DC Metro Area Discussion - 2020-2021

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vespesian4
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DC Metro Area Discussion - 2020-2021

Post by vespesian4 »

With the school year fast approaching, I thought now was as good a time as any to start this discussion. The DMV continues to have rich competition, so this should be an interesting discussion.
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Re: DC Metro Area Discussion - 2020-2021

Post by king_crimson »

Two underrated teams next year are Langley and Centennial.

Centennial has senior Anthony Duan, who is a very good history and geography player, but they also bring up Anurag Sodhi from their ms feeder. Sodhi is a top-tier MS player and seems to scale up pretty well. Centennial usually has a really strong bench, so they should be able to bring up two strong supporting players. I'd reckon Centennial could crack the top 35 or 30.

Langley has always been pretty solid, placing T31 at nats in 2019, but they keep Will Orr, who is a fantastic fine arts and literature player who can also generalize on some categories. Langley has pretty decent history coverage from playing them, and they're definitely gonna pull off some upsets throughout the season. Look out for them.

Feel free to agree or disagree.
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Re: DC Metro Area Discussion - 2020-2021

Post by Jeje Lalpekhlua »

I’d like to give some of my thoughts about the DMV circuit next year:

National Contenders

TJ A

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that TJ will be the #1 team in the country (especially on mACF), given that they have an argument to having the best science and literature coverage in the country. TJ’s mACF A team consists of literature player Justin Chen, science player Stefan Calin, history and RMP player Anuraag Kashyap, and RMP/FA/science specialist Vishal Kanigcherla and will definitely be a contender for the PACE National Title this year. As shown on irl stats (HFT, BHSAT) and online stats (SCALE and a whole host of tournaments), Justin is one of the top literature players in the country, putting up high power numbers, while maintaining low-neg play. Stefan (along with Justin) has really come out of nowhere the past year taking the circuit by storm with his immense science prowess, going toe to toe with some of the best science players in the country (I do think he’s the best science player in the country now after the graduation of Katherine Lei). Anuraag has always been a formidable foe on the NHBB circuit with plenty of absurd depth in history (especially classical and ancient) as well as myth—history being the weakest of their big three really tells you something about the depth of this team. The big three are accompanied by RMP/FA/science specialist Vishal Kanigcherla who will provide a great accompaniment to the rest of the players. TJ’s NAQT team will likely include Pratyush Jaishanker on A instead of Stefan (more on Pratyush on TJ B). This team has immense upside and skill, but one thing to watch out for is how they (mainly Stefan I guess) can control their negging as well as their general coverage of PSS. However, I think they are the clear-cut #1 in the DMV.

RM A

This is my team, and I think we could give TJ a run for their money depending on our motivation. This is a mainly senior-filled team, so we don’t know how much time we’ll be dedicating to quizbowl this year given that most of us despise the online situation. Anyways, the team will most likely consist of myself (a humanities generalist with focus in history, lit, geo/ce, and ss), Justin Posner (a humanities generalist in the same vain with more focus in RMP), AFA/science player Danesh Sivakumar, and Gus Carvell (poetry, fa, and humanities generalist). I think one of the biggest things about us is our team chemistry and our double/triple coverage on most subjects. The emergence of Gus as a humanities generalist last year, I think will provide us with added coverage in some of the humanities areas we didn’t have coverage in last year. I think we’ll be a stronger team on NAQT over mACF because of our really strong coverage in history & geo/ce (I wouldn’t think it’s a stretch to say that we have one of the best history teams in the country). Last year, we were much more of a tossup team than a bonus team, so I think we will be looking to improve in our bonus skill. One thing to watch out for is our negs (especially Justin when he forgets which books he ate) given our fairly aggressive play.

