In a heated intellectual battle, 16 teams of students fought this week to answer questions on anything from enzymes to ice cream for the campus College Bowl tournament.
“Dubya’s Cabinet,” a team composed of Charles McCollum, Chris Lin, Christina Benjamin, Alex Evans and Desmond Stevens, won the tournament and a trip to San Marcos, Texas, for the regional tournament.
The tournament was double elimination, and each game consisted of two seven-minute halves.
Several University professors volunteered as moderators, quizzing students on history, current events, sports and entertainment.
Before the competition began, most teams were in high spirits, and each expressed a variety of reasons for entering the competition.
“I’m really excited about College Bowl,” said mass communication sophomore Sarah Keenan. “The reason we entered was because we want to win the trip to Texas, so hopefully we’ll pull through.”
Keenan’s team, “JAKS,” was eliminated from the tournament in the second round, but they did enjoy their experience.
“We wanted to test our mental capacity against other members of the LSU community,” said business marketing junior Landon Franklin.
Franklin’s team, “Synaptical Warfare,” also was eliminated early.
“I’m perfecting my skills in anticipation of a Jeopardy appearance,” said English sophomore Jared Richard.
Many participants came prepared, some with a quiz bowl background.
“Most of [Dubya’s Cabinet] are former high school quiz bowl players,” said history senior Charles McCollum of the winning team. “We were actually on opposing teams from all parts of the state.”
Others participated simply for fun and to try something new.
“I’m a virgin to the whole bowl experience, so I’m looking forward to participating this year,” said business sophomore and “JAKS” team member Jimmy Uhl.
Uhl’s teammate, biological sciences sophomore Keith Kellum, said the team bought and played Trivial Pursuit to prepare for the competition but did not have any other kind of practice.
“Dubya’s Cabinet” members were excited about their win but are anticipating a hard tournament in Texas.
“It’s a regional competition — it’ll be difficult,” McCollum said. “Most of those teams practice a lot, and this is more for fun for LSU.”
The Union Programming Council will send “Dubya’s Cabinet” to the regional tournament in San Marcos, Texas, Feb. 22-23.