Difference between revisions of "Long Island Quiz Bowl Alliance"

Latest revision as of 06:55, 3 September 2026


The Long Island Quiz Bowl Alliance

President or CEO

Joe Feldman

Location:

Smithtown, LI

Status

Active

The Long Island Quiz Bowl Alliance (LIQBA) is a corporation founded by Joe Feldman. Originally, it ran a small series of High School tournaments on Long Island; it now runs regular-season tournaments all over the country, provides questions to hundreds of clients, bought out Avery Enterprises, Questions Unlimited, and the National Academic Association, runs or provides questions to over a dozen State Championships, and runs the Quiz Bowl National Championships.

They have held the Island Cup since the 2019-2020 season, run the Garden Cup in New Jersey as their marquee event and the largest tournament in the Northeast, directed various Cup tournaments all over the country, created the Northeast Regional Championships for one season, and held a large number of online events in Spring 2020.

The LIQBA also ran single-subject test events, runs the online 30-20-10 national competition, and introduced a a multi-site in-person Nationals in 2025-26, the Quiz Bowl National Championships, to succeed the NAC.

The LIQBA became the American Quizbowl League for the pandemic-addled 2020-21 season, but split off again in May 2021.

History

The LIQBA was founded in May 2019 in response to the folding of KPAQT, as there would have been no further events in Suffolk County, New York. In October of that year the first Island Cup October Tournament was held with 10 teams, followed by the second event in February to good reviews.

In response to the COVID pandemic, the LIQBA sponsored and ran six online events: BHSAT Online, SCOP Novice Online, James Blair Bowl Online, the Island Cup May Online, the Scottie online, and the Midsummer Classic.

Due to the success of the online events, in July 2020, the LIQBA was reorganized into the American Quizbowl League. The LIQBA was later spun off once again, hosting the Long Island Season Finale comeback tournament in May 2021 and returning the Island Cup to active play in the 2021-22 season.

The LIQBA branched out into adjacent areas of the New York Tri-State in 2022, hosting the inaugural Garden Cup in New Jersey in May. They then added the Charter Cup in Connecticut and Valley Cup in Westchester; in response to demand in Massachusetts, they added the Mayflower Cup there as well.

Per Joe's longtime desire to create a high-level championship that would not involve traveling long distances for Northeast teams, the Northeast Regional Championships was first held in 2023; however, it suffered from lack of interest in the succeeding year and was permanently cancelled going forward.

The LIQBA underwent further expansion in 2024, primarily through three tournaments in Pennsylvania: the Keystone, Allegheny, and Carnegie cups. The first Keystone Cup ended extremely late and was the first failed LIQBA tournament in its history; however, the Allegheny and Carnegie Cups ran well. A new tournament was also held in Michigan, and additional tournaments were provided in Massachusetts and the Hudson Valley. The Garden Cup III became the largest tournament in LIQBA history with 64 teams; 72 were scheduled before a last-second change of venue was pulled off due to the scheduled host canceling the granted permits two weeks before the event.

In January 2024, the LIQBA and IAC formed the Tri-State Quiz Bowl Alliance. It quickly became inactive and was dissolved within three months.

The LIQBA planned to add a new Midwest division in the 2024-25 season, hosting new tournaments in Wisconsin, Nebraska, Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, as well as an existing tournament in Michigan. However, the plans failed from lack of interest and as they could not find hosts.

Inspired after an internal reading of an extremely poor-quality packet and soberingly realizing that it was what thousands of teams across the country solely experienced as Quizbowl, the LIQBA started writing questions in nontraditional formats in the 2023-24 season, and quickly removed Questions Unlimited from the Lower Hudson Valley. The LIQBA undertook a massive expansion of its writing department for the 2024-25 season. After buying Avery Enterprises' customer list, Joe drove to Washington, D.C. and convinced Chip Beall to sell a company he did not want to sell, and, combined with aggressive marketing, became the second-largest question-production company in the United States, with hundreds of clients and over 10,000 questions produced each season. They provided questions to multiple state championships, most notably Arkansas, and made inroads into Kansas, greatly improving the quality of traditional "bad quizbowl" strongholds nationwide.

In May-June 2026, the LIQBA hosted their inaugural Quiz Bowl National Championships in four divisions: Elementary School, Middle School, Junior Varsity, and Varsity. Hosted in the LIQBA's New Four-Quarter Format, the tournament consisted of four regional sites held in Colorado, New Jersey, Indiana, and Alabama, with the winners of each qualifying for Finals Day. On Finals Day, Gadsden City (Alabama) won the first ever Varsity QBNC championship game with a 400-325 victory over Livingston (New Jersey), Russellville (Arkansas) won the first ever JV QBNC championship game with a 385-145 victory over Jenks (Oklahoma), and Brown Summit (North Carolina) had a comeback win over Ardsley in the Middle School finals.

Cup Champions

First to Third places are noted; DNR stands for "Did Not Rank", meaning that the team either finished below third place or did not play.

Island Cup

Team	I (2020)	II (2021)	III (2022)	IV (2023)	V (2024)
Kellenberg A	1st	2nd	DNR	1st	2nd
North Babylon A	2nd	3rd	1st	DNR	DNR
Great Neck South A	3rd	DNR	3rd	DNR	DNR
Ward Melville A	DNR	1st	2nd	2nd	1st
Locust Valley A	DNR	DNR	DNR	3rd	DNR
Kings Park A	DNR	DNR	DNR	DNR	3rd

Garden Cup

Team	I (2022)	II (2023)	III (2024)
Ridgewood A	1st	DNR	DNR
Edison A	2nd	DNR	2nd
WWPN A	3rd	3rd	DNR
Livingston A	DNR	1st	1st
Princeton HS A	DNR	2nd	DNR
Mountain Lakes A	DNR	DNR	3rd

Valley Cup

Team	I (2023)	II (2024)
Scarsdale A	1st
Edgemont A	2nd
Horace Greeley A	3rd

Mayflower Cup

Team	I (2023)	II (2024)
Belmont A	1st	1st
Chenery MS A	2nd	DNR
BB&N A	3rd	DNR
Lexington A	DNR	2nd
Westwood A	DNR	3rd

Charter Cup

Team	I (2023)	II (2024)
Woodland A	1st	DNR
Darien A	2nd	DNR
Staples A	3rd	DNR
Choate A	DNR	1st
King A	DNR	2nd
Greens Farms A	DNR	3rd

Keystone Cup

Team	I (2024)
GFS A	1st
Elizabethtown A	2nd
Cedar Crest A	3rd

Allegheny Cup

Team	I (2024)
Carlisle A	1st
State College A	2nd
Hollidaysburg A	3rd

Carnegie Cup

Team	I (2024)
South Side A	1st
Winchester Thurston	2nd
Norwin A	3rd

Mitten Cup

Team	I (2024)
Utica Academy A	1st
DCC A	2nd
DCC B	3rd

LIQBA Members

LIQBA "members" are not equivalent to "members" of any other Quizbowl organization; in reality, they are retained by the LIQBA as Assistant Tournament Directors. Most started out as moderators, writers, or in some other entry-level position. They tend to have gone above and beyond in those positions, were noticed by Joe or Nick, and were trained as tournament directors. Many current and former LIQBA members became notable tournament directors in their own right, started their own Quizbowl companies, or became presidents and officers of major college clubs.

The LIQBA no longer maintains a public list of members, nor does it maintain an external list of those who work for the company in any capacity. The exceptions are generally well-known for their association with the LIQBA, including Joe Feldman, the President of the company, and Nick Pruitt, who runs Special Projects.

Noted past members have included Conor Thompson, Aum Mundhe, Robert Wang, Benny Feldman, Aalok Bhattacharya, Joy An, Arjun Panickserry, and Em Gunter.

One past member was a robot, who was hired in April 2020, and fired 30 minutes later for being useless.

Departments

The LIQBA is organized into many departments.

Departments of the LIQBA include:

Tournament Department
Writing Department
Practice Question Department
Nationals Department
Outreach Department
Public Relations Department
Software Department
Apex Buzzer and Computer
Finance and Procurement Department
Administration Department

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-The '''Long Island Quiz Bowl Alliance''' ('''LIQBA''') is a corporation founded by [[Joe Feldman]], originally to run High School tournaments on Long Island, but later expanded to running tournaments in the Northeast and Midwestern United States, as well as opening a large question-writing division that purchased both [[Avery Enterprises]] and [[Questions Unlimited]]. They have held the [[Island Cup]] since the 2019-2020 season, run the Garden Cup in New Jersey as their marquee event and the largest tournament in the Northeast, directed various Cup tournaments in Westchester, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, created the Northeast Regional Championships for one season, and [[LIQBA Online Tournament Series|held a large number of online events in Spring 2020]]. They plan to expand to host a total of 16 tournaments in the Northeast and 9 in the Midwest in the 2024-25 season, for a total of 25 tournaments throughout the United States.
+{{Companybox|Company Name = The Long Island Quiz Bowl Alliance
+|Image = LIQUIZ Logo - Badge - Colored on White - Circle.png
+|president = [[Joe Feldman]]
+|citystate = Smithtown, LI
+|status = Active
+| }}
+The '''Long Island Quiz Bowl Alliance''' ('''LIQBA''') is a corporation founded by [[Joe Feldman]]. Originally, it ran a small series of High School tournaments on Long Island; it now runs regular-season tournaments all over the country, provides questions to hundreds of clients, bought out [[Avery Enterprises]], [[Questions Unlimited]], and the [[National Academic Association]], runs or provides questions to over a dozen State Championships, and runs the [[Quiz Bowl National Championships]].
-The LIQBA also runs single-subject test events for players at their tournaments. Their writing division, originally organized to sell questions to clients in the Northeast, underwent rapid expansion and continues to grow through acquisitions.
+They have held the [[Island Cup]] since the 2019-2020 season, run the Garden Cup in New Jersey as their marquee event and the largest tournament in the Northeast, directed various Cup tournaments all over the country, created the Northeast Regional Championships for one season, and [[LIQBA Online Tournament Series|held a large number of online events in Spring 2020]].
-The LIQBA became the [[American Quizbowl League]] for the pandemic-addled 2020-21 season, only to be split off again into an independent firm in May 2021; they remain independent to this day.
+The LIQBA also ran single-subject test events, runs the online 30-20-10 national competition, and introduced a a multi-site in-person Nationals in 2025-26, the [[Quiz Bowl National Championships]], to succeed the [[NAC]].
+The LIQBA became the [[American Quizbowl League]] for the pandemic-addled 2020-21 season, but split off again in May 2021.
 ==History==
@@ Line 9: / Line 17: @@
 The LIQBA was founded in May 2019 in response to the folding of [[KPAQT]], as there would have been no further events in Suffolk County, New York. In October of that year the first [[Island Cup]] October Tournament was held with 10 teams, followed by the second event in February to good reviews.
-In response to the Coronavirus pandemic, [[LIQBA Online Tournament Series|the LIQBA sponsored and ran six online events]]: [[BHSAT]] Online, [[Scholastic Community Outreach Program|SCOP Novice]] Online, James Blair Bowl Online, the [[Island Cup]] May Online, the Scottie online, and the Midsummer Classic.
+In response to the COVID pandemic, [[LIQBA Online Tournament Series|the LIQBA sponsored and ran six online events]]: [[BHSAT]] Online, [[Scholastic Community Outreach Program|SCOP Novice]] Online, James Blair Bowl Online, the [[Island Cup]] May Online, the Scottie online, and the Midsummer Classic.
 Due to the success of the online events, in July 2020, the LIQBA was reorganized into the [[American Quizbowl League]]. The LIQBA was later spun off once again, hosting the [[LIQBA Online Tournament Series#2021 Season Finale|Long Island Season Finale]] comeback tournament in May 2021 and returning the Island Cup to active play in the 2021-22 season.
-The LIQBA branched out into adjacent areas of the New York Tri-State in 2022, hosting the inaugural [[Garden Cup]] in New Jersey in May. They then added the Charter Cup in Connecticut and Valley Cup in Westchester; in response to demand in Massachusetts, they added the Mayflower Cup there as well. While it was nearly comically derailed by a blizzard, it still went on, attracting 37 teams over 2 days.
+The LIQBA branched out into adjacent areas of the New York Tri-State in 2022, hosting the inaugural [[Garden Cup]] in New Jersey in May. They then added the Charter Cup in Connecticut and Valley Cup in Westchester; in response to demand in Massachusetts, they added the Mayflower Cup there as well.
