Introducing Quizbowl

By Jason Wang

Generally speaking, what is quizbowl?

Simply speaking, Quizbowl is a game where two teams compete head to head to answer

questions from all areas of knowledge. It’s similar to Reach for the Top and Knowledge Bowl!

How exactly does it work?

Typically, there would be a reader that reads a packet of questions for 2 teams (each team

normally has 5 players, one of whom is a sub), and to answer a question, players would interrupt

the reader through buzzing. The following picture shows a buzzer system that teams may use.

Press the button to buzz :)!

What is a packet?

A packet typically contains 21 tossups and 21 bonuses, with the last tossup and bonus being

tiebreaker or replacement questions. The reader would read the tossups, questions where all the

clues describe a certain something, and at the end of the tossup, there is the final giveaway or

answerline. For example, here is tossup two of a quizbowl packet:

2. The speaker of this poem, “knowing how way leads on to way,” believes he “shall be

telling this with a sigh / somewhere ages and ages hence.” This poem describes “leaves

no step had trodden black,” on a path “less traveled by” that the speaker finds in a (*)

“yellow wood,” and it concludes “and that has made all the difference.” For 10 points,

name this Robert Frost poem in which the speaker chooses between two “equal” paths.

Answer: The Road Not Taken

You can see that the clues at the beginning start off harder, and then gradually get easier. Now,

imagine there are two teams playing, team A and team B. During a quizbowl round, a reader

would read the packet, and if a player on team A buzzes while the reader is reading, they will be

able to give an answer to the tossup. Remember, you may not talk with your team on tossups.

Anyways, if the player is correct, the whole team would receive a bonus, which is basically a

question with three parts about the same general topic. Now, on bonuses teammates can discuss

with each other to find the answer! For example, here’s that tossup’s bonus:

2. This composer commemorated the 300th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession by

composing the Reformation Symphony, though he didn't publish it during his lifetime.

For 10 points each, [10] Name this German composer, whose other works include the

Italian and Scottish symphonies.

Answer: Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

[10] Mendelssohn was a prolific player of this keyboard instrument, which blows air

through pipes to create sound.

Answer: pipe organ

[10] Mendelssohn may be best known today for a set of incidental music for this

Shakespeare play, including a Wedding March, indicating that Theseus and Hippolyta,

Lysander and Hermia, and Demetrius and Helena have all been married.

Answer: A Midsummer Night's Dream

What exactly do the tossups/bonuses cover?

In Quizbowl, tossups and bonuses cover many different categories including History, Geography,

Literature, Science, Fine Arts, RMPSS (religion, mythology, philosophy, and social science),

Trash (typically pop culture and sports), and current events. There are also subcategories for each

category, like World History. Now if you only know one category, or only one subcategory in

Quizbowl, it’s ok, you can be a specialist who only specializes in certain categories and/or

subcategories! Although, you can also generalize and study all the categories! However, for more

organized tournaments, the distribution or distro tends to have more history, literature, science,

and fine arts content. Furthermore, there are also different difficulties for tossups and bonuses,

commonly on a scale of 1-9, where 1 is the easiest difficulty (middle school novice) and 9 are the

harder questions (college open). The tossup and bonus before would be considered on the easier

side of the scale as it is from a scop novice tournament!

Who can write?

Just about anyone can write! At more organized tournaments, held by organizations like NAQT,

PACE and ACF, you have to apply to write and have to be of a certain age. If you are accepted,

you are able to earn money too per tossup or bonus you write! Otherwise, anyone can write for

sets and quizbowl packets! Otherwise, you can also just write your own set or packets so you can

create your own distro, so you can write more tossups and bonuses in your field

How do you win?

From the previous scenario, if no players from team B have buzzed yet, and the player that

buzzed in from team A answers incorrectly, they will receive negative 5 points (also called a

“neg”.) Then, no one from that team is allowed to buzz again. Now, if someone on team B

buzzes before the end of the tossup, they normally won’t be negged, but still, it’s recommended

that teams wait until the end of the tossup, if the other team has negged. However, if the previous

player on team A buzzes in before a certain point in the tossup and answers correctly (typically if

they buzz in the first 1-3 lines), they will receive what’s called a “power”, or 15 points. Powers

are typically indicated by this symbol : (*), like in the tossup above. Although, if the player

buzzes after the power mark or symbol and answers correctly, they will receive a ten (10 points)!

If the tossup has been read, and no one from any team answers answers correctly, teams would

receive no points, and the reader will continue with the next tossup. Remember, players from

team B may still be able to power if team A negs, depending on where they buzz! Now,

assuming the player on team A does power or ten the tossup, team A will now receive a bonus,

where each part is worth 10 points! Remember, you may not talk with your teammates on

tossups, but on bonuses, teammates can collaborate with each other. After the reader reads the

packet, the team with the most number of points wins!

What is a quizbowl tournament?

