What Got You Into Quiz Bowl

[Abram Motte]

Me personally it was a simple announcement in 4th grade, I went to tryouts and I was good at it and it really peaked my interest

[quizbowlchamp1]

My school has a "move up day" for all the 5th graders at our 2 elementary schools. They all come and tour the school so that they know what to expect. When I went during 5th grade, my class was walking down 6th grade hall and I saw a flyer that said "6th, 7th, and 8th graders welcome to the Quiz Bowl Team!" or something. I never saw that poster again, but when they said "all students who want to sign up for Quiz Bowl" over the intercom, I was the 1st one there. The rest is history.

[RexSueciae]

Some adult in my life saw Maggie Walker kicking ass on the Battle of the Brains TV show and thought, "ah, yes, that would be a suitable pastime for this nerd." They introduced me to the quizbowl team and that was that.

[Cooper98]

My sister (who is 2 years older) had a teacher named Mr. Mcguire who I thought was really cool and was looking forward to having him as a teacher in the 6th grade, but he ended up moving up to 7th when I started, so I still wanted to meet him. Had the chance during parent's night but he was a really popular teacher and was already talking to a bunch of parents and some of them were asking for a tryout form for something called the scholar's bowl team that he was the sponsor of. Had no idea what it was but took a form and went and tried out anyway and made the team. It was nice to have something to do 5 mornings a week. Far and away the best part of what was a truly awful middle school experience for me.

[Atlashill]

My middle school guidance counselor saw that I had an unusual knack for trivia and said I should try out for the team when I got to high school. (He even tipped my eventual high school coach off about me.) We didn't have a middle school program at the time (or even a middle school circuit to speak of in KC), so my first taste wasn't until that freshman year tryout.

It probably also helped that the trivia question announcing tryouts leapfrogged off the boys' basketball team's 31-0 state championship, reminding everyone of the older (albeit pre-MSHSAA) state championship trophy in the case from the 1993 team.

[ScoBo]

I joined because Kyle was on the team, though I didn't join until sophomore year, opting for one more year in Division B Science Olympiad. (At the time, grades 6-7 were at the middle school and grades 8-9 were at the junior high building. Maybe it would have been different had 9th grade been in the high school building.)

[Somewhere in the Stratosphere]

One day in the third grade, I was in the Gifted & Talented room prepping for a chess tournament at the same time the elementary QB team was practicing, so, after I promptly lost my chess game to one of the 6th graders, I asked the coach about it since I was something of an aspiring trivia aficionado myself, she put me in a seat and I evidently impressed her, and I have played ever since.

[CCMMSQB_2089]

I got peer-pressured into it and since then I haven't looked back (thank you FH!)

[Somewhere in the Stratosphere]

I got peer-pressured into it and since then I haven't looked back (thank you FH!)

peer pressure CAN be a good thing!

[L.H.O.O.Q.]

The Indianapolis area had a long-running televised quiz bowl tournament called the Westfield Insurance Brain Game. My freshman year, Avon made it all the way to the final match, and after playing along at home and getting a few of the questions that went dead, I went to school the next day and talked to the coach about applying for the team.

[a_noob_bot]

I was bored during COVID and at the lowest point in my life when I was introduced to quiz bowl. I was losing the will to live and was looking for something that I could get into and dedicate the copious amounts of free time on my hands. I needed elective credit cuz my school was like that so my friend was lime "hey let's join quiz bowl to get the credit". The rest is history.

[geoff]

Peer Pressure (ok only kinda)
I did History and Geo bee in 6th grade and qualified for the international competitions and wanted to keep playing more.
Fast Forward to 7th grade, my history teacher (and now quiz bowl coach) had a signup sheet on the whiteboard and we had tryouts and somehow I went insane at one of them and got onto the B team.
2 years after that (now), I proudly sit 3rd chair on Sycamore A.

[a Joe]

My mother made me do it.

If you can't stand me, blame her.