Imperial quiz novices battle it out in Southampton
Perhaps inspired by Imperial’s run-away performance on University Challenge this year, Imperial sent three teams, two of which composed entirely of freshers, to Southampton for the annual ACF Fall Quiz Bowl on the 19th. The competition was open to many universities from the south of England including Oxford and Cambridge. Typically, each team contains four players to give the teams a wide berth of subject knowledge, however many teams were a few players short; Bristol team B for example only had two players. Despite this, they still gave a stellar performance.
For fans of University Challenge, ACF Fall had an identical game structure. Teams fought to buzz in quickly in many initial “toss-up” questions in order to earn points – and three bonus questions – for their team. Each game lasted around 40 minutes and featured 20 toss-ups. The tournament was also held in many other places on the same day, such as Durham (for all of the northern universities) and even many places in the US, for example MIT.
After a long, full day of quizzing, Imperial came out the other end with an alright presentation with Oxford’s first team securing the victory. “Everyone had great performances,” Bethany, the Chair of Imperial’s Quiz Society, commented. “There were certainly some stand-out buzzers had by all. I think the key thing is that everyone enjoyed it.”
Bethany is a third-year student at Imperial and has been a member of Quiz Society since her first year after she attended their stall at the Freshers’ Fair. In the years following, she has attended several tournaments as a contestant and been a moderator for many more. An advocate for new recruits, Bethany was one of the people managing this year’s Fresher’s Fair hoping to attract more people in the same way she joined.
Competitions like ACF Fall feature a wide range of subjects that can be asked ranging from STEM topics to European history and literature, “there’s something for everyone.” Some questions that always stump contestants are the ones about classical music; if that’s something you have a penchant for, then consider joining the society. The tournament took up the whole day with a lot of that time dedicated to travelling.
The next novice tournament, however, is being held at Imperial College London’s campus itself at the end of November with applications open until the week before. Quiz Society hold weekly buzzer practice sessions every Monday at 6pm in the City & Guilds Building and they’re always looking for fresh faces who are interested.
Imperial’s winning University Challenge teams all had their start in the quiz society and some still manage parts of it like Justin Lee, a de facto campus celebrity following his many appearances on the programme. For updates and information, make sure to follow @imperialquizsoc on Instagram.
