RU Quiz Bowl registration is underway

Teams are currently forming for Radford's annual Quiz Bowl Tournament, sponsored by the Honors Academy.

Registration for teams is now underway and the event is open to any Radford University undergraduate student. The Radford Quiz Bowl is a team version of the popular television show "Jeopardy." At RU, teams compete for prizes of $300 for the first place, $200 for second and $100 for third.

The 2014 RU Quiz Bowl will be held on Saturday, Sept. 20, in Heth 43. The preliminary rounds start at 9 a.m. and the final rounds begin at 1 p.m.

"The questions are from all over, but have a pretty strong academic focus, so I recommend people try to find a diverse group of majors for their team . . . a science person, a history person and someone who knows pop culture or sports. Everyone can make a contribution," said Niels Christensen, associate director of the Honors Academy and professor of psychology.

The event is a qualifying event for the Big South Conference Quiz Bowl Tournament in the spring. Last year, RU's Quiz Bowl team took third in the Big South event and also participated in a Division II event where they faced off in a 10-match, round-robin tournament against regional teams, including teams from Davidson, UNC and UVa.

RU students can sign up as individuals, a partial team of two or three players or a full team of four or five players. For the event, single players and partial teams will be combined to create complete teams. The tournament will feature only 12 teams. After that, interested teams will be placed on a wait-list.

"Most of the rounds have really close scores and you can feel the tension as the clock is winding down," Christensen said. "Everyone knows it's just for fun, but it's a great way to blow off some steam in the middle of the semester."

Registration is open until the tournament is full, or Monday, Sept. 15. For more information, call the Honors Academy at 831-6125 or visit the Quiz Bowl website.