Page 3 of 4

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sun Nov 24, 2013 4:56 pm
by The Stately Rhododendron
Stats aren't up yet, but OM scored ~24.5 ppb at PhAQT in the prelims (with charter A and B both scoring ~20, charter A not having their best player)

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2013 4:49 pm
by Beevor Feevor
A couple of tournaments in, I personally believe that RM is the best team in the DC Metro area. Although they've really only won one tournament thus far, their stats are consistently the highest in the area, especially in terms of bonus conversion, where they outstrip every other team in the region. They're very balanced, quick on the buzzer, and can only improve with regards to their team synergy. Following them, I'd put my team as second for the time being, with a myriad of teams after that including Oakland Mills, Walter Johnson, Blair, GDS, Maggie Walker. In my opinion, there's also a group of schools immediately after that group, such as TJ, Quince Orchard and Marshall, who will probably join the groups above once the season progresses a bit; Maggie Walker B and Loudoun County could also probably go into that group. Anyone have any comments concerning the region thus far?

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 8:55 pm
by tgaddy
I would just say watch out for Oakland Mills' NAQT abilities. They may have underperformed at a couple of tournaments, but the twins have (I think) the best geography, current events, and trash knowledge in the region, giving them a significant "naqt boost" which may have gone unnoticed in other formats. Otherwise I think Eric is probably right in his assessment (for now). Remember there is still a while to go until nationals, and I think about 5 teams still have a legitimate shot at the title of "best team" in the DC area.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 12:48 pm
by Lawrence Simon
So we're a little more than half-way through the year at this point, and the DMV area is in one of its most competitive years in a while. Based on what I've seen (ie very subjective) there are three distinguishable tiers in our area: the first one, made up of RM, Western Albemarle, and Maggie Walker, is a circle of amazing teams that consistently win the tournaments they go to and usually edge out a finals win against each other in equal variation. Following very closely is a second tier of Walter Johnson, Oakland Mills, Blair and GDS, all of whom can, and some have, beat a member of that first tier and have the possibility of winning any tournament they attend. Each of those teams also seem like they slip in and out of the top tier, and will all likely continue to until the end of the season. The third tier seems to be Centennial, Thomas Jefferson, Loudoun County, and probably my own Quince Orchard. They seem to be on the verge of the top tiers, but either because can't seem to get out full team out (especially in Centennial's case), or because this year the top teams are just too good, they always seem to be edged out of the top spot at major competitions. Also worth mentioning are Cave Spring, Christiansburg, and Honaker, all of whom have excellent seniors but need to either attend more competitions or play more in the DC-area circuit to be comparable. I guess I'll humor my friends at Wilmington Charter and say that they would probably be in the top tier if they competed more in DC-area quiz bowl than NJ/PA/NY-area quiz bowl, with so much talent that their A and B teams are forces to be reckoned with. Of course these rankings are just based off of what I've seen and feel free to openly criticize them, as many will soon do I'm sure. There's still little over a semester left in this school year and it's likely that any of these teams could bulk up and break through at nationals or slow down and fall behind the rest of the pack.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 1:11 pm
by fett0001
Lawrence Simon wrote:So we're a little more than half-way through the year at this point, and the DMV area is in one of its most competitive years in a while. Based on what I've seen (ie very subjective) there are three distinguishable tiers in our area: the first one, made up of RM, Western Albemarle, and Maggie Walker, is a circle of amazing teams that consistently win the tournaments they go to and usually edge out a finals win against each other in equal variation. Following very closely is a second tier of Walter Johnson, Oakland Mills, Blair and GDS, all of whom can, and some have, beat a member of that first tier and have the possibility of winning any tournament they attend. Each of those teams also seem like they slip in and out of the top tier, and will all likely continue to until the end of the season. The third tier seems to be Centennial, Thomas Jefferson, Loudoun County, and probably my own Quince Orchard. They seem to be on the verge of the top tiers, but either because can't seem to get out full team out (especially in Centennial's case), or because this year the top teams are just too good, they always seem to be edged out of the top spot at major competitions. Also worth mentioning are Cave Spring, Christiansburg, and Honaker, all of whom have excellent seniors but need to either attend more competitions or play more in the DC-area circuit to be comparable. I guess I'll humor my friends at Wilmington Charter and say that they would probably be in the top tier if they competed more in DC-area quiz bowl than NJ/PA/NY-area quiz bowl, with so much talent that their A and B teams are forces to be reckoned with. Of course these rankings are just based off of what I've seen and feel free to openly criticize them, as many will soon do I'm sure. There's still little over a semester left in this school year and it's likely that any of these teams could bulk up and break through at nationals or slow down and fall behind the rest of the pack.
You should note that Honaker is 7 hours from DC.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 1:19 pm
by Lawrence Simon
Yeah, my bad, that's definitely worth mentioning. :wink:

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 1:35 pm
by Beevor Feevor
I agree with those tiers and all the teams that you posted, Lawrence, but I'm going to give some credit to a couple of other neglected teams that might spring up or post good results.

RM's B team is quite capable, and although its composition depends on what RM A looks like at a given tournament, RM B has beaten RM A and Oakland Mills before, a very impressive feat, especially since they were only a team of 3! I believe most of RM is juniors and sophomores, so they should have two very capable teams next year as well.

Maggie Walker B is another B team whose composition varies from tournament to tournament. Patrick has been playing on the B team, and although he is a very good player, he might be transferred back to the A team in the future. Without him, the team probably will fall back a bit, but with Patrick, Maggie Walker B has an excellent shot of making top bracket at tournaments it enters.

Marshall, sign up for more things! Leidenheimer is good at the things he's good at, and certainly good enough to make top bracket at tournaments. His knowledge is deep, which helps, and they'll hopefully attend a nationals, since it's difficult to get a grasp on how good they are without more stats. I'd put them in that third tier though.

Blacksburg has gotten wins over GDS and Cave Spring this year, congratulations to them for that! I believe the core of their team is comprised of seniors, but they are a streaky team that should be watched out for in the area, as they do travel a lot. Tigran, their top scorer, is returning next year, so how they reload will be interesting to see in the offseason and early next season.

Albemarle is a team that I have a lot of experience playing, and I can say that they should be put into that upper 3rd tier as well, if not higher. They are motivated and improving rapidly, which is always good for a team, and they only lose one starter and none of their main scoring next year. They do have two wins over TJ on the VHSL format, but their bonus conversion might be lower than some other contenders in the area if they start attending more things.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 2:09 pm
by Off To See The Lizard
Einhard wrote:Blacksburg has gotten wins over GDS and Cave Spring this year, congratulations to them for that!
They beat us at GSAC too! I was very impressed by how well rounded they were

