Club Feature: What is Quiz Bowl?

Despite the success of Quiz Bowl across Iowa and in Northwest High School, many people are not sure what this competition even is.

Quiz Bowl does not function like the trivia nights many people are used to. Rather, it functions much more like a test of memorization and speed, testing the familiarity of competitors in a wide variety of topics. This requires a very unique composition of trivia gurus from many different disciplines. Such can be seen in Northwest’s own Quiz Bowl team. Despite a rather short inception, having only existed for less than two years, Northwest has been established as a fierce competitor in the world of Quiz Bowl. It is not as simple as usually believed, but rather is a much more complex competition. Northwest Quiz Bowl team member Henry Montz stated, “It is complex trivia, you need to understand lots of parts about whatever your topic is.”

This complex nature of trivia means that many of the players focus on specific strengths. This means while Quiz Bowl members are certainly knowledgeable on a great variety, they certainly have their favorites. This makes complete sense, as Quiz Bowl questions are structured differently from the traditional trivia question. They can range from a simple, albeit precise historical fact, to even something as complex as naming a painter or a musician from just verbal descriptions of their works. This means that having students who are experts in different sections of trivia is essential. As Christian Hollister, a Quiz Bowl team captain, stated, “Usually we have people who are very specialized. Like I am very good at history. If you give me a mathematics question I am useless to you.”

As described by players, Quiz Bowl functions like a modified version of the popular game, Jeopardy. Competitions involve a moderator reading questions, usually a paragraph long, that can be answered by whoever clicks their buzzer first. The player then quickly has to answer to earn a point. While other rules exist, such as bonus questions, most competitions consist of back-and-forth responses for long periods at times ending with games won by only a small handful of points. As previously stated, these questions often require detailed knowledge of the topic, so each team has to be ready to answer any number of topics. 

While this may seem unfriendly to those who are new to Quiz Bowl, the club is still recommended for those who have a simple interest in trivia. Quiz Bowl coach and teacher Mr. Jay Winter said, “We’re very welcoming, we’ll welcome anybody in [to the club] who’s got an interest. I always say that if there is anybody who is interested and wants to play, I’ll make a buzzer available for you to play.” 

For anyone who wants to learn more or potentially try playing in the Quiz Bowl, it is recommended to talk to Mr. Jay Winter to learn about the process and practice.