2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Old college threads.
Locked
User avatar
IncompetentIdiot
Lulu
Posts: 58
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2018 7:34 pm

2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by IncompetentIdiot »

This is the 2020-21 edition of the Canadian Player Poll. Feel free to submit ballots for any or all of the four ballots listed below.

The main poll will include 25 players. In order to be eligible for the main poll, a player must attend a university in Canada (thankfully, the wonders of the internet have, I hope, allowed us to stave off Western Alienation for one more year). Players are automatically eligible for the main poll if they played the Toronto site of 2021 ACF Regionals. If they did not play either of those tournaments, they can gain eligibility by playing the Canadian sites of two open-eligibility tournaments. Those tournaments are listed below:

2020 LIT
2020 ACF Winter
2020 IKEA
2021 ACF Regionals
2021 WORKSHOP
2021 SMH 2

The rookie poll will include 10 players in their first year of university QB who played ACF Regionals or at least two tournaments listed above or below:

2020 NAQT Collegiate Novice
2020 ACF Fall
2021 STASH
2021 Spring Novice

To my knowledge, the following individuals are rookie-eligible. Please correct me if I've omitted anyone.

British Columbia: Thomas Kroeker, Marcell Maitinsky, Kevin Wang, Alex Wen, Fardad Asghari Zadeh
McGill: Blaise Brosnan, Jet Dong, Jackie Fan, Catey Fifield, Michael Franiek, Devan Greevy, Benjamin Segall, Jacob Van Oorschot
McMaster: Jananan Arulseelan, Aniketh Kothandaraman, Daniel Tefferi
Queen's: Samsara Boots, Sophie Ellwood, Alex Galvin, Caryn Xie
Toronto: Izzy Friesen, Marcus Guan, Amy Wang
Waterloo: Ali Badr, Amihan Bularan, Liam Kusalik, Benjamin Nichol, Arden Song
Western Ontario: Yadu Kukenthiran

Aside from those listed above, you may also want to consider these other tournaments where eligible players competed:

2020 IO Saturnalia @ UBC
2020 FLopen (Second Site)
2021 ACF Regionals (West)
2021 SMH (West)
2021 Delta Burke @ Ohio State
2021 STASH @ UBC
2021 NAQT ICT

The trash poll will include 20 players. Anyone who played any of the following tournaments is eligible:

2020 Canadian Hybrid
2020 QuACRONYM 13
2020 John Charles Daly III
2021 McACRONYM 14

By popular demand, I'll also calculate a community ballot. Rank 10 people for the abuse they have taken as moderators, etc.

You are also welcome to consider side events or any other criteria, so long as they occurred during the 2020-2021 competition year. Note that Owen Finlay is not eligible for any poll due to his admitted cheating (which you should also account for when considering his teammates' stats).

Ballots may be posted below (let me know if you edit your ballot after posting) or sent to me at kfan1863 (at) gmail (dot) com or on Discord and Messenger. Please submit no later than May 15.
Last edited by IncompetentIdiot on Mon May 03, 2021 6:54 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Kevin Fan
Bell High School '19
McGill University '23
User avatar
weebyjeebys
Lulu
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2018 12:00 am

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by weebyjeebys »

After my shortsighted attempt at making a trash player poll ballot last year off of the basis of playing one tournament, I now have a ballot that has been over-considered based on the various events I played (and wrote) this year. I’ve only commented on players that I feel particularly comfortable in discussing, since a bit of this was taken from the stats in addition to ~pure Renert vibes~.

1. Aaron Dos Remedios
The CanQB king of trash continues to kick ass, take names, and take the #1 scorer slot for each team event. Always a delight to play against.

2. Jack Van Nostrand
I think that Jack earns the “wow they’re really good, why didn’t they play before?” in a year where many people were in contention for that title (one of the silver linings regarding this online year in my opinion). While I knew about his affinity for horror movies for a while, he had some massive scores at the premier events of the year, and annihilated We Need New Games. Top banter indeed from this guy, love to see him playing trash.

3. Christine Irwin
I’ve known of Christine’s reputation for years, but I don’t think I really got the true scope of her power until I teamed with her this year for ACRONYM 14. Immense depth in film, television, and beat Henry and I to a few pop music powers as well, and the wildest part of all, every single answer was undoubtedly correct. While a lower score during the previous ACRONYM prevents me from putting her higher, this is still a powerhouse of the Canadian trash tradition.

4. Henry Atkins
I made the mistake of underranking this guy last year when all that was offered was the pure wonk of Ohio Trash, and I’ll never make that mistake again after this year. We had pretty consistently close 1v1s in trash practices at McGill during the earlier part of the pandemic, but Henry really demonstrates strong knowledge of nearly all trash subject matter, with particular highlights being his football, rock music, and American film knowledge.

5. Erik Christensen
I’ll start off by saying that Erik’s writing was the first prominent example of quizbowl that I not only enjoyed hearing but full-on loved as a player, so I was very glad to see that he was able to make such a monstrous run with Joseph Krol during one of the PAveMEnT mirrors, and then write such a glowing review later on. Perhaps the most diverse set of knowledge in terms of trash on this list, but I rank him below the top 4 due to his tendency to neg.

6. Simone Valade
Simone's strengths in pop music and television make her a force to be reckoned with. Also continued to foster the talents of future trash greats through running practices at McGill, and is generally very nice! Play with Simone if you haven’t already.

7. Adam Swift
I need to play with Adam at some point to have a Christine moment. I was incredibly impressed with his knowledge of the sports offered at JCD 3, which felt very, very hard for a scrub like me.

8. Jared Cubilla
9. Joel Woods
These two get the same writeup, because they always play together, always score very high together, and just generally seem to compliment one another, makes me kinda wanna get the good ol’ 1v1v1 going to get a better sense of what’s going on. There must be something in the Water at ol’ ‘Loo I guess. Shoutout to Jared for catching a Destroyer namedrop when I was rambling between rounds one time.

10. Isaac Renert
I don't know if improving is the word I’d use to describe myself this year, but I definitely have been negging less and feel as if I’ve been able to demonstrate that I can work outside of my mostly niche interests. I definitely felt as if I scored well on teams with strong players over the course of the year (Christine & Henry for ACRONYM, Erik and Simone for JCD3), and had a surprisingly strong BUMPY 3. Very glad that I was able to play so many events through Discord this year, and so glad that I was able to share a set like PAveMEnT with a lot of you.

11. Russell Valerio
12. Abbey Wilson
The next generation of trash greats, I tell ya.

13. Brian Luong
Has pretty consistently been the highest scorer of his respective teams, and demonstrated good knowledge at PAveMEnT.

14. Alex Scott

15. Andrew Yim
Through the power of playing movies and then not finishing them apparently, this man steamrolled BUMPY 3.

16. Paul Kasinski
I think this guy invented the bat swing, or at least knows the guy who did.

17. Aayush Rajasekaran

18. Jenny Mao
The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner is all I’ll say here, as it is an esoteric film about a non-big 4 sportsperson. If there was a way to react to all of these rankings, I’d imagine I’d be seeing 20 thumbs up, and that’s part of why we love Jenny.

19. Zach Bernstein

20. Rodrigo Morante

HM: Jules Bosse
Apart from having some of the wildest stories and connections in the scene, Jules has impressed me with some strong music knowledge. It doesn’t take just anyone to make top 3 scorers in any given category at PAveMEnT, so one could say Jules is a soulful individual.
Isaac Renert

15th and 9th out of 16 at Reach Nationals 2016 and 2017, designated "character pick" of 2017 Reach MVPs.

Capilano University, 2017-2019
Brock University, 2019-2021
Queen's University 2022-2023

gesamtkunstwerk-in-progress
User avatar
IncompetentIdiot
Lulu
Posts: 58
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2018 7:34 pm

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by IncompetentIdiot »

ok consider the narrative set
  1. Henry Atkisn
  2. Lia Rathburn
  3. Colin Veevers
  4. Jack Van Nostrand
  5. Kevin Fan
  6. Jay Misuk
  7. Sheena Li
  8. Milan Fernandez
  9. Tony Chen
  10. Sam Hauer
  11. Raymond Chen
  12. Jet Dong
  13. Ian Chow
  14. Sky Li
  15. Cormac Beirne
  16. William Dawson
  17. Adrian Wong
  18. Wenying Wu
  19. Amy Wang
  20. Kais Jessa
  21. Max Gedajlovic
  22. Marcell Maitinsky
  23. Peter Wang
  24. Blaise Brosnan
  25. Brian Ning
Edit: Rookie poll follows.
  1. Jet Dong
  2. Amy Wang
  3. Marcell Maitinsky
  4. Blaise Brosnan
  5. Yadu Kukenthiran
  6. Devan Greevy
  7. Liam Kusalik
  8. Thomas Kroeker
  9. Jacob Van Oorschot
  10. Alex Galvin
Last edited by IncompetentIdiot on Sun May 02, 2021 8:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Kevin Fan
Bell High School '19
McGill University '23
sheenali13
Kimahri
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jan 26, 2020 9:29 pm

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by sheenali13 »

Although the pandemic made running quizbowl tournaments tough this year, I think the Canadian circuit did a very good job! I appreciated having UBC participate, and enjoyed the close and fun games McGill had with various teams this year. This is my ranking for the year!

1. Henry Atkins
2. Lia Rathburn
3. Colin Veevers
4. Jay Misuk
5. Kevin Fan
6. Jack van Nostrand
7. Tony Chen
8. Sheena Li
9. Milan Fernandez
10. Raymond Chen
11. Sam Hauer
12. Adrian Wong
13. Sky Li
14. Ian Chow
15. Jet Dong
16. Peter Wang
17. Blaise Brosnan
18. Max Gedajlovic
19. Kais Jessa
20. Cormac Beirne
21. Amy Wang
22. Will Dawson
23. Brian Ning
24. Emmett Neheli
25. Wenying Wu
Sheena Li
McGill '21
Lisgar CI '17
MMSANCHEZ
Lulu
Posts: 28
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2020 12:56 pm

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by MMSANCHEZ »

Main Poll

1. Henry Atkins
I don’t think anybody else can really challenge for this spot. Henry is the best literature player in Canada and a huge threat across all of the humanities. His performances are made all the more impressive considering he plays with another top 5 player with the same main categories.
2. Lia Rathburn
Lia over Jay. Jay certainly offers superior generalism but I rank Lia higher for depth of knowledge and power numbers. Lia has some of the most powerful pockets of knowledge of anyone in the circuit. In addition to her unrivaled history knowledge (check out French II), Lia is also elite at religion and myth and has become a very solid lit player in her own right. Lia led a shorthanded UBC team to a third place finish at D2 ICT. Looking forward to playing with (and getting carried by) Lia over the next two years.
3. Jay Misuk
I still feel pretty confident that Jay should round out this top three. He didn’t play very much, but at LIT and WORKSHOP he put up 50+ PPG on strong teams, and he seems to have gotten his negging somewhat in check.
4. Kevin Fan
Kevin ahead of Jack and Colin. I’d been thinking about this take for most of the year but Kevin’s excellent end of year performances at SMH 2 and WORKSHOP pushed it over the edge for me. Despite playing with a huge shadow for most of the year, Kevin has always impressed with nuts history buzzes and underrated generalism. Kevin showed he can turn in top PPGs whenever not playing with Henry (including at FLOPEN) which I think warrants having him ranked this high.
5. Colin Veevers
Colin ahead of Jack. Jack tends to power more, but he does so by negging a lot more. Colin’s performance at Regionals cemented this for me, where he and Jack had similar PPGs but Colin played on a much stronger team.
6. Jack Van Nostrand
Jack rounds out what I think is a pretty clear top 6. Jack’s done a great job leading Queens at many tournaments throughout the year. Worth noting that his ranking is probably hurt by the lack of NAQT played this year.
7. Sam Hauer
I’ve had a lot of fun getting to know and play with Sam this year. Sam is a great teammate, always keeping the mood light and morale high whether it be with his funny accents or relentless positivity. Sam is an excellent history, classical music and thought player, in addition to his pockets of deep knowledge across the distribution. I put him this high because he showed he could lead strong UBC B teams with 40ish PPGs at Regs difficulty tournaments, which I’m not convinced people lower on this ballot could have done.
8. Sheena Li
Sheena has quietly had a very strong year playing with Henry and Kevin on McGill A. Sheena is a very strong fine arts player in addition to pulling off a ton of impressive buzzes all over the distro (particularly in history and bio I think.)
9. Jet Dong
Top 10 might be overreacting but Jet has absolutely obliterated easier tournaments this year (e.g. his pretty similar performance to Jack at ACF Winter.) Terrifying history player and very strong on fine arts as well. I think it’s worth taking into account how much Cormac, another very strong history and FA player shadowed him at Workshop while evaluating that performance.
10. Tony Chen
Tony has turned in a very strong year leading Western. In addition to his strong Literature and biology knowledge, Tony has become an impressive generalist, performing well on most science, beliefs and fine arts.
11. Raymond Chen
I wasn’t sure what order to put Raymond and Sky, but Raymond ultimately earned the higher ranking from me with a strong Workshop. Extremely reliable at Lit, Bio and Chem which has made him a huge asset to any Toronto A lineup.
12. Milan Fernandez
Milan’s ability to scale his literature was proven to be very reliable at FLOPEN, where scored nearly as high as Kevin while playing on the same team. I definitely think Milan is the second best Lit player in Canada at the Nats difficulty level. Ultimately I decided to put him behind Raymond because I feel Raymond’s Lit is slightly more consistent at lower difficulties, and his Bio/Chem a bit stronger than Milan’s FA.
13. Sky Li
Sky has proven very scary to play against, you never know when he’ll pull an early buzz out of nowhere in basically any category. He seems strongest at FA and some areas of History, but seems to get a lot of science when not shadowed by Colin as well. He is a better generalist than Raymond or Milan but seems to get shadowed more on teams with Jay or Colin, so I think this spot makes sense.
14. William Dawson
Don’t sleep on Will, most of his second half performances have been near top 10 level. I think Will gets shadowed the most of anyone on UBC, being a history and science based generalist playing on teams with Lia, Sam and Brian. Despite this Will always manages to contribute a lot of buzzes and pulls his weight on bonuses. Quite a good NAQT player as well, as he showed last year at D1 SCT and this year at ICT.
15. Ian Chow
Ian rounds out my top 15. At lower levels, Ian has got very good generalism as he showed by being Toronto A’s top scorer at ACF Winter. He has done a good job scaling up his history to Regs difficulty as well. Good team player as well, he has excelled at both being a support player on a strong Toronto A as well as a leader and top scorer on weaker teams when needed.
16. Cormac Beirne
Cormac has improved a ton over the course of the year. His VFA is elite and is his best skill, but he impresses me a lot with his ability to get great buzzes in history and beliefs as well. I’m excited to see Cormac lead a very strong McGill D2 NAQT team next year.
17. Max Gedajlovic
I’m not totally convinced I’m not overranking myself here. I think I’m a pretty solid Literature player at Regionals level and below, but don’t offer too much else when playing alongside Lia at hard tournaments. I’m not a terrible generalist at lower levels and will hopefully be able to scale up in history, some fine arts and beliefs in the future.
18. Amy Wang
Amy played very well at most tournaments she played this year. She seems to do quite well at science (in particular bio), literature, visual fine arts and social science, an impressive array of categories. I’m not sure how well all of those categories scale, which is what kept me from ranking her top 15, but hopefully we’ll get to see her play more tournaments in the future. Also very excited to see Toronto’s NAQT D2 team next year, with both Ian and Amy still eligible.
19. Wenying Wu
Wenying’s literature knowledge is very real and very impressive. She had a good Workshop, still getting several Lit buzzes while playing with Raymond. Gets a good number of powers regardless of difficulty, making her a strong contributor on every team she plays.
20. Marcell Maitinsky
Fricative.


