About Us
About Play Quiz Bowl LLC
Play Quiz Bowl was founded in 2016 as a creator of pop culture quiz bowl questions, as well as a resource for local quiz bowl players, coaches and staffers at all levels. Since 2022 it has also run several large academic tournaments on non-PQB questions in Minnesota. Its mission statement is to produce high quality questions for audiences of all ages, and to advance and improve the game of quiz bowl, and the experience thereof, in the state of Minnesota and across the country.
About Our Members
Erik Nelson is the founder, president, and chief editor of Play Quiz Bowl LLC. Including his days as a high school player, he has been involved with quiz bowl since 1997, and further contributes to the game as a writer and editor for National Academic Quiz Tournaments. He is also the director of the Bounceback Foundation, a mental health non-profit. In 2022, he became the president and director of Minnesota High School Quiz Bowl, for which he runs the state’s long-running league.
Danny Vopava joined as a member of Play Quiz Bowl in September 2019, and is the company’s Vice President of Production. He began working with PQB in late 2016 as a writer for ACRONYM X, and has been a mainstay of the company’s tournaments ever since. Outside of the PQB world, Danny is a classical actor, as well as a writer and editor for NAQT.
About ACRONYM
ACRONYM, Play Quiz Bowl’s flagship tournament, began as a fundraiser for the quiz bowl team at Robbinsdale Armstrong High School in Minnesota. Initially running on NAQT questions, it later evolved into a house-written pop culture tournament, which was head edited by former Armstrong coach Matt Quinn. Beginning with ACRONYM VII in 2014, head editing duties were handled by Erik Nelson. A year later, ACRONYM VIII became the first ACRONYM to be mirrored across North America. The annual event has grown into the most widely-played pop culture set in the world, both for high school and open audiences. The tournament’s name was initially itself an acronym, standing for “Armstrong’s Conceivably Regular or Nearly Yearly Meet,” though the name no longer officially stands for anything.