As good as gold: CLAS Gold team wins Academic Bowl
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Gold team won $24,000 in scholarship money and the championship title Thursday night when they were the only team left standing after seven matches of semi-final and final-round competition in the fifth annual ASU Academic Bowl
The four teams - College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) Maroon, CLAS Gold, W. P. Carey School of Business and the Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication - had each won their respective opening rounds of competition and now were facing off against each other in the televised final game event from the KAET studio in downtown Phoenix.
In the end, it came down to a man-versus-self battle with both CLAS teams pitted against each other in a rapid-fire, civil-war final round. Cronkite Gold was the first to go, and W. P. Carey survived up to the last semi-final match. Both teams showed impressive persistence and game strategy, but the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences could not be stopped on their quest for a fourth consecutive Academic Bowl championship title.
In what began as a close game, CLAS Gold quickly managed to pull ahead of Maroon with a sizable lead, securing themselves a lifesaver that would take them into another round: the tiebreaker round. The final score was Gold 235-Maroon 170, which sent the two teams, now with one loss each, into a sudden-death final round.
Chinese cities, word problems and animal species. CLAS Gold earned a 150-point lead over CLAS Maroon by winning toss-up questions and answering a series of bonus questions correctly. With a focused confidence and their eyes on the prize, the team held the lead much to the dismay of CLAS Maroon, who tallied more than two incorrect answers resulting in point deductions.
With two minutes left in the game, CLAS Gold could see the finish line - and finish they did. The final score of the final match in the 2010 ASU Academic Bowl was 320 to 80. You could say that the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences remains to be good as gold.
The winning students are Nicholas Williams, Louie Weimer, Kevin Coltin and Ana Ordonez. Frederick Corey, dean of University College, moderated all seven matches.