The Quizbowl Resource Center

I know this is a bit early, but does anyone have predictions for the Illinois circuit next year? As (finally) an interested observer rather than a player, I'll be interested to see how things unfold.

I feel like IL probably won't be as cutthroat as this year.

Govind will soon become one of the best history players in the nation. Ethan will be FA god, and WWS will sadly be not much of a threat. Fremd will be better next year.

I'm excited to see Deepak/Govind/Arjun/Fourth Player absolutely wreck.

AGoodMan wrote:Govind will soon become one of the best history players in the nation. Ethan will be FA god, and WWS will sadly be not much of a threat. Fremd will be better next year.

I feel like Govind already kinda proved himself, he did pretty well at NSC this year

Father Comstock wrote:I'm excited to see Deepak/Govind/Arjun/Fourth Player absolutely wreck.

They better… or else

AGoodMan wrote:Govind is one of the best history players in the nation. Ethan is an FA God

ftfy

That being said, Illinois is losing a lot of talent. All of 1st team all-state save Strombeck and a lot of good players on second team (Finnegan and Meyer come to mind, do not know grade level of southern IL kids) However, I like to keep things positive so my teams to watch for this year:
* Auburn- Ethan is one of the dominant players, if not the dominant player, in Illinois. 'nuff said
* Stevenson- Great feeders will help them rebuild after the Ali years, especially Arjun. Govind and Deepak will be great leaders for that team coming up.
* Barrington- Again, great feeders. I remember them having a really good kid named Abraham at Fremd that will probably help.
*IMSA- No longer playing behind Pranav, Hanson will get a chance to shine.
and my dark horse...
*Sandburg- Aristotle is proving to be a really good player. They do not get a lot of talk on the forums, but they could be a really great team next year.
Apologies for any omissions or errors. I am doing this from memory so sorry to Southern Illinois schools who I probably ignored.

Finally, as a former player in Illinois, how do I get into being a volunteer on the circuit when I can? Is their like an e-mail chain or something?

El Salvadoreno wrote:Finally, as a former player in Illinois, how do I get into being a volunteer on the circuit when I can? Is their like an e-mail chain or something?

Such an awesome question!

Once the 2017-18 tournament schedule is up on http://www.ihssbca.org, which should be fairly soon, email tournament hosts and let them know that you are willing to staff. The schedule will have contact info.

Big Y wrote:

El Salvadoreno wrote:Finally, as a former player in Illinois, how do I get into being a volunteer on the circuit when I can? Is their like an e-mail chain or something?

Such an awesome question!

Once the 2017-18 tournament schedule is up on http://www.ihssbca.org, which should be fairly soon, email tournament hosts and let them know that you are willing to staff. The schedule will have contact info.

Thank You

Down here, Piasa returns most of its' starters. Glenwood loses practically everyone.

Springfield's top 2 scorers from NAQT State were freshmen, and they have another good crop of potential talent coming in. I don't think they'll get there this year, but in '19 and '20, they might shock some people.

Don't know much about Uni Lab.

This is very self-centered of me, but I think that the West Suburban Conference will be the area to watch for any "dark horse" contenders. IMO, York, Lyons Township, and especially Glenbard West are all capable of becoming state contenders. Hinsdale Central, while they have taken a bit of a roster hit, could emerge as a regional power as well. I'd like to think that OPRF/Lempa is already a state contender but ehhhhhhh

That being said, I've also heard that Timothy Christian and Uni Lab are very good.

username_crisis_averted wrote: That being said, I've also heard that Timothy Christian and Uni Lab are very good.

IHSA isn't the best measure of performance, but players like Tim Cho could go a long way if exposed to more good quizbowl.

On another note, although the Illinois circuit might not be as strong next year, it will definitely be more competitive (from all over the state). It's great to see more teams playing more good tournaments.

El Salvadoreno wrote:

AGoodMan wrote:Govind is one of the best history players in the nation. Ethan is an FA God

*Sandburg- Aristotle is proving to be a really good player.

is that bro a triplet? if so, yesssss multiples

Fremd was all juniors and sophomores last year, so they will only have gotten better, and likely significantly better judging by how rapidly they improve.
Kodama-led OPRF will be similar to Auburn in that both consist of an underlying generalist making most buzzes... their matches against each other will be interesting. Barrington has Wilder and Abraham, both FA players (for now) but both competent generalists. IMSA has a long trend of rebuilding quickly and I have no reason to not expect that trend to continue. As for us (Stevenson), we are working on rebuilding and filling our holes as well as forming a well-covered B team. I am excited to see how this year plays out. In spite of all the talent that has left Illinois, I'm sure multiple Illinois teams will still do awesome at nationals. Happy studying y'all.

