Maryland/DC/DC Area Virginia 2008-2009

at your pleasure · Post by **at your pleasure** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 3:01 pm

So, any preseason predictions for the Washington,DC area?

Sir Thopas · Post by **Sir Thopas** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:46 pm

1) gonzaga
2) gds
3) banneker
4) anacostia high

AKKOLADE · Post by **AKKOLADE** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 10:03 pm

We're rebooting this thread.

Blackboard Monitor Vimes · Fri Sep 12, 2008 9:13 pm

Since my question got lost amid the nonsense, I'll assume that since the thread originator is from MD he means the wider VA/DC/MD area. I'm really excited to play RM's tournament next weekend; I think this area is going to be incredibly competitive. Between GDS, Gonzaga, TJ, Walter Johnson, us, and someone I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting at the moment...it'll be quite the year.

I don't really know who's still around on RM to comment on them, and I think I played against a team from RM at most 3-4 times last year, so I have nothing to say there. Also, is anyone left from Whitman's A Team? I know Shantanu and Adam graduated, but I didn't know anyone else's name...

After playing TJ at VCU Novice, I'm particularly eager to play them again, as that was a very close game. From what I understand, though, both our line-ups will be different next time we meet as Harry wasn't there. I'm sure the beast of history that was Phil will be hard to replace though.

As for GDS, Gonzaga, and Walter Johnson, teams largely dominated by one player, those three players are pretty awesome. I think of those teams Walter Johnson has the biggest potential to have grown, for lack of a better word, as Daichi's freshmen seemed promising, Kuo-Kai in particular. There was a sophomore on GDS who had a really good game against us at WoQ whose name I don't remember who has the potential to help them out this year.

As for us, to aid people in their speculating, the A Team we have registered for RM consists of Quint Carr, Tommy Casalaspi, Greg Tito, and myself. We've all played together before, but never as one team. It'll be interesting.

Also, to comment on someone who frequently attends tournaments in this area, Gorman presumably remains scary, so Charter should continue to do well.

I look forward to an incredible level of competition this year.

closesesame · Post by **closesesame** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 10:21 pm

Sarah, we weren't just missing Harry, we were also missing Josh Hahm, our literature go-to guy. That being said, I think this year is going to be awesome.

aestheteboy · Post by **aestheteboy** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 10:34 pm

Yeah, it seems like the top teams are much closer together than usual (i.e. compared to past few years), and I'm not sure that there will even be an 09 equivalent to TJ '05, RM '06, Gov '07, and Whitman '08. I hope we collectively can continue the good tradition of winning at least one of the two major national championships.

Post by **DumbJaques** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 11:00 pm

Yeah, it seems like the top teams are much closer together than usual (i.e. compared to past few years), and I'm not sure that there will even be an 09 equivalent to TJ '05, RM '06, Gov '07, and Whitman '08.

I seem to recall someone saying this every year starting after 2005.

Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) · Sat Sep 13, 2008 12:03 am

Also, I find the assertion that Whitman was the dominant DC area team a little misleading, considering another noted DC metro area team, TJ, got within literally 5 points of winning both national titles.

Megalomaniacal Panda on Absinthe · Sat Sep 13, 2008 1:53 am

Deesy Does It wrote:Also, I find the assertion that Whitman was the dominant DC area team a little misleading, considering another noted DC metro area team, TJ, got within literally 5 points of winning both national titles.

Considering my performance and mental state in the PACE finals resembled that of a megalomaniacal panda who has drunk from a well of absinthe, I'm still kind of surprised my teammates managed to win that match. However, I will note that we beat TJ handily earlier that day, and that we went undefeated during the weekend, whereas TJ lost to MLK in the prelims. It might be that the opalescent charms of retrospective clairvoyance have seduced me, but I would contend that the finals match was at most half the story.

Daichi, I have the utmost respect for you, but saying that "the top teams will be much closer this year" has all the virtues of theft over honest toil. It's a trivial statement which is made in the absence of information and which is always disproven. People should either make concrete, if highly nuanced, statements or stay away from the topic entirely until there is more evidence to speculate about; I think the latter more responsible.

In fact, if we don't count Charter or Hunter, I think the gap between Walter Johnson and the second place team, whoever that may be, will be larger than it has been historically.

Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) · Sat Sep 13, 2008 2:45 am

This is a silly argument to be getting into, but I have seen the stats and understand you did win PACE undefeated and it wasn't your best game; all I was doing was pointing out the fact that TJ won the HSNCT and almost won PACE, which makes it kind of hard to say that you or them were dominant in the same way that the other listed teams were.

Stat Boy · Post by **Stat Boy** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 10:02 am

Wheedle, gamester wrote:megalomaniacal panda who has drunk from a well of absinthe

This would be far and away the best thing ever.

Wheedle, gamester wrote:my teammates managed to win that match

Perhaps you've forgotten what I did to the pronunciation of a certain Coetzee novel.

To answer Sarah's question, Whitman is returning one rising senior, Daniel (the redhead).

aestheteboy · Post by **aestheteboy** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 11:07 am

Deesy Does It wrote:Also, I find the assertion that Whitman was the dominant DC area team a little misleading, considering another noted DC metro area team, TJ, got within literally 5 points of winning both national titles.

You're probably right. I'm always partial to local schools and local people.

In fact, if we don't count Charter or Hunter, I think the gap between Walter Johnson and the second place team, whoever that may be, will be larger than it has been historically.

PRESSURE! To be clear, I don't expect WJ to even be in top 3 of the DC teams for NAQT things.

Auroni · Post by **Auroni** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 11:11 am

aestheteboy wrote:
Deesy Does It wrote:Also, I find the assertion that Whitman was the dominant DC area team a little misleading, considering another noted DC metro area team, TJ, got within literally 5 points of winning both national titles.
You're probably right. I'm always partial to local schools and local people.

DC SUCKS!

substance-filled edit: I'm not too sure who the rising stars in the DC circuit are (well, except maybe Sarah Angelo), but I predict that charter/whitman/WJ/TJ/gov all beat each other at random times before any clear sense of ranking comes into play..

I'm also going to reflect what Shantanu said about making predictions too early, and i'm not sure how accurate anything will be.

The Atom Strikes! · Post by **The Atom Strikes!** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 11:21 am

Wheedle, gamester wrote: People should either make concrete, if highly nuanced, statements or stay away from the topic entirely until there is more evidence to speculate about; I think the latter more responsible.

ITT, Shantanu Jha is Karl Popper in his criticism of 20th-century marxists.

Megalomaniacal Panda on Absinthe · Sat Sep 13, 2008 11:44 am

Notes on the Balinese Foglight wrote:
Wheedle, gamester wrote: People should either make concrete, if highly nuanced, statements or stay away from the topic entirely until there is more evidence to speculate about; I think the latter more responsible.
ITT, Shantanu Jha is Karl Popper in his criticism of 20th-century marxists.

Really? I thought myself more on the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus side of things - "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent" - with maybe a little bit of frequentism thrown in.

I'm kind of wishing "Megalomanical Panda on Absinthe" was my username, now that I think about it.

Mechanical Beasts · Post by **Mechanical Beasts** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 11:52 am

Wheedle, gamester wrote:
Notes on the Balinese Foglight wrote:
Wheedle, gamester wrote: People should either make concrete, if highly nuanced, statements or stay away from the topic entirely until there is more evidence to speculate about; I think the latter more responsible.
ITT, Shantanu Jha is Karl Popper in his criticism of 20th-century marxists.

Really? I thought myself more on the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus side of things - "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent" - with maybe a little bit of frequentism thrown in.

I'm kind of wishing "Megalomanical Panda on Absinthe" was my username, now that I think about it.

I was on you with Tractatus, too, though Popper doesn't make no sense.

Please don't change your username to anything involving absinthe. At least do not do so on a Saturday morning.

