The Quiz Bowl National Championships is back.

And better than ever.

Take a look at the four Regional Sites, but also Finals Day, the Quiz Bowl event of the century.
Everyone’s invited to Finals Day!

Table of Contents

Regional Sites (South, Northeast, West, Midwest)	Finals Day (Chicago)
How It Works	How It Works
Dates and Locations	Date and Location
Tournament Schedule	Tournament Schedule
Questions and Format	Questions and Format
Seeding	Who Plays the Finals?
Teams and Eligibility	For Teams: What We Do and Don’t Pay For
Coaches, Chaperones, and Spectators	Spectator Information; Tickets
Qualification and Wildcards	Lodging
Waitlist and Standby Teams	Rules
Lodging	Prizes
Rules	Food
Prizes	Statistics
Food	Photography and Videography
Statistics
Practice Material
Registration Fees
Deadlines
Photography and Videography
Registration

Regional Sites Information

How it Works

The 2027 Quiz Bowl National Championships will have four sites: West, South, Midwest, and Northeast. Each one will have a Middle School, High School Junior Varsity, and High School Varsity division. Each site will produce a Champion; from there, the top team in the Middle School and High School Varsity (NOT Junior Varsity) divisions from each site will travel to Chicago, Illinois, at LIQBA expense, for the chance at being crowned National Champions.

Dates and Locations

The Quiz Bowl National Championships will take place in May and June 2027 on the following dates at the following sites:

South

May 22-23, 2027
General Area and Date Confirmed
Site To Be Determined, Alabama
Varsity, Junior Varsity, Middle School, Elementary School
Corgi Not In Attendance

Northeast

May 22-23, 2027
General Area and Date confirmed
New York Metropolitan Area, NY/NJ
Varsity, Junior Varsity, Middle School
Corgi In Attendance

West

June 5-6, 2027
Confirmed
DoubleTree by Hilton Denver Tech Center, Greenwood Village, Colorado
Varsity, Junior Varsity, Middle School
Corgi Not In Attendance

Midwest

June 5-6, 2027
Confirmed
University of Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana
Varsity, Junior Varsity, Middle School
Corgi In Attendance

The regions are not “locked”, and any team may play at any site, but we strongly recommend playing at the site nearest to you.

The Elementary School competition will only take place in Alabama, and a National Champion in that division will be determined there.

Tournament Schedule

Teams will check in on Friday night, play the Preliminary Rounds on Saturday, and, should they “make it”, play playoff games on Sunday.

We are no longer providing exact times beyond the staff call and start times. You should arrive before 8:45 AM and plan to stay the full two days and into the early evening.

SATURDAY
8:00 AM: Staff Call Time; Staff Breakfast; Team check-in begins
8:30 AM: Staff Meeting
9:00 AM: Opening Ceremony Begins; all teams must be present at this time

Starting at 10:00 AM and ending “when it ends”:
Rounds 1 and 2 Played
15-Minute Break
Rounds 3 and 4 Played
1-Hour Break for Lunch
Rounds 5 and 6 Played
15-Minute Break
Rounds 7 and 8 Played

2 Hours after Round 8 ends: Player Social, Coach Social

Overnight: Seedings for Sunday posted online; individual award recipients notified

SUNDAY
Note: depending on the number of teams at a given site, there may be more or less rounds played on Sunday, as is appropriate for the field size.

8:00 AM: Staff Call Time; Staff Breakfast; Team check-in begins
8:30 AM: Staff Meeting
9:00 AM: Opening Ceremony Begins; all playoff teams must be present at this time; individual prizes awarded for all teams, including non-playoff teams

Starting at 10:00 AM and ending “when it ends”:
Rounds 1, 2, and 3 Played
20-Minute Break
Remaining rounds up to Site Semi-Finals and Finals Played
1-Hour 30-Minute Break for Lunch
Site Semi-Finals and Finals Played
Closing Ceremony, Team Awards

Questions and Format

The Quiz Bowl National Championships will use a premier purpose-written set by the LIQBA’s celebrated in-house writing team. Questions will be challenging, while still being accessible to most players capable of competing in a National Championship.

