On November 14, the Ward Melville Academic Challenges Team placed 6th overall at an invitational and secured a spot at Nationals for the American Quiz Bowl League. The team, consisting of Neal Carpino, Matthew Chen, Gabriel Choi, Ivan Ge, and Prisha Singal, had never competed in a Quiz Bowl tournament before.

Competition questions consisted of Fine Arts, Literature, Religion, Philosophy, Science, Pop Culture, Mythology, Social Sciences, and Geography. The tournament was played across ten rounds and playoff matches. The teams were randomly put into four divisions containing six teams each. After a round-robin style preliminary round, the teams were then reorganized into new divisions based on their record from the preliminary round. After that, the highest-ranking teams were put into playoff matches to determine the 1st place winner, 3rd place, 5th place and 7th place winners. The Ward Melville team ended up with a record of 5-5 securing them a chance at 5th place. Unfortunately, they lost the 5th place match and came in 6th place overall.

The competitors reported that the competition was extremely well-run and enjoyable. In the age of online events and social-distancing, it was a great opportunity to showcase the students’ skills and knowledge. Ivan Ge, one of the team members and Vice-President of the Academic Challenges Club, said, “It was a great experience for everyone. It was amazing to meet all these people from across the country. Some of them were really good and it was good practice to compete against them. I’m glad that our club was able to send two other teams as well, providing competition experience to all of our members.” 

The team will compete at Nationals on June 26th and 27th, 2021.