Ok fine I’ll talk about Marcell. All jokes aside, Marcell has a great rookie year with UBC. His generalism at easier tournaments is very good, has several strong pockets of knowledge in History and is elite at geography. He still needs to work on scaling up categories to higher difficulties, but it’s worth taking into account that all the harder tournaments he played this year he played with a significant history shadow.
21. Peter Wang
Peter’s performances last year mean he’s probably better than this ranking indicates. That being said, I didn’t feel confident enough ranking him higher than this off just one tournament this year.
22. Brian Ning
Brian has done an amazing job this year covering basically all of science for UBC A by himself. He doesn’t power a ton, but he’s given us a lot of consistency (when he wakes up) in what would otherwise be our biggest weakness. He’s an underrated RMPSS player as well, which doesn’t always come across when playing with Lia but certainly helps a ton when not. Terrific teammate as well, assertive on what he knows, and never gets in the way on what he doesn’t.
23. Adrian Wong
I’m starting to think this is unfairly low for Adrian and might just be because I haven’t played against him much. I’m not totally sure what his categories are, but I think he gets buzzes across the humanities. Hopefully we’ll get to play McMaster more next year!
24. Kais Jessa
While I’m not quite as bullish on Kais as the earlier ballots, I still think his strong performance at SMH merits his inclusion on this list. Obviously his classical music knowledge is absurd, and it seems like he’s become a pretty solid science player as well. I’m not sure yet how consistent and scalable that science is, but once he gets that down Kais will an amazing complement to Kevin on McGill A for the years to come.
25. Josh Lane
I'm glad I ended up having a spot for Josh here. He did a solid job playing on teams with Milan at hard tournaments throughout the year. He seems like a strong history-based generalist who can pull off good buzzes in many categories.

Honorable Mention go to Yadu, who I would have (and originally did) ranked if he had played enough tournaments to be eligible.

Rookie Ballot
1. Jet Dong
2. Amy Wang
3. Marcell Maitinsky
4. Yadu Kukenthiran
5. Blaise Brosnan
6. Liam Kusalik
7. Devan Greevy
8. Fardad Asghari Zadeh
9. Alex Galvin
10. Thomas Kroeker
Last edited by MMSANCHEZ on Wed May 05, 2021 10:40 pm, edited 5 times in total.
Max Gedajlovic
University of British Columbia
User avatar
Gene Harrogate
Wakka
Posts: 163
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2017 11:05 pm

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by Gene Harrogate »

  1. Henry Atkins (QB, McGill)
    Led McGill to wins in all the circuit tournaments*, but his strong supporting cast will have scouts wondering if he's a product of the vaunted McGill system. Expect him to go in the top few.
  2. Lia Rathburn (QB, British Columbia)
    A former 5 star recruit, Lia Rathburn shocked everyone when she returned from a lengthy absence from the game and led the Thunderbirds to a West Conference Championship and a third-place D2 ICT finish. Though Rathburn's pocket presence and history knowledge (arguably the best 4/4 in Canada) stand out most clearly, don't overlook her sneaky mobility or generalism. Her stock has risen all season and she puts in the reps to make up for lost time--don't be surprised if she ends up the first quarterback off the board.
  3. Colin Veevers (QB, Toronto)
    Veevers has all the measurables you would want in a franchise quarterback, but his shoddy wifi will scare many scouts away. He's in a class of his own in science among this year's group, but is really a threat to score anywhere on the field. His 400 yard game against McGill at regionals was legendary--only a Kevin Fan forced fumble followed by a clutch statue of liberty handoff to Simone Valade for the two point conversion (the play of the season, really) kept Toronto from a Canadian championship. The 49ers are the most likely landing spot for Colin and his big arm this year, especially with the departure of philosophy specialist Tevin Coleman.
  4. Jack Van Nostrand (QB, Queens)
    What can you say about the Lean Queen's Scoring Machine except that he is a gunslinger. With maybe the most solid general knowledge base in the game, Van Nostrand can do it with his arm, with his legs, and with taxonomy buzzes. Though he can beat anyone on this list on NAQT rules (I think they get rid of the rouge?), his high-risk, high-reward style developed from carrying so many Kingston teams over the years means he's liable to throw game-changing picks. Expect the Broncos to not draft him for some reason.
  5. Kevin Fan (DE, McGill)
    The first half of McGill's vaunted "Michina Town Ruins" pass rush duo, Kevin Fan has great speed off the line and lateral movement that has made him college quizbowl's most dangerous defender. While his history 4/4 and his spin move are his most feared weapons, great generalism shows in his team-leading sack performances at FLOPEN, Workshop, and SMH2. Expect him to go in the mid-to-late first.
  6. Jay Misuk (OT, Toronto)
    A seasoned veteran, Jay Misuk's experience in combat sports has made him a nasty fighter in the trenches, especially at Workshop where he led the field in pancake blocks. Though prone to the occasional false start or holding penalty, Misuk's exceptionally deep history and geography knowledge make him among the top choices in this group for a CO team. Expect him to go in the mid first to a team looking to make the next step.
  7. Sheena Li (OLB, McGill)
    The other half of McGill's terrible twosome, Sheena Li's conservative play style leads to fewer sacks than Fan but also fewer missed tackles. Probably even better on bonuses than tossups, Li has been a consistent 2B, racking up similar tackle numbers at varied tournaments like IKEA, Regionals, The Senior Bowl, and FLOPEN (where she performed similarly to Columbia's lanky linebacker Gareth Thorlakson). A good locker room presence and the best overall fine art player in Canada, expect a contender to take her as a low-risk late first.
  8. Tony Chen (QB, Western)
    The world of college sports was rocked last year when Tony Chen controversially lost Rookie of the Year, but he's only built on a strong freshman season. Chen is a gadget player-turned-quarterback whose natural athleticism has made him a capable leader of Western's spread offense. His literature scoring suffers from star halfback Abbey Wilson cutting into his carries, but his high volume style has made Western the favorites in many of his year's more restricted tournaments. Expect a team to take a flyer on Chen in the late first in the hopes of landing the next Lamar Jackson.
  9. Milan Fernandez (WR, Toronto)
    Fernandez's improvement has been on of the year's big stories, and his ability to take the top off defenses deep on literature questions has been complemented by an improvement on fundamentals and route running across the fine arts. Look for him to fall to a contender who wants a scalable specialist at nats level.
  10. Raymond Chen (WR, Toronto)
    The other big literature weapon in Toronto's vaunted passing offense, Raymond Chen's vision in the middle of the field is supplemented by some of the best biology knowledge in the game. A higher floor prospect than Fernandez, look for them to be this year's Ruggs/Jeudy combo in the first.
  11. Sam Hauer (RB, British Columbia)
    While this year's draft is somewhat weaker at the top than previous years, Hauer's placement at 11 shows just how strong it is in the middle. Hauer's frame belies a fast twitch ability and an ability to make opposing Thought players miss at even the highest levels. Look for Hauer to provide a strong second scoring option in the early second.
  12. Ian Chow (CB, Toronto)
    One of the better defenders in this draft, Chow's picks against McGill in game 1 of ACF Winter led them to a big win over McGill that momentarily looked to drop them out of playoff position. His solid command of history will make him a top 40 pick.
  13. Jet Dong (WR, McGill)
    The freshman phenom scored all over the place in his breakout year. Scouts everywhere are asking: can he do it against bowl competition?
  14. Adrian Wong(QB, McMaster)
    A small school quarterback who has held his own against the best competition. A low risk second round pick who could pay big dividends for the team that drafts him.
  15. Sky Li (DT, Toronto)
    The big bruiser has played very capable nose tackle in Toronto's 3-4 all year, including a memorable 2.5 sack game against UBC that ended in a forced fumble and self-recovery. You can't teach that burst off the line on art questions, nor can you teach his tenacious run defence or being American. Scheme concerns at the next level will make some teams pass, but look for this high floor prospect to make a defensive line coach very happy in the second round.
  16. William Dawson (ILB, UBC)
    Solid coverage linebacker capable of contributing on blitzes. Though more relatively overshadowed by his teammates than at his strong performance at 2020 SCT, Dawson was an integral part of a UBC defence that held Daniel Hothem to just 80 rushing yards in their regionals game. Expect him to go in the mid-second.
  17. Kais Jessa (RB, McGill)
    A modern day Jerome Bettis who knows one thing and one thing only: scoring touchdowns. A goal-line bruiser, he continues to show surprising quickness and expand his game between the twenties (as seen on his team leading 130 rushing yards in SMH prelims). Some pundits will be suprised by this projection, but I'm told coaches value his unstoppable music 1/1 at high levels.
  18. Cormac Beirne (QB, McGill)
    A redshirt freshman last year, Beirne broke out in a big way that lived up to the promise he showed as a high school captain in rural New Brunswick. An excellent athlete with strong generalist and fine arts fundamentals, expect Beirne to show even more next year as he gains more playing time.
  19. Max Gedajlovic (Bishop, UBC)
    A talented baseball crossover, teammates rave about this guy. Solid work ethic and good 2 dot generalism make Gedajlovic a solid long term investment or even a day 1 starter. Go back and watch the tape of his intercepted lit questions against McGill's Atkins at FLOPEN to pull out the win--you can't teach that game sense.
  20. Wenying Wu (CB, Toronto)
    Wenying Wu is a natural athlete, as her conference leading 5 pick-sixes this year will show. A boom or bust corner with an unlimited ceiling but room to expand coverage. Look for her as a high-reward mid rounder.
  21. Amy Wang (Safety, Toronto)
    A ranginess that recalls Tyrann Mathieu. A deep Toronto depth chart has however scared off coaches who are looking for more tape.
  22. Brian Ning (OLB, UBC)
    A pass-rushing specialist who pulled out several key stops for UBC this year. Of course we've all seen his sack against McGill in the IKEA finals over and over on Sportscentre (a double bull rush, taking out the tackle by bulldozing the guard with a nice finish that recalls Elvis Dumervil against the Patriots in 2011--if you haven't seen it, dm me and I'll send you the link). Scouts however are a bit worried by his tendency to not show up earlier in games.
  23. Simone Valade (WR, McGill)
    A solid slot reciever notorious for showing up equally at all difficulties and against all competition. McGill A not losing a single game while playing with Simone will help her stock.
  24. Devan Greevy (TE, McGill)
    At 6'6'', it was only a matter of time before Greevy broke out. The freshman's stock has risen all year, culminating in an SMH where she outscored everyone except Raymond Chen in literature. She's raw but the pieces are all there: some team would be lucky to get this Antonio Gates clone in the third.
  25. Abbey Wilson (RB, Western)
    A specialist halfback in Western's spread offense who nevertheless excels. Her advanced stats suggest that she's the most efficient literature player out there, and she's notoriously low in turnovers. Darren Sproles is the parellel for many, though I would argue Devonta Freeman is a more natural comparison.
Last edited by Gene Harrogate on Mon May 03, 2021 12:13 am, edited 2 times in total.
Henry Atkins
ex-McGill
User avatar
MordecaiRickles
Lulu
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2020 2:28 am

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by MordecaiRickles »