The Atom Strikes! · Post by **The Atom Strikes!** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 12:08 pm

Wheedle, gamester wrote:
Notes on the Balinese Foglight wrote:
Wheedle, gamester wrote: People should either make concrete, if highly nuanced, statements or stay away from the topic entirely until there is more evidence to speculate about; I think the latter more responsible.
ITT, Shantanu Jha is Karl Popper in his criticism of 20th-century marxists.

Really? I thought myself more on the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus side of things - "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent" - with maybe a little bit of frequentism thrown in.

I'm kind of wishing "Megalomanical Panda on Absinthe" was my username, now that I think about it.

Popper's main criticism of modern Marxists was that they did not make concrete predictions that were falsifiable.

And if we were to follow Wittgenstein's rules about speech and silence (in the way that the logical positivists tried to), a lot of what we would say on the forums would likely go unsaid-- any statement that was not either logically self-derived or expressing observations without making value judgments would be off-limits.

Stat Boy · Post by **Stat Boy** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 12:18 pm

Anyhoooo... I'm taking a concrete position and dropping Whitman from Auroni's short list.

Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) · Sat Sep 13, 2008 2:17 pm

Why is it that this thread has gone awry twice in like a week?

Megalomaniacal Panda on Absinthe · Sat Sep 13, 2008 3:00 pm

Notes on the Balinese Foglight wrote: Popper's main criticism of modern Marxists was that they did not make concrete predictions that were falsifiable.

And if we were to follow Wittgenstein's rules about speech and silence (in the way that the logical positivists tried to), a lot of what we would say on the forums would likely go unsaid-- any statement that was not either logically self-derived or expressing observations without making value judgments would be off-limits.

I was being a little tongue-in-cheek, as, I suspect, you were.

Regardless, I was arguing against making murky predictions just because the future is only translucent and not transparent. Daichi's prediction is, in some sense, falsifiable; it is just weak and nearly trivial. Popper protested that Marxists maintained the truth of deductive propositions in the face of empirical experience, a decidedly different point, I think.

This is reminding me of why I have grown to dislike philosophy and arguing, and I'm supposed to be on vacation, so I will concede whatever remains of the point to Henry.

And while I think Whitman will be at least a couple tiers below their position last year, I wouldn't be surprised if they made a respectable performance. Doug knows things, so does Daniel. I think Charter will win the tournaments they come to, because Henry scares me (don't worry, I still love you, dude). And I have big hopes yet for Gov; I will be disappointed if they end up less than second or third in the area. So more pressure on you guys.

To answer Charlie: this thread went awry largely because reading Clive James tends to exacerbate my already considerable digressive tendencies.

I wonder how much I'll have to beg Fred to change my name.

Matt Weiner · Post by **Matt Weiner** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 3:05 pm

Megalomanical Panda on Absinthe wrote:I wonder how much I'll have to beg Fred to change my name.

Fred's busy planting bear traps outside Greg Peterson's house. You'll have to make do with me.

Also, I think the reason this thread goes awry is because there's not much to say...some teams will be good, they will all beat each other a lot, one of them will be clearly better by May, everyone else will be alright, there will be some upsets. It's not like certain states where you have 15 different schools earnestly convinced that they are going to win 150 games this year.

closesesame · Post by **closesesame** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 4:05 pm

So, I hear hot French girls love guys who drink from wells of absinthe...

Auroni · Post by **Auroni** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 5:51 pm

closesesame wrote:So, I hear hot French girls love pandas who drink from wells of absinthe...

AKKOLADE · Post by **AKKOLADE** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 7:46 pm

Matt Weiner wrote:
Megalomanical Panda on Absinthe wrote:I wonder how much I'll have to beg Fred to change my name.
Fred's busy planting bear traps outside Greg Peterson's house. You'll have to make do with me.

Bear traps...

Of love

Maxwell Sniffingwell · Sat Sep 13, 2008 8:02 pm

You should wait a week or so, Fred... they'd rust.

