Mainstream quizbowl

In high school quizbowl, the mainstream is the teams who hold practices and compete at Saturday tournaments, as opposed to teams who only play in after-school leagues or on television or only exist when they participate in a competition. Non-mainstream teams are usually just top students at the school or members of another academic extracurricular such as Academic Decathlon who are recruited to show up to something on a one-off basis.

In collegiate quizbowl, the mainstream is the teams who participate in collegiate-level NAQT and/or ACF tournaments, and independent tournaments held in the ACF style. It excludes teams who participate only in College Bowl, HCASC, or tournaments held on NAQT high school questions.