Fun practice formats

Several alternative or "fun" formats of quizbowl exist for use at less serious practices or in scrimmages.

Designate Bowl

See Designate Bowl.

Modified Prussian

A quizbowl format developed by Mike Usher of Berkeley. It involves every player playing for himself on tossups. If a player gets a tossup, he has a chance to either take the bonus on his own or to nominate a champion to help him out on the bonus. If the player takes the bonus on his own, whatever points he doesn't get on the bonus accrue to the moderator. If the player elects to split the bonus with a champion, he and the champion split the points evenly (if there is an odd number of points, the player who got the tossup gets the odd point). Points for dead tossups are also given to the moderator. The goal is to beat the moderator, as well as the other players. Due to the prevalence of greed, the moderator frequently wins. [1]

Two-Headed Monster

In Two-Headed Monster, two players (usually the best two in attendance if there's an incredibly lopsided set of players) play as a team; their team acts as though it is playing Designate Bowl (i.e. no signaling whatsoever, each player can only buzz when he/she thinks their teammate knows the answer, and only that teammate can give an answer). The entire rest of the room plays against the "monster" as a large team.

To be continued.