The Quizbowl Resource Center

What's the region going to look like this year?

Sharad/Lucas

Everyone else

It's going to be sunny most of the year, but there's going to be a lot of smog. Also tourists. Lots of them.

But seriously, I can see La Jolla doing well again next year, but if Lucas can stop negging so much RB will be tough to beat. Arcadia always seems to be very good, and it seems they are very dedicated. Torrey Pines should be a great team as well, but Stephen has left a huge gap to fill. Other than that, I can't really comment on teams because I don't know the grade level composition of the players.

Also, I personally will not be directing as many tournaments at UCLA next year, just realizing how much time and effort they took from my schoolwork. Unless one or some of our continuing members steps up or one or some of our incoming freshmen would like to direct or co-direct some tournaments, we probably will only host TWAIN (Oct 2, details and fee announcements upcoming soon, likely by the weekend) and WCI sometime in the spring.

Who's still at La Jolla? I know they lost Ben Gammage (sorry if his name isn't right), who seemed to be their best player, but do they lose anyone else?

Also, does Arcadia lose a lot of people? I was under the impression that their A team was mostly seniors.

I think us (Uni) will probably be floating around the middle-high area again, although I'm hoping we'll improve a bit. I'm just happy that we'll finally have an A team that doesn't have any first-year players on it. Hopefully.

Golran wrote:...some of our incoming freshmen would like to direct or co-direct some tournaments...

I'll try to help with that

Arcadia's A team was composed of 4 seniors. But our B team was very close and similar to our A team, so I don't think there will be any problem for them this year. They should be as solid as we were this past year.

t3hr0xx0rz wrote:Who's still at La Jolla? I know they lost Ben Gammage (sorry if his name isn't right), who seemed to be their best player, but do they lose anyone else?

Random conversations with assorted members of the La Jolla team have given me the impression that they return everyone besides Ben. They had fairly good B and C teams when we played them as well, so they should field a solid team next year.

Joe Romersa wrote:Sharad/Lucas

Everyone else

nadph wrote:

t3hr0xx0rz wrote:Who's still at La Jolla? I know they lost Ben Gammage (sorry if his name isn't right), who seemed to be their best player, but do they lose anyone else?

Random conversations with assorted members of the La Jolla team have given me the impression that they return everyone besides Ben. They had fairly good B and C teams when we played them as well, so they should field a solid team next year.

sorry, let me redo this
my prediction
1) La Jolla
2) Rancho Bernardo
3) Torrey Pines
4) Arcadia
5) University
6) Santa Monica

t3hr0xx0rz wrote:Who's still at La Jolla?

I think out of Erica/Tammy/Allison/Ben and Cam/Ben/Varun/Rishi/Timothy, they return Erica, Cam, Varun, Rishi

EDIT: These were their HSNCT teams, and I don't know the La Jolla people outside of their HSNCT teams

Alison from La Jolla is also returning as a senior.

And Ian, I want to help organize the tournaments as well.

We're looking at something like 8-10 schools completely new to quizbowl coming to our Triton Novice Tournament (so ATTN: more well-established teams who haven't registered- sign up or be waitlisted!). I have no idea what to expect from them, but it's encouraging that there seem to be a lot of schools out there willing to try out quizbowl. I think SoCal has tons of room to expand, maybe double the overall circuit, even in these trying economic times. Hopefully we can find another Bellarmine or two down in SoCal.

Based on what I saw at our VCU Open mirror, I was very impressed with University's balance and deep knowledge. RB and Torrey weren't playing with their best generalists, but there was some good knowledge there too, although the lack of a generalist showed a lot of gaps. I don't see any of these programs being world-beaters at the national level, but they should all be solid and very competitive this year around SoCal.

It looks like the standard Torrey-RB-LJ triumverate at the top this year should be joined with University to form a fairly even overall balance, though I don't think there's yet been a tournament with all 4 playing with all of their best players.

Each of the teams seems rather similar, with a clear lead scorer but also a clear #2 and a good amount of depth behind that. Torrey has 2 tournament wins to its credit thus far, showing a knack for pulling out the big games. Rancho still seems to have an edge in buzzer aggression, although Torrey appears to be closing the gap. The results of the matches between these top teams may actually hinge on who wins various subject-area battles, which should make for a number of interesting strategic battles. Or they may rather unexcitingly hinge on what A-team members decide to show up for various tournaments, which while exciting in its uncertainty, makes it difficult to figure out who really is the class of SoCal this season.

I'd still love to see an MSJ or Bellarmine team come down and take the best shot of all the SoCal teams (or better yet, someone from further East fly in and wreak some havoc). And we haven't heard anything from Brophy yet out in Arizona- they could have improved a great deal since nationals last year and will be yet another wild card if they show up at tournaments.

As of this moment, all of our top 6 players are expecting to all attend THUNDER at UCSD on the 4th of December. Given our inability to really know who will attend (or if we will be able to attend) before the week of the tournament itself, this may not mean too much, but still.

^This did not happen. At all.

You guys didn't have a full team at THUNDER?

This year it's impossible to tell who's the best team because everyone has been splitting teams or missing players. Let's look at the contenders:

THE SAN DIEGO TRIUMVIRATE (Rancho Bernardo, La Jolla, Torrey Pines): For the past 5+ years, these three teams have been top 5 teams in Southern California, and this year is no exception. All three of these teams have clearly-defined number one and number two scoring options (Lucas/Erica/Sharad and David/Alison/Howon). Combined, these 1-2 punches have played on the same team at a total of 5 tournaments (including THUNDER for TP and ACF Fall for RB - so one HS tournament each). Torrey Pines and La Jolla have the better depth behind the top players. These games might come down to who negs less.
THE CHALLENGERS (University, North Hollywood, Arcadia): All three of these teams are much more balanced than top-heavy. University's top three players (Thomas, Rohit, and Alex K., in some order) have not played on the same team at any tournaments so far. North Hollywood has played seven different players on their A team and six of them have averaged over 20 ppg at a tournament; they've had two tournaments where all four players were between 20 and 40 ppg. For all I know their true A team is some combination that hasn't shown up yet. Arcadia's been to two tournaments with Jeff/Derek/Carl/Andrew as their A team, which I guess is as close to a real A team as has shown up this year, but it remains to be seen whether their individual PPG bumps at Technophobia were a result of a weaker field, a packet set that played better to their strengths, or improvement.
EVERYONE ELSE: I have no idea whether the Santa Monica team at Technophobia was their real A team. The Bishop's School and Carlsbad both took advantage of a qualification scheme I still can't figure out to snag a PACE bid; will they become more competitive? Edison beats bad teams and loses to good ones; can they develop to the point of grabbing a nationals bid in a weaker field? Is there some dormant Academic League power that's just figuring out how to play on real questions?

My top 10 (A teams only) by "computer rankings":
1. Torrey Pines
2. North Hollywood
3. La Jolla
4. Arcadia
5. Rancho Bernardo
6. University
7. Santa Monica
8. Bishop's
9. Edison
10. Canyon Crest

We had a full team, but three of our top six didn't show up.

cvdwightw wrote: EVERYONE ELSE: I have no idea whether the Santa Monica team at Technophobia was their real A team.

That was, I believe, the real and complete SAMO A

For what it's worth, Carlsbad was missing half their team at Triton Fall.

North Hollywood has come out of (relative) nowhere to become a heck of a team this year. Yet I don't think they've yet faced a full-strength SD-area team. Arcadia likes showing up in force when they do show up, but again hard to see how they compare. And will the mysterious Santa Monica team show their faces again at some point this year?

And I believe that again we have not seen a full University A team at all this year.

How about this: y'all come on down to UCSD on Feb. 19th, bring your full A-teams, and we'll see who's best.

And I believe that again we have not seen a full University A team at all this year.

This MAY be happening.

But I've been saying that all year

Edit: Forgot to quote.

^That did not happen.

I think Torrey has proved itself to be the team to beat for the moment though.

Quick takes after Rocket Surgery:

Arcadia's A team is very solid, but does its exceptionally high Power-to-Neg ratio mean they're waiting a tad too long in those close matches? University seems to have found the ideal aggressiveness ratio that helps them slightly overperform and win against those top teams. On the other hand, RB demonstrated it can both win against anyone and lose against anyone during any given match. Torrey, of course, remains the team to beat, though they're definitely vulnerable on the right packet.

Should be interesting to see the next few tournaments- NAQT state and WCI (if that ever comes together) plus our final Prison-Bowl mirror on the 23rd (hey NorCal teams- fly down for that! $150 Round-trip on Virgin and you get in and leave on the same day- we'll help with airport transport).

Couple of teams to watch in the future: Canyon Crest has gotten more serious this year and North Hollywood's been doing well when they get a chance to come out for tournaments. It was also good to see yet another new SD-area school, Westview, in attendance- hopefully some of these one-off teams will start becoming repeat customers (especially since it's rumored Academic League may lose support during the next round of budget cuts). It also appears that the Sweetwater area has gotten much more active, with at least two tournaments on NAQT sets in recent weeks. Hopefully they'll soon travel North and join with the rest of the circuit.

