Zone out

To zone out is to fail to pay attention to the tossup until magically becoming alert at the sound of "For ten points"; its usage in quizbowl is an application of the common English phrase of the same meaning.

Players often zone out on questions about areas that they have no knowledge in. This effect is particularly pronounced in fields which require higher baseline levels of specialist knowledge, like science and auditory fine arts. Zoning out is considered bad practice, though, because not only do players reduce their chances of getting the question they zone out on (in some cases missing clues that actually do know), but they fail to learn anything about the subject and reduce their chances to convert future questions as well.

Strategic considerations

It has been suggested that on a team with, say, a physics specialist and three players with limited knowledge of physics, it is more beneficial for the three non-physics players to zone out on physics questions to conserve mental energy for tossups in their areas of specialty than it is for all four to listen to the question. However, this argument in general only applies to major national tournaments where fatigue may become a factor in a team's ability to win pivotal games.