The Quizbowl Resource Center

potato0328

I don't know very much about Class A, so I won't embarrass myself by predicting anything. Class AA NT over Bloomington I think these are the two most balanced teams in the field. It seems to me that whichever finalist comes from the tougher pool has had an advantage in the past, as that team must al...

potato0328

cornfused, I remember that tournament really well. The best part was that the tournament took place in Oak Park, IL, so everyone came ready for those Hemingway-ambulance driver questions.
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potato0328

Since I'm no longer a participant, I'm no longer in a position where I have to back up what I say with results. That being said, I feel like this is a mostly unbiased ranking. 1. Bloomington I have a feeling they weren't satisfied with their performance at state last year, which, combined with their...

potato0328

My team and I love NAQT questions, and would have enjoyed going to the tournament. However, our schedule was just too crowded, which, in my opinion, is becoming a bit of a problem in Illinois scholastic bowl. If we had gone to NAQT, I'm pretty sure that we would have had a scholatic bowl event every...

potato0328

We beat them in the morning round at the Richards tournament. It was a fairly close match (about 60-70 point difference, I think).

potato0328

Thanks to everyone for the kind comments above, and congratulations to everyone who made it to state. To Auburn... I speak for my team when I say that we have a ton of respect for you guys. We were focused and ready to play what we knew what would be a grueling first-round match, and we were fortuna...

potato0328

I can't exactly specify, sorry... I'm talking about the question writer who apparently upset the coaches so much that IHSA promised to never use him to write questions again, according to my coach. Also, if someone wants more info about this topic, Mr. Reinstein did send an email to a number of coac...

potato0328

I'm not sure how many people agree with me (judging by Mr. Reinstein's email, at least one person does), but I thought that yesterday's questions were some of the poorest that I have ever seen. Once in a while at practice, our coach takes out the state series questions by the former question writer,...

potato0328

Wow.
I could dispute a lot of what was just said... but instead, I'll just hope that you can back all of that up with your performance. Good luck, since I think you might need it.

potato0328

Fremd is planning on going to Fenwick. We might be missing 2 starters due to an orchestra conflict, which could be rough on our math and science. However, Beata will probably be there, so we won't be hurt too badly.

potato0328

I know exactly what you mean, Trevkeeper. For some reason, it was really hard to get into a good rhythm at Saturday's tournament, and we barely escaped losses to Marian Central Catholic and Bradley-Bourbonnais in the morning round. I suppose the biggest gripe I had with the questions (except for the...

potato0328

I'm not sure if the Fenwick tournament is run through invite or what, but I know that our coach put it on our team's schedule this year, meaning that, as long as nothing weird comes up, we're going. I can also vouch that Fenwick does have some of the best questions I've come across throughout IHSA, ...

potato0328

1. Maine South didn't suck, but I don't think they're at the level right now to be included with teams like Maine East and Latin. But Maine South's talent pool seems pretty good, and their coaching and program are very solid, so you never know, they will most likely improve throughout the year. 2. L...

potato0328

I would have to say that our match against New Trier was really one of the closest matches I've ever been in. It was back and forth the whole way, and we were lucky enough to end up 8 points ahead. The level of competition at Richards was about as high as you can find anywhere (we played Maine East,...

potato0328

I am going to step up and say... probably not Fremd. We're missing 4 of our top 6 players (including Beata) due to the district honors music festival and model UN. I'm not sure if anyone else's teams are having issues like this, but I think you can make a good case for a number of teams... New Trier...

potato0328

I've always wondered why question writers don't delegate math question-writing responsibilities more often. Let's be honest, it seems that serious scholastic bowl people (coaches, etc.) and math people are rarely one and the same. There are exceptions, of course, but not enough of these exceptions a...

potato0328

Although I had a few issues with format and questions, the Ultima was overall a good experience in my opinion. It's really beneficial to see which of these teams really measure up to being the best in the state, and I would say that most, if not all, proved themselves worthy, especially the top 4. G...

potato0328

How did the Early Bird go? Does anyone have any added wisdom now? My team wanted to go, but the Homecoming dance was higher on everyone's list of priorities, including mine.

potato0328

I have a question about this new sectional seeding rule.

Does this mean that my school (Fremd) might have to face Stevenson, Hoffman, or Buffalo Grove even earlier (regionals instead of sectionals)? If so, one of us is going to have to take a really tough loss.

potato0328

I bet the coaches already know this, but being a student, I'm out of the loop....
Does anyone know the full list of teams who will be at Loyola Ultima this year? How about the date (the IHSSBCA website says October 15/22)? Thanks a lot.

potato0328

Interestingly enough, our school has the opposite problem. We even have seniors (with no schobowl experience) joining the team. Maybe it was the taste of winning we had with last year's very talented senior class, but I think it comes from something else... we have a ton of fun. I'm friends with mos...

potato0328

Looks like a respectable list to me. I'm flattered that you ranked Fremd so high. Now that we have that kind of recognition, let's just hope we can live up to it. I, for one, can't wait to face some of the teams on this list. Just a general question... does anyone know who else is on Auburn's starti...

potato0328

It does suck that you have to travel so far to sectionals, Donald, but I would much rather drive for a day than just drive for 30 minutes to a sectional made up of 4 teams consistently among the top 10 teams in the state (Stevenson, Fremd, Buffalo Grove, Hoffman Estates). Pick your poison, I guess.

potato0328

I'm not sure if he still posts here anymore, but Alex Inman from Fremd (in Illinois) is going to Stanford. I'm not sure if he plans to do schobowl, but you guys at Stanford should be hoping he does. He made All-State last year, and he's one of the fastest buzzers I've ever seen.

potato0328

As a math person, this should probably make me happy... but all I can think of is how awful physics and chemistry computation problems can be. It seems to me that question writers love to use physics/chem computation as an excuse to include those "human calculator" problems. I guess only t...

potato0328

As far as Illinois goes... I think you'll see the same teams (Stevenson, NT, Auburn, Wheaton North in no particular order) competing at class AA. I personally am watching out for Auburn, because it seems like it's about time for Kerr to bring home a state title. I think you'll see one more good year...

potato0328

I (Andy Wilson) and I think four others from Fremd (including Alex Beata, one of our All-Staters from last year) in Illinois are going to Maryville for ACE this year (we had vacation conflicts with SEMO). It's too bad we're missing most of the other Illinoisians (who normally go to SEMO), but hopefu...

potato0328

I think there's some major misunderstanding going on here between the two sides. To my fellow Illinois schobowlers, I don't think anyone from the east is trying to imply that Illinois sucks or any such thing. They just want to challenge us to improve. And to the east coasters, you guys seem to think...

potato0328

I'm interested in who of the familiar faces I can count on seeing again next year. Anyone, feel free to jump in and say who on your team is graduating, or who's sticking around, or who we should all watch out for next year. I'm just curious for a general picture of what to expect next year from the ...

potato0328

While we're somewhat-discussing math question writing, I wanted to bring up my biggest pet peeve of all: math questions that ask you to answer in approximated decimal form. (For example: Find the area of a circle to the nearest hundredth). Ask ANYONE that knows anything about math, and they will tel...

potato0328

I have to say that the most backbreaking bonus for our team was the algebra II logarithm bonus. We had just started to crawl our way back into the game after a first half with almost no tossups, and handing Stevenson 20 points like that was hard to recover from. As a suggestion to save time for next...

potato0328

Apparently, my earlier comment needs to be explained. Trevkeeper is basically correct on his analysis; I was in no way insulting Stevenson, or implying that we were some sort of "lock" to win another state title (obviously that's not true). I was just hoping that after beating roughly the ...

potato0328

Fremd lost a REAL tough match to Stevenson (by 13 points). A lot of uncharacteristic errors by us (only 2 toss-ups in the first half) and enough capitalization by them did us in. Good luck to everyone at state.

potato0328

i'm pretty sure our team would object to one of those specifically. but i guess we're gonna have to win another state tournament to get some respect.

potato0328

don't quote me on this, but we (Fremd) have been looking for a nationals-type team to do this summer (4 of our starting 5 are graduating). conflicts have prevented us from doing these national tournaments, but this idea sounds like something our team would love to do.

potato0328

dageneral, i think i speak for everyone from the bloodbath regional (as its known around here) when i say that it's not just the non-qualifiers complaining. it's hard enough to play in a regional loaded with 4 of the top 5 teams in the state without having very... abnormal question writing. (and for...

potato0328

The 16 teams going downstate for Masonic: Galena Rockford Auburn New Trier@Winnetka Fremd@Palatine (wild card) Moline Peoria Heights IMSA@Aurora Morton Bloomington Normal Community West Pittsfield Glenwood@Chatham Decatur MacArthur Fairfield Community Carbondale Community O'Fallon Also, does anyone ...

potato0328

so, looks like the results are in from today's Richards tournament. 1. Fremd 2. Maine South 3. Wheaton North 4. Maine East Also, Stevenson B won the B division. it was a good tournament, lots of fun and good competition. fremd (where i'm from) had a solid day and managed to win a close match against...

potato0328

Well, Richards will indeed be interesting, it always is because of the format and questions too. I say, that is a tournament where titans can be toppled, as was the case last year when mighty Wheaton North beat Amy Minas by only 4 points, before we came in. What proceeded was indeed a spectacle. It...

potato0328

haha. yes, i'm from fremd, but i'm just relating the facts. we also played wheaton north in that tournament. they were pretty solid, but not spectacular like last year. we won by about 60-70 if i remember correctly. and i don't mean to trash talk guys. hopefully this will all be settled at the buzze...

potato0328

I agree that Lincoln-Way East is a good team (beating Auburn is impressive), but I have to point out that LWE met up with Fremd (where I'm from) in the finals of that same tournament. The results... were not pretty. I think it was about a 150 point victory for Fremd. But I guess it'll take a head-to...

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