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 2:37 pm
by Schmidt Sting Pain Index
Lawrence Simon wrote: I guess I'll humor my friends at Wilmington Charter and say that they would probably be in the top tier if they competed more in DC-area quiz bowl than NJ/PA/NY-area quiz bowl, with so much talent that their A and B teams are forces to be reckoned with.
We would have liked to do more DC stuff, but it's just how the dates/driving distances worked out. We will most likely be attending the RM, TJ, and VCU Season Finale tournaments, however, so we will hopefully get a good amount competition in with all of the aforementioned teams.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 7:25 pm
by The Stately Rhododendron
shady jawn wrote:
Lawrence Simon wrote: I guess I'll humor my friends at Wilmington Charter and say that they would probably be in the top tier if they competed more in DC-area quiz bowl than NJ/PA/NY-area quiz bowl, with so much talent that their A and B teams are forces to be reckoned with.
We would have liked to do more DC stuff, but it's just how the dates/driving distances worked out. We will most likely be attending the RM, TJ, and VCU Season Finale tournaments, however, so we will hopefully get a good amount competition in with all of the aforementioned teams.
Oof, that VCU drive sounds rough.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 8:08 pm
by J Mitchell, Honaker High '14
I agree with the tiers and rankings, and its an honor that Honaker is mentioned, especially since we don't get to attend that many tournaments. We are located seven hours away from DC and a trip to Charlottesville isn't impossible, but its rough. However, we have attended the tournament at Dorman (going to South Carolina is way closer than DC) and we always make the trips to the Roanoke area. There are so many excellent quizbowl teams in Virginia and the DC metro that don't even get the chance to play against each other. Because of this, teams located in Roanoke and further west are sometimes forgotten about or overlooked. Honaker has already played Blacksburg, Cave Spring, Christiansburg, Loudon County, and other great teams this season. Also, I believe we will probably see Quince Orchard at the Cave Spring tournament next weekend. Its great for us to be able to measure our play against these teams when we do actually get to come to a weekend tournament. Being from a small school is something many people don't have to worry about, but its definitely an obstacle, especially when it comes to attending tournaments that are located a long distance away.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sun May 04, 2014 4:20 pm
by Byzantium1453
With the regular Quizbowl season over, and only the nationals left to play, I think that this has been a good year for DC area quizbowl. The tournaments have been uniformly well run, and there has been plenty of good competition, and for that I would like to thank everyone involved in running, writing, or even just playing quizbowl in the area.

I think teams in the area have a good shot at doing really well at PACE and HSNCT as compared to years past, with the same trio of Western Albermale, Richard Montgomery, and Maggie Walker being the best teams in the area, and all legitimate shots at placing in the top 5 or 8. The next tier, which I believe to be Oakland Mills, Centennial, Blair, Loudon County and Walter Johnson also can do well at nationals, maybe getting in the top 25 or so if events go in their favors, and the third tier of Quince Orchard, Thomas Jefferson, and GDS who are just slightly behind the second tier.

Finally, though their will be many graduating players, it seems to be that except for WJ and OM, most teams best players are not seniors, so potentially next year teams will be even better, though I will prudently not try my hand at predicting for next year.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Mon May 05, 2014 9:19 pm
by ryanrosenberg
If anyone is interested in forming a DC NASAT team, please let me know via email or PM. This promises to be the biggest and best NASAT yet, and HSAPQ is very interested in having a DC team attend.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 8:46 pm
by Lawrence Simon
So considering APs are basically done I'll just start this up again as well:
I agree with Nathan about the rankings and each of the three tiers. As for the teams next year I think that it's safe to say that Western Albemarle and Richard Montgomery will again be on top. WA returns Eric, who will somehow improve again over the summer I'm sure, and RM returns three A-teamers and brings up a fourth, I assume either a senior or Yu Lu. Maggie Walker may also reach up there if Connor finds the proper support, but I have very little knowledge of the people they bring back besides Patrick.

As for the second tier Oakland Mills releases a lot of great seniors, and idk if they have any good non-seniors, the only one I know of being Rosa Kirk-Davidoff. Centennial may actually be in the top tier next year considering the rate at which they're improving, especially their sophomores Gary and Jason. As for Blair I know that Arjuna is returning, which would be enough but I think he brings back a bunch of seniors and maybe juniors/sophomores, so they'll definitely be good again next year. As for Loudoun County I know that Reese is returning but I'm unaware of any B team for them or what other people they return, although Reese alone may be enough to keep them competitive. Walter Johnson does have a B team but they don't seem to be very good so they may have to rebuild over the next few years unless either someone new pops up or their current returning players make huge advances over the summer.

As for the third tier teams, TJ returns Ryan, which alone is enough to show their potential strength, but like the case of some other teams I don't know who will come up to support him. But I do see Ryan being very good by the team he's a senior. GDS has a huge variability factor considering that if Noah and Tajin study hard enough they could easily be one of the best teams in the area, maybe even the best. As for QO, we return two juniors mainly, Henry and I, while also bringing up two sophomores to the A team, Natalie and Tanay.

I also wanna mention St. Anselm's who has made a great effort to attend, and even do well at, some local competitions. I believe most of their players are underclassmen so they will likely have a great future ahead of them. Eleanor Roosevelt also seemed to have some members should great interest in improving this past year, and Vinaichandra's posts in the forums seem to show that they have some people interested in improving beyond this year! Gonzaga and Archbishop Spalding also seemed to show up a lot and do okay. I know that Cave Spring and Honaker both graduate some great seniors so I don't know what their story is. But Blacksburg returns Tigran, who seems to have one more year I think so there's always that possibility. I hope I didn't miss anybody!

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 10:01 pm
by Kafkaesque
Lawrence wrote:As for Loudoun County I know that Reese is returning but I'm unaware of any B team for them or what other people they return, although Reese alone may be enough to keep them competitive.
We'll be returning two A-team players next year: Reese (a junior) and Jack (a freshman). They generally get about half of our toss-up points and can easily manage ~20 ppb on a regular set by themselves. With my and Trevin's departure, though, they'll have big holes to patch in science (!), myth, art, and trash. We do have a few promising players who will be attempting to offset these weaknesses; time will tell whether they succeed. Both Reese and Jack (along with two other "B team" players) have committed to studying over the summer, so I think Loudoun County should be fairly competitive next year.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Wed May 14, 2014 6:48 am
by Apostolic Prefecture of Kompong Cham
Lawrence Simon wrote: As for Blair I know that Arjuna is returning, which would be enough but I think he brings back a bunch of seniors and maybe juniors/sophomores, so they'll definitely be good again next year.
From the A team, we will only lose Neil, our physics specialist and fourth scorer. Cathy and I will be seniors, while Alex N will be a junior.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 7:48 pm
by VishnuRachakonda
Thanks for the S/O Lawrence. I'm the only one leaving ER. We have 2 very motivated players in Vinai and Hunter, and some good candidates for rotating 3rd and 4th scorers. I definitely think our team will be much better than it was this year, or even last year.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Fri May 23, 2014 11:26 pm
by harborseal
Lawrence Simon wrote: As for the third tier teams, TJ returns Ryan, which alone is enough to show their potential strength, but like the case of some other teams I don't know who will come up to support him. But I do see Ryan being very good by the team he's a senior.
This year has admittedly not been one of TJ's best quizbowl seasons, but I think it's served as a good rebuilding year for our program since we've steadily lost a spate of brilliant players over the past four years. Ryan is only a sophomore and I think he will be soon be competitive on a national level, definitely by his senior year if he keeps up the progress he's been making. We've only got a handful of seniors next year (Bobbie, Ranjani, Justin mainly) most of whom are mid-level specialists, but we've got a huge group of underclassmen who are inexperienced but have the potential to really elevate the program. I'd look for TJ to regain its competitive edge over the next two years, so long as the freshmen and sophomores keep working and (fingers crossed) our club doesn't disappear for lack of a school sponsor.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Mon May 26, 2014 12:54 pm
by Off To See The Lizard
So the DC-Metro area was extremely successful this past weekend. Quick Rundown:

I counted 22 DC-Metro area teams that attended NSC. Of those 22 teams that attended:

- 11 teams placed in the top half of the field (WA, WC A, WJ, MW A, Centennial, RM A, Blair, GDS, OM, Cave Spring, WC B)
- 2 teams in the top ten (WA, WC A)
- 5 teams in the top 20 (WA, WC A, WJ, MW A, Centennial)
- Wilmington Charter B won the first ever JV championship

Congratulations to all those teams above!

