Brain Buster to Compete on WGAL Channel 8

Brain Busters to Compete on WGAL Channel 8
Posted on 11/30/2017
Harshita Gupta
Staff Editor
Cumberland Valley High School’s Brain Busters team competed on the televised Brain Busters game show on WGAL-TV. The episode filmed Wednesday, November 29th, 2017 and will air January 21, 2018.
“I'm a huge nerd; I always loved trivia and grew up watching shows like Jeopardy!, so I really wanted to participate in the fun, fast-paced competition that QuizBowl and Brain Busters offers,” senior Krittika Negandhi said.
Brain Busters is an academic quiz show for about 50 high schools from central Pennsylvania. It runs October through May and winning schools win monetary prizes, worth a total of $10,000. Cumberland Valley has been participating for many years.
“If you're knowledgeable about something (whether it be science, literature, sports, pop culture, etc.) and really want to put your skills to the test, QuizBowl is great for you,” Negandhi said. “We always manage to have fun at meetings, and you'll definitely meet some other intensely passionate people.”
The Brain Busters team is an offshoot of Cumberland Valley’s QuizBowl team. QuizBowl practices are on Mondays and Thursdays.

“Contrary to popular belief, we don't really "study" for competitions, but we focus on developing speed and rapid recall during practices,” Negandhi said.
Brain Busters normally airs on Sundays at 12 pm every other weekend. Being on television is simultaneously a challenge and an honor for the team.
“It can be quite nerve-wracking because we have to quickly recall information under pressure, but it's great that academic competitions are being showcased on TV,” Negandhi said.
“No matter how confident you feel beforehand, you still get a bit nervous once you're on set, but everyone there makes you feel so comfortable that by the time we start taping, the butterflies in your stomach start to go away,” junior Revati Athavale said. “The best part about BrainBusters is being able to say that you've been on TV. The most surprising thing about being on TV is the way a TV show is produced. I never knew beforehand, so that was probably the coolest aspect about the entire experience.”
The first half of the competition season has each school in one match up. The winners and the higher scoring losing team then advances.
“The team's goal in the short-run is to do better than we did last year, but in the long-term, well, we'd like to win the entire tournament,” Athavale said.
“We basically just answer questions from previous years so we get used to using buzzers and to expand our existing knowledge,” Athavale said.
Students are encouraged to join the QuizBowl team to participate in QuizBowl competitions and perhaps eventually the televised Brain Busters competition.
“Other students should definitely join BrainBusters, primarily because you can just find out so much about yourself. You'll be amazed at the number of questions you get right, and you finally get to put all these random, obscure facts you know to use,” Athavale said. “Aside from the competition itself, I've made so many friends through BrainBusters, and in such a large school like CV, it's nice to find a place where you belong.”
To see how the team did, tune in to Brain Busters January 21!
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