Volunteering for Academic Bowl

[greybeta]

TU's Academic Bowl team hosted a high school tournament and on a whim mysterious PC and I decided to volunteer. It helps us fulfill our Mortar Board volunteering requirements plus it helps us relive the ole glory days. Or at least my glory days when I was a regional MVP for my high school Quiz Bowl team.

The tournament was in NAQT format, which meant that the questions were long and drawn out with obscure stuff and ended with the more obvious clues. This is to reward people for knowing the obscure things with "power" points. However, if you buzzed in before the moderator was done reading the question, you negged five points for your team. The format was twenty tossups, with the team answering the tossup earning a bonus category solely for that team. Tossups were worth ten points, while bonuses were worth up to thirty points each. While it was imperative to answer the tossups, it was more important to be able to pick up bonus points.

By the way, Ken Jennings of Jeopardy! fame helps writes the questions.

PC asked if I wanted to read or scorekeep, and I of course said read. We both ended up reading three games to balance things out.

Highlights of the day include:
-Watching all the students do a *headdesk* when I announced the answer was Coors Field (for Christ's sake, the clues were most offensive ballpark in the nation and a beer company bought the rights to this high altitude field)
-An all girls team getting PWNED by a bonus that started talking about Bush and Kerry and "red and blue states" but then totally switched gears to NFL football divisions (Why, yes, the Dallas Cowboys are the only NFC East Team that played in a state that voted for Bush)
-Worst. Question. Ever. (Answer: Comic Book Guy of Simpsons fame)
-Something Moth. Something Dahlia. Something Boy. Something Minister's Veil. Something Stallion. Something Beauty. (Something=Black)
-PC was sure that the team said "iron" as one of the most abundant metals in the earth. It turned out that they did not. (Girl: "Iron was an obvious one???"...to which I respond "Apparently not!")
-Someone nailing Lifehouse after the first five words of the question (it was just after the first song!)
-Making the ruling that "Reeves" did not count for "Reeve" (as in Christopher Reeve)
-Making the ruling that "Stranger" did not count for "Strange" (the question specifically asked for the adjective)
-Watching the coaches squirm in agony as their students miss yet another history or current events question (I just laughed as a history major)
-Watching a team score negative five points (the final score was 320 to -5)

There were many others, but overall it was a very enjoyable experience. I think all of the coaches were pleased with the way PC and I conducted ourselves and the fact that we were quick the make a decision. There were no protests all day and we managed to handle any problem that came away. In a few weeks there will be a college one and if we're free then PC and I will duo again for Academic Bowl.

This also reminded me that I need to write why I can't play in Academic Bowl anymore...

Comments

[crookedhead.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the help Daniel. We appreciate it. The people in my room didn't get the coors field question either. I shook my head in disgust. Someone mumbled Denver. And the all-girl team told me that you guys had commented that iron was the obvious one. They sounded digusted but I found it funny. Anyway, thanks again.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

You're welcome, Andy. It was a lot of fun, actually. And I was shocked that they couldn't get Coors Field! I bet these people wouldn't be able to get Yankee Stadium...

(And yes, iron was the obvious one but I guess it was a bit arrogant to say that out loud...)