Why do you love quizbowl?

[something random!]

I was recently asked this question by someone unfamiliar with the game because they had trouble understanding "why people dedicate so much time and effort to studying and learning outside of the classroom." So now I'm interested to hear what other people have to say: why do you love quizbowl?

[High Dependency Unit]

Because learning stuff is fun, and beating teams because you've learned stuff makes it even more fun. I love to compete, I like to learn, and I like to improve.

Edit: Quiz bowl has also exposed me to so many things I would not have otherwise found. If you asked me who wrote Things Fall Apart last year I would've been like, "who wrote what?". I read it for the purpose of qb over February vacation. It's somewhere on my list of my ten favorite books.

[Good Goblin Housekeeping]

The only reason I play quizbowl is to beat Dylan Minarik

[The Stately Rhododendron]

The only reason I play quizbowl is to beat Dylan Minarik

[Theodore]

Glad somebody asked this question!

The main reason I love Quizbowl is that for the most part, it's "pure knowledge"; people having fun while learning simply for the sake of learning (it would be incorrect and ignorant to assume everybody plays Quizbowl for learning and nothing else, but this is mostly true from what I've seen). Most people at my school seem to care more about marks, getting into university, and getting a job of high status, than the actual course content, information, and learning. Sometimes, I find it difficult to meet like-minded people that genuinely value knowledge and enjoy learning information outside of a classroom course. However, the Quizbowl community is plentiful of these kinds of people.

Quizbowl exposes me to and gets me interested in topics I didn't think I would be interested in. I never really liked literature or visual arts before I started playing Quizbowl, but now I love learning about novels, poems, paintings, sculptures, etc.

Other reasons to love Quizbowl include the social camaraderie and the competition (close, exciting games are entertaining, and let's face it, no matter how humble you are, you love winning). Another thing that really motivated me in grade 9 was wanting to crush Lisgar :)

The question could also be interpreted as "Why learn information?", which is a lot more difficult to answer.

I was recently asked this question by someone

What did you answer to that student?

[Schmidt Sting Pain Index]

I love quizbowl because I like to learn stuff and then beat teams :). quizbowl is somewhat egotistical in the way that you learn things and then get rewarded for learning them, which prompts you to learn even more things. The structure of the competition is also highly appealing. Attending a tournament, then getting beaten by a team, and then being able to study and play that team a few weeks later for revenge sustains my motivation to study, compared to a competition where you would only have a states and a nationals. As for the social aspect, quizbowl is more robust compared to other activities due to the fact that one sees and is able to talk to fellow quboers multiple times a year. If meeting and connecting with like minded students was my only gain from quizbowl, it would still definetly be worthwhile.

[something random!]

What did you answer to that student?

I told them that I love how quantifiable most things in this game are. You're rewarded with points for good buzzes and thirties for (hopefully) deep knowledge of a topic and, if that wasn't enough, everyone else around you is subject to the same measurements so you can really see where you fall in terms of skill and how any subsequent improvements might alter your performance. So I guess

The only reason I play quizbowl is to beat Dylan Minarik

kind of applies because it was originally my team leaving our state to play more tournaments in Illinois and getting thrashed that made me want to get better.

[bmcke]

Basically a way to turn "gamer instincts" into something productive. If I didn't do quizbowl, I'd waste a lot more time on Magic the Gathering. With quizbowl, I'm at least learning and reading more and hanging out with smart people.

[1992 in spaceflight]

The quizbowl team was the first club I joined in college. The whole team (and some of the alumni) are some of my closest friends right now. I think this is an added benefit of quizbowl-forming friendships with people that can last a long time. Another added benefit of playing quizbowl (to me, anyway) is more exposure to culture. For example, when I was a freshman, I knew nothing about the plot of Things Fall Apart or who Chinua Achebe was. Now I can converse with people about his essay on "Heart of Darkness."

[Auks Ran Ova]

I like learning things and enjoy showing off that I've learned things, and I've made some great friends who I enjoy spending time with!

quizbowl

Good lord, is this ever not a thing.

[Victor Prieto]

For me, it's about the thrill of buzzing in on a tossup and giving the right answer, or being able to thirty a bonus. It's a unique rush that you just don't find in many activities.

[Al Hirt]

If you're a know it all, why not make some use of it? :P

In all seriousness, quiz bowl lets you explore academic areas you may not have looked into otherwise, even in your favorite subjects. Competing (be it in quiz bowl or basketball or rock paper scissors) is also something I enjoy tremendously.

[Harpie's Feather Duster]

I like learning stuff, and I like a method of being able to compare how much stuff I know to others in a competitive manner. I've also made some truly amazing friends.

Beating Dylan Minarik is pretty cool too

[nascarkid397]

As a quiz bowl pioneer at my school (our team started last school-year), this is a question I get sometimes. Understandably so, from the outside it seems like a boring way to spend 2 hours after school on Thursdays and 1 Saturday a month(on average). I mean, school is hard enough, why would we want to tested outside of school?

There are several approaches to this question (not ranked in any way):
While Science Olympiad, Debate, History club, etc. do provide academic activities outside of school, QB is where you can use knowledge from all your classes and can be successful as an all-around player in all subjects or as a specialist.
It's not a dull written test either-it's a live competition, pitting some of the great minds of one school against another.
From the competitor's aspect, it's thrilling to buzzer-beat a close friend or to confound the other players with an early power.
The friends I've made on my quiz bowl team are some of my best friends now.
Visiting the major universities of the state (MI, if anyone's curious) is exciting to me.
Some of my greatest stories I tell friends, whether it be a triple-overtime triumph or a Brobdingnagian blunder in practice, do originate from QB.
You don't have to be the valedictorian to succeed. I'm 40th in my class, our 2nd scorer is somewhere in the 100's, and our 3rd scorer isn't even in the top 1/2. Knowledge is nice, but instinct, reflexes and recall are some characteristics that make one do well, not just the ability to do massive worksheets for AP US History.
(etc, etc, etc.)

Quiz Bowl has been one of the greatest experiences of my HS career so far, and I hope others can discover this too.

[The ChatSack Triple-Play]

Because there's a crippling scarcity of people in this world who are able to honestly laugh at the concept of Riemann in front of a lady all like, "It's critical that you strip!" and doing this allows me to meet their better portion; because I realized how horrible the Kentucky high school state format is and have formed a mutualistic relationship with quizbowl; because parsing every question since about 2001 is a Herculean task and I like Herculean tasks; because I have an inability to feel good about myself unless I can firstline a tossup on Donald Knuth in a championship match.

Also beauty of culture and power of science or something like that.

[naan/steak-holding toll]

If I didn't do quizbowl, I'd waste a lot more time on Magic the Gathering.

What this man said. My time spent on quibowl and Magic over the years are inversely correlated, and I've gotten a lot more out of the former, though the latter's a lot of fun as well.

I like learning things, having a strong motivation to learn more things, and hearing new things worth learning about come up in questions. I'm also pretty competitive and quizbowl's a good outlet for that.