Sorry if I missed any teams, these are just the teams I recalled playing/seeing several times over the year.

Two dark horses that might surprise the circuit next year include Naperville Central and Metea Valley. Naperville Central's JV team this year was very impressive, winning their conference and playing considerably well against us at Masonic Bowl. Given the fact that the entire varsity team next year consists of sophomores, I wouldn't be surprised if they pulled some surprising wins throughout the season, given that they go to more invites. As for Metea Valley, they return Nick and Arjun. Nick took up the brunt of Metea's scoring this year, proving himself to be a reliable and dominant history player. Arjun contributes to the team with some minor generalism as well. With some studying over this summer, Metea Valley won't be a far cry from what it has achieved throughout the past years.

As for Waubonsie Valley..... It's true, the team won't be as dominant as we were in years past, but we will have some incoming juniors who are willing to study more. With a new coach (current coach retiring), Waubonsie will become a blank slate for development.

The science category will be interesting to watch this year. I don't know too many players that are actively learning science upstate.

bluejay123 wrote:

El Salvadoreno wrote:

AGoodMan wrote:Govind is one of the best history players in the nation. Ethan is an FA God

*Sandburg- Aristotle is proving to be a really good player.

is that bro a triplet? if so, yesssss multiples

Yep, I can verify that "that bro" is a multiple! Also, I and the rest of the Sandburg team are super excited for this upcoming year. We have (a lot of) work to do, but hopefully, we can continue to improve our fledgling team. Btw, another team that will probably be fairly good in 2017-18 is Carbondale down south. Jaden Lucas will be a senior next year, and I wouldn't be surprised if they showed up on the state scene.
Also, congrats to all of the members of Team Illinois that may read this post! Undefeated over the weekend!

Depending on how much people study, I'd expect IMSA to be strong again next year. The rest of the team besides me, Nathaniel, and Alex is still there, and plans are already in place for how to cover our subject areas. Also, quite a few sophomores who played quizbowl at their old schools will be coming in.

nsb2 wrote:Also, quite a few sophomores who played quizbowl at their old schools will be coming in.

For what it's worth, my younger brother (Matthew Lee) from Dunlap will be attending IMSA next year. He played a bit of NHBB last year and enjoys studying history.

Wes Janson wrote: For what it's worth, my younger brother (Matthew Lee) from Dunlap will be attending IMSA next year. He played a bit of NHBB last year and enjoys studying history.

Matthew was in fact one of the people I was referring to. Looking forward to (hopefully) seeing IMSA play next year!

May eventually get a separate tournament thread, but just as an FYI:

The 2018 Barron Robinson Memorial will take place on January 20, at St. Teresa High School in Decatur. It will not be at Springfield High.

This is my attempt at creating "Illinois Power Rankings" for the '17-'18 season. Obviously this is extremely subjective, so I encourage other people to come up with their own rankings. I'm not going to rank my own team (OPRF) because I don't feel like ranking myself but I will try to rank the other teams as best I can. Here goes.

POWER RANKINGS
1. Stevenson
The core of Deepak Moparthi, Govind Prabhakar, and Olivia Lamberti will be more than sufficient to cover the bases this year, and Stevenson has a handful of good supporting players to back them up. Every one of these core members has shown their ability to scale up well to higher difficulties and put up impressive wins. Also, Stevenson's history bench is probably among the deepest in the country (Arjun Nageswaran, Chris Muth, Conrad Oberhaus, etc). Stevenson is probably still the team to beat.
2. Fremd
None of Fremd's starting lineup is graduating this year, and the core of Varun/Kevin/Lit Player has great coverage. Where Stevenson is deep in history Fremd is deep in lit, as Fremd has plenty of lit players to choose from (Alex Guan, Bissmun Gill, Gretchen Coleman). That being said, Varun Cidambi is great at history in his own right. The matchup between Govind and Varun should be a fun one to watch. Fremd's ability to perform well at higher difficulties will probably be the deciding factor in their state run(s).
3. Auburn
Ethan Strombeck isn't going anywhere, so Auburn will once again have one of the best generalists in the country to work with. Ethan's FA knowledge is probably the best in the state. Auburn has shown its ability to beat strong teams already, and it will keep its roster mostly intact. If Ethan continues to improve (particularly at lit and RMP), then Auburn has an equally solid chance at capturing the state title(s).
4. Barrington
Barrington took a big roster hit this summer, but they will retain FA-oriented generalists Abraham Holtermann and Wilder Seitz. It's hard to say how they will perform outside of the shadow of John and Matthew, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. It's also worth mentioning that Barrington will inherit a very strong Station team, so they will have a lot of young talent going forward. This year may not be Barrington's year, but they have a bright future ahead of them.
5. IMSA
Despite the losses of Pranav and Nathaniel, IMSA's dependable crop of sophomores (such as the aforementioned Matthew Lee from Dunlap) should somewhat make up for it. They retain strong generalist Hanson Hao and supporting players Becky Mathew and Shivani Sharma, which should be more than enough to defeat most teams.
6. Timothy Christian
I haven't seen Timothy Christian play, but their stats from kickoff are very impressive and they have a young team iirc. They also won Class A IHSA State, which I suppose counts for something. If they continue to improve then they should be able to do some damage at the state level.
7. Sandburg
Sandburg won't lose any of their starting squad this year and they should keep on improving. They've been able to defeat some good teams already and that should continue to be the case this year.
8. Southwestern
Don't know too much about them, but it appears that Southwestern is retaining most of its strong players. They had an impressive finish at SSNCT, so I assume that they will do well this year.
9. Macomb
Don't know too much about them either, but it looks like Macomb is retaining their top scorer from SSNCT (Clara Barclay) who is a junior. They also had an impressive finish at SSNCT, so I assume that they will do well this year.
10. Metea Valley
Together Arjun Sundararajan and Nick Kaminsky should have solid coverage with a focus on history. If Metea fixes their PPB woes, then they could become state contenders.
11. Glenbard West
She doesn't have a ton of stats to back it up, but Sophie Netzel is probably one of the better generalists in Illinois right now. Given that she's only a sophomore, I would expect a ton of improvement to come out of Glenbard West in the coming months.
12. Williamsville
Mitch McCullar's strong performance at SSNCT suggests that his team could pull off an upset or two.

Apologies to the teams that I definitely forgot.

way to rank yourself Kevin

EDIT: I see you covered this in the intro, I'm d u m b

Already realizing that I forgot Carbondale and Uni Lab. Oh well.

To keep Kevin's discussion going, I will put in my two cents about rankings.

1. Fremd (several experienced players, quite solid coverage especially in history and literature).
2T. Auburn (Strombeck is a very very good generalist and great at fa and history).
2T. OPRF (same team structure as Auburn, Kevin has good coverage in spite of losing Anishka).
4. IMSA (Hanson Becky Shivani all were on A last year, Hanson is an ongoing generalist, not to mention incoming talent).
5. Barrington (Obviously deep in fa, enough experience on team to rebuild quickly)
6. Metea Valley (anyone who's played metea will notice how deep nick kaminsky is at history, and combined with Arjun's fine arts based generalism, im willing to put metea quite high and say their potential is even higher)
7. Carbondale (Jaden Lucas is a good generalist with a lot of potential)
This a very brief ranking of the teams I've played a lot against. I most likely forgot teams, and before I'm called out on forgetting Stevenson, it was on purpose

Here's my ranking for those interested
1. Fremd
2. Stevenson
3. Auburn
4. OPRF
5. Barrington
6. IMSA
7. Uni High
8. Metea
9. Piasa Southwestern: they get left out of a lot of conversations but have a ton of potential
10. Carbondale

I heard that some of the Fremd roster quit QB and won't be playing next year tho, so maybe they should be ranked lower. Don't know how accurate my source is, so don't quote me.

User was reminded to enable a real signature with a real name and school affiliation --Mgmt.

I'm not sure enough about anything to post numerical rankings, but I'd expect the best teams in Illinois this year to be (in no particular order) IMSA, Stevenson, Fremd, OPRF, Auburn, and Barrington. I could also see several of the downstate teams mentioned getting into this group, but it's impossible to predict anything for certain before any tournaments have been played.

nsb2 wrote:I'm not sure enough about anything to post numerical rankings, but I'd expect the best teams in Illinois this year to be (in no particular order) IMSA, Stevenson, Fremd, OPRF, and Barrington. I could also see several of the downstate teams mentioned getting into this group, but it's impossible to predict anything for certain before any tournaments have been played.

No love for Auburn?

username_crisis_averted wrote:

nsb2 wrote:I'm not sure enough about anything to post numerical rankings, but I'd expect the best teams in Illinois this year to be (in no particular order) IMSA, Stevenson, Fremd, OPRF, and Barrington. I could also see several of the downstate teams mentioned getting into this group, but it's impossible to predict anything for certain before any tournaments have been played.

No love for Auburn?

the Strombeckians will win state so long as Stevenson doesn't use Olivia to cripple him.

For those of you that are wondering, I missed Auburn in error; of course they belong in that group.