The tournament will guarantee 8 games for High School and Middle School teams and 6 games for Elementary School teams. Should there be an odd number of teams in a given division, you might play 7 or 5 games. Games are timed to 35 minutes at all but the Elementary School level, where there is no clock.

The tournament will follow the LIQBA’s New Four-Quarter Format, which consists of:

Quarter 1
The “Warmup Round”
10 Short Easy tossups, worth 10 points each

Quarter 2
The “Bonus Round”
5 Long Tossups, Powermarked, worth 10 (or 20 points in power) each, with each leading to a Bonus.
Each bonus has 4 parts, in approximate difficulty order, with parts worth 5, 10, 15, and 20 points for 50 possible points. Bouncebacks are possible on bonuses.

Quarter 3
The “Collaboration Round”
5 Collaboration Questions given to each team, very similar to our 30-20-10 Competition.
Collaboration questions will be scored 40-20-10.

Quarter 4
The legendary “Stump the Experts Round”
10 Short Hard tossups, powermarked, worth 20 or 10 points each.

On Saturday, each team will be assigned 8 opponents. The top teams from the preliminary rounds, by win-loss record, will be seeded for playoffs; the exact number of playoff teams will be determined once the field has been finalized, but all teams with records of 4-4, 5-3, 6-2, 7-1, or 8-0 will advance to the playoffs.

Saturday will consist of exactly 8 rounds regardless of any other consideration.

On Sunday, there will be a double-elimination bracket in each division of all the teams that qualified. The bracket winner from the MS and Varsity divisions at each site will qualify for Finals. Depending on the exact number of playoff teams, 4-4 or 5-3 teams may start the double-elimination bracket with one loss.

Seeding

We want to give every team a fair shake, so all teams must play, free of charge, a short 30-20-10-like game about a month prior to the competition to give us an idea of your skill at the game. This will be a virtual seeding event and should take no more than an hour. We will give you details on how this works once you register for Nationals.

The seeding event Does Not Count For Anything, but allows us to determine your approximate skill relative to the other teams so we can accurately make the preliminary seeds. Your score will not be revealed to anyone but your team and the LIQBA, and will not be posted anywhere.

If the seeding event is not available by at least 60 days before the first site, we will cancel it.

Teams and Eligibility

Teams consist of one to six players. No in-game substitutions are allowed. Six is the per-team maximum with no exceptions; should you have interested additional players, you should sign up a JV team or additional Varsity team. Note that, should a team make the finals, we will only pay airfare for 4 players to attend.

Our eligibility rules are simple: any players who go to the same school can play on a team. If you have a question about what “The Same School” is for special situations or for homeschools, write to Outreach@liqba.com and we will discuss your case. We permit any duly enrolled person, without regard to age or grade (such as “super-seniors”), to play at our tournaments, though students in GED programs are ineligible.

Middle Schoolers may “play up” to a HS Varsity division team, but not a JV division team, without restriction, but they may then only compete in the division they select. Elementary schoolers can “play up” to a Middle School or HS Varsity team without restriction, but they may then only compete in the division they select. In order to “play up”, the Elementary or Middle Schooler must:
A. Play for the school they are zoned for if in a Public School, and not for any school that they must apply to get in to;
B. Play for the same school if the school has both their regular grade level and future grade levels (for instance, a K-12 private school, a 7-12 High School) and all students enrolled in lower grades are entitled to a spot in higher grades with no further application, and not one that they must apply to get in to.

In general, the High School Varsity division covers grades 9-12, JV 9-12, Middle School 6-8, and Elementary K-5.

If your district uses a different grade breakdown than that, you can play in the division that would be appropriate for you (for instance, a Junior High School that contains grades 7-9 should play in the Middle School division, or a K-6 School should play in the Elementary School division).

If your entire team wants to “play up”, they can do so, though this is not recommended.

Coaches, Chaperones, and Spectators

A team can have any number of coaches, including none, but only one can be the Official Coach as designated according to our rules. A team can also have an unlimited number of spectators, who may view any game free of charge, but may not take video or audio recordings of the game. Pictures are fine, though! Just not flash photography, which is strictly prohibited. If there are more spectators with a team than the capacity of a given room, they will have to wait elsewhere; no room will be changed or moved due to an abundance of spectators.