I'm really excited to see the growth of teams like Centennial, Blair and Loudoun County who throughout the year managed to exceed expectations and prove to the country that they are capable of scaling up to national difficulty competitions. I was also happy to see relatively inexperienced teams like Albemarle come out and play well. This all bodes well for the future of the DC-Metro Area and I am extremely proud to have played in such a wonderful circuit for the past three years. The competition I faced year in and year out is truly what made me want to improve, making you guys a huge part of why I enjoy quizbowl so much.

Of course a post about the success of the DC-Metro Area would be incomplete without some sort of praise for Eric Xu. To many from the outside looking in, Eric's performance may seem ridiculous and unexpected, but I was waiting for him to put up a performance like this all along. The amount of dedication Eric puts into the game was bound to payoff for him eventually and NSC was only his first reward (well i guess 3rd at the Varsity History Bee isn't shabby either). I expect him to demolish again at HSNCT and NASAT (until he runs up against WJ and Team Maryland of course). Congratulations again Eric!

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Mon May 26, 2014 1:45 pm
by Apostolic Prefecture of Kompong Cham
Off To See The Lizard wrote:I counted 22 DC-Metro area teams that attended NSC. Of those 22 teams attended:

- 11 teams placed in the top half of the field (WA, WC A, WJ, MW A, Centennial, RM A, GDS, OM, Cave Spring, WC B)
- 2 teams in the top ten (WA, WC A)
- 5 teams in the top 20 (WA, WC A, WJ, MW A, Centennial)
- Wilmington Charter B won the first ever JV championship

Congratulations to all those teams above!
Blair also placed in the top half by finishing 27th, just behind RM A, and ahead of GDS.

The real impressive thing is that of these teams, as far as I'm aware, only WJ, OM, and Cave Spring graduate significant scoring, which bodes very well for a highly competitive 2014-15 season!

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Mon May 26, 2014 1:51 pm
by Off To See The Lizard
Apostolic Prefecture of Kompong Cham wrote: Blair also placed in the top half by finishing 27th, just behind RM A, and ahead of GDS.

The real impressive thing is that of these teams, as far as I'm aware, only WJ, OM, and Cave Spring graduate significant scoring, which bodes very well for a highly competitive 2014-15 season!
Whoops! Yeah I counted 11 teams correctly, I just forgot to include you guys in the parenthesis.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Mon May 26, 2014 2:15 pm
by Beevor Feevor
This was most definitely a very successful PACE NSC for the DC-Area (I'm sure it didn't hurt that the tournament happened less than 2 hours away from the area) and I think that this area will only continue to get better! We obviously got very lucky throughout the tournament and managed to pull out a very nice 2nd place, but many other teams were in contention for those spots and with a few lucky breaks, any of those teams could have been in our position.

As far as next year goes, Blair, Western Albemarle, Quince Orchard, Centennial, Richard Montgomery, GDS, and Wilmington Charter return very large chunks of their scoring (Charter can merge the A and B teams). TJ has Ryan, who is arguably the best sophomore in the DC metro area along with Tajin, and Maggie Walker returns Connor and Will, along with very capable contributors from their B team, so I don't expect much decline in those teams either. Oakland Mills, Walter Johnson, and Cave Spring might experience a bit of a down year next year, but hopefully their programs can rebound from their losses.

Richard Montgomery B is a team in particular that I think should be recognized. Although one of them will probably be moved up to the A-team to join Gabe, Farah, and Ben, they have gotten tremendously better throughout the year and have even managed to beat their own A-team this year! Maggie Walker B has also defeated their own A-team this year, though they have 2 slots to fill on the A-team next year, so I'm not sure about the quality of their B-team. They do return a very significant amount of promising underclassmen, so they should be solid as always.
Off To See The Lizard wrote:Of course a post about the success of the DC-Metro Area would be incomplete without some sort of praise for Eric Xu. To many from the outside looking in, Eric's performance may seem ridiculous and unexpected, but I was waiting for him to put up a performance like this all along. The amount of dedication Eric puts into the game was bound to payoff for him eventually and NSC was only his first reward (well i guess 3rd at the Varsity History Bee isn't shabby either). I expect him to demolish again at HSNCT and NASAT (until he runs up against WJ and Team Maryland of course). Congratulations again Eric!
Thanks Sameen! I credit our NSC success to the amount of strong competition in the area that made it much less imposing to play good teams at nationals; with any luck, next year will be an even stronger year for the area, and hopefully some more new faces will pop up on the circuit!

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 12:51 pm
by Remembered Guy
Now that both NSC and HSNCT are over, I though I'd offer my 2 cents on next year's prospects. First, though, while our NSC results around the area were impressive, HSNCT results were even more so. To have 6 teams at least T-21(MW, RM, WA, OM, Centennial, WJ, GDS) while not even including either Charter team, both of whom made the playoffs, nor QO, who had an impressive Saturday run before losing both their games Sunday to go T-53, is super impressive. Good luck to all of you headed to college next year. In the mean time, I'll go team by team for next year.

Top TIer

Western Albemarle (NSC-2, HSNCT T-8)- Many were surprised by Eric's run at NSC, but I doubt anyone around here had similar surprise. Eric looks to be the best player in the country, and double-enrolling at UVA next year should help him hear more harder sets, leading to an even better performance come nationals. I believe he has a chance to become the first 1 person dominated team to win a nationals next year, just as long as he can get a science question or two from Corin. His support at HSNCT from juniors (not Angela), was not bad either, so maybe they can help him a little. Either way, the clear favorite in this area next year, and definitely not worse than top 5 in the country.

Richard Montgomery A (my team) (NSC-25, HSNCT T-8)- We definitely had our struggles at NSC, but I think our HSNCT performance was closer to who we are (although probably a round further than we should have gotten). Next year, we only lose Roy, and call up Trinish from B-Team, which should help in music, arguably our weakest area, and fill holes in history and science. We definitely will try to get more exposure to harder sets next year to prepare for nationals, and hopefully to be near Top 5 in the country, although we're certainly not there yet.

Maggie Walker A (NSC-17, HSNCT T-5)- They performed extremely well at HSNCT, including eliminating Eric, which was very impressive. Losing Kevin and Vasa will hurt, especially on history, but Connor's impressive knowledge should help fill those gaps, and finally bringing up Patrick means at least two solid support players in Will and Patrick alongside Connor. This team is no worse than Top 10 nationally next year, and could be Top 5 if Connor can become one of the top players in the country, of which he is certainly capable.

Centennial (NSC-18, HSNCT T-13)- This may be the team with the highest ceiling in the region. They bring back everyone from last year, and as Gary will only be a junior next year and Jason only a sophomore, they most certainly can continue to grow. Throw in Weijia and Ryan, and this team has what it takes to also be Top 10 in the country next year, and certainly regional favorite in two years, and arguably a national favorite that year.

Charter (NSC-9, HSNCT T-34)- Definitely a disappointing run for them at HSNCT, but their game against us in the playoffs was probably the best game of quizbowl I've ever played. With Varun coming back, and bringing up a couple of B-Team players, this team is also borderline Top 10 next year, although they'll need to do some work to replace Jaimie on lit. Hopefully, we can play them around here in the regular season next year.

Tier 1A

GDS (NSC T-29, HSNCT T-21)- The most inconsistent team in our area, maybe in the country, comes back at full force next year. Another year of Tajjin with Noah should definitely help team chemistry, although they still have some knowledge gaps to be filled. Their biggest issue remains mental state, as shown by losing to Santa Monica B on Saturday at HSNCT, then ripping through the loser's bracket to finish T-21, including wins over Charter A and B. They could be borderline Top 10 in the country next year, or borderline Top 50, we will have to wait and see.

Blair (NSC 27, HSNCT None)- Another team with a wide stretch of how good they could be next year. I happen to lean towards better things, particularly with Arjuna and Cathy coming back, but at the same time, I think this team overachieved a little this year. That being said, they are very good, and should be Top 25 in the country next year, and among the strongest in math and science. Hopefully, the money and consistent interest will be there to play more tournaments and go to HSNCT next year.

Tier 2

QO (NSC- 55, HSNCT-T-53)- Their great run on Saturday at HSNCT shows their potential for next year. Lawrence will be back as one of the best players in the area, and he should get decent support from Henry and others. I do believe that they will finish higher than this year, and probably be around 50th in the country.

TJ (NSC- 61, HSNCT- 126)- TJ was certainly in rebuilding mode this past year, but next year should be at least a little better. Bringing back Ryan, with more studying over the summer, will at least be an improvement, and Justin should improve a bunch too, as he will be just a sophomore next year. I hear good things about some Longfellow kids, as well. This team should be just outside Top 50 nationally next year, but continue to rise into 2015-2016.

RM B (NSC- 53, HSNCT- None)- I have faith in the ability for our B-Team to be a real force next year, and I thank Eric for the shoutout to them. Yu Lu is one of the better lit players in the area, and another year will only cement this. WIth help from Alex and Tara, and a group of rising juniors who continue to improve, and hopefully money to go to more tournaments, this team has top 50 potential as early as next year, and potential to keep RM near the top of the country in two years.

Loudon County (NSC-54, HSNCT- None)- Reese alone should keep his team competitive, and there seems to be enough interest otherwise for this team to remain in the bottom half of the Top 100 nationally next year.

Others-

Albemarle should continue to improve in the shadow of Eric. Blacksburg brings back Tigran, which should keep them competitive. I don't know much about Charter B, but I assume they can stay competitive as well. WJ loses nearly everything, but they certainly have a program, unlike Oakland Mills, and Tommy will try to keep it moving. St Anselm's is young and improving as well.

Hope I didn't miss anyone. This year in DC quizbowl has been great, but next year could be historically great, and I am looking forward to it. I wish everyone a good summer, and I'll see you all in the fall.

Edit- Added Blair

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 2:09 pm
by Panayot Hitov
It's been a great four years, and in my opinion, the circuit next year will be stronger than it has been in a few years. Most teams will be good.



Baltimore-DC area teams (excluding Richmond from this) need to host more tournaments, though, and actually mail invitations. Very few schools do this, and (from personal experience) it is the single most effective way of getting word out about tournaments.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 8:51 pm
by John Heslin
Ben Koppel wrote:
Centennial (NSC-18, HSNCT T-13)- This may be the team with the highest ceiling in the region. They bring back everyone from last year, and as Gary will only be a junior next year and Jason only a sophomore, they most certainly can continue to grow. Throw in Weijia and Ryan, and this team has what it takes to also be Top 10 in the country next year, and certainly regional favorite in two years, and arguably a national favorite that year.
I would like to thank Ben for his generous prediction.
I would also like to point out that Junior, Anant Mishra, made a significant contribution in both national championships but especially HSNCT with some great buzzes in Geography, Sports and Trash.
Finally, I think we will have the personnel for a top third of the HSNCT field B-team next year. However, the challenge will be going to enough tournaments to qualify given the usual suspects listed in Ben's post (including our A team) dominating the local tournaments!

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2014 10:03 pm
by Lawrence Simon
Alright with the sort of rush one can only get from finishing an AP Euro paper, for some reason I felt like returning to this thread. I think that, even though this year has hardly started (I count 18 non-Nationals competitions coming up after the new year) I already can tell that this may be the best year in DMV quizbowl since I started playing. Unfortunately, at this point there have been only two really big competitions with multiple upper-class teams in our area so far: UMD Fall in September and Centennial in early November. However, I think that we've just begun to see all of the talent that the area has to offer this year. So here is a frank assessment of the teams I've seen from so far this season:

Top Teams:
Western Albemarle-while this team hasn't been able to send its best player, Eric Xu, to any competitions yet, I remain quite certain his college experience will be quite devastating when he does.
Richard Montgomery-Probably the best team out of Maryland this year, the RM team hasn't been able to send their full A team to a competition yet, missing Ben at UMD and Gabe at Centennial (I don't blame him for that though), they still have shown themselves to be a dominant force in the area and I look forward to seeing them compete against WA with a full squad. Possibly also the best B team in the area, but I feel Centennial's B team might give them a run for that title.
Centennial-IMO the most well-rounded team with a deadly depth of knowledge, this has been a program in the making for some years that didn't truly shine until last year and now they're in the Top 10 on HSQBRank, so that's gotta mean something! Their B team is something to be admired as well, considering they beat us at UMD Fall. :oops:
Montgomery Blair-this team had arguably one of the better "recovery years" I have seen after the 2012-2013 season, but Arjuna and his cohorts have definitely brought them back to the top with awesome PPB, albeit with a slightly subdued power line compared to some of the others here.
Georgetown Day School-kind of the surprise winners of UMD Fall (at least for me) they showed just how powerful the dynamic duo of Tajin and Noah can be when they control their negging and are therefore very capable of beating teams ranked higher than them.
Quince Orchard-alright so this is kind of a hopeful statement here, as my team doesn't have any big wins yet to show unlike all the teams up here. However, we held our own against RM and Blair at UMD Fall and came close to beating Charter at Centennial so hopefully there will be some success for us as we try to bridge the gap between middle and upper bracket team.

Upper Middle Teams:
Thomas Jefferson-speaking of recovery years, TJ had a slightly difficult time trying to recover from the loss of Raynor and co after 2013, but Ryan and some others have managed rather well. Right now they're in the top 50 on HSQBRank and although they have some ways to go as far as their power line and some gaps in knowledge, they definitely have a solid year ahead of them and a good future as well.
Loudoun County-with Reese and Jack returning from last year's A team, the Loudoun County team has managed to stay afloat despite the odds and even do quite well at Centennial and ACF Fall, unfortunately they'll soon lose one half of that two-man team so we'll have to see in regards to their future.

Lower Middle Teams:
Walter Johnson-I was very sad to see such a dedicated group of seniors graduate from WJ, but they've still left behind a solid program. The team made good showings at UMD Fall and Centennial, and the fact that they managed to field a B team to the latter shows they have to have some thing going on there still.
Gonzaga-this team has always had an infrequent program but it's always been nice to see them come to competitions here and there. Although they slipped into the top bracket at UMD Fall, their defeats there showed they aren't prepared for the big time yet. Although I'm unsure as to the grade of their players I don't foresee great advancement beyond the middle bracket anytime soon.
St. Anselm's-another team dealing with some big shoes to fill, first Aidan and now Tajin, they did, however, manage to pull through thanks to a dedicated coach and a big group of underclassmen and middle school players who seem intent on improvement. Although they may not go too far this year, they definitely have the potential to in the future.
Eleanor Roosevelt-one of the more vocal additions to the area, ER has done a good job of steadily improving and attending tournaments, even though they haven't gone to an IS tournament yes. They're another team with a lot of potential and a good future is likely ahead of them.

Other Teams:
There aren't any particularly low/bottom bracket teams besides some of the lower Centennial teams and Burleigh Manor, but I guess I should also give a shout-out to Langley, Howard, Spalding who seem to continue making steps toward competing at more real quizbowl events.
Please respond with your own analyses of the area this year and I look forward to hearing what ant of you have to say as we look forward to a fantastic year on the DMV circuit.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 1:16 am
by RexSueciae
I'm going to put it out there and say that things are probably not going to change a terribly great deal as compared to last year. There isn't yet a large enough collection of stats to make any but the most preliminary of predictions, and I think it's fair to say that the same top three or four teams in the area are probably going to still be the top three or four teams, along with another group of teams that will still be very good teams with well-established programs. This is probably not a situation that is going to change unless there should be a school shooting or disaster on a similar scale, which would give us much bigger problems to worry about than which team is better than which. In sum, I think that everything that could possibly be said about comparisons has already been beaten to death, and I have nothing to add on that quarter.

What I do wish to call attention to is the size and health of the local high school circuit. Going off the stats for the most recent iterations of some of the long-running events in Virginia quizbowl, it's pretty clear that the number of teams attending tournaments (and, additionally, the number of schools represented) has gone down since at least 2012. To wit:

VCU Fall 2012: 20 teams (13)
VCU Winter 2012: 23 teams (12)
Cavalier Classic 2012: 21 teams (14)
GSAC XX: 32 teams (21)
Mean tournament size: 24
Mean number of schools: 15

VCU Fall 2013: 16 teams (11)
VCU Winter 2013: 19 teams (12)
Cavalier Classic 2013: 21 teams (11)
GSAC XXI: 26 teams (18)
Mean tournament size: 20.5
Mean number of schools: 13

VCU Fall 2014: 10 teams (6)
VCU Winter 2014: 25 teams (13)
Cavalier Classic 2014: 28 teams (15)
GSAC XXII: 17 teams (12)
Mean tournament size: 20
Mean number of schools: 11.5

Note that I did not count events like VCU Spring and VCU Season Finale, which are long-running events but which have not yet been held this year. Also note that I did not count any events occurring outside of the Commonwealth of Virginia because I have been to virtually none of them, and can't be bothered to look up the stats. Finally, note that VCU Winter and GSAC have not yet happened, and their numbers for 2014 reflect the current number of teams signed up, a number which may be subject to change.

Although quizbowl in Virginia (and the rest of the region, which I am assuming my sample is representative of) is by no means in distress, it is clear that tournament attendance and the number of active quizbowl programs has slowly trended downward over the past three years. (Three years, incidentally, is the amount of time that it took for one of Wordsworth's characters to grow "in sun and shower," and also the amount of time that it apparently took to rebuild the Polish economy.) There isn't a universal downturn in turnout, really--Cavalier Classic, for whatever reason (most likely because of UVA's institutional prestige attracting schools that are new to quizbowl), took a pretty big jump in both number of teams and attending schools, which was unique (while this year's VCU Winter is bringing in a fair number of teams, the number of schools represented by them hasn't really changed at all). Given the increase in both number of teams and number of schools at Cavalier Classic 2014, it's clear that this year saw a lot of newer teams showing up at that tournament rather than already established programs having a bumper crop of new players. Anyways, the decline in tournament attendance is probably due to at least one of several factors:

1. Decline of established programs. Some schools - Clover Hill and Thomas Jefferson being the first to spring to mind - graduated their top players last year or the year before and are frantically rebuilding. Due to lack of experienced or interested players, schools that once attended tournaments may no longer be doing so with the same frequency.

2. Decline in travel for non-nationals appearances. Some schools - DCC, Loyola, and Dorman being the first to spring to mind - used to travel to Virginia all the time for various tournaments. To the best that I can recall, none of them have come to Virginia this year. This may be in part to the first factor (Loyola, according to the qbwiki, has entered a rebuilding phase), but has more relevance with the second, which is...

3. Increase in number of tournaments/mirrors. As tournaments happen more frequently in different parts of the country, and as question sets are mirrored at those tournaments, it becomes impractical to drive cross-country for a tournament that is being mirrored much closer to home. I don't have much hard data on this, but I know that GSAC was mirrored 5 times in 2012, 8 times in 2013, and so far this year has 10 mirrors in the 2014-15 season.

So, what thoughts does everyone else have? There are many novice- and regular-difficulty tournaments hosted in both the Richmond area and in Northern Virginia / Maryland, so there's probably nothing more to be done on that score, but is it possible to begin outreach to schools that might produce viable quizbowl programs, or to actively pursue schools that remain inactive outside of Scholastic Bowl / Battle of the Brains? I know at least that most of Southeast Virginia--the Virginia Beach / Newport News / Hampton Roads area--has little to no good quizbowl. As the area consists one of the larger metropolitan regions in the United States, proselytization would probably do well to begin there.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 10:26 pm
by Lawrence Simon
I think that you bring up a very real trend in regional quiz bowl Vasa. As for Maryland competitions the only really consistently occurring one has been the Centennial Invitational, which began at 54 teams in 2011, 66 in 2012, 72 in 2013, and 81 in 2014, which shows a steady, and overall sizable increase in participation. I think the main benefit Centennial has is that it's very centered in Maryland so that teams from Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, DC, and Virginia can all travel a manageable distance to participate. Besides Centennial only a few schools have held annual competitions, the main other one of note being Richard Montgomery: SWAGFEST in 2012 had 24 teams, their state championship in 2013 had 14 teams, and their 2014 BELLOCO mirror had 22 teams in attendance. When UMD held their Fall tournament in 2011 it had 18 teams in attendance and this past year it had 16 teams. Meanwhile as different teams rise and fall places like Oakland Mills hosted several tournaments, Blair is hosting this year, QO is even trying to host, albeit a restrictive financial department is keeping that from coming to fruition.

Though I don't think that the problem is necessary too rapid, as these things rarely are, I think that there can definitely be things done to keep teams coming to more pyramidal competitions. In Montgomery County at least there is Beltway League, which is runs on speed-check questions but includes almost every major high school in Montgomery County. Considering the few teams from this league that aren't playing quizbowl but could there is definitely room for improvement. In particular Walt Whitman and Churchill high schools have excellent It's Academic programs but haven't made any big steps to quizbowl since the beginning of last school year. I got a little hopeful when I heard that something called the Maryland Quizbowl Championship Association, but that ended up just being an HSAPQ proxy for their new state championships. I think that an actual state quizbowl association in Maryland would be more effective in getting schools here to participate.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 11:56 pm
by at your pleasure
Lawrence Simon wrote:Walt Whitman .
Given that Shantanu and his teammates won NSC and the team was active regionally and went to at least one national fairly consistently and perfromed at least somewhat well from 2006-12(I was on the team for a considerable part of these years), they certainly have a pretty extensive quizbowl history although they lost a lot of institutional memory when the longstanding coach Jan Danis retired a few years ago. They obviously have a lot of rebuilding to do but it's not like they never ever had an active team.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2014 8:05 pm
by RexSueciae
Lawrence Simon wrote:I think that an actual state quizbowl association in Maryland would be more effective in getting schools here to participate.
A formal association probably won't be necessary. First and foremost, the circuit needs a few programs who are willing to regularly host tournaments in a competent and professional manner. Run tournaments, invite new teams, and they might just start playing good quizbowl. If they don't, then there's not really much to do other than wait for a new generation of players from that school to see the light.

Key precepts of running a tournament in a "competent and professional manner" include the following: finishing individual rounds within 30 minutes, starting the tournament in time for everything to be over before it gets really late, reserving rooms for enough time so that the tournament actually gets finished, and notifying the community promptly if an event is cancelled. Needless to say, if a new team to quizbowl does not have a fun time, they will not be coming back.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 1:11 pm
by The Stately Rhododendron
RexSueciae wrote:
Lawrence Simon wrote:I think that an actual state quizbowl association in Maryland would be more effective in getting schools here to participate.
A formal association probably won't be necessary. First and foremost, the circuit needs a few programs who are willing to regularly host tournaments in a competent and professional manner. Run tournaments, invite new teams, and they might just start playing good quizbowl. If they don't, then there's not really much to do other than wait for a new generation of players from that school to see the light.

Key precepts of running a tournament in a "competent and professional manner" include the following: finishing individual rounds within 30 minutes, starting the tournament in time for everything to be over before it gets really late, reserving rooms for enough time so that the tournament actually gets finished, and notifying the community promptly if an event is cancelled. Needless to say, if a new team to quizbowl does not have a fun time, they will not be coming back.
Ok, Vasa, since this is clearly directed at a specific team, do you mind mentioning that team?

In my experience, running a tournament in a "competent and professional manner" does not equal rapid field expansion. Back when I started, almost all the schools who would go to Centennial's tournament would also go to Green Eggs & Hammond (the exact opposite of a competent and professional tournament). GDS and RM would put on great tournaments that some schools would go to, but by and large most teams would stick to Centennial, Hammond, and Blake. OM started hosting, and we really tried to get new teams to come (and managed to get a few) but we never really were able to get that significant of a turnout. In the Baltimore area, most teams remain stuck in their pattern of It's Academic and the three tournaments I mentioned. It's not at all absurd to suggest that an advocacy group could help get these teams to improve and go to more tournaments

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 1:19 pm
by Matt Weiner
I'll remind people that the success of the Missouri Quizbowl Alliance was based on its ruthless devotion to running efficient, fair, professional tournaments at multiple sites around the state, no matter what entrenched interests opposed doing so. The people who will push back against running tournaments well are not just the fans of the MSHSAA format, or It's Academic, or whatever the local form of bad quizbowl is. They are also people in the "good quizbowl community" who run tournaments on "pyramidal" questions but want to continue using inappropriately hard sets, running events that take ten hours to finish ten rounds, acting in unprofessional ways such as naming their tournament INSIDEJOKEACRONYM or disrespecting the experience of non-elite teams, and so forth. The concern about just starting an "advocacy group" is that "advocacy" by yelling into a void / posting on a message board / not caring about how members of the group actually run their tournaments is at best worthless and at worst destructive, as it reinforces bad practices by giving them the veneer of the organization and the false notion that a school is doing something for good quizbowl just by being a part of the group.

If people are willing to *run good tournaments*, *promote them rationally*, and do things like staff tournaments not held at your own school, send physical mailing campaigns, go to schools and events just to make face-to-face contact with potential teams, etc., then a quizbowl alliance is a good thing. If people just want to say they are in an "advocacy group" and keep doing what they're doing, then it's not.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 3:39 pm
by The Stately Rhododendron
Matt Weiner wrote:I'll remind people that the success of the Missouri Quizbowl Alliance was based on its ruthless devotion to running efficient, fair, professional tournaments at multiple sites around the state, no matter what entrenched interests opposed doing so. The people who will push back against running tournaments well are not just the fans of the MSHSAA format, or It's Academic, or whatever the local form of bad quizbowl is. They are also people in the "good quizbowl community" who run tournaments on "pyramidal" questions but want to continue using inappropriately hard sets, running events that take ten hours to finish ten rounds, acting in unprofessional ways such as naming their tournament INSIDEJOKEACRONYM or disrespecting the experience of non-elite teams, and so forth. The concern about just starting an "advocacy group" is that "advocacy" by yelling into a void / posting on a message board / not caring about how members of the group actually run their tournaments is at best worthless and at worst destructive, as it reinforces bad practices by giving them the veneer of the organization and the false notion that a school is doing something for good quizbowl just by being a part of the group.

If people are willing to *run good tournaments*, *promote them rationally*, and do things like staff tournaments not held at your own school, send physical mailing campaigns, go to schools and events just to make face-to-face contact with potential teams, etc., then a quizbowl alliance is a good thing. If people just want to say they are in an "advocacy group" and keep doing what they're doing, then it's not.
I don't disagree with any of this, I just don't think the problem with Maryland quizbowl has its roots in Daniel Galitsky calling his tournament SWAGFEST. The problem is that (almost) no one tries to engage teams in the Baltimore area (let alone the Eastern Shore or the west), creating a circuit that is limited to the Beltway. Centennial, of course, has done an amazing job of running a tournament that attracts such teams. The problem is that there's no real followup tournament for most of these teams to go to, because they mainly shut down after their TV taping (as I learned trying to get teams to come to our tournament).

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 5:06 pm
by Matt Weiner
Mr. Joyboy wrote:I just don't think the problem with Maryland quizbowl has its roots in Daniel Galitsky calling his tournament SWAGFEST. The problem is that (almost) no one tries to engage teams in the Baltimore area (let alone the Eastern Shore or the west), creating a circuit that is limited to the Beltway.
The fact that tournament invitations arrive by deprecated e-mail lists (if at all) with the subject SWAGFEST is exactly what "not trying to engage teams" is. You have to get to people by approaching them in person, using real e-mail addresses, or physical mailing campaigns. The only way to get the attention of someone who may not even know that invitational tournaments exist is to start by explaining what it is you're trying to convince them to do. Something with "high school quizbowl tournament" in the name rather than a meaningless sort-of-word like SWAGFEST is the easiest, most fundamental part of that process. It's no coincidence at all that tournaments which have dumb names also have a lot of other problems -- it's not the "cause" but rather a very reliable sign of a lack of interest in doing things right.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 8:24 pm
by RexSueciae
Actually, I was referring to several different incidents that I can remember--I'm not sure how useful it would be, but if you really wanted I could list off the various teams whose hosting faux pas stuck in my memory. (I won't be rude and mention the Oakland Mills BDAT mirror called "FUNKADELIC," nor will I mention the Oakland Mills HFT mirror that apparently had some problems with stats, because I don't know the specific details of the latter case, nor do I know whether responsible advertising made up for the whimsical title of the former.) Would you really like a full accounting of the sins of the past?

