Minnesota 2020-21

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Minnesota 2020-21

Post by Halinaxus »

Obviously, given the current Covid-19 situation, the Minnesota quiz bowl circuit is going to look very different this year (assuming we actually have something resembling a circuit, which is not a given). That said, given how many online tournaments were run this past spring and NAQT's recent announcement about online hosting (viewtopic.php?f=1&t=24291&p=378581#p378581), I imagine there will be some amount of online quiz bowl for Minnesota teams. How many tournaments there will be and how many teams will participate in them is another matter. My school (Chaska) has yet to say anything definitive about activities like quiz bowl, but they did hint at online competitions. However, there is no guarantee that other schools will support online quiz bowl teams (or other activities) the same way they have in previous years, and Covid-related budget cuts certainly don't help matters.

However, since we don't know anything definitive about those matters and the situation is still developing, allow me to present my preseason overview of the Minnesota high school quiz bowl circuit. The following analysis reflects only my personal views and is based largely off of last year's stats and polls.

The Contenders

Mounds View A: Shardul Rao is without a doubt the best generalist in Minnesota, and he's been in that position for a few years now. In that time, Mounds View has risen from a strong midfield program to one of the best teams in the state. So far, however, Mounds View hasn't quite been able to push past Wayzata as the top Minnesota team. They've come close, winning a league title in 2018-19 and occasionally beating Wayzata at other tournaments, but Wayzata always seems to be slightly better. I think that changes this year. Mounds View A returns everyone except Aryan Sehgal, and they will likely be able to find a replacement for him from their B team. Mounds View's depth last year really impressed me, as Mounds View B and C had some very nice wins and stats at league and Roses (although the Roses results are a bit unreliable, given that Mounds View A was split amongst three teams there). Between Maxwell Ye's lockdown of science, Paul Wang's lockdown of much of the fine arts canon, and Shardul's lockdown of every other tossup, Mounds View A looks seriously scary this year.

Wayzata A: It's easy to get excited about Mounds View, especially since Wayzata A graduates 2.5 people from last year's A team (Amogh Kulkarni was promoted to Wayzata A late last winter, replacing Arul Belhe). However, if there's one constant in Minnesota quiz bowl, it's that Wayzata players tend to drastically improve over the summer (see Kulkarni, Amogh), so do not count Wayzata out at all. Between Amogh and the Shao twins, Wayzata has elite coverage in history, literature, RMPSS, FA, and anything asked about at RAT-RACE. Throw in likely promotion Ashwin Halepet (who saw some action on Wayzata A late last year at NAQT State when Ben Weiner was at Science Olympiad), and this team has no real weaknesses. It's going to be very interesting to watch Wayzata and Mounds View duel next year, as they appear very evenly matched on much of the canon. I am giving Mounds View the edge for now, but it is a slim one.

Eden Prairie A: It's been literally decades since EP was not a top contender in Minnesota quiz bowl, and though that streak was tested last year, I think it's safe to say Eden Prairie generally held their own against Wayzata and Mounds View. Highlights of last year include pushing Wayzata A to overtime at league night #3, then upsetting Mounds View deep in the playoffs, as well as runner-up finishes at GINVIT, SnowCAT, and Roses (helped along by Mounds View being shorthanded, splitting their A team, or not coming at all to each of those three tournaments). The question for them entering this year is the same one EP faced at the beginning of last year: who, besides Jim Sweeney, is going to be on their A team. It took EP until February of last year to figure out their A team for good, and two of those players (Jack Ekholm and Avery Lembke) graduated this summer, along with all four players on EP B. Samir Sarma improved dramatically last year and will slot in as the second scorer next to Jim, but beyond him, there are a lot of unknowns. Next up would seemingly be Sid Bommareddy and Pranav Kartha from last year's EP C, but I believe Sid is a history player and would probably lose a lot of his scoring to Jim if they were to play together. I'm not sure what Pranav's knowledge base looks like, but he did get a lot of playing time on EP B last year according to the NAQT stats database. EP has always been a large and deep program, and last year was no exception. Regardless of who ends up playing with Jim and Samir next year, EP should remain in the top 3-4 teams in the state, depending on how the upper midfield fares.

The Upper Midfield

Wayzata B: This is a team that played very well last year, generally holding their own against the top two teams and in fact beating Eden Prairie A out for the third spot on the end of year poll. They do lose most of their scoring from last year as promotions to Wayzata A, but stand to gain players like Anuk Dias and Emily Liu from the tremendous depth Wayzata possessed last year. In addition to juniors Anuk, Emily, and Sam Buan, Wayzata has a very solid class of rising sophomores, who will only have gotten better over the summer. Sidarth Gazula in particular impressed at Roses last year, leading Wayzata D to a very nice 4th place finish there. I have Wayzata B in the upper midfield to open this season, but they absolutely have the talent to push their way into the top 3.

Burnsville A: Burnsville has been the class of the midfield for several years now, but they have been unable to break through thus far, and I don't see that changing this year. Burnsville's only graduation of note is Chance Persons, who was their main science player last year. His loss will hurt, but Burnsville A returns Joe Schatz and Wyatt Isakson, who rank first and second, respectively, in career points for Burnsville. Erik Gorton and John Goettl both saw playing time on Burnsville A last year, and they figure to complement Joe and Wyatt. From watching Burnsville's many games in the south league division's TV room last year (if you're not aware, games in the TV room are taped and later posted at https://cablecast.bectv.org/CablecastPu ... uiz%20bowl) and playing them myself, I get the sense that they have a very solid grasp on the NAQT IS and A set canon, especially in history and literature. That said, I'm not sure how much the loss of Chance will hurt them, and they may be vulnerable in science this year. Unless something changes, I imagine that Burnsville will remain the class of the midfield, but unable to push much higher.

Mounds Park A: Mounds Park's been a bit of an enigma of late, with their place in the pecking order depending on the schedule of Isak Dai, who hasn't attended many tournaments over the past couple of years. When they have Isak, Mounds Park is a very strong midfield team, capable of dominating A sets at a level comporable to that of the top three, finishing fifth at league and ninth at NAQT State. However, Isak only attended those two tournaments last year, so their A team was often led by Anthony Troullier, a rising sophomore who displayed impressive generalism while often playing without the full complement of teammates. Judging by Anthony's very full ledger of Buzzword competitions this summer, he's been studying hard and may play his way into the ranks of Minnesota's better generalists if he can deepen his knowledge base a bit. Given these question marks, Mounds Park may end up being one of the top 5-6 teams in the state this year, or (without Isak) they could drop out of the upper midfield.

The Lower Midfield

St. Louis Park A: This is a program that's also been very hard to read in recent years. They had some solid years in the mid-2010s, before completely crashing in 2017-18, when they missed the league playoffs and, aside from a 9th place finish at Roses, were largely nonfactors in the circuit. Then in 2018-19, they improved drastically over the winter and played their way into the top tier, placing 5th at Roses, winning MASS, and defeating Mounds View en route to a 3rd place finish at NAQT State (in which they were within 100 points of Wayzata A, Wayzata B, and Eden Prairie A). In fact, St. Louis Park A started the 2019 HSNCT 5-0 before dropping four of their last five games (including the playoffs). All four players from that team graduated before last year, but SLP's replacements definitely stepped up, as they sported an impressive 56 powers at Roses with a PPB over 22.5. Unlike last year, when they graduated nearly their entire program, SLP returns everyone for 2020-21, led by rising senior Thor Anderson, who did not start playing quiz bowl until his junior year but was one of the better generalists in the state last year. Especially given what SLP's 2018-19 team did, I would not be surprised if this year's team pushes up into the upper midfield.

