Peoria Area World Affairs Council

The Peoria Area World Affairs Council Tournament, PAWAC Tournament, or simply PAWAC is an annual quiz bowl tournament held by the Peoria Area World Affairs Council in Peoria, Illinois. The tournament typically draws teams from central & down-state Illinois. The tournament is ostensibly a subject-focused academic competition towards social studies & current events, but do actively incorporate common distribution to qualify it as a quiz bowl event.

Winners of the PAWAC Tournament automatically qualify to compete nationally at the World Affairs Council of America Academic WorldQuest Tournament.

History

The PAWAC Tournament has been held since 2002. The tournament was the creation of IHSSBCA Hall of Fame & chair, John Rathbun & Patricia Luthe. Teams were invited from around the Peoria-area & Bloomington-Normal and were sponsored by local papers, Peoria Journal Star & The Pantagraph.

The creation of the tournament coincided with the launch of the national Academic WorldQuest Tournament held by the World Affairs Council of America in Washington, D.C. With other World Affairs Councils around the country sending their representative teams from other local & regional tournaments. The Academic WorldQuest is not a quiz bowl tournament. Its format consists of teams answering multiple choice questions covering themed topics over multiple rounds. However, winners of the Academic WorldQuest have included top teams from quiz bowl including Plano West & Maggie Walker.

Rathbun's vision for PAWAC was that the WACA WorldQuest could be adapted into a quiz bowl format and were not mutually exclusive compared to the more subject-focused competition as seen in other competitions like National History Bee and Bowl or Science Bowl.

Rathbun was the 2008 recipient of the Robert Grierson Friend of Scholastic Bowl Award for his work with the tournament & the Peoria Area League.

Over the years the PAWAC Tournament has been held between mid-October & mid-November making it one of the first tournaments on the season calendar for many local teams.

Questions

The tournament has used housewritten questions over the years. In the modern era, these packets could be described as following bad quizbowl. Questions have varied from non-pyramidal structure, emphasis on trash/non-academic clues, to being made up of few clue lines. Subject distribution does attempt to mirror common quiz bowl categories, with most questions featuring some clue relating to current events or social studies. Bonus categories typically correspond with the category of the toss-up.

Question packets have varied over the years between 16-20 toss ups & bonuses.

In recent years there have been attempts to improve the quality of questions with the goal of balancing tournament tradition, quiz bowl canon, & still aligning with WACA WorldQuest curriculum.

Tournament Format

The tournament follows a typical quiz bowl tournament structure assigning teams to pools, with top teams advancing to single-elimination playoffs. Gameplay adheres to the Illinois Scholastic Bowl format.

After the conclusion of morning rounds, an All-Tournament team of the top five players is announced. Top-4 finishing teams are awarded monetary prizes.

The 2020 tournament during the COVID-19 pandemic was held virtually through MyQuiz.

The PAWAC Tournament has been held on the campus of Bradley University since its inception.

WACA Team Illinois

Since 2018, the winner of the PAWAC Tournament automatically receives a bid to compete at the World Affairs Council of America Academic WorldQuest Tournament held in Washington, D.C.

Historically, PAWAC was represented at the Academic WorldQuest by its All-Tournament Team. Due to PAWAC being the lone World Affairs Council in Illinois to send teams to the Academic WorldQuest & featuring the regions top players over the years, the team has carried a de-facto "Team Illinois” identity. The team was coached by John Rathbun until 2016, with Angela Weck acting as interim coach in 2017.

Tournament Results

Year	# of Teams	Tournament Champions	2nd Place	3rd Place	4th Place	Top Scorer, Team
2024	21	Washington	St. Teresa	Galesburg	East Peoria	Logan Philips, St. Teresa
2023	24	East Peoria	Washington	Metamora	St. Teresa	Logan Philips, St. Teresa
2022		Streator	East Peoria	Illinois Valley Central	Geneseo
2021		Streator	Illinois Valley Central	St. Teresa		Jack Kramer, St. Teresa
2020		Streator	Peoria Notre Dame	Morton	Metamora	Jameson Spears, PND
2019	21	Normal Community	Streator	LaSalle-Peru	Metamora	Murphy Wilkinson, Streator
2018
2017		Richwoods	LaSalle-Peru	East Peoria	Illinois Valley Central	Kevin Ballard-Munn, East Peoria
2016		Dunlap	Richwoods	Streator	LaSalle-Peru	Ethan Elarton, East Peoria
2015		Streator	LaSalle-Peru	Metamora	Newman Central Catholic	Jared Willerton, Metamora
2014		Newman Central Catholic	Dunlap	Peoria Christian	Champaign Central
2013		Bloomington	Richwoods	Illinois Valley Central	Bloomington Central Catholic
2012
2011		Midwest Central	Fieldcrest	Richwoods	Peoria Notre Dame
2010
2009
2008
2007	24	Bloomington	Limestone	Normal West	Peoria Heights	Hunter Fast, Bloomington
2006	24	Bloomington				Hunter Fast, Bloomington
2005	24	Bloomington	Normal West	Morton	Peoria Heights	Dylan Troxel, Peoria Heights
2004	24	Bloomington	Morton	Peoria Heights	Peoria Notre Dame	John Smille, Morton
2003	24	Limestone	Roanoke-Benson	Morton	Bloomington	Adam Janzen, Illini Bluffs
2002	18	Limestone	Illini Bluffs	Bloomington Central Catholic	Dunlap	Tom Burke, BCC