ACF Nationals
Last updated: September 26, 2023
ACF Nationals is the premier collegiate quizbowl national championship. For over 25 years, ACF Nationals has been the ultimate test of collegiate quizbowl teams’ skill on the hardest and biggest question set of the season.
Table of Contents
- 2023 ACF Nationals
- Hosting
- Qualifying for ACF Nationals
- Packet submission
- Fees
- Distribution
- Eligibility
- Past tournaments
2023 ACF Nationals
2023 ACF Nationals will be held on April 22-23, 2023 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
2023 ACF Nationals is head edited by Taylor Harvey. The subject breakdown by editor is:
| Editor | Subjects |
|---|---|
| Caroline Mao | American and World Literature |
| Will Nediger | British Literature, Philosophy, Social Science |
| William Golden | European Literature, Other Fine Arts |
| Grant Peet | American and World History |
| Michael Kearney | European and Other History |
| Hasna Karim | Biology, Religion |
| Adam Silverman | Chemistry |
| Jonathen Settle | Physics, Other Science |
| Sameer Apte | Music |
| Taylor Harvey | Religion, Mythology, Painting and Sculpture |
| Ganon Evans | Other |
Ryan Rosenberg will be Tournament Director.
More details about dates, hosting, field size, and staffing will be available in the coming months.
Hosting
ACF is soliciting bids to host ACF Nationals. To bid, please fill out this form.
Qualifying for ACF Nationals
ACF Regionals serves as a qualifying tournament for ACF Nationals. ACF’s procedures for determining which teams have qualified for ACF Nationals are available here.
If an ACF Regionals host fails to play off or award Undergraduate and Division II titles, or an event precludes awarding Nationals bids normally, ACF will handle bids on a case-by-case basis.
Packet submission
The editors of ACF Nationals are planning on writing 13 packets this year. Unlike recent years, packet submission for 2023 ACF Nationals will be mandatory. However, teams will only be required to submit half-packets. Teams should request a half-packet distribution by emailing nationals@acf-quizbowl.com.
Finalized tossups for 2023 ACF Nationals will be capped at 8 lines in 10-point Times New Roman. However, this cap does not apply to submissions; submitting teams are allowed and encouraged to submit longer tossups.
The packet deadlines:
| Packet discount | Submission deadline |
|---|---|
| -$100 | Sunday, November 27 |
| -$50 | Sunday, January 1 |
| -$25 | Sunday, January 22 |
| -$0 | Sunday, February 12 |
| +$25 | Sunday, March 5 |
| +$50 | Sunday, March 26 |
Later packet submissions will be charged $10/day late.
Additionally, if you submit a packet before registering for the tournament and subsequently do not attend ACF Nationals, whether because you do not qualify or because you choose not to attend, that packet can still be used for ACF Nationals. The discount the packet would have earned will roll over to the next ACF tournament that the school sends a team to. If the discount is greater than $70 (ACF’s share of tournament fees), it can be spread among multiple teams from the same school, or the difference between $70 and the amount of the discount can be rolled over to a further tournament. Rolling over a discount does not preclude submitting a packet for the next ACF tournament, should that be required.
All packet submission deadlines are at 11:59 p.m. Central Time. Packets must be submitted to nationals@acf-quizbowl.com. We will continue to offer an additional −$50 quality discount to any team that submits a polished packet with almost all questions usable with little to no editing.
Fees
| Team entry fee or discount | |
|---|---|
| Base fee per team | $350 |
| Buzzer discount | -$10 per functioning buzzer system (with eight functioning buzzers). |
| Staffer discount | -$150 for each staffer capable of reading a round in ca. 35 minutes. Staffers must register with ACF in advance. |
Teams will owe half the registration fee if they drop from the field with less than four weeks to go before the tournament and the full registration fee if they drop from the field with less than two weeks to go before the tournament.
Distribution
The submitted packet and final packet distributions for ACF Nationals are found here.
Eligibility
For information on who is eligible to play ACF tournaments, see ACF’s official Eligibility Rules.
Past tournaments
Sample questions from previous iterations of ACF Nationals are on the Collegiate Quizbowl Packet Archive.
Announcements and information about previous iterations of ACF Nationals are archived below: