2019 NHBB Online
The 2019 "NHBB" Discord Tournament, also known colloquially as "NHBB Online", was an online history bee-style "tournament" (or scrimmage) held during April 2019 on Discord. It was principally run by eighth-grader Ameya Singh of Laurel Springs, who conceived the initial idea. It had a small field, won by Sam Brochin, but is more notable for disingenuous advertising and promotion of this event as a housewrite despite using recycled questions.
The event was promoted on HSQB as a "housewrite based off of NHBB/IHB packets". In fact, the questions were copied and recycled from other sets, sometimes with minor alterations. Discord chat logs demonstrated that the events initial promotion had stated that it would use older tossups along with housewrites, however future promotions of this event omitted this important disclaimer. After the prelims concluded and its packets were uploaded, many members of the online quizbowl community pointed out the fact that Packet 1 had indeed recycled tossups despite being branded as a online housewrite event. Despite this, the tournament's final round was run, notably ending in a 4-way tie for 3rd Place. With the conclusion of the finals, Singh ultimately offered an apology regarding his careless handling of this tournament and for disingenuous claims regarding the promotion and advertising for NHBB Online.
A minor aspect of the controversy concerned the name: the tournament's name seemed to suggest affiliation with NHBB, but in fact the tournament was in no way connected to NHBB or International Academic Competitions, it merely sought to emulate some stylistic aspects thereof. This information had been later clarified in the forums by the TD and members of NHBB and/or IAC.
These events have been partly or wholly responsible for HSQB adding a separate subforum for open practices, scrimmages, and playtesting, along with rules governing announcements for events using old questions as scrimmages and not as "tournaments".
Packets used
Samples from the prelims include: