It's Academic Predictions and Beltway League Discussion

[Byzantium1453]

While perusing the board, I came across the thread for VHSL scholastic bowl, and being a second semester senior who is already accepted into college, I will indulge my curiosity by making an equivalent thread about the non tournament Quizbowl in Montgomery county, It*s academic,Beltway League(MABL), and Quizmaster Challenge. Honestly, no one cares about the latter two, but hey we still do them anyway.

In It's Academic, I think the playoff matches come in threes right? I will offer my opinion based on impressions that may or may not actually have any truth in them. So based of the schedule they will be:

Annadale vs Holton-Arms vs Churchill
I really don't know much about Annadale or Holton-Arms, but would have to give this match to Churchill, whenever I've played them they have been fast, with relatively deep knowledge for a team focused primarily on It's Ac and MABL.

South Lakes vs Jefferson vs Gonzaga
In this match I know even less about the teams, but based solely off playing Gonzaga last Sunday and looking at hsqbrank.com, which gives TJ the edge by 85 spots, I would give Jefferson the edge, but with the caveat that I really don't know much.

Georgetown day school vs Quince Orchard vs Richard Montgomery
This looks like it will be really tough. RM is beast at pyramidal quizbowl, and has deep deep knowledge, but in every match of fast bowl, they seem to underperform. In my experiences, QO has performed well during MABL against my team, and are also a good team. I don't know how well GDS handles fast quiz bowl, but they are also great at pyramidal quizbowl. Just going off rankings, RM is 17, GDS is 37, and QO is 109, and my personal experience, I favor RM, but would not be surprised to see any of these teams win it.

Montgomery Blair vs Bullis vs St. Stephens and St agnes
Blair is good this year, and I'd put it down as the favorite here. Bullis is a decent team, but having played both, and knowing nothing about the third school, Blair wins on it's impressive speed and depth of knowledge.

Chantilly vs Garfield vs Walter Johnson
Once again I know very little about the schools that are not WJ. Chantilly and Garfield are not ranked, and do not appear to have done anything pyramidal for years. I hope for my teams sake that neither is some undefeat-able dark horse that arises out of the swilling mists of luminous aether to win, but you never know. I resultantly favor WJ.

Other Matches winners(Regular season predictions, just guesses for the most part):
Landon (Falls Church, Landon, Maret)
St Anslems (Northwest, Washington Lee, St Anslems)
Whitman (Dematha, Wakefield, Whitman)
Wilson (George Marshall, Oxen hill, Wilson)
Wootton (St Albans, Tc Williams, Wootton)
O'Connel (Oconnell, suitland, woodson)
Einstein ( Anacostia, Einstein, Wheaton)
BCC (BCC, Sidwell, Stuart)
Blake (Blake, Mason, St Johns)
Sandy Springs (La Plata, Magruder, Sandy Springs Friends)
Watkins Mill (Langley, Watkins Mill, Westfield)

In the Beltway League championships, Churchill won, Whitman got second, and Blair got third. Some repetitions in questions were particularly galling, making me glad that I'm done with that.

Finally in Quizmaster challenge, I predict:
WJ over RM
Churchill over Wootton
Whitman over Clarksburg
Rockville over Gaithersburg
BCC over Wheaton
QO over Paint Branch
Einstein over Magruder

TL;DR: I was bored so I ranked stuff. Enjoy.

[Whiter Hydra]

It's Academic prediction: Whoever has the fastest reaction time will win.

[QOHS]

I like this. Another thing we could talk about, is how we can get some of these teams who DO compete (sometimes even successfully) to make the big jump from keegan/mac speed questions to pyramidal quizbowl. No reason schools like poolesville, churchill, wootton, sherwood, etc couldn't do it!

[Byzantium1453]

After being mostly wrong on all my previous predictions, I think it is time to make even more wrong predictions for winners of meaningless It's Academic games! Feel free to vehemently tell me I don't know what I am talking about, because it's true. Here I go...

Remaining first round:
Einstein over Anacostia and Wheaton
BCC over Sidwell Friends and JEB Stuart
Blake over Mason and St. johns
Sandy Spring over La Plata and Magruder
Watkins Mill over Langley and Westfield

Quarter final predictions and results:
Holton Arms beat Churchill and Annadale
I predict Jefferson over Gonzaga and South Lakes based on historic trends.
GDS beat QO and RM
Blair beat Bullis and St. Stephens
WJ beat Chantilly and Gar-field
I predict St Anslems over Landon and Woodgrove, but am going off hazily remembered encounters with these teams, so I am expressing no real knowledge.
I predict whitman over Marshall and St Albans because Whitman is a team that is trained to be really fast and excel only in Its Ac type competitions, and they have shown themselves to be quite good at their speciality in speed whenever I've played them in beltway league.
I predict Woodson over BCC and Einstein mainly because I don't even know if those two teams won their first game.
I predict Blake over Sandy Spring and Watkins Mill because Blake trains almost exclusively for Its Ac and has been one of the dominant teams in the region for a while, which I do not see stopping now, though Sandy Spring in pretty good for a new team.

Semi Finals:
Holton Arms over Jefferson and GDS
I have no direct knowledge of Holton Arms. However, from what I have learned from Churchill players about Holton Arms win against Churchill, it leads me to believe that Holton arms is both quick and knowledgable, and will provide a formidable opponent. TJ and GDS are good quizbowl teams, but that does not always translate well to a drastically dofferent format.

Blair over WJ and St Anslems
I think this is gong to be a really close game. The blair team is really good at quizbowl, and they decisively beat Bullis in their last match, so I feel that they have a good chance of winning. On the other hand, WJ also won our last game by a lot, and I feel confident that we are improving as a team. Our records against each other this year so us to be near equivalent teams, as we are both around 30 in the Morlan Rankings, tied each other in Beltway league matches and in matches(I think). The game should come down to specific questions. That said, I have now jinxed both teams and St anslems will win.

Whitman over Woodson and Blake
Blake is good, but Whitman this year has been fast and knowledgable. I haven't played Blake, so that is why I tentatively give the match to Whitman but I would not be surprised to see blake win.


Finals:
Reply hazy try again


I personally have no experience in turning a school that just competes in speed questions into one that plays pyramidal quizbowl. WJ has always been playing in quizbowl due to a combination of a strong tradition of doing so and significant sponsor priority on it. Getting more schools to do quizbowl would be great, and ensuring schools that do compete don't have their programs fall apart would also be good, but the only way I know of getting kids to do quizbowl is to have them go to tournaments and enjoy learning and playing questions. I know that some schools are trying a little, for example I saw a Churchill player at NASAT tryouts and know they have come to a tournament in the past year.