VCU's quizbowl team is currently led by Cody Voight, Sean Smiley and George Berry, who are building a perfect society in which the mistakes of the past will be eliminated.
History
A VCU team, about which nothing else is known, attended a 1993 invitational tournament at Virginia as per this Usenet post, and teams from VCU participated in College Bowl at least in 1986 and 1996 according to College Bowl's database (as well as 1991 according to noted villain Tom Michael's page).
More concretely, VCU quizbowl was founded by Matt Weiner in November 2002 by virtue of his attendance at the ACF Fall tournament held by Case Western. Tournaments won by VCU in this time period were the 2003 NAQT Sectionals at Virginia, the 2003 Princeton Buzzerfest, the 2004 Maryland Terrapin, the 2005 NAQT Sectionals, the 2005 Manu Ginobili/Tony Parker at Maryland, the undergraduate title at the 2005 ICT, the 2006 ACF Regionals at Princeton, the 2006 UNC tournament, the 2007 NAQT Sectionals at George Mason, and the 2007 Maryland Terrapin. Evan Adams and Andrew Alexander became team mainstays for the next two years, with George Berry, Cody Voight, and Sean Smiley all joining the team in fall 2009. Sometimes with the aid of dual-enrolled high schooler Tommy Casalaspi, the team went on to finish second to Maryland infinity times, also winning the 2010 ACF Winter tournament at NC Wesleyan and the 2011 Region 5 Division II Sectionals.
At the 2011 ICT, VCU's Division I team finished third overall and won the Undergraduate championship, while VCU's Division II team finished fourth. The overall third place finish tied 2011 VCU with 2009 Minnesota as the highest-finishing undergraduate team in the history of the ICT. A VCU team led by Sean Smiley and Cody Voight also won the 2011 ACF Fall site at UVa, and a team containing Smiley, Voight, and Berry finished a strong 14th at ACF Nationals in 2012, losing only to Rice in the second playoff bracket.
Quizbowl at VCU enjoys comparing itself to the VCU basketball team, as both shot to the top tier from relative obscurity in the mid-2000s and had to frequently explain who they were to people from other states (despite being a public research university with 32,000 students, VCU used to be little-known in some places because it does not have a football team). Both teams reached the Final Four of their respective endeavors in 2011, though, with apologies to Coach Smart, the quizbowl team notes that it actually did so twice, in both Division I and Division II of the ICT.
While providing facts to a reporter on the Andy Watkins Cheating Scandal and its effects on VCU, team members discovered that only four programs--VCU, Chicago, Illinois, and Carleton--have finished in the Top 20 or higher of a national championship tournament every year since 2005.
Tournaments Hosted
VCU is an extremely active tournament host at the high school, collegiate, and open levels. VCU has hosted various one-off collegiate tournaments and attempts to host four high school tournaments and one summer open tournament each year: VCU Fall Tournament, VCU Winter Tournament, VCU Spring Tournament, VCU Season Finale Tournament, and VCU Open. As of March 2013, VCU has hosted forty-five quizbowl tournaments, averaging more than eight tournaments hosted per year since spring 2008.
This table lists tournaments organized by the VCU team, even if they were physically held elsewhere. It excludes tournaments organized by others, such as CaTO/TaCO and CULT, even if they were held at VCU, and tournaments organized by people who were affiliated with the VCU team but acting as individuals in hosting the event.
