Recognition rule

In some quizbowl formats, players are required to be recognized by a game official before giving their answer on toss-up questions. Giving an answer without being recognized first is treated as answering incorrectly regardless of what answer the player says.

This rule used to be more common (and still remains in some formats like Arkansas's), but has fallen out of favor in many formats as it would often unfairly punish enthusiastic players who knew the answer.Good quizbowl question formats do not have such a rule.