The Academic Competition Federation is a quiz bowl organization that holds regional and national tournament but, unlike chief competitors CBI and NAQT, is non-profit and does not produce questions centrally. Instead, the loosely-defined membership of ACF requires competing teams to write questions, which are edited and read during a round in which the writing team has a bye. ACF is untimed and emphasizes long questions with very little pop culture and high and dense academic content. While praised for its ability to reward knowledge and academic preparation, ACF is often criticized for having difficult and dull questions which frustrate players who have not actively studied the quiz bowl canon.