Southern California 2007-08

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cvdwightw
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by cvdwightw »

Warbourne wrote:As for the winner, I guess they do go to the NAC tournaments, but I only learned that from the QB wiki.

Also yes, it runs from February up to the end of April, when the championships are held.

EDIT: Are you sure that 2003? I talked to a couple of people who were freshmen that year and were on the team and apparently they don't know anything about it. Maybe you're referring to some other level or year.
I wrote that QB Wiki article. I have no AL experience. That entire article is based on (1) the set of publicly available rules from 2 years ago, which I have no idea whether or not still hold, (2) a complaint posted about AL on :kenj: 's blog, and (3) reasonable leaps of logic based on my 8+ years of experience as a member of the Southern California quizbowl community.

Also, yes, I am sure that 2003. Field included San Dieguito JV and Novice, Dana Hills A and B, us, Santa Fe Christian, Carlsbad, and Rancho Buena Vista Varsity(?) teams, and two Fallbrook teams, one of which I am assuming was a freshman team based on the 530-30 final score and that the guy on the team who told me "I hate you Dwight" looked like a freshman. It's entirely possible that it was Fallbrook Varsity and JV instead, though.

Julie RS, that was a very impressive performance by what was more-or-less Edison B. However, I recall (and stats support) the presence of 5 players on Edison at the tournament. Was the fifth player a regular on the A or B team or a C team player? I was pointing out that beating the team that finished third in the tournament (regardless of how many players they were missing) by 560 points and nearly winning by over 600 (the guy who didn't know the answer beat the guy who did know the answer off the buzzer race after I reset after the Edison neg) is the most impressive team performance I've seen in SoCal in over five years.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ihavenoidea »

Ahh I see I see. Oh I saw you at that tournament then, accompanying your B team.

Dwight, I personally still think last year's SaMo team is better than this years by far. I mainly cite the games RB has played them in. The scores have been much closer this year than it has been last year. Especially the thrashing RB took from SaMo at HSNCT.

Fallbrook, Good luck tomorrow in AL.

AL is fun in a novice quizbowl kind of way. It places great emphasize on speed. For example, most current event questions, since there is a specific time frame for them, are buzzed off of on the third or fourth word.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ntan »

I personally still think last year's SaMo team is better than this years by far.
I have to concur as well; however, as noted earlier, they seem to be more potent on some questions than on others. I think the seniors SaMo graduated (Ben and Bennett) cost them balance across the entire canon. It appears that while they've gained a pretty quick computation guy (Marino) they've lost a bit depth as well. This is in no way degrading what they've done this year-the Ilan-Evan duo is beastly when they catch fire on some hist/social sci/lit power streak. While they might not match up as well against other (likely more balanced) teams, I still expect them to do very well at nationals. I remember thinking last year's iteration of SaMo A was weaker than the 05-06 team, but they managed to outplace them: so who knows exactly howl well they will do, what I do know for sure ( after competing with them in Sci Bowl and Ocean Sci Bowl) is that Mr. Gaida will prepare them very well.

responding to ihavenoidea:
SaMo might have gotten weaker this year, but perhaps this is likely due to RB improving considerably.

responding to Juile:
haha Edison (especially team B) has a knack for beating us as well, I'm sure you guys will do pretty well next year. major props for placing 3rd with a makeshift team

With SaMo graduating a significant portion of their team A (two members i believe?), I wonder if RB, TP, Arcadia, or Edison will be able to close the gap. It would be pretty interesting to see what happens, although I think an RB A of Zhao, Anurag, Oleg, and maybe Jarred? would have the best shot at doing that and maybe followed by Arcadia or Edison. Torrey I am not too sure about because they're graduating their top scorer
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by Chico the Rainmaker »

