Jim Puls is a software developer in Silicon Valley and, as a statistician, knows when scorekeepers didn’t do the double-check.

How did you get involved with quiz bowl?

I started playing in high school in my last year or two, mostly in league play. I didn’t become really devoted to the sport until later on in college; I showed up to my first-year orientation at Carnegie Mellon and the quiz bowl team had a flyer in the folder that was handed out to everybody.

The first practice was a week later; a month or two into the season, I got my first tournament-hosting experience when we hosted TRASH Regionals. (Due to a number of scheduling conflicts on my part, my first tournament as a collegiate player would end up being TRASHionals in 2003. Quite the way to join the circuit.)

Did your high school team receive any invitations to the HSNCT?

My high school team became a much more serious program in the years after I left; I believe their first HSNCT appearance was in 2007, five years after I graduated.

What was the transition like from playing high school quiz bowl to playing collegiate quiz bowl?

It was pretty straightforward; all I really had to do was get used to bonuses not bouncing back.

Who were your strongest opponents?

Even in college, I was much more of an organizer than a player, and I was usually the third or fourth buzzer on my teams. So while I doubt any of the greats would even so much as remember that I had ever played, I’d have to say the opponents I’d most dread having to face were the great Michigan teams helmed by Zeke Berdichevsky, Adam Kemezis, and Paul Litvak.

What do you wish you knew in your playing days that you know now?

We always used to have a mantra “there is no shame, only points.” I always expected to have some epiphany later in life that we were misguided in repeating that, but we weren’t. Maybe we should have changed it to “what happens in quiz bowl ought to stay in quiz bowl.”

What has life been like since your collegiate playing days?

In the 12 or so years since I finished college, I’ve been right in the heart of Silicon Valley working at a handful of tech companies. My day job is doing iPhone development on an app most of you use every day, and today’s Northern California quiz bowl circuit has me reading tournaments on the weekends on at least a monthly basis. It’s a pretty great life.

What are your favorite memories of HSNCT?

The other events that happen in the venues are always the greatest sources of crazy stories, whether it’s the National Indoor Football League or the SWAT convention or any number of high school proms, especially the one where The Chainsmokers showed up to DJ [concurrent with the 2017 Small School National Championship Tournament].

As for competition, I’ve only ever really watched the finals at HSNCT, and the 2012 finals between Bellarmine and Detroit Catholic Central stand out in my mind as a fantastic nail-biter.

How did you start working for NAQT?

I got involved with NAQT by virtue of having Dwight Kidder as an advisor to our college team. There was an open call for HSNCT volunteers that first year and we ended up bringing a good portion of the team with to volunteer as a group. I guess I didn’t mess up too horribly and I got invited back.

Your first HSNCT as a staff member was in 2003, in Myrtle Beach. What did you think HSNCT would be like today, in 2018?

2003 and 2004 were what I’d consider the last years of what I’d consider the old era of HSNCT; by the time the tournament hit Chicago in 2005 it was clear that the goal was to be what it is today. I have to imagine it’s not done growing yet, either.

How do you see the HSNCT evolving in the next 5, 10, or 20 years?

I think that, much like the major sports, there will be a lot more technology involved in the game. Scoresheets and schedules and standings and brackets and even Friday check-in will all migrate to our devices and we’ll only see tournament logistics get smoother.

That said, the game will continue to be the game. The core element will continue to be extremely smart players trying to buzz in and have the moderator rule their answer correct. No app will replace that.

Most of your staff assignments these days are in the stats room. What are your most and least favorite aspects of doing stats?

Stats at HSNCT is unlike anything else. To see the piles of scoresheets arrive at the stat room—in 2017, there were 1,520 matches played on Saturday—looks like an insurmountable task but then they all get entered and it’s an immense feeling of accomplishment. It’s taken years of beating scorekeepers over the head with this, but the scoresheets get more legible and more obviously accurate every year.

The worst part is when we find out about something that’s gone wrong way too late to catch it before it becomes a problem. In my 15 years in the stat room, we’ve had two or three instances of either a scorekeeper or moderator doing the math wrong and declaring the wrong team the winner or the teams taking the wrong cards from the room. It can be a mess to unwind.

Do you have a favorite buzz from HSNCT? Favorite protest?

The buzz that still sticks in my mind was my first great neg playing NAQT questions. The correct answer was “post hoc ergo propter hoc,” and I buzzed in with “carbo-loading.”

Editor’s note: Here’s the question:

One night before a quiz bowl tournament, philosophy major Eric eats a carton of cottage cheese and goes on to score twice his usual average the next day. When his teammates compliment him on it, he replies that it is because he ate the cottage cheese the night before. Eric has just committed—for 10 points—what fallacy of thought whose Latin name means “after this, therefore because of this?”

post hoc ergo propter hoc

Our question style has changed considerably since this question was used at the 2003 Sectional Championship Tournament!

The most memorable protest I caught wind of in at a national championship was one involving a question about Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, where the moderator and protesting coach couldn’t agree on what the player said and whether either what the player claimed to have said or what the moderator heard would have been acceptable under the “for non-English responses, that may involve either a correct pronunciation in the foreign language or a correct pronunciation of a standard English form” rule.

Do you have any advice to share with players and/or coaches?

Some people take the game too seriously. The champions that are remembered most fondly are the ones who are enjoying themselves and winning because they answered the most questions instead of because they filed the most protests.

Any advice to share with tournament directors and/or scorekeepers regarding stats?

For tournament directors and scorekeepers: if you find yourself sprinting down the hall, you’re probably not helping anything. Take the challenges of the day in stride and try to stay calm.

Also: Joel Gluskin knows you didn’t really count up the bonus points. Go back and do it again.