ACF Nationals Prediction Thread!

[Nine-Tenths Ideas]

34. Berkeley B - Sorry, I'm not going to pretend like I know who is on this team. There's no way to underperform now, Berkeley B!

33. Columbia B - Same deal here. I'm sure you guys are smart, you go to Columbia!

32. Notre Dame - This is apparently a guy playing solo. I admire you, guy playing solo! I'm not looking forward to playing ACF Nationals with a full team.

31. Chicago C - In an already star-studded ACF Nationals, the cast of the hit NBC drama Chicago Fire plays as Chicago C. David Eigenberg gets a little use out of his philosophy degree, and Jesse Spencer distracts Columbia B with his dreamy eyes that you could just fall into forever and ever, just you and Jesse Spencer together, soulmates, marry me, Jesse Spencer.

30. VCU - Cody Voight is severely disadvantaged when the only earth science tossup in the entire tournament is on "sunshine."

29. Truman State - Truman State foolishly goes to Famous Original Rays instead of Original Famous Rays for lunch in NYC, leading to them getting food poisoning after the lunch break.

28. Carleton College - Does Carsten Gehring still go here? What about 19th century Supreme Court justice Pierce Butler? I might be a little out of date on this team's roster.

27. Hunter College - Is this Doug Yetman? Is anything Doug Yetman, really?

26. South Carolina - In rankings threads, it's actually good for a team when I forget about them, because it means they move up in the rankings.

25. Penn B - James Lasker fuckin' nails that tossup on "sunshine."

24. Rutgers - I owe this team 30 bucks. Come and find me and get your 30 dollars, Rutgers!

23. Alabama - In a crucial game, the final tossup simply asks players to "make a funny post in a rankings thread." Sadly, no member of the Alabama team is able to.

22. Northwestern - As the quizbowl facebook group helpfully and constantly reminds me, Dylan Minarik is on this team.

21. Berkeley A - This team's relaxed, Cali surfer-bro style ends up clashing hilariously with this fast-talking, uptight New York tournament.

20. Michigan State - Wins on a tossup on Society Against the State, which happens to be the name of Joe Nutter's anarchist punk band.

19. Chicago B - I brought in guest analyst Donovan McNabb's Twitter feed for this prediction:

I have Chicago B as 19th. Do you think they will do better or worse? What do you think?

18. Maryland B - This team takes a hit after Isaac Hirsch's guest set at Caroline's on Friday night leads to immediate television offers, leaving the team a player short as he prepares for production on his sitcom.

17. North Carolina - While finishing in the middle of the pack, Nick Neutefel invents 4 new quizbowl statistics during the tournament.

16. Stanford A - Despite being the #1 overall seed in the tournament, the team underperforms.

15. WUSTL - WUSTL is a team that is left on the ACF Nationals field spreadsheet.

14. William & Mary - Shit, I forgot about William & Mary. Enjoy 15th, William & Mary!

13. Ohio State - With Mike Cheyne not playing this tournament, Jarret Greene feels a strange sense of ennui and ceases answering tossups or competing at all, really.

12. Washington A - This team has a lot of heart, but Mike Bentley's lack of a post presence and Libo Zheng's shaky jump shot will hurt them down the stretch.

11. Harvard A - Harvard is placed in a bracket with Maryland A, Chicago A, Virginia A, Penn and Yale.

10. Alberta - Now that I'm out of the Fantasy Quizbowl play-offs, Trevor Davis goes off and has a great tournament, scoring in droves. This would make me very unhappy if I cared about fantasy quizbowl at all.

9. Dartmouth A - Dartmouth makes a Cinderella run that falls just short when Nick Jensen somehow fails to identify the T. Rex in a bonus part.

8. Columbia A - Did I overrate this team? Probably. Am I doing a terrible job of keeping track of which teams I have and haven't done yet? Yes.

7. Illinois A -

After their surprise ICT performance last year, I think it's safe to say everybody is onboard the Billy Busse.