Anyone have predictions for 2017 Scobol Solo? I've made a preliminary list of participants that I think have strong-ish generalist ability.

Alexander Kuptel
Arjun Sundararajan
Aristotle Vainikos
Conrad Oberhaus
Deepak Moparthi
Ethan Strombeck
Hanson Hao
Jaden Lucas
Mitch McCullar
Sophie Netzel
Tim Cho
Varun Cidambi
Wilder Seitz

Olivia Lamberti and Clark Smith could attend as well, but I haven't heard anything definitive. Sorry in advance for any omissions.

username_crisis_averted wrote:Anyone have predictions for 2017 Scobol Solo? I've made a preliminary list of participants that I think have strong-ish generalist ability.

Alexander Kuptel
Arjun Sundararajan
Aristotle Vainikos
Conrad Oberhaus
Deepak Moparthi
Ethan Strombeck
Hanson Hao
Jaden Lucas
Mitch McCullar
Sophie Netzel
Tim Cho
Varun Cidambi
Wilder Seitz

Olivia Lamberti and Clark Smith could attend as well, but I haven't heard anything definitive. Sorry in advance for any omissions.

The Boxfish should be on the list.

kurosagi9807 wrote:I heard that some of the Fremd roster quit QB and won't be playing next year tho, so maybe they should be ranked lower. Don't know how accurate my source is, so don't quote me.

User was reminded to enable a real signature with a real name and school affiliation --Mgmt.

I'd have to see it to believe it.

Does anyone know if the Fremd Invitational is happening this year? I don't see it on the IHSSBCA website.

Mr. Palmer told me last year that he was no longer going to run it. It's a massive undertaking, and I got the impression he felt 25 consecutive years was a pretty good run for a tournament (which it absolutely is).
Of course, this opens things up to anyone else who was interested in running a tournament on that date now. I know in the past they had to compete with Loyola Ultima for teams.

the return of AHAN wrote:Mr. Palmer told me last year that he was no longer going to run it. It's a massive undertaking, and I got the impression he felt 25 consecutive years was a pretty good run for a tournament (which it absolutely is).
Of course, this opens things up to anyone else who was interested in running a tournament on that date now. I know in the past they had to compete with Loyola Ultima for teams.

As is tradition, there are three tournaments that weekend - Winnebago (on DEFT), Ultima and Barron Robinson (the latter two are on the RMBCT set).

To be sure, though, you are talking about tournaments throughout the state. I don't know that Fremd cut into Winnebago or Springfield's fields, but maybe I'm wrong and Glenbard West, for example, would've been happy to go west. With all due respect, I don't know that Ultima has the capacity to handle the other suburban schools that attended Fremd, which attracted an even larger field.

the return of AHAN wrote:With all due respect, I don't know that Ultima has the capacity to handle the other suburban schools that attended Fremd, which attracted an even larger field.

This is going to be especially hard given that ACF Regionals is on this same weekend.

In light of Illinois' first tournament (Earlybird) I'll post a ranking.

1. Stevenson
-my no. 1 until proven otherwise
2. Auburn
-Ethan squared up nicely with Joe and Tora from Wayzata so I consider me impressed
3. Fremd
-if they really didn't lose anyone then I expect them to contest the top spot with Auburn and Stevenson

A small cliff here

4. IMSA
-based on Earlybird I'd say IMSA hasn't lost too much of a step this year. I'm chalking up their loss to Lab as being due to Lab improving a lot
5. Uni Lab
-they held their own against Wayzata, Auburn, and split 2 matches IMSA so I think that Lab may have finally arrived. Tim, Reed, and Ethan are a very potent trio (plus Dylan) with a lot of upside (all except Reed are juniors and sophomores)

A larger cliff here

6. Barrington
-mostly basing this off of reputation, Abraham and Wilder should hold down the fort.
7. OPRF
-I fully expect Kevin to man the ramparts over the next two years and compete at a high level, probably being an upset specialist more than a contender.
8. Sandburg
-Aristotle is legit. He outpowered Ethan Strombeck in an objectively stronger pool and put up a decent fight against the rest of the teams in the playoffs.
9. Carbondale
-same boat as Fremd but probably not nearly as good.
10. Latin
-at Earlybird they were clearly out-gunned in the playoffs (they got crushed by everyone but Sandburg), but thats not a knock on them (everyone in the championship I have ranked above them or was Wayzata). They also managed to pick a match off of IMSA and you have to be at least good to do that.

I don't have enough knowledge to rank Timothy, MV, etc but I imagine that when more tournaments happen that I'll find a spot for them. If I missed anyone obvious, sorry.

