American Quizbowl League
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| President or CEO | Nick Pruitt | |||
| Location: | Long Island and New Jersey | |||
| Status | CLOSED | |||
The American Quizbowl League or AQBL was a quizbowl company that ran online tournaments. It was founded by Joe Feldman, who reorganized the Long Island Quiz Bowl Alliance into the AQBL in July 2020.
The AQBL ran monthly tournaments throughout the 2020-21 season, and hosted the 2021 Online National Championship Tournament. It folded shortly thereafter.
History
In March 2020, emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic in the US prevented most quizbowl tournaments from occurring in person. This created a large demand for online competitions, leading the Long Island Quiz Bowl Alliance to host many tournaments for teams outside of just Long Island. Seeking to expand the group's nationwide presence, LIQBA president Joe Feldman decided to reorganize the group into the American Quizbowl League that July.
The AQBL soon launched its official website and scheduled monthly tournaments over the upcoming season, capped by the inaugural ONCT. Some community members were skeptical of the AQBL's ability to run all these events. However, the AQBL was largely successful that season—they attracted sizeable fields to most tournaments with teams from across the country, including many teams new to quizbowl. The 2021 ONCT attracted 64 teams nationwide.
After the pandemic ended, the LIQBA was spun off and the AQBL ceased operations in early 2022. The company was formally dissolved in 2024, and its assets were transferred back to the LIQBA.
While the company was originally owned by Joe, he sold it to Nick Pruitt after falling ill in October 2020, and became an advisor once he recovered. Joe's sister was the interim president of the company for about three months before the sale finally closed.
Format
All of the AQBL's tournaments were run on Discord. They used the 20/20 format, with the exception that about half of their tournaments were tossup only, as it was considered less exhausting to play online. Some tossup-only events used questions produced by the AQBL itself, though most events were mirrors of sets like SCOP Novice and CATT.
Former Members
- Arjun Panickssery (Nominal President)
- Nick Pruitt (Director of Outreach; actual President)
- Aalok Battacharya (Technical Director)
- Joe Feldman (founder, ex-President; became advisor in October 2020)
- Joe's Sister (Interim President from October 2020 to January 2021)