Elementary and Middle School teams must have one chaperone per team who are legal adults in the state where they reside, and must stay with the team during the competition.

No chaperone is required for High School teams. However, it is generally required that you bring a chaperone in order to do other important tasks like drive to the tournament or check in to a hotel, most of which require a person who is at least the age of 21.

These requirements apply regardless of the division the team plays in; so, should, for instance, a Middle School team wish to play in the Varsity division, they still must follow the Middle School chaperone requirements. As another example, should a team be playing in the Varsity division and have three twelfth graders and a fourth grader, they must follow the chaperone rules for an Elementary team.

Chaperones can be a coach or any other responsible adult; however, a player on a High School team cannot be a chaperone for a Middle or Elementary school team.

Qualification and Wildcards

Any team who finishes in the top 20%, rounded up, of any tournament, league, or Quiz Bowl TV show in the 2026-2027 season will qualify for the National Championships. Any team who finishes in the top 25%, rounded up, of any tournament, league, or TV show directly run by the LIQBA, or using LIQBA questions, in the 2026-2027 season, will also qualify for the National Championships.

Invitations are issued to Schools, not Teams; so, the roster need not be the same as the one you qualified with. If you would like to bring more than one team…

1) For the High School Varsity, Middle School, and Elementary School divisions, you must qualify multiple teams. To do so, you need to have two or more teams qualify at the same tournament.
2) For the High School Junior Varsity division, any school that qualified a High School Varsity team can enter as many JV teams as they would like, up to 10, so long as they all pay a separate entry fee. You cannot play in the JV division unless you have a Varsity team entered in the field.

You can also ask to be considered as a Wildcard. To do so, email Outreach@liqba.com with a summary of your season and why you feel you should be considered to play in a National Championship. If one team qualifies normally, but a school wishes to enter a second (or further) team(s) into a division other than Junior Varsity, they may also apply for a wildcard to do so.

Note that a qualification is not a guaranteed spot. You should register as soon as possible to secure your spot in the field.

Waitlist and Standby Teams

Once the field cap for each site is reached, which is 100 combined across all divisions at each site, you will be put on a waitlist until the field expands or teams drop, or you may play at another site that is not full.

You can also become a Standby team, which is a team that fills in for a last-minute drop. You may be promoted off the standby list the same day as the tournament, or not at all, so this is recommended as teams of extra players from your school.

Lodging

We will have official tournament hotels at each site! However, all lodging is to be determined, except in Denver where it is the same as last season, at the same rates… with more food options!

Rules

The most recent revision of the rules of the competition can be found in the menu above. Elementary School uses the same rules but without a game clock; Site Finals and Finals Day also do not use a game clock.

Prizes

The largest prize is pride in your achievement, but we have many prizes of token value for highly-ranking teams in each division at each event. The exact number is dependent on the size of the field. Such prizes may include trophies, medals, stuffed animals, and many other small tokens, all at our discretion. All teams will be excited to know that the Ducks will, once again, all be in a row this year.

The National Champion in each division except JV will be awarded a traveling trophy in addition to the usual prizes.

Our official trophy supplier for all but the traveling trophies is Mineola Trophy in Mineola, New York, and they would be happy to, for a fee, repair any trophy that is damaged, replace any trophy that is lost, or complete custom engraving on your trophy or medal.

Unfortunately, it is likely impossible to replace a lost or damaged non-trophy or medal prize.

Food

At all sites, we will have a recommended restaurant for you. When you sign up, you can purchase breakfast boxes, pizzas or boxed lunches, or pizzas or dinners at fixed rates from those recommended restaurants in addition to the tournament fee, which we will arrange the delivery of for you.

The exact arrangements are to be determined.

Statistics

Full and complete team and individual statistics will be updated live during the tournament on liqba.com. Category and buzzpoint statistics will be released a week or so after the last site has concluded.

Practice Material

If you’re looking for practice material for Nationals, check out the LIQBA’s Practice Subscription, one of the most valuable study tools in the game. It generally costs $250 per year.

We are also offering the entire Nationals set from 2026 free of charge to anyone who signs up as practice material.

Registration Fees

The registration fee is $750 per team, with no discounts available (but if you don’t think you can afford this, keep reading; there are options). Payment is due two weeks after registration.

