Long Island Quiz Bowl Alliance
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| President or CEO | Joe Feldman | |||
| Location: | Smithtown, LI | |||
| Status | Active | |||
The Long Island Quiz Bowl Alliance (LIQBA) is a corporation founded by Joe Feldman. Originally, it ran a small series of High School tournaments on Long Island; it now runs regular-season tournaments all over the country, provides questions to hundreds of clients, bought out Avery Enterprises, Questions Unlimited, and the National Academic Association, runs or provides questions to over a dozen State Championships, and runs the Quiz Bowl National Championships.
They have held the Island Cup since the 2019-2020 season, run the Garden Cup in New Jersey as their marquee event and the largest tournament in the Northeast, directed various Cup tournaments all over the country, created the Northeast Regional Championships for one season, and held a large number of online events in Spring 2020.
The LIQBA also ran single-subject test events, runs the online 30-20-10 national competition, and introduced a a multi-site in-person Nationals in 2025-26, the Quiz Bowl National Championships, to succeed the NAC.
The LIQBA became the American Quizbowl League for the pandemic-addled 2020-21 season, but split off again in May 2021.
History
The LIQBA was founded in May 2019 in response to the folding of KPAQT, as there would have been no further events in Suffolk County, New York. In October of that year the first Island Cup October Tournament was held with 10 teams, followed by the second event in February to good reviews.
In response to the COVID pandemic, the LIQBA sponsored and ran six online events: BHSAT Online, SCOP Novice Online, James Blair Bowl Online, the Island Cup May Online, the Scottie online, and the Midsummer Classic.
Due to the success of the online events, in July 2020, the LIQBA was reorganized into the American Quizbowl League. The LIQBA was later spun off once again, hosting the Long Island Season Finale comeback tournament in May 2021 and returning the Island Cup to active play in the 2021-22 season.
The LIQBA branched out into adjacent areas of the New York Tri-State in 2022, hosting the inaugural Garden Cup in New Jersey in May. They then added the Charter Cup in Connecticut and Valley Cup in Westchester; in response to demand in Massachusetts, they added the Mayflower Cup there as well.
Per Joe's longtime desire to create a high-level championship that would not involve traveling long distances for Northeast teams, the Northeast Regional Championships was first held in 2023; however, it suffered from lack of interest in the succeeding year and was permanently cancelled going forward.
The LIQBA underwent further expansion in 2024, primarily through three tournaments in Pennsylvania: the Keystone, Allegheny, and Carnegie cups. The first Keystone Cup ended extremely late and was the first failed LIQBA tournament in its history; however, the Allegheny and Carnegie Cups ran well. A new tournament was also held in Michigan, and additional tournaments were provided in Massachusetts and the Hudson Valley. The Garden Cup III became the largest tournament in LIQBA history with 64 teams; 72 were scheduled before a last-second change of venue was pulled off due to the scheduled host canceling the granted permits two weeks before the event.
In January 2024, the LIQBA and IAC formed the Tri-State Quiz Bowl Alliance. It quickly became inactive and was dissolved within three months.
The LIQBA planned to add a new Midwest division in the 2024-25 season, hosting new tournaments in Wisconsin, Nebraska, Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, as well as an existing tournament in Michigan. However, the plans failed from lack of interest and as they could not find hosts.
Inspired after an internal reading of an extremely poor-quality packet and soberingly realizing that it was what thousands of teams across the country solely experienced as Quizbowl, the LIQBA started writing questions in nontraditional formats in the 2023-24 season, and quickly removed Questions Unlimited from the Lower Hudson Valley. The LIQBA undertook a massive expansion of its writing department for the 2024-25 season. After buying Avery Enterprises' customer list, Joe drove to Washington, D.C. and convinced Chip Beall to sell a company he did not want to sell, and, combined with aggressive marketing, became the second-largest question-production company in the United States, with hundreds of clients and over 10,000 questions produced each season. They provided questions to multiple state championships, most notably Arkansas, and made inroads into Kansas, greatly improving the quality of traditional "bad quizbowl" strongholds nationwide.
