2026 ACF Nationals
Last updated: September 24, 2025
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 ¶ ↑
2026 ACF Nationals ¶ ↑
2026 ACF Nationals will be held at on April 18-19, 2026.
Editors ¶ ↑
2026 ACF Nationals is head edited by Henry Atkins. The Tournament Director is Kevin Jiang.
| Editor | Subjects |
|---|---|
| Taylor Harvey | World Literature, European Literature, Visual Fine Arts, Other Fine Arts (Visual), Philosophy |
| Maxwell Ye | Physics, Other Science |
| Abigail Tan | Other History (excl. CAN/AUS/NZ), European History |
| John Lawrence | Auditory Fine Arts, Other Fine Arts (Auditory) |
| Derek So | Religion, Mythology |
| Nick Jensen | Geography, Current Events, Other Academic |
| Amogh Kulkarni | American History, CAN/AUS/NZ History |
| Jason Golfinos | Social Science |
| Munir Siddiqui | Chemistry |
| Eric Mukherjee | Biology |
| Henry Atkins | American Literature, British Literature, World History |
Site ¶ ↑
If you are interested in hosting 2026 ACF Nationals, fill out the hosting bid form before 11:59 p.m. PT on Saturday, October 11, 2025.
ACF hopes to announce the location for 2026 ACF Nationals by Monday, November 3, 2025.
For any questions or concerns regarding the application process, please reach out to the Tournament Director, Kevin Jiang, and/or ACF’s Site Coordinator, Jacob Egol.
See ACF’s Hosting Guidelines page for more information about hosting ACF Nationals, including a list of benefits to the host institution.
Qualification ¶ ↑
See the ACF Nationals Qualification page for more detailed information on how teams qualify for ACF Nationals based on their performance at ACF Regionals and/or by hosting ACF Regionals.
Registration ¶ ↑
Registration will open after bids have been adjudicated. The registration form will be available here.
Distribution ¶ ↑
ACF Regionals uses the standard ACF distribution.
Fees ¶ ↑
| Category | Fee / Discount |
|---|---|
| Base fee per team | $370 |
| Buzzers | -$20 per buzzer system (with 8 functioning buzzers each) |
| Staffers | -$100 per pre-registered staffer capable of reading a round in ≤40 minutes |
| Submission discount(s) / opt-out fee | As noted below |
The buzzer discount will be revoked, and a further penalty of $10 assessed, for buzzers that are non-functional upon arrival.
Teams will owe fees for dropping from the field of:
- Half the registration fee, with fewer than four weeks before the tournament
- The full registration fee, with fewer than two weeks before the tournament
Packet Submission ¶ ↑
Important
Packet submission for 2026 ACF Nationals is mandatory. However, teams will only be required to submit half-packets; full packets are optional.
Submission Schedule ¶ ↑
| Submission Deadline | Packet Discount (Full) | Packet Discount (Half) |
|---|---|---|
| December 13, 2025 | -$150 | -$75 |
| January 03, 2025 | -$100 | -$50 |
| January 24, 2025 | -$50 | -$25 |
| February 14, 2025 | -$25 | ±$0 |
| March 07, 2025 | $25 | |
| March 28, 2025 | $50 | |
| Afterwards | $50 + $10 per day late | |
Packet Distribution & Authorship ¶ ↑
Email nationals@acf-quizbowl.com to request a distribution for either a half or full packet. The head editor(s) will respond with a template specifying which categories you are assigned to write.
Additionally, if you submit a packet before registering for ACF Nationals and subsequently do not attend, whether because you do not qualify or because you choose not to attend, that packet can still be used in ACF Nationals. Any discount earned by that packet will then roll over to the next ACF tournament that your school attends. 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 packet discount for ACF Nationals does not preclude submitting a packet for future ACF tournaments, should that be required.
Your assigned packet may ask for questions from more specific categories within the distribution. For instance, instead of being assigned an “American Literature” tossup, you might be asked to write a question on 20th-century American poetry, or an Economics bonus instead of “Social Science/Philosophy.”
Before writing, please review ACF’s packet submission guidelines and stick to the format provided. Questions should be written in 10 pt Times New Roman with one-inch margins. Although you may submit longer questions, tossups will be capped at 7 lines for the tournament. Each bonus part should be a maximum of 3 lines in length, with the majority being 1 or 2 lines long. Teams may be asked to edit submissions, which may lead to them missing deadlines, if multiple questions are much too short or much too long.
When finished, submit your packet by emailing it to nationals@acf-quizbowl.com.
- Please format the packet as a
.docxor.docbefore sending it. - The email subject line should list the name of the school, the team number (if applicable), and the word “half-packet” or “quarter packet.”
- To to meet a given deadline, the finished packet must be sent to that email before 11:59 Pacific Time on the corresponding listed day.
If multiple teams from one school are submitting packets, they should NOT be aware of each others’ questions. Any roster changes that entail an author for one packet playing for another (e.g., if a player on Team B moves to Team A) should be flagged to the Nationals TD AND to nationals@acf-quizbowl.com.
Tips & Guidelines ¶ ↑
- Tossup answerlines should generally emphasize playability over creativity; aim for creative and interesting clues with straightforward answerlines. Especially if you are submitting for one of the later deadlines, the frequency of topic clashes means that broad common-link questions are unlikely to be used.
- When writing bonuses, aim for the easy parts to have 90% conversion, medium parts to have 50% conversion, and hard parts to have 10% conversion.
More information can be found in ACF’s packet submission guidelines.
Eligibility ¶ ↑
For information on who is eligible to play non-Fall 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: