UCLA

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University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Ucla.jpg
Location:
Los Angeles, CA
Current President or Coach Hidehiro Anto, Joseph Gorelik
National championships 2004 ICT Division II; 2006 College Bowl
NAQT Page link

UCLA or the University of California, Los Angeles, is a large public university located in Westwood (Los Angeles), California.

History

An article about the 2002 CBI team claims that an "unofficial quiz bowl club" was started around 1993 or so.[1] The first appearance of UCLA on the mainstream circuit is ACF Regionals West 1996, in which an Asmin Pathare-led team finished 3-7, good enough for a tie for seventh place in an eleven team tournament. Pathare and Patrick Friel led them for several years. UCLA's first documented invitational tournament was Bruin Beach Party in April 1997, which was apparently followed by a mirror of the Unabuzzer trash tournament. UCLA's first non-CBI national tournament appearance was at ACF Nationals 2000, where they inexplicably sent two teams, with the B team finishing somewhere near the very bottom of the field. Partially due to this experience, UCLA would not return to ACF Nationals until 2006. UCLA has participated at NAQT ICT in either Division I, Division II, or both since 2003.

The current organization known to the UCLA administration as the College Bowl Club at UCLA was founded in February 2000 by Ravi Menghani. The club made strides toward national prominence under the presidencies of Matthew Sherman and then Dwight Wynne from 2003-2007.

UCLA was a strong CBI team during the early and mid-2000s, finishing as the national runner-up in 2002 and winning in 2006.

UCLA was at the center of a 2004 controversy when a prior arrangement with NAQT granted Matthew Sherman and Charles Meigs an additional year of Division II eligibility. Some in the quizbowl community refuse to acknowledge their title as legitimate and instead recognize the 2004 NAQT Division II champions as Illinois, whom UCLA defeated in the final.

After many of the UCLA players graduated, Joseph Gorelik and others have started to rebuild the team in Spring 2014.

Tournaments

UCLA has hosted two tournaments regularly: TWAIN (Tournament Without an Interesting Name) in early October and Aztlan Cup in the winter. From 2000 to 2005 TWAIN was run on NAQT IS sets; since 2006, it has been a mirror of EFT. Aztlan Cup is a packet-submission tournament that traditionally packet-swaps with a tournament around the same time in the Midwest or East.

UCLA also hosted the 2003 NAQT ICT with help from Caltech. This tournament was widely considered a failure and is often cited as a reason why collegiate national tournaments are never held on the West Coast.

Current Members

Former Players

Title Succession

NAQT ICT Division II Champion
Preceded by
Year
Succeeded by
Berkeley
2004
Chicago


College Bowl Nationals Champion
Preceded by
Year
Succeeded by
Minnesota
2006
Minnesota

External Links

UCLA Club Website