Player Ballot:
1. Henry Atkins (McGill) – In a powerful riposte to any exclusionary influences on these polls, I have elected to rank an American as the best Canadian quizbowler. Maybe the best Jeff Koons handbag player in the circuit.
2. Lia Rathburn (British Columbia) – Knows all sorts of history and myths and laws and other such things.
3. Jack Van Nostrand (Queen’s) – #BackUpJack
4. Colin Veevers (Toronto) – Appears to like science, got many points at tournaments.
5. Kevin Fan (McGill) – Out of spite at being ranked only once per ballot last year, Kevin Fan recently underwent apotheosis. Good at getting tossups on things I mention in group chats apparently. The only painting he knows is Christ’s Entry into Brussels, which is very admirable.
6. Jay Misuk (Toronto) – Barely half as many negs at WORKSHOP as Kevin.
7. Sheena Li (McGill) – “Gets points” with good teammates. Knows many paintings.
8. Milan Fernandez (Toronto) – Likes good music, mediocre movies, and bad jokes. The ultimate triple threat.
9. Tony Chen (Western) – Considered not ranking him as a prank, but one too many YBA buzzes mandated his inclusion.
10. Sam Hauer (British Columbia) – Never really played him until the end of the year, but he got lots of questions, which I’m told is the goal.
11. Raymond Chen (Toronto) – Both a book nerd and a science nerd; very impressive.
12. Jet Dong (McGill thankfully) – Messianic scorer at easy tournaments. Won our McGill scrimmage solo.
13. Sky Li (Toronto) – Couldn’t tell you that much about the fellow except that he gets plenty of points while playing with teammates who also get plenty of points.
14. Ian Chow (Toronto) – I once invited Ian Chow to come to a McGill practice sometime. He has yet to take me up on the offer, but now sporadically reacts to messages in the McGill server. Ranked above me for the same reasons outlined in s.13.
15. Cormac Beirne (McGill) – Similar points to the people around me at tournaments, but done while plagued with bad internet, so I think this is fair. In practice, probably not meaningfully better than the people below though.
16. William Dawson (British Columbia) – This ranking seemed right based on the tournaments we both played, but he got many points at tournaments I did not play, so perhaps he should be higher.
17. Max Gedajlovic (British Columbia) – Did not overrank himself.
18. Amy Wang (Toronto) – Ranked above Marcell due to Regionals.
19. Adrian Wong (McMaster) – I put him a bit lower than some other ballots since he usually plays on comparatively less strong teams than other people, but he also had a David Bowie profile pic at some discord tournament which must be indicative of very admirable quizbowl skills indeed.
20. Marcell Maitinsky (British Columbia) – I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to Marcell, but I hear he’s a linguistics major and likes history, which is good stuff.
21. Peter Wang (Waterloo) – Only played one tournament and I wasn’t there, but probably good.
22. Blaise Brosnan (McGill) – When Blaise isn’t powering and/or negging history and thought in high volume, he’s tuning in to the music of the spheres by meditating in deafened silence in empty tournament voice channels.
23. Andrew McCowan (Queen’s) – Not sure why he wasn’t ranked in previous ballots. Like Adrian suffers from getting his points on weaker teams, but evidently very good. Volunteered to stash ACRONYM on a whim before our STASH game, so good hussle.
24. Wenying Wu (Toronto) – Reads books I think.
25. Brian Ning (British Columbia) – Edged out Kais since he tends to get more points on stronger teams.

At 26th I would have put Kais Jessa, whose very high rankings on some other ballots I couldn’t really justify, but who is the ideal teammate and is better at music than anyone else is at anything. My protracted string of honourable mentions would also include Minh-Tuan Phung (who is only unranked because he didn’t play enough tournaments to be eligible), Simone Valade (who gets more points at Flopen than at easy tournaments), Devan Greevy (or, if she were writing this ballot, Gevan Dreevy), Abbey Wilson (who, fun fact, has attended every university in Canada), Yadu Kukenthiran, and Josh Lane, as well as a bunch of Waterloo folks.

Probably no rookie ballot forthcoming, but I hope you all bet on Jet.
Last edited by MordecaiRickles on Sun May 02, 2021 7:21 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Cormac Beirne
McGill '23
Sorbonne '24

Top 47 Contender - 2020 Canadian Rookie of the Year Poll
User avatar
Gene Harrogate
Wakka
Posts: 163
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2017 11:05 pm

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by Gene Harrogate »

Contributor Ballot
  1. Aaron Dos Remedios
    Staffs everything and freely dispenses good advice on quizbowl and etiquette.
  2. Joe Su
    Staffs everything when he's not teaching. Does stats. Gonna miss Joe next year.
  3. Brendan McKendy
    Contender for nicest guy in quizbowl
  4. Leslie Newcombe
  5. Brian Luong
    Staff everything
  6. Meghan Torchia
  7. Rico
  8. Josh Lane
  9. Colin Veevers
    These four are in an arbitary order, they ran the Toronto stuff and did it well.
  10. Henry Atkisn
    I ran two tournaments and only one of them started half an hour late.

    Honourable mentions: Max for running Western stuff and outreach, Erik for head-editing hybrid, Jules for writing Bumpy, Isaac for community engagement, Cormac, Kevin, and JVN for running acronyms.
Last edited by Gene Harrogate on Fri May 07, 2021 10:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Henry Atkins
ex-McGill
User avatar
Fado Alexandrino
Yuna
Posts: 834
Joined: Sat Jun 12, 2010 8:46 pm
Location: Farhaven, Ontario

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by Fado Alexandrino »

Main Ballot:

1. Henry Atkisn
Hears the growing crescendo of "battle of shiloh...battle of shiloh...BATTLE OF SHILOH" as he opens his Jeff Koons handbag. Really unfortunate that Henry won't have had a chance to play either ICT or Nationals with McGill A. He's come a long way since I put him on the C team at collegiate novice.

2. Lia Rathburn
I would be a LiaR to not say that she is the most improved player on the circuit this year. Knows science, unlike most of the other high-level generalists that have come and go in this player poll.

3. Jay Misuk
I initially planned out my entire player poll to refer to Jay as a "draft overager", but unfortunately that fell through. Ranked over Kevin due to stronger stats at WORKSHOP, but it's close.

4. Kevin Fan
MordecaiRickles wrote: Sun May 02, 2021 6:21 pm Out of spite at being ranked only once per ballot last year, Kevin Fan recently underwent apotheosis.
And mitosis apparently.

5. Colin Veevers
6'10", 240lbs. mic drop.

6. Jack Van Nostrand
Comparable to Kevin, but I think Kevin's strengths in the sciences puts him above Jack. Though I have yet to see the two head to head on a diffraction tossup.

7. Sheena Li


8. Sam Hauer


9. Milan Fernandez
Possibly the best overall arts player this year, and not too shabby at literature either. Impressive showing at FLOPEN and SMH, especially with those power numbers.

10. Tony Chen
IncompetentIdiot wrote: Sat May 01, 2021 7:12 pm (thankfully, the wonders of the internet have, I hope, allowed us to stave off Western Alienation for one more year).
11. Raymond Chen


12. Jet Dong
Laid beatings to teams at lower levels this year, but was comparable to those ranked around him at WORKSHOP. Most notable stat was his similarity to Jack at ACF Winter, which boosted his ranking for me.

13. Sky Li
Most clutch player in the circuit. Knows a lot more random stuff than you'd expect.

14. William Dawson


15. Ian Chow
Plays all 3 roles effectively, a carry (STASH), a balanced team (ACF Winter), and support on a strong team (ACF Regionals).

16. Adrian Wong
Unassuming teams like McMaster must have someone whose piling up all the points, and that player is Adrian. Likely one of the most underrated players this season considering the lack of exposure that other players in the lower part of this ranking have had.

17. Cormac Beirne


18. Max Gedajlovic
Knows the canon at a low level, but is able to to win games.

19. Marcell Maitinsky
Monster performances at easier tournaments this year gives him the edge over Amy, I think.

20. Amy Wang
Performed very well this year, but since she only played ACF tournaments, there were no power stats to use. A wildcard here.

21. Wenying Wu
There is no denying that her continued improvement over the last year means fewer chances for me to step on her head.

22. Peter Wang
Similar story to Adrian, Peter has impressed me in the tournaments he has played during his career. However, he only played regionals this year, but put up similar numbers to Milan and Amy.

23. Kais Jessa
When you were partying, Kais studied Bruckner. While you were playing ACRONYM, Kais mastered the passacaglia. While you wasted your days at the gym in pursuit of vanity, Kais swam the Obrh river.

24. Brian Ning
On the eve of ICT, Daniel Lovsted messaged me asking if I would be jealous if UBC finished higher than third. Of course not, I replied. UBC deserves a higher position due to the amount of work they've put in over the last couple of years, especially Brian.

25. Blaise Brosnan
Very high power stats for a rookie, but being a rookie, many negs reflective of inexperience. Given sometime to learn the fundamentals, Blaise will eventually be a key player for McGill's D2 team.

Honourable mentions in no particular order: Andrew from Queens, Simone, Abbey, Josh Lane, rookies Yadu, Liam, and Devan. Sorry if I left anyone out. There are a lot of great players this year.

Rookies:

See "comments" from the main poll.

1. Jet Dong
2. Marcell Maitinsky
3. Amy Wang
4. Blaise Brosnan
5. Yadu Kukenthiran
Pockets of knowledge in multiple subjects led to a very effective supporting player for Tony. Interesting to see how Yadu will improve next year now he has more awareness of the canon.

6. Liam Kusalik
Very impressive stats this year with scaling, as seen at WORKSHOP and regionals. I wanted to rank Devan above Liam simply because of her post-SMH roast of Cormac, but there's no way I could have justified the stats, especially with Liam's power rate.

7. Devan Greevy
I feel like nobody talks about how Cormac shadows her at the tournaments they play together. Without Cormac, played a generalist role incredibly well for a Delta Burke victory.

8. Thomas Kroeker
Max told me to rank a UBC player at #8 so here we go.

9. Jacob Van Oorschot
Outscored Kais at Delta Burke and lead the team in scoring at Spring Novice.

10. Fardad Asghari Zadeh
Second overall in science at SMH, even in the bottom bracket, is an impressive feat for a rookie.
Last edited by Fado Alexandrino on Mon May 03, 2021 2:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
Joe Su, OCT
Lisgar 2012, McGill 2015, McGill 2019, Queen's 2020
User avatar
Gene Harrogate
Wakka
Posts: 163
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2017 11:05 pm

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by Gene Harrogate »

Rookie Poll
  1. Jet Dong
    A former elite high school player who dominated most things he played this year. I look forward to meeting him in person.
  2. Amy Wang
    ^
  3. Devan Greevy
    Probably a controversial choice, but Devan's current rate of improvement suggests she'll be scoring around 130ppg by next September.
  4. Marcell Maitinsky
    Was very impressive in the geo buzzword and the one ACF Fall game I read for him.
  5. Blaise Brosnan
    Enigmatic. Good.
  6. Liam Kusalik
    Good science stats.
  7. Yadu Kukenthiran
    Good SMH and Fall prelims.
  8. Thomas Kroeker
  9. Jacob Van Oorschot
    Beat me at chess.
  10. Alex Galvin

    I also want to take this opportunity to shout out some McGill people who didn't make it into my poll. Russell Valerio is an excellent trash player and a borderline top 25 player on NAQT, as well as a great exec and practice presence. Nabhaan Farooqi and Sam Perrault are both niche players who are a lot of fun to be around, and Nadia Dakdouki is an important part of our club who had a breakout academic appearance at WORKSHOP this year. Past and future VPs of Training and Operations Nikko Ong and Catey Fifield have also been good sports when asked to fill in at the last minute.
Henry Atkins
ex-McGill
User avatar
Triton of the Minnows
Lulu
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Feb 08, 2018 3:33 pm
Location: A Place Calling itself Rome

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by Triton of the Minnows »

Main Ballot

1. Henry Atkins (McGill)
This year may have been Prince Hal’s Agincourt. Best humanities player in the circuit and the benevolent king of the Western Practice Discord.
2. Lia Rathburn (UBC)
Knows a lot about classical history. And most history. Probably the most terrifying player to play against on the circuit, but maybe that’s just because I’ve been playing against Henry for so long.
3. Jay Misuk (McToronto)
Grizzled Vet, I haven’t seen him play that much this year but he dominates when he does.
4. Colin Veevers (Toronto)
Toronto’s new anchor after the departure of Chris Sims. Certified Science God.
5. Kevin Fan (McGill)
*Insert Surname Pun Here* Very good, especially when not having to shadow Henry.
6. Jack van Nostrand (Queen’s)
Teams: Short-handed. PPG: Inflated. Still: Pretty Good. D2 SCT 2028, baby
7. Tony Chen (Western)
One half of Western’s terrifying lit credentials. Also a very good generalist. Put some question marks in the chat for ya boi
8. Sheena Li (McGill)
Science, Art, History, she can do it all. Every time I hear some detail from a Royal’s life come up I brace myself for her buzz.
9. Jet Dong (McGill)
This guy’s a rookie? Extremely good, knows many things. I will refrain from reiterating that rhyme that I overplayed for half a season.
10. Milan Fernandez (Toronto)
Astounding art knowledge, good Lit knowledge. It’s pretty easy being green if you’re this good at it.
11. Sam Hauer (UBC)
Knows a lot about knowledge, and the knowers who know it. That’s philosophy. Solid addition to any team, can perform as an anchor when he needs to. Not from Germany.
12. Raymond Chen (Toronto)
Extremely nice guy, which makes me happy when he does well. Luckily this is often. Very nice skillset in both Lit and Science.
13. Sky Li (Toronto)
An enigma, shrouded in a mystery, wrapped in clutch powers. Extremely good support player on some very strong Toronto teams.
14. Ian Chow (Toronto)
Good generalist, good team player, puts up good points. Underrated react game.
15. Adrian Wong (McMaster)
Solid leader and anchor for McMaster. Heir apparent to the brotherhood of Nod.
16. Cormac Beirne (McGill)
Another vaunted generalist out of McGill, a solid team anchor and knower of arts and humanities. Green, white, orange, 1:2 ratio not orange, white, green, 2:3 ratio. K thanks.
17. William Dawson (UBC)
Put up respectable scores at Winter, Workshop, and SMH. Solid member of the UBC arsenal.
18. Max Gedajlovic (UBC)
The one man on earth who appreciates NAQT’s baseball obsession. Solid humanities-based generalist. Shines more when not shadowing Lia.
19. Wenying Wu (Toronto)
Professional lit knower, gets some really impressive powers.
20. Marcell Maitinsky (UBC)
Living proof that UBC has usurped Queen’s as History Player U. Writes some good questions as well.
21. Amy Wang (Toronto)
Another very good player, although I’d like to see power numbers from her.
22. Brian Ning (UBC)
Science knowledge is very valuable on the Canadian circuit. I’d love to see more of his RMPSS creds as well.
23. Kais Jessa (McGill)
Bruckner: Listened to. Brain: Big. Big: Data. Having Kais on your team all but guarantees 1/1 locked down, and besides that he has some good knowledge in the science area as well, especially math.
24. Simone Valade (McGill)
Another extremely good McGill specialist. Scales up almost too well. I hope her thesis goes well.
25. Abbey Wilson (McGill University London Campus)
Eye popping lit knowledge, combines with Tony well for an incredibly tough 4/4. Fantastic power numbers.


