single matches against local schools, or schools within an athletic conference. Many schools hold on-campus tournaments (intramurals) where anyone can play. Some schools have programs which practice weekly (or more) during the school year. These programs are generally open to all students. They often include in their names "College Bowl," "Academic Competition," or "Quiz Bowl." They send teams to invitational tournaments sponsored by other schools or organizations.

For Quiz Bowl, a tournament is a gathering of teams who engage each other in several rounds of games. A tournament winner is determined using some criteria (win-loss record, playoff record, etc....). There are several classes of tournaments, which may use one of several formats.

Intramural tournaments invite students on a given campus to form teams and play. They are often called campus tournaments. On occasion, such tournaments may be open to teams of graduate students, and/or campus staff.

Invitational tournaments involve teams from various schools. They are run by the Quiz Bowl team/program at a given school. Invitations are sometimes sent to individual programs. However, most tournaments give out open invitations for any school to accept.

Major variants of Invitational tournaments include National/Regional, Junior Bird, "Masters", and "trash" (popular culture) tournaments.

National/Regional tournaments are academic tournaments run by organizations not affiliated with a given school. These organizations include:

College Bowl Company Inc. (CBCI) - (Its Campus Programs and Regional/National Tournaments are run in cooperation with the Association of College Unions International (ACUI))
National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT)
Academic Competition Federation (ACF)
National Academic Championship (NAC)
TRASH--Testing Recall About Strange Happenings, which runs trash tournaments open to all individuals, including college and university teams

In addition, CBCI administers the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge (HCASC) for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and licenses University Challenge (UC) in the United Kingdom.

Such tournaments often have qualification requirements, sometimes including purchase of intramural tournament packets, or participation in regional tournaments (or other tournaments). They have unique rules above their associated formats, usually concerning eligibility and number of teams per school.

Junior Bird tournaments are restricted to collegiate players in their first or second season. Freshmen and sophomores are the intended targets, but upperclassmen or grad students who meet the criteria are sometimes allowed to play. The intent of these tournaments is to support player development by providing experience against other teams of similar skills, and to give newer players a chance to compete without being dominated by long-time veterans.

Masters tournaments are tournaments which do not place any restrictions on who may play. They are intended for those who want to play with people from other schools, have graduated, or are otherwise ineligible for college play. The intent behind them varies.

Trash tournaments are similar to Masters tournaments, except that all the questions are on trash subjects. Because of the non-academic format and lack of eligibility restrictions, a few trash teams consist of people (especially bar trivia enthusiasts) who have never competed in the academic side of quiz bowl.

Eligibility

Eligibility rules depend on the game. For the college game, in official College Bowl, NAQT or other events, there are severe eligibility rules, while other tournaments differ on whether senior or only junior undergraduate, graduate, and even non-students can play. In general the less skilled players can always compete, there is a debate about how much more experienced players should be involved (analogous to the hypothetical question of whether NBA players should be able to play college games, or even high school games).

First and second year undergraduates can always play. Junior and Senior undergraduates are typically excluded from junior bird type tournaments. Graduate students are excluded from undergraduate-only tournaments. Non-students are excluded from college tournaments.

The general intent is to ensure a degree of fairness, by preventing teams from having too many players who have too much experience who can swamp the entire field. College Bowl in particular allows only one graduate student per team. This is a controversial point.

Non students generally are restricted to certain tournaments, which are open to everyone. These tournaments include "Masters" tournaments, "Trash" tournaments, and the occasional intramural tournament.

Question sources

Questions come from one of three sources.

  1. Organizations such as CBCI and NAQT, or other vendors sell packets for use in intramurals and invitationals. These are written by a small group of professional writers. They also write all of the packets used in tournaments they run, e.g. CB Regional Tournaments, and NAQT Sectionals.
  2. The school hosting a tournament may choose to write all the packets used. Members of the host school's team generally write the packets. Typical of many invitationals.
  3. Every team which participates in a tournament is expected to write a packet of questions. Typical of most invitationals.

Media coverage

No form of quiz bowl at the college level is broadcast regularly in the United States on a national basis. The "College Quiz Bowl" was broadcast on NBC radio from 1953 to 1955, General Electric College Bowl was televised on CBS then NBC from 1959 to 1970, College Bowl returned to CBS radio 1974-76, and HCASC was broadcast on BET until 1995. University Challenge is licensed from CBCI by Granada TV Ltd. and broadcast in the United Kingdom.

There are several local broadcasts of college and high school level quiz bowl.

There is no relationship between Quiz Bowl and Jeopardy! or any of the other TV trivia game shows, other than that many of the contestants may be the same. NAQT maintains a list of current and former quizbowl players at any level who have appeared on TV game shows.

See also

Academic games
Battle of the Brains - Richmond, Virginia and Hampton Roads area high school tournament
Bzzzt, wrong
It's Academic - Washington, DC area high school tournament
Academic Challenge - Cleveland, Ohio area high school tournament
Carper Award
Ken Jennings
QuizBusters Michigan area high school TV quiz produced by WKAR-TV
Pub quiz
Future Farmers of America Competitions
Reach For The Top, Canadian high school competition
Science Bowl - National high school tournament focused on science
SmartAsk, defunct Canadian high school tournament
University Challenge
National Academic Championship

External links

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