2022-2023 Player Appreciation Thread

[Serpentine284]

Now that ACF Nationals has concluded and the "official" season has ended, I thought this would be a good time to start this season's player appreciation thread. I'll add my own post to this once I finish writing it up, but for now, feel free to shout out any players/teams/people in Quiz Bowl that you wish to receive some praise!

[Fado Alexandrino]

I would like to praise James Wang for all his work in ballooning the size of the UOttawa club, being consistently able to send 3-4 teams to easier local events.

[mehatamm]

I'd like to echo the praise for James Wang. He has been a consistent ambassador for the Ottawa club and did an incredible job getting ACF Fall going in Canada this year, in addition to all the people he has been consistently getting to attend events. The Ottawa club is one of the largest presences on the Canadian circuit now, and it's a great boon to the circuit's health at all levels!

[amundhe]

I would like to extend a shout-out to all the members of what has been probably the deepest Rutgers club in years. Playing and getting to know everyone has been amazing, and I'm beyond proud to have played with everyone on a Rutgers team this year. Winning is great, but winning with your friends is better.

I've known Lexi Terman since high school, and I don't think I'd be in quizbowl right now had it not been for the kindness she's showed me throughout my quizbowl career. She's always been there as a leader, whether it be TDing our tournaments, giving me rides after practice since high school, or being willing to read me trash packets. Lexi laid a great blueprint for me in progressing beyond a neg-happy history-only player while still retaining her deepest areas of knowledge. Ameya Phadnis has similarly been a great club leader and treasurer whose dealings with the Rutgers travel agency made the logistics of sending multiple teams to both nationals possible for what I think is the first time ever; Ameya's AFA knowledge has also both exposed me to a lot of cool music and keeps me humble during practice. Collin Ace has taught me more about being a good captain than anyone I know between his cool demeanor, willingness to let teammates pick up negs, and his smart buzzing style. His wide and deep knowledge is able to make any team he's on into a strong opponent, and he was a huge part of why we could qualify a B team to nationals.

Despite not really playing with them much throughout the year, both Joelle Smart and Darren Petrosino were great to play with at nationals. Both of them are wildly accomplished quizbowlers who scale seamlessly to nationals+ difficulty and have shown me just how much I can be as a player; both should definitely be considered for player polls within their respective specialties of bio and literature. Simultaneously, both really made me feel that I was part of the team, which helped me get over the imposter syndrome of playing at my very first nationals with people who had been Rutgers A fixtures for years. For someone I'd largely not talked to before nationals, Joelle was incredibly friendly, and her ability to both sketch the moderator and nail down a bio tossup simultaneously is legendary. Darren has no shortage of things to say, and his wildly long and loud alarm was single-handedly responsible for waking me up after long nights out at nationals.

Aiden Dartley and Alan Wu enabled an ICT DII run that I would have never thought possible while making it the best team I've ever played on. I've known both of them since my sophomore year of high school, and I can say that both are incredibly fun people whose upbeat attitudes reduced the pressure of playing in playoffs (and later on, a final!). Alan is incredibly deep in his categories and was the absolute ideal of a third scorer: he didn't neg at all at ICT and had a crazy power rate on substantive scoring. Alan and I also watched Tosca one time. Aiden has generalized beyond what I ever thought was possible for him; seeing his rise as a quizbowler as one of his mentors has been nothing short of rewarding. Witnessing his never-say-die attitude in near-single-handedly leading a comeback down 175 against Waterloo to give us a glimmer of hope when all was lost was one of the most insane things I've ever seen (up there with Waterloo's 9 powers that game). Alan, Aiden, and I (along with Lexi) all started in high school clubs that were primarily NHBB-focused, so seeing both Alan and Aiden evolve as quizbowlers and love the arts and literature more and more has been inspiring, delightful, and a number of positive adjectives that I'm sure I've used elsewhere in this post.