 Per Joe's longtime desire to create a high-level championship that would not involve traveling long distances for Northeast teams, the Northeast Regional Championships was first held in 2023; however, it suffered from lack of interest in the succeeding year and was permanently cancelled going forward.
-The LIQBA underwent further expansion in 2024, primarily through three tournaments in Pennsylvania: the Keystone, Allegheny, and Carnegie cups. The first Keystone Cup ended extremely late and was the first failed LIQBA tournament in its history; however, the Allegheny and Carnegie Cups ran well. The Carnegie Cup also succeeded in spite of a large amount of external factors, including a massive, hours-long building fire across the street, a SWAT raid nearby with an accompanying shelter-in-place order, and a car accident in front of the tournament building. A new tournament was also held in Michigan, and additional tournaments were provided in Massachusetts and (soon) the Hudson Valley. The Garden Cup III became the largest tournament in LIQBA history with 64 teams; 72 were scheduled before a last-second change of venue was pulled off due to the scheduled host canceling the granted permits two weeks before the event.
+The LIQBA underwent further expansion in 2024, primarily through three tournaments in Pennsylvania: the Keystone, Allegheny, and Carnegie cups. The first Keystone Cup ended extremely late and was the first failed LIQBA tournament in its history; however, the Allegheny and Carnegie Cups ran well. A new tournament was also held in Michigan, and additional tournaments were provided in Massachusetts and the Hudson Valley. The Garden Cup III became the largest tournament in LIQBA history with 64 teams; 72 were scheduled before a last-second change of venue was pulled off due to the scheduled host canceling the granted permits two weeks before the event.
-In January 2024, the LIQBA along with the [[IAC]] formed the [https://tsqba.org/ Tri-State Quiz Bowl Alliance]. It quickly became inactive.
-The LIQBA plans to add a new Midwest division in the 2024-25 season, hosting new tournaments in Wisconsin, Nebraska, Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, as well as an existing tournament in Michigan. They also plan to host 4 new Garden Cup qualifiers in New Jersey.
-Inspired after an internal reading of an extremely poor-quality packet and realizing that it was what thousands of teams across the country solely experienced as Quizbowl, the LIQBA started writing questions in nontraditional formats in the 2023-24 season, and quickly eliminated all Chipbowl in the Lower Hudson Valley. The LIQBA undertook a massive expansion of its writing department for the 2024-25 season, and is bidding for projects and contracts nationwide.
-In 2024, the LIQBA acquired both [[Avery Enterprises]]' high school division and all of [[Questions Unlimited]].
-==Tournaments==
-[[Island Cup]] (Since 2019): Nassau and Suffolk Counties, New York
-Garden Cup (Since 2021): New Jersey
+In January 2024, the LIQBA and [[IAC]] formed the Tri-State Quiz Bowl Alliance. It quickly became inactive and was dissolved within three months.
-Charter Cup (Since 2022): Connecticut
+The LIQBA planned to add a new Midwest division in the 2024-25 season, hosting new tournaments in Wisconsin, Nebraska, Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, as well as an existing tournament in Michigan. However, the plans failed from lack of interest and as they could not find hosts.
-Valley Cup (Since 2022): Lower Hudson Valley, New York
+Inspired after an internal reading of an extremely poor-quality packet and soberingly realizing that it was what thousands of teams across the country solely experienced as Quizbowl, the LIQBA started writing questions in nontraditional formats in the 2023-24 season, and quickly removed Questions Unlimited from the Lower Hudson Valley. The LIQBA undertook a massive expansion of its writing department for the 2024-25 season. After buying Avery Enterprises' customer list, Joe drove to Washington, D.C. and convinced [[Chip Beall]] to sell a company he did not want to sell, and, combined with aggressive marketing, became the second-largest question-production company in the United States, with hundreds of clients and over 10,000 questions produced each season. They provided questions to multiple state championships, most notably Arkansas, and made inroads into Kansas, greatly improving the quality of traditional "bad quizbowl" strongholds nationwide.
-Mayflower Cup (Since 2022): Massachusetts
+In May-June 2026, the LIQBA hosted their inaugural [[Quiz Bowl National Championships]] in four divisions: Elementary School, Middle School, Junior Varsity, and Varsity. Hosted in the LIQBA's New [[Four-Quarter Format]], the tournament consisted of four regional sites held in Colorado, New Jersey, Indiana, and Alabama, with the winners of each qualifying for Finals Day. On Finals Day, [[Gadsden City]] (Alabama) won the first ever Varsity QBNC championship game with a 400-325 victory over [[Livingston]] (New Jersey), [[Russellville]] (Arkansas) won the first ever JV QBNC championship game with a 385-145 victory over [[Jenks]] (Oklahoma), and [[Brown Summit]] (North Carolina) had a comeback win over [[Ardsley]] in the Middle School finals.
