I don’t need no Champions’ League. I don’t need no Eurovision. I don’t want no boat race. You can keep your Ashes.
I’m a BSQC junkie. I’m a BSQC junkie. I’m a BSQC junkie. And this bit is clunky.
Yes folks, it’s once again time for the pre-eminent student tournament of the year, where those teams fortunate enough to progress through qualifiers (or find a wildcard under the sofa) will put their wits against each other and compete for the ultimate prize. That’s right, the chance to be in a recorded final and have YouTube commentators compare them to Big Bang Theory characters. It’s like being on University Challenge but with more gravitas and fewer boomers calling questions they didn’t know “woke garbage”. I’ve never actually competed at BSQC, and even though I apparently modded 2023’s tournament I’ve apparently completely wiped that from my memory. Thankfully I’m very well studied in the history of the tournament, so in lieu of personal anecdotes I’ll be sharing tales from the history of BSQC in between the team previews. Hopefully none of this comes up in the set. That would be a bit too meta.
Fun BSQC Fact #1! The first BSQC took place in 51 AD, a few years after the Roman invasion, at the University of Verulamium. Viroconium beat Deva Victrix in the final for a score of CCLX plays CCXV.
The last BSQC final was won by 5 points, which in football would be a walkover, but in quizbowl I’m reliably informed that that’s “mind-meltingly close”. Cambridge A were the team to lift the trophy - then promptly drop the trophy, requiring a hasty trip to the repair shop. They’ll be looking to repeat that feat this year, striking fear into the hearts of the quizbowl committee and pound signs in the eyes of trophy repair shops across the country. The fearless trio of Agnijo Banerjee, Sam Foo and Oscar Despard return while the departing Harrison Whitaker (their MVP in 2024 and currently tearing up University Challenge) is replaced by Brendan “Bweb” Bethlehem, promoted from Cambridge B last year. As for their opponents in that final, Imperial A, it’s almost all change, with only Justin Lee remaining. Those worried the Justin count is looking scarily low in this team will be reassured to hear Justin Keung joins the line-up. Owen Iredale also steps up from Imperial B while Oscar O’Flanagan (my boss - hi Oscar!) completes the squad.
Fun BSQC Fact #2! Prior to the Norman invasion of England, it was common for nobles and even kings to compete. Legend has it that Tostig’s betrayal of his brother Harold Godwinson to fight for Harald Hardrada was a result of Harold negging Tostig out of a buzz on the Coppergate Helmet.
Let’s take the rest alphabetically, starting, as the alphabet does, with B for Birmingham. This is a uni on the up and up in the Quizbowl stakes, challenging Warwick for their long undisputed West Midlands Champions title. They put up a 6-5 win ratio last time and carry over most of that team, the fearsome Ahmed, Fogel & Gaine (of Faiz, Teddy and Liam fame respectively). Their numbers are completed with Mikey Brown, he of the many food tossups.
A little further south we find the Bristolian teams - as with 2024, they have two entrants. Bristol A are also our first entirely unchanged team, which is to say, the same four people as last time. I can’t speak to if they’ve changed as people since then, only that their names remain Ted Warner, James Byrne, Kevin Flanagan and Lewys Jenkins. With an all-science squad, they’ll surely be looking to build on last year’s success and make the top bracket this time out, having qualified for the tournament with the second highest score. Bristol B are our first wildcard team, and look to improve upon a disappointing 2024 showing with an almost new team, with Freddie Burns, Lily Morris and Madeline Watson joining a Jacob Taylor with vengeance in his heart.
Fun BSQC Fact #3! In the Middle Ages, Cambridge and Oxford submitted teams from each constituent college, a practice continued by lesser quiz competitions to this day. In 1265, the University of Northampton caused outrage when they dominated the competition with a combined team, leading Henry III to dissolve the university later that year.
We’ve covered Cambridge A already, yes, but how about second (and third, and fourth) Cambridge? Cambridge B had a strange 2024 BSQC, dominating the morning but failing to win a match in the afternoon - though in what would’ve been a huge upset, they almost defeated eventual winners Cambridge A, only losing to an accepted protest. While their star player last time out Brendan has been promoted to the A Team, the formidable Andrei Hui is joined by Rachel Bentham and Ben LaFond, both standouts for Cambridge C last time, alongside University of Chicago signing Shiv Seshan. That leaves Cambridge C all changed, making them a relatively unknown quantity this time round - Arvin Boraghi steps up from Cambridge D, while Sarah Henderson and Ian McDowell are joined by first year Alex Baker. Cambridge D are another wildcard entry with a very international team: Londoner Linus Luu is joined by Beijing’s Sherwin Wang, Miami’s Sohan Vohra and the returning Hong Konger Percy Yuen, who you may know from his 59,093 Discord messages at time of publishing.