During the DII final, seeing people support us was incredibly heartwarming, especially when many of them were quizbowlers who I admire (the kind words of Cornell's Richard Niu, Rosa Xia, and Nathan Zhang, as well as Columbia's Forrest Weintraub and Stanford's Andrew Zeng really stood out to me in helping me realize just how impressive our run was, even if it didn't feel like it after we had just lost). And to Waterloo, I'm honored to have played against you and congrats on bringing Canada a trophy!

As someone who doesn't major in their quizbowl specialty, seeing literally all of my teammates do so has been deeply inspiring as an example of what quizbowl should be: people who love knowledge and learning getting an outlet to share it with others who can appreciate it. To that end, I'm sure that all of them will keep spreading their enthusiasm for the game and all it contains.

[rhn26]

It’s been a great second season of quizbowl. Thanks to everyone I’ve played with or against, all the tournament staffers, and set editors/writers for making it happen!

Obligatory nice things to say about people from my school:

All four members of Cornell A are super good at quizbowl. Jonathan Tran somehow managed to kick it into another gear this year, particularly at ICT; witness the jump from his 9/18/3 statline in 7 games of prelims to an insane 16/6/3 in just 6 (!) games of top-bracket playoffs—he would be #1 history on my ballot. Geoffrey Chen is still the best science player, despite his infatuation with Arknights; I particularly enjoyed his buzz on “baryon number” in the play-in game of ACF Nationals. Raymond Wang impressively top-scored the team at Nats, and Cornell’s undefeated run at ICT would’ve been impossible had it not been for several key buzzes by Raymond on football/baseball content, which decided multiple games. Nathan Zhang’s insane improvement from last year culminated in two zero-neg, 20ish ppg performances at both nats, with probably most of his points coming from very early buzzes; this strikes me as being one of the most gaudy fourth-scorer performances ever.

Cornell B members are sadly not quite as good at quizbowl as Cornell A, but they’re funner teammates to play with :) Dan Ni could maybe contend the first part of that statement in Buddhism, where he’s as deep as anyone I know; he’s also wicked good at science, destroying it at UG Nats and getting some insane first- and second-line buzzes at ACF Nationals, and he’s top 10 this year in my opinion. Sarod Nori is a busy law student but still found time to staff tournaments we hosted and drive us to tournaments that we did not; he’s really good at law/CE/history and got some insane buzzes in those categories at BHSU, and played well at Nats. Yared Tadesse only started playing this semester after a hiatus, but has adjusted to hard quizbowl remarkably well (his first tournaments was ACF Regionals, which he top-scored B at!), playing particularly well at ICT and BHSU. There’s three constants in life: death, taxes, and Rosa Xia getting some insane poetry buzz, and that hasn’t changed this year either. Allen Wang played exactly one tournament this year (Penn Bowl), but did very well at it (as expected).

Some other people that I’d like to shout out:

Amogh Kulkarni’s team-leading 50 ppg on Chicago B at ACF Nationals enabled them to go 7-0 in a prelim bracket including Cornell A to qualify for top bracket. He’s crazy good at quizbowl, but even though his forum posting and messages might mask it, he’s also a super great and fun person to talk to in person.

Andrew Zeng has destroyed me in both games of basketball and quizbowl alike. He’s excellent at quizbowl (see his ICT D2 and ACF Regionals numbers, the latter playing along Natan and Eric) and very chill in person too.

Aum Mundhe also clapped me in basketball, but I contend it’s the height advantage. Joking around with him in-person and then watching him play serious quizbowl is pretty enthralling; his team-leading performance at ICT D2 was amazing to watch. His 20 ppg at ACF Nationals proves his scaling ability.

Geoffrey (u)Wu is really good at science. Besides that, he’s super nice and fun to hang out with, and has done Cornell numerous favors by allowing us to crash in Columbia dorms multiple times. Geoffrey is probably one of the smartest people I know.

Forrest Weintraub is ridiculously good at quizbowl despite it being their first year—see ICT and ACF Nationals. They’re also just a very nice, supportive, and encouraging person.

