List of times quiz bowl was early

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The following is a list of notable instances in which a quiz bowl question anticipated a major development.

Background

In general quiz bowl obeys normal rules of causality and writes questions about topics after they happen. For example, the winners of each Nobel for Literature are inevitably mentioned in the sets of the following year.

In a few cases, someone is ahead of the curve and has identified something as important before the rest of the world has. These incidents are notable both for their prescience and for how difficult the clue is when used before it breaks into the mainstream.

Arts

  • One of the first tossups to mention director Bong Joon-ho was a tossup on South Korea from 2019 Chicago Open[1] that gave the basic plot of Parasite in power. At the time the question was played the film had won that year's Palme d'Or but it would not receive a theatrical release in America until October 11 (two months later) - Parasite would go on to be the first foreign language film to win Best Picture.
  • The tossup on Carly Rae Jepsen from 2009 VETO ends with the line "For ten points, name this singer who had hits with Bucket and Tug Of War after her third-place finish on season 5 of Canadian Idol."[2] She would not achieve mainstream success in America until the 2011 release of "Call Me Maybe".
  • Yayoi Kusama was first clued in 2013 Michigan Fall[3] - another early question from 2015 Chicago Open Visual Arts is the first mention of her Infinity Mirror Room series.[4] Kusama would grow gradually more popular in the mid-2010s before the virality of her 2017 exhibition at the Hirschhorn made her one of the best-known artists in the world.

Current Events

  • A tossup at the 2025 HSNCT on NYC mayor mentioned minor candidate Zohran Mamdani - he would go on to win the election at the end of the year.
  • NAQT questions on Donald Trump from 2000 exist, focusing solely on his attempts to seek nomination with the Reform Party because they predate the creation of the show The Apprentice in 2004 (as well as his later political endeavors).
  • The earliest tossup on Bernie Sanders is from 1992 Boston Terrier Tussle,[5] which was written within two years of him winning the 1990 election to be sole representative of Vermont for the first time. This was 14 years before he entered the Senate and over two decades before his 2016 presidential bid.

Literature

Author First mention Year of Nobel win
Louise Gluck 2007 ACF Nationals - packet 3, bonus 15

The first time Gluck was tossed up was in 2018 ACF Nationals, which went dead in the 2nd place game that prompted the coining of the phrase "Eric Mukherjee final".

2020
Abdulrazak Gurnah 1994 Illinois Dr Seuss Cindy Lou Who - round 6, tossup 13

This was the only mention of Gurnah until after he won the Nobel, in 2022.

2021

Science

  • In 2019 MWT the BERT model was clued for a bonus on natural language processing.[6] In 2022 WORKSHOP, the transformer architecture was the hard part of a bonus.[7] In November of that year (the set was played in the spring) the first version of the ChatGPT chatbot was released, catapulting GPTs (generative pre-trained transformers) into fame.
  • Questions as early as 2008[8] and 2009[9] mentioned CRISPR as a bacterial analogue to RNA interference. These reflected the general understanding of the process before the 2012 publication of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system by Doudna and Charpentier (who would share the 2020 Chemistry Nobel for this work) - by 2015 there would be tossups on CRISPR at ACF Nationals and Penn Bowl.
  • The first mention of the coronavirus family of viruses was in a 2003 NSC question about the ongoing epidemic of SARS (CoV-1).[10] A bonus in 2008 ACF Nationals had a hard part on the spike protein, which was eventually targeted by the vaccine for COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2).[11]

Many scientists who would go on to win the Nobel have been clued extensively in quiz bowl:

Scientist First mention Year of Nobel win
John Goodenough 2012 Minnesota Open - packet 4, tossup 1 2019 (Chemistry)
Barry Sharpless 2001 Illinois Novice - round 2

The theme of this bonus was Sharpless winning the 2001 Nobel so really it is quiz bowl being "on time".

2022 (Chemistry)
Carolyn Bertozzi 2009 Lederberg - packet 3, tossup 10 2022 (Chemistry)
Omar Yaghi 2021 ACF Nationals - packet 5, bonus 9 2025 (Chemistry)

See also

References

  1. ↑ 2019 Chicago Open - packet 2, tossup 18
  2. ↑ 2009 VETO - Waterloo A packet
  3. ↑ 2013 Michigan Fall - packet 2, tossup 17
  4. ↑ 2015 CO Visual Arts - packet 9, tossup 4
  5. ↑ 1992 Boston Terrier Tussle - packet by WPI, tossup 19
  6. ↑ 2020 Michigan Winter Tournament - packet 2, bonus 22
  7. ↑ 2022 WORKSHOP - packet 1, bonus 15
  8. ↑ 2008 Chicago Open - packet 2, tossup 10
  9. ↑ 2009 ACF Winter - packet 12, tossup 4
  10. ↑ 2003 NSC - packet 1, tossup 25
  11. ↑ 2008 ACF Nationals - packet 9, bonus 4
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