Brain Busters

Brain Busters, stylized as BrainBusters, is a high school quiz bowl tournament sponsored by WellSpan Health (formerly by Westfield Insurance and Capital Blue Cross) and televised by WGAL 8 of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

History

Brain Busters was first held in 2002. It is hosted by Rich Rosen, a gifted education teacher and television show host. From 1998 to 2001 it was preceded by a similar program known as High Q, televised by WHTM of Harrisburg and also hosted by Rosen. Rich Rosen is well-regarded for his extremely charismatic, friendly, and welcoming qualities. The show's format is considered Bad Quiz Bowl, and has many similar problems that other events like the NAC have. Unlike the NAC, though, Rich Rosen is more professional in his hosting.

Format

The tournament is structured as a single-elimination bracket; recent fields have been capped at 38 teams. Teams are chosen by random drawing; teams from Lancaster, though, are generally given preference, with the remaining slots filled from schools in the Susquehanna Valley. In the past, schools as far away as Mifflin County have attended. A "wild card" slot has been included, depending on the field structure, to let the team with the highest losing score return. In more recent renditions of the program, a third place game has been aired prior to the championship.

The format is an idiosyncratic variation of four-quarter format involving five rounds as follows:

first round: 10-point tossups
second round: one-on-one face-off between individual players on three 10-point tossups
third round: lightning round with three choices (rather than the four given at the NAC)
fourth round: wager round
fifth round: 20-point tossups.

Prizes

Prizes have included various values of college scholarships and free entry to a local amusement park for the student body of the winning high school. Each show often includes a "bonus question" at the end of the first quarter that grants the correct team free Turkey Hill ice cream, or a similar prize.

In more recent years, the program generally hands out grants to the schools on behalf of their sponsor. With the change to WellSpan Health, the prize pool decreased. Teams that make it to a certain point in the tournament are guaranteed a certain level of grant, with better finishes resulting in more money. The highest-known prize given was $5,000 dollars to the winning team. Today, the winning team also receives free iPads. The grant money is written to the school district, where 20% of the funds are allowed to be used in any capacity as decided by the school, but the other 80% must be used for an educational purpose.

All teams that compete are guaranteed to receive a participation award, which previously has included low-quality portable phone chargers and a travel mug, both with the logo of the sponsor on the side.

Explanation of Quality

The tossups used in Brain Busters are not pyramidal, and often vary in quality. Questions are rarely longer than two sentences, and mostly require an answerline to be given; others, though, are multiple choice. Multiple choice tossups generally ask for players to name a year an event occurred.

Some questions, though, do start with more obscure information, then ask for something specific in the second sentence. However, these again are not always truly pyramidal, as many of the first sentences include a giveaway clue, leading to buzzer races. Usually, a handful of the tossups each game are hoses.

In terms of content, Brain Busters actually covers some of the basic high school canon in its tossups, especially in history and literature, as well as current events, sports, and other various trash.

In the lightning round, though, the question quality changes significantly. Three categories are given for teams to answer as many questions as possible in 60 seconds, with the team losing getting to pick the category first. The categories, though, are often misleading, except for the almost-always-included category where all answers start with the same letter. Generally speaking, this category is much simpler than others, and is almost always chosen first. The answerlines in this category vary wildly.

The wager round allows players to gamble between 0 and 25 points. The question is read twice by a recording of a WGAL news anchor and, surprisingly, is often formatted like a pyramidal bonus.

The questions have had numerous repeats, even within the same season, leading to players recording the airings of the show and writing down the questions used. The repeats include both the tossups, as well as unused categories in the lightning round. When asked if the questions are written in-house, Rich Rosen replied that "the questions are from another company the studio hires."

Results

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	Link
2025	TBD ___	TBD ___
2024	Ephrata 240	Hempfield 215
2023	Elizabethtown 300	Hempfield 180
2022	Cedar Crest 460	Trinity 235
2021	[[___]] ___	[[___]] ___
2020	Pandemic 10-way split	Carlisle, Con. Valley, Cumb. Valley, E-town, Hempfield, Hershey, Mechanicsburg, Penn Manor, Spring Grove, Trinity
2019	Lancaster Mennonite W	Elizabethtown L
2018	[[___]] ___	[[___]] ___
2017	Hempfield 365	Ephrata 285
2016	Cedar Crest 440	Spring Grove 110	Link
2015
2014	Manheim Township ___	Harrisburg Academy ___
2013	Manheim Township 480	Hershey 305
2012	Manheim Township 545	Lower Dauphin 345	Link
2011	Lancaster Catholic 420	Manheim Township 380
2010	Hershey 470	Penn Manor 370	Link
2009	Cumberland Valley 415	Lancaster Country Day 385
2008		Manheim Township
2007
2006	Penn Manor	Manheim Township	Link