Four-quarter format - Revision history

Jonah Greenthal at 13:40, 11 August 2026

2026-08-11T13:40:06Z

Joseph Feldman at 11:19, 11 August 2026

2026-08-11T11:19:07Z

Matt Weiner at 20:01, 31 October 2020

2020-10-31T20:01:37Z

Jeffrey Hill: /* Specific four-quarter format tournaments or leagues */

2018-09-29T23:50:12Z

Specific four-quarter format tournaments or leagues

fix>QBWikiBot at 22:32, 24 January 2010

2010-01-24T22:32:16Z

New page

'''Four-quarter format''' is the general term for quizbowl that is broken up into several phases with differing styles of gameplay. Usually broken into, as the name implies, four quarters, the differing individual formats vary but may include worksheets, lightning rounds, give-and-takes, and tossups (pyramidal and/or otherwise) with or without accompanying bonuses.

Four-quarter format was the predominant style of high school quizbowl in the 1990s prior to the growth in popularity of [[NAQT]] and other college quizbowl influences. Despite the expansion of the 20/20 [[tossup]]-[[bonus]] style, four-quarter format is still used and prevelant in many southern tournaments as well as the [[NAC]] of [[Questions Unlimited]]. According to the Questions Unlimited website, QU holds a copyright for the four-quarter format.

==The most common four-quarter format==

Believed to be popular at Southern tournaments, please correct as applicable:

*First quarter: A phase of ten short-answer tossups.
*Second quarter: A phase of five tossups with two-part bonuses that bounce back after each part.
*Third quarter: A [[lightning round]], [[category round]], [[worksheet round]] or give-and-take round.
*Fourth quarter: A phase of anywhere from four to ten pyramidal tossups.

==Specific four-quarter format tournaments or leagues==
*[[MSHSAA]]
*[[NAC]]
*[[TOC]]
*[[It's Academic]]

[[Category:High school formats]] [[Category:Stubs]]
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 *Formerly, [[TOC]]
 *[[It's Academic]]
 [[Category:High school formats]]
 [[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''Four-quarter format''' is the general term for quizbowl that is broken up into several phases with differing styles of gameplay. Usually broken into, as the name implies, four quarters, the differing individual formats vary but may include worksheets, lightning rounds, give-and-takes, and tossups (pyramidal and/or otherwise) with or without accompanying bonuses.
+A '''Four-quarter format''' is the general term for quizbowl that is broken up into several phases with differing styles of gameplay. Usually broken into, as the name implies, four quarters, the differing individual formats vary but may include worksheets, lightning rounds, give-and-takes, and tossups (pyramidal and/or otherwise) with or without accompanying bonuses.
-Four-quarter format was the predominant style of high school quizbowl in the 1990s prior to the growth in popularity of [[NAQT]] and other college quizbowl influences. Despite the expansion of the 20/20 [[tossup]]-[[bonus]] style, four-quarter format is still used and prevelant in many southern tournaments as well as the [[NAC]] of [[Questions Unlimited]]. According to the Questions Unlimited website, QU holds a [[copyright]] for the four-quarter format.
+The Four-quarter format was the predominant style of high school quizbowl in the 1990s prior to the growth in popularity of [[NAQT]] and other college quizbowl influences. Despite the expansion of the 20/20 [[tossup]]-[[bonus]] style, four-quarter format is still used in competitions throughout the United States. [[Questions Unlimited]] and the [[NAC]] made very heavy use of a specific variant of the four-quarter format, it being used at both Nationals and dozens of local leagues. QU held a [[copyright]] for the four-quarter format; however, this was nonsense, as US law does not allow the copyright or protection of a format under either common law or copyright law. After [[Joe Feldman]] determined that no copyright could possibly exist, and that no trademark was ever filed by QU for any purpose, the [[LIQBA]] started selling 4-quarter packets. They later purchased QU outright.
-==The most common four-quarter format==
+The [[Quiz Bowl National Championships]], being the successor to the NAC, uses the "New Four-Quarter Format", which is a heavily modified version of the [[NAC]] format that eliminated most elements that were criticized as unfair. The removed elements include variable-value tossups, lightning rounds, the bonus rules where a wrong answer ended the bonus, unusual point values, and the extreme over-weighting of quarter four. The old NAC format is to be discontinued entirely in 2027; all the local leagues that used the NAC format now use the QBNC format with small modifications. New 4-Quarter consists of a quarter of 10 short, easy tossups; a quarter of 5 powermarked long tossups with 4-part, bounceback bonuses; a quarter of questions similar to those used in [[30-20-10]]; and a quarter of 10 powermarked short, hard tossups. Originally, there were more questions in quarter 4, and they were not powermarked and worth 20 points each, but this proved to retain the overweighting of quarter 4 to a comical degree and was changed.
-Believed to be popular at Southern tournaments, please correct as applicable:
+Another four-quarter format, which was at one time popular in the Southern US, consisted of a quarter of 10 short tossups, a quarter of 5 tossups with 2-part bonus and bouncebacks, a quarter of lightning, category, worksheet, or give-and-take, and a quarter of a variable number of long, pyramidal tossups.
 ==Specific four-quarter format tournaments or leagues==
-*[[MSHSAA]] (until 2018)
+*The [[Quiz Bowl National Championships]]
-*[[NAC]]
+*[[MACC]]
-*[[TOC]]
+*Until 2018, [[MSHSAA]]
 *[[It's Academic]]
-[[Category:High school formats]] [[Category:Stubs]]
+[[Category:High school formats]]
 [[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]