| Date
|
Name
|
Level
|
Champion
|
Runner-up
|
Stats
|
Question Set
|
| 4/6/13
|
MUT Mid-Atlantic Mirror
|
Collegiate
|
UVa A
|
St. Luke's
|
Stats
|
2013 MUT
|
| 3/16/13
|
VCU Spring Tournament V
|
High School
|
Maggie Walker A
|
Montgomery Blair
|
Stats
|
2013 LIST
|
| 2/2/13
|
VCU Closed
|
Collegiate
|
UVa A
|
Chicago
|
Stats
|
2013 VCU Closed
|
| 12/1/12
|
VCU Winter Tournament V
|
High School
|
Guilford A
|
Richard Montgomery
|
Stats
|
NAQT IS-122
|
| 10/13/12
|
VCU Fall Tournament IV
|
High School
|
Maggie Walker A
|
Montgomery Blair
|
Stats
|
NAQT IS-118
|
| 4/14/12
|
MUT Mid-Atlantic Mirror
|
Collegiate
|
Maryland B
|
Penn
|
Stats
|
2012 MUT
|
| 3/10/12
|
VCU Spring Tournament IV
|
High School
|
HH Academy
|
St. Anselm's
|
Stats
|
2012 VCU-Ohio State Set
|
| 12/10/11
|
VCU Winter Tournament IV
|
High School
|
St. Anselm's
|
Georgetown Day
|
Stats
|
NAQT IS-111
|
| 8/7/11
|
Cheyne-Berry Trash Mirror
|
Open
|
David Seal, Rob Carson, Bernadette Spencer, Sam Bailey
|
Carsten Gehring, Evan Nagler, Dan Passner, Jon Pinyan
|
Stats
|
Cheyne-Berry Trash
|
| 8/6/11
|
VCU Open 2011
|
Open
|
Eric Mukherjee, Ted Gioia, Ike Jose, Chris Ray
|
Will Butler, Matt Bollinger, Rob Carson, Sarah Angelo
|
Stats
|
2011 VCU Open
|
| 5/21/11
|
VCU Season Finale Tournament V
|
High School
|
Cave Spring
|
St. Luke's
|
Stats
|
2011 LIST
|
| 5/1/11
|
NAQT Mid-Atlantic Championship 2011
|
High School
|
St. Anselm's
|
Thomas Jefferson
|
Stats
|
NAQT 2011 SCT Division II
|
| 4/2/11
|
NAQT Virginia Championship 2011
|
High School
|
Maggie Walker A
|
Thomas Jefferson B
|
Stats
|
NAQT IS-105
|
| 3/26/11
|
VCU Spring Tournament III
|
High School
|
Maggie Walker A
|
Thomas Jefferson A
|
Nope
|
2011 Prison Bowl
|
| 1/23/11
|
VCU Winter Tournament III
|
High School
|
Maggie Walker A
|
St. Anselm's
|
Stats
|
2011 VCU-Vanderbilt Set
|
| 11/20/10
|
VCU Fall Tournament III
|
High School
|
Maggie Walker A
|
Clover Hill
|
Stats
|
HSAPQ Tournament 15
|
| 10/03/10
|
Early Fall Tournament Mid-Atlantic
|
Collegiate
|
Maryland A
|
Carnegie Mellon A
|
Stats
|
EFT 2010
|
| 8/8/10
|
VCU Open 2010: Sunday Tournament
|
Open
|
Jerry Vinokurov, Will Butler, Ian Eppler
|
Matt Jackson, Matt Bollinger, Isaac Hirsch, Eric Mukherjee
|
Stats
|
2010 VCU Open Sunday
|
| 8/7/10
|
VCU Open 2010: Saturday Tournament
|
Open
|
Eric Mukherjee, Chris Ray, Matt Bollinger, Dominic Machado
|
Jonathan Magin, Will Butler, Doug Graebner, Paul Marchsteiner
|
Stats
|
2010 VCU Open Saturday
|
| 5/1/10
|
NAQT Mid-Atlantic Championship 2010
|
High School
|
Maggie Walker
|
St. Anselm's
|
Stats
|
NAQT 2010 SCT Division II
|
| 4/24/10
|
VCU Season Finale Tournament IV
|
High School
|
Maggie Walker
|
Thomas Jefferson A
|
Stats
|
2010 Prison Bowl
|
| 1/23/10
|
VCU Spring Tournament II
|
High School
|
Maggie Walker
|
St. Anselm's
|
Stats
|