In May-June 2026, the LIQBA hosted their inaugural Quiz Bowl National Championships in four divisions: Elementary School, Middle School, Junior Varsity, and Varsity. Hosted in the LIQBA's New Four-Quarter Format, the tournament consisted of four regional sites held in Colorado, New Jersey, Indiana, and Alabama, with the winners of each qualifying for Finals Day. On Finals Day, Gadsden City (Alabama) won the first ever Varsity QBNC championship game with a 400-325 victory over Livingston (New Jersey), Russellville (Arkansas) won the first ever JV QBNC championship game with a 385-145 victory over Jenks (Oklahoma), and Brown Summit (North Carolina) had a comeback win over Ardsley in the Middle School finals.
Cup Champions
First to Third places are noted; DNR stands for "Did Not Rank", meaning that the team either finished below third place or did not play.
Island Cup
| Team | I (2020) | II (2021) | III (2022) | IV (2023) | V (2024) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kellenberg A | 1st | 2nd | DNR | 1st | 2nd |
| North Babylon A | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | DNR | DNR |
| Great Neck South A | 3rd | DNR | 3rd | DNR | DNR |
| Ward Melville A | DNR | 1st | 2nd | 2nd | 1st |
| Locust Valley A | DNR | DNR | DNR | 3rd | DNR |
| Kings Park A | DNR | DNR | DNR | DNR | 3rd |
Garden Cup
| Team | I (2022) | II (2023) | III (2024) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ridgewood A | 1st | DNR | DNR |
| Edison A | 2nd | DNR | 2nd |
| WWPN A | 3rd | 3rd | DNR |
| Livingston A | DNR | 1st | 1st |
| Princeton HS A | DNR | 2nd | DNR |
| Mountain Lakes A | DNR | DNR | 3rd |
Valley Cup
| Team | I (2023) | II (2024) |
|---|---|---|
| Scarsdale A | 1st | |
| Edgemont A | 2nd | |
| Horace Greeley A | 3rd |
Mayflower Cup
| Team | I (2023) | II (2024) |
|---|---|---|
| Belmont A | 1st | 1st |
| Chenery MS A | 2nd | DNR |
| BB&N A | 3rd | DNR |
| Lexington A | DNR | 2nd |
| Westwood A | DNR | 3rd |
Charter Cup
| Team | I (2023) | II (2024) |
|---|---|---|
| Woodland A | 1st | DNR |
| Darien A | 2nd | DNR |
| Staples A | 3rd | DNR |
| Choate A | DNR | 1st |
| King A | DNR | 2nd |
| Greens Farms A | DNR | 3rd |
Keystone Cup
| Team | I (2024) |
|---|---|
| GFS A | 1st |
| Elizabethtown A | 2nd |
| Cedar Crest A | 3rd |
Allegheny Cup
| Team | I (2024) |
|---|---|
| Carlisle A | 1st |
| State College A | 2nd |
| Hollidaysburg A | 3rd |
Carnegie Cup
| Team | I (2024) |
|---|---|
| South Side A | 1st |
| Winchester Thurston | 2nd |
| Norwin A | 3rd |
Mitten Cup
| Team | I (2024) |
|---|---|
| Utica Academy A | 1st |
| DCC A | 2nd |
| DCC B | 3rd |
LIQBA Members
LIQBA "members" are not equivalent to "members" of any other Quizbowl organization; in reality, they are retained by the LIQBA as Assistant Tournament Directors. Most started out as moderators, writers, or in some other entry-level position. They tend to have gone above and beyond in those positions, were noticed by Joe or Nick, and were trained as tournament directors. Many current and former LIQBA members became notable tournament directors in their own right, started their own Quizbowl companies, or became presidents and officers of major college clubs.
The LIQBA no longer maintains a public list of members, nor does it maintain an external list of those who work for the company in any capacity. The exceptions are generally well-known for their association with the LIQBA, including Joe Feldman, the President of the company, and Nick Pruitt, who runs Special Projects.
Noted past members have included Conor Thompson, Aum Mundhe, Robert Wang, Benny Feldman, Aalok Bhattacharya, Joy An, Arjun Panickserry, and Em Gunter.
One past member was a robot, who was hired in April 2020, and fired 30 minutes later for being useless.
Departments
The LIQBA is organized into many departments.
Departments of the LIQBA include:
- Tournament Department
- Writing Department
- Practice Question Department
- Nationals Department
- Outreach Department
- Public Relations Department
- Software Department
- Apex Buzzer and Computer
- Finance and Procurement Department
- Administration Department