This article describes the Academic Buzzer Team at the University of Illinois. For high school Scholastic Bowl in the state of Illinois, see Illinois Scholastic Bowl.
The University of Illinois ("Illinois" or "UIUC") is a large public university located in Champaign, Illinois and Urbana, Illinois. Illinois is represented in quizbowl by the Academic Buzzer Team (ABT), which was founded by Chris Goheen and others circa 1979 and is by some accounts the oldest continuously active registered student organization (RSO) at Illinois.
Tournaments
In the late 2000's and early 2010's, Illinois traditionally hosted two collegiate tournaments: the Matt Cvijanovich Memorial Novice Tournament (MCMNT) and Illinois Open ("IO"). The MCMNT was almost always open only to first- and second-year players. Some iterations required packet submission, while some other iterations were paired with the Minnesota Undergraduate Tournament (MUT) or Brown’s Early Fall Tournament (EFT). In 2021, Illinois Open was revived, head edited by Auroni Gupta and written by past and current Illinois players.
The ABT also hosts an annual high school tournament: the Earlybird. The Earlybird was originally housewritten, but shifted to using HSAPQ question sets. After the dissolution of HSAPQ, Earlybird used various regular-difficulty housewrites or NAQT Invitational Series sets. In the past, the ABT historically produced and hosted the ABT Solo, a one-on-one tournament with short ACF-style questions usually produced by Donald Taylor. The ABT has provided facilities for IHSSBCA's annual meeting and for its Team Illinois tryouts. In 2011, the IHSSBCA recognized the ABT as the Friend of Scholastic Bowl. Additionally, the ABT hosted the Illinois NAQT State tournament in 2008 and from 2014 to the present.
Several other high school quizbowl or quizbowl-like events have been held at Illinois, including the long-running Illinois Phi Scholars Tournament, though the ABT is not generally involved in these other tournaments.
Notable Performances
- In 2010, Illinois placed 5th (tied with Brown A and Penn) at ACF Nationals, 4th (tied with Minnesota A) in Division I at NAQT ICT, and 31st in Division II at ICT.
- In 2011, Illinois placed 3rd at ACF Nationals and 3rd in Division I at NAQT ICT.
- In 2012, Illinois finished 2nd in Division I at NAQT ICT. They finished 6th overall and won the undergraduate championship at the ACF Nationals.
- In 2013, Illinois finished 4th in Division I at ICT and Illinois A won ACF Nationals; a one-person Illinois B team won the Division II award at Nationals as well, which Matt Weiner incorrectly claimed was the first solo victory of Division II ACF Nationals despite Ike Jose being in the room.
- In 2017, Illinois finished 2nd in Division II at ICT, losing in the final to Berkeley.
- In 2021, Illinois finished 2nd in Division I at ICT, losing in the final to Columbia.
Current Members
Loosely Affiliated
Former Members
2007-2008 Season
| Tournament |
Host |
Date |
Finish |
Individual
|
| ACF Regionals
|
University of Chicago
|
February 16, 2008
|
| Illinois A - 2nd
|
| Illinois B - 6th
|
| Illinois C - 11th
|
|
| Mike Sorice - 3rd
|
| Jeff Crean - 8th
|
|
| NAQT SCT
|
University of Chicago
|
February 9, 2008
|
| Illinois A (Div I) - 1st
|
| Illinois B (Div I) - 3rd
|
| Illinois (Div II) - 6th
|
|
| Mike Sorice (Div I) - 1st
|
| Steven Canning (Div I) - 6th
|
| Greg Baboukis (Div I) - 7th
|
| Sulee Cao (Div I) - 8th
|
| Trygve Meade (Div II) - 3rd
|
|
| Cardinal Classic
|
Stanford University
|
February 2, 2008
|
| Illinois A - 6th
|
| Illinois B - 10th
|
|
Mike Sorice - 2nd
|
| Penn Bowl
|
Truman State University
|
January 26, 2008
|
Illinois - 3rd
|
Mike Sorice - 1st
|
| MLK
|
University of Michigan
|
January 19, 2008
|
Illinois A - 2nd
|
Mike Sorice - 1st
|
| TTGT11
|
University of Iowa
|
December 1, 2007
|
Illinois - 1st
|
N/A
|
| Brainal Leakage
|
Truman State University
|
November 17, 2007
|
| Illinois A - 1st
|
| Illinois B - 5th
|
|
| Mike Sorice - 1st
|
| Trygve Meade - 5th
|
| Steven Canning - 8th
|
|
| Deep Bench
|
University of Minnesota
|
October 20, 2007
|
Illinois - 1st
|
Mike Sorice - 1st
|
| EFT2
|
University of Chicago
|
October 6, 2007
|
| Illinois A - 2nd
|
| Illinois D - 7th
|
| Illinois B - 22nd
|
| Illinois C - 23rd
|
|
| Donald Taylor - 3rd
|
| Trygve Meade - 10th
|
|
2006-2007 Season
| Tournament |
Host |
Date |
Finish |
Individual
|
| NAQT ICT
|
University of Minnesota
|
April 13-14, 2007
|
| Illinois (Div I) - 2nd
|
| Illinois (Div II) - 11th
|
|
Mike Sorice (Div I) - 3rd
(NAQT has 5th due to a scoring error in round 5)
|
| ACF Nationals
|
Vanderbilt University
|
March 31, 2007
|
| Illinois A - 5th
|
| Illinois B - ?
|
|
Mike Sorice - 1st
|
| Matt Cvijanovich Memorial Novice
|
University of Illinois
|
March 10, 2007
|
Illinois A - 5th
|
Greg Baboukis - 4th
|
| ACF Regionals
|
University of Chicago
|
February 17, 2007
|
| Illinois A - 2nd
|
| Illinois B - 12th
|
|
Mike Sorice - 2nd
|
| NAQT SCT
|
University of Michigan
|
February 10, 2007
|
Illinois (Div I) - 3rd
|
| Mike Sorice - 1st
|
| Kelly Tourdot - 8th
|
|
| NAQT SCT
|
University of Iowa
|
February 10, 2007
|
| Illinois A (Div II) - 2nd
|
| Illinois B (Div II) - 5th
|
|
| Donald Taylor - 3rd
|
| Greg Baboukis - 7th
|
|
| Anne B. Davis
|
University of Michigan
|
January 14, 2007
|
| Illinois A - 4th
|
| Illinois B - 10th
|
|
N/A
|
| MLK
|
University of Michigan
|
January 13, 2007
|
| Illinois A - 3rd
|
| Illinois B - 9th
|
|
Mike Sorice - 5th
|
| ACF Fall
|
University of Chicago
|
November 4, 2006
|
| Illinois C - 1st
|
| Illinois A - 5th
|
| Illinois B - 8th
|
|
| Mike Sorice - 1st
|
| Kelly Tourdot - 3rd
|
| Donald Taylor - 7th
|
|
| Rollapalooza
|
University of Missouri-Rolla
|
October 21, 2006
|
Illinois - 1st
|
| Mike Sorice - 1st
|
| Kelly Tourdot - 3rd
|
|
Title Succession
Unofficial title succession
External Links
Official Website