-Keystone Cup (Since 2024): Eastern Pennsylvania
-Allegheny Cup (Since 2024): Central Pennsylvania
-Carnegie Cup (Since 2024): Western Pennsylvania
-Mitten Cup (Since 2024): Lower Peninsula Michigan
 ==Cup Champions==
@@ Line 298: / Line 286: @@
 ==LIQBA Members==
-LIQBA Members are those who serve in an administrative role in the organization, and are trusted enough to direct LIQBA tournaments on their own.
+LIQBA "members" are not equivalent to "members" of any other Quizbowl organization; in reality, they are retained by the LIQBA as Assistant Tournament Directors. Most started out as moderators, writers, or in some other entry-level position. They tend to have gone above and beyond in those positions, were noticed by Joe or Nick, and were trained as tournament directors. Many current and former LIQBA members became notable tournament directors in their own right, started their own Quizbowl companies, or became presidents and officers of major college clubs.
-The LIQBA does not directly recruit Members. All Members are retained internally, and they all started at lower positions in the LIQBA. The LIQBA actively seeks people for those positions, and promotes individuals particularly talented in administration to be Members.
-===List of LIQBA Members===
-[[Joe Feldman]], formerly of [[Smithtown West]], President (Since May 2019)
-[[Nic Pruitt]] of [[Bates College]], formerly of [[Ridgewood]], Senior Outreach Coordinator (Since December 2023); Outreach Coordinator (May 2020 to December 2023)
-[[Aum Mundhe]] of [[Rutgers]], formerly of [[Ridgewood]], Assistant Tournament Director (Since February 2022)
-[[Robert Wang]] of [[Livingston]], Outreach Coordinator (Since February 2023); Assistant Tournament Director (Since June 2023); High School Outreach Coordinator (May 2022 to December 2023)
-[[Benny Feldman]] (No relation to Joe) of [[Chicago]], formerly of [[Hastings High School|Hastings]], Assistant Tournament Director (Since June 2023); Hudson Valley Coordinator (Since June 2022)
-[[Andrew Gao]] of [[Belmont]], Assistant Tournament Director (Since June 2023)
-[[Sophia Wu]] of [[Rutgers]], formerly of [[Livingston]], Assistant Tournament Director (Since August 2023)
-[[Ace Chun]] of [[MIT]], formerly of [[Montgomery Blair]], Assistant Tournament Director (Since January 2024)
-[[Matt Kelly]] of [[Michigan]], formerly of [[Kings Park]], Assistant Tournament Director (Since April 2024)
-[[Jessica Shen]] of [[Livingston]], Assistant Tournament Director (Since May 2024)
-[[Sam Macchi]] of [[Vassar]], formerly of [[Belmont]], Writing Technology Director, Assistant Tournament Director (Since May 2024)
-===Writing Department===
-[[Danny Peelen]] of [[Pitt]], formerly of [[Cedar Crest]], Head Editor, High School Division
-[[Conor Thompson]] of [[Iowa]], Head Editor, Middle and Elementary School Division
-[[Owen Riley]], formerly of [[Inver Hills CC]], formerly of [[Northmont]], Packetizer
-[[Matt Weiner]] of [[VCU]], TV Sales Advisor
-===Past Members===
+The LIQBA no longer maintains a public list of members, nor does it maintain an external list of those who work for the company in any capacity. The exceptions are generally well-known for their association with the LIQBA, including [[Joe Feldman]], the President of the company, and [[Nick Pruitt]], who runs Special Projects.
-[[Aalok Bhattacharya]] of [[Boston College]], formerly of [[Staples]], Assistant Tournament Director (June 2023 to March 2024); Question Coordinator (June 2023 to September 2023); Connecticut Coordinator (April 2020 to June 2023)
+Noted past members have included [[Conor Thompson]], [[Aum Mundhe]], [[Robert Wang]], [[Benny Feldman]], [[Aalok Bhattacharya]], [[Joy An]], [[Arjun Panickserry]], and [[Em Gunter]].
-[[Joy An]] of [[Harvard]], formerly of [[Choate]], Assistant Tournament Director (June 2023 to February 2024)
+One past member was a robot, who was hired in April 2020, and fired 30 minutes later for being useless.
-[[Arjun Panickserry]], formerly of [[W. T. Clarke]], Assistant Tournament Director (May 2021 to June 2023); Online Tournament Coordinator (March to May 2020)
+==Departments==
-[[Em Gunter]], Online Stats Coordinator (Resigned May 2020)
+The LIQBA is organized into many departments.
-A robot, who was fired for being useless (Lasted under 30 minutes in April 2020)
+Departments of the LIQBA include:
+*Tournament Department
+*Writing Department
+*Practice Question Department
+*Nationals Department
+*Outreach Department
+*Public Relations Department
+*Software Department
+*Apex Buzzer and Computer
+*Finance and Procurement Department
+*Administration Department
-[[Category:High school quizbowl in New York]] [[Category: Question writing companies]]
+[[Category:High school quizbowl in New York]] [[Category: Question writing companies]] [[Category:LIQBA]] [[Category:National Organizations]]