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How does quiz bowl work?

Quiz bowl is a buzzer based team based competition of 5 players per team (sometimes 4). A single quiz bowl match involves 20 tossups. A tossup is a paragraph long question and the first team who gets each tossup then gets to answer 3 bonus questions.

Tossups are pyramidal, meaning they start with obscure clues about the topic and eventually get to more obvious clues. There is a spot where they are powermarked. If a team buzzes in correctly before the powermark, they get 15 pts. Otherwise they get 10. Depending on the tournament format, you may lose 5 points for an incorrect buzz. Team members cannot confer on a tossup.

Here is an example tossup:

At the end of this novel, its protagonist admonishes his sons that “it is the end of a family when they begin to sell the land.” A girl in this novel, who is mentally-challenged because she was starved as an infant, is called “Poor Fool.” This novel’s protagonist pulls a (*) rickshaw after he is forced to move to the city with his wife, O-Lan. For 10 points—name this novel about the farmer Wang Lung, written by Pearl S. Buck.

Answer: The Good Earth

The team that gets the tossup then gets the chance to answer 3 bonus questions (related to each other, but not related to the tossup). Some tournaments have a bounceback format, where the opposing team can answer a bonus if the first team misses. But the team who gets the tossup will always get 1st crack at the bonus. The teams can confer on the bonuses and usually have 5 seconds to answer them.

Here is an example bonus:

The Southern Song and Northern Yuan were examples of these states that clung to power after dynastic shifts.
For 10 points each—
A. Give this term for a small remnant ruled by a state that has been diminished by conquest or other losses.
answer: rump state
B. The Seleucid [sel-YOO-sud] Empire was reduced to a rump state in Syria after the conquests of Mithridates I
[mith-ruh-DATE-eez “the 1st”] of this Asian empire, known for its horse archers’ tactic of firing while retreating.
answer: Parthian [PAR-thee-in] Empire (or Parthia or Parthians or Arsacid Empire or Arsacids; accept Parthian shot)
C. The Southern Ming became a rump state after this last dynasty of imperial China took power in 1644.
answer: (Great) Qing [cheeng] Dynasty (or Ch’ing Dynasty or Manchu Dynasty or Qing cháo)

At the end of 20 questions, the team with most points wins. There are different formats per tournament to determine ties.

Quiz Bowl is mostly done through tournaments that take place on Saturdays. Your team will often play 5 prelim matches, then depending on how they do, there are playoffs in the afternoon.