My JetPunk Journey

Hey all. I'm writing a blog about my JetPunk story, and also how it impacted my life. Thanks in advance for reading.

I don't remember a lot about how I got to the site or what I was doing here early on. Most likely I was searching for a fifty states quiz. I do remember playing dug28's Play-Doh Presidents quiz and thinking, "I want to make my own quizzes!" I also remember knowing all the countries, their capitals, their flags, and their shapes by fourth grade.

Eventually, I made my account in December 2021 (named Qy), specifically in my yearbook creation class. I made two quizzes early on, Countries that have Invaded Russia and Countries that have Controlled Taiwan. They've held up... okay, I guess. They're not spectacular, but I wouldn't say they're that bad. Anyway, after these two quizzes my account went dormant for a good while.

When I went back to school in August 2022, I started to use my account again. It was around this time I was in a bit of a Civil War kick, specifically the music of the Civil War. Basically, on a school trip to Washington, D.C. that summer, I listened to the Battle Hymn of the Republic from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial overlooking the National Mall. I guess the beauty of the situation took over my young mind, and it sent me into that really niche phase.

My third quiz, Title in the Lyrics Quiz - Civil War Edition, was released on September 4, 2022, and since then has gotten a grand total of two takes, both of which I believe are mine. Since then, I made some random quizzes now and again.

Around this time I also got into the Dawn of the JetPunk Empires series (RIP), making a new nation, Svalbard. They were pretty unimportant during the series' run, but it was nice to be included. The series also sparked my first SVG quiz, Cities of the Svalbardian States, on a Map, which isn't anything crazy, but I'm somewhat proud of it. My first chart, Alabaman and Mississippian Populations, was released on October 5th, 2022, which was nothing groundbreaking. Later, I made my first non-DOTJE SVG quiz, Cities served by N'Djamena Airport on a Map, which released on November 8th of the same year.

Since then, I'd been releasing quizzes and doing pretty standard JetPunk things. I released some so-so blogs, including what is possibly the worst election prediction of all time. My real lucky break, however, came with the Countries Iceberg series, which is still ongoing. In case you don't know what it's about, we're dissecting every political entity on the planet that has some degree of self-government. Huge credits to Nickelz for writing most of the entries back when I was lazy and irresponsible. Go follow him as well! Our April Fools Illuminati-busting sixth and a half entry has been the most well-received so far.

I also used to be very active on the Interesting Facts page. I used to submit a ton of facts, mostly election- and history-related, and a lot were actually accepted onto the page. I currently have twenty-four of my facts on there (not including Baseball facts), which I believe is the record for any regular user. Sadly, I kind of quit the scene after it became more of a newsgroup / "comedy" club. I don't check it much anymore.

My first (and so far only) featured quiz was elected on September 8th, 2023, that being U.S. States That Have Hosted the Olympics. As you might expect, it's by far my most popular quiz, having more takes than the rest of them combined. I then very briefly changed my name to Qyz sometime in late 2023 before settling on FreeStater. Don't know where I got that from, but it sounded cool. My hundredth quiz, Proposed Flags of U.S. States, was released on June 27th, 2024, but I didn't realize that at the time.

Quiz Bowl is an academic game, sort of like Jeopardy with teams. I'll probably release a blog in the future going into more depth, but all you really need to know is that questions are read, and if you know the answer you use a button to "buzz in," giving your team points.

My high school has a pretty good quiz bowl team. I won't name it for privacy reasons, but it wouldn't be all that hard to find based on this story. They had come to my middle school to demonstrate once, and I crushed the other team 400 to 40 (thanks, JetPunk!), or something like that. I'm still a little pissed because I missed an India question, but the question was on the country's literature so it's not that bad.

I forgot about the game over the summer, but when I entered high school they talked about it once again on the announcements. I didn't have any real extracurriculars at the time, so I thought "why the hell not?" I went in to the clubroom after school and did really well. Again, thanks JetPunk! Like, abnormally, almost disturbingly well for a freshman. I had a lot of fun, so I dedicated to showing up regularly.

Now, despite being decent at the game, I was nowhere near the top. Three other guys—two seniors and one junior—were straight cracked. The seniors were focused on geography, history, and literature, while the junior was all science and mythology. And I mean, they were insane. They were able to get, after just one line of clues (there's usually around four or five), answers I hadn't even heard of.

Anyways, it's all good as the school year goes on. It was a very small club, no more than ten members at any time, but we had fun. Pretty quickly I get onto the main team (there's four people per team) with those three great guys, and am made a permanent member. It was at this moment I found out I would need to study to keep improving (JetPunk was good, but not enough), and honestly, I probably would've quit if the girl I liked wasn't in the club. Sadly, we never got together, but what the hell.

So I study, go to tournaments, and do all that stuff. My school is ranked pretty high—somewhere around twentieth in the country, and third or fourth in the state of Texas—and we were only going up. Eventually, it's time for the two national tournaments. The second is smaller but more intense (and we did go), but it's not relevant so I'm going to leave it out. Again, if I make a dedicated Quiz Bowl blog, I'll probably discuss it in-depth.

The first tournament, called NAQT, is by far the country's largest Quiz Bowl tournament, with some three hundred teams competing. It's hosted in Atlanta, so we fly in and head to the tournament. On the first day, I'm playing like shit. Like, really badly. The next day, I somehow lock in like crazy. I mean, I'm getting questions left and right. Eventually we get into the top twenty bracket.

Our first game is against our main rival, another Houston school. We had never beaten them, both before and after I showed up. So we walk in expecting to lose handily and take whatever place we get. But nope. Somehow we manage to do everything right—including me beating them to questions on San Marino and Azerbaijan—and win. It's electric. I felt a high right there that I didn't really know before.

We keep going like a tornado, beating two more teams, at least partially thanks to many tactical buzzes by me. On the third game, we approach question twenty (there's twenty questions per game), and thanks to the close score, it's a deathmatch. Whoever gets this one will win the game and move into the top five.

I don't remember the exact question, but it was something about a proposed constitutional amendment banning state funding from going to religious schools. I think, "I've seen that on JetPunk... it's... uh..., James G. Blaine!" I buzz in immediately, we take the points

Now this was the moment. We went into this tournament hoping for the twentieth spot. Thanks to JetPunk, we've made the top five. I can't really explain how monumental this was. Now, admittedly, the majority of it is due to my teammates—I cannot thank them enough—and again, we didn't get first place. But still. Fifth out of THREE HUNDRED. Thanks to JetPunk.

Now that the two seniors have graduated, and our teacher sponsor has retired, our team is looking to the future. But that's a story for another day.

Right now, my main JetPunk projects are the Countries Iceberg (I'm also making an longer, remade version of the original iceberg), a comprehensive blog recapping my musical taste over the past year, and my county quizzes series, where I'll be making a quiz for every county (or county-equivalent) in the United States. If you liked the country or state quizzes, you'll probably like these too. Please consider following! I'm currently working on Alaska and Hawaii. We've got a long way to go, but it'll be worth it.