Blackboard Monitor Vimes · Sat Sep 13, 2008 8:07 pm

The Structure of SoCal Action wrote:
substance-filled edit: I'm not too sure who the rising stars in the DC circuit are (well, except maybe Sarah Angelo), but I predict that charter/whitman/WJ/TJ/gov all beat each other at random times before any clear sense of ranking comes into play..

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Auroni, but Greg and Tommy will both probably be better than me this year. I have decided to stop sucking at buzzing, though. This may result in a lot of negs. Oh well. I lost us a game last season because I talked myself out of buzzing. That's not happening again. I'd also add GDS and Gonzaga to your circle of random wins/losses if Ian and Puma are able to be awesome consistently. Is anyone else as excited about next weekend as I am? I'm not generally an excitable person, but I may be downright hyper by the time we reach RM.

Nine-Tenths Ideas · Post by **Nine-Tenths Ideas** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 10:42 am

MLWGS-Gir wrote: Thanks for the vote of confidence, Auroni, but Greg and Tommy will both probably be better than me this year. I have decided to stop sucking at buzzing, though. This may result in a lot of negs. Oh well. I lost us a game last season because I talked myself out of buzzing. That's not happening again. I'd also add GDS and Gonzaga to your circle of random wins/losses if Ian and Puma are able to be awesome consistently. Is anyone else as excited about next weekend as I am? I'm not generally an excitable person, but I may be downright hyper by the time we reach RM.

Seeing Puma play at ACE, I don't think it'd be too much of a stretch to say he's going to have a good year.

Adventure Temple Trail · Tue Sep 16, 2008 6:08 pm

I was that "sophomore" who Sarah mentioned from GDS, & I thought it might make sense to post here first. Hello everyone!

It looks like the first few months of the year (maybe even the first semester?) will have many of the area's top teams playing each other in some really intense competition. In no particular order, TJ, WJ, Gonzaga, GDS, Maggie Walker, RM, and Whitman will all win a lot and lose less often. When we factor in great teams that fly in or travel from a distance - Dorman, Charter, Hunter, etc. - things get even more unpredictable.

Probably by December or so, though, a team or two will rise out the many with 4-2 prelim records. As to who, we'll just have to all play our best and see.

at your pleasure · Post by **at your pleasure** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 3:44 pm

I think you can safely assume we won't do as well as we did last year, Ruyaqua, what with 75% of our regular A-team graduating. Inculding shantanu and adam. Daniel is good, but one topnotch player does not topnotch team make.

wexs883198215 · Post by **wexs883198215** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 7:17 pm

I seem to recall plenty of teams with one top-notch player being top notch teams, including my own.

Blackboard Monitor Vimes · Sat Sep 20, 2008 10:53 pm

Megalomanical Panda on Absinthe wrote: And while I think Whitman will be at least a couple tiers below their position last year, I wouldn't be surprised if they made a respectable performance. Doug knows things, so does Daniel.

I was really surprised by Whitman today (in a good way). I underestimated you guys; I guess Shantanu and Adam kind of masked Daniel's knowledge. Also, Douglas is pretty good at lit, I always find fun/challenging to play against. I don't really remember anything too specifically (long day), but Whitman's going to win some good games this year.

Too tired to comment on rest of today's field...

aestheteboy · Post by **aestheteboy** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 9:44 pm

aestheteboy wrote:Yeah, it seems like the top teams are much closer together than usual (i.e. compared to past few years), and I'm not sure that there will even be an 09 equivalent to TJ '05, RM '06, Gov '07, and Whitman '08. I hope we collectively can continue the good tradition of winning at least one of the two major national championships.

After two tournaments, I still stand by my original statement.

at your pleasure · Post by **at your pleasure** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 12:08 pm

[was really surprised by Whitman today (in a good way). I underestimated you guys; I guess Shantanu and Adam kind of masked Daniel's knowledge. Also, Douglas is pretty good at lit, I always find fun/challenging to play against. I don't really remember anything too specifically (long day), but Whitman's going to win some good games this year.