Super dark horse: Mahomet. Look at those power numbers, and they were missing one of their main scorers. If they find someone who covers fine arts they will be able to pick off matches from top level teams, a la Springfield c. 2014

Edit: I can type names

FYI: IMSA was playing without two A-team players (Becky and Shivani) at Earlybird, so that may have affected their performance.

Barrington does have some young talent this year, but our other junior players can hold down the fort just as well.

User was reminded to enable a signature. --Mgmt.

It's gonna be fun for sure to see who's playing at what level.

Now that I've got some more data guess I'll update my rankings (although Stevenson's and Homewood's kickoffs not having stats yet limits this):

Tier 1: These are the teams that I expect to most prominently represent Illinois at both nationals (and be in strong contention for trophy placement). These are also the teams that I expect to have the best chance of trophying at NAQT State and if any of them won IHSA or Masonic it wouldn't shock me.
1: Stevenson A
2: Auburn
3: IMSA
4: Fremd A
5: Uni A

Tier 2: These are teams that I think will have a better than not chance of making playoffs at HSNCT and a solid chance at making top 48 at PACE. Wouldn't be surprised if any of them knock off any of the teams above from time to time but none of them are as consistent of threats in the broader sphere.
6: OPRF
7: Latin
8: Mahomet (hype train away)
9: Stevenson B
10: Sandburg
11: Carbondale

Tier 3: The Nebulous Zone (teams here can probably be justifiably reordered many ways). These are teams that will do well and can take down teams ranked higher here but I would be quite surprised if they made playoffs at HSNCT and very surprised if they make top 48 at PACE. High finishes at NAQT State are definitely within reach tho.
12: Metea Valley
13: Southwestern
14: Williamsville
15: Uni B (once the A team stabilizes and drops a player they will likely rise up a tier)
16: Macomb
17: Fremd B
18: Glenwood

Tier I have no idea: I have no data on these teams and I am not familiar enough to rank them but I have been told that they will be good.
Barrington
Timothy Christian
Glenbard West (someone get them to tournaments I beg of you).

I feel like I am missing a team but I'm tired. Sorry if that team is you.

Glad to see some teams down here getting some love.

I think Williamsville is the team to beat in Class A, and I fully expect them to be in contention for titles in both Masonic and IHSA (again). Athens has the potential to spike an upset, but it'll take the right packet for the Warriors to steal enough tossups, as they have some serious BC issues.

Glenwood, I think it'll depend on how much work the team does from this point forward.

Given how the field is shaping up, the Barron Robinson tournament should be a good indicator of where teams are in the pecking order. Williamsville, Athens, New Berlin, Glenwood, Springfield, Macomb, Uni A/B, Southwestern, it's going to be a hell of a tournament.

Brief results from today's South Central Solo at Southwestern, using the NT Solo set:

1) Mark Thompson-Patterson, O'Fallon
2) Jonathan Lau, Urbana Uni Lab
3) Reed Philips, Urbana Uni Lab
4) Jacob Simmons, Southwestern
5) Dylan Bowman, Urbana Uni Lab
6) Lana Tutterow, Southwestern

dtaylor4 wrote:Brief results from today's South Central Solo at Southwestern, using the NT Solo set:

1) Mark Thomas-Patterson, O'Fallon

Hopefully O'Fallon comes up to NAQT state. Mark got 70 PPG last time he came, no doubt he's improved over the two years since then.

Also, *Thompson-Patterson

db0wman wrote:

dtaylor4 wrote:Brief results from today's South Central Solo at Southwestern, using the NT Solo set:

1) Mark Thomas-Patterson, O'Fallon

Hopefully O'Fallon comes up to NAQT state. Mark got 70 PPG last time he came, no doubt he's improved over the two years since then.

Also, *Thompson-Patterson

Fixed. I went off the form that the coach submitted when registering.

1st post... yay

Having played and being thoroughly massacred by Mark in a meet this past Thursday, I can identify him as the best player I've ever gone up against (With the only one being close being Jaden? Lucas from Carbondale).

Here are the stats/results from the South Central Solo for those interested.

http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/4817/

mhasquin wrote:Here are the stats/results from the South Central Solo for those interested.

http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/4817/

Brief explanation for how the top 6 worked out - prelim records did not carry over, everyone started with a clean slate. Mark went 4-1, Jonathan and Reed went 3-2, Jacob and Dylan went 2-3, and Lana went 1-4. Jacob and Dylan played a full game tiebreaker (Jacob won), and Reed/Jonathan played a full game play-in to the final. Jonathan won the play-in, but lost the first game of the advantaged final.