Quizbowl tournaments over Discord or Zoom simulate the in-person quizbowl experience through a combination of audio, video and chat-based buzzing. Anyone with a computer, a headset and passable broadband can play an online tournament. Online tournaments are typically announced on the forums and tournament database at https://www.hsquizbowl.org.
Online tournaments will take at least as long as a regular tournament, and probably about 30-40% longer. Everyone attending the tournament should commit to it like an in-person event.
Discord Tournaments
Tournament directors create a Discord server for the tournament, use bots to configure the server for quizbowl, and then invite players, coaches and staff to the server. Each person attending the tournament is generally in a different physical location, although in some cases people may be in the same space.
Players and coaches are assigned to team roles. Each round in the tournament, the team will be assigned to a room to play a match against one other team. Everyone will join a video call and the moderator will read questions just like in an in-person match. Players use the text chat in place of physical buzzers to buzz in.
Zoom Tournaments
Zoom tournaments take place on Zoom meetings. The tournament director will typically create one or more large meetings and then assign players/coaches to breakout rooms to play games. Players can use the in-meeting chat in Zoom to buzz in, although many Zoom tournaments utilize a buzzing system such as buzzin.live. Like on Discord, moderators will read the questions aloud to teams and teams will either speak or type their answers.