Rookie Ballot
1. Jet Dong
2. Marcell Maitinsky
3. Amy Wang
4. Blaise Brosnan
5. Yadu Kukenthiran
6. Liam Kusalik
7. Devan Greevy
8. Fardad Asghari Zadeh
9. Jacob Van Oorschot
10. Alex Galvin


Honourable Mentions: Andrew McCowan, Emmett Neheli, Peter Wang, Thomas Kroeker, Josh Lane, Benjamin "the mad lad from New Brunswick" Lohoar, Thomas Mennill

Trash Ballot

1. Aaron Dos Remedios
GOAT’d
2. Christine Irwin
Another classic trash player, incredibly strong with extremely deep knowledge of film and TV
3. Jack van Nostrand
Thank God I finally started playing this year. P.S. more horror questions
4. Henry Atkins
Sports! Also music and film. King of the Geckos.
5. Erik Christensen
Good writer, good breadth of knowledge, good tournament-name-creator. Consistently good.
6. Simone Valade
Knows pop music, knows TV, has played animal crossing. Also delightful to play with.
7. Adam Swift
Knows his sports. Love the grit in his playstyle
8. Jared Cubilla
Eye-popping McAcronym numbers.
9. Joel Woods
Two top 10 finishes is nothing to scoff at. A notorious baseball knower.
10. Russell Valerio
Top 4 Finish at Quacronym, respectable placement at McAcronym
11. Paul Kasiński
Deadly combo with Erik, for playing and for writing. *Bat Flip*
12. Brian Luong
Another consistently good player on the trash scene, knows music and is pretty good at being the anchor.
13. Isaac Renert
Music God. Intensely good vibes. He’s got the drip tho.
14. Alex Scott
15. Abbey Wilson
P.S. More theatre questions pls
16. Andrew Yim
Watches Movies, possibly, the jury’s still out. The Yim Man cometh.
17. Jenny Mao
*Insert React Joke Here*
18. Zach Bernstein
19. Rodrigo Morante
20. Chad Russell

Knows sports and boomer things. Nova Scotia forever.
Jack van Nostrand
Queen's University 2020/22

There might be a five-legged dragon in my house but no one has ever seen it
simulationone
Kimahri
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2018 7:37 pm

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by simulationone »

Here is my trash ballot! I’m not planning on submitting an academic one. You probably have a slight advantage if you’ve been at a McGill online trash practice this past year… which is actually a lot of you here.

1. Aaron Dos Remedios
Unquestionable CanQB trash GOAT. Strong in every category, can even get sports despite not really liking them. Has the best “just here to have fun” attitude of any quizbowler I know, Aaron is always a delight to play with.

2. Jack van Nostrand
Put up an insane PPG at McAcronym. Demonstrates his wide pop culture knowledge by dominating at pretty much every themed pack he plays with McGill - like racking up points on the ATLA pack while I neg with “Zuko Alone” a record 5 times. Always a welcome presence at our practices.

3. Christine Irwin
Lauded her encyclopedic knowledge last year, and going to do it again here. I admire her appreciation for trashy/bad/”uncool” pop culture, a trait she shares with Aaron and I. Definitely would like to play with Christine in the future.

4. Henry Atkisn
Last year I’d hoped we’d get to play something better than Ohio Trash together; this year delivered, and so did Henry at every tournament he plays. While he is especially strong in rock music, film, and football, he displayed a wider knowledge this year that pulls up his poll rank. Opposite of Aaron for me – likes everything that I don’t, which makes him a perfect teammate.

5. Erik Christensen
Erik and Henry were hard to rank for me, so you could consider this nearly a tie. Exceptionally strong music & film player across all genres. His trash writing this year was excellent as usual, with We Need New Games being a much-needed update of the video game canon. Also likes K-pop, so I’d love to rank him 1st just for that.

6. Simone Valade
My proudest Quizbowl moment ever was having no negs at this year’s Canadian Hybrid. The pandemic has given me so much time to C O N S U M E media that I hope to improve a bit next year – or at the very least continue to hold my own amongst the strong competition in CanQB trash.

7. Adam Swift
Great sports player, but can cover a lot of surprising things outside of that, and performs consistently well at tournaments. Weirdly feel like I saw less of him this year, despite online quizbowl removing the need for a cross-border commute – hoping for him to return as a mainstay of Canadian trash.

8. Joel Woods & 9. Jared Cubilla
Similar to Isaac, I’m going to list them together since they are frequent teammates and they’re pretty much a tie for me. It’s been genuinely nice to have some new competitors to shake up the trash ballot.

10. Russell Valerio
I feel like people might under-value Russell; he’s probably the best generalist I’ve seen amongst the newer crop of trash players, with particularly strong knowledge in sports. Had a great time playing together at Hybrid this year, and looking forward to him continuing to climb the ranks.

11. Isaac Renert
Isaac majors in trash, literally. And it shows in his solid performances this year, with frequent sick buzzes on music & film that I have never heard of before. Also was a writer for PAveMEnT, which was by far my favourite tournament this year. Can’t overstate how much I appreciated him providing a forum for discussion amongst the Canadian players and answering our incessant questions about clues and stats at the end of each day.

12. Paul Kasinski
Classic sports player, and as always I’m impressed by his baseball knowledge. Really enjoyed our Team Sardines reunion at McAcronym this year – Paul is a great addition to any roster.

13. Brian Luong
Brian is by far this year’s most improved player, and I’ve heard he’s been working hard to earn that title at U of T trash practices. Strong music player in a lot of “niche” genres, and is the first person I go to for headphone recommendations. I played my first trash tournament ever with him, and I’m hoping to do so again sometime soon.

14. Abbey Wilson
Abbey has also improved this year. Very much appreciate her love of pop music and TV – a woman after my own heart. Just an overall pleasant person to have at practices.

15. Jenny Mao
Really solid player in both film and sports, especially those outside the “Big 4”. She’s good at pulling random hard parts on bonuses. Saddest moment when Jenny wasn’t around for a figure skating bonus and had to take my poor description of it as a consolation prize.

16. Andrew Yim
The BUMPY stats don’t lie – an excellent film specialist. Fun to talk with about film/TV in general.

17. Milan Fernandez
Possibly my favourite person to play trash with just in terms of good vibes. Known far and wide for his film prowess, and is a solid music player too – I had a great time as his PAveMEnt partner!

18. Jacky Liu
Solid player who based on my experience knows a bit about everything. Consistent performances nab him a spot on my ballot.

19. Chad Russell
Another good player who’s new to the scene (or to me anyway) and had a strong showing at McAcronym. Hope to see more of him in future tournaments.

20. Nadia Dakdouki
Nadia’s consistently good performances at both tournaments and McGill trash practices give her my final spot. Always good for buzzes on pop music and TV. I surprised myself when I realized that I’ve never played trash with her, and I would love to rectify that this year – she’s a fun teammate to have at practices.
Simone Valade
University of Toronto 2018
McGill University 2021 (hopefully)
User avatar
bmcke
Wakka
Posts: 240
Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2009 1:47 pm

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by bmcke »

I think I have Lia as the #1 player, mostly because I saw her games at FRENCH II. I'm generally more impressed when someone knows a lot about boring ancient stuff than when someone knows a lot about regular stuff (or even fun stuff). In their head-to-head games from IKEA, Lia went 5/5/0 and Henry went 0/13/2. Potato potato.

Henry was generous to me on his community ballot, but I think his whole top 5 was people who didn't direct anything. My rankings would have Henry and Joshua Lane near the top. The real work of quizbowl is running clubs, directing tournaments, and writing religion bonuses.

My "Rajasekaran Ballot": the rowdiest players of 2020-21
1. Lisgar
2. Andrew Bi
3. Raymond Chen(!)
4. Waterloo
5. Jack Van Nostrand
6. Simone Valade
7. Marcell Maitinsky
8. Sam Hauer
9. Russell Valerio
10. Gene Harrogate
Brendan McKendy
University of Ottawa 2011
Liarr
Lulu
Posts: 36
Joined: Sun Sep 20, 2020 6:54 pm

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by Liarr »

A main ballot, which may please some and bring others to weep at its author's foolishness

1.Henry Atkins of McGill
The unanimity of prior ballots with regard to Henry's placement is well-merited. At every tournament he played this year, Henry's habit of getting many more tossups than other quizbowl players in several categories allowed his (often shorthanded) teams to either win or to come very close. His recent selection of a Spaceman Spiff discord avatar solidifies this choice for me.
2.Lia Rathburn of British Columbia
hi
3.Jay Misuk of Toronto
Jay's vaunted negging propensities were sadly not on full display this year, but he nevertheless had sufficiently strong performances at WORKSHOP, LIT, and FRANÇAIS II that I believe this ranking to be warranted. When he joined the WORKSHOP tournament server, his nickname was automatically set to Jay Misuk [Staff], which confused me greatly. I always appreciate confusion.
4.Colin Veevers of Toronto
Colin led several strong Toronto A teams very capably this year, so capably that choosing between him and Jay for 3rd place was very difficult indeed. On what basis did I select between the two? Do I bear a grudge for the Lisgarene travails of 2015 and 2016 Reach Nationals? I leave this problem as an exercise for the reader...
5.Kevin Fan of McGill
Kevin's WORKSHOP results indicate that he will be more than fine leading McGill A without Henry or Sheena next year. He is very strong at history (21 powers at FRANÇAIS II), and like Henry, seems to have numerous secondary categories. His blank discord profile pic and blank default discord nickname should be instructive for us all.
6.Jack van Nostrand of Queen's at Kingston
Thankfully, we did not have to face Jack this year to qualify for ICT. His most impressive performances were at LIT (where he led Queen's to 2nd place) and at IKEA (where he had the 2nd most powers). I basically concur with his self-assessment. Confusingly, he is nothing like Mr. Nostrand from the 2nd part of Key and Peele's substitute teacher sketch.
7.Sheena Li of McGill
Sheena tends to put up slightly lower numbers than Kevin whenever they and Henry play together, so this ranking seems about right. The first time I played her (at LIT), she first-lined a tossup on a clue about a Merovingian Queen, which was very intimidating. Her nickname on the McGill discord server is most admirable.
8.Sam Hauer of British Columbia
Sam has been rather underrated on several previous ballots, to my eyes. He led UBC B teams with panache at ACF Regionals and WORKSHOP, and contributed greatly to our ppb at the ACF Nationals qualifier. His depth of knowledge in multiple categories and his ability to catch an unsuspecting enemy team off guard with a well-timed accent make him a clear top 10 player in my book.
9.Milan Fernandez of Toronto
One of the best literature and fine arts players in Canada, with excellent performances at tournaments like FLopen and SMH 2, both in supporting and team-leading roles. Milan's frequent and distinctive use of the green heart emote on discord and messenger cements him as a member of the top 10 for me.
10.Tony Chen of Western Ontario
Tony's 80 point game against UBC at FLopen was sadly annihilated in the deluge of statistical alteration, but it lives on in screenshots, if you know where to look. He appears to know many things, a skill he used to lead a relatively strong Western team to some good results at STASH and SMH. He has distinctive discord mannerisms, which is an important attribute in a quizbowl player.
11.Raymond Chen of Toronto
Raymond's persistent antipathy toward a certain Columbia player propels him into the number eleven slot, as a rivalry with Gareth Thorlakson is a proven method of improving at quizbowl. I suppose Raymond's abilities at literature and biology questions are also notable, such that after one of the fall tournaments (ACF Winter?), Milan opined that Raymond had surpassed him in the former category.
12.Jet Dong of McGill
Despite his own repeated assertions that he has trouble scaling up, Jet performed very well at WORKSHOP while playing with Cormac, who somewhat mirrors his categories. Jet was also a dangerous opponent at ACFs Winter and Fall as well as at STASH. He gets points from me in this poll for being easily represented by a preexisting discord emote.
13.Sky Li of Toronto
Sky knows about the poisson d'Avril, but he can also buzz on several other things, including European History and fine arts. His various messianic qualities have been a crucial factor in the successes of several Toronto A teams this year. Sometimes, when I go out for a walk, I take some time to look at the cherry blossoms a few blocks from my house and I contemplate the last 3 tossups of our ACF Winter game against Sky, all of which he 10d.
14.Will Dawson of British Columbia
Even more than Sam has Will been tortiously underranked by certain previous ballots. He had a very strong performance at ACF Regionals, and his knowledge of Geography and American History made him a very strong player at ICT, where he had nearly 40 ppg as a second scorer. Like Sam, he made excellent contributions to our Nats qualifier score.
3.Ian Chow of Toronto
Ian has done an excellent job as a supporting player on several Toronto A teams, even leading one such team (containing Milan, Raymond, and Sky) in scoring at ACF Winter. I believe his main categories are history and science, but Ian also has one of the most versatile repertoires of discord reacts in the country, on a par with the legendary Jenny Mao.
16.Adrian Wong of McMaster
Adrian did not play any hard tournaments this year besides ACF Regionals, but the ability to score 40 ppg on a good team at that level suggests that he at least merits this spot on the poll. He also gains points for expressing his disgust for the category of American History on the CanQB server and for delivering my team a very rude wake-up call at ACF Fall.
17.Max Gedajlovic of British Columbia
Our esteemed QBC President is a very solid literature specialist who can also steal points in a variety of other categories. Max's best tournament this year was probably LIT, but he was also pretty crucial for our win at IKEA. His defeat of Gareth Thorlakson in multiple 1v1s should also be a cause for contemplation. Max did an excellent job as our President this year and you should vote for him on your community ballots.
18.Wenying Wu of Toronto
Sadly, I can only place one former Hamber teammate on my ballot now that Chris Sims has departed for the (Old) Northwest. Apparently she knows at least as many things now as she did in 2016, since she played very well at WORKSHOP and several other hard tournaments. Her pulmentine odes and solanite sonnets are also commendable.