With regards to your other points, I agree with Matt Weiner's criticisms in their entirety. If you really want, you can get people together and declare the formation of the Maryland Educator's Liberation League for quizbOWl (humorous and nonrelevant acronym optional), but what the circuit needs is for tournament directors (especially hosts for easy question sets like SCOP Novice) to actively market their events to newer teams, through mail or phone calls or emails or something that isn't this forum (because not everybody reads this forum). And, of course, it would make all of this a *lot* easier if tournament acronyms weren't off-putting or odd, for obvious reasons, and if tournaments were run by people who actually knew what they were doing. Attracting non-quizbowl schools from the Baltimore area isn't something that you need an alliance to do! All you need is a tournament director with an ounce of sense and a bit of responsibility!

And, of course, maybe mirror some question sets that aren't HFT, because HFT is a college-level question set ostensibly intended for high schools, which is inappropriate for newer teams and which goes to support a club that does Sweet Fanny Adams for the college circuit.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 10:57 pm
by Panayot Hitov
RexSueciae wrote:
Actually, I was referring to several different incidents that I can remember--I'm not sure how useful it would be, but if you really wanted I could list off the various teams whose hosting faux pas stuck in my memory. (I won't be rude and mention the Oakland Mills BDAT mirror called "FUNKADELIC," nor will I mention the Oakland Mills HFT mirror that apparently had some problems with stats, because I don't know the specific details of the latter case, nor do I know whether responsible advertising made up for the whimsical title of the former.) Would you really like a full accounting of the sins of the past?

With regards to your other points, I agree with Matt Weiner's criticisms in their entirety. If you really want, you can get people together and declare the formation of the Maryland Educator's Liberation League for quizbOWl (humorous and nonrelevant acronym optional), but what the circuit needs is for tournament directors (especially hosts for easy question sets like SCOP Novice) to actively market their events to newer teams, through mail or phone calls or emails or something that isn't this forum (because not everybody reads this forum). And, of course, it would make all of this a *lot* easier if tournament acronyms weren't off-putting or odd, for obvious reasons, and if tournaments were run by people who actually knew what they were doing. Attracting non-quizbowl schools from the Baltimore area isn't something that you need an alliance to do! All you need is a tournament director with an ounce of sense and a bit of responsibility!

And, of course, maybe mirror some question sets that aren't HFT, because HFT is a college-level question set ostensibly intended for high schools, which is inappropriate for newer teams and which goes to support a club that does Sweet Fanny Adams for the college circuit.
Hey, you have some misconceptions here. I did not include the name "FUNKADELIC" in any email or mail sent for that tournament, with the subject line being "It's Academic Tournament at Oakland Mills High School." For HFT, we mirrored it because there were few options left and marketed it as "a little higher than "regular" difficulty," a designation I thought was fitting for the tournament that year. I also included a link to the thread for that tournament, which had plenty of the usual HFT-thread stuff. From the stats, I think that this tournament was a little hard for Bullis, for one, but besides that, I think that the field was appropriate for the tournament. Either way, I did not market this tournament to newer teams, as you alleged.

As for tournament issues, yes, all of our tournaments had these. We always had issues with getting enough readers (that year we were slowed down by a reader with the flu who shouldn't have been reading, but wanted the discount). Besides that, the brackets sucked that year, and I apologized and will apologize again for that. However, these problems are ones that I have encountered at virtually every other tournament I have ever been at, including GSAC.

Talking about recruitment, for the tournaments that I did market to newer teams, Westlake, Atholton, Hammond, Glenelg, Mt. Hebron, Easton, Poly, Marriotts Ridge, Catonsville, and Wilde Lake all came to one or more. 10 schools right there. This also involved making a contact list that, to this day, a fair amount of teams still use (which should totally be updated btw).

I really don't know what you're getting at here, Vasa. If you are implying that the every DMV tournament besides your own is run by incompetent schmucks lacking "an ounce of sense and a bit of responsibility," then I would have to disagree.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 11:38 pm
by RexSueciae
40th Day after death wrote: Hey, you have some misconceptions here. I did not include the name "FUNKADELIC" in any email or mail sent for that tournament, with the subject line being "It's Academic Tournament at Oakland Mills High School." For HFT, we mirrored it because there were few options left and marketed it as "a little higher than "regular" difficulty," a designation I thought was fitting for the tournament that year. I also included a link to the thread for that tournament, which had plenty of the usual HFT-thread stuff. From the stats, I think that this tournament was a little hard for Bullis, for one, but besides that, I think that the field was appropriate for the tournament. Either way, I did not market this tournament to newer teams, as you alleged.

As for tournament issues, yes, all of our tournaments had these. We always had issues with getting enough readers (that year we were slowed down by a reader with the flu who shouldn't have been reading, but wanted the discount). Besides that, the brackets sucked that year, and I apologized and will apologize again for that. However, these problems are ones that I have encountered at virtually every other tournament I have ever been at, including GSAC.
RexSueciae wrote: (I won't be rude and mention the Oakland Mills BDAT mirror called "FUNKADELIC," nor will I mention the Oakland Mills HFT mirror that apparently had some problems with stats, because I don't know the specific details of the latter case, nor do I know whether responsible advertising made up for the whimsical title of the former.)
Furthermore, all tournaments occasionally have issues--last-minute drops, someone accidentally reading the wrong round, cheating scandals, things which are quite out of the control of the tournament director. However, all of the things that I originally noted that need fixing in the circuit--finishing individual rounds within 30 minutes, starting the tournament in time for everything to be over before it gets really late, reserving rooms for enough time so that the tournament actually gets finished, and notifying the community promptly if an event is cancelled--are important things that the tournament director has full control over, and which are prerequisites for having a good tournament.

I would also like to note that you didn't even go to last year's GSAC.
40th Day after death wrote: Talking about recruitment, for the tournaments that I did market to newer teams, Westlake, Atholton, Hammond, Glenelg, Mt. Hebron, Easton, Poly, Marriotts Ridge, Catonsville, and Wilde Lake all came to one or more. 10 schools right there. This also involved making a contact list that, to this day, a fair amount of teams still use (which should totally be updated btw).
Good work.
40th Day after death wrote: I really don't know what you're getting at here, Vasa. If you are implying that the every DMV tournament besides your own is run by incompetent schmucks lacking "an ounce of sense and a bit of responsibility," then I would have to disagree.
Next time you strawman my posts, have the decency to do so in a less obvious manner.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2014 12:43 am
by Lawrence Simon
In a slight paraphrase of Professor Samuel Oak: "There's a time and place for this argument, but it's not here."