Second Tier

TJ B

TJ’s strong tradition of B teams continue with this top-20 outfit. Led by seniors like Kevin Zhang (lit, sci, pss generalist) and Vance Kreider (AFA player), this team has loads of experience that will be enough to pull a few upsets of the aforementioned national contenders. Those two are rounded out by Pratyush Jaishanker, who as emerged as one of the nation’s top science and geo/ce players and Elliot Lee, who is turning into a fearsome history player (I’ve been really impressed with his depth of knowledge from HFT and just interacting with him). I think this team has the firepower to challenge some of the top teams in the country, especially on mACF. I’m really interested in seeing how this team plays out at tournaments.

GDS A

Arthur Deloit-Vilain remains the last man standing from last season’s GDS A that became a clear-cut #1 team in the DMV region and was a national title contender. Arthur has further developed from a second scorer on that team to (I think) one of the top generalists this season. Everyone already knows his immense depth in history and the classics, but he’s been rapidly improving in literature, fine arts, and science (especially biology). His firepower alone could be enough to upset some of the teams above, but he’s accompanied by Lyra Gemmill-Nixon, who is one of the deepest myth players in our region and the country with deep pockets of knowledge In other subjects that can get powers all the time. These two will be rounded out by Avani (a science player?), Celia (fine arts, lit) and Caleb (history, ce). Given Arthur is a senior, I’m not sure what his time commitment will be in the first half of the season and the question remains to see if he can get the support he needs to firmly place himself into the list of national contenders (kind of in the vain of Matt Siff a year ago).

Blair A

Even though all four members of their A team graduated, Blair A remains very dangerous. The humanities coverage is led by a trio of humanities players: Albert Ho (a history player who’s depth in my opinion is only rivaled by Anthony Duan), Leela Mehta-Harwitz (another history and literature?? Player) and Jason Liu (who is very good at fine arts and literature—he played for the very good Blair B team at PACE a year back). This team is rounded out by top scorer and generalist, Chris Tong. I’m not sure how much Chris will be committed to quizbowl this year, but when he plays he is one of the top science players in the country with added humanities generalist to boot in fine arts, history, geo/ce, and trash (making him a monster on NAQT). The question remains to be seen is whether this team (kind of like us last year), can form depth in literature and the other humanities categories, nonetheless this is a very scary team.

Langley A

William Orr is broken. No, actually. Coming into his junior season, as a sophomore he put up the top amount of powers at the most competitive tournament of last season in my opinion (RM HFT) and is leading a rising Langley team. Outside of his deadly literature lock, he’s been getting really, really good at fine arts and I heard he’s grinding history and science. He will rival Arthur as the top generalist in the region. I’m not sure who’s accompanying him besides Aidan (Zamboney) who’s a history player, but those two will be enough to wreck havoc in the circuit.

Third Tier and Wild Cards

Centennial A

The Duanster is also broken. Anthony Duan probably has the deepest pockets of knowledge in history and geo in the circuit. He’s always been one of the traditionally dominant players in NAQT at this region, putting up high power numbers as a low-neg fiend. Accompanying Anthony will be Anurag Sodhi. Anurag was one of the top middle school players with a depth of knowledge reaching far into the high school canon, but I’ve heard stuff about him not wanting to commit that much to hs quizbowl, but we’ll see. That duo is a wild card and I could see them moving into the second tier with the development of supporting players around them (which will probably happen given Centennial’s great system and the Seifters' coaching)

BASIS McLean A

Ok, so everyone thought Justin Ward graduated early and then Cavan pinged @everyone on the DMV server to let people know Justin was back. I’m still not sure if Justin is back, but if he is, BASIS will definitely be in the second tier of teams. Cavan is coming into his own as one of the best generalists in the DMV area as a freshman with skill in history and fine arts. He put up something like 50 powers at JHU Winter, which was absurd. Justin has traditionally been one of the strongest players in our area as a fearsome generalist and that duo could form the basis of a deadly BASIS team (haha I’m so funny). I’m not sure who their support will be, so I’d like to see their science coverage before judging them again.

