On April 12, Lexington High School Quiz Bowl captains and juniors Shishir Bharadwaj and Alvan Hossain participated in the 2026 Individual Player National Championship Tournament (INPCT). The single-day national tournament was held at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare Chicago in Rosemont, Illinois, welcoming 300 players from 222 schools across 33 states. Among them, Bharadwaj and Hossain earned some of the highest ranks out of all the players in the tournament. 

In the individual format, players compete in multiple rounds and accumulate points. The first to reach a certain number of points in a certain threshold wins the round. The INPCT consisted of a playoff and a final round.

“You’re in a room with ten or nine other people, and keep on [answering] questions […] your performance determines your seating,” Bharadwaj said. “If you do good enough [in the playoff round], you make the finals, which is a similar style.”

Historically, students at LHS who participate in Quiz Bowl tournaments are consistent in earning distinction ranks at various competitions. The Quiz Bowl club is not new at LHS, as it is one of the most reputable clubs at the school, with many accolades stretching back to 2016.

Bharadawj and Hossain’s success as Quiz Bowl participants and captains is built on previous years of experience. They were the lone sophomore-only team to reach the finals round at the National Scholastic Championship in the 2024-25 school year, earning second place. Additionally, they earned the superlative of the best placing Junior Varsity team in the national tournament’s history.

With Bharadwaj and Hossain’s ranks at the INPCT came personal struggles and challenges. Since they both have different strengths in certain topics, the individual format was challenging compared to working as a team.

“When there was a history question in my room, if we were playing in a team game, I would rely on Alvan to get that,” Bharadwaj said. “ Since I wasn’t playing with Alvan and I was playing individually, I often just had to punt those questions and just rely on getting the questions in my own categories.”

To overcome these challenges and achieve their success, they always aim to be confident in their answers. 

“If you don’t get [a question] first off the spot, and if you see in another category […] you really have to go after that question, because it might be your only chance to get those points,” Hossain said.

Quiz Bowl requires incredible split-second speed. When matches were on the line, competitors actively regulated their emotions and stress.

“I think something that helps is […] beverages, like iced tea,” Hossain said. “I think getting that energy boost can really help you stay focused.”

Bharadwaj actively manages his stress during high-pressure rounds by taking questions one at a time.

“Quiz Bowl is a game where you don’t need to strategize that much […] it’s something you just want to think about whether you know it or not, and you need to try to recall everything you know,” Bharadwaj said. “You don’t need to be like, ‘okay, I want to buzz faster here, buzz slower, I just want to take it calmly.’”

Their preparation for the individual tournament was no different from preparing for team tournaments. Bharadwaj and Hossain focused on studying what they best specialized in instead of knowing everything in every subject.

“At the individual tournament, you’re not likely to outburst other people [onto] questions that aren’t in your specializations,” Hossain said. 

Bharadwaj echoed Hossain’s sentiment, expressing how he focuses on studying not just for a specific tournament itself, but more for tournaments in the long-run.

“I never really find myself studying specifically for tournaments,” Bharadwaj said. “I was just studying the same things I would study for Quiz Bowl all the time. And I think that just generally helps.”

LHS Quiz Bowl’s team is motivated to succeed in their next competition: the High School National Championship Tournament. Currently, the LHS Quiz Bowl team is predicted to be at the number one ranking of the tournament.

“We’ve been preparing extensively for that, because the main goal every year is to go out there and win,” Bharadwaj said. “That’s the apex of Quiz Bowl, because there are about 300 teams that come in, many that don’t even qualify for it. So our goal is to be the top team there.”