I haven't seen this year's team at all, but based on what I knew of those people when I was there I would agree with ntan's assessment. The loss of Ben and Bennett hurt them greatly in science and European history (and less importantly, comic books), but Marino is indeed better on the comp math questions than either of those two were. It's hard to see them doing as well as last year's team at nationals, but then I also didn't think last year's team would do as well as we did. What I can say for (almost) sure is that Evan and Ilan are by far the two best players on the team and I'm not really sure how they will shape up next year. Again, I'd predict a drop, though I think it will be less precipitous than the current relative averages of the team would indicate.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by mcalmvp »

What I'm most curious to see next year is RB, esp. with 3 strong seniors gone. Now RB generally produces some great teams (although even this year's amazing one couldn't defeat San Mon), but I don't know how good next year's A team will compare to this year's A team.

BTW, ntan...with Ms. Lutgen now at Westview...any chance Westview could do NAQT?
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ntan »

lol...I have only have the vaguest idea who Mrs. Lutgen is. I believe Mr. Lutgen is the RB AL coach? anyway, as a current Arcadia student, I don't feel particularly qualified to answer questions about Westview, but I do hope we'll see them around (and hopefully mt. carmel with your help?) at one of the later tournaments or perhaps next year.

As one pretty well acquainted with RB B on the NAQT format, i'm sure they'll figure something out next year.

but yea, sorry I can't really help you with news regarding westview
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ihavenoidea »

James,

The Santa Monica B team has slowly been developing as well. Take a look at the stats from UCLA first tournament and state champs. Bonus conversion (11.3-17.65). PPG (190-265). With their record of developing great B teams into dominant A teams, they will definitely still be a force to be reckoned with next year.

Ntan,

TP's B team is very good as well. Vivek has a lot of potential. Do not take them lightly either.

mcalmvp,

I think you got confused. Ntan is from arcadia not westview? But to semi answer your question, the loss of Jeff, Brenda, Roscoe will be devastating on not only the scoring front, but the leadership front. Brenda has been the leader of RB quizbowl since its inception. Say goodbye to three strong seniors is always a tough thing, but I have confidence in Anurag and Oleg in that they will continue to improve. I say this with confidence because Anurag has been very studious this past season and he has improved from a good player into a one man team.

While no one person can fill Jeff's shoes, perhaps three of us may do a better job?
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by mcalmvp »

ntan wrote:lol...I have only have the vaguest idea who Mrs. Lutgen is. I believe Mr. Lutgen is the RB AL coach? anyway, as a current Arcadia student, I don't feel particularly qualified to answer questions about Westview, but I do hope we'll see them around (and hopefully mt. carmel with your help?) at one of the later tournaments or perhaps next year.

As one pretty well acquainted with RB B on the NAQT format, i'm sure they'll figure something out next year.

but yea, sorry I can't really help you with news regarding westview
haha..ya..sorry. Lapse of thinking and judgement on my part. Thanks for understanding though.

As for ihavenoidea, I see. Well I look at it this way in a sense: Mt. Carmel in '05 lost its players from the class of '04 (which were devastatingly good...at least from the AL perspective). We honestly didn't know how we would fair in the '05 season, especially facing tough opposition from RB with the likes of Mary Huang and Jon Hu (I was a senior on the '05 team). However, we were able to continue our win streak a get a perfect season (until our demise at NCAL finals). Now...I know that NAQT and NCAL can only be compared up to a certain point, but I think that in this case..RB has the potential next year of being as good, if not better, as this years team. How RB reaches that potential is yet to be determined (which is why I'm curious), but I think y'all are good enough to be as good of a team next year (even minus Jeff). I'm extremely glad to hear that Anurag and Oleg are improving and can't wait til next year.