TJ C

Led by Elliott Lee, this team was super good as freshmen and played my team to a few, close matches at BHSAT and JHU Fall. They have solid coverage across the board and I’m not sure how much they’ve studied over the summer, but their solid play should be enough to beat some of the second tier teams. Elliott’s literature skill as a freshman was eye-opening.

Churchill A

They lose the biggest of them all, Manu, but retain Stevie who is a really good history player and generalist. Stevie will be sure to bring a ton of firepower, but the rest of his supporting cast is remain to be seen.

RM B

Might be some bias here, but there will be some experienced and pretty good players on this team. Kyle Liao is pretty good at the whole science thing (especially at bio) and will most likely be accompanied by Jaewoo (college myth and some fine arts), Amanda (lit), and either Urbar (who is a really good history player) or Alex Pease (who is a decent fine arts player). Depending on the packet, they could do some damage as well.

Feel free to add on any teams that I've forgotten or agree/disagree.
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Re: DC Metro Area Discussion - 2020-2021

Post by BigCaleb »

As a member of GDS A, I would like to thank you for shinning a spotlight on us. We have all worked very hard and we are excited to prove ourselves this year. I also wish a good year towards my competition and hope we all do the best we can.

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Re: DC Metro Area Discussion - 2020-2021

Post by buffaloz1331 »

Jeje Lalpekhlua wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2020 12:59 pm I’d like to give some of my thoughts about the DMV circuit next year:

National Contenders

TJ A

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that TJ will be the #1 team in the country (especially on mACF), given that they have an argument to having the best science and literature coverage in the country. TJ’s mACF A team consists of literature player Justin Chen, science player Stefan Calin, history and RMP player Anuraag Kashyap, and RMP/FA/science specialist Vishal Kanigcherla and will definitely be a contender for the PACE National Title this year. As shown on irl stats (HFT, BHSAT) and online stats (SCALE and a whole host of tournaments), Justin is one of the top literature players in the country, putting up high power numbers, while maintaining low-neg play. Stefan (along with Justin) has really come out of nowhere the past year taking the circuit by storm with his immense science prowess, going toe to toe with some of the best science players in the country (I do think he’s the best science player in the country now after the graduation of Katherine Lei). Anuraag has always been a formidable foe on the NHBB circuit with plenty of absurd depth in history (especially classical and ancient) as well as myth—history being the weakest of their big three really tells you something about the depth of this team. The big three are accompanied by RMP/FA/science specialist Vishal Kanigcherla who will provide a great accompaniment to the rest of the players. TJ’s NAQT team will likely include Pratyush Jaishanker on A instead of Stefan (more on Pratyush on TJ B). This team has immense upside and skill, but one thing to watch out for is how they (mainly Stefan I guess) can control their negging as well as their general coverage of PSS. However, I think they are the clear-cut #1 in the DMV.

RM A

This is my team, and I think we could give TJ a run for their money depending on our motivation. This is a mainly senior-filled team, so we don’t know how much time we’ll be dedicating to quizbowl this year given that most of us despise the online situation. Anyways, the team will most likely consist of myself (a humanities generalist with focus in history, lit, geo/ce, and ss), Justin Posner (a humanities generalist in the same vain with more focus in RMP), AFA/science player Danesh Sivakumar, and Gus Carvell (poetry, fa, and humanities generalist). I think one of the biggest things about us is our team chemistry and our double/triple coverage on most subjects. The emergence of Gus as a humanities generalist last year, I think will provide us with added coverage in some of the humanities areas we didn’t have coverage in last year. I think we’ll be a stronger team on NAQT over mACF because of our really strong coverage in history & geo/ce (I wouldn’t think it’s a stretch to say that we have one of the best history teams in the country). Last year, we were much more of a tossup team than a bonus team, so I think we will be looking to improve in our bonus skill. One thing to watch out for is our negs (especially Justin when he forgets which books he ate) given our fairly aggressive play.

