Twenty-four teams from schools across the Memphis area competed in the annual MUS Quiz Bowl Tournament on Sept. 27. Under immense pressure, eight teams made it to the playoff and Houston A team was crowned champion.
The competition began at 9:00 a.m. with six qualifying rounds. Darin Clifft, MUS math instructor and long-time organizer of the event, spoke about the intricacies of the morning.
“We do a tournament that’s different from the other folks. We’re going to try to place teams after the first two rounds with teams that are close to them in skill category based upon point totals, and that requires us to be really flexible.”
This created great competition, with six of the seven playoff games being foreshadowed in the early slots.
After those rounds, the top eight teams graduated to the playoff and the other 16 played one final game before leaving.
There was only one upset in the playoff rounds, CBHS’s A team losing to Collierville B.
In the end, though, the one-seeded Houston A avenged their one loss of the day by winning the championship over Collierville’s A team.
“It’s like a building of nervousness… It’s kind of a blur. I would say listening to your team was a big part of it,” said Houston A Team Captain Jason Lee immediately after winning it all.
Throughout the day there was a variety of enjoyable and memorable moments. With only 23 teams set to come, Quiz Bowl Faculty Advisor Ken Stacey put together a team of MUS amateurs to fill out the tournament.
Labeled the MUS C team – despite there being no A or B team – this amalgamation of volunteers defied the odds by beating two legitimate teams in the morning rounds.
Clifft thought back to reading this team questions. “They had a really good time. I was able to watch them play a couple of matches and it’s just really fun to see an MUS student get to show some of his academic skill that he usually wouldn’t get to.”
After each team’s last game, they dined on pizza and soda in Clifft’s room. The top 4 teams were then awarded their medals and plaque, immortalizing their performance from that Saturday.
Quiz Bowl President Joshua Gramm (12) reflected on the tournament itself. “I think we’ve kept up a great tradition here. Every year, I think we do it well.”
