Oct 23

California Cup #1 (Nov 14) Registration is now open!

Cal Cup #1 (Cal Classic) is taking place on Saturday, November 14 on Discord. This competition features three divisions: Competitive, Standard, and Novice; Competitive and Standard will use NAQT set IS-197 while Novice will use NAQT set IS-196A.

We are setting an initial field cap of 16 teams for each of the three 3 divisions; we will evaluate the possibility of accommodating more teams when we have a better idea of the staffing situation.

Middle School teams may compete but should be aware that they will be competing on high school level questions primarily against high school teams.

Registration takes place on the NAQT website here (one must have an account in order to register)

New for this year:

1) We are not offering “the package” as we have in previous years. Teams will pay for each competition separately; the base entry fee is $75 per team (per tournament)

2) There is no buzzer discount

3) The New School Discount is $35 per team

4) Most teams should expect to play around 7 matches in total; the playoff format (to be announced) will likely change significantly from previous years

5) This competition is open to schools in Northern and Central California but teams in Southern California (LA/SD) and other states may not compete

Payment: We are still determining the best way to handle payment for this competition; we will get back to everyone soon. Please do not write out any checks or send Alvin any money at this time.

Complete Cal Cup details can be found here (check back later for info regarding nationals qualification and other set usage).

The first Bay Area Middle School Tournament will take place on Saturday, November 21 and the first Sacramento Middle School Tournament will take place on Saturday, December 5. Expect registration for these events to open early next week.

A reminder to please fill out this survey regarding December 19 as a possible Cal Cup #2 date (if your school has not already done so)

Oct 14

Cal Cup Tournaments

Cal Cup #1 will take place on Saturday, November 14 on Discord; this competition will feature NAQT questions and will use the NAQT registration system. We will open registration and send more details very soon.

Right now we are thinking about running Cal Cup #2 on Saturday, December 19 (weekend before Christmas). We ask that one representative from each school please fill out this survey regarding this date.

Sep 19

2020 California Fall Novice Tournament

The 2020 California Fall Novice Tournament, sponsored by the Northern California and Southern California Quiz Bowl Alliances, will be held on Saturday, October 10 online via Discord. This tournament is aimed at completely new schools, as well as new players from established programs, in the state of California. As such, we are using these eligibility criteria:

  • Only students attending high schools physically located in California, or online high schools based in California, are eligible.
  • Any such student who has never played all-subject quiz bowl before is eligible (for the purposes of this eligibility standard, “quiz bowl” does not include other academic competitions, such as Academic League, Academic Decathlon, National Science Bowl, History Bowl, or local televised competitions.).
  • Any such student who has never scored more than 25 points per game at a quiz bowl tournament (including middle school competitions) AND who has played less than two years of quiz bowl is eligible.

We may make case-by-case exceptions to these eligibility rules; email us at caquizbowl@gmail.com for questions about certain players’ eligibility or to petition for an exception. We strongly encourage existing programs to recruit new players and encourage members who may not have played as much to attend this tournament.

Tournament fees will be as follows:
Registration Fee: $40 per team
New to Quiz Bowl Discount: -$20 for the first team registered by a school that has not played a pyramidal quiz bowl tournament (under the same definition as for player eligibility) in the past 3 years; if you’re curious about this discount, email us to discuss.

Players are required to use a functioning webcam (built-in laptop webcams are acceptable) that is pointed at their face throughout the tournament. They should also try to play from as quiet an area as possible

Participants will receive an invitation to the tournament server, an opportunity to test playing over Discord for teams not used to using Discord, and an email with complete logistical details well before the tournament. Players will also be required to agree to our misconduct and integrity policies.

The tournament will initially be limited to 25 teams; this number will likely increase with the staffing pool. Teams will be limited to six players, with up to four playing at a time.

We’ll be using the novice question set TAILS and the standard 20 tossup/20 bonus quiz bowl format. We are aiming for at least 7 rounds for teams, with championship teams possibly playing a couple more games. For practice on questions of similar difficulty to those that will be asked in the tournament, see previous years of the SCOP Novice tournament.

I, Alistair Gray (President of UCSD’s quiz bowl team), will be directing this tournament, assisted by Dr. Chris Chiego (co-founder of SoCal Quiz Bowl) and Shahar Schwartz (member of the UC Berkeley quiz bowl team).

To register, complete this Google form. We’re also looking for staff (who can be based anywhere) and will compensate those who volunteer; email us at caquizbowl@gmail.com to sign up. Staff may be affiliated with teams; such staff must disclose any such affiliations when emailing us.

