Notable Retirements: An Appreciation

[salamanca]

I meant to post this before the current season was in full swing, however real life caught up to me and this is somewhat belated. I just wanted to take a little bit of time to recognize the retirement (at least in terms of collegiate eligibility) of three titans of the modern game, to laud their accomplishments as players and to thank them publicly for all they have given back and continue to give. Obviously everything that follows is my opinion, so if you'd like to quibble feel free to post your own encomiums or excoriations...

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Jerry Vinokurov (Teams: Berkeley/Brown)

Jerry came to Berkeley as that team was really coming into its own in the early aughts and featured such great players as Jeff Hoppes, Seth Teitler, David Farris, etc.. Even on a super deep team like Berkeley that routinely placed two teams at the top of tournament standings, Jerry's desire to get better was palpable. By 2004 he was on the A Team at ACF Nationals that took Andrew and Subash's Chicago team to a two game final (I distinctly remember him killing a Sekigahara question, back when that was not rote knowledge) and played an important role for Berkeley the following year in their fine showings nationally as well. Jerry was then more of a supporting player and when he went to Brown it seemed as if he would have to become a one man show...

I was kind of away from the circuit in 2006, but when Andrew and I edited and wrote ACF Nationals in 2007, there was Jerry leading a young Brown team to a strong second place finish. I remember handing him his plaque after the tournament and telling him that I was really impressed with the progress he had shown as a player, but even more impressed with his ability to lead a newly formed team to a second place finish so soon. That same Brown team, that would spawn current powerhouse Eric Mukherjee, would, of course, come up tragically short of winning the ACF Nationals title a few more times, but Jerry's dedication to his team and their incremental improvement was notable. Although this past year's Nationals season was probably not as fulfilling as he would have liked, the plain truth is that by the time Jerry left Brown it had become a bonafide qb program, where once there was nothing, and that is damn impressive.

Jerry has also been a proponent of good writing for years and has authored numerous well received tournaments and even guides on question construction.

Seth Teitler (Teams: Berkeley/Chicago)

I've played Seth so many times, in so many big games at National Tournaments and Chicago Opens, and the biggest thing I want people to appreciate about him was his ability to balance that famous even temper with a fiery relentlessness. He hated to lose and methodically expanded his qb strengths so that he could take nearly any question in any category if you were not careful. The apotheosis of that drive manifested itself at ACF Nationals in 2008 when his Chicago A team beat a very strong Stanford team and Jerry's Brown in succession.

Although he had the fortune to play with what is probably the greatest collection of team mates any modern player has ever had, e.g., Hoppes, Vinokurov, Yaphe, Maddipoti, Ferrari, Koo, Austin, the list goes on and on, he was always able to play within himself and make a critical contribution no matter what his role (i..e, as a number two early on, as the number one player starting in 2006). By the time he had asserted himself as the undisputed captain of the Chicago A team, they were like a machine, winning every title available. Although the Chicago team's ability to graduate top players and quickly fill in the ranks and be a title contender goes back to the early 90s, Teitler's teams always seemed the most balanced to me and by 2007 he was the best in game captain (e.g., delegating subject matter expertise, designating people, smartly milking the bonus countdowns) I'd ever seen.

Seth, like Jerry and Andrew, has also helped to make the modern game what it is in terms of question quality. He has edited CO, Regionals, independent tournaments like JS Mill, NAQT tournaments, etc. Always high quality, rarely any drama.

Andrew Yaphe (Teams: UVA/Chicago/Stanford)

I don't think much more needs to be said about Andrew's career. He is the best player of all time. The crazy thing is, I still think people don't appreciate how good he is. I mean, in 2009 he played ACF Nationals after not having played seriously for four years-- four years that produced a second quantum leap in question writing (this first one was from 2001-2005)-- and almost made it to the finals, finally succumbing to a Chicago team led by Seth Teitler at his best. In 2010, with, I think, two practice tournaments under his belt, he defeated an incredibly tough field, including a very talented, very driven, and very complete Minnesota A team, to win Nationals. His buzzes throughout the tournament were consistently early and on point. To me, it is this ability to stay ACF Nationals level sharp, even when he does not play or practice seriously, that separates him from all of the other putative greatest players. I don't remember a quarter of the stuff I knew in 2005, when I was at my best, but Andrew's knowledge, not only does it not fade, it seems to expand. Questions get harder, more esoteric, more content driven, he continues to get them early, he continues to win.

Anyway, he is done and I, for one, am glad that the current generation of quizbowlers got to see him play at an ACF Nationals-- I hope it inspired folks the same way it inspired me many years ago. Although I count him as a friend, being good enough to beat Andrew's teams was my primary goal as a player and it animated my desire to get better at the game more than anything else.

Andrew has written a slew of tournaments including CO, ACF and NAQT Nationals and a host of other invitationals. Along with Subash, he transformed the way modern qb questions look and feel and everything written now, in one way or another, bears that imprint.

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I will stop here, though I could have written a lot more about each of these guys. When you see them at the next event they are moderating, say what's up and thank you.

Ezequiel