HISTORY BOWL COMPETITIONS AT A GLANCE

Bowl competitions are buzzer based events for teams of up to 6 students from the same school with up to 4 students per team playing at any given time.

Divisions

  • Varsity/Junior Varsity Competitions
    • Varsity – 11th or 12th grade (no older than 19 years old)
    • Junior Varsity – 10th grade and under
      • Elementary and Middle School teams compete in the Varsity/Junior Varsity division unless there are at least 4 teams at which point they will be put in their own division
      • Elementary and Middle School teams can qualify for both the Varsity/Junior Varsity National Championships AND the Elementary and Middle School National Championships
  • Elementary and Middle School Competitions
    • Middle School
      • 8th grade or 7th grade
    • Elementary School
      • 6th grade and under
  • Note: Team Division is determined by the division of the oldest player
  • Note: Home school students can refer to this guide

Game Format

  • Scoring
    • All in multiples of 10
    • No way to lose points
  • 4-quarter matches
    • 1st Quarter – tossups only
    • 2nd Quarter – tossups with a one part bonus question
      • Bonuses do not rebound
    • 3rd Quarter – Lightning Round
      • 3 topics to choose from, each with 8 short questions(6 for MS)
      • Trailing team at half chooses first, leading team chooses first in playoffs
      • Trailing team tries to answer as many of the 8 questions correctly in 60 seconds
      • 20 point bonus if all questions are answered correctly
      • Any incorrect answers or passed questions within 60 sec are rebounded
      • Other team then repeats the process with one of the remaining 2 topics
    • 4th Quarter
      • Questions worth 10, 20 or 30 points depending on where question was correctly answered
  • Playoffs
    • Top teams go to playoffs(generally half), exact number of teams depends on field
    • Single elimination playoff

Click below to learn how to qualify for our National and International Championship events.