who's good: 2025-6

[Stinkweed Imp]

I saw a post in the high school section about a way-to-early preview of next year and it made me realize I have no idea who's good. Take this as an opportunity to discuss who's good.

[quizbowlchamp1]

can't rly be talking bc I'm from Alabama but Auburn is going to be rather good next year. They are recieving IPNCT 2nd Place Tate Osborne & SSNCT Champion Brodie Henry. Not only that but they're D1 squad will retain players such as Will McCurley, Henry Bylinowski, Will Hughes, and Gabi Smith.

also there are gonna be others (Harvard's D1 team will be good, I think Brown will be p good, also apparently Bobby Wang and Omkar Marathe are going to the same college?) but idk

[A Dim-Witted Saboteur]

I do not know exactly who's returning who, but as a starting point for what I hope will be a lively discussion downthread I may as well post a list of top bracket or near-top bracket teams from ACF Nationals that are likely to enter next year with the great majority of their scoring intact.

California (returns everyone except Rohan, adds Vivian)
Columbia (returns everyone except Geoffrey)
Georgia Tech (returns everyone)
Illinois (returns Andrew and Akshar)
Indiana (returns everyone)
Minnesota (returns everyone except Shardul)
Toronto (returns everyone except Gareth, deep B and C teams)

Maryland also seems to be having a good recruiting season, Stanford is still likely to be a very good team without Tim, and there's always a possibility Chicago pulls an elite high school player out of its sleeve to reinforce John and Claire. WashU loses everyone but Charles (I think), but they have a reasonably deep B team.

I'm going strictly off the ACF Nationals program here, do feel free to correct me if anything in this post is wrong.

[quizbowlchamp1]

I do not know exactly who's returning who, but as a starting point for what I hope will be a lively discussion downthread I may as well post a list of top bracket or near-top bracket teams from ACF Nationals that are likely to enter next year with the great majority of their scoring intact.

California (returns everyone except Rohan, adds Vivian)
Columbia (returns everyone except Geoffrey)
Georgia Tech (returns everyone)
Illinois (returns Andrew and Akshar)
Indiana (returns everyone)
Minnesota (returns everyone except Shardul)
Toronto (returns everyone except Gareth, deep B and C teams)

Maryland also seems to be having a good recruiting season, Stanford is still likely to be a very good team without Tim, and there's always a possibility Chicago pulls an elite high school player out of its sleeve to reinforce John and Claire. WashU loses everyone but Charles (I think), but they have a reasonably deep B team.

I'm going strictly off the ACF Nationals program here, do feel free to correct me if anything in this post is wrong.

All true also Columbia gets Omkar and Bobby.

[Good Goblin Housekeeping]

I do not know exactly who's returning who, but as a starting point for what I hope will be a lively discussion downthread I may as well post a list of top bracket or near-top bracket teams from ACF Nationals that are likely to enter next year with the great majority of their scoring intact.

California (returns everyone except Rohan, adds Vivian)
Columbia (returns everyone except Geoffrey)
Georgia Tech (returns everyone)
Illinois (returns Andrew and Akshar)
Indiana (returns everyone)
Minnesota (returns everyone except Shardul)
Toronto (returns everyone except Gareth, deep B and C teams)

Maryland also seems to be having a good recruiting season, Stanford is still likely to be a very good team without Tim, and there's always a possibility Chicago pulls an elite high school player out of its sleeve to reinforce John and Claire. WashU loses everyone but Charles (I think), but they have a reasonably deep B team.

I'm going strictly off the ACF Nationals program here, do feel free to correct me if anything in this post is wrong.

All true also Columbia gets Omkar and Bobby.

yeah but ACF eligibility rules (see rule 3) require the teams to be from "accredited" real-world educational institutions

[quizbowlchamp1]

I do not know exactly who's returning who, but as a starting point for what I hope will be a lively discussion downthread I may as well post a list of top bracket or near-top bracket teams from ACF Nationals that are likely to enter next year with the great majority of their scoring intact.

California (returns everyone except Rohan, adds Vivian)
Columbia (returns everyone except Geoffrey)
Georgia Tech (returns everyone)
Illinois (returns Andrew and Akshar)
Indiana (returns everyone)
Minnesota (returns everyone except Shardul)
Toronto (returns everyone except Gareth, deep B and C teams)

Maryland also seems to be having a good recruiting season, Stanford is still likely to be a very good team without Tim, and there's always a possibility Chicago pulls an elite high school player out of its sleeve to reinforce John and Claire. WashU loses everyone but Charles (I think), but they have a reasonably deep B team.

