Variable-value bonus

Not to be confused with bonuses that have variable part values, but still have a consistent total value (see FTSNOP or Defunct styles of bonuses).

In a format with variable-value bonuses (VVBs), each bonus question would be assigned a total point value of 20, 25, 30, or 35 points. VVBs were universally used in tossup/bonus formats until the 1990s. How many bonus points were available after answering a given tossup was random and unpredictable. By the mid-90s, College Bowl eventually settled on each round having about the same number of 20, 25, and 30 point bonuses and eliminated bonuses with any other values, though with no guarantees of which bonus questions would be paired with which tossups.

In a format with VVBs, it was mathematically possible for a team to lose despite answering more tossups and converting a higher percentage of the bonus points available, if a disproportionate number of the higher or lower valued bonuses went to one or the other side. Such a game was known as the "Colvin Unfair Result," after Matt Colvin, who was noted for his criticism of the VVB's fairness as a format.

The decline of the VVB was a stark example of quizbowl changing quickly in response to a rational argument about fairness. There are no tournaments in the packet archive from earlier than 1993 that eschew VVBs entirely. While College Bowl retained the VVB until its demise in 2008, the VVB was eliminated from ACF in 1994 and from many invitational tournaments over the following two years. Tournaments which retained the VVB in their rules often gave teams which objected to it the option of submitting packets with exclusively 30 point bonuses, and used 20 and 25 point bonuses only sparingly. NAQT had VVBs in its very first year and abandoned them by fall 1997. The last college quizbowl tournament that used VVBs at all was Penn Bowl VIII in 1999.