I would like to note that University still hasn't been at full strength at any tournament this year. If WCI happens, hopefully?

t3hr0xx0rz wrote:I would like to note that University still hasn't been at full strength at any tournament this year. If WCI happens, hopefully?

How much has this actually affected your team? Is there a definite fourth player who you haven't been bringing to tournaments? It seems like you've been saying this all year, but you guys have been consistently bringing three solid players to tournaments in addition to fourth who isn't as productive as the others, and unless there's another guy on your team who's just as productive but can't make it to tournaments, then a tournament with full-strength University would certainly be interesting. But at this point I get the feeling that even if you had your full-strength team you would perform at the same consistent level you've been performing at all year.

Just briefly looking at Triton Winter stats, I can see that RB was missing their clear #2 player, TP was missing their #1, and both Arcadia A and La Jolla A weren't necessarily playing their best possible four, although I'm not entirely sure there. Even under these conditions University and TP placed in the top two, which seems to have been the trend at most tournaments those teams attended this year.

If you look at this year's TWAIN and CBCT, Alex Krolewski (~50 PPG and ~70 PPG respectively) is the guy who hasn't been showing up lately due to other stuff. I expect with him, our bonus conversion will go up at least a point since we tend to miss sci/geo/US knowledge without him.

Ok, that makes more sense. Is Alex planning on playing nationals?

Current Nationals lineup is Alex, Rohit, Jesse and I.

Off topic:

"especially since it's rumored Academic League may lose support during the next round of budget cuts"

If this happens, would UCSD guys be interested in helping to set up some sort of HSAPQ-VHSL-like league?
That would super-awesome; probably the only good thing about the recession.

Setting up an HSAPQ-VHSL like league is no trivial task and we're all pretty swamped as is. If Academic League goes, then I guess that we will need to redouble our efforts to reach all the schools that used to play it by email, and I hope to see an even greater level of competition among San Diego/North County schools because quizbowl will be the only thing left to prepare for.

If this happens, would UCSD guys be interested in helping to set up some sort of HSAPQ-VHSL-like league?
That would super-awesome; probably the only good thing about the recession.

I will have much more time next year once I finish the onslaught of comps right now. It would certainly require a good deal of work, but if we could get support from some high school people I think it would be awesome.

EDIT: I couldn't find the exact source of Academic League support, but I did find that the local Academic Decathalon league is getting their $25,000 budget cut by 80%. Of course, they apparently find corporate donors to plug most of that gap (Why can't quizbowl get corporate donors??), but that's still hefty.

EDIT AGAIN: San Diego Unified's support of AL is scheduled to be cut in the current budget for next year. I also discovered that the City League end-of-year coach's meeting has the topic of "League Financial Support." So it sounds like the rumors are true, at least for the city.

I come from an academic league school that occasionally did pyramidal quizbowl.

Have any of your teams actually ever ran practices primarily on quizbowl questions? This was something that I was never able to persuade anyone on my team to actually do. All practices I ever attended in high school were ran on academic league questions. I'm in college now so this doesn't concern me anymore but I'm just curious if this was the norm or not.

Uclajerry, Yeah--depends on what we suggest to the to coach and/or which old NAQT sets our team has.

Regarding VHSL-like: why not just use VHSL questions? We won't have to commission questions; they can give a discount the first season.

Also, if you just wanted to introduce pyramidal into the region, why not have like Saturday "mini-tournaments" (on the Saturdays between major tournaments) using unreleased VHSL questions for a small amount per team. Make these "JV" level, at least for the already-pyramidal-ized schools, so Varsity members of those schools can moderate and help out. Call it "Pyramidal League" or something.

I'm working on getting a chance to speak at all the Academic League "league" meetings (i.e. North County, City, etc.) at the end of the year. We'll see what kind of reception I get while spreading the gospel of good quizbowl and what the coaches have to say.

What would seem to make the most sense if people wanted to keep the same AL league divisions is to have one weekend for division tournaments in each level, then one weekend for an Academic League championship that took say, the top 2 teams from each division plus a wild card or two. In the meantime, they could attend regular quizbowl tournaments instead of having just one "match" per week. If they still wanted to have televised matches, then perhaps we could work something out so that the final match in each division gets on TV? Or maybe each division's championship match would get it?

If it all works out, everyone will be better off- teams will play better questions more frequently at a lower cost under better rules.