I like this dumb joke I made this year and would like to re-use it.

6. Michigan - Due to a typo, Will Nediger becomes Will Negider and performs disastrously in the playoffs.

5. Chicago A - Marshall Steinbaum spontaneously combusts after Matt Weiner pops his head into the gameroom to deny his protest a second before he even lodges it.

4. Maryland A - Chris Ray reveals he only planned on graduating with the assumption that he would win Nats this year and, well...

3. Penn A - Quizbowl Emergency Hospital S3, E5: "An arm injury to patient Dallas Simons leads Dr. Mukherjee to undertake a risky operation right before nationals." (2014)

2. Yale A - Yale A this year is like the Yale A last year of getting second place.

1. Virginia A - Matt Bollinger wins the finals on a clue about a Herbie Hancock song I told him about once, technically making me an ACF Nationals champion.

[ryanrosenberg]

17. North Carolina - While finishing in the middle of the pack, Nick Neutefel invents 4 new quizbowl statistics during the tournament.

For the record, Nick is not playing Nationals. Although that would give him more time to work on quizbowl statistics.

[1992 in spaceflight]

29. Truman State - Truman State foolishly goes to Famous Original Rays instead of Original Famous Rays for lunch in NYC, leading to them getting food poisoning after the lunch break.

Considering the Truman State team is just me, I really hope this doesn't happen.

[Masked Canadian History Bandit]

29. Truman State - Truman State foolishly goes to Famous Original Rays instead of Original Famous Rays for lunch in NYC, leading to them getting food poisoning after the lunch break.

Considering the Truman State team is just me, I really hope this doesn't happen.

Jacob O'Rourke would be fine with his teammates getting food poisoning though!

[The Ununtiable Twine]

1. UVA
2. Penn
3. Yale
4-5. idk
6-34. idc

[Auroni]

1. UVA
2. Penn
3. Yale
4-5. idk
6-34. idc

Easily your best work

[grapesmoker]

I predict everyone will learn that ACF Nationals was in their heart all along.

[Rococo A Go Go]

I predict that after a long day of productivity, Jerry is so proud of his work that he writes the last bonus of the finals packet about himself. Penn manages to get within ten points of Virginia on the last tossup of the packet, only to zero the bonus while Jerry looks on in horror at what he's done.

Matt Bollinger and Matt Jackson declare in a post-tournament interview with Jim Gray that they're both enrolling in graduate programs at Penn next year.

[Adventure Temple Trail]

Matt Jackson...enrolling in graduate programs...next year

best joke of the thread

[grapesmoker]

I predict that after a long day of productivity, Jerry is so proud of his work that he writes the last bonus of the finals packet about himself.

what has it gots in its pocketsesss preciousss

[merv1618]

I predict that after a long day of productivity, Jerry is so proud of his work that he writes the last bonus of the finals packet about himself.

what has it gots in its pocketsesss preciousss

Draupnir, clearly.

[Peter13]

Now to have some input from me on the rankings.

34. Notre Dame - Almost everyone knows their football team; almost no one knows their quizbowl team. Coincidence, I think not.

33. Hunter College - The team came to give it their A-game, but coming from an outside, it was a D-game at best.

32. South Carolina - Expect Christopher King to lead this team to victory. And by victory, I mean avoiding last place.

31. Carleton College - I hope this team hasn't changed to much from last years squad. With no new freshman that I know of to help this side, and with some members graduating, I feel they will win enough games to not be terrible, but they are on a decline, like the Roman Empire during the 3rd century.

30. VCU - Cody Voight has a great opening round, destroying science, and getting the odd literature question. It seems perfect, and then the next game he negs on "Maxwell's equations" and it all quickly goes downhill.

29. Truman State - It was Jacob O'Rourke to start, and being excited as he was, slammed a buzzer so hard that it broke, before correctly answering "Antonio". The next games were terrible by anyone's standard, unless you were a buzzer.