Fun BSQC Fact #4! In the fourteenth century, doctors believed the plague could be spread by “unseemlye tossuppes”, referring to questions with complex answerlines. A tradition of covering the face with the elbow when hearing the words “description acceptable” has persisted to this day.
D is for Durham, who reached the semi-finals in 2024 with a team helmed by then-UKQB head Michael Kohn, who narrowly missed out on 50 PPG. But that team have all since departed the hallowed halls of the Wearside colleges, leaving last year’s Durham B with a straight, clean upgrade. Adam Iqbal, Bella Thomas, Hamish Campbell and my fellow QWIP catgirl Aisling Skeet have big shoes to fill, especially as they remain Durham’s only entrants this year.
The other defeated semifinalists, Edinburgh also go from two teams to one this year, and also lose last year’s outright top scorer Ben Russell Jones. Niall Karunaratne is the only remaining name on a teamsheet that was still fluctuating as I was writing this blog post - but is now confirmed as Rayhana Amjad from 2024’s Edinburgh B alongside Caitlin Self and Joe Terrey.
Fun BSQC Fact #5! The 1381 instalment was held during the Peasants’ Revolt. In an attempt to curry favour with the rebels, who controlled large swathes of London, every answerline was replaced with “the death of Richard the tyrant, sirrah!”
We move all the way from E to I - we’re still trying to get Falmouth, Greenwich and the University of the Highlands and Islands onto the circuit - with Imperial B. There aren’t many teams at BSQC 2025 who can claim to have a true all-time international #1 on their team, but I challenge anyone to name a better Seychellois quizbowler from any era than Rahim Dina. I’m reliably informed they’re renaming Victoria’s airport after him once he finally retires from the sport. He returns to an Imperial B side missing last year’s MVP Jaime Salamanca Camacho but boasting a strong squad of a promoted Paphon Susikakosol alongside newcomers Joseph Collins and Charlie Lowman. Imperial B topped middle bracket last time out, but will definitely be hoping to join Imperial A in the top third this time.
Fun BSQC Fact #6! In the early Tudor period, the tournament circuit was dominated by the powerful monasteries, with Rievaulx and Tintern maintaining a stranglehold on the title. Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries in England, Wales and Ireland left Scottish teams in full control for decades.
Topping the third bracket last time were cross-neighbour rivals LSE, who did so with a squad of three. The 45 PPG of Albert Nyang was a huge part of that, and this time he’s joined with a full squad of Andre Wong, Andy Huff and Cormac Beirne. They’ll certainly have their eyes on a higher placement this year, adding another feather to their cap following a fantastic showing at ACF Winter. LSE’s quizbowl prowess has come on leaps and bounds this year, and there’s no better evidence for that than the qualification of a second team - an enormous feat when you consider they weren’t able to field a single team of four last time out. Henry Jameson from 2024’s instalment is joined by Catherine Tan, David Worley and Ryan Sharpe as our third wildcard team.
It’s never nice being skunked, but sadly that’s the fate that befell Manchester in 2024, losing all 11 of their matches, though coming within a TU of besting a very formidable Sheffield. I’m not a betting woman, but I can safely tell you that that unfortunate statistic will not be repeated this year. Hiru Senehedeera and Nathan Easow return with Joel Crossley in tow, while Kai Madgwick, a semifinalist for Durham A last year, completes their new university’s team.
Fun BSQC Fact #7! It’s a common misconception that BSQC has been held continuously for almost two thousand years. In actuality, Oliver Cromwell outlawed quizbowl in 1655, and BSQC was not held again until William III reinstated it in 1690. This explains its conspicuous absence from the diaries of Samuel Pepys.
