New England Discussion '16-'17

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Akolluri
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New England Discussion '16-'17

Post by Akolluri »

In this thread, discuss teams and players for the 2016-2017 season. Now that we've all competed against each other at least a few times, we have a somewhat better understanding of each other's strengths and weaknesses. I'll be posting my own detailed summary below.
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Re: New England Discussion '16-'17

Post by troyharris »

Thanks for posting. We have had a lot of fun competing against the best of New England so far this year. We have learned a lot about our strengths and weaknesses, specifically about keeping ourselves physically and mentally alert in these longer tournaments, especially after having to travel a long distance early in the morning to arrive. As we are now in the heart of our television season and regular season in NH, we will be focusing on these through January and then jumping back on the circuit for the later winter/spring competitions, hopefully refreshed and ready to roll. We appreciate the schools that have accepted our entries and who have reached out to us to invite us to compete. We are really still in the early stages of trying to grow the program and hope to continue to play on the New England Circuit for years to come. As a side note, we really enjoyed watching AMSA play last year. You had a great group of kids who were very supportive and complimentary of our team, and it didn't go unnoticed by our players and coaches. Wishing you continued success this season.

Troy Harris
Plymouth Regional H.S.
Plymouth, NH
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Re: New England Discussion '16-'17

Post by Akolluri »

My Analysis:

I think we can all agree that last season was one of the most highly competitive seasons the New England circuit has seen. All of our teams performed very well, and Lexington in particular had a great year with a 2nd place finish at NHBB and a 5th place finish at HSNCT. However, New England has also lost a large amount of experienced players in the form of graduating seniors. This has been a severe blow to Lexington and AMSA in particular, but the entire circuit has been hit hard as well. It will take some time to rebuild our circuit to the level of competition that it experienced last season, but in the meantime we still have a lot of talented teams and players who deserve recognition. I offer my apologies in advance if I forget your team, and if you comment your school name on this thread, I will add them to my analysis.

#1) Lexington A: Colin Cantwell is very skilled, and should dominate the circuit as a solo player this year. He formed much of the backbone for Lexington's incredible success last year, and is a very hard player to beat. As far as I know, no New England team has been able to beat him at any tournament this year, with the closest challenger being AMSA during History Bowl, where he won by only 30 points. He may be (with the possible exception of Michael Borecki of Darien A) the best player in the New England circuit.

#2) Phillips Andover: Phillips Andover has has a strong performance this year, and is the only team this year other than Lexington A to consistently beat AMSA, albeit by a narrow margin. The team is a solid one, with both Sam He and Brandon Qi in particular having great performances so far. Matches against them are very competitive, and they are always fun to play against.

#3) AMSA: We lost all of A team from last season to graduation, and we are still in the rebuilding phase. But we have put up a good performance so far this year, particularly in the last few months when we won Darien Invitational and took 2nd place at LIIMIT. I expect that AMSA and Phillips Academy along with Acton-Boxboro and Hingham will be in stiff competition for the title of 2nd best team in Massachusetts for the rest of the season.

#4) Acton-Boxboro: Acton-Boxboro has also had a great performance so far this season, with lead scorer Pratt Hedge deserving particular praise. They are a very skilled team, and I can easily see them upsetting AMSA or Phillips Academy for the title of 2nd best team. Given time and dedication, they could come to dominate the field in the next few years.

#5) Hingham: Hingham has also performed well this season, and is the only team besides AMSA and Lexington to have won a tournament so far this year. They had a particularly good performance at LIIMIT, where they achieved their first tournament win of the season by upsetting both Phillips Academy during the playoffs and AMSA A during the finals. They are a very skilled team, and should never be underestimated.

#6) Brookline: Brookline has had another strong performance this year, and with their lead scorer Michael Greenberg they have even occasionally upset AMSA. They are another team that could easily dominate the field in the next few years given hard work and dedication. They are always a threat during tournaments, and have the capacity to do very well over the next few years.

#7) Framingham: They have improved a lot this season, and perform well during tournaments, with lead scorer Elijah Bondar deserving particular praise. Along with Brookline, they dominate the middle tier of Massachusetts quiz bowl, and have the potential to rise to the top within the next few years.

#8) Darien: Michael Borecki is a very talented player, and Darien should have a good chance of winning many of the tournaments that they attend. Additionally, John Phipps is a valuable asset to the team and is a top-tier player within the circuit. Darien will continue to be a top team for many years to come, and will dominate Connecticut for the foreseeable future.

All in all, this year will be a rebuilding year for the New England Circuit. With the end of Bishop-Guirtein and the loss of many good players on other teams, our circuit is redeveloping. With the exception of Darien and Lexington, most of the teams I have talked about play very competitive games against each other, and upsets are common. It simply cannot be foreseen at the moment which team will dominate the circuit next year after Colin and Michael graduate, and the competition will be intense. It is always a joy to watch new teams grow and develop, and watch competitive rivalries escalate. I wish you all a good second half of the season!
Last edited by Akolluri on Fri Jan 20, 2017 10:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Abhiram Kolluri
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Re: New England Discussion '16-'17

Post by joyous »

The New England circuit is certainly redeveloping after the loss of some really great players who graduated last year.

I believe one of the teams that has surged since they joined the circuit late in the year last season is Andover High School. They have consistently performed well in the middle tier, and even placed 2nd at MATCH, which is very impressive to see their improvement.

With the next few months coming up, I look forward to competing against every team in the circuit to find areas of weakness in our team at PA. There's always room for improvement and as nationals looms ahead, we hope to perform even better than we did last year.

Every game this year so far has been very fun and competitive, which brings promise to the future years of New England quiz bowl. I look forward to the next tournament--which appears to be MIT spring.
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Re: New England Discussion '16-'17

Post by High Dependency Unit »

Akolluri wrote:My Analysis:

#8) Darien: Michael Borecki is a very talented player, and Darien should have a good chance of winning many of the tournaments that they attend. Additionally, John Phipps is a valuable asset to the team and is a top-tier player within the circuit. Darien will continue to be a top team for many years to come, and will dominate Connecticut for the foreseeable future.
I really think any mention of our team cannot stop at my name and John Phipps's name. Julia is a very talented player and could potentially outscore me at NSC. A team of Evan Tong, Griffin Samroengraja, and Thomas Brown beat AMSA A and placed third at the Darien Invitational. Maya Nalawade and Riya Krishnan have been critical members of our very talented B team, that, if not for two five-point losses, would have placed second at FAcT. And I'm still not mentioning players we'll be bringing to HSNCT and NSC.
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Re: New England Discussion '16-'17

Post by troyharris »

I would urge you to continue to keep an eye on Plymouth A. Understandably we are still young and "new" to the circuit and being in the small-school division is tough going against much bigger and/or selective schools, but if you look at the growth from last year to this year and the potential for the future, we are getting closer to getting to where we want to be. Having the chance to watch schools like AMSA, Lexington, Phillips, Acton-Boxboro, etc play really has helped us figure out what we need to do to get better. Our A team has already beaten some of the teams listed in the poll above this year (AMSA@ MIT, Acton-Boxboro A @MIT) and we lost on a last question toss-up to Hingham A at Phillips Academy. We also hung tough with LASA A (lead them by 35 at halftime) and beat Southside B at Harvard, as well as holding a lead on Lex. A at MATCH up to toss-up 16 with 3 or our 4 A-teamers from MIT not in attendance. With our top scorer at MATCH only being a freshman, Rhys should be able to fill his brother's shoes for the next three years, and we have some outstanding underclassmen as well who are already playing great on the circuit. We are looking forward to the rest of this season in New Hampshire, in New England and at SSNCT and History Bowl Nationals. I also agree with Sam's assessment: Andover is a really good team!
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Plymouth Regional H.S.
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Re: New England Discussion '16-'17

Post by troyharris »

And since this is a New England/Northeast thread page, there are many very strong teams in Vermont as well. Essex A is really tough, Middlebury A was phenomenal at nationals last year (SSNCT), and Burlington, CVU, Mt. Mansfield and S. Burlington all were very strong at PHAT with very good PPB ratings.
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Re: New England Discussion '16-'17

Post by Couch's Kingbird »

2013 in amusement parks wrote:
Akolluri wrote:My Analysis:

