UC Irvine
| UCI | |
| |
|---|---|
| Location: Irvine, CA | |
| Current President or Coach | Jason and/or Marcus Luna |
| National championships | none |
| NAQT Page | link |
The University of California, Irvine, commonly known as UC Irvine, UCI, or just simply Irvine in collegiate quizbowl circles, contains the only active college program in Orange County, California. It lies in Irvine on the border with Newport Beach.
History
According to its club website, the UCI club was founded in December 1997 by Willie Chen, Ellie Tayag, Christi Bradford, and Benjamin Wadsworth. For many years it was a punching bag to the Berkeleys and Stanfords of the West Coast, finishing at best in the middle of the pack at tournaments. UCI's primary function was keeping high school quizbowl alive in Orange County. From John Gose's apparent disappearance until 2001 they ran Orange County's high school Kiwanis Bowl, which went defunct after UCI stopped running it. UCI typically runs two or three high school tournaments in any given year, including the College Bowl Conference Tournament (CBCT), which at one point had a combined high school/college field, and the Baby Anteater Quiz Bowl Tournament. UCI ran the NAQT Southern California High School State Championship in 2002, 2003, and 2008.
With the arrival of more graduate students, the UCI program has become increasingly relevant to the college scene. UCI has won two tournaments to date, Aztlan Cup III and EFT2, both at UCLA. In 2007 UCI attended its first non-CBI national tournament, finishing 27th at the NAQT ICT.
In 2008 UCI finished tied for fourth at ICT, losing the de facto third place match to Illinois after losing to both eventual champion Maryland and eventual runner-up Chicago on clock-killing negs. This is believed to be the highest-ever finish by a UCI team at any national quizbowl tournament. UCI also attended ACF Nationals in 2008 for the first time in program history, where it lost two separate three-way tiebreakers for the top bracket, collapsed down the stretch, and finished 14th.
Tournaments
For the past two years, UCI has hosted a mirror of This Tournament Goes To 11. UCI has also hosted West Regionals/Sectionals for ACF, NAQT, and TRASH at various times. Despite various attempts, they do not, as of yet, have a signature packet-submission tournament.