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2014 1:06 am
by Harpie's Feather Duster
On the contrary, this is a board for discussing quizbowl, so don't tell people how to post/discourage perfectly fruitful quizbowl discussion. The administrators will decide to split off the topic if they feel like it is needed.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 7:10 pm
by The Stately Rhododendron
RexSueciae wrote:With regards to your other points, I agree with Matt Weiner's criticisms in their entirety. If you really want, you can get people together and declare the formation of the Maryland Educator's Liberation League for quizbOWl (humorous and nonrelevant acronym optional), but what the circuit needs is for tournament directors (especially hosts for easy question sets like SCOP Novice) to actively market their events to newer teams, through mail or phone calls or emails or something that isn't this forum (because not everybody reads this forum). And, of course, it would make all of this a *lot* easier if tournament acronyms weren't off-putting or odd, for obvious reasons, and if tournaments were run by people who actually knew what they were doing. Attracting non-quizbowl schools from the Baltimore area isn't something that you need an alliance to do! All you need is a tournament director with an ounce of sense and a bit of responsibility!

And, of course, maybe mirror some question sets that aren't HFT, because HFT is a college-level question set ostensibly intended for high schools, which is inappropriate for newer teams and which goes to support a club that does Sweet Fanny Adams for the college circuit.
I just want to stress how important collaboration is to the Maryland circuit as well as the quizbowl community at large. The reason why I think some type of collective would be helpful for Maryland is that it would allow teams to work together in doing the things like "actively market their events" that, while being obligatory for a successful tournament, are also very time-consuming and tedious. For example, RM could send a joint e-mail with Centennial advertising their fall tournament as something to do in between Blake and Centennial.
Such a collective work also address your HFT issue. What if Maryland teams, instead of picking sets first-come-first-serve, had a group discussion about the calendar? That way, a nice looking schedule could be put in place that satisfied all teams needs. (HFT, for example, would work well as a small (12ish teams) pre-nationals tournament sometime in May)
The main problem I have with your post, Vasa, is that you are putting all the responsibility in one tournament caudillo. As I've mentioned before, it's counterproductive to work as an individual, or to work as an organization. Working together in a group, without a hierarchy, produces the best results, something you can see in the beautiful Shenandoah valley surrounding you, Vasa. I believe the Maryland circuit should be like a beautiful rhododendron bush: chaotic, disorganized, but working together to make beautiful flowers. Where you see thorns, Vasa, I see flowers.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 7:38 pm
by heterodyne
Mr. Joyboy wrote: As I've mentioned before, it's counterproductive to work as an individual, or to work as an organization. Working together in a group, without a hierarchy, produces the best results, something you can see in the beautiful Shenandoah valley surrounding you, Vasa. I believe the Maryland circuit should be like a beautiful rhododendron bush: chaotic, disorganized, but working together to make beautiful flowers. Where you see thorns, Vasa, I see flowers.
Do you actually have any evidence for this (other than weird bush analogies)? I ask because I'm fairly sure there's a nice amount of evidence for Vasa's point about organizations working pretty damn well (MOQBA, IHSSBCA, NCQBA)


edit: put in name of NorCal thing

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 7:40 pm
by Auks Ran Ova
Mr. Joyboy wrote: Working together in a group, without a hierarchy, produces the best results, something you can see in the beautiful Shenandoah valley surrounding you, Vasa. I believe the Maryland circuit should be like a beautiful rhododendron bush: chaotic, disorganized, but working together to make beautiful flowers. Where you see thorns, Vasa, I see flowers.
What the heck are you talking about?

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 7:42 pm
by RexSueciae
Isaac, the creation of a formal group for the purposes of promoting Maryland quizbowl is still completely unnecessary for the things you propose: running possible joint tournaments, deciding which question sets to mirror where and when, and creating a nice looking schedule can already be accomplished using a medium that you and I are using right now. I am referring, of course, to the website hsquizbowl.org/forums, where people can talk about all of the above things. Given that you specifically just said that "[w]orking together in a group, without a hierarchy, produces the best results," I still can see no reason why there needs to be "some sort of collective" beyond that which is already in place.

I am not going to comment on your propensity for poetics, here and in the post that you linked to, nor shall I comment on your opinions of the "quasifascist ideal found in so many student organizations of a supreme class ruling over others." (The latter point, though, makes me confused.)

Finally, I would like to congratulate everyone who took part in VCU Winter, and (with more teams signing up for GSAC) I look forward to seeing more stats on both the quality and quantity of teams in the DC/Maryland/Virginia circuit.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 7:44 pm
by Pushkin's Beard
Western Leader wrote:
Mr. Joyboy wrote: As I've mentioned before, it's counterproductive to work as an individual, or to work as an organization. Working together in a group, without a hierarchy, produces the best results, something you can see in the beautiful Shenandoah valley surrounding you, Vasa. I believe the Maryland circuit should be like a beautiful rhododendron bush: chaotic, disorganized, but working together to make beautiful flowers. Where you see thorns, Vasa, I see flowers.
Do you actually have any evidence for this (other than weird bush analogies)? I ask because I'm fairly sure there's a nice amount of evidence for Vasa's point about organizations working pretty damn well (MOQBA, IHSSBCA, NCQBA)


edit: put in name of NorCal thing
I believe that Issac is the one saying that a quizbowl collective would help, while Vasa is the one against a Maryland Quizbowl Association.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 7:54 pm
by heterodyne
Pushkin's Beard wrote: I believe that Issac is the one saying that a quizbowl collective would help, while Vasa is the one against a Maryland Quizbowl Association.
You're totally right, the lack of hierarchy thing in Isaac's post confused me.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2014 2:01 am
by hydrocephalitic listlessness
RexSueciae wrote:And, of course, maybe mirror some question sets that aren't HFT, because HFT is a college-level question set ostensibly intended for high schools, which is inappropriate for newer teams and which goes to support a club that does Sweet Fanny Adams for the college circuit.
You're entitled to your opinion about HFT, although that description hasn't come close to applying to the set for at least three years now. With respect to the last thing: Harvard hosted ACF Fall in 2012 and 2013, and Penn Bowl/Regionals this year.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 1:05 pm
by naan/steak-holding toll
Yeah, I think Vasa's criticism of Harvard here is unfair. To be sure, MIT's club and Stephen Eltinge are probably now the most active promoters of quizbowl in the Northeast region at both the high school and college levels these days and they should be given a world of credit for that, but Harvard is one of the four schools in the Northeast (five counting Columbia) that can host things and they do so every year. I understand that there were some issues with their hosting of Penn Bowl, but every in-person experience I've had with a Harvard college tournament has been positive and I expect the same of ACF Regionals.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 2:01 pm
by RexSueciae
I'll let New England people who know Harvard pass judgment on that, although the point that I intended to make was that HFT is probably not a good question set for circuit-building purposes. There are certainly enough good teams in the region to allow for a HFT mirror, so long as people make sure teams are well-informed as to its intended difficulty (which, to their credit, they have).

The rest of the stuff I was saying about the running of tournaments and the necessity of a quizbowl alliance still stands. Or, to paraphrase Isaac Kirk-Davidoff, I'm seeing a lot of thorns here.

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 5:14 pm
by AKKOLADE
where hast centennial gone

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 7:13 pm
by Everything in the Whole Wide World
For what it's worth, they are scheduled to play at Blue Hen in a week.