Quiz bowl is a game in which two teams compete head-to-head to answer questions from all areas of knowledge including history, literature, science, fine arts, current events, sports, and popular culture.
The defining feature of quiz bowl is the use of a buzzer system that lets players interrupt the reading of a question when they know the answer. That element adds a dimension of confidence, anticipation, and rapid recall to what is primarily a game about knowing facts. Those "tossup" questions are answered individually, but doing so earns one's team a chance at a multipart "bonus" question. Bonus questions are worth more points and allow collaboration, but are generally more difficult.
Academic League is a San Diego County-wide competition, similar to Quizbowl but with a slightly different format. Academic League questions cover a wide range of subjects, including those of many classes the average high school student will take. A basic list includes biology, chemistry, physics, English grammar, common foreign languages including French, Latin, and Spanish, American and World literature, music, and (rarely) culture. Also, in most competitions one or two questions are drawn from that week's TIME magazine. In Academic Leauge, teams from different regions play each other, the team of which with the best record plays in the division, then county playoffs to decide the AL champion. In Quizbowl the top 15% of teams from one region are eligible for the HSNCT, a High School level national championship run by NAQT. Good performance at non-NAQT sanctioned events can also qualify teams for PACE nationals, and NHBB, a history-focused quizbowl-style competition, has its own series of regional and national events.