Playing under a pseudonym

Sometimes, quizbowl teams play under pseudonyms, using fake names in hopes of preventing their schools from realizing they are violating school rules and/or in hopes of reducing or eliminating their school's liability for problems at tournaments at which they are improperly supervised. Occasionally the purpose is just to be "funny" (in this case, an in-joke of some kind is often involved).

In the early and mid-2000s, sometimes individual players played under pseudonyms to be "funny", to help facilitate cheating, or for other reasons. Sometimes player pseudonyms were rotated among teammates within a tournament to render individual statistics irrelevant. Both of these practices have largely died out.

The use of pseudonyms damages the usefulness, accuracy, and completeness of statistics. Generally speaking, both of these practices are considered hallmarks of bad quizbowl (although the use of pseudonyms by individuals is generally looked down upon more than if teams do it).