Second Tier

TJ B

TJ’s strong tradition of B teams continue with this top-20 outfit. Led by seniors like Kevin Zhang (lit, sci, pss generalist) and Vance Kreider (AFA player), this team has loads of experience that will be enough to pull a few upsets of the aforementioned national contenders. Those two are rounded out by Pratyush Jaishanker, who as emerged as one of the nation’s top science and geo/ce players and Elliot Lee, who is turning into a fearsome history player (I’ve been really impressed with his depth of knowledge from HFT and just interacting with him). I think this team has the firepower to challenge some of the top teams in the country, especially on mACF. I’m really interested in seeing how this team plays out at tournaments.

GDS A

Arthur Deloit-Vilain remains the last man standing from last season’s GDS A that became a clear-cut #1 team in the DMV region and was a national title contender. Arthur has further developed from a second scorer on that team to (I think) one of the top generalists this season. Everyone already knows his immense depth in history and the classics, but he’s been rapidly improving in literature, fine arts, and science (especially biology). His firepower alone could be enough to upset some of the teams above, but he’s accompanied by Lyra Gemmill-Nixon, who is one of the deepest myth players in our region and the country with deep pockets of knowledge In other subjects that can get powers all the time. These two will be rounded out by Avani (a science player?), Celia (fine arts, lit) and Caleb (history, ce). Given Arthur is a senior, I’m not sure what his time commitment will be in the first half of the season and the question remains to see if he can get the support he needs to firmly place himself into the list of national contenders (kind of in the vain of Matt Siff a year ago).

Blair A

Even though all four members of their A team graduated, Blair A remains very dangerous. The humanities coverage is led by a trio of humanities players: Albert Ho (a history player who’s depth in my opinion is only rivaled by Anthony Duan), Leela Mehta-Harwitz (another history and literature?? Player) and Jason Liu (who is very good at fine arts and literature—he played for the very good Blair B team at PACE a year back). This team is rounded out by top scorer and generalist, Chris Tong. I’m not sure how much Chris will be committed to quizbowl this year, but when he plays he is one of the top science players in the country with added humanities generalist to boot in fine arts, history, geo/ce, and trash (making him a monster on NAQT). The question remains to be seen is whether this team (kind of like us last year), can form depth in literature and the other humanities categories, nonetheless this is a very scary team.

Langley A

William Orr is broken. No, actually. Coming into his junior season, as a sophomore he put up the top amount of powers at the most competitive tournament of last season in my opinion (RM HFT) and is leading a rising Langley team. Outside of his deadly literature lock, he’s been getting really, really good at fine arts and I heard he’s grinding history and science. He will rival Arthur as the top generalist in the region. I’m not sure who’s accompanying him besides Aidan (Zamboney) who’s a history player, but those two will be enough to wreck havoc in the circuit.

Third Tier and Wild Cards

Centennial A

The Duanster is also broken. Anthony Duan probably has the deepest pockets of knowledge in history and geo in the circuit. He’s always been one of the traditionally dominant players in NAQT at this region, putting up high power numbers as a low-neg fiend. Accompanying Anthony will be Anurag Sodhi. Anurag was one of the top middle school players with a depth of knowledge reaching far into the high school canon, but I’ve heard stuff about him not wanting to commit that much to hs quizbowl, but we’ll see. That duo is a wild card and I could see them moving into the second tier with the development of supporting players around them (which will probably happen given Centennial’s great system and the Seifters' coaching)

BASIS McLean A

Ok, so everyone thought Justin Ward graduated early and then Cavan pinged @everyone on the DMV server to let people know Justin was back. I’m still not sure if Justin is back, but if he is, BASIS will definitely be in the second tier of teams. Cavan is coming into his own as one of the best generalists in the DMV area as a freshman with skill in history and fine arts. He put up something like 50 powers at JHU Winter, which was absurd. Justin has traditionally been one of the strongest players in our area as a fearsome generalist and that duo could form the basis of a deadly BASIS team (haha I’m so funny). I’m not sure who their support will be, so I’d like to see their science coverage before judging them again.