If you cancel before March 15, no fee is due. After March 15, the full fee is due, even if you cancel.

However, you have two weeks from your registration date to drop; if you sign up less than two weeks before the tournament and we decide to accept your registration, you must pay immediately without refund if you drop. If you are registered and, barring emergencies, do not show up to the tournament, you may be restricted from playing future competitions with the LIQBA.

If you need financial assistance to cover costs for Nationals, you may apply through QB4ALL at www.qb4all.org/financialaid. Please allow approximately 72 hours for financial award decisions. Please note that QB4ALL is not affiliated with the LIQBA in any way.

Payment options have been reduced for this season.

You can, in order of desirability:
Pay by Check;
Pay by Purchase Order;
Pay by Credit Card, though the transaction fees will be passed through to you;
Pay in Cash.

If you do not pay the entry fee by the start of the tournament, you can’t play until you do.

No additional fee is due for the Finals.

Checks must be made out to “Long Island Quiz Bowl Alliance” and mailed to 16 Gilbert Avenue, Smithtown, New York, 11787. This is also where you can mail any other necessary paperwork. Our W9 is attached here for your use.

The registration fee does not cover any expense other than the tournament entry fees, so you still need to pay for hotels, transport, food, and so on.

Deadlines

You must sign up at least 3 weeks before the tournament date in question. Registrations after that deadline will be on an as-available basis.

Photography and Videography

Photographers will be present at all the sites, all games will be audio-recorded, and a videography team will be present for the site finals. By participating in the competition, you agree to be photographed and recorded; however, no pictures or videos will be used for commercial purposes aside from being posted on this website, and each participant will, along with the LIQBA, receive a lifetime, irrevocable license to all pictures with them in it.

Registration

You can register for nationals by filling out this form in its entirety. The form is not yet available; it will be when all venue and food arrangements are made. You are not officially registered until you get a confirmation from us.

Finals Day!

How It Works

Finals Day is Quizbowl’s most exciting day: it’s the day National Champions are crowned!

We’re greatly expanding Finals Day this season. In addition to the site winners playing for the championship, the winners of other Quiz Bowl National tournaments will be invited to Chicago to compete with the overall QBNC winner for a true National title.

The Finals games will all be professionally recorded, and the LIQBA is even building a full TV-studio set for the occasion.

Will you rise to the ultimate challenge?

Date and Location

Finals Day for the QBNC will take place at the Hilton Garden Inn Chicago-O’Hare, 2930 South River Road, Des Plaines, Illinois, extremely close to O’Hare Airport, the DES Convention Center, and public transportation directly to downtown Chicago.

It will take place on Monday, June 14, 2027, all day.

Tournament Schedule

7:00 AM: Staff Call Time, Team Check-In; Team Breakfast
7:30 AM: Opening Ceremony; Staff Meeting
8:15 AM: Round 1 Begins
8:55 AM: Round 2 Begins
9:35 AM: Round 3 Begins
10:00 AM: QBNC Finals Begin for Varsity and Middle School (Round 4, and possibly 5)

12:00 PM: Lunch

HIGH SCHOOL OVERALL
1:00 PM: Overall Championship Round 1 Begins
1:40 PM: Overall Championship Round 2 Begins
2:20 PM: Overall Championship Round 3 Begins
AT MS TAPE CONCLUSION (most likely 5 PM): Varsity Taped Finals Begin (Round 4, and possibly 5)

MIDDLE SCHOOL OVERALL
1:00 PM: MS Overall Championship Round 1 Begins
2:00 PM: MS Taped Finals Begin (Round 2, and possibly 3)

AFTER VARSITY TAPING CONCLUDES:
Awards Ceremony
Dinner

Questions and Format

The Quiz Bowl National Championships will use a premier purpose-written set by the LIQBA’s celebrated in-house writing team. Questions will be extremely difficult for the QBNC Finals and the most difficult the LIQBA has ever produced for the Overall Finals.

