Sitting in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center Forum at 9:00 a.m., the four students comprising the College Bowl team ABCD were chatting away and eager for competition. Ten minutes later, ABCD had won its first match - by a forfeiture.
Instead of leaning back and taking a break until its next round, however, Team ABCD - freshmen Cassandra Adamson, Drew Hainz, Brittany Hommerding and Audra White - continued practicing in a mock round.
"While I know we could have defeated our opposing team, forfeiting gave us the opportunity to have a relaxing pr+â-¬cis and taste of a full-scale, heated and combative competition," Hainz said.
"I was pumped because we didn't have to play a team, but then Drew totally dominated our practice round," Hommerding said.
The practice round paid off - Hainz was one of the top overall scorers of the tournament.
PARTICIPATION
Three years ago, Janice Altman revived Ball State University's College Bowl from its on-campus hiatus and brought together 12 teams for competition. Last year, because of better promotion and the establishment as an annual event, 24 teams signed up to compete. This year, despite advertisements in the Daily News and e-mails to all Ball State students, the number decreased to 15 registered teams.
In the past, one of the reasons fewer teams had signed up for competition was the misconception that College Bowl is only for the academically elite, Lorri Markum. this year's coordinator, said.
"If you get together for Trivial Pursuit, this is no different," Markum said. "You don't have to have a 4.0 {GPA} to do College Bowl. You don't have to know a gamut of information to do well in College Bowl. It is academic-minded, but it's fun. Anyone can do well."
Markum also attributes the lower participation rate to the number of class assignments students have to finish.
"I don't know why it's so different this semester, but it seems like there are more projects and papers, moreso than in previous years," Markum said. "Attendance is down in other organizations as well, so I do not feel it was a lack of promotion."
PRE-COMPETITION STRATEGIES
The FIJI Owls - Jamie Manuel, Eric Maroun, Anthony Rizzie and Juston Sorber - openly represented Phi Gamma Delta fraternity in bright purple shirts with "FIJI" written across the front. In order to prepare for Saturday's competition, the team's members played along with "Jeopardy!" episodes.
"We came because we thought we could win," Maroun said. "We're filled with useless trivia, and we thought this was a good way to apply that."
The Ball Bearings team - Kerry Crawford, Katie Dorsey, Trenton Taylor and Aaron Thesing - also prepared for the competition. Dorsey's father e-mailed her history quizzes and then graded her responses.
"Last year, my team was Felicis, which is Latin for 'luck,'" Taylor, a classical studies minor, said. Although Felicis did not go far in competition, Taylor learned how crucial history buffs are for College Bowl and then applied that strategy in forming his team this year.
Representing the Educational Resource Center and Library was Ed. Restless, captained by Chris Copsey. His method of practicing included "B-Dub's trivia games," he said, and his strategies also covered possible pre-competition jitters.
"You answer any competition with nerves," Copsey said. "And you don't want to get too cocky."
READY, SET, BUZZ!
The stakes were high. This year, the team that clinched victory the final round won a $200 prize, the team in second place won $100 and the top five individual scorers won $50 each. The top five scorers also are invited to compete as Ball State University's College Bowl team at regional competition in February at Purdue University.
As the competition evolved throughout the day, participants emerged from the hall either cheering and gearing up for the next competition or packing up for home. However, despite the tension between the teams during rounds, many of the losing teams noted how high the sportsmanship level was.
In their first round, the Metz Bros knocked the Student Education Association team out of the tournament. When the final scores were announced, both teams stood up to shake hands and joked about their own weaknesses while congratulating the other for serving as great competition.
"I would have felt really bad if we had lost by one point, but we went up against a guy who was really smart," Travis O'Neal, a member of the SEA team, said.
ABCD, which also lost to the Metz Bros. by 15 points in the second round, remained positive about the match.
"I was sad we lost, but they were gracious and polite," Hommerding said.
Rounds continued with questions concerning such subjects as Rosa Parks, Sudoku, Chanel, Geico, "The Princess Diaries'" author Meg Cabot and Geico Auto Insurance. Groups were eliminated one-by-one until the final match: the Student Government Association versus Masters of Disasters.
The SGA team - Kyle Ellis, Kevin Fitzgerald, Betsy Mills and Travis Schilla - had a previous strong finish to uphold. The SGA finished second last year, losing to the Democrats in the final round.
In contrast, Masters of Disasters - Steve Carnagua, Leland Fecher, David Hekel and Alex Wilson - was a team of first-timers. Only Carnagua and Wilson had previous experiences with academic trivia games in high school. Going into the round with underdog status, the team was confident that it could defeat the SGA team, they said.
"It's all the orange juice," Fecher, who had brought in an economy-sized plastic carton of orange juice into the rounds with him, joked. "It was breakfast and 800 percent of my daily Vitamin C. I guess our strategy is to stay hydrated."
Masters of Disasters put all joking aside during finals and focused on pulling ahead of the SGA team. With a couple minutes to spare, Carnagua correctly answered questions about "Les Miserables," Joseph McCarthy and the Latin phrase 'Carpe Diem' to give Masters of Disasters a 110-point lead before the timer buzzed.
"It was fun and exciting," Mills said after the final round's scores were verified. "I've never been on a team like this before. We could have been a little quicker on the buzzers, but I'm proud of our team."
After the final round, the regional team was announced. Steve Carnagua, Kevin Fitzgerald, Drew Hainz, Paul Metz and Betsy Mills will compete in February at Purdue.
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