Last Wednesday, FHE’s Quiz Bowl team punched their ticket to the state tournament for the first time since 2019. After winning the Metro Grand Rapids Quiz Bowl League week 4 tournament, Eastern’s A team will be traveling to Michigan State University in April to compete for a state title. The team is made up of senior Presidents Shambhabi Guatam, Leandra Swanson, Adam Rhodes (‘24), Andre Stoll (‘24), and Olin Bauer (‘25).
This victory was especially rewarding for Co-Presidents Leandra and Shambhabi, both of whom have been part of Quiz Bowl since their freshmen year. “It’s really exciting to finally be able to go to the state competition because COVID has prevented me from going in the past; it feels like my hard work has finally paid off after 4 years,” explains Co-President Leandra Swanson (‘23).
For those who don’t know what Quiz Bowl is, it’s a Jeoprary-style trivia game played in teams of four. The toss-up rounds consist of pyramidal-style questions where you receive the answer to the question. Each tossup begins with very specific information about the answer, making it hard to know the answer unless you’re well-versed in the topic. As the reader continues, the information becomes broader, making it much easier to guess the correct answer. If a contestant guesses the correct answer, the team earns 5 points for your team. If a Quiz Bowl member guesses the correct answer in the first half of the question, the team holds the power, meaning they earn 10 points as opposed to the usual 5 points. However, if a competitor guesses the answer incorrectly before the reader is finished reading the question, the team loses 5 points; if players wait until the reader is done and still answer the question incorrectly, there is no penalty. After correctly guessing a tossup question, the team receives 3 bonus questions for 5 points each. These questions have short descriptions that are all related to each other and are usually easier to guess. Additionally, students can deliberate with their team to answer these questions, which is not the case for toss-up questions. At the end of the game, whichever team has more points wins the round. In order to qualify for the state tournament, a team must win a local tournament, meaning that FHE needed to win three rounds of play.
Mr. Rick Kelbel, the Head Coach of the Quiz Bowl team, has only had one other state-qualifying team in his coaching career. He hasn’t been to the state tournament since 2019 and is very excited about the team competing. “I’m very proud of the team, and I’m very excited to take them to experience Michigan State University’s Quiz Bowl tournament – it’s a full-day event and a fun experience for the kids,” Kelbel stated.
Eastern’s Quiz Bowl team will compete once more at West Catholic High School on Wednesday, March 8 to determine who will be the Metro Grand Rapids Quiz Bowl League 2023 champions.