FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

What is quizbowl?

Luckily for you, NAQT has prepared a handy introduction to the game, including a video! But the basic idea is similar to a team version of Jeopardy! - a reader reads questions out loud, and players buzz in when they know the answer to earn points. There are also collaborative bonus questions. And at the end of a match, the team who has more wins. It's all about showing off your knowledge in a competitive and fun way!

Why should I be interested?

Quizbowl is one of the few outlets that allow students to show off their knowledge in a competitive game while representing their schools. And, you can be competitive at the college level without any experience at all!

Students with both broad and narrow interests have found incredible success as competitors. Quizbowl appreciates knowledge for knowledge's sake and rewards students who know more over students who can press a buzzer quickly. Team members find themselves building up not only knowledge for the game but also invaluable study skills that they can use in their classes!

Check out what Gwen Minks, a competitor for East Central College in Missouri, said about joining her community college team: "Some of the team competed in high school. Some of us are new to the process. I joined the team out of sheer curiosity. I’m glad I did! I love the strategy involved.” (full article)

What do the questions look like?

NAQT has a sample packet of a similar style to what we will play at this tournament. The questions are drawn from a wide swath of academic and general knowledge categories and strike a balance across those categories within each packet and the tournament as a whole. The "major categories" include history, literature, and science. Fine arts (visual and music) make up a semi-major category. Other topics, such as geography, popular culture and social sciences make up a smaller portion of the questions asked at any tournament, but taken together, they still make up a significant chunk of the possible questions.

As you browse this sample packet you will notice that there are two major types of questions: tossups and bonuses.

Tossup questions are read to both teams, and when an individual player knows the answer, they will buzz in and provide their answer (without conferring with their teammates). A successful answer earns the team 10 points, unless the buzz was sufficiently early in the question, in which case it earns 15 points. (The bolded part of the question, up to the (*) symbol, is early enough for the 15 point "power.") An incorrect answer to a tossup question results in a penalty of -5 points assessed against the team who buzzed incorrectly as well as giving the other team an opportunity to steal the question.

Bonus questions are read to a team who has correctly answered a tossup question. Each bonus consists of a short lead-in phrase to establish the topic, which is followed by three parts, each worth 10 points. Only the team who controls the bonus may answer, and the team may collaborate to come up with an answer, which is then directed to the reader before time is up.

In this way, each tossup+bonus "cycle" is worth up to 45 points. At 20 questions per game, a team may score up to 900 points in regulation play.

Who is running this tournament?

My name is Alex Dzurick, and I am a 16-year veteran of quizbowl. I will be serving as the tournament director for this event. I began as a player in middle school, and my high school team earned 4th place at the Missouri state tournament in 2006. I went on to re-establish a team at the University of Missouri, where I both competed and directed tournaments. In 2011, I was honored to serve as the tournament director for one of NAQT's collegiate sectional tournaments, qualifying teams for nationals. In Missouri, I also served as an officer of both the Missouri Quizbowl Alliance and the Missouri Academic Coaches Association, for whom I also helped to run and staff tournaments. From 2015-2017, I lived in Champaign, Illinois, where I earned my Masters in Education and competed for the University of Illinois' quizbowl team. Today, I live in Philadelphia and teach English courses at Harcum College on top of my full-time job as the director of a math learning center and my hobbies in quizbowl.

How is this tournament free?

Thanks to a generous outreach grant from NAQT, I am able to offer this tournament as a completely free introduction to quizbowl for new teams in the region. NAQT is covering all outreach costs for the event and is donating the questions for free in addition to copying/printing costs and the faculty/administrator lunch. Additionally, Harcum College is providing rooms for the event at no cost. Staff members are volunteering their time and supplying buzzer systems to be used at the event.

Are there other opportunities to compete for my team?

Yes! While the opportunities specific to two-year schools are limited in this region, any college program is eligible to enter collegiate tournaments. Each year's schedule varies, but teams such as Penn, Princeton, Swarthmore, Penn State, Rutgers, Maryland, and Johns Hopkins have been known to host collegiate tournaments regularly. The difficulty level of the questions increases (since college teams may feature juniors, seniors, and graduate students), but the gameplay is nearly identical. Usually each year there are several "novice" tournaments for new players which would be excellent opportunities to get extra competition. College tournaments are usually announced at the Quizbowl Resource Center forums.

I have a goal to establish a sectional tournament in the spring of 2020 in this region, which would qualify teams for NAQT's Community College Championship Tournament (CCCT). Unfortunately, the nearest existing sectional is in Kentucky.