#8) Darien: Michael Borecki is a very talented player, and Darien should have a good chance of winning many of the tournaments that they attend. Additionally, John Phipps is a valuable asset to the team and is a top-tier player within the circuit. Darien will continue to be a top team for many years to come, and will dominate Connecticut for the foreseeable future.
I really think any mention of our team cannot stop at my name and John Phipps's name. Julia is a very talented player and could potentially outscore me at NSC. A team of Evan Tong, Griffin Samroengraja, and Thomas Brown beat AMSA A and placed third at the Darien Invitational. Maya Nalawade and Riya Krishnan have been critical members of our very talented B team, that, if not for two five-point losses, would have placed second at FAcT. And I'm still not mentioning players we'll be bringing to HSNCT and NSC.
I definitely want to highlight this- we have many people on our team that are very, very good players (or are developing into very good players), but are always overlooked for some reason. Riya and Maya will be core members of our A team next year, and are already performing very strongly. See our performance at Columbia Fall, where we fielded what will probably be our A team next year- me, John, Maya, Riya, and Evan- and did pretty well, including defeating Hunter A (most losses were when I had to miss part of prelims). Our team will definitely be a very balanced one next year.
In terms of the other players on our team, Andrew Benz is a very solid math and computer science player, as well as physics and other sciences. Brendan Berrigan and James Johnson will also be helping us in that department. And at the risk of self-aggrandizing, I think I'm a pretty decent player (see the stats from ACF Fall this year and even CT States last year). I know I don't necessarily put up a ton of points at every tournament because I specialize, but examining player ability doesn't just stop at ppg.
With all due respect, I think the current freshmen- John, Maya, Riya, for instance- aren't quite at the "top tier" of the circuit yet, which is understandable- they're only freshmen, after all, but they have a lot of talent and potential. Yes, losing Michael next year will be a blow, but given the current strength of the members of our B team- plus the next several months to improve- we should be competitive next year at least locally, if not nationally.
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Re: New England Discussion '16-'17

Post by Akolluri »

I apologize for my incomplete analysis of Darien's team, as well as the many exceptional players that play on it. My knowledge of the Connecticut circuit and the people who play within it is lacking, and as a result my analysis of their team was woefully short-sighted. Darien and all of the very talented players on their team have always generated my admiration and respect through their skill and dedication to Quizbowl. The fact that they have such a successful program is something that every team should try to emulate, including my own. I did not mean to overlook any teams, but simply could only write about the ones that I was very familiar with.
I would love to hear everyone else's analysis of the New England Circuit, especially the parts that I lack the knowledge to write about.
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Re: New England Discussion '16-'17

Post by alexdz »

An out-of-region-er post here: I'm flying up to the Boston area for a conference the weekend of March 4. I checked out the calendar and it doesn't look like anything is going on that weekend besides a NHQBL tournament. Just wanted to post in case anyone's doing a fun quizbowl-related activity that weekend like a fundraiser or anything; I'd be happy to join in!
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Re: New England Discussion '16-'17

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

alexdz wrote:An out-of-region-er post here: I'm flying up to the Boston area for a conference the weekend of March 4. I checked out the calendar and it doesn't look like anything is going on that weekend besides a NHQBL tournament. Just wanted to post in case anyone's doing a fun quizbowl-related activity that weekend like a fundraiser or anything; I'd be happy to join in!
Oh man, am I glad you posted. We're hosting our mirror of This Tournament is a Crime that weekend, which is an open tournament, so if you don't want to staff, you could even play! It's admittedly more expensive for open teams, since we wanted to encourage schools to play as units, but for a 4-person team it's nothing prohibitively expensive for a full day of quizbowl.

Email/PM me if you're interested in either playing or staffing! (If the former, it's on you to find a team, though.)
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Re: New England Discussion '16-'17

Post by bedlamtom »

Interested to hear your evaluation of Somerville, Belmont, and Newton North. They don't seem to be incredibly active in the competitive scene, but they seem to have many skilled players at their disposal.

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Re: New England Discussion '16-'17

Post by joyous »

two weeks out of HSNCT, four weeks out of NSC, and i'm really looking forward to potentially facing off against some New England teams one last time before my high school quiz bowl career comes to an end. wishing everyone the best!
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