Eden Prairie B: Generally, Eden Prairie's B team is higher in the rankings then I have them here. However, as I mentioned when talking about their A team, EP graduated an impressive amount of seniors this past summer, leaving their depth in question for 2020-21. If Sid Bommareddy doesn't make it to EP A, he should slot in as the top returning scorer for EP B, but beyond him there are a lot of open spots with the graduation of longtime EP players Keegan Wulf, Abhi Nallamalli, Rohin Gurumurthy, and Lincoln Arora. It will be up to Eden Prairie's younger players to replace them, and while on paper EP B looks to take a dive in the rankings, I would be remiss if I bet against the depth of a program rivaled only by Wayzata in that regard.

Wayzata C: This is a similar situation to EP B, although Wayzata graduated less seniors this past summer. The lower Wayzata teams tend to be a bit more fluid in their lineups, but Wayzata absolutely has the talent to replace players like Anuk Dias, Emily Liu, Rick Qian, and Samarth Ram that likely will move up to Wayzata B. One thing that Wayzata did benefit from last year was a very good class of freshmen from their middle schools, which I'm not sure will happen again. Regardless, Wayzata always impresses with their depth, and I don't think this year will be any different.

Saint Agnes A: Saint Agnes was one of the biggest surprises of last year. Relatively off the radar entering the season, they ended up finishing 6th at league and tied for 5th at Roses, with very impressive wins over Irondale A, Mounds View B, and Mounds View C. Saint Agnes followed that up with a win over Eden Prairie B at NAQT State, and had they not lost to Irondale in the next round, they would have made the top playoff pool. Saint Agnes does graduate one of their top scorers in Sara Foote, who split that duty with the returning Patrick Deavel. It will be up to Patrick and Saint Agnes' younger players to replicate that success this year, but after their performance last year (which earned them 11th place in the end of year poll), I have Saint Agnes A solidly in the midfield.

Irondale A: Irondale was one of the popular picks to break out last year, and while they saw some sucess, their results from last year were mixed. Irondale had very solid stats at nearly every tournament they attended, but aside from a 4th place finish at RAFT, they were largely unable to finish highly. Irondale graduates a number of important contributors, including Urbas Ekka and Connor Rautio, two of their top scorers. That said, they return a number of underclassmen who were impressive last year, led by former middle school powerhouse McCullen Willmert. In fact, aside from rising junior Xander Pichner, every returning Irondale player is a sophomore. This year may be another retooling year for Irondale, but they have the talent to become a very good program in the future.

Chaska A: I'm not really sure what to say about Chaska, because we were quite the enigma last year. On the plus side, we very nearly toppled Burnsville A at league night #3 last year (and were only 70 points away from going 12-0 and winning the south division entirely), and we also took Eden Prairie A to the very last tossup at TABLET II. However, we also had an abysmal 17 powers at Roses, never scored 400 points in a single game there, and played far too close to Eden Prairie F for comfort. Compounding the mystery, our Roses PPB of nearly 22 was actually pretty good for our T-9 finish. We also only graduate one senior, and I feel a lot more confident about our ability to cover the entire quiz bowl canon now than I did at this time last year. That said, our ability to scale up to regs sets reliably is questionable (though I was pleasantly surprised by our performance at league playoffs). All in all, I think Chaska A will remain a fairly streaky team next year, capable of holding up against solid midfield teams but also not as consistent as would be ideal.

Prior Lake A: Prior Lake is an interesting case, because they have traditionally only attended league and the South Suburban Conference Tounrnament, mostly focusing on Knowledge Bowl (and doing well at it; Prior Lake won the Knowledge Bowl State Tournament in 2019). However, they were registered for the 2020 HSNCT before it was cancelled, and they've been one of the south division's better teams for a few years now. Prior Lake also has one of the state's largest programs, taking an impressive ten teams to league, six of which finished .500 or better, led by their 9-3 A and B teams. Oddly enough, Prior Lake B had thirteen more powers in four fewer games than Prior Lake A did (a trend that repeated itself at TABLET I), although PL A had a slightly higher PPB. Only one player graduates from last year's PL A and none from PL B, leaving Prior Lake in a prime position to contend for another high seed out of the south league division. I've talked a bit to the Prior Lake coach and players at Knowledge Bowl events, and they seem fairly receptive to expanding further into quiz bowl (as evidenced by their HSNCT registration). It would be cool to see what they can do at Saturday quiz bowl meets.

St. Thomas Academy A: St. Thomas is a historical power in the Minnesota circuit, and while they're not what they used to be, STA can still put together a very competitive A team. They have a large class of seniors this year, led by Joseph Michel and Teddy Farrell, who, together, comprise a large chunk of STA's scoring from the past couple of years. Those two were unable to both attend many tournaments last year, which was a contributing factor to St. Thomas' relative fall in the rankings. Some bad breaks at league schedule-wise doomed them to a 7-5 finish, which missed the playoffs for the first time in the NAQT era (since 2006). That said, STA loses very little of their scoring from last year, leaving them with the firepower to make another run into the ranks of the state's better teams.

St. Paul Academy A: This is another team that's kind of fallen off the radar over the past few years, since the graduation of superb generalist Peter Blanchfield in 2018. While they didn't have any spectacular results last year, St. Paul Academy did have some nice power numbers at Roses, and I don't believe they lose much scoring to graduation. Perhaps they can improve this year and maybe pull off some upsets.

Conclusion

Wow, that was a lot of teams! I kind of got carried away there, but it was enjoyable to take a deeper look into the midfield for this first time in a while. One thing I noticed while looking through stats from last year is the talent of this year's senior class (the class of 2021). It encompasses all of the likely Wayzata A and Mounds View A, and also sports such players as EP's Jim Sweeney, Burnsville's Joe Schatz and Wyatt Isakson, Mounds Park's Isak Dai, and St. Louis Park's Thor Anderson, among many other very good players. With so many great seniors, this year may prove to be a highly competitive one.

I would love to hear everyone else's views on my analysis and the Minnesota circuit this year (whatever it ends up looking like), because I'm sure I missed something!

Good luck everyone!

Edit: Fixed a spelling error
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Re: Minnesota 2020-21

Post by Halinaxus »

Maxwell Ye from Mounds View High School has created a preseason poll for the 2020-21 Minnesota high school quiz bowl season. It can be found at https://forms.gle/i95VE3vkigC5KBoo7. Anyone with knowledge of the Minnesota circuit is invited to fill it out. You do not need to fill out all ten spots, and while justifications are appreciated, they are not required. Please provide the appropriate letter for each team you are ranking, even if you are only ranking one team from that school (eg, Mounds View B, Eden Prairie A).

The poll will close on Labor Day (Monday, September 7th, 2020).
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Re: Minnesota 2020-21

Post by Halinaxus »

The Minnesota circuit started off a bit early this year, with an online test meet run by Hentzel and the MQBA on September 3rd that was appropriately named MASQUE (Minneapolis Area Summer Quiz Using Electrons). It was a short, 16-team, 4-round meet used to test out Zoom as a platform for online quiz bowl, and from everything I've heard, it was pretty successful.

Wayzata A won the tournament, defeating Mounds View 475-270 in the final. Burnsville and Wayzata B tied for 3rd. My biggest observation regarding MASQUE was the fact that it ran so smoothly (at least as far as I could tell). Aside from one minor connection issue that was probably on our end, my team did not experience any issues with Zoom or buzzin.live, and from what I've heard, that experience was pretty normal. Hentzel and MQBA clearly did their homework when it comes to online quiz bowl, and it showed on Thursday. MASQUE definitely took away a lot of my worries about online quiz bowl.

Regarding team and individual performances, I have a few observations:

1. The tournament was run on an A set (IS-193A), so many power percentages were kind of insane. It was also only four games, so the results are far from definitive.

2. The midfield looks very tight this year. Aside from the top few teams, there was a lot of parity. Among the interesting results of this were 12th place Parnassus Prep being 6th in PPB while 6th place Irondale A was 15th, and 13th place Chaska finishing 6th in powers and 7th in PPG. We will need to wait for larger tournaments to separate these teams, and I am excited to hopefully play in a lot of evenly matched games this year.

3. Amogh Kulkarni is really, really, really good. We don't normally get to see Wayzata players generalize due to that program's outstanding depth, but with neither of the Shao twins playing at MASQUE, Amogh was by far Wayzata A's leading scorer. In fact, he was not horribly far away from Shardul's numbers, which venture into the realm of the absurd. I placed Mounds View A over Wayzata A in my preseason rankings, and while one game on an A set is not enough data to reverse that, Wayzata definitely impressed me last week.

Once again, I look forward to more tournaments this year, and I would love to hear everyone else's thoughts on the Minnesota circuit!
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Re: Minnesota 2020-21

Post by Halinaxus »

Minnesota high school quiz bowl kicked off for real yesterday with the first (and hopefully only) Thumb Race in Virtual Internet Areas (TRIVIA), an online meet that took the place of SOCIAL in the usual MN schedule. As usual, Hentzel and the MQBA did a fantastic job, and I was very impressed with how smoothly the meet went. Personally, I can recall just one tossup that was affected by tech issues in my team's games, although I imagine there were probably occasional issues in other games.

Wayzata A won the tournament to continue their undefeated start to the season, defeating Wayzata B in the final. It's worth noting that Mounds View and several of Eden Prairie's best players did not attend, but the midfield was well represented, as Burnsville, Irondale, Prior Lake, and Saint Agnes all attended, among others.

In my opinion, the biggest surprise of the tournament has to be Northfield, attending their third-ever quiz bowl meet (and their first against the rest of the MN circuit). Led by #2 overall scorer Owen Riley, they acquitted themselves solidly in the prelims before making a statement with a blowout win over EP A in the first playoff round and a solid first half against Wayzata A in the second round.

Prior Lake made a very nice impression on me as well. Previously a team that mostly played Knowledge Bowl, PL seems to be transitioning to a full-time member of the quiz bowl circuit, and they finished an extremely impressive third at TRIVIA. I hesitate to put too much weight on that finish because they played a really easy prelims schedule, but their playoff wins over Burnsville A and Wayzata D speak for themselves. Specifically, Morgan Bozeman really went off yesterday. His five and six-power games will get the attention, but it's worth noting that he had just one game under 50 PPG the entire tournament (and that was 45 PPG vs Wayzata B, hardly a poor performance). Morgan and PL are definitely a player and team to watch as the season goes on, especially if they keep attending non-league meets.

I'd like to give one other shoutout, to Colin Will of St. Paul Academy, who finished as the #4 scorer with 78 PPG. Although that number is significantly inflated by a pair of massive games against young opponents, Colin is just a sophomore this year and shows plenty of promise.

It looks like the opening nights of MNHSQBL play are coming up in a few weeks, and that will likely be the next large-scale MN tournament. Until then, I would love to hear everyone else's views on the Minnesota quiz bowl circuit!
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Re: Minnesota 2020-21

Post by Scone »

Last Saturday on the 21st, the middle school circuit finally kicked off with the NAMESAKE tournament. I had the honor of coaching Eden Prairie Central Middle School's first quiz bowl team in five years. We went 2-3. The team that won it all, with a 7-0 record and 21PPB, was Spectrum A. We lost to them during the prelims, and I was very impressed with the level they brought this early into the season. The runners-up were Wayzata (Central) A, who we also got smacked by. Edgewood and Wayzata B were the other two teams to make it to the playoffs.

This tournament only had 10 teams total, and we didn't get to see any of the other top teams from last year like St. Louis Park, Providence, or Mounds Park (though from my research, Mounds Park graduated a lot of eighth graders last year). As such, it would be much to early to try and produce a definitive ranking of all of the teams. Nevertheless, I'm interested to see how the middle school circuit evolves competitively!
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Re: Minnesota 2020-21

Post by Halinaxus »

Maxwell Ye from Mounds View has created a midseason poll for ranking Minnesota high school teams. It can be found at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIp ... w/viewform. Anyone with knowledge about the Minnesota circuit is encouraged to fill it out. The poll will be open until December 28th, unless stats from the most recent league competition are posted soon, in which case it will close on January 2nd.

Happy Holidays, everyone!
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Re: Minnesota 2020-21

Post by Halinaxus »

It's been quite a while since anyone posted on here, but with the MNHSQBL playoffs quickly approaching, I figured I would share my thoughts on the field. I originally set up the bracket and made my predictions, but some people on Discord pointed out that we don't know for sure how Hentzel plans on seeding the bracket this year with there being only two divisions instead of the usual three (not to mention Chaska and Mounds Park being exactly tied in PPG). So, instead of posting that here, I'm going to run down the list of teams that qualified and share my thoughts on them.

Division II Qualifiers

Wayzata: I consider defending champion Wayzata to be the odds-on favorite. I know they lost to Mounds View in the prelims, but Wayzata has won nearly every Minnesota tournament their A team has attended for the past several years, and they've been putting up better stats than Mounds View this year (albeit not by very much). This year's Wayzata A isn't unbeatable, but I expect them to take home the trophy on Thursday.

Mounds View: The 2019 champions and the team that has the best chance of knocking off Wayzata, Mounds View will be looking to improve on last year's third-place finish. They definitely have the firepower to beat Wayzata, and showed it in a 540-380 win over them in round seven of the prelims. Shardul's power numbers are down from his record-breaking 2019-20 season, but he's still the most dangerous quiz bowl player in Minnesota by a wide margin, and Maxwell is quietly having a very stellar year. I have Mounds View as the runner-ups, but they are very capable of beating Wayzata and claiming the top spot.

Eden Prairie: EP isn't as dominant as they once were, but they're still a dangerous team. Last year, they knocked Mounds View out and even took a game off of Wayzata in the final. This year's team isn't as balanced as last year's, but Jim and Samir are both superb players and I would be remiss to count EP out. Given how deep the midfield is this year I think it's possible that Burnsville or Mounds Park could upset EP deep in the playoffs, but this is the third-best team in the bracket on paper.

Mounds Park: It's the end of an era for Mounds Park, as Isak Dai will be graduating this summer after seven-plus seasons of being one of the best generalists in the state. He doesn't attend many non-league tournaments anymore, so Thursday may end up being one of his final high school tournaments. Along with longtime teammates Ryan Ghose and Hana Miller, Isak will be trying to help Mounds Park to another top-5 finish. Due to the depth of the field this year, Mounds Park will likely have to beat Burnsville to reach that goal, something they were unable to do last year. Otherwise, Mounds Park will likely finish as a very respectable T-6.

Rosemount: Although the records don't show it (both Mounds Park and Rosemount are 8-4), there's a significant gulf between the top four and bottom four playoff qualifiers from division II. Rosemount was led to their first playoff appearance since a sixth-place finish in 2014 by history-based generalist Carter Sikorski, although they did benefit somewhat from scheduling luck. As they don't attend many tournaments, it's a little hard to get a picture of just how good Rosemount is. I have them as a T-9 in my predictions, but they are likely to play Chaska at some point (likely in the opening round) with a win bumping them to the T-6 line.

Shakopee: After three straight years of finishing 8-4 and barely missing the playoffs, Shakopee finally broke through this year to make their first appearance in the playoffs. On paper, they're the worst team in the field, with just ten powers over twelve preliminary games. However, they did manage to win several close games to make the playoffs, so maybe Shakopee's got some more magic in them.

Hudson: Another team that benefited from the schedule, Hudson started 1-5 but then reeled off five wins in a row to make the playoffs for the first time in three years. They boast one of the top freshmen this year, Aaron Marchand, as well as a few solid upperclassmen. I have Hudson beating DeLaSalle to finish as a T-9, but T-13 may be the more realistic outcome.

Minnetonka: It seems like every year Minnetonka sneaks into the playoffs and pulls an upset. They also have an impressive freshman, Andy Petouvis, and overall Minnetonka's program is very young, with just one junior and no seniors. I don't see Minnetonka winning any playoff games this year, but this will be a program to watch in the future.

Division III Qualifiers

Burnsville: They suffered their first prelim loss in three years two weeks ago to St. Thomas Academy, but Burnsville remains the class of the midfield. The question coming into this year for Burnsville was who would handle the science and literature in a team full of history players, but they seem to have that figured out. On paper Burnsville is likely the fourth-best team in the field, but they are capable either of knocking off EP and claiming third place (as they did in 2019), or dropping a game to another midfield team like Mounds Park, Prior Lake, or Northfield and finishing in fifth or sixth.

Prior Lake: PL was able to topple Burnsville at TRIVIA and RAT-RACE, but they were one tossup short of doing it again in the league prelims. A win over Northfield netted them second place in pool iii, and a good spot in the bracket from which to make a run into the top five. The one question that remains facing Prior Lake is how they will perform on regular-difficulty questions, and their performance on Thursday will go a long way in answering that question.

Northfield: Owen and co. actually had more powers than Burnsville in the prelims, but a pair of close losses to Burnsville and Prior Lake dropped them to 10-2 and the third team out of division iii. They'll likely get another crack at Prior Lake in the playoffs, and if Owen and cut down on his negging, perhaps Northfield can make the top five.

Chaska: Chaska carved out a nice little niche this year, keeping our games against the top three fairly close (something most of the other 8-4 teams didn't do) and avoiding any close calls from the teams below us. We'll likely need to beat Rosemount in the playoffs to replicate last year's T-6 finish, and while Carter does tend to beat me to history, I think my teammates Rand and Jamie will have the edge on regs-level science and literature, allowing Chaska to secure our place at the back of the midfield.

St. Paul Academy: SPA was up and down in the prelims, pairing solid performances against Prior Lake, Parnassus Prep, and STA with a head-scratching loss to Providence. They are led by senior Noel Abraham and sophomore Colin Will, who was one of the better freshmen in the state last year. In my bracket, I have SPA unluckily running into MPA twice and getting knocked out as a T-9, but SPA upset STA in the 2019 playoffs and has the firepower to pull an upset this year as well.

DeLaSalle: DLS doesn't have the greatest stats or the most impressive wins, but they did take care of business against the teams they played. I have DeLaSalle losing to Hudson in the second round, but a good performance could push them into T-9 territory.

St. Thomas Academy: STA has also been an enigma this year as they returned to the playoffs after a one-year absence. They started 8-1 and inflicted Burnsville A's only loss, but finished 0-3 with just one power in each of those games. Joseph Michel can be an elite player when he is playing well, and he's got a solid supporting cast. They will likely have to pull an upset to be a T-6 as opposed to T-9, but they already did that once to Burnsville and absolutely can do it again to Prior Lake or Northfield.

Blake: The beneficiary of a tiebreaker tournament after they finished 7-4-1 because of a wrong-packet mixup in one of their prelim games, Blake returns to the playoffs for the first time since 2018. They are led by generalist Ale Perri, and while Blake's stats this year aren't the greatest, generalists are always dangerous.

After looking at all the teams, it sticks out to me just how strong the midfield is this year. The sixteen playoff teams are a pretty accurate representation of the top sixteen quiz bowl programs in Minnesota (Irondale is the only big snub, I think), and I expect there will be a lot of competitive quiz bowl matches on Thursday. I would love to hear everyone else's thoughts on the playoffs!

Good luck!
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Re: Minnesota 2020-21

Post by BenWeiner27 »

With League Playoffs being tomorrow night, I figured I would simulate the (projected) bracket for the tournament to see what the odds are of each team winning. I've listed the results below. A couple of things to note about this simulation:

1. ELO rankings were calculated using every match played on NAQT sets with a result in the NAQT database that was played in the state of Minnesota since 2003-04.
2. These specific ELO rankings weight this year's league matches 4 times the normal weight for a league regular season match.
3. This simulation was conduction with 1,000,000 trials, and results are listed in the table as a percentage.

Rank. Team (ELO) % Champion / % Runner-Up
1. Wayzata (2376) 70.53/20.42
2. Mounds View (2259) 26.15/48.60
3. Eden Prairie (2091) 2.50/17.66
4. Burnsville (1973) 0.58/7.26
5. Prior Lake (1938) 0.18/4.03
6. Mounds Park (1834) 0.04/1.11
7. Northfield (1774) 0.01/0.47
8. St. Thomas Academy (1745) 0.004/0.19
9. Rosemount (1712) 0.002/0.11
10. St. Paul Academy (1660) 0.0008/0.05
11. Chaska (1669) 0.0007/0.0466
12. Minnetonka (1601) 0.0002/0.0142
13. DeLaSalle (1648) 0.0001/0.02
14. Shakopee (1504) 0.00/0.0013
15. Hudson (1570) 0.00/0.006
16. Blake (1549) 0.00/0.0016

Good luck to all the teams competing tomorrow night!
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Re: Minnesota 2020-21

Post by Halinaxus »

League playoffs happened last night, so here's the write-up.

The first and second rounds passed without much incident, the only games of note being Rosemount's narrow win over Chaska in the 8-9 game and Northfield's near-upset of Mounds View, in which Owen went 8/1 but Northfield was undone by their poor performance on bonuses/lightning rounds. In the third round, however, the fireworks began with Burnsville absolutely annihilating Mounds View 685-195 behind 13 (!) powers, including 7 from Julian Banlao, who has gone from ~20 PPG to one of the best players in the state in just a couple of months, a truly meteoric rise.

Burnsville went on to defeat Wayzata as well, forcing them into the one-loss bracket, where they defeated Prior Lake and Mounds View to force an advantaged final. Wayzata won the first rematch in a landslide, but Burnsville battled back to keep the winner-take-all second game close, before Wayzata narrowly won at the end to take home their second straight MNHSQBL championship. Mounds View defeated Eden Prairie to take third place, and Prior Lake rounded out the top 5.

Judging by the conversations on Discord last night and this morning, I think I speak for almost everyone when I say that Burnsville's performance is the top story. Burnsville has been the class of the midfield for half a decade now, but they had never pushed into the top tier until now. Adding Julian seems to have pushed them over the top, and they will be looking to knock off Wayzata and Mounds View again during the rest of the season.

The next-biggest surprise, in my opinion, was Rosemount. This is a team that had narrowly missed the playoffs for several straight seasons before finally making it this year. In Chaska's match vs. Rosemount, I was very impressed by their balance; although the stats may show they are very reliant on history-based generalist Carter Sikorski, his teammates are all solid players. Rosemount went on to beat a sneaky good St. Paul Academy team before nearly toppling Prior Lake, a performance that puts them on the radar entering the stretch run.

I'd like to talk a bit about Prior Lake as well. Entering last night, the only question remaining about them was how they would perform on regular-difficulty questions, and while they certainly had some good games (twice hitting 8 powers), they also struggled against quality opponents, particularly in a pair of losses to Eden Prairie. Morgan Bozeman was held to 0-1 powers in four of his six games, and although his teammates picked up the slack somewhat, the questions surrounding Prior Lake's ability to scale up remain. PL is registered for SnowCAT next weekend, and their performance there will go a long way toward determining their place in the pecking order the rest of the way.

The circuit does not get much of a layoff, as most teams are playing Run for the Roses tomorrow, which with the absence of Wayzata A-C (off playing Prison Bowl) and Mounds View (which will be entering a team of less-experienced players) has a wide-open field, even more so after Burnsville's emergence. SnowCAT, scheduled for February 20th, also has an imposing field that includes nearly all of the top ten, excepting only Burnsville.

As always, I would love to hear everyone else's thoughts on the circuit, and good luck at tournaments the rest of the way, Minnesotans!
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Re: Minnesota 2020-21

Post by Scone »

Run for the Roses happened. Burnsville A defeated Eden Prairie A to take first place, and Eden Prairie only managed to qualify 2 of our 4 intended teams for nationals. So since my school isn't doing well in high school quiz bowl, I'm not going to talk about that and am instead going to talk about middle schoolers!

In January, two middle school tournaments occurred: LARGESSE and GEMSTONE, which were won by Churchill A and Burleigh Manor A respectively. I think now (over 2 weeks later, when I finally got off of my lazy bum to write this) would be a good time to reflect on the state of the Minnesota MS circuit, and I will provide such reflection in the form of a tier list! The tiers go from S to C, and by no means is this an exhaustive list. Of course, everything here is my opinion. Along with each team, I’ve listed the placings (relative to MN teams, not absolute) and PPBs for the three tournaments that have occurred.

S-tier: I consider this tier to be the teams that are contenders to win an all-MN tournament, and there is only one team that fits the bill.

Spectrum A: 1st 21, 1st 23, 1st 22

Undoubtedly the best Minnesota team. They seem to have a well-rounded cast of 8th graders, with Brycen Jones consistently being their top scorer. Unfortunately, the only thing I can say about subject specialties is that Marin Burg is good at lit. I expect them to continue to sit at the top of the food chain.

A-tier: I consider this to be the teams that are finals contenders for an all-MN tournament.

Wayzata Central A: 2nd 19, 2nd 20, 2nd 21

Undoubtedly the second best Minnesota team. They experimented with their roster a while before settling on a balanced group of 8th graders at GEMSTONE (where they crushed us). The only time they and Spectrum have clashed was at NAMESAKE, where Spectrum won by a two-question margin. I’m putting them in A-tier because Spectrum has better stats and has came first in every tournament so far.

Edgewood A: 3rd 18, 3rd 20, 3rd 17

Undoubtedly the third best Minnesota team. I have not gotten to play them yet, and I hope to do so in the future. They are led by 8th grader Cy Treuenfels who has a contingent of supporting 7th graders. They did lose to Spectrum A in the GEMSTONE prelims.

B-tier: I consider this to be teams that are likely to make playoffs at an all-MN tournament.

Wayzata Central B: 4th 15, 14th 15, 10th 17

Wayzata B beat us at NAMESAKE in a really close game that came down to 5 points! I do have to call them the better time overall, though, and I think their placings in LARGESSE and GEMSTONE don’t do justice to how good they are. But being beaten 705-0 by Middlesex B in LARGESSE and 570-50 by Longfellow B in GEMSTONE doesn’t do much for confidence in upcoming rounds. If Wayzata B plays in an MN-only tournament where their soul isn’t crushed, then I think they will do very well. Also, their roster includes some 5th and 6th graders. Quite scary!

Eden Prairie Central: 5th 12, 4th 12, 12th 18

EP got a very lucky schedule at LARGESSE followed by a very unlucky schedule GEMSTONE. Interestingly enough, they have not made the playoffs of any tournament so far, but truthfully, they have the potential to. Sure, call me biased, but EP’s dramatically improved PPB at GEMSTONE speaks volumes. Whoever coaches them must be doing a pretty good job.

Spectrum B: 7th 11, 8th 14, 6th 14

Another team we haven’t faced but would like to. At LARGESSE, they beat Wayzata Central B by about a 3-question margin. Their roster varies, so I can't quite nail them down.

Providence A: NA NA, 9th 15, 4th 15

Providence was not on my radar until they had a stand-out performance at GEMSTONE, ultimately defeated by Edgewood in the playoffs. They seem to have gotten a lot better with the buzzer, as their players’s individual PPGs went way up. It will be interesting to see if they can sustain this performance.

C-tier: I’m not really sure what to call this tier. I suppose it’s teams that I found with consistently good stats and that could give B-tier teams a run for their money.

Holy Family A: 6th 11, 10th 13, 8th 14

DaVinci Academy A/B: 8th 11, 5th 15, 11th 13

Mounds Park B: NA NA, 6th 12, 7th, 15

Providence B: NA NA, 10th 15, 9th 13

The next (and last) MQBA tournament is DIATOMS on March 13th, which is unique in having an 8th and 7th grade division. There is still going to be a significant non-MN presence. My co-coach Anna and I have been toying with the idea of hosting a MN-only tournament on an mACF set such as ERIS. If you are a coach who wants to get in on this idea, or a random observer who knows a thing or two about running tournaments, then feel free to contact me!
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Re: Minnesota 2020-21

Post by Scone »

The Gopher Spring Tournament happened on March 13th. Wayzata A won very convincingly, with Mounds View second, Carmel A third, and EP A fourth. There's also a postseason poll that Maxwell is running that closes on March 27th here: https://forms.gle/n5yUZXEpdey4FcjcA.

But you all know the real reason I'm posting here, right? That's right. DIATOMS happened.

First noteworthy thing: Wayzata Central A placed first among the MN teams. They even managed to beat Spectrum A in the prelims by 15 points, and then they beat Barrington Station by 60 before going down to North Gwinnett. Additionally, they put up 23.15 PPB, which is a marked improvement over previous tournament (in fact, it seems like everyone in the program improved; EP played their C team, which had some players we had seen before on their B team, and even they seemed like they got better). This is not terribly surprising, as it was known that Wayzata A is a scary team.

Second noteworthy thing: Spectrum B placed second, while Spectrum A placed third. Huh? On closer inspection, it seems like Spectrum A were unlucky with the seeding: their schedule was St. Charles Borromeo from Minnesota (W), Cistercian B (W), Great Valley A (L), Challenger Almaden (L), and Wayzata Central A (L). Spectrum B played St. Charles Borromeo from Michigan (W), Teasley A (W), Howard A (L), Sacred Heart A (W), and Providence A (W).

Third noteworthy thing: EP A placed 4th, and we got a win against Edgewood in the prelims. Yay us! Admittedly, this is because we put all of our 8th graders in that round. I've come to the realization that throughout this season, EP really should have been playing with two different teams instead of lumping everyone into one. All of the players get less playing time, and there is a lot of variability in the team roster so I can't actually judge how good the team is. Such are the lessons learned of a first-time coach.

Fourth noteworthy thing: Holy Family placed 5th. They won a close win against Providence B to end up with a 2-3 record, and this is probably why they were ranked over Edgewood, who placed 6th and went 1-4 but had a much better PPB.

Fifth noteworthy thing: I can sit here and speculate all day about how good all of the Minnesota teams are stacking up to each other, but in the end, none of that matters. The Minnesota circuit this year did not exist. With the exception of NAMESAKE, there were no Minnesota tournaments. Instead, a lot of Minnesota teams showed up to what amount to nation-wide invitationals. And since we were unwittingly playing in nation-wide invitationals, we played a lot of teams around the nation, and they showed that Minnesota is not good enough. Spectrum A is good enough, Wayzata Central A is good enough, but we are not. In the oldendays, when we played in a local circuit, we would have thought ourselves as the "midfield" of the Minnesota circuit. We would jostle for position to see who could make a bold run to the semifinals, or we would see who could beat one of the top dogs in an upset victory.

But the Minnesota circuit does not exist. The only circuit that mattered this year is the national circuit. And we are not good enough.

Oh, who am I kidding, of course we're good enough. We're Minnesota! We will try again next year, and we will awe the nation with the force of a mighty river and with the grace of a Lakota Sun Dance.
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Re: Minnesota 2020-21

Post by Halinaxus »

With nationals just around the corner, I figure it's time for a preview of the Minnesota teams that will be attending. As of this morning, there are 15 Minnesota teams registered for HSNCT (plus Hudson, which despite being physically located in Wisconsin is basically a Minnesota team). This is down from 2019 when 25 teams attended, but it's still decent turnout given the unprecedented nature of this year. In addition, four MN teams are signed up for PACE (plus one more on the waitlist) and three are planning to attend ONCT.

Unfortunately, Minnesota will not be at full strength for HSNCT as teams 2, 3, 7, and 9 from the postseason poll all will not attend. Of the teams that are attending, here is my analysis of each one:

Wayzata A is far and away the best Minnesota team on national difficulty questions, particularly with the absences of Mounds View and Eden Prairie. Rising up to #4 in the pre-HSNCT Groger Ranks, they are undefeated since early March, a run that includes clearing the field at the Midwest mirror of STASH with nearly 6.5 powers per game and almost 23 PPB. Amogh Kulkarni's runner-up IPNCT performance speaks for itself, and he'll be joined by three elite specialists in Bryanna Shao, Aneesh Swaminathan, and Samarth Ram. It's worth noting that Wayzata's usual A team science player, Emily Liu, will not be attending HSNCT, but Wayzata has tremendous depth and I don't think her absence will hurt them too terribly much. This is a team that is probably better-suited to PACE-style quiz bowl than NAQT, but Wayzata has so much talent that I would not at all be surprised to see them in the top 8.

Burnsville A was the surprise of the year in the Minnesota circuit. Burnsville has long been a solid regs squad that struggled to scale up and beat good teams, but the addition of Julian Banlao midway through the year changed that in a big way. Julian's meteoric rise from a low-PPG player to an elite generalist in the span of a few months is probably unparallelled in the history of Minnesota high school quiz bowl, and it allowed Burnsville to finally break into the top tier. Since adding Julian, Burnsville is 30-3 with a state championship, a pair of wins over Wayzata, and an upset of Beavercreek A. The big asterisk with Burnsville is that they generally stick to NAQT tournaments and almost never play anything harder than regular difficulty. The only hard set they played this year was WORKSHOP, where playing without Julian they struggled to a last-place finish with just three powers and a PPB barely over 10. Playing HSNCT with Julian will no doubt be significantly easier than playing WORKSHOP without him, though. I truly don't know what to expect from Burnsville this year; they could probably make a solid playoff run or fail to make Sunday entirely.

Wayzata B is another sleeper team in my book. They are ranked in the mid-50s on Groger Ranks, but those don't account for the extremely fluid lineup Wayzata B had this year, with players frequently moving up to A team and down to C team. In fact, Wayzata C was actually ranked higher than Wayzata B in the pre-nationals rankings. Regardless of who ends up on this team, it will have four very good players in their respective categories, and unlike Burnsville there are no questions about Wayzata B's ability to scale up to nats difficulty. Expect to see them stick around at least a few hours into Sunday.

Wayzata extended their own record by qualifying an absurd eight (!!!) teams for HSNCT this year (although they're only taking seven), and the incredible depth that allowed them to achieve that is reflected by Wayzata C, which boasts a criminally underrated literature player in Nathan Wu, who has flown under the radar this year due to the presence of Bryanna and Cece Shao above him on the depth chart. Wayzata C's roster is even harder to predict than Wayzata B's, but they will almost certainly be good enough to make the playoffs.

The performance of Mounds Park A will depend in large part on whether it's actually Mounds Park A that shows up. Isak Dai has been better about attending tournaments this year than he was as a junior, and I don't think he's missed HSNCT before. However, I did see that Mounds Park added and then dropped a B team, so I think it's possible we'll see the Anthony Troullier-led Mounds Park B team that attended SSNCT tomorrow instead. Anthony is a fast-improving player and his SSNCT performance was quite impressive, but HSNCT is another animal. If Isak plays, Mounds Park may have a shot at the playoffs, but without him I expect them to be below .500 in the prelims.

