California Cup

The California Cup, sometimes known informally as Cal Cup, is a series of four high school tournaments held annually at UC Berkeley.

2012-2013

During the 2012-2013 school year, the Quiz Bowl team at Berkeley hosted the inaugural California Cup, a series of quiz bowl tournaments that challenged local high school teams to face off for pride and prizes, including gift cards, books, and trophies! These tournaments also qualified teams to compete at national quiz bowl tournaments, including HSNCT and the National Scholastics Championship.

In the Varsity division, Escobar's top team received the inaugural California Cup, placing first in three of the four tournaments! Escobar's second team were runners-up. In the JV division, newcomers Amador Valley finished first, with two wins (using two different squads) and another high placing. Escobar's top JV team was awarded for its second-place finish. Amador Valley also received an award as the "Best New Team".

In all, this year's California Cup brought high-quality competition (generally between 10 and 12 rounds per tournament) to at least 45 distinct teams, introduced good Quiz Bowl to at least fifteen different new schools, shattered Northern California tournament attendance records multiple times (attracting as many as 32 teams when the norm last year was between 8 and 12), helped foster the growth of a circuit in Sacramento, and attracted teams from as far as Southern California and Mississippi. The best is yet to come, however.

Results:

California Cup #1 (December 8, 2012, NAQT IS #120 and #121A)

California Cup #2 (January 19, 2013, LIST)

California Cup #3 (February 10, 2013, GSAC)

California Cup #4 (March 16, 2013, BDAT)

2013-2014

UC Berkeley hosted the 2nd annual Cal Cup series of tournaments during the 2013-2014 school year.

Results:

California Cup #1 (November 9, 2013, BISB)

California Cup #2 (November 23, 2013, NAQT IS #130 and #129A)

California Cup #3 (January 19, 2014, GSAC; varsity only)

California Cup #4 (February 1, 2014; LIST)

California Cup #5 (April 19, 2014; NAQT IS #141A; jv only)

2014-2015

UC Berkeley hosted the 3nd annual Cal Cup series of tournaments during the 2014-2015 school year.

Results:

California Cup #1 (November 1, 2014; HSAPQ #53 and SCOP Novice)

California Cup #2 (November 22, 2014; NAQT IS #140 and #141A)

California Cup #3 (February 21, 2015; BISB)

California Cup #4 (March 7, 2015; BHSAT)

2015-2016

UC Berkeley hosted the 4th annual Cal Cup series of tournaments during the 2015-2016 school year.

Results:

California Cup #1 (October 24, 2015; BISB and SCOP Novice)

California Cup #2 (November 14, 2015; NAQT IS #150 and #151A)

California Cup #3 (February 20, 2016; CALI)

California Cup #4 (March 5, 2016; BASK)

2016-2017

UC Berkeley hosted the 5th annual Cal Cup series of tournaments during the 2016-2017 school year.

California Cup #1 (October 22, 2016; SCOP Novice, WHAQ)

California Cup #2 (November 12, 2016; IS #161A, IS #160)

California Cup #3 (February 11, 2017; HSAPQ Novice, BHSAT)

California Cup #4 (March 4, 2017; Penn Novice, GSAC) March

2017-2018

In the 2017-2018 season, the Cal Cup division system was changed, from the usual Varsity/Junior-Varsity to a three division system: Competitive/Standard/Novice. Competitive and Standard played the same packet, while the Novice division played a slightly easier packet as shown below. Also, due to scheduling issues, UC Berkeley stopped hosting the tournament (after Cal Cup #1). Instead, the tournament was hosted at a variety of schools in the South Bay, most notably Bellarmine College Preparatory, St. Francis HS, and Menlo Private HS. The 6th annual Cal Cup was won by Crystal Springs Uplands (Competitive), Saratoga B (Standard), and Monta Vista (Novice).

California Cup #1 (October 29, 2017; SCOP Novice, Maryland Fall)

California Cup #2 (November 11, 2017; IS-170, IS-171A)

California Cup #3 (February 10, 2018; Harvard Fall Tournament)

California Cup #4 (March 3, 2018; BHSAT)

2018-2019

Due to the massive amounts of smoke caused by the Camp Fire, Cal Cup #2 was re-scheduled for January 19, 2019. Also, the 7th annual Cal Cup series was the first with no tournaments held at UC Berkeley.

California Cup #1 (October 27, 2018; WHAQ, SCOP Novice)