Benjamin Chapman has visibly transformed from a specialist after my own heart (science, music) into a capable generalist across all categories, an ability I’m quite envious of. They played remarkably well while soloing at ICT, but crooked exam schedules caused them to miss Nats. Also super nice.

Still others that stick out in my mind for various reasons:

S. A. Shenoy’s enthusiasm and energy at Nats was unmatched and made the game fun, even while their team was destroying ours. Adam Silverman was an incredible moderator at Nats in a hilarious game between us and Columbia. I’m still relatively new to quizbowl, but whatever historical significance aside, watching the two Matts play in the finals of Nats was incredibly inspiring.

Thanks again to everyone for a great season!

[Abdon Ubidia]

This year provided a great end to my undergraduate quizbowl career. I'd like to thank my teammates: Jason Hong, for putting the team on his back and never once complaining, Walter Zhang, for his hours of logistical work that I probably would have given up on if I had to do it myself, and Michael Li, for playing quizbowl even after his taste for the game had faded. I also appreciate Mazin Omer, for being the perfect outlet for the rage that playing quizbowl generates in me, Arthur Delot-Vilain, for his reliably firm handshake, and all the other players for Harvard, Yale, and MIT, for making the Northeast circuit a very enjoyable quizbowl environment.

[dni]

Thank you, Richard, for your kind words.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my mentor, colleague and hero: Enes Kristo. During a time when my love of the game was waning and I was insecure about myself and unsure about my future, Enes messaged me out of the blue to join his private Discord. Though we had never spoken prior, he showered me with attention, sending me Anki decks and giving me high level administrative roles in the server. We often stayed up late into the night, reading packets and playing an exotic European game he called "Only Connect". I was all but ready to walk away from quizbowl, but thanks to his guiding hand and watchful eye, I found the courage to keep going. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, Enes.

[Serpentine284]

I guess it's high time for me to contribute to my own thread. First, I'd like to thank my teammates at both nationals. Aayush Goodapaty is not only one of my closest friends at Chicago, but was also an incredible teammate every time I played with him. He is easily the best current events player I've ever met, largely due to the fact that he listens to NPR podcasts at the gym. He's also a very good history player and a master at Holy Roman Empire-era Christian art. Connor Blake is the latest in a set of incredible physics players to come to Chicago, and Shawn Meng was invaluable for our team in getting most of the fine arts at SCT and ICT. With regards to ACF Nationals, Vivek Sasse is one of the best science players out there, and definitely one of my favorite people to play with. John Marvin is obviously ridiculously good at RMPSS, and has taught me that there is so much more to religion and philosophy than I had previously thought. Daniel Yang is an incredible biochem and fine arts player, especially in opera. His contributions made fine arts our strongest category PPB-wise at nats. All of these people were so fun to play with and made my experience playing at Chicago 10x better.

Outside of my nationals teammates, there were so many great players at Chicago this year who deserve appreciation as well. I don't think much needs to be said about Matt Jackson; he's easily one of the best people to ever play the game, and his ridiculous generalism has inspired me to improve as well. Ned Tagtmeier is a great person to play with, and his depth in literature and RMPSS is basically unrivaled. Adam Fine is probably the second-best science player in the country right now, and his performances, both statistically and theatrically, are captivating to see. Claire Jones is such an incredible history player, and, as she showed everyone in the finals of nats, probably knows the most about England of any American player. I didn't get to see them play as much, but Dennis Reppen, Henry Cafaro, Robert Condron, and Liam Starnes are all phenomenal players as well who managed to pull off incredible upsets at ACF Nationals.

There are also quite a few players outside of UChicago that I'd like to applaud. Ryan Sun (Berkeley) is the most chill and fun person I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, and he proved himself to be an invaluable player for Berkeley A at nationals. Justin Chen (NYU) probably won't garner much attention from those who didn't play him in high school, but he's easily one of the best literature players in the country, even in his current "washed" state (see his highlights like basically solo'ing the Princeton DII team at SCT). Pratyush Jaishanker (USC) managed to lead his team to ICT and put up a very impressive performance there, beating out a strong Williams team. Speaking of Williams, Josh Rubel (Williams) has been a great friend to me over the years and showed me that Quiz Bowl is so much more than just scoring points.

I'd also like to shout out some of the great members of Cornell Quiz Bowl and their honorary members. Every member of their A team is so incredibly good that it makes me jealous. Jonathan Tran and Geoffrey Chen are easily the best players in their categories and were very accommodating in letting me crash with them Saturday night at ICT. Raymond Wang and Nathan Zhang are both incredible literature and fine arts players, and have shown me nothing but kindness disguised behind a plethora of insults since I met them. Outside of the A team, Richard Niu is so fun to play with and has proven that you don't need a large background in Quiz Bowl to become a great player quickly. He's also quickly becoming a great literature player, so be on the lookout for that. Rosa Xia is the nicest and most friendly person I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. She's also an insane literature player, and her poetic recommendations are always welcome :). Geoffrey Wu (Columbia) is a super good science player and also one of the nicest people I've ever met. I look forward to seeing his ACF Fall statline next year. And I don't think it needs to be pointed out, but Andrew Zeng (Stanford) and Arya Karthik (Georgia Tech) are easily the two best freshies to ever grace the game, setting records in their first years in college already. Both of them are testaments to newer players that you don't have to have been playing since 2010 to be an incredible player.

Well, this was a long post, but I hope that more and more great players continue to populate and expand Quiz Bowl to its fullest potential. I look forward to seeing how people continue to make the game a better community in the future!

[vedul]

I have many people to express my appreciation for so I hope I can list them all here:
Firstly, my teammates at WUSTL have all been so impressive to play with. From my counting, I have played with 13 different teammates this year, and I appreciate all of them, especially my fellow freshmen Henry, Alex, Sophie, Connor, Greta, Don, and Jason.

Winning the (not-so) prestigious division 2 title at ACF Nationals this year could not have been possible without June Yin, who is famously talented at ocean and animal science, but equally strong in many other areas, including history (huge ikko-ikki buzz), Neal Joshi, whose ability to attribute numerous ACF Nationals buzzes to a close reading of Stan Melkumian’s (Purdue) DART II questions does not cease to amaze me, and Henry Lytle, whose class schedule was optimized to score points in the most important games.

Aside from the undergrads I have mentioned, I am thankful for Jeremy for his kindness and immense music knowledge. Charles and Matthew have taught me valuable lessons about college quizbowl and ceaselessly humbled me in practice. Thank you to all WUSTL grad students for making me feel younger than ever.

I always look forward to seeing Tegan Kapadia (Georgia Tech), Shourjo Ganguli (OSU), Pranav Sivaram (OSU), Grant Maiorana (Purdue), and Connor Blake (Chicago) at tournaments and the lunch breaks spent with them are some of the best quizbowl moments from this year.

At Nationals, having Rahul Keyal, Kai Smith, and Young Fenimore Lee (and many more) as staffers certainly made playing the most shaft questions known to man much more bearable.

Finally, I am thankful for Anna Csiki-Fejer, who has certainly read me thousands of questions and come with me to so many tournaments this year.

[etotheipi]

Thank you to Matt Bollinger for, over the thirteen games of ACF Nationals we played together, continually reminding me, through his buzzes and bonus-pulls, how much more there is - no, how much more I have to read. It's never the most fun to play alongside someone who's just indubitably better than you at the things you know best and love most; and yet those games probably constitute the most valuable experience anyone's ever given me, anyone ever will.

[Sean]

Of the many Florida players worthy of this thread’s appreciation/gratitude/praise/etc., here are some of the ones that stand out in my brain’s highlight reel:

The FSU squad (Robert, Tad, Nick, Sam and others whose names live in the hilly Panhandle part of my mind I haven’t visited in a while) -- I probably had the most enjoyable lunch break of my college quiz bowl career listening to FSU club members discuss college sports in the control room at their Winter Closed mirror. While I didn’t retain much of it outside of a sliver about Clemson and the Orange Bowl, their liveliness definitely struck a chord with me since I often don’t have the energy to socialize during tournaments.

Henry Keating for his hard work putting together another well-run tournament at UCF with book prizes (and, in doing so, providing me with a black-and-white jazz almanac that appears to be half-filled with headshots of gangsters from the ‘30s.)

Brendan, Alyx, and Khoa for allowing me to somehow neg them out of both tossup and bonus opportunities in the open Arcadia mirror we played. My appreciation and admiration extend even further for Alyx and Khoa, who intimidated me into 7 and 9 neg games against UCF in two separate tournaments this year.

Biniam for prompting nostalgia of my high school years by out-powering me once again, and all the while insisting that his early buzzes from reading books were not from “real knowledge.”

Hayden for being sociable and demonstrating good tastes in what must be all of my interactions with him.

Tracy for being the only opponent to have ever accepted an excited fist bump from me while also up 200 points.

Graham for putting in what I imagine to be thankless work in coordinating and hosting UF’s tournaments.

And Qingyu for teaching me in-game that Chetniks is not the name for people who live in Chechnya.

(I know I'm missing a lot of other players here, which I'll leave for others to call out should they choose)

[JohnN]

My thanks is extremely biased but I would like to especially thank Tracy Mirkin for without him I doubt I would be in quizbowl and making this post currently. I remember back in freshman year of college when I had never played organized quizbowl outside of CAC in Florida (shoutout to the true gamers who know what that is) and he made me feel extremely welcome in what was a very competitive club at the time. WIthout Tracy, I am quite sure I would have not stuck with quizbowl and would not be as involved with the community (and especially ACF!) as I am now, and I owe everything I have and most of the friends I have made along the way to him. All of UF quizbowl will very sincerely miss you since you have definitely touched all of our lives very deeply at one point or another with your energy or advice. We all wish the best of luck to you.

I would also like to thank Sean Farrell of UNF. You were a staple at most of the Florida tournaments, and it was always very inspiring to see you solo taking on the hordes of UF and UCF and FSU and doing super well. I wish the best to you in the years to come.

Special thanks to Graham Cope for selflessly running UF quizbowl and a good portion of Florida tournaments this year, I know it wasn't easy as I have done it before but your contributions were very much appreciated. Also shoutout to Henry Keating who I worked with as site coordinator and made my job super easy by asking good questions and being very on top of everything!

General shoutout to everyone in the Florida circuit for making all the tournaments I attended so fun, without you guys we would be stuck with online tourmaments which are not always super fun and you are what keeps Florida quizbowl going!

Last shoutout to Georgia Tech quizbowl for hosting the CMST II mirror I attended and providing me with my best (non novice) tournament performance since I started quizbowl! I was super happy to go 0/6/0 and have my best non novice performance since I started quizbowl, and it could not have happened without you guys running things, so thanks alot!

[Zealots of Stockholm]

He doesn’t actually play much anymore, but I want to give a big thank you to Ganon Evans. To quote the esteemed Dr. Taylor Harvey (another wonderful person, albeit not the subject of this post), Ganon is “one of the friendliest and funniest people in quiz bowl.” Without getting too into the personal details, Ganon did an excellent job with the “human” element of being a head editor (which anecdotally I don’t think I’ve ever really seen discussed - that role is much more than just editing questions!) when earlier this year I was feeling quite burned out and considered dropping an editing assignment as I was starting to fall behind and couldn’t see myself catching up and seeing the project through (I’m taking the 23-24 season off from writing/editing, probably, for what that’s worth). Ganon both picked up my slack and told me to take some time off, allowing me to step away and come back to the set with a reenergized attitude and desire to see the project through. This was very kind of him, and I think under many head editors I would’ve just dropped the project. This is just one example of Ganon being a wonderful person we’re lucky to have in our community, and I’m glad to call him a friend.

Beyond all the jokes and attempts to climb the Hater rankings, the community shouldn’t forget that this year, like pretty much every year recently, Ganon has done a TON of writing and editing work. Just off the top of my head, this season ganon wrote/edited good chunks of ARCADIA and MRNA, subject edited ACF Nats, and is head editing PACE NSC. He even found time to write a whimsical festivus packet and is seemingly never devoid of good ideas, often in categories drawing less on the past “canon” than others.

There are many others I could sing similar praises about in this community, but that would be quite a long post. To everyone reading this (yes, even you!): thanks for being yourself, you’re part of what makes this game we play so great.

[DavidB256]

Joseph Chambers is the most robust individual to ever quiz.

[Sit Quietly, Alone]

The Mid-Atlantic circuit is a blessed place in which to play both high school and college quiz bowl, its rolling hills and professional-managerial offspring providing ample fodder for scenic drives and hearty competition. Giovanni Mazzeo is the only person I can imagine playing eight years of quiz bowl with and enjoying it. (We're five years in and still going strong.) He is a cartoonishly good philosophy player and an exceptional host of backyard bonfires. David Bass has the certitude of a much less knowledgeable man. His puckish, stubbly smile will live on in my memory well past his graduation. Alana Dickey's presence could be lazily described as that of a lovely older sister, but she is a great deal more than that. A damn good player, she never fails to care about/for the people/things around her.

[dni]

Now that Cornell's exams are finally over, I would like to take the opportunity to recognize my teammates:

Geoffrey Wu is everyone's favorite Cornell Quizbowl member and one of the smartest people I know. His crazy Lamb shift first buzz is just one of many examples of things that he (and seemingly only he) has figured out are stock.

Nathan Zhang somehow managed to weasel his way out of playing MRNA solo, so we'll never know if he really would've put up "4-6 powers per game", but he did do pretty well at nats, I guess. However, don't let that distract you from the fact that he didn't know how many feet were in a yard until last year.

Raymond Wang's rave reviews of the Monogatari light novels have almost convinced me to consider reading them, maybe. While I'm beginning to suspect he doesn't actually know Chinese, his unmatched Italian fluency more than makes up for it.

Jonathan Tran is good at history or something, but he's also taken seemingly every CS class at this school and effortlessly translates it into powers and firstlines with a confidence that is both inspiring and frightening. His insane output of study questions over the past two years has changed the study meta in our club and motivated all of us to take our game to the next level.

Geoffrey Chen is my hero and also a big liar because he is not washed at all. He and Jonathan are perhaps the only reason I continued to play quizbowl in college. This has irrevocably damaged my life and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Sarod Nori is the most impressive CE player I've seen. The Sarod-Yared mind-meld is a perfect example of the that powers Cornell B.

Speaking of whom, Yared Tadesse is T1 history of mathematics, in addition to being the best player in the club by head-to-head. He also gives me the appreciation I deserve, while Richard seems to have taken me for granted.

Nonetheless, Richard Niu is one of the best science and music players in the game, with literature and history soon to follow. I'm pretty sure he was just letting me buzz at nats so I could feel like I was contributing, for which I am grateful.

But try as Richard may, he still falls short of Cornell B's actual lit player and cat be-er, Rosa Xia. Her introduction of our penguin mascots has made Cornell the most successful college club of the 2020s.

Additionally, I would like to thank Daniel, Luc, Allan and Atharv for creating a club I am proud to have led for the past two years, even if only as a figurehead.

Finally: Everyone is sleeping on me, Dan Ni, the 22 year old AimLab prodigy from Virginia. I'm also a cracked math-knower, who "A5 diffed" Cloby Twan and Geoffwee Wu on the Putnam this year. After leading the national powerhouse Geoffrey Chen to 12th place at STROT, I burst onto the collegiate scene with an epic performance in Game 4 of NAQT Buzzword Fall 2022 Popular Culture. Scibowlers beware, because I'm playing NSBA this season and there's no way this Dan Drain is being slowed by the likes of Isaac Mammel and Anurag Sodhi.