Also ihavenoidea, you have any contacts with Westview? I'll try and see if I can budge Westview to do NAQT stuff (and perhaps I can also get Mt. Carmel too. Honestly the reason why they didn't go to any tournaments last year was due to lack of student interest. I don't know about this year [though I didn't push it very much being pretty busy]). We can always hope next year will be the year to get more NCAL teams to the SoCal NAQT circuit.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ntan »

ihavenoidea wrote: Ntan,

TP's B team is very good as well. Vivek has a lot of potential. Do not take them lightly either.
i didnt mean to take them lightly. i probably forgot about their team B because i don't think i've played a match with their team B before.

edit: actually, i think i did play them 1 time at CBCT, they were beating us until after the half. my mistake for forgetting to mention them, they are indeed pretty fast.

while anurag is getting pretty beastly, you aren't too far behind ihavenoidea. I've only played against Oleg twice this year i think? but from those games, he's definitely improved from last year.

as for arcadia, i think it'll depend on how much the current juniors want to study. my lax approach has proved infectious...unfortunately. hoping next year's team will be more studious
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ihavenoidea »

Other than the fact that Mr. Lutgen talks to Ms. Lutgen about stuff, i have no contact with westview sorry. They do not seem to be very motivated to do anything other than AL.

ntan, I did not target that comment directly toward you. I made a general comment, and i'm sorry if it made me seem brusque. Arcadia still will have Jacqueline and Derek, plus a plethora of others who've actually been to HSNCT. I'm sure they'll do very well next year, even without you.

Oleg has been devoting much of his saturdays to SATs (darn that draconian thing called Elite) He'll make more appearance at tournaments now that he's done with them.

mcalmvp, I sure do hope we can match up with Jeff. However, we have yet to beat jeff in a scrimmage so that dream appears pretty far off >.< When we played MC AL, the JV team was highly competitive and your coach is very good (great speed on current events btw)
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by Julie RS »

ntan wrote:

responding to Juile:
haha Edison (especially team B) has a knack for beating us as well, I'm sure you guys will do pretty well next year. major props for placing 3rd with a makeshift team.

With SaMo graduating a significant portion of their team A (two members i believe?), I wonder if RB, TP, Arcadia, or Edison will be able to close the gap. It would be pretty interesting to see what happens, although I think an RB A of Zhao, Anurag, Oleg, and maybe Jarred? would have the best shot at doing that and maybe followed by Arcadia or Edison. Torrey I am not too sure about because they're graduating their top scorer
Two of the strongest Edison B team members, including my daughter, are Freshmen, so I think Edison has a bright future ahead of them.

My daughter, Maddie, had to get used to Quiz Bowl format, because she had been trained for Jeopardy! and was used to waiting for the end of the question to buzz in. It's a difficult transition, but I knew that she could do it, because she has Quiz Bowl in her blood. (I was captain of the Edison team and her Dad was on the team with me.)
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by Julie RS »

cvdwightw wrote: Julie RS, that was a very impressive performance by what was more-or-less Edison B. However, I recall (and stats support) the presence of 5 players on Edison at the tournament. Was the fifth player a regular on the A or B team or a C team player? I was pointing out that beating the team that finished third in the tournament (regardless of how many players they were missing) by 560 points and nearly winning by over 600 (the guy who didn't know the answer beat the guy who did know the answer off the buzzer race after I reset after the Edison neg) is the most impressive team performance I've seen in SoCal in over five years.
I am Julie, by way.

I didn't go to the tournament in Irvine because my daughter was at a Mock Trial competition. I couldn't tell you who was actually playing in the Santa Monica game. I know who was sent to the tournament and it's an Regular A player, Three Regular B players and another player who has played on the A, B and C teams this year.

From what I heard at practice, Santa Monica had "a perfect game."
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by Julie RS »

ihavenoidea wrote:Ahh I see I see. Oh I saw you at that tournament then, accompanying your B team.
If this comment is directed at me, yes, I am the mom with the cooler. :)

My daughter thinks that I am goofy, but I think that proper hydration and regular snacking is an important factor in strong Quiz Bowl performance. :)
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by Julie RS »

By the way ntan, I think that the Arcadia tournament was the most well-organized of all that I have attended this year.

