Academic Cup Round One Delivers Drama, Steals and a Tie-Break Thriller

The first round of this year’s Nord Anglia China Academic Cup certainly lived up to expectations, with four competitive matches, some decisive steals and one contest that could not have been closer.

Teams faced questions across History & Geography, Literature, Art & Music, Science & Technology and General Knowledge, with ten points available for a correct answer — and, crucially, five points available if opponents could steal a question that had been missed.

And those steals proved important.

Guangzhou 105 – 55 Dalian

The British School of Guangzhou and Dalian American International School were neck and neck for much of their contest before Guangzhou produced a near-perfect General Knowledge round.

BSG answered all five of their own questions correctly and then added another 10 points through steals, finally opening up a decisive gap and securing a 105–55 victory.

Hong Kong 170 – 90 Beijing Shunyi

The British School of Beijing, Shunyi produced a strong performance and might have fancied their chances against almost anyone else in the draw.

Unfortunately, they found themselves facing the defending champions, Nord Anglia International School Hong Kong.

The pivotal moment came in Literature, Art & Music, where Isabella — a member of Hong Kong’s championship-winning team last year — helped her team collect an impressive 45 points in the round. Hong Kong established a lead that they never surrendered and eventually ran out 170–90 winners.

Chengdu 120 – 120 Nanjing

And then there was the tightest match of the round.

Léman International School Chengdu and The British School of Nanjing could not be separated after all the rounds, finishing locked at 120–120.

That meant everything came down to a single tie-break question: Across all 104 matches of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, what was the projected total combined stadium attendance?

The answer was 6,810,966.

Nobody was expected to know it — the challenge was simply to make the best educated estimate.

Nanjing estimated 7 million.

And that was close enough to send BSN through to Round Two.

Puxi 125 – 95 Pudong

The final contest brought a Shanghai derby as The British International School Shanghai, Puxi faced Nord Anglia International School Shanghai, Pudong.

Once again, Literature, Art & Music proved decisive.

Puxi collected all 20 points available from their own questions and then successfully stole three from Pudong, giving them a 35-point advantage from the round.

Pudong fought back strongly during General Knowledge, but the gap was simply too large. Puxi held on to win 125–95 and complete the Round Two line-up.

How would you have done?

Could you have identified the ancient civilisation that used quipu — knotted cords used for record-keeping? The Inca.

Would you have known that The Great Wave off Kanagawa was created by Katsushika Hokusai?

Or that CAPTCHA stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”?

And one deceptively simple General Knowledge question caught plenty of attention:

If you multiply every number on a telephone-style numeric keypad together, what is the answer?

Zero — because one of the numbers is, of course, 0.

Round Two awaits

Round Two now brings two fascinating regional battles.

In the south, The British School of Guangzhou will face defending champions Nord Anglia International School Hong Kong.

Can Guangzhou’s impressive Round One team knock out the defending champions and claim bragging rights as Southern China’s Academic Cup leaders?

And on the eastern coast, The British School of Nanjing will face The British International School Shanghai, Puxi.

After surviving the closest match of Round One, Nanjing now face their Shanghai neighbours for the unofficial Eastern Coastal crown.

Round Two is scheduled for Thursday 3 September, once match times have been agreed.

After the drama of Round One, nobody should expect an easy route to the final...