Thank you. Now, if only we actually knew some music...

aestheteboy · Post by **aestheteboy** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 10:05 pm

aestheteboy wrote:
aestheteboy wrote:Yeah, it seems like the top teams are much closer together than usual (i.e. compared to past few years), and I'm not sure that there will even be an 09 equivalent to TJ '05, RM '06, Gov '07, and Whitman '08. I hope we collectively can continue the good tradition of winning at least one of the two major national championships.
After two tournaments, I still stand by my original statement.

After many more tournaments, I still stand by my original statement. Who can say that GDS, Gonzaga, Gov, TJ, or WJ is much better than the other teams in that list?

closesesame · Post by **closesesame** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 10:39 pm

So we all play each other and beat each other depending on how much sleep we've gotten and what questions certain packets have in them. There are clearly some areas in which certain teams excel and some areas in which certain teams are lacking, but what seems to be the magic of the circuit this year is that everyone's strengths and weaknesses generally even out over the long run. This should make nationals very interesting...

I agree with you in that I think that comparing today's teams with the past doesn't work so well. The canon (or at least the quality of writing about that canon) has expanded, and the quality and prevalence of NAQT tournaments, for example, has gone down while tournaments running great house-written sets and HSAPQ sets have proliferated. I'm definitely happy about this positive trend towards more academic quizbowl, and it certainly satisfies my intellectual curiosity. It seems to have attracted a growing number of players and programs, as well. This means that even teams we would never have heard of in the past, like James Monroe, can be very competitive. There's not really going to be a team that clearly dominates this year, especially as the year progresses.

Post by **Kouign Amann** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 5:42 pm

I seem to have a vague memory of a tournament held at GDS when I was in seventh grade that I think was billed as the "NAQT MD/DC State Championship." I've been seeing on the announcement board that a lot of other states have such a tournament this year, but not the MD/DC area. Is there any particular reason for this? Just curious. Due to lots of things coming up, we have not been able to attend that many tournaments this year, and we are always looking for more.

Adventure Temple Trail · Mon Mar 09, 2009 10:43 pm

I seem to have a vague memory of a tournament held at GDS when I was in seventh grade that I think was billed as the "NAQT MD/DC State Championship." I've been seeing on the announcement board that a lot of other states have such a tournament this year, but not the MD/DC area. Is there any particular reason for this? Just curious. Due to lots of things coming up, we have not been able to attend that many tournaments this year, and we are always looking for more.

Essentially, no one's sent in an bid to run it yet! If you guys (or any other school) wanted to host it, you could put in a bid and receive the questions for free upon finding a weekend that works for DC and Maryland teams. I wonder, though, if there is actually interest in this happening, considering the number of area teams that have already qualified for HSNCT.

Post by **Kouign Amann** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 4:46 pm

RyuAqua wrote:
I seem to have a vague memory of a tournament held at GDS when I was in seventh grade that I think was billed as the "NAQT MD/DC State Championship." I've been seeing on the announcement board that a lot of other states have such a tournament this year, but not the MD/DC area. Is there any particular reason for this? Just curious. Due to lots of things coming up, we have not been able to attend that many tournaments this year, and we are always looking for more.
Essentially, no one's sent in an bid to run it yet! If you guys (or any other school) wanted to host it, you could put in a bid and receive the questions for free upon finding a weekend that works for DC and Maryland teams. I wonder, though, if there is actually interest in this happening, considering the number of area teams that have already qualified for HSNCT.

Yeah, I guess that makes a lot of sense. With so many powerhouse teams around, everyone has basically qualified already. Oh well.

at your pleasure · Post by **at your pleasure** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 6:01 pm

Also, there are so many tournaments around here that teams have 5 or 6 chances to qualify,and (as Aidan said) any team that wants to go has probably qalifed by now.

aestheteboy · Post by **aestheteboy** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:42 pm

Teams attend tournaments, especially a state championship, for several reasons other than to simply qualify for a national championship. I don't think the fact that many teams have qualified already affect the participation that much.
Also, if I recall correctly, there have been two NAQT tournaments inside the DC area - RM fall and TJ fall.