Quiz Bowl Club, Stanford University

QUIZ BOWL CLUB

STANFORD UNIVERSITY

What is Quiz Bowl?
Quiz Bowl is a trivia game played on teams of four. Players buzz in to answer tossup questions, and the team works together to answer bonus questions. Questions can cover all academic areas, plus current events, pop culture, and sports. Some tournaments are very academic; others are entirely non-academic. Here are some sample questions from the intramural, sectional and national levels (some of the sectionals and nationals questions are really hard!).

If you like Jeopardy! or if you played Academic Challenge, Academic Decathlon, or Knowledge Master Open in high school, you might enjoy Quiz Bowl.

Who can play?
The Stanford Quiz Bowl Club is open to all Stanford students, faculty, and staff. Everyone is welcome, regardless of skill-level or level of commitment. Some people just come to play with us occasionally; others want to take Stanford to a top finish at nationals.

What does the club do?
First, we hold practices twice a week (see below for details). Practice helps us do better at tournaments, and it's also a lot of fun. "Practice" is kind of a bad name; it's fun in its own right, even if you're not practicing for a tournament. Our practices are very laid-back. Some people only answer one or two questions a night, and that's totally fine. People come because it's fun and they learn neat stuff.

Throughout the year, we compete in tournaments against other West Coast schools. (That means lots of fun road-trips to L.A., plus trips to Berkeley, etc.). Each spring we represent Stanford at nationals.

What if I'm not good enough?
Don't worry about not being a good player right away. That's why we practice, and that's why you have teammates! Everybody, regardless of skill-level, is welcome to play at practice and to attend most tournaments (most tournaments let us send as many teams as we want, so there's no need to "make the team"). Plus, there are special tournaments (including a national championship) for new players.

College questions can be more difficult than high school questions, but keep in mind that nobody knows every answer; to win a match, you and your teammates just have to know slightly more than the other team.

Fall 2015 Practice Info
Practices will be held every Tuesday and Thursday from 7:00-9:00 PM (we may stay later), in or near room 330 of Building 160, Wallenberg Hall (next to the History Corner). Join the quizbowl-club email list (see below) for the latest info on practices and special events.

We often have a separate room for new players (especially at the beginning of the year), so you won't have to compete against the varsity team all the time.

Email Lists: Stay Informed!
Email is our primary means of communication.
For the latest news on practices, special events, and tournaments we attend and host, join the club email list by clicking here.
People interested only in occasional intramural play should join our low-traffic IM list instead. Click here to sign up.
We also have a Facebook group, but we mostly rely on old-fashioned email.
If you're from another college or high school and want to know about West Coast quiz bowl events, join the Northern California Quiz Bowl Facebook group. You can also join the quizbowl-westcoast mailing list by clicking here.

2015-2016 Officers
President: Tabitha Walker
Vice President: Alex Freed
Financial Officer: Austin Brownlow
To contact the officers, email: emails

Calendar of Events:

Email us if you would like to play or volunteer at any of these events.
Note: Some tournaments require each team to submit a packet of questions. For these tournaments, we need to figure out teams early so that we can submit our questions on time. Often, submitting packets early earns a discount. Plus, writing questions is a great way to get better at quiz bowl.

Fall 2015:

Date	Event	Location	Who's Involved	Other Information
10/3/15	VCU Novice	UC Berkeley	TBD	No packet submission
10/17/15	Penn Bowl	Stanford	TBD	No packet submission
11/7/15	ACF Fall	Stanford	TBD	Packet submission optional (for Stanford)
1/30/16	ACF Regionals	TBD	TBD	Packet submission required for experienced players
2/6/16	NAQT SCT	TBD	TBD	No packet submission
4/9/16	NAQT ICT	Rosemont/Chicago, IL	TBD	No packet submission
4/16/16-4/17/16	ACF Nationals	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	TBD	Packet submission required for experienced players
TBD (December 2015)	Missouri Open	TBD	TBD	No packet submission
TBD (January/February 2016)	Michigan MLK	TBD	TBD	No packet submission
TBD (March 2016)	MYSTERIUM	TBD	TBD	No packet submission

[These pages were last updated 2015 Sep. 15.]