Wayzata D is always a strong team at the local level, but I think it's here that Wayzata finally runs out of firepower. Their D team will have strong science and literature coverage because Wayzata has an abundance of players in those categories, but I'd be quite surprised to see them in the playoffs.

Irondale A is among the youngest teams in Minnesota, and they've been really good about attending harder tournaments this year, which I think will pay off at HSNCT. Puna Ekka isn't going to take over games at nats difficulty like he can at lower levels, but his teammates are all solid specialists and they'll be able to pick up most of the slack. The exciting thing about Irondale is that aside from Xander Pichner, all of their top players are underclassmen, and even Xander will be back next year as a senior. It's not Irondale's time yet, but it will be soon. Look for them to sit around the .500 mark in the prelims.

Chaska A is, as usual, a somewhat unique case. We struggled mightily at HSNCT two years ago but have made massive strides since then, particularly in literature, RMPSS, and fine arts. That said, we've focused so much on just having coverage in those areas over the past year that scaling to high difficulties has been somewhat neglected, particularly in literature. The number of HSNCT-level lit tossups that have been going dead at practice lately really concerns me. However, our power numbers are way up from 2019 levels, which is a good sign. Chaska has always been a really streaky team, so while we're probably going to have a really bad game or two tomorrow, hopefully we can play well enough to reach the .500 mark, which is our goal for this year.

Wayzata E was ranked 14th in the Minnesota postseason poll, over the A teams from all but eight other schools. Perhaps someone from Wayzata can provide more info about what this team will look like tomorrow, because by my count at least 18 people have played on it this year. Based on historical results, I expect Wayzata E to grab about three wins tomorrow.

St. Thomas Academy A can be a really dangerous team when they have their full roster, which they often didn't this year. Addie Cooper, Joseph Michel, Teddy Farrell, and Alex Mohs provide decent coverage of most of the canon, although I don't think STA has a true lit player, which will hurt them big-time this weekend. Still, STA has enough pockets of deep knowledge to net them at least a couple prelim wins.

St. Paul Academy A is another streaky midfield team. Noel Abraham and Colin Will have both shown they can take over games at lower difficulties, although they've both had struggles scaling up. I'd be surprised to see SPA win more than a couple games tomorrow, but they have some solid underclassmen with bright futures.

Wayzata F received a vote in the end-of-season poll and is better than a lot of A teams around the state. They'll grab a couple of wins tomorrow as well.

I expect Burnsville B to be outmatched a bit tomorrow; they qualified for HSNCT at JACKPOT on the strength of Julian's performance before he was promoted to A team. Still, the players on this team will have a lot of quiz bowl experience and they'll hopefully get to play some competitive games tomorrow afternoon.

DeLaSalle A only attended the Minnesota High School Quiz Bowl League, where they snuck into the playoffs (and an HSNCT qualification slot) with an 8-4 record. DLS did not win a playoff game or have more than 4 powers per game at league (which is run on an A set), so I expect them to struggle at HSNCT. Still, it's nice to see the DeLaSalle program return to nationals for the first time since 2018.

Hudson A is in a similar category as DeLaSalle in that they're a historically succssful program that's fallen on hard times lately. Freshman Aaron Marchand has been really solid this year on lower difficulties, but scaling up has been his kryptonite, which doesn't bode well for HSNCT. Still, Aaron's among the better freshmen in the state this year and looks like a future star in the making.

Finally, Wayzata G makes its triumphant return to HSNCT following a three-year absence. This team is so good they need no introduction, and I look forward to seeing them meet TJ G in the grand final Sunday evening!

Notably absent from the above list are three of Minnesota's best teams: Mounds View A, Eden Prairie A, and Northfield A. Mounds View is unfortunately not attending any nationals this year, while EP and Northfield are each attending both PACE and ONCT but not HSNCT. It's a shame that so many good MN teams aren't playing tomorrow, but I still look forward to seeing what we all can do. I'd also love to see everyone else's thoughts on the various Minnesota teams, because I'm sure I missed some things.

Good luck everyone!
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Re: Minnesota 2020-21

Post by Halinaxus »

With HSNCT finishing up last night (congratulations Barrington!), here is my analysis of how the 16 Minnesota teams performed.

Wayzata A was the only Minnesota team to make the playoffs, and while they suffered an unfortunate prelim upset to Solon B, Wayzata overall performed well, collecting very nice wins over St. Mark's, Blair, and Ridgewood. Both of their playoff losses (to Uni Lab and DCDS) came down to the last tossup, and Wayzata also boasted the third-highest PPB of the tournament. They'll look to improve on their T-8 finish at PACE next weekend, where the change in distribution will likely work in their favor.

Wayzata B started the tournament fairly strong at 3-1, but a run of close losses in rounds 6-8 (by 10, 70, and 5 points, respectively) knocked them out of playoff contention. This team's neg rate was significantly above average, which proved to be a bit of an Achilles' heel yesterday. Wayzata B will also look to finish higher in the standings at PACE next weekend.

Wayzata C finished just one place below Wayzata B in the standings and had very similar stats. After an impressive 3-0 start, they went only 1-4 the rest of the way, dropping a tight one to Beavercreek B in round 10 to miss the playoffs. In my team's game against Wayzata C, Nathan Wu showed very impressive literature coverage, although his teammates seemed a little weak on history. Wayzata C is attending PACE, although I'm not sure if the lineup will look any different.

Ten spots back we find Wayzata D, which also started 3-1 before running into a tough schedule. Even though Wayzata B, C, and D all finished a game short of the playoffs, the fact that the top four Minnesota teams were Wayzata A-D speaks volumes about just how amazing their program is.

Irondale is the fifth (and first non-Wayzata) Minnesota team in the standings, and they are likely the MN team that most outperformed their expectations entering HSNCT. Although they got thumped pretty good by Wayzata C, Irondale bounced back with extremely impressive wins over Troy (MI), Hoover B, and Hunter B (!). Xander Pichner continued his strong 2021 campaign by putting up over 40 PPG (including a 3-7-0 performance against Troy), and Puna Ekka showed he can scale solidly as well. Irondale's PPB tailed off a bit toward the end of the day, but this team returns all four players for next year (three of them are only sophomores!). If they continue to study, I can see Irondale joining the ranks of the top MN teams next year.

It's the end of an era for Mounds Park, as Isak Dai, who has been an elite quiz bowler seemingly forever, played in his last high school quiz bowl tournament. Isak regressed slightly from his 2019 HSNCT performance, but he still led Mounds park to a solid 4-4 record. His successor, Anthony Troullier, struggled quite a bit, although I'm guessing at least some of that was due to Isak's shadow. Still, one only has to look at Anthony's SSNCT performance to see how good he's going to be for the next two years.