[IMammel]

Finally: Everyone is sleeping on me, Dan Ni, the 22 year old AimLab prodigy from Virginia. I'm also a cracked math-knower, who "A5 diffed" Cloby Twan and Geoffwee Wu on the Putnam this year. After leading the national powerhouse Geoffrey Chen to 12th place at STROT, I burst onto the collegiate scene with an epic performance in Game 4 of NAQT Buzzword Fall 2022 Popular Culture. Scibowlers beware, because I'm playing NSBA this season and there's no way this Dan Drain is being slowed by the likes of Isaac Mammel and Anurag Sodhi.

For some reason nothing is showing up when I ctrl+f Dan Ni in the Putnam winners announcement- any idea what's going on? Maybe my computer is just bugging idk

Anyways I'd like to thank Caleb Kendrick for carrying me all year, he's pretty good if you haven't heard

[abcdef]

I would like to show my appreciation for the Cornell Quiz Bowl club members and teammates. I am proud of the club's growth and how the organization has become more accepting and inclusive of all. Rather than focusing on in-game quiz bowl skills and specialties, I want to thank the members by sharing personal instances that I encountered where they created a wholesome community.

Andrew Heller created a collaborative atmosphere for writing by sharing questions and soliciting feedback to craft even better questions, thus encouraging others to do the same. Andrew also promoted novice competitions to new players, such as ACF Fall.

Dan Ni was a terrific president of Cornell Quiz Bowl, overseeing the growth in our club's community and participation. Also, Dan has an infectious positive attitude, and convinced me to play at ACF Nationals in 2021, without which I probably would have stopped playing.

Geoffrey Chen demonstrated much kindness to other club members. Geoff helped a lot of club members out, particularly when they were in tough situations, and Geoff also tells funny jokes and shares humorous memes, lightening the mood.

Mitchell Indek started quiz bowl this year, but has quickly become a central member of Cornell Quiz Bowl. Mitchell helped us prep a lot for nationals, reading to us many packets, and playing some of the hardest tournaments. Best of luck at the University of Michigan!

Nathan Zhang engineered an increase in participation in our club and grew the quiz bowl community as a whole. Nathan directed numerous quiz bowl tournaments, attracting schools from across New York, and organized the C++ question set, bringing in essential club funding. Also, Nathan cooks really amazing food at team parties.

Raymond Wang is an excellent role model for other club members, but Raymond also handled a lot of tough logistics behind the scenes. Raymond stepped up to co-head-edit and wrote a significant portion of C++, drove players to many tournaments, and created tons of questions as practice material for the club.

Richard Niu volunteered time to direct tournaments and edit C++, read to the club at every meeting, organized team dinners, and wrote top-notch questions for practice. Richard also graciously volunteered to staff at Nationals, so that other players could participate.

Rosa Xia promoted the club at ClubFest and created mascots that we used during tournaments. Rosa also engaged the club in other interests like sharing poetry and going on outdoor hikes.

Sarod Nori found ample ways to help the club despite a busy schedule. Sarod's contributions had a large impact and included transportation, reading in tournaments, and coming in clutch on question submissions.

Yared Tadesse motivated all of us to become more competitive, study with rigor, and have a strong school spirit, while remaining jovial and friendly towards all. Yared designed competitive scrimmage and comprehensive review sessions, yet also fostered a positive social atmosphere and encouraged everyone to participate in fun activities.

I'd also like to thank some other members who I did not get to see that often this year. Nguyen Vo, Allen Wang, and Pierce DeCain brought up interesting and obscure facts and made me curious about other areas of history. Shehryar Qazi curated an Instagram page to publicize our club and our accomplishments. Nayel Tekle possesses the enthusiasm for quiz bowl that I feel defines this club. Elizabeth Larkin and Alicia Garlic brought up many interesting conversations during club meetings and introduced new quiz activities like PennyPress puzzles.

Thank you for creating a great experience at Cornell!