28. Penn B - This team needs James Lasker to step up their game, or they may never be a third bracket threat. And I think James is crazy enough to do both and Schrodinger's cat ACF National.

27. Berkeley B - Depending who is on this team, they can be in third bracket contention or battling not to be last. I think since they seem rather balanced, that former will be more likely, especially as all the standouts from other teams quickly get tired.

26. Northwestern - With Dylan Minark not being the standout he once was at Belvidere North, but still a great player nonetheless, this team will look to find a couple teams to be and try to project themselves upward while hoping Dylan won't neg his team out of a win.

26. Rutgers - Here we find a team that seems to be lucky. Either expect them to over-perform, win the lottery, or maybe they will just find a fortune cookie.

25. William & Mary - After his rather long stint at VCU, Smiley is now on W&M team. Look for him to set out and beat his goals, such as win a couple games, beat VCU, and get a tossup onYukio Mishima.

23. Columbia B - They will try to bring everyone out to this tournament, be overstaffed, and therefore have an amazing B-team. It will start off great, then somehow they get lost during lunch hour. Right before the next game starts, they come just in time, covered in mud. We never learn the full story.

22. Chicago C - The team that never gets taken seriously, so they try to show that they are not just some extras that missed the cut. They start off bad, get much better, before finally win the last game on the last tossup. They subsequently rejoice, forgetting the long road ahead.

21. Alabama - Jake Sundberg is up to his old tricks again. He starts off by doing several buzzer fakes on lowly teams, beating them by 200 points. Thinking it is down to his technique, he tries to perfect it against high level opposition, before learning that he missed a trash tossup. He ends up losing big, before losing all of his remaining games and bursting into tears.

20. North Carolina - With Holtzmann, Rosenberg, Neuteufel, and others, this team has enough knowledge to win a few games before their upper table hopes are shattered.

19. Berkeley - This team will look to improve on what they did at ICT. Sadly for them, they will lose their last game, falling short of their goal. Over dinner realize that they did achieve their goal by bringing the team closer together.

18. WUSTL - Richard Yu has transformed his team, and will look to move up the ranks. Maybe he will write a book on his time there called, "The Quizbowl Guide: How You Can Be Like Yu".

17. Michigan State - Kothari and Nutter will form the backbone of this team, hoping to succeed in not coming in the last bracket. They do, but then get beaten badly by Ohio State. After their last game, Joe gets into a passionate speech about putting dreams into action. When he finishes, he realize hes the only one left in the room.

16. Washington - With Mike Bentley at the helm of this group, you just don't know where to place them. Will they do great, will they fail? I have no time to be involved in petty and frivolous questioning.

15. Chicago B - Doug starts to play terribly, losing buzzer races, fumbling around words, saying "The Invisible Man" instead of "Invisible Man". All hope is not lost, as his team makes up for his mistakes, and go on to make it to the upper half of the table. They then get thrashed, but learn that teamwork was the lesson all along.

14. Dartmouth - Alston and Jenson are back again, for their new sequel "Alston and Jenson: ACF Edition". A sequel of what, no one knows, but it doesn't sell very well, just like Dartmouth's hopes of being in the top ten.

13. Maryland B - This team decide to have fun in New York the night before the tournament. The day of horror ensues, and they realize they lost their buzzers. They find the buzzers in the mini fridge in their hotel room. Hirsch then remembers that he left them at home. They end up keeping the buzzers, but the mystery is never solved

12. Ohio State - Jarret Greene is back and better than ever, and blitzes the first couple rounds, beating teams to "The Sun Also Rises" and "Skadi", but slowly becomes more unsure and fatigued as time goes on. He then accidentally hits the buzzer against Michigan State, but refocuses to get "Medina" and win the game.

11. Stanford - Except for Jeff Hoppes, I think very few people can see this team break into the top bracket. They are a great team, being decent in almost every subject, but with no clear standouts, the teams with deep knowledge will likely beat them, decimate them, and maybe with Yale, bark them into nonexistence.

10. Alberta - After that airline disaster (Alaska Airlines, not Malaysia Airlines), hopefully Travis and Sinan will be that dynamic duo that I was talking about. But looking at delayed airlines in New York, I feel something will go wrong, but I don't know what.

9. Columbia A - Somehow, even though the team is hosting the tournament, Aidan comes late. Luckily, it seems he still in the proper form to decimate Literature questions like almost no one, and with Rafael, Alex, and Jonathan Xu, expect this team to be "so good" compared to previous iterations.

8. Illinois A - They seem to have gotten a little lucky last time, so expect regression to the mean and them to fall a little shorter this time. Though you can expect Aaron Rosenberg to have a crazy tossup to neg ratio, which I cannot see the likes of Chris Ray and Jordan Palmer getting even close to.

7. Michigan - Will Nediger is a literary genious, who always seems to power no matter what difficulty level, but rather weak on science. I can see this team repeat what they do at almost every major competition, and let their weakness only gain strength in the later rounds.

6. Harvard - Stephen Liu and co. are coming, whatever that means. They will look to try to rectify the mistake that ICT put them in this year, and finally make the top bracket. From there the real challenge begins.

5. Maryland A - I don't know what to say about Chris Ray, to have games where he gets his negging under control, and then other game (especially against good teams), where he negs like 5 times. He is like the biggest wild card out there, even bigger than the Colts.

4. Chicago A - It seems that John Lawrence, Steinbaum, Schindler, and Tian did pretty well last time, but fell where they were expected to. Expect this team to be less surprising then New York City traffic.

3. Penn A - Mukherjee is revered for a good reason, he seems to be a god of the sciences. Or maybe a saint. Like Saint Dominic? But Indian, and not part of the church. So nothing like Saint Dominic. Still, I predict Penn to finish in third.

2. Yale - Again, Yale will fall short. Matt Jackson can only carry this team so far. Even though his teammates are good, I feel they are not on the same as the people at UVA. Plus Matt can only fraud science so much. So Matt is the science equivalent of cold fusion.

1. Virginia - Expect another win by them. With Matt Bollinger leading, they may lose a game, but they will come back and be victorious. Like a Hopeless Boss, the plot demands that you fail to this team, if not now, then eventually.

[pajaro bobo]

12. Georgia Tech - Adam Silverman looks to set history by going three straight games without a neg. He then buzzes with "Toyota" when the answer was "Nissan", which is interesting considering he is usually so good at Judaism.

... We're not even going.

[Rococo A Go Go]

12. Georgia Tech - Adam Silverman looks to set history by going three straight games without a neg. He then buzzes with "Toyota" when the answer was "Nissan", which is interesting considering he is usually so good at Judaism.

... We're not even going.

Peter was just really eager to use that joke and couldn't be bothered with your pesky "facts"

[The Ununtiable Twine]

In addition to the old tricks, I may have some new tricks! Probably not though. Georgia Tech finishes 9th after the tournament directors agree to allow them to play via Skype. Mike Bentley becomes irate and forces Washington to withdraw from ACF Nationals.

[Peter13]

I don't usually edit my predictions except for things like grammar and such, but if I could have a list of teams that were coming. I just guess the 34 teams, and would love to know the actual teams.

[vinteuil]

2. Yale - Again, Yale will fall short. Matt Jackson can only carry this team so far. Even though his teammates are good, I feel they are not on the same as the people at UVA.

My only question is what I need to be on to be as good as Matt Bollinger.

[The Ununtiable Twine]

I don't usually edit my predictions except for things like grammar and such, but if I could have a list of teams that were coming. I just guess the 34 teams, and would love to know the actual teams.

You did a fascinating job of predicting which teams were coming, only forgetting Carleton and adding GT. There is a list of teams in the announcements thread.

[The Ununtiable Twine]

2. Yale - Again, Yale will fall short. Matt Jackson can only carry this team so far. Even though his teammates are good, I feel they are not on the same as the people at UVA.

My only question is what I need to be on to be as good as Matt Bollinger.

Probably math. I'd be willing to offer you a crash course in higher level quizbowl math tomorrow in exchange for dinner and $2500.

[Peter13]

Thanks Jake. I should have been paying more attention. Now for my lowly advice:

2. Yale - Again, Yale will fall short. Matt Jackson can only carry this team so far. Even though his teammates are good, I feel they are not on the same as the people at UVA.

My only question is what I need to be on to be as good as Matt Bollinger.

Jacob, you are good at humanities, literature, and the soft sciences. Matt Bollinger is probably the greatest generalist out there. I mean his knowledge in the sciences and of math is great considering that's not his specialty. The only way to learn is to study outside your comfort zone. Try new things, understand new concepts, break out into harder sciences, and deeper mathematics. In this way you will not only get deeper knowledge of quizbowl, but deeper knowledge at life.

[Cheynem]

My predictions include a quote taken from random Wikipedia articles that I believe best sum up the teams:

34. Berkeley B: It is served by a station on the national railway system.

33. Columbia B: Cheshunt's best-known son is the pop singer Cliff Richard and the town was also home to the band Unit 4 + 2 whose song Concrete and Clay topped the UK charts in 1965.

32. Notre Dame: Caves should be provided as hiding places.

31. Chicago C: It may occur in cases of threatened abortion.

30. VCU: His 2013 film When Jews Were Funny, an exploration of the role of Jewish comedians in North American comedy and humour,[5] won the prize for Best Canadian Feature Film at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.[6]

29. Truman State: All of the proceeds from this song went to AIDS charities as part of Bono's RED campaign.

28. Carleton College: Before being drafted he played for the University of Michigan.

27. Hunter College: Road cycling events were held on November 13 and 19, while track cycling events were held on November 15 and 16.

26. South Carolina: It lies approximately 6 kilometres (4 mi) south-west of Dzierzążnia, 16 km (10 mi) west of Płońsk, and 71 km (44 mi) north-west of Warsaw.

25. Penn B: It is an album of secrets echoed, and questions that are fathomlessly deep; it invites the listener in cleanly, without seduction, and argues for full participation in its revelations...[1]

24. Rutgers: Except these two pieces little or nothing of his has kept the stage.

23. Alabama: The top 10 songs (十大中文金曲) of 1982 are as follows.

22. Northwestern: It lies approximately 4 kilometres (2 mi) south of Kowalewo Pomorskie, 11 km (7 mi) west of Golub-Dobrzyń, and 22 km (14 mi) north-east of Toruń.

21. Berkeley A: It can be constructed by superimposing two copies of the compound of 10 octahedra UC16, and for each resulting pair of octahedra, rotating each octahedron in the pair by an equal and opposite angle θ.

20. Michigan State: In the men's competition leader Christoph Eigenmann does not finish and thus loses his yellow jersey to Simen Østensen who finished in 12th position, 11.6 seconds behind winner Vincent Vittoz.

19. Chicago B: It’s very psychedelic and trippy.

18. Maryland B: The left midfielder of Greek origin previously played for Roeselare, Standard Liège, Anderlecht, Charleroi and Tienen, but had his most successful period with Union SG, where he scored 15 goals in 52 matches.[2]

17. North Carolina: On January 1, 2006 Sivry-Rance had a total population of 4,597.

16. Stanford A: The third letter (if present) was L (30 ft (9.1 m) long) or W (8 ft (2.4 m) wide)

15. WUSTL: The genus was formerly merged with the large genus Pitta, but a 2009 study split the family into three genera.[1]

14. William and Mary: He had a number of high-profile affairs during his life, including a three-year relationship with Joan Crawford and Bette Davis.

13. Ohio State: For example, StarCraft is fully compatible despite being nearly a decade older than Windows Vista.

12. Washington A: Robert James "Bob" Higgins is a retired English professional footballer who played as a central defender.