Arcadia gave great directions, provided the location of eating establishments, so our team could plan for lunch and everything seemed to happen right on schedule. At some of the tournaments that I have attended this year, the individual point stats are way off, but the scorekeepers at Arcadia did a great job keeping things accurate.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by cabryant »

I wanted to respond to Dwight's post with the perspective of someone who has been around the Southern California circuit for as long as he has (plus a couple of years). I was the San Dieguito Varsity coach from 1998 (the year after I graduated from high school) until 2007, during which time I introduced San Dieguito to pyramidal questions (our best performances were finishing 2nd at NAQT State in 2003, 2005, and 2006). We also hosted the NAQT tournament in 2003 to which Dwight has been referring (and at which he and Dana Hills rudely demolished the North County field ;) - we were competitive with them that year, but our A team was staffing the tournament). This year, San Dieguito is rebuilding under the direction of a new coaching staff, so I can't say much about their prospects.

cvdwightw wrote:
Questions: Does the winner of Academic League get a berth in NAC? If so, what kind of financial incentive is there to go the NAC and not, for example, apply to PACE as a wild card?
First, it's important to recognize that there are 4 distinct leagues in San Diego. San Dieguito is affiliated with the North County Academic League (NCAL), as is Torrey Pines, RB, Mt. Carmel, Carlsbad, Fallbrook, etc., about which I could share a great deal of information. I know much less about the 3 Southern San Diego leagues, where teams like La Jolla, Southwest, and Scripps Ranch play. Suffice it to say that the style if play is similar enough to NCAL that a tournament involving the 4 league champions can be held with no discrepancies over format and little controversy over question content (the picture being painted on this board is accurate: game play consists of short, 1-2 line tossups with 3-5 part bonuses). As far as NAC, the winner of the San Diego County Tournament would be eligible to attend NAC based on their qualification rules, but the winning team is not sponsored to attend that tournament (some past winners have attended NAC, including Scripps Ranch in 2003 and Torrey Pines in 2007, but that is coincidence).

cvdwightw wrote:
Also, why does Academic League seem so "monolithic and complacent" (to quote :kenj: ) ? Shady protest resolutions, requiring moderators to write current events questions directly out of Time, banning the use of certain buzzer systems due to some perceived "home-buzzer advantage" but requiring coaches to submit 6/6 each? And this is just stuff I can find online without having actually played Academic League (you are encouraged to share your firsthand knowledge with the QB Wiki). Oh, speaking of coaches submitting 6/6 each, who edits the questions? Or is it just you hope that you get questions written by the coaches who can write good questions and not by those who can't?
Again, I can only speak at great length concerning NCAL, which, in my opinion has a better track record than the Southern San Diego leagues (and the County tournament in particular). NCAL consists of a Commissioner (elected from among the league coaches), a Moderator Chair who manages the hiring and distribution of moderators, and a Question Chair who is responsible for the question bank. The question bank is populated by yearly coach submissions, and edited by the Question Chair. Each question is used, at most, once in a 4-year cycle (not perfect, I know). The good thing to be said about the questions is that they are purely academic in nature and derived from high school curricula (no goofy general knowledge or trash questions). There are up to 3 current events questions per match (which generally go the length of 40 tossups). These questions are written by the question chair.

This is getting lengthy for my first post, so I'll end here. If Dwight (or anyone else) would like further information, I would be happy to respond.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by Warbourne »

Okay, I have a question since the 2008 tournament is coming up soon on April 24th.

How exactly do they pick the 1, 2, and 3 seeds for the tournament, and does that really even make a difference?

This is NCAL still by the way.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by cabryant »

Warbourne wrote:
How exactly do they pick the 1, 2, and 3 seeds for the tournament, and does that really even make a difference?
The answers to such logistical questions can be found here: http://rbvhs.vusd.k12.ca.us/teachers/ro ... LRules.htm

To answer you directly, there is a drawing between the winners of each division for the 1, 2, and 3 seeds:

NCAL Rules:
2.14.3 A draw will be conducted for places at all levels for the championships. Each coach will draw their team’s seed. If the coach is not present to draw, the commissioner (or designee) will draw for that team.