The tournament will follow the LIQBA’s New Four-Quarter Format, which consists of:

Quarter 1
The “Warmup Round”
10 Short Easy tossups, worth 10 points each

Quarter 2
The “Bonus Round”
5 Long Tossups, Powermarked, worth 10 (or 20 points in power) each, with each leading to a Bonus.
Each bonus has 4 parts, in approximate difficulty order, with parts worth 5, 10, 15, and 20 points for 50 possible points. Bouncebacks are possible on bonuses.

Quarter 3
The “Collaboration Round”
5 Collaboration Questions given to each team, very similar to our 30-20-10 Competition.
Collaboration questions will be scored 40-20-10.

Quarter 4
The legendary “Stump the Experts Round”
10 Short Hard tossups, powermarked, worth 20 or 10 points each.

Who Plays the Finals?

The winners in the Varsity and Middle School divisions from each site, eight in all, will play a double-elimination bracket for the QBNC Championship, leaving two teams remaining, one Varsity and one Middle School. They will be crowned the QBNC Champions.

From there, those winners will play further games:

The Varsity winner will play the Champions of the three other Quiz Bowl National tournaments: NAQT^SM‘s High School National Championship Tournament (HSNCT)^TM; the PACE NSC^TM; and Academic Hallmarks’ National Championship, all in a double-elimination bracket.

The Middle School winner will play the Champions of NAQT^SM‘s Middle School National Championship Tournament (MSNCT)^TM in a best-of-three series.

The winners of those series will be the undisputed Quiz Bowl National Champions.

For Teams: What We Do and Don’t Pay For

The following teams are eligible for free or discounted travel to Finals Day:

• The Varsity winners at the Northeast, South, Midwest, and West sites
• The Middle School winners at the Northeast, South, Midwest, and West sites
• The Champions of the HSNCT, MSNCT, PACE NSC, and Academic Hallmarks Championship

The offer of a travel package must be accepted within 3 days of winning a site. Should any of these teams decline for any reason, the runner-up will be offered the chance to compete; if they decline, the 3rd place team; and so on. If no team 5th place or above accepts, the spot will be unfilled and no further offers will be made.

What the LIQBA will pay for

All payments are for four players and one adult.

No matter your travel time, we will pay for…

• Hotel rooms: 2 or 3 rooms depending on your needs from your arrival date until Tuesday morning
• $10 towards each meal voucher for each meal you are in Chicago for; see below
• Up to $100 for tickets to some event you would like to go to on Saturday or Sunday (like the Cubs game, the Art Institute of Chicago or the Fields Museum, the Halloween exposition down the street, or the Skydeck on the Sears Tower, for instance!)
• 5 Victory Cannoli for your team on arrival!

If your school is 9 hours and 30 minutes or less in driving time from the hotel, with no traffic, according to Google Maps, we will pay for…

• A travel stipend of $500 so you can get to the hotel by car, bus, van, public transport, or so on
• If you need to stop overnight, 2 or 3 hotel rooms overnight at a Hilton property

If your school is 9 hours 31 minutes from the hotel according to the parameters above, we will pay for…

• Base Airfare and the taxes on that airfare for 4 players and 1 coach to an airport in Chicagoland, up to $500 per person, with the restrictions below
• If not flying into O’Hare, a rental car for however long you will be in Chicago (If you are flying into O’Hare, there is a free shuttle to the hotel)

If you are attending the PACE NSC that weekend, we will pay for…

• In addition to the items above, whatever it costs to change your flights so you are able to stay for Finals Day, up to $500 in change fees per person.

If we are paying for your flight, it is subject to these conditions:

• Unless you are traveling internationally, we will not place you on a red-eye, a flight with a layover longer than 3 hours, a flight with more than two plane changes, or a flight with an overnight layover without your consent.
• We may send you to any airport in Chicagoland or the surrounding area. This includes O’Hare, Midway, Rockford, Mitchell, Dane County, South Bend, Indianapolis, or Quad Cities, though we will make every effort to send you to O’Hare or Midway.
• We will not pay for anything beyond the base fare unless we choose to. This includes seat selection fees, bag fees, priority fees, or any other airline fee.

The lowest reasonable cost of transport using these guidelines is called the minimum viable trip. You may accept that trip, or you can book yourself; however, if that cost goes over the minimum viable trip cost, we will only pay up to the cost of the minimum viable trip.