Vancouver, 2021
19.Amy Wang of Toronto
Amy only played the three ACF tournaments this year, but did very well on each of them, particularly at Regionals. Next year I expect her and Ian to form the core of a very strong D2 team. Amy's continued championing of the niceness of plants should earn her plaudits and high rankings from all of you, as should both of the distinctive and eye-catching discord avatars she has used this year.
20.Cormac Beirne of McGill
Cormac has improved a great deal over the last year, recently being a pretty close second scorer on a team with Jet at WORKSHOP. This trajectory may have something to do with his consistent attendance of McGill practices lasting several hours twice a week, such that they have exhausted most recent sets. Cormac's skill at visual fine arts and his devotion to roasting are excellent attributes that I would like to see him develop.
21.Peter Wang of Waterloo
Like Adrian, Peter's only hard tournament this year was ACF Regionals, where he capably led a team. He apparently does well at something called 'Nerudabowl', which sounds like a praiseworthy competition. Of the victorious officers at the Battle of Waterloo, none of the English were named Peter as far as I can tell, but there were two Dutch Luitenant-Kolonels and one Foot Artillery Kapitein named Pieter.
22.Brian Ning of British Columbia
Brian is an immediate choice for any UBC A team due to his ability to cover all 4/4 science questions as well as some useful knowledge in parts of the RMPSS distro that I am relatively bad at. His arrival at IKEA came precisely when we needed him, as he converted 4 tossups to win us the final. Our 3rd place game at ICT pitted Brian against his former Reach teammate Kevin Ye of Berkeley, who shares his appreciation for NAQT science tossups.
23.Simone Valade of McGill
Simone had several solid tournaments contributing to very good teams, particularly at LIT and FLopen. In a McGill server awash with personalized emotes, Simone has easily the best one in my opinion, and that alone ought to be worth a top 25 spot. Her performances with McGill A this year further push her to a solid #23.
24.Kais Jessa of McGill
Kais may have the best 1/1 in the circuit, and he seems to be expanding his knowledge base beyond that fairly narrow specialty. Kais's discord signature was directly responsible for one of my powers at WORKSHOP, and recently he inadvertently taught me every commonly clued passacaglia in the classical music distro, for both of which I am quite grateful.
25.Marcell Maitinsky of British Columbia
Marcell came to UBC as a solid history player and a very good geography player, and he has been expanding his knowledge into the fine arts distro. As far as I know, he is (admirably) the only UBC player to have carded, and he had several good performances at tournaments like LIT and SMH 1. I think he and Max will be very strong contenders to qualify for D2 ICT next year. Plosive.

Also shout-out to Carlos Doebeli, who did very well covering Physics and Other Science for several UBC teams this year, and who will undoubtedly lead QBC into a brighter and less democratic future as our new esteemed President.

A rookie ballot may follow in a day, or several.
Lia Rathburn
Eric Hamber Secondary School '16
Langara College '18
University of British Columbia '20, '23

"I've decided I'm going to retire from playing to card full-time." - Milan Fernandez
User avatar
Fado Alexandrino
Yuna
Posts: 834
Joined: Sat Jun 12, 2010 8:46 pm
Location: Farhaven, Ontario

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by Fado Alexandrino »

My community poll is as follows:

I value tournament organizers more than someone like myself, whose commitment to the community is rolling out of bed at 9:59 once every three or four weeks.

1. Henry Atkisn
2. Meghan Torchia
3. Aaron dos Remedios
4. Lia Rathburn
5. Josh Lane
6. Colin Veevers
7. Rick "Rhino" Catibog
8. Max Gedajlovic
9. Brian Luong
10. Joe Su

Here is my bonus poll. These are the top 10 open team names from tournaments since September. The criteria was that all the players on the team must be part of the Canadian circuit, even if it was an American open tournament. This is a ranking of how funny these were to me, and not how objectively funny they are. I also understand that in some cases the TD assigns a funny team name. I have ignored that and pretended the team members came up with the name themselves.

1. Pretty Little Bikers
2. Hyatt Regency Total Plumbing
3. One man and several hundred albino donkeys
4. IVATION T-BAR ROW PLATE POST INSERT LANDMINE
5. The Secret Life of Walter Gritty
6. Et tu, Paulus?
7. Quarantined Together Like a Can of Sardines
8. Liberté Egalité Quarantiné
9. Adamson BBQ Locksmith Fund
10. Celine and Julie go boating
Joe Su, OCT
Lisgar 2012, McGill 2015, McGill 2019, Queen's 2020
User avatar
DiegoForlandofHopeandGlory
Kimahri
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat May 08, 2021 2:07 pm

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by DiegoForlandofHopeandGlory »

Good Day all,

I have decided, after much deliberation (and absolutely no outside pressure of any sort) to throw my hat into this rankings ring. I'm not that good with the whole judging by vibes thing, so I decided to create a jury-rigged algorithm to help me decide. The fruit of its labours lie below.

1. Henry Aktisn, McGill
A great knower-of-things, shown by his top-3 performance by my metrics at every single tournament he played it. He is a big help to any team he joins and is truly the Von Miller of this club.
2. Jack Van Nostrand, Queen's
Scares me every single time I come up against him in tournament play or in practice.
3. Jay Misuk, University of Toronto
Jaying it up.
4. Colin Veevers, University of Toronto
Great performances at each and every tournament he attended, although I must confess I do not know too much about him.
5. Lia Rathburn, University of British Columbia
Has done very well leading UBC, also pretty good at chess.
6. Jet Dong, McGill
Despite being a rookie, was the point man of his team at each of his tournaments and did so admirably. Well done.
7. Amy Wang, University of Toronto
Participated in the 2 ACF tournaments and led her team in both, including a top 6 at Regs.
8. Tony Chen, Western
Led his teams to respectable results despite often being shorthanded, including a win for Western at STASH. Despite being somehow a fan of League, always up for practices into the wee hours of the morning.
9. Kevin Fan, McGill
His stoic demeanor belies an excellent competitor and narrative-setter.
10. Milan Fernandez, University of Toronto
Top 5 individual performance at IKEA, finals appearance at ACF Winter. An artiste, if you will.
11. Adrian Wong, McMaster
Despite only appearing at ACF regionals, was top-5 in ppg and led McMaster to a competitive finish.
12. Sam Hauer, University of British Columbia
Did very well for himself at Workshop, IKEA and SMH, often leading his team into the trenches.
13. Peter Wang, Waterloo
The first of a Waterloo 1-2, paced his team in ppg at Regionals in a hard-fought field. Promising signs.
14. Jared Cubilla, Waterloo
Led Waterloo A to a top bottom-bracket finish at ACF Winter, at did decently well at Regs. I'm looking forward for more to come from him and Waterloo in the future.
15. Wenying Wu, University of Toronto
Sadly do not know too much, but looked like a dependable performer all year and was nearly a standout at LIT.
16. Sky Li, University of Toronto
Another solid performer from UofT, even when on good teams, and apparently quite handy in the clutch as well.
17. Liam Kusalik, Waterloo
The 3rd Waterloo entry in 5 places, he paced his team at both Ikea and ACF Regionals.
18. Sheena Li, McGill
With a diverse array of weapons at her disposal, formed quite a team with Kevin this year.
19. Blaise Brosnan, McGill
Another McGill rookie who burst onto the scene this year, his entertaining playstyle leads to many powers.
20. Raymond Chen, University of Toronto
Un doyen pour les torontois, il est toujours une bonne présence aux pratiques même depuis son laboratoire.
21. Cormac Beirne, McGill
A hard worker, he's shown improvement all throughout the year. Be prepared for him to enter his final form once he frees himself from the shackles of New Brunswick's internet.
22. William Dawson, University of British Columbia
A very good season, really stood out at SMH as top playoff scorer in Plumcot
23. Max Gedaljovic, University of British Columbia
Has put in many solid performances, often backing up Lia on the A team.
24. Emmet Blanchett, McMaster
Was a good performer for McMaster in his performances, but don't know too much about him.
25. Ian Chow, University of Toronto
Has put in many solid tournaments, often as a member of Toronto A.

Pop Culture Club:

1. Aaron Dos Remedios
Legend.
2. Jared Cubilla
Very very impressive at McAcronym, part of a deadly Waterloo 1-2 punch.
3. Jack Van Nostrand
I’ll reiterate what I stated for my main ballot, it holds true here.
4. Henry Aktins
Truly the Jason Elam of football knowledge
5. Joel Woods
The second half of the Waterloo combo, again very impressive.
6. Erik Christensen
Great contributor to the Canadian pop culture scene, and great at pop culture as well.
7. Russell Valerio
More like the Brandon McManus of football knowledge?
8. Brian Luong
A steady top tier performer, and leader of his team.
9. Isaac Renert
A Rap God, but for all things music.
10. Christine Irwin
Usually forms a great team with ADR, but led her own team more than capably at JCD.
11. Thomas Schmidt
The third man in from Waterloo, decent performer.
12. Adam Swift
Sports is the best part of trash.
13. Simone Valade
Podcasts are the best form of learning.
14. Chad Russell
Don’t know all that much about him, but his name is top-flight.
15. Paul Kasinski
Apparently very good at sports, esp. baseball, but he’s a good utility player all round.
16. Alex Scott
From what I’ve seen, he’s much better at sports than I am, and a solid teammate to boot.
17. Abbey Wilson
Huge contributor on screen and music knowledge, almost unbeatable on pop music
18. Leo Ortega
I don’t understand what Wewlad means entirely, but a good, solid player.
19. Nadia Dakdouki
Another great screen contributor. If only K-Pop had more representation in the distro...
20. Jacky Liu
Leads his team consistently, I approve of the commitment to the NASCAR team name as well.

Honourable mentions:
Marcell Maitinsky: put up a solid 30 ppg at Quacronym considering his circumstances.
Zach Bernstein: good performance at Quacronym, but only participated in 1 eligible tournament.
Kevin Fan: Big thank you for running these polls.

Apologies for the wonkiness, I will be working on this algorithm in the future
Last edited by DiegoForlandofHopeandGlory on Sat May 15, 2021 10:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Russell Valerio
McGill Marltets '22
User avatar
Signac Attack
Lulu
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2020 4:02 pm

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by Signac Attack »

Top 10 community poll
1. Vincent Yeh
Sometimes I think about how isolated Waterloo is from the rest of the CanQB community and to what extent that isolation is self-imposed. Reading these posts definitely puts it top of mind. I just wanted to put it in writing somewhere that Vincent has been, in my opinion, the driving force keeping Waterloo Quizbowl alive and well for the last two years. In that time, the club has doubled in size and attracted many new faces. I noticed a handful of them in other people's polls. That combined with other re-organization initiatives led by Vincent has really set up the club well for the future. I'll also add that he TD'd a tournament this year (IKEA) and was very important in organizing another (JCD). He also began the conversation that led to Waterloo writing sports! for this summer. This is probably only enough for him to be voted #1 in a Waterloo-only poll, but I don't think the Waterloo club would go to half the things it does or try to expand its outreach as much as it has, both at the school and in the Canadian Circuit community, if not for the work Vincent has done in the last couple years, this year especially. I guess I can only put him as high as the extent to which I think keeping UWQB alive is important to the community. Since I go to UW and wouldn't be in quizbowl otherwise, I feel very comfortable putting him #1.

2. Rick "Rhino" Catibog
I don't think I've ever seen a tournament that he ISN'T volunteering at in some capacity. I suppose they might exist, but I find it unlikely.

3. Josh Lane
I didn't go through the club inbox to check, but I feel like Josh is the person our club has e-mailed the most this year.

4. Joe Su
Stats are big.

5. Meghan Torchia
6. Raymond Chen
7. Max Gedajlovic
8. Aaron dos Remedios
The names I saw and heard most frequently in the canqb groupchat and discord
9. Erik Christensen
He's done a lot of TD'ing. I remember the history one and Canada Hybrid. He's also very kindly helping Joel and I with sports! quality control.
10. Joel Woods
Stepped up a lot for UW this past semester. He's volunteering a lot of time writing and editing for sports!. I saw him on other polls, albeit for trash and not community, but I'm okay with including him just to add another Waterloo name.
Zach Bernstein
University of Waterloo 2022
User avatar
Calculus?
Wakka
Posts: 151
Joined: Wed Aug 12, 2015 5:52 pm

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by Calculus? »

I have been a member of this circuit for nearly eight years now. I've seen this circuit change quite a lot over that time, and I daresay it's borderline unrecognizable at this point. Most of that change has been for the better, and I'm inordinately pleased to be able to say that this is a more organized, active, and most importantly, kinder community than it has ever been in my time here. I had to assign everyone a number, but the exact order honestly isn't super relevant as all the people I mention have been great this year. Of course, there are plenty of people who have helped out in the community who didn't make it onto this ballot, but I do appreciate them all very much (even if sometimes I forget that they volunteered to staff for me. Sorry Raymond, Lia, and probably others whom I've forgotten about forgetting about).

