What is Quizbowl?

Many formats of quizbowl exist. CNYQuA-affiliated tournaments utilize a pyramidal tossup/bonus structure. 

A tossup is read to both teams, and any individual member of either team can buzz in at any point to interrupt the reading of the tossup to give an answer. Tossups are written in a "pyramidal" style, with clues that start out obscure and niche, but move to more general knowledge clues as the question is read. This format rewards players for the depth of their knowledge, instead of their speed on the buzzer.

If the buzzing player is incorrect, their team will incur a -5 point penalty (called a neg) and the reader will continue to read clues until the other team buzzes in. If the buzzing player is correct, they earn their team 10 points (or 15 points if they buzzed in on an earlier clue -- this is called powering the tossup) and the chance for three follow-up bonus questions, generally on a different topic. While collaboration on tossup questions is not allowed, conferring with your team for the more difficult bonus questions is encouraged.

Most games will end after 20 tossup/bonus cycles. The team with the higher score is deemed the winner of the match. In the case of a tie, matches will typically use one of two formats (identified in the logistics information for that tournament):

• Tiebreaker mode: a set of three additional tossups are read to both teams with scoring occurring like usual, but without any follow-up bonus questions

• Sudden death mode: tossups are read one at a time until the score changes (even if that change is for a team to neg the question and lose the match).

At CNYQuA tournaments, all matches are untimed.

Questions come from a variety of sources, some from national question writing companies like National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT). Many high school and college teams will write their own question sets (often called housewrites). 

CNYQuA tournaments most typically feature NAQT question sets.

Quizbowl tournaments can vary in difficulty from novice middle school question sets through high-level college sets. The High School Quizbowl Packet Archive (HSQPA) sorts question sets into Novice, Regular, Regular-Plus, and Nationals difficulty levels, while most regular-season NAQT tournaments are split into Invitational Series (IS) and Introductory Invitational Series (IS-A) sets (see this page for samples).

For the purpose of CNYQuA events, we'll be using the following difficulty distinctions:

• HS Level 1 refers to question sets equivalent to NAQT's IS-A sets ("Novice" sets as defined by the HSQPA). These feature relatively short questions with clues and answers that most high school students would recognize from what they've learned in their usual classes. Tournaments at HS Level 1 would be most appropriate for newer players with less experience in high school quizbowl events, or for experienced middle school players. 

• HS Level 2 refers to question sets equivalent to NAQT's IS sets ("Regular" sets as defined by the HSQPA). These feature slightly longer questions compared to HS Level 1, with some clues and answers that may be obscure to many high school students, comparable to what a student might learn in an Advanced Placement (AP) course. Tournaments at HS Level 2 would be most appropriate for players with at least some experience in high school quizbowl.

• HS Level 3 refers to question sets equivalent to "Regular-Plus" sets as defined by the HSQPA. These may feature long tossups and/or clues and include some answer lines that could be obscure to most high school students not taking college-level courses. Tournaments at HS Level 3 would be most appropriate to players with considerable experience in high school quizbowl, including those that have participated in or are preparing for national competitions.

CNYQuA is committed to the spread of low-cost, high-quality single-day regional academic quizbowl tournaments. Please see our About CNYQuA page for more.