2.14.3.1 The first place Varsity teams will draw for first, second, and third place seeds. The second place teams will draw for fourth, fifth and sixth place seeds. If two teams are tied for third place (according to 2.14.1 above) then these two teams will draw for seventh and eighth place seeds If three teams are tied for third place (according to 2.14.1) then the three teams will draw for seventh, eighth and a blank to see who gets the wild card seeds. If only one team places third, that team will be the seventh place seed and the fourth place team(s) will draw for the eighth place seed.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by cabryant »

Warbourne wrote:
and does that really even make a difference?
Potentially. The 1 and 2 seeds play the wildcard seeds (3rd place divisional teams), whereas the 3 seed has to play a 2nd place divisional team. Then again, wildcard teams have been known to do some damage (in 2005, Fallbrook and San Dieguito, the two wildcard teams, met in the finals, with San Dieguito taking the trophy).
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ihavenoidea »

Warbourne,

I know it is something to do with luck of the draw, though specifically I can't tell you more.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by mcalmvp »

cabryant wrote:Warbourne wrote:
and does that really even make a difference?
Potentially. The 1 and 2 seeds play the wildcard seeds (3rd place divisional teams), whereas the 3 seed has to play a 2nd place divisional team. Then again, wildcard teams have been known to do some damage (in 2005, Fallbrook and San Dieguito, the two wildcard teams, met in the finals, with San Dieguito taking the trophy).
Tis correct....and 2005 was definitely an interesting year. I guess I'm kinda still bitter that SDA beat Mt. Carmel in the first round on the last tossup about Egyptian mythology, but it was definitely a good game (as well as the semifinal and final matches). It helped that SDA was and still is a pretty classy team (and that year, one of my friends was on the SDA varsity team as well)

btw, what do you do now? (just curious)
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by cabryant »

We certainly felt that you were the team to beat that year. It seemed like we were destined to lose until Coach Madsen pulled your starters with ~4 minutes left, at which point we answered something like 6 tossups in a row to give us an opportunity to win (after which he reinstated the starters, but we still grabbed the last tossup, as you say). Good sportsmanship is definitely at the top of my list, but that wasn't an issue with our team that year - they were/are excellent people. I do remember thinking the same thing about your team (and how much fun you seemed to be having as a group -- you were all wearing Mardi Gras beads, or something like that. . .).

I've been working as a software engineer for the past 4 years, although I may head back to school if I can sufficiently motivate myself.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by mcalmvp »

cabryant wrote:We certainly felt that you were the team to beat that year. It seemed like we were destined to lose until Coach Madsen pulled your starters with ~4 minutes left, at which point we answered something like 6 tossups in a row to give us an opportunity to win (after which he reinstated the starters, but we still grabbed the last tossup, as you say). Good sportsmanship is definitely at the top of my list, but that wasn't an issue with our team that year - they were/are excellent people. I do remember thinking the same thing about your team (and how much fun you seemed to be having as a group -- you were all wearing Mardi Gras beads, or something like that. . .).

I've been working as a software engineer for the past 4 years, although I may head back to school if I can sufficiently motivate myself.
haha..the mardi gras beads...yes I do remember that too (and yes, we did have a lot of fun together...one of my fav. HS memories). The mardi gras beads..er...I won't go into detail much (there's a whole backstory which I presume not many of you are interested in), but I actually started it and it was as much of a fun thing as it was a cheesy school pride thing (the beads were red and gold...school colors).

And thanks for the compliment. That year I wasn't sure MC could even beat RB, but I'm glad (mostly) on the way things turned out. After all, even though we lost NCAL, we had fun which for me is at least 1/2 the reason you do this.

I wish you best of luck in your academic endeavors (if you decide to head back to school)...and I think it's time for me to stop talking and reminiscing about days past.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ntan »

seeing that we're discussing AL, I'm curious how well having Freshman, JV, and Varsity divisions work with regard to developing younger players. While I acknowledge the rather small field sizes at pyramidal tournaments (relative to the rest of the country) makes divisions somewhat unpractical, how do schools/players that compete in NCAL feel about this?

I say this because i remember my first tournament, when i played SaMo (the pretty insane 05-06 team) and got demoralized to the tune of 550 - 20. This compounded to the scariness that was team "Amelia" with their 200ppg guy. perhaps steps should be taken to ease newer/younger teams into the format?
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by cabryant »

Do you at Arcadia (or any of the other LA schools) compete in league play that is differentiated by grade level (i.e. F/JV/V), or do you just compete in tournaments?

I have found that league play is an excellent way to introduce new/young players to quizbowl, while reserving tournament play for Varsity, top JV, and exceptional Frosh players (that's a practical approach as well . . . we can't afford to bring 30 students to each tournament). I don't think it's detrimental to expose promising young players to excellent teams. Rather, I feel that it provides them with some perspective and, ultimately, motivation.

As far as the Amelia player . . . let's just say that that performance looks pretty suspicious after reading his responses in the following thread: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=2290.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ntan »

lol yea, I didn't know during the tournament that Amelia was a non-legit team.

unfortunately, i don't think league play exists in the LA area, so all competitions we attend are the tournaments hosted by UCLA, UCI, USC, or Caltech. As for younger/new teams playing against good teams; I find that only some are motivated enough to put in considerable effort to improve. This, of course might be due to the fact that Arcadia High lacks a class period (or some coordinated study plan) that several other schools seem to have as well as an overemphasis (my opinion) on academics and the SAT. We tried to get members to read a little on a somewhat consistent basis, but with no real way to hold members accountable, it's not too surprising that there is a marked difference between the top 5 or so members of our team.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by mcalmvp »

ntan wrote:seeing that we're discussing AL, I'm curious how well having Freshman, JV, and Varsity divisions work with regard to developing younger players. While I acknowledge the rather small field sizes at pyramidal tournaments (relative to the rest of the country) makes divisions somewhat unpractical, how do schools/players that compete in NCAL feel about this?

I say this because i remember my first tournament, when i played SaMo (the pretty insane 05-06 team) and got demoralized to the tune of 550 - 20. This compounded to the scariness that was team "Amelia" with their 200ppg guy. perhaps steps should be taken to ease newer/younger teams into the format?
Well when I was playing I liked it because it allowed students (esp. frosh students) to compete with similar students on questions that had a difficulty level on par with freshman/sophomore skill level in terms of academic trivia. It also, in my opinion, allows you to have fun and bond closer to the people you'll most likely play with throughout your four years (if you're a frosh). It makes it a bit more fun and takes out the scariness aspect.

Thus, as you move along from Frosh to JV, JV to Varsity, etc...the progression of difficulty is more natural and you develop more cohesive teams. Now of course there are those once in several long years players (i.e. Taylor Yi from Westview Class of 2007) that are just that good to go to Varsity perhaps the latter part of Freshman year or the beginning part of the JV year(s) that kinda mess things up in a while, but traditionally I think it's good in development.

Now, I don't think this type of model would have worked as well if NCAL (or in fact SD AL as a whole) the questions were totally pyramidal like NAQT. It's pretty unfeasible to have a freshman set of pyramidal, JV set, and Varsity set produced every week (unless someone's whole job was to produce questions).

