School.
Fun. I like it. Afterschool? Far more fun, mainly because of extracurriculars. While I do enjoy doing Public Forum debate, the main club I participate in and relish is Quizbowl (“Academic Team” if you want to be formal about it). Well, the new season has started and I’m excited. Over the summer, me and the other players on Livingston’s A team went and played Coastal Clash, a charity tournament held online for players across the country. Some of the games ended up being close, but ultimately we went undefeated and won the tournament. Tournament proceeds going towards medical kits being sent to shelters around the Northeast was also a plus.
As we start a new Quizbowl season, one of the things I’m looking forward to is playing at harder difficulties. From the traditional 1-10 scale, high school sets typically rank around 3, while high school national tournaments are roughly at 5. Anything about 5 and above is college level, while 2 and below is middle school. Last year, we played a lot of tournaments at the difficulty level of 3, but this year I’m looking to play more in the 4-7 range. Playing more difficult questions is always fun because I get to prove that not all of my knowledge is surface level! It’s also just a fun experience to get hard questions right, y’know?
In a few weeks, Princeton is going to be hosting their inaugural High School Academic Tournament, which I’m really looking forward to winning :P. We’re looking to qualify multiple Livingston teams to the High School National Championship Tournament, and also just to have fun with the teams from the other schools. I’m kind of nervous because this is my first year and first official tournament as part of Livingston’s “A” team, but hopefully all goes well.
Update (9/23/24): we won with an undefeated record. And no, I wasn’t asleep during the games, despite the photographs that have been shared.