Abbreviations & Terms

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quizbowl - A game that tests a player’s knowledge on various subjects. Quizbowl is usually played between teams from different schools. These teams typically consist of four players, although this number may vary depending on tournament rules and how many players are available from a certain school. Quizbowl tournaments usually use a timed format, with negs and powers.

bee - A bee is a tournament that matches individual players against other individual players.

bowl - A bowl is a tournament that matches individual teams against other individual teams.

pyramidal - Many tournaments use pyramidal tossups. Pyramidal tossups include clues that get progressively easier as the question continues.

clue - A sentence or phrase that provides information to the player on what the answer to a question may be.

stock clue - A clue that may be present in several questions with the same answer.

20/20 - A game format in which each round consists of twenty tossups, and twenty bonus questions. There are no time limits for round length.

timed - A game format in which each round is restricted to a certain amount of time; for NAQT tournaments, especially national tournaments, this time is 9 ½ minutes per half round.

tossup - A question that an individual from a team can buzz in to answer. An individual may not confer with their teammates to come up with an answer. If answered early enough, a power will occur. If answered incorrectly, a neg will occur.

buzz - To press the buzzer.

fraud - To answer a question without knowing the subject itself. For example, if a player did not know anything about Einstein’s involvement in the Manhattan Project, and were to answer his name on a tossup on that subject because he was a famous nuclear scientist, then it would be a fraud.

blurt - To answer a tossup without buzzing. Depending on the tournament, this may have a neg penalty or no point penalty for the offending team, but in both cases, the offending team remains locked out of buzzing for the rest of the tossup.

bonus - If a team answers a tossup question correctly, they can be granted a bonus question. Bonus questions are usually three parts and non-pyramidal, and usually aren’t related to the tossup question that was answered correctly.

bounceback - In some tournaments, if a team isn’t able to answer a question correctly, the other team can attempt to answer the question. This is seen in bonus questions and the NHBB quarter 3 round.

grail - When a team answers every tossup question correctly over the opposing team.

neg - In most quizbowl tournaments, if a team answers a tossup incorrectly, they lose five points. Negs notably do not exist in NHBB. You cannot neg a bonus question.

power - If a team is playing a set that identifies power markings of tossups, and a team answers a question correctly in the marked portion of the tossup, then the team will gain 15 points. Powers are different in NHBB tournaments.

power markings - An indication to a reader of when to give power points to a team and when not to give them when a player answers a tossup. These markings are usually bolded and underlined, with a (*) or a similar symbol at the end.

set - A collection of questions assembled into different packets. These questions can include tossups, or tossups and bonuses.

vulch - Slang for “vulture”. When a player on a team answers a tossup question after the other team has negged, before the end of the tossup.

circle of death - A circle of death in round robin tournaments is when Team A defeats Team B, Team B defeats Team C, and Team C defeats Team A, a tiebreaker has to be played.

round robin - When a team plays an opponent team only once. In small tournaments, this happens between all of the teams attending the event, while in larger tournaments, this happens between teams in each individual pool.

pool - A group of teams that participate in a tournament. The size of preliminary pools usually range from 1-3, in that smaller competitions have everyone in one pool, and larger tournaments have teams split out between three pools. There is always only one playoff pool.

prompt - When a player or a team answers a tossup or a bonus with an answer that is too vague. The reader will say “prompt” when this occurs.

protest - When a team makes a complaint with a moderator. This can be about the answer line of a question, or if a moderator negged or zero’d the team on a tossup or a bonus.

zero - To give a team zero points for a tossup or a bonus. For a tossup, this usually occurs after the opposing team negs and the other team also gets it wrong (if there are no double negs in a tournament), or if the tossup goes dead and neither teams answer correctly (or don’t answer at all).

double neg - In some tournaments, the rules instruct moderators to double neg teams, meaning that if an opposing team negs and your team answers the tossup incorrectly before the tossup goes dead, you are also negged.

goes dead - When one or both teams fail to answer a tossup before the timer runs out.

timer - The period of time that a player or a team has to answer a question. This is usually five seconds, and the timer starts whenever a player buzzes in to answer a tossup, or when a reader finishes reading a bonus question. The amount of time teams have to answer a tossup after the reader stops reading can also be referred to as a “timer”, as this time is also usually five seconds.

PPB - Points Per Bonus. It is the amount of points a team scores per each bonus question, divided by the number of bonuses played. A PPB of 25 or above is usually an indicator of great team performance.

PPG - Points Per Game. It is the amount of points an individual scores per tossup question averaged over a certain number of games, or the amount of points a team scores averaged over a certain number of games.

TUH - Tossups Heard. It is the number of tossups that a team has heard up to a certain round or at the end of the tournament. 

PP20TUH - Points Per 20 Tossups Heard. This is an NAQT statistic, used in place of PPG.