A quizbowl tournament is basically a tournament that allows teams to compete against each

other on a quizbowl set. A set is basically just a collection of packets around the same difficulty

by one writing team. There are typically around 10-11 packets, and each round, 2 teams will play

on one packet. In in-person tournaments, teams would play in a room, and there will be a person

that reads and a person to scorekeep ( of course, if you’re up to it, you can do both!)

Additionally, like tossups, there are difficulties of tournaments (which pretty much also

determines the difficulty of tossups), with novice tournaments of middle school, high school, and

college being the easier tournaments. Some of these tournaments can also qualify you for certain

national tournaments (like HSNCT or ONCT) that are normally held at the end of the quizbowl

season!

Note: You can also volunteer and staff at tournaments to earn money!

What are the different formats?

NAQT, PACE, and ACF also have different rules/formats for their sets, as their questions could

be longer or shorter. For example, NAQT has powers, negs, and tens, while PACE powers are 20

points, and ACF doesn’t even have powers. Some formats don’t even have powers, and some

don’t have negs! For more information, you can visit their websites! On the other hand, there are

some formats that are just completely different, and these are also very entertaining to play! For

example, 2hm or 2 headed-monster is typically between teams of 2 players, where you will buzz

for your teammate to answer. This really tests how well you know your teammate, because you

are assuming that they will be able to answer the tossup at a certain point! In terms of

tournaments, formats tend to be around the same, but there is something called a league, where

teams play a round every 1-2 week.

How can you get better?

There are in fact many ways you can get better including checking out books and reading a

bunch of things regarding the category or categories you want to study, or specialize in! Other

methods include the following:

- Scrimmages/Scrims

Scrims are really just informal quizbowl rounds, where anyone can read, anyone can play,

and you can choose to play specific categories, different tournaments, and etc. People

normally read questions off of sites like quizdb.org (you can adjust what questions to read

here such as what difficulties and what categories, or even what sets). Although, another

common site is quizbowlpackets.com, which is also a good place to find past sets.

-Pks/Tks!

During Pks/Tks, two people would take turns pasting bonuses, tossups, or both line by

line in just about anywhere like messages. Normally, you would use the db: quizdb.org .

-Protobowl and/or Betterbowl

Sources like protobowl( protobowl.com) and betterbowl

(http://betterbowl.herokuapp.com/) are also very good for practicing. These sites are like

quizbowl simulations, but instead of a reader, the website “reads” tossups by just showing

you tossups word by word. Starting off in the middle school room is good, but questions

tend to repeat a lot, so I would recommend the highschool room.

-Carding!!!

Over the pandemic, many quizbowlers have found many good sites for carding, and have

improved by A LOTTT! When you card, you basically can take clues from researching and

reading books, or any of the previously mentioned ways of how to improve. Pretty much you can

write a certain concept, person, place, thing, etc on one side or line of a card, and write a clue for

it. By carding through past packets or tossups and bonuses, over time you can start seeing clues

that come up often for a certain answer, and through other methods of carding, you can find new

information that might be added to quizbowl questions! This is extremely helpful because you

can start to recognize clues and answers sooner, which would help you power tossups earlier!

Some of these clues come up very often, that they are known as “stock clues” by quizbowlers, so

it would be especially beneficial to know them! Overtime, you can scale up to higher difficulties!

To put it simply, you can study for quizbowl through making flashcards!Regarding what to use to

card and studying for quizbowl, or just simply studying for your classes, you can use anki,

quizlet, google docs, or any other resources. It’s up to you!

-Paying attention in class

Oftentimes, quizbowl tossups could tossup things you learn in class such as what you

learn in English (for example, works of Shakespeare, or even Shakespeare himself), or in

science.

What are the differences between online and irl quizbowl:

Everything regarding playing quizbowl above tends to apply to both online and irl, however

online quizbowl does have some differences. Normally, for online quizbowl, you would play on

or via zoom, google meets, or discord! Teams would get in a room or voice channel and a reader

and scorekeeper (as mentioned before, one person could be both) would be assigned to the room

or voice channel. When the reader is reading, obviously players should remain muted, and to

buzz, they can type “buzz” in the designated chats to buzz. On discord, you may or may not be

required to ping the reader too! Otherwise, you might have to use a different website to buzz like

buzzin.live. Although due to cheating incidents from online quizbowl including biking (using a

search engine to answer tossups and/or bonuses), most tournaments (especially more formal and

organized tournaments like NAQT, PACE, or ACF tournaments) now require players to also turn

on their cameras and have at least one hand in view.

Overall, quizbowl is very fun, and you should definitely join whenever you get the opportunity.

From my quizbowl “career”, you can gain many fun and amazing experiences! Soooooo, be on

the lookout for this club if and when it comes out at your school! You get to meet many many

new friends, especially through online quizbowl, and maybe even get to visit different cities

when the pandemic dies down!

Below is a link to a round from HSNCT (high school nationals) from 2018:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DwMU-lreXg&t=336s

Anyways, play quizbowl!!!