El Ni

“Einstein and ‘Ren and Stimpy,'” said Nate Jones, a junior at Pitt and Tau Epsilon Phi… “Einstein and ‘Ren and Stimpy,'” said Nate Jones, a junior at Pitt and Tau Epsilon Phi brother, while participating in the annual College Bowl Tournament.

Jones only got half of the answer right, since the book that Einstein wrote was about Brownian Motion, not the popular dog and cat duo portrayed on television.

The Pitt Program Council organized the tournament. Each member of the winning team received a $25 gift certificate to a local bookstore. Select members from all the teams were chosen to form an all-star team to participate in the regional tournament at Pennsylvania State University.

The tournament was similar to those held by Quiz Bowl, the Scholastic Bowl and the “It’s Academic” television show, in which teams compete with each other by answering questions to score points.

The tournament started on Sunday at 11 a.m. on the sixth floor of the William Pitt Union, with five teams scheduled to play in the double elimination tournament.

Mercedes Brown, PPC’s recreation director, commented on the lack of spectators.

“The people who would watch are the people who are playing,” Brown said. “It’s more interesting to participate in than it is to watch.”

After the designated start time a roll was called, and the four teams that were present were told to choose names for themselves.

One team called themselves TEPs are Tops, representing and comprised of Tau Epsilon Phi members.

“We haven’t done this before,” Jones said. “It’s more or less to maintain our academic reputation and to get our name out there in something we can be proud of.”

TEPs are Tops were beaten in the first round of the tournament by team Vipace, who named themselves after something written on the chalkboard from a previous activity. TEP was forced into the secondary bracket, as part of the double elimination rules.

“We’ve done this for three years,” said David Salcida, a senior at Pitt. “We are kind of here to defend our third place title.”

When asked what his strengths in the tournament might be, Salcida thought his best talents lay elsewhere.

“I would like to think that my strengths are with the women,” he said.

Vipace was beaten in the second round by team Burned by El Ni