Quiz Bowl - Gameplay

Gameplay

There are several different formats of quiz bowl, but they generally share the following rules for playing. (See Formats below)

Two teams of (typically) four players, sometimes 5, each sit at a buzzer set, which is like a set of TV game show buzzers. Anyone who rings or buzzes in locks out everyone else from doing so. If a round is timed, a countdown timer is used. Most questions have a 5 second time limit after a question has been read. Each game is played with a packet of questions, which a moderator reads.

There are two basic types of questions asked: tossups (typically worth 10-15 points) and bonuses (worth a maximum of 20–40 points). Other types of questions include lightning or rapid-fire rounds, which usually consist of ten questions and sixty seconds, with only one team given the chance to respond. The other team may have the chance to answer the questions the first team missed; then the second team gets its own set of questions, and the first team may get to answer any missed questions.