The Academic Competition Organization of Virginia Tech (VT-ACO) was founded in the fall of 1995 by Jeff Ford, Dennis Loo, and Jason Thweatt. The founders, as well as several other interested members, decided that the best way to preserve and expand the presence of academic competition on campus would be to form an organization dedicated to that end.  The purpose of VT-ACO is to promote greater campus participation in quiz bowl by running intramural tournaments and competing in intercollegiate play.

In 1996 VT-ACO sent teams to several tournaments, including Penn Bowl 6, the Wahoo War of the Minds, and CBI Regionals.  Tech A's appearance in the Wahoo War playoffs marked the first major tournament playoff appearance in the school's history.  We also hosted the first annual Virginia Tech High School Invitational Tournament, co-sponsored by VT-ACO and the Virginia Tech Honors Program, in which eight local high school teams competed.

In 1997, VT-ACO continued to grow. A team from Virginia Tech participated in the inaugural NAQT Mid-Atlantic Sectional, and because of its performance there, received an automatic bid to compete at the NAQT Championship Tournament.  The varsity team also placed third at CBI Regionals, and went 5-9 after an 0-6 start in its first attempt at ACF regionals. Perhaps the most interesting tournament of the season was Wahoo War of the Minds 97, because it featured the first intravarsity squad match in the organization's history.  Spring 1998 saw the Hokies go to quarterfinals at Penn Bowl 007, take third at NAQT Sectionals, second in CBI Regionals, 24th at the NAQT ICT, and sixth at the CBI NCT in Dallas.

In Fall 1998, Virginia Tech scored its first tournament win, at the Center of the Known Universe Open Tournament at UTC.  This was about when quiz bowl superstar and Lord of the Dance Eliot Brenner began to emerge as a dominant player, and Roger Craig took the rookie scoring title as he, too, appeared on the inter-collegiate scene.  The semester also included a fifth-place finish at the Terrapin Invitational.  Spring brought a second place finish at GW's JCV tournament and appearances at UTC's Moonpie Classic and UMD's DSHIT III Junior Bird tournament.  The varsity squad put in a 13-2 showing at Penn Bowl Magic 8 Ball, 10-3 at NAQT sectionals, won CBI Regionals and the USC Gamecock Invitational tournaments, and had strong showings at both NAQT's ICT and CBI's NCT.  The team's strong year led to hard-earned respect in the QB community, as evidenced by predictions of as high as sixth place at ICT.  Said prediction did not come true, unfortunately, but did prompt the comment that "...Virginia Tech is no longer the most under-rated team in the country...."

With the end of the 1998-1999 school year upon us, we must wish fond farewell to many departing players.  Team founder Dennis Loo has finished his psychology studies and is leaving us, while graduating senior Eliot Brenner is moving on to Yale, and fellow graduate Jeff Bocock is going to UNC.  Roger Craig is working for DuPont, and Jeremy Rotter is going to IBM.  We wish them the best of luck, except when we oppose them in future matches.

For the school years 1999-2001, VT-ACO has found itself an organization in flux, with many good players, but with many leaving and, in some cases, returning.  Summer 2000 saw the departure of Jason Thweatt, the organization's founder and greatest coach.  Ryan Gunderson and Ashley Bander left, but Ryan returned in Spring 2001.  Throughout these two years, the organization has participated in and ran a number of tournaments, with middling good results.