One-person teams

A one-person team (or one-man team) is a team with multiple players on it whose fate is perceived to be entirely tied to the scoring abilities of a single player. Literal "one-person" teams are typically referred to as solo instead.

The term is both laudatory and derisive - while it celebrates the skill of the "one-person" in question, it minimizes the contributions of their teammates (which are often significant) and carries with it the implication that the "one-person" is succeeding in part because of their lack of support. Because of the derogatory connotations, and especially the implied insult to the teammates of the "one-person," it is not a good idea to use this term in reference to any team in your tournament when you are the TD or moderator.

Examples

One-person teams are frequently successful at the local high school level and occasionally competitive nationally. They usually cannot succeed against well-balanced attacks from multiple good players at the highest levels of either high school or collegiate quizbowl. No one-person team has ever won a high school national, but one has one a collegiate national.

High school

Year	School	Players	HSNCT	NSC
2015	Western Albemarle	Caroline Koester, Eric Xu, Kelly Missett, Sam Lesemann, Tim Dodson	t-5th	5th
2015	Northmont	Brendon Jenkins, Kara Combs, Lauren Papp, Rachel Tracy, Sam Blizzard	t-13th	12th
2018	Dublin Scioto	Clark Smith, Edward Liu, Gabriel Pinto, Visvam Srinivasan		2nd
2017	Taylor	Ashwath Seetharaman, Jacob Redland, Joseph Kusko, Oishik Saha, William Golden	t-5th
2018	Taylor	Ashwath Seetharaman, Jacob Redland, Joseph Kusko, William Golden	t-5th	4th
2019	Taylor	Jed Wang, Katie Sturzu, Mitchell Shadden, William Golden	t-5th	2nd