For example, if we find a flight from San Francisco to O’Hare for 5 people, and the total cost is $1,300, and you want a different flight (say, from Sacramento to Midway) that costs a total of $3,450, we will pay $1,300 and no more.

What the LIQBA will not pay for

We will, under no circumstances, pay for any of the following:

• Travel expenses and hotel costs for more than 4 players and 1 adult, without exceptions.
• Expenses incurred by a team in getting to and from their home airport, or for individuals to and from their airport or a drop-off point.
• The costs of souvenirs, knickknacks, or anything else you purchase while in Chicago.
• Food expenses beyond the meal vouchers we provide and dinner for the Overall Champions.
• The cost to mail any prizes back home, except for the Overall Champions in each division.
• Anything past the Minimum Viable Trip cost.
• Any other expenses incurred by a team in their travels to Chicago for Finals Day.

Spectator Information and Tickets

The LIQBA invites Quiz Bowl lovers from all over the United States to come and see Finals Day! You can even be an audience member for the taped finals.

There are amazing perks for spectators, including discounted food, hotel rooms, and local transportation.

Spectator Tickets

Tickets for spectators are absolutely free!

A ticket entitles you to see all the matches, and get all the perks, including the Hotel group rate and access to Meal Vouchers. Tickets are cancelable and transferable prior to the day of the event.

You can freely cancel a ticket, but different perks may be difficult to cancel; meal vouchers in particular cannot be cancelled, though they can be transferred with permission.

Spectator Perks

With a Ticket, spectators get…

• A discounted rate at the Garden Inn of $160 per night, with all these perks:
  • Group rate runs from Thursday night to Tuesday night
  • Up to quad occupancy included in all group rates
  • Smallest bed is a Queen (2 Queen rooms)
  • Pre-confirmed connecting rooms on request
  • Free parking for cars and buses, with gateless, unlimited in-out
  • Pets allowed for low price, including $75 for two dogs OR two cats
  • Free high-speed wireless internet
  • Free heated indoor pool, kids’ pool, and hot tub
  • Free fitness center, in-room coffee and tea, and microwave/fridge
  • Free airport shuttle to O’Hare running 24/7
• Meal Vouchers available for purchase for a low price (~$15-20), to be determined:
  • There’s not much food around! So we did this:
  • Catered breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the hotel on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday
  • 1 voucher equals one meal
  • Full menus and prices to be determined as the event gets closer
  • No more doordash or $30 pizzas!
• Transportation perks
  • On weekdays, short bus ride to Rosemont Station
  • On weekends, shuttle passes at low cost (~$5-7.50 for unlimited rides) with service to Rosemont Station for service to Chicago and the DES Convention Center for the Halloween show! The shuttle runs from 6 AM to 9 PM!

Who can be a spectator?

Everyone is welcome! Tickets are available to the general public.

If you want to be in the audience for the taped finals, you’ll both need a ticket and sign a release.

How do I get a ticket, order meal vouchers, and book at the hotel?

A form for that will be released by October 15.

Lodging

The tournament hotel is the Hilton Garden Inn Chicago O’Hare Airport, located at 2390 South River Road, Des Plaines, Illinois, 60018. They can be reached at (847)-296-8900.

You can book here! See the Spectator Perks section for what the hotel offers. If you’re a Finals Team, talk to us before you book.

Rules, Prizes, and Statistics

A link to the rules is in the main website menu. Check back often– we make updates as the year goes on.

Every team who attends Finals Day will walk away with a prize of some sort: a trophy, a new buzzer system, book prizes, stuffed animal prizes, keepsakes, and so on.

The Overall Champions in each division will receive a banquet in their honor at Carmine’s Italian Restaurant in Rosemont… which includes the LIQBA’s legendary Victory Cannoli!

Full team, individual, category, and buzzpoint statistics will be released after the event concludes, and some will be released live during the tournament.

Photography and Videography

All games and ceremonies will be photographed and recorded on audio. The Overall Finals, and any other game we so choose, will be played on a full television set, recorded, and broadcast online at a minimum, or on television/streaming if we are able to arrange it. All players will have to sign a waiver.

Got Questions? We Have Answers.

Please write to Outreach@liqba.com with any questions you might have, or call (631)-360-3724 extension 1, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!