Quiz Bowl Club, Stanford University

QUIZ BOWL CLUB

STANFORD UNIVERSITY

Results of Cardinal Classic XVII

Results of 2007 ACF Fall

Stanford Quizbowler Craig Boge wins $50,000 for taking 2nd place in College Jeopardy!.

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.). Our year culminates in a trip to represent Stanford at nationals.

Many tournaments allow us to send an unlimited number of teams, so there's usually no need to "make the team."

What if I'm not good enough?
Don't worry about not being a good player right away (or ever, really). 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. 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.

Spring 2008 Practice Info
Come attend one of our practices and see what we're all about! Spring 2008 practices will be Mondays and Thursdays from 7pm to 10pm. Come to room 160-330 of Building 160, Wallenberg Hall. Practice starts Monday, March 3. When possible we try to have a separate room for new players. Practice is never mandatory, and you certainly don't have to stay the whole time. We're a pretty laid back bunch!

Email Lists: Stay Informed!
Email is our primary means of communication. To get the latest news on practices, special events, and the 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.
People from other colleges should join the quizbowl-westcoast list for announcements of West Coast quiz bowl events by clicking here.
We also have a Facebook group, but we mostly rely on old-fashioned email.

2007-2008 Officers
Co-Presidents: Eric Smith (

) and Arnav Moudgil
Webmasters: Jason Ma and Eric Smith (

)
Vice Presidents: Phil Shiu, Neel Murthy, Kristiaan De Greve, and Jason Ma
Financial Officer: Alex Inman
Publicity Officers: Lauren O'Neal and Kevin Koai
To contact all the officers, email:

Calendar of Events (some events are tentative):

Email Eric Smith (

) if you want to play or volunteer at any of these events. Even if you are just interested, let us know; we'll list you with a "?" and we'll make sure you get any relevant emails about the event.

Note: Some tournaments require each team to submit a packet of questions. (You play on every packet but your own.) 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. (BTW, many top players will tell you that writing questions is a great way to get better at quiz bowl.)

Fall 2007:			Who's Involved / Interested?
2007 Oct. 20	2007 Fall Intramural Tournament (this one is not restricted to freshmen)	Stanford	helping: Eric, Brian, Jason (afternoon), AlexS (morning), Eddie, Lauren, Paul, Arnav (afternoon), Phil (morning)
2007 Oct. 27	Cardinal Junior Classic (for high schools)	Stanford	Co-TDs: Eric and Neel (not 2:30-4:30). Helping: MattB, Brian, Bill, Lauren, Jon-Michael, Stacey (10-2)
2007 Nov. 3	ACF Fall	Stanford	Helping: Danny, Dan (afternoon), Eric, Paul, Jim, Kevin, Lauren, Anant? Helping or playing: Brian, Jason, AlexS, Kristiaan, Craig, Neel, Phil. Playing: Steven, Heidi, Billy, Seva, Justin (may have to leave for a while) Ellie, Yashraj, Chris, Dan. Miriam, Stacey, Jeff, Elliot.
2007 Nov. 10	2007 Fall Freshman Quiz League Playoffs	Stanford	helping: Eric, Jason, Craig, Arnav, Markus
2007 Nov. 17	WIT 2007, a mirror of Princeton's PARFAIT. Note that this is the first weekend of Stanford's Thanksgiving break. This one is supposed to be "harder than ACF Fall, but not much harder." No packet-writing required.	UC-Berkeley	Brian, Kristiaan, Andrew, Danny?, Kevin?
2007 Dec. 1	mirror of This Tournament Goes To 11 (theme rounds!) Note that this is the same day as Big Game (Stanford vs. Berkeley in football).	UC-Irvine	Brian, Jason, Kristiaan, Paul, Phil, Eddie, Ben
Winter 2008:
2008 Jan. 19	Aztlan Cup (mirror of Terrapin/MLK tournament, difficulty between ACF Fall and ACF Regionals, no question writing, also will feature a "musical (pop+classical) recall audio singles" event and Yogesh's psych and movies packet)	UCLA
2008 Feb. 2	Cardinal Classic	Stanford	Brian (editing), Jason, Eric?, Eddie, Lauren, Paul, Kevin?, Arnav?, Kristiaan?, Mike
2008 Feb. 9	NAQT Sectionals (no packet writing; qualifies us for nationals; separate Division II for new players)	Berkeley	Div I: Eric (car)?, Brian, Paul (car), Kristiaan(car), Arnav(car), Kevin, Jason, Lauren. Div II: Bill, Steven, ChrisC, Justin, Heidi Ellie, Miriam, Stacey, Jeff Ben, Jenna, Vy, An, SteveL
2008 Feb. 16	ACF Regionals (packet submission required)	UCLA	Mike, Kristiaan?, Brian, Arnav
Spring 2008:
2008 Apr. 11-12	NAQT ICT (nationals!)	Washington University in St. Louis, MO	Interested people: Div I: Eric(car)?, Kristiaan(car)?, Jason, AlexI, Brian, Mike?, Neel, Paul?, Kevin(busy until 10pm Thursday), Arnav Div II: Steven, Heidi (has a place to stay), Justin, Chris, Bill
2008 Apr. 26	ACF Nationals (packet submission required)	Brandeis Univ. (outside of Boston, MA) -- new location!	Brian, Mike?, Kevin, Arnav, Andrew?, FrankF?, Kristiaan?

[These pages were last updated 2008 Apr. 14.]