Getting “Quizzy” in Shanghai

On Friday, November 12, the AISG Quiz Bowl team made their way to Shanghai for their first ever National Academic Quiz Tournament (NAQT). Before this tournament, the quiz bowl team underwent a series of training. For example, students had to memorize many of the NAQT’s “You Got To Know” lists. Some people had to memorize lists of battles of the ancient world, famous supreme court cases, British monarchs, and other various knowledge.

After completing the training, we felt that we were more than ready for our first tournament. With that in mind, we headed to Shanghai for our first ever quiz bowl tournament. This quiz bowl tournament was hosted by the Shanghai American School Puxi and featured teams from five schools. Ben, a freshman member of the AISG Quiz Bowl team, said, “I am so intimidated. We are about to compete with some of the smartest people we’ll ever see, so I am really nervous.”

The AISG Quiz Bowl team brought a total of three teams: Team Rams, Team Goats and Team Killer Sheep. The Team Rams featured Caroline Mao, Jae Min Kim, Jennifer Yang and myself (Jacky Liu) as captain. The Team Goats featured Benjamin Lu, Stanley Wang, Xin Yi Tan and their captain, Martin Kim. Finally, the Team Killer Sheep featured Thomas Barnards, Kevin Lim, Jeff Lee, Chris Kim and their captain, In Hwa Mo.

The tournament began on Saturday with a round robin and ended with a giant feast of celebration. During the round robin, the three teams faced other teams from a variety of schools. The AISG teams played against teams from the Shanghai American School Pudong, Shanghai American School Puxi, and the Singapore American School. Stanley Wang said, “I had never thought that it was possible for those teams to exist. They are like trivia machines! They are so incredible and it’s kind of terrifying to play against them.” The teams that were at the invitational seemed to be more prepared than AISG. It took us months to get to where we are, but when we faced teams that had years of training, we were incomparable. After each game, we would go and talk to the other teams. We all agreed that everyone put up a great fight. Throughout the day, the buzzer sounds were heard in the entire school. In the end there were only four teams that remained to fight for the first and the second place of the 2016 Shanghai Invitational.

For the last four teams, their games were held in one of SAS’s assembly halls where all the other teams and coaches spectated. The games were intense and exciting and all of the teams were at the edge of their seats. People had their thumbs on the buzzer and were ready to buzz as soon as they knew the answer. It was a tough competition, but in the end, the Singapore American School A team was crowned the winner.

In this tournament, we fought with our best and gave it everything we had. Even though we did not win any prizes, we certainly made a great first impression as AISG’s first ever quiz bowl team.

After the tournament, all of the teams walked together to a restaurant nearby and enjoyed some amazing Mexican cuisine. On the way to the restaurant, the teams from different school socialized with each other and exchanged contact information. At the restaurant, while everyone enjoyed the amazing Mexican food, the returning players met some of their old friends and made some new friends as well. For the seniors, they said goodbye to their old and new friends. For the new comers, they were welcomed by the other teams and welcomed by the coaches. After a whole evening of great food and great company, the quiz bowl teams departed and headed back to their hotels.

In the end, even though the AISG Quiz Bowl teams did not win any trophies, we all had a great time in Shanghai and met some amazing people. Hopefully, we will come back more prepared next year and perhaps win a trophy.