The United States sent teams to the International Young Physicists' Tournament several times in the 2000s, and achieved a second-place finish in 2005. The nonprofit United States Association for Young Physicists Tournaments was incorporated in 2005, initially for the purpose of supporting and training the US team as well as to spread the pedagogical methodology of preparing and conducting the "physics fight." In 2007, the USAYPT organized their own Young Physicists Tournament, inviting school-based teams from around the world to debate over a slate of four research problems. The one-day event at the North Carolina School of Science and Math (NCSSM) included five teams, all from the United States; Woodberry Forest School won the inaugural championship.

The 2008 tournament, also at NCSSM, included the first "international" team: Brisbane Girls Grammar School. They faced Woodberry Forest School, a boys' boarding school in central Virginia. In the final physics fight, Brisbane's Sarah Thang and Samantha Luck outdueled Woodberry's Chris McLamb and Robert Bauer for the title.

The 2009 tournament was held with eight teams at Woodberry Forest School and was won by the Raffles Institution of Singapore. The 2010 tournament was cancelled due to excessive snow. There were informal tournaments held instead, one at Woodberry and one at The Harker School. In 2011, the USIYPT became a two-day, six-round event. It was hosted at Oak Ridge Associated Universities, and was sponsored by the University of Tennessee department of physics as well as others. The Harker School won in 2011. The Clifford Swartz Trophy for top performance in the tournament's poster session was introduced in 2012 and won by Oak Ridge High School. The tournament was won by Rye Country Day School. The final rounds were switched to a pool-play format in 2015, and Harker School beat Woodberry Forest School 79-77. In 2017, Rye Country Day School emerged with a convincing victory with an innovative way of measuring Planck's constant.