With the University Challenge team coasting into the next round, the team for next year is chosen

While this season’s University Challenge is still underway, with Imperial College’s team still in the running, the selections have already been made for next year.

The tryouts were organised by Imperial College Quiz Society, mostly composed of keen quizzers and former UC contestants, and was open to all students at Imperial. Around seventy people showed up for the first round, in which they had to answer 60 questions set by the makers of the show. This was no easy task, as they were ranging very diverse topics and going quite in depth in very obscure fields. Wannabe quizzers had to know about former counties of Wales, opinion columns of the Economist and half-asteroid, half-comet astronomical bodies. It was a hard set, and only 17 would be invited again.

The second round was structured in a more familiar, University Challenge manner: teams of four with actual working buzzers would compete for starters for ten and sets of bonuses. A rota was established so that the judging panel could see everyone and decide who’d make a good UC contestant: they looked for raw knowledge, obviously, but they also had an eye on impulsiveness, speed on the buzzer, willingness to listen to teammates and ability to guess. The questions came from a variety of sources, and ranged from football in Japan to Imperial Stormtroopers to the Sloan Great Wall. Again, it was not an easy quiz and some truly excellent performances were given.

Eventually, though, only five would make onto the team: four contestants and a reserve. The following five individuals will be representing Imperial College in the 2013/2014 season of University Challenge: Charlie Yuan, the reserve, in first year biochemistry; Daniela Weston, in third year physics; George Coombs, in second year physics; Rhys Davies, in fifth year medicine; and their captain, John Wheatley, in third year materials science. Hopefully together they have enough facts and smarts to bring television glory to Imperial! The team has already started practicing in the London Quiz League with some success and is meeting every week to flex their quizzing muscles. Soon they will be invited by the makers of the show in a quiz/interview, which will determine if they make it to the televised portion. We have no doubt they will, and we will be looking forward to their matches starting from July next year.

In case you missed the selections or were not chosen, they are run every year, and you can try again come next November. In the meantime, the Imperial Quiz Society organises quizzes, where you might help this year’s team practice.

Contact them at quiz@imperial.ac.uk.