So without further ado, here is my community ballot:

1. Aaron Dos Remedios
Aaron has been a fixture of the Canadian quizbowl community since long before I joined. He is seemingly infinitely generous with his time in terms of both helping the Toronto club and the wider Canadian community. In addition to volunteering to read every week at Toronto practices and ensuring there is always a reader present when he is not available, he can always be counted on to staff any tournament he isn't playing, regardless of which club is hosting. He has assisted me several times with setting up tournament Discord servers and I am always happy to pair him with novice readers as I am confident in his ability to patiently and clearly instruct them in the fine art of quizbowl moderation. Aaron is also frequently present in circuit-wide discussions on Facebook and Discord and is always willing to offer advice on any matters that come up for debate. The Canadian circuit is much better off for Aaron's contributions and there is no doubt in my mind that he deserves the top spot on this ballot (even though he hates these ballots. YOU CAN'T STOP ME FROM COMPLIMENTING YOU, AARON!!!!11!!).

2. Brian Luong
I feel like Brian has been way underranked on the other community ballots, and I hope this makes up for it. Like Aaron, Brian staffs everything. Even at the tournaments where I'm like "damn, who would want to staff this," Brian is there. He is an enjoyable presence in the circuit (even if I don't get most of his music references), and I am happy to have had the chance to get to know him better over the course of the past year.

3. Rico Catibog
Another circuit fixture, Rico not only volunteers to staff many, many tournaments, but keeps everyone's morale up with a seemingly endless supply of self-programmed pop culture trivia games. In the pre-pandemic times, he would supply any tournament he was moderating with approximately two metric tonnes of cookies from the Peek Freans factory outlet store. Did you know that the factory reject Oreos with the top cookie slightly off-centre are just as delicious as full-price Oreos? I do, because I ate half a box of them at the last tournament Rico brought them to. I look forward to when in -person tournaments begin again, if only because things just aren't the same without Rico's fancy game room scoreboard projector system.

4. Max Gedajlovic
A silver lining of entering the pandemic era is the fact that it's allowed UBC to join Eastern Canada for so many tournaments. Finally, we are truly united as a nation. The true North, strong and free to leave our houses only for essentials. Max has worked hard over the past couple years to integrate UBC into the circuit, and I think we are all very happy to have them here. I also appreciate the fact that they always get up at probably the asscrack of dawn to attend tournaments running on EST. I hope we can continue to see as much of UBC even when things begin to transition back into in-person tournaments.

5. Josh Lane
This one's a bit more club-centric, and I suppose I'm probably biased because I'm much more aware of how the Toronto club runs versus the others in the circuit. Josh dealt with a lot of crap from all sides as President this year, which is saying something because pretty much every club head seems to end up with some absurd set of issues to deal with. In addition to organizing Toronto's presence at tournaments this year as well as doing some TDing, Josh spearheaded a complete rewrite of the Toronto club's constitution to include policies and procedures that appropriately deal with issues of misconduct, which I am embarrassed to say have been sorely lacking up until now. While this deals with the Toronto constitution specifically, I wholeheartedly believe that it has set an example for the rest of the circuit and will contribute to making the wider community a safer and more pleasant community.

6. Henry Atkins
Henry directed some of the first tournaments McGill has ever hosted, as the online platform allows clubs to be free from their schools' increasingly draconian room booking policies. He is frequently active in circuit-related discussions, and has pushed for a greater degree of centralization in terms of circuit governance, which I appreciate and hope will come to fruition soon.

7. Meghan Torchia
It's-a-me. I don't want to toot my own horn too much. I TDed twice this year (Regionals for the Toronto club in January, and SMH independently in May), both of which I succeeded at not bungling. I also enjoy shoehorning my own opinion into almost all circuit-related discussions. More seriously, keeping the circuit a safe and welcoming place is of utmost importance to me, and I would like to believe I have done some good work in keeping it that way this year.

8. Raymond Chen
While Raymond generally works more on the high school side of things (which in the long-term is in itself certainly valuable to the collegiate circuit), my main reason for ranking him here is his persistence in pushing the circuit into motion when it's been at its most apathetic. Raymond often is willing to take the first step to organizing a schedule or hosting a tournament when everyone else is too busy, tired, or both, even though Raymond is often equally busy and tired himself. I'm quite certain the circuit wouldn't have had as many successful events as it has in the past couple years without Raymond's efforts

9. Joe Su
Joe...Joe! Joe has been around less this year (which is entirely understandable since he's functioning on a nocturnal schedule as he teaches at a school in China remotely from his home in Ontario), so I'm giving him a lower rank than I have in the past. Nevertheless, you can always count on him to do stats for you (though I fear the advent of TJ sheets may be automating his job...the quizbowl industrial revolution has truly taken hold of our community...) even when it means staying up for like, 24 hours straight because he has to do stats during the day and teach all night. Joe, I think I speak for all of us when I say "please rest."

10. Simone Valade
Again I fear this may be slightly biased because it's more club-specific, but I saw how hard Simone worked running the McGill club this year and I think that's worth recognizing. President is a stressful and unfortunately often thankless job. A quizbowl circuit in the form of a metaphorical chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and Simone has made sure that the McGill club is like, not even close to that. Did that make sense? My point is, a well-run club benefits everyone in the circuit, not just members of that club. I hope her thesis goes well and that she, like Joe, can get some rest soon.
Meghan Torchia
President, University of Toronto Academic Trivia Club (2015-2018)
"Garlic 2: Around the World" LearnedLeague 1-Day 49th/1150 (96th %ile), February 9th, 2022
University of Toronto, 2018, 2023
User avatar
Gene Harrogate
Wakka
Posts: 163
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2017 11:05 pm

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by Gene Harrogate »

Dedicated to Isaac Renert.

For weeks, I said I wouldn't make a pop culture ballot. Performance is too tournament specific, I said. It's too subjective I said. There's simply no way to confidently differentiate among the top Canadian trash players, and any effort to do so would be reductive and quixotic.

But then I remembered: there is an objective measurement of quizbowl skill! A foolproof method of quantifying a player's marginal contribution to any team, on any set. I am referring, of course, to Wins Above Paul (WAP) (see: Freisacher 2018).*

Over the past couple days, I pooled data from Hybrid, QuACRONYM, John Daly, McACRONYM, Acro-demia, PAVEMENT, BUMPY, and LIBERACE into a combined dataset and modelled the marginal wins (normalized to Paul) using a heirarchical Bayesian method. I have detailed my exact methods in a manuscript submitted to Annals of Mathematics (surely to be published forthcomingly), but I am comfortable providing a preview of the results below. Without further ado, I present my 100 percent objective, probabilistically modelled Canadian pop culture ballot.
  1. Aaron Dos Remedios (4.4 WAP)
    Coming in at number one with an astounding 4.4 Wins Above Paul, Aaron is the statistically-confirmed GOAT.
  2. Jack Van Nostrand (3.1 WAP)
    A dramatic ranking for the rookie, but the numbers don't lie. Diagnostic metrics suggest very high scores for movies, video games, and general pop culture knowledge.
  3. Christine Irwin (3.0 WAP)
    Next in a very compressed top 6 comes the television or music expert. Large credible interval thanks to lack of data.
  4. Henry Atkins (2.9 WAP)
    Ahem erm football mumble scaling mumble
  5. Erik Christensen (2.8 WAP)
    Excellent scores for music, and a broad base. Good pop culture jungler.
  6. Simone Valade (2.7 WAP)
    A good music and television player who is hampered by quizbowl's shameless exclusion of podcasts from the pop culture distro. My top 6 is the same as Isaac's, proving there's a fine line between Bayesian priors and narrative setting.
  7. Russell Valerio (2.5 WAP)
    The numbers are there. My skill with statistics is exceeded only by Russell's.
  8. Adam Swift (2.4 WAP)
    Tremendous sports player and solid jungler all around, which makes sense as my metrics have him as the swiftest player on the circuit.
  9. Paul Kasinski (2.3 WAP)
    Paul is a bit better at baseball than Paul, but then again Paul is probably more in tune with "general" pop culture. Paul also has the movie advantage over Paul. That makes me comfortable with the result of 2.3 Wins Above Paul for Paul. I'd still take Paul on harder sets though.
  10. Isaac Renert (2.1 WAP)
    Good music Paul.
  11. Joel Woods (1.9 WAP)
  12. Jared Cubilla (1.9 WAP)
    Sports!
  13. Abbey Wilson (1.7 WAP)
    High Westerns Above Paul.
  14. Brian Luong (1.4 WAP)
    Semantic satiation.
  15. Nadia Dakdouki (1.2 WAP)
    Here comes the pain. High 2010s WAP.
  16. Jenny Mao (1.3 WAP)
    Wha' happened?
  17. Jules Bump (1.2 WAP)
    My perennial teammate does a good job scrapping out points against competition, and had a very high WAP at PAVEMENT and LIBERACE.
  18. Andrew Yim (1.1 WAP)
    >>
  19. Chad Russell (1.0 WAP)
    Another good jungler.
  20. Zach Bernstein
*Note: Wins Above Paul as a measurement predates any other connotations associated with the acronym WAP in pop culture. Please direct any and all complaints to Western University Trivia Club, for which I am speaking in a representational capacity.
Henry Atkins
ex-McGill
User avatar
mmaitinsky
Kimahri
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Feb 12, 2021 1:44 am

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by mmaitinsky »

Player Poll
1. Henry Atkins (McGill)
2. Lia Rathburn (UBC)
3. Colin Veevers (Toronto)
4. Jack van Nostrand (Queen's)
5. Kevin Fan (McGill)
6. Jay Misuk (Toronto)
7. Milan Fernandez (Toronto)
8. Sam Hauer (UBC)
9. Jet Dong (McGill)
10. Sheena Li (McGill)
11. Raymond Chen (Toronto)
12. Tony Chen (Western)
13. Sky Li (Toronto)
14. Will Dawson (UBC)
15. Ian Chow (Toronto)
16. Adrian Wong (McMaster)
17. Max Gedajlovic (UBC)
18. Cormac Beirne (McGill)
19. Amy Wang (Toronto)
20. Wenying Wu (Toronto)
21. Brian Ning (UBC)
22. Marcell Maitinsky (UBC)
23. Emmet Blanchett/Neheli (McMaster)
24. Peter Wang (Waterloo)
25. Kais Jessa (McGill)

Rookie Ballot
1. Jet Dong (McGill) – Rookie in name only. Jet is elite, no question.
2. Amy Wang (Toronto) – Didn’t play very much this year (and may have been ranked higher on the main poll with a couple more tournaments), but still without a doubt a rather strong generalist. Obligatory "plants are nice".
3. Marcell Maitinsky (UBC) – I’m definitely not better than Amy but I think I did pretty well this year in general, though admittedly my performances at easier tournaments are the main factor that I think helps my case for #3 here.
4. Liam Kusalik (Waterloo) – Already one of Waterloo's best players as a first year. Although we haven’t faced each other much, Liam’s stats speak for themselves.
5. Yadu Kukenthiran (Western) – This man is SCARY to play against as a history/geo player. Can't justify putting him above Liam based on fewer performances, but definitely somebody to watch.
6. Blaise Brosnan (McGill) – Neck-and-neck with both Liam and Yadu on this poll, but seems to neg more so #6 is a fitting spot I think.
7. Devan Greevey (McGill) – Quite strong as a literature player and seems decently generalisty at lower levels.
8. Fardad Asghari Zadeh (UBC) – Clutch teammate, with a strong command of bio and AFA.
9. Thomas Kroeker (UBC) – Haven't seen a whole lot from Thomas yet, but seems to be a history/geo specialist with really strong upside.
10. Jacob van Oorschot (McGill) – I’m not super confident on who to put here, but Jacob performed quite well at ACF Fall, thus taking the #10 spot.
HM: Izzy Friesen, Marcus Guan – both scored high at novice tournaments and could have been fair picks for #10, but I’ve put Jacob above both of them because of ACF Fall being slightly harder than Collegiate Novice or Spring Novice and having limited data on all three players otherwise. I’m not sure how fair of a policy that is, but that’s what I’m going with for the time being.
Marcell Maitinsky
he/him
UBC 2020–present
Liarr
Lulu
Posts: 36
Joined: Sun Sep 20, 2020 6:54 pm

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by Liarr »

A rookie ballot.