A conspicuous absence from last year’s top four were the often dominant Oxford, though their A team were mightily unlucky, only missing out on a spot thanks to a 20 point defeat to Edinburgh A. This year’s Oxford A though aren’t just looking to right that wrong - depending on who you ask, they may well go in as the outright favourites, having dominated the year thus far with wins at ACF Winter and ACF Regionals and qualified top of the leaderboard (though remember, last year’s semi-finalist A teams automatically qualify for this year’s tournament). They’ll certainly be the least cisgender team to ever win if they do, which would make this trans alphabet mafiosa very happy indeed. Georgia’s own Arya Karthik was a huge part of their clean sweep at Regionals, and they’ll be joined here by the equally fantastic Éveline Ong, Delia Cropper (another fellow QWIP catgirl - no I will not elaborate) and Omer Keskin, the only constant from last year’s team, having scored a healthy 45 PPG at that tournament.
Continuing down the teamsheets and you’d certainly bet on Oxford having a banner year all around. Oxford B boasts two experienced players, Paige Crawley and Benjamin Watson (who competed for Oxford A and Warwick B last year respectively) alongside a formidable duo of Arthur Bellamy and Jake Boonin. Likewise, Oxford C carry over half of their team from last time, Eliza Dean and George Rowe, and add Benjamin Liu and Matt Sheldon to complete a seriously threatening trio of Oxford teams.
Fun BSQC Fact #8! In 1771 BSQC experimented with opening up the competition to institutions from across Britain’s colonial empire. Naturally, this was reversed the following year when not a single British team managed to qualify for the tournament. The Crown’s insistence on having the American colonies continue to edit the question sets led to the memorable revolutionary slogan, “no packetisation without representation!”
In the absence of a York team for a second year on the trot (sigh) my Yorkshire allegiances will have to lie with Sheffield. With two players scoring over 40 PPG they were unlucky to not make top bracket last year, and with both those players remaining on the A team this year they stand a fantastic chance of remedying the error. Those players are Freddy Potts and Andrew Fisher, who is apparently doing a PhD in “abstract nonsense”. Where do I sign up? They’re joined by Abdelrahman Elsisi and CT Tang, who has rocketed up the ranks after only debuting in novice tournaments this academic year. Sheffield’s excellent quizzing year sees them entering two teams this time - interestingly, they’re the only university to have all their entrants qualify without the need for wildcards. It’s an all-new squad too - at least, new to Sheffield, as Rhys Lewis will be a name familiar to Cantabrigians and UKQB Committee members alike. Joining him are Jacob Price, Thomas Roberts and Isobel Dobbie for what should be the strongest showing in some time for a Yorkshire university. Makes me proud.
Southampton are our final wildcard entrants, though they only missed out from qualifying outright on a tiebreaker, so they’re certainly no slouches. Cormac Stephenson and Ros Daffin return from last year’s team, joined this time by Michael Wu and Zayyan Mahmood - who I’m reliably informed is from Skipton, North Yorkshire. Maybe my loyalties will be split after all.
Fun BSQC Fact #9! Today the questions at BSQC are artificially produced, but this was not always the case. This year marks the 200th anniversary of the Haverfordwest question mining disaster. There will be a minute’s silence at briefing to remember the 37 brave question miners who lost their lives.
Tired yet? I am. But we’re in the home stretch now with just four teams to go, starting with UCL who usurp their cross capital near-namesakes KCL for a place in this year’s tournament. James Hall, Josh Mandel, Sanjay Prabhakar and Joel Barnett make up their J-heavy roster; University Challenge fans will see a lot of familiar names here.
Our final three teams are from historic titans of the game, Warwick, who also missed out on last year’s semifinals despite a heroic 56 PPG from Thomas “I’m not going to mention the elbow” Hart. Only two players from either of last year’s teams return to this year’s BSQC, with Chris Levesley and Robert Crawley forming the experienced backbone of the A team, joined by Lucas Johns and Alex Hayes. That means the B and C teams remain a little more mysterious. Antoni Kluzowski very quickly graduated from novice tournaments earlier this year and is joined on a strong-seeming B team by Adsayan Ganesh, William Gillard and Odysseas Gabrielatos; the C team meanwhile is a mostly first year affair, with freshmen Josh Howarth, Tobin Payne and Lucy Dennett joined by Patrick de Corvidae, who will be told for the rest of his life what an incredible name he has, but I will do so as well.
BSQC will take place on the 8th March 2025. Sadly, the television rights were mired with bidding conflicts, so to follow along live you’ll have to actually turn up at Imperial on the day. I’ll be there with you in spirit, by which I mean my vague offer to mod was handwaved away. Best of luck to all of those competing and remember: it ain’t over ‘til it’s over, unless it’s mathematically impossible for you to catch up, in which case you’ve plenty of time to nip to the loo. Have fun