Keeping One's Buzzer Hand Strong...

Best. Quiz Bowl Shirt. Ever.

So congratulations! You've qualified for a national quiz bowl tournament in your respective league! While tournament dates are looming, you may be feeling like the walls are closing in, and your vast array of knowledge may not be enough to bring home the title. So what do you do? Well, you've come to the right place! Whether you have one week or two months, it's never too late to improve your QB rating! Here are 7 things that can help you and your team gear up for Quiz Bowl Armageddon 2011.

1. You Don't Know Jack/ Buzz!

This is one of the easy ones in the bunch; usually you'll get one of these a game so your friends can get at least one right.

If you're a console gamer, you've got  a couple of great options here; Xbox gamers only have YDKJ at their disposal, but PS3 gamers have both. Either way, You Don't Know Jack is, in my opinion, the better option.The facts you learn are actually quite useful, and quite a few questions have prompted me to do some follow-up research to learn more. The questions are always asked in an entertaining matter; one notable question asks you to figure out how many of the "Rub A Dub Dub" nursery rhyme characters would survive if they were passengers on the Titanic. The game's host, Cookie Masterson, is hilarious, and makes you want to play 5 or 6 games in one sitting. If you want to just download the demo, you get two full episodes, but for $30, you get just under 75 distinct episodes, and two add-on packs (10 episodes each) are available in the online store at $5 a pop. HIGHLY recommended.

Buzz! is a great game in it's own right; it presents its question material more traditionally, but the game is just as fun. The normal rounds are great, as they can be frantic, but there's a lot more "screw your neighbor" in Buzz than in YDKJ. Buzz, however, has it's own advantages. Since it has already been out for two and a half years, there are a bevy of question packs, ranging from sports to National Geographic. There's also "Sofa vs. Sofa", where four people on your console can play 4 people on a console somewhere else in the world. It's a great option for schools who want to battle in the offseason! The other advantage to the game being out for so long is that you can find it (and the accompanying buzzers) for 20 or 30 bucks.

2. Buffalo Wild Wings

In many cases, I've found that the team who chows down together wins big together. So why not take your talents to BWW, and while you're at it, take in a few Buzztime matches? Buzztime is a trivia company whose end product you normally see in sports bars; a bunch of TVs are set up around the restaurant to allow tables to play various trivia games against one another (which explains the ugly blue keypads). Of course, if you start losing, just remember that it's still 50 cent Wing Wednesdays, and your coach is probably footing the bill.  Either way, you win.

3. Jeopardy! Archive

The second game of Myron Meyer, once the one-day winnings record holder on Jeopardy! at $50,000. Do you know who holds the record now?

THE definitive source of material for former Jeopardy champions and future competitors alike, the Jeopardy! Archive (www.j-archive.com) contains a cavalcade of Jeopardy! clues. But that's not just it- it's so much more. The archive looks, upon first glance, like an episode guide. But click on the episode and you'll see every clue from that episode, who got each one right/wrong (just hover over the dollar amount), the order in which the clues were picked, and more. You can even do a search on the site to find every instance of your favorite category or your favorite player and your other favorite player. Because the answers (or questions, in this case) are hidden, it allows you to play along with minimal cheating. This is a superb resource, and I know many people who've used it to sharpen their skills.

4.Sporcle

This quiz is called History Never Retweets; you have to figure out what historical figure would have been credited with each of these tweets. Within days of being posted, this quiz had been played more than 60,000 times.

I stumbled upon Sporcle in May of 2008. Since then, it has really blown up. Now, I'm not taking full credit for the success of the site, but I have told just about everyone I know about it, so I'm guessing that it helped somewhat. In a nutshell, there's thousands of "quizzes" to choose from. They go from being as mundane as typing in the numbers from 1 to 100 (the fifth most popular "quiz" of all time) to World Cup Hosts to Best Picture Oscar Winners. You have a time limit to complete each quiz, and a fun practice tool is setting up two computers and seeing who can complete a specific quiz faster- those practices always flew by.

5. Brain Foods

I don't recommend changing your eating habits so closely to a big tournament unless whatever you're eating now makes you feel like crap. But basic, healthy foods are always a good choice- apples, sandwiches, smoothies, and fish are all great choices to help keep you alert and awake all throughout the day- this is especially important when you're playing 5 or more matches in a single day. Some tournaments schedule teams to play 10 matches on round robin day, so this small change could mean a world of difference in the way you play in your late afternoon games.

6. Reinforce What You Know

Players tend to overworry when tourney time rolls around, doubtful of the knowledge they've picked up over the season. Adding deeper knowledge to subject matter you already know is fine, but if you're not the team history buff, don't all of a sudden crack open a US History book the week before; it'll only push you closer to panic mode and could possibly lower your confidence in other categories. If you are going to learn a brand new subject, give yourself enough time to learn it; ONLY CRAM IF IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.

7. Relax!

This advice can be taken a few different ways:

Pre-game: try not to wear yourself out before a big tournament, and don't get too worked up. Get lots of rest, and try to stick to a pre-game routine that calms your nerves. 

In-game: If your opponents are leading, calm down. Even if they're pulling off a late game rally and/or the score is close near the end of the game, stick to your game plan. Don't get too aggressive to overcompensate; that traditionally leads to more minus fives than plus tens.  

Post-game-If you lose, let the loss go. Don't point fingers, try not to get upset, and just brush it off. Thinking about a loss will only cause you to lose focus in future games.

As a former player, I know how hard relaxing can be- for a lot of us, this is our "sport". We practice all year to reach the big matches, and it's hard to not get worked up when things don't go as planned. I've been there many times. Just always keep in mind what's best for the team; your positive attitude will go a long way to helping your team succeed!

That's all for now; good luck to you in the upcoming tourney season; if you're not participating, then sharpen your wits, check out these tips, and stay tuned in May for more advice as the new season begins!