1.Jet Dong of McGill
2.Amy Wang of Toronto
3.Marcell Maitinsky of British Columbia
4.Yadu Kukenthiran of Western Ontario
5.Blaise Brosnan of McGill
6.Devan Greevy of McGill
7.Liam Kusalik of Waterloo
8.Thomas Kroeker of British Columbia
9.Fardad Asghari Zadeh of British Columbia
10.Jacob van Oorschot of McGill
Lia Rathburn
Eric Hamber Secondary School '16
Langara College '18
University of British Columbia '20, '23

"I've decided I'm going to retire from playing to card full-time." - Milan Fernandez
skewit
Lulu
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2017 5:01 pm

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by skewit »

Raymond bullied me into this.
1. Henry Atkins (McGill)
2. Lia Rathburn (UBC)
:fish:. Also, she needs to put spaces after her numbers.
3. Colin Veevers (Toronto)
Picks up questions in just about any category, one of only a few people on the circuit who actually know anything about physics. Shows up to practice slightly less than Ian Chow.
4. Jay Misuk (Toronto)
Super consistent with history/geo/etc buzzes and his neg count has been extremely reasonable this year. Shows up to practice never (i.e. less than Ian Chow).
5. Jack van Nostrand (Queens)
6. Kevin Fan (McGill)
It’s a bit hard to judge Kevin properly since he always seems to be either shadowed by Henry or on shorthanded teams, but he keeps beating us so maybe he should be higher.
7. Milan Fernandez (Toronto)
Milan > Raymond mostly because his lit knowledge is deeper, though both have absolutely obliterated MASSOLIT packets in practice and put up similar ppg numbers in tournament. Their secondary coverages on FA / Bio respectively make this super close. Shows up to practice more than Ian Chow.
8. Raymond Chen (Toronto)
Thanks to Raymond, I've barely thought about lit+bio for the last two years. Needs a better laptop, but hopefully Discord tournaments aren’t a thing for much longer. Shows up to just about every practice (far more than Ian Chow).
9. Sheena Li (McGill)
Milan/Raymond > Sheena because their lit specialties are super valuable. Overall, ppg does seem to bear this out as well, though Sheena’s always been on a team with Henry or Kevin or both, which probably drops her numbers a decent amount.
10. Tony Chen (Western)
11. Sam Hauer (UBC)
12. Sky Li (Toronto)
My FA has fallen off a bit, but somehow I seem to have made up for it? I do appreciate the recent trend of having at least 0.5/0.5 math/cs in packets even though I end up negging half of them anyway. I show up to practice more than Ian Chow.
13. Ian Chow (Toronto)
Both me and Ian are pretty decent generalists, but that usually gets overshadowed when playing with people who are more specialized and at harder tournaments. Has deeper knowledge in history and science and is another Person Who Knows Physics. I’d probably rank Ian over me if he’d showed up to more practices instead of doing his problem sets every week.
14. Jet Dong (McGill)
From what I hear, it’s entirely possible that Jet could be a few spots higher, but I haven’t seen him play much this year outside of Workshop. From ACF Winter, it looks like he can lead a weaker(?) team, but he did fall off a bit at Workshop.

The bottom eleven is super crowded and unfortunately I don’t know most people outside of Toronto that well, so hopefully these takes aren’t horrific.

15. Cormac Beirne (McGill)
16. William Dawson (UBC)
Cormac just edges out Will.
17. Amy Wang (Toronto)
Solid performances leading her teams at the tournaments she did go to and has deep pockets of knowledge from what I remember in practice. Shows up to practice less than Ian Chow.
18. Max Gedajlovic (UBC)
19. Wenying Wu (Toronto)
Somehow always manages to find good Buzzfeed quizzes. She doesn’t have quite the same breadth of lit knowledge as Milan / Raymond but will frequently pick up super early buzzes to make up for it. Shows up to practice more than Ian Chow.
20. Kais Jessa (McGill)
Kais is terrifying. I was tempted to put him a lot higher just because a near-guaranteed 1/1 is so valuable but couldn’t quite justify it.
21. Brian Ning (UBC)
22. Josh Lane (Toronto)
Long live our esteemed President. Very good knowledge in history and myth and can pick up other categories occasionally as well. Shows up to practice slightly more than Ian Chow.
23. Adrian Wong (McMaster)
24. Peter Wang (Waterloo)
Both Adrian and Peter didn’t really go to many tournaments this year, but their performances at Regionals mean I give them the benefit of the doubt based on what I remember from last year.
25. Blaise Brosnan (McGill)

HM: Marcell Maitinsky (UBC)
Blaise just barely gets the nod over Marcell for top 25.
Sky Li (they/he)
ABRHS '18
Toronto '22, ??
CadenPetrosian
Lulu
Posts: 17
Joined: Sun Nov 26, 2017 9:17 pm

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by CadenPetrosian »

Much to my chagrin, I am having some difficulty staying awake right now despite the pressing write-up at hand being close to completion. This means the write-up will not be released until tomorrow as I'd prefer to release the entire thing complete.


1. Lia Rathburn

2. Henry Atkins

3.Colin Veevers

4.Kevin Fan

5.Jay Misuk

6.Jack Van Nostrand

7.Raymond Chen

8.Sam Hauer

9.Sheena Li

10.Milan Fernandez

11.Tony Chen

12.Will Dawson

13.Sky Li

14.Jet Dong

15.Kais Jessa

16.Adrian Wong

17.Ian Chow

18.Max Gedajlovic

19.Abbey Wilson

20.Cormac Beirne

21.Peter Wang

22.Wenying Wu

23.Amy Wang

24.Marcell Maitinsky

25.Josh Lane


Also, no trash ballot from me but I would like to highlight my teammates across the two tournaments and the few side events that I played:

Gareth Thorlakson has a lot of cool knowledge ranging the gamut from comic books to extremely trashy pop music and even a few crumbs of sports knowledge that are no doubt carry-overs from his Reach days.

Ian Chow is a great sports player addition to any team. Also knows a whole lot about video games and the board kind too. Very good at playing both.

Kevin Lei is easily the most underrated trash player this year. He's got tons of film knowledge from devouring so many of them every day and reading tons about Hollywood culture. If he'd played BUMPY 3 I'm sure some people would be including him on ballots.

Erik's a well-known trash god and he only keeps improving as he writes more and more stuff. Surprisingly strong sports player. Can't forget his sick film knowledge too.

Dunno how widely acknowledged Simone's TV expertise is but it could probably afford to be even more well-known. Despite the fact she says she's cut back on her TV-viewing recently, her trash performances would never indicate this. Great at the rest of the non-sports distro too. Gonna echo the sentiment here: she's a very fun teammate for audio events and for regular tournaments too.

Isaac is another player that has curiously begun to branch out into sports this year. Always gets neat buzzes on things most people haven't heard of and is absolutely insanely good at getting questions on the most garbage animated films you can imagine. Frequently points me and others in the direction of really cool media which is much appreciated.

Finally, I also played an audio tournament with Aaron late last summer. He's obviously the king of games (of quizbowl trash though maybe Yu-Gi-Oh! too idk) and a great teammate. Takes keen interest in the media his friends like even when it's not entirely his thing. Never forgets the point is to have fun.
Milan Fernandez
University of Toronto ?
Niagara College 2024
There are zero B-1s in a fully grown watermelon
mhyee
Lulu
Posts: 67
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:22 pm
Location: Boston, MA

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by mhyee »

I haven't been involved with CanQB (or quizbowl in general) for some time now, but I have always enjoyed reading the ballots in the Canadian Circuit Player Poll. I recognize fewer and fewer names each year, but I'm thrilled to see that the circuit is thriving with a new generation of quizbowlers!

This year I would like to submit my own ballot, celebrating the ballots I have enjoyed reading. A ballot ballot, if you will.

There are several criteria I could use for ranking ballots: how informative they are, how funny they are, how enjoyable they are to read, etc. But these are all subjective and it's difficult for me to evaluate ballots when I'm unfamiliar with the circuit.

Therefore, I have decided to use a quantitative and objective metric: characters per ballot, divided by 100, or CPB. (The scaling factor is to make the numbers more familiar and manageable.)

Code: Select all

       total # characters     1
CPB = -------------------- × ---
        total # ballots      100
There are known issues: it's easy to game, it strips out all context and reduces a ballot to a single number, it ignores other ways a ballot is worthwhile, and it encourages the notion that the only thing that matters is having a larger number. But I'm going to use it anyway.

For full transparency, you can find my calculations in this spreadsheet. I'd also like to thank Meghan Torchia for proofreading this preface, and thinking that this idea was good enough to post.

2021 Canadian Circuit Player Ballot Ballot

Ranked by characters per ballot (CPB)
  1. Meghan Torchia — 76.40
  2. Simone Valade — 53.92
  3. Lia Rathburn — 52.62
  4. Isaac Renert — 50.21
  5. Max Gedajlovic — 47.37
  6. Cormac Beirne — 44.81
  7. Sky Li — 41.87
  8. Henry Atkins — 38.55
  9. Russell Valerio — 28.77
  10. Ming-Ho Yee — 22.81
  11. Zach Bernstein — 22.80
  12. Jack van Nostrand — 18.74
  13. Joe Su — 15.68
  14. Marcell Maitinsky — 12.66
  15. Sheena Li — 6.60
  16. Milan Fernandez — 6.42
  17. Kevin Fan — 3.17
  18. Brendan McKendy — 2.21
Ming-Ho Yee
Northeastern University
Formerly University of Waterloo
Protean
Lulu
Posts: 39
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2016 9:25 am

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by Protean »

Community poll most important poll.

1. Aaron dos Remedios (ex-Waterloo, Toronto-ish)
The true fixture of the circuit. Does everything, is everywhere. He staffs pretty much every tournament and is damn good at it: great reader, infallible scorekeeper, strong understanding of the rules, and (especially important for online tournaments) knows how to keep things moving. That’s not even mentioning his assistance in setting up Discord servers for online tournaments or his help in organizing Toronto practices. He’s also just generally a benevolent elder who lends us his wisdom in all quizbowl matters, as everyone who took my trendsetting quiz discovered.

2. Rico Catibog (ex-Toronto)
The biggest impact felt by the circuit in the switch to online is the lack of cookies, courtesy of Rico. Like Aaron, his long and solid track record indicates that his tenure was, is, and will be infinite. Always willing to staff and, in more normal periods, also provides home-made buzzers and a nice projector interface to help keep score and provide ambiance. More club-specific, but he really draws Toronto trash practice crowds and keeps the masses endlessly entertained with his self-produced trivia games. Rico provides both the bread and the circuses, keeping us blissfully unaware that we could all just quit quizbowl today and be better off.

3. Brian Luong (ex.McMaster, Toronto-ish)
Stan Brian Luong, please. Like the two above him, my former McMaster Quizbowl Co-President partner offers to staff essentially every tournament except when he’s playing a trash tournament. He’s a very, very good reader, but the impressive part is that he didn’t start that way: I don’t think I know of anyone who has had as big of an improvement in reading as Brian, which is another testament to how much he staffs/reads stuff. What sets him (and the two people above him) apart for me is that, unlike the rest of this ballot, he isn’t affiliated. He doesn’t need to do shit for us, but he does because he’s a cool guy. Also your go-to guy for cars, music, men’s fashion. Swoon.

4. Henry Atkins (McGill)
In some ways, online quizbowl has been a boon for McGill, a school that could previously never host any tournaments thanks to [synonym for draconian] room booking fees. Henry directed ACF Fall and STASH – two of the more important tournaments aimed at a critical demographic – and directed them so well you’d never have guessed that he was a rookie TD. In addition to that and being generally a valuable contributor to community discussion, he also pioneered the use of TJSheets in the circuit, providing us with category stats and freeing us from the tyranny of Joe Su.

5. Joshua Lane (Toronto)
We all know that Dear Leader deserves to be #1 in this poll (and all other polls), but in his benevolence and wisdom he graciously allows others ahead of him. One never wins elections with 100% of the vote, after all – only 92%. In addition to TDing ACF Winter, God Emperor Lane single-handedly reinvented the circuit this year by introducing the CanQB Discord server to the community. The Great Dictator for Life has also just dealt with a lot of crap this year in order to ensure the continued existence of the largest club on the circuit and played a role in taking steps to handle misconduct issues both at a club and circuit level. Also tried golf for the first time this year. Finished with 12 holes-in-one and 39 below par.

6. Meghan Torchia (ex-Toronto, Toronto)
Old and washed, but still puts up a decent performance when the occasion calls for it. Directed ACF Regionals (flagship tournament of the year, many points) and SMH1/2 (not as many points bc she made hella money doing it independently/not for the club) and did it as well as she ever did during her lengthy reign, becoming the second person to use TJSheets around here in the process. Also put in a lot of work regarding the discussion around misconduct issues, which is many many points. Continues to forget about staffers that volunteer to staff her tournaments, points deduction. Excitingly, starting grad school in September and therefore can play Div I SCT with me next year.

7. Colin Veevers (Toronto)
Directed two tournaments – Collegiate Novice and Spring Novice, another two critical tournaments for newer players – which ties him for the lead in tournaments directed with Henry and Meghan, though he hasn’t been as active in other parts of community organization which puts him here. Also helpful reading for Toronto practices, though his porous internet sometimes prevents this.

8. Max Gedajlovic (UBC)
If you had told the circuit circa the 2019 poll that we would see UBC at every tournament this year without even having to pay them to come, I’m not sure anyone would’ve believed you. But thanks to a global pandemic and more importantly, Max Gedajlovic, here we are. Max really stepped up to take advantage of Discordbowl and spearheaded the integration of UBC into the circuit, becoming an important contributor to community discussions. He was never taken up on it, but proactively offered to run tournaments and proactive anything gets a lot of points in my book.

9. Raymond Chen (Toronto)
A little self-serving considering I directed no tournaments at the collegiate level this year. I’ve been very acerbic and grumpy about it all year, but I do think I had a non-zero impact on pushing a sometimes lethargic circuit to do things and I do a bit of behind the scenes pushing and organizing at the club level too. It’s fair to not count ONQBA, but I think it’s notable that I was the reason anything on the high school level happened at all during the pandemic.

10. Brendan McKendy (ex-Ottawa)
I really oscillated on this spot between Brendan and some of the honourable mentions, but I ultimately went with Brendan because like the top 3 he staffs and actively offers to staff a lot of tournaments while not having to through a school connection, though to a lesser extent. I don’t know him too well, but it’s always nice to have an experienced staffer who consistently volunteers.

Honourable mentions: I don’t know the inner workings of Mac Quizbowl but based on how much work it is to keep Toronto running, Simone Valade (McGill) surely put in a shit ton of time as President this year while dealing with a suboptimal school situation and trying to graduate. Joe Su (ex-McGill) continues to be a venerable presence on the circuit, dispensing advice using his encyclopedia of tournament format and scheduling knowledge, but has invested considerably less time this year doing things like staffing compared to those on the main ballot (understandably so since he has a “job” or whatever, ugh, who even has those, that runs on China time). Dark horse mention, but despite the hard time I give him honestly Oscar Liang (ex-Toronto) has staffed a lot of tournaments for someone who literally started playing quizbowl only after they graduated (and does it quite competently, guess Agincourt does teach you how to read after all). Andrew Yim (ex-Waterloo) also consistently agrees to staff when asked to fill in for shorthanded tournaments which is pretty cool of him.

Also shout-out to Kevin Fan (McGill) for doing the inaugural category stats and running this poll – I’m still a big Kevin Fan. Also to Vincent Yeh (Waterloo) who ran IKEA smoothly and seems like a really nice guy and Kane Nguyen (McMaster) for handling Workshop. TDing is a lot of work and we are all thankful you stepped up. Everyone who staffed something this year deserves props for spending at least 10 hours of their lives staring at a Discord screen so that a bunch of nerds could press a button. Finally, every club definitely has people working extremely hard behind the scenes, whether it’s running practices or doing administrative work, to make each club run. Y’all pretty rad.
Raymond Chen
McMaster University, 2017
University of Toronto, 202x
csop124
Kimahri
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2020 10:00 pm

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by csop124 »

With some persuasion from others, I've also decided to submit a main ballot at the last minute. I hope my takes aren’t too hot, because I didn’t look at any stats while making this. Please direct all complaints to Raymond Chen.

1. Henry Atkins
No longer the unanimous #1 pick after the previous ballot, Henry’s extremely deep knowledge across all the humanities, as well as his well-deserved song bracket win with Running Up That Hill, still put him clear of the rest of the field. The best player in the country, bar none.

2. Lia Rathburn
After a very impressive 3rd place showing at this year’s ICT, I originally planned to rank Li(a)sgar Collegiate Institute’s very own Juris Doctor 1st, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it after seeing her antipathy for both rotini and penne. Please don’t hurt me (or self-report it). :tomato:

3. Colin Veevers
Even shoddy internet and being asleep during the last round couldn’t stop the sole occupant of the vaunted Fear Tier 8 from leading Toronto A in scoring at Regionals. Not only the best player at U of T, but the best physics major too. Have fun with those lasers.

4. Kevin Fan
Fantastic generalism, terrifying at history and always manages to get insane powers every time I’ve played him. I’m a fan.

5. Jay Misuk
I don’t think I’ve seen him much this season but I’ve heard he does well at some game called “quizbowl”. Everyone else also has him in the top 5, so his place here looks good.

6. Jack van Nostrand:
Also don’t know much about him, but his name comes up more often than just about anyone else’s during scoring leader announcements at the end of tournaments, so he must be doing something right. Either that or he really is crooked.

7. Milan Fernandez
The circuit’s very own Chemistry God, Milan is Toronto’s best lit and FA player. Also my favourite teammate to play with this year. Gamers. :green_heart:

8. Sam Hauer
An erstwhile Toronto quizbowler, I didn’t get to see Sam much this year, but he’s still pretty good at answering questions, which is what this game is all about. His accents are sorely missed.

9. Sheena Li
Another McGill player who I don’t know much about, but she gets a lot of points despite playing with Henry and Kevin, who also get a lot of points, which is good enough for 9th.

10. Tony Chen
Great generalism led Western to some strong finishes this year. Also spells out words with Discord reacts as well, truly a man after my own heart. Just about every game I played against him this year was a real cheese-melter too, which was fun.

11. Raymond Chen
One of the like, three people who show up to general practice regularly at Toronto (sorry), and tries his hardest to keep it alive. Maybe could have been a spot or two higher on this ballot if his computer was better, but I guess we’ll never know.

12. Sky Li
Much (digital) ink has been spilled about his legendary clutch performance against UBC A at Winter, but his 7 powers on Ethan’s Math Pack cement his place on this ballot. Did you know that he’s doing a history major?

13. Cormac Beirne:
Still not entirely sure about his categories, but he beats me every time I play him. Maybe I should take him up on his offer to join a McGill practice sometime. Also earns bonus points for his LL flag.

14. Jet Dong:
The newest McGill wunderkind is still a mystery to me, but I’ve heard from others that I should be betting on him. Obliterates easy tournaments.

15. Ian Chow:
Decent player, but other people have mentioned he should come to practice more often, which is probably true.

16. Max Gedajlovic:
A great lit player at chess, baseball, and Secret Hitler, the proprietor of Max’s Grizz is a true triple threat. His history pack on the best century was thoroughly enjoyable as well. Would love to see UBC continue to play Canadian tournaments next year. Hopefully ACF lets the MMSANCHEZ Trivia Garage host Regionals in 2022.

17. Kais Jessa:
The best 1/1 in the country goes a long way. Also powered 3 tossups against us at SMH, none of which were music, which was terrifying. Seems to be a big fan of the Obrh River too, which is always a plus.

18. Aloysia “Wenying Wu” Newman:
Beep boop
Posted to the group
A buzzfeed quiz
About your favourite soup

19. Brian Ning
Being able to buzz on the whole science distro is no small feat. I still mix up his UBC QB Discord nickname every time I see it.

20. Amy Wang
A very close decision to round out the top 20, but Amy’s Among Us leaf hat tips the scales in her favour. Displayed some impressive generalism in leading her team at all the tournaments she played this year. Methionine is nice too. #girlboss

21. William Dawson
Haven’t played him much at tournaments, but he was strong at history every time I did. Maybe should be ranked higher, since he was on UBC's 3rd place ICT team.

22. Marcell Maitinsky
Marcell’s knowledge oF history and geogRaphy (the best category in quIzbowl) meant that UBC B was a sCary team to plAy against all year round. Also a fantastic teammaTe to play wIth for PAVEMENT. Currently on trial for the “grand” Variety of somEthing, I think.

23. Adrian Wong
Another player who I haven’t played very much at tournaments. Maybe he should be ranked higher as well.

24. Joshua Lane
I would be remiss not to mention our merciful club Emperor on this ballot, who was not only a great teammate to play with but also did an incredible job running Toronto Quizbowl this year. I eagerly anticipate the tossup on the Lane Reforms at this year’s Chicago Open. Hope he continues spring deploying Brandon to Henry VIII’s chambers after his graduation next year.

25. Peter Wang
Only played Regionals this year, but he did well there and his performance last year means he's probably still very good. Would be ranked higher if he played more tournaments.
Last edited by csop124 on Sun May 16, 2021 2:24 am, edited 4 times in total.
Ian Chow
University of Toronto
tonychen
Lulu
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Oct 25, 2017 6:49 pm

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by tonychen »

Sorry, my write-up isn't finished yet.

1. Henry Atkins
2. Lia Rathburn
3. Colin Veevers
4. Kevin Fan
5. Jay Misuk
6. Jack Van Nostrand
7. Sheena Li
8. Milan Fernandez
9. Tony Chen
10. Sam Hauer
11. Jet Dong
12. Raymond Chen
13. Ian Chow
14. Sky Li
15. Cormac Beirne
16. Adrian Wong
17. William Dawson
18. Amy Wang
19. Kais Jessa
20. Wenying Wu
21. Max Gedajlovic
22. Marcell Maitinsky
23. Peter Wang
24. Blaise Brosnan
25. Abbey Wilson
Tony Chen
Western University '23
University of Toronto '26
User avatar
IncompetentIdiot
Lulu
Posts: 58
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2018 7:34 pm

Re: 2021 Canadian Circuit Player Poll

Post by IncompetentIdiot »

We now have results for all four polls. Full results can be found in this spreadsheet. Thank you to everyone who voted. None of this year's excellent poll drama would have been possible without your hot takes.

Main Poll (16 Voters)
1. Henry Atkins, 399 (median 1, max 1, min 2)
2. Lia Rathburn, 382 (median 2, max 1, min 5)
3. Colin Veevers, 358 (median 3.5, max 3, min 5)
4. Jay Misuk, 344 (median 5, max 3, min 6)
5. Kevin Fan, 340 (median 5, max 3, min 9)
6. Jack Van Nostrand, 331 (median 6, max 2, min 9)
7. Sheena Li, 279 (median 8, max 6, min 18)
8. Milan Fernandez, 266 (median 9, max 7, min 19)
9. Tony Chen, 264 (median 10, max 7, min 12)
10. Sam Hauer, 260 (median 10, max 7, min 16)
11. Raymond Chen, 244 (median 11, max 7, min 20)
12. Jet Dong, 229 (median 12, max 6, min 15)
13. Sky Li, 209 (median 13, max 8, min 16)
14. Ian Chow, 174 (median 14.5, max 12, min 25)
15. William Dawson, 159 (median 16, max 10, min 22)
16. Adrian Wong, 149 (median 16, max 11, min 23)
17. Cormac Beirne, 136 (median 17.5, max 13, min 23)
18. Max Gedajlovic, 122 (median 18, max 16, min 23)
19. Amy Wang, 109 (median 19.5, max 7, min 24)
20. Wenying Wu, 103 (median 19.5, max 15, min 25)
21. Kais Jessa, 77 (median 21.5, max 15, min NR)
22. Peter Wang, 64 (median 22.5, max 13, min NR)
23. Brian Ning, 52 (median 22.5, max 14, min NR)
24. Marcell Maitinsky, 47 (median 23, max 19, min NR)
25. Blaise Brosnan, 26 (median NR, max 17, min NR)
RV: Abbey Wilson, 15; Emmet Blanchett, 14; Simone Valade, 13; Jared Cubilla, 12; Liam Kusalik, 9; Josh Lane, 9; Andrew McCowan, 3; Devan Greevy, 2

Rookie Poll (7 Voters)
1. Jet Dong, 70 (median 1, max 1, min 1)
2. Amy Wang, 61 (median 2, max 2, min 3)
3. Marcell Maitinsky, 57 (median 3, max 2, min 4)
4. Blaise Brosnan, 44 (median 5, max 4, min 6)
5. Yadu Kukenthiran, 42 (median 5, max 4, min 7)
6. Liam Kusalik, 35 (median 6, max 4, min 7)
7. Devan Greevy, 34 (median 7, max 3, min 7)
8. Thomas Kroeker, 15 (median 8, max 8, min NR)
9. Fardad Asghari Zadeh, 12 (median 9, max 8, min NR)
10. Jacob Van Oorschot, 10 (median 9, max 9, min NR)
RV: Alex Galvin, 5

Trash Poll (5 Voters)
1. Aaron Dos Remedios, 100 (median 1, max 1, min 1)
2. Jack Van Nostrand, 93 (median 2, max 2, min 3)
3. Henry Atkins, 85 (median 4, max 4, min 4)
4. Christine Irwin, 84 (median 3, max 2, min 10)
5. Erik Christensen, 79 (median 5, max 5, min 6)
6. Simone Valade, 68 (median 6, max 6, min 13)
7. Jared Cubilla, 66 (median 8, max 2, min 12)
8. Adam Swift, 64 (median 7, max 7, min 12)
9. Joel Woods, 63 (median 9, max 5, min 11)
10. Russell Valerio, 60 (median 10, max 7, min 11)
11. Isaac Renert, 52 (median 10, max 9, min 13)
12. Brian Luong, 45 (median 13, max 8, min 14)
13. Paul Kasiński, 42 (median 12, max 9, min 16)
14. Abbey Wilson, 34 (median 14, max 12, min 17)
T-15. Andrew Yim, 19 (median 16, max 15, min NR)
T-15. Alex Scott, 19 (median 16, max 14, min NR)
17. Jenny Mao, 18 (median 17, max 15, min NR)
18. Chad Russell, 12 (median 19, max 14, min NR)
19. Thomas Schmidt, 10 (median NR, max 11, min NR)
20. Nadia Dakdouki, 9 (median 20, max 15, min NR)
RV: Zach Bernstein, 6; Aayush Rajasekaran, 4; Milan Fernandez, 4; Jules Bump, 4; Jacky Liu, 4; Rodrigo Morante, 3; Leo Ortega, 3

Community Poll (6 Voters)
1. Aaron Dos Remedios, 41 (median 2, max 1, min NR)
2. Josh Lane, 38 (median 5, max 2, min 8)
T-3. Meghan Torchia, 33 (median 6, max 2, min 7)
T-3. Henry Atkins, 33 (median 5, max 1, min NR)
5. Rico Catibog, 30 (median 5, max 2, min NR)
T-6. Max Gedajlovic, 25 (median 7.5, max 3, min NR)
T-6. Brian Luong, 25 (median 7, max 2, min NR)
8. Joe Su, 19 (median 9.5, max 2, min NR)
9. Raymond Chen, 14 (median 8.5, max 6, min NR)
10. Colin Veevers, 11 (median NR, max 6, min NR)
RV: Vincent Yeh, 10; Brendan McKendy, 9; Leslie Newcombe, 7; Lia Rathburn, 7; Andrew McCowan, 7; Sheena Li, 6; Dennis Beeby, 5; Kane Nguyen, 3; Jared Cubilla, 2; Erik Christensen, 2; Qaasim Karim, 1; Joel Woods, 1; Simone Valade, 1

See you next year.
Kevin Fan
Bell High School '19
McGill University '23
Locked