On a sidenote...I like both the NAQT and NCAL format of questions and team building. They each have their advantages and disadvantages and I think North County San Diego schools do well by participating in both. The one thing I really like about NCAL, though, is that the matches are a bit more lively. While tournaments are fun, I really liked having weekly matches where my friends, parents, (and the occasional teacher) would cheer me on.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by cvdwightw »

But the coaches write the questions, so it's not a matter of contracting with a pyramidal question writer, but of convincing the coaches (or at least the Question Coordinator) that pyramidal questions are better than speed checks. If the coaches were instructed to write, say, NAQT A-level length (cap is somewhere under 300 characters, IIRC) pyramidal questions, you could get to a full 120 pyramidal tossups per match fairly easily.

Perhaps another idea is that the high school circuit has developed to the point where we don't need varsity players at A-level tournaments, or at least a separate division of "teams that can score points on A-level questions" and "teams that are still mastering the A-level canon". This would allow for much fewer 500 point smackdowns and teams would not be daunted by having to play extremely good players.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ihavenoidea »

Rancho Bernardo would love it if NCAL was composed of pyramidal tossups
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ABCLMN »

So i many sports they say you need a deep bench to play effectively, in quiz bowl though that bench is the B and C teams that play as well.

I have seen some surprising games where B teams have beaten a teams so........... The question i would like to pose is what socal school has the best B team and what one has the best C team. By this I mean there real teams, not A teams pretending to be the B team or composing half of the Team, I mean real B and C teams.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ihavenoidea »

Edison B, Torrey B

I'd put Rancho B up there, but Rancho B for nats consists of Oleg, Kevin, two other players, and me.

If Rancho A is Jeff + some others and Rancho B is Oleg, Anurag, Roscoe, then Rancho B is the best B team.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ntan »

while it's true edison b gets a couple wins over some good teams, rb's team b is the best team b by far. edison's team b is pretty dangerous if the game is close though
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ABCLMN »

I find it interesting that Edison B beat Edison A in the playoffs at the Arcadia tourney.

What about C teams? I know they do not show up often but I have seen Edison and arcadia with them and I know others must show up from time to time.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ntan »

o the team Cs, Rancho's is probably the best, although SaMo's looks pretty good (at least when we played them)
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ihavenoidea »

I do think Rancho's C team is the best
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ntan »

Hey ABCLMN, out of curiousity, from which school are you from, or with which school you happen to be affiliated with? it's always nice to see a new person aroundl after all, the cross section of posters on this thread is admittedly quite small compared to the rest of the SoCal circuit
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by cvdwightw »

ABCLMN wrote:So i many sports they say you need a deep bench to play effectively, in quiz bowl though that bench is the B and C teams that play as well.
This is an important point. For instance, at State Champs Edison acquitted itself quite well despite filling in most of its A team with B (and C?) team players. A deep program allows for teams to stay competitive even when their best players are missing. Deepest school I've seen was probably the Santa Monica teams from 2004-2006, they could field one team competitive on a national level, one team extremely good on the local level, and one team competitive on a local level. I think that depth is starting to drop off and Edison probably has the most depth outside of the schools who are able to field JV and Novice teams for league. Rancho B is the best B team by far, evidence of that is that they are to my knowledge the only team to beat Santa Monica A (and even if there was another team that did so, they did it twice). I would advocate putting two members of the typical B team up with Jeff and Brenda on the A team at nationals; that team could do some serious damage at nationals and there would be enough of a core to field a competitive B team.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by TicoTime »

I figure SAMO should have a champion on these boards. And who better than me?
As most people here seem to agree, our A team is pretty clearly the best team in the region. The two losses to Rancho B were pretty screwy, both having been lost on the last question of bad games for us (not to discount their performance, I'm frankly impressed by how that one kid beat me to Mikhail Gorbachev at Irvine), and should not be seen as signs that this year's SAMO team is significantly worse than that of years past. It's true that we have lost Ben and Bennett, both machines in their own right, but though our two new players may not seem as good at first glance, it's a far healthier team, with people having more clearly defined areas to buzz in, and new knowledge of art and music that was lacking in years past. Our science is weaker, but that merely stems from having one science expert on our team, rather than two. Ilan, our literature and politics person, is simply a beast in every sense of the word, and I myself am a self-proclaimed beast on topics ranging from European history to Star Fox, and everything in between. I myself am working my hardest to ensure that my last year on the Samohi quiz bowl team is my best. The two of us returning A team members, along with our new asskickers, have gotten better enough to make our current team, if not better than last years (or the 05-06 team of destruction), pretty fucking good. I am confident that we will perform even better than last year at NAQT nationals (unless Dorman rapes us and throws away the keys, which is a pretty distinct possibility). Even our behavior (we have a bit of a rowdy reputation for some reason) is significantly better (as is our always impeccable sense of style). SAMO 08 will not disappoint Southern California.

