After a long hiatus, the beloved CPS tradition of Quiz Bowl graced the halls of the Butner Auditorium on Friday, February 10th. Sixteen brave students across grades volunteered to put their trivia caps on in front of the whole school. With a pizza party, a shiny new trophy in Dean Chabon’s office, and unlimited bragging rights on the line, the stakes were high going into the collective Common Classroom. Since Quiz Bowl had not been hosted in several years, many did not know about this tradition. If they had not checked their campus news recently, upperclassmen and underclassmen alike would have been surprised to find Dr. Enver Casimir and William Pirone ’23 standing triumphantly at a podium together on the Butner stage lined with new buzzers, folding tables, and eager trivia contestants.
Personally, I have always enjoyed playing casual trivia with my friends and family. One of my favorite things to do while on vacation—particularly the obligatory extended family visits that I sometimes resented (don’t tell them I said that!)—was to watch Jeopardy in the hotel room and try to guess along with the participants. As a young child who barely had mastered the fundamentals of Algebra, the feeling of triumph and knowledge brimmed inside me when I answered a Jeopardy question correctly—even more so if the contestants would get the question wrong first! More recently, I have found myself equally as interested in watching these trivia shows, particularly as my very own History teacher and renowned Quiz Bowl host, Dr. Casimir, had himself participated in Jeopardy and done quite well at that!
The event started during B block. Each participant left class early, and William went over the basic rules of Quiz Bowl: buzz in early and get extra points, but if you buzz in early and get it wrong, you lose points. The first round started out strong for team one, leading with 110 points. Questions ranged topics from Californian History to Calculus to K-Pop lyrics—the former two I answered correctly, but the latter I was unfortunately beaten to the buzzer by. However, during the second round, with double points for each question, team two, with nationally ranked History Bowl contestant Ben Marek ’24, alongside teammates Zia Owens, Ellie Rotblat, and Ella Yu pulled far ahead, with over 500 points by the end. All was not lost, however, when William made the final questions worth a whopping 50 points each. However, no great upset occurred when team 2 took home the prizes and the bragging rights.
Regardless of the outcome, both the audience and contestants had a blast. From up on the stage, it was fascinating to see the audience’s faces, especially when they clearly knew the answer, and no one on stage did. During a question where the response was the Disney movie “Zootopia,” many in the audience immediately got the answer, while on stage, we were confused; murmurs spread throughout the audience until one smart contestant buzzed in with the correct answer, and the crowd erupted in thunderous applause. After the event, we all agreed that we wanted to do this again. Perhaps during a common classroom, or maybe as the practice of a new club. If you enjoyed last Friday’s event, then keep your eyes peeled! Happy trivia to all!