2009 University of Georgia Fall Tournament
|
| 12/5/09
|
VCU Winter Tournament II
|
High School
|
Maggie Walker
|
Georgetown Day
|
Stats
|
NAQT IS-90
|
| 11/22/09
|
Delta Burke Mid-Atlantic Mirror
|
Collegiate
|
Maryland
|
UVa
|
Stats
|
2009 Delta Burke
|
| 11/8/09
|
TRASH Regionals Mid-Atlantic
|
Open
|
Matt Weiner and Sean Smiley
|
Maryland A
|
Stats
|
2009 TRASH Regionals
|
| 11/7/09
|
VCU Fall Tournament II
|
High School
|
Maggie Walker A
|
Maggie Walker B
|
Stats
|
2009 HFT
|
| 10/31/09
|
ACF Fall 2009 Mid-Atlantic
|
Collegiate
|
State College
|
Maggie Walker
|
Stats
|
2009 ACF Fall
|
| 8/8/09
|
VCU Open 2009
|
Open
|
Brendan Byrne, Tommy Casalaspi, Shantanu Jha, David Seal
|
Ike Jose, Eric Mukherjee, Chris Ray, Evan Adams
|
Stats
|
2009 VCU Open
|
| 5/9/09
|
NAQT Virginia Championship 2009
|
High School
|
Maggie Walker
|
Collegiate School
|
Stats
|
NAQT IS-85
|
| 4/18/09
|
VCU Season Finale Tournament III
|
High School
|
State College
|
Dorman
|
Stats
|
HSAPQ Tournament 6
|
| 3/22/09
|
Experiment II Mid-Atlantic Site
|
Open
|
Matt Weiner, Tommy Casalaspi, Brennan Downey
|
Shantanu Jha, Doug Graebner, Cameron Orth
|
Stats
|
2009 The Experiment
|
| 3/22/09
|
FICHTE II Mid-Atlantic Site
|
Open
|
Maryland A
|
Chicago
|
Stats
|
2009 FICHTE
|
| 2/21/09
|
VCU Spring Tournament I
|
High School
|
Walter Johnson
|
Dorman
|
Stats
|
HSAPQ Tournament 3
|
| 12/13/08
|
VCU Winter Tournament I
|
High School
|
Maggie Walker
|
Cosby
|
Stats
|
HSAPQ Tournament 5
|
| 11/16/08
|
VCU Fall Tournament I
|
High School
|
Walter Johnson
|
Maggie Walker A
|
Stats
|
2008 HFT
|
| 11/08/08
|
ACF Fall 2008 Mid-Atlantic
|
Collegiate
|
Maryland A
|
Penn
|
Stats
|
2008 ACF Fall
|
| 8/17/08
|
Zot Bowl East Coast Mirror
|
Open
|
Brendan Byrne, Andrew Hart, Trevor Davis, Gautam Kandlikar
|
Chris Ray, Keith Jamison, Rebecca Fischer, Leonard Chang
|
Stats
|
ZOT Bowl
|
| 8/16/08
|
VCU Open 2008
|
Open
|
Jerry Vinokurov, Ted Gioia, Henry Gorman, Andy Watkins
|
Brendan Byrne, Andrew Hart, Trevor Davis, Gautam Kandlikar
|
Stats
|
2008 VCU Open
|
| 5/03/08
|
VCU Season Finale Tournament II
|
High School
|
Dorman A
|
Thomas Jefferson A
|
Stats
|
2008 PACE Regular Season Set
|
| 3/22/08
|
MUT Mid-Atlantic Mirror
|
Collegiate
|
Maryland A
|
Maryland B
|
Stats
|
2008 MUT
|
| 2/23/08
|
VCU Last-Minute Tournament
|
High School
|
Thomas Jefferson A
|
Dorman A
|
Stats
|
NAQT IS-74
|
| 11/3/07
|
ACF Fall 2007 Mid-Atlantic
|
Collegiate
|
Maryland A
|
North Carolina A
|
Stats
|
2007 ACF Fall
|
| 5/05/07
|
VCU Season Finale Tournament I
|
High School
|
Maggie Walker
|
Dorman
|
Stats
|
2007 PACE Regular Season Set
|
| 3/10/07
|
VCU Open 2007
|
Open
|
Maggie Walker
|
Maryland
|
Stats
|
2007 Illinois Novice
|
| 11/15/03
|
Illinois Open East
|
Open
|
Maryland
|
Duke
|
Stats
|
2003 Illinois Open
|
Title Succession
External Links
|