I'm going strictly off the ACF Nationals program here, do feel free to correct me if anything in this post is wrong.

All true also Columbia gets Omkar and Bobby.

yeah but ACF eligibility rules (see rule 3) require the teams to be from "accredited" real-world educational institutions

Sorry that explanation was lost on me (prob bc I’m a 9th grader) Doesn’t mean Columbia won’t dominate D2 ICT. Also I don’t think that Charles Young has played D2 ICT yet either

[Good Goblin Housekeeping]

I do not know exactly who's returning who, but as a starting point for what I hope will be a lively discussion downthread I may as well post a list of top bracket or near-top bracket teams from ACF Nationals that are likely to enter next year with the great majority of their scoring intact.

California (returns everyone except Rohan, adds Vivian)
Columbia (returns everyone except Geoffrey)
Georgia Tech (returns everyone)
Illinois (returns Andrew and Akshar)
Indiana (returns everyone)
Minnesota (returns everyone except Shardul)
Toronto (returns everyone except Gareth, deep B and C teams)

Maryland also seems to be having a good recruiting season, Stanford is still likely to be a very good team without Tim, and there's always a possibility Chicago pulls an elite high school player out of its sleeve to reinforce John and Claire. WashU loses everyone but Charles (I think), but they have a reasonably deep B team.

I'm going strictly off the ACF Nationals program here, do feel free to correct me if anything in this post is wrong.

All true also Columbia gets Omkar and Bobby.

yeah but ACF eligibility rules (see rule 3) require the teams to be from "accredited" real-world educational institutions

Sorry that explanation was lost on me (prob bc I’m a 9th grader) Doesn’t mean Columbia won’t dominate D2 ICT. Also I don’t think that Charles Young has played D2 ICT yet either

I believe Charles having qualified for D2 ICT means he is no longer eligible. I believe Vivian's general thoughts are about D1 ICT and ACF Nationals, and while several of these players are likely going to perform well at that, it's not quite as relevant at acf nationals, although perhaps columbia has to figure some things out given their wealth of potentially dangerous incoming players

[Stinkweed Imp]

Columbia look like d2 favorites coming into the year, but that tournament is impossible to predict this far in advance. Columbia's remaining players look like a lock for a top bracket team, and any of their incoming freshman could easily become major contributors if they elect to take the increasingly rare choice of forgoing d2 eligibility to play d1.

[1.82]

Until I see any evidence that anyone has anything like Vivian's collection of cards, I am going with California. I would like to see Indiana win, but they will need to step it up to compete with that. I am sure that Chicago will be good because that has always been the case, but I don't know which players are joining the A team and I am unlikely to recognize their names even if you tell me. I cannot regard any team led by Andrew Wang as a serious contender. I will not be impressed with Georgia Tech until the performance of the A team is commensurate with the level of activity on the club Discord server. I really do not know anything about anyone younger than roughly 23, which is much less of an issue when following college quizbowl than it would have been ten years ago.

[Stinkweed Imp]

While I appreciate the confidence, a significant portion of those cards are actually Kai Smith's and are therefore completely unintelligible to me

[Shahar S.]

While I appreciate the confidence, a significant portion of those cards are actually Kai Smith's and are therefore completely unintelligible to me

Vivian if you need help deciphering Kai's cards lmk cause I want Berkeley to win

[Adventure Temple Trail]

I'm not there anymore and don't have any team-forming authority, but I'd suspect that John Marvin, Alvin Guo, and Ezra Santos are all likely starters for Chicago, all of whom are dedicated and improving. They also retain Claire, who afaik is probably only playing nationals.

[machgielis]

Stanford will be good next year.

In other news, I am buying science cards (and accepting charitable donations).

[A Dim-Witted Saboteur]

Until I see any evidence that anyone has anything like Vivian's collection of cards, I am going with California. I would like to see Indiana win, but they will need to step it up to compete with that.

Unfortunately since the election of Angela Alsobrooks I can't make the joke anymore that Justin is like the senior senator from his home state, so you will just have to take it on trust that he's Ben Cardin

[mehatamm]

Waterloo will be cutting the chaff (me) and adding the wheat (Caleb Ott, Micah Colman) to their A team. Expect them to place higher at Nats than last year.

[Fado Alexandrino]

Toronto A will finally replace Gareth with the best history player Paul Kasinski has ever seen.