This post was updated May 3 at 9:43 p.m.
A UCLA team took second place at a national quiz bowl championship April 11.
A total of 64 collegiate teams faced off for the title in Rosemont, Illinois, answering questions about history, philosophy, science and literature. UCLA’s ‘B’ Quiz Bowl team took second in the Division II competition, which is reserved for new teams and players, and the university’s ‘A’ team finished 12th in Division I.
UCLA qualified for the national tournament after finishing second in the Southern California Sectional Championship Tournament. Nikola Wu, a second-year economics student on the team, said UCLA entered the national tournament with momentum from their strong performance at sectionals.
“It was likely for us to at least get close to the finals,” she said. “We were clearly one of the best.”
Karthik Jayaram, a first-year physics student, said Quiz Bowl differs from televised trivia shows like “Jeopardy!” because it focuses on more in-depth topics related to fine arts, art history and literature. Teams advance in the bracket-style competition based on their performance in round-robin matches, Jayaram added.
Members of UCLA’s team prepared for this by reading material related to Quiz Bowl subjects and studying topics covered in General Education classes, as they often appear in Quiz Bowl questions, said Terrence Han, a third-year aerospace engineering student on the team. Members tend to be more devoted to learning subjects they are personally interested in, he added.
UCLA advanced to the final bracket and faced Columbia University in a series of close matches, Han said. While UCLA handed Columbia its sole loss of the tournament in the first game, Columbia won the second to take the title, Han added.
“When I went to the tournament, I wasn’t thinking that I wanted to win the whole tournament,” Jayaram said. “In that moment, I’m like ‘Alright, what can we do to win this current match?’”
Finishing second is a sign of the team’s growth and improvement, Wu said. The team will move up to Division I competition next year, making the stakes higher, Wu added.
“D1 is where you get a lot of the experienced PhD student players,” Han said.
Quiz Bowl allows people to explore their personal interests in more depth, said Krishay Garg, a first-year computer science student on the team. Garg added that Quiz Bowl has helped him build friendships and connected him to the broader academic community.
“I enjoy learning things a lot, and Quiz Bowl has encouraged me to seek out a lot more knowledge than I otherwise would,” Wu said. “It’s also been a great source for my social life because I’ve made a lot of friends through it.”
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