Quizbowl Packets Question Sets & Packets

Question sets and packets I've written over the years.

A catalog of quizbowl questions I've written or edited. The first two groups link out to the packet archives; the last group collects standalone packets — mostly my annual Festivus packets — as direct downloads.

Jump to: Tournaments & Sets · Contributed Packets · Downloadable Packets

Tournaments & Question Sets

Full sets I head-edited, co-wrote, or contributed heavily to. Links go to the quizbowl packet archive.

Tech & Business

We Have Never Been Modern — The first in Mike's tossup-only series on the history of technology and business.
A Culture of Improvement — A tossup-only tournament on technology and business.
Human Use of Human Beings — A tossup-only tournament on technology and business.
Myth of the Machine (2020) — A tossup-only tournament on technology and business.
Shock of the Old — A tossup-only tournament on the history of technology.

Current Events

The World as It Is (2021) — A tournament on the modern world and current events.
The World as It Was — A follow-up on recent, 'no longer current' events.

History

2012 College History Bowl (2012) — A history tournament; Mike wrote a plurality of the questions.
2014 College History Bowl (2014) — A history tournament; Mike wrote a plurality of the questions.

Videogames

MoNintendo — A videogame tournament.
New Play Control — A videogame tournament.
Ludographical Dissonance — A videogame tournament.
Impossible Lair — A tossup-only videogame side event.

Pop Culture & Trash

Chris McCray Tournament for Academic Excellence (2007) — A trash (pop-culture) tournament.
Atlantic Seaboard Skirmish 1 — A pop-culture tournament.
Atlantic Seaboard Skirmish 2 — A pop-culture tournament.
CULT — A national trash tournament.
COLT — A national trash tournament.
2012 HUSKY (2012) — A pop-culture tournament.
Scattergories 5 — The fifth edition of the Scattergories trash side event.

Other

City Limits — A geography tournament built around cities and towns.
Who the Devil Made It — A film tournament.
ARCHIVE
Gunpei Yokoi Memorial Open — An open tournament named for the Nintendo designer Gunpei Yokoi.
2008 Terrapin (2008) — A Maryland-run tournament.
2021 PACE NSC (2021) — The PACE National Scholastic Championship; Mike is a regular writer and editor.
2022 PACE NSC (2022) — The PACE National Scholastic Championship; Mike is a regular writer and editor.

Contributed Packets

Individual packets I wrote for other people's tournaments.

Pop Culture

Videogames

Literature

Contemporary Literature

Music & Media

Trash

Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest / Seattle packets (Multiple packets)

Downloadable Packets

Standalone packets as Word documents. Most are from my annual Festivus set; each link downloads the .docx.

Pop Culture

GRAB BAG Bentley Festivus 2025 Pop Culture Packet (December 2025) — A grab-bag pop-culture packet.
GRAB BAG 2024 - Bentley Festivus 2024 Pop Culture (December 2024) — A grab-bag pop-culture packet.
2023 Bentley Festivus Pop Culture Packet (December 2022) — A pop-culture packet written for Festivus.

Pacific Northwest

Route of the Great Big Baked Potato - Bentley Pacific NW Festivus 2025 Packet (December 2025) — A packet loosely themed around the Pacific Northwest.
A goddamned sky full of automobiles - Bentley Festivus 2024 Seattle Packet (December 2024) — A packet loosely on the Pacific Northwest and Seattle.
Wildmen Wobblies and Whistle Punks Bentley PNW Festivus 2023 (December 2022) — A Pacific Northwest packet for Festivus.
Lesser Seattle (December 2020) — A packet on the Pacific Northwest.
The Bogue Plan - Another Packet on the Pacific Northwest (April 2017) — A second packet on the Pacific Northwest.
Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle (May 2016) — A packet about the Pacific Northwest; questions tagged [Local] skew regional.

Literature

Notable Books - Bentley Festivus 2024 Contemporary Literature (December 2024) — A packet on contemporary, zeitgeisty literature.
Bentley Contemporary Literature 2021 Festivus (December 2021) — Hard questions, mostly on long fiction from the previous decade.
Story Time (December 2020) — A packet on picture books.
Uncut Gems - Bentley Festivus 2019 Packet 1 (December 2019) — Assorted questions, mainly literature, that didn't make it into other packets.

Current Events

Even More of The World as It Was - Bentley Festivus 2024 Current Events (December 2024) — A packet on 'no longer current' events.
Three Separate Cafes Named for Roger Scruton - Bentley Current Events Festivus 2023 (December 2023) — A current-events packet.

History

Its Here Somewhere - Bentley American History Festivus 2023 (December 2023) — An American history packet.

Videogames

Player Poll - 2019 Bentley Videogame Packet (December 2019) — A videogame packet (three rounds).

Geography

Itty Bitty City Limits Bentley Festivus 2025 Packet (December 2025) — A geography packet in the mold of City Limits and TOWNS.

Mixed & Academic

Mystery Packet Bentley Festivus 2023 (December 2022) — A mix of academic and pop-culture questions.
DECAMERON - Cybernetics (May 2020) — A collaborative academic packet by the team Cybernetics in Service of Communism (Mike Bentley, Mia Nussbaum, Tamara Vardomskaya, Vikshar Athreya).
REJECT 2018 - Bentley (April 2018) — Assorted leftover academic questions.