Rounding out the six Minnesota teams that finished 4-4 is Chaska. We alternated wins and losses all day, consistently putting up about 200 points. Our highlights included a win over a playoff team in Texas Math and Science and a near-upset of Beavercreek B (who ended up tying for 31st) in which we flubbed two tossups that, had we converted, likely would have put us in front. Beavercreek B was the anti-Minnesota this weekend, winning close games against us, Wayzata B, and Wayzata C to stop us making the playoffs. Although Chaska graduates much of our science, literature, and fine arts coverage in Rand Bovard and Jamie Lyman, I'm excited to see what we can do next year.

Without a doubt, the most disappointing Minnesota team this year was Burnsville A, which was absolutely snakebitten yesterday. They lost each of their first two games by just five points, and then after their best player (Julian Banlao) found his groove with a 3-3-0 performance, he had to leave. Even without Julian, Burnsville took Miami Valley to within one tossup before dropping a game by 10 points to a statistically inferior Gunn team, eliminating them from the playoffs. Although it's easy to blame their failures on an inability to scale (Joe and Wyatt combined for about 1 power per game), I think the bigger culprits here are Julian's afternoon absence and appallingly bad luck in close games. Burnsville's 282.5 PPG would have placed them 7th among the 58 4-4 teams and was higher than so many playoff squads that I stopped counting after thirty (yes, 30).

Wayzata F outperformed Wayzata E on the strength of a 70 PPG, All-Star performance by Vennela Dupati. Although she had just three powers, converting 53 HSNCT-level tossups is no easy feat, especially for a sophomore.

St. Thomas Academy was also a victim of close losses. None of their players' performances sticks out too much to me, although I will note that next year will likely be a retooling year for STA as they graduate most of their top scorers.

Wayzata E failed to power until round 9 but still finished 3-5 on the strength of their bonus conversion and above-average number of tens.

St. Paul Academy also struggled to scale up to nats-difficulty, although several of their players from this weekend are underclassmen, which is a good sign for the future of their program.

Hudson put up an impressive eleven powers, although their bonus conversion was subpar. The noteworthy thing about Hudson is that their top two scorers were freshmen, including a solid 29 PPG from Aaron Marchand.

DeLaSalle started very slowly (failing to score more than 65 points in four of their first six games) but improved significantly later on in the tournament. As DLS only played league this year, I think the difficulty of the questions may have surprised them. DeLaSalle also boasted a freshman as their leading scorer, although the rest of their team was seniors and will be graduating this summer.

Burnsville B also struggled, although they picked up a tight win over DeLaSalle on the way to a 2-6 finish. With the graduation of Joe, Wyatt, and Nate, Burnsville may be in for a dip in the rankings next year, although Julian's return will heavily mitigate that.

The most epic game in the history of HSNCT happened in round 10, when Wayzata G and TJ G met in a titanic clash. Although TJ won to take home the trophy, I have it on good authority that Wayzata H is going to be in attendance at HSNCT in 2022 (Wayzata H did actually qualify this year, although they didn't attend). We'll see if TJ can keep up...

I want to end by congratulating all 16 Minnesota teams on making it to nationals this year. Way to represent the state, and I look forward to seeing what MN can do next year!
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Re: Minnesota 2020-21

Post by Serpentine284 »

I don't post nearly enough on here, so I guess to spare Reilly the feat of writing another long-ish forums post, I'll quickly run through how Minnesota looks at PACE NSC. Unfortunately, NSC attracts significantly less Minnesota teams, due to a combination of very little non-NAQT administered tournaments in the region and due to the high costs of sending teams to two national tournaments. However, there are still 4, perhaps 5, teams from Minnesota attending NSC, so let's run through them.

1. Wayzata A

Out of the Minnesota teams attending NSC, we're most likely the favorites to make the deepest run. Our roster isn't massively different from our HSNCT roster. The notable exception to this is the substitution of Aneesh Swaminathan for Emily Liu, another very solid science player. Hopefully, we do better than our HSNCT run, given that the distribution of NSC highly favors our team (higher rates of literature and RMPSS, especially). Of course, a lot of other national teams have more experience than us on mACF sets, but I think that with sufficient preparation and the right packets, we have at least a shot, however small, at winning the whole thing. We'll see, though.

2. Northfield A

Outside of Wayzata A, I'd wager Northfield will have the next deepest run. Led by history/literature/myth (I think) specialist Owen Riley, this team has solid supplementation from the rest of their team, and their focus on humanities should definitely serve them well at NSC. If Owen or someone else from Northfield wants to talk more in-depth about them, they are more than welcome to because my knowledge of their team is very limited to the (I think) two games we played against them this whole year.

3. Wayzata B

Wayzata B is coming off a whooping finish with a whoooooole lot of negs at HSNCT. Luckily for them, NSC does not deduct points for interrupts and rewards 20 point powers, so this format should massively benefit them. They also will add Aneesh to their roster, and just by looking off of Aneesh's HSNCT stats, you know that this is going to make them a lot better. I would wager that you'll see Wayzata B do a lot better at NSC than you saw at HSNCT.

4. Wayzata C

Wayzata C's core roster of Ashmit, Leon, and Nathan does not change from HSNCT. This team will be adding generalist Sidarth Gazula and science specialist Andrew Yang to their roster, though, so this will still be a deadly team to play against. I really don't know how their performance at NSC will compare to HSNCT, but I do expect them to do decently well.

5. Eden Prairie A?

This is a question mark team, namely for two reasons. One, EP is still on the waitlist, so the chances that they are even able to attend NSC are looking pretty bleak right now. Two, even if they do attend, who knows how well this team will do. The only mACF tournament they played this year was LONE STAR, a regs tournament, and they were even shorthanded then. From just my outside perspective, their top scorer, history-based generalist Jim Sweeney, seems more suited for HSNCT questions than NSC questions. If they do get off the waitlist, though, I will be watching this team closely, because I am excited to see how they do. In my opinion, they could place anywhere from top of third bracket to near the bottom, just because of how stacked this NSC field is.

That about wraps up anything that I have to say on the matter. If anyone wants to add on to anything I said, feel free to post about it. Also, with this season wrapping up, I would like to say that it's been a really fun experience playing with everyone on MNQB circuit and interacting with people throughout the years. It is unfortunate that this online setting is how us seniors have to part with the rest of you, but I'm excited to see the vibrancy of the circuit next year when it's back to in person. I would also like to give a huge shout-out to Reilly and Samir for basically carrying this forums thread this past year. Hopefully, even after they graduate, people will still be interested and excited to discuss our circuit. Thanks, everyone!
Amogh Kulkarni
Wayzata 2018-2021
Chicago 2021-2023
GSU 2023-2025
matthewspatrick
Lulu
Posts: 76
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:30 am
Location: Wilmington, DE

Re: Minnesota 2020-21

Post by matthewspatrick »

Halinaxus wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 4:32 pm The most epic game in the history of HSNCT happened in round 10, when Wayzata G and TJ G met in a titanic clash. Although TJ won to take home the trophy, I have it on good authority that Wayzata H is going to be in attendance at HSNCT in 2022 (Wayzata H did actually qualify this year, although they didn't attend). We'll see if TJ can keep up...
It was a very closely contested match!

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Patrick Matthews
University of Pennsylvania 1989-94
NAQT Member Emeritus and co-founder
I do not speak for NAQT in any way, shape, or form.
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