Leaving aside the performances by Kevin and me (the surviving stats speak for themselves), Sam Spaulding was also playing his first national tournament. It was, I believe, the only hard tournament that he'd ever played, besides FIST his freshman year. He got two tossups (including the game-clinching buzz) in the finals against Minnesota, and also had buzzes in at least one of the games that we won by a single tossup.Rufous-capped Thornbill wrote: My very first ACF Nationals was in 2011, which is an, uh, infamous tournament where only the packets and Matt Jackson truly won.
This reminded me of something that has always bothered me: how little we celebrate and remember the performances by third and fourth scorers (who were not necessarily player-poll-worthy) that nonetheless changed the course of championships. I would bet that every (or nearly every) title has been affected by such players in ways we don't consider.
I'm very glad that Jacob started the thread that he did. I think it's important that non-title-winning achievements are celebrated. (For example, I remember just how thrilling it was to win my first SCT, back in 2010. And I remember how hard we worked to make top bracket at that year's Nats. Alas, we failed.) I hope that thread becomes packed with stories, and I don't want to steal its thunder.
Nonetheless, I wanted to start this parallel thread, to acknowledge important contributions from supporting players on title-contending teams. If some of these people don't post any longer, maybe some of their teammates can contribute?
The achievements of my Chicago brethren are, I think, fresh enough in current memory that I need not highlight them at this point. I'd thus like to recognize two other Yalies: Ashvin Srivatsa and Spencer Weinreich. Their performances are best preserved in a tournament that I did not play with them: 2013 ICT. I am not the person to comment further on that tournament, since I wasn't there. But both of the crucial matches that Yale won by a single tossup (playoffs against Illinois and the finals against Virginia A) were recorded. Spencer's powers, in particular, continue to be worth admiring.