11. Harvard A: Spring Creek joins Little Lehigh Creek several miles upstream of Emmaus in Lehigh County.

10. Alberta: Ex-Celtic player Vidar Riseth described him as "the best young talent to come out for Norway in the past ten years".[7

9. Dartmouth A: Boffi made two appearances for Italy between 1938 and 1939.

8. Columbia: Villeloup is a commune in the Aube department in north-central France.

7. Illinois A: Due to a scandal of kidnapping his ex-wife Sapna Khan, he had to resign and the case is still pending.[2]

6. Michigan: It began production in 1978 and produces oil.

5. Chicago A: For the next four weeks, he did nothing but eat rice and sleep.

4. Maryland A: The village has a population of 160.

3. Penn A: Charles Sayle's salon, a circle of bright, handsome and predominantly homosexual young men who congregated at his house in Cambridge, included Rupert Brooke,[3] George Mallory,[4] Augustus Bartholomew and Geoffrey Keynes.

2. Yale A: Though the murderer was too obvious by the halfway point, the film still had many disturbing moments that kept me interested."[1]

1. Virginia A: Notice that this implementation is not optimized for speed but for extensibility.

[Peter13]

Mike Cheyne, all I can say to your entire post is what. Just what. I am to the point of speechlessness. This is the most random, absurd, slapdash scrawl I have ever seen on this forum. That is all.

[Auks Ran Ova]

Mike Cheyne, all I can say to your entire post is what. Just what. I am to the point of speechlessness. This is the most random, absurd, slapdash scrawl I have ever seen on this forum. That is all.

If you mock Mike Cheyne, he'll bark you into nonexistence.

[at your pleasure]

11. Harvard A: Spring Creek joins Little Lehigh Creek several miles upstream of Emmaus in Lehigh County.

It actually took me a moment to realize this was not someplace I've been fishing(there are a a looooooot of streams around Pennsylvania named Spring Creek)

[Peter13]

Mike Cheyne, all I can say to your entire post is what. Just what. I am to the point of speechlessness. This is the most random, absurd, slapdash scrawl I have ever seen on this forum. That is all.

If you mock Mike Cheyne, he'll bark you into nonexistence.

More like squeak me into nonexistence.

[The Goffman Prophecies]

26. South Carolina: It lies approximately 6 kilometres (4 mi) south-west of Dzierzążnia, 16 km (10 mi) west of Płońsk, and 71 km (44 mi) north-west of Warsaw.

This is a strangely accurate assessment.

[vinteuil]

(a slapdash arc and a backward zag) that mars all stanzas and jams all ballads (what a scandal).

[Peter13]

Jacob, I am afraid to understand how your mind operates, plus I never said such words. But in the word we live in, people from Yale are bulldogs, and people from Minnesota are gophers. Let us live in a time of the bizarre genius, never letting go of what it means to be aimless in this society.

[Ike]

Peter, I am afraid to understand how your mind operates, and I will say such words: In the world we live in, some people from Canada are doofuses, and some people from Mcmaster are bigger doofuses. Let us live in a time where genius is density greater than that of 21.5, never understanding the value of silence in this society.

[AKKOLADE]

I predict ACF Nationals.

[minusfive]

Peter, I am afraid to understand how your mind operates, and I will say such words: In the world we live in, some people from Canada are doofuses, and some people from Mcmaster are bigger doofuses. Let us live in a time where genius is density greater than that of 21.5, never understanding the value of silence in this society.

Take that, Jay Misuk! The very important caveat must be made to the above insights: McMaster has two capital Ms (he was a cool senator whose house is now a steakhouse).

I predict that ACF Nats will be a fun time, won by a team which has entered it. Also Jordan Palmer will sigh, miss playing it, and wonder if the Illinois tennis ball has come back from last year. For, as I have heard Peter C. remark,

"Historians believe that [quizbowl]'s ancient origin lay in 12th century northern France, where a ball was struck with the palm of the hand."