If you have any questions, please email us at caquizbowl@gmail.com. We look forward to seeing you at our tournament!

Mar 12

Update on Spring NorCal Quiz Bowl Tournaments

We were planning to run a combined Cal Cup #4/NAQT States on Saturday, April 11 at Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose, but we have decided that it is best to not hold this event. At this point we do not plan to host any more quiz bowl competitions this school year in Northern California at any level of competition. We have determined that at this time, holding quiz bowl tournaments in this particularly active region of coronavirus activity would be potentially detrimental to the health of our community, which we value above all else.

We will send an email soon to all of the Cal Cup package teams with information regarding possible refunds.

We are still discussing how to resolve the overall Cal Cup standings; we will be in touch with the relevant teams soon.

We thank everyone for playing/staffing/coaching quiz bowl in Northern California this school year and look forward to resuming competitions in the fall.

Pay attention to CDC and WHO recommendations regarding social distancing, hand-washing, and other means of impeding the spread of Covid-19.

Please email us with any questions. We’d be happy to give more information about preparing for the next year of quiz bowl tournaments. It is very possible for anyone to improve tremendously at quiz bowl with enough preparation, and it is an activity for everyone. Note that we cannot answer questions about the status of national tournaments like the NAQT HSNCT, PACE NSC, NAQT MSNCT, or IQBT NASAT. Questions about those competitions should be directed to the relevant organizations.

Wishing good health for all

Mar 12

Results from Cal Cup #3

Congratulations to Stanford Online A for winning the Competitive Division, to Eriksen A for winning the Standard Division, and to Challenger-Strawberry Park A for winning the Novice Division at Cal Cup #3! We would like to thank the participants for competing, the volunteers for their help, and Mr. Lubbs/Evergreen Valley for hosting.
Competitive results are here
Standard results are here
Novice results are here
The overall Cal Cup standings can be found here

Feb 27

Schedules for Cal Cup #3

The competitive schedule will be posted here
The standard schedule will be posted here
The novice schedule will be posted here
We are asking teams not to watch matches during their bye round(s).

Feb 12

Cal Cup #3 (Feb 29, 2020) Registration is now Open

Cal Cup #3 is taking place on Saturday, February 29 at Evergreen Valley High School in San Jose. The last date to register is Tuesday, February 25.

To register, please fill out this registration form

We are not asking for teams to submit rosters at this time; we will send out a separate email a week before the competition asking for rosters at that time.
For Cal Cup #3 we will be posting the field here at approximately 9PM on Sunday, February 16; registration becomes first-come/first-serve at that point. Package teams are strongly encouraged to register before that time.

Like with Cal Cup #2, we will be placing teams into the field on Feb 16 with the following priority:

1) Teams that purchase the package

2) Teams that pay the deposit ahead of time
3) Teams that provide an experienced moderator (based on our discretion)

4) Teams that provide other staffers

5) Teams that bring a working buzzer system

6) Teams from new high schools

7) Teams that include at least one high school student that are not in any of the above categories

8) Middle school teams not in any of the above categories


Please Note: We are asking that teams not pay their entry fee via PayPal but teams are still permitted to use PayPal to pay a (non-refundable) $10 deposit (please include your team name/letter). If paying by PayPal, we ask that you have your bank account linked to your account (don’t pay via credit card). Send any deposits to Berkeley club treasurer Alvin here.

We hope to announce details for Cal Cup #4 soon.

Jan 20

Results from Cal Cup #2

Congratulations to Saratoga A for winning the Competitive division, to Challenger-Almaden for winning the Standard division, and to Eriksen B for winning the Novice division at Cal Cup #2! Thank you to all of our wonderful staff for your help and to Ms. Yang/Saint Francis for hosting!
Competitive results can be found here
Standard results can be found here
Novice results can be found here
The overall Cal Cup standings will be posted this week here

We hope to announce details for Cal Cup #3 soon.

Jan 18

Cal Cup #2 Schedules

We will be posting the schedules for Cal Cup #2 online (like we did at Cal Cup #1).
Competitive schedule can be found here
Standard schedule can be found here
Novice schedule can be found here

Jan 13

Results from Sac Winter MS Tournament

Congratulations to Churchill A for winning the Varsity division and to Churchill E for winning the JV Division at the Sacramento Winter Middle School Tournament! Thank you to all of the volunteers for your help and to Mr. Woodland/Ms. Randall/Cavitt for hosting!

Stats/results are here => https://www.naqt.com/stats/tournament/standings.jsp?tournament_id=11306