What's more, our B-Team and C-Team incubators are going to produce some pretty good replacements, that may take a while to get the hang of things, but will most certainly carry on our legacy. Just make sure to punch the kid wearing the baseball cap if you see him. He has it coming.


Just my two cents.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

What happened to that whole 7 post thing?
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by AKKOLADE »

I apparently clicked the wrong button.

Yeah, we aren't really looking for people to champion their teams here.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by cvdwightw »

TicoTime wrote:(we have a bit of a rowdy reputation for some reason)...
e.g.
TicoTime wrote:Just make sure to punch the kid wearing the baseball cap if you see him. He has it coming.
Also, yeah, we know SaMo is good. It's the best of a deep field. And even the best teams take losses to other good teams occasionally (except for Robot Factory 2005), so I don't think they were fluke losses, just a good team being slightly better than you on a particular packet.

This is the high school forum. Please take your profanity-laced bragging, however warranted, to AHAN Jr., where we can objectively determine whether you are more abrasive than Chris Ray.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by DumbJaques »

ABRASIVE CHRIS RAY MODERATION: Please stop swearing in the high school section. While you're at it, if you really haven't looked at the forum rules, you might want to do so. Besides, your profanity was meant to do what, impress just how awesome you and your team really are? Is this really what you want to be spending your time on, even if it weren't against multiple board rules?
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by AKKOLADE »

Did the NAQT Championship for SoCal happen?
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ntan »

yea, SoCal state champs was a couple weeks ago (a month i think?)
top four finishers:
1) santa monica
2) rancho bernardo
3) edison
4) torrey pines

i believe this should be correct
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ihavenoidea »

Yep exactly as Ntan puts it.

SaMo had 60+ ppg to rancho, though rancho had a better bonus conversion.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by Auroni »

I still can't get over losing to Tustin (first time I've seen them attend an NAQT) on trash in a tied game.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by Auroni »

Torrey Pines will be sending one team to HSNCT, which will be all of our seniors (and might be a bit problematic for creating a line-up). Also, we plan to attend the Caltech A-series tournament this saturday; are any of your teams going?
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by ihavenoidea »

Rancho Bernardo is sending teams of entirely freshmen...Don't destroy them too badly jpn and Ntan
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by mcalmvp »

jpn wrote:I still can't get over losing to Tustin (first time I've seen them attend an NAQT) on trash in a tied game.
Things happen, however unfortunate.

BTW, nice to see you here Auroni. Where are you going to next year? (btw good luck at NCAL playoffs...though personally I'm rooting for MC, for obvious reasons)
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by Warbourne »

If you guys are wondering what the match-ups are:

Game 1: Rancho Bernardo vs. Carlsbad

Game 2: Rancho Buena Vista vs. Canyon Crest Academy

Game 3: Torrey Pines vs. Westview

Game 4: Fallbrook vs. Mt. Carmel

mcalmvp. :P
We're playing your team in the first round.
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Re: Southern California 2007-08

Post by Kaisuopai »

Yo...we (La Jolla) went to Caltech, but didn't see the RB team there at all. Something happen? o_o

And grats to Edison for beating us. Tho it was too bad that the playoff format made it so that only one of your teams could qualify, again...still, look forward to seeing you at Nationals.
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