List of notable protests

This is an (incomplete) list of noteworthy protests and protest resolutions. The entries in this page should be limited to those which occurred at nationals between top teams and/or received discussion on the forums.

2020 onward

• 2025 ACF Nationals - After tossup 20 of the one-game final between Stanford and Chicago, Chicago leads 265-255. A protest ldoged by Stanford on a bonus part about leucine-rich repeats is ultimately upheld, accepting "leucine-rich regions" and tying the game. The resulting tiebreaker tossup on the TVA is converted by Allan Lee, winning Stanford the title.
  • This protest was then litigated on the forums on the basis that there wasn't enough backing for the answer to be accepted outright (with only one citation located at the time of resolution) and a "should have been prompted" resolution would have made more sense.
• 2025 ACF Nationals - Multiple teams were negged for giving the answer "New York Ballet" on the tossup on the New York City Ballet. Some players protested and had their protests upheld but were not informed, leaving them unaware of their record.
  • The facts of this protest were then extensively argued on both the Discord and the forums. Parties supporting the decision to accept "New York Ballet" argued that various reputable publications had used it while parties against it claimed that the answer was not in common usage and did not properly disambiguate from other ballets in the city - at least one ballet dancer was consulted during the discussion. A major point of discussion was about the criteria needed for something to be in "common use" enough to be accepted on protest.

• 2024 NASAT - After answering a tossup on COVID-19, Team Maryland's opponent^[who?] protested that their answer should not have been accepted because of the question's use of the pronoun "this pathogen". This protest was upheld and went unnoticed until a year later when it was discussed on the forums and defended by tournament director Fred Morlan, who stated that the editor had chosen an incorrect answer to be their primary answerline and that COVID-19 was the disease and SARS-COV2 the pathogen. In addition to going against precedent for questions on diseases (e.g. taking "bubonic plague" for "Yersinia pestis") it also contradicted common usage in both the medical community and the general public. After community outcry, Fred eventually issued an apology.

• 2024 ACF Nationals - Stanford protests that they should have been prompted on a tossup against Columbia and it is upheld, meaning they are read a tossup only they can answer. However, they do not convert the tossup on Cortona and, per ACF rule F.12C, the original score on the question stands and they lose 225-235.

2010-2019

• 2019 HSNCT - One-loss Stevenson plays one-loss Thomas Jefferson in the double-elimination playoffs. Luke Lamberti answers a question on Little Dancer of Fourteen Years by Edgar Degas with an incomplete answer and protest. After winning the protest the final score is 360-340 in favor of Stevenson and Thomas Jefferson is eliminated at t-5th; Stevenson goes on to place 4th after losing to eventual runner-ups University Lab.