TJ C

Led by Elliott Lee, this team was super good as freshmen and played my team to a few, close matches at BHSAT and JHU Fall. They have solid coverage across the board and I’m not sure how much they’ve studied over the summer, but their solid play should be enough to beat some of the second tier teams. Elliott’s literature skill as a freshman was eye-opening.

Churchill A

They lose the biggest of them all, Manu, but retain Stevie who is a really good history player and generalist. Stevie will be sure to bring a ton of firepower, but the rest of his supporting cast is remain to be seen.

RM B

Might be some bias here, but there will be some experienced and pretty good players on this team. Kyle Liao is pretty good at the whole science thing (especially at bio) and will most likely be accompanied by Jaewoo (college myth and some fine arts), Amanda (lit), and either Urbar (who is a really good history player) or Alex Pease (who is a decent fine arts player). Depending on the packet, they could do some damage as well.

Feel free to add on any teams that I've forgotten or agree/disagree.
This is a pretty solid post. The only thing I would say is that if Chris does decide to play seriously, Blair A will be in the same tier as TJ and RM once again, and will be a national contender. GDS will be pretty solid, not sure how we will fare overall though, and I'm not sure how much online quizbowl I will play. This is shaping up to be an exciting season overall, though, despite the limitations
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Re: DC Metro Area Discussion - 2020-2021

Post by king_crimson »

Just a quick post that after Saturday's mirror of IKEA, a college set, I'm pretty convinced that TJ B is a top-15, if not t-10 team.

They were able to take a near-full Texas A to the last tossup and go 4/5/1 on a shorthanded Maryland, along with nearly beating us too, all this being shorthanded (They were missing their literature player Kevin Zhang, instead using the C team literature player, who is also conveniently named Elliott Lee). The only true weakness they had was their PPB, which was due to their lack of literature and thought coverage (which Kevin covers).

Elliot is getting really good at history. I think he's definitely in the top 5 or even 3 due to his absurd depth in parts of Asian, American, and European history along with him being able to mop up history bonuses at high difficulties. He also powered literature twice, getting insanely deep buzzes against strong teams.

Prat also did really well at this tournament and was able to get a lot of science and generalize. TJ B's geo/belief player Josh Lian also did quite well in getting myth and helping on bonuses.

TJ A did well power and record wise, but we'll have to work on our weaker areas and really clean up our negs.

This season should be interesting.
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Re: DC Metro Area Discussion - 2020-2021

Post by Spellstone4life »

Have any freshman stood out so far in the DMV circuit?

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Re: DC Metro Area Discussion - 2020-2021

Post by wen39912 »

I think Anurag Sodhi from Centennial is quite impressive as a freshman player.
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Re: DC Metro Area Discussion - 2020-2021

Post by Spellstone4life »

Now that we are farther into the season, have there been any freshman from the DMV that could be in the running for the Groger Rankings freshman of the year?

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Re: DC Metro Area Discussion - 2020-2021

Post by max_imum »

Would any of the club leaders of the top DMV teams (TJ, MB, RM, GDS, etc) be willing to post their opinions on these categories either on this forum or dmed to me for the purpose of information to possibly write a feature:

Top Teams as of Right Now (and why)

Breakout Performers

Standout Freshmen (as well as their categories they are best in)

What their Team will Look Like, as well As Expectations after the Seniors Graduate

Thanks

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Last edited by max_imum on Sat Mar 06, 2021 9:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: DC Metro Area Discussion - 2020-2021

Post by justjulian »

Would anyone like to reopen this thread with some updates before the HCNCT?
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Re: DC Metro Area Discussion - 2020-2021

Post by max_imum »

With there being about a month before the HSNCT, do any prevalent members of teams with their sights on winning have any new thoughts or opinions to add?
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Re: DC Metro Area Discussion - 2020-2021

Post by AKKOLADE »

If you are from Virginia - you don't currently have a team in NASAT! If you're planning on putting a team together, please let me know ASAP.
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